A Lesson in Survival (Rich and Arsen)

Richard sniffed a little as he finished drawing the large circle around himself and the large cage, which was currently standing on the opposite side of the circle to. He squated down slightly and scratched his chin lightly as the three large, Acromantula struggled and fought to escape their iron cage.

He'd tried to find a centaur to lure out to the edge of the Forest but as it happened most of them had aquired a taste for YMCA and had even joined in. Although it had made for a rousing musical number it had not been his intention so he'd had to find an alternative. And then the three giant spiders had attacked him. They were absolutely perfect.

They were ugly, deadly and more importantly they couldn't harmonise with him on the verses of the YMCA.

And so now he was waiting for Arsen, trapped inside a magical barrier with three giant spiders.

Arsen walked down the castle steps out onto the grounds. He'd been told to meet Professor Romain in the forbidden forest and so he here he was walking across the grounds with his hands shoved in his pockets, three old shirts stuffed in his bag.

He reached the edge of the forest not even caring to pause as he made his way over to his master. His face scrunched up in disgust at the caged spiders. "I thought we were fighting Centaurs." He smiled lifting up one eyebrow.

Richard shrugged a little while twirling his wand aimlessly between his fingers. He yawned a little and waved idly at Arsen,

"Hey Arsen." he replied before chuckling a little, "No centaurs. They're not annoyed by me singing the YMCA."

He pointed back at the spiders,

"And they're ugly and deadly. They're perfect."

"Hey Professor." He smiled taking his bag off his shoulder and letting it drop to the roots of the nearest tree. "Oh okay." He said scanning the forest once before returning his gaze back to his master. "You're not telling me they actually like your singing." He smirked moving closer to the spiders to get a closer look.

"You can say that again. So when do we begin." He smiled standing back from the spiders to stand beside Rich.

Richard grinned,

"My voice isn't that bad." he shrugged, "Maybe they just like pop music from the 1980s. Who knows?"

He rolled his neck to loosen his muscles there,

"Well it's simple Arsen." he pointed to the large chalk ring they were standing in, "When we're ready to start you take my wand and go outside the circle. When you touch the chalk with my wand the shield will spring up to protect you and the castle and the cage will open."

Smirking, he flexed his fingers out,

"And then I get to loosen up a little." he glanced at Arsen, "Any questions?"

He smiled there was no way Centaurs even knew what muggle music was, he barely knew what is was himself. He smiled and looked around at the chalked circle he never noticed before. "Oh..." He said a little disappointed at not being able to fight but then he smiled again. He would get to see his master fight dangerous creatures without a wand.

"No i got it, step out circle touch your wand to the circle them watch as you destroy them right?" He smiled.

"I can't believe you're trusting me with your wand." He laughed moving outside the circle to await further instructions.

Richard shrugged a little and rolled his shoulders,

"Something along those lines." he smirked, "I'm not really sure. Your perception blurs when in a blood rage."

He hunched low in a crouch, his centre of gravity low and his eyes fixed on the closest spider, who was attacking the bars of the cage to try and reach him. He grinned manicly,

"I'll be collecting it soon enough Arsen... now touch that line!"

"Okay you ready?" He asked twirling Rich's wand through his fingers, his own clenched in his hand by his side.

He smiled, this was going to be great entertainment. "Okay." He smiled bending down to touch Rich's wand to to the circle.

The three giant spiders almost flew out of the cage as it's door simply disappeared from existance, their thick and hairy legs scrapping against each other as they fought to be the first one to reach the human food in front of them. One of them, the eldest, managed to slam his younger brothers aside enough to become the clear leader of the eight legged charge.

Richard's grin grew wider as he clicked his fingers, releasing the mixture into one of the lobes on the left side of his brain. Immediately the mixture of hormones, adrenaline and other chemicals began to react inside the centre of the lobe, sending the effects almost instantly down through his central nervous system. The effect was immediately visible in his eyes, with the pupils growing massively wide and small, red, lines appearing to give them a bloodshot appearance. He could feel the blood rushing through him increase drastically in speed, virtuallly rocketing through his veins and into his muscles. His muscles shook themselves with the increase in their oxygen supply before they adjusted to their increased output capasity.

And all of this happened within the space of a second.

The lead spider launched itself the last few feet at him and Richard's manic grin split open as his teeth flashed brightly. Having eight eyes, all trained on Richard's head, the spider was blinded by the magical flash and closed its eyes instinctively to protect them. This gave Richard the chance to strike while the spider was flying through the air at him. Ducking under the attack of it's mandibles, he brought his newly pointed teeth up and sank them into one of the legs where it joined the body.

The spider shrieked loudly as Richard felt the salty tang of it's blood enter his mouth. With the instincts of a predator, he yanked his head this way and that, tearing at the leg with his teeth as the Spider tried desparately to reach him with it's poisonous mandibles. After a particularly vicious yank the leg came free of the body and the Spider gave another inhuman shriek of pain while Richard let out a gutteral roar of sadistic pleasure. Throwing the leg aside, he thrust his hand into the hole where the leg had entered the body, his fingernails flashing inside of the beast and turning to talons. The Spider thrashed relentlessly but with an arm lodged deep inside of it, Richard was secure. With another animalistic roar, Richard raked his new talons along the insides of the spider, causing it to shriek again and convulse in pain as he laughed widly, his other hand stabbing through the beast's soft underbelly with the same type of talons. The Spider writher around on the ground wildly in an attempt to dislodge the human which was now shredding its internal organs with waton abandon.

Deciding to finish the beast, mainly to move onto the other two who were cowering from him near the cage, Richard's clouded mind told him what to do. Pulling one of his hands out, he climb on top of the pitifully writhing Spider to grin down into it's eight eyes... before plunging his arm elbow deep into the creature's head through said eyes. Almost instantly the monsterous Spider stopped writhing and lay still, it's remaining legs curling in to it's body as it died.

Pulling both hands free of the Spider, Richard slid off the monster to regard the two cowering beasts at the edge of the enclosure, licking his lips free of the stray blood which had splashed across his face in finishing the first Spider. With a gutteral growl, Richard's primal brain sent a challenge to the two remaining spiders. One of them cowered even more while the other one seemed to recover enough of it's courage to try attacking him.

Surprised by the sudden rush, the Spider barrelled into Richard, taking him out at the knees and smashing him into the ground on his back. With the speed of a trained predator, the Spider launched itself at him again, intent on tearing into his face with it's poisoned mandibles. Gritting his pointed and blood-stained teeth, Richard held the Spider back with one hand on it's head, pushing back with all of his adrenaline-fuelled strength. Moving the talon of his thumb slightly, Richard sunk the hooked appendage into one of the Spider's eyes, causing it to screech in pain and press harder against him. With a primal growl, Richard reached up with his free hand and gripped one of the Spider's large mandibles. Yanking with the same strength as before, he pulled the poisoned point free from the Spider's skull, causing it even more agony. Now with the poisoned mandible in hand, Richard grinned maniacly and stabbed it into the top of the Spider's head. The beast bucked against him, trying to pull away, but Richard hooked his talons deeper into it's eyes to keep it in place as he relentlessly drove it's own mandible into it's skull, poisoning it's brain with it's own deadly venom. It took only slightly longer than the first Spider but after a few dozen stabs, the Spider was still and became nothing but a dead weight. Richard kicked the beast off of him, leaving it to roll harmlessly to the side as a corpse.

The remainging Spider, seeing that it was obviously up against a superior predator, scurried into the cage and pressed itself as far from Richard as possible. Richard grinned even wider as he stalked towards the cage, soaked in the blood and various venoms of the two Spiders he'd already killed. The Spider squeeled in an almost human expression of fear and tried to press itself further into the cage. Reaching the door to the cage, Richard gave the frightened Spider a growl before he tapped the side of the cage, rematerialising the door.

Stumbling, almost drunkenly, back from the newly secured cage, Richard laughed a little before bending over at the waist and vomiting onto the grass. He stood back upright, his face covered in bleed, sweat and venom but otherwise completely back to normal. The manic grin had disappeared to be replaced by a look of mild disgust and a tight frown. Sighing, Richard began to walk slowly towards the edge of the barrier,

"Touch the barrier with my wand, would you Arsen?" he asked his Apprentice in a harsh and throaty voice.

Arsen stood back both wands clenched tight in his hands, he had no idea what was about to happen. He watched as Rich went from calm professor to violent hunter in a matter of seconds. He smiled enjoying the view as one after the other the spiders went down all dying painfully.

"That was awesome man." He smiled moving to touch Rich's wand to the circle then moved to hand it back to him. "You just went insane and bit a spider with your teeth." He laughed looking back at the lone spider in the cage.

Richard grimaced and spat at the ground in disgust,

"Don't remind me..." he stuck his tongue out and muttered in his native tongue, "Gott ... Ich brauche ein Mundwasser..."

He shook his head a little and took his wand from Arsen. Being very thorough, he used charms to clean every inch of himself of the blood, the sweat and the venom. Once he was done he was perfectly clean and all he could taste was a faint hint of mint. He sighed,

"So much better..." he grinned a little, "You want a shot Arsen?"

He laughed. "It was good to watch though." He smirked then frowned. "What does that mean? I only speak Italian and english." He said his eyebrows narrowing.

He waited patiently for Rich to clean himself his eyes trained on the only remaining spider. "What? Really?" He asked his face turning into a smile, a little glint appearing in his eye.

Richard chuckled a little,

"Means I need mouthwash." he told his Apprentice with a grin, "Spider blood is the worst tasting blood ever."

He nodded a little,

"Yeah sure. He's a coward anyway, this'll just give you the flavor of the blood rage." he smiled, "You won't use much magic though I'm afraid. In the blood rage you turn into an almost purely physical opponent. So, with that in mind..."

Smirking, he held up his hand and clinked his talons together,

"You want some claws Arsen?"

"I'll take your word for it." He smiled. "I'll leave the biting thing to you, don't think i really wanna try it." He smirked walking around the cage to get a better look at what it held.

"Good i love to fight the hard way, it's fun." He smiled moving back to start beside his master once more. "Right i'm ready." He said flexing his fingers.

"Yeah sure." He smiled holding his hands out for Rich. "Anything that will make this feel better."

Richard laughed and clapped Arsen on the back,

"Oh that wasn't me Arsen." he grinned and tapped the side of his head, "The blood rage pushes you to do things. I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up biting the bugger."

He waved his wand to transfigure Arsen's fingernails into talons. Patting the boy on the back he smiled reassuringly,

"Don't worry, you'll do fine." he chuckled, "You will throw up once your done though. Happens to everyone on their firest time. And if you swallow spider blood apparently."

Chuckling, he steped outside the chalk line and set up the barrier, vanishing the cage as he did so. With a smile he waved his wand at Arsen,

"Go! Hunt and kill Arsen!" he told his Apprentice as he sent Arsen into the Blood Rage.

"Ugh i hope not, i hate blood at the best of times but drinking it ugh." He frowned pretending to throw up.

His fingers changed into claws and he flexed them a few times to get used to how the felt. "This feels really weird." He smirked raking them across his trousers. "Oh great." He said sarcastically. "Can't wait for that bit." He smiled watching as Rich slowly backed out the circle. His smile left his face as he positioned his self low to the ground balancing his weight on his hands and feet.

Seconds later he felt the rush of his blood as something clicked in his brain. A loud hiss issued out his mouth as the spider stood unprotected with out it's cage. He slowly crawled his way over, his teeth out just like he would if he had fangs. The spider leaped at him in attempt to save itself but he rolled out the way ending up back on his hands and feet facing the spider once more. Another hiss escaped his lips, now it was his turn to attack. He leaped and landed on the spiders back his claws digging into his flesh as he tried to scuttle out from beneath him. His laugh echoed around the forest as the spider managed to escape, Arsen's claws leaving the slices behind as he spun back round to face his opponent. He brought his claws to his face smelling the scent of the spider blood before his raked them over his face leaving trails of its blood down his cheeks.

He hissed again this time actually speaking in parceltongue as both he and the spider leaped and collided in mid air, the spider landing on top. His eyes briefly flashed orange as he plunged his claws and hand straight into the spiders belly pulling up anything he could find. The spiders legs finally became still and curled in on themselves as he pushed it's shell of him so he could leap back into his low crouch looking for any other prey to attack. His eyes set on the only other living thing around and he hissed his teeth exposed, his claws digging up the ground beneath him.

Richard smiled at Arsen,

"You'll aquire the taste." he promised with a smirk, "The rage makes it more appealing."

He laughed,

"Oh grow up." he teased, "Only one throw up."

As he watched Arsen demolish the remaining spider, Richard grinned and crouched down to get a better view from a comfier position. He raised an eyebrow as the now animalistic Arsen clawed at the ground in an obviously challenging manner. Breaking the barrier, Richard stalked towards Arsen. His eyes had turned bright green and were glowing ominously as he bared his fangs and let out a throaty growl, positively oozing 'alpha-male' vibes from his experiences of being in the same beastial rage as Arsen. With a wave of his wand he cleared the mixture from Arsen's brain to bring the boy back to sanity.

His head turned to the side his face still screwed up in a snarl. He did not like the creature moving closer, he give it a warning hiss preparing himself to pounce on his at a moments notice.

Something in his mind clicked again making his head clear and his own thoughts come forward. He looked around him in shock slowly getting to his feet. Once he was stood straight he frowned them threw up. "Ugh." He said wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Ugh." He spat down to the ground as the taste of the spiders blood that had remained on his lips made it to his tongue. "I see what you mean that is foul." He glanced down at his bloody claws then the spider. "That was amazing." He smiled

"Sorry about turning on it just felt right and i couldn't stop myself." He smiled.

Richard laughed and waved his wand, replacing both his own and Arsen's talons with the original fingers. He patted his Apprentice on the back,

"Oh don't worry about it Arsen." he smirked, "Some blood tastes better than others."

He waved it off,

"Don't worry about it." he grinned suddenly, "I'd have been able to show you your place anyway Pup. But enough of that! What did you see? What did you see through the red haze?"

He flexed his fingers once they were back to normal then shoved them into his pockets again. He was so glad he hadn't worn his leather jacket it was bound to have gotten ruined and he couldn't have let that happen.

"Great i hope they do that was foul." He smirked looking back to the spider, he could not believe he had done that. He raised one eyebrow up and turned to look at his master. "Pup?" He smiled one side of his mouth pulled up."Yeah you're proberly right... for now." He smirked sticking his tongue out at him.

"Not a lot i just remember i had to protect myself from everything that moved. I just knew i had to rip him to pieces then i sensed you and i thought you were a threat so i turned on you, but it felt right no matter how much i thought about it i just couldn't figure out who you were." He shrugged. "I'm just glad you were yourself again i did not want to end up like those." He smiled turning to look at the spiders he disposed of earlier.

"Well some of them are better. Just the fact that it's human blood makes you sicker than usual." he shrugged a little, "And you're pup when in the rage. I always see it like becoming a human version of a werewolf. You know, keeping the body of the man but gaining the mind of a wolf. So you're pup. Because cub is a stupid word."

Richard smirked a little,

"Don't worry Arsen, with practice you can bring some of your rational mind with you. Just enough to distinguish friend from foe." he chuckled a little, "And I've had practice so you'd be fine. Although..."

He frowned,

"The longer you stay in the Rage the harder it is to pull out of it. Even with the counter-spell." he sighed, "After awhile your brain produces the mixture on its own. And you lose yourself in it."

He smirked,

"So no trying this to escape your problems."

"Oh great, well i think i prefer pup to cub so pup it is." He smiled. "Just don't tell anyone, us slytherins prefer to be snakes." He smiled.

"Cool does that mean we're going to do that again?" He asked his eyes lighting up. "That's was the best i've felt in ages." He smiled scratching his cheek to find more blood. "Ugh why do i have blood on my face. I didn't bite that thing did i?" He asked spitting just incase.

"Oh good i kinda like me the way i am." He smiled. "I mean with all my limbs and face intact." He smiled he was sure Charlotte wouldn't like him if he came back all mangled his face just lit up at the thought of her.

"Oh you spoil all my fun Professor. My life has been at it's easiest just then." He smiled sticking his tongue out at him then nodding his head over to the spider he'd just killed. "But i wouldn't use it that often. Just if i got myself in trouble, it would come in handy a lot."

"Well I'd hardly call you 'hatchling' now would I?" he teased, sticking his tongue out at the boy, "That would just be silly."

Richard chuckled a little,

"We'll be doing it a few times." he confirmed before smirking, "As for the blood... well it tends to get everywhere anyway. I once found some between my toes after killing a horse, don't ask why I killed a horse, and it was really hard to clean."

He smirked again,

"Don't worry... Miss Matthews won't see your pretty face all mangled." he winked and tapped his nose, "The nose knows Arsen."

Richard frowned,

"It's all fun and games until you kill the person closest to you for breathing too loud. And I don't think you want that. Charlotte is a lovely girl." he shook his head a little, "Besides... I have a gift for you."

He reached into his pocket and pulled a single tablet out of it. Holding it out to Arsen he smiled a little,

"One portable Blood Rage. Non-reusable of course." he shrugged, "Just in case I'm not around to save your ass pup."

"No pup is bad enough thanks but why can't i have a cool nickname?" He asked scrapping his foot along the floor. "Pup sounds weak and i hate being weak." He frowned.

"Good i need a little escape once in a while, i just need to let go otherwise i will explode." He smiled rubbing his hands together. He lifted one eyebrow in surprise. "Poor horse i hope it had heart attack before you reached it proberly a less painful way to die. You didn't eat it did you?" He smirked sticking his tongue out.

His eyes narrowed along with his eyebrows. "Wait... how did... how did you know i was thinking about her? Oh no you don't read minds too do you?" He sighed looking around the forest that was all he needed right now. "Your nose can read minds." He smiled in surprise.

"No i could never hurt her." He said shaking his head, if anyone touched her he'd kill them. His face lit up in surprise, he was not used to gifts. "Oh thanks." He smiled taking the blood rage in his hand. "No don't call me that please." He frowned before smiling.

"Ah but a pup is something with potential." he smirked, "You might not be ripping any throats out right now but the future holds bright and bloody things for you pup."

"I will admit that it does soothe you..." he chuckled a little before looking offended, "Eat a horse? Do I look French to you?! No... the poor thing just happened to move while I was in the rage. I think I tore it's throat out. Not too sure."

Richard burst out laughing,

"No my nose can't read minds..." he wiped a tear of laughter away but continued to tease, "But her scent is the heaviest on you. Means she's spent a lot of time with you. Hence I took an educated guess, and now I have blackmail material."

He chuckled a little before ruffling his hair affectionately,

"I'm still gunna call you pup, but only in private." he smiled a little, "Now that's not an oridinary muggle tablet. You don't swallow it for starters unless you want a delayed response. Swallow it and the Rage will take over in exactly one minute's time. Crush it under your nose... two seconds."