As I sit in the rigid metal cocoon I remember who I used to be before these wars. How I carried myself. How I sought love instead of rage. I am no longer that man. I am Raganos. Breaker of Worlds. Godchild of Olykrim. I am more myth than man. My wife is gone. My children are buried. I fear what my world has become. I fear my transformation into something inhuman. Into a beast of war. The speed of ten bulls lay static in my bones. My biceps are filled with boulders. My skin is stretched thin. Barely holding intact the beast that lies within. I breathe. I contain. I am transforming. That does not have to be the end of me. I can still hope to return to man. My men have fed me through a spit tube and used my piss as fuel as my transformation has been in progress. Yet I do not know how long I have been in this shell. I cannot tell if it has been an hour or ten years. My thoughts are blurry. All I can think about is how much humanity lies within this ship. The first time I killed a man my bones ached. My muscles shook to the very core. Now delivering death feels like instinct. I have felt every slight imperceptible movement of my organs and blood cells slosh and continue to work inside of something that is a beast. For the first time in a decade tears start to pour. I feel emotion. I do not know if that is what my men need. If they will discard their leader if he is not the beast they want him to be. I feel my body start to bubble. I hear the workings of latches undoing themselves. Before I know it, I have been released. I glare up and I see my brother in arms, Gagalos. He is slim. Slimmer than normal. He is hearty. He is old. “How long was that?” I unexpectedly roar. I haven't heard the measure of my own voice since I was submerged. “Five years.” Gagalos replies flatly as if he and I were never the same side of the same coin “Rise Ragnok rise, This is the start of the revolution.” He says it as if he sees me as a tool. As a creature. He does not have the same familiarity in him as when I last saw him. “Do not talk to me as if I am nothing but a beast.” I boom in demand. He glares down at what he sees as a tool slumping on the floor. He taps his index finger impatiently. “Oh, but is that not what has become of you?” He smirks a sly evil smirk. I do not recognize this cruelty. Not from him. Not from my best of men. I shoot upwards with my fists balled and bulging. “I am not a beast!” I thunder. My hand has traveled to the neck of his shirt. I am gripping it as if my life depends on it. He bursts a wild cackle. “There is the Drak Ragnok. Alas after our great waiting. After being stagnant. The weapon is back!”

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  I remember when this man before me pretended to understand the workings of a beast. I feel a fury rise inside of me and before I know it, Gagalos is dead. I feel his blood douse my hands. I feel the cold of his husk. He is dead because of me. Because of my animalistic strength. My brother’s heart no longer beats. I never would’ve thought it would come to me standing over his corpse. We made a bet. One I thought to be true. He would be the one standing over my husk. He would be the one and only one to bury me as he sang the song of warriors.In the passing moments I no longer feel sorrow. I feel a being of rage and regret. I truly am a beast. I am a weapon. He was speaking nothing but the truth. In that I feel rage. I realize the true power of my being. I can pulverise bone. I have a lion’s roar.. I have the jaw the strength of a jackal. I have the speed of a myth. And In all the ways that matter, my humanity is a whisper. Yet some form of it remains.

  All of Gagalos’s men turn to me now. Instead of mourning they kneel. I am their reckoning. I am their living martyr. I am power. And I will lead them till the sun turns to ash. I will keep them close as if they were my own. To kill an army you must cut off the head. And I am the head.

  A pattern of thuds clashes through the war hall. Bang. Bang Bang. There is an Elderwint walking towards me with a barrage of other scrawnies. They walk with purpose. “Do you wish to challenge Drak Ragnok.” I boom. They seem used to the power of my voice. They do not flinch and they do not cease. They are like a crashing wave. Bang. Bang. Bang. “I asked you a question Eldercunt!” I demand answers. But they do not hesitate to heed my call. “I have a challenge Kul’kar” The Elderwint rasps.

  I look down at the feeble tiny man. Instead of rage I calm myself. Breathe in. Breathe out through the nose. Don’t flinch. You are not scared. You are a man made into a myth. “You summon a challenge?” I grunt as I snort air out of my nose as if it were steam. “I will tell you one thing before you dare challenge my leadership.” I say as if I were a stone. “You will lose, you will fall, but not out of force. But by your own undoing and I will only help in quickening your pain” I grab the leader by his throat and toss him across the hall. The familiar rising of steel ensues. Bang. Bang. Bang.