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The Forest King

As a soldier and a guardsman, Azurium had been given basic survival training. If the situation was dire, and he was left to fend for himself and his regiment far away in the less settled regions of Crossroads, he had every confidence that he and his men could handle themselves, making their way out. Back in those days, he would have relished the idea of being tested so….

…Until his age had begun to catch up with him, those aches in his joints and reduced reaction times. Though still capable, he was no longer the youth he once was. At least, until Master Volpes entered his life. Having undergone the change, ushered in by the Master’s elixir, a strength, endurance, and vitality that he had never known before had flooded through his body.

During one of their training sessions, the Master spoke of the first days after his own transformation. Unlike Azurium, Volpes was never taught survival skills. And yet, as he journeyed back to his old home, nature and the elements proved no obstacle. With naught but his robust physique, he thrived in the wilderness. Hunting, building campfires, setting up camp, and preparing food, none of these tasks proved any difficulty for the fox, eager to push his new muscles to their limits. Thinking back to “the good-ol’ days,” the new Azurium could not help but see the appeal in such a trial.

With naught but the clothing on his back, the tiger-titan was eager to throw himself into the challenge. As his Master before him once did, he found himself in his element, the hazards, and dangers of wildlife proving no challenge at all. Though this proved little interest. He knew that even a normal man could handle themselves with the knowledge he had. No, he was eager to test the full capabilities that the Master had bestowed upon him.

That bear certainly put up a brave fight, but once it was caught in his vice grip, the titan had no difficulty snapping its neck and showing it just what he was capable of. His clothing might have been left in tatters, but that mattered little when he could already feel himself healing from the scuffle, better than new. Fresh from the kill, he looks skyward, to the peak atop the abandoned ruins at the center of his hunting ground. Pulling himself up, he surveyed the wooded lands around him, disappointed that naught was capable of sating his newfound desire to challenge himself.

Volpes was his Master, but Azurium was a king in his own right. The old beast had been reawakened.

TJ_Tiger drew this as a YCH commission back in January of 2022. I had ceased following because they had started experimenting with AI, but I do not know if they’re still doing so today.

It is a shame that this piece is tinged by the knowledge that the artist would go on to use generative AI, because it was a good way to demonstrate both how much stronger titans are compared to ordinary people and how liberating it was for Azurium to become one.