Enraged the Beast Within

Enraged the Beast Within is the 9th chapter of Psychteria Volume 2 and the 19th chapter overall. It debuted in March 2017.

Synopsis
A poison mode Cali fights Ace and the blond man. However, Zage arrives to protect Cali and manages to bring her back to her old self.

Full Summary
Poisoned Cali lunges at the blond man, biting his arm while laughing. The blond man manages to knee her off, but Cali does a flip and lands ready to attack again. Seeing Cali isn't even registering pain, the man launches an energy blast to knock her out. Seeing this, Cali grows shadow arms out of her back and dodges out of the way. Before she can take further action, a knife soars through the air and embeds itself in her back and sends her to the ground. The talkative mutant from the city appears and questions the blond man why she hasn't been captured yet. Irritated, the man questions the mutant where he's been, and the mutant reveals Jax was playing. Cali snarls at the two, making the mutant and remark in surprise that the poison mode was triggered. The mutant asks permission to take on Cali himself, to which the blond man nonchalantly agrees.

The mutant runs out Cali, shouting a challenge. Before the two collide, though, a bolt of lightning strikes between the two, causing the mutant to back off. Both the mutant and Cali look in shock, where they spot Zage as the source shouting for the mutant to leave Cali alone. The mutant attempts to shoo Zage, but Zage reaffirms his intent to protect Cali. As the mutant tries to argue with Zage further, Cali sneaks up behind him and bites him painfully in the shoulder, making Zage realize the current state she's in. In the meantime, the mutant harshly kicks Cali away, causing her to skid across the floor. Before Cali can reinitialize her attack at the mutant, though, she takes notice of Zage, smiles, and lunges at him. Zage stays put, attempting to call out to her, but Cali doesn't hear him. Before reaching him, though, the blond man steps in between them, grabbing Cali's arm to stop her.

The blond man advises Zage that it's hopeless and that Zage should leave. However, Cali takes the opportunity to use a shadow arm to stab the blond man in the upper chest and hold him in the air. As the blond man comments in shock, the shadow arm moves to strangle the blond man for a bit, before harshly throwing him into a tree. Seeing the futility in the fight at the moment, the blond man calls out to the mutant, Ace, and and tells him to start plan B. Ace, hearing the command, runs off into the forest. Suddenly, the blond man hears Cali's name, and turns his attention back to her. To his shock, he sees Zage attempting to approach Cali and reason with her. Cali lets out a growl and lunges at Zage, but Zage counters the attack with a hug. Shocked, Cali lays limp in his arms for a moment before her eyes change back to normal and Cali comes to, calling out Zage's name. However, though conscious, Cali slumps into Zage's arms more, too exhausted to do much.

With the fight parameters changed again, the blond man approaches, announcing he's taking Cali back now since she's too exhausted to fight. Zage announces that he won't let him and will fight him as he puts Cali down and gets into a fighting pose.

Characters

 * Cali Nightstone
 * Zage
 * Ace
 * Dezar Valentine