having turned around, I was faced with a surprise. Standing across from me was Gareth, weapon in hand. Though I didn't see her, I knew that the big boulder from before was caused by Alice.

Solomon: WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING? STOP THIS NOW!

Ignoring me, Gareth charged. Drawing his sword, he tried to run me through with it.

Not wanting to fight him, I grabbed ahold of the end of his sword. Coating my hand in a layer of qi, I could safely hold onto the blade. Then using my other hand, also strengthened with qi, I punched the middle of the sword. With a crunch, the blade shattered, sending several small pieces of metal spiralling in every direction.

Seeing this, I was surprised by my own strength. I had only meant to break the sword into two pieces, not shatter it. It seemed that the strength of my qi was higher than I thought.

While I was marvelling at the strength of my qi, Gareth had jumped backwards. He obviously knew that I was physically superior to him, but I doubted he thought it was to this extent.

Taking out his gun, Gareth aimed at me.

Gareth: you better take this seriously, otherwise you'll die.

There was a bright light of determination in his eyes. The same look he had when sparring, only even more intense. From this alone, I could tell he was not betraying me. But I still didn't understand why he was attacking me.

Solomon: haaaagh, you had me worried for a second there. I thought you were turning against me. Alright, I'll take this seriously.

Though I was unsure of the reason, Gareth, and everyone else would not push me into a corner like this without good reason. Standing straight, I sheathed my sword. Seeing this action, Gareth already knew what I was going to do.

In an effort to stop me, he began madly shooting at me. Holding up my hand, I used my defensive skill.

Solomon: holy light mantle.

With a flash of light, two panels of golden qi appeared before me. Being only a meter or so in size, they would hold up for only a few seconds. However, that was all I needed.

Solomon: FUR OF THE ETERNAL MOONLIGHT!

Calling out the name, I activated the skill. With the disappearance of a 6th of my qi, my body began to morph. Starting with the growing of fur, then the reforming of my legs, and ending with the hardening of my teeth and nails.

I had once again changed into the appearance of a werewolf. Not wasting any time, I dashed towards Gareth. Though he had just managed to break through the holy light mantle, The protective power of my silver fur was enough to briefly protect against his shots. Unless he expended a lot of his energy he couldn't quickly hurt me.

Throwing away the broken sword, Gareth drew another sword from his waist. Unlike the last one, this was good quality. It was the weapon I had given him before, in terms of strength it was only slightly worse than Alice's chunbu sword. Compared to my claws though, it was about equal.

Just as I was about to reach him, the mist around his body surrounded him. The hand that I planned to strike him with was quickly taken back. As I had touched the mist, a searing pain spread into my hand. It seemed that when his energy was concentrated during his transformation, it took on a corrosive property.

Standing a few meters back, while waiting for him to finish transforming, I used my senses to find the others. Luckily having just transformed, my senses were greatly strengthened.

From a nearby tree branch, I could hear distinct creaking. using the noise to mark someone's location, I kept searching. from behind another tree a few more meters away, I could smell Alice's perfume.

having located some of the others, I directed my attention back towards Gareth. He was just emerging from his mist cocoon. Once again, I saw this new form of his. Long black hair, deep crimson eyes, rippling muscles. All of it added up to make the image of a demon.

Gareth: HAAAAARRRGGHH

With a war cry, Gareth charged at me. Surprised, it took me an extra second to react. Lunging forwards, the distance between us was almost instantly closed. Holding up his sword, Gareth tried to impale me with it.

Just as the sword had reached me, my body dissipated into smoke. To Alice's surprise, I had appeared behind her. Having already located her, I decided to deal with her first. Out of everyone, she was the most dangerous. Though normally it would be Pluvia, she was limited when in the view of the newbies.

With quick movements, I used the back of my hand to hit Alice's neck, knocking her out. As I turned to deal with Gareth again, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my left side. Looking down, I saw that a small dagger was sticking out of my gut.

Holding onto that dagger was Sasha. Though I knew she was here, I had subconsciously ignored her. Mainly because I though she couldn't hurt me in this form.

Surprisingly, she had stabbed between two of my ribs. Unfortunately for her, the dagger was too short to do any real damage.

Seeing me turn towards her, Sasha instantly went pale. Just as I was about to reach down and knock her out, an intense heat spread over my back. Though it was slightly painful, it wasn't enough to do any damage.

Due to fear, she fainted, collapsing to the floor. Turning to deal with the two final fighters, I saw that both of them had grouped up. As I tried to charge at them, a ball of ice appeared above pluvia, before being hurled at me. As all of the unranked were now unconscious, she was free to use all her power.

Looking at their formation, With Gareth in front to fight physically and Pluvia behind to provide ranged support, I was impressed by their organisation. Surprisingly though, pluvia still had yet to transform. Though it was reassuring in a sense, it meant that she was still holding back.

Not giving me time to think, Gareth attacked With a downwards slash. When I used my claws to grab his blade, a fireball smashed into my side, forcing me back several meters.

The fireball, though strong, could not break through my silver fur. So, even though I was constantly being constantly pushed back, I was not being hurt. If it continued like this, Gareth and pluvia would exhaust themselves long before me.

Realising this, Pluvia stepped up her game. With a flash of light, she reverted to her dragon form. Looking at her huge form, I felt a pang of fear in my heart.

With a rugged intake of air, an ominous red moved up Pluvia's throat. Seeing the danger, I tried to retreat. Unluckily for me, Gareth was waiting for my move. With quick movements, he assaulted me with several sword slashes. having to take a moment to deal with Gareth, gave Pluvia enough time to get her attack out.

Emerging from her mouth, a torrent of flames erupted forth. Seeing the increased size, this attack was at least 5 times stronger than the attacks before. If I was hit by this I knew that I would be injured badly.

With little choice left, I prepared to block the attack.

Solomon: holy light mantle

With a flash, 3 panels of golden light appeared before the flame pillar. Luckily, the pillar was quite narrow, letting me block it all with relatively small panels.

As the fire hit the first panel, there was a moment of pause before it shattered. Then as it hit the second panel, it took almost 3 seconds to break through. When I finally reached the last panel it took almost half of its remaining power to break through. This last remaining piece of flame was even weaker than the previous fireballs.

Having successfully blocked it, I planned to move before they could act again. However, to my horror, Pluvia was already starting to attack again. By the look of it, Gareth was also ready to block my movement.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I chose the only option left to me. Attack.

Dashing forwards, I aimed for Gareth. Though Pluvia was more dangerous, Gareth was the final nail in my coffin. When I thought it through, I wasn't confident in beating Pluvia one v one either way. At the very least I could take down Gareth.

With a slash of my claw, he was forced to defend with his sword. Then with the same claw, I grabbed hold of his sword, pulling it towards me. As he took a step forwards to steady himself, I lifted up one of my legs, sending a kick into his gut.

With the sudden force, he was sent flying a few meters away, spewing blood from his mouth as he collapsed on the ground.

Though he was still conscious, he would not be able to fight me anymore. Turning my attention to Pluvia, I found that she was just completing her attack, sending another pillar of flame at me. Using the previous method, I once again halted her attack.

Now fighting one on one, she no longer had the time to use that attack again. Though I didn't know if it cost her a lot to use, I could only block 4 more of those flame pillars.

Pluvia: this should be interesting. Let me give you some incentive. If you can beat me know I'll give you another cool technique.

Though I was curious as to what technique I could gain, I was not foolish enough to think I could beat her. Running through several scenarios in my head, I could find no way to win.

Taking the initiative, Pluvia attacked. Starting off, she sent a small fireball at me. After I slashed the ball apart I found pluvia behind it. She had chased after the ball, using it as a distraction to approach me. Now using that brief opening, her tail whipped forwards, aiming for my gut.

Being unable to block with my sword, I was forced to use my defensive skill.

Solomon: holy light panel.

When her tail was halted, she tried to attack with a claw. Luckily I had recovered by then. As her claw collided with mine, I used the force from it to back away. After this short exchange, I knew I couldn't win against her physically.

Holding up my hand, I had the arcane orb appear. Seeing the weapon, she knew what I planned to do. Lifting her head, the same ominous red appeared at the base of her throat.

From the colour, I could tell she was not holding anything back. Reacting in kind, I pumped all of my remaining qi into my orb. Having a little over a half left, this attack would be very strong. Being as there were allies nearby, I did consider holding back. But, because I was fighting pluvia, it would be suicide to hold back.

After ten seconds I had my attack prepared, looking at Pluvia, she too seemed to be ready. With a flash, fire erupted forth from the orb. congealing together, it formed into a lizard. Like normal, it made the head, then the arms, then the rest of the body. It continued on all the way to the end of the tail. When the whole lizard had formed, the attack was complete.

Surprisingly, when the full lizard formed, the whole attack seemed to double in power. Now complete, the lizard sped off. With the crisp sound of a thunderclap, it flew off towards Pluvia. St this speed I couldn't even slightly see the attack. However, this didn't seem to be the case for Pluvia. Just before the lizard was going to hit her, the red glow hovering in her throat came up to her mouth.

Unlike most of her previous attacks, this attack was not made of fire. Out from her mouth came a bright red beam of light. When that light collided with the lizard, a torrent of wind was spread out. With the two attacks as the centre, a mini tornado was forming from the constant struggle of these two oppressive forces.

After a few seconds, the intense struggle was reaching its climax. At this point, the lizard of fire let out one last push, before breaking apart. As it collapsed, the fire was sent exploding outwards, this last spurt was enough to destroy the other attack. As the rain of fire spread out over the garden, it reverted back into red wisps of qi, raining down harmlessly.

As I felt the fatigue catch up to me, my consciousness faded. As I collapsed to the ground, the battle in the garden ended.