Before the war

The atmosphere in The Dome was dreary. Even with Failure's speech still echoing through the moon beasts minds, tensions were high.

They were scared, it was understandable. It was do or die at this point. The fact that they had to rely on their elder to save them should have been a horrifying fact for the variety of beasts.

But it wasn't.

Aldred was their ray of hope, their shining beacon for a prominent future. If the figurehead who was Aldred fell, it would be the end for them all.

So they didn't panic, they had absolute faith in their elder. After all, if they didn't have faith...

What else could they have?

Kai watched the body language of all the moon beasts as he leisurely strolled through The Dome. Their posture, eyes, their tail, anything that was a tell about how they felt he spotted.

It was a tragic sight.

It reminded Kai of war refugees from Earth. They would either die or end up without a home, and those that do survive would have a constant struggle to build a better life for themselves.

One of the moon wolves tail was sagging, their was a boar stumbling his way to the defensive bulwark. Kai spotted everything.

He himself didn't really know what to think. It was all a bit much that was happening in the first place.

Mystical forest where the moon kills you, talking beasts with unnatural powers, and even a man who had to be thousands of years old and was basically a grandpa to all these beasts yet he still looked so young.

It was kind of tragic.

But along with the tragic came the hopeful.

Wa'rak was commanding a small but elite unit of moon beasts. His team consisted of the boar which spoke up about not liking humans at the meeting, the stag who refereed his and Noelle's fight and one of the wolves Kai had seen Umbra training with while he went XP farming with Aldred.

There was two other beasts, another boar and a strange looking bear. Kai had not seen both around The Dome before, but they must be strong if Wa'rak picked them.

Everyone in the team was a quarter moon beast, and the best of the best at that.

When Kai asked the arrogant wolf what he was going to name the team, the wolf responded by telling him it was called Team A.

Kai felt a little nostalgic at the name, and a little angry that the wolf had ruined a perfect joke set-up, but Kai let it slide as he would much rather not have the wolf going even harder on him in training that evening.

That was two days ago.

It was the day before the duel between Aldred and The Demon of the Dark Side. Kai had barely slept in the last two days, he was scared to.

What if he just didn't wake up? Even though he's been in the forest for nearly a month, there's still lots of it that's unknown. What's to say there isn't a secret full moon beast wandering the forest or even guarding some incredibly strong hidden tutorial item?

Kai quickly dismissed the thought. If there was another full moon beast on the side of the abominations, Aldred probably would have sniffed it out by now, and if there was another full moon beast Aldred or Failure would have tried to recruit it.

If there was another full moon beast though...

Kai shuddered, then continued to watch all the going ons around him.

It was relaxing, in a strange sort of way.

Recently, Kai had felt as if his life was flashing before his eyes, only it wasn't. It was just that the days preceding the duel felt like the end of the world.

Kai wanted to see his family again, of course he did, but he was just one teenage boy. What could he possibly do in a fight between an incredibly strong wolf and a Demon with unknown powers?

Nothing.

But that did not mean Kai had nothing to do in the days building up to the final showdown. He dedicated himself to his training, only sleeping when he felt like he would pass out in an embarrassing position and or place otherwise.

In the past, he never would have done this, he would have given up before even starting. But maybe it's because of Nonchalance or maybe it's just him getting older, but he didn't want to give up anymore.

He didn't want to be weak, weakness was scary. How many times had he nearly died recently?

What's even scarier is that they didn't even register in his mind until he had the time to think about it.

Nonchalance was an incredible skill, Kai would most definitely be dead without it. On the other hand though, having the ability to remain calm in situations he shouldn't be felt intimidating.

It's like he lost a part of himself.

Fear was an essential component of the human mind, without it people would never have the desire to grow stronger.

Noelle wanted to kill someone with all her being. She would stop at nothing to achieve her goal, even if it meant hurting those around her.

John wanted to see his wife and daughter again. The two people closest two him, he could possibly see them again if he succeeded in surviving the next few days. He was determined to see them again.

Sofia, Kai didn't really understand the red-haired woman. She definitely had a complicated background, maybe even more so than Noelle's if she ended up as an undercover agent in a terrorist group. But even she seemed to have some sort of desire guiding her.

Kai wasn't like that. His family was a shining light guiding his growth. But if his parents ended up in a tutorial like him...

What are the chances they're even still alive?

No. They're still alive. I know they are.

... I hope they are.

Honestly, dedicating himself to training was the best possible thing Kai could have done. It felt incredible to have to responsibilities and to be free.

Sort of free, he was still in the confines of The Dome.

When he woke up from his deep slumber from overworking the fay before, Kai would force some of the forest slop down his throat before washing up under the waterfall.

The cold water was amazing at properly waking Kai up, the freezing feeling seeping into his bones gave him energy.

He would then dry off with his tunic, using the soft fur body as a towel. The first day he done this, he went around the whole day while wearing a wet tunic. He discovered a trick though.

He could simply just dismiss it to his soul and resummon it. For whatever reason, it would come out perfectly dry.

After his shower, he would train with Umbra. This was the best part of the day for him. He would watch his familiar's soul while fighting her with Life Eater and watch every miniscule change in the orb.

While his skills with the blade were still middling at best, he felt like he was making progress. Even if he couldn't successfully dodge Umbra's attacks, he was at least getting better at positioning the horrid looking weapon in a way that nullified some of the damage.

Another thing he focused on was studying Umbra's soul.

He felt as if he was making progress with it, but it would take a lot longer than a few days to fully comprehend the essence of being a wolf.

After his training with Umbra finished, he would once again go under the waterfall and start statshifting. It was a tedious task, but with the goal of being the very best, like no one ever was, Kai stuck at it.

His stats were being moved successfully and he thought he would reach his target before the deadline, but he would probably have to do some extra hours tonight if he wanted to reach the optimal number.

After statshifitng, Kai would have some more slop and wash it down with the river water. He would then take a small break and find Wa'rak afterwards.

Kai had replaced Noelle as the arrogant wolf's sparring partner, so whenever the wolf wasn't with his team they would duel.

Sadly, or maybe luckily, their duels didn't attract a crowd as much as Wa'rak and Noelle's did. A factor of this was probably that Kai hadn't beaten the wolf even once.

It was after these duels that he realised how truly miraculous Noelle's were. The first one could be called a fluke, but the second one...

For a few minutes, the olive skinned woman had better technique than a wolf who had been trained since birth.

That itself was incredible, but Kai wasn't going to show it. She still hadn't beaten Wa'rak since then, so why did it matter.

Still, with every loss, Kai grew stronger.

As his master instructed him in their last meeting, Kai dutifully practiced while in his fused state. He was growing more accustomed to the much larger and stronger form and felt that it wouldn't be long before he would be able to properly fight by himself.

Of course, he wasn't going to get arrogant. If he learned one thing from books and movies, it's that arrogance kills.

Also that a main character was supposed to have a female lead, but Kai had long given up on that fantasy.

Maybe Noelle is the main character, she even has a backstory after all.

Kai quickly stopped imaging his life as a fictional story, mainly because he wanted to focus on training at the time. There was also the chance that Aldred could activate Telepathy and hear him, so Kai didn't want to risk it.

He didn't even think about how if Noelle was the main character, would she have to have a male lead?

After his training with Wa'rak concluded, Kai would trudge his way back to the bank of the pond and submerge himself into the cold water. He would then statshift some more stats before finally passing out from exhaustion.

He learned to do it on dry land after the first time though.

Umbra would leave his shadow and snuggle up beside him, basking in the body heat of her master as he slept.

That was Kai's life for the last two days. It was torturously hard and his body was aching, but at the same time it was soothing.

He was too tired to think, too tired to worry, he only had the energy to train and think about sleep itself.

Sadly, the semi peaceful times were not meant to last.