Peer pressure at its finest

"Oh.... hello Noelle, fancy seeing you here" Rashik says with the same goddamn grin on his face.

So what did Noelle do?

She pulled out her scimitar and charged right at him.

Looking back, she could probably admit she might have been a bit too blinded by rage in the moment. Luckily, she was in the moment, not looking back on it.

But where did this leave poor Kai in the whole situation?

Right in the middle of the damn thing.

Watching Noelle fly past him, Kai nearly stumbled onto the ground in a panic. His head whipped around as he saw Noelle just about to reach Rashik.

"Noelle! What-" His words are cut short by the sound of Noelle's scimitar clanging off... Shorty's shortsword?

Remembering how Noelle made fun of him for his dagger, saying the weapon matches the person, Kai can't help but agree in this situation.

The thing is... Shorty is really good with that sword, not as good as Noelle, but much better than a 15 year old should be.

Kai looks around and inspects the dire situation around him. Sleepy watching the fight, analysing as if waiting for the perfect moment, Shorty and Noelle engaged in their swordfight, Umbra guarding Kai and Red as she bares her fangs, and Rashik... was gone. Kai could only assume he was watching from somewhere, but he would like to hope he just up and left.

Picking up Red off the ground, he helps her hobble over to under one of the trees and sets he'd down behind it, hiding her slightly from the view of everyone.

Coming out from the tree, Kai pulls out his dagger and starts going towards Noelle to help her, once he is about half way he is... sent flying into a tree?

His back cracks off the hard bark of the tree, making him cough up blood as he falls to the ground. Looking up, he can't see anything that could have hit him, but he puts two and two together and realised it must've been that camouflaged bastard who sent him flying.

Groaning as he stands up, Kai looks around and concentrates on his Luck stat, trying to do what he did earlier and break through the camouflage.

He failed.

Getting hit in the side this time, Kai is launched sideways, further away from Noelle and consumed by the darkness in the gap between two trees. Kai desperately tries to think of anything to help, but he can't. He's out of unnasigned stat points, his only weapon is a dagger, Umbra should be able to help a little though...

... Kai grins as realisation hits, quickly opening his status and scrolling to Contract of Artemis, he looks at Umbras newest skill, the one The Ever-changing said they helped with.

Grace of The Ever-changing (Legendary): The Ever-changing expended some energy to humbly grace his apprentices wolf with the blood of ???. Allows Umbra to bond with her contracter, allowing them to use Umbra as the base for Will of the Kaiser.

"Ha....hahahaha" Kai laughs happily as he gets punched again, looking at his HP, he sees that he's lost... 40!

With only 30 HP left, Kai activates Will of the Kaiser and Grace of The Ever-changing. Umbras form shimmers and dissapears, meanwhile Kais starts to change. He starts to grow taller, much taller. Reaching nearly 8 feet, Kai's eyes start to change colour to a dark yellow as claws start to grow from his fingernails. His body gets bulkier and hairier, to which his leather armour expands with it. It doesn't strain, surprisingly, meaning their is something special about their armour.

Once his body stops changing, he opens his status to see what abilities he got.

Wolf of the crescent moon mode activated

But the text changes, the line blurs and dissapears, replaced with something completely different.

Grace of The Ever-changing_ F-#%R!R

Due to limitations, only a portion of the skill will be accessible

Wolf of ??? mode activated

+15 Strength

+15 Dexterity

+15 Constitution

Skill-Wolf's senses: Gained

Warning: 1 minute remaining before Mana depletion

Only a minute... Kai inwardly groans, but looking at his stats he sees that it makes sense. His Strength and Dexterity are basically doubled, and he has more health now than when Camo first attacked him.

The most important change though, was Wolf's senses. He could now hear the grass folding under feet, hear the sound of breathing...smell the scent of sweat.

What got flung into the trees was a scrawny human with red hair, but what walks out is a creature that is seen in children's nightmares.

Hulking over anyone in height, bigger then anyone in bulk, senses keener than anyone else here, he was the strongest he was ever going to be. In this situation, Kai had the advantage.

But time wasn't on his side, about 5 seconds had already passed, but Kai can finally sense Camo. Turning and facing where the stealthy bastard is trying to hide, a laugh escapes Kai's mouth, his new fangs shining, but it turns into a growl as it goes on.

If Kai can land just one hit on him, he will be able to track him by smelling his blood, so he goes all out. Dashing with his enhanced Dexterity, Kai reaches the area where he things Camo is and does a wide swing of his arm, catching something with his claws as he does.

Grunting in pain, Camo is sent flying backward into one of the trees around them. Kai grins, but in his monstrous form the grin is nothing short of terrifying.

Camo tries his hardest to get up, but it's in vain. Kai lunges and catches him with his claws again, sending sneaky bastard rolling across the floor.

Kai walks over to and stands above the poor man he just bullied, he's never felt so powerful in his life. He can do anything he wants. Kill, eat, mate,  no one can stop him... no one.

Strong mind kicks in, the cold feeling warning him of some sort of a mind attack, but Kai snarls and ignores it. He growls and looks around, with his new senses he can feel Sleepy hiding behind a tree, watching them.

Kai picks up Camo by the head and whacks him into the hard bark again, and again...and again.

[12 XP earned]

The beast dropped the battered human corpse onto the bloody ground. The camouflage wore off and he finally caught a glance of Camo's real self, only there was nothing to see other than a broken body covered in blood.

He then sprints at where he sensed Sleepy, but his senses pick up something new as he does this... Fear.

Grinning, Kai continues to dash at the sweet scent ticking his nose, the smell of fear is the greatest thing he has ever smelled, and once he reaches the tree where Sleepy is hiding he sees... nothing?

Growling as he looks all around, he can't sense the man at all. Wait... he can, Sleepy's behind him.

Turning quickly, Kai sees nothing again, but then he feels a sharp pain in his right leg. Looking down he sees that a dagger had been embedded in his leg.

Letting out a roar of pain, Kai's anger flares. He wants to kill, break, fight. A cold feeling wells up in the back of his head again, but it's instantly overwhelmed by his anger.

Smelling something behind him, he turns, only to find another dagger in his leg. Anger overwhelms him Kai, darkness clouds his eyes as he enters a frenzy. Swinging his claws, roaring, a mad beast taking over.

Precious seconds pass and Kai continues to get crazier and even more aggressive. His time in his powered up mode ends and his body starts to shrink, his eyes returning to normal, his claws retracting... and the feeling of pain returning.

Kai falls to the ground in a cry of pain as he clutches both his legs, the daggers fell out when his body shrunk but the wounds are still there. His emotions also return to normal, but he feels as if something was off about his rage, he was way more wild than he should've been. That bastard was manipulating his emotions!

Sleepy walks out from behind the same goddamn tree he first checked.

"I didn't expect you to be able to resist my ability at first." A monotone voice comes out of his mouth, perfectly matching his look and vibe. "Still, I win in the end."

"Screw you!" Kai cries out, still clutching his legs, pressing on the wounds so he doesn't lose too much blood, but he can feel his body weakening. Not just from blood loss, but also from the fact that he's out of Mana.

Sleepy continues to approach the struggling Kai, daggers in both his hands. "You know, life sucks" Sleepy starts to say.

Fucking great, a villian monologue.

"Day in day out, office jobs, way too many hours, no holidays, the woman I loved was whoring herself to my boss. It was torture. But when there is darkness, there is also light... and wasn't that light beautiful.

At first I thought I was going to die when the light came, but waking up in that room, it was the best thing to ever happen to me."

Sleepy's eyes shine with glee, a mad grin growing on his face as he lifts his hand up and scratches at his cheeks.

"I slept, I ate, I did nothing. It was incredible. But then I got my parter... my old boss."

His eyes dim, his smile dissapears, his boring attitude returns. Only for it to be instantly overwhelmed by the sight of a man in pure euphoria.

"So I killed him, and it was incredible. The feeling of seeing the light dissapear from his eyes as my hands tightened around his throat, his futile attempts at escaping. It was beautiful.

But that's when I realised... that killing is an art, an incredibly beautiful art. But every piece of art needs an artist, and every artist needs a canvas."

Finally standing above the in pain Kai, Sleepy looked down at him, and grin etched on his face and glints of craziness in his eyes. Raising his dagger above Kai he says;

"So, kind soul, please become the canvas for my next masterpiece, die wailing in agony by my hand, only then can I experience joy again."

Then, a blade was thrust through his heart.