"Hey, Ven, can you come here a second?"
Right after class, one they obviously didn't pay attention to, Luo called his friend. And as usual, everyone went following.
"No, not you guys, I just want to talk to Ven for a bit. You three can go ahead, we catch up with you later."
That got the four by surprise.
"Uhhh, you want a guy with guy time alone? Isn't Winna gonna get jealous?"
Putting a hand in front of her mouth, Clest said teasingly.
Winna rolled her eyes with slightly blushed cheeks while the other simply ignored the triclops.
"Do you need something? Want to poison Wyher?"
Venissino asked, guessing the reason to be called by his friend.
"Maybe some other time." The wolf shacked his head. He touched on something in his wrist, to which a holographic page appeared. "Read it."
He threw the page at Venissino, who read it with interest.
"Is this something you can do?"
The page that Luo had shown him was an extensive report about Luo's species and one of the abilities of their innate technique. Though an interesting read, Venissino didn't understand why Luo cared about it or why he showed it to him.
"No. But my sister theorized that we can achieve this form through external influence. It won't be as strong and it would only be temporary, but I've been wanting to try it out."
Now the poison user started to understand why Luo called him.
"Do you think I can create something to put you in this state?"
Luo's smile answered for him.
"Well, give me some time. Do you have any research for me to use as a reference?"
Luo touched his wrist again and sent some documents to Venissino.
"Ok, I will see what I can do, but hopefully we can get somewhere before the trip."
"Heh, it would be cool to use it there. But I doubt there will be a chance."
[…]
Everyone felt the huge spike in Luo's presence and Astral Energy. Around, silver energy started to condense in the air, like strings, that went straight to his body.
'Lunar energy.' Mares heard Esen say.
Luo's teeth turned into fangs, his nails into claws and his hands into paws. His body arched and he got in a quadruped form, with his hair growing to cover all his back and white fur covering all his body. Both his pupils morphed and took the form of a half-moon. If before he looked like a werewolf, now he looked like a full wolf, though five meters tall and with a huge moving tail that had an appearance similar to that of a white flame.
Actually, through his whole fur, the tips of it moved like flames, white flames.
His presence was terrifying, even his friends were shaken by his appearance. His eyes had lost rationality, becoming those of a wild beast, aggressive and moved by instinct.
There was a different aura covering his body as he glowed under a whitish silver light, and it came from spots of moonlight that condensed around him.
"Holy fuck…"
Even Venissino did not expect the result to be so good. They had made the preparations before, and he had studied a lot to do this, more than he ever studied in the academy. They had made some estimations of how strong Luo would get, but all theories got trampled by reality.
They just unleashed a monster.
Good thing there was another monster to fight with that.
The Earthly Brute felt the change in atmosphere and looked at the wolf, who looked back. Both jumped at each other in that same instant.
"LUO!"
Winna screamed with fear for him, but there was no reaction on the wolf's part.
The Brute's four arms attacked, each from one direction, right, left, up, and down. Had been before, Luo would not be able to escape and would have had his body shredded. But now? Luo's feet touched a platform of moonlight that formed in his feet and he changed directions, avoiding the attack and appearing behind the Brute.
He opened his mouth and a beam of Lunar Energy went out, hitting the Brute's back. Luo didn't stay unscratched as one of his enemy's arms did make a huge scratch on the side of his body. Both succeed in hurting each other.
Non-bothered by said injuries, in Luo's case a cut in his flesh, and the Earthly Brute's case a burn in armor and shoulder, they kept attacking each other. However, interestingly enough, the cut in Luo's body was covered by that white energy of the moon, though Mares wasn't sure if that was for regeneration or defense.
'I see, his Lunar Energy can have an effect even through the armor… It wasn't so strong before, so he probably still lacks power outside of this form.'
Esen watched with extra interest, firstly because it was no longer Mares at risk, and secondly, it was her first time seeing Lunar Energy in action.
'What exactly is Lunar Energy?'
Being the first time, he heard about this, the silver-eyed asked confused.
'If Astral Energy comes from everything, every star, planet, and live being, Lunar Energy is specifically from the Moons and those connected to them. We don't know why is like this, but it is. Either way, Luner Energy has more inherited properties and can be used in various ways, though not everyone has it. Your friend seems to be only so-so in using it.'
The Earthly Brute now had various layers of frost covering his armor. The cold energy managed to affect past the Void Armor, being highly annoying for the Brute.
All this time Luo kept on the offensive, rarely giving the Brute any chance to take initiative. It wasn't much of a strategy as it was just his instincts and reactions to the fight.
The fight wasn't one-sided though, as for every attack Luo landed, he was hit with another one or two.
To break this cycle the Brute realized his in, he utilized his powers and went below ground, as if the solid ground was water for him to swim in.
Luo jumped, making some platforms of moonlight for him to stand on, as he looked down. He wasn't going to wait to be attacked and as such, with a loud and powerful howl that covered the whole ground where their fighting was occurring in frost.
His tail moved, seemingly on its own, and various slashes of energy hit the ground, breaking it apart.
A huge rock was thrown at him, which he evaded easily enough, only to be followed by three more that he had a bit of a harder time escaping from. Still, the closest the rocks got was touching his fur.
"LUO, CAREFUL!" Winna screamed scared.
Unfortunately, the rocks were just meant to be distractions.
The Earthly Brute was right above the wolf, having jumped above him while Luo was distracted with the rocks. The four arms came down on Luo, punching him with high momentum and sending his body back to the ground.
A huge and deep crater is created by the impact, and none of the group could see Luo's body from there. The worry was in the eyes and expressions of the group. Mares had recovered enough, not to his best, but he was going to act as soon as the chance arrived.
'Not yet, he will probably not recognize you and attack.'
Esen warned, and much for his frustration, he would probably have to wait more.
The Brute was falling in Luo's direction when the wolf jumped out of the way, biting the air. A row of energy in the format of his fangs was thrown at the Brute, biting him on the neck, the attack landing thanks to the surprise factor.
After that, Luo tried to keep some distance, mostly throwing attacks of energy at the brute, that tried to close the distance. Whenever it went underground, Luo would just freeze everything around him and break it. Even if he had lost some of his rationality, he wasn't going to fall for the same move twice, so the Brute resorted to trying direct strikes.
Luo was holding his ground, but his body was covered in injuries and his energy had severely declined since the start.
"What are you doing?"
Noticing that Calon was adding some sort of extension to his weapon.
"The shoots before were just to annoy." He said, finishing to put the extension in and loading something in it. Then he aimed and waited for an opening. "Now I will try to make some damage."
Luo's tail moved and slashes of Lunar Energy went to the Brute, who moved with fairly impressive flexibility, avoiding most attacks without moving his feet. When the wolf stopped to take a breath, the Brute used the opportunity to move closer, while Luo stepped back.
It was clear they were at a stalemate, Luo managed to do damage, but his transformation wouldn't continue for long, and as much he had hit the Brute, the monster was still standing and fighting. Damaged, with a good chunk covered in frost and visually weaker than when this all started, but still standing.
It went straight to attack Luo, and now the wolf reacted slower, giving him another huge cut in his body. His attempt to compensate for it was using his claws to scratch the Void Armor, which it did, but this time, besides frost, there wasn't much more to it.
The Brute didn't fail to notice that his opponent was weaker and decided to press him, enjoying the new advantage.
The Brute took a step forward and did four attacks while Luo could only take a step back and attack back with his fangs, tail, and claws. Unfortunately, the fact that the beast was just ignoring any attacks that landed only showed that they were no longer doing as much damage as before.
But there was a good thing about this, the Earthly Brute's whole attention was on Luo. As Calon said, his previous shoots were just annoyances to show the beast they would be useless to harm him. Even now he wasn't sure this shoot would do any significant damage, but an attempt was better than none.
He aimed at the neck, trying to hit a spot he could assume was where the spine would be, or at least close enough. The Brute attacked again, and having all his focus on it, ignored the shoot intended for him. He soon realized; it was a mistake.
Much earlier, after the Orest was defeated, parts of its Void Armor had crumbled down, having lost the beast's support. However, they were still very resistant and Calon got some of the smaller ones, either in the hopes of them being useful or of being able to mess around with them when they got out of this mess.
And one of those fragments was what he put in that shoot. It couldn't pass through the Brute's armor completely, but it makes damage to it and the beast fell. Calon had been on the spot when trying to aim at the spine, and as much as it was different from a human one, it still made the monster temporarily paralyzed to be hit there.
Luo didn't know what was wrong, but he knew instinctively that something changed. He made use of the opportunity to bite the Brute's head, biting the exact part where there was already a hole, thanks to Mares' earlier attack.
The fangs finally pierced through the flesh as Luo grabbed a decent chunk in one bite. The Brute was in agony, but his movements were also affected, as probably was his brain. He ruthlessly punched Luo's body, grabbed his fur, and tried anything to make the wolf stop but Luo was unmoved.
Lunar Energy penetrated through the flesh, trying to affect the brain and nerves. If it was a normal fifth-rank Void Beast or lower-ranked one that might have been enough to kill it, but this Earthly Brute was different and more powerful.
It used Astral Energy to resist the effect of Lunar Energy. But the effect was still there, and having to use his energy to stop things from getting worse would make the Brute less attentive and weaker.
As such, it was only natural that it was given more and more desperate punches at Luo, in attempts to throw him away.
"This is bad! The transformation is about to end!"
Venissino suddenly screamed, taking everyone out of their daze. They finally noticed that Luo's fur was now lacking any brightness and the injuries that covered him were no longer covered by light. Even his presence seemed like the weak flame of a candle compared to the strong bonfire it was before.
The Brute also took notice of it and gave four punches together in the same area. Finally, Luo could no longer keep holding and his body was sent flying, but taking a small chunk of flesh and fragments of bones, from the Brute's head.
His body changed back to his humanoid appearance, and before he fell to the ground, Mares caught him.
The silver eyes looked at the bruised and beaten body of his comrade. Blood covered every part of Luo's body, his breath was ragged, and he probably had various broken bones as well. The only silver lining was that he was unconscious and not feeling all the pain that was probably wracking his body.
"L-Luo…"
Tears flowed from Winna's eyes as she gently called for his name. She was heavily affected, by seeing him in that form.
The others also had arrived near and looked at their friend with saddened expressions. Their feelings were various, from pride for their friend's strength to sadness for his current state and regret for their lack of strength to be able to help more in this battle.
"Give him any help you can, I am going to finish this for once."
Mares gently let him in Winna's eyes, trusting that they would be able to stabilize Luo's situation. Then he slowly turned to the Earthly Brute, his eyes were as cold as the deep void of the space.