"Evolving?" The group of friends said, confused.
"You will be required to fight against Antares to evolve. This is important as our time of running away from those ants will be done. After a few of you have evolved, I will teach you how to transform on command and increase the time duration while you're transformed." Lycaon declared.
Everyone was confused and conflicted. They knew a lot about Lycaon but they didn't think he would team up with the stranger. They were conflicted since they would have to fight the stranger known as Antares and they all saw how powerful he was.
"So! Who will I be fighting first?!" Sebastian shouted at the top of his lungs and brimmed with excitement.
"Me!" Baron shouted back.
"Before we start, I have a condition. You're going to go all out against me." Sebastian declared.
Everyone was bewildered by his declaration. But the true reason behind this was because Sebastian wanted to see how far everyone came in terms of power.
Rushing forward, Baron stomped on the ground and the shift beneath the ground could be felt. Beneath Sebastian, a wall erected nearly struck him. Before he could make a move, Sebastian saw five fast earth balls shoot at him.
Bang!
Bang!
'These are somewhat powerful. It's like he condensed these rocks and kept adding on, but when did he have time to form these?' Sebastian thought. 'Did he form these beforehand?'
Bang!
Drip!
Blood started to drip out of Sebastian's forearm as an earth spike managed to pierce his skin. A large grin appeared on his mask as he saw this and sent shivers down the spines of his friends. Before Baron knew it, Sebastian was already in front of him and a fist came swinging for his head.
'Oh f*c-'
Bang!
Baron flew through the air and skidded across the ground, causing further damage to his body. Just as he was about to stand up, Sebastian appeared and stomped on his chest. He then grabbed him by the neck and threw him against a nearby tree.
Bang!
"Fight back! Fight back!" Sebastian shouted at him.
As he was about to fall to the ground, Sebastian appeared again and pushed against the wall before unleashing a barrage of jabs. Each jab made a loud noise and the onlookers were hesitant whether they should stop the fight or let it continue but Lycaon calmed them down and told them it was part of the process.
"Are you finished already? I thought you had gotten stronger!" Sebastian blurted out.
A transformed hand grabbed Sebastian's throat and slammed him into the ground. Baron then swiped his claws across his chest and the aroma of blood entered his nose.
"Antares! I'd suggest feeding him now! Once a berserk werewolf smells blood, they receive a slight increase in power!" Lycaon warned.
Stab!
"You bastard!"
Sebastian kicked him away and ran toward a nearby beast before he slit its throat and tossed it at Baron. Like Lycaon, Baron began to feast on the beast and slowly, he started to turn back.
"Who's up next?" Sebastian asked.
Looking at the ground, he noticed they were all hesitant to give a shot but then someone raised their hand. She walked out of the crowd and arcs of lightning began to streak off of her.
"You must be the lightning user! What a rarity, especially of that color."
BANG!
In front of everyone's eyes, Sophie attacked Sebastian without warning and the blow sounded powerful as it sounded like a gun had gone off.
"Did she beat him?" Gareth asked.
"No. He won't go down that easily." Lycaon replied.
Like he said, Sebastian came walking out from the forest while slightly limping. The attack was indeed powerful and fast as he didn't even see her move.
"It's been a while since I last ran into someone this fast."
Bang!
He stomped on the ground and shattered it beneath Sophie. Surprised, she noticed her feet weren't on the ground and immediately knew what he had planned.
'I can't let myself get hit by one of his attacks.'
He then appeared in front of her and threw an attack. Just as the attack was about to land, her body lit up in lightning as a large lightning strike had struck the area surrounding her.
Bang!
"There's always a flaw with big flashy moves like that." Sebastian said, behind Sophie.
Bang!
"Ack!" Blood came gushing out of Sophie's mouth.
Standing a few meters away from her, Sebastian's fist was in the air and a confused expression appeared on his face.
'Did I just subconsciously use world energy.' Sebastian thought, trying to recall the moment of impact between his fist and her back.
Before his fist had hit Sophie, a strange energy appeared between her back and his fist. His fist collided with the strange energy and a strong wave energy was pushed into her back.
He looked at her back and noticed a chunk of her skin was missing and noticed she was beginning her transformation.
'That wasn't good. If I had used world energy subconsciously, then it might be probably for the other.' Sebastian was worried. Using world energy was already dangerous enough for the user and if he learned to use it subconsciously, then it would turn friendly spars into bloody spars.
"One of you guys feed her. I'll take on the next opponent!" Sebastian said.
----
Two Days Later
Sat in a lotus position, Sebastian was recovering his energy. For the past two days, he had been non-stop helping everyone evolve. Some took a while to evolve hence why it took two days.
'Nine vanguard evolutions, Six tank evolutions, and six assassin evolutions…' Sebastian thought, recalling the past two days. 'I'm amazed by our progress. Not only did they manage to break through to the next rank but Lycaon has nearly caught up to me. I've been slacking off in training.'
Like Lycaon said, he started a training regime to increase the duration of their transformed state and how not to give into their bloodlust. This was the hardest part of the training as it required a tough mentality. Though some did give into the bloodlust, they were easily subdued by Sebastian.
Overtime, they managed to hold their transformed states for at least five minutes while Lycaon's max time was eight. Sebastian's transformed state lasted four minutes since the primordial evolution altered the transformation.
"Antares! Do you think we're ready to face the orc dungeon now?" Lycaon asked, walking inside the cave Sebastian was resting in.
The orc dungeon. Ever since its discovery, Sebastian wanted to go back in and kill the boss but it outranked him, even with the boost in power. To add a cherry on top, Sebastian was running low on the vials of green liquid.
"Our chances of winning is nearly sixty percent, but that's if the boss doesn't have any hidden abilities or moves." Sebastian replied.
Every boss of a dungeon was always unique. They had skills that weren't ordinary displayed of their respective kind in the dungeon. In the early days of adventuring, there was an incident where thousands of people died due to a boss' hidden skill, Total Annihilation.
He stood up and proceeded to walk toward the exit of the cave. He then looked east and expanded his energy in that direction.
"Their army is now three times their original size." Sebastian said.
"Well, we better hurry up and clear the dungeon before they reach us. If I may ask, what are our chances of defeating the army of ants?" Lycaon asked.
"I'd say about twenty percent or less, if you guys hadn't evolved. Our chances of now defeating them have increased to thirty percent, even with their increased size."
Surprised, Lycaon didn't think they stood a chance against a giant army of chimera ants. He thought Sebastian would say the chances were slim but if they could defeat an army of ants, then it would be a milestone for everyone.
They both walked down the mountain and reached a small camp. Everyone who stood by idle were lined up in front of Sebastian and Lycaon. They knew today was the day they were gonna raid the dungeon.
"Listen up! Today will be the hardest day you have ever experienced in your life! We're gonna raid the orc dungeon! Now, I want you all to stay near each other at all times so we may all live to see the next day! Don't be afraid to ask for help from me or Lycaon! I may be strong but there are limits to my strength so don't be constantly calling for me!
Move out!" Sebastian shouted at the top of his lungs.
As soon as he finished his words, they tore down the camp and walked in the direction of the orc dungeon. Today would indeed be the hardest day of their life.
They all marched toward the orc dungeon and arrived there in an hour. Upon arrival, they equipped their gear and waited for Lycaon or Sebastian to give the go ahead.
"Now, I'd like to say something before we go into the dungeon." Sebastian spoke. "Our chances of clearing this dungeon is nearly sixty percent. They'll likely be expecting us so be on-guard and watch your surroundings, even your battle buddy's surroundings.
Now! Go inside and show me how strong you are!" He finished with enthusiasm.
Hearing his words, they walked into the portal and waited for Lycaon to lead the charge. Sebastian said he wouldn't be the best leader as he always was a lone wolf.
It wasn't long before they ran into an orc patrol party and killed them. Contrary to their expectations, the orcs were surprisingly weak, but that was because the patrol parties didn't contain any strong members at all.
The boss of the dungeon only sent out patrol parties and those that didn't return would be the search area for stronger orcs. Not that it mattered since they were planning to clear the dungeon.
One by one, each patrol party was killed until they found the general direction in which the boss' fortress was at.
"Sixty percent? More like a hundred percent! These orcs are too weak!" Baron said.
"These are the weak-links of the tribe. Once we get near their fortress, the stronger orcs will appear and prove to be troublesome." Sebastian stated.
"Don't you find it weird? The patrol parties have stopped coming. It's like the boss wants us to come into their house." Lycaon said.
"Indeed. Whoever this boss is, they're very smart."
As they continued down their path, they noticed the remains of past adventurers hung up the walls.
"Poor souls… Since the time of decay is very slow inside a dungeon, their bodies haven't fully decayed yet." Lycaon shook his head.
Kai walked over to the corpses and used his flames to disintegrate their corpses to ash. Orcs were a warlike race and since they were warlike, they weren't officially known as a race.
"We'll be sure to avenge your death." Kai said.
As they walked, they saw a fortress in the distance and a strong killing intent was surrounding the fortress.
"It seems like the boss is trying to ward us off with his killing intent." Lycaon stated the obvious.
"Ha! You call that a killing intent? This is what you'd call a killing intent!" Sebastian said.
The entire cave was soon filled with a deep crimson aura and everyone froze still. The friends fell to one knee and started to see hallucinations of past victims of Sebastian's murders.
His killing intent disappeared as he looked at his friends, forgetting that they were gonna be affected.
"Sorry! Couldn't help but show off." He smiled.
Sebastian then held his hand up high as a red spear started to form in his hand. Arcs of red lightning started to appear as the red spear couldn't contain all the condensed aura. Sweat ran down Sebastian's forehead as he was concentrating hard to condense his auras.
"That's an aura…" Sophie said in disbelief.
"Indeed… Do you remember that time we were protecting the baroness?" Lycaon asked.
"You don't…"
"Yes… This person was one of the assassins that killed her." Lycaon revealed.