Chapter 4

  Seven years. That’s how long it had been since my encounter with the strange monster that chased me into the woods and changed my path forever.

  The fear and desperation I felt at the time were already distant memories, ones I looked back on fondly.

  Had I lost my mind? No, I think my mind was clearer than ever before. If that thing had not found me, I would have been idling away my time in Redwater and probably lived a straightforward, everyday life. Instead, I was able to grow tremendously in a hidden world.

  The Feral Abyss had become my home, and Crucible called me at night to a world of insanity and tribulations. It was also where I obtained some answers about how I came to this world, and met those who would no doubt be my most trusted allies.

  A cold, wet nose pressed against my neck, accompanied by a soft purr.

  “I know, Tiara, we’re nearly done here, I’ll feed you soon.”

  I gently petted the black cat on my shoulder. She yawned back at me and looked away.

  This was the first friend I made in that place. She looked like a regular black cat, but that was only due to a limitation imposed on her for crossing realms. She's cuter this way, but I sometimes miss her original form's elegance.

  “Rex Jaeger, you’re up next. Please select your weapon and announce any additional items you intend to use.”

  One of the academy staff members came into the waiting room. He had done this for everyone before me already, and I could tell he was just going through the motions at that point. Even with my strange attire, he barely reacted after giving me a quick look.

  My outfit was entirely handmade by the way, a skill I had no choice but to learn for survival. Otherwise, I'd have been no better than a naked barbarian.

  “I won’t be needing a training weapon. I will be bringing her, though.”

  I pointed my thumb at Tiara.

  “Understood. There should be no problems with that.”

  I had already watched a few other fights where people were using summoned creatures or animal companions, and it was a huge relief to know this was allowed.

  Walking out from the gathering hall and out onto the field, I took stock of my surroundings.

  The setup there looked similar to a sports field, complete with raised seating for the onlookers. I could immediately spot some familiar faces.

  First was Ada Jaeger sitting above me, next to a well-groomed older man. She was the one who set me up with false identification, which provided me with the same surname, 'Jaeger'. Officially, she is my Master and adoptive parent.

  In reality, almost everything about her is a lie. It’s funny that nobody here realised she wasn’t even human. Our real relationship was born of convenience, though I can't deny my relief in being bound to her in the public eye rather than one of my other friends from the Abyss. Ada was at least willing to pretend to be normal.

  Other than her, there was, of course, my twin sister and Lloyd, who were chatting off to the side after finishing their own fights. They both managed to win, and thanks to my guidance, Rose was able to have a sustained fight where she could show off her skills.

  I found myself staring again, which she quickly noticed with a perturbed look.

  It’s a good thing I wore this mask today. I wasn't quite ready for a family reunion yet. Just seeing Rose again brought forth conflicting emotions, but there was no need to confuse her with my sudden appearance right now.

  I subconsciously brushed my fingers over the wood covering my face. I had carved it myself, but the runes were done under Ada’s guidance. Generally speaking, enchanted equipment is not allowed during the duels, but in my case, the faculty made an exception. They said it was fine since I made it myself, and therefore it could be counted as a measurement of my aptitude.

  Turning back to the portion of the arena I was to fight in, I saw the girl I had challenged earlier.

  She was a Therianthrope. In other words, a person with animal features. Specifically, she was of the Feline caste. Feline Therians in particular were physically superior to humans, but universally lacked a Mana Organ. I had been watching her since we had to run laps for the first physical test, and I determined she would be my best opponent.

  She thumped her fists together in front of her and took a battle stance. The fact that she was fighting unarmed was a pleasant surprise for me. It put us on even footing.

  “Are there any additional rules you would like to propose for this duel?”

  The staff member asked us both.

  “Three rounds, regardless of win rate.”

  I declared simply. In order to get a good grade, we needed to display our potential, not necessarily win our fights. For me to do that, I would need either one long, drawn-out fight or multiple rounds. Seeing as how I can’t discount the possibility of being eliminated before I can do anything, I chose the latter.

  “Works for me.”

  The girl responded with a toothy grin.

  “Then I will begin the countdown.”

  My posture stayed neutral as I set Tiara down beside me.

  “Three…”

  I took in my opponent carefully. Tan skin, white fur covering her hands all the way up to her elbows…

  “Two…”

  A slim but muscular physique. Short curved claws. A simple cloth outfit that hugged her body tightly and left the joints exposed…

  “One…”

  I was ready, and my analysis was complete. I surmised that she favoured close-quarters combat and leaned heavily on speed and flexibility over power. I was confident in my assessment.

  “Begin!”

  ***

  Felicia Pancia was confident in a fist fight, and while she could not see much of her opponent’s body, his scent was certainly human. Losing a brawl against a human her age was unthinkable. The cat was probably a familiar of his, which made him a Mage of some sort and therefore bad in close quarters.

  The moment the match began, she sprang forward like a coiled snake and covered the 20m gap in a flash to deliver a palm strike to his chin.

  Her opponent leaned back with minimal movement, avoiding the attack at the last moment. She followed up by dropping low and sweeping his legs out from under him.

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  Her attack worked, and he lost his footing. Felicia followed up by grabbing his face and slamming his body to the ground before he could correct his posture. The strange wooden mask cracked slightly, but there was no audible reaction from the man behind it.

  Instead, the engravings on the mask lit up with a vibrant green energy, and the man grabbed her wrist. He twisted her arm, then with his free hand, reached for her face and pulled her in to slam their heads together.

  “Argh!”

  Felicia leapt back and wiped the blood from her forehead. Her opponent rose from the ground and ran at her. He looked like a sluggish turtle in her eyes.

  His swings were strong and fast, but lacked proper technique. Felicia kept pace, showing off to the crowd her ability to evade and counter these attacks with light jabs.

  Deciding that she had shown enough for now, Felicia ducked under a clumsy haymaker and drove her elbow deep into his stomach.

  “Cough!”

  He sputtered and dropped to one knee, but raised a hand to signal his surrender before she could follow up with a heel drop to secure a knockout win.

  “Back to your positions!”

  The instructor commanded, and both fighters fell back in place.

  Felicia’s fighting spirit was already starting to wane. Given how confidently he approached her, she thought this opponent would be more interesting.

  I’ll just end this quickly.

  She thought to herself.

  ***

  The first round went about as I expected.

  I wanted to at least see how far I could go with pure physical technique, but as it turned out, practising against wild animals and monsters wasn’t very useful in honing martial techniques meant for humanoid opponents.

  I even reactively used my mask when she pinned me. Her sheer speed had caught me totally off guard for a moment there.

  As the instructor began the second countdown, I turned my back to my opponent and petted Tiara, who seemed to have found a bug to torment during the fight.

  “Alright, let’s go just halfway for this round, Tia.”

  She swatted the bug away and rubbed her head into my hand, her eyes glowing with the same green light as my mask as we harmonised.

  My opponent probably thought I was being careless, given that I didn’t turn around even when the second round began.

  Through Tiara’s eyes, I saw her leaping towards me, ready to deliver a kick to the side of my head.

  I spun on the spot and caught her leg with one arm, then swung her body and tossed her back to her starting point.

  She landed gracefully, but looked at me with bewilderment. It made sense, from her perspective, my speed and reaction time just improved drastically.

  Tiara pranced around in a wide circle, sharing her senses with me unbeknownst to my opponent, who was regaining her composure and readying another attack.

  This time, I planned to focus on defence, so I made no effort to push my attack.

  She ran at me just like she did in the first round. I decided to try and shake her up a little by copying her previous movement.

  I darted forward to meet her just before she was in striking range, then I crouched low and drove a palm up into her chin. She was too late to react, and the force of my attack interrupted her own, causing her swing to fall short of my body.

  Again, I took inspiration from her and drove my elbow into her sternum before she could recover, which sent her to the ground. My replication was sloppy, seeing as I was aiming for her stomach, but it was clear I had still done some damage.

  “Uuurgh… What a cheap Gift.”

  She grumbled as she stood back up.

  “What is that, a copycat ability? Be a warrior and fight with your own strength!”

  It seemed this girl was a sore loser and had misunderstood something on top of that. Still, I could use that to my advantage.

  “Why bother? If you can’t beat your own moves, why should I waste time using my own?”

  I decided to poke the bear —or cat—a little.

  “Smart bastard”

  Talking time was over, it seemed, as she came at me once more.

  She was even faster than before, and she wasn’t trying to just bludgeon me with her fists and feet anymore. Her combination attacks were incorporating her claws now.

  If it were me alone, I could only follow these attacks with my eyes. But right now, I have a portion of Tiara’s reflexes and reaction speed.

  It would be nice to counter these attacks as she did to me last round, but that wasn’t feasible at my current level. Instead, I just kept dodging and waited for an opening.

  “Stay still, asshole!”

  It didn’t take long for that opening to arrive as she grew frustrated and overcommitted with her claws reaching out to my eyes. I wondered if she would take responsibility for blinding me if I didn’t have the mask protecting me?

  I sidestepped the attack and put all my weight into my fist to hit her in the side with full force.

  Crack.

  Oops. I think I broke a rib or two.

  She crumpled and gasped for air, but seeing as she still didn’t surrender, I decided to end it mercifully. I grabbed her by the ankle and casually tossed her outside the ring. She drew a little blood as she swiped at my wrist during this action, but it was superficial at best.

  “Felicia Pancia, can you continue to the final round?”

  The instructor called out. The medics on standby were already walking towards her with a potion in hand, but she held a hand out to stop them.

  “I’m fine. Instructor, I have a question.”

  She spoke to him, but only continued to look at me. She had a wild grin and her pupils had narrowed to slits… I guess she was enjoying the turnaround?

  “What is it?”

  The instructor waved the medics away.

  “Can we add extra conditions mid-fight?”

  “Only if the other party agrees to it.”

  “I want to lift the restriction meant for Therians.”

  The instructor paused, then looked to me for confirmation.

  I knew what she was referring to. It was a power all therians were able to develop called True Form. It lets them transform their bodies to be more in touch with their animal side. The strength they gained doing this varied widely, and those who lacked control over it could lose their sanity permanently.

  “I’m fine with it, but only if I’m allowed to do the same.”

  My response naturally confused everybody who heard it. I heard Ada squeal in glee from the seats, followed by her saying,

  “This is it! This is it! Watch carefully, Kuhn!”

  Felicia scoffed.

  “Whatever, if you let me go wild, I’ll be fine with any trick you pull.”

  “Remember that she said that.”

  I looked at the instructor, who shrugged and returned to his position. At least he tried to, Tiara was rolling around there now.

  “Tia, time to play.”

  She ran over with perked up ears at my voice and climbed back onto me.

  “Three…”

  Felicia immediately began her transformation. Her fur and hair stood at ends, her claws and teeth extended. Fur overtook about 70% of her body, and her muscles contracted. Contrary to expectations, she looked smaller than before, but I had no doubt she was going to be far more deadly.

  “Two…”

  Our turn now. I didn’t say anything, but I knew Tiara could intuit my intentions. Markings similar to the ones on my mask appeared on her fur, both our eyes and the markings glowed brightly, and the air around us shifted into a hazy blur. It dissipated just as quickly as it formed, and we were gone, no longer two separate beings.

  “Th-three…”

  The instructor had nearly forgotten to continue counting and looked at me with awe.

  It was the appropriate reaction; I probably had people questioning if I was human at this point.

  I shrugged my cloak off to expose my body.

  I was now covered head to toe in sleek black fur, with slender yet sharp claws on both my hands and feet. My fur was marked with the same patterns that would appear on Tiara when she harnessed mana, and my mask had transformed to match my new bestial head.

  I inhaled deeply, basking in this feeling of indescribable elation, like I could scatter my soul to the winds and become one with the world. This was the greatest result of my seven years in the Abyss.

  Primal Soul.

  Not a Gift. Not magic. But something unique to me alone as a soul unbound to this world, and one that had connected with nature.

  My eyes settled on the girl in front of me, her grin had only widened further.

  “Begin!”