"What....have you done...? Do you have any idea the kind of hornet's nest you just set ablaze?

"

Gertrude couldn't believe his eyes.

He was dead.

'His' brother, their master's favorite disciple was just killed off in a no-name kingdom out in the sticks somewhere. And it was THEIR job to protect him. They would have to answer for this, along with every living creature in this kingdom.

Their fate was now sealed.

He looked up at the masked figure standing atop the black serpent with rage-filled eyes. Why couldn't it have been one of them that was attacked? No, why were they attacked in the first place?!

"AHH!

"

With a roar, Gertrude gripped his greatsword and swung it down in front of him. As it connected with the earth, a shockwave cut the ground in half and shot towards the serpent that was coming out of the pit.

Rhea had much of the same reaction. In their organization, failure meant death, and with Alex's sudden demise, they had just failed their missions as well.

Her height which was initially at 1.7 meters started increasing and her figure becoming more beast-like. Her legs changed shape completely, becoming double-jointed and her feet turning into giant paws. Her entire body was covered with a layer of black fur and her hands had morphed into claws.

*ROAAR~*

Hao Xuan's pupils contracted upon noticing the change in the girl's appearance.

A werewolf! An actual werewolf like the ones from the movies was now growling at him with white fangs that seemed to be at least 7 inches long.

Unfortunately, now wasn't the time to admire the creature in front of him as it had already vanished from its spot.

"Master, I'll take care of the two behind,

" Ensis shouted before jumping towards the other 2 members on the other side.

One of them was a dark-haired scythe user. He wasn't very tall or had a muscular build, but gave off an eerie vibe that made one very uncomfortable.

His weapon was a short chained-scythe that was used by ninja's back on earth. It was the first time Hao Xuan had seen such a unique weapon. (Pic in authors notes).

The second person, strangely enough, had an even more unique 'weapon', if it could even be called that.

It was a horned silver beast skull! There was a red flame burning in the skull's eye socket's from which wisps of sparks continuously fell.

'A fire Sorceress!' Hao Xuan thought inwardly.

He had some basic knowledge of mages and sorcerers from the memories inherited from Poriverse and they all came rushing back as soon as he saw the skull.

Both Sorcerers and Mages were able to convert spiritual energy into Mana instead of Qi, which could then be used to power their spells.

The main difference between the two was that Sorcerer's needed some kind of a conduit to channel their mana effectively.

The skull in this sorceress' hands was just such an object. It would allow her to cast her magics and spells more quickly and with greater power and efficiency, as long as she did not run out of mana.

Mana was a different type of energy than Qi and was what set the world of magic and cultivators apart.

He took a look at each one of the four people around him.

This was Hao Xuan's first time seeing such a diverse group of enemies, and it was a well thought out one as well.

The guy with the greatsword was obviously the tank, the werewolf and the scythe user were the assassin types and the sorceress was either support or offensive type.

But either way, with all of them working together, there was no way for him to come out on top especially since he was already running low on Qi due to the previous fight.

"Don't go too far, find an opportunity so we can escape. We can't waste too much time here,

" he told Ensis through their soul connection.

As he was coming up on Black's head, he heard several people talking above him. It was the obvious choice to strike first, to take them by surprise and it seemed like it was the right choice as well. If he hadn't done that, right now there would be 5 powerful enemies against him, Ensis and Black instead of the current 4.

Not to mention that Hao Xuan himself was carrying an unconscious man on his shoulders.

*Swipe*

Black moved his head back and away from the ground.

The space where Hao Xuan was standing just a second ago rippled and an invisible claw materialized out of nowhere. If Black had not moved back just then, Hao Xuan would have probably lost a limb or two from that claw attack.

With narrowed eyes, he stared at claws as they disappeared once again. It was obviously the werewolves doing but he could not figure out how.

There was absolutely no sign of her prior to the landing of the attack, so how could he avoid or counter it?

Thankfully, he didn't have to. Black extended his body and made his way out of the pit to take her on himself. He was over 200 meters long so it took a few seconds.

Gertrude's eyes were burning red from pure rage.

He swung the giant sword left and right, sending vertical arcs of red Qi towards Black. And since Black's body was so massive and he was trying not to make any sudden movements due to Hao Xuan riding atop his head, he took almost all of them head-on.

*Squelch*

Several meters long tears appeared along Black's abdomen. Even though his body was harder than steel and covered with a thick layer of armor, it seemed like Gertrude's attacks were just too powerful.

Hao Xuan waved his hand and called out the glaive. He swung it around in a circle around him, hitting something to his left.

'There!' he twisted his body sideways and jabbed the glaive in that direction.

'Success'

Purple blood fell from the air. So the werewolf's ability did not have anything to do with space, but a 'normal' vanishing act.

'It will be much easier to deal with her now,' he thought looking at the blood-soaked claws that were once again becoming invisible.

He jumped down from Black's head and landed on the ground with a thud. It was still raining heavily but it did not seem to affect the werewolf's ability to hide.

He put the unconscious man down on the muddy ground and focused his senses while pulling the glaive back, ready to attack at a moment's notice.

****

Authors Notes:

Scythe Weapon: https:

/

/urlzs.com

/ToqQU