Milas made sure to avoid looking and listening to anything that came from the group from Royal Academy. He had thought about it for quite some time before he found two loopholes in Deogratius' order. The first was to never find out who the Lord's son is. The second was to make sure there wasn't a worst possible time to hit him.
Milas was lost in his thoughts when a sudden commotion attracted his attention. He looked at the Royal Academy group and saw Asher pinning someone down and punching them in the face. The attack had been sudden and nobody could react in time. Milas watched the situation for a moment before shrugging. 'Not my problem.'
The people from Royal Academy finally reacted and pulled Asher off their bleeding schoolmate. Four students were struggling to hold him back. Asher's eyes were fully black and his teeth were also changing. His incisors had turned saw like and resembled shark teeth while his canines grew larger and thicker.
Milas would have noticed that Asher's transformation was different from any of the ghouls he had seen before if he wasn't preoccupied. He was sniffing the air as he had caught a whiff of a very familiar scent. The night breeze blew by and the scent grew stronger, allowing him to pinpoint its source. 'I smell blood coming from the forest. I don't hear anything though so the scent must have been blown here by the wind.'
Milas pulled a sword out of his bracelet's inventory and decided to prepare for anything that might happen. He was about to warn Step too when a rustle reached his ears. Milas turned and prepared to face whatever came out of the thick jungle when something flashed by the side of his head. The object vanished into the darkness and the wail of a beast was heard. A moment later, the creature revealed itself and Milas stifled a laugh.
The beast that had put Milas on edge could barely reach his knees. It's black fur was covered in red blood which meant that it was a normal animal. As for what it looked like, it was a monkey. A perfectly normal monkey that wouldn't have posed a threat to Milas even when he was human let alone now.
"There's something dangerous chasing that monkey." Milas heard Step whisper to him as her grip tightened on the two daggers in her hands.
"Why do you say that?"
"It's covered in blood and decided that a group of vampires was safer than whatever chased it here. Plus, I smell a dog."
"I don't smell anything but I do hear footsteps surrounding us." Milas could hear the light rustle of dry leaves being crushed. He would have been able to pinpoint the sound but the chaos Asher was causing didn't allow it. "Hey Step, you got any ideas?"
"Wolves hunt in packs and tend to target the weakest one in the herd. They'll probably try to force us to run so that they can pick targets easier. The only problem is that everyone is too focused on Asher to notice that we're surrounded and the ones who noticed don't seem to care."
"Sigh, looks like I'll be the bait." Milas said as he limped toward the bleeding monkey. The limp looked fake but the wolves wouldn't know that. He approached the monkey which panicked and decided to attack. It leaped at his face and Milas caught it easily. He pretended to fall down and wrestle with the monkey, rolling closer to the edge of the clearing.
Milas saw a wolf with dirt brown fur leaping forward to seize the chance presented. Milas felt strange. This wolf was a basic beast. He had fought basic beasts before but they weren't this slow. With a thought, he thrust the monkey into the wolf's jaws, grabbed the top of its head and pinned it down.
The wolf wanted to struggle but Milas had pierced its skull with his sword. He rolled away from the corpse and stood up. Distancing himself from the edge of the clearing, Milas joined Step and Asher who was now standing beside her. Asher was covered in blood, little of it being his, and his bloodstained hands held a tiny wooden disk. Milas managed to catch a few words that were inscribed on it before Asher stored it away.
" ... Bear my hopes and dreams." Milas mumbled the words. He looked at Asher who was reverting back to his normal form. "So you did all that for that piece of wood. I hope it was worth it because now we are surrounded and you are already injured."
"Just shut up and focus on living till midnight." Asher replied and took an axe out of his bracelet. Milas also took a stance and waited for the wolves to charge them but Asher had other ideas. He charged forward and entered the forest. Milas was about to call him out for being stupid when he noticed that most of the other students had also charged into the forest.
Milas looked at Step who shrugged and rushed after Asher. Milas considered it for a moment, sighed and walked to the forest. He saw the students from Royal Academy preparing to charge as a group when one of them spoke up. "What are you doing? Those are basic tier dogs. Let the Avangard dogs deal with their own kin."
Milas had walked into the forest when he stopped and thought it through. 'Did that bastard just call us dogs?' He decided to ignore what he heard and entered the forest. The first thing he saw when he tracked down the source of the closest commotion was Claus and Varuca toying with one wolf. They had separated it from the pack and were tormenting it with light wounds.
Milas heard a loud yelp from a different wolf and saw Step pinning it down with one dagger in its chest and another in its head. She pulled out the daggers and scrambled up the nearest tree, lurking in the canopy. As for Asher? He was ripping the head off one wolf while another was biting his leg trying to remove the limb.
Milas joined the fray to assist Asher and soon the wolves were pushed back. The situation felt too strange for Milas. Beast normally fought to the death when they were alone but a group of beasts tended to have at least one intelligent leader to order them to retreat. 'This is a wolf pack and there has to be one of them leading. I really hope that someone else has already handled it. '
Asher may have been angry and fighting like he had gone berserk but he was still of sound mind. He didn't really care about the wounds inflicted on his legs since those healed rather quickly. The only thing he payed attention to was the inevitable sneak attack from Royal Academy. 'That bastard is definitely planning to attack when I'm in the middle of a fight.'
Asher felt a change in the air. A shift so subtle he might have missed it if he wasn't waiting for hidden attacks. The wolf he had been fighting seemed to have sensed the change too. It scanned its surroundings while distancing itself from Asher. Asher himself was rushing toward the axe he left embedded in a dead wolf.
He had barely grabbed the handle when it hit. The moment of impact was instantaneous but it's violence was worse. Asher was sent flying out of the forest, his body bouncing off multiple trees before landing in the clearing. Asher was thankful that ghouls were mostly numb to pain. Even then maddening pain he felt as he lay on the foliage was merely a small percentage of what other beings would experience.
Milas, who was fighting near Asher, had seen the whole thing. Or most of it. He knew that Asher had been rammed by a large beast. He also knew that the beast was very tough, too tough to be hurt by a sword. Now, he was learning that the beast was fast. Much faster than him. Soon, he would learn how to fly. Just like Asher had learned.
Milas really regretted trying to stab the beast when he saw that it had stopped near him after ramming Asher. His regret deepened when he finally hit a tree after getting rammed. His dazed and rattled brain finally settled in time to see the figure of the charging beast drawing closer. Something grabbed his long hair and used it to lift him upward. The pain from the yanking was immediately overshadowed by the feeling of his leg being pulverized.
Step carried him back to the clearing through the treetops. They landed in the clearing and Milas immediately chugged down a bottle of blood. The beast was finally revealed and Step immediately frowned. "It seems that our dorm master jinxed us. I love studying beasts but I suggest that we run. Milas, can you move?"
Milas shook his head as his leg slowly recovered. "Step, since you know beasts so well, what the hell is that thing?"
"That would be an intermediate tier earth elemental wolf."
"Step, will you please carry the both of us and run in the opposite direction." Asher said. His bones were still recovering from his flying lesson.