That is one hairy man, Asher thought as he took in the horrifying visage waiting for him within the building the assassin he'd been tailing had run into. Standing nearly seven feet tall despite the fact he was hunched over was what Asher could only think of as a werewolf in the furry flesh. Grey and white fur covered the man from head to toe, thankfully thick enough to allow the man to maintain his dignity, as his clothes were all lying on the ground in tatters. While he had taken on a lot of wolf-like characteristics such as a long snout filled with jagged fangs and pointed ears that were angled at him, he still had human-like hands, albeit ones now covered in fur and tipped with nasty looking claws.

[Assassin] - 3/3 Elements

The assassin's aura was a chaotic whirl of red and grey, practically dripping in blood and bits of what felt like flesh. It was obvious at a glance that this man had killed countless people, and from what Asher was picking up, he was pretty certain he hadn't just left the bodies there to rot.

That has to be either the Wolf or the Dog element, Asher thought, quickly using Incorporate to recall The Big Book of Elements: Volume Six and Comprehend to skim through the passage before the inevitable fighting started.

He'll have many traits of the animal itself, along with greatly enhanced speed and strength. However, he won't be able to keep up the form for too long, and he'll be exhausted when his timer finally runs out.

"The Reaper…" the werewolf growled, startling Asher out of his plotting. He was surprised to discover the man was still capable of speech with his face elongated into a muzzle like it was, but he supposed the element might be taking care of that through some sort of magical means. "…how did you survive Eight's magadrine powder?"

"Oh, you heard about that?" Asher asked, unable to stop himself from grinning. If Leonard was bothering to ask, that most likely meant his attempt at staying under the radar had been successful. Either Eight hadn't bothered to inform his cell leaders that his attack had failed, or not even the Finger himself was aware Asher still drew breath.

"Tell me while you still can," the werewolf snarled, throwing drool everywhere as he jerked his head. "Else I'll rip out your throat and feast on your very flesh."

"I think you and I both know you're going to try and do that anyway," Asher said, already feeling the familiar sensation of his heart racing and his blood growing warm in the face of such a deadly battle. He grabbed two of his steel daggers before hesitating and swapping one of them out with his silver dagger.

He knew the man wasn't actually a werewolf, but he figured it couldn't hurt.

"Last chance," the werewolf warned, his canine-like eyes narrowing as he flexed his claws. "I can make this far more painful than it needs to be while I rip the answers out of you."

"Despite the claws and teeth, you're still not nearly as scary as my old instructor," Asher said, recalling the calm poise Moxy seemed to always have around her, even when she was trying her damndest to blow him to pieces with her air punches. "Come on, I'll let you have the first shot."

"You'll regret that," the wolf chuckled, his laughter sounding more like a deep, rumbling engine within his core. Asher had just enough time to wonder if that was actually his stomach growling when his opponent attacked.

Asher's mind flashed back to his battle with the awakened panther when the werewolf dropped to all fours and sprinted toward him. Rather than leap and try to sink icicle-like teeth into his flesh however, the assassin stayed close to the ground, lashing out with his claws and attempting to rake them through his leg.

Expanding the space between the werewolf and his leg, Asher used Distortion to force the attack to miss while simultaneously driving his silver dagger down at the man's head. To his shock however, two things happened in quick succession.

While he made his own attack, the assassin's claws grew nearly five times in size in an instant, long enough to still cover the compressed space between them and rip deep into Asher's thigh, tearing out flesh and blood. Asher realized with a start that the werewolf had been intending to do this from the start, with the hope of severing his leg completely. His Distortion had saved him from losing the limb, but he hadn't expanded the space enough to dodge the lengthened blow completely.

And if that wasn't bad enough, rather than feeling his dagger connect and sink deeply into the top of the man's head, in the same moment the assassin tore through his leg the fur atop the werewolf's head took on a metallic sheen, causing Asher's blade to bounce off as if he'd tried to stab through a block of steel.

Startled by both the sudden injury and his failed attack, Asher reflexively slipped into the astral, dodging the werewolf's follow up slash toward his groin that very well might have split him in half. Doing his best to keep his panting and movement to a minimum, Asher tried to analyze everything that just happened.

The battle had only just begun, and in that split second, he'd been badly wounded and his attack had been nullified.

He can extend his claws, that much is obvious, Asher thought, watching the werewolf take a few steps back and stand there, his nose twitching as he stared directly at Asher's current location. He has some way of hardening his own fur? That doesn't sound like part of his beast element, which means it has to be one of his other two. Some sort of metal element, maybe Steel based on the color? If he can extend that to his claws as well, that would explain why he thought he was capable of severing my entire leg in a single blow.

Despite his best efforts to remain motionless, Asher could feel his body growing strained as it fought to keep him within the astral realm. His evolved Astral Dip allowed him to stay within the other realm far longer than he used to be able to, but he was already breathing hard, and he suspected the blood pooling out of him counted toward the skill's limitation as well.

Damn, this isn't anything like fighting the awakened beast. I still don't even know what his third element is!

Yet despite the fact that a small part of Asher was panicking, and all the blood pooling down his torn leg, Asher couldn't help but grin. This was what he lived for now. Battles to the death against powerful foes. In this moment, Asher felt more alive than he had in days, and he felt his knuckles pop as he clutched his daggers all the harder.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Alright, let's try and learn a bit more, shall we?

Before his skill timed out just from standing around and bleeding all over the place, Asher ignored the throbbing in his leg and quickly hobbled a few feet to the left, intending to try and blindside the werewolf when he returned to the material realm. But to his shock, the assassin's eyes loosely followed him, his head tilting up slightly as his nose continued to twitch.

He can smell me? In another realm?!

Asher couldn't believe such a thing was even possible, but there was no denying it as the wolf turned to follow him. He didn't have time to think about how unfair that was either as his body finally gave out and he popped back into the material realm.

As if he'd been waiting for him, the werewolf immediately lunged forward again, this time opening his jaws wide and aiming for his injured leg. Having learned from his earlier mistake, Asher focused hard on Distortion and created a tunnel of compressed space to the side this time, allowing him to move all the way to the far side of the room in a single step, narrowly dodging the werewolf as the assassin slammed his teeth around where he'd been moments before.

Not wanting to miss this opportunity, Asher immediately created a new tunnel of compressed space, thrusting his silver dagger through it and straight into the werewolf's flank. He'd been aiming for the man's chest, but the werewolf showed off his insanely fast reflexes, nearly managing to dodge out of the way of the attack entirely in but a split second.

Part of Asher had hoped for a blood-curdling scream as the silver weapon touched the werewolf's flesh, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. The werewolf certainly snarled and sounded angry, but he didn't think the silver was having any sort of additional effect on the assassin.

Note to self, figure out what the hell silver daggers are actually good for.

Asher prepared himself to dodge away again as the werewolf came at him for a third time, but was surprised when instead, the assassin leapt back to where they'd first traded blows. He watched carefully with his skills at the ready, not wanting to fall into any sort of trap.

Even so, he still wasn't prepared for what he saw.

Keeping his eyes on him all the while, the assassin dropped his head to the ground, and began lapping up the blood that had spilled from Asher's leg. Asher could only stare in shock as the man cleaned the floor of his blood, all but shuddering as he finished. Asher felt his eyes suddenly be drawn toward the werewolf's side, and he trusted in Secret Seeker as he let his vision be directed to the wound he'd inflicted.

Both he and the assassin waited for something to happen. But after a few seconds passed without any sort of noticeable change, the werewolf blinked, looking surprised for the first time that battle as he glanced at the wound in his flank.

Ah, I bet drinking my blood was supposed to cause him to heal or something, Asher realized, grinning at the clear confusion on the assassin's furry face. Shame that Sever the Thread means that's not gonna happen.

Realizing he'd been staring when he should have been stabbing, Asher hurled the steel dagger in his right hand at the werewolf while compressing another thin tunnel to attack with his silver one. He could only make one area of altered space at a time, and while he could make it large enough to stab both daggers through, that increased the risk that his opponent would wise up and attack him through his own skill.

The werewolf showed off his battle experience by snapping back to attention, his faulty skill forgotten as his lightning fast reflexes kicked in yet again and allowed him to both dodge out of the way of his silver dagger and catch the steel dagger in his teeth of all things.

Licking up his blood had been one thing, but Asher was even more caught off guard when the werewolf crunched down on the dagger, shattering it within his teeth before swallowing the shards.

"Did you just eat my dagger?!" Asher called out, completely at a loss as to what ability would allow someone to do something like that.

"High quality steel," the werewolf grinned, licking his maw before lunging at him once more.

Now that he knew the assassin was capable of eating his daggers, Asher was a tad more hesitant in his attacks. Especially after he'd nearly lost a hand when the werewolf tried to catch his Distorted stab in his jaws. His opponent was also somehow able to track him through the astral realm as well, so Asher bided his time darting around the room with Distortion as he worked on some sort of plan. The wound he'd inflicted on the assassin slowed him down slightly, but clearly it wasn't bothering him too much.

Alright, thought one. I could try and tire him out? Eventually, either his wolf-form should wear off or he'll pass out from blood loss. The problem is even if he couldn't close the wound, drinking my blood may have still caused him to regenerate more. Not to mention, I might tire out before he does.

Already, Asher was beginning to flag. Rapidly condensing the space needed for his entire body to go through was tiring enough on its own, but adding in the wound in his leg and having to time each Distortion well enough to dodge the assassin trying to kill him was wearing him down even faster than usual. They'd only been dancing around the room for a few minutes, and already Asher had a good feeling he'd run out of steam long before his opponent.

While he desperately tried to come up with some way to turn the table on the assassin, he was suddenly struck with inspiration. In fact, it was his opponent's own attack that gave Asher the idea of how to finally take him down.

Grinning, Asher leapt through one last tunnel of space, putting himself at the other side of the room from the hungry werewolf. But rather than immediately start preparing for his next dodge, he quickly swapped to his mithral dagger.

The werewolf spun around just in time to see the swap, and the assassin actually laughed at him.

"That won't help you," the beast chuckled, licking his chops as he eyed up the dagger hungrily. "But please, give it your best shot. I love the taste of mithral."

Not bothering to answer, Asher pulled his arm back and hurled his dagger directly at the werewolf's head. Just as he'd expected, the werewolf opened his jaws wide and snatched the dagger out of the air, nimbly catching it in the rows of jagged teeth without hurting himself. Asher didn't know if the werewolf's teeth were truly strong enough to shatter mithral, but he wasn't planning on finding out. Before the man could fully bite down, Asher reached out an extremely thin tunnel of compressed space in between the assassin's teeth and slipped a finger through it, touching the side of the dagger held within his mouth.

And promptly activated the second tier of his Distortion ability.

While he could only elongate or compress one area of space at a time with the skill's first tier effect, the ability to alter an object's physical form was a separate limitation. Instantly, the mithral dagger stretched into the size of a full blown sword, causing the expanded blade to stab right through the roof of the assassin's mouth and directly into his brain.

In an instant, the battle was over. Asher panted as the werewolf crumpled to the floor, dropping the mithral dagger that had already snapped back to normal size. Wiping the sweat from his brow, Asher limped over to the dead assassin, picking up his mithral dagger and frowning at the glowing sphere of shards that had appeared over his corpse.

Asher sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he realized he'd gotten caught up in the battle. He knew his lust for battle was strong, but he hadn't realized just how strong it could truly become.

"Crap…" he muttered, glancing down at the dead werewolf that was slowly turning back into a regular human.

"I wasn't supposed to kill him."

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