New Power (1)

The next moment I opened my eyes, the beastman Clavis that I was familiar with was... no more.

I opened my eyes wide in surprise at the sight before my eyes, still with my hand holding a sword and blocking the other monster's attack. I also poured in my signature ice magic to slowly freeze it. The moment it noticed that something was wrong and wanted to retreat, my ice magic already bound it to that spot.

With the disturbance out of my way, I could focus on the spectacle before me.

Yes, the familiar Clavis that I knew was no longer there.

Instead, the Clavis before me was... so different.

And no, he didn't transform into his wolf beast form that I saw that day with Alt-nii, too.

How to say it...

I saw that his wolf ears and tail seemed to grow even bigger than it normally was. Its silver color seemed to be enhanced than it normally was, with several red markings engraved in his fur.

His human hands and feet had fur growing on them, still with the same red markings. Furthermore, Clavis seemed to have grown claws!

The red markings were glowing beautifully there.

As I observed Clavis, I noticed that his body seemed to be more built-up than his usual 'skinny' body.

As for the monster in front of him...

I noticed the monster was howling in pain with blood gushing out of its face—the claw marks on them revealed that it was Clavis' doing!

It was at this time that Clavis turned his head to me as he asked, "Are you alright?"

But my mind was stupefied by Clavis' new appearance. His gray eyes were now replaced with the same eyes that I saw in his wolf beast form—red irises and gray pupils. But those eyes were more 'humane' than the look I saw in his wolf beast form.

I noticed Clavis' upper canines seemed to be longer than they normally were when he was speaking.

Furthermore, his face had the same red markings he had in his fur...

And I noticed his three-claws necklace seemed to have changed its color—perhaps it was because Clavis changed his "mode", so the necklace also changed its "mode"?

"Lyra?"

Clavis asked again, with face full of concern.

Finally, I snapped out of my daze.

"I-I'm okay! Thanks, Clavis! I have some questions for you, but for now..."

"Yes, it's time to focus on the fight first, right?" Clavis nodded.

"Yup."

With that, I leaped from my spot, ready to take another chimeric monster to defeat when I saw Clavis... jumped very highly before he lunged his kick at the chimeric monster he took from me.

With the kick he landed, the chimeric monster collapsed on the spot.

"..."

Clavis seemed to have gained a power that transcended even the humanity or the "beastmen"-ity.

I knew for sure that he wasn't as strong as he was now.

Before, he couldn't jump that inhumane height, nor could his kick make a big chimeric monster tumble so pathetically like that.

And more importantly... what was with this speed?!

Before the chimeric monster could even stand up, Clavis already landed another hit to it, along with claw attacks until it was finally defeated.

Clavis left no room for the monster to even defend itself.

And his surprising changes rendered me speechless and motionless for a moment.

Clavis' breathing seemed to be rougher than it was before, and his husky voice could be heard.

"More..."

He said as he smirked.

"...Eh?"

Before I could even comprehend the meaning behind his word, Clavis already leaped to another chimeric monster that was fighting with Kiri, sending it flying.

Kiri's face was so priceless. He was so surprised and perhaps a bit frightened by the sudden movement that Clavis made. Luckily, he had already defeated the other chimeric monster he was fighting.

...Alrighty then, since Clavis was so diligent in helping the others fighting their share of chimeric monster, it was my time to do so, too.

But the moment I turned my head to look over my surroundings, I noticed that all monsters were either defeated or preoccupied on 1-vs-1 fight with my party members.

Dumbfounded, I decided to help a bit by freezing the ground—all the way up to the monsters' feet. Since I could control the movement of my ice magic well, none of my allies got trapped up in my ice magic.

But at that time, exactly by the time I finished trapping the rest of the enemies in my ice magic...

"All mine! Outta my way!!"

Clavis' excited voice could be heard as he dashed from a monster to another, attacking them without a pause.

"..."

Everyone was dumbfounded by this sudden turn of events that none of us managed to react in time.

Yes, by now, all of the monsters already decided that they would be coming after Clavis.

Instead of being terrified, Clavis laughed happily instead.

The first one to snap out of it was—as expected, Alt-nii.

"Clavis!! Snap out of it!! Don't be so reckless!!" He shouted.

"Hahahahahaha!!" Clavis answered with another laugh as he fought the rest of the chimeric monsters alone, before adding, "THIS IS FUN!"

"Hey, Clavis! Even if we can heal your wounds with magic later on, it's not good overdoing yourself like this!!" Alt-nii scolded Clavis nevertheless.

By this time, Luca also snapped out of his daze as he shook his head.

"It's no use. He doesn't seem to be paying any heed to our words."

"...What happened?" I asked as I still couldn't correlate this Clavis before my eyes with the Clavis I knew.

"...[Fiendish Fervor]. To think that I could witness it directly...!!" The youngest member, Ein, suddenly said as he looked at the fighting Clavis with awe.

"...Fiendish Fervor?"

Ein turned to look at me.

"You didn't know?"

I shook my head honestly.

When I turned to look at the others, I noticed them all looking with eyes full of expectation towards Ein... with the exception of Luca. Should I say that it was to be expected? I guess it was natural for him to know about it as the crown prince.

For the first time, I felt like my past life's knowledge was useless to the extent that I lost against these first-timers in life.

"[Fiendish Fervor] is the name of Clavis' state right now. It's a state in which a werebeast could unleash their power while in a more humanoid form. You can say that it's the 'stage' bridging his beastman form and his werebeast form."

Ein explained like he was some kind of a walking encyclopedia.

"It's my first time hearing that. But how do you explain his condition right now?" I asked.

And right at the moment, we heard yet another heavy thump, signaling yet another monster defeated.

Our attention was quickly caught there. We turned to look at Clavis once more, who was now standing alone in the middle of the collapsed monsters with his rough breathing.

"More... more...," he mumbled.

"Clavis, it's enough. We've defeated the enemy. You can revert back now," Alt-nii said.

But at that moment...

"Interesting! If that's the case, then I volunteer to be your opponent!"

An orange figure flew through us very quickly before she floated right in front of Clavis.

Yes, it was Carbuncle.

Before, she was only lazing around, wanting to only observe us in fighting the monsters, ready to help in case of an emergency.

Repeating her words: "Wouldn't it be cheating if I were to join your slaughters? Hahaha!"