New Power (2)

So, right now... Right in front of us, there were a werebeast in his [Fiendish Fervor] state and a dragon currently in her half-humanoid and half-draconic state as well, facing against each other.

"Wait, don't fight, Kuu-chan!" Iris seemed to have noticed Carbuncle's intention as she shouted.

"Well, well, this little Clav is the one seeking a fight here, so I'm just being kind enough to provide him with a worthy fight, right?" Carbuncle said without looking back at us.

"Don't joke around! Even if Clavis is a werebeast, how could his power be comparable to yours—a dragon?" Alt-nii tried to give some sense to the excited dragon.

"It's alright, I will make sure to hold back. It's not like I will hurt little Clav. Don't you believe me?" Carbuncle said as she waved her hand.

"Are you going to fight me?" Clavis said with a tremulous voice.

"Yes, sure, entertain me well, wolfie~," Carbuncle said as she licked her lips.

She was yet to do anything when Clavis leaped towards her, aiming his claws.

"Clavis!!" Harvey and Alt-nii were surprised to see their friend doing this.

Yes, even I was also surprised. Clavis was normally a moderated person who wouldn't provoke unnecessary things. It seemed like his personality also changed with his newly awakened werebeast power.

Carbuncle smirked as she said, "I wasn't the one to start it."

She then lightly floated to the side, dodging Clavis' attack with ease.

At the same time, she wrung her tail towards Clavis. Clavis quickly noticed it and did a somersault.

He barely landed when Carbuncle's voice could be heard.

"My turn to attack!"

Carbuncle said as she lunged towards Clavis very rapidly, ready to tackle Clavis with all her weight plus the impact of the crash.

Luckily, Clavis was fast enough to dodge Carbuncle's attack. Just as I thought Carbuncle was going to crash into the ground with this kind of a speed, she suddenly did an U-turn, as she floated above the ground once more.

...That is surely a very great mastery of flight.

This time, Clavis didn't manage to react when Carbuncle showed up right in front of him, wringing her tail to him.

Clavis was quickly shoved by Carbuncle's tail wring, but before he crashed into any tree or anything, Clavis managed to stop his body with quite a difficulty.

"...," For some reason, Carbuncle's excited face turned calmer now.

She didn't launch any attack after that. She only floated calmly on the ground while Clavis ran towards her, charging attacks by attacks.

And each time Clavis attacked, Carbuncle managed to dodge it with slight effort.

"Hm... I expected too much. It's getting boring," Carbuncle said as she tilted her head—while dodging Clavis' attacks.

"Shall we end this now?"

Carbuncle seemed to have decided her mind, as in the next instance, she extended her hand to Clavis' body and...

Yellow sparks appeared from her hand, landing on Clavis.

Yes, Carbuncle sent Clavis some electric shocks!!

Clavis' body jolted at Carbuncle's unexpected electric shocks before he fell on the ground.

"Kuu!!" Iris shouted in her surprise.

"What? Don't yell at me when I'm helping all of us!" Carbuncle protested.

"Huh?"

I was about to question her when I noticed Clavis' body—who was still lying on the ground with his face kissing mister earth—seemed to have reverted back into his usual form.

***

"I'm sorry! I didn't expect that to happen!" Clavis said after he regained his consciousness.

We were now taking a break as we healed ourselves with healing magic and some healing items Iris prepared for us.

"Well, you're still pretty weak to be a decent opponent to me, so no worries, hahaha!"

Carbuncle laughed as she sat on the ground cross-legged with her hands crossed in front of her chest, too. She had this smug look on her face, too.

"Ugh...," Clavis seemed to be crushed by Carbuncle's laugh.

"Speaking of which, Kuu! Are you the strongest one in your homeland, too?" I asked.

Carbuncle stopped laughing and her face stiffened.

Oh, it's a 'no', then...

"Anyway, what happened? Is the restraining necklace too weak to prevent that?" Alt-nii asked with concern.

"Uh, that...," Clavis hung his head down.

"I heard that [Fiendish Fervor] came with a downside. That is, blood rushes to your brain fast as well, so you are in a constant state of excitement or feeling the adrenaline rush in your body, and that is up to you to control... am I right?" Ein asked.

Clavis turned his head to look at Ein with face full of disbelief.

"He might have read it somewhere. He's the heir of the Loera clan, so it's not that unbelievable," Luca explained on behalf of Ein.

Clavis seemed want to question Luca's explanation further, but he decided to swallow his question back and explained.

"Ein is right. It seems that my control isn't that great... yet. As for the necklace, it can restrain my transformation due to unintentional burst of emotions I feel when I'm still like this, but if I were to intentionally transform, it will change its mode and only restrain me from raging. As Ein said, it's up to me to control myself from getting too engrossed in the adrenaline rush."

"...And I failed just now, much to my shame," Clavis hung his head down again.

"But you seemed pretty confident in your new strength before, which means... you should be having a good control of it, right?" I tilted my head in wonder.

There's no way Clavis would risk himself by transforming carelessly if he still has a bad control over it.

"Well, yeah... I should have a good control already, but...," Clavis hesitated to say.

"Aww, it's fine. You can practice more, then," I patted Clavis' back as I noticed his hesitation.

If he hesitated to say the reason, then there was no need to force himself to say it.

"...You're right, Lyra. Thanks," Clavis smiled wryly.

"Ah, thanks for saving me too back there," I quickly thanked him when I remembered what just happened.

"Lyr could have gotten off that situation just fine, though?" Carbuncle nonchalantly added.

"Urk...," Clavis' face turned awkward.

"But I will be hurt in the process, so what Clavis did was just minimalizing my injury, so it's fine. Besides, Clavis took down the rest of the monsters after that, haha!" I quickly added, to make Clavis feel better.

"Aaaaa...," Clavis seemed to be more dejected instead.

...Did I say anything wrong?

At this time, I didn't notice that my words just reminded Clavis on how he lost control of himself and showed us something that he deemed as shameful.

"Still, a werebeast is so strong. I'm impressed," Luca said.

"T-thanks...," Clavis awkwardly smiled.

"It will be scary if you were an enemy, though," Kiri added. Clavis' smile grew stiff.

"That's why, you should just get stronger, strong enough to not fear werebeasts!" Luca smacked Kiri's back a bit strongly that Kiri yelped a bit.

"Y-yes!" Kiri said as his face contorted in pain.

"Alright, enough showing off your power. Didn't that make you feel tired, Clavis?" Alt-nii asked.

"Y-yeah... Being in [Fervor] state caused fatigue to be accumulated in my body after that."

It seems like the werebeasts are referring to [Fiendish Fervor] as just [Fervor].

"It's like using too much magic, huh? I see, I see...," I nodded in understanding.

"Okay, let's hurry and clear this field so we can all take a good rest, then!" Alt-nii decided.

We all agreed.

"And no transforming for you, Clavis," Harvey quickly added before all of us forgot.

"Okay, okay, I get it..."

Clavis' dejected face was so cute that I ended up laughing. I tried to hold my laughter but I couldn't. Oh well, it would be fine since it was Clavis we were talking about, right?

At that time, I have yet to know that the reason Clavis lost control of himself in his [Fervor] mode was... because he got too happy that he finally could protect me.

Normally, I was stronger than him, so the chances of him protecting me was practically nil.

But, how could this dense me be aware of Clavis' developing feelings for me?

It wasn't until later on that I learned of it.

Verrrrryyy later on.

And yet, I didn't expect that there would be a troublesome matter finding its way to me in the near future...

Something that made me have a headache that I actually had to put my hand on my forehead.