Elemental Gold

Adam saw as golden light flashed in front of him, completely blinding him. Then, he felt himself torn off the werewolf alpha's back. The alpha had gotten stronger.

Far, far stronger.

With this sudden power, the alpha tossed Adam away, and this time, it was Adam who hurtled through the forest, crashing through two tree trunks at first before ping ponging through several more.

Adam clenched up with [Surge], trying to flex and tighten all his muscles, making them as durable as possible with the magical energy. He turned almost into an iron ball, and as he smashed his way through the forest, it sounded not like flesh breaking against wood, but more like a wrecking ball bulldozing through nature.

In the end, though, Adam landed on the forest floor with a few splinters and a couple bruises, nothing too big. He stood up from the forest floor, patting dirt and leaves off his body, and noticed his black filled veins start to clear up.

[Surge] was wearing off, and somehow, the alpha had gotten a lot stronger.

Not great considering the fact that Adam needed [Surge] to have a solid advantage over the werewolf, but he did not feel fear. He still felt confident in his victory. Because he still felt heat in his heart, heat that told him he still had power to spare just waiting to be unlocked inside of him.

In fact, Adam actually welcomed this challenge, because it seemed like challenges were what brought this heat and, consequently, his power out.

Adam saw the same golden light that had blinded him flash in the distance before rapidly approaching.

The alpha appeared in view fully clad not in silver fur, but in glowing, sparkling gold. He floated in the air with his arms out to the side in triumphant pose. His muscles had actually shrunk quite a bit, but the volume of his magical energy had exponentially increased, manifesting in a flickering aura of gold around his body.

Adam squinted through the shining golden aura. "Look at werewolf Jesus going super saiyan over here."

"Silence, imp," said the alpha, his voice resonating with power. "The fact that you have made me bring out this form, a form I was saving to dominate Walpurgis Night, is a grave insult you must pay with your life for."

"Where were you hiding this power, huh?" said Adam, the heat in his heart growing unbearable, almost searing.

"All the women lured into that house and diverted to me through that idiot Zach granted me power. I laid with them and drained their life force, adding their strength to mine," said the alpha. "I took off just a few years of their lifespan, but over the span of two years, with countless different women, I have accumulated enough total life force to ascend from being a mere silver werewolf to a golden one.

Be honored to face me, imp, for not in centuries has a golden werewolf been born."

"You stole years off of god knows how many women, women that would have done a lot more for this world than you with their smarts considering they went to this college, all to give yourself a Saiyan cosplay?" Adam took in a breath and put a hand over his heart, feeling the heat, beckoning it to flow through his body.

"I have to say, though. You HAVE gotten stronger. A little too strong for me to handle as I am right now. So how about I match you a little?"

Adam clutched at his chest, right over his heart, and he felt his Shadow Magic manifest in a burst of searing heat. His hands covered up in vantablack, and any golden light emitted from the alpha funneled into Adam's hands, charging his own mana.

"Shadow Magic?" said the alpha. "Already? You…just what are you? No, that is not important." He twisted his lips into a snarl. "You have proven yourself far too much of a threat to live. I thought the princess a threat on her own, but you are even more dangerous, especially if you are to enter the ritual.

I must use this Ascension to get rid of you now, before you amass even more time to grow stronger."

"Please, be my guest. Come here, doggy," said Adam as he waved his black clad hands forward. If the alpha lunged forward, then Adam would more than happily grab onto him and drain his power.

"Your Shadow Magic is one that absorbs magical energy, and it seems limited to your physical touch," said the alpha. He floated higher in the air. "You think I am a mere brute that fights with my fangs and claws alone?"

"Well yeah, that's all you've been doing so far," said Adam.

The alpha ignored Adam and continued. "Werewolves of this era have forgotten the old ways. They merely live to survive, they do not look to the past. They do not practice magic for fear that the Court or the Church will hunt them, and as a result, they dwindle down into extinction.

But I have done my study. Here is a lesson to take with you to your grave: werewolves are not simple beasts; we are proud descendants of Elementals – living manifestations of nature on par with the old gods themselves.

There are many cultures that speak of wolf spirits, of wolves that pull the sun and moon or devour celestial bodies. That is us, not mere dogs that hide in the dark.

We are not simply creatures of tooth and claw, we are beings of magic, and our ancestral magic is one that bends nature to our will."

"You know, if you studied for your classes as hard as you studied all this magic crap, you might have actually passed them," said Adam, unimpressed, because what good was magic going to do against him?

Any magic thrown at him; he could just absorb just like how he had done with Raum.

"You shall see. And by the way, I have a 4.0 GPA," said the alpha. He closed his fist, and Adam felt the ground under him rumble. He sensed danger and leaped into the air, holding onto a tree branch above.

Below him, masses of thorny vines had uncovered, wrangling around each other as they crushed the space he had been in.

Adam pointed his hand towards the plants, but he could not absorb their energy.

"As expected," said the werewolf. "You cannot absorb mana that is already inside living beings. Only that which is emitted outwardly."

The alpha pointed a golden claw at Adam, and the branch he held on shuddered.

Adam immediately let go as thorns and fungus burst out of it. He leaped off the trunk of the tree, trying to jump towards the alpha. Adam realized the alpha was right in assessing that Adam could not drain mana directly from living beings, but emitted aura, he could absorb, and the alpha was emitting a hell of a lot of it.

In fact, the Alpha seemed to have little control over it. He was leaking too much energy, as if trying he was a container trying to contain an overflowing amount of liquid.

If Adam got a hold of that aura directly, he could indirectly siphon the alpha's energy dry.

The alpha growled and floated upwards, just barely evading Adam.

Adam maneuvered mid-air, fanning out his wings and flying up to try and catch the werewolf, but it was much easier for someone that could float in any direction he wanted to outmaneuver Adam who was still not perfectly used to flying, needing to flap his wings and take time to think about where to go.

The werewolf deftly evaded Adam's grasps and then slammed his palms together. Countless vines and roots erupted from the earth and lashed around Adam's legs before he could get enough lift to escape them. He felt himself dragged down to the dirt hard as large waves of plant matter wrapped around him in an instant, imprisoning him in an environmentally friendly tomb.

"Now nature breaks your bones and tears apart your veins. Whatever is left of you, I will feast upon, adding Hell energy to my Elemental might," said the werewolf. "For now, I have to deal with that little princess, for I doubt my weakling pack could do much to her."

The alpha turned around, smelling the air to track down the princess's scent. However, he immediately froze when he felt a chill behind him.

The giant ball of condensed roots, vines, and plants shook before blasting apart as if a bomb had been set off inside of them.

Adam stood there in a shadowy, smoky crater crackling with arcs of black electricity. He spat out some leaves with a smile. Several cuts lined his skin, causing blood to drizzle from them. One cut dripped red over Adam's eye, which, coupled with his smile, granted him quite the bloodlusted look.

In Adam's hands was a halberd made of black energy. One of Raum's twenty-two weapons she had shot at Adam. This one had an explosive effect attached to it, giving Adam the necessary firepower to break out of his plant cage.

"How about that, huh?" said Adam. "Guess I gotta thank Raum later. Oh come on, golden boy, don't look so surprised."

"Another form of Shadow Magic? I thought demons possessed but one variant of it. How-," began the alpha.

"You powered up, so I powered up. Sounds about fair, doesn't it? Now, let's get back where we left off," said Adam, smiling with fangs protruding in an expression of pure bloodlust he had probably inherited from Leila. "Don't want to keep my girlfriend waiting, after all."