“Okay, Wolfy, let’s go!”
They were enjoying a game of volleyball now. Redwolf caught the ball hit by one of the girls with a claw, making a killer save. This, too, was training—or so he claimed—but really, he was just making up all kinds of excuses so they’d keep playing with him.
This incredibly serious-minded magic beast, hungry for strength and boasting the work ethic of a mountain monk, was turning even this into training. With claws sharp enough to cut through divine iron, he gently tossed the ball into the air without puncturing it. Given how they could vibrate at the molecular level, he should’ve been able to slice through most substances like butter, but…
…well, honestly, no one had any idea how he did that.
He was pretty much Wolfy to everyone now; only Earnest insisted on calling him Redwolf. Blade, meanwhile, called him “that damn fake-ass, hypocrite magic beast,” or “DFAHMB” for short.
Earnest took another look at Blade. He was still as pouty as ever, like he had just sucked on the tartest lemon in the universe. Ha-ha-ha! How else could she describe him? His face was so scrunched up. Hilarious.
“Hmph. Well, good for you, huh? You were looking for ‘someone who’s cute, younger than you, who wouldn’t complain no matter how harsh your training is, and who also had enough guts to be worth teaching,’ right? Well, perfect. Good for you. Phah!”
“What’s all that mean?”
“…Wha—?!”
Somehow, Blade was speechless… Wait. Did Earnest say all that at some point? He really didn’t remember.
“But, well, he’s leaving today anyway, huh? Aww, what a shame, huh? What a real, real shame! Such a shame, it’s almost a relief!”
This was probably Blade’s attempt at sarcasm. Even he had his cute side sometimes.
Today was the day Eliza would finally complete the custom-made weapon they had cooking for Redwolf. He had originally come to the city in search of a weapon, only to throw a fit because he felt that the large club they gave him just didn’t feel right. Earnest agreed—a speed-based fighter like him didn’t have much use for a blunt, heavy weapon like that.
So what kind of weapon would best suit his fighting style and bring out all his latent strength?
“Behold! Here comes the super-genius, Maxwell! Make way, mortals!”
Eliza arrived, cutting through the wind in her lab coat, accompanied by her erstwhile assistant, James. That assistant was carrying a metal case as large as a shipping container, making the most of his versatile bandages to support the weight. And when the case was opened…
“Are these…claws?”
There they saw a pair of clawed gauntlets, each three times the size of a normal hand.
“Allow me to explain. These claws are crafted from a mysterious type of metal known as ‘adamantite.’ I requested the assistance of a weapons workshop as I worked on these—I am just a mad scientist, you see, and weapon forging is out of my fields of expertise. Now, even in their original form, they are already more than powerful enough as weapons, but we also incorporated assorted forbidden techniques to enhance their magical force to the limit of what is currently possible. For example, through the careful alignment of electron orbital phases—”
“Ahh, that’s enough, thanks.”
This sounded like it was going to take a while, so Earnest waved her aside.
“Oh, shut up, you whiny Empress! You don’t ever interrupt a mad scientist bragging about specs! I’ll sneak into your dorm room and replace your brain with a positron model in the middle of the night!”
Eliza had been acting remarkably calm and normal lately, but clearly, she was back in her mad scientist wheelhouse again.
“My…weapon?” Redwolf tilted his head slightly.
“Yep. All yours.”
The giant magic beast reached out. These custom-made weapons were several times human size, but they both fit perfectly on his arms.
Awoooooo!
He raised both arms above his head and let out a battle cry. Several members of the junior class without a natural resistance to sound attacks fainted on the spot.
“I, can beat, you, now, when, I win, I win! And! I win, now!”
Redwolf turned his claws toward Earnest.
Oh? Win? Against who? Me? Your master?
“And if you beat me,” Earnest provokingly said with a smile, “what will you do then?”
“Eat, you!”
“Oooh, scary.”
It almost sounded like a marriage proposal.
She glanced over at Blade. He was unconsciously shaking one leg, but this was far more than a nervous tic. The ground beneath his feet was being pulverized to dust from all the intense vibration.
This magic beast had trained with human beings, and through that, he had mastered their assorted fighting techniques—strategy, tactics, feints and traps, the whole thing. He had also just obtained an incredible new weapon from Eliza. Combine all that, and the calculated improvement in his combat level was…
“I think Scion II would be enough for this?”
With a loud bang, Earnest transformed, going straight into Scion of Flame II.
Previously, Earnest would create a gigantic fireball around her body, bathing herself in its unthinkable heat to bring her temperature up to tens of thousands of degrees, letting her transform into Part Two. However, by more thoroughly refining the flame-attribute spirit within her body, she had figured out a way to trigger the same effect with much less fuss. Earnest, too, was evolving day by day.
And once she stood in front of Redwolf in that form…she could sense the clear confusion in his mind.
“Can…I, win? Me? Win? Eat? …Me, eaten?”
“What? Worried about losing before the fight even starts? You should turn in your magic-beast badge right now.”
Grooorh…!
His fighting force and beastly energy surged. This was what a magic beast should’ve been—a truly fearless, truly noble sort of creature.
“Now, now. What kind of naughty child is this, talking about defeating and eating Earnest while ignoring me the whole time?”
The Scion of Ice was next to Earnest. It was Lunaria, who had also transformed into her Scion II form instantly.
“What are you doing? Step back. Redwolf is my student.”
“Why don’t we make it a threesome? I’d like to see how strong he is…and besides, I want to have some fun, too.”
“You really love butting in and taking people’s toys from them, don’t you? Just the tackiest behavior…”
And so, faced with these two scions, the magic beast…was utterly panicking. If he were human, he would’ve been crying, or close to it. But magic beasts didn’t cry. They couldn’t. Lycans didn’t have tear ducts.
“Oh. Right. There were three of us here, weren’t there?”
“Huh? You still want to do this? Well, if you insist…”
Boom! Splash!
Flames and ice shot up into the air as the scions transformed even further.
“Now… Come on, won’t you? At least give us your full effort.”
The lycan might not be able to cry, but he sure looked like he was crying his eyes out as he waved his arms and charged at them.