"Where did Peter go?" John asked, but of course no one knew.

Elder Catherine dashed into the courtyard at superhuman speeds, quickly taking in the nine disciples currently still here, and then dashed off toward the source of the alarm. She barely got out a command to follow her. John was planning on going no matter what.

John ran off too and was pleasantly surprised to find Chloe and Mark right behind him. Several others had joined shortly after them and were a few paces behind. The more timid and younger of the group had stayed behind, and just as well.

Pretty quickly they arrived at the main courtyard of the outer sect, but it was deserted. No disciples or elders could be seen, and certainly no Peter or his cronies. If Peter was involved with some Weird qi shenanigans, it would have been on a mission. John couldn't remember all the relevant mission details from the Mission hall--there were simply too many, so checking there wasn't going to help. The others from his cohort had barely been outside the compound and would not be of any use. They seemed to be waiting for John to pick a direction to run anyway.

John concentrated, trying to remember what he had seen only the day before. Most of his attention had been on the various facilities and their purposes, not on gardens. The herb garden was clear, unless something had happened overnight but that was less likely. After a few seconds more, John recalled seeing a couple of gardens on the north east side of the sect, away from disciple housing and away from the sect entrance. He took off in that direction.

In only a few minutes, they arrived at the scene. Several small and peaceful gardens stood empty along their path before they reached a wide and open quad. It was covered in broad scholar trees, zen bonsai and island formations, and small cultivation gazebos. John could perceive a few plants giving off the wrong vibe that indicated infection, but it was drowned in the sea of disturbance emanating off of Peter himself.

Peter was in bad shape, his aura fluctuating constantly. His three friends, or minions, stood frozen in fear around him. Sensing their presence, he turned to look at them. His eyes buzzed with black and white static, his face was bright red.

"You--!" he tried to scream, but the momentary lapse in concentration caused him to lose the internal fight. His screech turned into a roar of anger and pain. Peters skull cracked at his jaw and his tongue elongated, splitting into three frantic tentacles flailing above the remains of his head. His torso opened with new malice-filled black eyes, and his stomach split into a gash of a mouth. One arm split between his ulna and radius as muscle from his other arm squirmed into position, forming an enormous crusher claw. His legs disintegrated almost entirely, forming an array of uneven, bone-tipped crab legs.

All this happened in the course of seconds, it was the most vile and disturbing thing John had seen since his vision of the wheel. Someone puked behind him. Their inexperience and hesitation cost them as the Peter-Monstrosity shot its tentacles toward its old minions, piercing an eye on one, the heart of another, and through the mouth of the last. It's minions quickly started to form anew.

"Cut the tentacles!" John shouted and leapt into combat.

The small claws John had used so far would not be sufficient for this battle. He was digesting too much right now as well, too much of his silk was tied up, literally, in the process. He couldn't afford to spill the Weird qi inside him but the water qi was fair game. Water qi spilled out of him like a cape of dense mist while he rushed towards the monster. John gathered his qi strands into a huge sharp cone along his right arm, silken strands hardening into a bizarre lance. A moment later, the two crashed together.

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John managed to pierce clean through the location Peter's heart used to be, but the monster barely slowed down, having lost only an eye. It screech-roared from both of its existing mouths and small black eyes opened all over its body. Sharpened entrails shot out of it's mouth trying to pierce John in return, but he managed to block by snapping his lance and using it as a large wedge shaped shield. The broken tip still inside the monster morphed into half a dozen small blades which in turn spun like tops, slashing and wreaking havoc inside the abomination.

Passing a portion of his shield to his left hand to form dual hand blades, John began hacking and slicing with wild abandon. He could hear combat going on around him as well, surely his allies attacking the other monsters. Luckily the thralls had only a fraction of the power of the main body, as the other Weird kids were not as strong as John at this point. As much as John was damaging the monster as fast as possible, it was reconstituting itself with almost equal speed. Cuts on it's body would close as naturally as cloth sewn back together in the blink of an eye. Spilled blood either willfully retreated into the body or became blades to strike at John.

Wounds quickly accumulated on Johns body for each strike he landed. He felt surprisingly strong compared to his own estimation of his strength, but it was hardly a match to a fully possessed and transformed Peter. So far he had avoided the large crushing claw-hand but his luck was about to run out. A splash of intelligent blood blinded John and the Claw slipped beneath his amorphous shield, gripping John's leg.

Unspeakable pain lanced up his thigh and into his spine as his lower leg was shattered, almost completely severing. Regular blood spurted from the wound for a moment before John managed to tie his own arteries closed with strands of qi. John roared in fury and stabbed both hands into Peter's remains, a flood of qi ribbons dived inside and exploded into slicing blades, rending both flesh and spirit. The spiritual attacks seemed especially effective, shattering the remains of the infected dantian and slicing meridians into fragments. The monster's regeneration slowed slightly but still refused to go down.

Remembering his lesson from yesterday, John started to slice off chunks of the beast and wrapping them in his own qi before they could reconstitute, and dragging them inside his dantian. He started with the claw. Once inside of him, the pieces of gore would lose connection to the possessing spirit and go dormant, waiting to be digested. It wasn't long then before John had consumed the entire fiend, as the fight came to a close. Once John had the advantage, it had been a sure thing really. Still, he was in excruciating pain that was only getting worse as his adrenaline nose dived, he collapsed on the ground.

Around him was more carnage, pieces of monstrosity littered the ground from the thralls. Many large chunks were petrified and shattered into gravel. The others--minus one who had died, looked at him with equal parts fear and disgust. John found it hard to care, flopping backwards to catch his breath. To his surprise, a pill was shoved into his mouth by some unseen hand, and his leg started to repair itself. John was thankful, but found it difficult to care about the source at this point.

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"A brute transformation, how lucky for our young disciples..." The sect leader was watching from afar with Catherine at his side.

"You could have stopped this." Catherine was still angry at being intercepted, enough to risk an edge in her tone with the sect leader.

"They need to know the face of the real enemy or they will never be ready." He intoned darkly.

They watched in silence after that, as the fight was eventually resolved. By the time John was sitting on the ground, the sect leader had already turned and left. Elder Catherine took some pity on young John, waving her hand to deliver the healing pill before leaving as well.