By the time we rounded the corner of the dojo running side-by-side, we could see what happened. There was a giant hole in the middle of the courtyard, and wererats were fighting with the students of the dojo!
With a burst of incredible speed, Kalistro rushed into the middle of the fray and started decimating the wererats with precise strokes of his sword against their weak spots. In the blink of an eye, he took out three wererats! "Apprentices! Please go and report this wererat invasion to the Watch and the Church!" he shouted as the grandmaster continued his murderous rampage into the thickest group of wererats.
I trailed Kalistro, prodding the wererat bodies littering the courtyard to confirm that they were dead. I didn't want to take the risk of these creatures regenerating their health and rejoining the fight again. However, all the wererats that the grandmaster had taken out were truly dead.
"No, we're not running away like cowards!" Gendun shouted back in defiance of the grandmaster's command as he ducked a swipe from a wererat. He became the leader of the incoming class of Apprentices despite the fact that he was the last apprentice to join the school.
"Young pup, the wererats came here to kidnap you and turn you into one of them," Gurgne replied while pushing back Gendun's attacker with his swordplay.
"Our grandmaster gave you an order. You must obey immediately," Hendrez added, "or else you're dismissed from our dojo. Now choose."
This threat of dismissal from the Apprentices' instructor finally sapped their defiance. "Let's go!" Gendun said and ran through the open exit.
I saw tears running down his face as my young friend ran by me. While inelegantly stated, the grandmaster's decision to force the Apprentices to leave the fighting was a sound decision. They were simply too young to fight these vicious and devious monsters. Furthermore, their presence would distract our fighters with their concern of the Apprentices being caught in the crossfire. Now, our defenders could focus their collective might on eliminating these invaders!
Suddenly, I saw sharp claws reaching for my face and I instinctively ducked! I thrust my sword into my attacker's chest. My move stunned the wererat for a moment and then it smiled at me, revealing its sharp teeth. I looked at my weapon and realized that it was a practice sword! Without a silver blade, I had no way to damage my opponent and I frantically backpedaled from it.
However, my playmate refused to let me go and continued taking swipes at me with its claws.
Fortunately, I was standing in the middle of the courtyard and I had plenty of room to maneuver and avoid these attacks. Whenever the claws got too close to my body I used the practice sword to block the blow. I looked around, hoping to pawn off my pursuer to another defender. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed busy with their own fights.
"Here, take this!" a voice called out suddenly.
A butterfly-adorned scabbard flew at my chest and I caught it solely by reflex.
Seeing that I was distracted, my opponent tried to thrust its claws directly into my torso!
A silver arc flew in front of me, and the outstretched limb was dismembered.
"You need to pay attention during a fight, Lawrence," a feminine voice said.
I looked up and saw that my rescuer was Maisen! "Thanks, I owe you one!" I said.
"Buy me dinner!" my bodyguard replied as she swung her silver long sword with a powerful swing and split my pursuer in two.
Seeing no more wererats standing nearby, I quickly pulled the borrowed sword from its scabbard. I saw that the scabbard had a clip attached at the end and clipped the scabbard to my belt. I took a few test swings with my newly acquired sword. It was light and well-balanced. The sword blade was silver.
"ROARRRRR!" I looked around the courtyard for the source of this horrifying sound and wished I hadn't found it. It was Kalistra. Her snow-white fur was turning into a blood-red color. Her petite figure became buffed as if she was injected with a massive amount of steroids. Her claws lengthened. Her gleaming eyes turned from pale yellow-green to jet-black. I was astonished by her transformation. What the heck happened to her?
The wererats squealed in terror as the transformed Kalistra jumped and crashed into them like a wrecking ball. Kalistra began scratching and biting her hated enemies recklessly and ignored all damage the wererats scored against her.
It was as if Kalistra had turned berserk. Aha! So, this was what her father meant by Kalistra turning berserk because of her deep hatred for wererats. I tried my Spirit Sense on the berserk Kalistra and recoiled at the sight of her engulfed in a dark, blood red aura. I looked around the courtyard and saw that the wererats also possessed red auras but the hue wasn't as dark as Kalistra's. The animal people possessed blue auras, while the humans possessed golden auras. I ignored the ensuing pop-ups.
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“Attack!” Kalistro ordered and every member of the dojo, except me, crashed into the group of wererats guarding the opening on the ground.
I didn’t join my comrades because I had found myself engaged in a staring contest with a wererat.
This particular wererat was bigger than the rest of the invaders. Its red eyes burned with hatred—and recognition. However, this wererat was standing too far away to reach me. It spat on the ground and squealed out a command. Then it jumped into the hole.
Other wererats followed it in retreat and soon only members of the dojo remained in the courtyard.
I remembered seeing the dark gray color of this particular wererat on the platform at the Public Square and recognized the creature—Ebenthal.
"Grab her!" Kalistro yelled as he struggled to keep the berserk Kalistra from following the pack of wererats back into the tunnel.
Other students quickly grabbed hold of her and barely managed to restrain her.
Luckily, she did not see them as her enemies and did not attack them. However, the berserk Kalistra was still trying to push them aside to enter the tunnel.
"Lawrence, please use your Truth Stone to dispel Kalistra's condition!" her father pleaded.
I gulped and slowly approached the mass of struggling humans, animal folks, and a deranged cat girl on the ground. When I stood in front of Kalistra, I pulled the Truth Stone of Law from my neck and pressed the obsidian cross against her forehead.
The cross began to glow and burn against Kalistra's skin. She turned her head back and forth and sideways, trying desperately to dislodge the burning cross but failed. Her red fur slowly lost its luster, turned pink, and then eventually white. Kalistra's form shrunk in size until she returned to her original petite size.
When I finally removed my truth stone, there was a scar in the shape of a cross on Kalistra's forehead. I saw that she was unconscious. I ignored the pop-up.
"What happened here!" a voice boomed from the entrance.
We turned and saw that Captain Peng Li had arrived with a large group of men from the Watch; standing near the captain were our Apprentices.
Maisen jogged over and stood before him, purposely blocking his view of the unconscious Kalistra. "We had a surprise attack from the wererats. They dug a tunnel that surfaced in the middle of our courtyard. We managed to drive them off and they retreated back into the tunnel," she explained while pointing at the hole in the ground.
Captain Li walked across the courtyard until he reached the edge of the hole. He peered down and confirmed that the hole was big enough for wererats to pass through. He looked around and saw a few injured people. "We will have to quarantine anyone injured in this fight, to ensure that no one has been turned,” he ordered.
"Of course," Kalistro nodded in agreement. The blood of were-creatures was infectious and could turn the wounded into were-creatures if left untreated.
The captain turned to his second-in-command. "Hivande, please take a group of men to escort the injured back to Headquarters and place them under quarantine."
"Yes, sir!" Hivande saluted. When he tried to take the still-unconscious Kalistra, her father intervened.
"I will carry my daughter to your Headquarters. I, too, was injured from the fight and have to go under quarantine," Kalistro admitted.
"Very well," Hivande said; he recognized the two as Heir and Grandmaster, respectively, of this school and he had no desire to start any trouble with them. The officer started walking around to inspect every member of the dojo standing in the courtyard and instructed the injured to join a small but growing group of injured people. When the Watch officer was satisfied that every injured person had been rounded up by his men, Hivande ordered, "Let's go!"
More than half the students of the dojo were taken away by the Watch. Fortunately, Gurgne was uninjured and thus allowed to remain. The temporary headmaster of the dojo turned to Captain Li. “Sir, I understand that you will be entering the tunnel shortly to go after the were-pack and you will take Lawrence with you. However, I ask that you leave some of your men here in case more wererats appear at the dojo again. They may seek to return underground using the hole in our courtyard,” he noted.
The Asian man nodded in agreement. “It’s possible that the wererats will try to bypass the pursuers and double back to the dojo for re-entry to the underground. If they can leave this place, they can return to human form and blend in with the town residents again. We must not allow that to happen!” Captain Li’s eyes burned with righteous anger. He quickly looked around the courtyard and made a headcount. “I will leave a dozen men here to complement your dozen students remaining in this courtyard.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Gurgne bowed deeply.
“Wow, look at all the wererat bodies on the ground! Did we miss the fight?” a female voice exclaimed in disappointment.
We turned to the direction of the doorway and saw a group of well-equipped adventurers coming inside the compound. The one who spoke out was Bjoukia.
Captain Li’s eyes burned at the sight of the disorganized interlopers. “What are you doing here?” he demanded to know.
Rijana quickly stood before the captain and raised her right hand. “Sir, the Church offered a bounty of five gold pieces for each wererat’s head that we adventurers turn in. They also passed the word that this school had been invaded by wererats,” she explained, "and asked us to assist the dojo."
“Apparently, the students here took them all out,” Bjoukin said with sadness.
The captain shook his head. “Actually, the wererats retreated. We’re about to go into the tunnel to go after them. If you carry either magical or silver weapon, then I will permit you to join the Were-Hunt,” he replied.
“I have neither but my magic spells can also kill were-creatures,” Rijana corrected him.
“I am not a good judge of magicians. If you think that you’re strong enough to cast many offensive spells quickly without the need to rest and recover your mana, then I give you permission to participate,” Li said. The captain looked at the gathered adventurers. “The Were-Hunt will be extremely dangerous because we will be hunting in the wererats’ lair. The Butterfly School’s defenders fought bravely, but many of them are injured and headed over to the Watch Headquarters for treatment. There aren’t enough fighters remaining to defend the tunnel. If any of you are willing to remain here and serve as guards, I will offer you one gold piece for your service. Please decide now if you will stay above ground or head below ground. The Were-Hunt begins!”