Ray stood in front of Luke who was carrying a totem in his hand that displayed a wolf, fox, cat and bird head. They were at the giant taring ground in the back of the castle and there was a strange dark back cube located in the centre.

“This totem will help you with the initial transformations before you can activate it on your own. The first step to Beast-Kungfu is activating your innate beast abilities and controlling them before you learn the martial arts moves. However, transformation is dangerous, if you're not careful you can easily lose yourself in the transformation and become nothing but a wild animal. If your ready let's begin.”, Luke says, holding out the totem.

Ray takes the totem and as he does, he feels a roaring beast within him his very soul.

“Close your eyes, meditate and harness the beasts' powers.”.

Ray closes his eyes, he was used to meditating, he had done quite a bit of that when trying to learn how to properly use his flam aura. As Ray meditated, he saw a red wolf of flames before him, he wondered if he was supposed to see a beats of aura, however due to him no longer having Aura, it manifested itself as flames. He reached out to the beast who put its head to Rays palm.

As Ray did this, on the outside of his body his teeth began to sharpen, his features becoming more animalistic, his eyes shape had changed slight and the majority of his eye was now red, his hands and feet were covered in fur and long black claws sprouted out of the, three long furry whiskered sprouted growing from his cheek into his hair, his tail became more bushy and a tuft of hair in the shape of an X grew form his chest.

Ray opened his eyes,

“Wow, you're a natural. Most people go berserk and lash out, but you’ve managed to maintain your composure.”, Luke says impressed.

“Yeah well, I'm used to meditating.”, He said in a slightly sharper voice then his own.

“Well, I was expecting this to take much longer but I guess we’ll get into it”, Luke said as he bagna to stretch.

“Hang on. I want to test something.”.

Ray was curious, his flame aura had always been different to how the Phoenix’s was. Rays body was enveloped in an outer body of flames in the form of an aura. However, the Phoenix itself had burst into flame, his feathers became fire, now that Ray had animalistic features... he wondered if his powers would manifest differently. Ray activated his flame aura. As he did, he noticed that his body did not get covered in the aura as it usually did but instead everywhere that there was fur and hair, turned a bright glowing orange and flickered, they had become flames, just like the Phoenix’s feathers had. He felt stronger than ever, incredible either, with this power, he struggled to believe how anyone could possibly beat him, however suddenly, Rya felt lightheaded, his flames disappeared, turning his hair and fur back to normal and he fell to his knees.

“R-ray... are you okay?”, Luke asks concerned.

“Y-yeah I’m fine, Kind of jumped the gun there.”, Ray said laughing awkwardly.

That took more of a toll on Ray then he expected.... but if he was able to call upon that power at will just like he did with the flame aura... then he would be even stronger and if he could manifest semi-perfect flames at the same time, he could probably solo the demons himself.

“I’ll call that form, True flame aura, as it represents the true flame aura that the Phoenix manifested.”, He thought to himself.

“Alright then. The first move I will show you is a basic forwards strike.”, Luke says.

He gets into a stance as if he was sitting with both fists on his side, he put his left arm forwards. palm open. He then pulled back his left hand back fast and thrust his right palm forwards a gust of wind whooshing loudly as he did, on impact a small shockwave of wind exited his palm. As Ray observes the move noticed something off, Luke had struck with his palm however his hand was in a half palm state. from his knuckled his fingers were straight up as if going into palm, however at each ligament, the fingers then bent creating what looked like a fusion of a fist and palmed strike.

“Did you see that?”, Luke asked?

“Y-yes.”.

“Great, this is the first move in learning Beast Kungfu, you will be able to use it out of your transformed state, though it will be far less affective. Each lesson I will teach you a move a day and the, I want you to practice each move. Once I have taught you all the moves, we can start combat training and implementing it into battle. But for now I want you to practice that strike on this cube here it is made from a super strong rock that is incredible durable. You will have one each lesson. The lesson ends when you break it with that strike.”, Luke informs Ray.

Ray smiled.

He walks up to the cube, gets into stance and strikes with his left, he could tell he didn’t generate the same amount of force that Luke had, but he still thought that he had generated some decent power. Yet there was no crack in the cube

“If you want to generate more power, you can also step into the attack and strike.”, Like informs Ray, crouching his legs and stepping forwards.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

And so, Ray tried it and even though it was more powerful, he still couldn't so much as scratch it.

“When I started it out took me a total of 245 strikes to crack it. I’m expecting less from you.”, Luke says smiling as he walks off.

Ray grimaced, this may prove harder than he expected.

THUD!

“178.”.

THUD!

“179.”.

THUD!

“180.”.

CRACK!!!

“181.”

Ray stepped back, sweat dripping from his body, teeth gritted, he put his left palm out and stepped forwards, striking with his right.

CRUMBLE!!!

“182...”.

Rays transformation deactivated for what felt like the 100th time and he fell on his back panting deeply. Ray had started early in the morning, and it was now the afternoon. The reason It took so long was mainly due to the transformation using up a lot of Rays energy and deactivating, meaning he’d have to wait to gain his energy back and then start again. Not to mention the cube was unbelievably tough.

“Oh, you're done? Sooner than I expected. How many strikes?”.

“1...82.”, Ray said panting.

“Wow that's amazing, you really are a prodigy. Well rest up. Same time tomorrow.”, Luke said positively.

Ray lay there exhausted; this is the first time Ray had felt like this in this world. He slowly got to his feet. He looks up at the sky, the sun was at its peak meaning it was about mid-day.

“Guess I’ll go see Ceasar and get it out of the way.”.

After finding Ceasar, explaining to him the situation and him agreeing. Ray made his way back to the castle. When he arrived, he ran into Lilly.

“Where have you been all day?”, Lilly asked Ray intrigued.

And so, Ray explained his hectic day to Lilly.

“I think... I’m going to have an early bath.”, He says stretching.

“I-I see, well, have fun.”, she says blushing slightly.

As Ray relaxes and soaks in the bathtub he hears a strange rustling outside of the bathroom. As he looks towards the wall of glass that led to the changing room he spotted a figure lurking. Figuring it was one of the guys he called out to them, however at this, the mystery person vanished. Figuring it was just servant he put it out of his mind and relaxed in the tub. After that, he ate his dinner with the others. Claire and Tia were present, Tia didn’t talk much apart from a greeting in Demilang, he’d check upon them later after Tia got more used to the Castle, he was sure she was worried about her noble house lord, but knowing it would be risky to go back there where the demon was so close, she had decided to remain here and bide her time until she could act.

After Ray had finished his food, he returned to his room and had an early night. After all, he was going to need the energy.

As the days passed into a week, Ray had gotten use to his new routine, waking up early, learning a new move and the practicing it against the cube until it cracked. He would then spend the rest of the day either in the library reading up on the world's history, legends and even fictional stories. Lilly had also started her own training, though she wouldn’t tell Ray as she wanted to keep it as a surprise for the tournament. Speaking of Lilly, lately, he noticed that Lilly seemed to be watching him quite a bit out of the corner of her eye, Ray was confused at first he had wondered if he did something to annoy her, he racked his brain and then remembered the day they had gone on that date and she had kissed his cheek and she had stated that she would wait for him to ask her next time.

“Could that be the reason?”, Ray thought to himself. He doubted it... though just to be sure maybe he should plan something. But what exactly should they do. Ray thought about it and then concluded on what they would do.

Ray went up to the third floor and knocked on Lilly's room door.

“Who is it?”, Lilly asked.

“R-Ray.”.

There was suddenly a lot of sound coming from Lilly’s room that sounded like she had just dropped a wardrobe out of a six-story building. Trying to hide her room from Ray Lilly opened the door. As she did, Ray blushed, she was clearly ready for bed, she was dressed in a see-through green night gown, green was clearly her favourite colour, that exposed the undergarments she wore beneath.

“Yes?”, Lilly asked, her tail wagging slowly back and forth, face slightly red.

“Ray, who realised he had been staring looked away.

“A-are you free tomorrow?”, Ray asked.

“Y-yes, super free.”, Lilly stated blushing, tail wagging faster.

“After my training. At midday. Would you like to go on a d-date... type thing?”, Ray asked, this was the first time he had ever asked a girl out on a date... if it even classed as a date.

Now Lilly's ears began to wiggle with Joy.

“REALLY? Yes of course. I’ve been waiting for you to ask!”, she says smiling.

“Great... uhm, make sure you wear something you don’t mind getting dirty, like the bear fur clothes I made you.”, Ray stated.

“Okay.”, Lilly said excitedly.

“Well then, I’ll see you tomorrow... night.”.

“Yeah, see you tomorrow. Goodnight.”, She says closing her door.

Ray lay down on his bed, his fac still red.

“God... she looked quite nice. Does she always dress like that at night? Once again, I’m really going to struggle to sleep.”, Ray thinks do himself.

Meanwhile, Lilly lays on her bed cuddling her pillow, tails and ears wiggling, face flushed.

“He finally asked me.”, Lilly whispers, a huge smile on her face.