Akira stood still silently trying to process what he had just heard from the two voices. He stood there for over a minute silently. He only recovered from his stupor when he heard the loud thumps of footsteps coming up the stairs.

Akira moved farther down the dark hall while still sniffing for traces of Ferem.

A high pitch whistle from one of his guards below further alerted Akira to the danger of the people ascending the steps, forcing him to hastily move to the end of the hallway and hide in one of the darker corners.

The lazy Ramia guards were startled out of their half-sleep and stood up straight before they turned to block whoever it was stomping loudly up the stairs.

“You can not enter this hallway!” said one of the guards as he drew his weapon along with the other guard.

“Move aside or I will kill you!” said a cold cheerful female voice.

“Why are you so happy, Phobia? Could it be that you prefer lizards and snakes over humans?” asked a male from behind the woman.

“Stop stirring the pot Kooter, you know how she gets,” said another male voice.

“You're no fun, Bland.”

“If I wasn't in a good mood I would have killed you ten times over, and how many times do I have to tell you to move back at least 5 steps,” said Phobia as she stood in front of the two Ramia guards.

The two guards were puzzled at what to do with these three people with their odd personalities and their weird conversation. Finally the more outgoing of the two spoke again.

“You are too ugly to date us. Please leave and stop bothering...”

BAM! A bright flash of light and howl of wind from a skill lit up part of the hallway as the guard was thrown back into the wall and slumped down to the ground with his severed head falling to the ground.

The second Ramia guard either due to fright or bravery charged the woman with his sword and...

...was immediately cut in half by three different colorful skills from the three people in the hallway entrance.

“Haha, you were even turned down by those base lizard snakes,” said Kooter as he immediately jumped back a few steps to dodge an angry attack from Phobia.

The door to the first room opened shining a dim light into the hallway.

“What's going on out here?” asked an irritated Grand elder Tormoid as he walked into the hallway followed by Chief Raibread the Ramia leader of the Auga tribe. Behind him were a few other underlings.

Their gazes all fell onto the dead Ramia guards causing them to hastily retreat behind their guards and underlings as they looked at the three culprits that were now lit up by the room's light.

Akira's cloak was nearing the end of its use so he tried to hug the dark corner to hide from the two groups, one of which he was now sure were Demigods.

“Don't be a bunch of babies. We're here according to the deal we made the other day,” said Phobia with a voice that dripped disdain for the two different groups in front of her.

“You have the Item from the...?” Raibread was interrupted by Tormoid who placed a hand on his shoulder.

“So It's you guys. Let's talk about this in the privacy of our room,” said Tormoid as he walked back into the room followed by Raibread and his underlings.

As the three demigods walked to the open door Phobia stopped and looked to the end of the hallway that was shrouded in darkness.

“Why are you blocking the door? Hurry up and move,” said an impatient Kooter.

“I feel something is watching us,” said Phobia as she took a few steps towards the end of the hallway.

Akira's invisibility ran out right at that moment allowing Phobia to see a dark shadow.

“Who's hiding back there? Why are you spying on us?” asked Phobia as she stepped closer ready to attack.

The door next to Akira opened and a large muscular rock-like arm grabbed the surprised Akira and pulled him into the room before slamming the door shut again.

Akira's eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the dim light and found he was in a large candlelit room with many cheap-looking couches.

In front of him were several large-bodied stone gray bodies all wearing armor that was familiar to Akira. Akira was again surprised when he saw a familiar face in the group.

“Crulak? What...”

Crulak put a finger to his lips to tell Akira to be quiet and pointed to a corner of the room that was out of the direct sight of the door.

Akira quietly moved to the corner unsure what was going on. As he walked he heard a loud knock on the door.

Near twenty Kamen warriors joined Crulak at the door all with their weapons drawn before Crulak opened the door.

“What is it?” asked Crulak in a hostile voice towards the female demigod that stood in the hallway.

“Who was hiding out here?” asked Phobia.

“You don't need to know that information,” said Crulak as he glared at the demigods with utter hate.

The Phobia and her companions all took a threatening step forward with their hands on their weapons.

“Who was it?” asked Phobia in a cold and flat voice.

“If you enter our room we will kill you. You demigods may kill a few of us but we are not weak like those idiot Ramias. I suggest you leave us alone and go play your scheming games somewhere else,” said Crulak unafraid as he also stepped forward along with the other warriors all ready to fight.

“We still have a lot to discuss, so what are you guys doing?” asked Tormoid as he poked his head out of the room to look at the Demigods.

Phobia stood there for several seconds exchanging glares with Crulak before answering him.

“Nothing important, just a rat that was spying on the hallway.”

“I would like it if you refrain from calling someone from my clan a rat,” said Crulak.

Phobia raised her eyebrows in doubt giving Crulak and his warriors one more look over before turning around and walking back to the room where the other conspirators were waiting.

Crulak stood at the opened door staring at the room the demigods had disappeared into for a few more seconds before closing the door behind him.

He pulled down a sound dampening curtain from above the door before walking over to Akira.

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“What are you doing here?” asked Akira in a low voice.

“I could ask you the same thing. We came here for the auction when we heard about it from one of the dwarf traders. After it ended with such a bang we decided to stay the night and leave tomorrow.”

“No not that. I mean this building, it's a shady black market. As for why I came here, I came here looking for someone that the Ramias dragged to this dump,” said Akira.

“Oh you mean him?” said Crulak as he pointed to a tipsy Ferem who was drinking out of a large mug while other Kamen warriors cheered him on.

“We saw him getting dragged along and saved him from the Ramia as we headed to our own room. One of the locals introduced us to this place that sells... unusual and rare drinks,” said Crulak as he scratched his cheek in embarrassment.

“You let him drink illegal alcohol?” asked Akira as he walked over to Ferem.

“Hey! He said he was old enough to decide for himself,” said Crulak defensively.

“Oh, it's you Akira! Come join the fun! This stuff is great! Wait... why are there four of you and why are you standing on your head?” asked a completely drunk Ferem.

Ferem tilted his head and then his body to the side to try and see Akira properly as his body tilted more to the side he fell to the ground with a thump and started loudly snoring. A snot bubble expanding and retracting as he slept on the ground completely passed out.

“Must have drunk too much. That stuff is crazy strong and makes you see lots of different things,” said Crulak.

Akira sighed and walked over to the passed-out Ferem and placed the young man's arm around his shoulder and picked him up ready to leave the room.

“Wait! It's too dangerous to leave alone. Stay for a bit and talk with me about what happened out there. We can leave together which will be much safer,” said Crulak.

Akira thought it over for a few seconds before placing Ferem onto one of the empty couches.

“There are a few people waiting for me so I can only stay for a little longer,” said Akira.

“No worries, we were just getting ready to call it a night anyways. But before that what was that about,” asked Crulak pointing to the hallway.

“It seems that the Demigods are the ones who stole the mega auction item.”

“I knew they were up to no good! But why are they meeting here?”

“It's because the demigods along with the Saberfang tribe and the Ramia are scheming to take over Kodria.”

***

The mix of werewolves and Kamen warriors walked through the quiet night streets as they headed back to the gates to return to their camps so they could get ready to leave Jerora in the morning.

They were tempted to leave immediately but Akira cautioned against it. They still needed to inform governor Scoit of the situation and there was still the threat of Demigods doing something to the city.

As Akira half dragged half carried the unconscious Ferem he looked around the empty streets with suspicion. After a few more empty streets he stopped and placed the unconscious Ferem in an alcove of a nearby building.

The scent of blood reached his nose as a gust of wind blew down the deserted street. Further sending warning signals to his brain.

Both Akira and his guards immediately transformed.

“Awoooooo!” Akira and the other werewolves let out loud howls of warning which echoed throughout the quiet corner of Jerora.

The sudden howl surprised the Kamen warriors but Crulak who had been through many battles with the sneaky Ramia immediately understood what was going on.

“Enemy attack!” shouted Crulak alerting his own warriors.

Swoosh! Slice! Two bright colored skills a wind blade and a sword slash shot out from two different side streets. Both attacks were aimed directly at their group giving them no place to escape.

The Kamen warriors were able to hastily put up a defense against the surprise attack. When the attacks landed they left large gouges in the shields and armor.

Ramia warriors flooded out of the side streets, their weapons held high as they charged towards the Kamen and werewolves who were standing in the middle of the road.

In order to give the Kamen warriors more time to organize a better defense, Akira sent a [Sword Slash] flying out towards the rushing mob of Ramia. His attack caused several of them to fall to the ground as they were heavily wounded.

As Akira readied another skill attack, he saw someone moving quickly behind the mob of Ramia from the right side street to the left.

“Can you handle the Ramia?” Akira asked Crulak in a hurried growl.

“Ha! These guys are nothing! We can take care of this small group, just be careful that you're not biting off more than you can chew!” said Crulak as his sword chopped down on one of the Ramias heads splitting it open.

“Fluffball protect Ferem! Zundar, help Crulak. Dolph, Vilkas, we're going after the masterminds of this attack! Follow close behind me!”

“Yap!” said Fluffball.

With that, Akira activated his skill [Shield Slam] and rocketed forward knocking the Ramia warriors out of the way clearing a path to the left side street. Both Dolph and Vilkas followed closely behind him, attacking any who tried to stop them.

As Akira rocketed out of the crowd he saw the three Demigods from the hallway just ahead of him.

They were just about to leave the area when Akira hurtled forward and slammed into the lightly armored female demigod with his shield. His own surprise attack sent her flying through the air only to stop after she crashed through a stone wall of a nearby building.

The two male demigods' reaction to the attack was slow by a few seconds but as soon as they understood what was going on they shot off a few weak skills aimed at Akira who was just recovering from his wild charge forward.

The attacks landed on his armor and only left shallow marks. Although the attacks did not deal any damage to Akira he was still surprised that there were any marks on his armor It had been a long time since a demigod had been able to leave such damage to his armor since he had changed to his new armor set.

Seeing this he knew that the demigods were getting stronger and it was only a matter of time before they started to walk around with few people to rival their power.

Dolph and Vilkas arrived seconds later each leaping towards one of the two male demigods who were already readying a second wave of attacks aimed at Akira.

Dolph clobbered the Knight over the head stunning him for a second. This allowed Dolph to grab the knight in a bear-hug and begin to squeeze him. The sound of the metal armor crumpling could be heard as his large fur-covered muscular arms tightened around the demigod.

“Gah!” the knight let out a pained scream as his arms and chest were getting compressed.

Vilkas on the other side had been able to grab onto both of the nimble leather armored demigod's arms. He was now holding the arms out to the side and started to stretch them not allowing the demigod a chance to use a skill.

“Ahhh! Let go of my arms you mutt! You're going to tear them off if you keep stretching them like that!” shouted the leather armored demigod.

“That's exactly what I'm trying to do!” said Vilkas as he applied more strength into his attempt at separating the man's arms from his body.

Akira had already recovered by now and was charging towards the third demigod who was still struggling to get out of the rubble.

Although she was half standing she managed to send out two more Wind-blade skill attacks that slammed into Akira's shield.

Akira's sword came slashing towards the demigod's neck which she quickly leaned to the side with just enough room to spare...

...but the sword suddenly grew longer and sliced through one of her neck arteries causing her to start bleeding heavily.

A bottle of red liquid appeared in her hands and she tried to drink the contents of the bottle while choking on blood and dodging Akira's swift attacks.

She was successful in drinking the potion and her neck wound was visibly starting to heal. But unfortunately, she was now cornered from all of her erratic rolling around trying to escape from the attacks.

To make matters worse several shadow chains shot out of the ground and held her to the ground halting her attempts to escape.

She struggled to free herself but only received a sword attack that pierced her heart.

“Ha! I know who you are! You think you've won? Just wait until...” said Phobia with blood spitting out of her mouth. Before she could say more she disappeared into several fragments of light leaving behind a small bottle of black liquid on the trampled snowy ground.

The fighting behind Akira was also finishing up as Dolph killed the Knight demigod while Vilkas tore his opponent to pieces.

The Ramia seeing the Demigods getting brutally slaughtered started to back away ready to run away but Crulak had it all under control and kept them locked down and engaged in the fight maiming and or killing a large portion of them.

Akira grabbed the fragile glass vile that now had several cracks spreading as he picked it up.

Crack!

The bottle exploded into tiny shards of glass and the black liquid splattered all over Akira.

Alarmingly the liquid started to seep into the cracks of his armor and seep into his fur and muscular body.

Ding!

Rare [Night Quilin's tear] potion has been used!

You have entered a fast-growth stage!

You have killed the demigod Phobia. Your level has reached 100!

Requirements to upgrade your class have been unlocked!

Updating 1%...

“What in the hell is going on here!?” shouted a captain of Jerora's city guard as he ran down the street with over 60 city guards behind him.