"I am quite sure you know what is about to happen." Hori said as he stood a small distance away from the group.

Kesshō nodded slowly.

"Well, not quite on the same level as during Kenjutsu however," Hori shrugged.

That was, in a way, true. During Kenjutsu there were forty students, whereas this time there are only half as many, a mere twenty.

"I want you to fight them, without holding back," Hori demanded. "Use any of your hybrid abilities you want, without killing them. Everything is fine as long as you don't kill them."

Kesshō nodded her understanding before ordering her tails. Despite being fairly soft and stretchy, her tails were a force to be reckoned. With their length, strength, and unexplainable sharpness, penetrating even a knight's armor is child's play, and these people were only wearing a white kimono and a white hakama, which served as close to no armor.

"Fight any way you like," Hori reminded one last time. "Now, start."

Startled at the sudden start, Kesshō took a few steps back, keeping a safe distance between her and her opponents. One of them, a man twice her size charged straight towards her. Kesshō hissed on instinct as she was startled by the charge, baring her fangs and startling everyone around in the process. It wasn't her hiss that startled everyone however, it was the flaming glow in her mouth that did.

The man retreated to a safe distance and all twenty opponents surrounded her while staying away, all of them wary and afraid of her. Kesshō wasn't allowed to kill them, limiting her weapon choices by quite a lot as most of her natural weapons would mortally wound any being. She couldn't use her claws or fangs, her venom or fire breaths, which she just realized she may even possess due to the bright glow in her mouth a moment ago. Taking in a deep breath she readied herself for attacks, but none came for a while, everyone being afraid of her.

"What are you even teaching them Hori?" Kurai questioned from his spot beside the tree. "They are afraid of flames, do you really expect them to be able to fight an army? All the general will have to do is hold a torch and they will run away."

That didn't make much sense to Kesshō, or any. Firstly, she didn't understand the relation between being afraid of flames or armies and fighting her here. Secondly, she didn't understand why anyone would be afraid of flames as she found them very beautiful, unaware that not everyone is fireproof.

"Why don't you show us how to defeat her then?" The man nearest to Kurai challenged.

"Sure." He accepted the challenge as he sprung to his feet.

He walked through the circle straight towards Kesshō. She watched as he approached, not even bothering to do anything. For Kesshō, Kurai was one of the few people she believed will not hurt her, the reason why even her phoenix tails didn't bother to do anything. As he got closer, her Blood Wolf tails wagged behind her, affectionately, expecting him to most likely pat her head as he usually did.

He smiled at her when he got near. Kesshō returned the smile, completely unaware of what was about to happen, about to, though it didn't happen.

Kurai stared at Kesshō for a while before shaking his head and sighing. "I am not doing this, she trusts me too much." Kurai sighed as he walked back after patting her. "Breaking her trust would be far too cruel."

Kesshō was alerted to movement behind by her tails, turning around, she bared her fangs and hissed at the person behind. It was Sora who raised his hands showing he meant no harm. Kesshō relaxed ever so slightly, her eyes and her tails following his every movement. At first he took a few more steps towards Kesshō, but then walked out of the circle.

"I'd rather not put myself in harm's way for such a trivial matter." Sora declared as he stood close to the tree Kurai was sitting by. "And she doesn't trust me one bit, which I can fully understand."

"I wouldn't either if someone tried to sneak up from behind me," Kurai pointed out.

"Start already, she isn't going to kill you." Hori ordered his students, the disappointment clear in his voice.

The smallest one of them, a boy around Yuki's height, hesitantly took a few steps towards Kesshō. His hesitation was not only due to fear, he didn't want to harm Kesshō either, or that was what Kesshō felt like at the least, being pretty confident of it. She relaxed herself and ordered her tails to not attack, having stopped hissing as he approached.

Seeing this the boy took a deep breath. "Sorry." He whispered softly before swinging his arm for a hook punch.

Being one of the few techniques Kesshō learnt, she performed it without hesitation and with precision. Stepping within his hand and body, grabbing his hand she redirected, this time, using her own body to act as a hindrance and toppling them over instead of tripping them, hoping to not break their arm. This way, she could also easily flip over heavier opponents and toss lighter opponents with more ease than before.

The boy would have fell on the hard ground and been hurt, if not for Kesshō's tails grabbing him by his leg as his head was almost touching the ground. They slowly lowered him to the ground, harmlessly, though Kesshō could sense their desire to toss the kid down the mountain. He stared in disbelief before getting up and bowing, Kesshō returning his bow as he exited the circle and stood outside.

This time, two people charged at her at the same time. Both attacked at the same time, one with a spinning back kick and one a hook punch. Not knowing how to react in this situation Kesshō ducked out of the way and they hit each other's, both falling to the ground, allowing Kesshō to finish the round however she liked, which she allowed her tails to do as they were excited to finally hurt someone. Her tails struck the two around the base of their neck with great force, knocking them unconscious.

Her central tail pointed the pressure point on her neck, so she would be able to attack it herself whenever she required to do so. She nodded her understanding as another person that towered over everyone else, and must be at least as heavy as a horse, approached her. He walked cautiously, afraid of something that much smaller than himself.

As he approached her, Kesshō's tails tapped lightly in a combination on her body, gesturing her to do the same to him. She waited for him to get into striking distance, not showing any sign of hostility till then, already having confused him by the tapping of her tails. As he got closer he let his guard down for a moment to see if she would attack, but she did not.

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Seeing that she didn't attack, he readied himself to attack Just as he was readying himself to attack, Kesshō sprung into action, startling him as he attempted to step back, leaving many openings in his defense. Striking the points in quick succession and in the same sequence, she paralyzed his entire body which stood in the same position with an expression of pain and horror, his eyes closing with a chop to the neck which knocked him unconscious. Everyone watched wide-eyed as the giant of a man fell to the ground, not moving and breathing slowly.

Scared of facing the same fate, the remaining sixteen nodded and sprang into action together. They kicked and punched wildly, allowing Kesshō to easily dodge and redirect attacks. She redirected the attacks which would have been harder to dodge, and dodged all others, not even attacked as she did, defeating six this way in the first few minutes. The remaining ten continued their attack, not paying any mind to their fallen allies.

Four of the ten attacked Kesshō at the same time, in perfect coordination, a sure hit, it would have been, if not for Kesshō's tails. Wrapping around the hands of the four, her tails flung them away towards the sky. They fell from the height of a tree and writhed in pain on the ground, some distance away from the battle, as the remaining six watched in horror.

Kesshō reprimanded her tails for being too brutal, but was cut short with the six continuing their attack. Her tails again flung four away again, less brutally this time however. One of the remaining two successfully grabbed Kesshō and tried choking her out with his forearm while the last one readied himself to knock her out with a punch.

Startled and scared due to certain past experiences, she let her instincts take over and bit the man grabbing her, sinking her fangs deep in his flesh. He cried out in pain and let her go, swiping his arm from under her jaws, which resulted in her teeth slashing through most of what was under them as he forced it out, his scream cut short by the punch from the last one. The last one stared at his companion before Kesshō's tails knocked him out as well, not waiting for him to try something.

Sora blew a whistle and two people in black outfits emerged from a tree and a bush and examined the person Kesshō bit. Suddenly aware of the danger she could have put him in, Kesshō stood where she was, trauma and terror seizing her heart and her body shaking. The people that were still conscious joined by the injured man, watching him and wincing at the wound inflicted by Kesshō.

"That is a deadly bite," Sora observed.

Kurai, Hori and the boy that Kesshō did not hurt nodded their agreement as Kesshō took a step back in horror of having almost killed an innocent person.

"Is it venomous?" The boy asked, expecting the worst.

Hearing the question, Kesshō checked her fangs and her venom reserves, relieved on realising that no venom was injected and the man might survive, but not without any lifelong wounds.

"Yes." Sora answered, much to Kesshō's surprise and confusion.

The boy gasped along with Hori.

"Not this particular one luckily," Sora added. "No venom was injected, but the holes left by the canines indicate that she might be venomous, so are you?"

Kesshō nodded before turning to the man and looking at the mark left by her fangs. A deep wound was left on the man's right hand due to her bite, the semicircular path traced by her fangs clearly visible and bleeding violently. From the deep curve where she first bit, deep lines were marked in the flash from the man having pulled his hand through her razor sharp teeth, attributing to the worst part of his injury. There was blood pouring out in large quantities even as the people attempted to stem the flow. In the bite mark, from what was visible, four points went much deeper than the rest, her four upper canines.

Sora led Kesshō, Kurai, and Hori a few paces away from all the unconscious people, the boy following them with nothing better do. Sora didn't seem to mind his presence, knowing the boy was simply curious.

Sora knelt down in front of Kesshō and gestured for her to open her mouth. She did as she was told, not wanting to do anything else wrong which could possibly make them lose their trust in her. Sora examined her fangs with great interest as she opened her jaws. Picking up a thin stick, he placed it at the edge of her mouth, the end of the stick hovering just slightly ahead of her teeth. It touched one of her teeth as Sora slightly raised it and her jaws snapped shut with great force, instinctively, without Kesshō wanting them to, slicing the wood effortlessly. She spat out the part of the stick and coughed at the taste of wood, which she did not like one bit.

"Very deadly indeed." Sora nodded.

"Mind elaborating?" Kurai requested.

"You see, she has eight canines, all of which inject venom most likely, but it could be just the upper four which do too. She has a barely visible opening at the tip of each canine so I will expect for it to be the upper four. Also, her teeth are not for grabbing on to things like of most creatures. While she can definitely grab on to something with them, it's only so they will struggle and attempt to pull their limb or whatever away, as that man did. And when they do so, due to her sharp teeth, a large amount of the flesh they attempt to pull away is most likely ripped out. She can also use her teeth to easily bite chunks of flesh right out of anything, without having to try pull it apart like most creatures need to. That is just how sharp her teeth are, and how they are made." Sora explained as well as he could.

Hori and Kurai nodded thoughtfully as the boy took a side glance at Kesshō and few steps away from her, feeling scared of her upon learning the danger she poses to anything that is alive and could be killed.

"Can I have permission to collect some of her venom?" Sora requested Kurai.

Kurai thought for a while looking at Kesshō and then nodded. "If you can make an antidote to it then certainly, we should keep some just in case."

"I can't guarantee that, but I can certainly try." Sora assured unhooking a small cylindrical glass container from an inside flap of his outfit and approaching Kesshō. "Just sink your teeth into the cloth at the top of the bottle and inject some of your venom." Sora explained to Kesshō.

She did as she was told, her two upper left canines penetrating the cloth at the top. She injecting her venom into it, slowly but surely. Half the venom went into the jar, and half on the ground from her right fangs. Kesshō pulled her fangs away as she realised that and watched as the grass sizzled, melted, and died.

"That was unexpected," Sora observed, his left leg raised in the air as it was closer to the spray. "It acts as both a venom and an acid."

He suddenly dropped the glass container on to the ground, luckily not breaking it. Kesshō immediately went to pick it up for me, not realising as Sora jumped away to get some distance.

"Step back!" He shouted at the others taking a safe distance from the vial.

Startled, Kesshō failed to move in time, and was the only one standing in range as the glass container exploded into a thousand shards of glass with a spray of venom in the radius. The shards of glass flew everywhere along with the venom, embedding in the grass and slicing and melting it. Luckily, everyone was out of range, everyone who could be harmed by it at the least. The glass shards slashed Kesshō's skin and clothes but bounced harmlessly off her scales, her skins and clothes regenerating in a few seconds. Being immune to her own venom, both to the acidic and venomous affects, Kesshō simply wiped the venom from her face with the sleeves of her coat.

Sora stared in disbelief and Kurai breathed a sigh of relief on seeing Kesshō unharmed. Hori and the boy wore expressions of relief on surviving unharmed, not paying much mind to Kesshō, already having seen enough for the day. Getting up everyone cautiously entered the radius of the small blast, marked by dead and melted grass and shards of glass.

"From the looks of it," Sora announced, "her venom can't be collected, or used by anyone else because of that." He pointed to the area as evidence of the conclusion he arrived at.

Kurai nodded his agreement, knowing very well the consequences if he was caught in that blast.

"She is just indestructible." Hori exclaimed on seeing Kesshō standing completely unharmed and unmoved.

"It's the scales mainly, not her skin or her." Sora remarked pointing to a small spot of removed skin on her cheek. "I doubt even her flesh below the scales would be anywhere as tough." The spot recovered in front of everyone's eyes, closing and concealing the scales and amazing them.

"My lord!" A person in knight armor called out running towards them. He stopped in front of Kurai and tried to say something that could not be understood. He stopped on seeing everyone's confused expressions, taking heavy breaths, calming himself down before continuing. "My lord! The dragon is back." He exclaimed in horror as everyone gasped on hearing it, Kesshō still being confused.