Leadership skills, my ass! I might not have had it in me, as they said, but what that bitch Stella Palemoon was pulling didn't exactly inspire confidence in her.

Not the pressing issue, though.

The question was whether to go all out against her from the start or to take it slowly. Each of my forms had its pros and cons. As a human, I could make the most of my close combat fighting style's potential. And yes, I called it mine because even though it was something Deckard taught me, I had to adapt it to my body.

As a beast, it was different. My strength grew with each tier of [Beast], the more I gave in to my wildness. On the downside, my ability to use my martial skills to the fullest was dwindling the more of a beast I became, to the point where I wasn't able to use my combat techniques as a Tier IV beast at all.

So, to go all out or not?

"What are you waiting for, Grey? Attack!" Stella Palemoon dared me. She tried to look upbeat, that she wasn't afraid of me attacking her, that anything I might try she was ready for. And honestly, it likely wasn't far from the truth. Remembering how Clay was able to block all my attacks with his spear was still vivid in my memory. I had no idea how to get past his defenses other than to bash him senselessly. It was damn frustrating and something I didn't want to experience again. The spear, one of the reasons I've been so reserved, may not have been her main weapon, but if she could wield it only half as well as Clay could, I couldn't afford to go easy on her.

"Why don't you," I barked back as we slowly circled each other, watching for the opponent's move.

To be fair, I had a hunch I'd be at a disadvantage once she moved, just like with mossbears. I had to be the one to make the first step the way she wanted me to, take the initiative. The question was, how big should I go?

The bitch smirked. "When I will, it will be to end this farce."

What a squad leader. Palemoon seemed to have completely given up on that just now, fully intent on teaching me a lesson first and foremost. Her way. What I found galling was that she didn't consider me much of a threat or at least act like that, like if she wanted to, she could take me down whenever she felt like it. Either way, I made my decision. Not a hasty one, nor a provoked one, but one that I made after some serious consideration. I needed to go all in, surprise the bitch, not go into a drawn-out battle with her and end up dancing to her tune.

So, I shifted right into my full beast form, throwing my armor into the spatial rings, and even before all my four feet hit the ground, I roared, striking her with my beast presence. A new trick that came with this form, one, as I said, that was a bit janky and not one I've properly mastered so far - I guess, like the whole presence thing - yet one that took the bitch by surprise.

Palemoon's eyes widened, her hands trembled, and she took a staggering step back. Having no qualms about it, I pounced a heartbeat later and slammed her to the ground. I could have gone for the throat and ripped it to shreds, killing her. Instead, according to the limits we set, I chose the exposed elbow of her right arm, the one in which she held the spear.

The moment I had it between my teeth, I bit down as hard as I could and jerked. Bones cracked, Palemoon screamed, and I tasted her blood in my mouth. The small victory I was hoping for. Sadly, it brought our so-called leader out of her stupor.

For someone who should be in incredible pain, at least I'd be in her shoes, she reacted quickly and level-headedly. Abandoning the spear, she let a sword appear in her good hand. Then a faint glow of aura enveloped her all over. Rayden used similar shit to calm people down...or suppress them if necessary. Two ways I've seen her use it so far. The reason for this one eluded me, though. It didn't make me calm, if anything the opposite, giving me the creeps, nor did it suppress me. The only conclusion was that the aura was not meant for the enemy, but for the user.

Pressed by the urgency, I yanked with my head again, failing to rip her arm off, before diving aside from the swing of her sword. And Palemoon was damn quick with the weapon! Just a heartbeat later, and it would have been me bleeding too. Of course, I didn't back away to a safe distance just like that and left a few parting cuts on that arrogant human's thighs with the claws of my hind legs as I sprang away.

Sadly, it didn't seem to slow her down. Palemoon jumped to her feet with an ease that would suggest she didn't even notice her injuries. Even her face reflected anger, not the pain she should be feeling. After all, her right arm, though still attached to her body, just dangled listlessly along her side, bleeding heavily.

Not taken out of the fight as I had hoped, the cheeky human dare glared at me, more pissed off than before. Her eyes were still cold and hard to read; her emotions not so much. For my beast instincts in this form, it was a piece of cake. The human’s lofty attitude was gone, and she no longer stood in her cocky stance, looking down on me. Instead, the bitch watched me with her cold eyes knowing I was someone she had to pay damn close attention to unless she wanted to end up in shreds. Now, for the first time, she took me seriously and was ready to take my attack in a defensive stance.

The thing was, despite her injury, I didn't see any opening in her defense, and we ended up circling each other again, something I couldn't afford to do. Potions and the like that usually aided one in combat may have been banned in these fights, duels, bouts, whatever you want to call this farce, but for all I knew, her regeneration could be just as good, if not better than mine. Not to mention the other skills she could use to heal herself - theoretically.

There, feint on her side or not, I had to attack. So, I pounced.

***

'Shit! Shit! Shit!' Stella cursed in her mind as the beast the size of an Iron-Fanged Wolf lunged at her again. And, of course, it went for her right side, the one where her now useless arm was hanging at her side. Her left hand - the remaining good one - gripping one of her twin swords trembled as she fended off the beast's claws, the memory of the previous attack getting to her. Blood, her blood, was still dripping from the beast's mouth, and it was craving more.

'Crap, get your shit together!' Stella cursed again as she realized her mind was going into shock again and flooded her body with an even more intense aura. [Stellar Mind] was a lifesaver in keeping her mind clear of any threat, passively to some extent all the time. Yet when the beast attacked for the first time, her heart clenched with a terror she had never known in her life. She felt her doom coming; her body gave up any resistance and simply froze in front of the incoming beast. It made no sense to her, as she had already encountered beasts of levels much higher than the one she was facing now, and none had stirred such fear in her.

'What the actual fuck was that?!'

Her eyes fixed on the beast, Stella now saw it in a different light. No, it was no beast. It would be a mistake to think so. Her, it was her, Korra'leigh Grey, in fact. Her new squadmate she grossly underestimated.

[Slave: lvl 121]

'Slave my ass!' Grey was no slave; that much was clear to her and must have been to anyone who saw her in this form. Yet Stella couldn't think of any shifter of Grey's level that could do what she could. Those people were able to twist their bodies, taking on the characteristics of the beasts and giving themself beast traits. At their core, they remained human, though. What that woman did was something only shifters at the 200 level and above could do. She turned into a full beast.

'The world is a vast place, full of wonders. And just when you think you've seen it all, there may be something around the next corner that will take your breath away.' These were the words of one of her teachers who tried to tell her never to rely strictly on what she knew and to keep an open mind because the world was not as simple as people would like it to be. It was foolish to think otherwise, let alone sticking your head in the sand, hoping everything will be okay if you don't look.

Her teacher would surely rub her nose in her failure now. Stella was too arrogant, too cocky, and full of herself, thinking she could take on anyone from Squad Four with ease. What a fool she was. 'I should have looked in those files,' she thought to herself as she kept her eyes on the beast that studied her, circling her, looking for a weak spot in her defense.

One look in the domain at her hand and Stella tasted bile in her throat. Grey broke her bones, tore her tendons, and nearly ripped her arm off. If it wasn't for [Pain Defiance], she'd be in a lot deeper shit right now than she actually was. 'Pain could cloud even the sharpest mind.' More wisdom from one of their teachers

No, thanks to [Stellar Mind], the pain wasn't the problem. It was the injury itself. The [Breath of Healing], an aura skill, was able to take care of minor wounds of both her and her teammates, but the condition her right arm was in was beyond its capabilities. All Stella could do with it was stop the bleeding and hope she doesn't lose her arm further into the fight so that the healers could do their job when she was done with Grey. To do that, to last that long, she had to stop her bleeding quickly, though. And that took a lot of her focus. The downside of the skill, which was otherwise quite versatile.

A few moments, only a few heartbeats, when she slackened her focus on her opponent was enough for Grey to pounce again. The woman, now a beast, swung her huge tail, flapped her wings, and was upon her, trying to sink her teeth and claws into her.

Stella swallowed the shudder, a dreadful memory of the first attack, that tried to break through the effects of the [Stellar Mind] again and skillfully dodged and deflected the beast's attacks with her sword. Grey was incredibly fast despite the size of her form, yet Stella was a tad faster. And that wasn't the only oddity she found. The beast attacks, each one she parried, hitting hard as they were and sending jolts through the sword into her hand, weren't as powerful as she expected.

It was simply odd.

Almost as if Grey's power didn't match her level. Attacks from shifters of her level tended to be even stronger. After all, strength was what they mostly focused on. That was unless the beast they were taking the traits from was centered otherwise. Once her mother invited a shifter mage, a former slave, to spar with her. He was an incredible mage, using magic in a more beastly way.

‘Former slave!’

That's when it hit her. Grey used to be a slave. And what did slaves do when they got free? They swapped their skills. She may have wholly redone her entire skillset, meaning she was no stronger than her three squadmates.

'Traiana's tits!' A swell of anger built up in the pit of her stomach. Someone like that dared to do this to her?! That was humiliating! Stella was supposed to show the master guards that she was cut to be one of them; instead, she was now here for everyone to laugh at.

"This is more like it."

"Give her what she deserves, Grey!"

"Looks like she's going to have to jill-off with her left for a while."

"I could help her if she wants."

"As if some gal would let you touch her."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

And so it went on. Embarrassing, humiliating, and not at all how it was supposed to be. Everyone should have been in awe of her prowess and not made fun of her. All because of her, that beast, that bitch, that…cunt who didn't know her place and needed someone to show it to her.

Getting her bearings back, Stella took a deep breath and prepared herself to take her honor back.

***

I'd have to be dense not to notice a change in Palemoon's demeanor. The bitch got herself back together - not her arm, it was still bleeding, albeit less than a few beats before - no, she got the shit in her head under control. The moment of her surprise was gone, and the cold bitch was back, more determined than ever.

Even though she was only one-handed, I couldn't find a hole in her defense. That didn't mean it wasn't there. Deckard had probably seen a half dozen of them in her posture and even more in mine - beastly as it was. I was sure that he's gonna give me an earful when this was over, and I was fine with that. However, more beneficial, in my opinion, would be if he gave me some advice now.

The bastard kept radio silence, though.

Palemoon was good. I had to give it to her. Despite the state she was in, she kept her composure. If I had to say, thanks to the strange aura she's surrounded herself with. Some equivalent of my [Indomitable Will]. A will that would be best broken again before I attack. Only, it wasn't that easy.

That beast presence wasn't at my disposal whenever I felt like it. Whether it was because I didn't get it the proper way, it simply took a while before I could use it again. Trying to do it sooner than ready, you could say out of the cooldown, was like breathless trying to scream.

Ah, an opening!

I pounced with the ferocity of a hungry beast, straining every muscle to get through the bitch's defenses as fast as I could. That it was exactly what she wanted, I realized too late and ran into her fake opening like a fool. When she stepped aside and swung her sword with grace, Freyde could only envy, all I could do was rely on my barrier.

To think that someone of her level wouldn't shatter it would be naive. And so I formed the magic shield in such a way that the blade of her sword didn't go directly against it but slid sideways over it.

Worked like a charm.

The barrier held, the blade passed me, and I managed to leave a few claw marks on the calf of the surprised bitch before I backed off again.

***

'Are you kidding me?! A fucking barrier?!' Stella couldn't believe what she had just witnessed and ruined her attempt to teach the beast a lesson, to give her the payback she so badly deserved. What sane shifter would have the skill for a barrier? It didn't make any damn sense to her. That was simply a waste of skill and potential that the shifter class offered.

That was supposed to be a Guardian, a squad tank? A fucking idiot, that's what the cunt was. It seems that nobody had the guts to tell her, though.

Not that Stella minded. It made her teaching the beast a lesson all the easier. She just had to be careful not to let her get too close and not to forget that there was a woman in the beast's body. Sure, dumb as she was, but still a thinking person, all to more dangerous than a mere beast. The reason Stella was bleeding from her calf now and her shin guards were intact.

'Will the faint work twice?' Stella doubted that but gave it a shot, anyway.

***

Did Palemoon think I was dumb enough to fall for it twice? Did she take me for a mere beast? How conceited could she be? What a pretentious bitch! I growled to let her know how I felt about her.

Annoyingly, that growl didn't do much, and I didn't see any other chance to attack in her defense. Going against her sword seemed too bold, too risky, and relying on the barrier would be foolish. It worked so well once because she didn't know about it, and to think it would work as well a second time would be stretching my luck.

So, what to do next?

The riddle Palemoon resolved for me when she moved, taking the initiative. And she was damn fast, or should I say, carried herself efficiently. Her movements, her steps, were far from Deckard's, yet compared to her, I felt like a duck before a swan.

Of course, I moved too, my focus on her sword, ready to form a barrier in a heartbeat. Palemoon went for my wing, so I ducked down, wings pressed against the body, only to realize that was exactly what the bitch was after. She turned on her heel and performed a downward cut right up against my shoulder. A well-timed barrier saved me from the worst. It deflected her cut, slowed it down, and took away its power. Yet it reached my flesh, and the tip of her blade left a cut in my shoulder.

I've had worse wounds, bigger ones that went deeper to the bone, but this one hurt like hell. Almost as if a flame had entered my flesh with her blade. And it likely wasn't far from the truth as I felt the alien mana in the wound, a familiar sensation to what I felt when Roe Blackthorn unleashed rotting magic on my heart through the dagger embedded in my chest.

There was only one way to deal with it, and that was to flood the place with my mana. In a way, I solved two issues with it. I push out the foreign mana burning my flesh with mine while boosting my regeneration and stopping the wound's bleeding in a few breaths.

All while Palemoon was trying to chop me to pieces. The bitch followed her first swipe with another and then one even faster, barely traceable even though my domain. Some I avoided, others I deflected with a barrier, yet a few cut into my flesh, leaving the burning mana inside. That conceited human bitch was relentless. I'd almost say senseless if I didn't see the cold, calm look in her eyes.

***

'What the fuck was she?' Stella cursed under her breath for the umpteenth time. Grey was suffering from low-level skills; that much was obvious. The cunt was inferior to her. Yet, Stella failed to inflict more severe damage on her. The barriers, as weak as they were and as little sense it made for the beast to have such a skill, were starting to get on her nerves.

Whenever she wanted to land a slash, one formed to deflect the line of her strike in sync with Grey's efforts to avoid her attack. And if that wasn't enough, when she had already managed to do some damage, make the beast bleed, it appeared pointless.

Stella's mana, an aura meant to burn away the power of her opponents her blade carried, disappeared from the beast's wounds as quickly as it had entered them. If her opponent was a mage, she wouldn't dwell on it. They had the mana capacity to shrug something like that off. It was just that she was up against a shifter, a fact she was beginning to question.

Even the incredible regeneration was unlike them. Sure, shifters inherently had good regeneration, but not as good as at the level the cunt was. The first cuts she inflicted on the beast were already almost healed. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed it.

Yet it was so, and she struggled with how to deal with the beast. They were ways for her still, of course; only it was something she thought she wouldn't have to use against anyone in Squad Four, the skills and moves with which she intended to impress the master guards she hoped to face. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that someone from that unit, her new squad, would push her to use those.

That was when Grey surprised her again.

Instead of trying to avoid her slash once more, to deflect it with a barrier, the beast came out to meet her strike. The cunt pounced, ignoring the danger of her sword. Or so Stela thought. As her blade was about to sink into the beast's side, it shifted. Standing in front of her was a woman, a full-terran in armor which she blocked her strike with. The next second Grey ducked down, tripped her legs with a spin kick, and before she had time to regain her balance, sent her flying with another kick to the chest.