27 All Out Brawl!

"What the f*ck?" John immediately reacted as soon as some random ass dude started charging in with a crackling lightning sword in his hands.

The guy looked at John with pure rage in his eyes, and behind him were a smaller, stout man with a thick beard, probably a dwarf, by the looks of, and a giant of a furred werewolf. The dwarf stayed back while the werewolf charged forwards, though behind the human.

"The Ravagers!" shouted Hemet. He immediately shoved a hand into his Bag of Holding. "I will cover you, my friend, trust in me!"

Hemet took out a…dried blue finger preserved in bandages that emitted a chilling, foggy aura. He clutched the finger in his non-gauntlet hand, and as his hand wrapped around the finger, the veins in his palms and forearm became visible, bulging in dark blue, jutting lines.

Then, Hemet leaped away into the thick of the forest, out of the light of the campfire, his figure disappearing in a shroud of fog.

John had more faith in Hemet to back him up now because the imp had stuck with John despite having had multiple chances to cut and run.

So John focused instead on the immediate problems in front of him.

A screaming man, a screaming werewolf, and a dwarf pointing the barrel of what looked like a hand cannon at him.

Great.

Since John was on the other side of the planet, it was no longer day, and the wintry weather conditions meant the thronging dark clouds above blocked sunlight exposure regardless. This meant John's Hours of Glory skill was not active, but even then, he was strong.

Much, much stronger than John had been when he was captured.

By now, individually, he was decently stronger than any one of these guys, this, he could tell by their scent.

They did not have nearly the same level of acrid ash scent as the Firebat Matriarch.

They were all around the level of the Verdant Panther, having Low to Medial Mystic grade cores with the werewolf seeming to be the strongest of them all, but not by a drastic amount.

The issue was that John, for now, was outnumbered three to one. He had to cut the numbers down and even the odds fast before he got ganked and swarmed.

Fight smart, not hard. Or do both.

Whatever it took to not end up being captured, sold, and dissected like a lab rat.

"You would insult Astra!? You face your deaths!" shouted the man as he upped his pace, magical energy starting to emanate out of him in a translucent white aura.

John immediately knew then why the human guy was charging him, for an insult to a waifu was a grave one indeed. The man was wielding his blade in service of his honorable Astra.

So, this must be the idol obsessed captain.

John felt equal amounts cringe and respect that this man was capable of driving up so much willpower for an idol that probably knew literally nothing about him.

'I salute you, fellow who is far more cultured than I,' thought John. 'But your degeneracy now betrays you!'

John took the box of recording crystals in front of him and tossed them roughly towards the captain, throwing with enough force to make sure if the captain did not catch it, it would break apart.

"No! Astra!" shouted the captain as he stopped right in front of John, dropping his sword to catch his prized collection of Astra performances.

That was when John leaped in the air and flipped forwards, whipping his muscular tail straight down on the captain's head with a sizable, thudding impact.

This immediately sent the captain smashing face first into the dirt, bonked completely into unconsciousness.

One down, two to go, thought John.

"Smash!" said the werewolf as he trampled his captain's unconscious body with zero concern to charge John.

Evidently, this crew did not really have much of anything resembling mutual respect for each other.

"Yeah, no thanks. Not into any kind of smash with you," said John as he met the werewolf's charge head on.

The wolf man tackled John with a full shoulder bash, and the sound of impact was a hard, echoing crack. John grimaced as he felt the plating of his scales on his chest shatter.

The werewolf's shoulder muscles were thick and pronounced, and they were also incredibly hard to an unnatural degree, having the feel more of stone or metal than flesh. This made his rounded shoulder muscle hit like a bludgeoning boulder.

"You don't skip shoulder day, do you!" shouted John, his quip sounding exactly like a ferocious roar because of his draconic vocal chords.

He was still optimistic he could win this, though. He growled as he pushed against the werewolf's charge. He was raised up on his hind legs, and his claws dug in the dirt for traction. He skid in the dirt as the wolf snarled and pushed him back.

But in terms of raw physical strength, John was on par with the werewolf, and soon enough, he skidded to a halt, stalemating the wolf man. This was when John used the leverage of being on his hind legs already to try and bite down on the werewolf's shoulder, his teeth encased in whirling green magical energy from the Verdant Panther's [Mana Blade] skill.

John specifically aimed for the trapezius muscle, not the jugular, because the wolf man had a thick mane surrounding his neck that would probably snag on the rotating mana-saws of his teeth.

In addition, John was not yet prepared to end these guys' lives if he could help it.

John felt comfortably in position to subdue them and try to get some answers and information out of them if he could.

Sparks flew from John's mouth as he chomped down on the werewolf's shoulder, and he realized he had underestimated how durable the werewolf's muscles were.

They had tensed up and solidified to a far higher degree than before, likely in response to John's attack, and now it was like his sawblade teeth were trying to carve their way through solid steel.

A harsh, grating screeching sound rattled through the air as John bit down harder and began to ready his Solar Beam directly onto the werewolf's shoulder, his throat starting to gleam with golden light.

That was when John realized that the dwarf was now ready to fire. This, he could tell from the motion sensitive plume on his head.

John reacted, letting go of the werewolf and shoving him forwards.

A sharp 'pew' sound zipped in the air as a blue energy bolt fired from the dwarf's hand cannon, striking the werewolf on the back with sizzling impact.

"Ow!" The werewolf turned around and snarled at the dwarf. "What you do that for!"

"Stop getting distracted! Turn around, you fool!" said the dwarf, and the werewolf looked back to John only to see that John had now flown in the air, looking down at him with golden strands of solar energy starting to curl out from his bare teeth.

"Oops," said Eluf as John engulfed him in a Solar Beam.

"Oh, should not have drank so much. See two, no three dragons now," said the dwarf as he shakily aimed his hand cannon up to John. Before the dwarf could fire, a flash of icy white struck his hand, freezing up the limb and the cannon on it completely in a block of ice.

Then, another ice bolt to the legs that immobilized the dwarf completely.

"Eh, guess we die now," said the dwarf simply. He used his free hand to take another swig from his liquor canteen.

John kept pummeling the werewolf with his Solar Breath, and the ground under and around the wolf man started to sizzle and char. The wolf man continued to struggle forwards, his hand placed out like a kind of barrier, but in a few seconds, he buckled down to his knees, defeated.

John turned off his Solar Beam but remained hovering in the air where he would have the advantage.

The werewolf was breathing heavily, his fur charred black at the ends and his eyes closed from the blinding light and the arm he used as a shield badly burnt. In no condition to keep fighting, in any case.

"Oww…," said the werewolf with a whimper. Then, the wolf man cocked his head and started to pat his chest, as if checking for something in his body. "Vampire magic gone! Blood thing gone!"