New Job

Punching him with his large fist, Abel barely managed to stay on his feet. He fell back several steps, with a broken bone from the punch's impact.

You could hear the fractured bone in his face reconstructing and mending back together, then Arturo charged forward like a bullet.

He left a golden trail of energy to follow behind him, and he landed a full power strike right to the beast's abdomen.

Following his run-up, he'd made his punch significantly more impactful. Fighting as a unit, the three warriors continued their assault and Abel struggled to handle them all at once. Whenever one of them would get caught by his attacks, he would cause a lot of damage but that was rare.

He simply had too many fighters to worry about and fighting like a mindless beast certainly wasn't helping him.

Arturo was stood directly ahead of him, awaiting an attack. His armour was covered in the blood of all four of them, while it was cracked and broken in many places. Abel took his chance and shot down one of his arms to try and slash him.

However, before he could fully hit him, he received two devastating strikes right into his back. Each punch sounded like a bomb, and Abel stumbled forward.

Behind Arturo, the redhead aimed his sword forward, and started to calm himself.

Wind started flowing around his body wildly, condensing into his sword even more. His sword started to give off a light glow, and he smiled while looking ahead.

Abel was covered in the blood from his own wounds, which were still trying to heal. His strength and speed were superior to their own, but they had managed to beat him down through collectively attacking him.

"It's all over for you, you hideous beast!" He roared, as the wind became faster and more intense.

ZOOM!

He blasted off, being thrusted forward further by the waves of air hitting into his back. He caused gusts of wind to move outward as he forced himself through the air, and he stabbed forward his sword with lightning pace.

The sword stabbed right into his chest, into his heart specifically. There was a low growl of weakness and pain as he received this stab. The large beast slowly lost its footing and stumbled to the floor.

The swordsman forced his sword deeper into the werewolf's chest, making it give it out a light wheeze in pain.

He flailed around slowly in agony, until Abel came to a complete stop.

"There we go. That was an insanely powerful beast." Arturo stated, as his body slowly returned to its ordinary state.

The large gorilla like warrior beside him crouched down to the wolf, digging his hand right into its abdomen.

If they had defeated such a strong beast, they weren't going to just leave without getting a reward. Within the abdomen of a beast was its respective crystal.

These crystals were used in the creation of things like elixirs, while also being used in weapons and armour.

With pure force alone, he dug deep into its flesh to see that there was nothing in the bloody mangled mess of muscle and fatty cells.

"No crystal? A crystal for this beast should be damn near the size of a human skull!" He called out, with his voice still deepened.

What did start to happen, though, was the flesh was mending back together around his fingers. The muscle fibres returned to their ordinary shape and he was forced to remove his fingers to not let them get stuck.

"What the? It healed on the spot just like that?!" Arturo asked, in surprise.

Just as he retreated, Abel's golden eyes revealed themselves once again. He growled and grimaced in pain, looking down to then remove the long katana that was in his chest.

He leapt back onto his feet and watched the fighters that were still fatigued and weakened from their previous fight.

They had used large volumes of qi and weren't willing to expend so much in another conflict so soon.

Luckily, Abel felt the exact same way. Even with his beastly instincts taking over,

He gave these fighters a glance before turning and running in the opposite direction. He ran through this bamboo forest and continued to run through the greenery of this city.

His mind was overloaded by the constant sensory input. He could hear sounds from tens of metres away, could see that same distance and could feel even the qi in the air on his skin.

The werewolf continuously surveyed his surroundings, taking out anything in sight, now taken over by bloodlust.

The dark black sky soon warmed up into a dark, orangey hue. The moon had now set, with the fiery gold sun now raising above the horizon.

Abel could then feel a hot sensation covering his body as he began to transform once again. He was now near the city walls, and luckily hadn't garnered the attention of the troops laid across the top of the stone wall.

His limbs grew shorter and thinner. The brown fur across his skin then thinned and became brighter. Steam emitted off his body as he went through this transformation, and his wolfish growls soon turned into human grunts.

Now in his ordinary form, his skin still felt like it was burning. He did manage to tolerate the affliction, raising up.

He found some of the robes that he had worn before his transformation, that were now ripped up and beaten.

Feeling the warmth of the sun, his body was starting to feel slightly more ordinary, but he still felt slightly delirious from his enhanced senses. It was like he could see behind his head.

Abel could hear the sounds from behind his head so accurately that he could map out his surroundings that were behind him. It was almost like having eyes in the back of his head.

He returned to his siheyuan, having a nice few hours of sleep before he was supposed to return to school.

****

For these next few days, Abel's main objective was to find a way for him to establish a dantian. He read as much as he could to try and find some information that he didn't already have.

He simply didn't have enough time, and had to work on overdrive to make sure he could gain this ability. Without this academy, his chances at success in the world would be naught.

However, thinking about this, he remembered the power he had now been blessed with. He struggled to remember what happened the previous night, but he could recall the feelings of power and exhilaration more accurately.

Feeling these emotions, he then remembered the intense pain that he had to go through as well.

'With this power, I might not even need a dantian. Even if I don't, I won't bank in on something I don't even understand.'

Returning home from his academy for that day, he was met by the same fat owner of the property.

"You owe me money, kid! I've let you go on for too long, and I'm struggling to even keep this place going!" He said, clearly infuriated.

"I'm sorry, sir. I really don't have any money right now." He explained.

Abel received small payments from the lordship of Fragan to carry on living. He was an orphan and had been such for a large part of his childhood.

Without a job, though, it was hard for him to even get by with the money he received.

The man looked at the boy and wanted to shout at him again, but he could understand his struggle. He knew that he was an orphan, so he definitely was struggling to get by just like the rest of them.

They lived in the same area so were of similar backgrounds. They all understood the struggle that they each were forced to endure.

"Fine. I own a restaurant a few streets down from here. I can give you a job there, just cleaning plates and stuff. I'll give you a little cash and cut the rent a bit." He stated.

"Also, don't tell anyone you have the job. You don't want the stingy government cutting their payments to you too." He added, with a chuckle.

Abel couldn't help but smile and felt like this offer would be very, very helpful for him.

"Of course. I'll take it." He replied.

"That's nice to hear. Have you got time today? I was about to head over to start my shift."

"Sure, why not?"