CHAPTER 24(SLEEPING BEAUTY)

I was woken up by the soothing sound of birds chirping in the morning. I could see the morning sun rising in the sky, smiling at me. Nature seemed to welcome me to the new day.

"Ah, what a nice day," I said.

Alright, enough with the lies. We all know that's not what happened. I was woken up by Jenna again today, as usual. She woke me up by pouring a bucket of water on my head. She's getting ballsy lately, I should teach her a lesson.

After eating some food prepared by Emma and praising her, I gave Jenna a disdainful look. We left the dormitory, where David was already waiting.

"Where's Diana?" I asked.

"Probably adding multiple pads to make her boobs look bigger," David laughed.

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd think you had feelings for Diana," I laughed. Then, a spark of realization went through my brain. "Ah, you like her, don't you?" I said teasingly.

David's cringed. "No! I don't go for flat girls," he retorted, his voice tinged with annoyance.

WHACK! WHACK!!

"Hey, how come you always appear whenever someone mentions your boobs?" David asked, rubbing his head.

"Hmph," Diana snorted, turning to me. "Do you have anything to say?" she asked.

"No ma'am," I replied, breaking into a cold sweat.

"Good, let's go then," she said, turning around and beginning to walk.

We walked to the school's portal room, where we were made to fill out unnecessary forms and answer questions. After about two minutes of questioning, we were allowed to use the portal.

I took a deep breath, as this would be my first time visiting another dimension, if you don't count the school's dimension. I never really explored that dimension, anyway. As we entered the portal, I felt disoriented. It was as if my body was an elastic material, being pulled in different directions.

During the teleportation process, a powerful aura suddenly swept over us.

!!!!

"Shit!" I exclaimed.

_________________________

Some hours later.

I woke up first. We were on the forest floor, with Diana lying a little to my left, and David's head resting on her chest. I knew there was going to be a good show to watch soon. To my right were Lily and Naraia.

I wondered when they had arrived. Were they stalking me?

"Lily! Naria! What are you doing here?" I exclaimed.

"We came to see you!" said Lily, a silly grin on her face.

"We heard about your latest adventure, and we wanted to help!" said Naraia, looking equally excited.

I was still trying to process what was happening, when I heard a groan from David. He was beginning to wake up.

"Ow! What happened?" David asked, as he sat up. He looked around, a little dazed. I sighed, Diana didn't wake up first, what a shame

"We're in some kind of forest," I explained. "I'm still not sure what's going on."

I looked around, and noticed something peculiar. There were no trees in the distance, and there was a thick, dark fog in every direction. I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of me. It was as if we were in the middle of a dense fog bank.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I said.

"I'm not sure we're supposed to be here," said David, looking around.

A shadow suddenly flashed within the fog. I summoned my Avatars, and everyone stood on guard - everyone except our sleeping beauty, who didn't wake up, no matter how many nudges she received.

The shadow appeared again, this time with a clear target - Diana.

TING!

Its claw met David's sword, just a few centimeters above Diana's face. The creature jumped back, dodging a lightning spear from Jenna. The fog seemed to shrink back in the presence of the lightning, revealing the creature's appearance. It was a tiger with red stripes.

The tiger pounced again, but this time it wasn't aiming for Diana. It was coming straight at me.

I had no time to think, and I just acted on instinct. I summoned a shield of ice in front of me, and it just barely managed to deflect the tiger's attack.

I felt the air grow hot as Lily burst into flames. She was a sorcerer class, Unlike mages, who focus on magic to cast spells, sorcerers could use their magic to boost their physical prowess. Lily threw a punch towards a random direction, and a burst of flames hit a figure hiding in the fog. The tiger roared in anger and opened its mouth, releasing a torrent of flames like a flamethrower. It swept its head from left to right, covering a wide area with fire.

Lily's flames turned blue, and the already hot surroundings grew even hotter. With a maniacal grin on her face, she fought the tiger in close range, along with me and David, while Jenna remained behind, casting spells from time to time.

Suddenly, the tiger growled and jumped back. The red stripes on its body began to flow like lava, and horns grew on its head. Its claws became sharper, and a layer of lava-like armor formed over its body. The pressure it was giving off suddenly increased.

ROOOOOAAAAARRRR!!!

It released an earth shattering roar.

The tiger's eyes glowed a bright red, and it lunged at me. I rolled out of the way, just in time to avoid being skewered by its razor-sharp claws.

"Careful!" yelled David, as he slashed at the tiger with his sword.

The tiger swiped at David, but he ducked under its claws and stabbed it in the side.

CLANG!!

The sword bounced off the rocky armor. Emma and Naria charged in, each delivering a heavy punch to its sides. The tiger roared in pain, and I smirked. The armor protected it from Lily's high temperatures and David's sword attacks, but not from blunt force. I relayed the info to everyone. David switched his weapon to a hammer. As for me…

[BEAST TRANSFORMATION: MINOTAUR]

The sound of bones cracking and skin tearing could be heard as my body grew larger and more muscular.

The sound of bones cracking and skin tearing filled the air as my body grew larger and more muscular. My face morphed to look more like a bull's, and horns grew from the sides of my head.

BAM!

I shot off with explosive speed and landed a punch on the tiger, who was about to spit flames. The flames exploded in the tiger's mouth, blowing out some of its teeth.

______________________

I ran my horns through the tiger's body as it struggled to stand. The creature looked defeated as it drew its last breath.

"That was a tough battle," I said, as I cleaned myself with water magic and transformed back into my human form. It was at this moment that Diana opened her eyes.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"..."

"...."

"....."