"I will," James said, stepping out onto the porch of the clinic. He turned back and offered her a small, respectful wave.
"Have a good night, Lady Selene." Even though his new werewolf instincts were making him noticeably more blunt than he used to be, he still preferred to maintain some baseline manners.
"Good night, sugar. Don't go looking for any more trouble," she replied with a gentle smile.
As James turned to leave, the heavy rustic doors smoothly shut all by themselves.
'Man, I've got to learn how to do that,' he thought. Runes were incredibly nifty.
He began making his way down the road, his mind instantly shifting to analyze the world's power system.
Okay, so magic was a given, and mermen existed, along with practically every other mythological entity.
Since he had recently learned about barriers and pocket dimensions, he started mapping out a rough outline of the world using his massive archive of supernatural knowledge.
Between all the anime he had binged and the light novels he had read back home, his consumption of supernatural fiction was deep into the three-digits category.
He was lowkey obsessed with this stuff.
'So if these creatures have their own pocket dimensions, does that mean they spawn where their myths originated?' he mused.
The Greek gods would logically be based in Greece.
But what about the Roman gods? They were technically the exact same deities with different names—would they just be a lazy historical reskin? Probably not.
Maybe they evolved after the Romans took over. And what about Eastern mythologies? In Buddhism and Hinduism, entities like Ishtar and Buddha were completely separate, yet shared overlapping cultural spaces.
Then there was Christianity.
If that God existed here, where would His realm be?
Did the collective human belief that a specific region was the "Nation of God" physically force a pocket dimension to spawn there?
James wasn't entirely sure. Contrary to his deep knowledge of the lore, he wasn't a practicing Christian himself.
His mom was deeply religious, meaning that like any kid with a devout mother, his ass had been forced to attend church every single Sunday.
He had nothing against the church itself; he had just become completely disillusioned by it.
The standard religious doctrine just didn't align with his personal mentality.
He was not the type of person to turn the other cheek, forgive, and forget when someone did him dirty.
He was intensely petty. If he was the victim of someone's malice, he wasn't going to hand out forgiveness like candy—giving people a pass too easily just made them comfortable repeating the behavior.
James was a massive fan of consequences; to him, accountability was the only thing that could actually save a person's character.
Besides, if someone genuinely needed a book to threaten them with eternal damnation just to make them do good deeds, were they even a good person to begin with? If you deleted the concept of hell, would they still do the right thing?
Jeez, his dad's morality blueprint was running incredibly deep in his psyche right now. Kane Markson was a man who didn't believe in any rigid religion, though he never judged anyone who did.
His dad's philosophy was simple: you could serve whatever god you wanted, but he drew a strict line the moment someone made a religion their entire identity and tried to force it down your throat.
Honestly, it was a complete miracle his dad had managed to marry a woman as traditionally Christian as his mom.
By the time James snapped out of his intense philosophical spiral, he realized he was already back at the main vanguard camp.
He blinked, slightly confused by his own navigation. His brain had been completely on autopilot, his heightened sense of smell unconsciously tracking the residual scents from the previous week to guide him back to the cabins.
Or, more specifically, his nose had been locked onto Caius's distinct scent profile, since that was the exact person he was looking for.
As he approached the northern ridge of the main path, James caught sight of a massive, open training ground stretching out directly behind the primary wooden structures.
"This was seriously here the whole time?" he muttered to himself. He had absolutely no memory of this place.
Granted, when he had first arrived at the compound, they had entered from the southern perimeter, and even when they deployed to the northern shoreline to fight the mermen, they had bypassed this specific clearing entirely.
Suddenly, the ground beneath his boots vibrated violently, forcing James to raise a hand to shield his eyes from a sudden explosion of dust.
In the center of the clearing, Talia and Mira were actively throwing hands.
Their bodies were completely blurring as they exchanged high-speed blows across the torn grass, leaving visible afterimages in their wake.
The exchange wasn't flashy or elemental;
James could feel that no actual spellcasting was involved.
This was pure physical dominance, and now that he understood the mechanics, he could see they were using their internal auras to heavily reinforce their physical frames.
It was a pure showcase of raw strength and aura manipulation.
James's eyes greedily locked onto the spectacle, eager to absorb the technique.
He walked closer, leaning his shoulder against a wooden post to watch them work.
Mira suddenly slipped past Talia's guard, delivering a devastating, aura-reinforced upper-cut straight toward the jaw.
The sheer kinetic displacement launched Talia fifty feet straight into the air.
Before Talia could even reach the apex of her launch, Mira completely vanished from the ground, instantly reappearing directly above her in mid-air.
Gathering massive downward momentum, Mira brought her heel down in a brutal, crushing axe kick straight into Talia's spine.
BOOM!
Yet, instead of crashing violently into the dirt, Talia's body completely dissolved into a fluid shadow the exact millisecond her form touched the ground, sinking instantly into the dark grass.
Mira's bright eyes widened in sheer surprise as her foot struck empty earth. "What—?"
"Speed is my specialty, remember?" Talia's playful voice echoed from the blind spot behind her.
Materializing flawlessly out of the ambient shadow, Talia delivered a lightning-fast roundhouse kick that sent Mira crashing sideways through the brush and straight into the trunk of a massive, heavy tree.
James walked up to the perimeter of the training field just as the dust began to settle.
Sitting casually on a wooden bench nearby with his legs crossed was Caius.
He was completely detached from the violent sparring match happening twenty yards away, his dark eyes locked onto a small, pocket-sized book.
James caught a quick glimpse of the cover. 'Wait… is that literally Hunter x Hunter?' Caius chose that exact moment to look up, finally acknowledging his presence.
Given that James had watched a standard guard notice his gaze from over two hundred yards away earlier, he refused to believe Caius hadn't sensed him approaching long ago.
The vanguard's expression remained perfectly unbothered. "You're back."
The manga was still open in his hands. James's inner otaku noted that he seemed to be right in the middle of the Greed Island arc where Gon was looking for his dad—specifically, the section where they meet Bisky and she begins teaching them the advanced applications of Nen.
"Yeah," James said, rubbing his aching shoulders. "Selene checked me out. Said I'm completely fine, there's no silver left in my system."
"That is good," Caius replied calmly. He lowered the book, his critical gaze scanning James up and down.
His eyes paused at the sight of James's completely bare, scratched chest and the tattered, torn fabric of his pants.
He raised a highly questioning eyebrow.
"Long story," James muttered quickly, feeling a bit self-conscious under the evaluation.
He was absolutely not about to explain how Luna had used him as a personal punching bag for half an hour.
Maybe it was his own fault for poking the biological bear, but he had genuinely wanted to learn more about her.
Up until now, all he had to go on was the fact that she was a combat prodigy, the literal princess of this entire compound, and apparently had a toxic ex-boyfriend.
It just proved that these supernaturals had complex layers. And since werewolves, vampires, and humans could apparently cross-breed and have viable kids, he assumed they were all technically variations of the same species—just with some incredibly wild genetic mutations.
Who knows, maybe they all started as baseline humans before something altered their code.
"Right," Caius accepted the deflected answer without pressing for details. If the boy didn't want to share, it was none of his business.
"Do you require something?" He arched an eyebrow, his keen senses easily picking up on the sudden spike of stress hormones and light nervousness bleeding into James's scent profile.
He could tell the kid wanted to ask for something but was hesitating.
"So like… I wanted to know if you could teach me the absolute basics of physical reinforcement."
Caius's brow twitched slightly, as if wondering why the newcomer was trying to sprint before he could walk.
Aura manipulation wasn't that advanced, granted, it had advanced uses, but basic aura manipulation was not that busted.
Now that he thought about it, it worked kind of like Nen, speaking of which, their use of it was quite nice.
He would make sure to copy it, yes, he was reading it for the story and also copying stuff that seemed useful.
"Lady Selene reminded me that my fight with Raze is only two weeks away," James added, rubbing his ribs.
"And, you know… I'd heavily prefer it if my chest wasn't entirely caved into the bedrock."
"Oh. That." Caius's tone was ridiculously casual, as if the concept of James losing his life in a fortnight was a minor logistical detail.
"Why do you sound so completely unbothered?" James questioned, his eyebrow twitching.
"My functional survival is actively on the line here."
"You shouldn't have much of an issue," Caius stated smoothly.
"Raze may be stronger than you currently, and his raw kinetic output will easily surpass your own. In terms of pure destruction, his output is even greater than mine."
'Yeah, I really didn't need to know that last part,' James thought grimly.
He already knew the guy was a physical freak; catching that bloodfire punch earlier had communicated that loud and clear.
"But the mechanical gap between you two is not as massive as you might think," Caius paused, turning a page.
"Raze is highly likely to simply toy around with you in the beginning of the match. He will want to showcase his absolute dominance over your position."
James blinked. "Why exactly is him wanting to humiliate me considered good news?"
"I am certain you have already been informed that he used to date Lady Luna."
"So I've heard."
"Since Luna will be present in the spectator stalls, he will view the trial as a direct opportunity to put you down in front of her."
James sighed heavily. This was exactly why he despised dealing with guys who entirely changed their personalities the second a girl was in the room.
Like, if you have unresolved emotional baggage with your ex, go talk to her—don't use the newborn human pup as a punching bag to flex.
But internally, he got it. Luna was an unmovable wall, and James was currently weak. Raze was just picking the easiest target to validate his own ego.
"That still doesn't explain why I have an actual chance to win," James pointed out evenly. "So far, all I'm hearing is a highly detailed description of how I'm going to get pulverized."
"That specific arrogance is exactly why you have a path to victory," Caius said calmly, looking up from his manga.
"Your adaptability is remarkably high, and your innate talent is exceptional. If I were to scale it, you possess a one-in-a-million type of evolutionary curve."
While anyone else would have let that massive compliment inflate their ego, James's brow simply furrowed in deadpan realization.
'Did this man seriously just drop a classic Hunter x Hunter quote on me to boost my confidence?'
"The longer he spends trying to show off and prolong the match to humiliate you, the less likely his chances of securing a victory become," Caius added.
James blinked, surprised by how complimentary the usually stoic vanguard was being today.
"Really? I didn't think I was actually tracking that well. So far, I've basically gotten my behind beaten every single time I've tried to engage in a fight."
"You are strong," Caius confirmed, causing a small spark of pride to hit James's chest. Then, Caius smoothly ruined it. "Though, make no mistake—I would not lose to you."
James stared at him. "But you just said his raw output was greater than yours."
"I also stated that he will actively toy with you," Caius countered seamlessly, his eyes flashing with a terrifyingly clinical precision.
"I have already analyzed what kind of fighter you are, James. If you and I were to enter a formal engagement, I would bypass the theatrics and go straight for the kill."
Goddamn, James thought, a chill running down his spine.
This guy is analytical to a fault.
"That's cool and all, but like… I specifically want to learn how to use my aura to actively protect my body. Like… the concepts of Ten and Ken."
Caius looked up from his book, a flicker of genuine amusement crossing his features.
He had recently grasped those exact defensive concepts from reading the manga.
Granted, the advanced vanguards utilized a variation that resembled Ryu active twenty-four-seven, but it was fascinating to see the principles written out in a mortal comic. It meant he understood exactly what James was asking for.
Closing the volume, Caius placed a small, silver hairpin between the pages to secure his spot before setting it down on the wooden bench. He looked at James with a renewed sense of professional curiosity.
"How did you discover that our spiritual essence could be compressed into a defensive mantle like that?"
Caius had mentioned the concept of an aura when they first met, but he had only described its visual properties—he hadn't dropped any data on tactical defensive application.
"Luna mentioned it," James said wryly. "Before she left the mountain, she told me that coating my body in my own aura could lessen incoming kinetic damage."
Caius nodded slowly. "I see. Well, if you want to master that specific level of dense muscular reinforcement, Mira is actually the unit specialist for physical hardening. Speaking of which—"
Before Caius could finish his sentence, a sudden, heavy weight dropped squarely onto James's shoulders from behind.
Two slender, athletic arms wrapped securely around his neck, and a bright, cheerful laugh rang right against his eardrum.
"Newbie! You're finally back!"
James stumbled forward a step, thoroughly caught off guard by the sudden physical ambush.
He glanced back over his shoulder to see Talia grinning widely down at him, her chin resting casually on his bare shoulder.
"Why the hell do you sound so happy?" he asked, his voice slightly strained under her dead weight.
"And how are you completely fine right now? Didn't Mira just level you?"
"I heal fast," she said proudly, her eyes crinkling with mischief. "Standard racial feature."
Caius picked his manga back up, tapping the edge against his knee. "Your warning back at the shoreline was actually quite useful, James. If you hadn't shouted when you did, the structural casualties of that engagement would have gone differently."
James blinked, looking between the two elites. "Really? But Talia almost got her head completely taken off by that high-tier caster's spell."
"At least I had a functional fighting chance to dodge," Talia countered, her tone surprisingly lighthearted as she remained securely hitched to his back.
James looked over at Caius, who simply offered a small shrug of agreement. "It is always preferable to face an incoming strike with your senses fully active rather than being paralyzed in the dark. Even if we sustained heavy damage afterward, the warning allowed us to brace our internal cores. It saved lives."
"Well… glad I could help," James said. He shifted his weight, trying to nudge the energetic girl off his shoulders.
"That's great and all, but… when exactly are you getting off my back?"
Talia pouted, her lower lip puffing out as she intentionally tightened her lock around his neck.
"What, you don't want me here? Rude."
James shot a silently pleading look over at Caius, begging for some baseline teammate intervention.
Caius, however, intentionally averted his eyes, looking straight back down at his open page like a tired father who was simply glad someone else was finally occupying the hyperactive child.
Before James could complain further, the sharp rustling of leaves drew his attention back to the edge of the clearing.
Mira strode out from the treeline, aggressively cracking her knuckles.
Her athletic frame was completely covered in dirt and grass stains, and her face was a textbook picture of pure, unadulterated irritation.
"Talia, you absolute cheat!" Mira yelled, pointing a finger directly at her. "We explicitly agreed on absolutely no magic during this round!"
Talia stuck her tongue out, entirely unbothered. "We agreed no external spells, Mira! Innate biological traits don't count!"
James caught the loophole immediately.
Since darkness manipulation was an inherent, biological function of the werewolf lineage rather than an incantation-based spell, Talia had technically stayed within the literal boundaries of their agreement while completely violating the entire spirit of it.
Mira let out a sharp, exasperated sigh, her eyes finally landing on James standing by the bench.
She paused, her aggressive, battle-ready demeanor softening slightly.
"Oh. You're back."
"Yeah," James said, offering a small, exhausted smile from beneath Talia's chin. "I'm back."
A/N This chapter should be roughly 3k words long, this week I might have 4 chapter out this week, only because i want that by the end of a week when i am done uploading that the amount of chapter out can be divided by 3, and give an answer that has no coma.
So yeah, that, hopefully by the end of this week, I have 45 chapters out.
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