Swoosh! Bam! Magic noises!

  The moment that he understands that he will be fighting Kiana now, with a desperate attempt of powering up even more, the Elder Black Wolf uses his trump card, one that will be the end of him but also one that will give him tremendous amount of strength or in other words, a transformation skill. A magic aura surrounds him first, one that is quite dark, resembling the darkness itself from how dark it is. Then, as his power slowly but steadily increases, the aura gains a dark shade of purple, an ominous look to it and even a terrifying feeling to it.

  “Wh-What is that!?”

  A good question indeed Anya and be thankful that Kiana is here as otherwise, no one in this Academy would be able to stop this thing once his transformation is completed.

  Alice- I-I don’t know what he’s doing... I have never seen or heard about this however, I can sense that he's getting more powerful, much more powerful than before!

  “(Crap! I can’t sense his strength anymore! Almost as if my skill just hit the limit from just how much magic energy he has! Is this thing climbing into the A rank realm? What is that skill!?)

  Just a few moments ago she was able to create a new memory thanks to that person, one that, once she remembers it or thinks upon it, it will give her a warm feeling to her heart, a found memory in other words however, in this case, what the Elder Black Wolf is doing, it’s also creating a new memory for her but one, that will terrify her down to her very core. Her red sharp eyes are wide open filled with horror as she witnesses this, her very own body is shaking from the heavy and terrifying pressure that the Elder is emitting to the world. Her mouth is wide open thanks to the sheer shock and of course, Anya is the same way. None of them could expect for something like this to happen.

  “Shadow Wolf.”

  Grrrr!

  There is no more physical material form on the Elder Black Wolf body, it’s now only composed by pure magic, even his growl feels the same way as it vibrates throughout the air. Don’t get it wrong, he still has the shape of an Elder Black Wolf but now, thanks to that change of physical state to a magical one, his body is in a complete chaotic state because of it. There are no claws on his paws, only pure magic shaped in such a way, the same happens to his teeth, eyes and even fur, all of it is there but not there at the same time, just the pure magic shaped in such a way and giving out said impression to the ones that are far to unfortunate enough to look at this beast. Everything about him now is just magic, one that is ready to be dispersed into the air at any giving moment.

  “Sh-Shadow Wolf?”

  Anya is the first one to speak, the first one to have gathered the courage to say anything at all. Her logical brain is doing its best to comprehend the terrifying beast in front of them however, since she lacks combat experience and since she does not know how to use the skill Magic Sense, she’s far to ignorant and this question is more because of the lack of understanding rather than the pure fear that the one next to her is feeling. She wants to know why, why is her body screaming at her to run, why Alice is terrified and doing her best to keep her composure and of course, what’s happening.

  Kiana- He’s using a transformation skill, one that is supposed to allow him to evolve into a Shadow Wolf, however in this case, he still hasn’t fully evolved into such.

  “Wait a second! Does that mean that he can still get even stronger!? Shouldn’t you be worried about it?”

  Alice is finally able to shake off the fear and despair to the side, allowing her to ask such question and to be honest, if I was in their position, I would also be like them. Confused, surprised and all the emotions that the Shadow Wolf is currently making them feel, but the first two are basically thanks to what Kiana said and how she said it. As she said that she’s facing the Shadow Wolf, her voice was calm and cold as if, this terrifying beast is nothing more but an angry pup to her.

  Kiana- Ah, there’s nothing to worry about it, he could get 10 times stronger and it wouldn’t mean nothing at all. Seriously, he’s nothing that I can’t deal with a single strike. But I understand your confusion, so, let me explain what he’s actually trying to achieve with this…

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  With the same casual tone of voice, she says this to them, she proclaims this to them not only that, she also faced backwards when she said it however, after this, she proceeds to give out said explanation. At first the two of them are beyond speechless as Kiana tells them to not worry about, then, while one of them (Anya) gets rather amazed at Kiana confidence on her strength, the other one (Alice) is in complete disbelief to her statement and affirmation after all, if that best already is that strong, imagine being 10 times stronger, it’s something that Alice cannot fathom at all and yet, here it is this petite fragile looking young lady having this much confidence on her strength.

  The skill that the Elder Black Wolf is using is called Shadow Transformation, a skill that was gifted to the monster kind by an ancient Demon Lord way, way long ago, some even say it happened when the human race was “created” by the gods. And yes, thinking back we can easily link this transformation to the Shadow monsters that are currently present, the very Shadows that the Crystal monsters are fighting against and probably both Miranda and The Void Queen. Anyway, if this skill is successfully activated, it lets the user evolve into a Shadow, in the case of the Elder Black Wolf, he will transform into a Shadow Wolf as said before. While the transformation is happening, it increases the user's strength, speed and magic power by several times, and once it fully evolves into a Shadow, their status are further increased by several other times, making this skill extremely powerful. As I said, thanks to that specific ancient Demon Lord, all currently known monsters to human kind, it’s known that they all can use this transformation and that is the fact that makes this even more terrifying and a horror straight from nightmares. Luckily for us, with great power, comes a greater cost and because of it, not many monsters are successful.

  When I said all current known monsters I mean it, a mere slime can become a Shadow Slime for example and although the possibility of that happening naturally is beyond low, not zero but very close to it, with the correct help this transformation is possible. Imagine fighting what is supposed to be a mere Slime, is actually a Slime whose rank and strength are at least B-, can you even imagine such a thing?

  Of course not, it’s ridiculous.

  However, it’s more than possible after all, you “just” need a Demon Lord to do so. If a mere Slime can do it and reach such heights, how about an S rank monster?

  A catastrophe.

  Such a monster would be in levels that only someone as myself, the Hero, could ever hope to defeat it.

  But there is a massive caveat and “problem” to this skill, if for some reason it fails, the user dies, or in this case, since the user body is transformed into pure magic, he is dispersed into nothing as the magic is not able to be retained in one spot. The reason for this is because the physical form of the monster is substituted by a magical form and when magic is left up in the nature without any body to host it, what do you think happens to it? Over time the magic is absorbed by the environment and it’s also dispersed at the same time, a concept that Kiana has mentioned before when she was in the Magic Circle special class.

  The magic stone of the monsters will act as a force that stops the magic from leaving and dispersing but, if the monster is not strong enough before he used the Shadow Transformation skill, the magic stone is unable to contain the increase of magic energy, letting the user die after some time has passed since the magic on his “body” will slowly leave and the more it leaves, the weaker he gets. Then with less magic, the weaker he gets once again and with it, the more magic leaves. It’s a deadly cycle and one that this Elder Black Wolf will suffer as he’s not strong enough to stop this from happening. In theory and even in reality, if we leave him alone, he will end up disappearing after a few minutes, leaving nothing but a few magic residues in his place. While this might be the case, he still will have enough time to create carnage and a massacre, and of course, Kiana can’t and won’t leave him alone, not only does she not want to do such a thing, her Magical Girl persona is begging her to not do it.

  But wait, did that thought even cross her mind?

  Yes

  What in tarnation could even create such a situation for making her think in such a way?

  What they did to Alice

  Maybe I’m overthinking things, oh well, enough of my yapping.

  “That’s unbelievable and so unfair… Why are they built like this?”

  I understand what you are saying Alice and I do agree however, you can say the same thing about us, humans. Why are we like this? Why do we look like this? Why do we act like this? Why do we have so much intellect superiority compared to other non-humanoid races? We can question all we want about our origins and why did our creator created us in such a way however, there’s no point on doing so, not only we will never understand the very reasons behind it, it’s also better to not think about as depression will quickly set in as you begin to understand just how meaningless is to live in the face of such unfairness and injustice.

  Alice- Sigh… From what you said, he won’t be able to fully evolve and he will eventually die however, at what level would he be if that was the case? He should be at B+ now, would he climb to the A rank realm?

  Kiana- That’s correct, since he’s far too weak for such transformation he will never be able to fully evolve. However, he will still reach A- rank and if the transformation is successful either he will be at the upper A- or in the lower A rank.