After Leo's beastly transformation, the boy let out a deafening howl, letting his presence be known on the battlefield. The wolf form looked different from Xander and Milo's transformations. Theirs looked lighter, and they were also shorter, while Leo's wolf form was 10 feet tall. It was, for better terms, an entirely different beast than what Xander, Milo, and Ashley were. Then there was the difference.
"Leo, your eyes… they're nothing like the others. They're gray," Riven commented through the link.
Riven and everyone else knew what the eye color reminded them of—it reminded them of the system, telling them that even in that state, the system still had an effect.
"You are in there, aren't you, Leo?" Tessa questioned through the link. The boy, now turned werewolf, just gave the girl a thumbs-up, which made them all smile.
The two beasts then looked at Leo with confusion as the gray-eyed wolf rushed in faster than before, catching the two off guard. He was able to land a powerful punch on the lighter red Vorrak, but the almost crimson Vorrak was able to dodge, then back off. But before it could, a light shield appeared behind it, stopping it from going anywhere. Leo then kicked the crimson-colored beast, breaking the shield and causing the beast to be thrown back.
The other then got up from the wall and rushed Leo, trying to deliver a fast and strong punch, but the beast jumped over and kicked Leo in his head. The large wolf fell to the ground, but he quickly recovered and stood back up.
"Damn. Even with this new form, the weaker-level beast of the two still gives a heavy blow to me," Leo thought.
The group heard these words, which told them everything they needed to know—even with this new form, they most likely wouldn't be able to win. Rowan then jumped into the fray.
"What are you guys doing? Aren't you gonna help your friend out?" Rowan said, colliding her daggers with the beast's fists. Everyone then joined in after her, except for Emmett and Riven.
"Why haven't you joined in yet?" Emmett questioned.
"Because I'm getting us out of here. I know we can't win this fight," Riven replied back as he turned on the telepathic link for Harkel while also turning it off for everyone else.
"Harkel!" Riven yelled.
"Yeah?" Harkel said, predicting something like this would probably happen.
"I need you to set up the portal, but be prepared. After we walk into the portal, I need you to put it back in the system space," Riven said with urgency.
"Got it," Harkel then got the portal out of the system space, waiting for Riven and the group to come through. But seeing that the portal was purple, not black, told him they were not ready yet. Still, he stayed vigilant.
"What's going on?" Wren questioned.
"I don't know myself, but stay ready for anything," Harkel replied. After saying those words, everyone then gripped their weapons, after having them laying around collecting dust.
Jude was blasted away, blood coming out of her nose and mouth.
"What was with that attack? If Jordan didn't put that ink shield in front of me, would I have died?" Jude questioned herself—and questioned if it was really a smart idea to bring her out of everyone in the group.
Riven then picked her up, used a healing potion, and then used his new Light skill Beacon Call to heal up 10% of her HP, putting the girl at 60%, but that didn't help the fact that her mental and physical stamina were worn out.
"Hey, I got a plan to get out of here, but we need to blind these things and make a break to the portal. But it depends on what you think we should do," Riven asked, looking for Jude's advice.
"Do we have any other options?" Jude questioned back.
"Yes. After claiming a quest, I have access to something called a Flash Portal. This portal will instantly teleport us to the Storm Guild base. But see, there might be a problem with that. One, I don't know if I can forcefully close the portal before the beast could try and jump through. And two, I don't know if we can get everyone through without the portal accidentally closing on them, leaving them here to die."
"Then we should go back to the Academy. I'm getting sick of being at the Storm Guild base anyway."
Riven nodded and then turned on the telepathic link for everyone in the vicinity, telling them the plan. Everyone then started backing up, all looking battered and bruised.
"I'm guessing you guys have a plan if you're backing up," Rowan whispered, with Jordan doing an unconfident nod.
They came up with a plan. Riven hit the crimson Vorrak with a whip made out of light, then quickly after, Jude used her armor effect, causing a blue icy fog to appear out of nowhere, covering the area. Jordan then summoned as many ink beasts as he could. He was low on stamina, so it was only a few—but enough to distract them a little bit.
Riven then brought out the portal.
Rowan was shocked at this but didn't question it as she and Emmett were the first two to jump through. Tessa followed. Leo, Jordan, and Jude were all right behind her. Riven, being the last one to go in, heard an almighty roar from the crimson Vorrak as it rushed in faster than Riven had ever seen it run before. A large amount of rage poured out of its face. Riven saw crackles like lightning coming out of the beast's mouth, telling him the beast still probably had way more to share, ability-wise. But Riven didn't think about it—he quickly jumped into the portal. When he did, he saw Harkel, who immediately put the portal in the system space.
There was a silence of everyone breathing hard and sighing in relief.
"Good to know you guys are saf—" but before Joey could finish his sentence, a roar of pain and determination came out of what looked to be thin air. The Vorrak came out, but its body was severely burned, blood pouring out of its body, with one of its eyes seeming to be burned away. The sight was horrendous, making most of them look away from the creature, knowing if they looked any more, they would've thrown up right there.
"Well, we now know what happens when something goes through the portal while it's being put in the system space," Riven commented.
The Vorrak then fell to its knees, still looking at Riven with anger in its eyes—but its anger grew even more when it saw Joey by his side.
"Why is that thing looking at me like that? Did I do something to it?" Joey questioned.
The beast then tried to walk, but soon fell to its knees and started to crawl toward the duo. But everyone could see—while it was crawling, the thing was also healing.
"Shoot, it's healing. What do we do? We can't really go full out in here," Skye questioned.
Leo then stepped up, still being in his wolf form, grabbing the Vorrak by its shoulder. Thanks to how weak it was, it could barely resist the boy.
"Why… why do I want to do this?" Leo whispered to himself as his jaw opened wide, and he crunched down on the Vorrak's body—which drew the line, making almost everyone in the room throw up at the sounds of the crunching of what seemed to be the Vorrak's bones. Until it all stopped, and everything went deadly quiet.
"Why did you do that?" Kira questioned, wiping her mouth after throwing up her breakfast.
"I had no choice. If we would've used all our abilities, then someone would've come questioning things. And what would we have done with the body? We don't have that much system space left, especially with the portal itself taking three slots," Leo said, trying to justify himself.
"I don't care what you are or what you did or how we got here. All I know is if it wasn't for you guys, I would've died. And by the age of the others here, I'm guessing you're kids," Rowan joined in.
Leo then started to turn back to his human self, losing all his fur and snout and the extra height he had gained. His face was now fully visible to Rowan, thanks to his cloak being forcefully ripped off when he transformed.
"And by the fact that all of you are so powerful—except for one—I'm guessing thats you under there, huh, Emmett?" Rowan deduced as she took off Emmett's cloak. They all then followed, taking off their own hoods. "So where exactly are we?"
"We're at the Academy," Riven replied back.
"Academy? Like the Sigil Gate Academy? How did you get a portal here?"
"We're not going to disclose that information. But it's OK. We can get you back to the Storm Guild base. But know—none of us can come with you. We'll probably come in around seven days, but even then, it's dependent on the circumstances we're in," Riven said. Rowan nodded at his words. The black-haired boy then opened a Flash Portal. Rowan didn't question where the portal showed up at—she just entered it. Then, just as the boy thought, he couldn't close the portal forcefully—meaning an entire hour had to go past for the portal to close. Everyone who went to the Shifting Waste all fell to the ground, breathing heavily.
Back at the Shifting Waste…
The lighter red Vorrak stood there in front of the portal. After hearing its comrade scream, it didn't even bother jumping in after them. Instead, the Vorrak went beside the portal and destroyed it, walking away with a look of annoyance and anger coming from it.
It wasn't Riven's face that angered the Vorrak—it was the power the boy used.
Everyone gave a rough recap on what happened during their short time at the Shifting Waste. They could also see the quest was completed—since Leo technically did kill the Vorrak.
"But won't that Phineas person want you guys to give him awakening potions and all that?" Luka asked.
"Yeah. We'll meet him again with the Flash Portal, but the cooldown is seven days, so we're most likely not gonna be talking to him any time soon. But I believe they'll be all right," Riven replied. "So, what's been going on here while we were gone?"
Wren told them what her mother said, how they were beaten by Samantha and how they decided who would be showing off the fact that they had a true awakening form.
"Hey Leo, right? You should most likely never use that werewolf form while we're here," Nico said. And they all knew why the girl said that. The first-years had most likely gotten a lot of PTSD from their encounter with the werewolf—and who knew what the Academy would do. There are transformations, evolution—but wolf-type transformations are mainly seen as actual regular wolves, not wolves who can stand on two feet.
"Well, now I say we just claim this reward and rest until it's time to go back to the game," Riven said as he downed a double XP potion. But when he did that, it made him realize he was forgetting about something. "Hey Wren," Riven said, giving her the card. "You mind sending this to Jude and Joey's families?" Wren nodded at the boy's words.
"Wait, how's my family even gonna believe that I can send money to them?" Jude questioned.
"Just say you got a job here, and one of your friends is a part of the Fallow family. And using their connections, you can send the money. Not that hard when you think about it. But now… let's see these juicy rewards," Riven said, rubbing his hands together.