Before Ares'' turn to become a werewolf came about, it was Calla''s time to shine. She didn''t make any unusual movements or chant or anything, she just kinda went poof and changed instantaneously. The process could be extremely quick, as Ares had just learned, and mastery over this process was clearly important to using it mid combat without needing a pause in the action. Calla''s skin grew small hairs that rapidly overtook her flesh until she was covered in fur while her facial muscles and bone structure shifted in under a second. Claws extended and her figure became slightly more svelte than it had been previously. Ares didn''t know how to describe it exactly but she looked fleet footed and nimble. Like she could dart around without being fettered by the laws of physics. But back to the transformation process, the changes occurring in her body were fast which meant the shape of her new body could actually be a relevant concern during combat. If an art was going to miss by going slightly over her head, and she transformed from her shorter revenant form into her taller human form, she would get hit by it. Conversely, she could transform back to reduce her height and dodge attacks that way too. The transformation was an ability in and of itself and this was worth noting for any revenant who was looking to make use of their two different forms.


    Appearance wise, Ares assumed Calla was unique compared to the other revenants. For starters, she was smaller overall. She had less body mass and some of the muscle in her upper body was just flat out gone. Her legs looked sturdy, however, and would inevitably be the focal point of her transformation. Her fur was an interesting mix of hazy blues and dark purple, making her look like a poisonous species which was technically true. Adepts couldn''t use any pillars other than the racial pillar but their affiliated mana was still available to them in other ways. Ares would be able to run destruction mana through his veins it''s just that what he could do with it was limited and arts / magic was off the table. In Calla''s case she could spew poison, and a potent one at that, from her mouth and her claws were also laced with the stuff. If she wanted to launch magic, however, she would have to quickly change back meaning she was a very hit and run style cultivator. She used her revenant form to lightly apply the poison and run circles around the target until they slowed down, then she put some distance between her and her opponent and transformed back to drench them in a wave of unavoidable poison. After, she just became a werewolf again and ran away until her foe died to the poison. Simple but effective and highly annoying. Ah but that''s side-tracking from her appearance. Her bushy tail was now a little splintered but also slightly bigger. It could fire off the hairs to pierce targets and inject them with poison if they tried to sneak up behind her. Her face was a blend of soft majesty and smug cruelty. When her long jaw was shut, the smile was a mocking one that encouraged anyone who saw it to try attack her and fail miserably in doing so. When her mouth opened, her sharp teeth could be seen to be dripping with, you guessed it, highly dangerous poison. Calla was more than capable of mauling a person to death but, even if they escape her jaws alive somehow, they would be inflicted with severe poison. Though she was smaller, her ears were quite large and stood up straight on her head, pointed towards the sky. The only other thing of note was that her face was more fluffy than bony but there was still a sleekness to her look that made it very clear she was a woman. Overall, she wasn''t particularly fierce. A lot of revenants tended to be but Calla was somewhat of an exception as she had a sly innocence to her. If anyone didn''t know any better, they might even consider this appearance to be cute. Truthfully it wasn''t anything but, however, as when her viciousness became apparent it did so in exceptional fashion. The switch from fluffy, colourful, and shiny wolf to a brutal monster loaded with exotic poisons and a ferocious expression that would savage you on sight was one that often happened too quick for anyone to actually comprehend. The only tell it was about to happen was the slight orange glow her eyes would emit when she felt an urge to kill you as that was the trademark sign of a revenant''s patience having worn thin.


    Ares looked on at Calla and understood that only the transformation process here really mattered. Yes it was nice to finally see a revenant but it was clear to Ares that Calla was outside the norm. She was a special adept and her appearance was deceiving. Calla must look completely different to the average revenant so basing his future expectations off of her was pointless. Hell the reduction in height was already an anomaly as taller revenants were usually stronger and yet here was Calla with a reduced height in her revenant form in spite of her strength. This was due to the adept trait as that took priority over which tier of revenant she was in terms of altering the look of her body which meant Ares would be in the same boat. No matter what tier of revenant he was, having a strength adept trait meant he would likely be h.u.g.e. Now that made dodging harder but, if he swapped back to his human form mid combat to use arts or whatever, it would let him dodge attacks his bulky revenant form would be unable to. Hitting your opponent was tough if they had an on demand ability to shrink at no cost whatsoever.


    Regardless of whether Calla looked like a powerhouse or not, Ares could tell she definitely was. She just had a sort of aura to her that was only ever present on cultivators with talent hidden away in their back pocket. She must have developed her fighting style to a tee and become extraordinarily experienced with it in order to passively give off the feeling that she was an expert. She looked like she''d run a million miles in this form and could do it all again in a heartbeat as her legs almost looked alive, like they were raring to go and might sprint off without the rest of Calla''s body if she took too long. Her stance was a slight lean forward, meaning her knee was somewhat bent and ready to take off in a blistering sprint at the drop of a hat. Ares had been told that most weaker revenants were forced to hunch due to the bone structure of lower tiered revenants in the back region but the only ''hunch'' on Calla was the one she herself brought about purposefully. She was always at a starting line and ready to kick up dust with a dash. Out of sheer curiosity, Ares asked the following, "What tier of revenant are you?" If he had to hazard a guess, ignoring her deceiving appearance, he figured she was at least beta. Now was she beta or alpha? Ares had no clue. She was obviously a force of nature, the only question was to what extent? Did most of her dangerous aura come from the fact that she was an alpha, or was it because of her adept trait?


    Calla opened her jaw and, with a slightly deeper voice than usual, one with a hint of a perpetual growl buried deep within it, she answered Ares'' question truthfully. "I am a beta revenant. My revenant form is lacking in some regards and it''s not because of my adept trait. My claws could be sharper, my muscles could be more pronounced and somewhat bigger, my skin could be tougher, my senses could be sharper, and my howl could be more piercing."


    "Howl? Does that matter?"


    Calla nodded. "In some ways. If you''re an expert with it, you can use it as a mental attack that frightens enemies and does a small amount of damage to them. If used at point blank it can disorient and stun too. The higher tier of revenant you are the more effective it is. Also, a howl won''t work on a revenant that has a higher tier form than you so it''s often used to establish dominance between wild revenants. It doesn''t even require mana as it''s a part of our biological make up so you can throw it out whenever you think it would be useful with no downsides. That being said, competent enemies will get used to it if you use it too much so once or twice a fight is the recommended amount. That does change depending on which tier wolf you are as the more effective ones have less of an upper limit but there are better things to be doing in your revenant form than howling all the time. If you have a moment to yourself and can howl you would be wise to use a revenant art instead. I would show you some but the pagoda won''t let me use arts..."


    "No, that''s quite alright. I''ll take your word for it. After we train, can I ask you to help me with something?"


    "Sure? What is it sweetie? Want a hot choco?"


    "You can make one in here?! Yes please! Wait! No, that''s not what I meant... Although I would still like one..." Ares shook his head and refocussed. "... I meant I want to transform!"


    "... Eh? OH! Hehehe, I almost forgot about that! I''m so used to seeing you at mental accumulation I never even considered what would happen in a situation like this! Good catch sweetie! Okey doke. After we train a bit, I''ll make you a hot choco and coach you on how to transform! I was going to use a more despicable method to check your transformation but this works too!"


    "... Despicable method?"


    "Ah, I can tell you because real Ares won''t ever know. Some people you annoyed are going to try and assassinate you during the tournament. Not a big deal, it''s just a bunch of assassins and half dead members of the Chen clan... Although the mayor might also get involved? He seems like a sly one so he''ll wait and see how it goes before dipping his toes in the water I think."


    "And I''ll use a Canis Stimulant to survive? Fair enough. I never mentioned it to anyone but I REALLY wanted to use one. I didn''t have an excuse for it though so I was seriously considering just randomly using it in my back garden. If nothing happened by the time I left for the Freeride Federation I may have just wasted it pointlessly but this will work out nicely instead. That''s for real me to worry about; this me wants to be able to do it whenever and wherever! Although both of those aren''t actually possible... I can only use it when the person I''m up against has a high enough cultivation to drag me to bloodline awakening after equalising my cultivation. And wherever?... Well I''m kinda stuck in this one spot so that isn''t really applicable... But I want to be able to use it nonetheless!"


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    "Then use it you shall! Let''s get this show on the road ''cos the quicker you catch me the quicker I can teach you how to become a cute little puppy!" Calla''s head was bobbing left and right. She wanted to see what her son looked like in his actual form as it was worth reminding he wasn''t actually a human. It was just a convenient container for the wolf form and nothing more. Going by that logic Calla still had yet to see her son properly! Imagine if, after years of searching, you found a long lost child only for them to be wearing baggy clothes with a paper bag over their head! You''d want to take it off and see ''em real good! In some ways, Calla was more excited about Ares'' revenant form than he was and he had a multitude of reasons to look forward to it. He wanted a taste of what excessive physical strength felt like. So long had his puny muscles paled in comparison to everyone around him... But now? Now he would become muscle incarnate! Bencher of worlds! Or so he hoped... It was entirely possible his revenant form was a zeta or something equally pathetic despite his draconic bloodline, his Dominus bloodline, and his adept trait... That would honestly make him want to cry. Sure all of those things combined, plus his destruction magic fuelling his body, would mitigate that but... Man... It would suck! Ares just had to hope that wouldn''t be the case for now and, instead, worry about helping his mother with her pressure manipulation. Right now that was the task at hand and it would be hypocritical of him to have Margaret focus on one thing at a time while he distracted himself with thoughts about the future for no good reason.


    Ares stood opposite Calla and activated his regular enhancement to which Calla responded by doing the same. As is she was weaker than Ares and he''d yet to even whip out the annihilation enhancement... As she stood before him it was driven home how powerful her son was and that pleased her. Revenants were immortal but that didn''t mean she liked seeing her children die. If he could defend himself then Calla was happy. Weaker revenants could get trapped in death spirals, dying on repeat before they could ever truly recover which could very well be a fate worse than death sometimes. She didn''t want that for any of her children which was why knowing that Ares was stronger than her didn''t bother her in the slightest. She would rather be weaker then every one of her children if it meant they could fend for themself whenever she wasn''t around. She would transfer every ounce of her strength without hesitation if she had a method to. Would that leave her with nothing? Nope, because then she would still have her babies!


    Understanding it was impossible to take Ares head on in a fight, Calla started running away immediately much like Veteran. Ares had noticed a trend in that all the smarter fighters he''d come across ran away at the start to search for opportunities. He himself had done the same when he first encountered Veteran so he retroactively pat himself on the back for being a clever cultivator. In the brief window Calla had while Ares was being self-congratulatory, she made a lot of ground and was disappearing off into the distance around some buildings. Ares, now that his attention wasn''t elsewhere, opened his eyes wide when he finally caught sight of his mother-turned-roadrunner. She was a speedster through and through and was barely anything more than a blur to him right now. He could keep up with her by becoming a blur himself but it didn''t change the fact that she was still partially eluding his eyesight... He''d underestimated his mother big time! She was incredible, actually, and might even be able to contend with Ares regular enhancement to some extent. She was definitely the person who would come closest to beating him in these lower domains, that was for sure. Even Mako didn''t compare but, in his defence, he didn''t have his bloodline pressure yet so that was a detriment to his overall abilities.


    No wonder Calla was number one in Vraizon! Strength of muscle or magic made no meaningful change when it was impossible to hit her. Fluffy assassin was an apt way of describing her because you would only ever see her once during the fight and, after poisoning you, she would just vanish for good! She might poke her head around the corner like a nosy wolf just to check in on you and make sure you were dying your slow and painful death properly but that was about as far as ''interaction'' went during a fight with her. Before chasing her down in a pseudo game of tag, Ares also commended her pressure control as it was very nearly flawless. She was able to use it in tandem with her revenant form superbly and none of her limbs were falling behind the others. Other than some small leakages and some inefficient usage of enhancement there was not much to talk about. Of course he could endlessly critique how she used her enhancement during a fight, he could do that to anyone, but that was just because enhancement, at the highest level, became a matter of how well you could use it as an extension of your weapon mastery. That included bare knuckle brawling but the point was that your technique in combat eventually started to be the determining factor behind who would win an ''even'' enhancement duel. So really Calla wasn''t far off that point. She could improve her normal and physical pressure, certainly, but the use she would get out of doing so was minimal in the grand scheme of things and, thus, a waste of time as enhancement was generally what really mattered.


    Ares had finished counting to ten in his head and now it was time to seek out his foe. He took to the nearest roof and used it to jump to another that was even higher up. He wanted a vantage point that would allow him to see the greatest amount of his surroundings unimpeded. There was a higher roof to his right but that one had more sightlines blocked by various obstacles like signs and trees. The fact Ares knew that without even having to climb it just went to show how in tune he was with Red Sun. Being able to treat this place like a playground was a benefit only he had. Unless a challenger spent a considerable amount of time banging their head against this trial, Ares would forever hold an advantage in his home field. This was his turf! And right now there was a patrolling wolf scurrying around through various alleys. Calla, in a bid to hide out somewhere and set up an ambush, had dropped to all fours and her speed increased further. Despite Ares overwhelming advantage in a head on fight... He couldn''t keep up with her! Even if he ran towards her now he wouldn''t be able to catch her at all provided he didn''t switch on his annihilation enhancement. He would also lose his high ground so all she''d have to do was round a few corners but, even if this town was flattened, she could endlessly outrun him! What astonishing speed Calla possessed! She was like a meteor, blazing through Red Sun while the blurs she left behind created bursts of wind that rattled the nearby buildings. She was supersonic! Now what was Ares supposed to do? If he walked after her, he would wind up in an ambush. Without his annihilation mana telekinesis was a no go. He could launch a physical pressure attack or two but the sheer number of indiscriminate bombings it would take to flush Calla out were not small and he would be here forever!


    Whoosh


    As Ares contemplated his next move, Calla had already made hers. She''d fired off a part of her poisonous tail at him with pinpoint precision and, although he dodged it, there was going to plenty more in store if he didn''t evacuate the high ground. Ares had mistakenly thought Calla''s tail was good for preventing sneak attacks from behind and, while that may also be true, it seemingly could function as a long range weapon. Maybe it was the case that at longer ranges she could only fire on at a time but at shorter ranges she could use it like a scattergun. In short, it was a versatile way of applying poison that could force Ares to bring the fight to her as well as put him at a disadvantage when he did so because the weapon became that much more potent up close.


    Stuck between a rock and a hard place was Ares. He couldn''t stand in plain sight otherwise Calla would just snipe at him endlessly but if he ventured into the streets she would be able to get the jump on him. Being in her revenant form, Calla''s sense of smell was unmatchable so even if both of them had no idea where the other person was, Calla would always be the first to figure it out even without having to see Ares first hand. She could sniff him out and that was pretty helpful in this one vs one situation. Ares dodged a few more poisonous hairs from Calla''s tail as he attempted to triangulate her position but she was weaving in and out of alleys so fast that it wasn''t possible. By the time Ares was done following the hair to the point of origin, Calla had already relocated and was firing yet another shot. In other words, everything was terrible for Ares!


    What to do, what to do... Hmmmm. I suppose now''s a good time to test out my enhanced regeneration capabilities! Aside from being able to transform into a revenant, bloodline awakening also massively boosted Ares ability to heal wounds, replenish mana, ignore poisons (kinda, they still affected him it''s just his body immediately undid the damage), and keep his stamina up. As Ares'' cultivation right now technically a number of realms above bloodline awakening these passive boosts would be even more effective. The higher a revenant''s cultivation, the more regenerative prowess they possessed after all. To that end, Ares'' plan for this situation may or may not have involved self-inflicted injuries for one reason or another on the premise his bloodline would heal him afterwards...


    Instead of pointlessly overlooking the city, Ares hopped behind the nearest chimney to take cover and start charging a physical pressure attack. Would it be as splendorous as an annihilation pressure attack? Nope, not even close, but that really wasn''t the point. This attack would be limited in scope but Ares only needed it to cover as wide an area as it could while he did the hard work in the background. Ares'' brief reprieve from Calla netted him enough time to fully charge a silver sphere to completion. It was a mockery of an attack when compared to his annihilation version from back during the tournament but it would suffice for the duty Ares was entrusting to it. Ares ran out from cover, dodged another two spiky hairs, and threw the silver sphere to the area in front of him and to the right. Ares had narrowed down Calla''s general location to one of two that she kept dashing between. Now that he''d thrown his sphere at one, he''d effectively cordoned off that Ares lest Calla wished to get blown up when that thing detonated. In turn, this meant Ares could accurately predict her rough location... But what good was that if he wasn''t able to get over there in time? Well... Who said he couldn''t do it? If he ran he would be too slow, yes, but who said anything about running? Dodging yet another hair, Ares put himself near the edge of the roof, pinpointed his landing destination, turned 180 degrees on the spot, and raised his palm. This was something he''d done before in a fight against Veteran and this little trick was about to see a resurgence here! A mobility option that gave him a burst of speed while simultaneously launching himself... Last time Ares hit himself with a pressure imbued Echo he lowered the force behind it so as not to injure himself but now? Now that he could regenerate like some kind of undead abomination? Now he was gonna go all out! His palm came swinging back down towards his stomach as he closed his eyes, winced, and yelled as loud as he could to distract himself from the oncoming pain train.


    "ECHO!"