The moonlight shone through the canopy as I raced beneath the yellow leaves, ignoring all the dead or barely alive guards on my way. At least they managed to slow him down somewhat … hopefully. I had to admit he was indeed faster than me, despite the guards. I couldn’t hear screaming as I saw the mansion in the distance, which was quite a bad sign in my opinion.

I was already worried sick as I ran along the street, climbed the stairs to the entrance faster than ever before only to look up in utter amazement as I heard a window above me breaking. A large sapphire illuminated beautifully, but also unnaturally, flew out of the mansion, directly followed by a large, white wolf. I could only stare at it as he caught the stone in between his fangs and bit down on it.

Shards flew everywhere, into his mouth, but also onto the ground. Even then, I was more fascinated by the little bit of blue smoke I saw, exiting the gem after the first cracks started to form and entering Sirius body shortly afterwards. The werewolf landed behind me on the gravel and instantly turned around to snarl at me.

He already displaced the ground quite a bit with his weight, but he apparently didn´t eat enough yet. His body size grew, the muscles on his legs exploded in strength right before my eyes. He would tower above me if we would stand side by side. That wasn’t the only thing that changed though. His white fur was streaked by blue lines, glittering under the moonlight while the moon itself seemed closer than ever before all of a sudden.

“Hmm … that’s going to be difficult.” I muttered. He had the longest time to adapt to his werewolf body, was the strongest of the bunch and had this magical sapphire now. Whatever the effects were, it was certainly quite scary to see the ground sinking in whenever he made a step forward.

I readied my sword quickly, holding it in front of me like a beginner would do. I took a few steps as a run-up and then jumped towards him, sailing down the stairs towards him while he opened his mouth wide.

At first, I couldn’t understand what he was doing. He could attack me with his paw mid-air, or anything else, but giving me such an opening was dumb. At least, until I actually hit his nose. It felt like I hit a rock. Even worse, it felt like I hit a wall of steel, completely unmoving and utterly undestroyable. It was only thanks to my strength that I was able to push myself away from him using the sword, evading his bite by a hair's breadth. Thankfully, the sword was really sturdy, but I could see it wouldn’t survive a second strike like this.

“I need a good weapon!” I screamed while jumping backwards as he wanted to strike at me with his paw at an impossibly fast speed. I didn’t even dare to hit him in the process as I feared the exact same result.

And then, I kicked the ground, running as fast as I could away from him. This time, giving all I had. He was hot on my heels, trying to bite my arm while I looked into his open mouth with interest. I threw myself to the side, barely avoiding his paw and slashed at the joint of his hind leg after I came to a sudden halt. The sword rang in a metallic tone as I hit him successfully but failed to pierce his skin once more.

Under the bright moonlight, I saw the first cracks on the dark blade already, forcing me to back off for the time being. I jumped a few times backwards, trying to distance myself from him but he was still faster. He opened his mouth wide again, showing me two rows of razor-sharp teeth only to meet my smile. I ducked underneath his mouth, ramming my elbow into his throat without much success … except a fractured elbow on my side. As I failed to find another soft spot on this body, I grabbed into his mouth as he opened it once more and caught a rather long teeth, sticking out of the lower row of teeth slightly. I jumped and pulled myself up while he shook his head wildly in an attempt to shake me off.

Somehow, I still managed to land on his head right before his nose and grabbed him by his lip with one hand. Even though they were incredibly hard, they were also quite flexible to my surprise. As he tried to shake me off, I pressed his head between my two thighs securing me tightly in place.

He opened his mouth once more afterwards, which enabled me to ram my sword into his throat. It clanked as soon as it hit the tongue, but I was really despairing as he closed his mouth again. I heard him crunching ... he fucking ate my sword like it was nothing.

Shortly afterwards, he apparently had another great idea and lowered his head on the floor, forcing me to roll off him. His own paw rubbed over his head shortly afterwards but as he stopped as soon as he realized I wasn’t there anymore.

“Fuck this shit. What kind of disgusting shit was in that sapphire?” I asked and made him growl threateningly as I stood up again and reached towards my throwing knives. He swiped at me with his right paw, forcing me further away which wasn’t exactly a problem anyway.

From the distance, I threw two knives at his nose. One hit his skin and bounced off harmlessly, while the other one flew into his nose and stuck there. It didn’t hurt him, but at least I was making this battle very inconvenient for him.

I grinned wildly as he sneezed loudly and distanced myself further from him, throwing my last knives at his eyes, into his mouth, and even one at his ears. They either bounced off harmlessly or were simply eaten by him. Seriously, he had an iron stomach or some shit, because he wasn’t even remotely bothered by it.

Luckily, he didn´t get the knife in his nose out right away and thus decided to ignore it after several attempts. The ground cracked underneath his hind legs as he pushed himself forwards while the moon shone unnaturally bright.

“Watch out!” Hannah screamed from the upper floor of the mansion while my hair stood up. His eyes were glowing in an intense red as he flew through the air, his front paws aiming directly at me.

He was using magic. Was it the iron skin? The unnatural strength? Or was it something else entirely? As fast as I could, I threw myself to the side, even though evading backwards would be a better choice. His claws ran over my right shoulder, ripping apart skin and flesh as I twisted my body to avoid him.

Luckily, I didn´t jump backwards. As he landed on the ground and I slid across the gravel while bleeding heavily out of my wound, I could see why Hannah warned me. The moonlight shone unnaturally bright onto the patch I would have evaded to. Even though I could still see everything within this patch, I couldn’t believe my eyes as the gravel melted in front of my eyes.

“What kind of fucked up shit is that?” Strength, impenetrable skin, and magic? While I had what again? Okay, reaction time and speed and a lot of strength as well … but I wanted magic! I was sure I wouldn’t win without it.