James stood there, blinking rapidly at her, his hand hovering awkwardly over the hem of his shirt.
This was like the second time she had demanded he strip. Now that he thought about it, she always had him stripping for one reason or another.
Last time, didn't her ass literally strip him herself while he was unconscious?
"Wait, why do I have to strip every single time? Is it a mandatory rule or something?" Believe it or not, James did not go out of his way to show people his build.
Like sure, he wore sleeveless shirts from time to time, but he wasn't like one of those obnoxious gym guys who flexed their physique 24/7.
He was definitely more on the buff, lean side of things, but still.
Luna didn't even blink. Her sharp, calculating gaze swept down his frame with complete, clinical indifference.
"Don't go tooting your own horn, James." She looked up, her eyes staring straight into his soul. With the most deadpan, freezing voice known to man, she opened her mouth and added, "There isn't much to look at to begin with."
Ouch. That stung. Jeez, what was it with this woman and hitting him exactly where it hurt? His ego was suffering. Not a lot, but damn, that was a direct blow.
"Jeez, could you be a bit less hurtful?" he asked wryly.
"I am simply nipping your delusions in the bud before they even get the chance to bloom," she replied lazily.
"Jeez." He scratched the back of his head—maybe that was one of his nervous ticks now, but oh well.
She elaborated, entirely ignoring his wounded pride. "Without your clothing, I am able to see your muscle groups properly."
Near instantly, James began defensively covering himself, as if hiding his body from an apex predator looking for lunch. Luna could sense his exact emotional frequency, and her silver brow arched up in sheer annoyance because she could read the completely bullshit reason why his ass was doing that.
"I am only twenty-three, please have mercy!" he said, a defensive smile plastered on his face as he stood protectively over his chest.
"I refuse to just show off my body to a granny."
Her brow twitched violently. She could feel her temper spiking, but she forced it down. Being rage-baited by a child was definitely not on her to-do list right now.
Usually, she could keep her temper perfectly calm since she could sense an opponent's emotions and instantly tell if someone was just trying to get her to lash out.
But with James, that shit felt completely genuine, and for some reason, that made it infinitely more annoying.
"I have already seen you entirely naked. Now is not the time to act like a schoolgirl," her voice sliced through the air.
James still refused to drop his hands. "Well, that was before I knew you could literally be my great-grandmother!"
Another violent twitch of her eyebrow.
"Honestly, I feel a little violated right now."
A third twitch. She was barely containing herself from this absolute bullshit. She closed her eyes, breathing in and out, slowly calming herself down. Now was not the time to put a newborn pup in a body bag.
"Enough," she snapped, her voice cracking like a whip. "You want my help. You can either listen to my instructions, or I can walk back down this mountain right now."
So she does have a temper, James thought to himself, completely oblivious to the fact that his thoughts were a free-eat broadcast directly to her brain.
Luna's eyebrow twitched yet again at the mental commentary.
She reigned her aura back in.
"Alright, granny, I'll stop," he muttered, finally beginning to remove his shirt.
He didn't dare look up as a sudden, heavy wave of pure bloodlust almost crushed him into the dirt.
He actively ignored it.
'If I don't acknowledge it, then it will go away,' he thought to himself.
Which, for some chaotic reason, caused her bloodlust to instantly increase twofold.
As he pulled the fabric over his head, his build was finally in full view. He was quite ripped, to say the least.
Even he was a bit shocked looking down—that was a lot of new muscle. Though one detail surprised him.
'No abs, though.' Even though his torso looked incredibly defined, his belly was relatively flat-ish, not completely chiseled yet.
Around the left side of his chest, a small, jagged stab wound could be seen. It was healing, but strictly at a human pace, meaning it would be visible for a couple more days.
"So like, do I strip fully, or is just the shirt fine?" he asked, eyeing Luna warily.
She seemed to have completely calmed down, her clinical gaze locked onto his torso. No, not in that way—more like the way a seasoned general evaluates a new recruit, mentally calculating the raw potential this physical vessel possessed.
"No, that is sufficient," she said calmly.
"And apart from seeing me with no top, why else did I have to strip?" James asked, successfully ignoring the lingering waves of ambient bloodlust.
"It makes it significantly easier to see how your muscles expand and contract without fabric blocking my view," she explained coldly. "It gives me a direct look into your internal biomechanics."
He stood there in only his tactical pants, the crisp mountain wind hitting his bare skin. It felt incredible.
He could smell the pure, dense magic saturating the atmosphere. As the breeze blew through his hair, he once more felt that exact same profound connection he had experienced when Gaia was near. This was so peaceful. He could literally feel nature's warmth radiating around him.
For just a split second, he wondered if fighting without a shirt was lowkey the move. He felt so much more in contact with the earth like this.
Then, he felt a sudden flash of frost, as if something incredibly cold was actively invading his body.
"Is the... touching strictly necessary for biomechanics?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly.
She didn't answer right away. Instead, her freezing fingers explored his torso—tracing his chest, his neck, and across his upper back, intuitively sensing everything that was happening inside his anatomical framework.
'Warm,' was the first word that crossed Luna's mind. His core felt incredibly warm.
She pushed her senses deeper, looking for anomalies.
His muscle fibers had grown back significantly stronger than before, far more compact and capable of absorbing massive amounts of kinetic weight while distributing optimal power. His baseline strength had increased several fold.
And deep within his spiritual center, she could sense the dormant beast.
However, the exact millisecond her consciousness grazed his core, she felt a massive pair of spectral eyes lock onto her from the dark.
'Protective...' she realized. James's inner wolf was fiercely protective of the boy. Anytime she attempted to glance toward his deep internal workings, she was met with an iron wall.
His memories and true biological origins were being actively shielded by his own subconscious beast.
"So like, does it usually take this long?" James asked, starting to get incredibly nervous. A girl had been tracing her hands all over his bare upper body for the past thirty seconds, and his ass was not built for this right now.
Luna paused, retracting her cold hands. "You have grown stronger."
He blinked. "I did?" He honestly didn't feel a difference. To someone who still possessed zero control over his baseline output, his growth wasn't noticeable at all. It was like his original strength was around seven tons, but now it was ten.
Cool, he could lift an extra three tons, but that didn't mean he felt any different; his ass had barely used his full strength to begin with.
"Due to the sheer amount of trauma and stress your system has endured over the past week and a half since transforming, your body is adapting and growing at an incredibly accelerated rate," Luna explained, beginning to pace around him like a drill sergeant evaluating a fresh recruit.
"You have probably heard it by now, but the first year after a human is transformed is the most critical period of your life."
James paused. If he remembered correctly, Caius had mentioned something about that during the mission, calling the first year the most vital phase, but he hadn't really expanded on the details.
She stopped directly in front of him, her silver eyes locking onto his. "During this twelve-month window, the spiritual boundaries of your soul are still shifting. The chances of a turned wolf being able to reverse the curse and return to being a baseline human are at their absolute highest. But it also means that right now, you are technically more human than beast. Because of that genetic limbo, your biological resistance to standard werewolf weaknesses—like silver or wolfsbane—is drastically higher than a natural-born wolf. It also means enemy trackers will have a difficult time locking onto your scent profile because your signature keeps fluctuating."
James listened intently to the lesson. That was actually great information to know. So his biology just needed a grace period to fully adapt.
But wait, did that mean his body used this extra time to choose what kind of physical build he wanted?
Talia possessed a hyper-lean, aerodynamic build; Mira seemed tough, compact, and built for explosive strength; Rowan was entirely lean, structured to effortlessly evade attacks and slink into the shadows.
Meanwhile, Caius looked like he was right in the middle of all of them.
"Is it the same for vampires?" he asked curiously. His good friend Michael was a vampire,
though now that he thought about it, Michael was likely a natural-born noble, so his rules were probably entirely different.
"For vampires, the first year is completely inverted," Luna said, leaning back against the rough, ancient bark of the apex tree.
"Recently turned vampires don't actually need to hunt for external blood right away, because their supernatural core can temporarily feast on their own residual human vitality. During that initial phase, their biology functions almost identically to a Dhampir."
James raised a confused eyebrow. "A Dha-what now?"
"Dhampir," Luna corrected flawlessly. "That is the biological designation for a hybrid child born from a vampire and a human. They are entirely unique; they can derive full nutritional value from standard human food and have no inherent dependency on drinking blood. If they ever experience a severe energy deficit, their vampire half can simply feed on their own circulating human blood supply. They are extraordinarily powerful, but exceptionally rare."
Holy shit, that sounds completely busted, James thought internally. A Dhampir sounded hella overpowered.
However, as if she could hear his thoughts and wanted to pop his bubble instantly, Luna opened her mouth and added,
"The vampire elders and noble houses view them as absolute abominations. Ever since ancient times, the moment a Dhampir is discovered, they are ruthlessly hunted down and exterminated."
"But that's dumb," James muttered. To him, that honestly sounded stupid. The potential for cultivating powerful vampire assets was right there.
"They invented systemic bloodline purity. What else do you expect from them?"
James blinked. "They what?" He was utterly befuddled.
"Though I doubt those bloodsuckers would call it that," she said mostly to herself, while James's brain was still completely stuck on the historical implications.
He suddenly remembered that his friend Michael's family had been established in the states since the 1600s, he thinks.
If he recalled his history classes correctly, in 1619, a group of about twenty African captives landed in Jamestown, Virginia.
Jamestown was only about a six-hour drive from New Jersey...
Yeah, his ass would rather not think too deeply about that crossover right now.
"They believe blindly in bloodlines and the absolute purity of said lineage. Anyone not belonging to their specific noble clan is viewed as below them," Luna looked thoroughly annoyed.
"How many noble clans do they even have?" he asked, curious to learn more about the enemy hierarchy.
"There are many, but the core foundation consists of the Seven Founding Noble Families. Your little friend belongs to one of them."
Ah. So Michael is high-class high-class.
"Well, enough about them," Luna sounded visibly irritated just speaking about the vampires.
Jeez, was the ancient beef really that serious?
"They arrived on this continent in the 1600s and immediately attempted to demonstrate their dominance over the territory. But my father did not agree with their terms. We fought. A lot."
James blinked. "What?"
"I was just answering your question."
He was utterly bewildered. He hadn't asked any question out loud. Then, his brain finally remembered.
'Oh, yeah. My thoughts are a free buffet for her.' How the hell was he supposed to stop that? He wanted some privacy. What if one day he was horny and thought of something he definitely shouldn't be thinking about around her?
"I can ignore it," she said.
James blinked again. "Huh?"
"Think of your thoughts as a notification pulse. Anytime you think of something while I am within close proximity, I get pinged. I can simply choose to ignore the stream."
'So she has to actively look into them to read them completely,' his brow furrowed. Yo, did that mean this entire time she was actively listening to his thoughts? What about his basic right to privacy?
"Enough about that. Let me finish my explanation."
He nodded like a good boy, keeping his mouth shut. He was genuinely curious; there was so much about this hidden world he wanted to learn.
She let out a soft sigh, the mountain breeze catching her silver hair.
"But for our species, the first year operates on a completely different evolutionary mechanic. First of all, if a werewolf has a child with a human, that child is always a werewolf. The lineage traits might remain dormant for a generation, but the moment the environmental triggers are met, the gene will inevitably awaken."
So shit works exactly like Viltrumites, James realized. Yes, he knew what they were; the show had dropped back in late 2020 or early 2021, and it was currently 2023.
Season four had just ended, and Thragg was absolutely OP. With the crazy advanced tech this hidden world possessed, animation could probably be done so much faster, meaning seasons just got pumped out rapidly.
It was awesome having Demon Slayer Infinity Castle level detail in Invincible.
But, okay, now was probably the time to focus on what the terrifying silver-haired woman was saying.
"Secondly," Luna continued, "while a newly turned vampire spends their first year fighting off blood addictions, a recently turned werewolf uses that exact same timeframe for their inner beast to decide what specific kind of wolf they are going to evolve into."
James tilted his head, his interest thoroughly piqued. "Huh? What do you mean by 'what kind of wolf'?"
"To sum it down," Luna said, gesturing toward his scarred chest, "the inner beast adapts precisely to your survival needs during the first year. Look at your recent history:
[TRAUMA PROFILE: JAMES]
- Hunted consistently by elite combatants way stronger than you.
"For a natural-born wolf," Luna continued, "they don't get this rapid evolutionary cheat code. They simply have to train rigorously for their specific affinity from childhood. Talia, for example, spent her entire youth running the mountain ridges, so her wolf naturally evolved to prioritize extreme kinetic speed. Caius trained exclusively as a frontline guardian, making him a balanced all-rounder. His physical form reflects that discipline."
James blinked as the pieces finally connected beautifully in his head. "So... natural-born werewolves are born with a specific affinity and train to shape their form, but a turned human gets a one-year grace period where their body literally mutates on the fly to survive whatever keeps beating them up?"
"Precisely," Luna nodded.
"What about you?" James asked, a curious grin forming on his face. "What did your wolf evolve to specialize in?"
Luna's lips twitched into a phantom slice of a smile, her eyes glinting with a cold, knowing light.
"That is my secret."
James rolled his eyes internally. Fucking tease.
"Anyway," Luna said, stepping out into the dead center of the clearing and squaring her shoulders. "Show me what you can actually do right now."
James shifted uncomfortably, the grass cold beneath his bare feet. "I mean... I wasn't really taught much of anything before all this chaos started. I don't really know any actual techniques."
"Freestyle it," she commanded bluntly. "Access the power."
He closed his eyes and began to tap into his inner strength.
'Come on, remember,' he told himself, trying to recall exactly how he felt when he transformed with his life on the line.
First, his core temperature began to spike, feeling incredibly hot. Then, his cells started rapidly mutating as the dormant werewolf genes kicked back online.
The rapid division of cells required to create his bulky form was happening at a breakneck speed, burning through fat and causing his body temperature to skyrocket.
His teeth grew longer, until four pairs of elongated canines could be seen, sharp enough to cut through solid steel like it was nothing.
Luna watched the transformation with a critical eye. The boy's nails elongated into razor-sharp claws, wolf ears sprouted through his hair, and patches of dense fur began covering his skin. He looked to be halfway there.
"I actually feel control over this form," James said, his voice coming out significantly deeper and more gruff than usual, like his balls had just dropped a second time.
Luna stood perfectly still, analyzing him with a clinical eye. Right now, James looked to be roughly 45% werewolf and 55% human.
He had the long claws, the patches of dense fur, the pointed ears, and the predatory eyes, but his jawline and overall skeletal structure remained distinctly human—save for his mouth, which housed those lethal canines.
She pondered silently for a moment, tapping her chin. "Continue. Go deeper."
James couldn't help himself. "Deeper, you say~"
She looked at him with a completely blank, freezing expression. "Don't."
"Yes, ma'am." She was colder than usual, oh well. Why did he suddenly feel like she was going to rip his spine out through his throat?
His muscles began to violently bulge, the stark sound of bones snapping echoing across the peak.
His bone structure broke and reformed, his face elongating into a brutal, wolf-like jaw as his entire body expanded in mass.
In less than ten seconds, a towering, ten-foot-tall behemoth stood in her place. He was massive, his teeth and claws glistening in the sunlight.
He stood firmly on his two hind legs, though if he had to guess, he could also run on all fours, and he was probably way faster that way.
Luna raised a single silver eyebrow, looking up at the towering beast. "You gained full conscious control over your primal form."
A wry, distinctly human smile tugged at the corners of the monster's massive jaw. James looked down at his huge, clawed paws, turning them over with the wide-eyed wonder of a child who had just discovered a brand-new toy.
He actually did it. This was the first time he had ever transformed without completely losing his mind to the primal bloodlust.
"Throw a punch at me," Luna ordered suddenly, her voice entirely nonchalant as she stood in front of the titan.
"Full force. And if I notice you holding back even a fraction of your strength, I will beat your ass."
James stared down at her, his massive wolf ears twitching.
Is she serious right now?
He hesitated, a wave of anxiety washing through his massive frame.
He didn't want to hurt her; she was literally in her baseline human form, looking like a fragile doll compared to his current colossal size.
Luna blinked up at him, her expression completely bored. "You are not going to damage me in the slightest, James. Move."
The sheer, unbothered cockiness of her words snapped something inside him. Alright, fine. You asked for it.
James planted his massive hind legs into the dirt, cocking his colossal right fist back.
Remembering the basic punching form he had desperately tried to practice, he rotated his massive hips, drawing raw power all the way from the bedrock beneath his feet.
Deep within his core, a strange, dark energy suddenly flared. Remembering that exact cold energy that had coated her fist when she knocked his ass out twice, he channeled that shadowy essence, imbuing his entire fist with a swirling vortex of pitch-black magic.
With a deafening roar, he threw the punch, his entire ten-foot frame carrying an immense wave of kinetic momentum straight toward her face.
Luna didn't even flinch. She simply raised her right index finger.
BAM!
The absolute violence of the collision erupted across the peak. A shocking, explosive shockwave blasted outward, the sheer kinetic displacement tearing up the grass and echoing violently throughout the entire village compound below.
The solid stone walkway beneath their feet violently cracked, spiderwebbing and shattering into fragments under the immense, crushing might of the strike.
James's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock at the raw power he had just unleashed—but the shock quickly turned into utter disbelief.
Standing perfectly still, completely unmoved by the explosion of dust and debris, was Luna.
Her single index finger was pressed firmly against the dead center of his massive, shadow-cloaked fist, completely halting his momentum down to a dead stop.
"You're significantly stronger than I initially anticipated," she remarked evenly.
James blinked, his massive jaw dropping. He quickly retracted his fist, looking from his giant paw to her finger in total bewilderment.
How the hell did she just block that with a single finger?!
"It seems you already possess a rudimentary control over your elemental magic," Luna continued, casually brushing a stray speck of dust off her shoulder.
James blinked again, the massive wolf tilting its head. "...What?"
Luna looked at him blankly, her arms crossing over her chest. "The darkness magic you instinctively channeled into your fist. You used it to create a localized gravitational pull to draw my center of mass toward your strike, maximizing the impact."
James's massive, terrifying wolf face morphed into a look of complete, utter confusion—resembling a lost puppy more than an apex predator. "I... I did?"
Seeing his completely blank expression, Luna realized the truth. This child didn't even have a clue that he possessed magic, let alone how he had just manipulated it.
"How did you manage to manifest high-tier darkness manipulation if you have absolutely no concept of what it is?" she demanded, her eyes narrowing.
James scratched the back of his massive, fur-covered head with a giant claw, a sheepish, wry smile stretching across his terrifying jaw, showcasing all four sets of his razor-sharp canines.
"Well... you used that exact same gravity-pull trick on me during our first meeting. I guess... I just kind of copied it?"
Luna stood entirely silent, her mind processing the sheer absurdity of the statement. He replicated an advanced clan spell just by seeing it once?
A dangerous, predatory light suddenly ignited deep within her silver eyes.
A fire that had long since died out started to light up again. You see, Luna currently stood in a weird spot.
She wasn't the absolute strongest in her clan—that would be her titan of a father—and she probably only barely cracked the top five overall. However, she was stronger than everyone else her age.
Her growth of strength was monstrous; no one could catch up to her in terms of pure talent.
Advanced concepts that took other wolves decades to master took her months, if not mere weeks.
This meant anyone near her age bracket was absolutely no match for her, and as a warrior, she obviously liked to fight.
But a fight was boring if no one near your exact strength was there to push you. An opponent needed to be around your level or a bit stronger; if the gap was too massive, it wasn't even a real engagement.
It was just a beatdown.
And James had just showcased the fact that his learning speed was the closest thing to hers she had ever seen. At this rate, in a couple of years, she might actually have someone to fight with.
James felt a sudden, terrifying shudder go straight down his spine. Something felt incredibly off.
"Stay in that form," she commanded, her voice dropping into a chillingly calm register. "We are going to spar."
James's massive ears drooped slightly, his voice a deep, rumbling growl. "Wait... for real? Right now?"
"Your only objective for the afternoon," Luna said, a dark, terrifying smile finally breaking across her flawless face, "is to survive."
James blinked, the thick fur on his neck standing completely on end. "Did you just say survive?"
"You must have heard wrong," Luna replied smoothly.
Before James could even process the words, Luna's baseline human form completely blurred out of existence.
The next fraction of a second was a masterclass in absolute agony. Luna bypassed his massive guard with terrifying, supernatural speed, utilizing an advanced, hyper-dense version of physical enhancement magic that completely bypassed his outer durability.
CRACK.
James didn't even see the strike coming. The sheer, concentrated force of her fist drove straight into the dead center of his massive gut.
The impact was so localized and profound that it literally felt like her knuckles were being permanently imprinted into his internal organs.
The air violently exploded out of his lungs as his massive ten-foot frame was lifted completely off the ground, his vision instantly blurring into a chaotic mess of pure pain as his brutal, first-hand lesson in survival officially began.
A/N Here i though i could have this chapter be a short 1.5 k, shit ended up 4k.
Anyway, just small moment with Luna, should last 1 and a half chapter or so.
Anyway, vote with powerstones or something.