The Invincible Full-Moon System

"It's time..."

Adhara stood and as she headed courtyard, the others followed behind her.

Since Rex's departure—the chosen members of the pack for the duel were waiting in front of the main gate. Nervous was the potent emotion within them, at this moment. Not because all were afraid of failure or even death, but because they didn't want to disappoint Rex.

Rex has been facing obstacles head-on until they reach this very moment.

He asked little to no help from the others, relying solely on himself.

Compared to him, the others knew that they were extremely lacking, incomparable to him.

If Rex was a diamond forged under pressure, the others were still a lump of coal.

Becoming diamonds, beautiful and unbreakable was not an unreachable dream for them, but to reach that they needed to overcome this duel without letting Rex down. Steeled in resolve with that in mind, Adhara, Kyran, Gistella, and Flunra stood ready in their matching outfits.

On top of that, the four of them were equipped with a weapon of their choice.

Linthia had come to drop their desired weapon.

Knowing that they were going to enter hostile territory, they would be foolish, to not expect a series of attacks from the opposing forces, to weaken them before the duel. Because of that, these weapons would aid them until they reach the duel.

Adhara chose a sword, Kyran chose a spear, and Flunra chose a claw katar.

Gistella was asked to choose her weapon—but she stuck with the hand shield Rex gave her.

It was of a lower quality than the others' weapon made of Red Prudian, but she stuck with it.

"So, what do we need to know about this duel, Adhara?" Kyran asked.

Rex said that Adhara was going to tell them the details, and now is the perfect time for that.

Upon hearing this—Adhara tied her brown hair into a ponytail with a fire hair band before she answered, "During the duel, no matter how it plays out, we would stall for time until the moon neared its zenith. It is crucial for us to not kill our enemies, not until the signal"

"Didn't he say we should achieve total triumph?" Kyran frowned in confusion.

He still remembered Rex's every word from earlier.

If the plan was to stall for time, they wouldn't achieve total triumph over the opposing pack.

"Be patient, Kyran. We will eventually fight the opposing pack and achieve total triumph, but only after the signal," Adhara replied, looking at him assuringly. "After the signal, we are free to do whatever we want. After the signal—we could show them, how powerful the Silverstar Pack is..."

Kyran nodded, he trusted Rex's decision.

Before activating the teleportation formation, Adhara noticed Gistella was a little bit pale.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked in concern.

Upon hearing this, Gistella stammered but quickly put on an assuring smile, "I'm okay..."

Despite knowing that she was lying, Adhara decided not to press her further.

No time to waste, it was time for them to depart.

Moments later.

Adhara and the others materialized in a faraway place from Dargena City.

She already explained to the others that the teleportation formation would bring them to the place, that Rex deemed close to the duel grounds and quite safe. From that place—the pack would then begin to move to the duel grounds highlighted by the moon itself.

A spotlight from the sky that could be seen from anywhere in the night.

Finding the duel grounds would be easy because they only need to follow the moonlight.

Materializing on the designated spot, Adhara gazed up and saw the full moon was already in place—the vibrant yellow moonlight cascaded down to the land—and embraced, any kind of Werewolf tightly in its power.

"Eugh, I hate the Honey Moon, it's making me uncomfortable" Kyran complained.

Despite the Honey Moon was rather docile, it had its own effect.

Under its grace—the canine monsters would have their dangerous tendencies suppressed to the point that they would feel tired and weak. It made all Werewolves avoid fighting. Because of that those who have the power of Honey Moon can strip their enemies of their will to fight, an ability that the pack would need to keep in mind.

It was a non-physical attack so it would be extremely effective against them.

Even though all of them had a strong bloodline, its subtle effect was still an annoyance.

"Back in the past—the other races would attack Werewolves during this time," Flunra said, he was passing down his knowledge in order to help the pack. "At any point, you feel too tired to continue, pain would help you refocus"

Kyran nodded as he could feel that this would come in handy.

Just then, however, he saw Adhara looking up to the sky in silence.

It was only then, that the entire pack realized, they were now at the deepest point of a valley, squeezed together by two towering cliffs, creating a narrow, shadowy passage. The towering walls reached skyward, leaving the space below in near darkness.

"Hmm...? Why did Rex choose this place?" Adhara muttered to herself, confused.

Somewhere safe should be a forest, the perfect terrain they were most comfortable with.

A narrow passage like this has no room for them to move freely.

"He chose this place specifically for us," Gistella muttered from behind—drawing all attention towards her. "If he teleported us, to a forest, we could be attacked from five sides. Right, left, front, back, and up. But here, we only need to worry about attacks from above"

"Still, the Werewolves could rain from above endlessly and we'll be trapped," Kyran refuted.

Upon hearing this, Flunra intervened, "No, that won't happen"

"Only those who were born under the Honey Moon and strong Alphas could move freely with the full moon being present—the Werewolves wouldn't have the numbers aside from sending Alphas down here. And doing that wouldn't be logical, knowing that many Alphas would meet their death here if they did that," He explained, giving clarity to the situation.

Glancing upwards, he continued, "Using underhanded methods wouldn't happen either"

Just like the prideful Vampires who would never accept kneeling, or the Undead who would never stop learning magic—the Werewolves would never fight with weapons or any tools of war to win a battle, it was disgraceful in their customs.

Accepted victories in battles could only be achieved by coating their claws with blood.

Listening to this, the pack became more certain that Rex didn't randomly choose this place.

It was all calculated, perfectly suited against Werewolves.

Knowing that their position was the best position they could have, the entire pack gained a boost in confidence, as they began to march ahead, with irregular speed. At the end of this narrow passage was the spotlight from the Honey Moon.

A perfect straight-line path for a couple of miles.

It would take the pack ten minutes to navigate the narrow passage and emerge on its end, and another fifteen minutes of sprinting at full speed, to reach the duel grounds. Along the narrow passage, they kept an alert state but knew that this place was safe.

Surely, the real danger lay beyond the passage, which was a flat land.

Since Rex had crafted their teleportation formation, their emergence here, should be quite untraced—and unexpected by the opposing forces, buying them some time. If they moved swiftly they might even reach the duel grounds before their enemies could intercept them.

However, that was an overly optimistic hope.

Adhara and the others aimed to at least cover half the distance before the inevitable.

But then again, they were hoping that this wouldn't be easy.

If this was easy, then they would've been robbed of the chance to show Rex, that they have changed from what they used to be, they were much stronger and could be relied on, which is why a hard battle is what they sought.

All of them have something to prove.

...

Meanwhile, in another place within the Scarlet Banes Kingdom territory.

At the edge of a sparkling, beautiful lake that has its water turning yellow from the influence of the Honey Moon, a pair of figures could be seen. Vivian was one of them—her gaze fixed on the breathtaking scene before her.

She was looking at the sparkling yellow water, feeling a profound sense of reverence.

Just what she was aiming for, she was finally standing on the Bloodstone Crater.

A sacred site steeped in legend.

Even the air here was crisp and pure, and the lake's beauty surpassed the grandest of tales.

Despite being quite old already, Vivian had never anticipated setting foot, on this hallowed of a site—a place where the great Luna once sacrificed herself for the Werewolf race. She does not have enough standing within the Werewolf Kingdom to be here.

The Bloodstone Crater was reserved for only the most exalted of Werewolves.

Royalty alone could venture to the island at the lake's center while high-ranking Alpha Primes could only seek blessings, from its edge. Vivian was not worthy to be here—the distinction of both Royalties and Alpha Primes alone underscored the sacredness of this place.

Nevertheless, her physical body was standing here right now.

"Go on, touch it if you really want to, nobody is going to stop you," Kassandra said in hubris.

No Werewolves were here at this current moment.

It was a place of sacredness, and Werewolves couldn't get in here willy-nilly.

A perimeter around this place was present, the guards consisting of Werewolves who subtly devoted themselves to being the protectors of this place, were guarding the perimeter—but none of them was able to match Kassandra's ability to sneak inside.

She was as stealthy as she was hard to catch.

Kassandra could see how badly, Vivian wanted to touch the lake's water, but restrained her desire, to do that, "How could I do that...? I'm too insignificant to do such blasphemy" Vivian replied, her voice trembling with reverence.

"You're about to be a silverstar, you're not going to be nothing soon," Kassandra replied.

Along the way, she managed to peel that information out of Vivian's mouth.

Upon hearing this, Vivian smiled, "I wouldn't be able to do that without your help, thank you"

"So, what are you going to do now?" Kassandra asked, changing the topic.

Vivian looked over to the side and could feel the familiar energy that she planted in this site, the command Rex gave to her, "I will wait here until he comes here. If you want to leave, you could. I will inform you when he's here, tell me how to contact you"

"No need," Kassandra replied, pivoting her body around. "Just don't tell him I helped"

From the very start, Vivian thought Kassandra wanted to be a part of the Silverstar Pack.

She thought Kassandra did this exactly for that reason.

But if she wanted to do that, she would've stayed and gained all the credit but she didn't.

"I thought you wanted to also be a silverstar," Vivian said, stopping her mid-track. "If that is not the case, why did you help me? I am sure if you stayed and told him what you did, he is going to make you a silverstar too"

"I want to be a member of his pack, but not now," Kassandra replied with a mysterious smile.

Casting one last look at Vivian, she added, "He's not ready for me yet"

As soon as Kassandra finished speaking, she attempted to leave with ghostly grace, but her body betrayed her. She slipped—crashing to the ground, and hitting her head. Pausing for a solid moment, she quickly stood up and stomped the ground in frustration.

She was cursing the ground for being slippery.

However—she quickly stopped and glanced over to Vivian—who was looking at her with the exact same judgmental look as she had earlier, giving her a side-eye. Kassandra averted her gaze ahead again, the physical pain was eclipsed by her humiliation.

Her attempt at a dramatic exit had backfired spectacularly.

Vivian could only watch from behind with a straight face.

For a moment, she was enthralled by Kassandra's mystery but her clumsiness persevered.

Wordlessly, Kassandra sprang to her feet and bolted, desperate to escape further comments that would compound her mortification, "Ah... kill me please—I'm so embarrassed. Why is the ground slippery anyway?"

"Eugh... I think I used all my luck on looking cool when I confronted Rex back then"