However, that was a problem for later, the black horse returned to the real world as she saw the filly rushing towards him, contrary to their previous exchanges, Ember actually moved around one time faster then before.

"Clang!", the king of fangs managed to react at the last second and used his right claws to block Kana’s spear, producing the sounds of metals colliding but once again he was taken by surprise, this time it was because the small creature’s "stinger" broke his claw and continued its way to then puncture his leg, making him lower his hoof as he took a step back so that the tip of the spear wouldn’t pierce further into his flesh.

"Neeeigh!", though the wound was neglectable, the pain wasn’t as the black horse letting a loud sound as he aimed to use his free left hoof to claw at Kana, only for the filly to raise her own hoof to intercept the incoming claws, suggested.

"Crack!", Ember’s hoof instantly destroyed the claws upon impact, the king of fangs discovered with a hatred-filled gaze that he couldn’t push the filly even a centimeter back with just the strength of his leg.

Which was definitely not what he expected, after all he has grown muscle and changed his body to gain more leg strength and yet he still was unable to overwhelm the young Ember.

"Damn it!", with bloodshot eyes, the black horse opened his spike-toothed mouth to then bite at the filly’s neck, only for Kana to unsheathe the dagger which she had hanging on her waist to then slash it at the eyes of the black horse making him grit his teeth to ultimately retreat as he didn’t want to experience having his eyes slashed again.

"Looks like we now know who would blink first", casually said Ember with a disdainful voice, using the black horse’s own tactic of throwing provocative words at the enemy, against him.

It’s worth mentioning that the black horse was already being driven crazy at the fact that the enemies he was facing, suddenly became stronger, which is normal, as Kana and Ember weren’t fighting seriously earlier, it wasn’t until Kana slashed the eyes of the king of fangs that the real fight started.

And as you can see, while Kana obviously can’t just increase her physical strength out of nowhere, her spear technique became much more refined, she aimed at the claw of the black horse in a way that the angle of impact would favor her, not only breaking it in a direct clash but even continuing to damage the horse’s leg.

As for Ember, she simply started using her powerful legs and extremely tough hooves the way she is supposed to, without the need to use "stomp" to exert her strength.

"Go ahead laugh while you can!", shouted the black horse, cracking noises came from all over his body this time, which made Kana frown, with a light tap of her right ankle, she signaled the filly to rush towards the enemy, which she did the next second.

"Boooom!", however the black horse this time reacted in time, with a "swoosh", he actually moved fast enough to properly dodge Amber whose strong hooves created a small crater as she turned around after her charge was dodged by the black horse.

Speaking of the king of fangs, his body had undergone another bizarre change, his previously big sturdy frame had thinned down a couple of notches, he didn’t decrease in terms of size, but the way his body was arranged changed from the endurance focus of a horse, to an agility type of figure.

It’s obvious that he had gone from being a long-distance travelling animal, to a short but powerful outburst type, which is much akin to a predator than to an herbivore whose survival method is basically to run a lot.

"Roaaaar!", accompanied by the having dodged Ember’s assault, the king of fangs finished his transformation by letting out a roar-like sound that definitely shouldn’t have come from a horse. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

All this under Kana’s confused pretty eyes, as she felt the already non-existent chance she had of "becoming friends" with the black horse, worsening past that, she now actually felt rather disgusted by the presence of the enemy.

This of course is besides the little girl’s personal opinion, she already didn’t like the black horse for what he had done to Ember’s parents and the other horses, but now she felt this strange sensation of repulsion towards the king of fangs.

’What is this... it’s slightly similar to when I met big brother but inversed and, in a way, smaller scale’, thought the little girl.

Besides the obviously friendly aura Kana perceived when she met Aster, the little girl instinctively felt that she could trust him which is why she brought him to meet Sarina and well, you know the rest of the story.

After that one time, though Kana has met many good people among which she gained a lot of "sisters", she had never felt that sure safe and close sensation with anyone else but Aster, so she was actually surprised to feel something similar but on the opposite side, from the black horse.

If with Aster she felt absolutely safe the black horse gave her this sensation of unease and absolute enmity, as if she couldn’t coexist with him no matter what, it’s worth mentioning that these aren’t Kana’s personal feelings, but more like instinctive hunches, well when it came to Aster her personal opinion and said instinctive feeling had become one and the same but that’s beside the point.

Also, the scale was nowhere near the same, if the feeling she had when she met Aster was a "100", the opposite one she got from the black horse as of current was a mere "1", so she was nowhere as apprehensive when facing the horse as she was happy when she met Aster.

"Crack!", the ground below the black horse cracked as his body tensed up before like an arrow leaving a bow, he pounced towards Ember and Kana, this time with both of his clawed hooves aiming frontwards trying to catch those two in a single go.

"Humph!", both the little girl and the filly softly snorted, Ember rushed to the side successfully dodging the charge of the black horse, because while his jumping distance and explosive speed outburst indeed surpassed that of the filly as of current, Ember was still faster than him in normal circumstances.

Which in other words mean that the filly can timely react to the enemy’s attacks and dodge even if the safety margin had indeed been reduced after the change in the body frame of the king of fangs.

"Neeeigh!", immediately upon landing the black horse showed his spiked teeth at Ember to then charge at her aiming to get ahold of the filly by her neck with his powerful bite, only for a sensation of danger to force his head to move to the side ultimately changing the trajectory of his charge.

With a "swoosh", the blade of Kana’s spear barely missed the right ear of the black horse, however the filly took advantage of the predicted reaction of the black horse to tackle him.

"Thud!", a loud dull sound was produced as Ember pushed the black horse backwards, while he had gained agility and powerful explosive outburst capacity, the king of fangs had lost heaviness, not that much though.

But even with her smaller frame the filly, relying in the rough comprehension of her war ride manual’s second initial technique, which was "Solid Stance", Ember temporarily overwhelmed the black horse in a direct clash.

Seeing the look of disbelief in the eyes of the black horse, both the filly and the little girl softly snorted to their insides.

’Humph, so what if you are big and bad, big brother and a lot of sisters have taught me how to deal with enemies like you’, thought Kana as she lightly tapped the filly’s side with her ankle, giving her the signal to charge at the king of fangs.

This time however, those two didn’t choose to go straight towards the black horse, Ember instead passed next to the enemy, while Kana thrusted her spear at the different areas of the black horse’s body.

"Clang!", the consecutive thrusts were mostly blocked by the black horse’s claws, but among them one did manage to bypass the horse’s defense, piercing through a couple of centimeters of his thick layer of hair and hide, it was a really minor wound but it still angered the black horse, so he turned around to try and pin Ember onto the ground by pouncing at her.

"Crack!", unfortunately the clever filly had taken a sudden detour, and instead of dodging to the side which would have required more movement or rushing frontwards which required her to react faster, she in a marvelous display of maneuverability instead made a tight "U" turn, ending on the spot where the black horse was previously standing.

It’s easy to say it, but that maneuver required a lot of understanding between ride and rider, especially if it was done at high speed like Ember did, the reward was totally worth the many tries and fails that those two had faced when practicing the previous though, because now the black horse was basically showing his backside to them, in other words they had created a second big opening, on par with the chance Kana used to slash the black horse’s eyes taking advantage of his ignorance regarding the existence of the dagger.

"Neeeigh!", the black horse let out a loud sound as the tip of Kana’s spear punctured the base of his left hind leg twice before he jumped frontwards to put distance between himself and those two.

’What the hell, their hunting method completely changed out of nowhere, but how can that be, their bodies have not changed at all!’, exclaimed the king of fangs to his insides.

The "hunting method" to which he referred was of course Kana and Ember’s fighting style, the black horse was confused because those two had gone from minor side ambushes to direct confrontation with the purpose of creating an opening for an attack.

Of course, for the king of fangs, a former herbivore, this made no sense because "animals" don’t just change their habits out of nowhere like that, he was able to do so because he could manipulate his body, but he didn’t see any outer change in those two.

Unfortunately, what the black horse didn’t know is that Kana is like a sponge when it comes to learning, she can absorb and actually integrate many different principles in her fighting style without ruining her original foundation, which is why she is the perfect host for Esmeralda whose different powers are not directly linked but instead are connected by a common distant aspect.

An example of the previous is how though her main interest and principal weapon is a bow, she is also proficient enough in close combat to fight with the jade gauntlets and now she has learned the basics of spearmanship from Tiana’s overwhelming crushing style and also Camila’s swift piercing style, as well as Mina’s feints and trickery which had become a must course for all the girls of the sect by the way.

’I can use abruptly different types of swordsmanship through my "control" focus, but that little girl can harmonize many different things with ease so long as there is even a minor overlapping aspect between them, anyone who faces her once will be destined to lose against her the second time, unless there is a big difference in strength of course’, thought Aster as he saw from the corner of his eyes the last exchange between Kana, Ember and the black horse.

Kana is basically a fight style breaker, she learns with every clash and analyzes how her enemies fight to then find ways to counter them, of course this is limited to the most basic aspects, but ultimately everything can be traced back to the basics, long story short she is bound to become nightmare of an opponent not only for anyone that can’t defeat her in a short period of time, but also for those whose fighting styles share their basics.

As a proof of the previous even though it hasn’t been long since the black horse gained that extra motion range due to the change in his leg composition and his recently gained explosive charge ability, no matter how he tried to claw at Ember the filly either dodged or his clawed hooves were blocked by Kana in perfect coordination with the filly who then took the chance to launch a counterattack.

"Clang!", skillfully twisting her spear, the little girl deviated the incoming clawed hoof making the black horse grit his teeth as he raised his upper body solely relying on the jumping strength of his frontal left leg.

This time however, the filly didn’t dodge but imitated the enemy raising her upper body, which of course didn’t tower as tall as the large frame of the king of fangs, giving the latter a sensation of superiority, until he saw Kana suddenly stand up on Ember’s back while the filly’s upper body was still up in the air.

The black horse’s eyes contracted like needles as he saw the small creature suddenly standing on par with him in terms of height, before a cold silver glint flashed towards him.

"Neeeigh!", forcefully moving his head to the side, the spear’s thrust which Kana had learned from Camila, failed to pierce through the horse’s right eye, the little girl actually aimed to one of the most vulnerable parts of an enemy, courtesy of Mina’s "make use of everything" tips, but she still managed to make the black horse suffer, as in she blasted the upper half of king’s right ear with the spear.

Enraged by the previous, the black horse suddenly exploded with extra speed moving his neck like an arrow which left a bow, his powerful spiked teeth caught the spear by the shaft to then exert force on it, he wanted to drag Kana away from Ember’s back to then trample upon her body.

Unfortunately, unlike what the black horse believed the spear was not attached to Kana’s hand and the little girl simply let go of it, just in time for Ember to tackle the black horse from below, making him fall backwards and roll a couple of times.

"Crack!", of course a mere fall wasn’t enough to hurt the king of fangs, so he directly got up and then applied strength on his haws breaking the spear in half, though he looked a bit disheveled with dust on his previously proudful black mane, he had a smile of sufficiency it was as if he was saying "Now that you lost your stinger you are dead!".

After all, the spear’s long reach is what has been causing him a headache, though the most painful attack he received was having his eyes slashed by the dagger, so far.

"Sister Camila", with a soft voice, the little girl called out and not even a second later with a "swoosh", a brand-new spear perfectly landed exactly next to Ember to then be grabbed by Kana who smiled at a certain girl with copper colored hair.

Seeing the "stinger" which he had destroyed at the cost of one of his ears, being replaced so easily, the black horse’s eyes became bloodshot, more so because Kana casually added.

"What is that face for, earlier at sister Ember’s petition I didn’t interfere when you called your subordinate to bring you meat, even though that goes against big brother’s teachings".

"Neeeigh!", the previous angered the black horse even more, because it meant that his subordinate wasn’t fast enough to come in and leave before the enemy reacted as he was supposed to, but simply was allowed to, by them.

And why does that anger the black horse you wonder, well, Ember specifically said that she was going to absolutely crush him alongside the power he had gained, so he felt he was played by the filly.

The scrawny and agile black horse in charge of assisting the king appeared in the battlefield once more, he was of course brining another piece of meat for the black horse who actually retreated to then... bite off the head of the errand black horse before chewing it alongside the meat he brought.

This made both Ember and Kana’s killing intent soar up, the filly because she was reminded of her father’s death and the little girl because that sensation of disgust which opposed the happy one, she had when she met Aster, suddenly doubled.

"Crack!", however now wasn’t the time to delve into that, since there was a much more important matter at hand, Kana who was about to give Ember the signal to charge, suddenly stopped on her tracks.

"Wait a moment sister Ember, it feels dangerous to approach him now", she mumbled, and the little girl made the right judgement.

"Hssss!", a loud sizzling sound was produced as the grass surrounding the black horse turned yellow and then black burnt due to a short-lived strong heat release before the black horse’s body starting emitting a cold black mist.

However, it seemed like the king of fang’s trick was not like the anaconda’s one, which consisted in making her whole body produce that venom which actually managed to affect the little wyrm, despite her monstrously strong scales.

Instead, the cold mist seemed to be a requirement for what happened next, cracking sounds came from all over the black horse’s body, before under Kana and Ember’s surprised gazes, he grew an extra pair of legs and that wasn’t all, his upper body was now upright, he looked a bit like a centaur from the fantasy genre stuff Aster remembers from earth, with the exception that the king doesn’t have a human upper body, even his previous frontal legs had changed to look like arms, he didn’t have hands though, only much more developed clawed hooves.

Amusingly enough, it looked as if the king of fangs took this appearance to imitate Kana and Ember, though that obviously wasn’t the case.

’It wasn’t him eating the black horse’s head what allowed him to change like that, from what creature did that meat originate?’, thought Aster as he saw the strange appearance that the king of fangs had taken.

Unfortunately, the pieces of meat that the errand horse had brought to the king were half gnawed already so he couldn’t discern it, though he did confirm that it should have belonged to something that can walk on two feet, as those were the leftover of arms.

"Is that the "perfect" form you were talking about, how unsightly", said the filly, not because the king had gained a relatively "humanoid" shape, but because the extra legs that he grew to support his new body, clearly looked different than the rest of his body.

It was as if someone had stitched the legs of another horse onto him, there were no such marks though, but those legs belonged to a desert breed horse, probably the late leader of the pack that he had taken in, considering the fear and resentment that the mares which remained in the tunnel of the hill, showed in their eyes.

"It looks like your hind legs have become even more powerful than before, that’s perfect, I’ll take them for myself after eating you, then I’ll eat that annoying creature on your back", answered the horse as he showed his now much more organized, but still spiked teeth.