Torben didn't seem to hesitate to fight against Ryan, despite the fact that he was blinded. At least, if he didn't want to be petrified by that gorgon.

  It did surprise Ryan that they were going at it so freely, though, considering that gorgons weren't exactly able to control that petrification ability. It didn't matter who; if they looked into a gorgon's eye, they would become petrified. But it was likely that these guys trained specifically so that they wouldn't get into each other's way.

  It was admirable, but well, at this point they were the only ones at risk. Ryan's eyes were closed, and he had also 'trained' for something similar. Whenever he went and visited the hidden village to help out, he would take care of the cockatrices. They had a very similar ability to the petrifying gaze of gorgons. Because it was an easy way to deal with those guys safely, Ryan and Jester did exactly what they were doing at this very moment. He didn't even need the sunglasses that others were supposed to wear, since the condition of 'eye-contact' could never be met. Jester didn't have eyes.

  So, with that in mind, Ryan was able to keep his eyes shut pretty easily, though his instincts were at first always to pull them open, even if just for a blink. And, well, Torben's strike after that wasn't exactly hard to dodge.

  It was very straightforward. Clearly he was underestimating what Ryan was able to do. Then again, Ryan would do the same if someone just closed their eyes right when they were fighting him. It was natural, really.

  However, with a swift brush over the floor, Ryan dodged and grabbed the Horn of Shapeless Water from his hip, quickly having it take the form of a bat. A hammer felt a bit overkill, but a bat was a good enough base shape to do whatever he wanted to with. Make the front heavier, lengthen it, shrink it, even twist it. A bat was honestly a pretty basic shape, so even if it took a bit of time for the water to reshape and -freeze, it felt like a good choice.

  The moment the ice bat came to be, Ryan grasped the horn tightly in both hands and proceeded to swing his freshly-crafted weapon at the man in front of him. Torben raised his arm to block the attack, and the moment the bat impacted, it was clear that it didn't exactly do a lot of damage.

  That meant that he likely had a class with 'Resistance' as a base stat. That was a bit annoying, but nothing not exactly bad. It just meant that Ryan didn't have to pull his punches.

  The bat of ice fell apart, and the water wrapped around Torben's arm, freezing there once again. While the therian was still confused and startled over what just happened, Ryan made himself drop down while kicking his feet up. He was essentially hanging upside-down for a moment, just holding on by the horn that was now attached to that massive man's arm, before pulling himself up.

  As Ryan's feet impacted flat in Torben's face, he undid the horn's frozen form and returned it to a simple bat. Ryan twisted his body around, kicking up and around, letting his momentum do the rest as he flipped around and landed on his feet again. Of course, he didn't dare hesitate for even a moment, especially since, though Torben was briefly stunned and startled, the gorgon had jumped forward and tried to grab onto Ryan.

  With a fluid yet direct motion, Ryan swung his bat up and hit the gorgon's wrist out of the way, and as the opponent's arm bent out of the way, immediately followed up by a quick strike to the elbow, Ryan could already see the vampire doing something.

  He seemed to be casting some kind of spell, though he used blood flowing from the back of his hand as a conduit. A magic circle was forming in the air. He didn't even have to think about it or ask before Morgana came to tell him. Or rather, she projected her 'thought' onto Ryan, a simple idea that he couldn't miss.

  It was a spell branching off some kind of telekinetic base, and its target were a number of glasses standing around the room. Immediately, Ryan pulled his bat back and held the horn differently. Instead of holding his thumb over the horn, he held it under, like he was about to throw something.

  With a quick motion, he pushed his arm forward and the bat of ice deformed into a more sleek, thin form as a spear, albeit blunted so it wouldn't pierce the man directly, was detached from the horn.

  It hit the vampire straight in the face, and he fell down without much protest. The spell, however, had still been activated. Tiny splatters of blood flew from the vampire's hand onto the different glasses in the room, before they shot straight at Ryan, one after the other. They came from essentially every direction.

  It was easy enough to dodge, though. With Jester's point of view and Ryan's intuition, he was able to dodge everything easily enough.

  However, whenever he dodged one of the glasses, it would slow down mid air and practically get slingshotted directly back at him.

  Ryan kept dodging or pushing the glasses away to try and break the spell's balance, but nothing seemed to work, despite the fact that the vampire was still recovering and clearly not concentrating. However, while Ryan was dodging, neither Torben nor the gorgon could approach, either, so he had a little time to figure out what to do.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  But in the end, Ryan figured there was no reason to make this all too complicated at all. While dodging, he slowly let his bat belt, accruing more and more water. And then, with a swift motion, he twisted around and cloaked himself in the water, letting it freeze. He wasn't able to move, but for that brief moment, all the glasses hit the ice shell and shattered around him.

  "Argh! Stop this nonsense already!" Torben yelled out, his voice booming so loudly that Ryan almost felt like the ice would shatter just from that. But that wasn't even necessary.

  While Ryan was dodging the glasses, Torben had finished his transformation, turning into a massive, just slightly humanoid bear towering over him. But there was something else that wasn't normal for therians.

  His fur wasn't normal; instead, it had taken on a metallic, coppery sheen. And with that metal-enhanced first, he turned the ice shell around Ryan into snow, and threw him right into the bar-counter.

  "... Metallurgist? An Enhancer sub-class?" Ryan stared at Torben the moment he recovered, holding his side. It didn't hurt all too much, but it still stung a bit. "No... You've got a special class, right? One that works with your species directly."

  The therian seemed startled at that, pushing away the bit of blood that was stuck in the hair under his nose. "What'd you know about that? You're just a little human boy."

  "Well... I know that some species fulfil requirements for classes that none other can, so of course that'd be the case for species hidden to the world as well," Ryan replied, looking up at Torben. Well, he had actually looked through the list of classes attained by the hidden folk. Species-exclusive classes were a thing for mainstream species as well. It only made sense, really. They had completely different experiences of the world.

  One of the most common examples was a class for aquatic folk, the 'World-Treader', which had skills that allowed them to swim in anything, whether it be air or stone, the way they could swim in water, and even gave them the ability to breathe air at times if they didn't have it beforehand. There was no recorded mammalian species that had ever gotten that class.

  Now, there were classes that turned one's body metallic. The 'Metallurgist' class was one of them, but that didn't seem to be the case here. The changes to a metallurgist's body were an active skill, and were as such accompanied by that glow in the eyes, which Torben didn't have. So this wasn't an active ability, but a passive one.

  It must alter the transformation process of a therian. That copper fur, combined with the fact that he was able to move the same way now that he did earlier implied that the class fundamentally changed the animalistic side in some ways. Improving its strength, intelligence, and ability to communicate, rather than the non-animalistic side.

  "Not that it matters right now," Ryan smiled. He turned the Horn of Shapeless Water into a long, thin hook that he placed around Torben's ankle, and immediately pulled himself closer. But the therian just kept standing his ground, pulling his arm back to strike at Ryan once again.

  He aimed low, since Ryan clearly aimed for his legs, but the moment the fist came even close, Ryan pulled out of the way. He detached the ice and jumped up onto one of the tables, which he then used to get behind Torben's back.

  Ryan created a large ring with the horn, and as he fell down, not even touching Torben directly up until this point, the ring of ice was pulled into the therian's mouth. Holding the horn behind his own head, Ryan pushed his feet into the centre of Torben's back and pulled down as much as he could.

  Torben tried to claw at the ice, and bit down on it as much as he could, but after every small chip of the ice, Ryan filled that gap right back in.

  It was a bit of a shame, but he had to end this fight.

  He felt that punch just now, and he felt how solid Torben's body was with that strike of the bat and kick to his face earlier. If they wanted to, this fight could go on for hours, probably.

  And fighting was fun, too, but... as Ryan looked around and saw the shattered glasses, and the few people still left in the bar that were cowering in fear at the sides of the room, he knew that this was neither the time nor the place to really do this.

  While still hanging onto Torben, he spoke up.

  "Sorry, I know I said this would be a three versus one, but I don't want to make more of a mess," he said with a click of his fingers.

  Immediately, the rest of the spirits were brought out of their domains. Maximus and Violette rushed to the sides, while Morgana floated above Ryan's head with a smug grin. Jester also finally jumped up and over, taking out his fiddle eagerly.

  Gregor, since he didn't have anything he could do directly, stood on the bar and took a closer look at the different bottles of alcohol decorating the wall.

  And then, there was Gaia, who Ryan quickly unsealed so she stood at three metres, right in front of Torben. She placed her hands onto the man's shoulders, pressing him down.

  Though Gaia didn't have the 'Strength' stat, she was made from stone. The sheer weight and power contained in that body were absolutely nothing to scoff at. Torben tried to shake free, but he wasn't able to escape her grasp, especially not once Gaia's helpers appeared and held onto his legs. The gorgon and vampire didn't even dare to get up.

  Once Torben and his goons were secured, Ryan finally let himself down from the therian, and looked over at the bartender.

  "I'll pay for all the damage, obviously. Though I know that doesn't exactly make up for the commotion."

  The bartender, with a pale face, shook his head. "A-All good! This... happens..."

  "I'm sure it does," Ryan responded, before turning back to Torben. "Sorry to cut things short like that, but we can do this again some other time, if you want."

  Torben growled, screaming in Ryan's face. It was loud and made his ears ring, but he just stood there, his smile still on his face.

  "Right. Anyway, do you think you'd have some time to spare sometime this week? How does Wednesday afternoon sound, around... four?" Ryan asked, turning his head toward the door next to the bar, where two very confused ghouls were standing. It was Marco's friend and, from the vibe that he gave off, the ghoulish uncle currently dealing with a curse. "I actually came here for a very different reason"