A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

A the same time, Astrid was standing over the decapitated body of the werewolf, while one of her swords was sticking from the chest of a vampire missing an arm.

With a sickening sound and an uncaring expression, she pulled the sword from the woman's chest, causing her to sag to the ground. "Well, I have to say, I expected more from them," she mumbled, mostly to herself.

Now, of the six second-rankers that attacked them, five had been incapacitated or killed in record time. Such was the power that came from strong affinities, good weapons, and excellent training.

The only two still alive were the unconscious Victor and the unfortunate vampire who continued to struggle with the harassment of Emily's black orbs, a few meters away from Astrid.

"G- Get these things off me!" he yelled, even as he grunted from pain and effort. It was all he could do to keep the orbs away from his vital spots, by utilizing his lightning affinity to combat the orbs right on top of his skin.

An annoyed Emily walked up next to Astrid. "Runebound skin is so tough!" she complained. "I'm afraid I spend too much time improving my ability to enslave while ignoring my orbs of darkness. I need to focus more on my first glyph."

"Oh right," Astrid raised an eyebrow, half curious, half concerned, while she took a step forward and chopped off the vampire's head, putting him out of his misery. "Erik told me you enslaved me for a bit while I was a ghoul. So how does that work?" she asked, with a bit of morbid curiosity regarding her own state back then.

Before Emily could answer, Erik walked up to the two of them with the unconscious and heavily wounded Victor over his shoulder. His hammer was nowhere to be seen, and likely resting inside his armor's storage space.

He dropped the man in front of Emily's feet and said to Astrid, "She can show you right now," before turning to Emily.

"Quickly enslave this one. He's coming with us since we need to know what he knows," he said to Emily in a hasty tone.

"You got it, Boss," Emily said, almost falling over herself in an attempt to do whatever Erik wanted her to. His earlier declaration about refusing to give her up was still resonating in her mind, and a sudden desire to prove her worth to Erik filled her.

It was funny how a declaration that seemed so obvious to one person, could have such a large impact on another.

Erik had never even considered giving Emily up to save his own skin. The very thought was reprehensible to him. He may not be in love with her yet, but she was one of his people, and betraying her would be like betraying himself.

Elora knew that, which is why she hadn't even mentioned it as an option.

Emily quickly crouched down as a pitch-black magic circle appeared on her hand, before touching Victor's forehead with it. She realized they had little time, so she put her all into making this as quick as possible.

They needed to get out of there before Frostfang or the council commander noticed that the very thing they were fighting over was about to fly the coop.

They were engrossed in their fight for now, but it was only a matter of time before one of them glanced in this direction to see how things were going.

Luckily, they should have a few minutes at least, as they wouldn't have expected Erik and his group to have taken care of their adversary so quickly.

Meanwhile, Elora left Erik's body in her small form and flew off, close to the frozen ground and snow, in order to set the last part of her plan in motion. The thing that would keep Frostfang and the council occupied long enough for them to get far enough away that Frostfang's omnisense and speed wouldn't avail him.

Erik watched her go with a worried look. He knew this was necessary, and Elora herself had insisted she do this since her small and hard-to-notice form made her ideally suited for this task.

Yet, the fairy was also extremely vulnerable in this form, especially in the middle of a battlefield. After all, there was a reason fairies needed their protectors.

So, Erik couldn't help but worry. Naturally, their relationship had long since passed beyond that of protector and fairy, but, if anything, his desire to protect her had only grown stronger now that she was his wife.

He refocused on the scene in front of him, when a glassy-eyed Victor staggered to his feet, completely ignoring his wounds and pain.

"That's freaky," Astrid said and shivered at the thought that she was like that not too long ago. She suddenly felt a little uncomfortable around Emily. A feeling she quickly tried to suppress.

"Alright, you two," Erik said hastily. "Take this asshole and go grab Emma, we're leaving as soon as Elora finishes what she needs to do."

"What about you?!" Astrid and Emily said, surprisingly, at the same time, and with equal amounts of concern in their eyes.

"I'm waiting for Elora, now get going!" he ordered, a little harshly, not wanting the two of them to wait any longer.

Despite not liking this situation, Emily and Astrid finally sprinted off toward Erik's old house to grab Emma, who quickly left the house when she saw them approach.

Meanwhile, Erik quickly glanced at the battle between Frostfang and the commander, which was getting more and more violent, as Frostfang's anger over this entire situation exponentially increased.

"How dare you interfere in Enclave business!" he growled as he attacked with both claws, while two floating wolf jaws filled with sharp fangs made of ice tried to take a bite out of the vampire.

"You're the one who wanted to make a deal with us, Frostfang! Don't blame us now, because we don't agree with you backing out at the last moment!" the vampire retorted in an annoyed tone. He may have been a little boisterous at the start of their fight, but that was mostly for the troops.

He was actually quite annoyed and concerned about all this.

Erik didn't care about their struggles, however, and quickly averted his gaze to look at Viljar's group instead.

His eyes narrowed with worry when he noticed Olaf had been incapacitated, and Viljar was now barely holding up against three opponents.

He knew he shouldn't but, in the end, he couldn't just watch as Viljar's fate was uncertain. Erik may have some gripes with Frostfang, but he still loved his uncle dearly.

Lightning struck, and mere moments later, Erik appeared on the other side of the battlefield.