A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

The thirty second-rankers all stared at the third-rank powerhouse in the middle of their encirclement with grim expressions. To say they felt apprehension at facing a third-rank werewolf was no understatement.

Yet, orders had come down, and now they were supposed to follow the orders of the envoy Victor or face the consequences of disobedience. Luckily, they didn't come unprepared, as the council had prepared methods for second-rankers to face a third-ranker.

Meanwhile, after somersaulting following his daredevil escape from Frostfang's claws, Victor landed, a little ungracefully due to his dislocated leg, in the middle of the new arrivals.

He grinned at the cornered Frostfang, even as he winced when he pushed his leg back in its socket. "I didn't want it to come to this, Frostfang," he said, in a malicious tone. "But you forced my hand."

"The council still prefers a diplomatic solution, however," he continued while walking to the front of the encirclement, where the leader of these thirty men and women waited for him, and saluted. "So why don't you just reconsider your previous decision, before we come to blows?"

Frostfang kept turning as he tried to keep an eye on any strange movement among these newcomers. Meanwhile, he snarled threateningly at Victor, "Do you really think you can take me down?! Even with thirty of you?!"

Despite his apparent confidence, he was still hesitant to attack. While he didn't doubt he'd survive the day, the same couldn't be said for the others with him. Of course, Emily and Elora would be safe, but anyone else was likely fair game.

Even he, as a third rank, couldn't be everywhere at once, after all, and thirty second-rankers were still a formidable force, even for a third rank.

"Perhaps not normally," Victor shrugged seemingly casual, yet inwardly a little annoyed that no councilor had been willing to come check out an unconfirmed sighting due to war preparations, considering the rising threat from the East. "But we're not without our tricks. You are, after all, relatively weak on the third-rank power scale."

Frostfang grimaced, but he knew Victor was right. He was a relatively new and inexperienced third-ranker, who had even used a shortcut to get to this point.

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A councilor of Katya's power, for example, could wipe the floor with Frostfang. Even Liv Frost was more powerful than him, although Frostfang could at least defend himself against her.

In that perspective at least, it was a good thing that the nominally weaker Sigurd had taken over.

The only reason why the council hadn't simply dispatched two or three councilors to subjugate these northern wastes, was because they were exactly that: wastes. There was nothing particularly interesting here, and they had more important things to deal with.

Regardless, setting aside his emotional attachment to Viljar, Nora, Anne, and Olaf, Frostfang also still wanted Erik alive. He couldn't imagine facing his honored teacher and being forced to tell her Erik had survived for seven years, only to die for real due to Frostfang's inability to protect him.

While Fostfang contemplated his weakness, Victor gave a sign to this group's commander, a buff, tall, and gruff-looking vampire with blond hair. Suddenly, twenty of the thirty second-rankers present began to cluster together. Sigils, shimmering brightly all over their bodies.

"Oh!" Elora immediately exclaimed in wonder and a little concern from inside Erik's soul. "I didn't expect them to have formation sigils!"

"Is that good or bad?" Erik asked, picking up on Elora's concern. While he had some limited interaction with formation sigils back on Söl, his knowledge of the subject didn't move past the basics.

Formation sigils were applied to multiple individuals of the same rank and could combine the power of every linked person in order to achieve things that they wouldn't be able to do alone, or even as a regular group.

"Depends on the formation's effect," Elora answered, tensely, as she carefully inspected the sigils she saw shining on those twenty people.

Naturally, Frostfang noticed they were up to no good and realized it was likely now or never if he wanted to do something about it. Regardless of the consequences, he couldn't afford to lose control of the situation.

So he straightened his back, howled a threatening challenge, and leaped into the air, straight at the cluster of shining second-rankers.

But he was already too late.

"Oh, I see!" Elora commented in Erik's soul after having figured out the formation's purpose. "That's good news!"

At the same time, the blond vampire commanding these men and women shone brighter than the others and grinned brightly as he unstrapped a large hammer from his back and jumped into the air with a boisterous laugh, "Let's see what you've got!"

He and Frostfang quickly approached each other in the air, while Frostfang narrowed his eyes in suspicion and anger. He knew this guy likely had a reason to be so confident, but seeing another second-ranker act so defiantly towards him, after having already been thoroughly annoyed by Erik, caused him to see red.

Claw met hammer, but unlike the easy victory for Frostfang that it should have been, the two appeared to be almost evenly matched!

Behind the commander, nineteen people went down on one knee to preserve energy while they sent as much of it as they could into their commander. At the same time, they looked at his back with apprehension, knowing the consequences for them if their commander failed.

"Are they… sharing power?" Erik asked Elora in wonder.

"Yes they are," she explained. "The sigil formation they are using is called a unity matrix. It can significantly increase the power of one individual, by adding the power of a group to their own."

"It is far from a substitute for an actual third-rank, however," Elora continued her explanation. " Because the people providing power are not much better than sheep, ready for the slaughter. Not to mention that there is a great loss of energy during the transference, so in a battle of endurance, an actual third-rank will always last longer."

"And lastly," "she shrugged, "the boosted person will obviously still have less skills or spells than an actual higher rank."

"I'm really starting to hate these damn things!" Frostfang roared when he realized what was causing this second-rank vampire to match his power. He already had to deal with the dominion and their sigil-controlled ghouls, now it was once again sigils that obstructed him.

Icy-blue runes began to appear on Frostfang's skin, which the vampire commander matched with his own earthen-brown runes. Abilities began to fly as their clash shook the ground.

The vampire commander was clearly only barely holding up against Frostfang, yet it was enough to keep him occupied while the remainder of the council's forces attempted to deal with the other two groups there.