A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

*roar*

A bellowing, guttural sound came from Viljar's throat. Fury burned in his eyes as he feared for Olaf's fate, who was lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood.

After Olaf went down, Viljar had only barely been able to engage the werewolf who had done the deed, in fear of him going after Nora or Anne, who were doing pretty well so far, but likely wouldn't be able to handle a second opponent.

His flowing magma fur stirred, as his burning claws attempted to crush the male vampire in front of him. At the same time, his magma tentacles lashed around him in an attempt to keep two female werewolves engaged as well.

Unfortunately, this effort was quickly tiring him out. Keeping both his abilities active at the same time was costing him an abhorrent amount of energy, and his mind was beginning to fray from having to control three enemies.

Despite being one of the most powerful second rankers in the Enclave, his training, affinity, and sheer talent still couldn't match up to those of Emily, Astrid, and Erik.

Nora and Anne both saw Viljar's struggle and wanted to help, but their opponents were on them like flies, and they found it impossible to move away without getting injured.

Luckily, just as Viljar was losing hope, lightning flashed and Erik appeared just behind the werewolf on his uncle's left side, just before Erik tore through the woman's back. Sputtering and spitting out blood, the werewolf lost all strength and began to sag down.

The werebear's eyes went wide in relief when he saw Erik's clawed hand suddenly sticking out of his opponent's chest. "Erik!" he exclaimed with an emotional voice. "I'm glad you still care for your old uncle, despite all this."

"Of course, Uncle," Erik said with a sincere smile as he yanked his arm free from the now-dead council werewolf. "In another life, I might have decided to simply join the Enclave. The fact that Elora and I refuse to follow anyone else is not your fault."

The council vampire and werewolf that were still engaged with Viljar momentarily lost their focus due to the surprise of Erik's sudden entrance. Yet, despite his own surprise and his greeting towards Erik, Viljar still managed to make use of the opportunity.

*rrrrip*

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With a sickening sound and a burning smell, one of Viljar's tentacles managed to slip past the defenses of the werewolf on his right and disappear into her throat.

The werewolf woman sputtered and gurgled with wide eyes before she, too, sagged down to the frozen earth.

At the same time, he swiped his claws in front to keep the vampire engaged and fearing for her life, despite the surprises.

Erik looked at his uncle's actions with approval before grinning emotionally. "I see you've got the rest handled here, uncle. I hope you understand that me and the others are leaving now. It was good to see you again…"

Viljar wanted to protest, but he knew it would be pointless, so he just sighed and nodded without taking his eyes off the woman in front of him. "Same to you, Erik. Please be careful out there…"

"Don't worry, uncle. This isn't the last time we see each other," Erik assured Viljar with a wink before he quickly started moving towards his companions while expecting Elora to re-merge with his body at any time.

Unfortunately, things would not be so simple.

This time, he did not have his lightning flash skill charged and ready, and thus, his speed was not fast enough to avoid the fist that suddenly came from the right while he ran.

His eyes opened wide, and the only thing he had time to do was bring up his right hand to just slightly cushion the impact.

It barely had an effect.

His own hand impacted his face with the force of the fist on the other side. A crunching sound echoed through Erik's head and with a surprised and pained scream he flew to the side.

He barely managed to right himself to land a few meters away and on his wolfish feet. He skidded back and spat out a mouthful of blood, together with a few fangs, and snarled as he looked at his attacker.

"Where do you think you're going, brat?!" Frostfang growled.

****

A few moments before, it was the vampire commander who noticed Erik helping out his uncle from the corner of his eye.

That sight made him quickly look toward where Erik was supposed to be fighting Victor and the others but saw only corpses. "Crap!" he yelled.

A still pissed-off Frostfang took advantage of the vampire's distraction and formed five ice spikes on his fingers, before bringing them together like a drill point and attempting to skewer the man in front of him.

The vampire just barely avoided death by creating a stone plate in of him, but he still coughed out blood and skidded back.

Before Frostfang could press the attack, the vampire wheezed out, "Our prize… is escaping!"

Frostfang immediately growled furiously and spread out his omnisense to get an idea of what was happening without taking his narrowed eyes off the vampire.

When he noticed Erik was running behind him and his attackers had been slain, he felt a strange combination of pride at his teacher's son, and frustration at this damn brat's inability to simply accept his lot in life.

He also noticed a tiny, winged woman floating behind Björn, but the actual implications of that barely registered with him as his gaze flooded with fury and he turned around to stop Erik.

The vampire didn't stop him from leaving, and instead, turned around to address his troops.

****

"Dammit, Frostfang," Erik growled, as he spat out some more blood. "Just let me be. We've already given you a method to help deal with the ghouls, and your deal with the Council is obviously off, so what the hell do you want?!"

Erik was getting more and more angry at Frostfang for persisting even now.

"Let you go?!" Frostfang snarled. "And then what?! Teacher comes back, and you're nowhere to be found?! Forget it! You're coming with me, and I'm going to keep you alive until that time, whether you like it or not! If honored teacher wants to punish me for that when the time comes then so be it!"