A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

The air crackled with aetherium energy as Erik and Emily prepared to face the ghoulish onslaught.

Erik's body was encased in a thin sheet of ice through which lightning seemed to crackle and pop. They almost appeared to be combined elements, but instead, lightning simply ran through the armour behind the ice.

Erik first had to reach the second rank with his ice affinity before he could even begin combining the two elements, mainly because ice couldn't usually conduct electricity.

Meanwhile, Emily was surrounded by many small black orbs capable of taking any form she liked.

Such was Emily's first spell. As a second-rank Arcanist, Emily naturally had two glyphs, each with its own spell.

While her second spell focused on dominating and enslaving others, her first spell involved conjuring these small black orbs that could take any shape as if they were made of water and had a highly penetrative and even corrosive quality.

For the moment, she could conjure only five of these. Two turned into something akin to arrows, another two floated around her for protection, and the final orb began floating protectively above Emma's sphere of roots and thorns.

The arrows shot off towards the charging ghouls in different directions and began skewering them under Emily's bloodthirsty laughter. "Fuck that feels good! Finally, I can work out some of my frustrations! Die! Die! Die!"

It was apparent she had been saving up her corrupted, homicidal tendencies for a while now and was fully prepared to let them all out in this fight.

While her arrows skewered ghouls left and right, the second set of orbs morphed into small disks, protecting Emily against any ghoul getting too close. Until that is, Emily decided to try something else.

One of the ghouls got close to her, but she didn't try to defend or avoid. Instead, a dark magic circle formed above her hand. "Let's give these creatures a better master to serve," she mumbled with an evil grin.

Despite her weaker body, she gracefully sidestepped the clumsy ghoul and touched its forehead with her magic circle.

But when she attempted to form a mental connection, something went wrong. There was a block. As if this creature's mind was already being controlled by something.

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This was the first time, aside from Erik that her spell didn't work, and she was momentarily frozen in astonishment.

Yet, a moment was all the shrivelled-up ghoul needed. It shrieked, causing spittle to fly everywhere as it turned around and swiped at Emily with its claws.

The shriek made Emily return to her senses, but it was too late. The creature's claw was nearly at her throat. Her voice trembled, and her eyes went wide in fear, "F- Fuck!"

But at the last moment, an armour-clad claw appeared and ripped off the ghoul's head. A gruff Erik's voice sounded, "Don't lose focus. These ghouls are strange, but we can consider why later."

Emily nodded a little more meekly than usual but quickly steeled herself. 'Damnit, Emily. He's right. Get a hold of yourself. Don't let your corrupted urges control you.'

Having saved Emily, Erik's armour, ice and lighting-clad body charged back into the fray without ever straying far from Emily and Emma.

He had foregone using his hammer in favour of his claws to increase his attacking speed. The hammer would have provided the ability to use sweeping attacks, but with the sheer number of ghouls present, the sweeps might become too burdensome.

'Let's save my Arcanist spells for now since that vampire still hasn't shown himself,' he thought as he kept a watchful eye out for the master of these creatures and continued slaughtering the ghouls with his hands.

One thing he noticed was that these ghoul's claws were surprisingly sharp. So sharp, in fact, that they could even scratch his armour. Something that the second-rank Seraphina was unable to do with her sword.

Since these first-rank ghouls were naturally weaker than the second-rank Seraphina, the only explanation was that these claws were much sharper than the young vampire's woman's sword.

Luckily, the sheet of ice around his armour, stemming from his first ice affinity rune, provided the extra protection needed to keep his armour safe.

The fight raged on as the ghoulish horde swarmed around the three combatants. Occasionally, a few ghouls would scratch at Emma's protective sphere, but they were always quickly dispatched by either Erik or Emily.

The ghouls preferred moving targets, so Emma's sphere was mostly left alone.

The horde quickly began to thin out. While numerous, the ghouls were only rank one, and their mindless state prevented them from using tactics or accessing the Runebound skills they could use when they were vampires.

While Erik and Emily fought, Emma continued hiding inside her dome of plant life with an anxious expression. She hugged her knees and closed her eyes, mumbling, "Trust in Sir and Big Em. Remember how calm Sir looked. They'll be fine!"

Despite her conviction, however, she kept listening closely to any sounds of distress from Erik or Emily. While she knew her magic was helpful in other situations, she hated being unable to do anything in an actual fight.

She steeled her heart and hardened her eyes. "If I hear them in trouble, I'll undo the dome and try to help. If I just sit here as they die, I'll never forgive myself!"

Her concerns were unnecessary, though, as black arrows and a wolf clad in thunder and ice were already cleaning up the remaining number of ghouls while remaining none the worse for wear.

Yet, they didn't relax even while killing the last few ghouls, as their master still hadn't shown himself.

Suddenly, a strangely hot wind hit Erik in the face even as he plunged his right claw through one of the last ghouls. He frowned. "Warm wind? Here?"

Considering the environment and neither he nor Emily having affinities that could heat up the air, this naturally piqued his interest.

He looked to where the wind came from but saw nothing and felt no problem with himself. His eyes scanned the battlefield, but Emily seemed fine, and Emma was still inside her protective spell.

He pulled his hand out of the unfortunate ghoul but didn't let his guard down as he remained on high alert. Emily seemed to have noticed nothing as she continued to revel in the slaughter of the last few ghouls.

Suddenly, Elora's voice sounded in his head, "Emma!"

It wasn't so much a concerned cry as it was simply the quickest way to alert Erik to where he should direct his attention.

And it worked like a charm.

No sooner had he heard Elora's warning before he turned to face the direction of Emma's protective spell.

Yet, before he could even move, he was already too late.

The air around the dome of plants shimmered, and in a burst of flame, the vampire man appeared as if out of thin air.

His affinity appeared to be fire, while at least one of his Runebound skills was related to a mixture of speed and invisibility.

The burst of flame turned the dome to ash and destroyed the black orb Emily had left behind. Emma screamed. Luckily, the dome had still prevented Emma from being harmed.

But perhaps it was only a temporary reprieve, as the vampire quickly grabbed her neck and held her out in front of him in Erik's direction. "Stop!" He yelled. His earlier bravado was gone as he eyed Emily and Erik with caution.

Emma struggled with tears in her mismatched eyes, but she could do nothing. She could barely even breathe with that hand around her throat. 'Not only am I useless in a fight, but now I can't even keep myself safe while hiding,' she thought sadly.

However, her fear was quickly replaced by calm despite her desire to free herself. Erik was there, and he would keep her safe. That was the belief that thoroughly ingrained itself in her.

Erik stopped in his tracks and growled, "Let her go."

He remained calm, however. Before heading into unknown territory, he had naturally taken steps to keep the weakest member of his group safe. He just needed to buy a little time.

Meanwhile, Emily killed the last ghouls and finally noticed what was happening. She screamed. "No! Emma!"

Corrupted red flickered through her black eyes as she desperately tried to fight the urge to simply charge forward.

The effort to control herself made her physically pant. Her eyes overflowed with hatred and malice. "I'll tear you into a thousand pieces if you hurt her," she screeched.

The vampire scoffed, "From how you look at me, I believe you'll do that regardless."

He turned his attention to Erik, who looked solemn but otherwise remained calm. "You seem like the more reasonable person to talk to. Here's the deal. You three come with me, and you can all live together on one of the blood farms.

Refuse, and I will kill this bitch, before using my incendiary displacement ability to disappear. I clearly underestimated you two earlier and make myself no illusions about being able to defeat you, but we have ways of keeping you under control at the farms."

Emily's expression became even more crazed while Erik's amber eyes narrowed. Rage was boiling inside him because this vampire dared to threaten someone he cared about and considered his. He grinned maliciously, "I think that should have been long enough."

The man scoffed and was about to ask what he was talking about when something changed. Emma's skin under his hand began to glow.