A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Meanwhile, back at the battle site, on the blood-soaked road winding through this dense taiga forest, more than fifty corpses lay scattered about, and the air still hummed with the powers released during the recent fighting.

Five people, three men and two women, emerged from the underbrush and looked around. They wore strange clothes that looked like extremely elastic body suits, fitted with various straps and bands while covering only the chest and upper thigh areas.

Both the men and women wore essentially the same things.

As they inspected the bloody scene, none had disgusted looks on their faces, as they appeared curious instead.

The tallest among them was built like a bear, with wide arms and legs and a barrel chest to match. In general, he looked ready to snap some trees in half. His hair was long, ginger, and wild, as was his beard, which had been done up with Viking braids.

He looked around with a frown before speaking in a deep, commanding voice, "Björn. Tell us again what happened here."

A much shorter and skinnier man stepped forward. Physically, he was extremely underwhelming compared to the larger man. Still, there was a ferocity in his eyes that would leave many hesitant about engaging him.

He enthusiastically spoke, "Ah, you should have seen it, Boss."

He waved a bit behind him to the opposite side of the cliff Erik jumped down from. "I was sitting in a tree somewhere over there, following that patrol as you said, and thinking about how boring this assignment was when bam! Down came some armored werewolf, jumping from that cliff and causing an explosion or something."

He explained the ensuing fight in excruciating detail while doing some shadowboxing and excessive hand movement as if he were a participant in the battle.

When he was done, a voluptuous woman with platinum blond hair and a lustful grin spoke up, "He sounds hot. A little savagery is never a bad thing in a man."

The second woman, Anne, who looked far more lithe and athletic, palmed her face, "Damnit, Nora. Keep your panties on for once. We don't even know if this guy is friend or foe yet."

Nora wasn't deterred and licked her lips, "That's fine. If he's an enemy, I'll just chain him up first… actually, I might do that either way."

Anne rolled her eyes before she narrowed them. "Anyway, I'm more interested in that disgusting human. I thought we killed them all after the purges seven years ago. So, where did this one come from? And how is she so strong?"

It remained silent for a moment as no one had an answer.

Instead, Björn began laughing and turned to a voluptuous woman with platinum blond hair, "Human aside, I wish you good luck with chaining that armored maniac up! From what I've seen, only the boss might have a chance of keeping him in one place."

Seeming to think of something, he turned towards the man in question, "In fact, I would pay good money to see you and that werewolf slugging it out sometime!"

The man he called Boss released a deep, disgruntled huff, "We'll see about that. Now, let's get to the interesting part."

What happened after the fight was what most interested these five people. Had it not been for that, they would have simply sent some first-rank weakling trying to earn his stripes and see if these people could be reasoned with.

Seeing the boss wasn't in the mood, Björn sighed, "Alright, alright. So, when it was all done, it got weird. The guy only killed the second-rank vampire, but not the ghoul. Instead, he just took it into a chokehold for a few seconds until the ghoul suddenly went crazy, as if whatever method the Dominion used to control their ghouls was removed.

Next, the werewolf and the human talked, but I was too far away to hear what was said. The girl walks over to the ghoul and does something I can only describe as creepy before the ghoul suddenly goes all docile and stops resisting."

Björn shrugged, "And that was basically it. The werewolf helps the girl up the cliff, and the ghoul follows like a good pet. After that, I figured it was better to get you, Boss, rather than keep following them."

The Boss nodded thoughtfully, "You did good, Björn. If they discovered you and you died, we would have known nothing now. We should be able to follow their trail from here. But first, any opinions on what happened at the end there?"

The other men and women looked at each other and scratched their heads until Anne, who had ash-blond hair, spoke up, "Well, assuming that Björn is right and the Dominion's control was removed, then that girl must have applied some new method of doing the same.

Either that or the ghoul going crazy was a coincidence, and it was simply the girl taking over the Dominion's method. Whatever the case, we need what they have, which is why Frostfang wanted five second-rank on this."

The boss nodded, "Right, but there's one thing that bothers me about the first possibility. Björn, how sure are you that the werewolf first removed the Dominion's control?"

The man in question shrugged helplessly, "Even if you beat me black and blue, I still wouldn't know for sure. I was too far away to hear their voices, let alone see the ghoul's eyes.

All I know is that the ghoul went from skillfully trying to escape that man's chokehold to basically just flailing around like a puppet with its strings cut as its movements became erratic and uncoordinated."

The third man, Olaf, who had yet to speak, snorted in disdain, "You should have gotten closer then."

Björn didn't bother himself with the man's disrespect and just shrugged, "And risk ending up on the business side of that armored maniac's claws, or, worse, that creepy human's pitch black magic? No, thank you."

Olaf looked at Björn with ridicule, "I thought you wereverines made up for your physical shortcomings with ferocity? Now you're telling me you were scared?"

Björn was clearly a laidback man, as he kept his calm and simply waved his hand in dismissal, "Ferocity is not the same as stupidity, Olaf. Maybe I'll show you when we're back at camp."

Before Olaf could retort, their leader stopped him. "Enough. The reason I asked that question before you idiots began bickering is that I can't help but wonder if that human might be controlling the werewolf…"

Immediately, all eyes went wide as they all gnashed their teeth. It was Anne who spoke up first. "That damn human stain. Wasn't it enough they wiped out so many villages just before the awakening? Now they wish they control us, too? I'll rip her to shreds."

Her voice became increasingly agitated until Nora put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, Anne. We all have reasons to hate humans, but we need this one alive. At least until we know how she controls those ghouls."

Their leader nodded, "Nora is right. I hate humans just the same, but we have to think of the greater good right now."

He moved away from the edge of the battlefield and stood beneath the cliff. "Either way, let us move on before the trail gets cold."

After those words, his body began to change. Limbs elongated, muscles expanded, fur grew, and in less than a second, the bear-like human had become an actual werebear, one of the most brutal and powerful shapeshifters in existence.

His size had grown and would now likely tower over even someone like Erik. His fur-covered arms and legs were enormous, covering almost balloon-like muscles that could likely tear anything in half, so long as it was at most second-rank.

His clothes had grown along with the man as the elastic materials stretched to their limits while the various straps and bands lightened the material's load.

His face was now much like that of a bear as he roared into the sky and slammed his enormous clawed hand against the cliffside before beginning to climb up.

Behind him, the remaining four people underwent a similar transformation, with Björn becoming a wereverine, Olaf and Nora becoming werewolves, and Anne becoming a werelynx.

They jumped onto the cliff wall and began climbing upwards to follow their boss.

When they arrived at the top, the werebear was already sniffing around and suddenly spoke up. "There was a second human up here. But that's not important. What I don't understand is why I can't smell that werewolf. I thought it was because of the many ghouls and gore that I couldn't pick it up at the bottom, but even up here, I only smell two humans."

This was a habit that Elora had picked up back on Söl. She was essentially removing any trace of his passing when they traveled. Or at least what could be picked up with natural senses.

The others started sniffing around and inspecting the ground as well and soon had to concur with the werebear. "We can't smell him either, Boss," Björn said.

Their leader's bearish face contorted in a frown momentarily, but then he shook his head. "Well, no matter. Let's follow those humans for now."

He turned towards the west and frowned. "I don't like this direction they're heading in, however. There's only one thing there, and I don't know what they could possibly want with that place…"