A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

All five members of their team looked at him with different expressions.

Olaf's face was red with narrowed eyes, Anne had narrowed eyes and a frown, Nora's face was red as well, but accompanied by a lustful grin, Björn looked with a bit of awe. Finally, their leader looked at him with narrowed eyes and inquisitive scrutiny.

Yet, all of them, even Nora, looked at him with some hostility, clearly ready for a fight and not underestimating him.

It was their leader who spoke up first. "First of all, do you mind undoing your transformation and putting your weapon away? We did not come with hostile intentions."

But Erik grinned and refused. "I do mind, actually."

He shrugged nonchalantly. "There's five of you and one of me. You'll have to forgive me for taking a few precautions. As for your non-hostile intentions, don't make me laugh."

A confident grin hung on his lips. "The only reason you would come here with five second-rank Runebound is because, one, you want something from me, and two, you're prepared to force the issue if I don't cooperate. The only thing I'll believe is that you'd prefer if things didn't come to a fight."

He raised an eyebrow in a questioning manner. "But that'll depend on what you want from me, won't it?"

It remained quiet for a moment, with the five shapeshifters surrounding Erik looking various degrees of uncomfortable and hostile before the ginger-haired man in front of him responded.

He sighed in resignation. "Fine, you're right. Although, if it did come to that, I would have allowed you a moment to rearm yourself, as I prefer to fight on equal terms."

Erik chuckled, "I actually believe you. But I'm gonna hold on to my weapon and transformation anyway." He got the feeling the man he once knew had changed a lot since he last saw him, but at his core, remained the same, which is why Erik actually believed him.

Erik pointed with the thumb on his free hand towards Olaf, "Particularly because this guy seems about ready to tear my throat out for some reason."

Olaf was now playing around with the dagger made of flames in his hand as he stared menacingly at Erik with anger apparent on his face.

The ginger-haired leader sent a threatening glare towards Olaf before turning back to Erik. "Don't mind him. He's a little impulsive and annoyed at having been made to wait."

Erik rolled his eyes. "Well then, don't come at night. People do need sleep, you know." Then he pointed at Nora. "Besides, he's not the only one. That blond woman looks ready to devour me. Though perhaps not in the same way." He looked at her and winked, "Not that I'm uninterested."

Nora's eyes immediately lit up while Anne next to her groaned.

"We should talk later."

"Please don't encourage her."

They said at the same time.

Erik laughed and thought, 'This is getting interesting,' before refocusing on the man before him. He waved his hand dismissively. "Well, let's drop it. Tell me why you're here."

The man nodded. "Fine. There are actually a lot of things I'd like to know right now, but the main reason we're here is that one of us saw your fight against those ghouls earlier. We want whatever method you and your…" he seemed to search for the right words as some uncontrolled disgust flashed across his face. "Human friend… used to bring that ghoul under control."

Erik raised his eyebrows in surprise as he panned his gaze between the people gathered there. "I figured you were here because of that fight, but I'm surprised one of you managed to watch without alerting me."

"Probably some skill that can hide their presence, but I won't know which of them it was without you touching them." He heard Elora's voice in his mind. To which Erik nodded inwardly.

"Anyway," Erik continued aloud, "can I assume you guys are from the Silver Enclave then?"

"That's right," Olaf said, "so you'd best show a little respect!" Which Björn followed by questioning his origins, "I'm surprised you heard about us. I don't believe you and your group are from around here."

Ignoring Olaf, Erik nodded thoughtfully towards Björn. "Well, yes and no." Then, he looked at their leader again. "But never mind that for now. You seem to be their leader, so tell me, what are you willing to offer in exchange for a method to control the ghouls?"

Before the man could answer, Olaf had enough of the back and forth, "Enough of this! Why are we listening to this asshole, anyway? Here's our offer: in exchange for giving us what we want, you get to live!"

Erik sighed in response. "There's always one, isn't there?" He quickly exchanged some information with Elora while purple runes suddenly appeared all over his body. Before anyone could react, he disappeared in a flash of lightning and reappeared before Olaf with his armored leg raised.

Bam!

With a quick and powerful kick to the stomach, Olaf roared in pain as he flew through the air straight toward the barrier. As he flew, he changed into his wolf form as a reaction to the threat, but it was too late.

Instead of crashing against the barrier, it opened for him, and he flew straight through before crashing against the house. There, another sigil activated, and under Olaf's painful howling, lightning chains began to wind themselves around his body.

The moment Erik's kick connected with Olaf, the other members of the group kicked into action by transforming into their beast forms and charging Erik, who chuckled and simply stepped into the barrier, forcing his four attackers to come to a halt.

Naturally, he had used his lightning-flash ability to appear in front of Olaf before anyone could react. This ability needed some time and continued use of electricity to charge up, normally during combat, but Erik had already done that before he even left the house.

That and the sigils were the only reasons he could disable a second-rank Runebound this quickly.

"You bastard! You dare attack so suddenly when we tried to be diplomatic?!" Anne yelled from the other side of the barrier.

Meanwhile, behind Erik, Olaf groaned in pain as lighting ran across his body. He flexed his muscles while fiery runes appeared on his skin in an attempt to break free, but this only caused him to scream louder.

"You call what that guy was doing diplomatic?" Erik chuckled as he thumbed over his shoulder towards Olaf. "I honestly wasn't planning on attacking anyone, but that guy was getting on my nerves. I don't like being threatened, you see."

That wasn't exactly true. From the start, Erik had been wanting to make them lose their advantage, Olaf just gave him the perfect excuse and target.

While the rest of the team seethed with anger as they glared at Erik through the barrier and told him to let Olaf go or face the consequences, their ginger-haired leader remained calm and quickly got his fellows to quiet down.

"Quiet down!" he yelled at them before turning to Erik. "You're right. Olaf was impulsive and combative, but that's no reason for you to react in the same way. Let him go, and we can still talk about this."

But his request just amused Erik. "Let him go? Now that I've gained an advantage in these negotiations? How dumb do you think I am? No. Instead, let me even the odds a little." He turned towards the house.

"Emily? I assume you're watching. Come out here."

Mere moments later, the beautiful, pale, black-haired girl walked out the door, dressed in what continued to be her only outfit: a black crop top and cargo pants.

"Yeah, Boss?" she asked casually, seemingly paying little attention to the people outside the barrier.

Erik thumbed towards the suffering Olaf. "Even the odds for us, will you?"

Emily grinned, "Happy too, Boss." Since the uses of her second glyph against an opponent who actually fought back were limited, she always enjoyed the opportunity to enslave someone.

Björn quickly pointed at her. "That's the creepy human who did something to that ghoul!"

Erik and Elora immediately identified Björn as likely being the person with concealment skills.

Immediately, the people on the other side of the barrier became outraged as they watched Emily move closer to the restrained Olaf.

"What the hell is she going to do to him?!" Anne, currently in her werelynx form, yelled as wind seemed to gather around her claws before she swiped at the barrier, uselessly, much to her frustration.

Meanwhile, Nora and Björn attacked the barrier with their own skills, while only their leader remained somewhat calm.

"Don't make things worse now, boy." He growled.

But Erik waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry; he'll be fine. We're just evening the playing field a little."

Olaf screamed and struggled as he watched Emily close in. "G- Get away from me, Bitch! Don't touch me!"