4-27 The Wulver

“Spirits be damned,” Nivia muttered under her breath as the small piece of blue paper in her palm was torn into half by some unseen force. “Of course, it would be Lyra who found him.”

Siv turned her dumbfounded gaze to the grumbling Elf. “You sound upset, milady. Did you want to be the one who found our mark?”

“Does it matter now?” Nivia asked with a frivolous tone as she flounced out of the valley and broke into a sprint in the direction of Lyra and Lilian.

Like the other pairs, Nivia and Siv too were on the lookout for Edmund in an alley across from a tavern. Unlike the other taverns in this god-forsaken district, this tavern was pretty much close to being abandoned save for a few peculiar individuals who were drawn in by the desolating atmosphere this tavern was exuding.

Nivia took to the roofs after she ran out of the tavern’s sight. Had she taken to the roofs immediately, she would have attracted far too much attention, not that she truly would considering the residents here couldn’t even be bothered with a murder that happened right in front of them. Siv was following closely behind and she was keeping a close eye on the undertone of Nivia’s subtle gestures.

“Did you perhaps wish to gain mistress’ favour by being the one who stumbled upon Edmund, milady?” Siv asked as they dashed and leapt across roofs after roofs.

Nivia did not answer. Her face seemed to turn but not enough to glimpse behind.

“That’s a very adorable thought, milady. Quite puerile too.”

Nivia skidded to a halt and spun around with fury in her eyes. “You are being uncharacteristically chatty, Siv.”

“She’s a friend and my mistress and you are harbouring some very… interesting feelings and intentions towards her.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nivia asked as she stomped right up to the Wolf-kin.

“I’m just trying to know if this conflicting intent of yours would bring harm to my mistress in the future. You are unable to be honest with yourself.”

“Regardless of my honesty, these are trivial feelings. Nothing you need to be wary about.”

“Trivial at first but love is volatile. I have seen people going down a very dark path due to the kind of feeling you deemed trivial. I once had a business acquaintance who betrayed his peers at work due to love. His betrayal nearly cost my former employer everything. Funny enough, my peers and I saw the madness of love in his eyes long before the thought of betrayal had even blossomed in his head. We left him as it is because we shared your sentiment then, we thought it to be trivial.”

Nivia scoffed and turned around. “Unlike you, a Fae has better and more refined discipline than other races. You need not worry about me,” she said and resumed her haste.

Siv sighed. “For everyone’s sake, I certainly hope that would be so,” she muttered and followed after Nivia’s haste in silence for the rest of the short trip.

****

“There they are,” Siv muttered as they turned into a corner. She saw Lyra and Lilian, huddling together behind an abandoned cart by the roadside. Her gaze immediately focused on the holes scattered in the area around the pair. The realisation came quickly to her.

“Are they under attack?” Nivia asked, drawing her short bow.

“Get down!” Siv shouted and dropped to the ground.

Nivia didn’t retort and complied without hesitation. A stake flew over her head the second after she ducked down.

“It’s Nivia and Siv!” Lyra exclaimed.

“You two, get to cover now! We have a sniper!” Lilian shouted.

As soon as she said that, another stake nearly found its way into Nivia’s head if she hadn’t slanted her head sideways. The stake dissolved into nothing after a while. Nivia felt a shiver go down her spine.

“I sense Demonic energy coming from the projectiles,” Nivia said, flipping over a rundown wooden booth in the middle of the road and taking cover behind it with Siv.

“We already know,” Lilian responded. “Which is why I intend to use that to track our friend down.”

Siv was looking around. “Where’s mistress and Aera? And where’s the mark?”

“Erin and Aera are bringing the package back to the guild as we speak,” Lilian answered. “As long as we stood our ground here, the sniper wouldn’t dare to come out of his hiding place and follow them.”

“Surely there will be others chasing after them, no?” Nivia questioned.

“Not likely. They only dare to do this because we’re in a district where the locals are a bunch of outlaw scums and they wouldn’t give a damn to any commotion happening in their yard. The guards will be forced to take action if these lovely folks decide to pursue Erin outside this borough.”

“The guards didn’t do anything the last time the Demoids went on a rampage. Why will it be any different this time?”

“Since the guards did nothing the last time, it is precisely why they will take action this time, or risk losing the trust of the entire city and receive their suspicions in tandem.”

“So Erin is safer than she will be if she’s here?”

Lilian shrugged. “Nothing’s for certain but she’s definitely in a spot much better than us.” Another stake flew over her head then.

“Definitely,” Nivia mumbled. “Can you begin the tracking spell now?”

“Our sniper would know they got marked the moment the spell is cast, so be ready,” Lilian said and began chanting after she took out a green crystal and held it close to her heart in a grip.

Nivia cast a Wind Magic spell that stirred the breeze in the vicinity, raising small and faint clouds of dust. “Lyra, I trust that you can see through the smoke with Eagle Eye.”

“This smoke is nothing,” Lyra retorted and nocked an arrow to her bow. The arrows she was using were crafted using Elder Wood, feathers of well-fed geese, and silver-steel as the head.

“Seek out the darkness,” Lilian whispered with her eyes closed. “Beckoning!” she uttered and splayed her hand open. The green crystal evaporated into a shimmering mist but it did not disappear. Instead, it persisted and flowed in a certain direction, towards a tall building that looked to be an inn before its neglect.

Right after a shot from the sniper, Lyra rose from her cover and aimed her bow in the direction of the mist’s flowing path. “I see him… No, her. It’s a girl. She’s on the fourth floor of that building. She’s wearing all black. Wouldn’t have noticed her if I didn’t know where to look.”

“Can you take her out?” Lilian asked.

“We shall see,” Lyra said and released the string. The arrow was imbued with whatever amount of Mana she had. The arrow flew straight and true. The cold hash breeze of the night couldn’t sway the arrow’s path thanks to the guidance of Seeker.

“Did it hit?” Nivia asked after hearing a faint explosion in the distance.

“...No,” Lyra answered after a short silence. “But she’s running now.”

“Just like that?”

“We are not her mark in the first place or she was merely stalling us,” Lilian mused.

“From assisting Erin?”

Lilian shrugged. “That would be the most likely case.”

Nivia looked in the direction of where the sniper was. “What now? Regroup?” she asked the Dryad.

“Not possible,” Siv said, her nose twitching against the air. “Behind you, Lady Lilian.”

Lilian spun around and sent spears moulded of earth towards her assailant. The earth-moulded spears were mostly cut down by the assailant’s claws but one found its way past the assailant’s defence and hit them square in the chest. The assailant went tumbling head over heels away from Lilian.

“A werewolf?” Lyra gasped with her bow raised and drawn. “No, a Wulver?”

As Lyra had said, the assailant was a humanoid wolf with a pair of elongated fangs and claws longer than its sharp teeth.

“What’s a Wulver doing here and attacking us specifically?” Nivia asked no one in particular but she seemed to have grasped the answer a moment after. “I sense demonic energy from it. Enthralled by something demonic?”

“Enthralled by a Demoid, to be precise,” Lilian corrected and summoned pillars of earth to surround the Wulver with bloodshot eyes and dark red veins crawling all over its body. The Wulver smashed and tore through the pillars with a swing of its claws.

Lyra released her shot at that moment. Her arrow found its mark, the Wulver’s throat, but it didn’t pierce through but its flesh. The Wulver pulled the arrow out and turned its attention to Lyra. It growled furiously at her. Its wound healed itself up in a matter of seconds.

“Damn,” was all Lyra could say before the Wulver lunged. She rolled out of the way and quickly nocked another arrow to her bow while Lilian fended it off with her spells.

Barrages of earth and floral spells rained down on the Wulver but it easily swatted all the pesky magic away with its excessively large claws. It didn’t help that the Wulver was imbued with demonic power.

Lyra fired another arrow that was aimed at the Wulver’s eyes but as always, the arrow did not find its mark when it came to a crucial point. However, the arrow made a full turn and hit the Wulver in the back of its head. Though a non-fatal wound, it was painful enough to stagger the Wulver.

Siv swooped in with a leap, the twin swords gripped firmly in her hands. The blades glowed a faint blue as she swung at the staggering Wulver. The edges scraped against the monster's hide, barely making a cut on its flesh. Siv tutted and shifted her attack into thrusts. The Wulver recovered at that moment and caught Siv’s attacks.

A blast of wind from the side broke the Wulver’s bearings. Before it could turn to look, Siv twisted her swords and the blades spun in the Wulver’s grip. It shrieked in pain and let go. Using its torso as a foothold, Siv flipped away from the Wulver with a kick. The Wulver tried to catch Siv but vines sprouted from the ground and coiled around its arms. The Wulver tore itself free but immediately, the Wulver was sent flying off its feet when a ball of dense air collided with it. The Wulver flipped and landed on its feet but the barrage of assault had only just started.

“Not bad, Lady Nivia,” Siv praised and assumed a low stance with her swords combined into a double-bladed stave.

“Save the compliments for later,” Nivia grumbled quietly and devoted her focus to the Wulver in front of them.

“How nice this is,” Lilian said with a smile. “Erin was always the one taking all the glory. This is quite a nice opportunity for us to prove ourselves, is it not?”

“It is,” Siv was the only one who responded while the rest were too fixated on the Wulver who could pounce on them at any given moment.

Lilian tittered. “Nivia, be a dear and give us some covers would you?”

Nivia nodded with an annoyed expression but said nothing. The winds began to stir and the area was gradually being engulfed in a thick mist.

The Wulver charged at them the moment it noticed Nivia casting spells. Lilian grinned and summoned vines to hold the Wulver down while walls of earth surrounded it. The Wulver broke free of its restraints with ease and destroyed the obstacles without breaking a sweat. However, the mist had already grown too thick for it to see anything through it. It sniffed at the air but caught none of their scents. Despite being a monster, it understood its foes had used the opaque mist to keep track of the wind’s direction, avoiding their scent from exposing them.

Arrows streaked through the mist and flew towards the Wulver’s eyes. The monster tutted and swatted the arrows aside with a loud snarl. It spun around, trying to get a sense of its foes’ location, but to no avail. From the back, something sharp attempted to draw a cut but did nothing more than a simple scrape. The Wulver turned around too late and saw no one.

“You wanna play?” the Wulver spoke with a rasped voice. “Let’s play.”