A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Finally, half an hour later, Erik walked into the clearing with Aaron slung over his shoulder. Instantly, every single person panned their gazes in his direction with many different emotions.

Mostly, it was gratitude and awe. After all, Erik and his allies not only saved them, but Erik solved the third ranker imbalance despite being a second ranker. A situation compounded by the fact that Erik had clearly won his battle, judging by the unconscious Aaron.

But there was a palpable unease draped across the crowd due to the unknown status of Naeku.

'I wonder how much of their adoration comes from that girl's nature affinity, and how much comes from her as a person,' he wondered inwardly. 'Not that it matters too much, I guess. She clearly has the qualities of a great leader, even without the motherly aura.'

Elora already informed him about Naeku's affinities, even before they entered the battle. The young werepanther had two third rank affinities: nature, and desert.

The nature affinity was naturally no different from Emma's, including the motherly aura, while the desert affinity was constructed from the second-rank affinities of sand and scorch.

When he was done looking around, Erik stepped forward, and calmly moved in the direction of his wives and servants, who were still guarded by Emma's wall of nature.

The defenders quietly made way for him, their expressions remaining conflicted, but they clearly intended to let their leader handle it. A leader who was actively glaring at Erik from just beside the barrier of roots and twigs, despite the glint of appreciation and awe hiding behind his suspicion.

When Erik reached them, the werelion's gaze flickered over to the unconscious Aaron, before going back to Erik. "I see you managed to defeat him…" he growled softly. "I do wonder why you took him alive, but that's truly impressive. I would love to know how you managed to get so strong despite your rank."

But then he shook his head, "But I won't pry into your secrets." Before narrowing his eyes threateningly and readying his club, "Instead, how about you explain what happened to Naeku and get her back here before I have to dishonour myself by killing our saviour…"

Erik grinned slightly, "Don't worry, your niece is fine."

Yet, before continuing, he tossed the limp Arcanist on his shoulder over the low fence towards Emily and smiled at her, "I'm sure you know what to do with this one, little shadow."

Although his family and servants naturally greeted him when he arrived, there wasn't much fanfare about it, because they'd all been in constant contact through their various bonds.

"Absolutely, Master!" Emily grinned devilishly before approaching the unconscious man with a pitch-black magic circle in hand.

Normally, enslaving a third ranker would be next to impossible for her, but right now Aaron was not only unconscious, but his magic core and aetherium had also all been suppressed by one of Elora's sigils.

Thus, it should now be possible for her to enslave him, even if it'd likely take a few minutes at least.

Thus, Erik focused back on the werelion in the meantime. The werelion spent about half a moment wondering exactly what this scary looking woman was about to do to Aaron, but quickly decided that this man's fate was of very little interest to him.

Instead, he was about to ask Erik about his niece again, but before he could, Erik completely de-armed himself. He turned back to human form, and compressed his armour back into an armguard, under the shocked gazes of most people present.

Then, he extended his hand with a small smile, "The name is Erik, I don't believe I've got yours yet. Unless you prefer I keep calling you old man?"

The werelion was no less shocked about the disappearing armour, but managed to push it aside for now. He simply snarled, "Naeku. Now!" as fury began to rise in his eyes.

Yet, Erik ignored him, and continued holding out his hand with a calm smile.

The werelion started breathing louder at this werewolf's audacity. Yet, he knew when someone had the upper hand. Despite Erik seemingly standing down, he knew that the actual threat had barely diminished. In good condition, the werelion suspected he was stronger than Erik.

But right now, he wasn't in good condition, yet Erik looked entirely fine.

Besides, who knew what would happen to his niece if he started fighting her abductor?

So, he bristled, but still took a deep breath to calm down, and turned back to human form himself. Once again, he became a dark-skinned middle-aged man with fierce yellow eyes and curly black hair. The only clothing he had on were some knee length, stretch cargo shorts.

"Enkai," the man growled and extended his own hand to grab Erik's. "But I'm quickly losing my patience, boy…"

Erik grinned as he shook Enkai's hand, "Then let me reward that patience."

With that, he waved his other hand and pulled the woman in question out of his dimension.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

* * *

A little while earlier, not long after Erik's battle with Aaron had finished and he started the track back to the battle site, a certain werepanther suddenly startled awake.

"Uncle!" she exclaimed desperately, thinking she was still in the middle of battle and about to be stabbed in the back. Yet, when she looked around, she realized she wasn't anywhere near the same place she was before.

"What the…" she mumbled in shock. She now found herself in a mid-sized, circular room made from some kind of dark stone, with several doors built in. In the middle was a kind of empty alter, with a few pillars surrounding it.

But the shock quickly passed when memories of Erik knocking her unconscious came back. "Dammit!" she cursed and jumped up with an angry scowl. "How could I just let that happen?! And where even am I?"

Her eyes cautiously scanned the surroundings as she pushed concerns for the battle out of her mind. Meanwhile, some green runes appeared on her dark fur. "My nature sense can't sense anything beyond these walls…" she mumbled with a concerned frown.

"Whatever," she shook her head and muttered to herself. "First I have to get out of here, then I can save my people." Her face suddenly fell. "Assuming any of them are still alive…."

But then she shook her head again. "Focus, Naeku! If you don't save yourself, you can't save your people!"

Fortunately, she noticed the spear lying on the ground next to her, and she breathed a sigh of relief before quickly picked it up in her left hand. Next, green runes appeared on her right arm, and quickly coalesced into an oval shield of leaves and branches. Then, she crouched down in combat stance and began stalking around the room, carefully trying each of the doors.

Unfortunately, she found each one of them locked and unable to be opened by force, causing her to scowl with frustration. Yet, before she could think of next steps, a voice suddenly sounded behind her.

"You must be Naeku."

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