A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

In the end, taking on thirty first-ranked Arcanists, even with all her advantages, proved too much for the young Alice, so Erik had to step in.

Slowly, and menacingly, a transformed Erik, without his armour, casually pushed aside one of the guards and entered their encirclement of Alice.

Currently, he was using a combination of his second-ranked pressure, and his Runebound frost aura skill, to keep these guards from moving an inch. They now felt like they were in a frozen hell, where a tight rope had wound their bodies tight, while frost slowly creeped up their bodies.

For a moment, Alice had made them forget about Erik's existence, but now it was time to remind them. Their eyes were wide in fear as they watched the powerful shapeshifter move slowly, but decisively, as power undulated around him, and powerful muscles rippled under his fur.

Still bound in place, the transformed Alice grinned smugly at her surroundings, "I told you you'd regret it!"

But in response, all she got was a flick on her forehead by Erik. "Don't be smug, Alice," he snorted disapprovingly. "You got lost in your own excitement and stopped paying attention to your surroundings. These idiots were talking about their plans right in front of you, but you didn't even register it!"

Still bound, kneeling, and unable to even rub her forehead, Alice pouted with stubborn aggrievement, "But teacher, the—"

Once again, Erik flicked her forehead, interrupting her. "Shush," he quieted her down. "I'm not done yet. You also made plenty of other mistakes. First off, that right turn you made there before swiping at that woman's tendons would have been very dangerous in any other situation, and here's why…"

But before he could continue, Elora interrupted him in his head. "Erik, love, we don't have time for this," she chuckled with a mental roll of her eyes. "Teach her later. For now, I think it's about time you get down there."

Erik grumbled a little, but still nodded. "Never mind. We'll talk about this later," he sighed down at the blood-soaked Alice. Then, he frowned solemnly, "But paying attention to your surroundings is very important, understood?"

Alice grumbled a little, but despite her stubborn personality, she respected Erik enough not to dismiss his teachings. So, she nodded with a slight pout, "Yes, Teacher. I'm sorry…"

"Good!" Erik grinned and nodded, before he easily ripped apart her restraints, and tossed her over his shoulder while she yelped, "Ah! I can walk myself, Teacher!"

But Erik ignored her, causing Alice to cross her arms and pout aggrievedly again while she hung over his shoulder.

Then, he suddenly remembered the surrounding guards. They were still standing till, frozen in fear, literally and figuratively, as a tough layer of frost was already covering most of their legs.

He swept his gaze over them with a raised eyebrow. "I guess you guys have earned the right to your lives, because you did get the upper hand on her," he muttered casually. Then, he raised an eyebrow, "But I'm sure we all understand that if I see any formation appearing again, your lives will be forfeit, right?"

There wasn't any danger to leaving them alive. A single, first-ranked formation wouldn't be enough to cause them any harm. It wouldn't even serve as a distraction.

The guards couldn't move or talk to indicate their understanding, but Erik figured they probably did, and simply stepped out of the encirclement, before jumping down the walls, into the courtyard.

As soon as he did, the frost aura and rank suppression disappeared from the guards, causing them all to stagger, and fall flat on their faces. Their legs were still frozen, so they couldn't catch themselves on their knees, but they didn't care. They were just happy to still be alive.

With a reverberating boom, Erik crashed down onto the ground below the walls.

He quickly noticed that both Seraphina and Astrid had managed to dismantle their assigned formations, with many first rankers dead, and others simply incapacitated or kneeling with their hands in the air.

Now, the two of them were now closing in on the second-ranked guards engaged with Emma and Emily. Naturally, those guards were moving from frustration to panic, as they had no way to defend themselves, while they were only barely hanging on against the Ashcroft sisters.

There was a lot of angry and panicked shouting going on over there, but Erik was ignoring it for now. Instead, he looked to his side, where a chirpy Eira flew down from the other side of the gate and landed next to him with a bright smile.

"I killed the bad guys!" she exclaimed happily.

"You… killed them all?" Erik questioned with a raised eyebrow and a surprised tone.

Eira lost her happy grin and was a little taken aback by his tone. "Y— Yes?" she muttered softly as she poked her fingers together. "Was I not supposed to? I— I tried to talk to them, but they were mean!"

Erik looked at her a little incredulously, but then sighed, "Well, I suppose it's fine, but remind me to teach you about proportionate responses."

Perhaps it was a little hypocritical of him, expecting Eira not to kill so many people on a whim when he wasn't exactly reigning in Emily or Alice, but for some reason he felt like he should be a little more responsible with Eira.

She was just to innocent. She'd been locked away for too long, with her only knowledge of the outside coming from books she read, or stories she heard. Plus, Emily's behaviour had a good reason, which they couldn't really do anything about right now, but Eira simply didn't know any better.

In his head, Elora giggled callously. "It's quite a bloodbath up there," she said, having checked the situation with her omnisense. "I didn't think she had it in her."

"But… I did a good job?" Eira muttered, a little sadly as she looked up at Erik with big eyes, seeking approval.

Naturally, Erik wasn't able to resist her. So, he sighed, and caressed her head, "Yeah, you did a good job, Eira. Thank you for helping."

Instantly, Eira's mood improved. She smiled brightly again, cutely leaning into his hand.

Naturally, Erik could only sigh, before putting Alice on the ground, and turning his attention to the middle of the courtyard.

Spells were still flying back and forth between them and the sisters, but it was done half-heartedly at this point. With Erik having arrived, and the two vampires closing in on them from the sides, the guards were quickly losing hope.

"What do we do, captain?!" one of them exclaimed at the man in front. "Mark's ambush probably got him killed, and we are clearly outmatched here!"

The other guards looked at the captain with panic and hope, praying he could find a way for them to survive the day.

The man in question had a stern expression on his face. Looking around, he noticed Emily and Emma had shifted to defence only, while the two vampires were simply grinning at them threateningly, without actually coming closer. Meanwhile, Erik was slowly walking up to them, a bloody Alice, and happy Eira by his side.

He put his hands down and dispelled his magic circles, then he gestured for the others to do the same. "Stand down," he said sombrely. "I don't think they want us dead…"