A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Finally, Björn sighed deeply. "I'll do it… But I hope you don't expect me to kill Frostfang and the others."

"Of course not," Elora immediately responded. "In fact, our covenant will include a clause that states you're not allowed to kill any of them. I don't want you killing Erik's uncle, and you'll probably lose your mind due to the sigil."

"That said," Elora continued with a raised eyebrow, "I'm surprised you still care enough after what happened."

Björn shrugged casually—or at least as much as he could while remaining on his knees and bent over. "What can I say?" he sighed. "They're not bad people, but they are what life's turned them into. I can't blame them for prioritizing themselves over a girl they've never met, who is also half-human."

"That's idiotic," Elora scoffed harshly. "But to each their own," she shrugged. "So, shall I get started?"

"Yeah, do what you have to," Björn nodded. "I'll cover your escape in exchange for the safety and happiness of my daughter."

"Can't promise that; it's too abstract," Elora said as she shook her head and stuck out her hand while the covenant magic began weaving its way toward Björn.

"The deal is this," she began. "You will engage Frostfang in battle for as long as you remain alive, but you are not allowed to kill anyone. In exchange, we will do what we can to rescue your daughter from the council. Should we succeed, we will consider her a part of our little family, protect her, and treat her with care until she no longer wishes to remain with us."

"Fine, I agree," Björn sighed and nodded, knowing he likely wouldn't be able to get a better deal, not to mention that this was already far better than he had a few minutes earlier.

Elora nodded in acknowledgment, and the covenant magic did its work. Soon, they both had a small green mark on the back of their hands, and Erik, who had just clashed with Frostfang for the first time, gained the same.

After all, their bond would force Elora and Erik to share any covenant or other magically enforced deals.

While Erik desperately fought to keep Frostfang in place for a little while longer, Elora took two things from her storage jewel: her sigil carving tool and a small red stone.

While she could carve most simpler sigils onto a body with her hand, this one required a more specialized tool. Besides, she preferred not to touch another man besides Erik unless it was a combat situation, and she had no other choice.

As for the stone… let's call it Elora's good deed for the century.

She flew up and over Björn's back with the carving tool in hand and tossed the stone to the ground beneath Björn's face.

"What's this?" Björn asked while Elora began drawing the sigil on his back.

"It's a memory stone," Elora said with narrowed eyes and a face filled with concentration. "You can record a message, sing a song, or even fill it with every memory from your birth until now."

While the memory stone did have a limit, it would not be reached by all the memories of a mere 36-year-old. After all, the universe was large, the people were powerful, and the lifespans were long, so these stones were aimed at serving people far older than Björn.

"You—" Björn stammered, his face a mix of awe, surprise, and gratitude. "You'll give this to her?" he asked.

Still lost in concentration, Elora nodded. "Yes, but only if you hurry up. I'll be done here in ten seconds at most. Just grab the stone, channel your energy into it, and think of whatever you want to put in there."

With that ultimatum, Björn quickly grabbed the stone and began racking his brain over what to put into it. This would be the last thing he could leave his daughter, and he had to make it meaningful.

Yet, he didn't have enough time, and, in the end, he just put in the first thing he could think of before tossing the stone over his shoulder back to Elora. His eyes were filled with determination, sadness, and hope—hope for his daughter's future.

Elora caught the stone and tossed it in her storage jewel before putting the last strokes on the sigil. With the last stroke, she signed Björn's death warrant, while giving her and Erik a chance to escape.

****

Now, back at Erik, Frostfang had been trying to get past him for the last twenty seconds and was getting increasingly annoyed and angry.

Well, more angry and annoyed than he already was before, anyway.

He could see the women who were supposed to be the salvation of his Enclave disappearing into the distance. However, he knew that, even if they kept running for 10 minutes, he could still easily find and catch up to them.

If not through smell or his omnisense, then at least through tried-and-true tracking methods that had been around since before the awakening.

So he wasn't too much in a hurry yet, but he didn't like being waylaid by this brat who had been pissing him off since he got there.

Despite his negative feelings, his curiosity regarding Erik also increased exponentially. Not only was the man far more powerful than a regular second-ranker, but he also had more skills and abilities than one should.

That wasn't the most exciting part, however. While Frostfang had been too preoccupied to think about it before, during this fight, he began to realize how special Erik's armor was and the implications it could have for the Enclave. Tough, shape-changing armor would change the game significantly.

While Frostfang contempated the benefits of gaining more of these armors sets, and designed punishments for Erik to be inflicted after he was finally subdued, the target of his ire was in a bad state.

Erik's armor had protected him from the worst of it, but even that had its limits, as the armor had started to get dented. Luckily, Frostfang had only used his fists so far, as he didn't want to accidentally kill Erik.

Beneath the armor, however, Erik's body was battered and bruised, with various broken bones and ruptured organs. Yet, despite all that, an excited grin remained on Erik's face. These wounds were nothing, and he could feel himself improving every second during his fight with someone more powerful than him, yet not overwhelmingly so.

After another few seconds of staring at each other, Frostfang charged again and began to unleash his wrath.

Erik swung his hammer in impressively acrobatic maneuvers to defend himself as best he could. There was no doubt, no worry, no other thought inside him other than this fight, right here and now.

He couldn't let himself be distracted by thoughts of whether he could hold on long enough.

Finally, Erik's eyes flashed when he noticed movement behind Frostfang.

Frostfang halted when he felt a powerful presence behind him. A presence that shouldn't be there, as it felt awfully familiar yet was far too powerful to belong to that person.

His omnisense spread out almost instinctively, and at the same time, he turned around and launched several ice spikes toward the risen Björn.

Björn's presence and sudden power increase had startled him, and he wasn't going to take any chances—especially because Björn's fate had been sealed already.

Erik and Elora now thought they had made it to the end, and all that was left was for them to run while Björn kept Frostfang busy.

Unfortunately, one thing went wrong.

Instead of defending himself against Frostfang's instinctive attack, Björn dodged, and the ice spikes went straight for the floating fairy behind him.

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