A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Alistair's response was as swift as lightning. A silver-gray magic circle burst into existence beneath his feet, wrapping him in the same metallic luster that had previously shielded the vampire woman.

Ting

Erik's claw clashed against the metal sheen, but failed to penetrate it. Nevertheless, the sheer force of his blow still sent Alistair hurtling backward, crashing into the walls with such force that he coughed up blood before sliding down to the ground in a heap.

This impact once again caused the structure to tremble, making Erik curse inwardly and promise himself to stop tossing these people against the walls.

Approaching swiftly from the way he came were the two vampire guards, with the female guard noticeably wounded as her shield arm dangled uselessly while blood trailed from the corner of her mouth.

Erik, however, ignored them for now, as they were still a few meters away, focusing instead on Alistair. He found him propped against the wall, cradling his chest, bruised and battered. "You should have just let me take her, Alistair," he sighed, shaking his head in disappointment.

The fact was, Erik knew second-rankers were still relatively scarce in Europe, and likely on Earth as a whole, and he also knew that Earth would need as much manpower as possible to survive into the future since the worst was still to come.

Thus, whenever possible, he preferred not killing these second-rankers. Unfortunately, to leave Alistair alive now would go against his principles.

"F—Fuck you," Alistair managed to spit out between gasps, blood dribbling from his lips as he fixed Erik with a defiant stare.

Metal spheres began to materialize once more around Alistair, but Erik merely snorted in disdain. He kicked Alistair back down to the ground before brutally stomping on his head.

Alistair's metal sheen proved unable to protect him from the raw physical force, and his head exploded into a mass of blood and gore.

"No! Alistair!" one of the approaching guards exclaimed in horror and charged at Erik with renewed fury and vigor, while the other was not far behind.

Erik shook his head and looked at them with indifference.

Had they pulled back, he might have decided to let them live, but since they insisted on continuing, he could only respond in kind.

Of course, with Alistair gone, and one of the guards having lost the use of her shield arm, they stood no chance against Erik anymore.

Mere moments later, the two guards had turned into lifeless bodies sprawled on the floor. Erik stored his hammer back into his armor storage while a dark green coat of magic wiped away the blood and dirt from both Erik and Alice, who was unharmed but had not escaped the splatter.

"That was incredible!" Alice exclaimed, her voice filled with awe as she clung to Erik's back and neck. "Exactly how strong are you, anyway?! And what was that green stuff just now?! I can't remember the last time I've felt this clean!"

Erik chuckled at her amazement. "I'll tell you later, all right? The others are getting a little anxious, so we should be getting back to them."

Naturally, he had been in contact with both Emma and Emily through his links with them to monitor the situation outside. He hadn't told them about his fight, but somehow, they seemed to have learned about it anyway.

"The others?" Alice asked curiously.

Erik opened his mouth to answer but suddenly picked up a low groan not far away from them. It was coming from the door he had blown off its hinges before.

He walked up to it and noticed Eleni was stuck under the door. Her first-rank Runebound status had allowed her to survive being crushed under the heavy door, but didn't allow her to lift it to get up. She was currently struggling to breathe. She gasped for air and was unable to talk, but the pleading look in her eyes clearly begged Erik to remove the door.

"Oh, right. You," Erik remarked, having somewhat forgotten about her before. He had no interest in helping her, however, and thus shrugged before turning to leave when Alice suddenly said something. "W—Wait! She was nice… sort of. Can you lift the door off her at least?"

Erik cocked an eyebrow in slight surprise but then nodded. 'I do need to hurry a little, since all council forces in Sweden have likely already been informed about this and reinforcements are likely on the way, but I can do this much at least,' he thought to himself before turning around.

After easily lifting the door off Eleni, she coughed and gasped for air while sitting up a little. "T—Thank y—" she began but was quickly cut off by a heavy electric shock that put her out cold.

"Still don't want her following us up, though," he explained to Alice, who gave a small nod of understanding.

"She gave me treats sometimes, and she made sure that they treated me humanely whenever they needed samples," Alice shared with Erik. "I think my time here would have been much worse if it hadn't been for her."

Erik offered a faint smile as the retraced his steps, now unaccompanied by his initial entourage, yet not entirely alone. "So what if she had walked through that door instead of me? Would you still have attacked?"

"Hmpf," Alice snorted before her expression turned fiercely proud. "Absolutely, I would have. They always send in second-rankers to handle me. No first-ranker dared come close! Cowards, the lot of them!" she boasted, puffing out her chest with pride, prompting a chuckle from Erik at her bravado. "That's a good girl."

"Hehehe," Alice beamed, basking in the praise from her savior and the man she had designated as her newest idol.

When they arrived back in the main research area, all of the first-ranked researchers had already left, likely fleeing back up top as soon as they heard the fighting start, or perhaps even before that.

Erik didn't care, however. He did finally understand how Emma and Emily had known of his fight, but he wasn't vicious enough to kill all those first-rankers anyway.

So he simply continued walking to the elevator, intending to take it back up top with his prize in hand.

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