A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

On the frozen plane in front of Kirkenes dull eyed ghouls, terrified vampires, and confused, but excited shapeshifters gathered around a standoff. The shapeshifters seemed to be having trouble holding back from simply charging forward to start the killing, but they kept it together.

Partly because their commanders held them back, but mostly because they were hesitant to get closer to the match between third-rankers.

In the middle, two parties faced off against each other.

On one side stood Sigurd, dual daggers in his hands, and a ghoulified Liv Frost, the dangerous edges of her ghoulish claws glimmering.

On the other stood Erik, hammer over slung over his shoulder, and Frostfang, long claws made of ice at the ready. Both of them in their transformed, wolfish forms.

"I'll take Liv," Erik informed Frostfang, not ready to brook any opposition. 'Can't risk Frostfang doing any serious harm to her,' he thought to himself.

"Fine," Frostfang growled, unhappy to be taking orders, but by now, he had realized Erik had a far better grasp of what was going on.

Which made sense, as much of this was his plan.

"But I won't be able to hold on for long," Frostfang admitted softly, despite the sting to his pride. With the Enclave's survival at stake, he was not willing to let anything get in the way of that. Least of all his own pride.

"Don't worry, I think you'll have some help," Erik smirked, knowing there was someone just itching to put the hurt on Sigurd. She may not be a third-ranker yet, but with Frostfang's help, he was confident she would be fine.

Their last two sentences had been said softly enough that Sigurd had been unable to hear them, causing him to narrow his eyes. 'Can't let them keep planning…' he thought as a the strain from having to control two active bodies was fraying his mind. 'Need to finish this fast.'

Thus, Sigurd and Liv charged.

Sigurd tried to send both himself and Liv at Frostfang, knowing he was the weak link right now, but there was no way Erik would let that happen.

Grinning, Erik activated the lightning flash he had been charging.

Lightning struck, and Erik zoomed past Sigurd, swung his hammer, and struck Liv in the stomach. 'Sorry, Liv,' Erik chuckled inwardly. 'I'm sure you'll understand, right? Please don't be an evil mother-in-law.'

His blow made Liv screech and skid back over the frozen, snowy tundra. She quickly recovered, however, and lunged at Erik, claws out.

Behind him, Sigurd cursed, before being forced to dodge an attack from Frostfang. Water drops stared accumulating around Sigurd's body, and Elora quickly informed Erik that Sigurd had the mist affinity.

Technically, the fact that Sigurd had a second-ranked affinity that was a part of the evolution tree for Frostfang's third-ranked ice affinity, should give Frostfang an advantage.

Unfortunately, that was negated by the shortcut Frostfang had taken to reach the third-rank faster than he should have, causing his foundation to be shaky.

Sigurd and Frostfang quickly started exchanging blows with various mist and ice abilities being tossed around. Yet, as they fought, Frostfang was quickly falling into a disadvantage. He was a little slower than usual, because his wounds were still bothering him.

But this situation didn't last long.

Suddenly, two bright orange beams hit Sigurd in his exposed back. The fact he had to concentrate on controlling two bodies meant he simply didn't have the instincts he usually had.

Sigurd roared, "Who?!" and stumbled, giving Frostfang an opportunity to attack. Sigurd faltered, but he resisted and stabilized himself. His back was decorated with two new wounds.

He didn't remain stable for long, however. Behind him, two razor sharp sword came flying at his neck.

Unfortunately, their speed was far too slow to be a real threat to Sigurd. He quickly dodged, and used his daggers to parry, causing his attacker to stumble back.

Sigurd immediately recognized his attacker and grinned, "Astrid! I don't know where you came from, but let me show you why it was a bad idea to show up!"

Using his third-ranked speed, he was on top of Astrid before she could stabilize. He was about to bury his daggers into her heart, when his instincts screamed at him and he dodged to side.

Five distinct lightning gashes flew through the space his head was just at, along with a loud roar. "Jonas! Astrid is there to provide distraction, not fight him head on! You better keep her safe, or I'll bury you when this is over!"

Elora naturally kept an eye on the entire battlefield for Erik, so when Astrid was in danger, he quickly put some distance between him and Liv, before launching a lightning claw at Sigurd.

Frostfang snarled, but quickly moved to intercept Sigurd again. Before, Astrid's appearance had made him hesitate a little, unsure if he actually wanted to save a vampire. Fortunately, Erik's threat was enough to put his mind right.

With Sigurd engaged again, Astrid managed to recover and sneer at Sigurd, her eyes flaring with fury, "Your threats are as pointless as your balls, Sigurd! You're a craven little bitch, and today you pay for what you've done!"

With that, she charged back into the fray, harassing Sigurd from every side, while Frostfang took the brunt of his attacks. Finally, Sigurd was being put on the back foot, as he had to continue controlling two bodies, making his reactions slow and sluggish.

Meanwhile, Erik was having a relatively easy time with Liv. The ghoulified woman's body was certainly stronger than his, but it was wasn't hard to avoid her blows. Her reactions were slow because Sigurd was controlling her body while fighting the Frostfang-Astrid duo, and Erik's agility and spatial displacement were easily keeping up with her movements.

Unfortunately, Erik had to hold back in his own attacks, because he didn't want to harm her too badly. He needed to restrain her.

"You know, I saw you a few times when I was younger…" he grinned at the mindless ghoul while barely dodging another powerful blow. "You looked better then. New shampoo?"

The ghoulified Liv screeched at him, spittle flying. Her gray wrinkles trembled and her dried-out strings of once strawberry blond hair blew in the wind. Her once clear beauty hidden behind the ghoulification.

"Alright, I get it. No making fun of your appearance," Erik chuckled. He charged a regular lightning blast on his left fist, and met Liv's fist with his own. The force of the blast allowed him to just barely compete with the ghoul's natural strength. At the same time, his right hand swung his hammer in a wide arc to the side, icy lightning crackling over its surface.

The hammer struck, and Liv screeched as she stumbled to the side. Lightning snaked itself over her body making her muscles spasm and creating small patched of hindering ice.

This was the effect of Erik's second-rank thundersnow rune, and also what he would use to capture Liv.