A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

The golden light was soft, not harsh, yet it was unrelenting. It easily washed away any shadow in their arena, bathing the two combatants in its rays.

Erik and Meilin both looked up immediately, the former with a smile, the latter with a scowl. She'd recognised the light she'd seen on one of the battlefields. Another string of Chinese curses passed her lips.

She quickly recovered, however, and turned to glare at Erik. "You think this bitch will change anything?! Those roots of hers will do nothing to me, and the wounds from my Frostvein affinity are not so easy to heal!"

Clearly, she'd seen and realised some of Emma's abilities… but clearly still underestimated them.

At the same time, Emma's concerned voice filled the area. Leaning over the edge of her golden disc, she peered down with a worried frown. "M— Master, you—!"

Ignoring Meilin, Erik smiled reassuringly up at his maid-wife, blood caking his fur. "I'm fine, Emma. It's just blood and shallow wounds, nothing to be worried about. Stay there and heal me, alright?"

As if only now remembering her newest light spell, Emma's eyes widened, and she nodded frantically. "R— Right!" Lifting her hands, she conjured a single, powerful magic circle that glowed with golden light, yet didn't seem to do anything.

On the ground, however, Erik's body began glowing with the same golden light. Meilin scoffed dismissively, but Erik sighed comfortably, and his opponent's expression soon began to change.

The golden light quickly perfused his armour and body, surging through and across him. Despite Meilin's scepticism, her fourth rank affinity was no match for Emma's light, an affinity of the highest rarity and power.

"W— What the hell….?!" she cried out with wide eyes, feeling in real-time how the bits of her power clinging to Erik's wounds were wiped out in an instant as his shallow wounds closed instantly.

"Arrogance is a curse, Meilin," Erik grinned at her, feeling fully refreshed. He even expended a little power to scrub the caked blood from his armour and body, making his appearance pristine once more. "Your Frostvein affinity is not all-powerful. My Emma's light is much superior."

'And so would my spatial be if I could actually use it,' he sighed inwardly, but didn't bother saying it out loud.

Meilin flinched with twitching face muscles. She wanted to deny his claim, but the proof was right before her eyes. For a moment, her mind froze.

Erik grinned tauntingly at his stunned opponent. As a way to provoke her, he planted his hammer on the ground, released the shaft, and spread his arms wide. "Come, Meilin, attack me! You've already lost, and you cannot use me to replenish your energy anymore. You might as well surrender."

Fury twisted Meilin's expression as defiance rose inside her. "Screw you, you degenerate mutt!" she screamed, raising her swords and sending powerful arcs of Frostvein surging towards Erik.

Grinning, he did nothing to defend himself against her attack, simply letting them impact his chest. He grunted a little from the force, but that was all. As before, the attack could not harm him directly, but this time the Frostvein energy itself could do nothing to him, either. It was instantly wiped out now that Emma's light had joined the efforts of Erik and Eira.

Meilin noticed, of course, and the true direness of her situation began to settle on her mind. The storm of Frostvein shards raging around them still drained her energy at an astronomical rate, but now she'd lost her battery.

But it wasn't over yet. Before she could even consider her options, she felt a disturbance in her shard storm. Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she flinched to the side. Just in time, because a moment later, there was a powerful beam of sunlight where her head had been just now.

At the same time, a grinning, bloody Astrid jumped out of the hole in the storm her eyebeams had created. She was bleeding from the shards, but before any power could be leeched over to Meilin, the golden light began covering her as well.

"Raah!" Meilin screeched unwillingly when she noticed the third combatant. She could feel Astrid's power and knew it wasn't much below Erik's.

Meanwhile, Erik smirked wryly at Astrid. "Astrid… remember how we want to capture her alive?"

Scoffing, Astrid rolled her eyes. "Ah, come on now! If she'd died from that, then I'd have been sorely disappointed in my first real fight against a confessor!"

"Speaking of which," she continued, now grinning excitedly at the frustrated Meilin and pointing at her with one of her swords. "Don't interfere for a while, alright?!"

Before Erik could even react, Astrid charged Meilin with a laugh. "Let's see what you've got!"

"What the… Brute!" Meilin cursed, suddenly forced to defend herself when she was still coming to terms with the new situation. She and Astrid immediately started trading blows… and Astrid quickly proved the weaker party. Just as with Erik, her physical ability was above Meilin's, but the confessor easily made up for it in pure power.

At first glance, Astrid was obviously losing, but that perception didn't last long, because Emma's light made all the difference. And Astrid didn't care, either. She was laughing excitedly, just enjoying her chance to clash with a confessor, even if she needed a little help.

Erik watched her with a smirk and didn't interfere. He knew how much she'd been itching for this, and with him and Emma there, he didn't see an issue. He was confident in being able to step in if Meilin was about to break through Astrid's defences to deal a more decisive blow.

It was obvious Meilin's fighting style was focused on whittling down her opponent through a thousand leeching cuts, but with Emma there, that'd become nearly impossible for so long as Erik's maid-wife had aetherium left.

"Fuck! Fight me fairly, you blood leech!" Meilin cursed furiously, still racing to think of a solution to her predicament. She couldn't contact her Primarch or escape. Was the only outcome truly her death or capture at this point?

"You don't see the irony in calling me that?" Astrid giggled, swords whirling and clashing with Meilin's faster than the mortal eye could see. "Your affinity is like any vampire's wet dream!"

That comment truly got under Meilin's skin. She screeched irrationally and suddenly increased in speed.

"Oh, shit," Astrid cursed, quickly trying to defend when she noticed Meilin's swords seemed to suddenly appear near her throat.

Fortunately, Erik was there in a flash to smash his large fist against the swords, sending them off-course.

Astrid smirked at him sheepishly. "Thank you…"

He grinned at her, but couldn't respond before Meilin was on top of them again.

Yet, in the end, there was nothing she could do in this situation.

They exchanged blows for a while longer, but it wasn't long before the fight was coming to an end…