A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Barely letting him finish talking, Alice sank back into combat stance and charged him with a wide grin. Bright blue runes flickered into life all across her fur, quickly followed by frostfire flames bursting from her skin. In moments, she'd turned into a surging, half-pint, wereverine-shaped fire.

A fire charging straight at Erik.

The man himself cocked a curious, yet not particularly impressed eyebrow. "Is that your new ability?" he asked, smiling a little. "That's not bad. Your opponent will find it hard to touch you. You might even be able to use it for defending against ranged attacks if you can figure out how to make it powerful enough to destroy spells and projectiles upon reaching you."

The charging flame giggled slightly, but didn't otherwise respond or alter course.

Frowning, Erik raised a hand in her direction. "I hope your plan isn't to simply attack me head-on? If you thought reckless faith in this new ability of yours would impress me, you're wrong."

He'd now stepped out of his role as warm father and into that of stern trainer. Reckless impatience had been a problem for Alice before, and though he thought he'd trained her out of that, he didn't trust that the rush of breaking through hadn't brought it back.

Alice didn't respond this time, instead leaping up and at his throat with a high-pitched roar, claws—her favourite choice of weapon—extended.

Still frowning, Erik scanned her with his omnisense, somewhat hoping he'd detect some kind of trick. After all, he knew she usually preferred going low, not high. Yet all he found was Alice engulfed in frostfire.

She'd almost reached him now, and Erik's eyes flickered with a hint of disappointment. Sighing, he reached forward to grab his reckless daughter by the throat and end this fight before it even began.

Though he'd been prepared to let himself be easily impressed so that he could allow her to come with him—especially considering what Emma told him—after a disappointment like this, there was no way he could do that. She'd have to stay here and train with Astrid.

Lost in those thoughts, he closed his fingers… and found only flames.

He barely had time to blink in surprise when his fingers slipped through a throat of pure frostfire, hiding no skin or bones. The Alice-shaped, annihilating, single-digit-Kelvin-temperature frostflames surged over his skin—not powerful enough to harm him—but after a few milliseconds of coming closer…

Boom

The fire exploded. Erik found himself snarling and almost taking a step back out of surprise. The blast was far from powerful enough to harm him, but he'd not expected it, and he instinctively closed his eyes.

At the same time, his omnisense picked up the real Alice again. She surged from the flames just below his extended arm with a wide grin. Frostfire now only covered her destructive claws as they flew at his exposed stomach.

Erik couldn't help but smile genuinely. Though she was still moving far too slowly, and he had numerous ways to defend himself, he employed none of them. She deserved this win. For most second-rankers, this would have been a deadly double-tap.

Unhindered, her claws raked across his abs. Though it was impossible for her to penetrate his skin as a spankin' new second-ranker, the mere act of getting this close was enough to make her laugh with excitement as she rushed passed him.

"I touched you! Hahaha! I actually touched you!" she roared, laughing wildly as she came to a stop some meters behind him. She turned around to look at him with a face-splitting grin, practically dancing and bouncing on the spot. "Holy shit, I love my new ability!" she continued, filled with wild excitement. "I actually touched you in battle! Hahaha!"

Slowly, Erik turned around to grin at her. On the sidelines, Astrid was grinning widely as well, while Emma and Elora looked impressed.

"Did you trick me like that, knowing I'd underestimate you?" he asked curiously.

"Hehehe, I know you think I'm reckless, Father!" she giggled, still bouncing excitedly. "So, yes!" she admitted proudly. "I'll try not to take it personally, hehehe!"

Erik sighed and chuckled, shaking his head as he folded his arms. "Well, that was clearly my mistake, and I'm sorry. The control you have over both this ability and your own recklessness is nothing but impressive."

Alice's grin widened as she giggled. The victory felt nice, but his acknowledgment was even better.

"Speaking off," Erik continued, cocking his head curiously. "Tell me a little more about this ability. I've seen too little of it to fully understand it."

But Alice shook her head. "No way, Dad!" she chuckled, crouching back into a combat stance. "We're not done yet, and I want to see if I can surprise you again!"

Without another word, she charged at him again. Chuckling, Erik prepared to receive her. They soon became entangled in an aggressive fight filled with frostfire explosions. Erik focused on defence the entire time, of course, only occasionally countering in ways second-rankers might be able to do as well.

During the battle, he quickly came to understand her new ability. It was like a clone made of frostfire, which she could also hide inside. By hiding inside it and dropping out at the very last moment, she'd tricked him at the start of the fight. The clones could only rush at her enemy and explode, not fight for themselves, but they could move autonomously, which was plenty effective and suited her aggressive fighting style perfectly.

As expected, however, an hour of fighting later left Alice still unable to land another such blow against him. By the end, she was panting and splayed out on the floor. She'd fully tuckered herself out.

"S-So…?" she muttered, grinning weakly up at Erik, who was crouching next to her. "C-Can I… come…?"

Smiling, Erik nodded. "I'd love to have you with me."

"T-That's right…!" Alice mumbled, her eyes closing. "A-After I… touched you… there'd be… no way… for you to… decline!"

With those last words, she fell asleep, releasing cute snores. Chuckling, Erik reached down to lift her up. Rejoining his wives, they all went to put Alice to bed together before finally leaving the dimension and dealing with the aftermath of their battle against Meilin. It was time to return to Enkare Nkai.