A Dire Issue [Private | Avalon]

It had been a while since Mura last visited the Spooky Forest, infamous given its namesake for the spookiness in its inhabitants, may they be living or dead. This forest had once claimed many innocent lives who dared pass through it, but through the era of wizardry, the populace of Fiore could rest easy knowing that mages were always ready to ward off its dangers and keep their clients safe and sound.

There were many footprints in the forest. Wolves and bears were the bare minimum responsible for these, for most of the forest was awfully calm in the day… at least in the contours of it. However, should you walk deeper into the vegetation, its carnivorous magic would unravel slowly, calling forth beasts, monsters, living corpses of friends and foes, werewolves, gargoyles and haunting ghouls to terrorize curious explorers.

But Mura was not afraid of them. So weren’t many wizards of Fiore; they were able to meet these dangers head-on and come out victorious.

Mura was following the footprints of a dire wolf. A client from the River Village - a village literally named after a river with no name other than the River - had lost his brother back when they ventured through the forest after a business journey. They were attacked by a large wolf best described as what was mentioned - a dire wolf was what the signs pointed towards. The survivor wanted to retrieve his brother’s remains which were taken by the dire wolf… as well as revenge.

Mura promised both. A dire wolf roaming loose in the Spooky Forest was probably tainted by its atmosphere, turned into a bloody beast that robbed people of their brothers and sisters. Although it would never solve the place’s problem, the key issue… it would bring solace to the other brother. He was told that the brother wore a silver necklace formed like a diamond.

And thus, Mura simply followed the tracks and tried to keep his senses up high. There was magic everywhere.

WC: 336

She was pretty late for meeting up with Thost he had talked about heading on ahead and while she was still trying to think of a good reason to still stick together he was already off headed towards the guild she had picked out for them. ‘Ava what guild do you think would be a good one to join? Oh well in that case I’ll just head off like a big doofus before we look more into it.’ She sighed stretching she had picked fairy tail cause it's one of the few guilds that didn't seem high off their own fumes and not all about stopping evil acts or starting evil acts.

She didn’t have a problem with either kind of guilds but she really didn’t want to enter the grind of guild politics of such things… or at least not yet. And now Thost was off and gone… She frowned narrowing her brows. What if this was all just a ruse to ditch her…? What if she how’d up and he wasn’t there…? She paused her walking and closed her eyes. “He’ll be there, he’ll… he’ll be there.” She said quietly to self trying to keep herself focused, this forest was not the place to have a break down in.

But also since she was on a mission, she needed to get some work in to ensure she had enough money to get the rest of way to the guilds location, apparently right before she got in some other guy came in to get the job though thankfully the one giving it out was more then willing to let her go as well so long as the end result was taking down the wolf and getting his brothers remains back. She looking down to see some tracks, human tracks following some wolf tracks and nodded.

Time to put on a pretty attitude… if she wouldn’t work with Thost maybe she could with this other guy for now. She followed the tracks and when she saw him she put on a bright and bubbly face skipping over to him. “Helloooo~~~~!” She practically sang out to announce herself only moments before skipping up to his said and started to walk beside him, at a likely such a closeness their personal bubbles could look like little diagrams intertwining together. “Are you after the puppy too?” She asked with a bright smile and friendly tone holding her hands behind her back walking with a bounce and pep to her step.

[ 417 Words ]

Hmh… already, something was odd. The footsteps were clearly that of a huge, canine creature, but the pacing… it was as if it took long steps, about the same length between each foot or paw. They were also very wide apart from each other, which was another strange phenomenon. Was it… was it walking on two legs? What kind of dire wolf did that?

Also… upon kneeling down and placing a hand on one of the footprints, he noticed that it was deep. Deeper than expected. A dire wolf was huge and heavy, yeah, and especially in comparison to a normal wolf, but there was almost like 15 cm depth in each footprint. Combined with the previous clue, it may have been that it walked on its hind legs.

“…?” Mura’s ears twitched over catching the sound of a companion. He turned his head to face her, meeting a fragrant and sunny expression on a fire-crowned (fire-haired) lady looking at him. “’Sup,” he replied with a faint smile, while throwing glances at Kyuken who manifested as a blue spirit ball to check this gal out.

“Mura, are you a girl magnet? You really draw the best ladies of society towards you… oh… wait… you’re married,” Kyuken spoke up and ended his statement with a dry huff. Mura scoffed at the ghost’s remarks, wondering if the girl was even able to see ghosts like Kyuken and Zirconis who accompanied the shaman. Maybe she could… some mages were able to see dead spirits.

It sounded like she was tracking the same trail as he was, given by her question. “Mhm. I’ve got a guess on what we’re dealing with, but I was planning to just follow the footprints to wherever the… uh, ‘puppy’ has its grounds,” he replied to her. In reality, he felt no need for help or aid in his quest, but she must’ve met the client too. Besides, she smiled at him… she was likely good company, he was assured of that.

Regardless if he knew or not, which he didn’t, they were both touched each by a respective embodiment of an ancient pantheon. A pantheon long lost to time.

AwooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo…!

The howl echoed through the forest, catching Mura’s attention. It was loud, but… it wasn’t clear like a real wolf’s howl. It growled and vibrated as if something was stuck in its throat, it sounded unnatural. And… the sound came from all directions. Despite being able to sense magic, Mura couldn’t pinpoint the wolf’s location just with that alone. He would have to depend on the tracks, if they didn’t delude him.

“Maybe that’s our dire wolf,” he commented to the fire-crowned lady before jogging off along the tracks, assured that she would follow suit. She looked fit for the task at hand.

WC. 465
TWC: 801

Avalon watched the guy she would likely be teaming up with checking out the tracks. She wondered what exactly could be going on with the tracks that would make such an indepth look over needed. She though kept up her bubbly facade as she made her way over. He gave at least a faint smile to her, excellent people were less likely to leave when they were smiling cause it meant they liked being around you! “Oh not muuuuch I got this job a little ways back for taking down an overgrown puppy and bringing a body back to its owner's brother. Based on your transfixed attention on those tracks I assume it's the same with you?” She asked with a giggle.

She blinked though as a blue spirit ball appeared and started talking to the guy about benign a chick magnet making the guy scoff. She didn’t say anything though for now. “Oh alright!” So he is following the puppy too wonderfully. “I see, mind if I take along? Maybe it's easier to fight this thing as a team you know?” She offered though looked off towards the echoing sound from the distance looking about as it seemed to come from everywhere squinting her eyes a bit and shifting her feet a bit instinctively to a more battle ready standing stance. She shrugged regaining her smile to keep the act up.

“If not I’m sure it’ll be one fun time figuring out what exactly made that howl wouldn’t you agree?” she offered up before jogging alongside him. “I do fire and smoke based stuff, largely close and partly long ranged moves. And yourself?” She asked hoping to get a feel for his general move set to see if they would conflict too heavily when they would fight. It’d be unfortunate to both strike at the same time and accidentally cancel each others moves out after all.

[ 734 Total Words Over All ]

Overgrown puppy… not bad.

”Yup. It’s likely a dire wolf,” Mura responded back to her after her little joke about ‘overgrown puppy’ and her following question. She looked very enthusiastic to accompany him - maybe she knew him from the magazine… but she didn’t state so. Maybe she was new to taking quests like these… good for her. Mura had a general idea of her magical aura, but he didn’t know what kind of magic she possessed or how she used it.

“I don’t mind,” he responded to her mid walking, “Consider me as a temporary guide, then. I’ve been doing these fetching requests for years, so we won’t get lost or spend all day looking for it.” He did speak some truth; most of his earliest missions as an official wizard in Fairy Tail was searching and finding lost items and people as well as killing minor beasts that annoyed the populace like wolves and the seasonal ogre.

Fire and Smoke… she was some kind of pyromancer? Mura was technically an expert in pyromancy, himself! Onmyōdō did cover five elements, one of them being the element of fire. “Huh… neat skillset. I’m more of a swordsman,” he exchanged his words to her as he showed her his sheathed ninjaken - Harusame, originally a long katana that had been crafted into a shorter, linear form, “My magic involves spirits - live and dead ones. You did just look at one of my friends - Kyuken, the blue orb there.”

“I have a face, mind you,” Kyuken expressed with a pout, truly having a samurai’s face on a blue orb, “B-But nonetheless a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, milady!”

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

They ran right into a pack of… normally sized wolves, that was. About 11 of them, each gritting and showing their teeth as they found prey - the two wizards. They didn’t fit the clues from earlier, so Mura intended on ignoring them or trying to scare them away.

“N-No, shoo, go away-“

WC: 332
TWC: 1133

She nodded at his deduction shrugging “Overgrown doggie then.” She corrected with a smirk and when he said he didn’t mind her tagging along she bounced on her toes pumped “Wonderful! Let's take the dog to the pound.” She said walking alongside him. “Fair enough, I mean I wouldn’t mind the walk but an efficient run may be best." She said with a nod holding her hands behind her back one gently holding the other. She gave him a thumbs up benign forward as she did so with a bright smile closing her eyes while doing so. “Thanks! Swords are pretty cool! My main weapons and strike methods are with swords. Can’t beat the classics sometimes you know?”

She said with a shrug standing up right again returning her hand back to the other gently holding it again twirling to walk backwards looking to the orbas he explained it whistling. “That’s pretty cool for sure!” She slowed up her walking for a moment to get closer to the orb and squinted her eyes as the spirit orb seeing the pout she smiled brightly though to him. “It's a pleasure to meet you as well! And please don't pout, you have a lovely face milord! I just had to get a bit closer to see it is all!” She said supportively to him before blinking at the sudden growling.

She leaned her head back further to try to see what was growling and saw the wolves. She twirled on her foot again while attending her head to look forward as she landed in a leaning forward position looking at the wolves perching her lips at them. “Tiny puppies.” She stood straight up looking over to Mura. “I really don't think that kind of method gonna work. You sound more like uncertain prey like that then an alpha leader to be respected and listened to.” She muttered a bit almost breaking character but hopped right back in with a smile looking to the wolves.

“Maybe if we show them were scarier you know?” She suggested with a shrug. She could easily get away from them but he seemed to want him to run more than the two of them so who was she to stop him?”

[ 1,108 Total Words ]

Tiny puppies… confidence wasn’t absent in her. Not that the wolves could pose any danger to the shaman… or could they? Maybe they weren’t ordinary wolves. Maybe they were… summons or demons or dark entities posing as wolves. Then again, they acted like ordinary canines, so perhaps Mura’s caution was for naught.

“… A-Alpha leader, huh,” Mura sighed out with a worn out look at the ginger-haired gal. Kind of a dart to his chest, given his position as Guildmaster of Fairy Tail, but maybe she wasn’t aware of that… or maybe she was and said that on purpose.

Argh, y’know what, never mind that! Focus on the matter at hand.

All animals had an innate fear of fire. Mura swayed out his hands, and from his palms as he swung them around like whirls or the arms of a windmill, blazes escaped and lit up the air. The glowing licks of fire intimidated the wolves and caused them to back off, before some of them began sticking their tails between their legs and running away.

Those who remained needed a bit more. The fire that Mura held between his hands fell onto the ground, and his full control over the flames began to show as the fire took form - a manifestation of a living creature, which in this case was that of a large wolf that eyed down on the braver canines. Welp, the view of a wolf made of fire looking down at them like the Devil himself was enough to scare them off, while Mura got to show off a bit of his capabilities to the assumed aspiring mage. He knew that showcases like these could seed aspirations in people’s hearts, just like with him so many years ago. Hopefully, she was taken aback by the performance.

“That should do it,” he commented before dismissing the fire that faded away, no signs of ashes on the ground or on the fallen, yellow leaves, “… Usually, wolf packs have a large Alpha - like you just called me before. Maybe we should follow them, instead…”

He began following the several tracks from the smaller wolves going in one direction after a good minute of letting them get some distance from him and the other wizard. “What’s your name, again? I’m Mura, Mura Kensho, from Fairy Tail.”

WC: 389
TWC: 1522

She shrugged at his repeating. “What you're stuttering aaand shooing rather then roaring and growling. You can’t blame me for making the observation.” She said with a rose brow looking at the flames coming form his hands and smiling. “Now thats an alpha leader move!” she practically cheered out as some ran off followed by the others as the large fire canine was formed. This guy was no joke and that creature was “Sooooo cuuuuuute~!” Her jaw dropped looking bright eyedly from it to Mura then back to it and started to open mouth grin at it.

She bounced on her toes giggling restaining herself from clapping. Okay like this guy was cooler then expected. He left nothing in his path though, which was much better then what she could do. His stuff was waaay more controlled while hers tended to be was more wild and all over the place, even when she shifted her flames to specific shapes were still all over the place with the flames… but honestly she just liked the look of it so she never bothered refining the shapes of the actual flames. She had plenty of definition in her actual equips rather than their abilities anyways. Still she admired a good shapely flame.

When he said they should follow them she nodded and smiled holding up one finger. “Good point” She said lowering the finger to aim at him making a bang with her mouth to do a finger gun at him before following Mura who followed the tracks. She looked over when he said he was from Fairy Tail and smiled to him. “Oh! I’m Avalon Necowl, Not from anything. Possibly from Fairy Tail too some time if they like me enough. My friend wanted to go traveling and brought up joining guilds and he said I should pick. So for like the first time ever I picked up a magazine and skimmed over some stuff and from the most recurring ones up there Fairy Tail felt the most fitting."

"I checked their location and we set off but my friend went ahead of me cause he was probably super pumped and totally no other reason at all!” She said cheerfully. It was true though she neer really looked past the town she grew up in let alone read magazines or anything like that before, she had been more focused on trying to learn how to use magic craft on her own and how to fight. When she wasn’t doing that she was more focused on giving Thost her attention he was the only friend who really stuck by her all this time so she wanted to make sure he was still around to hang out with her.

Maybe that’s why he went ahead was she suffocating him with the personality she was trying to keep up? …. Oh crap was she suffocating this guy too? She wasn't certain but she couldn’t really change personalities on the dot to try and fix that it would cause more troubles.

[ 1,613 Total Words ]

She must’ve had quite a deep affinity for fire if she could awe at the fire wolf that closely. Usually, people did adore the attributes of their own magic - Mura did grow to enjoy the company of ghosts, for instance. Sadly, the wolf wasn’t going to be around for much longer, since they were on the move again, but that was a good thing to notice. She was pretty funny, and Mura appreciated the joy she had in undergoing this quest alongside him. The familiarity came to a point where Kyuken, charmed by her atomic bomb of expressions, did a finger-gun shot back at her in exchange. So silly…

Her name was revealed to him, much to the shaman’s satisfaction as he often forgot to ask for people’s names… and hers was Avalon Necowl, Not From Anything - hopefully, the last part wasn’t on her passport. Her next words did pique his interest; she wanted to be from Fairy Tail? Was that, like, a discreet request to join them? That made this mission much more personal to Mura, now… since he was the Guildmaster and had a hunch that she probably hadn’t realized that yet. Well, well, wouldn’t that make things more entertaining…

“Ooh? You wanna join Fairy Tail?” he commented with a face full of attention towards her and what she just said, “I’m sure they’ll like you. It’s a shrewd guild, after all, but it’s demanding in one way or another…” He held his chin in deep thought… actually, he wasn’t thinking too much, but he wanted to look like it before continuing, “Hey, I can help you join. Let’s see this mission to the end, and I can add a suggestion to our Guildmaster. I’m sure he’ll let you in on the spot.”

He had an idea… no, a hunch, a feeling that he knew who her friend was. Some people had joined the guild very recently, so… could it, perhaps, be Thost? She did state it to be a ‘he’, and it couldn’t be Louie.

…

Loud, gnawing sounds could be heard now. It sounded like a knife cutting through rotten meat, grotesque in its creakiness, and the sound of ripping flesh apart upped Mura’s senses a notch. “…” He held up a hand and nudged his finger towards an opening in the forest where he heard the sound coming from, asking Avalon to follow him. However, a loud howl grabbed him by surprise, and the opening appeared to be empty anyway… but the bushes and shrubbery shook, revealing an even larger horde of wolves coming to gnaw at their dead flesh.

“What the hell was that…?” he asked curiously. He saw a figure at the opening, but it was gone now… it probably ran off into the woods and summoned the wolves around them for cover. These looked even more ferocious than the previous pack, but hopefully, another wave of fire would do the trick, in which Mura simply replicated his previous trick.

That, however, proved insignificant to these specific canines which leapt through the fire wolf, engulfing themselves in flames while surrounding Avalon.

“Shit, watch out, Ava!“ Mura warned her, “They’re being suicidal, now-” A wolf had snuck up behind him, or so it thought, as it leapt and aimed its fangs at his shoulder, only to be punctuated by Mura’s ninjaken - his short katana Harusame that emitted a strong, light-bluish light while Kyuken was nowhere to be seen in that instance. After Mura flung the blade off of the wolf, no signs of any fatal injuries could be seen on the canine, but it still laid on the floor, wringing in pain for a while…

WC: 614
TWC: 2136

She smiled as he seemed to like her mannerisms, or well she smiled more, but she was pleased to know that her act wasn’t all for not. She kept pace in her walking and nodded when he asked if she wanted to join Fairy Tail and that he'd put in a good word for her so to speak. She felt her act slipping a bit as she shook her head. “As much as I’m worried of them not liking me and appreciate the offer I feel like getting in though being recommended over them coming to feel I fit into the guild is… well it feels less whole to me in a way. I don’t become Avalon the new girl with promise or something. I’m that one new girl I don’t know Kura brought her along.”

And if that happened and he left and others don’t know her well she may become outcasted. “That and it feels less earned to me personally you know…? I don’t just wanna walk up and go hey I’m joining I have nothing to show for why you should pick me to join.... I want them to know what I can do and be happy to accept my request to join.” She said a bit thoughtfully she knew Thost wanted to just walk up and ask to join and she didn’t want to come off as dissing him but for her personally that's not how she wanted to be known as when people look back at how she joined. She blinked realizing how much of her character she dropped before going back in and laughing a bit.

Waving it all off like it was an invisible presence in front of her. “Look at me being all serious over something so silly. I probably came off as such a drag!” She said with a playful smile. “I’ll still be sure to impress you the best I can though, that way I can have one out of several others impressed by me for when I do arrive and join!” She said holding a fist close to her face before shrugging. “Or at least for when I request to join.” She though stopped talking when she heard the sounds in the distance squinting her eyes a bit and nodded to his motioning and moved to follow behind him.

She shifted her foot as she saw the emptiness before them her toes digging into the dirt under them as she saw the shrubbery shaking. She more focused on the shrubbery to notice the figure but looked to Mura for a moment before she looked back over again. “Dunno I’m busy looking at likely a whole lot of hiding puppies.” and when they came out it confirmed things to her. Mura took them out or at least attempted to and now were all aflame and surrounding her. Her smile faded as her eyes grew worried and her brows frowned. Something happened to them… maybe they were fakes? Or killed and brought back? Maybe they couldn't feel the planes nor fear so they don't quite care any longer what happened to their bodies.

Possibilities ran though her head as Mura seemed to worry for her. “I’ll end their suffering.” She said almost simply or cold but serious. It was hard for her to stay in character while needing to focus on a fight that was actually dangerous, she would really need to practice that more often later. She needed to avoid burning herself as well as taking them down. She had just the thing. She casting forth her Flaming Metal armor, Her hair flowing up into the air as its tie disappeared her hair seeming to turn into raging flames in the invisible wind around it and flames seemed to form at her eyes leaking off of them flicking into the wind.

She frowned before flames covered her entire body for a moment before blowing away to reveal her Armor that had flames coming off it and its fur at the collar and cloth looked almost made of fire themselves.

Flaming Metal:

She then quickly used her first ability Heat Syphon. She focuses her heat within and condenses it down as she adds in her magic. She then shifts her legs quickly to a crouching position as she has her arms out to the sides like a beast reading its claws ready to attack as her suit then begins to syphon off a mass amount of the heat within 10 meters of all directions of herself. As this occurs the flames and furs on her armor burns brighter and more violently while frost coats the area around her. Those inside without cold resistance or anything similar will suffer from cold based damage. This is not though due to the freezing like temperatures around her, but actually her suit itself trying to syphon the heat directly off of those within range of her very bodies. So if this worked as she hoped it would not only hurt the wolves but put out their flames.

[ 2,453 Words ]

”I don’t become Avalon the new girl with promise or something…” end quote. She wanted to have baggage behind her before starting a new life, and Mura was impressed by how serious she took it. She didn’t sound like that a second ago, but she was being sincere in her desire to join Fairy Tail, but she wouldn’t want to end up as, quote: “… that one new girl ‘I don’t know, Kura brought her along’…”

It sounded like a problematic thing if she held her personal pride high. Well then, Ava; you might have not realized this, but what you were doing right now would impress someone important to the guild that you desired to be a part of. So go and do your best, and while you didn’t realize it yet, you were closely watched by him…

She decided to end these wolves quickly and summoned an armor out of nowhere. Requip Magic? Mura hadn’t seen that being used by anyone other than Leo… so she was a requip mage, huh? Her armor was far from just any kind of armor that Mura had ever seen before - despite his 9 years in Fairy Tail, he had never seen anyone don an armor that emitted flames as casually as decoration. Her hair mimicked the image of fire, and her eyes lit up. It looked as if her entire being had molded into that terrifying armor.

…

This was unexpected. This decrease in temperature around him… fires usually heated up the area in their radius, but the more magic that Ava gathered, the colder the surroundings became. The wolves lost their heat and froze, the fires around their bodies dying out as their thermal energies were siphoned away.

“I-Ice-cold f-f-f-fire…” he commented while grinding his hands against his arms, “How does that even work… blew me away with that-“

A loud howl reacted immediately to the downfall of its smaller brethren, the wolves who perished as their energy was taken away by the fires of Ava’s armor. This time, however, the howl came closer and closer to them… until its silhouette could be seen hit by rays of light from the treetops.


“There you ar- wait… that’s not a Dire Wolf,” Mura expressed his thoughts of the view, while the werewolf angrily approached them step by step, “… We shouldn’t kill it.”

While Mura convinced himself not to kill the werewolf for a reason that he hadn’t explained yet, the werewolf was all too eager to rip their heads and spines out. In a giant, quick leap that put the other wolves to shame, it attempted to tackle down Ava with its huge size and maul her to death.

While in the air, the werewolf saw Ava’s armor being coated in a strange, metallic liquid… a liquid that formed a fist and punched it away from her before leaking into her armor, still allowing the fires to burn brightly and take a bluish nuance. It was Mura’s magic that had summoned a metal to imbue it into her Requip. “Here, see if you can keep this on your armor,” he spoke to her in a hurry, “Silver works wonders against werewolves!” His own katana would be coated in silver just as quickly, while he faced the werewolf once more.

It wouldn’t let silver intimidate it, however. Its claws grew in length, and it began its assault, jumping between both of them with rapid agility.

WC: 575
TWC: 2711

Excellent her magic worked according to plan. She looked over to Mura relaxing her stance and shook her head. “Trust me the fire is not cold…. All I did was drain the heat from the surrounding area…” She slowly shifted back to her usual pretend self rubbing the back of her neck. “Sorry about that I’m not used to fighting around others.” She said with a slight chuckle though looked towards the howl in the distance. She looked up to see the wolf approaching and whispered out a “Oooh… ffffu-” Realizing what they were really facing. She wasn’t certain what it was bu- “Wait what do you mean shouldn’t…? And I’m definitely in the wrong armor for not killing things”

She said as it came at her but a fist coming from her armor hit the  beast back before sinking back into her armor. She looked over to him with a blink before nodding. “I’ll try my best but no promises.” She shifted to face it as it landed between them. To attack but not kill…. She had no idea how strong this thing even was! What if she killed it by accident somehow? She sighed what equips did she have that she could also bring out to use and help her attack but not kill… She really didn't have much to go on for what she knew wouldn't kill given most of her stuff was support or offensive.

She could try to bring out her swords… though that would be just as good as using her armor right now since one was offensive and the other support and its support wasn’t totally needed yet. So for now she would just ride this armor set out instead then go from there. “Suppose I should fight you with the same anger as you fight me. I sure hope you’re strong. I'd hate to disappoint Mura over here by accidentally killing you.” She said before focusing the in and on her armor she utilizes her magic to flood in more flames into each section spreading them out across her primary armored arm, her left arm, and both her legs.

Both of her legs looking like clawed feet masked in flames, and her arm looking much bigger and longer with a massive clawed like flame hand. She then darted forward at 28 meters per second at the creature aiming to strike it with her flaming clawed arm and if she could get close enough it would not only burn it but cut with her actual armored hand’s claw. She aiming for its torso to hopefully not hurt it too bad but also to pull its attention. Hopefully Mura had a better non lethal plan.

[ 2,903 Words ]

Mura had to be rapid with his parries, each impact with the silver causing the werewolf’s claws to glow and burn. It caused it back off and regenerate those claws, showing both Mura and Ava how it wasn’t going to get beat down that easily. Werewolves had quite an insane, underrated healing factor and survived most fatal stabs and cuts just fine - said healing factor wouldn’t save them from decapitation or having their heart completely mushed, where they just didn’t have enough time to recover before they breathed their last breath.

While it could be difficult to hold back when you wielded deadly weapons, Mura had faith that Ava would realize how difficult it actually was to fatally wound a werewolf if you didn’t prepare your homework beforehand. Mura had experience fighting a myriad kinds of beasts and monsters, from the most humanoid-looking creatures of legend to absolute behemoths, so the werewolf could easily be killed by him. However, Ava was new to the world and life of a wizard, so it was good training for her.

“They heal most injuries! So don’t lower your guard-“ Mura warned her as the beast focused on targeting her and her fiery armor that siphoned heat from everywhere around them. The beast’s breath came out in clouds of steam from its throat and nostrils, its eyes blood-red with rage and bloodlust. Ava focused magic into her limbs and intensified the flames emitting from those areas, until they took form of clawed limbs of a monster itself.

The werewolf’s torso was met by a fierce cutting strike from Ava’s fire-infused arm, pushing it several meters through the woods with a huge burn mark and leaking blood from its torso’s injury. Once it stopped in its tracks by clawing the ground to brake, it growled and began howling loudly as its deep wound began to regenerate itself back to normal. In a brief moment, the burn mark and gaping hole in its torso was gone as if nothing had happened.

Then, it leapt across the woods at blinding speed, more than determined to tear Ava in two. However, it landed quite a dozen meters away from her as it had to dash away, because a swift cut had torn its right arm straight off, gushing blood out in a violent manner. That came from Mura - he intervened in its leap towards Ava and cut its right arm off in a flash.

And just to brag, it began regenerating said arm as well, while it growled deeply at them both.

“That’s a sickening healing factor, eh…?” Mura commented the view. The werewolf looked sad for a moment, signaled by how its long, canine ears lowered themselves and a soft, yelping moan escaped its vocal chord… but immediately after, it began growling and gritting its predatory teeth at him. “Ava, remember what the client informed us? About his brother…” Mura asked his armored companion, before he had to bend backwards in order to avoid a side-ways cutting strike from the werewolf. He stomped the ground with his foot and erected a random boulder of granite that kicked the werewolf up in the air, readying it for a combo-strike from Ava.

“Let’s tire it out and see who the poor soul really is…”

WC: 547
TWC: 3258