The Void Wolf

Two moons beamed down on a small castle stood atop a hill. The state of it showed that it had been neglected for some time, but the makeshift barricades, wooden pikes topped with severed heads, and blood stained sheets of cloth decorating which made it clear that it had been occupied by new owners. Those same owners were in a skirmish with two people they could only call intruders.

“Damn it, Amy!” Harper cursed as she blocked an extraordinarily vicious attack with her staff. The attacker was a very pale and thin man who seemed to be far stronger than one might’ve thought. That was most likely due to the fact that he was a vampire. In fact, the whole castle was filled with vampires. Harper and Amy were currently on what they thought was an A- ranked job.

The reality of the situation was the information given to them was either outdated or blatantly wrong. The description of the job said the castle was a suspected of holding several vampires who had been attacking people recently. It turned out that those several vampires had grown into more than a dozen.

The Mercenaries Union couldn’t be blamed though, after the Red Moon and Golden Aurora, things changed drastically. While the Golden Aurora helped just about everyone, there were some races unaffected by it. The Red Moon, on the other hand, stirred up the dormant potential in Lycanthropes, Vampires, Beast People, and Dark Elves.

The more immediate concern was the vampires. Under the Dark Elves rule, they only consumed the blood of animals, and some had bloodlines so diluted they didn’t need to consume blood at all. Those with already strong bloodlines had drastically improved after the Red Moon and fled the rule of the Dark Elves, leading to nests slowly popping up all over the continent. It could be considered bad luck that Harper and Amy stumbled upon one. As to who it was bad for? That remained to be seen.

Harper kicked the vampire in his stomach before slamming her staff down on his head. He fell onto his back and wasn’t able to recover as Harper stomped her foot down on his neck, crushing it completely. It was a common misconception that Vampires could only be killed by piercing their heart. Another common misconception was that they were immortal. Only the ancient bloodlines could boast of immortality and they had long since faded away.

“Amy! What the fuck are you doing?!” Harper turned around to yell at Amy who was on the ground behind her.

Amy look stupefied as the little girl in front of her cursed. The reason for Harper’s anger was Amy’s lack of attention when handling the Vampires.

“Why the hell did you stop attacking him?!” Harper huffed in frustration. To Harper, Amy was completely weak, but since Ira wanted them to work together she put up with it.

“H-He said that the vampires were holding his family captive and they were forcing him to fight.” Amy said as if she had been wrong.

“He is the vampire you dumbass! Even if he wasn’t–Who fucking cares about his family?!” Harper kicked the dead body repeatedly.

Harper and Amy had been taking jobs from Samantha ever since Ira left and in that time, Harper had started to pick up cursing from the people they fought and it was clear she was a fan of it. If it continued she was well on her way to becoming quite the foul-mouthed little girl.

“Sorry.” Amy said in a low voice. It was hard to blame Amy since she had traumatic memories regarding family. The scene of her own mother getting killed and Benjamin, who she regarded as a little brother, still felt fresh in her mind.

Harper sighed as she shortened her staff and placed it on her hip. She kneeled down toward the corpse and opened its mouth before yanking the fangs out.

“Alright. Your turn.” Harper said as she placed the fangs in a pouch that began to swell.

Amy nodded as she raised her metal arm over the corpse. Green flames rushed out of her metal palm and covered the corpse completely, burning away its flesh until nothing was left except bones. Amy’s control over the Demon Flames had grown a lot, especially since Harper was around to provide a large of amount of things for it to consume.

“Something feels...weird.” Amy said in a near whisper.

“What?” Of course, Harper had extremely good hearing so it whispering in front of her could be considered speaking clearly.

“It feels kind of full.” Amy said with a confused expression as she looked at her metal arm.

“Maybe you’re growing.” Harper shrugged before she placed both of her hands on the warm skeleton. Her signature spectral blue covered her hands as the bones broke into small segments. The segments floated into the air before sticking to Harper’s arms and reassembling into a pair of smooth ivory-colored gauntlets. The same process was repeated for her legs and torso, creating a set of bone armor that protected her body.

It was needless to say, that Harper picked up some new abilities after destroying the cult in the North. Her ability to produce bone armor was inspired by the bone scythe Sin used. It was unknown on whether or not that was her way of remembering him or just something she copied for its usefulness.

In contrast to Harper, Amy had on a basic metal chest plate and pieces of leather armor to defend herself, which looked as if they would be largely ineffective. Avery’s armor had been sent over, but Harper claimed ownership over it, even if she couldn’t fit into it. There was no way Amy could forcefully take it, and there was no way Harper would hand it over without a fight.

Thus, Amy was forced to wear cheap armor. As for buying armor? Harper based the payment on contribution, and while she was around Amy wasn’t able to contribute very much. Still, it wasn’t all bad as she continued to increase her Demon Flames.

“Good news, Amy. You’ll get a chance to get more money. I’m going to kill everyone in the castle, you go kill the ones hiding in the stables. Don’t fall for any more tricks and try not to fucking die.” Harper said before she leaped away, leaving a series of blue afterimages.

Amy took a deep breath and then cautiously made her way toward the stables. Unlike Harper, Amy had a relatively normal amount strength and fewer abilities. That being the case, she couldn’t be as reckless.

She opened the old wooden doors to the stables and was met with darkness. The smell of blood drifted through the air and there seemed to be several things swaying in the air. Amy lifted her palm and made created a small green fireball before she walked forward. As it reached the inside of the stables, the flame illuminated the sight of dozens of bodies being strung up by a rope. Some even seemed to still be alive as their eyes showed what looked to be silent pleas for help.

A young girl came stumbling toward Amy, covered in blood. “H..Help...Me…”

Amy hesitated as she thought of Harper’s previous warning before she dropped her spear and moved toward the girl.

“It’s ok.” Amy said attempting to reassure her and just as she arrived in front of the girl, a massive column of green flame shot out and burned the girl, causing her to wail in agony. Amy guessed the girl was a vampire due to the fact she was the only one free. It was a good thing that she had guessed right.

At that moment, the stable doors shut and several figures pounced from the darkness.

Amy kicked the burning body of the girl away as she rolled to recover her spear. She spun it in a half circle before she waved her metal hand and sent small fireballs into different parts of the stables, igniting several piles of wood.

Low growls filled the stables as several vampires surrounded Amy. One jumped forward and attempted to bite her but she blocked it with her metal hand before blasting flames through the vampire’s mouth.

Another tried to leap toward Amy’s back but she spun around and thrust her spear, piercing its chest. Before she could recover her spear, the remaining two Vampires lept at her back. Amy let go of her spear as she was tackled to the ground, they both begin to snap at her like rabid dogs, but she used metal hand to punch one in the throat while her normal hand gripped the chin of the other. The vampire who received the punch recoiled over and coughed heavily as it attempted to recover but its windpipe was completely broken so it was only a matter of time before it died. The that still had a hold of Amy saw that he couldn’t bite her, so he clawed at her, leaving deep wounds on her arm.

“Ah!” Amy clenched her teeth as the scratches on her arms increased but she persevered and used her metal arm to grip his face before she dug her fingers into his eyes.

The Vampire screamed as he let Amy go, but she didn’t return the favor as her metal arm kept a firm grip in his eye sockets. She channeled her flames through and incinerated the inside of his skull before she rolled over and stood up.

“Hold on!” Amy yelled to the captives who served as human cattle. The fire in the stables had begun to spread rapidly and was completely out of her control. She found the ropes and untied them while holding on so that the strung up captives didn’t fall too rapidly.

Amy ran over only to see that they weren't in the condition to walk. Smoke and flame had begun to fill the stable causing Amy to panic. First, she opened the stable door to release some of the smoke, before she ran back to the captives and began to drag them out. Amy wasn’t as strong as Harper and attempting to drag several people at once was way harder than she expected.

“Harper!” Amy yelled as she dragged the captives. At that time, burning pieces of the stable fell and the entire structured creaked as it threatened to fall.

“Harper! I need some help!” Amy cried out as she pulled the captives. Sweat dripped down her face and she looked to be in pain, but she continued to pull the captives along. “Harper!” Amy continued to shout.

“What?” The familiar voice of a little girl answered her. Harper stood in front of the stables while her Phantom stood behind her holding two unconscious vampires.

“Harper!” Amy shouted in relief. “I need help getting them out.”

Harper looked at her Phantom who dropped the unconscious pair of vampires and then went to grab the rope from Amy. The Phantom pulled the captives to safety without much effort, allowing Amy to finally catch her breath.

Harper looked at the burning stable and nodded. “I killed fifteen in that castle, plus the six lookouts and the one that almost killed you. How many did you kill, Amy?”

“Five...I think.” Amy coughed as she began to feel pain in her lungs. “Shouldn’t we...move the civilians away from the smoke?”

“Eh? Most of them are going to die before we make it back to the next town anyway. Plus, you left your spear and the fangs in that stable.” Harper said as she directed her Phantom into the inferno to recover everything.

“What?” Amy just realized she didn’t bring her spear with her because she was too busy trying to recover the captives.

Five bodies covered in burns were placed at Amy’s feet, along with a spear.

“It really was five.” Harper said with a look of surprise as she went to pull the fangs out of the corpses and loaded them into her pouch that was about to burst. “Amy, you’re up.”

Amy moved over to consume the corpses with the Demon Flame. She burned away the remaining parts of the corpse before felt a surge of energy rush up to her head. A splitting headache shook her conscious causing her to faint.

“...Shit.” Harper cursed as she looked around. There was a wooden cart nearby but there were no horses, not that she had the skill to guide one anyway.

“Your turn.” Harper said to her Phantom. Even though it didn’t have a will of its own or even a face to express emotion, it somehow seemed unwilling as it moved to grab the pulling bars on the cart.

Harper placed the wounded civilians and Amy inside of the cart, while the two unconscious vampires were tied to the back to be dragged along. Harper took her place on her Phantom's shoulders.

“Let’s go.” Harper said. Under her orders, the Phantom pulled the cart along without much of a choice.