Wolf of the Blood Moon: A Blood Magic

Inside of the Bunker next to Scarlet

Everyone goes silent as they watch what looks like blood materialize in the form of werewolf claws over the girl’s hands, startling quite a few of them in the process. But Jacob continues watching with his eyes narrowed despite that.

Looks like she’s planning on fighting. But does she really think she can deal with that many hounds at once? As a newly contracted Guardian?

Ignorant of the man’s thoughts, the girl raises one hand up and beckons the hounds to come after her, surprising the people in the bunker even more with her confidence. But the moment the hounds do leap towards her, she backs up and runs over to the bunker doors, making the camera recording her switch to another one in the process as the beeping grows louder from the hounds’ proximity.

“What’s she doing?” “Is she baiting them or something?” “But for what?”

Jacob tries to block out the sounds of the other occupants of the bunker as he glances at Abigail who is silent as she watches the screen, then looks up at the screen again himself. And what he sees on it has his frown growing deeper.

That girl can’t be older than twenty, and she’s kiting those hounds around in circles like that? Sure she’s making a lot of mistakes, but jeez. I didn’t realize becoming a Guardian changed so much about a person’s fighting capabilities right away.

On the screen, the girl continues barely avoiding each hound’s attack as they continue trying to leap and attack her from all sides. But eventually, after she backs up close enough to the shield, the one behind her fans out slightly to avoid it, leaving her back to the shield itself.

Jacob’s eyes widen in realization right before the hound directly in front of her leaps at her, and she ducks right under the attack, letting the hound strike the shield face first. The shield then lets out a horrifying shrieking sound as what must be millions of volts of electricity burst into the hound, making it fall limp to the ground while smoke rises off of its body while the girl flinches slightly at the same time.

Silence fills the bunker as everyone watches the girl quickly duck down and slash out the hound’s throat with a smug look on her face after it’s no longer being electrified, ignoring the fact that she’d just flinched. She then looks up at the other hounds with a grin and asks, “Who’s next?”

“Holy shit!! Holy shit holy shit holy shiiiit!”

Jacob hears someone shouting out his joy, making him turn around to find a teenage boy with his phone pointed at the screen as if he were recording the fight.

Seriously?

“Put that away,” Jacob says while glaring at the kid. But the kid just looks up at the security guard then ignores him to continue recording.

And while this pisses Jacob off enough that he clenches his fists, he doesn’t do anything and simply turns his attention back to the screen. Because after all, there are no laws against recording a Guardian at work. No matter how badly Jacob thinks there should be.

Because while there are the occasional few Guardians who are against popularity, the majority of them love it. Fame. Glory. The wealth that comes along with it.

But democracy isn’t for the few. It’s for the many.

Jacob thinks as he returns his attention to the screen, just to see the girl covering a bloody wound on her leg where one of the hounds clearly bit her rather hard before getting its neck torn out in kind. He then watches as the three remaining hounds back away from her ever so slightly, showing clear caution now.

Surprisingly, the girl rushes at the closest one out of nowhere, paying no heed to her injury despite the clear signs that she’s feeling it. And once she reaches the startled hound, she physically grabs it, digging her claws in at the same time before tossing it straight at the shield and shocking it just like the first one. Then the other two hounds sprint off, leaving the room and the girl behind in their retreat.

“Huh? Why did they run?” “Where are they going?”

Most of the people in the bunker clearly don’t remember their lessons on the lower ranking demons.

“Demon hounds are pack creatures, and once their pack reduces down to two members remaining, they will always run away and avoid combat,” Jacob answers the confused looking people staring at the screen.

“Oh, that makes sense.” “Right!”

Jacob watches the screen for a few seconds as cheers begin to rise from the other people in the bunker, just waiting for it to happen. And then, after nearly ten whole seconds, it does.

The girl collapses onto the ground with her eyes closed while breathing heavily, exhausted from the battle. This causes some of the cheers to lower in intensity as the people show concern for the girl, but most of them still continue.

Should I open the door for her and close it again right after? She’s a Guardian, but she’s also only a teenager, fresh out of high school by the looks of it. So…

Before he can think much further on the question, the girl opens her eyes and stares directly at the camera, a slight blush creeping onto her face as she likely realizes that everything was streaming to the people in the bunker live. She then climbs to her feet in a sluggish hurry and begins leaving the room, taking the decision out of Jacob’s hands.

Everyone in the room quietly chatters about the new Guardian, many of whom – mostly the women in the room – seem to wish that they could touch her ears, just like Jacob’s first thoughts on seeing them. But eventually, everything returns full circle, and Abigail begins complaining to Jacob again.

“Well?! Are you going to let me out or not?!” she asks, tapping her foot in a rhythmic pattern. But this time, no one is watching them, everyone’s attention still on the hot topic of a new Guardian.

Jacob lets out a sigh.

Why did I want to be here again?