Wolf of the Blood Moon: A Blood Magic

Scarlet

It must look rather odd for a young woman like me to be giving orders to a bunch of thirty year old men armed with guns and a magic weapon. But there’s no other choice, considering that they’re only human, and they can’t hear what I can. Not to mention the chain of command that is apparently set up for Guardians.

Once we reach the bottom of the stairs at the twenty-sixth floor, my eyes immediately locks onto several demon hounds. All of which are between levels five and seven.

The sound of the pulse rifle going off echoes in my ears, making me wince slightly before I rush forwards. But out of the corner of my eye, I see one of the hounds getting completely vaporized by the pulse rifle, leaving nothing left.

I grimace at just how loud that thing is, much louder than I’d expected, but still continue forwards, taking advantage of the hounds’ distraction given to me by Carl and his pulse rifle to activate my blood claws and slice straight through the neck of one of the hounds. This – along with the sounds of bullets being fired from the other two pistols – snaps the remaining five hounds out of their stupor, leading to one of them quite close to me attempting to take a bite out of my leg. But once again, I hear the blast of the pulse rifle, following which the hound vanishes, having been vaporized as well.

The other hounds begin cautiously backing up, having realized the predicament they’re in. But I don’t make it easy on them by rushing forwards again, my claws empowered now by the blood of that first demon hound I killed in the fight.

Another bullet from a pistol fires forth, not really doing much damage beyond a small wound to the hound it hit as I rush forward to tear straight through the jaw of a hound that tried to match my claws with its mouth, with little success. And now, with only three of the seven hounds remaining, one of which being injured, the hounds quickly begin to make a full-on retreat from the room.

But not before another loud noise echoes from the pulse rifle, making me reach up to cover my ears this time as another hound is vaporized.

The other two hounds manage to escape down the hall, so I relax ever so slightly, letting my hands lower down from my head again. I turn to look at the other three to find them all safe and sound near the stairs, each with a smile on their faces.

{Level 6 Demon Hound defeated. Bonus EXP is awarded for killing a creature above your level.}

{Level 6 Demon Hound defeated. Bonus EXP is awarded for killing a creature above your level.}

{One Skill Point is awarded for killing a demon.}

{One Skill Point is awarded for killing a demon.}

I open my status to glance at my SP before looking at the pulse rifle.

Maybe I should consider buying the recharge skill just for that rifle? After I have enough SP, of course.

It’ll take another seven kills to get enough SP for that skill. Which shouldn’t be too much in the long-run.

Also, it looks like those killed by the others don’t give me any EXP or SP. Or at least those killed by the pulse rifle didn’t. Since the other two didn’t manage to kill anything.

I just wish their guns were quieter.

“Wow,” Officer Winslow says with a wide grin splitting across his face. “That was amazing!”

The other security officer – the one who hasn’t actually said anything or even given me his name yet – nods his head in agreement and says, “Very amazing.”

Carl just gives a thumbs-up to go along with his grin.

I return Carl’s thumbs-up before turning around and closing my eyes to focus on my hearing again. The others go silent during this, likely understanding that I need silence whenever I do this.

After a second of focusing, I manage to make out several shouting voices, the sounds of quite a few guns shooting off, one of them being a pulse rifle judging by the familiar sound its making, and lastly, some strange noises akin to that of something hitting metal and bouncing off. Which leads me to believe that they’re all fighting a knight for some reason instead of just running away from it.

I open my eyes again while turning to Officer Winslow and saying, “At the center of the floor, there are several people shouting and shooting guns, one pulse rifle included, along with a knight by the sounds of the battle.”

The grins are instantly wiped from their faces as they turn serious.

“Do you know the way?” the officer asks me while visibly tightening his grip on his pistol.

“Yes,” I answer, surprising all three of them.

Normally I wouldn’t know where they are, at least judging by my past experience on the upper floors. But this floor’s layout is different. There really isn’t much on it beyond a few really large rooms, and at most a couple of small hallways judging by how clear the noises are. So it’s rather easy to track this time.

Not really sure why they’d even need me to help them navigate their way through such a small floor like this anyways. Or, simple, rather than small.

“Alright, let’s go save them then,” he says with a look of determination replacing the fear I had seen flash in his eyes at the mention of a knight. Which also makes me wonder just what that knight is protecting. Since I clearly don’t sense any breeders – thankfully – and the captain is obviously not going to be down here. It’ll be with the core as it’s the commander of the Fracture.

But that still leaves the question of just what is the knight protecting if it’s not another demon?

Also, why is it that Tar sounds especially quiet right now?

A few seconds pass as we all begin rushing into the floor, through the door into the entry room, which looks like some sort of equipment room. And even after we reach the halfway point in the room, the tanuki still hasn’t said anything. Which leads me to wonder something.

Can a fae leave its contracted partner during its contract, or is it required to stay next to them all the time?