Alas, it was finally the day of the battle that Venus had long awaited for. The Siren of Daeva Eye was fully equipped from head to toe. It clearly showed that she did not underestimate her opponent and even thought of her foe as on par with her own abilities. The hunter was about to give it all her best, she thought – Achak and Cameron had high hopes for her after all. It did put a certain amount of pressure on her, on performing her best, but it wasn’t as though she hadn’t dealt with something like this. Undoubtedly, she was nervous albeit, she was sure it wouldn’t affect her combat, for she knew she would return to her usual state once she had adapted to the battle grounds.

As she climbed up the peak of the Sieghart Mountains, the red haired lady would see Achak and Cameron in a short distance, waving at her to greet for her arrival. Ahead of them was the thick gorse of woods, which she assumed was where Amarok and his clan lived, waiting for her appearance.  

”Ready to go?” The werewolf confirmed with her, in which Achak would receive a nod from her as she lifted her hood from her head. The journey through the woods was an ambiguous one, but fortunately, Achak was accompanying them so it made the entire procedure easier. If Venus was the only one travelling alone, God knows where she might end up, knowing how awful her sense of direction was.

It was still bright afternoon when they’d started wandering into the forest. The woodland seemed ominously quiet, as if it was warning them for the foreboding danger ahead. All that could be heard was the susurration of the leaves in the gusty wind and looking up above her, she was transfixed by the myriad of fluttering leaves that danced in the high boughs, making a living roof above them.

Though it had been brief in reality, the journey to the hospital seemed to have stretched on for eons to her, as if time was thinned out into a linear form that made her steps just a tad bit slower. Thankfully, the idle chat between the three of them distracted her from the passing of the time and somehow, made the trip a lot more tolerable. The conversation was mostly about Achak’s life in his wolf camp and sharing his interesting experiences as well as the feud between him and his brother. It was no doubt Achak’s brother was the greedy one, whereas he was the more kind-hearted and sympathetic.

Not long after wandering through the thick woodland, they finally arrived at the home of the werewolves, where all the werewolves seemed to be busy doing something. Hidden among the shadows they weren’t noticed at first, until they drew closer towards this one large werewolf that Achak had been pointing, who was busy directing orders to gis underlings. ”This is Amarok, the one you must challenge,” he whispered into her ears, making sure they aren’t being overheard by other werewolves. ”Try not to look intimidated around him, you won’t gain any respect otherwise.” He added a little bit more advice.

The hunter smirked. The foe that she was going to have to go up against was large and very strong – or so it became her knowledge when her vampiric eye scanned the werewolves and displayed his statistics to her that no one else other than herself would be able to understand. ”Don’t worry,” she huffed, standing outside the camp as one of Amarok’s subordinates approached them.

”I’d like to request an audience with Amarok…for personal business.” She spoke, ending her sentence in a way so that she wouldn’t be asked any more questions by the wolf. It watched her suspiciously before stepping aside and returning to Amarok’s side to report the arrival of his new guests.

”As the one who’d killed the exiled wolfe, I’d like to challenge you for the title of alpha.”

Her voice was loud and clear, and it brought everyone else’s attention on her; the werewolves watching her as if she was the foolish one to even request audience from Amarok. There was a moment of silence before everyone broke into fits of laughter, including the one she was challenging, but the woman didn’t even budge – not even a millimeter. Perhaps that showed her sincerity to the Amarok, when he finally stopped laughing and eventually took a hint that her challenge was serious.

”You’re a foolish one, child,” the werewolf sneered at her and turned his attention to his brother. ”I don’t know where you got this one, but she got some balls. I’ll accept your challenge.”

The entire werewolf clan began cheering with their animal noises as they formed a perimeter around the two of them, as though putting them inside a ring. Cameron and Achak gave her a pat of moral support before leaving her inside the ring to return as an audience of the fight. The woman cracked her neck and knuckles; she was more than ready as ever.

There was someone counting down the numbers to begin the fight and the second the shot was called, she whisked out her fire blade from her scabbard, its flames licking her clothes and her body, though never harming her as if the spirit from the flames knew that she was not an enemy. Loud howling rippled over the audience, in admiration of what they saw as she whirled her blade from the hilt, adjusting her grasp within her hands.

Amarok looked clearly impressed, but not even the slightest frightened by what she’d displayed. She wasn’t surprised: Amarok was the alpha wolf after all.

Venus already had a strategy of her own. Werewolves are usually only capable of attacking in close-range in their animal form, so all she had to do was keep her distance while she would throw her spells at him so that he doesn’t get close to her. The woman brought her arm across her body as a column of frosty wind shot upwards into the sky from where she casted. Venus, herself, was also inside the ring, though there was an area around her body that protected herself from receiving damage from her own spell. The werewolves that surrounded them retreated away from her, due to the size of her spell and the chaos it was bringing. Being inside the large column of ice cold gust, the blades of ice within the spell could cut through Amarok as he drew himself closer to the user.

The spell pierced his fur and skin, though he seemed unfazed by it, other than the freezing temperatures he was experiencing. He was sturdier than she thought, the woman pondered. Having an ample amount of mana in her pool, it was hardly a problem for her to cast many spells at the same time, so she pressed her palm on the soil beneath them, freezing the surface in a single touch and whoever comes into contact with the frozen surface would be affected by her spell, which meant that Amarok would be the first one of them all.

As the frozen area expanded to where Amarok stood, it would spread up to his legs, leaving him to deal with the frostbite from her spell. The werewolf howled in frustration and it seemed that her strategy was working; he hadn’t been able to get close to her at all and it might perhaps drive him to do what she’d wanted – to fall into his deceitful tricks so that everyone else can see how greedy of an animal he was.

Just like she hoped, he did. Amarok motioned two of his subordinates to interrupt her and noticing this, Achak entered the scene and stopped the battle to inform everyone of the unfairness to the battle due to his mischievous tricks. Angered by this and their honour tainted, the rest of the werewolves lost respect for Amarok and slaughtered him leaving him only to his bones, which would leave to the ending she wanted. Once the chaos had finally died down, the wolves gathered to discuss about the upcoming leader.

Venus, as the one who challenged Amarok would be the legible one for the alpha wolf, but she was neither a werewolf nor planned to become one. Hell, she wasn’t interested in ruling a werewolf pack either. Dahlia was where she belonged after all, she couldn’t be here taking care of some werewolves. The woman shook her head against their support to crown her the new alpha wolf and began, ”I merely helped. Achak should be the new king. He was the one who came all the way to the village to ask us for help.”

The wolf clan exchanged hesitant glances amongst themselves, though it didn’t take them long enough to agree to her proposition. In the end, it was a win-win situation, where Achak was able to get the position he deserved and of course, the thing she had been waiting for; her reward.