"Two!" Counted loudly Celia, her voice never faltering. She did not want to give the least bit sign of weakness, but her heart was pounding in her chest.

"Please help me be strong!" She reached out to the only ones who could offer support right now, her wolves.

"I am here Celia!" Immediately acknowledged Crescent.

It seemed that Waning was still not able to answer, but she felt that at least her aura increased and she was certain that the power that coursed through her far surpassed Crescent's, so it was surely the white wolf lending her strength. Still she should really hold a proper conversation with her, she thought. Waning had always been quiet, but she had never been this quiet like she was these last few months. Well the conversation would be later, that is if she made it out alive.

With the corner of her eyes she checked on the other werewolves. They appeared to be still immobile, and as the hunters had said they were to be taken, most likely they would not be killed until the goal of the hunters, whatever that was, would be accomplished. It meant that even if she dared act on her own, the other werewolves would still be safe, they would still be kept alive as they were not an immediate threat.

"Three!" She continued louder and more determined, raising another clawed finger in the air. The situation was tensed.

The hunters were confused on what to do, they could never lower their weapons, they already felt how fast she was. She would surely take down one or two of them until they could put her down, and no one wanted to be in those one or two people. But still how could they abandon the chief, he was the brain of the operation and without him other groups of hunters would overtake them. Not to mention he was the one controlling the witches.

Seeing they appeared unwilling to listen to her words, she sank her claws tighter around the chief's neck, making him gasp even more, as he lacked the ability to breathe in the slightest. Perhaps she reckoned that like this she would be more convincing, or maybe it had only been a move caused by nervousness. Either way, unfortunately, it had the opposite effect.

A single loud sound was heard as a bullet was released from one of the riffles. The young hunter that was by the deer had lost his composure and, while trembling due to a terrifying fright, had accidently pulled the trigger, putting an unwitting end to the stalemate situation.

Feeling the wound in her left side of the abdomen and the wolfsbane that quickly entered her body, sending ripples of pains like she never felt before, Celia tightened her clawed hand, involuntarily cracking the neck of the hunter.

It was the first time she killed someone, even if she did not mean to. Normally her own actions should have trapped her in confusion and stilled her into place because of the traumatic act, but the situation and the adrenaline pumping in her body made her continue thinking about the next step instead of breaking down. She could not waste time thinking about the life she took.

Realizing that as he was dead the chief had lost his value as a hostage, she quickly tossed the lifeless body towards the hunters, hoping she could at least distract them for a moment and perhaps lessen their numbers.

Two hunters were hit by the older man's big built corpse that she had thrown with force towards them, causing them to crash in a nearby tree, before losing their consciousness.

She was not sure how much time she had left until her body shut down because of the wolfsbane, as it reacted differently for each wolf. Perhaps she had a bit more time than what she had learned in the courses because of her two wolves, but she did not want to take any chances. The most important thing now was time, so she retreated quickly under the cover of the heavily snowed trees and night.

In this way she also separated from the werewolves that were still on their knees. She knew that if she tried to fight while being in their midst, a stray bullet would surely hit them. The hunters wouldn't try to actively kill them, but while fighting her, she doubted they would be careful around creatures they usually killed on sight.

She zigzagged between the trees while she was rained down on with bullets. The first gunshot had caused them all to open fire in her direction. She thought about shifting in her wolf, but she was much smaller in human form, so she could hide her presence easier, not to mention the wolfsbane would also prevent her from shifting. Moreover, her huge wolf's form could be hit easier.

Circling around them with top speed, she took the bow that she had strapped to her back, then pulled the arrows in it, before firing it quickly, shooting 5 hunters in succession. She could have continued like this, just running between the trees and taking down even more hunters. But unfortunately with no more arrows left, she could only discard her bow, and use her bare hands in the next attacks.

Quickly changing her direction, as the hunters noticed from where the arrows were shot and were already focusing the bullets in that direction, she zigzagged again between the snowed pine trees and came from behind two other hunters. As she rose her foot, striking the back of one of them, she assured his body fell in the direction of another hunter who was preparing to shoot her.

Then not wasting any time, she took the other hunter, who had been near the first, by the neck, and briskly pulled it on the side, cracking it. With no others hunters near him, she only threw his body in the opposite direction, before quickly withdrawing. The hunters had already noticed her position in the few seconds she had attacked, but the swiftness of a high ranking werewolf was no joke. She was already between the trees again, as the fires were shot.

Her advantages were that it was dark and she was so fast that they could not keep up with her. They randomly fired in the direction she was last seen, but it only helped her as it hid the sound of her exiting in another part of the forest and grabbing another hunter by his back. This time she dragged the hunter in the darkness and slammed his body in a tree breaking his spine, before running again. She could not use the same method as before, because she was not so sure it would work. Each time she had to change her movements to not lose the element of surprise.

But even with the element of surprise, she was still hit by a stray bullet. In their frenzy the hunters had fired even towards their companion when she tried to claw her long nails in another hunter's back. The second bullet's wolfsbane made her falter and she did not retreat in time in the dark. The half a step she missed in moving back was another opportunity for a third bullet to hit her and a fourth one.

After the fifth bullet... Celia was already down.

"Stop it. It's enough!" The next person left in charge, the right hand man of the chief, said when she was already laying on the cold ground. The bullets they had in their possession were quite difficult to make, even human lives were lost in the process to manufacture them. They could not afford to use them unwisely. Because of the witches help, they had thought they wouldn't even have to use them actually. Who would have thought their luck was so bad in the hunt today.

The firing of the riffles stopped and they did not question if she truly died. The seventh bullet that hit her while she was fallen on the snowed ground did not make her even flinch. It was a sign that they managed to kill her... they hoped.

They ceased their fire, but did not lower their weapons. They were still afraid of her suddenly sprinting on her feet again. Even with seven wolfsbane doses in her, they were not certain they killed her. No werewolf had made them fear her as much as she did, beside the werewolf king of whom legends were written. So it was no wonder that even if they were assured of her death consciously, they still had the impression she could fight back again.

They stood still for a couple of minutes, but they couldn't wait any longer. Time was running out, they would be caught by the patrol werewolves if they still hadn't left.

The second in charge slowly approached her. She had fallen on her side with her face positioned in his direction. Her long hair, which had come undone, laid on the snow bed partially covering her face. Only a small part of the fair white skin could be seen, but it was enough to make him feel awed by the beauty. She looked like she was a snow fairy, so breathtakingly beautiful he thought.

He shrugged his thoughts, knowing what happened moments earlier when his chief had not been careful in her presence. Carefully and alert of any sound or movement, he came closer, only two feet away and saw that indeed she was dead. She had to be judging by the pool of blood which was slowly enveloping the ground around her.

With her wounds still dripping of the crimson colored fluid, as the wolfsbane prevented regeneration and deducing by how much blood was near her body, dyeing the white translucent snow a bright red, her death was certain. There was at least half of her body's blood, if not more surrounding her, and it kept pouring uninterrupted.

They would have never expected that despite losing that much blood and despite being shot that many times, Celia was still barely alive. She heard their movements like she was in a dream, they seemed like they were far away, but she did not have more strength to even move a finger.

She was scared and helpless, even her pulse and breathing slowed down until they were barely there at all.

Laying on the cold white snow, she did not feel its coldness, physically she did not feel much at all, the wolfsbane had numbed her entirely. Mentally she was suffering, she was upset because she did not accomplish her dreams. Her life had just barely begun a few months ago, she had just started to work for her goals, but it seemed like it would all come to an end.

Her life did not pass before her eyes like one would imagine to before their death, but she still felt an enormous amount of fear and loss, loss of everything that mattered to her. She thought of her brother, of her new friends and involuntarily the last face she saw in her mind was of the werewolf king.

"Celia! Celia!" Shouted desperately Crescent, but she could no longer reply, even if to say one word mentally.

Seeing her helpless state, Crescent had lost all hope, these were their last moments before death.

"I am here. Do not worry!" Waning, the previous absent white wolf, encouraged finally.

The assuring voice and words, the presence of the one who always protected Celia and her, made Crescent feel like a stone had been lifted from her chest. Waning was always like the big sister of the three, the one on whom they could depend.

"Waning! Celia is not answering, her consciousness is slipping!" She immediately informed frightened. Would Waning be able to still help like she had done in the past? The situation was as dire as it could be.

"It is alright! It takes more than a little wolfsbane and bullets to kill us! Now move back deep in her mind. Hurry!" Waning calmed Crescent down briefly before asking her to take her place. There was no time to tell Crescent what she was about to do, and there was also no need to. Like always Crescent did not question Waning, she hurriedly did as the latter instructed.

"Celia, I know that you do not have enough strength, but I need you to meet me halfway just like how we did for the Seer test!" Waning finally spoke to the human side, who had only been a spectator to their interaction. Her powers were quickly failing her.

Celia heard her just before falling unconscious completely and with her last bit of strength forced herself to concentrate. In the dark zone of her mind, the area were wolves would generally be, a white splendid wolf sat with her paws in front of her. Her stature was magnificent, her grey eyes shined as she was calmly waiting for Celia. She could not move closer as she was already waiting in the middle.

In the distance she saw her approaching with difficulty, but could not help her in the slightest, even though in her own mind, Celia took the appearance she had on the outside, an evidence of the mental shattered state.

Her white clothes were ragged and full of blood that kept dripping on the floor, a small drop of blood was even on her lips. She slowly, but steadily approached until she collapsed in front of the white wolf. She seemed so small usually compared to Waning... even if she stood up, the latter would still be taller. Now while laid on the floor, it looked like she was a child.

Waning got up and with her nuzzle approached Celia's face comforting her.

"You did well until now. Leave it to me from this point forward."

And as she said this, their places were reversed. Waning was in the place where Celia was previously collapsed, while Celia was in Waning's previous place.

Waning waited no more, only turned around and ran towards the way Celia came from.

She would make them pay for forcing her out of her place. Their situation was already dire and now these hunters added to their problems. She ought to show them just who they dared mess with, the majestic wolf angrily thought.

The outside body was stilled in place during their interaction. The claws, the fangs, the blackness covering her whole eyes had already vanished when she had fallen unconscious, as she was not able to maintain them. It looked just like a normal human body.

She was still like this, while the second in command ordered the other remaining hunters to quickly gather the werewolves and prepare to leave. The ongoing struggles would surely alert the werewolves who were supposed to keep watch over the students. The creatures had not intervened until now because of a third concealed spell which could keep at bay the changes in the smells and sounds in the atmosphere for a short period of time. It was a spell that although useful on a short period of time, detrimental for their situation on the long run.

Turning around to direct the hunters, the second in command did not realize that he had made the same mistake as his former superior. He had utterly underestimated the first ranked werewolf who was already transforming again to her partial shifted appearance.