It hadn’t been long when we got to the base when the sky became gray and dark with storm clouds. The wind was not rising, so at least that was a good thing. After a while longer, small snowflakes began to fall down from the sky. Swirling lightly they covered the ground little by little. It wasn’t a strong downfall, but if it didn’t let up, it could cover our tracks completely in a couple of hours, which we still had before the hunt began for real.

Truth be told, the situation, despite it getting colder, started looking much brighter in a sense of some of my plans working better than I had planned before. Covered by the dark of the snowfall I could much easier get to Vertig unnoticed, shadows were much easier to move in undetected. I knew where he was keeping the control now, and if everything went well, I could snatch it up from him, and I and Vince would be gone in a blink.

The snow picked up the slack and started coming down in huge lumps. At that rate it covered the tracks completely in less than two hours, making it harder for the trackers to see the prints left by the prey. Also, it foiled my plan of them finding us faster at the base.

The first move Wann would make, and probably the others too, would be to get to the box and follow the footprints from there. But there were no more prints left unless someone moved during this thick snowfall.

I was a hundred percent positive the Creations were still roaming around, trying to find something with blood to munch on. If so, anyone could be able to find them and take them out, taking the points from us, thus destroying our chances of winning without killing anyone innocent. I could have taken the Creations out myself, but it felt wrong leaving the kids alone at a hunter base. And I already made it impossible for all teams to get at least one kill by releasing the Pixies.

The cold was getting more intense and my hands began to dry and flake. I stuck them into pockets and inside the left one found the earpiece device we used to communicate during the ‘capture the flag’ round. Hastily, I put it in my ear and activated it, tried talking into it, but no answer came my way. They either took them out too, or mine was busted.

“So, anyways, what was the problem with the other Moon Walkers?” I asked, giving up on the comms.

“What do you mean?” asked the boy.

“Well, for one, they ran away. For another, they ran away without you. Were they not your friends?”

“No,” he answered. “We were brought in separately. They didn’t try making friends,” he finished.

“Can you guess, which clan they were from?”

“No. Are they not from Lupin’s bloodline? I thought you knew all.”

“I don’t know all,” I said, and looked around when a rustling sound came from below, but I saw nothing, nor there was any smell. “Lupin’s bloodline, the direct one anyways, ran out just recently. The Europeans still refer to themselves as Lupin’s kin, but recently, there are a lot of small clans branching away from the main one.”

“We are not from Europe, so how would I know.”

“What’s your clan called then?”

“You do not need to know that,” he informed me.

The boy was smart not to trust me, I’d give him that. He was cautious, despite the fact I was the safest option at hand.

Suddenly, in the direction of the main camp, there was a loud bang, as if a gun going off. I strained my ears to listen to the movements on the southern side of the area. I could faintly hear many feet trampling the soft ground, snow dulling the sound, making it hard to hear properly. I mused, the four hour time frame had passed and they let the hunters lose.

From the opposite corner of the main camp, came a disgusting scream, wrenching my gut in a twist. The scream was garbled and distorted by shouted words. After it loud roars followed, there was a sound of cracking wood, then a dull thump echoed despite the heavy snow still eagerly falling down.

Northern wind picked up, carrying the smell of rotting flesh our way. More roaring came with the smell. Finally, I could hear the sounds of a fight going on, it was clearly one-sided, given the fact the Wendigos were roaring in agony, the stench of their digestive organs spilling outside and letting loose with the wind.

But it made no sense. The hunters were just released outside, and the battle was happening in the completely opposite direction. It couldn’t have been the Creations. Wendigos were much stronger unless outnumbered, but there were only four of each, so the wood crawlers had the upper hand. They should have had the upper hand. Something was not right.

“Do you think those other Moon Walkers found the Wendigos?” asked the boy, cradling his little sister closer to his chest, so she wouldn’t be able to smell or hear.

“If they did, there would be at least a howl. You guys can’t fight without announcing it to the world.”

“That’s-” he hesitated. “Fine, yes, we howl, but it a battle cry to call others,” he announced proudly.

“So, if it’s not them, and not the hunters, because they’re not that fast, and I let the Pixies go already, and the Creations are far too weak to be doing it, who is killing the Wendigos?”

My question was not answered, rather, a row of screams filled the air from the direction of the main camp. The hunters were screaming.

I froze for a second when the realization hit me harder than it should have. It was fear I felt creeping up my back and twisting my muscles into knots. How could I have forgotten such a simple thing? How stupid could I have gotten?

“Come with me, now,” I ordered and jumped down.

The two followed suit, confused, but with no questions asked. They just followed me while I ran towards the camp. I was sniffing the air trying to discern the position a familiar scent lingered. Before I could react, I ran into someone and we fell in bounds to the snow. It was Wann cursing and trying to punch me in my vitals.

“It’s me, calm down,” I spilled in a slight panic.

“What- what- w-what’s going on?” the bewilderment in his face told me he had no idea what attacked the camp.

“Cold Walkers. With a Noble. Where are the others?”

“We’re here,” said Miller, his silver daggers at the ready.

Rodd was standing behind him, turned to the back, holding his crossbow at point, silver-tipped arrow loaded and poised. Dark stood close, her staff by her side, hands trembling, eyes barely focusing.

“I need to find Vince.”

“He was with Vertig in the judge’s cabin,” said Wann. “Who are those?” he motioned to the siblings.

“The prey. Now’s not the time. Their village was slaughtered just for this. And we’re under attack, get ready to fight an army of Creations. I’ll go find Vince.”

“Hey, wait-”

I didn’t stay to listen to his whining, I had more pressing matters to attend to. I ran to the cabin and was met with the stench of blood. Around five people were laying motionless, throats ripped out. There was a pool of blood on the floor. I couldn’t find Vince anywhere. I ran out, the screams and growls were getting louder and more frequent. The clanging of weapons, bangs of the occasional rifle filled the air.

I ran in a direction where I could smell the tiniest bit of Vince. I wasn’t looking under my feet when I tripped over a body covered in snow and blood. The man moved and groaned. It was Michail. He was bleeding heavily from his side, his gut was spilling out, he had not much time left.

“Where is he?” I asked grabbing onto the man. “Where is he?”

“Vertig took hi-him,” he said sputtering blood out his mouth, “to the power shed. Hu-hurry. They went after-”

He passed out and I bolted away. I had an idea where the power shed was, I remember the two assistants going east when the static started.

I focused on my feet this time, taking the trees and the ground into consideration, so I wouldn’t run into anything again. In a moment I caught up with a bunch of Creations running toward the same goal I was. I could faintly hear Vince shouting at Vertig, and I hastened. I leaped at the closest beast and took its head off, its body smacked the ground with a thud and I tossed the head away, sending it rolling in an arch of black goo. After I took out the first one, half the band branched away to surround me, the rest came after the two hunters in front.

It took me only a minute to deal with four of the mindless creatures. I had no weapons on me, but, as Vince once said, my hands and my feet were weapons stronger than any he had ever seen.

I finally caught up to them and faltered. Vince was laying on the ground, blood covering his whole body. Vertig was being dragged away by a couple of creatures, being torn apart limb from limb. I forced my legs to listen to me again and ran to the boy, grabbing him and giving him a strong shake. I was about to punch him for dying on me, but he let out a whine and complained I was breaking him.

“Vince?” my voice broke.

“I’m alive, Fey,” he smiled with a face covered in blood.

“Whose blood is...”

“Vertig’s. They slashed him. And- and it went spraying all over. Then he- he fell on me.”

I got up just for a second to finish off the others, ending the gore fest they were having with the old man’s body. I nearly forgot to look for the remote control device on the guy. It was strange groping the dead body of someone I despised, but I managed to find what I was looking for.

I passed the remote to Vince and told him to keep it safer than his own heart.

“Well, it basically has a reign over my heart, so yeah, I will do that,” he joked, following me back to the others.

The cries and clashes of a fight were still going on steady, but the snow was finally letting up. The clouds made it look like it was already deep night, but the setting sun was trying to peek through the clouds just a little. I went looking for the others. I found them surrounded by a bunch of Creations. But they were winning a very uneven battle, so I was not in a rush.

“Go to Wann, and stay there.”

“Wait, where are you going?”

“I need to find that schmuck controlling them.”

“You can’t possibly go alone,” he protested.

“I can. And I will. I can’t die, remember, as opposed to everyone else. Stay,” was my final word as I rushed off.

I ran off, but there was a flaw in my plan – Cold Walkers had no scent, so I had no idea where to go.

In the meantime, I was running around, killing Creations, helping the other hunters escape death or injury. Not all of them were grateful, a lot tried to stab me, too. I had no time to deal with it.

One particularly eager guy from the USA team stabbed me in the back, the blade piercing through to the front.

“Rude,” I complained, as I ran off with his blade still in my body.

At some point, I took out the blade and went around slicing heads off of the vile creatures rampaging around. Now that was part of my plan to get the Noble’s attention. They did not like it when someone messed with their property, thus why he was here in the first place.

I still couldn’t understand how I missed it. How was I so stupid as to not know it would come to this. Creations are precious, in a way, for the Nobles, and they would come to claim them back in case someone managed to take them away.

So now we had a pissed off Noble with an army of his servants, who came to retrieve the four which were caught for the convention, on our hands. I was surprised, it took them this long to actually show up. Though, on the other hand, how do you track something that has no smell? Which left me wandering the area, chopping heads off and screaming for the Noble prick to come out.

I managed to run a full circle in about half an hour, but I did not manage to find the Noble. The screams started dying out, which meant the Creations were being taken out slowly, but the hunters were getting the upper hand, so there was less danger. Except, there still was the impending threat of the Noble going berserk on every hunter in this area.

“Fang!” called Miller. “We need some help.”

I was still quite far, but I could hear him clearly. I heard metal clanging and Wann cursing, so I sped up and ran towards them as fast as I could in the snowfall still going steady.

What I saw made me lose my wits for a second. Dark, Rodd and Vince were laying in a heap near Miller. The two Moon Walkers had their claws and fangs out, halfway transformed into their wolf forms. Wann was playing support to the kids instead of being the main force behind the attack.

The Noble was pushing them back without much effort, only Wann was blocking all of his escape routes, so it made sense why the kids were the first line of attack.

While checking up on Vince and the others, I scanned the Noble. I saw the broach fastened on his fancy jacket lapel – two fencing swords crossed inside a skull. Once again, I ran into a Viscardi. I had already killed the Pure-blood Father long ago, and then his son, the one who attacked the academy when I did not clean after myself after feeding on a human. This must have been the third generation, the grandson, Rhain Viscardi.

After making sure Vince was just knocked out, I ran to the fight. The Noble didn’t take notice of me at first, fighting as before, just defending against me, in addition to the other three. My swings weren’t as strong since the gash in my back was a literal pain. But I had to conserve my energy to fight the Noble, so I couldn’t just heal it up.

“Can’t you just take his head off?” asked Wann, huffing and barely evading a slash of long claws from the Cold Walker.

“It won’t work.”

“But you took out that other one,” he complained.

“He was a Pure-blood.”

“So? What- what’s the difference?”

“This guy here,” I swung my sword by the Noble’s neck, he jumped back, lightly evading me, “is a Noble. Only red oak-” I moved the little one out the way of a kick, “-silver can kill him. Nobles, contrary to a popular belief, are more sturdy than their predecessors, thus,” I managed to slash his hand off, “-they are much harder to kill.”

After I pulled my borrowed sword away, the shit went down. The Noble was outraged, so the two kids were sent flying through the air in a pretty nice arch. Wann was kicked and slammed into a tree beside the other already down. And I was grabbed by my neck and pulled up so my feet did not reach the ground. His eyes flashed red and he bared his fangs at me.

“I’m pretty sure,” I pushed out, “you don’t want to drink my blood.”

“And why is that?” came his rage-filled voice. “An eye for an eye, isn’t it?”

“I’m pretty sure, I’m poisonous to your kind.”

“Oh really,” this time he smiled, amused by my words.

“And I also killed your father, so...”

His eyes blazed with fury as he tore my throat out with his claws. The blood gushed out from my mouth, the hole he left gaping. My eyes were going dark and I felt him kicking me in the head and then stomach.

I came to with Vince’s hand in my face. He was dripping blood into my mouth, so I could unconsciously heal myself. When I looked around everything was quiet. The Noble had gone, I was still pretty much intact, safe for a missing leg below the knee. Limbs were a tough feat to pull off healing. Surprisingly, my whole team plus the kids were all alive and well, for the most part. They had bruises and cuts, but they were not in any imminent danger.

“What happened?” my voice came out weird.

“The Cold Walker tossed you around like a rag doll,” said Wann. “And when he was sa-satisfied enough, he just left. Appa-apparently, we did have one of those blades you were talking about.” He held up the blade I pulled out of my back.

“Well, I’ll be damned, Americans...” I sat up.

Some people came out of the woods and gathered around, since we were near the main camp, a bit to the side from the stage. The alive, and healthy enough, were dragging in piles of dismembered bodies of Creations and hauling the dead or injured hunters.

There were less dead than I expected, to be honest, most likely because the Noble sat back and let his pawns run amok. In the pile of dead bodies, Rodd saw Vertig and was astounded, because Vertig was supposed to be this amazing hunter, and he turned out to be dead, killed by a gang of Creations. Michail, however, was still alive, but he was slowly fading away.

Among the assistant instructors, and instructors, there were some medics, Dark also went to help out. First, she went to Michail, but it didn’t look bright for him. There were around thirty injured – gravely or lightly, and around fifteen dead from what I could see.

A thought crossed my mind and I jumped, stumbling on the weak leg I had just forced to regrow in fifteen minutes. I scanned all the piles for one body.

The one body I wanted to see in the pile of dead bodies. I picked up on the scent and was glad to go digging in the mound of deceased to dig out the one person I really wanted to be dead. And I found him. Well, not him, I found his head. It was severed with a clean-cut, the flesh burned upon contact with the blade. The Noble had taken Albrecht out with a blade coated with acid.

The relief made me exhale the breath I had been holding in while digging through the pile. Even though I felt rather disappointed I wasn't the one to kill him, my nightmare was finally over.

After a couple of hours of burning the Creations, and tending to the injured, a brigade of hunters and medics came rushing in. Apparently, some of the German assistants had called for back-up and for medical squad.

I thought for sure I and the kids would be detained and chained, but none of the hunters from the convention mentioned any of the sort.

I was left to walk free, so were the kids.

I managed to take the collars off the two kids before the brigade came, so they wouldn’t get killed on the spot. I took my collar off, too, to not look suspicious. I walked a bit away from the main camp to remove the collars, even so, there was a commotion when they exploded.

After the burning was done, and every dead hunter was accounted for and packed in body bags, then hauled into the trucks, the injured ones were safely packed into ambulances, those who were well enough were all herded into the evacuation buses to bring us to the city.

The two siblings were huddled in the back of one of the buses with us, all sitting in the back row, squeezed in five seats even though there were seven of us. Wann was sitting on the ground since his knee was hurt and he couldn’t really bend it.

To be honest, I wasn’t really sitting on a seat either, I was sitting on Vince’s lap. The little one was also safely tucked into her brother’s arms. So it wasn’t as bad as I made it sound at first. It was warm at least. Though, I had lost one of my boots, and my pants were missing one leg, so my left leg was a bit cold. Also, somewhere in the middle of all the havoc, I managed to lose my coat. And Vince did not have another to spare.