"Giagiá Ophelia?", a female voice called out in the Bestial Language, making Ophelia sidestep the now confused wizard and run towards it.

"My little bála goúnas, oh how I missed you!", she exclaimed happily as she wrapped her granddaughter into a tight embrace.

"Giagiá, not here, I'm on duty!", the younger, black-furred werewolf grunted in embarrassment, causing the white one next to her to chuckle.

"Oh, does little Haris want a hug as well? Should have just asked, kiddo!", Ophelia said mischievously, before embracing the white lykan as well.

"Argh, stop it! I'm no longer a pup, you know?", Haris grunted, desperately trying to wiggle out of Ophelia's clutches, to no avail.

"Neither's Sara, but compared to me ya all might as well be. Feels like yesterday that yer tried to steal my fish because ya didn't like the food yer folks cooked that day ya little shit.", she adds with a smile, before letting go of him.

"Oh come on, it was just once, and it happened two decades ago. Will you ever let that one go?", Haris groaned at her, making it Sara's turn to snicker at him.

"Nope."

"Whatever. Who's that guy you attacked just now? Is he an enemy?", Haris asked, pointing his halberd at Ignis, who, bored at the reunion in front of him, started to absentmindedly pick his nose inside of his still intact shield-bubble. Ophelia's mood immediately soured at being reminded of his presence, but she decided to let bygones be bygones and introduced him.

"Some cuckoo spellcaster who just crashed into the village yesterday. He's incredibly infuriating to deal with, he's rude, and he has no sense of tact whatsoever, but he kinda saved some folks from an Elder Elemental or whatever, so I thought he might be of help.", she hissed through gritted teeth, as she begrudgingly had to praise him.

The wizard, upon noticing he was talked about, stopped picking his nose, wiped his hand on his robe, popped the shield bubble, and extended the same hand he just wiped on his robe in greeting for a handshake.

"Indeed, your friendly neighbourhood wizard, that's me! People call me Ignis!", he remarked, with still extended hand, which, for obvious reasons, was not taken by anyone.

"Put your filthy grabber away before I cut it off!", Ophelia growled at him, causing him to quickly retract it.

"What an... odd fellow.", Haris noted.

"Batshit insane, but we'll have to deal with that later. So what's this about undead?", Ophelia continued, still staring daggers into the old man.

"YOU came here because of the note? What about the reinforcements I mentioned? I mean, don't get me wrong, I know first-hand how strong you are, but still-", Sara uttered in shock, but was interrupted by her grandmother.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. We aren't the reinforcements, more like the... vanguard, you see? I decided to go ahead while the guards started to prepare for the hike. I thought I'd be arriving in two days, but that maniac over there decided that we weren't going fast enough."

"Hey, you asked me to magic us up here, not my fault that you are afraid of heights!", Ignis chimed in with a huff.

"I ain't afraid of nothing, hear me?", Ophelia gnarled at him as she felt her anger rising again.

Seeing that if she left things proceeding how they currently were, she would likely witness a murder, Sara decided to go between the two and grabbed her grandmother by the shoulder.

"Right, the note! You see, in the last few months, more and more undead started to roam around in the mountains, but since about a week ago, they actively started to attack the village! And...", she explained the situation while leading her away from the wizard, leaving him with Haris.

"So, you are a spellcaster? Are you any good against undead?", he asked Ignis, who had still sulkily crossed his arms because of Ophelia's earlier statement.

"Eh, I burned a few in my life. Why?", he answered, staring intently at the wolf's milky, scarred eye and moving slightly to the left, then to the right to see if it would follow him.

"Great... What exactly are you trying to do there?", Haris asked, weirded out by the mannerisms of the old man.

"...nothing?", the wizard answered, quickly averting his eyes and feigning ignorance.

"...Right. Come on, let me show you what we're working with." the white lykan sighed, before moving towards the town, the old man following shortly after him.

Apomónosi was a small town, about the size of Potami, and was surrounded by walls as tall as its buildings, which now looked quite worn down, as if having suffered through many attacks. The gates, however, held up through it all, though they did not come out of the countless scuffles against the undead completely undamaged, as they started to show some wear as well.

The houses, though mostly inhabited by beastkin, resembled traditional brick houses, the same as those Ignis had found in Teles, though compared to them, the one's he was currently walking past were in pristine condition.

As the two walked through what had to be the town-square, Ignis noticed multiple first-aid tents, all of which seemed to be filled with tens of injured people. He saw an elderly dwarf in the robes of a cleric coordinate other dwarfs in robes, who quickly rushed to the tents he pointed at to tend to the wounded. Ignis knew of the miracles the acolytes of the Ardent Path wielded, but he had never seen them cast before, thus he was intrigued to go there and watch them work.

"Do you, per chance, know your way around healing magic as well?", Haris asked as he noticed his gaze.

"Uhh... no, not really. I was just interested in what those dwarves were doing, is all.", Ignis quickly replied, not wanting to be stationed near injured people for the rest of his stay.

'I wonder how long they would have been able to hold out without reinforcements.', the wizard thought, but he decided not to ask Haris about it.

"-if ya want to do it, go for it! I will wait until he actually gets here. No reason to blow the whole thing just because you can't control your blood thirst.", an angry voice called out as they continued through the town.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Oh, I can control myself, alright. If I wasn't, I would have ripped your throat out already.", a female voice retorted, causing Haris to sigh loudly.

"Can't there be one hour without people trying to kill each other...", he whispered to himself, before following the voices, together with Ignis. The voices belonged to a blue furred male lykan in a black suit with a top-hat on his head, and a scarlet-furred female lykan in chainmail, over which she had thrown a tabard with the royal crest of Chóratonippotón, a white wolf on black ground howling at the twin moons of Moros.

The blue furred lykan was holding a piece of paper in one of his claws, to which he angrily gestured with his other claw, while the scarlet, female lykan already gripped the pole affixed to her back, which seemed to just be a featureless metal-pole.

"You can read, can't you? We are not to act until we have relayed his position. Get that in that thick head of yours!", the blue lykan continued, as he did not notice Haris and Ignis approach.

"Who cares about orders from someone like her? I'll take matters in my own hands.", came the response.

"As long as you are in MY town, you will care about orders, have I made myself clear? Now what is this about relaying someone's position?", Haris butted in, causing the two bickering lykans to jump.

"Erm...nothing! We just got a note from...Captain Anóitos!", the blue one hastily replied.

"Yeah, she wanted to meet up at the west-gate, but I wanted to...erm... go out and search for those undead! And Michaíl here wanted to stop me from doing that, ain't that right?", the scarlet one added, inciting a nod from Michaíl.

"Yeah, I was just chastising Maya for running out into meaningless fights...anyway, who is that human behind you?", Michaíl continued, trying to divert the conversation to a different subject.

"Hm? Didn't Sara- I mean, didn't Captain Anóitos mention it? He is a spellcaster who, together with Lady Sklirós, arrived at our aid."

"Sklirós? As in, Ophelia Sklirós? The Thirío Drakos from the Edenian War?", Maya asked in excitement, though it was hard to guess if it was out of fearfulness or awe.

"Yes, she is Captain Anóitos' grandmother, did she not mention it? Anyway, we will go ahead, please tell father Naomh that we will meet up with him at the gate.", Haris instructed them, before moving on, the wizard trailing behind him absent-mindedly.

Michaíl waited until the two went out of earshot, before he turned back towards Maya, whose body started to shiver.

"What? Got scared?", he mocked her with a sly grin, but the reaction he got quickly wiped it away.

"Scared? Are you kidding me? I get to kill the greatest war-hero of Chóratonippotón! I'm not shaking in fear, I am shaking in anticipation! It will be my utmost pleasure to tear into her chest, take her still beating heart and devour it as I bathe in her blood", she exclaimed cheerfully, hugging herself with closed eyes as she lost herself in the fantasy of indulging into her depraved urges, which caused Michaíl to gag at the thought.

"Grrr, keep that shit to yourself. Bad enough that I have to share the same air as you Gaolithes, you don't have to narrate your cannibalistic fantasies in detail while I am around. Never mind that, I think the human spellcaster is that Ignis guy the note of the lich spoke off. Think you can take him?", he asked, returning her to her senses.

"Sure, his aura is barely even noticeable, like that of a child, so I have no idea what that hag in her decrepit tower was talking about him being a threat. However, I think we should get rid of those clerics first, don't you think? With their miracles, they could pose a threat to her minions, no?", Maya proposed while licking her lips suggestively.

"You just want to kill again, right?"

"Not all followers of the Archons use those experimental drugs you All-Seeing bastards are so proud of! You should know that Aleraz' blessings need the blood of the tribes to work! And one or two dwarves, what difference is there?", she begged.

Her mentioning the names of her patron deity made Michaíl's eyes shrink to pinpricks in panic.

"Don't use the names of the Archons so nonchalantly! The eyes and ears of the wretched gods of this realm are everywhere...Fine, you shall have your sacrifice, but only Naomh. Can't have you run amok and alert the mayor and the guards, because no matter how weak that spellcaster appears to be, fighting the mayor, the guard-captain, and that war-hero together with the combined clergy is a death sentence in the making, no way around that. Just tell him that we are all supposed to meet up at the north-gate, there shouldn't be any witnesses there. I'll wait on the other side."

"...fine.", Maya replied with a sigh, before heading towards the first-aid tents.

Michaíl spit on the ground behind the leaving lykan in disgust, before heading the opposite way, towards the north-gate.

----------------------------------------

After a while, Haris and Ignis met up with Ophelia and Sara, before moving further to Apomónosi's west-gate. During the short walk, the three lykans whispered in the language of the beasts to each other about, if their glances are anything to go by, the old man trotting behind them, who silently took in the town around him while ignoring them.

As the group arrived at their destinations, they were met with what had not too long ago been the west-gate of the town, which now laid in ruins, with some make-shift earth-mounds having been erected with magic to fill the gaps in the wall. In front of the sparsely repaired gate, surrounded by 5 other dwarves, 2 almost identical dwarves, one bald and carrying a short walking stick with a large, bulbous grip, the other with full red hair and a war-hammer on his back, both sporting the same woven red beard, were agitatedly arguing with one another in their language. They quickly stopped as they saw the 4 approaching, with one of them, the bald one, addressing Haris.

"Mayor, we's got ourselves a problem!"

"What problem, Noín? And where are the guards?", Haris asked in confusion.

"That's the problem. Illdan, one 'a ta dwarfs working on the wall up and vanished. The 2 guards who were supposed'ta stand here an watch went out ta look for 'im, but they did not return. Something's going on 'ere, and we were discussing if we shood go out there as well.", the dwarf continued.

"What discussing, ya wanted ta run out there like an idiot.", the other dwarf grunted.

Sensing another brawl between the brothers about to break out, and seeing the other dwarves already starting bets with one another about what was going to happen, Haris stomped on the ground to quell get their attention.

"SILENCE! Noín, Zaín, we are currently facing a crisis, if you two haven't noticed yet."

"...sorry."

"Sorry.", the two mumbled in unison.

"Sir, the guards I appointed for wall duty were the best among my subordinates. Them not being back by now, even if just to report what happened, means that something has to have happened to them!", Sara noted in a worried tone.

"Has it already begun? Hmm...", Haris mumbled deep in thought.

"Don't worry ya head off now, boy! We got an efkolópisto thýma- I mean, willing helper right here! Ain't that right, old man?"

Haris turned around to face the wizard, who looked disappointed about the fight between the two dwarfs having been interrupted before it turned into an all-out brawl.

"Hm?", the old man grunted questioningly as he noticed everyone's eyes on himself again.

"Mister...Ignis, was it? As you can see, our situation is dire. Will you go out and find the missing guards? Do not worry, I do not expect you to fight the entire undead army. If you find them, and they have been taken by them, I want you to return and report immediately. Can you do that?", he asked the wizard, knowing full well that Ignis was probably going to reject the mission, as the chance of returning from it was next to none.

"Sure. They went further west, you say? I'll be right back."

"I know very well how dangerous this assignment is, I am sorry for ask- wait, what?", the white werewolf started, having expected to be rejected, but was shut up by Ignis going straight for the earth-mound, which he quickly climbed over.

"Told ya. He ain't there in the head.", Ophelia commented, as they all watched the old man.

"You got to make this one a bit higher, it's too easy to climb!", Ignis yelled, before sliding down the other side, disappearing from view.

"If I had a hat, I'd remove it in respect. That lad got liathróidí of steel.", the bald dwarf mentioned, as he watched the wizard walk straight into danger without fear.

"Ha. Didn't ya hear? He's just an idiot... like yis!", the other one added, before starting to bellow in laughter.

"WHO ARE YA CALLING AN IDIOT, CEANN-INGNE!", the bald dwarf yelled back, running after the laughing dwarf with both hands clenched to fists.

"Grr, I knew I shouldn't have appointed both of them as the dwarven representatives, despite Father Naomh's recommendations.", Haris growled while following the raging Noín to mediate between the two brothers yet again.