On Caroline’s side, just when she thought she was about to get bitten by another wolf, a thin layer energy shield made of lightning energy appeared right in front of her like a charged wire. The giant wolf was electrocuted when its mouth touched the energy shield and was thus thrown back on its feet.

“Thomas called. What happened?” a gentle voice with a British accent asked from behind, and as Caroline turned around, she saw a tall elder mage in a blue robe appeared behind her.

“Self-defense, these fuckers are fighting in a civilian area.” Caroline recognized the elder mage - he was someone from Josephine Wong’s team, people just called him “Blue” or “Master Blue”.

“I see.” Blue floated in the air and looked at the site with a frown on his face: “This kind of trouble, at this time… Okay, young miss, where do you wanna go?”

“I want to go back to Xianshi Inn.” Caroline knelt down on the ground from the pain on her broken arm - now that the battle was over and her adrenaline was wearing off, the grueling pain started kicking in: “But please, Master Blue, would you kindly check on the civilians if it’s not too much trouble?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t check on all of them. Because the fight that’s going on - it’s more than I can handle.” Master Blue descended from the air and said: “That apartment building is empty now - there’s a few civilians who are buried under some of the debris, but they’re already gone.”

“Who are you?” the wolf spoke in a hoarse male voice while staring at Blue: “This human is ours to claim, she killed one of ours.”

“They attacked me, and I defended myself.” Caroline stared at the wolf: “The one who died took my arm, and this one tried to kill my friend.” Then she turned and looked at Blue: “That’s Thomas, by the way.”

“I understand now.” Blue nodded and said to the wolf: “Now, I don’t know who your pack leader is, but I am going to take her, and her prisoner away.”

“You don’t get to decide that.” the wolf came closer with his back hunched up and teeth out of his mouth: “That ‘prisoner’ is one of us.”

“The girl acted in self defense. And it’s her prisoner to keep.” Blue said with a gentle voice: “And you shall be held accountable for your actions here. The Division will make sure of it.”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“We don’t fear the Division.” the wolf barked and said.

“Yeah, but you should.” Blue said while raising his arms, and a piece of bright blue cloud started forming in the sky above him: “I may not be able to stop you loathsome scum from fighting here in a civilian world, in clear violation of all kinds of general statutes regarding maintaining the relationship with the civilian world. But I can and I will make this call. This girl comes with me, as does her prisoner.”

The wolf lunged at Blue without a warning, but a bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and blasted it away, while Blue conjured a blue portal behind himself. Caroline and the seriously injured woman with dark purple fur were sent through the portal by a gentle blue force, the Blue stepped into the portal with them.

The portal opened right inside the lounge of Xianshi Inn, and Blue almost fell down on the ground when he stepped out.

“Caroline! And … Mr. Blue?” Rash rushed over and held both Caroline and Blue up: “What happened? And who is this … wolf woman?”

“Lock her up in a separate room.” Caroline said: “And Rash, is the bath free now?”

“No, but I’ll make room for you. Master Blue, there’s wine and tea in the kitchen, please help yourself.” Rash immediately ran towards the diner and disappeared behind the door. Then after a few seconds, he came back into the lounge: “Okay, Caroline, I vacated the room and prepped the tub, but I’m not sure if it will be able to heal you - I arranged the tub to full healing mode - I’m just not sure.”

“We’ve gotta try.” Caroline rushed towards the door, and before she went in, she looked back at Blue and said: “Thank you, Master Blue.”

“Don’t mention it.” Blue was sitting on the ground, panting and taking one deep breath after another.

The female lycan was now fully in her human form lying on the floor of the lounge - a woman with dark purple hair. Blood was coming out of her mouth, because the blow to the waist injured many of her internal organs, and injured her spine so much that she couldn’t feel her legs.

“Where … where am I?” the woman asked.

“This is Xianshi Inn.” a male voice came from the entrance, and in came a man and a woman, both with dirty clothes. “My Inn.”

“Ms. Wong.” Blue struggled to stand up and gently bowed toward the two that came in: “Mr. Yu. How was the site? ”

“Not good.” Josephine Wong sighed: “A giant clustered malice was there, and it had infected some ancient artifacts. We dealt with it, but we couldn’t find anything too useful - but another riddle to solve.” Then she took out a shining crystal shard: “Another relic, with coded information. Maybe this is related to the first one, but maybe not.”

“What about Tze Cha?”

“He should be in a food coma right now.” Jianmen sniffed in the air and asked: “This is … did either of my students come back?”

“Yes, Caroline.” Blue answered: “She’s in the room with the bathtub. Thomas came back earlier, sounds like his mortality scapegoat was triggered and it teleported him back to a locked room with no exit.”

“Yeah, I will let my student out while you check on yours.” Josephine Wong let out a wry smile and said: “And Blue, please stay for a cup of coffee, or tea, or whatever you’d like.”

“How about those tea with milk and chewy sticky rice balls in it?” Blue asked: “The young people seem to love it.”

“The ingredients’ all there. Just a few minutes.” Jianmen snapped his fingers at the kitchen before he went into the diner and disappeared behind the door: “And Rash, take a break if you’d like, thank you for taking extra shifts.”