Wolf of the Blood Moon: A Blood Magic
Book 1: Intermission 4

Inside of the Grand Mall located a few blocks down from the Ancient Dragon Five Star Hotel

Cipher crashes through the fourth floor of the Grand Mall, falling down into the skating rink while wrestling with a level 500 Demon Enforcer, the leader of the Class III Fracture that he’s inside of right now. And the moment they both shatter the skating rink, chains of ice shoot up from the ground to bind the demon in place for Cipher to bring his fist back and smash it straight into its draconic, armored face, shattering the armor covering it.

The creature lets out a loud screech of pain, but continues pushing against the ice, occasionally causing a chain to break in the process. Meanwhile Cipher continues sending blow after blow across the demon's body, a blue energy beginning to build up around his fist in the process with each new blow until he opens his palm and slaps it straight on the demon’s chest, making a powerful blue blaze shoot out of it to engulf the demon entirely.

After the blaze fades away, so does the demon, leaving the melted ice beneath the two as water as Cipher catches himself on his knees while heaving breaths of exhaustion.

“Ya know, for a Class IV Guardian, you sure are lacking in the brute force strength if you’re struggling to kill a level 500 demon,” a female voice echoes through the skating rink as footsteps echo from the ice, following which a woman with black hair streaked with a pale blue walks right up to Cipher. The woman is wearing a very similar set of magi-tech armor as Cipher and is looking down at him while taunting.

“Ha, ha, ha, very funny,” Cipher mutters while rising to his feet. “If you’re done joking around, we still have some unfinished business.”

Frost nods her head and creates a bridge made of ice down the railing at the edge of the viewing portion of the floor all the way to the first floor, where the core was previously covered by a cage of thick black bars of some sort of metal. But now that the demon enforcer has been vanquished, it is exposed to a simple spear of ice that Frost sends flying through it.

“That makes one core down,” Cipher says while stretching his arms after walking across her bridge after her. “How about we go out to eat with Belle after this assault?”

Frost glances at her husband with a brow raised, “No Scarlet?”

At the mention of the girl, Cipher gets a strained look to his face. “I have the distinct feeling that she’s going to be too busy sleeping to want to come along.”

Not to mention avoiding you.

“Oh. That’s a pity,” Frost says, making Cipher flinch, “I wanted to give her a big hug for making it into Lion’s Heart!”

And that’s why she avoids you.

“Well, anyways, dinner sounds wonderful!” Frost says, the sad look that had graced her face at the thought of not seeing Scarlet being replaced by a happy one. “Where should we go?”

Cipher opens his mouth to answer, only to pause as his terminal rings. He closes his mouth again, holding up a single finger before answering the call to find Sage on the screen.

“The Class II Fracture at the Grand Arena has been ended, along with the Class II Fracture at the Central Subway Station. But the Class III Fracture located at City Hall is still going strong and needs backup. Please head there once you are able to.”

The man glances at his wife with a grimace, who raises an eyebrow in amusement at his subordinate seemingly ordering him around.

She’s gonna give me grief about that later, isn’t she?

He sighs after a second before responding, “Affirmative. How’s Scarlet doing?”

Sage doesn’t answer right away, making Cipher narrow his eyes with suspicion since she always answers right away.

After hearing Scarlet’s name, Frost walks up to the two and looks over Cipher’s shoulder at the screen on his terminal, only to find Sage frowning. A rare expression for the woman to make.

“Sage,” Frost growls with a scowl. “Answer the question.”

The woman looks at Frost with a slightly fearful expression before shortly answering, “The Class I Fracture the young miss and Sylver were sent to turned out to be a Class II Fracture with a hidden Class I core. Meanwhile we have not been able to send any reinforcements over their way, leaving the two to deal with it on their own until reinforcements free up from the other Fractures.”

Before Sage can even finish speaking, icy mist begins leaking from Frost’s pores, freezing the ground and making Cipher shiver a little in the process as she asks, “And you didn’t report this to your superior because?”

Even the seer shivers at the sight of Frost’s rage as she answers, “I received a prophecy. One of which implied that she would have good fortune if she were to be able to hold out on her own. And if I were to report it immediately, not only would you rush your current Fracture to go help her, putting the survivors of the Fracture in harm’s way, but I believed it would stunt her growth, therefore leading to a decrease in her value to the Asso-”

A vast wave of ice shoots out from Frost as her rage reaches new heights, making Cipher wince as the cold affects him. But fortunately for him, his wife manages enough control over it to avoid hurting him as despite her lower level, she is very much a combat focused Guardian, unlike him.

Fucking hell…

Before she can even say anything, Cipher scolds Sage, “You do not get to make decisions such as these. If you do this again, you will be sentenced to grunt work for a year, with your pay decreased along with it. I will also see that your parents are made aware of this.”

Sage grimaces at the list of punishments before declaring, “Very well, sir.” sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ N0vᴇlFirᴇ.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“Make sure you send the first Class II Guardian who becomes available to her location as soon as possible,” Cipher orders her, cutting the call immediately after to find Frost glaring at him. “Yes, I know. Dinner is canceled.”

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