Era heard a loud splash as she climbed down from the tree after Rel relayed the message. Reaching down she turned her head towards the stream to check the source of the sound.
"It was just Pearl," Rel told, "Doing a midnight swim. He's alright. It's that thing towards your left you should be worried about. Damned Pestilence!"
She looked in that direction and found the strangest beast, at least the illustrations of which weren't present in the archives, standing there on its back legs. An arrow flew from above Eranae, hitting the beast's arm. The hunters who were still on the trees had begun shooting at the night warg, although their aim wasn't particularly admirable but it was enough to enrage the warg. It howled in fury and charged at the nearest human, who at the moment happened to be Eranae.
The warg flailed it's clawed forearms at Era, trying to shred her into pieces. Era attuned to lifesong, enhancing her agility. She stepped sideways, moving and crouching to avoid getting cut by the beast's claws. It halted for a fraction of seconds to take a breath, and Era used this time window to draw the macana and form a stance. The beast immediately returned to it's offensive, so quickly that it seemed that the animal never even paused.
Years worth of training and instruction kicked in as Eranae found her body taking control of her actions. Muscle memory, the scholars called it. Back in the countryside estate, she had been taught very specifically on how to approach every kind of opponent. In this case, her mind had registered the warg as a large and strong but untrained opponent. This type of foe was generally more dangerous to fight because of their unpredictability. The ideal strategy while facing them was to focus on striking quickly and ignore the usual defensive maneuvers since the opponent wouldn't be attacking with a specific fighting style.
So, Eranae swept forward. She swung the macana, using it's momentum to move faster and strike the wargs abdomen. The warg, astonishingly, dodged and got away with only a slight cut on the side, which had already begun healing. Rel did tell that the beast was of the Third Cadence. Era tried to strike it again but the beast dodged this time as well. This continued for a good while, and the twelve hunters, including Talon's team, had formed a parameter around Era and the warg to prevent it from escaping.
The warg, after seeming to have gotten used to Eranae's offense, jumped back and twisted, flailing it's giant tail at her. Era instinctively raised the sharp obsidian edge of the macana, intercepting the bludgeoning tail that was about to hit her. Distorted screeches echoed from the weapon as blood sprayed in the air and the large chunk of the severed tail lay on the ground. Relics operated on lifesong, the screams being a signal of it being absorbed or dissipated. This meant that the macana had absorbed some amount of the warg's lifesong when Era cut its tail. She would have to talk to Rel about this later.
As for the warg, it whimpered. With its tail dismembered and lifesong depleted, it was no match for Eranae. It now began looking for possible routes of escape. Being surrounded by hunters on all sides, that was quite not possible for it. Eranae began moving towards it, the macana raised overhead to land a killing blow. The warg turned to the side facing the stream and dashed in that direction. Era then noticed that only one hunter stood there and it was Vale, the Alderwoman's grandson. He was by far the weakest of the group and easiest for the beast to take out. The warg leapt high, its claws aimed at the boy. Era swung the macana in a wide arch, invoking the Wind's Wrath which manifested as an incredibly strong gust that knocked the boy to the ground and sent the beast flying ahead.
Era froze for a moment, since using the elemental ability of the weapon required one's entire lifesong to flow back and forth into the Relic. She immediately snapped back to her senses and found the hunters staring at her in horror and shock. It was soon interrupted by another loud splashing sound that came from the stream. The warg had dropped in the water.
"Curse me!" Eranae gritted her teeth as she dashed towards the stream, "Because of me the beast will now escape."
"Don't be so harsh on yourself," Rel told comfortingly, "I have a gut feeling that you will kill it."
"You don't have a gut," Era reminded, "You are a freaking spirit!"
The beast was dragging itself out of the water when Era reached the stream. The beast turned to look at her, and let out a low mocking growl since she was on the opposite shore. Era kicked the ground, half tempted to throw the macana at the warg. But she doubted that would even reach the target, given the weapon's immense weight.
Water from the stream rose in the shape of a thin but long rope and wound around the warg, pulling it back into the water. Eranae, for a moment, couldn't believe her eyes. Then she noticed Pearl standing in the water, his eyes wide open. There was an unusual aura to them, the shape of the iris had transformed from circle to the cymatic pattern that reflected the Rainsong. Era had heard about this happening in battles when songmasters were faced by life and death situations. This counted as one, she thought.
The beast tried to free itself from the water's grasp but it's body had grown limp due to the loss of blood and lifesong.
"Strike it now, you fool." Rel reminded.
"Oh, right." Era jumped into the stream and sprinted through the shallow water. Nearing the beast, she raised the macana and swung it in an overarching curve. The obsidian blades met the warg's torso and cleaved through it, separating the body into two halves. Blood sprayed out again but was washed away as the rope of water that Pearl had raised burst open.
Eranae turned and rushed towards Pearl, who had fallen back into the water. She reached him and pulled him out of the water. His body seemed to be weakened due to sudden and untrained use of one of the Primal Songs. She slung his arm over her shoulders and helped him walk to the shore.
"That was a very dangerous maneuver, Pearl." Era said, laying him down on dry ground, "You could have gone comatose due to exhaustion."
"Could have, but didn't." Pearl smiled, "I walked out of it with only a broken hip, which is fine by me."