Ivar made sure to remind himself that, despite her seemingly lower stats, Molly's stats were compared to a warrior rank qhanrid, while his stats were compared to a soldier rank qhanrid.
Luckily, Ivar already had the strength to contend with a warrior rank qhanrid back on Máni and had only grown stronger since then.
Still, this Molly was more powerful than a regular warrior rank, not to mention her unknown species with unknown abilities, possibly increasing her danger level yet again.
So, if possible, Ivar wanted to avoid a fight with this woman before he even tried to find out what she was.
Molly did not back down but suddenly seemed a little uncertain, "E- Expose myself; what are you talking about?! I told you to let Nova go; I'm not warning you again!"
Ivar looked at her strangely, "Do you really not realise what you are doing? Why don't you check the temperature of the room, huh?"
These words seemed to snap her out of her fury, at least temporarily, as she noticed her power had started leaking.
She quickly restored the room to the previous temperature before she looked back at Ivar with a bit of anxiety and even fear, "I- I don't know what you're talking about."
Then, finding her fury again, "Now let her go!"
Ivar smirked at her, "Quit acting; you are not human, and you are clearly unwilling to reveal yourself, so I'm going to call your bluff. Come on, deal with me like you said you would."
Molly's fear and anxiety seemed to return as all her previous fury and fierce attitude melted like snow, and she backed away a little.
"Y- You- How do you know I'm not human?! Did they send you?! How many people did you bring?! Where are they hiding?! I won't go down without a fight!"
Previously, she was confident in her ability to beat up whoever this mercenary was and sure that 'they' wouldn't be able to find her here, but if he really was one of them, then she was in serious trouble!
She was almost hyperventilating now, clearly panicking and throwing random accusations around as her mind went a mile a minute.
Along with her panic, the temperature fluctuated again while the blue flames in her eyes became more vivid.
Clearly, Molly was mistaking him for someone. Ivar shortly considered pretending to really have people hiding nearby, but he predicted that, rather than cowing Molly into submission, such an action would probably lead to the very fight he was trying to avoid.
So, instead, he quickly informed her of the misunderstanding with a lightly confused face, "Calm down, short-stack. I have no idea what you're talking about. Before you walked into the room, I didn't even know there was a non-human here."
This seemed to barely calm Molly down a little as she was still hyperventilating and panicking as her eyes darted around the room, trying to find Ivar's accomplices, "T- Then how do you know I'm not a human?"
Ivar chuckled, "Well, let's just say I have a nose for such things. But aside from that, the fact you seem to affect the temperature around you and those obvious flames burning in your eyes are also pretty obvious clues. Besides, I am not a human either."
This last bit of information finally seemed to calm Molly down a little, and although she still looked at Ivar with suspicion, she snorted nervously, "I still need to get better at hiding myself, it seems."
While her suspicious attitude remained, her nervousness was quickly converted back into fury and confidence as she glanced fiercely at Alita, who had just been watching the interaction with interest, "Are you not going to say anything, Alita?"
Alita simply grinned, "No, I'm good. As my master's servant, you really shouldn't trust my words. But if you still want to hear them, I don't think you have anything to fear from Master, so long as you don't get into his way."
Ivar smiled and petted Alita's head, "Good girl."
While nuzzling Ivar's hand, Ailta shrugged and continued, "As for the fact that you aren't human, well, I suppose I am surprised, but I'm not human anymore either, so…"
Molly seemed taken aback by Alita's words, "You- What do you mean not human anymore? What did this guy do to you?! And why does it sound like you would take his side over mine!"
Alita shrugged, "That's because I would. Sorry, Molly. The Alita you knew never existed. The only person in Sanctuary I ever really cared about is Nova.
If it makes you feel any better, if I would consider anyone in Sanctuary an actual friend, it would be you. But that's not enough for me to even attempt going against Master."
She had deliberately neglected to answer anything about her non-human status.
Molly looked hurt but nodded with a complicated expression, "Nova, and I did talk about the possibility you were pretending to be someone you are not… but it still hurts. I hope you at least meant it when you said you care about Nova. That girl really loves you, you know."
She looked at Nova, who was still sleeping soundly in Ivar's arms, "Does she know?"
Alita nodded with a cheery smile, clearly not too bothered by the fact that she had hurt Molly. "Sure, we had a good chat about it."
She then sighed, as if talking about something bothersome, "But I think she still wants to talk more. Something about my morals and priorities or something."
Molly snorted, still hurt by and a little annoyed at Alita, "That's probably a good idea; why are you acknowledging this guy as your master, anyway?"
Alita just smiled mysteriously, "I have my reasons."
Molly rolled her eyes and trained her suspicious gaze back on Ivar, "So what now?"
Now that she knew he was not with 'them', her confidence had somewhat returned, but finding out he was not a human had also made her much more cautious, as she was unsure how strong this man was.
She couldn't even access her full power without becoming like a shining beacon for the very people she was trying to avoid.
Ivar shrugged, "I have no problem with you, nor do I have an interest in fighting you, and it should be the same for you, so how about I just hand Nova to you so you can look at her wounds and then maybe you and I have a conversation later?"
Molly looked at Ivar for a while but eventually nodded, "Fine, but Alita is coming with me as well. I want to talk to her while she's away from you."
Ivar chuckled, realising Molly wanted to find out more or even turn Alita against him.
But Ivar was not even a little worried about Alita betraying him, so he might as well send her along to make Molly lower her suspicion somewhat; Selene would keep an eye on the situation anyway.
So he said, "Sure."
Then he turned to Alita and handed Nova to her, "Kitten, go with the furious munchkin over there to put her mind at ease, but come back in an hour, alright? Oh, and make sure the other members of Sanctuary don't bother me."
Alita sighed, "As you wish, Master."
Molly's face twitched at being called furious munchkin, but she ignored it. After seeing Alita walk over to her, she quickly did a preliminary examination of Nova and sighed in relief after finding out she was mostly fine.
She shot one last look of suspicion and discontent at Ivar before leaving with Alita in tow.
When they were gone, Ivar told Selene, "Be sure to keep an eye on that Molly, alright?"
Selene appeared next to him and nodded, "Sure. I think you could take her, though. I'm still unsure of her species, but her power seems unstable.
Plus, she might prefer to run away from you rather than fight and reveal her powers; she seems really concerned about that."
Ivar nodded, "Well, if I can, and if she would, then all the better, but any conflict with her would be difficult, pointless, and endanger my goal of controlling Sanctuary. It would be better if she and I remained in a Cold War status for now.
After all, Alita is already mine, and Nova will follow soon enough."
He then returned to the bedroom he had occupied earlier and sat down on the ground, "That said, I'd better start working hard on growing stronger. Do you have any tips for training my ability to control the northern winds?"
Selene shrugged, "Sort off? I mean, I obviously never had to do this myself.
Still, from observing other therians with abilities over the years, I suggest being in full Wendigo form and casting the ability as much as possible while trying to identify how the shield is formed."
Ivar nodded and quickly removed his clothes before activating his wendigo transformation, making this the first time he would be in full wendigo form, whereas before, he had only used the horns.
Soon, a grotesque-looking humanoid reindeer with large clawed hands and its head encased in white bone had taken Ivar's place.
After asking Selene to share her vision so that he could look at himself, he chuckled, "My, this form certainly looks a lot more terrifying than my wolf form. Well, I guess I'll use it when I want to focus on instilling fear, but I think I prefer my wolf form.
Those Wendigo claws look much more dangerous than my wolf claws, though. Maybe I'll mix and match a little."
Deciding to think more about that later, Ivar took a seat on the ground and started absorbing energy to increase his stats and rank while constantly casting the northern wind shield ability.