Chapter 308: The Wolves Begin Their Hunt

Erika looked across the battlefield, her mind racing while the female members of the White Wolf Division struggled against their own comrades. The hypnotized men attacked without hesitation, while the women were forced to block, evade, and restrain them without dealing fatal injuries in return.

They couldn’t keep this up.

"Female units!" Erika shouted while blocking another sword. "Smoke screen! Now!"

The response was immediate.

Several women broke away from their opponents just long enough to reach the smoke devices attached to their tactical equipment. Others continued wrestling with the hypnotized soldiers, preventing them from interfering while the devices were activated.

Thick white smoke erupted across the street.

Within seconds, the entire battlefield disappeared.

The smoke swallowed Erika, July, the controlled soldiers, and eventually Mae-hwa herself. Visibility dropped to almost nothing as the cloud spread between the buildings, leaving everyone hidden behind an enormous white curtain.

Mae-hwa blinked.

Then she laughed.

"Oh?"

Her voice drifted through the smoke.

"What a brilliant move."

Mae-hwa remained perfectly calm. She raised her fan and listened to the sounds of movement hidden throughout the white cloud.

"So you’re using the smoke to hide yourselves while you approach me?" she asked, sounding almost impressed. "Not bad, Captain."

She slowly opened her fan.

"But it’s useless against me."

Mae-hwa swung it.

The effect was immediate.

A tremendous gust of wind exploded outward from her position. The pink mist surrounding her mixed with the white smoke for a moment before the sheer force ripped through everything. Dust flew from the road, loose debris scattered across the street, and the thick smoke was blown upward and away between the surrounding buildings.

Within seconds, the battlefield became visible again.

Mae-hwa lowered her fan.

"There. Much bet...."

She stopped.

Her pink eyes widened.

"What...?"

Something was different.

The male soldiers were gone.

No...not gone.

Mae-hwa’s gaze dropped toward the ground.

Every male member she had hypnotized was lying unconscious across the street.

Some were sprawled against walls. Others lay beside their discarded weapons, while several had been carefully lowered onto the pavement rather than simply thrown down. None appeared dead, but every single one had been knocked unconscious.

Mae-hwa’s smile disappeared.

She slowly raised her gaze.

The female members of the White Wolf Division stood across from her.

Their formation had been restored.

Wolf masks once again covered their faces, concealing their eyes and features from Mae-hwa. Weapons were raised, wounded soldiers had been moved toward the rear, and those still capable of fighting had positioned themselves around Erika.

Erika stood at the front.

Her own wolf mask covered her face.

July stood beside her.

Neither woman said anything.

Mae-hwa stared at them for several seconds before realization finally appeared in her eyes.

Then she laughed.

"I see."

Erika tightened her grip around her weapon.

Mae-hwa slowly brought her fan against her lips.

"So that’s what the smoke was for."

She had misunderstood the plan.

The White Wolf Division had never intended to use the smoke to sneak up on her.

The smoke had been meant to break her visual influence.

The moment Mae-hwa could no longer see the hypnotized men, the female soldiers had used those few precious seconds to overwhelm them. They hadn’t wasted time trying to make their comrades regain their senses. They had simply restrained and knocked them unconscious one after another.

By the time Mae-hwa cleared the smoke herself, her own puppets had already been removed from the battle.

Even better, the female soldiers had put their masks back on before visibility returned.

Mae-hwa’s eyes moved toward Erika.

For the first time, there was genuine interest in them.

"My, my..." she murmured. "I underestimated you far too quickly."

Erika remained silent behind her mask.

Mae-hwa glanced at the unconscious men scattered across the street before returning her attention to the women standing before her.

"You realized fighting your own people would slowly exhaust your unit, so instead of trying to break my control, you removed them from the fight entirely." She tapped her fan thoughtfully against her cheek. "And you used the smoke not to hide from me... but to hide them from me."

Erika finally answered.

"You talk too much."

Mae-hwa paused.

Erika raised her weapon.

Around her, the remaining White Wolf soldiers did the same.

"You wanted to see whether we knew how to fight, didn’t you?"

Mae-hwa’s eyes curved slightly.

Erika lowered her stance.

"Then watch carefully."

This time, the White Wolf Division wasn’t fighting each other. Every weapon was pointed toward Mae-hwa, and the confusion that had torn through their formation only moments earlier was gone.

Erika took one controlled breath.

"Unit. Wolf Mode on."

The response came immediately.

"Wolf Mode on!"

Every remaining soldier raised one hand toward the side of her mask. Their fingers pressed against a small mechanism hidden beneath the material, and for a brief moment, nothing seemed to happen.

Then every wolf mask came alive.

The dark eye sockets flashed crimson.

A sudden rush of energy spread throughout the formation as the equipment covering their bodies responded at the same time. Thin markings hidden along their uniforms began to glow faintly, running from their masks toward their necks and beneath their tactical armor. The change wasn’t merely visual. Mae-hwa could immediately feel that every soldier standing before her had become faster, sharper, and somehow more dangerous.

Her fan stopped moving.

"What is this?"

Something flashed through the air.

Mae-hwa’s instincts screamed.

She tilted her body aside.

A sword passed directly in front of her throat.

Her pink eyes widened.

July had crossed the distance between them almost instantly.

The Vice-Captain’s crimson wolf mask was only inches from Mae-hwa’s face as her blade passed through the space where the demon’s neck had been a fraction of a second earlier.

Mae-hwa twisted gracefully away.

July didn’t allow her to create distance. Her first missed slash immediately transformed into a second attack aimed toward Mae-hwa’s ribs, forcing the demon to raise her fan and redirect the sword.

Metal struck metal.

Mae-hwa slid backward.

She looked at July.

Then at the glowing mask.

"Oh, I see."

July retreated before Mae-hwa could counterattack and returned to the formation.

Mae-hwa glanced at the edge of her fan. A faint mark had appeared where July’s sword had struck it.

"So those aren’t ordinary masks."

Her smile returned.

Had she been a weaker demon, that first attack would have cut her throat before she even understood what had happened.

Erika didn’t give her any more time to analyze it.

"White Wolf Division!"

The soldiers immediately shifted their footing.

"Formation A!"

They moved.

Mae-hwa watched with growing interest as the formation completely changed. The soldiers didn’t remain grouped together like an ordinary combat unit. Instead, they spread outward in different directions, maintaining distance from one another while gradually forming a circle around her.

Mae-hwa turned her head.

One soldier moved behind her.

Another took the left.

July positioned herself toward the right while Erika remained farther ahead, watching the entire formation.

Within seconds, Mae-hwa was surrounded.

Something about it reminded her less of soldiers and more of a hunting pack.

"Oh?"

Mae-hwa slowly turned in place.

Nobody attacked.

The women waited.

Mae-hwa’s smile widened.

Then one moved.

A soldier rushed from Mae-hwa’s left, her enhanced speed allowing her to cover several meters almost instantly. Mae-hwa leaned away from the incoming blade, but before she could counter, the soldier retreated.

Another attacked from behind.

Mae-hwa spun and blocked with her fan.

A third came from the opposite side.

Mae-hwa avoided her.

Then July attacked.

The rhythm immediately became clear.

They weren’t trying to overwhelm Mae-hwa through numbers alone.

They were hunting her.

Whenever Mae-hwa turned toward one attacker, another entered from outside her vision. Whenever she attempted to pursue someone, that soldier immediately retreated while another replaced her. Their positions constantly shifted around the circle, never allowing Mae-hwa to focus on a single opponent for more than a few seconds.

Mae-hwa ducked beneath a sword and smiled.

"Unbelievable."

She opened her fan.

A powerful gust exploded outward.

The nearest three soldiers were immediately forced backward, their boots scraping violently across the pavement. One nearly lost her footing, but the strange markings along her uniform flashed and she managed to twist her body, landing several meters away instead of being thrown into a building.

Mae-hwa noticed.

Her eyes sharpened.

Two more soldiers attacked.

Mae-hwa swung her fan horizontally, producing another violent burst of wind. Both women separated before it reached them, narrowly escaping the attack before returning to their positions.

Mae-hwa’s gaze followed them.

Interesting.

The masks weren’t simply protecting their faces.

There was technology inside them.

Advanced technology.

But that wasn’t all.

Mae-hwa could sense something else woven through their equipment. The faint markings appearing along the soldiers’ uniforms weren’t ordinary circuitry. Strange rune-like patterns were reacting alongside the technology, releasing energy whenever the soldiers accelerated, changed direction, or narrowly avoided one of her attacks.

Technology and something resembling rune magic had been combined together.

Mae-hwa had never seen equipment quite like it.

Her smile became more genuine.

She continued dodging.

July attacked her neck again.

Mae-hwa avoided it.

Another soldier came toward her legs.

Mae-hwa jumped over the blade.

A third attacked while she was still in the air, forcing Mae-hwa to twist her body before landing gracefully several meters away.

"Very good."

She didn’t counter.

The White Wolf Division attacked again.

Mae-hwa dodged.

Again.

She dodged.

Erika’s eyes narrowed behind her mask.

Something wasn’t right.

Mae-hwa had already demonstrated enough power to send soldiers flying with a single movement of her fan. If she wanted to create distance, she could. If she wanted to attack more aggressively, she could.

Yet she wasn’t doing either.

She was allowing Formation A to continue.

"Vice-Captain, left!"

July immediately changed direction.

Mae-hwa avoided her sword by a fraction.

Another soldier attacked from behind.

Mae-hwa moved aside.

The blade missed.

Mae-hwa’s eyes followed the soldier rather than attacking her.

Erika noticed.

She’s watching us.

Mae-hwa wasn’t struggling.

She was studying them.

Every dodge gave her another piece of information. Every attack revealed how Wolf Mode accelerated their bodies. Every formation change showed her how the soldiers communicated. Every narrow escape gave her another opportunity to observe the runes and technology integrated into their equipment.

Erika felt uneasiness building inside her again.

"Keep pressure on her!" she ordered, although her attention never left Mae-hwa.

The formation tightened.

Four soldiers attacked in succession.

Mae-hwa slipped between them.

July followed immediately afterward, driving her sword straight toward Mae-hwa’s chest. Mae-hwa turned sideways, allowing the blade to pass beside her body before tapping July’s weapon away with the edge of her fan.

She could have attacked July.

She didn’t.

Instead, she watched the glow running across July’s mask.

Erika’s stomach tightened.

Why?

Why was Mae-hwa only dodging?

The answer couldn’t be that she was afraid of them. Erika had already felt the demonic energy coming from her. Mae-hwa hadn’t even shown anything close to her full strength yet.

Then Mae-hwa’s gaze shifted. ℯℯ𝑙.

Straight toward Erika.

Even through the wolf mask, Erika knew the demon was looking directly at her.

Mae-hwa smiled.

Erika froze.

A cold sensation crawled along her spine.

It wasn’t attraction this time.

It was fear.

The kind of instinctive warning that came when the body understood something before the mind did.

Erika’s eyes widened behind her mask.

No.

Mae-hwa had already seen enough.

"Something’s wrong..."

Mae-hwa’s smile widened.

Erika immediately raised her weapon.

"UNIT, STEP BACK!"

To be Contiuned