The rightful Luna

Chapter 18. Firsthand experience

"Now this is truly something you don't see every day." A deep voice rang surprised with a bit of a tinge of mocking tone added to it. The person who seemed to be the head of the hunters was perhaps no older than 45 - 50 years old. Dressed in kaki dark clothes, with a black puffed vest and a fur hat, he looked just like a regular animal hunter. And the rest who appeared from behind the man were more or less dressed in the same manner.

What would differentiate them from normal hunters though... would be the fact that in the multitude of guns and rifles which were hanging from their belts, backs and in their hands, wolfbane filled bullets were loaded. They most likely had wolfbane smeared even on the small knives which were hanging from their thighs.

"Chief, how come she is still standing? Wasn't a witch's spell absolute?" Asked confused one of the younger people coming out from between the lifeless frozen trees.

"Yup. This should be the case." The chief replied pensively, and quickly pointed his weapon towards Celia in a defensive stance, perhaps trying to test if the spell had also affected her.

But even in the weapon's direct range, she did not move an inch. Even her eyes did not blink. Luckily her fangs were hidden inside the closed mouth, her claws covered by the sleeves of her white coat and her dark eyes could only be seen clearly if you were to approach her. These facts added to the dark of night made it impossible for regular humans to easily perceive her partially transformed form.

"Hmmm it seems she froze standing. It could be the second spell got to her before the first one." What werewolf would not move when a deadly wolfbane filled riffle was pointed at it? The older man reckoned.

"Ohh... I understand!" Affirmed the young man enlightened, but he still felt it was weird. The second spell was cast after the first one, if someone would still be standing fighting the spells wouldn't it be the Alpha of the pack and a high ranked one at that? But he did not have the experience of his superior, so he believed what the chief said. Not to mention she was a girl, how could she fight against it?

Seeing the ten wolves or so before them frozen on their knees, not even managing to shift, they relaxed their bodies and lowered their guard. As expected having those two witches had so many advantages. Since they used them from a year ago until now, the percentage of captured wolves rose from 10 - 20% to 100 %. They were so effective that they even dared to enter the forest of the wolf king, which normally would be suicide.

The witches were to freeze the wolves, they would load them in trucks and be gone. It would take no more than two hours, and their source had also assured him that the only being who could feel something was amiss so fast as to hinder their plan, the king, was not in his palace tonight.

Normally even if this method of hunting was effective, it was difficult to attack a normal pack. Even the smallest pack they knew had about a thousand wolves, and the spell could not cover enough ground to ensure they could capture every wolf. As only capturing a portion of a group, would infuriate the rest, the consequence would be a united retaliation from the rest of the members and they would be killed immediately. This last year they mostly captured strays, but they were too few to help them in their goal.

To find out about the exercise that was held these weeks coupled with the king's absence, such a large group of werewolves at once, also young and easily controllable was truly a blessing. Another advantage was that capturing the werewolves under the watch of the king, would tone down his authority. Each group of students had pups from packs from around the world. It would help if it riled the werewolves up to revolt and keep the king occupied for some time.

"Now then, while the noncombatant members of your little makeshift pack are captured, let's ask some questions." The chief of the hunters said relaxed, lowering himself to one of the werewolves that seemed smaller and easier to interrogate.