When the wolf's head rolled to the ground, sprinkling the muddy snow with fresh blood, Nico finally breathed a sigh of relief, as did his comrade who had helped him in the battle. They looked at each other, and although they had masks on their faces, they were sure they were wearing satisfied smiles.
The four other members of the group also noticed that their leader and one of their comrades had defeated a golden-ranked beast, and they became inspired, exerting even more strength to reduce the number of silver-ranked beasts.
After catching his breath, Nico, who was on the number 4 defense side in the very center, could see what was happening on each of the two sides from him.
On the number 5 side, a girl from the Association was fighting alone against a golden—ranked beast, a large snow-white fox. The other four of her group were keeping the other beasts from interfering with her battle.