The first thing was to get my bearings, as the alarm was raised by Aconite’s guards. While I could find my way back to Erik and Vaeri, heading back to Aconite’s tent alone was asking to get killed by a Moonrise Clan demon. I’d much rather have had them close by for the battle breaking out, but at this point, getting back to direct the battle was a higher priority. We could collect those two later, and they could handle themselves in the meantime, especially backing each other up.

So I ran back towards our adjoining camp, staying in the shadows of the wooden palisade wall. I could hear roars, screams, and clangs and crunching sounds as the Ebon Company clashed with Aconite’s demons. Thankfully, it seemed like Gia hadn’t delayed in giving Macodes the order to attack. But something felt off; the sounds of battle were less one-sided than I had planned on. Aconite’s should have been caught by surprise, but instead they were ready to put up a fight, striking back audibly at the armored demons I’d sent in as our first wave.

That was fine, though. Casualties might be higher than I’d hoped for, but we still had the numerical advantage, and were far better trained and equipped than Aconite’s wild army. Many of her demons would be stronger individually than our majority-asura mercenaries, but they’d be nothing we couldn’t overcome. Aconite herself was the only one that worried me, but I had plans to deal with her. They just needed to come through.

I reached the entrance to the camp, where a loud melee was ongoing between heavy infantry, Aconite’s bugbears holding the line against our armored asuras. Bodies littered the ground around me, and more mercenaries coming through looked about to skewer me with their polearms. But thankfully, they recognized me quickly – I needed my own recognizable uniform – and waved me on through. “Macodes!” I called, making my way to the danava woman who towered over most others.

The red-skinned muscled woman pulled her lightning-bladed dagger from a rougarou’s eye and laughed aloud as it fell, grinning at me. “Hey there! Thought you were going to miss the fun. Few of these guys were lying in wait for us.” She clapped a hand on the shoulder of the pink-haired woman at her side, and Gia stumbled and nearly fell from it. “Thought I’d bring the Lady along to see what she could do, but she still hasn’t killed a single one of ‘em!”

Gia’s wall-eyed expression said she would rather be anywhere else right now, but it melted into relief as her gaze fell on me. “Oh, thank god, there you are,” Gia breathed, looking between Uvaia and Crassula at her sides as if to make sure they were still there. “Are you okay? Where’s Vaeri?”

“I’m fine, she’s with our target.” I hadn’t told Macodes that we were risking so much to rescue a human, and I was happy to stay vague now. “We’ll link up with her soon, but there’s more pressing business. Commander Macodes, where’s Aconite?”

Having Sedum play the honey trap for Aconite was a multipurpose plan. Getting her out of her tent where I knew Erik to be was part of it, yes, but the rest was luring her to an isolated location. Sedum had seemed to convince her of the need for privacy, but she hadn’t been willing to stay at his tent, taking him off to another location. But we’d had a contingency in place for that too.

“Don’t know,” Macodes said, looking thoroughly unbothered. “But I’m sure she’ll show up soon enough. Save me a piece, will you?”

What did she mean she didn’t know? “What happened to the covert ops you had tail her and Sedum?” If they could find her, we could kill her. I had no compunctions about killing someone mid-intimacy.

“Haven’t reported in. Might be dead, might be tied up.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“You said she wouldn’t be able to spot them!” Vaeri hadn’t noticed being tailed by the same scouts.

“Well, things don’t always go as planned. Like we didn’t catch the Moonies with their pants down how you said. Now are you going to keep gawking at me, or take command?” Now she was glaring.

Her tone made me twitch, but I took a deep breath and focused. “They’ll have reinforcements for the bugbears soon. You and Lithops form up with your units in a wedge formation, push on Aconite’s west flank, engage the ushi-oni when they arrive.” Infantry in a pike wall could face down charges from rougarous or even tough-skinned calydonians. But the armored beetles that were ushi-oni would shrug off blows of anyone other than our heaviest hitters, which was where our jotnar and danava came in.

“Have Chromolaena’s light infantry seek out the manticores, pin them down with a decoy force while they report back to you. Then you or Lithops search and destroy. Kill them and we’ll have ranged superiority assured.” The scorpion-tailed manticores were the only long-range combatants in Aconite’s army, and while their poisoned spines might not punch through plate, they’d be a menace to anyone less armored being fired upon. “Keep the archers behind a shield wall until the manticores are dealt with, they’re too valuable to get shot down or poisoned.” With a steady rain of volleys on Aconite’s forces, victory should be assured.

She nodded, serious again and drinking in my every word. “What about Aconite?”

…almost assured. “Anyone who spots her should report her position immediately. We’ll concentrate volleys on her if we can, otherwise, only heavy infantry should confront her if possible.” They wouldn’t win, but she’d have to punch through their armor to kill them, so it’d buy more time. “We can take care of her if she shows up,” I added. Gia should be able to, especially backed up with holy magic. “Leave a platoon of heavy infantry with us, we’re going to pick up some additional assets.”

Macodes gave a quick salute, and moved out, as Gia and her guards came back up to me.

“So Sedum’s still out there with Aconite?” Uvaia asked me, eyes wide with worry. “But there’s no way she won’t notice this battle now. What if she blames him? She might kill him!”

And that was one reason why I’d wanted to bring Vaeri and Erik back first. Assassinating Aconite could have ended the battle before it started, and improved Sedum’s odds of safety to boot. “He knows the risks. We discussed it.” I wavered in the face of her despondent expression. “We’ll link up with the elf priestess Vaeri and her friend. If he’s… hurt,” And still alive, and not killed. “She can help him.”

Gia and Uvaia exchanged a downcast look, and even Crassula looked grim. “I could,” Gia started to say, before hesitating, wincing. “No, Vaeri’s a better idea than anything I could try.”

“Let’s go.” I beckoned them, and we advanced, surrounded by armor and shields.

I directed us around the camp’s outskirts to avoid the bulk of the fighting. I had to guess my way towards Aconite’s tent, but there were flashes of light and familiar booms of flame that I led our troop towards. Getting in fights wasn’t my goal, keeping our priestess and mage alive would be much more important than losing a few more soldiers in skirmishes. Macodes and her sub-commanders should have things well in hand, and though a few scattered demons tried to face us and at least die fighting, each one was cut down swiftly and easily. Gia winced, moaned, or shuddered each time.

Oddly, at one point a rabble of enemy goblins came towards us shouting and waving weapons, but Crassula startled and pushed her way through to the front. I couldn’t see well through demons taller than me, but I saw the goblins stop short, then veer off course, evidently picking another fight. Something to ask about when the night was won.

But our relative luck couldn’t last. I could hear Vaeri’s voice faintly now when a larger assemblage of Aconite’s demons spotted us. Calydonians and rougarou and kishi, all the bestial demons charging towards us on sight and crashing into our lines with screams and clangs.

“Shields up! Form a phalanx, push them back!” I shouted, gesturing sharply to Gia, Uvaia, and Crassula. “Come on, this way!” I started pulling them free of our formation.

“We need to help, right?” Gia called over the sounds, eyes wide as the fighting broke out, but I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her out from among the Ebon ranks.

“We can help them better with Vaeri and Erik.” I gestured her forward towards the tent – Gia should go in first, in case Vaeri blasted the first person she saw. “Come on, we can’t get bogged down, we’ll be right back,” I told her, beckoning Uvaia and Crassula behind me. It was just a short distance to cross alone, a lull in the fighting empty of other demons.

Halfway to her tent, Aconite hit me with the force of an avalanche.

I was lucky in that the impact didn’t kill me, but it certainly fucking didn’t feel that way at the time. My ribs screamed in protest as I was thrown from the ground, and I couldn’t breathe even before I landed hard on my back, which my organs didn’t take any better.

I heard Uvaia and Gia scream my name but I couldn’t respond to them. Partly because I was winded, mostly because having Huntmistress Aconite crouched over you had a way of freezing words in one’s throat.

“Still alive, little strategist?” the wolf-woman growled, grinning at me with a mouth full of fangs. “Good. I don’t want you to die before I’m done with you.” Her arm lashed out lightning-quick and I felt a tight grip strangling me.

A high avian cry filled the air and Aconite tensed up. In a flash she was gone from atop me, an angry Uvaia flapping into the space where she’d been a moment ago, but I’d caught a grimace on her face that looked very like pain before she’d disappeared.

“Get back here!” Gia shouted from somewhere off to the side. That might explain the glimpse I’d gotten, but it’d be too much to hope for Aconite to be dead yet. “No, wait, I mean stay away from her! Back off!”

“You found a fleshwarper! And here I thought those girls of yours all smelled like pushovers.” That confirmed that, and also figured. Aconite’s mocking laugh came out of the night around us, as Uvaia pulled me to my feet, gripping my hand with her wingtip.

“How bad are you hurt?” Uvaia started to ask before I waved a hand sharply to stop her, gesturing skyward as best I could as I tried to breathe and speak.

“Fine, I’m fine.” My ribs would be a mess but adrenaline dulled it for now, and the long-term effects were far less pressing than surviving right this second. “Get up,” I hissed at her through gritted teeth, Aconite might take her time with me but she wouldn’t show restraint with anyone else…

There was a hollow wham of flesh hitting a surface followed by a pained, startled yipe, and I whirled to see Aconite staggering back from Gia, turning herself with wide eyes to face the werewolf who’d leaped at her from behind.

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“And quite the defense on you, fleshwarper,” Aconite growled, but hunched and leaped a dozen paces in a bound, landing opposite me as Gia let out a frustrated shout. “Fine. You can keep your head for now. I’ll feast on some wings instead.” She grinned darkly at me.

Aconite charged at Uvaia and me, and I couldn’t do anything, I knew rougarou were strong and agile but I couldn’t stand up to this–

A silvery blade swung in between us and Aconite swerved, growling and skidding on the grass as she stopped beyond us, looking back at her new foe. Crassula grunted and turned towards her, glancing at her axe and seeming disappointed to find it unbloodied.

That, I could use, Aconite was fast but she couldn’t stop right away, and I saw now how she’d picked an open part of the camp to ambush me. “Get in cover!” I shouted, more a gasp really, as Uvaia finally took flight and Crassula circled around me. Hopefully she’d realize the air was better defense for her, because if Aconite was going to keep charging at us, putting obstacles between us and her would help significantly…

Aconite leaped before I could act on that thought. The shape and tint of her forearms changed in midair, and I tried to dodge away reflexively, but she wasn’t pouncing on me. Crassula caught Aconite’s claws on her axe haft and I saw a glimpse of larger furred paws and legs – Aconite could partially shift her body, then? – but Crassula spun the weapon in her hands and fended off strikes from both paws as Aconite took a stance. If she could only land a hit.

But Aconite was still faster, and speed was even more dangerous in close quarters. Aconite’s claws swiped lower now at Crassula’s armored side, and there was a high screeching sound of them scoring the metal. From how Crassula hissed, the impact had scratched through, and as she staggered and her grip slackened Aconite struck out with her other paw to rip off Crassula’s head.

But with her other arm, Crassula brought up a small shield and the blow glanced off with a clang, when had she gotten a shield, I hadn’t given her that! – And Aconite growled, she readied herself for another death blow but snapped her teeth and let out a frustrated roar, pulling back with feet trampling the grass, darting out of sight for now.

I looked at the girl I deemed responsible. “Gia, you can’t get her?” No time for titles, not with this enemy.

“She’s too fast! I try to hurt her but she’s gone before I can make it work!” Gia shouted back, voice high with strain.

No, Gia couldn’t give us an easy win this time. She’d been keeping Aconite from engaging any of us for long, but I couldn’t count on that for much longer. I couldn’t fend Aconite off like Crassula had, if she got a mind to she could kill me before And we couldn’t make her come at us from a single direction, even the camp was an open battlefield and she was so much more mobile than us…

Wait. That could work. “My shoulder. Whoever she goes for, do that, bigger.” The pauldrons I’d picked up in the city should conceal my meaning. Aconite might move too swiftly to target her body, but our flesh was still available. Aconite wouldn’t expect spikes to erupt from whoever she struck. Best case they’d impale her, but all I needed was to hold her in place long enough for Gia to finish the job.

“What?! No! Why would I do that?” Gia looked at me with panicked incredulity, and I started to reply before a lightning bolt ripped through my arm, and a scream came out instead as Aconite blurred past me, arm torn open by her claws.

“Think faster. You’re such a juicy, tempting target…” Aconite’s chuckling salted my wound, as pain throbbed through my arm and I tried not to drop to my knees.

“Just do it, Gia! We’ll be fine!” I fought to get out the words, teeth grit. Victory was worth this cost. I’d rather be fleshwarped than killed or dragged off to be treated like Phlox had been.

“No! No, I can’t, not again!” Gia shook her head wildly, still not understanding the need. “I’m not going to hurt you, Ann! Don’t try and make me!”

“Is that right?” Aconite’s voice rang out before another blur flashed in my vision and a vice grip grabbed my lower arm. Crassula and I had both been watching but Aconite had still grabbed me before I could react, with a force that nearly pulled my arm out of its socket. She might have dislocated it if that wasn’t the arm Gia had ‘healed’, but a wrenching pain still shot through me as I was pulled off my feet, carried bodily along until she slowed her pace and stopped. We were behind a tent with dark figures clashing around us, none closer than a few yards off, none of my allies in sight.

“Unlike you, ‘Gia’, I couldn’t be happier to hurt this traitor. And I’ll start on her right now if you don’t do exactly what I say,” Aconite called over, claws digging into my arm as I fought the need to scream. “I’m not going to take my chances with a fleshwarper, so if you or any of you don’t do what I say, I break your general’s skinny little neck. Got it?”

Fear was rapidly overtaking adrenaline now. “Aconite, we shouldn’t be fighting, I don’t know what kicked off this battle,” I started to say before her hand moved off my arm to clutch my throat instead.

“Yes! Yes, okay, I get it! What do you want?” Gia’s frantic voice carried over, and I clenched my teeth. Playing into her hands, I had to find a way out, but Aconite literally had my life in her hands too.

“Very good. Now, you need to see me to work your skills on me, so you’re going to cover your eyes, with cloth or metal, not your hands. Then one of your allies walks you over here. You will do nothing to defend yourself, and I will eat your heart.” I felt a chill through my body, and Aconite licked her lips. “If I see you with eyes uncovered, I kill her. If I can’t tear your heart from your chest, I kill her. If any of your friends try to interfere, I kill her. Understand?”

“…and you’ll let Anthurium go if I do what you want?” Gia’s voice was smaller now, but still audible, if barely.

“I’d choose to think of it like this. The longer you go without obeying, the more deeply I harm her now.” Her claws pierced into my stomach, and she let go my neck just enough to let me scream as she dragged them down slowly, tearing my flesh. “She won’t survive easily if I’ve ripped off her arms.”

“I get it! I’ll do it. I’m coming, just let me cover my eyes. Just wait a second…” Gia sounded desperate. I dearly hoped that was put on and that she had a plan. If she actually let Aconite kill her, it would be the worst case scenario.

“Aconite waits for no one, girl. Be quick about it.” She pulled her claws from my abdomen and stabbed deep into my intact arm, and I felt another scream rip from my throat.

“Didn’t you say you want to hunt me?” I gasped. I could barely speak with the pain, my eyes had filled with tears, and I loathed myself deeply for it. “What kind of hunt is this?”

“Oh, I’ll set you loose and have my fun with you once that one’s dealt with,” Aconite told me, chuckling. “I’ve heard how dangerous she can be. No, I won’t tell you how. I’d rather kill her with my own strength, but I’ll settle for this.”

“Wouldn’t you want a fleshwarper working for you?” A haze of pain was blurring out all else now, and I tried to concentrate, searching for any words that could salvage this still. “I can make you Archon. You can feed on anyone else for strength, don’t waste a talent like her.”

“I don’t need anyone but myself. Not a tender heart like her, and especially not you.” Aconite’s voice was a growl, dark with anger. “You think I didn’t expect your betrayal? Why of any demon out there would I trust someone like you? I thought I’d use you against Zamioculas first, but I kept my army alert in case you’d try something foolish. And you proved me right. You earned your own death.”

That explained why the battle hadn’t gone as planned, but that knowledge didn’t help me now as she kept talking. “From the moment you came to me I found you pathetic. A quivering little prey creature, hiding behind her betters to survive.” Aconite’s expression turned ugly as she clutched my throat, squeezing, strangling. “That’s what I thought of you at the time, but now I know it’s even worse. Even prey knows to roll over and die when it’s beaten. No, little girl, what you are is a parasite. You worm yourself into the graces of stronger demons, and eat them from the inside out to keep yourself alive.”

My air supply was running thin, but I heard footsteps from nearby. Lots of them, too many to be Gia. I felt my dagger up my sleeve, I just needed a second’s distraction, but Aconite didn’t take her eyes off me for that second needed. “Huntmistress! We here to fight!” A voice chirped out, raspy, goblinoid.

“Weaklings. Worse than your goblin. One of these days I’ll give them their due,” Aconite muttered to me, before raising her voice. “Have you missed the battle all around you? Go and fight, then. Find Mimulus and–” There was a small shthunk noise and she let out a startled, pained growl.

“We here to fight you!” The same voice crowed, and the pressure on my throat vanished as Aconite dropped me. I could see her legs shifting to thicker lupine limbs, but before they did I caught a glimpse of several small lacerations, matching the goblins’ blades. “Huntmistress not respect goblins! Not care if goblins die! New leader will!” A raucous chorus of cheers followed his declaration, before cutting off into panicked shrieks as Aconite struck one goblin in the face with a crack that snapped their neck.

“Turning my own against me?” Aconite snarled at me over her shoulder, lashing out with a sweeping kick that sent more goblins careening amid screams. I was still trying to breathe, saving me the choice of whether to claim responsibility or admit I had no idea what was happening. “You should have tried with real demons, not fodder I can snuff out with a single bite…”

A rock struck her on the crown of her head, and Aconite hunched up with a yipe, looking around wildly as I scampered away. She wouldn't find the source until she looked up; that was something I’d worked with Uvaia on, and while I hoped to work her way up to javelins, she’d timed that drop very well.

Several goblins were still making noises indicating they weren’t dead, and as I ran from Aconite I saw Crassula waving to them, shouting out something in the goblin language that I couldn’t understand. I couldn’t think on that now, though, hearing Uvaia shriek; whirling around, I saw her careening downward with Aconite latched onto her leg, having leaped high enough to drag my harpy to earth.

“Now for dinner,” Aconite growled, brushing aside Uvaia’s frantic attempts to fend her off. She grabbed one wing and bit down hard with a crunch, and Uvaia screamed to the heavens as Aconite lifted her mouth up, dripping dark liquid…

A blinding white beam shot through the night towards her, and Aconite yanked herself to one side. The blast missed, but a wide, wild column of fire followed, making Aconite jump fully off Uvaia to avoid it, though Uvaia cried out at the flames just above.

Vaeri was standing a few yards off with luminous shields floating around her, and beside the elf priestess was Erik the human, sparks and embers emanating from his hand.

“Hey, there! Cavalry’s arrived!” Erik shouted, light from Vaeri’s magic glinting off his smile. I didn’t care how neither of them were remotely close to cavalry, all I felt was overwhelming relief.

“You have a lot to answer for, demon,” Vaeri hissed at Aconite, eyes glowing with holy light.

Aconite stared at them with hard eyes for a second before she turned and rushed out of sight. A high, clear howl cut through the night, and I tensed at the sound.

“Erik, she’ll be calling more rougarou. Can you wall us off?” I called – whether we’d be cutting Aconite off from us or in with us, either should limit her options. “Uvaia, are you alright?” I asked more softly, as Erik chanted familiar phrases and a sheet of orange fire formed on the ground, spreading around us in a circle and igniting several tents as it did.

“Aah… I’ll live,” Uvaia moaned, voice thin with pain as her wings fluttered and spasmed. “Really wouldn’t mind some healing, if that’s something you can do.”

I nodded quickly, and grit my teeth at the flares of pain from my midsection and arms. “Vaeri, heal Uvaia. Erik, blast Aconite wherever she appears. Without friendly fire, if you would.”

“Oh, did I singe ya? Sorry, fire magic’s kind of all over the place,” Erik told Uvaia, letting out an awkward laugh as Vaeri chanted in her tongue. “Now, where is that wolf bitch?” he added, eyes and voice hardening.

An answering wham came and Gia yelped and stumbled into sight around a tent, reaching up for the blindfold on her eyes as Aconite reeled back from her.

“How are you doing that?! Did you hear me? Smell me?” Aconite growled. Vaeri chanted and thrust a glowing hand at her but Aconite was gone from sight before the luminous spear even materialized.

“Everyone, gather in close!” I called, seeing Crassula run to help Gia now. “Vaeri, can you have your barriers surround all of us?” I asked, feeling relief as Uvaia struggled to her feet, though she was still holding one wing stiff.

Vaeri grimaced. “With reduced efficacy, but yes.” She gestured and the glowing discs spun wider, but no faster, their time shielding any one person now more limited.

Useless, with Aconite’s strength and speed. “Right, forget that. Erik, get ready to form a tighter circle, I want to buy time for her to heal everyone who needs it…” The words died on my tongue as an unexpected figure stepped up behind Vaeri and Erik, his green skin backlit by the flames. “Sedum?”

“Sedum!” Uvaia cried, as Vaeri startled and looked back but relaxed seeing the orc I’d had her heal previously. “Thank Suanil you’re alive, I was so worried!”

“ ‘Course I am. Managed to slip away.” His words were short as he came forward, and his shirt was buttoned up fully. He wasn’t wearing his armor. Of course, he wouldn’t have, to a tryst, but…

No. Something was wrong. He must have been within the wall of flames, watching and waiting for some time – or someone like Aconite could have jumped it, but Sedum couldn’t have himself. “Wait. Stop there,” I called sharply, but he kept moving. “Vaeri!”

“What?” Vaeri called back irritably, as Sedum, if it was him, stepped in close behind her. In within the guard of her shields.

He grabbed her shoulders and swung her toward him, and she let out a startled gasp cutting off as his hands seized her throat. Erik made a startled sound, but he was too slow, and I was too far.

Sedum gripped Vaeri’s neck for a half-second before grunting and pulling back, and for an instant I felt relief. Then his familiar face shifted to a wolf’s head, just like Aconite’s, and he dropped his head to Vaeri’s neck, snapping his teeth. There was a awful sound of ripping flesh. Then his jaws came away bloody, holding half of Vaeri’s throat.

The shields and luminous spear disappeared, and Vaeri let out a wet, gargling noise. She dropped to the ground limply, clutching desperately at her throat, but she couldn’t vocalize a healing spell, or any spell…

Erik let out a horrified scream of pain and fury, and flame exploded out of him without any incantation, sending Sedum reeling back. His body shifted into a wolf’s as it came aflame, bursting out of his clothes, but mid-change I spotted a red mark on his chest.

A werewolf bite, still red with blood. Still fresh.

“Yes, that’s more like it!” Aconite’s raucous laughter filled the air. I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach. “That’s what she earned for trying to steal away my toy. Couldn't wait to taste her, boy? Well, that's fine. She'll be just as dead.”

Erik let out another agonized cry, as Sedum jumped into a roll that snuffed out the fires burning his fur, and Aconite flashed into sight, looming over Crassula and Gia. “You’re not the only one who can keep something in reserve, strategist. I have to say,” She grabbed Crassula and threw her bodily through the air, grinning at me, yellow eyes gleaming. “I like these odds much better.”