Maxine was searching for a particularly large group of beasts called Wind Woves. There were one of the few beasts on this world that lived in excessively large groups. These creatures lived in groups of hundreds, sometimes thousands if it was lead by a particularly strong alpha. And as it's name implies, it has the wind element infused in it's core, which made it terrifyingly fast, but their speed should still be just shy of her own unless they had a cultivation within silver stage. Thankfully they typically don't get much stronger than the peak of iron stage. There were only a handful of alphas that strong on this planet.
She already had a plan on how to lure these beasts to the enemy base camp and that was to steal one of their alpha's pups. The biggest worry was during the chase. She knew she would have to avoid a barrage of wind blades.
The reason she insisted on doing this mission herself was because of Nina Cervantes' harrassment over the past couple days. Maxine had woken up two days in a row with Nina hovering over her with an odd smile on her face. It had been somewhat unnerving to say the least, but what scared her was when she woke up with Nina laying down next to her. She didn't know why Nina was behaving like this, but she knew that she had to get away from Nina at that point. Thus she ran to Commander Brackstone with her idea to thin out the Divine Marks clan's numbers.
Commander Brackstone's reaction was only somewhat surprising when she suggested her plan of attack. She had thought from his enraged expression that he would have said no, but he actually agreed to it after calming down.
"Those Divine Marks cowards have already thrown honor out the window by bringing such excessive amounts of people and technology. If we hinder ourselves by remaining honorable, we will only suffer for it. So go. Find others of a like mind to lure beasts to attack them," were the words he used before sending her off.
To minimize losses from either stupidity or lack of speed, Maxine had selected a dozen silver stage cultivators to out of several hundred to assist her. She had sat them all down and laid out her plan. Each of them would find a large group of beasts and find a way to lure them into portals that lead directly into the enemy base camp all at the same time. That way their defenses would be bypassed altogether and they would suffer heavy losses. To do that, they would meet up with Maxine, so that she could open the portals. The only problem was that they would have to get within three hundred feet of the enemy base camp to minimize her essence consumption. She needed every last bit of her strength to escape if she were discovered prematurely.
Unfortunately being that close to the enemy base camp also meant that they would be in range of the automated turrets and she would have to stop masking her mana and essence to open those portals. She didn't look forward to what she would expect would be a hail of weapons fire for the few moments that she would be detected.
Still, finding an alpha Wind Wolf with pups is no easy task. Any kind of wolf is notoriously gifted at hiding their pups from predators, especially so for Wind Wolves. They can use their wind element to prevent the scent of their pups from leaving the den. Checking every hole in the ground with her spiritual sense is out as well since the beasts would view it as an act of an aggressor and rush to defend the den. This meant she had to look for the den the old fashion way. She just hoped the others were having an easier time of finding their targets.
A gentle vibration from her dimensional pouch signaled her that one of the others found their target. It was Maxine's idea to use communication discs to notify each other that they found their target and they were supposed to send this signal to everyone in their group. They would only move to grab their targets once twelve vibrations were felt by everyone.
Thankfully, Maxine found the den of a female alpha Wind Wolf by accident when one of her ravens spotted it leaving it's den. To her surpise, it had a cultivation of silver stage rank three. Wow, that would explain why each my constructs have had to dodge over a dozen groups of patrolling Wind Wolves in the past twenty minutes. If I consider the density and the territory range of these beasts, there has to be at least three thousand of them in this area, probably more. With another look, she saw that it had swollen mammory glands as well. It was clearly rearing some pups.
This was literately a nearly perfect choice for the plan she had in mind, but she hesitated. The more powerful the beast, the more likely that it was sentient. If it was sentient, she would feel terrible for causing it such distress by stealing it's child and she would earn an enemy for life on top of that. She had to make sure that it wasn't. The only way she could though was to briefly touch it's mind to read it's surface thoughts, but that came with a risk. If it realized it was being spied on and it was sentient, it could lash out at her with it's own spiritual sense and it could seriously injure her. Regardless, she had to check if for no other reason than to give herself a peace of mind.
Maxine very gently extended out her spiritual sense to brush against the alpha Wind Wolf's mind. She found that it's thoughts were relatively simple. The wolf's hunger and thirst were very prominent within it's mind and it didn't appear to have any more complex thoughts than those. She retracted her spiritual sense from it's mind and released a relieved sigh. I really didn't want to have to look for another group of beasts.
She used her communication disc to send the vibration signal to the other twelve to let them know she was in position. Now all she had to do was wait and hope that the Wind Wolves didn't pick up on her scent.
While she waited she reviewed what she was going to do. Ok, the easiest way to go inside that den is to instantly scan the interior of it with my spiritual sense and in the next moment shadow step in. After I grab one of the pups, I will use shadow step again to go just outside of the den and run for it. That way I will leave a nice trail for the Wind Wolves to follow. The biggest drawback to this is that I will have to dodge wind blades from several different directions at once. Thankfully inside this dense forest there are plenty of shadows for me to use to shadow step out of the way. Seems safe enough, but it still carries some risk. However it isn't nearly as bad as what the others will have to deal with. I just hope they can make it to the rally point with relatively few injuries.
Even after waiting for four hours, only half of her team found a suitable group of beasts to lure to the Divine Marks Clan's base camp. She hated waiting while simultaneously evading discovery by Wind Wolves. She doubted the others liked waiting any more than she did under these conditions.
[Maxine, we need to talk,] Hellen said via spiritual sense.
[I figured you would. I'm not exactly doing something safe with my clone,] Maxine said while half expecting to get yelled at for volunteering for this mission.
[I'm not going to yell at you for doing something to keep our kinsmen from dying needlessly. I don't want them to die either,] Hellen said calmly.
[Then what did you want to talk about,] Maxine asked curiously and felt her dimensional pouch vibrate again. That's seven so far.
[How would you feel if Claudia were pregnant?] Hellen asked. Wow, that's a wierd question to ask.
[I would feel happy for her,] Maxine answered honestly, [But why did you bring this up? Isn't she sterile?]
[Not anymore. Your father made it so she could have children as a gift for taking such good care of Silky,] Hellen answered, [And she is currently one month into her pregnancy.] Maxine froze. She was both happy for her mother and confused at why Silky didn't tell her. Wait, Silky wouldn't have known what was going on. She may have smelled a change in mom's hormones but wouldn't have known what it meant. Also mom may not have even known she was pregnant either.
[That's great! I will have to congratulate her,] Maxine said happily.
[See that you do,] Hellen said, [Now, I best check on Orianna again before I return to my dormant state. I need all the energy I can muster for when your father places me into my new body.]
[Alright, mom. Take care,] Maxine said.
Since she still needed to wait for the others to give her the signal, she decided to place her focus back on her transformed ravens. They were eating bread crumbs off of the wall that the girl from earlier left them. She peeked through their eyes to look inside the base camp. It confirmed what she already knew and it gave her a good view of excellent warp in locations for herself and the other members of her team.
Just as she was about to switch her focus back to her clone, she noticed that there was a young demi-human boy wearing next to nothing running towards the wall. His forearms and shins were covered in snow white hair that had black leopard print spots. She spied a set of leopard ears on to the top of his head with a matching tail trailing behind him. Oh? What is that little guy doing here? Is he someone's kid here? Wait, the way he is moving doesn't indicate that.
However she knew the truth of the matter when the boy collapsed in apparent agony while grabbing at a black collar round his neck. A moment later, a large man appeared and a young woman that shared the boy's race appeared trying to shield him as the large man started beating the boy. I can't believe what I am seeing. Those motherfuckers are keeping slaves!
This scene reminded Maxine of her own childhood as her rage threatened to take control, but she managed to just barely keep it in check. Now was not the moment to strike. Instead she had her transformed ravens fly over the outer edge of the base camp to keep an eye on where the two leopardkin were taken. When her team lured the beast horde to the Divine Marks clan's base camp, she would use the chaos of the attack to murder that bastard and free those two leopard beastkin.
After another half hour of waiting, the remainder of her team sent their respective signals. Without hesitation, Maxine shadow stepped into the Wind Wolf den and grabbed one of the pups before shadow stepping just outside of the den to leave a nice scent trail for the beasts to follow. She hadn't even taken a step before she heard the alpha Wind Wolf howl in rage.
Without missing a beat, Maxine ran straight towards the Divine Marks clan's base camp as every Wind Wolf within several miles charged at her. Now for the tricky part. She knew that she would be dodging wind blades in the next few moments and prepared herself mentally for it as she extended her spiritual sense in a sphere around herself.
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She had run roughly seven hundred feet before she detected the first wind blade coming from her left. It would miss her, but just barely. Thus she ignored it. However that first wind blade acted as a signal for a dozens of other wind blades to be unleashed at her from almost every direction except for directly infront of her. She started dodging as smoothly as she could without slowing down, but that was a very difficult prospect.
Some of the wind blades only required her to lean to the side slightly. While others required her to duck, jump hard to the side or leap to avoid them. It had only been mere seconds since the attacks had started and she had already dodged at least twenty wind blades. Her armor was becoming increasingly more damaged as it kept absorbing glancing blows that she wasn't able to entirely dodge in time. Thankfully, she was only forced to use shadow step once.
She began to regret volunteering for this mission. Or even, suggesting it. She had never really thought that it would be this bad. However she got some reprieve when she managed to pull ahead of the Wind Wolves since the attacks were now only coming from behind her. I don't care what anyone says. Dodging attacks from multiple directions is fucking hard, especially when those attack are almost fucking invisible. Still, these critters are the best choice when it comes to thinning out the Divine Marks clan's forces. They are nasty up close, are used to working as a team, and have their own ranged attacks. I just wish that it wasn't so dangerous to lure them.
Maxine continued to narrowly dodge the barrage of wind blade coming at her from behind while maintaining a certain distance from the Wind Wolves. If she got too far away from them, they would give up on the pup that she stole from them. Animals in the wild are far more practical than humans in that respect and are not nearly as vengeful.
Fortunately she didn't have to maintain this for much longer. She was arrive at the Divine Marks clan's base camp in a few minutes at this pace. Fortunately those turrets wouldn't be able to spot her visually due to the dense foliage, so they would have to target her via equipment used to detect energies from beings of sufficient size. Hence she used an essence and mana masking technique, but if those automated turrets managed to lock on to her through that technique, this mission would go from difficult to down right suicidal.
She didn't have time to check it now as she entered the automated turrets targeting range. Moment of truth. Her transformed ravens almost immediately signaled her that the turrets were turning to aim in her direction. She prepared to dodge the ensueing weapons fire, but she released a relieved sigh as the various projectiles sailed over her head at the Wind Wolves behind her. However right before the projectiles pounded into the Wind Wolves, they were diverted to either the ground or into the sky five feet away from the Wind Wolves.
Maxine narrowed her eyes at that scene. That is something I would expect from intelligent beings. How are they able to do that? I checked them earlier. They are just dumb animals. She quickly scanned the Wind Wolves behind her to find the one directing them, but instead, she discovered something that she missed earlier. They were all linked through a strange form of spiritual sense. It was almost as if they had a hive mind. Oh god. This is bad! I've never encountered a beast that could do that before. In this situation, they could collectively remember me for stealing one of their pups. FUCK! Might as well make the most of it now and avoid their territory like death in the future.
She was within five hundred feet when she sensed the others approaching the rally point. All of them were wounded to some degree and were carrying the young of various beasts.
Maxine looked through her transformed ravens' eyes for a moment to mark several destinations before she quickly opened thirteen separate portals into the Divine Marks clan's base camp for everyon in her team to enter. She ran into the portal directly infront of her and entered the enemy base camp.
She immediately activated a stealth technique and ran past a few Divine Marks clansmen before depositing the Wind Wolf pup nearby. The others would find an opportune moment to flee out of a portal that she made or find another means to leave the Divine Marks base camp without being seen if possible. But Maxine wasn't going to leave just yet. She still had to free that leopardkin woman and boy.
Fortunately, the beast horde was wreaking havoc within the Divine Marks clan's base camp and that gave her enough of a distraction to find those two. The Divine Marks clansmen just didn't have the time to find the culprits for this mayhem right now.
Maxine checked with her transformed raven to see which building that large man dragged those two leopard kin into and made her way to it while avoiding the now panicked Divine Marks clansmen that kept narrowly missing her. Thankfully, it wasn't that far from where she infiltrated into the Divine Marks clan's base camp.
Once inside, she saw that this place was empty, but she smelled something oddly familiar. However she couldn't quite place what it was. Whatever it was, it made her angry for some reason. She immediately heard ae faint sound of meaty smacks. Is that bastard still beating that boy?! I'll kill that him in the most painful way possible!
Maxine charged through the nearly empty building to the source of the sound behind a door. When she opened it, her fury erupted like a volcano at what she saw. The large man from before was bare from the waist down and thrusting his hips violently between the leopardkin woman's spread legs. The leopardkin boy was off to the side covered in so many injuries that Maxine wasn't sure if he was still even alive.
The large man looked over his shoulder and he growled, "What is it? Can't you see..." Maxine didn't let him finish as she used tendrils made of shadow to bind him to a wall and gag him as she shut the door. Judging by how easily she was able to restrain him, she guessed that his strength was no more than iron stage rank seven.
She was surprised at herself at how calmly she was acting considering the amount of rage she felt. She walked over to the leopardkin boy to see if he was still alive. She saw the weak rising and falling of his chest. She retrieved a healing potion and gently fed it to him. The leopardkin woman came to her side and Maxine realized that she was his mother due to the similarities of their faces.
Maxine stood up from the leopardkin boy while his mother spoke soothingly to him and she faced the large man, whom was still quite aroused. In her fury, she quickly transformed into her battleform and slashed the bastards dick to bloody shreds with her claws. His muffled screams were a delight to her ears, but she couldn't fully indulge her fury. She didn't have the time for it.
She walked closer to that bastard to look him in the eye before she asked, "How do I remove those collars? Answer me now or pain will follow."
She removed the gag from his mouth, and listend to what he had to say, "You crazy bitch! Do you know who..." Maxine replaced the gag without letting him finish and grabbed his left testicle before crushing it into meat paste inside of his scrotum. He jerked and screamed through the gag as sweat started pouring off of him like a river. However she calmly waited for him to finish screaming.
When he finally calmed down enough to speak, she said, "Answer my question. Or do I need to make it so you can never have children again?"
She removed the gag once more, but this time he was much more cooperative as he wept, "The data pad... in my dimensional storage pouch. The password is ... Jekral3. It can send a ... signal to release them. Please, ... don't .. don't ruin me."
"I won't as long as you have spoken the truth," Maxine said as reapplied the gag. She looked around briefly and found his dimensional storage pouch on the floor along with his pants. She retrieved the datapad and keyed in the password. She found that these two leopardkin weren't the only two enslaved in this place. There were at least fifty others that he was in charge of. She quickly keyed in a few commands to free all of them at once and heard as well as saw the collars on the two leopardkin in the room fall off. Good. Now to gather all of these poor souls and get them out of here. But I know my clan won't be able to take care of all these people. That gives me an idea. I could use a bit more population for my village in the shadow world.
"You, go get all of the others enslaved in this place and gather them in the hall. I will take you out of here," Maxine told the leopardkin woman, "And don't worry about being seen. The rest of the Divine Marks clan members here have their hands full dealing with a beast horde."
"What about my son?" the leopardkin woman asked.
"He will live for now, but only if we can get him out of here. Now go!" Maxine yelled at her and after she left, Maxine turned back to face the large man. However, he was having some kind of seizure.
She quickly scanned his body with her spiritual sense and found that his blood vessels and nerves were being destroyed by the venom from her claws. While at the same time, his essence was trying to heal the damage inflicted by it. The whole process was causing him to be in tremendous pain. Without help, he would be dead within two hours or ten minutes after his essence ran out. Wow, so that's what the venom on my claws does. It's brutal, but this bastard deserves it and more.
She looked at the bastard in the eye. He still had some semblance of awareness and she noticed that he wanted to say something. So she removed the gag to see what he was going to say, "Antidote... please."
"I don't have one. In fact, this is the first time I have ever seen what happens to someone affected by the venom from my claws, so I have no antidote," Maxine stated, "But, if you are lucky, your clanmates might find you in time to save you, but I doubt it. They are rather occupied at the moment and even if they gave you a general antidote, I don't think it would have much effect on my venom." She saw the dispair in his eyes before she released the tendrils holding him onto the wall. He flopped down bonelessly onto the ground. Even without the bindings, he didn't appear to be able to move, so she ignored him.
Maxine walked over to the leopardkin boy to pick him up and left the room. In the hallway, she saw various demi-humans looking at her hopefully. Most of them were women, but there were a few men and children amongst them as well. There was even a lamia in the back. Wow, I know I have said this before at one point but what kind of sick pervert wants to have sex with a snake? I don't care if the upper half is that of a beautiful woman. The bottom half is still that of a snake.
"How are we going to leave this place?" the leopardkin woman said as she gently took her son from Maxine.
"I have a means to teleport us out, but before I do, I have a question for all of you. Would you people rather go to my clan or to my territory?" Maxine asked them. I need more people to defend it. Canis and the others are doing a great job, but if they are attacked by a large enough force, they will get overwhelmed. They need numbers.
"Is there a difference? Either way we will be slaves. The only difference is who our master will be," the lamia in the back said.
"No, you will not," Maxine answered, "My clan abhors slavery and will try to return you to your homeworlds. However there is still a chance you will be recaptured if you go that route, but if you come to my territory, I promise that as long as you live there no one will make a slave of you. You will be free to do as you wish."
"Lies!" the lamia said angrily.
"I swear upon my mother that my words are true," Maxine said resolutely and noticed the sounds of fighting from outside were starting to get less intense, "Decide now. We don't have any more time to discuss this. Who wants to go to my territory and who wants to go to my clan?" Within seconds, most of them said that they wanted to go to Maxine's territory. Only an older looking foxgirl and the lamia wanted to go to the Kavros clan.
"This will only take a moment," Maxine said as she expanded her shadow. She warped the lamia and the older foxgirl to the Kavros clan's base camp and the rest to the shadow world just outside the village where her shadow clone was waiting to heal the leopardkin boy. She hadn't been lying when she said he would need more help than her potion.
Maxine followed right behind the two going to the Kavros clan's base camp. I wonder how the commander will react to me bringing those two back to our camp and that I released fifty members of their brothel. I bet loosing those girls will effect their moral. Too bad this sneak attack with the beast horde will only work once and they will probably modify their auto turrets to target using thermal optics from now on as well. I just hope they took some heavy losses from this attack.