Maxine woke up in her quarters at the Kavros base camp feeling amazing. She had last night's activities with Emily to thank for that. Just thinking about what they did brought a light blush to her cheeks. However the conversation they shared afterwards while they cuddled was important as well.
They had talked about when they would have their babies. Emily had explained that she didn't want to have hers until after she was finished with school. She wasn't worried about money since she already had a job lined up as a healer at the cultivator treatment center on Earth for when she graduated. However Emily had revealed that she wanted to further her education by studying human anatomy in order to be a better healer.
Maxine was more than happy to oblige her in that regard, but in a different way than Emily expected. She transfered all of the knowledge on human and beastkin anatomy to Emily via spiritual sense that Guan had insisted that Maxine memorize. It had taken nearly an hour for Emily to absorb it all. By that time their dinner had been long since ready to eat and they had both got dressed to dine on the cold meal.
A knock on the door got Maxine's attention back to the present and she asked through it, "Who is it?"
"Maxine, it's me," Jenifer Krell said from outside the door, "Commander Brackstone sent me to fetch you."
"Did he say what for?" Maxine asked as she quickly put on her spare set of leather armor. The one she wore the day before had been sent to the leatherworkers for repairs and wouldn't be completely repaired for another few days. .
"Sorry, but no," Jenifer Krell said.
Maxine finally finished getting her armor on and opened the door to the hallway. "I guess I will find out when we get there. Lead the way," Maxine said. However Jenifer Krell gave Maxine a wierd look before leading the way to the Commander Brackstone's newly constructed command center.
"Did anything happen between you and Nina last night?" Jenifer asked.
"No," Maxine said while feeling a bit confused, "Why?"
"Well, it's just you have the same wierd smirk on your face that my mother does the day after dad comes home from a long mission," Jenifer Krell said with a knowing smile on her lips, "And I was wondering who it was that you spent the night with."
"It's none of your business to know who I spent the night with," Maxine chided.
"So there was someone!" Jenifer Krell said in an excited tone as she slowed down, "So who was it, if not Nina? Was it Sara? Jasmine? Or was it one of the boys in the camp?"
"It's. None. Of. Your. Business," Maxine reiterated, "Now if I'm not mistaken, Commander Brackstone is waiting on us."
"Oh, right!" Jenifer Krell said and she doubled their pace. Due to the faster pace, they arrived after only a couple more minutes.
"Thanks for the escort," Maxine said with a smile as she walked inside of the command center. Like in the tent before, the center of the large building was occupied by a holographic image of the surrounding terrain. Only this time, there were a lot blue dots moving across it. She quickly recognized them as the positions of various patrols moving around the base camp.
"Young miss, up here," Commander Brackstone said from a raised platform. Maxine looked around for an obvious means to get to him and used the stairs to her left to reach him.
"May I ask why you wanted to talk to me, commander?" Maxine asked as respectfully as she could. She really hated to abide by military discipline. She had been betrayed by soldiers almost every time she dealth with them. The only real exception being General McKenzie, Emily's grandfather. In any case, the commander appeared to have a loose sense of discipline and hadn't given Maxine any bad vibes yet. Not to mention it would mean his very painful death if it was discovered that he had caused her greivous injury intentionally.
"I thought you might want to know how successful your mission was," Commander Brackstone said with an obvious smile on his lips, "Those beasts decimated their forces by killing three times their number. Those bastards weren't even able to mount a proper defense. Although it's quite hard to mount a defense against a surprise attack inside your own base."
"How many troops did they loose?" Maxine asked expectantly.
"Almost twelve thousand were killed and fifty of those were silver stage. To top it off, only one of our people came back heavily injured. I couldn't have asked for better results," Commander Brackstone said almost gleefully, "Too bad that method of yours was a one time trick. They would've come up with some countermeasures for it by now."
"How exactly would they do that?" Maxine asked. She couldn't think of any means to keep it from happening herself. How exactly do you eliminate a shadow? It doesn't matter what you do there will always be one.
"It's actually quite easy. They mixed glowstone powder into a paint and painted every surface visible from the outside their base with it. It runs under the principal if there is no shadow, there will be no portals," Commander Brackstone said, "The only draw back to that tactic is that every surface painted with that stuff never stops glowing, so they may have trouble sleeping at nights."
"Well, that can also be beneficial to us," Maxine reasoned, "Sleep deprivation will effect their combat prowess."
"Not enough, I'm afraid. They still outnumber us almost three to one," Commander Brackstone said, "But now our chances of victory are far more feasible."
"Indeed," Maxine said, "Now, what's our next step?"
"Hit and run tactics for now," Commander Brackstone said firmly, "And that is the other reason why I have called you here." Shit. I knew he didn't just want to tell me about my success. He wants to use me to thin them out some more. I just hope I don't have to go anywhere near those Wind Wolves' territory.
"Just tell me what you need. I will see what I can do," Maxine said.
"Good to hear. The enemy is searching for use quite aggressively in large numbers. They are currently eight hundred miles to our northeast and each scouting force is spread out quite thinly with very little overlap of their spiritual sesne. Each of those scouting forces are at least fifty strong, but only the larger groups are lead by a silver stage cultivator. Your mission is to eliminate as many of these scouting forces as you can before they can discover us. Use whatever means you deem necessary as long as they do not violate any Alliance rules," Commander Brackstone said.
"If there are any groups larger than one hundred, I won't be able to beat them with just my constructs," Maxine said, "I'm assuming that I notify you or your assistant commander if I were to encounter one such group?" That isn't entirely true. I could face a force larger than that, but I would have to reveal a few of my trump cards to get the job done.
"That is correct. Any other questions?" Commander Brackstone asked and Maxine shook her head, "Good hunting, young miss and please be sure to cover yourself if your armor gets damaged again." Maxine didn't have to fake her anger as she used her essence to make a light blush appear on her cheeks.
"Don't EVER remind me of that again!" Maxine yelled angrily and stormed out of the command center. She continued her angry walk up until she returned to her quarters and instantly relaxed all of her muscles. I hate having to fake having the same level of modesty as the rest of my clan members. Hell, I would feel fine running around in just a bikini, but that would be too much of a distraction for our own troops to be a good idea.
"Maxine? Are you okay in there? You seemed angry when you left the command center," Jenifer Krell asked through the door. I wasn't aware that Jenifer followed me back.
"Yes, I'm fine. The commander reminded me about the state of my equipment last week," Maxine answered, "In any case, I have a mission to attend to. I will be dropping by the quartermaster soon to grab a month worth of food and water. Could you let them know I'm going to be headed that way?"
"Sure, no problem," Jenifer said before she left. Finally, now I can think of an attack plan.
She looked around and shoved a few items into her dimensional storage pouch on the off chance that she will need them. Attacking at night is out. My failed attempt at scouting unseen proved that. So, ambushing them is the only choice I have. Now all I have to do is figure out how. I could lay in wait for a group, but I'll have to accurately determine where each group that I can handle will pass through. That could be a problem. Or I could lure a group in a killing field that I prepared ahead of time. Both methods of ambush have their merits, but luring them into an ambush can always backfire. They could call for reinforcements and they could arrive while I'm still dealing with the first group. That would lead to my constructs being heavily damaged if not outright destroyed.
Maxine finally finished gathering her things when she opened the door to her quarters to find Nina Cervantes reaching up to knock on the door. "Uhh, hi," Nina said.
"Hello, Nina," Maxine said with a smile, "Sorry, I can't chat today. I have been assigned a mission. It's not one you would want to join me on. Trust me. It's going to be rough."
"It's fine," Nina said casually, but she seemed to get somewhat nervous as she added, "Do you mind if I escort you out?"
"Of course, you can," Maxine said with a smile as she snatched Nina's hand and dragged her along to the base camp's exit. They drew the gazes of several clanmates, but regardless of how they felt about it, there wasn't a soul that did anything about it.
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She only did this to solidify their fake relationship. She knew it was far safer for everyone if Nina didn't see any real combat. Chances were that if she saw combat that she would flee and that would leave several team mates open to an attack. Playing the role of Nina's lover avoided such a scenario from happening.
They made it to the northern exit to the base camp without any issues. Maxine turned to face Nina and said, "Well, I need to head out now. I will see you when I get back. Stay safe."
"You too," Nina said with a dazzling smile. Wow, she is really doing a great job acting. Either that or she really does like me. I better make sure she understands that I am only doing this to prevent future problems.
Maxine turned and left the base camp through a set of huge doors. She quickly made her way to the northwest. It would take her several hours traveling by foot, but if she encountered a lot of beasts along the way, it could take her several days. I could use my dragon to traverse most of the distance, but I need to approach that area from the west. I don't want to give them any idea of where our base is by coming straight to them.
Maxine quickly summoned her dragon and took flight to the northwest. She couldn't take the risk that the enemy forces had really spread out their more than the commander made her believe. She only flew for six hundred miles before she had her dragon land.
She quickly dismissed her dragon back to the shadow world before summoning 120 shadow wolves. She would use half of them to look for the scouting forces. The rest will be her escorts to keep local beasts from bothering her.
It didn't take her Shadow Wolves long to find a scouting group. They were nearly four hundred miles to the west from where Commander Brackstone had said they would be. Fortunately this group numbered only seventy and surprisingly it wasn't lead by a silver stage cultivator.
She made a note of which direction they were heading in and traveled to a spot just outside of their spiritual sense to setup an ambush. All of her Shadow Wolves leaped into various shadows and Maxine masked her presence as best as she could. She had a feeling they were on guard against such tactics.
She didn't have to wait long before they approached her spot. The young men in front acting as the vanguard were chatting with each other.
"... personally find out which one of those bastards came up with the idea to lure that beast horde into our base. I lost my best friend to that attack," one of them said.
"I heard that it was their young miss that came up with that. And we both know that that the Patriarch's wife wants that girl captured aliv. What she has planned for that girl will be far worse than anything we could come up with," another one of them said, "Especially after what happened to her cousin." Huh? Did I miss something? The only guy I killed was that bastard raping Nia. Was that her cousin?
"Wasn't he the one operating that brothel on the west side of our base?" the first one said. So he was Nora Marks' cousin. That's a surprise. It's strange how both her son and cousin are scum. Not that she is that good of a person either to allow them to get away with that shit. I wonder if the rest of her family are just as bad. On second thought, I rather not know.
"Yeah, that was him. Their young miss must really favor those animals. Why else would she kill him with that cruel poison," the other one said, "The alchemists couldn't even figure how to even counter it. I think I heard one of them say it was very similar to hydra venom, but due to the wierd essence empowering it, the antidote that they had on hand was useless." Hm, that makes sense. Certain types of essence react differently with physical objects, or in this case, venom. The current antidote for hydra venom neutralizes both the venom and negates poison essence at the same time. But I have both essence and mana. Wouldn't that mean the venom of my battleform is harder to neutralize? Regardless, I don't have time to think about that now. Those guys just reached the perfect spot for my ambush.
With a thought, she commanded her Shadow Wolves to leap out of the shadows they were hiding in. Each of the Divine Marks clan's warriors had at least two Shadow Wolves attacking them. Half of them didn't even have time to react to the sudden sneak attack before they were brutally slaughtered. The remainder, except for one, were able to block the first Shadow Wolf pouncing on them, but not the second. The last man standing was quite skilled since he was able to knock both of the Shadow Wolves attacking him before grabbing onto a badge pinned to his armor. However that was the last thing he did.
Maxine fired a crystaline essence dart straight through his heart from behind him. She knew it was cowardly, but she didn't want to take any chances that he might be able to counter attack. However even with a wound through his heart, she was still hesitant to approach him and had one of her Shadow Wolves approach his body instead. She had no idea if there were any trinkets that might attack anyone or anything that approaches his body as a final fuck you to his killer.
After nothing happened, Maxine quickly started gathering up various dimensional pouches from the corpses that now littered the ground. There was no telling what sort of treasure they kept on themselves. Unfortunately that last man standing might have sent out a signal through his badge for help. If that was the case, she had only a few minutes to gather whatever she could before she had to leave, or she would be swarmed by several scouting groups. That would be well beyond her ability to fight.
While she gathered the dimensional pouches, she ordered her Shadow Wolves to enter her shadow. If someone got close enough to scan this place with their spiritual sense. They may not detect her due to her stealth technique.
After stuffing the last dimensional pouch into a backpack she brought with her, she bolted off away from the battle site as quickly as she could. She doubted they would be able to track her without her physically being there. They would be able to if they had a single tracker amongst them, but that was unlikely. Even amongst her clanmates, she hadn't once encountered a tracker that used their ordinary senses to track an animal. It was something Maxine had learned out of necessity in the other timeline before she learned to use spiritual sense. So long as she got far enough away before they arrived, she would get away without having to fight a prepared opponent. She could still win if she had to, but she would suffer injuries to her constructs or herself.
While she ran, she was constantly on guard. She eventually found a cave hidden behind a tree and quickly ran into it. Thankfully it wasn't occupied. She knew from experience that rock of any kind inhibited spiritual sense. It was a boon when she saw realized the cave wasn't straight. It curved sharply after about twenty feet in.
She went well behind the curve and waited. After only a minute of waiting, she heard at least two groups rush pass the entrance of the cave. It will be at least a few hours before they stop looking for me. This activity definitely proves that the leader from scout group reported being attacked by wolves that jumped out of shadows. That will let them know that someone with the shadow attribute is on the battlefield, but it won't tell them who. There are at least twelve in my clan that can use constructs within my age group that are fighting in this war. Although only two besides me can control more than one hundred. Regardless, I can get away with an ambush like that one or two more times before they start developing a countermeasure for it. However most of the countermeasures that I can think of require them to either have the scouting forces closer together or make them larger. Either way it will slow down their progress considerably. So I still win.
Maxine was drawn from her thoughts when she heard a distinct sound of shifting gravel. She peeked around the corner and saw a woman chasing a huge wolf of some kind. It had to be at least three hundred pounds and it appeard to be carrying a wolfkin child on it's back.
"Come back here you miserable bitch!" a woman roared as an spear shaped essence attack struck the hind legs of the wolf causing a bloody hole as big around as Maxine's wrist. The wolf collapsed onto the ground and the wolfkin girl was thrown off painfully to the ground.
"Don't hurt my Mommy!" the wolfkin girl screamed as she got back to her feet and shielded the injured wolf with her body. The woman smiled sadistically as she approached them. Maxine's rage boiled to the surface when she saw that sadistic grin, but she didn't move. She was still unsure if anyone else was with the woman. She didn't want to risk discovery.
"I wouldn't have hurt her if she hadn't decided to run away," the woman said as her smile widened, "Now you will both have to be punished." The woman finally reached the wolfkin girl with a spear raised high as if she were about to club the wolfkin child with it.
Maxine checked behind them one last time to seeif any others were coming and didn't see anything. Which was just as well since she couldn't tolerate what was happening anymore and shadow stepped directly behind that villainous woman. "No, you will not," Maxine said coldly as she grabbed the back of the woman's head and her chin before twisting her head around violently to face Maxine. A look of shock was plastered all over that woman's face as the life faded from her eyes..
She released the woman and the woman's corpse fell down limply on the ground. She spat on the vile woman in disgust before looking at the wolfkin girl and the injured wolf. The wolf was bleeding badly and had lost way more blood than it should have. It wouldn't last much more than another minute or two and that was being generous. There was little Maxine could do. Her potions took much time to work.
"Please, help my mommy!" the wolfkin girl pleaded. The wolfkin girl only looked to be around ten years old now that Maxine could see her better, but that only made it worse.
"I'm sorry. There is nothing I can do," Maxine said apologetically and the wolfkin girl started crying as she clutched the dying wolf in her arms..
[Please, I beg of you. Take care of my Luna,] a woman's voice resounded in Maxine's head and she realized that it was the dying wolf.
[I would have even if you hadn't asked,] Maxine responded to the dying wolf.
[Thank you,] the wolf answered as it closed it's eyes and died a couple moments later.
"MOMMY! DON'T LEAVE ME! I STILL NEED YOU!" Luna wailed in agony and started to cry as she hugged the now dead wolf.
Maxine knelt down next to Luna and pulled the weeping child into her embrace. Gently she stroked the child's hair as her shoulder quickly began to get damp. "It's alright. Your mommy is at peace now. No one can hurt her anymore," Maxine said comfortingly.
After awhile Luna stopped crying and said hatefully, "I want them all to die!"
"Believe me when I tell you that won't make the pain go away. It will only make you feel hollow inside afterwards," Maxine advised Luna as she remembered her own quest for vengeance when Alice died in the other timeline. It hadn't taken much effort for her to find the culprits. It was like they wanted to get caught and she was only too happy to show them what cruelty really was.
She had tied them to boulders with steel cables with their asses exposed and in the air. Next she captured several essence beasts and fed them potent aphrodisiacs. The result was almost too painful to watch, almost. Each of those bastards had gotten mounted by those beasts and were begging for death before the beasts even started thrusting their hips. She ignored their pleas and watched as those beasts violated those foul men over and over again until the essence beasts died from exhaustion two days later. Then and only then did she kill the men that raped and killed her sister. She completed her vengeance, but it hadn't made her feel any better.
"I don't .. care. I want them to die," the little wolfkin girl said hoarsely.
"I know, but you are not the warrior that I am. Leave it to me. I was going to kill the Divine Marks clansmen in large numbers anyways," Maxine said firmly, and when Luna tried to speak again, Maxine cut her off, "Enough of that. Do you have any other relatives?"
"No. C... can I stay with you?" Luna asked fearfully.
"We shall see but for now, I will send you somewhere safe. Everyone there is extra nice and you will always have plenty of food to eat and time to play," Maxine said."
"Really?" Luna asked hopefully.
"Yes. In fact, they are having venison tonight," Maxine said, "Are you ready to go there now?"
"Yes, but can I bring mommy? I want to bury her," Luna said.
"Of course," Maxine said as she sent both Luna and the wolf's corpse to the shadow world. Luna arrived not five feet from Maxine's shadow clone.
Once Luna was with her shadow clone, Maxine faced the exit to the cave with a determined expression on her face. If any group or people did this before I was fused with the original Maxine, I would have slaughtered them. I've become a coward. All I've done is made excuses as to why I shouldn't go all out, but that's all they are. No more. I won't let those bastards hurt beastkin any more. Time for a fucking slaughter. So long as I don't show off my Shadow Lord form, or rather my Shadow Queen form, everything should be fine.