Maxine woke up in the hospital basement and stretched the morning after she freed the elves. While stretching, she got a whiff of herself and recoiled. Oh, god. When was the last time I bathed? She realized she hadn't bathed for a few days. Thankfully, she didn't stink that strongly, but it was enough to make her feel dirty. I want to take a long hot bath, but this hospital doesn't have a bathtub. Nor did I think to pack one. I figured I would be bathing in rivers, small lakes, or the occassional natural hot spring.
She quickly sweeped the hospital with her spiritual sense to look for an unoccupied room with a shower. She found several, but only one was in a place that was connected to a lightly traversed hallway. Unfortunately, it was traversed enough that she would be lucky if she wasn't discovered before finishing her shower. Damn it. I really want to have a hot shower. I will just have to risk it. They know I'm in the area anyways after I freed the fairies and elves. What's the harm in them spotting me taking a shower? Well, aside from being seen naked, that is.
She shadow stepped into the bathroom attached to the hospital room. She didn't bother turning on the lights since she could use her spiritual sense to see and it allowed her to shadow step away should anyone come to investigate the running shower.
She disrobed and got into the shower. She created dozens of tendrils with body scrubbers on the ends to aid her in cleaning every inch of her body. Unfortunately the shower wasn't as hot as she would have liked it. Instead it was only slightly above luke warm. Still, it was far better than bathing in a cold river.
Maxine had just finished bathing when she sensed someone entering into the adjacent hospital room. It was a male nurse and he was reaching for the bathroom door knob. She had forgotten to lock it. She quickly snatched up her clothes and turned off the shower in the same motion. She had finished her maneuver just in time to shadow step away before the man could get an eyeful.
She promptly got put her dirty clothes away and started getting dressed in clean clothing just incase the night elves decided to come see her at that moment. Regardless of the close call, she still felt happier now that she was clean. She was able to enjoy this clean sensation for all of ten seconds before she sense the red fire drake's spiritual sense connect to her mind.
[So that's where you've been hiding, little hyra halfling,] the red fire drake said mockingly, [It must be humiliating being forced to hide like this.]
[Remind me again, how were you caught?] Maxine returned the mocking with a cruel question, [Let me guess, they found you while you slept.]
[FUCK YOU!] the red fire drake roared. Wow, I was right!? I only said that because dragons tend to hybernate for decades at a time after being active for a century or two.
[You have only yourself to blame for not picking a better hiding spot during your long nap,] Maxine retored with a guess, [Now why have you sought me out?]
[I'm honoring my agreement with you,] the red fire drake growled, [Now tell me where those vermin are so we can be done with this arrangement.]
[I already told you I don't know where they are. If I did, you would be the first to know,] Maxine answered calmly, [Regardless of how weak those idiots are, they are very cautious. It will take some time to locate all of them.]
She felt the red fire drake rage through the connection for a moment before she got a response, [Fine, but do not make me wait long.]
[You could always take your rage out on those four armed creeps,] Maxine offered.
[I have been. It's not enough to sate my fury on insects that can't even fight back,] the red fire drake answered.
[I understand. I will sent more of my pets to seek them out,] Maxine said calmly and smiled when she checked on Cassandra. She was looking straight at one of the supreme commander's lackeys. [I think I've found one of them. Head to the the coordinates I'm sending you. He will appear there soon,] Maxine notified the red fire drake. It's not like it will fuck up their defense too much. Any decent military leader always has a few subordinates that can take over should he fall sick or die unexpectedly.
[Excellent,] the red fire drake said with sadistic glee as the spiritual sense connection was severed.
Maxine took another look at Cassandra's surroundings through the pendant she wore and was surprised that she was still in the general's tent. And Cassandra looked like she bit into something she really didn't like as she stared at the general. The general on the other hand was smiling with a twinkle in his eyes that Maxine didn't like.
"General Bertram, what you just suggested violates several military laws," Cassandra said with a cold look on her face. I definitely missed something.
"You are correct of course," General Bertram said in amusement, "But I can always assign your unit to the very front of the defensive line before I leave."
"So, you're threatening me now?" Cassandra asked angrily, "Say you did that, It would be a waste of resources and the supreme commander hates wasting resources. I wonder what he will do to you once he finds out why one of the top five draconic warriors died in battle. Not to mention, what Maxine will do to you once she finds out all of her hard work was wasted."
"You're assuming she will find out," General Bertram said with amusement, "And even if she does, I very much doubt that she is so stupid as to appear in the middle of a military camp filled with draconic warriors. We'd capture her in seconds."
"I can't even begin to point out how wrong that statement is," Cassandra said and Maxine swiftly created an arch behind General Bertram, "And by the way, you shouldn't insult Maxine so carelessly. You never know when she might be listening in through one of her pets." Cassandra was smiling as she said those words.
Before General Bertram could respond, Maxine walked through the portal and with a cruel tone, said, "Yes, you never know when I might be listening."
"How... how did you get in here?" General Bertram asked fearfully, "You've never been here before nor could you see inside of this tent from a distance."
"But my pets can hide in shadows if you've forgotten," Maxine pointed out, "And I see what they see, most of the time. I'm glad that you're smart enough not to call for help."
"What are you going to do to me?" General Bertram asked fearfully.
"Me? Nothing," Maxine said honestly, and as General Bertram relaxed, she added, "But a certain large reptile wants to thank you for all the care you and the rest of your leadership gave her."
"I don't know what you're talking about," General Bertram said firmly, but she saw the fear in his eyes.
"It doesn't matter to her if you know or not. She wants vengeance and since you are one of the people in charge, you are at fault," Maxine said and she started dragging him to the arch as she switched the destination to the spot she told the red fire drake about, "Now, I can imagine she is getting impatient."
"Wait, you can't take him," Cassandra said, "I will get in trouble if you take him without a fight."
"You do have a point, but I have a solution. It's just one you won't like, so sorry in advance," Maxine said apologetically and she blasted Cassandra with an energy wave to knock her out of the command tent. Maxine quickly jumped through the portal arch before closing it behind her. I hope Cassandra isn't too pissed about that.
It was at that moment that she felt the breath of the red fire drake against her back. [Is that one of the worms that is responsible for me being caged in that hole?] the red fire drake asked angrily.
[I believe so,] Maxine replied as she smelled a strong scent of urine. General Bertram had pissed his pants.
[He smells of fear,] the red fire drake said.
[That's urine you're smelling,] Maxine corrected.
[Don't correct me,] the red fire drake said, [Now go. You don't want to see what I do to this worm.]
[As you wish,] Maxine said as she walked under the shade of a tree and created a portal back to the hospital's basement. She heard bloodcurdling screams just before she managed to close the portal behind her. I almost feel about about that that bastard's fate.
Maxine quickly checked on Cassandra to see what happened and true to her expectations, Cassandra was yelling orders at the surrounding soldiers. Her clothes were heavily damaged, but were still able to cover her feminine traits. I didn't think there was enough force behind that attack to ruin her clothes. On second thought, they might not have easy access to high durability clothing on this world. They are rather isolated.
However when Maxine expanded her spiritual sense further around Cassandra, she noticed the entire base camp was filled with activity, and a few of the officers were looking off into the distance. She quickly directed her spiritual sense in that direction and found a massive army of four-horned kanzils. She couldn't even begin to guess their numbers. I'm going to go on a limb here and say they brought at least a fifth of their forces.
Maxine quickly focused on Cassandra when a scout approached her. "Report," Cassandra ordered.
"Ma'am, a force of roughly five million invaders is approaching our location. If we take into account their normal warrior ratios, that will mean we will face at a minimum fifty gold core warriors and five thousand silver core ones.]
"And how many do we have?" Cassandra asked an officer that just arrived to her left.
"We have ten thousand silver core warriors, but only ten gold core warriors, including yourself," an officer answered, "But need I remind you that their gold core warriors rarely partake in the battle." I've seen their weaponry. Their soldiers and weaker warriors can deal with the ground troops and their stilver stage warriors outnumber the four horned kanzils enough that it shouldn't be an issue beating them. It's the gold stagers that are the problem. If they join in the battle, all of those men and women will die.
"That doesn't mean they won't, Lieutenant General Burns," Cassandra retorted.
"Noted, commander," Lieutenant General Burns said, "But it's now my job to form our strategy. However it doesn't mean I'm like General Bertram. I'm willing to hear any advice a skill warrior, like yourself, has to offer."
"I'd keep our gold core warriors on standby. As far as I've seen, they only send their gold core warriors in when we do it first. This way we don't give them an excuse to join in the attack," Cassandra recommended.
"I'll take your recommendation," Lieutentan General Burns said in a calm tone, "Now go inform our warriors."
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"Yes, sir!" Cassandra said before she took flight towards the other draconic warriors.
Maxine focused on the city that they were protect. The civilians that were left in the city were rushing towards the transport craft. Sadly she didn't think even half of them would fit. Shit, that's bad. If I were to help the locals in the battle, they are just as likely to attack me as the four-horned kanzils, but if I don't, their odds of survival doesn't look too good. I just have to avoid being seen by them. Hmm, I havn't brought out my constructs in a while. I could bring another 44 of my shadow wolves to this planet and have my 99 Shadow Wolves fuse into 33 Shadow Wolf Kings. That would definitely even out the odds, but not enough. Even if I include my dragon, it wouldn't be enough. I guess I will have an opportunity to use that bow Aenwynn gave me. She mentioned that elves have a natural affinity for using them and I would pick up the skill fairly quick. If nothing else, I can practice on the weaker ones to get a feel for archery.
She quickly refocused her mind on the city Cassandra and Decaan were in and looked around it for a thickly forested area. She found one, but it was a few miles away from the four-horned kanzils. That will have to do. She created a portal to the forest and ran through it.
Once at the forest, she summoned the fifty Shadow Wolves that she left at her old lair to her current location and summoned another 44 to her side from the shadow world. While she waited for them to combine into Shadow Wolf Kings, she retrieved a silver elven bow from her dimensional ring. Even now, she had no idea what metal it was made of, but she knew it was meant to grow with her. Aenwynn told her as much.
She wanted to test it and created a basic arrow out of her energies. She took careful aim at a tree a few hundred feet away, and hit the tree. However it was ten feet higher on the tree than she intended. She quickly corrected her aim and tried again. She missed her mark again, but this time it was only off by a few inches. Hmm, I need to have a near perfect aim if I want to snipe with this bow. Still, I'm surprised that I'm improving this quickly.
After a few dozen more shots, she was hitting her mark almost dead on. She wanted to practice more, but she felt the ground shaking weakly from the march of a millions four-horned kanzils. My aim will have to do for now. I don't have any time left to practice.
Maxine quickly moved to the edge of the forest with her shadow wolf kings in tow. She only glanced at the moving four-horned kanzil army and she didn't dare to fully come out of the forest since she didn't want to be spotted. But it was clear that they would start fighting very soon since they had just gotten into formation. I will wait for them to engage before I try sniping a few silver stage enemies. I doubt I can kill the gold stage ones from this range. They're almost guaranteed to be able to dodge it at this range. As for my Shadow Wolf Kings, I should keep them in reserve for now. If things look bad for me or the locals, they will serve as backup.
Maxine didn't have to wait long for the charge and as soon as the defenders started using their particle weapons, she readied her bow. She pumped energy into a scattershot exploding energy arrow and drew back her bow aiming for a dozen silver stage four-horned kanzils at once. She released the arrow and watched as it split into twelve shards just before slamming into eleven of the twelve targets. A second later the shards exploded inside of the four-horned kanzils killing them as they burst into a clouds of gore.
Maxine felt some frustration for missing so many of her marks. She had intended to hit all of them in the chest, but most of them had hit the four-horned kanzils in the shoulder or stomach. Still her attacks still packed enough punch to kill them even if they didn't hit where she wanted them to.
Without wasting any more time, she began to fire more scattershot exploding energy arrows in rapid succession at the flying four-horned kanzils. After her second volley, some of them were dodging her attacks, but she was still hitting half of them with her attacks.
She unleashed twelve volleys before a gold stage rank one four-horned kanzil had enough and charged at her. Maxine quickly charged up a powerful exploding energy arrow, but she held off sending her Shadow Wolf Kings to deal with him just yet. She had been waiting for a gold stage four-horned kanzils to attack her.
The gold stage four-horned kanzil looked nervous, but continued his charge. However Maxine realized why he didn't flee. He was holding a kite shield in each of his left hands and both of his right hands were grasped onto a great sword. That's an interesting, not to mention scary, combination.
She modified her exploding energy arrow to have high penetration ability and to only explode once it pierces into flesh before she unleashed it. The gold stage four-horned kanzil tried to block it with his kite shields, but was only partially successful. Maxine's arrow punched through one sheild, but deflected off of the second before it slammed into his upper right shoulder. Horror passed over his face a moment before his upper right shoulder exploded into a cloud of gore. Hmm, that was unexpected. I thought my attack would go through both shields. Still, I've effectively crippled his upper right arm, but I can't fire off too many more of those arrows. It's more energy efficient to just duel them in close combat. I've already used twenty percent of my reserves.
With that in mind, Maxine returned her bow to her dimensional ring and retrieved her Twighlight Iron Swords as she activated her Shadow's Embrace armor. Before the wounded warrior traversed the remainder of the distance, she used her energies to braid her hair to keep it out of her eyes and charged when her opponent was less than five hundred feet away.
She lashed out at him with her blades and he managed to block both of her attacks with his shields. He immediately counter attacked with his great sword, but his attack was slow allowing Maxine to dodge under it to face his unprotected right side. She stabbed both of her blades viciously into the side of his chest and one of her weapons found his heart. He unleashed a backhanded slash, which Maxine dodged by ducking underneath it, in a futile attempt to take her with him in death. She promptly jumped back and watched him die from blood loss as he tried to chase her down. I can still handle a few opponents of that caliber at the same time if I use my new technique. I wonder what I should call it? I will think about it later. It seems I have more opponents coming.
Maxine felt a dozen gazes on her, but the one that caught her attention the most was a female four-horned kanzil that was at the very peak of gold stage. She was nine feet tall and had bigger muscles than most of her male counterparts. Maxine raised her eyebrow at that. Most races have males as the bigger and stronger of the two genders. You normally only see that kind of thing in certain insects.
The female four-horned kanzil motioned her lower left hand at Maxine and a dozen gold stage four-horned kanzils charged at Maxine. Their strengths ranged from gold stage rank two to rank seven. She smiled to herself as she spotted a familiar face and picked him to be her opponent as she retreated towards the forest. It was Sitan
Just before they reached the forest, she ordered her Shadow Wolf Kings to fight the attacking four-horned kanzils three on one. At the same time, she turned around and attacked Sitan with a vicious flurry. Only now did she notice that he was using four short swords. He expertly parried most of her attacks and dodged the rest.
Maxine only smiled as she fully unleashed her new technique and created the illusion that she had a dozen arms as she unleashed her assault. Surprisingly, Sitan was able to parry and dodge her attacks with frustrating ease.
"Is that the best you can do?" Sitan said mockingly, "I guess I will have to pay Earth a visit after my people have finished their assault on this world. I heard your beloved and daughter are quite beautiful." As he spoke, Maxine felt her anger well up at his threat, but she forced herself to remain calm. She couldn't loose herself to wrath. Instead she concentrated her attacks at his face and disengaged from him. She didn't want to just kill him. She wanted to thoroughly crush him.
With a thought, she transformed into her battleform and noticed that her hair was shortening as she transformed. Her hair came out of it's braid as it gathered together and turned into a collection of super sharp spines with signs of deadly poison at the tips. What? I thought my battleform was done changing! Damn it. I dont have time to figure out how to use these spines in the middle of a fight.
While she was concerned about the changes to her battleform, Sitan gave her hair a cautious glance, and began attacking her while acitively avoiding getting behind her. She parried all of his blows and returned her own attacks. Hydras are never on the defensive. She had no idea where that thought came from, but she knew it was the truth. Hydras were relentless attackers. Their extreme aggression was a form of defense all in of itself.
In a moment of enlightenment, Maxine only bothered dodging attacks aimed at her head or heart just enough to avoid a killing blow and unleashed a vicious relentless assault. She suffered a five stab wounds and a slash to her left shoulder before Sitan shifted to the defensive. Oddly enough, despite her injuries her attacks had nearly doubled in frequency and hitting power.
Sitan looked terrified as he desperately parried, blocked and dodged to avoid being killed. He seemed to be aware that if he became injured and became distracted for even an instant, Maxine would tear him to pieces. Finally, he managed to knock both of Maxine's blades to the side and had a triumphant smile. It lasted only an instant before Maxine unleashed her acid breath attack at point blank range.
Sitan swiftly moved to shield himself with his arms and as her acid breath attack splashed over his arms and stomach, she lashed her tail inbetween her legs to hit him in the groin. The burning sensation of acid and the pain from his groin caused him to pause for half a second, and that was all Maxine needed. She swiftly hacked his arms and legs off before grabbing him by the throat.
"You threatened those most important to me with a fate worst than death," Maxine said angrily as she liftted up her right foot and placed her toe claws directly above Sitan's groin, "Allow me to return the favor." She mercilessly brought her right foot down and shredded Sitan's genitals in the process. While he screamed in agony, she looked around at the rest of the four-horned kanzils sent against her as she tossed Sitan to the ground to die of blood loss or her venom. She didn't care which.
Her Shadow Wolf Kings had delt with most of them, but in doing so, more than half of them were too badly damaged to fight for awhile. Wow, I didn't expect them to put up that much of a fight. I guess they were tougher than I thought.
Maxine coughed up blood and realized one of her lungs had been punctured. If it wasn't for both her cultivation and her hydra bloodline, she would be on the ground dying. Well, that's all the fighting I'm going to get in today. It will take me at least until tomorrow, even with eating a lot, to heal up from this. However she was worried when she felt her unreasonable hunger rearing it's head and she looked thoughtfully at all the blood on the ground. Well, I'm definitely against eating the flesh of sentient beings, and it's only the scent of blood that triggers my hunger. Perhaps I could draw all of that blood in and drink it. I still don't like that idea, but I'm way more comfortable with that than actually eating them.
She infused the blood on the forest floor with her energies and brought it all into her mouth. She was disgusted at herself for doing this, but the blood tasted amazingly good. She did her best to imagine that she was drinking anything else other than blood while she swallowed down three gallons before she got full. It surprised her for a moment that she could consume that much before she got full, but like her full hydra form, her battle form was capable of rapid digestion. Her wounds were visibly regenerating due to the influx of protein. Still, she had to swallow down her own gag reflex. I don't think I will do that again unless I have to. God, I think I'm gonna puke. I need to think of something else.
Maxine wondered why she wasn't being attack and looked towards the gold stage four-horned kanzils. They were still floating in the air in the same spot as before and the female Four-Horned Kanzil looked at Maxine with a raise eyebrow.
[Don't interfer any further, or I will come down there personally to deal with you,] the female four-horned kanzil said with indifference via spiritual sense, [I do not wish to waste any more of my elites to deal with you.]
[And if you and your 'elites' join the battle, I will continue to interfer,] Maxine countered.
[So, you will stay out of this fight so long as the strongest do?] the femal four-horned kanzil asked, [I find those terms acceptable.] Maxine was taken aback by this woman. She seemed almost normal in comparison to the males of her race. Still she didn't fully trust her and kept an eye on this strange four-armed kanzil.
To conserve energy while she watched them, she reverted back to her base form. However no matter how much she watched the battle, none of the gold stage four-horned kanzils moved. The four-horned kanzils were even starting to loose. Maxine couldn't understand why they weren't attacking, but she got her answer a few minutes later as she felt a ship's scanners run over her flesh. The ship from Seton Academy! Are the four-horned kanzils are waiting for them to arrive!? But why? Wouldn't it be easier to wipe out the locals before they arrive? Or they are using the locals as practice for a different engagement and if they win by chance, they get access to a dragon bloodline as a bonus. It would definitely make sense why they just don't just swarm the cites in one massive group.
She didn't have much time to think about that because she felt the ship's scanner focus on her face. In fact, they must've scanned her face five times before she could react. Well, if they didn't know I was here before, they do now. That gives me one, maybe two, months before it gets wide spread enough for it to be a problem.
However in the next moment, an immensely powerful spiritual sense landed on her in a wave. [You look just like many of the other Maxines. Still, you resemble her more than most. Just know that some of my students are eager to meet you and we will be arriving tomorrow due to this,] an aged woman said via spiritual sense, [And I suggest you tell them who you really are when you meet them. They were inspired by the dead young woman you are taking the visage of and may react poorly to you if claim to be her when you clearly are not. Although, you are the first one that has queen status and can create constructs. Still, it's in your best interest to do as I say. Do we understand each other?]
[Yes, we do, but my first name really is Maxine,] Maxine answered honestly, but before she could say anything else, the spiritual sense connection was severed. Other Maxines?! What the hell is going on?!