It had been a week since Maxine sent Silky back to Earth and she was feeling cramped and grumpy. She had been forced to share an eight by eight foot room with five other girls on a huge transport ship. When she first got on this ship, she had originally been sharing it with just Jenifer Krell, but as they made additional stops on worlds controlled by the Kavros Clan, it had gradually filled up.
Maxine could only complain about the tight quarters to herself. Boreas had explained that they only had two of these massive ships and the second ship was to be used only in case of an emergency that required them to aid the Alliance against either the Hive or the Evil Races.
They were going to arrive to the conflict planet today, and she couldn't wait to get off of this ship. She had enough of listening to the extremely loud snores of her roommates each night. It made it hard to get a decent night of sleep which was why she opted to meditate while she was out of bed.
"Hey, Maxine. You have been in a fight against other people before, right? What should we expect?" a girl named Nina Cervantes asked and brought Maxine out of her meditation.
She opened her eyes to stare at Nina. It still surprised her that someone had an eye color that matched her silver grey hair. Unfortunately, Nina's hair was raven black and the bright silver of her eyes tended to draw Maxine's gaze.
Maxine shook her head slightly and quickly realized that all of the other girls in the room were looking at her expectantly. "Imagine fighting something that has unknown special abilities and skills and you have to instantly adapt to fighting them on the spot," Maxine answered, "If you can't adapt, you better pray that you are more powerful than your opponent or you are in for a really rough fight. That's assuming that it's only a one on one fight. When there are more people, you have to constantly be aware of your surroundings to avoid getting attacked from behind."
"That sounds terrifying," Jenifer Krell said.
"It is," Maxine agreed, "Although, it gets less terrifying with experience."
"That's not reassuring," Nina said, "What about if we are captured? What's the worst we can expect?" God damn, I hate explaining things like this. It reminds me about what happened to Alice in the other timeline.
"If the worst comes to pass, you will be raped by every man in the Divine Marks clan's forces one after another until you either get rescued, commit suicide or there is a prisoner exchange after the war ends," Maxine answered with brutal honesty, "And assuming you live through that nightmare, you will probably have a baby in your womb and you won't know who the father is." All of the girls went pale. What's worse is that our clan is strictly against abortions of any kind. Although I think it has more to do with the Shadow Lords pulling the strings in the background so that they don't loose a potential shadow king or queen.
"That's horrible," Nina said softly while trembling, but Maxine didn't know if it was fear or anger..
"But there are rules against that!" one of the girls in the room added, "The observers sent by the alliance wouldn't allow that!"
"They would if they were paid enough to look the other way," Maxine retorted, "Not everyone plays by the rules, so do your best not to get captured. Although I probably won't have to deal with that nightmare. I have daddy dearest and the Patriarch to thank for that blessing."
"I bet. They would be too scared of your father's wrath to try anything like that," Jenifer Krell said.
"It helps, but that's only a deterent. It won't actually stop them if they stop thinking with their brains," Maxine answered, "Thankfully, the Patriarch gave me a ring to protect my chastity that can only be removed by myself or him. It gives whomever tries to touch me in a lewd manner a powerful electric shock and anyone who tries push through the pain of being electricuted gets the offending limb wreathed in flame." Lastly, I could always give those assholes a nice acid spray to the face as long as I stay in my battle form. The only drawback to that strategy is that I will have to eat a lot more since my battle form requires more calories to maintain. She noticed that all of the girls there were looking covetously at the Chastity Protection Ring. She didn't blame them. She just wished she had a few spares to hand out to them, but Boreas only gave her the one ring.
Thier conversation was interrupted when the intercom sounded, "This is Commander Brackstone. We are going to land in ten minutes. So get your gear on and prepare for landing. Because once we are on the ground, I expect all of you to get to your assigned posts. I want our base up and running as quickly as possible. Remember the sooner we get it built the sooner we can get to killing our enemy." Finally, I've had enough of being stuck in this sardine can of a room.
"You heard him. Get your equipment on," Maxine told them. She was still surprised that Boreas had given her permission to act independantly from the main force, but she still intended to work with Commander Brackstone rather than against. Jenifer Krell, on the other hand, was assigned as the squad leader for the rest of the girls in this room.
Maxine got her gear equiped while her roommates did the same. Her equipment was a nearly identical copy to what her Shadow's Embrace armor. There were a few differences between them. First the face mask could be removed if she wanted to. Next, the armor had been modified to accomodate her battle form should she choose to transform into it. She was particularly happy about the slit in her pants to allow for her tail to form without the impediment. Last the clan's symbol was clearly displayed on her back and on the left side of her chest. She didn't want her allies to mistake her for an enemy during a melee.
They were all geared up in less than three minutes. Since they were ready to go ahead of time, it gave Maxine a moment to satisfy her curiosity as to what kind of weaponry her roommates used. She was surprised to find that Nina used a battle axe. Wow, never took her for someone that uses a battle axe. That's usually a weapon a man would use. Jenifer Krell still had her halberd and short sword and the others used swords of various lengths. Well they brought the right weapons to fight other humans. Swords are typically the best when against lightly or unarmored opponents and if the Kavros Clan is anything to go by, most of our opponents will be wearing some kind of cloth or leather armor of some kind for higher mobility. Although there can be oddballs that wear heavier armor like Patrick.
"Maxine, what's it like to kill someone?" Jenifer Krell asked nervously. Fuck, why does she drop the hard question on me mere minutes before we enter a warzone?
"Depends on the person, but for most people, they never forget the face of the first person that they kill, ever. They remember every detail for as long as they live and it will haunt them for years after," Maxine answered as honestly as she could, "It helps some if you don't view your enemy as human, but as a human shaped monster instead."
Maxine's answer stunned them into silence and it was only a few moments before the intercom resounded once more, "Alright everyone, disembark and get into position." She slipped the face mask on and headed out to the cargo ramp as was everyone else in the ship.
It was annoying as she forced her way to the exit ramp and finally got the see the sky of this world. She got quite the surprise. The sky was green. Well, there can't be blue skies on every planet.
Without missing a beat, she released five of her ravens from her shadow to scout the surrounding area and to keep an eye out for any sudden attacks made by the Divine Marks clan. If she were in charge of the enemy forces, that would have been the first thing she would have done. Not many people would expect an attack to be made before either side had first built some kind of defensive fortification to at least fend off the beasts of the land.
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Before her ravens got that far away, Commander Brackstone sent her a message via spiritual sense, [Come to the command tent.] What does he want so soon? She shrugged and looked for a tent large enough to be considered a command tent.
As soon as she found it, she went to it and walked inside of the tent. The first thing she saw was Commander Brackstone looking at a holographic display of some kind. He was a relatively handsome middle aged man with a full head of light brown hair.
"I came as you requested. Now, why did you call me here?" Maxine asked.
"I asked you here to make sure you don't act recklessly because it's my responsibilty to mount a rescue mission if you get captured," Commander Brackstone said, "If I don't, the Patriarch will have my head."
"I'm not stupid. I'll mostly be scouting out the enemy forces and performing raids using my constructs while I remain hidden. I have already started scouting the surrounding area with five of my flying constructs," Maxine answered, "If I find anything, I will let you know in the next breath."
"Good," Commander Brackstone said with an approving nod of his head, "I heard you had combat experience against other humans, but I didn't realize you had experience in warfare as well."
"I don't have any experience with warfare. I just did what I thought was right," Maxine answered.
"Regardless, that was the correct course of action," Commander Brackstone said, "Now, I would appreciate it if you could help with the construction of the walls surrounding the camp before you do anything else."
"I have something else in mind," Maxine responded, "If I can find the enemy base camp, I was thinking about taking out some of their sentry posts since I doubt they would expect an attack this soon."
Commander Brackstone showed a very small smile before he answered, "That's an interesting idea. It would thin out the enemy forces and give you an idea of their defensive abilities at the same time. But it would put you at risk of being captured."
"I'm aware. That's why I will be riding on my fastest construct to escape if need be. Also, I have another reason to scout their camp myself. We need to have a rough evaluation of their troop numbers. The Alliance never set a limit how many cultivators could participate for each side," Maxine added and she saw real concern on Commander Brackstone's face.
"If they have twenty percent more people than we do, this could be catastrophic, even if their average strength is weaker than ours," Commander Brackstone stated as his face filled with even greater concern, but he quickly recovered, "Go, find the enemy base camp, but make sure this is strictly a scouting mission. Do not engage the enemy and try to avoid detection. They should be to the southwest. To our north and east, there is nothing but oceans after one hundred kilometers."
"Thanks, I'm on it," Maxine said as she left the tent and redirected her ravens to search to the southwest. Next, she looked for an open area large enough to bring out her dragon. She found one nearby and began to slowly bring her dragon through. God, I hate having to do this so slowly, but I need to keep up the charade that I can only bring my dragon out at this speed. But seeing the Divine Marks Clan's base camp for myself is a must. There are always details lost when I view anything indirectly through my constructs and my dragon should be way faster than a peak silver stage cultivator. Flying beasts will always have insanely superior speed compared to anything that flies using a form of energy.
Once it had fully emerged, she leapt onto it's back and ordered it to take flight. She looked back at the base camp and saw she had gained quite an audience. She only shrug to herself as her dragon veered to the southwest as it ascended. Things like that were bound to happen since only one in a hundred members of the Kavros Clan could use shadow essence and of those only one in a thousand could actually make constructs.
She flew for a couple hours over dense forests at near the speed of sound before she spotted the Divine Marks Clan's base camp. The only reason she spotted it at all was the fact that their drop ship was taking off out of the corner of her eye. She had her dragon ascend even higher so that it would only appear as a barely visible in the sky to anyone on the ground, even if they had essence enhanced eyes. After it veered towards the enemy base camp, she got a good look at it. She knew for certain that it was considerbly larger than the Kavros Clan's one.
However her face when pale when she felt numerous different spiritual sense signatures lock onto her. OH, SHIT! I've been spotted! Even from here, she saw three dozen figures launched violently off of the ground and began hurtling towards her at frightening speeds.
Her dragon spun around on a dime and nearly threw her off it's back before it quickly began to accelerate. She gripped the spines on her dragon's back as the air thundered around them when her dragon quickly broke the sound barrier several times, but her persuers were still gaining on her.
After she regained a more stable spot on her dragon's back, she started to feel desperation clawing it's way to the surface of her mind since her persuers were gaining on her. She had to find a way to slow them down until her dragon got to it's top speed and she became determined to do just that as she drew one of her Twilight Iron Blades from her dimensional pouch. She readjusted her seating to face them while maintaining her seat and unleashed a Crescent Moon Blitz at them. She knew they were too far away for it to do any real damage. She was only hoping that the attack spooked them enough for them to dodge involuntarily. Fortunately it worked as they reflexively dodged her attack and that gave her dragon just enough time to reach it's maximum speed. The bad news was that her persuers were able to match pace with her dragon. Fuck! I didn't think they could fly this fast. It's a good thing I'm not heading towards my base camp. I would hate to give these assholes an idea of which direction it's in.
It only took her persuers a minute to realize they weren't gaining on her any more and they started hurling attacks at her dragon's wings. Quickly she drew her other Twilight Iron Blade and unleashed Crescent Moon Blades in a frenzy to intercept their attacks. Defending like that was draining her essence and mana fast, but she couldn't risk them destroying one of her dragon's wings. Once she lost her flight speed advantage, being captured was almost a certainty.
However as soon as she believed that her efforts were paying off, they switched targets. A myriad of attacks were coming straight for her. Oh, shit! She unleashed one Crescent Moon Blade after another to desperately ward off their attacks. She was quickly loosing strength and was worried that a few attacks would get through if this kept up.
She saw a wind blade coming right at her and leaned to the right. However her attempt to dodge failed somewhat as it cut her left arm as it pass by her. Before she could recover, an earthen spike pierced through her stomach and out of her back before it bounced harmlessly off her dragon's horns. She barely managed to avoid the spearlike projection of essence aimed at her head by leaning her head to one side. She only suffered a shallow cut on her cheek instead of having her head exploded. Oddly the attacks ceased after that before she could suffer any more injuries or be thrown off her dragon from her frantic attempts to dodge. She looked up and saw that her persuers had lagged behind quite a good distance. Apparently they had drained too much of their strength by attacking her while maintaining their speed. That was close. A few minutes later, they gave up chasing her when it was obvious that she had too much of a lead.
Once they were out of sight, she collasped onto her dragon from both physical and mental exhaustion. I'm a fucking idiot. I nearly got my clone killed. All because I wanted to see their base camp for myself. What I should have done when I saw the enemy base camp is get my dragon on the ground and used a stealth technique to get closer a closer look. If that didn't work I could always modify one of my ravens to look like a local bird. Even if they destroyed it, I would've gotten a better idea of how many people they have than if I hadn't seen anything. Not that it matters now. I hope Commander Brackstone has some good ideas on how to fight a larger force because I havn't got the faintest idea as to how. No matter how much she wanted to go back to the base camp for medical attention, she couldn't just yet. She had no idea how far their spiritual sense could reach and decided to fly in this direction for a while longer.
Maxine forced herself to sit up. She retrieved a potent healing potion from her dimensional pouch before downing it in one swift motion. Her wounds stopped bleeding almost immediately as the potion took effect and she lowered herself back down to rest on her dragon's back.
After an hour of flying in this direction, she ordered her dragon to return to base camp. She didn't know how long she laid on her dragon's back before she heard the faint sounds of shouting over the wind passing by her ears. A few moments later, she felt a series of gentle impacts signalling her that her dragon had landed.
Maxine tried to move her aching body, but failed miserably as pain crippled her from the wound on her stomach every time she tried. Thankfully a slender pair of hands lifted her up and put on a stretcher of some kind before she was taken to a medical tent. The tent was filled with a few female healers that seemed surprised to have someone to heal so soon. One of them peeled her shirt up just enough to reveal her stomach wound and Maxine heard the woman gasp as the bloody sight. A moment later Maxine felt several streams of essence mending her wounds.
As they used their essence to heal the worst of the damage, Commander Brackstone entered the room filled with fury. "What the hell happened? I thought I told you to only do some scouting and not to engage the enemy!" he roared.
"That's exactly what I was trying to do. But I messed up and they spotted me. I tried to get away, but they were able to keep up with my dragon. I honestly didn't believe that they would be able to that," Maxine answered weakly, "But forget that, I need to tell you something. I saw the size of the Divine Marks' base camp and it's bad. We are outnumbered by at least three to one."