Even though the battle was going on only a few rooms away, I had to watch it on a tablet. There was a massive skirmish happening at the entrance to the arena, where the remaining trolls, sharkin and hags were battling it out with the remaining golems and mimics which had finally caught up to the group. Cecilia was raging, causing her lightning attacks to rip apart everyone in the room, friend and foe alike. Despite all the collateral damage she was causing, it looked like she was going to completely eliminate all of Luther’s duplicates before going down. At least, she would, as long as she didn’t fry herself with her own magic first. I just watched the battle, slightly puzzled.

“I don’t get what happened,” I mumbled, “Cecilia doesn’t normally have an enrage mechanic, and it’s not a harpy racial thing…”

“Seriously? Luther killed Cecilia’s daughter right in front of her eyes. Most mothers would have an intense emotional response if they watched their child being murdered,” she sighed, “Killing the healer was the right choice, but I’m surprised you didn’t expect this.”

I turned and looked at her, a little skeptical. “Really? I doubt mine would have.”

“So mark this down as a learning experience. Don’t kill family members in front of each other, it always complicates things,” Bella said, scowling.

“Fine, I’ll take your word for it.” I replied begrudgingly, “I’ll think up a different plan next time.” I turned back to the tablet just in time to see Cecillia hobble towards the center of Luther’s arena. Most of the forces on both sides were destroyed, Cecillia’s wings were in tatters, claws were a mess, and she had bite and slash wounds all across her body, but somehow she was struggling onwards. Unfortunately, Luther was in even worse shape. All his duplicates had been destroyed over the last few minutes, and Cecillia had used his blades like miniature lightning rods, directing bolts right through the weapons, blowing the arms off all the puppets. Luther technically didn’t need hands to hold his weapons, but all his swords had been slagged, so he was trying to hold Cecillia off with broken puppet parts.

The harpy ignored the storm of limbs battering her body, stepped into the middle of the arena, and stopped. Even through the tablet, I could see Cecillia’s eyes glowing with power. She raised her wings, and as she brought them down the broadcast was disrupted for a moment; A massive boom echoed from the direction of the Parlor, causing everyone to turn, a flash of lightning lit the windows, then silence. A second later the broadcast resumed, revealing a massive crater in the floor of the arena, walls damaged, windows destroyed, and both combatants were gone.

“That was quite the blast,” Bella said as she glanced at the tablet. “It's rare that someone is able to gather enough mana to disrupt the broadcast.”

I just stared at the devastation, “Ok, no more playing up family murder for the broadcast. Noted.”

—

Ugoki grunted as he lifted his massive twin waraxes, and surveyed the forces arrayed around him. Cecillia had only been eliminated moments earlier, and Kenaya, that soothsaying hack, was already insisting he press the attack. It didn’t matter that Cecillia had taken some of his elite troops, and gotten them killed, or that he’d been saddled with one of Estelle’s hag sisters. Even though the young woman was demanding, at least she’d brought a squad of mangrove monstrosities. The overgrown masses of roots and mud weren’t a great replacement for his troops, but they’d make decent fodder.

“Girl, get your rot monsters moving. Our ‘wise’ leader wants to get rid of that Arachne as soon as possible, and we need shock troops at the front.”

The tiny, disheveled girl turned to him, slowly raised her staff, then slammed it as hard as she could into Ugoki’s foot. “I don’t take orders from you, you troll oaf, only my sister. You’re lucky she asked me to carry out Kenaya’s plans, otherwise I wouldn’t even be here.” She casually raised a hand and pointed towards the portal, and the eight foot tall mounds of animated vegetation started shuffling towards the portal. She grabbed onto the nearest one as it passed, clambered up onto its back, then turned around and stuck out her tongue at the stunned troll.

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“I hate working with kids,” Ugoki mumbled to himself, before turning back to the rest of his troops. “Follow behind those rotters, but let them take the brunt of any attack.” The heavily armored trolls, his elite, all saluted, but the disorganized mob behind them just laughed, shoving each other around. He shot the mixed group of merpeople, trolls and sharkin an angry look. “You lot better pull your weight. Kenaya sent you to deal with those spectres, and I’m holding you responsible if things go wrong.”

One of the trolls, a young woman with an oversized hat, gave him a cocky salute while the rest of the group laughed. For a moment Ugoki considered plunging one of his axes directly into the woman’s head, teach the rest of them a lesson about playing around, but that would be a waste. He needed the squad of fateweavers to shield his troops from the undead. He’d do it after they made it through the Ballroom.

He stepped through the portal, directly into the Ballroom, only to find the space almost entirely empty. At the far end of the room both the arachne and banshee stood upon the stage, waving, while a small group of vampires lounged against one of the walls half way down.

“They’re up to something,” Ugoki grunted, before walking up beside the line of mangrove monstrosities. “You detect anything, kid?”

The girl shot him an angry glance, before slowly scanning the hall. “They’re here, I just can’t tell where. The entire place has been infused with necromantic energy, and that's concealing their location,” she replied. When she finished scanning the area, she sat back down on the monstrosity, and shot Ugoki a look. “I told you earlier, my name’s Annibelle. I’d prefer if you addressed me properly, or is your brain so underdeveloped you can’t remember?”

“I remember, kid, but I believe people have to earn my respect. Once you do something impressive, maybe I’ll address you properly. Move your pets forward, slow and steady, until they either spring their surprise, or we engage the vampires."

Annibelle frowned, but did as she was told, directing the monstrosities forward. Behind them, the trolls formed an orderly line, each with a light shield and polearm, preparing to stab past the monstrosities, if the situation called for it. Finally, taking up the backline, were the fateweavers. The unruly group didn’t stop joking about, even in the heart of enemy territory. Ugoki shot them an angry glance, before falling into line with the trolls, as the group moved forward.

Everything was quiet for several minutes, nothing attacked them as the group crawled forward. They were only about twenty feet away from the vampires, who were beginning to form up in front of them, when Ugoki glanced at Annibelle. “The ghosts?” She just shrugged, which made him frown, it was too easy. The fateweavers were still making a ruckus, so the big troll turned to tell them off; They weren’t laughing anymore. A group of huge spiders had slid out of the curtains separating the different sections of the Ballroom, and fallen upon the casters. Most of the group were struggling with the oversized arachnids, one had already succumbed to the venomous bites.

“Ambush! Behind!” Ugoki called, he took two steps forward and swung his twin axes. The blades cut through spider and humanoid alike, most of the arachnids died in second, but so did the rest of the fateweavers. As the remaining two spiders attempted to retreat back into the rafters, the spectres struck, rising out of the ground in the midst of the trolls. One of the warriors managed to shout in surprise, before the ethereal dancers engaged. They wove in and out of the trolls, completely ignoring their armor, attacking their lifeforce directly. Ugoki turned, just to see the first troll wither and disappear. “Annibelle, do something!” he growled, while swinging his axes through the spectres. His blades were enchanted, so they did some damage, but not enough to fully disperse the ghosts.

Annibelle’s spell, however, did the job. Tendrils of black, necromantic energy rose out of the monstrosities, grasped the spectres out of the air, and started squeezing. The ghostly dancers silently screamed, as the magic tore at them, and after a few seconds they dissipated. It only took seconds to do, but it still wasn’t fast enough to save the trolls. The last warrior dissipated at the same time as the ghosts, leaving Annibelle, Ugoki, and the monstrosities.

The massive troll set his eyes upon the diminutive girl at the end of the floor, who was just sitting there, watching, and ground his teeth. The sound of cracking made Annibelle flinch. “Girl, can I leave crushing those vampires to you?” he asked.

“Maybe? I don’t know what else they have planned. I wasn’t expecting a straight-forward fight, but I wasn’t prepared for such a well-executed ambush either… If they have anything else planned…”

“Handle it!” the troll roared, silencing the girl's complaints. “We’ve lost far too much already. I’m done playing around, I’ll deal with the spider bitch myself.”

As he stomped towards the stage Talia just smiled. It was all going according to plan.