The combined armies finished their march to Fauxmoa, Isabelle's hometown. It was the foremost town in the region and Isabelle knew it was targeted for precisely that reason. The irony that its defenses were so meager despite its importance wasn’t lost on her. It was decided that she would take the lead in the attack with her sizable force, limiting human casualties. Up till now, they had only been to small villages that put up no or meager resistance, so this would be their first real battle test. This caused her to be lost in thought atop the battle horse she was borrowing, while she oversaw her military force in her custom-made uniform. The battle horse was a necessity. She tried riding a regular horse, but the thing buckled under her weight.

"What are you thinking about?" Fae asked Isabelle, snapping her back to reality. Bo and Eva stood nearby, protecting them. She’d been stationed with her after Isabelle asked the commander to do that.

"How to keep my father safe. I’m sure he’s going to be guarding the city. That's his job, after all,” Isabelle said.

"Your father? I didn't know your father was here. Is he… like you?" Fae replied. Isabelle gave her a strange look.

“Uh, no. He’s not. Nobody in my family is. I'll have to be careful not to hurt him, or anyone if I can help it, even if my creatures have to take the brunt of the damage. There’s enough of them, so it won’t matter in the end. Hopefully, with my creature's ability to paralyze people, none of them will end up getting hurt. But if experience has taught me anything, things never go to plan," Isabelle said. A moment of silence passed before she continued.

"Sorry, I didn't really feel like talking about it before now. They think I'm dead, anyways, and I'm not sure I want to change that," Isabelle explained.

"Oh, yeah. You died, so they don’t even realize you’re here. That must have been devastating," Fae said.

"It was for them. I’m sure of that. My parents watched my execution. I wasn’t very close to my mom, but even I could tell she was devastated. After what happened to me, my family wasn't the same for a while. That's why I don't want to shock them yet again with the fact I'm alive when they're just getting over the fact I died. It'd be cruel," Isabelle explained, then quickly shifted topics.

"Looks like the city closed the gates and they're ready for an attack. They must have been warned we were on our way," Isabelle said.

"But how do you know that? The scouts aren't back yet," Fae said. Isabelle took her index finger and tapped her head with it.

"My creatures told me. Anyways, rushing the city should work. My creatures are excellent climbers. They'll get over those walls fast and paralyze the guards," Isabelle said. A few moments later she spoke up again, “I’ll launch the attack now.”

All two thousand of her creatures bolted into action and moved as one unifying force towards their goal. Fae stiffened her muscles and instinctively tried to make herself smaller to avoid the stampeding creatures all around her. Soon enough, they were gone and well on their way to the city walls.

Isabelle watched through her creatures eyes as they got closer to Fauxmoa. They saw the city far before anyone in the city saw them. As they got closer, the people in the city rang the town bell to signal an attack—which they certainly knew was coming, but not like this—and people ran into their homes to hide.

Arath—Isabelle's dad—was guarding the town of Fauxmoa just like he did nearly every day for the past few decades. He was competent at his duties and due to his experience he didn't always have to do the grunt work of standing guard. But today was different. There was news of an invasion and the invaders were heading straight to Fauxmoa. They’d already pillaged multiple villages on their way. Many of the residents fled, especially high ranking officials who knew the rumors were legitimate. However, many elected to stay in their homes and ride it out, for one reason or another. Others flat out refused to believe any sort of army was coming to invade at all, believing the rumors to be false.

Unfortunately for him, he had proof that there was an army and those people were flat out wrong. He didn't doubt they'd find out soon just how wrong they were, personally. He looked out over the disrepaired wall that spanned the town he guarded for a living and saw a horde of inhuman creatures charging at the city. Arath truly regretted not taking his family and escaping, but it was too late now. The guard next to him wasn’t any older than twenty years old and looked like she was pissing herself with fear. Isabelle's dad reached over and placed his hand on her shoulder. She turned her head to look at him.

“What’s your name?” he asked in a gentle voice.

“Lucia,” she anxiously said.

"You're not alone, Lucia. We'll face this together. Stand strong, don't give in to fear, and we may just make it out of this," he said to her. She seemed to calm down before turning to face the incoming horde again. As the young woman focused, Arath couldn’t help but be reminded of his daughter, Isabelle, in that moment. But now wasn’t the time for nostalgia.

Many of the guards had bows with them. Once the enemy was in range, they let loose a volley of arrows. The well-crafted arrows flew through the sky until they reached their targets, the strange horde of monsters. The rushing monsters shrugged them off like they were tiny bug bites and not a single one was felled. As the creatures grew closer to the town, the archers switched to firing their bows individually instead of at the same time in a volley.

Isabelle’s father gripped his sword tight as he clung closely to the wall, ready to chop down anything that made it up to him.

“Don’t loosen your grip, hold it tight!” he said to Lucia as the full force of the oncoming horde beared down on the wall. The creatures climbed up the meager wall seemingly effortlessly. The soldiers that hadn’t run away in fear started slashing at the monsters, but their tough skin repelled the swords. The soldiers fell one by one and were overtaken as the creatures flooded into the town.

Isabelle’s dad slashed at the frightening monster in front of him that had just climbed the wall. His blade made contact with its arm but didn’t cut into it. The exoskeleton was too thick for that. He felt the menacing stare of the foreign beast in front of him. Its tail whipped through the air and slashed Lucia across the cheek. The beast jumped over him and into the town as Lucia fell to the ground. Then the rest of them came. One after another they jumped over him. Isabelle’s dad put his head down and huddled next to the wall with his hands on his head. Once the stampeding grew quiet he slowly uncovered his head and looked out over the wall. There were no more creatures there, just flattened grass. He turned his attention towards the town and saw a very different scene. The creatures rampaged through the streets, onto the buildings, and across the town. It was chaos.

Isabelle’s father turned his head towards his fellow guards on the wall and saw that they were all lying down, motionless. His heart sank.

“By the gods, they’re all dead!” he said in shock before coming to his senses and realizing some of them could still be alive. He set his sword down and kneeled next to the young guard woman he was talking to earlier, Lucia. She was lying on her side so he rolled her over onto her back. He looked for any wounds but all he could find was a small, thin cut across her cheek. Blood dripped out of it. She was clearly conscious because she was blinking and moving her eyes, following him as he looked her over.

“Are you okay?” he asked but only got silence as a response. He glanced over at the town which was still infested by the horde of creatures before turning back to look her in the eyes.

“I’m not sure if you can hear me, but this might be our only chance to get out of here, so I’m going to take you with me. There’s nothing we can do and I need to make sure my family is safe,” he said to her before sheathing his sword, scooping her up, and rushing to the gate. He peered out of the city’s gate. Nobody was coming, so he rushed out of the city and headed towards home.

—

Isabelle was satisfied with the attack on the city. It went better than she hoped. There were no casualties, and her creatures successfully infiltrated the city.

I hope that fucking priest is there, that monster. That woman, too, Isabelle thought to herself.

“Alright, the wall is secure and the guards are taken care of,” Isabelle said to Fae.

“Are they… dead?” she asked.

“Thankfully, no. There was minimal fighting. My creatures paralyzed them as quickly as they could. They’re swarming the city now to secure it, but there should be minimal resistance,” Isabelle said. Fae seemed relieved to hear that.

“When are we supposed to go in?” Fae asked.

“I’d say we could go now, but you’d better give the commander an update,” Isabelle said.

“Okay, I’ll do that,” Fae said as she rushed off with Bo and Eva trailing closely behind as usual. Isabelle focused her mind on her creatures, which were just now starting to scour the church.

“Dammit, where is he,” Isabelle said as her creatures searched for Arab. Many people had taken refuge in the church, and they were all cowering in fear, attempting to hide wherever they could. Some were bold enough to wield simple weapons, like kitchen knives. Isabelle groaned.

“This is such a pain,” she murmured as she looked through the many people for the priest. But with her creatures' excellent as well as enhanced senses, they didn’t have to get too close to the huddled, frightened townsfolk. She preferred it that way, she didn’t want to scare them any more than she already had.

Five minutes later, Isabelle sighed. The priest was long gone. She would not be getting her revenge on him. Not today. She almost didn’t care anymore, but deep down, she could still feel that fury.

Isabelle’s heavy horse trotted along towards the town as she kept those thoughts in the back of her mind. It didn’t take her long to reach the gate and pass through it. She paused. The guards that were at the wall were all motionless and lying where they last stood. Her eyes sweeped the town. It was infested with her creatures, all two thousand of them. She motioned her horse forward and it trotted along once more, its hoofs clacking on the cobblestone bricks. She wanted to go see an old friend, one she knew was hiding at their home and frightened by the chaos. She would ease her worries and apologize, if her old friend accepted her.

In the middle of two tightly packed rows of houses Isabelle dismounted from her horse onto the cobblestone ground and commanded all the creatures in the area to go away, somewhere out of sight. She walked up to her friend's town house and knocked on the door. She saw someone peeking out of the window but avoided looking in that direction; it was Susy’s husband. They whispered, but Isabelle overheard them.

“Who is it?” Susy asked in a low voice.

“I’m not sure. I don’t think that’s a person. You shouldn’t open the door ,” Susy’s husband said.

“Robert, what do you mean ‘not a person’?” Susy said.

“I mean, they’re not human! It’s some enormous thing with green and black skin,” he said. Susy looked thoughtful.

“Some of that… sounds familiar,” she said before mustering up her courage and opening the door while her husband instinctively backed away in terror at his wife’s stupid decision. Susy tilted her head up at her freakishly tall visitor, whose unique features she recognized from her friend Isabelle before she died. Except, this person looked quite different and quite a lot bigger. Her visitor looked down at her and waved.

“Hi, Susy,” the visitor said in a deep voice.

“Isabelle? Is that… is that you?” Susy asked.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Isabelle said.

“You’re a lot bigger… and alive,” Susy said as she stared at Isabelle. She glanced at her clawed hands that were as big or bigger than her head. “Oh, uh, um, sorry! Come in, sit down.” Susy’s heart was beating out of her chest as she scrambled around. Isabelle nodded and crouched down to fit under the top of the door. Once she fit inside she looked at the chairs around the table, but they were all too small to fit her so she grabbed a log chair sitting off in the corner and used it at the table instead. Susy and her husband stared as Isabelle effortlessly moved the heavy chair. The two women sat down across from each other while the lone man took a seat next to them. Awkward silence ensued.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"How are you alive?" Susy finally asked as her nerves calmed a bit.

"I'm not sure myself, but this isn’t the same body I had before. After I died, I found myself in limbo. My only interaction with the world was through strange creatures. Eventually, one of them transformed into this body and I found myself inside of it," Isabelle said.

"I’m not even sure what to say. That's crazy. But I'm just happy you're alive," Susy said as she grabbed Isabelle’s massive hand and started tearing up a little. "After what happened to you I felt so lost."

"You don't have to feel that way anymore, Susy. I'm perfectly fine!" Isabelle said, trying to cheer her longtime friend up.

"Good. I'm glad," Susy said. After a few seconds of silence, Isabelle spoke up.

"Did you two see the creatures in the street earlier?" she asked.

"I saw quite a lot of them through the window," Susy's husband said.

"I did too," Susy replied.

"I want you to know, those creatures are mine, and they won’t hurt you. I happened to find out this city was being invaded by a neighboring country, so I told them I’d help them and used those creatures to take control of the city before their army invaded, to prevent lives from being lost,” Isabelle said.

“You control those things out in the streets?” Susy’s husband asked.

“Yeah,” Isabelle replied.

“Where did you even find such creatures, Izzy?” Susy asked.

“Uh, well, they just sort of appeared, I guess,” Isabelle replied.

“But there’s so many,” Susy said. “They’re everywhere. For a moment, I was afraid the gods were punishing us.”

“Yeah… they breed like crazy. And no, nothing like that. Well, that’s what I would like to say… but from what I’ve seen the approaching army do to neighboring villages, it’s not going to be pretty when they get here, which will be soon. They'll steal from people's homes and then burn them. They might leave a few, but the public buildings are gone,” Isabelle said. "You guys should leave before they get here. But if you choose to stay, I’ll protect you."

"O-okay, we'll leave. Robert, go get Isaac. I'll pack the rest of our things," Susy said as she got up to finish packing up her belongings, which were mostly packed already. While packing, Susy continued talking to Isabelle.

"So, Izzy… did you really have to use those creatures to take control of the city? I know what you said, but still…" Susy asked in a concerned tone.

"I had to. I'm supposed to be working with the approaching army, and my friend got drafted by them… I would feel bad if I had to attack them, even though it crossed my mind," Isabelle replied.

"Oh. Well, I understand, then." Susy said, melancholy audible in her voice.

"I did it to help a friend and to keep you and my family safe. Susy, you're-" Isaac and Robert walked in and interrupted the conversation. Isaac quickly hid behind his father when he saw Isabelle, who smiled at his reaction, which only frightened him more.

“Isaac, be nice. That’s Isabelle!” his father said. “Sorry, he’s a little shy.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m used to it,” Isabelle said. “I’ll be outside while you guys pack. Don’t worry about packing light.”

Isabelle waited outside while her lifelong friend and their family were getting ready, which shouldn’t take long. They were clearly ready to skip town. She wasn’t certain why they hadn’t already, but figured it was due to the uncomfortability and risk of doing so. While she waited, she looked in on her creatures. Through their eyes, she saw that they found the dungeon she was looking for. The one she was tortured in before her painful public execution.

Perfect, she thought with a smile.

The inside of the dungeon was cold, damp, and the smell of human waste permeated the air. Just like she remembered. Thankfully, her creatures didn’t seem to mind. They came upon a row of cells and she identified the one she once called home, where a man was cowering in fear at the back of his cell, like all the other prisoners. It was Eric, the old man who was once her cellmate. She felt a tingle of guilt that she found his cowering so funny. This man who showed so little emotion was showing so much. His fear was palpable. He didn’t deserve to be locked up like this, and she was going to rectify that problem.

Free him, Isabelle communicated to the creatures in the dungeon, and the others, too. The closest one nonchalantly walked over to the cell and tore the iron bars apart, as the rest of her creatures in the dungeon got to work destroying the other cell bars and freeing the prisoners. One of them was daring enough to rush past Isabelle’s creature after it tore apart the bars.

He probably thought he was gonna get eaten, Isabelle thought to herself. She paid it no mind.

The rest of the creatures continued exploring the dungeon and Isabelle continued borrowing their senses. It didn’t take them long to find the room where Isabelle was tortured, like so many others. Standing inside that room was the woman who so gleefully tortured her. Isabelle froze as a red hot rage exploded within her. She struggled to contain it, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to. Her creatures must have felt it, too, because they bared their teeth at the woman and produced a horrible screeching sound that forced the woman to cover her ears.

Isabelle focused and looked at the rest of the room. To her surprise, a man, nearly naked, was currently laid out on the slab that sat in the middle of the room. Isabelle's creatures, teeth bared, slowly surrounded the two. The man on the slab looked dazed but the torturer was on guard. She held a knife in her hand and watched the creatures carefully as they surrounded her.

Isabelle took control of one of the creatures surrounding the torturer, leaving her main body unattended. For all intents and purposes, she was that creature now. Using its body, she stepped closer to the torturer. They raised their blade to protect themselves from the hulking monstrosity inching towards them, but it was futile. As quick as lightning, the end of the creature's tail found itself buried deep in the torturer's neck. Warm blood gushed out and within moments she collapsed to the ground, a pool of blood next to her neck growing ever bigger on the cold stone of the floor. In her last moments, the torturer could have sworn she saw the creature smiling, revealing its ferocious set of sharp teeth, before it tore her apart.

Isabelle switched back to her main body, which was standing still in the dead street.

“Izzy!?” Susy said while furiously shaking her best friend's left arm. “Izzy?!” Isabelle turned her head and looked at her friend.

“Sorry about that, I was away for a moment. Ready?” she said.

“Away? But you’re standing right here,” Susy replied.

“I know. I’ll have to explain later, it’s more important to get you and your family out of town right now,” Isabelle said.

“Okay, I’ll hold you to that. We’re ready,” Susy said. Isabelle called over a few of her creatures, startling Susy and her family.

“Hand off everything you can to them,” Isabelle said and smiled a bit. “Don’t worry, they won’t bite.” Susy gave a wry smile and walked off inside the house. Susy and her family quickly handed off everything they had to the creatures, being careful not to actually touch them.

“That’s everything,” Susy said.

“Alright. One of you can get on the horse with Isaac, so he won’t have to walk so far.”

“I’ll get on the horse with him,” Isaac’s dad volunteered. He hopped onto the battle horse and Susy helped lift her son up to sit on the horse with his father.

“Great! Let’s go,” Isabelle said as the group walked towards the gate. It didn’t take long for them to reach the gate. Susy and her family looked around and noticed all of the guards on the ground.

“They’re… alive, right?” Susy asked, shocked at the sight she had already expected to see.

“Yeah, they’re just paralyzed. They’re alright, it’s the same thing that happened to you before,” Isabelle explained.

“What about your dad? He’s a guard too,” Susy asked.

“He was left alone and ran home,” Isabelle explained. They passed through the gate and went into the woods, away from any danger. “Remember that small village not too far out that way? You’ll be safe there. I’ll send the creatures holding your stuff with you to keep you safe, but I don’t know how the villagers there will react to seeing them, so I don’t think they can go into town with you.”

“Thanks, Isabelle. Stay safe, please,” Susy said and hugged Isabelle, before leaving with the rest of her family and things. Isabelle watched them go until she was standing alone, with only the sounds of the forest to accompany her. She sighed.

Time to talk to the commander, Isabelle thought as she began walking to that army's camp. It took a lot longer to make it without her horse, but she eventually reached the encampment. She was quickly escorted to the commander’s tent. Inside, the commander stood and awaited Isabelle’s report on the situation.

“I’ve taken the city with no casualties. The guards are out cold and the inside of the city is secured by my creatures,” Isabelle reported.

“Really? Not a single casualty?” the commander incredulously asked.

“Not a single one,” Isabelle replied, confident in her answer. “Well, a couple of my creature’s are a little banged up, but that’s nothing to fuss over. No human casualties.”

“Damn,” the commander said in shock. “Time to move out, then.” The commander exited the tent and rallied his soldiers. They were immediately ready. The army marched until they reached Fauxmoa’s gate. They entered through it and flooded throughout the city.

“Tie up those guards,” the commander ordered his troops as soon as he saw the city guards sprawled out on the ground and walls.

As the soldiers invaded Fauxmoa, they took special care to avoid the creatures that led the initial charge, which was a fairly difficult task given the large number of them prowling the city. Many of the soldiers felt a creepy sensation tingling in their spine as they noticed the creatures staring at them from the streets and the top of buildings. Isabelle watched as hardened and newbie soldiers avoided her creatures like the plague in the city streets, giving them as wide of a berth as possible. She chuckled slightly, thinking it was funny.

“What are you laughing about?” Fae asked. She had found her way back to Isabelle’s side. Both of them were currently standing off on a side street.

“Oh, nothing, “ Isabelle said as her mind quickly switched to another, more important issue. She regretted not giving it more thought.

My family could be in danger now that Fauxmoa’s getting invaded. I should watch them just in case, Isabelle thought. She looked within her mind and found twelve creatures within the city, then told them to go to her family’s home and stay close in case anything were to happen, but to stay hidden. She felt their confusion.

Shoot, I forgot to specify where it was, Isabelle thought. Go that way, she said, specifying the direction where her family’s home was.

A few minutes later, as they neared her family’s home, she felt them reach out to her. Trouble came sooner than she expected. Isabelle’s creatures communicated a warning signal to her, and when she looked through their eyes she saw a group of soldiers approaching her family’s home. Seven of them. Her creatures watched and listened from the treeline as the soldier’s approached the home. The one in the lead loudly banged on the door.

“Open up!” he said. “This territory is now under the control of the Orelian army.” Nobody answered. Another soldier spoke up.

“Open up or we’ll burn you out!” she shouted to the occupants inside the household.

“Go away!” said a feminine voice from inside the house. Isabelle recognized it as her mothers voice. Through the door, using her creature's enhanced senses, she saw her parents. Their hearts were beating fast. Her mom held a small knife further back in the house and her siblings hid even deeper in the house. The soldiers smiled and the one in the lead of the group stepped aside and looked at a large, well-muscled man in the back of the group. The man stepped forward. As the situation worsened, so too did Isabelle’s fears. She could feel her own heart beating faster in her chest and she hated it.

“Stop them!” Isabelle accidentally said out loud, but her message was clear. The creatures watching the situation let out a shrill war cry and charged the group. The soldiers attempting to break into the house heard the loud war cry and turned towards the direction it came from, only to see the charging creatures. After processing the situation, half of the group turned around and booked it in the opposite direction. The rest of them simply stood where they were. The creatures reached them in mere moments. The large man that had previously been approaching the door raised his arms as one of the creatures quickly leaped into the air, straight at him. He held it by the neck as it clawed and scratched at him, leaving marks all over his body. Another creature jumped him, and he collapsed to the ground. As he felt his body begin to go numb, something bit and tore a huge chunk out of his neck, swallowing it right in front of him. His arm lost its energy and the monster it was holding back tore into his face with its teeth.

The other soldiers had their own problems to worry about as they were pinned to the ground.

The man that knocked on the door pulled out his dagger and stabbed the creature pinning him down in its chest area, but the blade didn't go through. He kept pushing and twisting the knife with all his might but it wouldn't penetrate inside of that thick exterior. Its drool coated his face as it opened its mouth and let out a hideous sound, aimed right at him.

Isabelle felt her anger subside, just a little.

Don’t kill them. Let them go and retreat back to where you were, Isabelle communicated to her creatures. They peeled themselves off of the wounded and battered soldiers and retreated back to where they were. They continued silently watching as the soldiers stood up.

“Henry!” shouted a feminine voice as she saw Henry’s body—the large man—splayed on the ground. She knelt down next to him and placed her hands on his chest. “Henry, get up!” Tears began to form in her crystal blue eyes.

"At least the rest of us are alive. We got lucky," said another one of the soldiers in the group.

"Shut up,” the crying woman said.

"Well I'm getting out of here," the soldier replied and started to walk away. The rest of them followed, all but the crying woman. She leaned over Henry’s body, wishing he would come back.

Did I take things too far? Isabelle asked herself as she watched the crying woman, a feeling of guilt stabbing her subconscious.

The crying woman was the last to leave, as the other soldiers booked it as fast as they could. But she, too, eventually left, and Henry’s corpse was abandoned in front of the house.

—

In the city, the army was beginning to pillage homes, businesses, and government offices. They threw people out of their homes and into the streets while soldiers ransacked inside. It was a harrowing sight.

The church was one of the first buildings to get set on fire, after the mass of people were taken out. Soldiers took torches and set it ablaze. Government offices were soon after, and then people's homes. Many homes were built right next to each other with only a wall separating neighbors, as Susy’s was, so a fire started in one would burn the whole row.

By daybreak half the town had been burned down and all of it looted. No government office or religious institution remained. It was chaos. Isabelle and Fae walked through the streets with sullen expressions and heavy hearts. The recently homeless avoided them like the plague.

“They really hate us,” Fae said.

“I can’t blame them. They see you as one of the soldiers who destroyed their homes, while I’m a freaky monster they’ve never seen before,” Isabelle said. “I hate it had to be this way.”