Leza retracted her still smoking fist from the blasted skull of yet another demonic animal. This one had been a bear with long ape like arms and the head of a toad. She shook the black, slimy blood from her hand and turned her head to check on the others. Several misshapen corpses littered the area, and only one monster was still stubbornly fighting. This one was more plant than animal, with a spongy bipedal body, and thousands of tiny red capped mushrooms covering it. As Leza moved to help finish it off, it suddenly seemed to lose its nerve and attempted to flee.
Four pitch black apparitions apparitions rose before it, and it slowed to a sloth like crawl as it stepped into their shadows. Meri’s familiars had proven their worth many times over since they had found themselves in this alien place.
The Cambions cut it down quickly with a barrage of spells from a safe distance, knowing first hand how dangerous the spores released by the creature could be.
“Well done.” Leza remarked to her allies, stretching her arms above her head as she did. “Let’s keep moving.”
“We need rest, Leza.” Leifa the cambion said firmly. “We don’t have the stamina of a Hellcat.”
“Only as much as you need.” Leza answered after a small sigh. “Asha, Torra. See if any of the prey felled here is edible.”
As the cambions settled onto the mossy dirt and rested back to back, the Hellcats kept watch and foraged. It was a simple stat discrepancy between the two races. The Cambions had immense Soul and magical abilities, and the Hellcats were purely physical specimens.
“The toad headed one is a no-go.” Asha said, crinkling her nose.
“This pig thing seems okay, just gamey.” Torra called over a moment later.
“Break it down and get a fire going, then.” Leza ordered the depressed looking girl. “And don’t look at me like that. You’ve been too spoiled by those duck confit dumplings you eat everyday. It’s good for you to remember where we all came from.” She wagged a sharp claw at Torra as she admonished her.
Many of the women enjoyed a chuckle at the banter, but internally were just as put off by the idea of yet another disgusting meal of unseasoned monster meat.
They rested and choked down the vile meal without incident. They then continued toward the landmark that the Cambions were able to spot during their short bursts of flight. The air above the mushroom forest sapped Soul Energy at an alarming rate, and they could only manage a few moments of scouting from above.
After another hour of travel, the giant mushrooms became more sparse as they neared the clearing containing the large tower they had spotted. They slowed and stepped cautiously as they approached the edge of the forest. A familiar scent was making them all tremble with remembered trauma, and rage. Sounds soon joined the foul musk. Snorts and bestial huffs accompanied dull thuds and occasional sharp cracks.
They crept closer and the scene caused them all to freeze in their tracks. Two gorgothan demons squared off against one another. These two were at least a head taller than The Warlord, and vibrant red stripes ran through their snow white fur. Blood also stained the fur of both combatants, and one was missing an antler. Blood poured freely from the root where it had been ripped out. The other demon now wielded said antler as a weapon, and several sharp quills stuck from his heaving chest.
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“What should we do?” Asha crouched next to Leza, and the two hellcats never took their eyes from the enormous clashing beasts.
“Kill them, move on.” Leza’s voice was coldly mechanical.
“The Warlord was at least intelligent enough to communicate.” Leifa whispered. “Perhaps we could learn something.”
“We might not resist their mind controlling magic.” Leza rebutted firmly. “I won’t risk us being turned against each other. They die by ambush, I’ll use Null Roar. All cambions focus gravity magic on their position at my signal.”
With a frustrated sigh, Leifa nodded at her companions. There was simply no refusing the alpha hellcat. She wasted no time, dropping to her belly and stalking through the sharp spiky grass of the open field. The gorgothans likely wouldn’t have noticed if she strolled right up to them, so engrossed were they in their duel.
They weren’t the only ones being carelessly focused. If Leza had stopped to pay closer attention, she might have noticed the more than sixty gorgothans kneeling on the other side of the clearing as they watched the contest that would determine the next ruler of their clan.
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“The Ravager is nearly ravaged. Care to back out of that bet now, White Eye?” One gorgothan chided his friend. The pair had made a wager of gold and slaves on the outcome of this battle.
“Of course you would try to back out. The Razorback has already lost an antler, and you shall soon lose half of your hoard.” The one called White Eye grunted back.
Normally gorgothans would never gather in such numbers but something unprecedented had occurred. Two alpha gorgothans had evolved at once, throwing the state of their hierarchy into chaos. The only solution had been a duel to the death, and now the week long battle seemed to be nearing an end.
The two stopped talking and the gathering held its collective breath as the two charged, blood and saliva foaming around their bloody tusks.
At that moment everything went white, and all sound was replaced with a painful ringing.
When White Eye’s vision returned, he looked to where his rival had stood. His horizontal pupils widened in sudden disbelief. There, kneeling perfectly upright was the pelvis and legs of the tough gorgothan. Everything above that was simply gone. More than twenty others had met the same end, leaving all of the survivors in a state of shock just like White Eye.
Slowly, he willed himself to turn his great head back to where the alphas had been battling. The small hill they had been battling on was no more. Only glassy soil remained. The alphas themselves were nowhere to be found, erased from this layer as though they had never been.
Walking slowly through the haze of residual heat was a figure. Two sparks of wicked golden light stood out from the dark silhouette.
Two alpha gorgothan warriors killed in a single instant? There was simply no way that could be possible. Unless... That form... This woman must belong to the highest ranking clan of beast demons, though it was unheard of to encounter them in this territory. They lived exclusively in the lower layers, where prey was the strongest.
“One of The Ash Huntress’ forces!” White Eye shouted to his remaining kin. “Do not move, any of you!”
The muscular Hellcat woman seemed confused as she heard White Eye’s voice, and indeed she was. Leza had no idea they were even there, and now they were talking about lady Niiya?
Thirty gorgothans were suddenly kneeling in a semicircle around Leza, and she was too stunned to even react.
“We are honored by your visit, mighty warrior of Azitet, and humbled by your display of power.” White Eye (now the highest ranking gorgothan after the death of the alphas) spoke with reverence that was not even slightly feigned. “How may we lowly gorgothans be of service?”
“Leza!” Asha ran up behind Leza and skidded to a stop. “Eep!”
“Hmph.” Leza decided to lean into their apparent fear of her. “I simply found some trash in my way and brushed it aside. Surrender what meager offerings you possess and flee, before I decide to make my path any wider.”
Trinkets, coins, and baubles flew as the terrified demons beat a hasty retreat. Leifa sighed in disbelief as she watched the trail of dust rise in their wake.
“You scared them all away so easily!” Asha cheered in admiration.
Minutes later and several kilometers away, the Gorgothan band halted.
“We could have fought them.” One beast remarked reluctantly to White Eye. “That ability couldn’t possibly be usable more than once in a day.”
“We weren’t running away from Azitet’s underlings.” An older and wiser gorgothan chimed in White Eye’s defense. “Were we, old man?”
“Of course not.” White Eye confirmed. “An attack like that combined with the disappearance of two alphas will draw HIS attention.” The elder demon shuddered at the thought. “Let’s go, we want as much space as possible between us and what’s coming.”