"Crap! How long until they get here?"

Mericel says "I'm not sure, maybe two hours?"

"Okay, we will deal with it. First, I need to finish freeing these girls."

Mericel says "Alright, what do you want me to do?"

"Go back and keep an eye on them, see if you can overhear anything."

Mericel says "Am I looking for something specific?"

"Yes, it is weird for that many troops to be marching away from the border. I want to know what the king is up to if possible."

Mericel says "Alright, I will see what I can find out."

"Thank you."

Annya says "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Sure, you can help Myria. We need to get everyone organized, figure out who can ride, and how soon everyone will be in shape to move."

Annya says "Sure! Most of these people are my people anyway!"

As Annya goes with Myria to start helping I continue going down the line removing manacles. A thousand soldiers, how are we going to deal with this? We can't fight that many at once, maybe if we can split them up somehow.

'Drog, how are things to the north?'

Drog thinks 'I'm outside the city, a thousand soldiers just arrived in the city from the north.'

'Another thousand? What is going on?'

Drog thinks 'Another thousand?'

'Yeah, we have a thousand coming up from the south. You should head back now.'

Drog thinks 'Yes, master!'

Two thousand troops, this is definitely a trap. I guess the king figures I am heading for the border and means to trap me between the two forces. My best bet may be to act as a decoy until the girls are all able to move.

"Myria, Annya, Leyla, come here please."

Myria says "Yes, master?"

"How long do you three think until we can get moving?"

Annya says "My women can move out right now, but the human women are in worse shape."

Leyla says "Yes, they need to rest, morning would probably be the earliest."

"Okay, then I will need to delay the soldiers. Myria, will be in charge here while I'm gone."

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Ruby says "Why is Myria in charge, why not me?"

"Because, you are going with me."

Ruby says "Oh? Oh! Yay!"

"When Drog gets back, have him scout west and look for a water source. Once the women can move, that will be our next campsite."

Myria says "Yes, master. But will Drog listen to me?"

"Haha, yes, you are too cute for him to ignore you."

Myria says "You think I'm cute?"

"Yes."

As Myria smiles I suddenly feel a rising heat behind me, that is when I remember Ruby. Deciding ignoring it is probably safer, I turn and start walking towards the south.

"Come on, Ruby, let's go raise some hell."

I can sense Ruby behind me, if she were putting off any more heat my fur would be burning. She is definitely jealous this time, this is more than just teasing. Does this mean she likes me too? Time to test this out.

"Ruby, you know I think you are cute too."

The instant I finish talking the heat disappears, it is completely silent behind me. From the lack of footsteps I can tell she stopped in shock, guess that answers that. Now that I know, what the hell do I do now?

For now it will have to wait until after we deal with the soldiers, just as soon as I figure out how to deal with them that is. We can't beat them head on, how would be the best way to spread them out? I guess the best bet is going to be to attack them from the side and let them chase us.

I finally hear Ruby's footsteps as she runs to catch up to me, it took her a minute, I must have really surprised her. Anyway, I will have to deal with all that later, now I need to find Mericel. It only takes the two of us about fifteen minutes to get within sight of the soldiers.

We quickly duck into the grass to the west of the road, the soldiers didn't spot us. It only takes a minute for Mericel to find us, she can sense me even if I can't sense her.

Mericel says "Master."

"Hi, Mericel, find out anything?"

Mericel says "Yeah, they are hunting us specifically. They are to meet up with the other thousand coming south and then sweep west."

"Okay, we definitely have to prevent that."

Ruby says "So, what's the plan?"

"We are going to attack the middle of the column, I will cut a path right through the middle of them. Mericel will follow behind me and kill any I miss, Ruby I want you to throw as many fireballs as you can to either side."

Mericel says "Okay."

Ruby says "I can do that!"

"Okay, after we make it through them we head east into the grass, we are going to make them spread out trying to find us."

Ruby says "And once they spread out we kill more of them?"

"Yes, as we can. Our objective is to delay them until morning, then we make our way back to the others. We will either meet up with them on the road or to the west of that."

Ruby says "Okay, sounds like a solid plan."

"Once they spread out it will be fairly chaotic, if we get separated don't try to find each other, just fight till morning then head back."

Mericel and Ruby say "Okay."

"Let's do this!"

We creep alongside the road until we are even with about the middle of the soldiers, I look at Ruby and Mericel and get a nod from each. I draw Blitz and step out of the grass already swinging. The first two soldiers die without ever knowing they were under attack.

I take a step forward and swing again, more die under my blade, and now the shouting starts. Each step forward I take another swing, a few manage to dodge but I ignore those, Mericel will deal with them. I've taken five steps when the first fireball explodes off to my left killing dozens of soldiers.

Ten steps brings me to the middle of the road, Ruby's third fireball goes off and then a second explosion goes off behind me. A quick glance back shows Ruby covered in blue flames, but she has a huge smile on her face so I focus on my task. Another ten steps, another ten swings, and I reach the far side of the road.

Turning back to make sure Mericel and Ruby are still with me, I notice all the bodies, rough guess we killed over a hundred. They will definitely come after us now, so I turn and lead Ruby into the grass. We pick up the pace as soon as we are hidden in the grass, I match my pace to Ruby's.

Now we play cat and mouse with the remaining nine hundred soldiers until dawn. After covering a few hundred yards I slow down a bit to let Ruby catch her breath.

"Ruby, what was the other explosion earlier?"

Ruby says "Oh, I leveled up!"

"Awesome! Congrats!"

Ruby says "So, the plan now is to ambush smaller groups?"

"Yeah, when Mericel catches up we will know what they are doing and plan accordingly."