By the time the three had made it to the orc encampment it was nearly pitch black. The torches and campfires illuminated the tents in a hazy flickering orange glow that stung at the eyes and only highlighted how empty the camp felt when the trio arrived.
"... I don't like that." Mau muttered at the lack of posted guards and the complete lack of noise.
"This has trap written all over it." Suvdaa agreed.
"So what are we going to do?" Andy asked as he peered over their shoulders to get a look at the campsite.
Mau rubbed her chin and considered the situation for a beat as she plopped to sit on her bottom and crossed her legs.
"We could give them what they want. Spring the trap."
Suvdaa eyed Mau dubiously.
"I am not walking into a trap." The raider said matter of factly.
"That's fine." Mau said, "I'll sneak in again, just cover me like last time."
"There's... Not really anything to sneak past, though." Andy said, tone equally hesitant and suspicious as Suvdaa.
"That's not the problem here." Mau said, batting at Andy's tail. "What has me wondering is... Just what the hell did our hag friend do to make the orcs spook enough to ditch their camp. Because there's no way in hell they'd just up and leave without a good reason."
Mau picked herself up off the ground and dusted off her backside before drawing her short blade and a dagger. "Screw it, I'm going in." She decided.
"Fine, I'll watch your back, Andy find a place to keep low." Suvdaa said.
With an irritable huff, Suvdaa clambered up the nearest tree to take up position to watch out for Mau while Andy shoved himself into a nearby convenient tangle of brush and roots. His tail stuck out like a sore thumb and both Mau and Suvdaa sighed quietly.
Mau grabbed Andy's tail and shoved it into the brush to help him along, earning a muffled 'Thanks!' from the bush before she lowered into a crouch and started in the direction of the supposedly empty encampment.
Creeping quieter than a mouse, Mau edged her way up to the first series of tents outlining the edge of the encampment. There were signs that, up until very recently the orcs had been manning their posts. And judging from the weapons, armor, and clothes strewn about the camp, the orcs had left in a huge rush. Mau didn't trust the situation in the least, everything was in disarray and something about it was very off and very wrong, but here she was sneaking into the encampment again feeling more naked than a jaybird for reasons she couldn't put her finger on.
Still, it was worth looking into, at the very least. If Mau was really lucky, the orcs might have even left their mystery captive behind, which would make her life all the easier when returning to the hag.
Stepping over spilled bowls of the nastiest smelling stew Mau had ever caught a whiff of, as she passed an overturned cauldron, she had to pause. Struggling to not retch, Mau managed to keep her gorge down and continued sneaking deeper into the rows of tents.
Something slithered in the pool of murky water at the edge of the camp and Mau went stock still. She eyed the water dubiously and tightened her grip on the blades in her grasp before taking a slow breath and moseying on.
Try as she might to find some sign of life in the campsite, it was well and truly deserted, save for the sight of the hag's pet moth alighting atop one of the empty tents. It twitched its antennae and Mau held a finger up to her lips to cut off any potential cackling that could give her away.
With a soft, hissing, gurgle of the hag's laughter, the moth lifted off and began flitting from tent to tent, following Mau on her course to the tent where the prisoner had been kept. Slowly she reached for the tent flap, fingers tugging it aside...
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"I wouldn't do that, were I you." The hag's moth piped up. Mau went stone still once again for a beat before peering up at the moth where it had landed atop the prisoner's tent.
Mau peered up at the moth and cocked a brow.
"You are really sending some mixed messages here and it's not helping, you know that right?" Mau replied blandly. "First you tell me the camp's empty, and now that I have the perfect opportunity to spring your special friend... I shouldn't?"
Slowly the moth croaked with laughter in the hag's voice.
"The orcs are gone..." The moth pointed out. "Buuuuuuut."
"Ah." Mau said, realization dawning on her.
The Demon Lord's General was still somewhere close by.
The soft whistle of an arrow tearing through the air made Mau's ears twitch, and she ducked a swipe that would have taken her head off with contemptuous ease and speed of reflexes. When she whirled around to face her assailant, Enma was standing there, looming over her, a sword in his hand.
Slowly he pulled Suvdaa's arrow from where his neck and shoulder joined and snapped the arrow in his hand as he eyed Mau with cold, distant, and mirthless mismatched red-blue eyes.
"So that's what I smelled, before." He said, tone as cold as ice. "A catgirl... And a little gnat that tried to sting me."
"I don't think she'd take kindly to being called a gnat." Mau replied, "That girl's a firecracker."
In an instant blades clashed, Enma lashed out with a speed and ferocity that would have caught anyone else off guard, but Mau replied in kind, and with lightning quick reflexes she nimbly deflected and rolled aside from another blow that would have cleaved her in half.
The resounding clang of steel on steel rang out through the swamp as Mau parried with her short blade and took several swipes and stabs with her dagger that were just as easily batted away.
"So what happened to all your guys?" She couldn't help but ask while testing Enma's defenses, bantering lazily amid the deadly swipes she exchanged with the Demon Lord General.
With a growl, Enma replied with a flurry of slashes. His speed and force weren't human, but Mau's skill allowed her to easily evade and parry each stroke in a manner that was rapidly annoying her foe.
"You happened!" He snapped back amid a powerful slash, sword whistling as it cut the empty air where Mau had been a split second before.
"Funny." Mau mused while twirling away; "I don't remember killing all these guys. Just a lot of them, but definitely not all of them."
"You didn't have to." Enma growled, stabbing at Mau in a series of rapid fire thrusts that she nimbly deflected. "If you're the one that's been murdering my patrols and leaving them strung up and strewn around the swamps, your little game of guerilla warfare had such a profound enough effect to make my men break. Do you know what orcs and goblins do when their morale breaks?" He snapped.
"Yeah they run as fast and far away as they can." Mau replied sagely as she swept her blades low to try and gash the young-looking General's legs. He jumped the blow and promptly came down into Mau's trap. No sooner than he landed her boot impacted with his stomach and chest in stunning force sending him staggering backwards.
"Guh!" He growled as he toppled onto his ass. Mau opted to let him get back up rather than press her attack. From their initial exchange she had already figured out that he wasn't anywhere as close to her level of blade mastery as she planted her hands on her knees and peered down at him.
"You okay down there?" She asked blandly. "I can wait, I have all day."
"Don't mock me!" Enma snapped back as he flung himself to his feet, muck-stained cape flapping limp and damp behind him.
"Nah." Mau said in a lazy tone. "I think I'll mock you. It's more fun for me that way." She replied while standing herself straight and taking on a ready stance.
He lunged and she parried the attack so deftly that he toppled forward, face first into the swampy earth with a sad splat.
"H-how dare you make fun of me like this?!" Enma stammered as he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. Mau casually booted him in the ass with a swift kick.
"How would you like me to make fun of you? I take requests." She said tone tired and dry.
Enma grunted as the kick sent him sprawling, but then he growled. He had clearly had enough of Mau simply toying with him the way she was.
"That's enough!" He snarled, scrambling to his feet. Before Mau could cattishly retort, Enma tossed his sword aside. With a growl he hunched forward and curled his lips, revealing massive buck teeth as his neck began to elongate before her eyes.
"Oh okay, I see we're revealing our true form, then. Well I'm just a catgirl." She said as Enma continued to transform before her eyes. Two spindly-thin antennae sprouted from Enma's brow as his luxurious hair fell away. It was as his skin started to turn a deep shade of emerald green that Mau took a step back as the man doubled and then tripled in size. Most of his body was a wiry thin neck in length now, but then the rest of his body began to shift as his shoulders broadened and his chest took on barrel-like proportions, widening and thickening until he was roughly the size of a small bus, feathery clawed fingers scrabbled at the ground as massive webbed wings ripped from the beast's shoulders.
"Uh. ... Huh..." Mau muttered, head slowly craning back to stare up at the thing as skin turned to scales as hard as steel and the transformation completed with a whip-like tail and long gangly clawed legs.
"I'M GOING TO EAT YOU NOW." Enma screeched, mismatched eyes smoldering like fire as Mau pursed her lips and looked at the very ordinary steel blade in her hand.
"I knew I should have invested in at least an adamantine sword." Mau sighed.