Pepper stands on the side of the mountain as she fires off condensed air blasts into the side of the mountain. The mountain shakes with Jenna watching by her side. She screams, struggling to stop herself as the dark spike in her chest glows with an ominous light. The more she struggles against it, the brighter it glows with Jenna laughing watching her.

“Calm down Pepper. If you’d stop fighting it, then you wouldn’t be feeling so much pain right now.” She says with a smile on her face. “Oh, but make sure you don’t destroy the mountain. We still need to get Lika out of there when we’re done with cleaning up this mess.”

Pepper forces her mouth open, but she’s unable to speak or even scream. The spike in her chest growing larger as dark lines spread across her skin.

“Alright. Do you think it’s time, Pepper? These islanders are annoying if they’d just bowed to Fenwick like they should’ve. Then we wouldn’t need to do this.” She shakes her head as she holds out her hand. “I guess it’s time to use the little surprise to finish forcing the rats out. My rat catchers will finish them and we won’t have any resistance left.”

Glyn and the others rush through the caverns as the caves around them shake from Pepper’s attacks. Before they can make it to the surface, a man walks out of the tunnel and blocks the way. Glyn holds out his arm as the man charges ahead, swinging a hammer at Glyn, only for Zanrit to block the attack and push him away.

“What’s going on?”

“We played into Fenwick’s hands. The Miners are under Subjugation!” Glyn yells out.

“What do we do?” Mila asks.

Tisha readies her bow. “We can’t hurt them too badly. They’re not in control of themselves, but….”

More men come out of the tunnels carrying whatever they can as Glyn smirks. “Jenna’s always been a pain in the ass to deal with.”

“Glyn!?” Mila yells out.

“We’re breaking our way through. To control so many people at once she’s, but she’s got to be somewhere nearby. If we take her out, we can end this madness.”

Tisha sighs. “I should’ve figured that’d be the plan.”

“Sorry.”

“No, it’s expected.”

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Zanrit smirks. “Let’s move before more of them show up!”

Mila’s tails stand up as she nods. “I’m ready!”

“Good, let’s move!” Glyn yells out.

Outside of the caves, Jenna stands with a Pepper at her side as the sounds of battle echo from within. She laughs as Pepper stands motionless as the stares at the entrance waiting for someone to scurry out. As she stands around, an arrow flies out of the entrance towards her. Before it can hit, it stops midair and falls to the ground.

“Thank you, Pepper.” She walks forward, staring into the cave, but cannot see anyone near the entryway.

As she examines the opening, another volley of arrows fly out towards her. She moves her hands and calls Pepper forward, who makes a shield of the surrounding air to block the attacks. Before the shield fades, Mila runs in and hits it with her tails ignited with roaring flames. An explosion goes off, knocking Pepper and Jenna back as Glyn and the others exit the cavern.

“Been a while Jenna,” Glyn says.

“You Half-Elf bastard! Get out of my way!”

“Sorry, but I can’t back down until I know your little Lord out of this race. And that starts with taking you two down!”

Jenna smirks. “Oh yeah, we’ll see about that!”

She snaps her fingers and several figures descend from the skies. Various bird-like monsters fly toward the group as Tisha fires off her arrows to take several of them out.

“Tisha, Zanrit, you two take care of the monsters! Mila and I will get Pepper and Jenna under control!” Glyn orders.

As more monsters descend, Tisha continues her assault with Zanrit swiping at whatever monsters get close to the ground. Glyn turns to Mila and the pair run towards Jenna and Pepper, who stand below them.

Jenna directs Pepper, who fires off blasts of air at the two. Mila dodges the attacks while Glyn blocks them with his book. The two land with Mila rushing after Pepper as Glyn stares down at Jenna.

“So, what do you expect to do? I know you can’t use magic, so what’re you up to?”

Glyn smirks as he holds out his tome. “I have my plans and you’ve walked right into one of them. Subjugation is called dark magic. But all dark magic is are various curses that humans can perform.”

“So, what’re you getting at!?”

“Do you know what happens when a stronger curse interacts with a weaker one, especially one that’s as spread thin as yours?”

She pauses for a moment and pulls out a sword. “What!? You….”

As Mila and Pepper fight throwing air blast sand fireballs out at each other, Glyn runs forward. Jenna runs towards him and before she can draw in close, a blast of flames knocks her back. Jenna fires off blasts of wind toward Glyn and Mila. The two dodge the strikes with Mila helping Glyn push forward.

“Stop playing around and crush the two of them, you damned Fae!” Jenna yells out.

Pepper screams out as the spike in her chest grows larger, running her through. But before anything can be done, Glyn is thrown into the air and grabs hold of the spike.

“Got you!” He yells out.

“What no!”

A black aura blasts out of Glyn’s body and fills the area before fading away and flowing back into his body. The black spike in Pepper’s chest fades into ashes, with Glyn holding onto her body as the two fall to the ground. As Jenna watches on Mila runs in and knocks her out with a single strike to her neck. As Jenna falls to the ground, going unconscious, the black spikes on the monsters and men stop regaining their autonomy.

“Looks like we made it in time,” Glyn says.

Pepper opens her eyes, looking up at Glyn. She blinks for a moment and her eyes shit again as she drifts off to sleep exhausted.