Nimbus was moving as fast as it could with Hera on its back. If someone was walking or running to the village, it should take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. However, Hera was now riding a griffin that was able to go at 30 km/h. Meaning that thanks to her mount, it would take her about 15 minutes to reach the top. During that time, there was no hesitation on her mind. Even if she knew she was about to fight people, all she wanted to do was to protect the people of the volcano tribe.
"Mom, why are you okay attacking people now?" Daskka asked.
"What do you mean?" Hera didn't take her eyes out of the road. She had no idea how long it would take before an enemy appeared.
"I can sense your feelings. And when you think about killing someone from Bonpei, you don't mind now. Well, you do, but you seem to be less concerned about it. What changed?"
"I don't know. Maybe it's because they are attacking us? It feels better when we are not just attacking for the sake of attacking. Why do you ask?"
"We were talking, and we figured it might help you to talk about your feelings. Maybe that can give you some insight on where that comes from and why you're struggling so much with it," Daskka explained while looking around.
"Wait, what do you mean we? Who are you talking to?" Hera looked down at the snake around her neck.
"With Lurize, Beam, Swift, Ooze, Brute, and Executioner, who else?" Daskka tilted her head.
"Hold up, you guys talk? Like talk talk? Not just say what's going on around you but have actual conversations?" Hera gasped. They never talked to her unless she asked something first; even then, it was always straight to the point.
"Well, yeah. It's not like I can talk to anyone else, and the subjects are very limited. Until you get a titled blade, they won't be that good of a company," Daskka shrugged.
"Then, why don't they talk to me? I don't mean talking about fights or where enemies are coming from, just small talk, you know."
"You never asked them to. By default, your court will only reply when spoken to. The only exceptions are the titled blades. Also, if you want my advice, you should keep the rule that they won't talk to you about meaningless things during a fight. Seriously, Ooze rarely stops talking, and maybe its because of the skill, but when they are relaxed, they are sooo freaking loud."
"Okay then. These are the new orders. When we are not fighting or in a clearly dangerous place, you guys can talk to me as much as you want. Even if the legacy considers me the empress or whatever, I don't want any of you treating me like royalty. We are all members of the same party. Oh, but if I need a break or something, I'll let you know, but in that case, it's not an order to stop talking unless I say so. It would be just so I can rest or be alone for a while."
All of her court gave her a confirmation reply, promising they would talk to her more casually, but since this was a dungeon, they wouldn't be starting now. Nimbus ran for a few more minutes, still following the road to the mouth of the volcano, before finally being in sight of the logistics team caravan. It quickly became apparent that some unknown assailants were hindering its progress. Hera clenched her hand around the glaive, and as soon as she was close enough, she started attacking to relieve some of the pressure the warriors were feeling.
Hera wasn't exactly proficient in mounted combat, but with Lurize giving her pointers, things became somewhat easier. She told Nimbus to slow down after the initial attack so they could, at the very least, maneuver a bit better. With a quick glance, she noticed that there were about 200 attackers versus the 75 volcano tribesmen. That wasn't the only problem. Since they were taking care of supplies, the people from the volcano couldn't move freely. Otherwise, the attackers could destroy some of the crates or, even worse, steal them.
Nimbus was moving around the caravan, forming a perimeter around the supplies, while Hera kept attacking with her glaive. She coated the weapon with some poison mana that would cause pain and dizziness to those afflicted by it. She considered using fire, but there was a chance that the people of Bonpei had some armor made to resist fire-based elemental attacks. By attacking the people without stopping, Hera could keep herself safe while becoming a large threat to all her enemies. To top it off, she activated her wind armor, making it even harder for anyone to hit her.
Since Hera was trying to protect the convoy, she sent out her blades to do their thing, leaving only Lurize nearby so it could tell her when she was doing something wrong while fighting. Trying something new without the blade's advice felt weird now. Hera had grown used to that type of thing, and its advice was priceless. She continued to act as the cavalry. A glaive was perfect for this kind of thing. The long-range would allow her to hit whoever she was targeting without losing her balance on top of Nimbus.
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Even with all that preparation, whenever one of her strikes seemed deadly, Hera would freeze up for a moment. She was still unable to forget that she was attacking people. On the other hand, her blades didn't have that problem. The convoy was made of just a couple of carts, allowing her blades to be on Hera's range even when they were in the opposite corners of the battlefield. Beam and Ooze were helping some of the volcano warriors, while the rest were working together to take down a single person. The empress wasn't in any condition to pay attention to her court's fight, but Daskka could tell that even working together, they were having some trouble. Their attacks were missing more than they should, and the ones that did hit ended up being too weak to deal critical damage.
Despite all that, in just a few minutes, the attackers were all killed by Hera and the volcano tribe army. The explorer herself wasn't responsible for most of the kills, but her mere presence and constant threat were enough to give the lava warriors the edge they needed.
"Thank you for your help, human. I must admit, we would have lost some of our supplies if things kept going like that. The people of Bonpei may be weak, but their numbers can overwhelm us," the captain of the logistics team gave a slight bow to Hera. It was a shame that she wasn't in her right mind to listen. Seeing the bodies on the ground made her remember the elf she killed, and that seemed to have wiped out all the progress she had made so far.
"Mum, you have to answer him," Daskka pushed Hera's head to the side.
"Yeah, right. I'm glad I could help. Can you take the supplies to the army? They are already running out," Hera tried to snap back, but her mind wasn't entirely there yet.
"Of course. Can I ask you to check the storage? I fear some of the attackers passed us by and seemed to have another objective. We tried to stop them, but our hands were already full. I don't believe that having them raid our supplies will be enough to make them win the war, but I don't know if they will leave the people who were still in the city alone," the captain explained.
That last line seemed to finally be able to bring Hera back somewhat, "Wait. The people who are not in the army? You mean the children, elderly, and the few that stayed to take care of them?"
The captain nodded, "Yes. We are aware that humans can use our loved ones as hostages. Despite that, our chieftain already informed us that should that happen, we must focus on removing them from the land. Even if that means our families will be no more."
Hera got angry with that. Angry at the MAZE for making such a messed up dungeon, angry at Releon for even humoring that idea, angry at herself for coming here, and angry at the people of Bonpei. Not just because they might be willing to harm innocent people, but because she knew that this kind of thing could very well happen in the real world.
"I'll go check. Run down the mountain and give the supplies as quickly as possible," Hera replied before making Nimbus start running again. She was about five minutes away from the mouth of the volcano, and she could only hope that the captain's fears were unfounded. However, considering this was a dungeon, that seemed very unlikely. When a construct said something like that, it usually meant that it was going to happen one way or another.
When Nimbus arrived at the village entrance, Hera could already hear some screams coming from inside. She noticed a large force from Bonpei attacking everyone while the remaining logistics team tried to hold them back. However, if they were already overwhelmed by the 200 people against the convoy, this was much, much worse, even if the number of volcano warriors here was larger than the ones heading down the mountain. It seemed that for each one of the tribesmen, at least 5 humans were attacking, and they weren't discriminating against the children and elderly, even if most of the attackers looked like civilians themselves.
Hera started moving through the city, spinning her glaive from side to side to attack the humans, or at least make them focus on herself instead of the rest of the people. She wasn't feeling guilty about attacking them, but she still hesitated a bit every time one of her strikes seemed to be more deadly than she expected. Luckily she noticed how most of the remaining army had corralled the tribesmen to the storage tent in an attempt to protect them. Hera smiled, glad that most people should be safe, but her momentary happiness washed away in a second. Looking to the left, she saw five humans coming out of a tent with large smiles on their faces, laughing and talking about how easy it was to kill some of the volcano children. They weren't wearing any armor and seemed to be using farming tools as weapons. Hearing that, something snapped inside of her. It was one thing to attack the village, another to laugh about it. Especially if they themselves were not soldiers but regular people. For some reason, that was like adding insult to injury.
With a roar of anger, she turned Nimbus to those five men and started attacking. Swinging her glaive upward, she cut one of them. Leaving a large gash on the side of his body and opening his neck. The men were shocked by the situation, which allowed Hera to continue her massacre. Sending out her blades to take care of those farther away from her, she spun the glaive above her head before bringing it down on another of the farmer's heads, splitting his skull. Swift, Beam, and Brute stopped one of them from running away, slashing at his legs and arms to give Executioner an opening to cut off his head. On the other side, Lurize blocked an attack going for Hera while Ooze triggered its skill, screaming to surprise the attacker. That allowed the empress to hit the man with the back of the glaive, making him fall to the ground before piercing his chest with the blade. Daskka grew bigger and wrapped around one of the men before starting to squeeze, making him gasp for air and fall to the ground as his bones were crushed.
All of them were dead, and Hera, for once, didn't feel bad about it. They deserved it. Yet, her rage didn't subside. She still felt like this whole situation was messed up. Her feelings bled out to her blades, and they continued searching for any survivors while killing the humans who came to attack the village.