Kumo smashed her maces into her target, Ponde. The demon heir ragdolled against the boat, but she knew that the damn monster would get up again.

Killing the unkillable had sounded like a fun challenge. In reality, it was a pain.

Kumo took the second that Ponde took to recover to take stock of the rest of the battle. Galvina had rejected Gi's request to surrender which had been expected. She wouldn't reject again after Tiria finished kicking her ass.

Samba and that human woman fought the half goblin and half demon one, Morok. Samba controlled the heir's movements while the human tried to chop the demon down like a tree.

It would have worked better if Morok wasn't able to turn parts of his body into the same translucent smoke as his summoned Wyverns.

While that ability helped Morok fight Samba, it did nothing for his summons above. The wyverns were being systemically hunted by Fighting Drakes or Gi's own summons.

After speaking with Gi, he'd drifted up into the air serving as their support and scout more than the power house that he was. He'd dined with the gods and brought Wane back to life. Compared to that, dealing with their Elites was beneath him.

Kumo was happy to do the menial work for him. That is... if this bastard would just die.

"You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to defeat me," Ponde said as he returned to his feet after reconstructing his face. It was hard to hear him over the roars, screams, and ballistas being fired against the humans in the background.

"Can't you make this easier on both of us and just die already?"

"I'm just getting warmed up!"

Kumo sighed. She didn't know what Skill this demon had, but like any Skill, it had to run on Aether. If she killed him enough, he'd run out of Aether and stay dead.

Ponde rushed at her, wielding the same short sword as the common demons fought with. He was skilled, she'd give him that, but she was better.

His short sword stabbed forward, almost like a piercing weapon instead of the slashing one that it was. Without a shield, she had to parry with a rotating motion, activating [Iron Counter].

Her second mace smashed into his shoulder and he stumbled away from her. Out of reach, Kumo sent out a flurry of [Phantom Strikes]. Maces appeared out of thin air as water to smash into Ponde.

But the nimble demon rolled out from under them, his shoulder already healed, and started sprinting back towards her.

The two of them fought all across the deck of the demon's ship, every exchange looking nearly the same. Kumo was unwilling to commit her Aether to the fight as it was one of endurance while Ponde absorbed her unending punishment with a smile.

It was getting really annoying.

What she needed was some way to keep him contained. If she could pin him down, then it would be simple to burn his Aether out.

Kumo's [Awareness] skill was working in overdrive as she simultaneously fought Ponde and kept up with the larger battle around her, looking for some way to end this opponent quickly.

Then she realized a very obvious solution, and before her current frustrations got the better of her, she yelled out.

"Brot- Samba! Switch with me!"

Samba glared back at her and Kumo was about to tell him exactly what an ass he was, but Ponde took the advantage to slash with his short sword. She ducked beneath it and then had to roll out of the way of his followup kick.

And then Samba was there.

He towered over the undying heir, but he'd been practicing his (Coastal Clinch) apparently because he wrapped up Ponde easily. The two of them started doing a dance where Ponde tried to escape and Samba kept tangling him anew.

The human swung her axe to keep Morok at bay. "Come on, switch!" she yelled with a horrible accent.

Kumo flung out her [Phantom Strikes] as she closed the distance. The human flinched a bit as Kumo closed in, but it seemed she was starting to get used to her Human Slayer aura. Shame.

The human turned to help Samba chop the undying one apart while Kumo turned her full attention to Morok. Kumo's [Awareness] told her that Ponde had been holding back against her because as soon as he was controlled by Samba, he started exploding body parts.

That pissed her off.

Morok, unlike Ponde, didn't wield any weapons. "Even if you defeat us here, you won't defeat the Empire. Just surrender now and I'll ensure your station isn't so onerous."

"Counteroffer. How about you lay your head down on the deck and I smash it like a melon?"

"Things may look dire for us, but I will resist you with every part of my being."

"Promise?"

Morok seemed unwilling to continue bantering which was a shame because Kumo hadn't had that since Gi left. Most of the humans she'd hunted just died quietly in their sleep, unknowing that their skull painted their bed crimson.

He rushed towards her, pulling back his fist for a punch. Kumo sent a [Phantom Strike] his way, but he rolled towards her to dodge it. As he did, his arm transformed into one of those wide mouth wyverns and bit down on her torso.

She grit her teeth against the sudden pain and used her mace to disperse the odd Aether creature. It returned back to his arm. Blood practically coated Kumo's right side where the wyverns's teeth formed a ring of inch deep holes.

Kumo hadn't expected him to so easily best her defense and now she was paying fo-

A burst of healing came up from below the ship as Chum's Domain passed over her. Chum quickly swam past to continue his healing services further into the battle, but it was enough.

The bite marks closed, and while it was a little stiff. It shouldn't impede her too much. Morok frowned as her wounds suddenly healed, but he charged in again, not willing to let her gain her footing.

Kumo flipped backwards, activating [Beserker Clone] which now was tied into the Subdomain that she'd inherited from Gi. Instead of one summon, two appeared for the same amount of Aether.

Unlike before her upgrade, her summons were red with completely black irises. She couldn't command them like before, but they were much closer to her own strength.

Both of them scrambled forward, fighting tooth and claw to try and dismember Morok. His ability to selectively phase seem limited to one limb at a time, but he was clearly skilled and able to keep both of her beserkers at bay.

Kumo added in a barrage of [Phantom Strikes], adding a cascading waterfall of maces. A few struck, but Morok's Vitality was strong enough to tank a few with minimum impact.

Frankly when it came to a face-to-face fight, Morok was better. He'd probably beat her summons in less than a minute even if she rained support of her phantom strikes.

As much as Kumo enjoyed a fight, that wasn't her expertise these days. She sent a few more [Phantom Strikes] and then activated one more [Beserker Clone] to join the fight. She could feel a tension on her Soul and three seemed to be the limit for her new Subdomain.

Morok's fighting grew more frantic as a third summon joined the fray, breaking the advantage that he'd been clawing ahead with. The increased intensity meant that he didn't even notice that her [Phantom Strikes] had stopped.

Nor did he notice her [Shadow Meld] and disappear.

And lastly, he didn't notice the mace that smashed into the back of his head.

The surprise blow got buffed from her [Shadow Meld] and it might have killed him outright, but whether it did or not, her summons dove on him as he fell forward and started ripping out his insides.

Kumo smiled at how easy the fight was. She might have lost if she was forced to fight him one-on-one without her new advantages, but Gi's Subdomain meant that she would never have a one-on-one battle anymore.

Chum and the other priests healing meant that wounds wouldn't prove deadly. No longer would she have to root through humans' medical supplies to try and save a friend.

Like any family, they had their problems, but they were whole again.

It felt good.

Her summons winked out as either the Aether ran out or they decided that Morok was officially dead. His body looked like blended gore so she doubted he was getting back up.

Her eyes cast to the sky, and unfortunately, his summoned wyverns didn't seem to have disappeared with his death. As espected, the Fighting Drakes and Gi's legion were having no trouble so no concerns there.

Beams of ancient light appeared all over the battlefield, almost as though they fought in a lightning storm, but she knew each one was saving a clan member and killing an enemy just as they'd planned.

Gi got the additional Soul Orbs that he would need, the clan stayed safe, and any damage would be healed by the roaming priests under Chum's command. Thankfully, the human had seen the wisdom in that as Samba looked ready to argue when it was proposed.

Thinking of the annoying giant, she saw that he and the human had bested the undying one. They had him pinned down and somehow the bastard was still healing, but his limbs had stopped exploding so Kumo assumed that Ponde was out of Aether.

Tiria was still fighting. Kumo considered giving her a hand as she remembered how strong Galvina was from the battle on Igna, but Tiria had not been slacking after Gi's death. The way the two of them danced and fought was impressive and a smug grin lit Kumo's features as she noticed that she was emulating her aggressive [Fighting Style] (Oppressive Downpour).

Dead demons littered the rest of the boat that they were on and she assumed Gi had taken them out so they could focus on the Elites. Kumo jogged past Tiria and Samba and looked over the rest of the battle.

The otters moved like a well-oiled machine. The Templar would charge a boat shoving the demons back and making room for the Inquisitors and Hunters. Any damage that landed on the Templars was quickly healed up between ships and the otters just continued on.

The only strange addition was the humans that had paired up with Samba's otters were there too. They looked like drowned rats having been dragged along underwater, but the spears they fought with were more help than hindrance.

It still felt like a betrayal that Samba had denounced them, but...

She'd missed her family. It would take time to get used to the changes. Until then, she'd make sure nothing separated them again.

Kumo dove off the boat and went to join her clan in the fight.

****

Commander Cedrick watched in awe as the Thousand Island navy engaged with that of the Demon Empire.

Ellen Swamp gathered up King Rellington and their vanguard to push onto the first boat. The Demons clearly had their formation tactics using water shields to deflect projectiles and skirmisher type fighters to engage.

They broke against the stalwart formation of the Thousand Islands. The vanguards shields were enchanted, meaning most ranged attacks were useless against them, and any that might have broken through was suddenly mired in an upsurge of mud.

That same mud pooled around the ankles of the vanguard, but where it slowed the enemy, it sped up the human soldiers.

Other ships started to flank the demons and more humans poured off each lead by one of the religious Elders. As a follower of Hyshtel himself, he easily recognized Elder Altman and his twin steel blades.

There was a reason that the Thousand Islands Kingdom hadn't been added into the fold of either Veridia or Frosthelm. The strength of their navy was legendary.

Cedrick's men weren't expected to fight, but every ship was involved in the battle and even with them being towards the back of the fleet, they'd slowly gotten closer to the demon ships.

They were starting to pack in together and demons leapt from ship to ship to reinforce their failing lines against the various points of attack.

The thrum of a ballista made Cedrick flinch. A huge bolt launched through the air straight towards them.

"Run!" Cedrick yelled, shoving other soldiers away who were frozen in inaction.

Cedrick himself rolled and popped up, expecting to see it crashing into the ship. Instead, he saw a dragonfly the size of his head zip near the speeding projectile and suddenly it shrank to about the size of a foot.

Now being tiny, it immediately slowed, wobbling in the air, and the dragonfly gave what sounded like a, "Wheeee!," as he plucked it from where it flew and dropped it into the ocean where it returned to its giant size.

"What the hell was that?" Thomas asked.

"I have no idea."

Thomas looked out over the battlefield where hundreds of all white otters swam through the sky fighting side by side with red dragons. He let out a breath and scraped his fingers through his hair.

"I'm so glad I don't have to write the report for this."