Darcy’s nose twitched as the direction of the wind changed. Her eyes peered into the darkness, piercing through the veil and catching every detail. She didn’t need the faux-light the other members of the unit were carrying. Hounds could see perfectly in the dark after all.

There was an itch in the back of her head that almost made her tail wag as she sniffed again, trying to catch a hint of their prey’s scent. There was an edge of frustration gnawing at her. She could smell the offworlders, but not the Tigress.

“Report.” The Mousegirl next to Darcy spoke with a soft breathless voice, her gaze distant, glassy eyes that looked at nothing at all.

Darcy always hated when Mimi spoke through one of ‘her girls’ like that. “We only caught a whiff of burnt-up Phoenix feather, nothing on White Claw. Yet.” That bothered her plenty. The only one that could make Phoenix feathers was lady Miranda. Something didn’t make sense. “We’re approaching the location where we heard the roar.”

“The Lord reminds you your role is not to pursue.”

“I read the Hunter’s report too, you know. We know how White Claw fights.” Darcy hid her annoyance, keeping her attention in the surrounding forest. “Celine spot anything yet?”

“The North is clear. Celine is checking East of your location. Squad three is keeping their distance and waiting for confirmation. They’re two minutes out West.”

Holding back the urge to roll her eyes, of course the Northern side was clear. It was the direction they’d come from! Still, Darcy kept her retort in check. “Squad four, it’s time to shine. Shields up, we’re going to see if our prey’s feeling protective.”

The five Doggirls under Darcy’s command quietly acknowledged the order. They raised the heavy tower shields and formed a circle around the Hound and Mousegirl. Darcy gave one last look around them. The forest was quiet, deathly so. She remembered the times she’d been brought to hunt White Claw. The feline had only ever killed one or two before giving them the slip. It had never felt this oppressive.

“Emily, you’ve got the better lungs of the team. Would you do the honors? Give us your best battle cry.”

This time would be different. They knew that coming in with everyone in a large formation would just mean she’d avoid them entirely. Thus why they’d spread out. Darcy’s eyes glanced at the brunette behind her.

The Doggirl’s brown tail wagged with pride as she nodded, drawing in a sharp breath. Darcy covered her ears right as her subordinate let out her howl. The Hound held back from grinning. Emily could shatter glass from across the room with that voice of hers. Her singing was likely why the Lord had taken her in the first place.

With the howl still echoing all around them, Darcy took a look around, glancing over the heads of her maidens and their shields, peering into the forest. White Claw had to be there. The roar had been a challenge. So where was she? Waiting for a chance to ambush them? The wind changed direction again. Darcy’s nose twitched as she caught the faint traces of Squad three. Ray’s scent was impossible to mistake for anyone else’s. Too much grease.

“DANGER!”

The Mousegirl’s shriek snapped Darcy to attention, her ears perked as she heard the swish of something flying their way. She turned, just in time to see a blown blur headed straight for her head. A rock? She raised her small shield to deflect it.

It wasn’t a rock, it shattered with the sound of pottery. It contained a liquid, trailing over her shield and splattering behind. A split second after, the liquid burst into flames and shrieks broke out. Several of the Doggirls had been hit by the splash. Darcy’s mind sounded the alarms as she instantly recognized the substance to be Phoenix feather. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the burst in light. She first had to make sure those burned with-.

“DON’T BREAK FORMATION!”

The shout came as two of the ones who’d been splashed with the liquid had tumbled backwards in an attempt to stop the burning that was lapping at their clothes.

“INCOMING!” One of the maidens on the front of the formation cried out, voice shrill with terror.

Darcy whipped around to look ahead and saw the incoming white blur. Tightening her jaw, she pushed her elemental energy through her body, pushing it to strengthen herself. “Shields up!”

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The tower-shields slammed together, forming a wall, ready to receive the impact of the charging maiden with everything they had. The spears rose in preparation to intercept. Darcy’s own shield, still wreathed in flames, was placed on top to protect them from a potential ranged attack. The blur reached them, and the Hound pushed forward and tried to incline the spear to pierce through White Claw. The feline flowed, dodging with barely an effort. The following attack upon the shields was a heavy impact that nearly knocked the wind out of Darcy and her squad.

There was a collective grunt from the strain. This was a Tigress’ strength!?

“Move to-.”

“She’s above!”

It had been fast. The feline had moved with an impossible grace. The attack she’d landed on the shield barrier had not been an attack at all. She had merely used them as stepping stones, soaring over the flames of Darcy’s shield and towards…!

“Emily!”

The Doggirl had been one of the two who’d stumbled out of the formation and had been trying to stop the fire from spreading over her. The Doggirl had been unprepared, barely able to turn to put her shield up in an attempt to block White Claw. The feline didn’t even lose momentum, ducking low and hammering the shield at the base with such force it knocked Emily off balance.

While the maiden stumbled, White Claw reached for one of the Doggirl’s feet, and then she spun, throwing Doggirl away from the formation. It was a beautiful arch that sent the armored maiden far outside the squad’s reach. White Claw followed before Darcy could attempt to strike at the feline.

Though to the rest of the squad it might have looked like both of them getting swallowed up in darkness, Darcy could see it in detail. White Claw overcame Emily’s strength and ripped the shield out of her hands, and at the same time, used her other claw to rip the Doggirl’s throat out.

Emily fell without a scream, clutching at the wound.

Tempering her anger and fear, Darcy met the eyes of the predator. “Mimi, if you tell me Squad three isn’t on their way…”

“Forty seconds!”

Not fast enough. “Quartzal formation!”

The four Doggirls burst into motion. The burnt one had managed to splash some numbing potion on herself to stop the pain and joined the others. Two shields in front, two above. The interlocking pieces of murisium steel would be impossible to punch through, White Claw would be forced to come at them from either side. The spears were ready, and Darcy stood at the back and center of the formation, ready to assist in whichever way the attack would come from.

White Claw emerged from the shadows, standing above the corpse of their fallen pack-mate. Darcy’s hackles rose at the sharpness in those eyes, calculating. More so when White Claw leaned down and plucked Emily’s tower shield with a single hand as if it weighed nothing.

No Tigress should be able to wield that much strength so leisurely. That and the Phoenix feather that still burned on the surface of her shield… this was not going the way it should have.

“Incoming!” she barked the command as she watched White Claw take the massive shield and break into a full run towards them. They had to withstand just one more attack, fall into the rhythm, let the other squads come, and box their prey in from all angles.

Kill its mobility, and it would only be a matter of time before White Claw would exhaust itself out.

“Tighten formation!”

What direction would the monster take? Left. Right. Above. The sides would have the maiden met with spears, and jumping over would be of little consequence to them. They would just reorient again. So long as they blocked successfully, they could buy the time needed.

But White Claw opposed all her predictions.

The feline pushed straight into the shields, the entirety of its strength placed upon the shield it had stolen, using it as a wedge to force them apart. It was enough to break their formation and split them in two. With a swing of the arm holding the shield, the two Doggirls to White Claw’s left were flung aside. The one on the right was slashed through with a glowing claw. Blood sprayed as the Doggirl fell.

Darcy didn’t hesitate. Coating her spear in dark energy, she thrust the weapon at White Claw before the maiden could follow up on the attack and finish off another victim. She aimed it at the feline’s heart. Following the Lord’s orders to take it alive was no longer an option.

But White Claw didn’t dodge, swinging the arm, holding the shield into the spear’s way instead. The tip of the elementally coated weapon struck the murisium shield. The ring of the impact trembled up Darcy’s arm like a bell. But the Hound didn’t wait, jumping into the shadows to emerge on White Claw’s opposite side, striking from the shadows before their prey could get its bearings.

Her mistake was jumping into a place that was directly in White Claw’s line of sight.

The feline had used its free hand to grab one of the Doggirls and yanked her into the path of Darcy’s spear. Horror and fear swept across the squad-leader as she met the eyes of her own subordinate right before the Doggirl was thrown to the side, her body dragging the weapon with it.

Darcy’s eyes rose to meet the gaze of White Claw. Green-blue ice crystals split by a pitch black slit stared back, smouldering.

Its lips pulled back into a snarl full of teeth.

“Bah-ron bad.” It raised a glowing fist.

The Hound’s body reacted on instinct, pulling out her round-shield to protect herself from the punch, summoning as much elemental energy as she could to reinforce herself, to reinforce her armor.

The punch sent her flying all the same. The pain in her arm and the hard snaps told her one or several bones had shattered. Darcy expected a follow-up. She’d fallen prone, too good a chance for White Claw to pass up.

Instead, she found the feline running away, the ground she’d been standing upon littered with glowing arrows and growing moss.

“Squad-leader Darcy!”

Squad three had come to their aid, but the Hound did not feel relieved at all.