Character Information - Who is who?

(For the interlude 'Love and War')

Because I have created quite a variety of characters, I will now create little cheat sheets before a chapter for the characters who will appear in the chapter, but not for those who haven't. Please open the spoiler if you need some reminders. (Be careful, it can be a spoiler for the chapter!)

Marisia S. Leonandra (Wolf-kin)

* The third child of the Leonandra household

* A user of the wild-demon energy

* Golden eyes

* Crimson red fur and hair color

Salyna Leonandra (Swan-kin)

* Marisia's retainer and childhood friend

* Specialized in accounting, economy, and finance

* Blue eyes

* Snow-white feather and hair color

Kairoso Leonandra (Wolf-kin)

* Leader of the mercenary troupe 'Fangs and Mittens'

* Druid

* Son of a failed woodworker

* Green eyes

* Black fur and hair color

...

"By the circle! Mari, you can't do this!"

"Saly, you know me very well and my power. I don't trust anyone else who could do it other than myself."

Marisia had no choice but to go there as quickly as possible and alone for multiple reasons. First, the tactical advantage the humans would have if they started to hold the hundreds of beast-kin as hostages would be massive and demoralize her army in the next battles. Since she found it out recently, she hoped the human side needed more time to be ready to go forth with such a plan.

She was informed that all the beast-kin from the village were already shipped away to the human territory to be sold off. So, this new information was surprising, and since the situation changed, all her previous plans became invalid.

Second, she cared for the lives of the hostages and wanted to avoid the risk of such an altercation where she needed to decide between the life of the hostages and her mercenaries. Her morals and ideals were not dulled while the battles raged on but became even more solid as she saw how the humans treated even their own folk. She didn't want to know what they would do to those who they saw as nothing more than objects.

Third, her people had a battle some hours ago, and all those with stealth skills and some combat power were dead tired as they tried to ambush the enemy flanks from the side. They couldn't be used anymore, and she would have to wait until dawn.

Salyna opened her wings slightly in distress, "You will get killed! Is it really worth dying for some prisoners?!"

"Saly…" Marisia looked at her retainer angrily, her words full of wrath.

Salyna stepped back while she could see how her old friend and master's eyes became slightly tinted red.

Marisia's words were full of pride and anger, "… noblesse oblige is what I have sworn, and as a child of a noble, I will uphold it. Thus, if there are our people imprisoned, ready to be shipped as slaves for some dirty humans, I will, if the need arises, go myself."

Salyna opened her arms and tried to dissuade her from, in her opinion, an insane plan, "But… you need to think of yourself! Also, there is your energy…."

Salyna knew that Marisia's control of her energy was sometimes unpredictable, and she went more than once overboard while training at the estate, injuring multiple soldiers.

Marisia's eyes became normal again as she used her skills to calm down, "Stop. I am much better at controlling it, so don't…."

A little rat in the tent suddenly started to speak, interrupting the discussion, "My ladies – if you want to be discreet, you are really too loud…."

Marisia didn't even think as she took a cheese knife and threw it at the rat, which the rat caught with his hands. It looked slightly surprised, "Woah there, my dear princess, I could easily lose an eye."

"Princess…" a frown started to build up on Marisia, "… why is a dirty treehugger spying on me?"

A mocking smile emerged on the rat's face, "Hehe, I need to look out for my people, and since the news broke that we have a couple of people imprisoned, you looked very…." He took the cheese knife and scratched his back, "…very disturbed… oh yeah, that's the spot…."

"You…" Salyna took her shoe off and was ready to squash the druid, entirely forgetting that the power of a druid was only reduced but not to a degree where an accountant could crush him with a shoe.

Marisia stopped her friend before an actual fight broke out, "Stop..." she looked at the vermin, "...there is a reason you are here, right? You wouldn't show yourself just to annoy us."

"Oh, so you have some of that fox-kin intelligence from your grandmother?" As he scratched, he suddenly hit the spot, "…Oh yeah!... Oh right..." he coughed in his free hand out of embarrassment, "...Ahem, I am here to help you, of course."

Marisia raised an eyebrow, "Why would you want to help me?"

Kairoso shrugged while laying the knife on the floor, "There are many reasons: Pity, money, interest, but the most important reason is: that I would hate to see our little princess get imprisoned and ravaged by a bunch of scum."

Kairoso spoke the truth. He wasn't a monster and would rather help her than see her fail miserably and then be shipped away to other lands. Besides that, he started to like her. Something intrigued him about her. It could be that he was only physically attracted to her, but there was something to her personality, which he liked very much especially her demeanor.

Salyna became enraged by such a statement, "You bastard!"

Marisia held her arm in front of her friend, who opened her wings fully, "Saly stop…" and looked back at the rat, "...fine, we are going tonight, are you ready?"

The rat smiled viciously, "I was born ready."

…

A little later

Marisia and Kairoso sneaked through the night. Marisia used her skills to the best of her ability, and Kairoso sat on her shoulder in his rat form.

They came close to the settlement and saw a badly built wall with some wooden poles put hastily into the ground, only held together by a cheap rope, 'I can't believe I had so many problems against a moron who can't even fortify his defense.'

Marisia wasn't wrong that her start in this campaign was horrendous, but she learned and fought well against someone with more soldiers and unethical practices.

She was, since the beginning, on the backfoot because she tried to follow the codex of a knight to a tee. But quickly noticed that her opponent, even though a noble, didn't care at all and used all means he had to win a stupid small war, if she would even call that, on an irrelevant island. Someone more stubborn would have much less success or would even lose. Luckily she was much more honest with herself and took the advice from her people seriously and implemented it.

She came out of her thoughts as her excellent nose picked something up. A human was close by. Marisia could sniff him easily out and moved close to the, now identified as a guard patrolling outside. Before Kairo could do something, her demonic [Aura], like a precision knife, was implanted into the patrol's throat. She took the body, brought it to the bushes to hide it, and continued forward without even thinking twice.

Kairoso, who sat on the shoulder, was impressed, 'Oh? Who knew that a little princess was this cold-blooded.'

Little did he know she and her siblings had undergone harsh training since they were little. Even though she showed only average results in most aspects, her mindset was always impeccable, which made her control over the highly chaotic demonic energy precise.

Her mindset only became more steeled since she was thrown into this campaign. There was no point in crying, so she needed to choose the most ideal way forward, which agreed with her strong morals.

She saw half-baked ditches and short palisades, 'Either they didn't expect me to come this close, or their general is really an idiot.'

As she sneaked through the outer compound, three more guards were killed by her, and she entered a gap inside the poorly built walls, 'I think it was a great idea to act more hastily. Otherwise, he would've probably rebuilt and strengthened the defenses.'

The guards whispered loudly while she sneaked between trees and bushes toward the inner part of the village, trying to sniff out her brethren.

Suddenly, her ears stood up as her instincts kicked in, "This is a trap."

The vermin on her shoulder reacted surprised, "Oh? How come you knew and went anyways?"

She rolled behind a guard's house and concentrated on any smells nearby, "It's obvious. They can't win and thus let us see our people, used some gaps here and there to let us sneak inside."

Too few guards and weird patrol routes. Her intuition kicked in and warned her. Marisia already had a small inkling that it was possible, but not like she cared.

The rat scratched his chin, "Why did you go inside then?"

She smiled from ear to ear, and her voice became much more vicious, "Because I can kill everyone inside, but it gets dangerous if my soldiers are beside me…."

She didn't rush inside and slaughter everyone initially because her parents put her into this campaign to develop her leadership abilities. If she just went straight in by herself, there would then be no reason for this whole ordeal, and if her parents found out that she did it by herself, she would've been sent to the next campaign, or worse, her sister would be.

But now, she needed to act - innocent lives were on the line. She could excuse mercenaries' deaths since they did it for the coin, but not ordinary villagers. Even if she were punished later on, she wouldn't care.

The rat questioned her, "Ho? Are you not worried about me?"

Marisia smirked, "You are basically a cockroach. You will survive."

"How mean…" Kairoso transformed into a cockroach and melodramatically started to act on her shoulder, "…how can my little heart only endure such harsh words."

She frowned slightly, trying to strain all her senses to the maximum, "Could you please shut up for a second?"

"Fine…" he pointed with his antenna towards some building, "…your lovers are waiting for you. Good luck, I will help you if you need any..." as he said it, he jumped down and ran towards the shadows.

As he went away, Marisia tried to get into the right mind space again, there would be a lot of blood spilled, but she could not go entirely overboard. She would have nightmares if she accidentally killed some innocent beast-kin commoners.

She walked towards the plaza and screamed, "Come out, I know it's a trap!"

A man with a thick accent started speaking in beast-kin dialect, "Wha' do we have 'ere."

He came out of one of the houses in an elegant stride. He donned a thin but well-maintained plate armor with a rapier on the side – a very young noble, the same as Marisia.

With him together were two dozen guards. Marisia identified them as lowly knights or something of the sort surrounding him, stoic and serious.

They all had the same demeanor as the ones she saw at the noble gatherings. This meant that they were this noble's retainers and probably also pampered, 'Is this bastard here only to collect merits?'

It wasn't unusual for the children of nobles to go to collect merits so they would have a better chance to be first in line between their siblings to inherit the title, 'Huh, so he likes to seek chaos for a little title?'

Her upper lip contorted in disgust as she answered in his language, "I see a pest that needs to be eradicated."

The young noble shook his head in amusement, "Ds ds ds, wha' are you 'alking ab…" but before he could end his sentence, Marisia's energy exploded.

The noble became stunned as he could feel similar energy to a high-demon one but also very different simultaneously. Marisia's energy felt primitive and chaotic, moving everywhere like snakes crawling toward their prey in unpredictable patterns.

Something also manifested behind her. A large fox-tail, made out of [Aura], crimson red with black fluid dots dancing in them, was grown out.

He panicked as his instincts kicked in and warned him that she was dangerous, "KILL HER!"

With his shout, in human language, four of his retainers charged at her. More soldiers came from other houses but only from one side, where Kairoso didn't go.

Marisia stood there, slightly shaking. The smile on her face bloomed, and her thoughts went wild, 'How long has it been? Two years? Three years?'

As they came closer, the tail became thicker until it felt like it was made of pure maliciousness. Marisia split her tail and shot it toward two of the four guards.

They tried to use their energy and skills to block it, but as her energy touched theirs, it became corrupted and corroded in moments like an infection. Her energy quickly slivered through theirs, and as she touched their body, it was basically over.

The two, who were attacked, endured it for mere moments and didn't die instantly, but their skin became red with black spots, and all the blood vessels bloated till they exploded. They fell to their knees, clenching their teeth and trying to circulate their energy to eliminate the invading energy.

But that wouldn't work. Marisia's invading energy ate away their own till it became much stronger. It was the secret behind wild demonic energy and why it was simultaneously so potent against others and toxic against its own user.

It became too much for those young knights, who fell lifelessly. The two others stopped like all the other soldiers who came out from one side and looked at their comrades whose skin was red and bloated.

The energy of the corpses didn't vanish as was commonly seen but suddenly wiggled around and slivered toward the other two, who backed away.

Marisia exhaled strongly and felt pure joy, "How delicious, how fun…."

The others could defend themselves longer and tried to counterattack with success. Marisia's [Divinity Line] wasn't omnipotent and could be counteracted with clever defensive measures.

The young wolf-kin walked slowly forward while her fox tail made out of her parasitic [Aura] slightly moved behind her, showing their readiness, "Ahhhh... it feels so good to let my frustrations out..."

On the other hand, the human noble was perplexed, 'What the hell is this?!'

He wasn't the most knowledgeable regarding beast-kin or demons, but this was not normal at all, and he couldn't imagine that someone so strong was this young and sent to this god-forsaken island with nothing more than a couple resources.

In anger and fear, he spoke up, "Listen! Whoever brings me her head will be rewarded with one hundred large gold coins! Get her head!"

Marisia chuckled and thought of another approach, "Oh, how about I get your head? How much gold would your siblings reward me with?"

The human noble suddenly felt a shiver, 'This can't be, right? Is one of my brothers trying to backstab me?!'

Marisia knew clearly that fights between siblings were common, so why not seed a little doubt and anger into him to throw him off so he would make more bad decisions.

It worked. He suddenly felt anger as he thought about all his siblings who tried to sabotage him and screamed, "All! Get Her! Noooooow!"

In fear and anger, he forgot her unnatural skills and how she had a parasitic-like ability, 'Perfect...' she licked her lips, '...the more, the better.'

(Wild-) demonic energy was so tremendously parasitic, especially her form, because it partly absorbed the victim's [Experience], making it much stronger while it also replenished the user after every kill.

Hers was a particular energy found in specific wild demons in Kratikal. While powerful, it was also hard to control as it could cause chaos and kill many innocents. Someone with this [Divinity Line] was basically a one-man army. However, supporting them was also almost impossible without specific skills to resist such corrosion.

As his shout rang out, over hundred different soldiers and ordinary commoners walked cautiously forward. Marisia was already half out of her mind, as she was ready to let loose, so much so that she barely noticed their faces. Frightened.

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She ignored it. Now she wouldn't be weighing human commoners against their kin. Lucky for her, he didn't send them out as he probably thought they would be too valuable to be slaughtered or used in a tactical manner like this.

The previous display frightened the commoners, who went forward with their pitchforks and broken swords, barely moving an inch with every step.

Nobody liked war except the strong or those who knew they could come out alive. Who in their right mind would want to be in mortal danger because of some brat who could command them just because he was lucky enough to be born into a family of aristocrats?

Marisia understood this, but at this moment, she ignored it. She surrounded herself with energy till she looked like a hideous monster.

A vicious smile graced her face as she jumped into the first crowd of commoners, avoiding the soldiers and ravaging through them like a wolf inside a herd of sheep. Touching most of them was enough to infect them; shortly after that, they died.

Her [Aura] rose slightly to new heights with every kill and built a defensive wall around her. Thus, most counterattacks were repelled easily, like arrows imbued with energy, skills, and normally thrown weapons. They would be disintegrated mid-air before they could even touch her skin.

But at some point, it sapped too much of her energy away, so she grabbed the corpses with her tail and threw them toward the attacks to block most of them. Simultaneously, she kept slaughtering everyone in her way and absorbing their energy and [Experience] away, making herself stronger with every kill.

She jumped to the next if one group was done, and the slaughter started again. Some of the noble retainers tried to engage her. Still, they were slightly more resilient cockroaches to her after she had already absorbed dozens of commoners and a couple soldiers while strengthening herself to a massive degree.

Marisia somersaulted over one of the knights, who tried to behead her with almost all his energy and a skill that made his weapon larger. In the air, she grabbed his head, which was now only defended by ordinary steel, and like a ripe apple from a tree, it popped off.

Landing again, she took off the helmet of the head she held and grabbed the head on its hair, letting it hang. She held it in front of the normal soldiers and commoners. With her other hand, she moved its mouth, "Oh, hello, my dear humans. Do you want to join me? Hahahahaha!"

This was enough for most of them as they panicked and ran away. Even some knights who wanted to engage her had enough. They were clearly not on her level, and their number advantage didn't work, so they ran away. Their life was more important than this insanity.

The young human noble screamed at them, "Come back, you cowards! If you don't, I will kill all your families after this!"

Most ignored him; they would rather take them from the camps in the mines and flee as fast as possible from here and avoid the noble's territory. Either way, most were driven by fear and would rather risk getting killed later on while running than in a fight with, what they saw, the literal devil.

Marisia threw the head to the side and acknowledged that she needed to end it as quickly as possible. Her mindset deteriorated with every kill, and she needed to strain her willpower and skills to the maximum to not go insane and not slaughter her kin if she was done here.

She saw the ones who stayed, it was clear that they had nowhere to run to, but at this point in time, she didn't care about their problems but was rather elated, 'Hm...' she licked her lips, '...I think I will need a bit more... sustenance, hehehe.'

She flashed toward the next group, who stayed out of fear because of their families. A moment later, all that was heard were screams for help and blood gurgling. This was the world they all lived in, as one lucky skill could decide that one person could wield the power of hundreds.

Was it fair? Maybe. The noble in itself also had fantastic skills and a good [Divine Class] to go with it, but he couldn't see himself go toe to toe with a beast like this.

After the short slaughter, Marisia, soaked with the blood of all the ones she killed, stood beside the corpses and easily defended herself against all the ranged attacks. Her energy was meters high and in the form of a demonic and evil fox in pure crimson-red with black spots while the tail sucked the rest of the energies out of the corpses.

After she was done, she looked at the few knights and the noble. She walked slowly and elegantly towards them. Her mind was pure chaos, and only a sliver of reason was left, which held it all together, preventing her with all that she had from going into a state of pure madness.

The human panicked after he saw the destruction one crazy beast-kin did, "Stop right here, you monster!"

"Kekekeehehe… oh excuse me…" as she laughed, some of her salivae dropped out of her mouth out of excitement, "…I will end you quickly, so don't worry too much."

She ended her sentence and used [Flash] toward the last group. The noble was lucky as some of his retainers remained and tried to defend him to the best of their abilities. They united their energy, whatever kind it was, and constructed a defensive dome around him.

Marisia smirked, "Hehehehe, a little vermin tried to hide in a pot full of water... let's turn on the fire, shall we?"

Her [Aura] slowly slithered toward the dome and tried to invade it. It was at first repelled, but after some moments, a small string could invade it.

After more moments, more and more strings invaded the dome till a small layer out of red and black was laid over their protective measure, "Come out! Let's have fun, little human!"

The noble mumbled something, and he alone fled to the opposite side of the doom, letting his knights stand there bewildered. Their face suddenly contorted into one full of fear.

This little moment of distraction was enough for her to invade even deeper. With this, the positive feedback loop was created as it would become easier the deeper she penetrated their defensive measure.

After seconds, it was done, and she looked for the noble but couldn't see him. Only the smell of fear of panic remained. Without any more waiting, she pushed her [Aura] out and brute-forced her way through the knights who did everything to defend themselves. But it didn't work, and she quickly ended their lives.

After Marisia killed them, she looked towards the hastily built church and felt elated by the smell, like a wolf who hunts down an injured and frightened little deer, "Ahhh, this feels sooooooooooo fucking good!"

Marisia bent her legs slightly and dashed towards where the smell was. After seconds of using her almost unlimited stamina, which she could sap away from the demonic energy, she saw her little prey before the church, wanting to go in.

She alternated between [Dashing] and [Flashing] to catch up. Everyone else would be wheezing on the floor and barely holding up after a minute of using the skills as she did.

Marisia hated it deep down. It was gruesome for her that the stamina she used for a flash was probably a father, the dash, a daughter; she or her energy ate away. She would later probably lay night after night in bed and think about it but not now. Now she needed to kill the one who brought her into this dilemma.

The more she used her energy or replenished her stamina, the more her mind corroded, and her usually suppressed emotions were let loose like a caged beast that was finally set free into the wild, "Buhahahaha! Let's play!"

She saw him and wanted nothing but to cut his head off. The noble wasn't defenseless, though, and had at least visited a knight academy that refined his intuition and taught him multiple fighting arts.

While turning around and pulling his rapier out, he saw what followed him: a monstrosity, 'No wonder we enslave them!'

He swallowed and used all his skills to the best of his abilities. A storm of stabs pierced her [Aura]. Every hole he made instantly closed and tried to surround the rapier.

She decided to play with him, or rather the madness which invaded her mind and slowly sapped away every rational thought.

Marisia smiled and tried to imitate the skill the noble and his knights had used earlier. She created a dome of pure malicious intent, insanity, and blood lust out of her energy. Before it closed and drove the human into insanity, an arrow of pure white energy pierced through the dome. It came from inside the church and towards Marisia.

This bolt of holy energy targeted her heart. She couldn't avoid it, but as luck had it, at the last moment, a gigantic turtle manifested before her, blocking the arrow which flew against its shell.

The shell was surrounded by thick green energy, which gave off a feeling of peace. The bolt exploded, and part of the shell was slightly nicked.

The gigantic turtle stood before Mairisia, "Damn… this was strong…."

Marisia's dome dissolved, and she looked shocked, coming fully back to herself, 'I would definitely die if he wasn't here….'

She frowned. Not because of Kairoso but because she made a mistake as she was too far gone to detect another enemy, "Thanks."

"Don't worry, sugar…" he pointed toward the church with his head, "…do you know this disgusting smell? Guhahaha! Come out, oh holy ravioli!"

The human fell down to the floor, frightened out of his mind as he barely escaped death. Behind him, out of the church, walked a holy figure out. Slowly but steadily as holy energy surrounded her whole being.

It was a high elf donned with a white robe with a symbol of a triangle with three circles inside of it. She held a staff with a floating crystal on top. The priestess looked at them, slightly disgusted.

Marisia saw for the first time a high elf. Pure and clean face, blond hair, blue eyes, and the typical pointy ears. She looked like a puppet made out of porcelain.

Her voice sounded stoic, "I would really appreciate not being insulted, dear druid."

Kairoso knew priests since they were often used to re-educate beast-kin, which they caught to turn them into harmless little puppets with their holy skills. It looked to him like she was for the same purpose here, but the attack she used made Kairoso treat her more carefully as she was more versed in fighting than other priests he met, as his nicked shell showed.

He stood still, trying to analyze the situation thoroughly, 'This bitch is at least as strong as me… there is no way we can kill them without risk.'

Another problem arose from the smell which came from the church. This also registered Marisia, "I can smell my kin."

The priestess smiled, "Not for long as they will be after I am done with you, serve the one and true deity and not..." her face distorted to one of disgust again, "...dirt worshipper."

Marisia ignored her remark as she didn't care for religion, only so much so she could hold positive relations to the temple. Instead, she looked to the front and readied herself to attack again but suddenly heard something inside her ear, [Don't! She is not simple. The only reason she is not attacking is because of the brat behind her.]

It surprised her initially, but it wasn't anything new that druids or the nature-dweller race had weird skills. She didn't know why, but Kairoso sounded much more warily against this elf, which she had seen for the first time.

He smirked in his gigantic turtle form, "So tell me, Mr. Elf, are you here by accident, in this forsaken land, or are you maybe…."

The priestess frowned, "First, I am a woman and, yes, Mr. Druid…." The elf laid her hand on her chest, "…I am his bodyguard for this…" she looked around, seeing all the corpses, drained out of their lives, "… noble progeny who failed his campaign but nonetheless, the church will devote itself to convert lost lambs, so no. You will not take them with you, even if this..." Her face contorted into pure disdain, "...child failed."

The noble stood slowly up and could barely talk, frightened from before, "Wait! The campaign has not failed! I have at least one hundred beast-kin slaves! Do you know what that means?"

The priested frowned, "I would recommend not to keep talking…."

The noble didn't care, "We can sell them as sex slaves! Cut them to pieces and use their parts for alchemy, or experimental subjects for the magic tower…."

As he barely ended his sentence, Marisia's energy exploded again, many times stronger than before, and she was clearly ready to attack.

Kairoso wasn't done analyzing her, and now he needed to improvise because this bastard needed to tell this stuff to emotionally destabilize this girl, 'Fuck....'

He changed into a massive bear, surrounded by green energy, "I am sorry, Mr. Elf."

The priestess sighed, "Mrs. and fine, tsk, I really dislike fighting the messengers of nature, but I can't discard this unfortunately disabled child."

Her white energy exploded, and a halo emerged over her head as she started murmuring a chant. She hit her staff against the ground, and multiple little white glowing orbs appeared with circles hovering around them.

Kairoso went into his attack stance, [Listen here! I will defend you, and you try to kill the brat! Don't go for the elf!]

Marisia charged the noble. She understood that she should listen to Kairoso despite barely holding onto her sanity. She needed someone with a clear mind since hers was too jumbled up from the previous encounters.

She could barely think one step at a time, but Kairoso was so annoying that she could somehow concentrate, [Do the AoE stuff! Pointy can't defend against me and your energy at the same time! Trap her and me together with the brat!]

Marisia listened to him and concentrated on her energy, but the voice came again, [If a hole appears beside you, just throw your energy inside!]

She didn't understand entirely but trusted him enough to follow the plan. At this moment, all she did was to function as everything more would only break her willpower which she held up barely.

The druid attacked first and tried to hit the elf from the side, "Hm, weak."

With a swing of her staff, a force tried to push the bear away.

Roots came out of the ground holding him in place but also grabbing the elf, or instead, her barrier which surrounded her, trying to pierce it with poisonous thorns, "Don't even think about it."

Another push and the roots were flung away together with the druid, who mid-air transformed into a starling and flew over her.

At the same time, he could feel Marisia's malicious energy, 'What kind of energy is this?'

A wave of red and black energy tried to surround him, the priest, and the noble brat. One of the orbs began to light up. It floated towards the ground and expanded till it had all three of them together, and a dome started to build up around them.

The red energy crashed against it, but the usual infesting and absorbing started but was considerably slowed down. Even though it worked, it needed minutes to barely infest it, "This is getting annoying, little pets."

She was annoyed by their tricks and wanted to end it quickly. Now, on the other hand, she was pushed into a fight with a druid inside the dome while, from the outside, vast energy in a vile form pressed against hers, 'I hope the brat can at least survive. He would die instantly in a confrontation.'

From inside the dome, an irritating voice sounded, "Are you sure, pointy?"

She couldn't make out where it came from. She looked around, readying her orbs to immediately activate.

Suddenly the ground trembled slightly, and as she looked down, some weird animal appeared, buried out of the ground. The priestess jumped back and immediately understood what it meant, as she could feel the demonic energy coming from beneath her.

She plucked the hole with a small barrier, but before she could secure the whole floor, multiple little holes opened one after another, where the red energy was swirling around, ready to break through.

The priestess started to pluck every hole on the ground, but a new one opened every time she plucked one. There was no time to start a large barrier spell since she couldn't handle multicasting, and letting the energy inside would be her and the noble's death, 'DAMN IT!'

Her most important task was to protect, she even could drag this youth out if the need arose, but he only sat again on the ground, tired and heavily breathing. She was ready to activate one of her orbs at a moment's notice to protect him.

The priestess clenched her teeth and tried to clear her head. She needed to cast as fast as possible. Suddenly she heard a muffled scream behind her. Turning around, she saw how a snake bit her client in the neck, practically ripping half of it out.

The snake hissed arrogantly at her, "Ssssseeeee ya, pointy."

Before the priestess could register what actually happened and become angry, the druid went behind his victim and instantly inside one of the holes as fast as possible.

The elf started to sweat, 'Not fucking good!' and brought multiple scrolls out of her robe, which cost her a ton of coins, and threw them on the ground and towards the noble.

One instantly produced a massive barrier on the ground to block the druid from coming out and creating more holes. The other disintegrated in many lights and flew towards her client, which had holy healing magic inscribed. She hoped it was enough to delay the venom until the fight ended. Only then could the priestess start healing him thoroughly.

The wound in itself was bad, but it had already started to heal very well. The venom was the main problem, and priests needed much more time to cure poisonings.

The priestess, in all of her experience, had never heard or seen that druids were this versatile. She only saw them as gigantic animals, trying to be the tank in raids in dungeons, but nothing more.

The priest became incredibly angry as the druid kept trying to break her barrier from below as the earth shifted heavily from below, and at some points, a voice appeared inside her mind.

[How is it to lose to some dirt worshipper, hehe!]

[Why not give up? You would be a nice prostitute, probably even a luxurious one... oh wait, weren't you a guy? Well, even better, right?!]

[Holy Ravioli!]

'I hate pets!'

The worst was that it was a beast-kin and not a nature-dweller. The latter was much more peaceful and easier to find dialogue with. The former, though, were aggressive to no end against her church.

Looking through her spatial pouch, she didn't have any more healing items, only a small red potion, which could heal some scratches but nothing more, and she only had it because it was a present from a very close friend who started out as an alchemist.

She looked back to the noble youth, and from what she could see, the scroll worked very slowly, but it worked. She was lucky enough that the moron she needed to protect was trained, had good skills, and had a robust body. Otherwise, he would've died.

She suddenly felt that the pressure around the dome began to heighten, 'Right, there is this nuisance, too.'

The red energy ate away at her barrier and slowly incorporated it, 'What an annoying skill.'

She knew of similar skills, and a way to deal with them was by one-shooting the user, but this time, it was a highly aggressive young pet and a dirt worshipper who seemed to be her guard.

She smirked, 'What a sad race.'

She concentrated on the last orb for a forward AoE attack to incinerate the pest and later take the druid on, who, in her opinion, would probably flee if the girl died. Still, before she started, she looked around and saw nothing as she literally surrounded herself from every side with a secondary barrier.

The earth kept moving under her feet, indicating that the druid had problems breaking through, so she could risk it, in her opinion.

She disbanded her barriers to heighten her concentration and quicken the holy spell chant and construction to end this more quickly as this situation became more dangerous by the second.

She trusted in the barrier she produced with the scroll to give her enough time before the druid could break it and burrow out to attack her.

The high-elf could use the orbs she created with her staff, but they were only sub-optimal in strength, but if she tweaked them a little, it was possible to construct a massive spell. However, the tweaking would cost all of her mana, and afterward, even if she succeeded, the druid would have her head.

While concentrating, she suddenly felt a stinging feeling on her ankle. The orb could barely activate and started flicking as she kneeled on the floor.

The elf's sight became watery, and she became weak, 'What the...?'

As the priestess tried to identify what bit her. She was surprised to see a tiny spider dancing and posing around on the ground while the ground kept trying to break through the barrier under her feet.

The spider's voice was very high-pitched, "What was the smirk on the face right now? Gahahaha!"

Only now did she know what happened. The snake never disappeared inside the ground but hid away while controlling the earth under her to imitate as he was under the barrier, "You… basta…."

The toxin was strong, so strong that she started convulsing and fell to the floor, full of anger and wrath, 'I will take you with me, you bastard...'

Kairoso instantly used [Nature's Whisper] to tell Marisia the situation, [Stop your attack, both of them are down but not dead!]

The barrier dome and Marisia's energy slowly disappeared. The young beast-kin noble strolled toward the elf, looking down at her as she laid down, barely moving in disgust, "I can't believe that even high-elves betray their belief for this."

Most races followed a specific belief, which their race practiced for thousands of years, but for some reason, the high-elf in front of her accepted the one from the humans.

High elves usually believed in Arcana, the belief of mana being the deity in itself, which also split into different denominations, and humans had the belief of the sanctity of three virtues, but like in every religion, it broke too.

Marisia knew that the priest's denomination with the triangle with three circles was especially active against other races and tried to convert as many as possible to them. By peaceful or forceful means, it didn't matter.

The elf smiled when Marisia said it, and the barely visible orb above her opened up, and a massive amount of energy streamed out. The gigantic ball of light sucked out every bit of the priestess's vitality and mana. After more than a little moment, the elf became a dried corpse.

This was a suicide attack, and she wanted to take at least the guarded pet and all the other beast-kin inside the church with her as she knew that death was unavoidable, 'By all that is glory, take the non-believers life as my repentance!'

A gigantic ball of holy energy rushed towards Marisia, who stood before the church and was heavily fatigued mentally but not physically. As long as she could fight and have enough fodder, she would never tire out physically because of her [Divinity Line]. Still, her mental state was exhausted to a breaking point as she fought against masses of humans and went overboard, losing herself to the corrosion. Now, she could barely perceive anything in time.

As the last-ditch attack of the elf rushed toward her, she barely noticed it and was too slow to react. She saw that it also targeted the church behind her, so she didn't even try to avoid it and wanted to coat herself with her [Aura] but suddenly was pushed away, "Sorry princess, let me take it."

Marisia flew a couple of meters away and landed in some rubble. She saw something incredible as she raised her head as she lay in the wreckage. The annoying and uncivilized mercenary saved her life again. He transformed into a gigantic wolf multiple meters in height.

All his pitch-black fur was braided, with multiple talismans and accessories knitted on it. The wolf smiled viciously towards the suicide attack of the elf.

All the accessories that hung on his braided fur started lightning up, and roots from the deepest of the ground shot outwards, convulsing into a form of pure art, into a monster from legends, Orzus.

A gigantic bear made out of roots and plants dashed forward against the suicide attack and crashed. A fight broke out where the wooden Orzus was destroyed and rebuilt again and again and again.

Marisia looked at Kairoso and saw him straining under the attack, barely holding up. As she tried to stand up and help him, she fell down immediately, 'It's over for me...' she couldn't coordinate her movements anymore and would need more than a bit of time to even walk again.

After a full minute and dozens of reconstructions of Orzus, it ended, and all the accessories destroyed themselves. Kairoso fell down to the ground, transforming back to his usual form.

Marisia became the notification of the [Experience] she got from the death of the elf and human. Now that it was all over, she canceled all her skills and remained in the rubble for a further minute to catch her breath.

After the break, she stood slowly up and walked to the dirty mercenary, not knowing what to think about him.

Annoying. Uncivilized. Vulgar. Wild. Disrespectful.

But other thoughts also invaded her mind.

Loyal. Self-sacrificing. Trustworthy. Honest.

His smell was… honest. He was honest to the end. Never bulging from himself or others. Marisia was partly envious, partly intrigued by him. She didn't want it to end here.

Her face slightly flushed as she stood over him, "Why is he naked?"