“It’ll be tonight, I think.”
My words, spoken quietly in the cell, still seemed to echo loudly as I withdrew from the terror eagle’s senses and returned to my own. Chomai sat up quickly at that pronouncement, but the sheriff simply lay in his bed, his eyes closed as he spoke.
“You sure about that, boy?” he asked.
“Sure? No.” I shook my head despite the fact that he couldn’t see me. “But they finished early today, and instead of sending the people back to their houses, the marshals are herding them all into cages of their own.”
“They’re caging up the regular folk?” Chomai asked darkly. “Why the hell would they do that? They can’t provide no power for Kamath’s rune.”
“Big beastie’s been sleeping a couple thousand years, girl,” the sheriff rumbled. “When it wakes up, it’s gonna be hungry.” He sat up and gazed at me. “I reckon you’re right. It’s gonna be soon.”
“Finally,” Chomai complained. “I’m damn tired of this room. I’m itching for something to do.”
Silently, I agreed with her. Govand had come back the next morning while it was still dark out, and I gave him the orb I’d been working on and instructions on what to do with it. I’d watched him with my cloudhunter to make sure he actually did, then followed him out of the town. He made it all of an hour before the marshals attacked him. Instead of fighting back, Govand vanished into the underbrush using his blending rune, and I watched him slip away through my magical sight. The marshals searched for him for hours but never found him.
Kamath had a few choice words to say about that, and he said them loudly enough that we heard him all the way down in our cell. The flare of magic that followed suggested that a marshal or two got severed as punishment, and seeing another dozen pets herded up and locked in cages confirmed that. Afterward, the man paid us another visit, trying to get us to join up with him. Ramka simply ignored him; Chomai spat in his direction and told him where he could stick his offer; I sat on the floor, my back to a wall and my head on my knees, pretending to be too lost to even hear him.
That was the last interesting thing to happen, though. The marshals came by each morning to walk us out one by one to perform nature’s functions, then gave us a breakfast of some kind of gruel and water. They gave us another bathroom break and fed us again in the afternoon before sunset–which was pretty early that far north that time of year–this time, adding a chunk of stale bread to the cold gruel and water. Other than that, we sat around in the cell. The sheriff and Chomai chatted quietly, Chomai playing with her new bug like it was a kitten. For the most part, they swapped handling stories, the sheriff using each to give her advice on how to be a better handler.
I spent most of the time in my pets’ senses. The first couple days, the marshals were hunting them, trying to recapture them now that I’d been “severed”. Fortunately, they were looking outside the town, in the nearby hills, where the creatures should have fled after losing their bonds, not in the town where they actually hid. Even so, I had to keep my galestrider moving about, dodging patrols and pets alike since it was too visible to remain close. Fortunately, none of the marshals’ pets could keep up with its speed, even the flying ones, and it moved through them like a ghost. Eventually, they gave up actually trying to catch it, although they made token efforts to set traps every day, probably just to keep Kamath from severing them. I didn’t think he would–he needed most of his marshals intact to power the rune he was making–but they didn’t know that, so they made noises in the direction of trying to catch the glowing cat.
The rest of the time, I kept my two birds aloft as much as possible, the terror eagle by day and the cloudhunter at night. I sent the rest of my pets into hiding during the day and brought them out scouting around at night. I kept them busy causing minor trouble around the town, damaging the mill wheel, weakening bridges, stampeding the roadwalkers, and that sort of thing. I’d heard people muttering that the place was cursed; I’d even heard some of the marshals complaining after their barracks mysteriously caught fire one night thanks to a pile of kindling and a carefully placed arc of lightning from my galestrider. The whole town was on edge, and that kept Kamath’s attention away from the rune field, where it probably should have been.
“So, what are we doing?” the woman asked, disturbing my brief reminiscence. “You got a plan to break us out of here?”
“I do,” I nodded. “We wait.”
“Wait?” she asked exasperatedly. “That’s your big plan? We’ve been waiting this whole, damn time!”
“Then waiting a little longer won’t hurt,” I shrugged, holding up a card. “This is my Sanctum rune. We hide beneath it, and when they come to feed us in the next hour and can’t find us, we slip out the open door.”
“What if they don’t bother?” she demanded. “What if Kamath starts before sunset?”
“Then, I’ll have one of my pets come break us out, but I’m hoping to avoid that. It’ll draw attention and let the marshal know I’m not severed.”
“Or...” she said, drawing the word out, “we could just use the damn window.” She walked over to the window and grabbed two of the bars, giving them a firm yank. The wooden sill holding the bottom of them exploded in a puff of sawdust, freeing her to slide the bars out of their sockets in the top. She repeated the procedure with the other two bars, leaving the window open. It wasn’t large, but it was big enough for us to crawl through if we didn’t mind a minor tumble on the other side.
“How did you do that?” I asked in confusion.
She held up her pet with a grin. “Bitey, here, did it. He’s been working on the bars for days while you been busy doing–whatever the hell you’ve been doing.” She jerked her chin at the sheriff. “It was his idea.”
“Woodbugs gnaw wood,” the old man explained. “That’s where they get their name. They can eat it and make a kind of paste out of it that hardens up strong as concrete, which they use to make their nests. The rest of the time, they just chew it to sawdust and then pack it back together, so it looks like regular wood. It’s how they keep from getting found and smashed.” He chuckled. “It’s not as strong as wood, though, so if they eat enough of something, it’ll start to fall apart. More than one person’s woken up with their roof lying on their floor when a hive of woodbugs gets into their house.”
“Point is, now, we ain’t gotta wait and hope,” she said, grabbing the windowsill and putting a boot on the wall. “One of you, give me a boost up.”
I walked over and made a cradle from my hands. She stepped in it, and I lifted her easily into the air. In fact, I lifted her a bit too easily; I’d forgotten that I’d lost my stat penalties with my latest adaptation. She yelped as she vanished through the window, and I heard her grunt as she struck the ground on the other side. I knew she wasn’t hurt thanks to her pet bond, but she groaned like she’d been stabbed in the stomach. Yes, obviously, I know how people groan when that happens to them.
“How about I boost you up, boy?” the sheriff chuckled. “No need to go flinging people out windows.”
“I think I’ve got it,” I told him, reaching up and grabbing the sides of the window. I hauled myself up, my new strength more than sufficient to propel me through the window. I bent at the waist and shifted my hands to grab the bottom of the sill, pulling my legs through and swinging them down to land in a slight crouch on the other side.
“What the hell was that?” Chomai hissed, brushing dirt and mud off her shirt. “You damn near tossed me into the stream! And when did you get so strong?”
“Just a few days ago,” I shrugged, ignoring her eye roll. I asked Sara to reform my whip, then tossed the handle through the window, wrapping a loop of the other end in my hand. “Here you go, Sheriff. Climb on out.”
“And where the hell were you hiding that?” she demanded.
“Do you really want to know?” I asked with a laugh.
She stared at me, then shook her head. “No. No, I damn well don’t.”
We fell silent as the sheriff’s head appeared in the window as he clambered easily through, twisting his body so that he, too, landed on his feet. Chomai watched him with a sour expression.
“Great. You two look like damn dancers, landing all dainty-like, while I get tossed in the mud. How’s that fair?”
“Don’t know who ever said anything was fair, girl,” Ramka laughed. He handed the whip back to me, one eyebrow arched inquisitively, but I ignored his unspoken question.
Instead, I reconnected briefly to my terror eagle’s sight and scanned the town. “Okay, we’re on the far edge of the building from the rune field,” I told the pair. “There are two marshals walking a patrol along the street farther ahead, probably looking for any stragglers to lock up in the field.”
“What about the ones in the rifleman perches?” the old man asked, his voice quickly turning serious.
“They’re empty.” I frowned. “It looks like Kamath gathered everyone else up in the field, even his usual watchers. He must really need every drop of power he can scrounge to get this thing going.”
“If we cut back and hug the cliff walls, we can probably slip past the two watching for us,” Chomai offered.
“I don’t know if we’ve got that kind of time. I can see the field; Kamath’s doing something up there. He’s brought some of the townsfolk over to the trenches, and he’s got them kneeling down…” I paused as I watched a marshal step up behind a kneeling woman, grab her hair, and yank her head back. A knife appeared in his fist, and he drew it across her throat. Screams rang out in the air, audible even to us as far away as we were, and I quickly pulled my senses back to my body.
“He’s sacrificing them,” I said grimly. “He’s slitting their throats and letting the blood run into the trenches.”
The sheriff nodded grimly. “Blood’s better than ink for rune magic,” he said somberly. “For one this big, he might just need it.”
“We need to hurry,” Chomai said. “Those two marshals…”
“I’ll handle them,” I cut her off. “Let’s go.”
I considered it a sign of good luck that I recognized the marshals in question, and I didn’t hesitate for an instant once I saw who they were. Mohun’s face went wide with shock as my terror eagle swept down from the sky and slammed into a ten-foot-long beetle with silvery plating on its skeleton and twin spiny ridges running down its sides. I held off on using its Sunderscream–the sound would probably carry up to the field, and things were going to get dicey soon enough anyway–but it wasn’t necessary. Boosted by the power of Fatal Plummet, the eagle’s talons ripped through the insect’s armor and tore it completely in half in that single strike.
“Shit!” Salani exclaimed, lifting her rifle and leveling it at the bird. Before she could, though, a green blur exploded from the stream and slammed into her, knocking her to the ground. The sparksnake reared up as a six-foot-long ruby-colored lizard scuttled forward, belching out a blast of orange flame. The serpent curled around the fire, its body looping about without letting the flames touch it. It struck, and the lizard fell still as the snake’s fangs pierced its hide, tearing through its defenses. The lizard kicked weakly, then fell limp as the sparksnake’s venom stilled its heart and lungs.
“No!” Salani cried out, reaching into her jacket, probably for a card. She never drew it; the snake twisted about and lashed at her, sinking its fangs into her upper arm. She stared at the beast in horror, then her eyes rolled up and slid shut as its venom rushed into her, filling her veins and paralyzing her muscles. The snake pulled free, letting the woman collapse to the wooden planks beneath her feet. She drew in a single rattling breath before her chest fell still.
Salani, it seemed, had been a tamer, with a single pet, but Mohun was a hunter, and his creatures rushed to battle. He yanked out a card and tossed it to the ground, and a blast of webbing shot from it to enshroud the terror eagle. As he tried to immobilize it, a pair of monsters, a feline creature with emerald skin that glittered like gemstones and a two-foot beetle with wicked-looking pincers, leaped at the bird. My pet snapped open its wings, shredding the webbing shrouding it, and lashed out with its beak. At the same time, it leaped into the air and drove its talons at the beetle. The cat’s blood sprayed out in a fan as the hooked beak tore out its throat, and the beetle’s shell cracked audibly as talons crunched through its armor and ripped out a hunk of its organs. Both creatures fell still in the same instant. A moment later, a coyote-like monster with spiny black fur yelped as the sparksnake snatched it from midair, killing it in a single bite.
Mohun backpedaled as his creatures died, but he only made it a few steps before the eagle launched itself in the air and streaked toward him. It landed on his chest, its bulk knocking him onto his back. He screamed once as the bird’s beak plunged downward, a scream that ended in a throaty rattle. The bird’s head moved about briefly, then rose back up. Blood coated its mouth, and a small, red lump pulsed in its beak. It tossed its head back and swallowed the marshal’s heart in a single gulp.
“Damn,” Chomai whispered in amazement as the battle ended as swiftly as it had begun. “That bird is a damn nightmare!”
“You got stronger,” the sheriff observed shrewdly. “Didn’t you, boy?”
I nodded but didn’t share just how much I’d grown. It might be hard to explain getting a High path while we were sitting in jail, after all. Instead, I jerked my chin toward the nearby pasture.
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“Come on. Let’s grab some roadwalkers and get going. I don’t think we have time to waste.”
We each grabbed a random roadwalker and mounted, not bothering with saddles for the short trip. Riding bareback wasn’t easy–I struggled to hold my balance at first, and I had to grip with my thighs more than normal to stay on–but I managed to hang on the creature’s back as we cantered down the road toward the distant field.
“When we get there, make for the cages!” I called out to the others. “I’m pretty sure the marshals will try to stop us, so bond what you can while I hold them off!”
“Will do,” Chomai replied loudly. “I’m itching to start handling again for real!”
The roadwalkers’ pace ate up the ground, and only about five minutes passed before we caught sight of the rune field. Bodies lay along the trenches, somewhere between ten and fifteen townspeople drained of blood for the ritual. The cages lay to our left, with the civilians locked up across the rune from us. Kamath stood on a low rise in the center of the field, and he turned in our direction as we rode into view.
“Dammit all to hell and back!” he shouted, raising a hand and pointing toward us. “Kill those sons of bitches!”
The sheriff and Chomai cut left as I urged my mount to a gallop that brought me quickly near the field. Four marshals stood nearby, and each of them reacted violently to my presence. A pair of bullets thumped painfully into my chest, feeling like rocks thrown by a major-league pitcher, while three creatures rushed at me: an apelike beast four feet tall with curving claws and a hyena’s mouth, an eight-foot-long purple cobra with flames that danced in its open mouth, and a man-sized bear with a rhino horn and a spiked tail. I didn’t even slow as my eagle plummeted down toward them, its mouth open in a Sunderscream. The ape-creature’s skin ruptured as the scream ripped into it, spilling blood and viscera into the ground, while the other two stumbled and fell. The bird landed atop the bear, ripping into it with its talons and drawing blood, then lashed out with its beak and caught the cobra mid-strike. Its beak snapped shut, and the snake’s head flew free of its body, neatly severed.
A clang sounded as my wave horror tore its way out of its badly damaged cage, followed by another as the shockfloater muscled its way free as well. The horror moved swiftly forward, its Acid Flower exploding outward to snatch up four smaller pets and lift their struggling bodies off the ground. Smoke rose from the creatures as acid seared their fur and scales. A pair of hawklike raptors plummeted toward the beast, one shimmering with metallic plumage and the other trailing plumes of fire, but arcs of electricity slammed into both as they neared my shockfloater, paralyzing their muscles and sending them crashing into the ground to be scooped up in the Acid Flower.
Shouts of pain and surprise rose from farther into the field as the mistfreezer burrowed up from where it had hidden itself underground and unleashed a frigid blast of cold that killed several pets and a pair of marshals outright, slowing and weakening the rest. Before they could recover, a blue streak bounded down the valley wall and raced across the field, landing in the middle of the weakened foes. A boom rang across the valley as arcs of lightning exploded from my galestrider, crawling across the monsters and humans and killing even more of them.
More shouting echoed from my right as the moonstalker raced from the small cave in which it had hidden itself and slammed into a group of marshals and their pets moving in on that flank. The wolf-bear howled once, its Frightful Bellow panicking beasts and humans alike, and blood spurted thickly as its jaws ripped into fur and flesh. A glimmer of white mist swept across the battlefield as the cloudhunter stooped from its usual perch above the fray and tore into a pair of small rodentlike monsters, ripping open their fur and leaving them bleeding on the ground.
The marshals’ charge faltered and crumbled beneath the fury of my pets’ assault. The men and women fell backward, confused, surprised, and dismayed by the attack from all sides. Rather than press the attack, though, I summoned my beasts to me; the marshals were trained for combat, and I knew their shock would fade quickly enough. Once it did, they’d begin surrounding my pets, and I’d lose my advantages. I formed my creatures into a perimeter, with the sparksnake and wave horror diagonally to my right and left, anchoring the formation. I put my mistfreezer in the center since its dodge and defense were high enough to let it survive, with the shockfloater behind it. The galestrider and moonstalker held the flanks, with my birds circling overhead. My buzzfly rose from Chomai’s pocket and flitted across the battlefield, barely noticed in all the commotion.
As my attack ceased, the marshals rallied and began sending their pets against me. The first few attacks were probing ones from fast attackers: a swift, gray-skinned lizard with a long, almost crocodilian muzzle; a rabbit-like beast with feline claws and a single horn jutting from its skull; a rainbow-hued serpent that buzzed past on dragonfly wings; and a large golden eagle with a whiplike appendage dangling from its tail. The beasts swooped in, attempted to strike, and then tried to dart away. As they did, I charged my first card of the battle, and a surge of wind whipped across the attackers, weaving a web of air around each that slowed their assault and gave my creatures a chance to strike back. I didn’t bother with special abilities; I simply had my pets hit the beasts with their normal attacks.
The lizard hissed as my horror’s acid tendrils snared it, lifting it from the ground and drawing it inexorably into the larger beast to be devoured. The rabbit stumbled as it entered the aura of cold around my mistfreezer, and the weasel-like monster lunged forward and snatched the smaller beast in its jaws. My cloudhunter stooped on the serpent, dragging it into the sky and tearing at it with its talons, ignoring its striking fangs. The moonstalker leaped up and chomped down on the enemy eagle as it swept overhead, dragging it to earth. Each of the attackers died swiftly as my far more powerful pets crushed them, but their deaths allowed the rest of the marshals to begin preparing their assaults.
Surges of magic rolled forth, rippling across enemy pets and mine alike. My pets’ stats shrank on my screen as the opposing marshals hit them with multiple debuffs, while their pets seemed to strengthen and swell. That lasted until I slipped a card from my storage and charged it, pouring power into it until a surge of energy washed over the battlefield. The sheriff’s Nullification rune that I’d borrowed undid every bit of magic on the field and wrapped it in a blanket of power that kept other runes from activating. Facing such large numbers of marshals, my best bet was to take magic out of the fight entirely and force them to fight my creatures with their own.
A few of the marshals swore as the power of their cards faded and died, but they quickly ordered their pets forward to attack. Mine held their ground and waited as the monsters charged. Over forty pets raced at my eight, and their handlers knew what they were doing. Creatures hung back to spit fire, spray acid, and belch stone shards at my creatures. Aerial beasts zoomed past, unleashing cries and screeches meant to weaken and scatter my defenses. Swiftly running monsters rushed around the edges of my line, trying to flank my beasts and strike from behind, while lumbering creatures charged for the front, attempting to break through and overwhelm me with sheer force. If I hadn’t ranked my pets up so much, I probably wouldn’t have stood much of a chance.
Fortunately, my creatures weren’t pushovers, and most of them had wide-area abilities. I held them in place until the majority of enemy monsters were close, then activated those abilities. My sparksnake flared with bright light that blinded most of the pets and a large chunk of the marshals nearby; my mistfreezer hissed a blast of frigid air and ice, turning its head from side to side to encompass most of the center ranks of the creatures in it. The moonstalker lifted its head and howled, terrifying the onrushing pets and shattering their charge, while a cloud of acid erupted from the wave horror and washed over the attacking monsters. My terror eagle strafed the battlefield with Sunderscream, killing most of the weakest beasts outright and tossing the rest about, while my galestrider erupted in a blast of thunder and lightning that tore into the nearby creatures.
A third of the attacking monsters died in that first exchange, but that still left my creatures outnumbered by more than two to one. Fire, lightning, ice, and acid splashed into my creatures, tearing at their bonds, while monsters that resembled bulls, bears, tigers, and giant lizards crashed into my pets, slashing with fangs and claws. My pets retaliated, and with my new rank and the bonuses my stats gave them, their counterattack was deadly. A bronze bull monster with six horns and metallic skin bleated and collapsed as my galestrider leaped atop it and shredded its stomach with sparking rear claws. A gray bear with thick fur dropped as one of my shockfloater’s lightning bolts surged into its eye, cooking the brain behind it. A flame-breathing serpent froze solid as the mistfreezer’s breath hit it, and a crimson tiger screamed as my eagle snatched it from the air in midleap and severed its spine with a snap of its beak.
Despite these losses, though, my pets were still outnumbered, and I watched as their bonds slowly diminished. Gunfire rang out as marshals added their weapons to the assault, and gradually, my creatures were forced back. Monsters fanned out to the sides, attempting to get behind my pets, and I unfurled my whip and began lashing at the creatures. The weapon couldn’t really harm them, but the cracking sound and the pain of its impact made them hesitate long enough for my galestrider and moonstalker to lunge forward and savage them. My weapon blurred and buzzed as I snapped it from side to side, but there were simply too many creatures to hold off, and I fell back even more to keep my forces from being surrounded.
A bellow of rage echoed from my left, and I turned and saw a huge creature that looked like an eight-foot-tall, sky blue gorilla with curving spikes along its forearms and a protruding muzzle charging toward my flank. I prepared my galestrider to attack the beast and summoned my shockfloater, but before I could strike, the creature leaped into the air, soaring twenty feet and crashing down–directly onto a rhinoceros-like beast attacking my wave horror. Spikes grew from the gorilla’s fists as it punched down into the rhino, hitting it three times before its blow sank into the monster and drew blood. The ape shrieked in triumph and leaped free, then turned to crash into a crablike monster beside it.
More creatures swarmed into the left flank of the marshals. A six-foot-tall orange frog leaped forward, lashing its tongue around a large, silver raptor soaring overhead and dragging it to earth to bite into with bony fangs. An antelope bigger than a roadwalker with black, thorny fur and gleaming spiral horns charged into a golden mastiff with flames licking from its jaws, knocking it sprawling. A squirrel-like beast as long as I was tall skittered along the ground among the enemy attackers, its fur bunching up and bristling as a cloud of thin, gleaming thorns exploded from it and plunged into everyone around. Enemy pets stumbled as a squidlike monster slithered forward and lifted its tentacles to spurt jets of ink into their eyes, ink that steamed and bubbled as it touched flesh. A bat with eight-foot-wide wings swooped overhead, opening its mouth and unleashing a high-pitched blast of sound that dazed and disoriented the monsters beneath.
“You sons of bitches think you can sever me?” Chomai shouted as she rode up behind her newly acquired pets. “I’ll teach you to mess with a real marshal!”
Chomai’s attack pushed the marshals back for a moment, but I knew it wouldn’t last. They simply had too many creatures, and they were all trained handlers. Even as I watched, the attack surged forward again, and while my pets held, Chomai’s were driven back. She didn’t have my stats, and she hadn’t had the chance to really learn what her pets could do. Fortunately, there was a way to even the numbers a bit.
I ordered my pets to counterattack, and more monsters died as they unleashed their mass attacks once more. A shimmering, green beetle crumpled as lightning ripped through its shell; a fiery wasp curled up in pain as my cloudhunter’s talons tore into it; a powder blue turtle spitting ice balls hissed as acidic tendrils shrouded it and ate swiftly through its shell. Instead of driving forward, though, my pets retreated, joining up with Chomai’s and creating a defensive line. As I rode over to her, she looked at me in bafflement.
“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded. “We had them!”
“There are still too many of them,” I shook my head. I jerked my chin back over my shoulder. “I’m gonna go get some reinforcements. Hold as best you can.”
Her eyes widened with realization, and she nodded quickly as I turned my roadwalker and galloped toward the monster cages. I reached them and slid off my mount, landing heavily as I ran toward the nearest cage. I took a deep breath, then peered inside, meeting the gaze of a huge, light yellow cat with fiery eyes and claws. I pushed my thoughts out to it and drew its presence into me, feeling the fire of its thoughts plunge into my mind. I’d expected to struggle to bond it–the cat was a creature of fire, after all, the opposite of one of my affinities–but the bond slipped into place with ease. The thing’s thoughts barely brushed at the edge of my brain, little more than a whisper of its presence. I understood now why severing a beast made it easier to bond; it left it almost unable to enter my mind, requiring practically no effort to connect to it. At the same time, I felt its struggles to escape my control; I’d bonded it, but I hadn’t tamed it. I analyzed it and immediately saw the difference affinities made.
Bond Complete!
You have bonded a High Firehunter. This creature is attuned to the Predator and Fire elements. However, as you have no affinity with one of these elements, and your bond is an incomplete one, you gain no abilities from it.
Firehunter (High)
Type: Wildflame
Bond: 7,662
Attack: 676 Defense: 289 Damage: 563
Speed: 440 Dodge: 251 Heal: 293
Special Attacks: Fire Blast (512), Molten Fangs (506), Flame Leap (511)
Special Defenses: Heat Aura (342)
Weaknesses: Water, Prey
The firehunter was significantly weaker than my other High creatures, closer to my cloudhunter in deadliness. Even so, my stats made it a terrible foe, and we needed all the creatures we could get. I ordered the cat to break free of its cage, then stood back as it slammed into the weakened door and burst through. I sent it into the fray, commanding it to strike at the marshals themselves, not their pets, and it gladly raced off into the darkness.
I moved from cage to cage, bonding every High creature I found, regardless of its type. I sent a metal-type golden bear crashing into the enemy lines; I ordered an eight-foot-long praying mantis to swoop down in the middle of the battle. I commanded a mooselike prey creature to trample our foes and a fiery hornet to strike at their flying creatures. Of course, some of the beasts shared my affinities, as well, such as a blue falcon that crackled with electricity or a massive leopard-like beast that oozed frosty smoke from its hide. Those, I ordered to join my lines; I wanted to keep them alive if possible, in case I needed them when all this ended. I reached my limit of forty-five pets, then turned and galloped back to the battle, which had quickly shifted.
The marshals’ one advantage was numbers. They had more pets and more magic, and even if their creatures were individually weaker than mine, when they outnumbered us two-to-one or more, they’d been able to concentrate their attacks and drive my pets back. My Nullification rune had taken their magical advantage away; the sudden influx of new beasts removed their advantage of numbers. With Chomai’s pets, we now outnumbered the marshals by about the same amount, and the tide of battle swiftly shifted.
The marshals were trained handlers, but they’d learned how to fight individually, not as a group. As my pets slaughtered the enemy ones, their handlers began firing into the melee, backing away as they realized that a single bullet or beast could kill them easily and getting in the way of the handlers who could still fight. Bereft of active control, most of the remaining enemy monsters started attacking anything that moved, including the pets of other marshals, and the assault against us collapsed into chaos.
Of course, we suffered our own casualties, as well. The firehunter I’d first sent into the fray lay dead, its hide torn open by a water attack. An arachnid creature covered in light green hair fell to a group of pets that swarmed over it, while a dark green hyena with black fangs tumbled to the ground as a screaming bird with fiery wings crashed into it and immolated it. I’d sent the beasts I had no affinity with into the midst of the fray to kill and be killed, and they were successful in both tasks. One by one, they succumbed to the marshals’ pets, but they took other beasts down with them. By the time the last of my sacrificial creatures, a giant scorpion with a metallic blue shell, died in a hail of gunfire, only a handful of pets remained to the marshals, and I could tell they were ready to break and run.
Chomai’s gorilla leaped in the air, streaking toward a magenta ram with gleaming steel horns and spiked hooves, but her pet crumpled as a tiny, red flash struck it. The ape tumbled to the ground, thrashing wildly, then fell still and lifeless. It seemed to collapse in on itself, its fur and flesh wrinkling as it shriveled like a raisin. A moment later, a bright red dot rose from the corpse, hovering over the battlefield.
“All of you useless, worthless assholes fall back!” Kamath shouted from his spot on the hill. “I’ll handle these traitors! You all activate the rune–at least you can do that right!”
I quickly analyzed the tiny speck and grimaced at what I saw.
Bloodfly (Simple)
Type: Vermiin
Bond: 15,698
Attack: 926 Defense: 613 Damage: 991
Speed: 853 Dodge: 926 Heal: 502
Special Attacks: Blood Drain
Weaknesses: Wood
Threat Level: Fatal
Kamath’s pet had finally come out to play.