As she closed on the herd, Iktchi-Chi muttered a low level shield spell. It wouldn’t give her full protection, but it would help, and she needed to husband her mana use lest the collar activate. Collapsing to the ground amidst that mob of hooves, teeth and hangry wouldn’t end well for her. Her coat, she’d long ago enchanted with such armor buffs as she’d been able to find components for.

Smiling coldly nonetheless, her eyes sharpened, and she gave the jagged backed sword a twirl. This would be a largely physical fight. But not necessarily a completely physical fight, and certainly not a fair one. Trickling mana into the sword, she bade it be sharp and strong. Light. Painful. More painful than that. The sword’s blade began to glow a faint red-orange.

Small of frame was Iktchi-Chi, but her muscles weren’t human muscles. They were more receptive to certain status effects. One of these, she applied now. No great, overpowering boost, this, for that might trigger the collar. A bump. As these things were rated, her strength grew from her current level’s seventeen points to nineteen. Another bump, and her agility grew from twenty-one to twenty-four. She laughed low in her throat. Perhaps this might be fun after all.

The swine, had they the brains they were widely credited with having, should now be fleeing. Alas for them, they weren’t remotely so equipped. As Chi came into their view in the dim light, they charged.

Chi leapt forward in her turn, a feral grin splitting her face, the barest trickle of smoke trailing from one corner of her mouth. Her eyes, despite her current guise, took on their default orange-red lava hue.

She leapt, spinning, upon the back of the lead swine, a huge boar that would have gone easily six hundred pounds. The jagged backed blade bit deep, and the boar’s head flopped down. Only the thickness of the creature’s neck and the lesser length of the sword kept the head from flying clear. The still churning legs tripped over the flopping head, and the swine’s hindquarters rotated up into the air.

Dancing along the already dead boar’s back, Chi leapt to her next victim, landing in a squat on its back. The jagged backed sword flashed again, and this boar, too, joined its late companion. She couldn’t help but laugh aloud with exhilaration as she leapt to the nearest remaining swine.

But this wasn’t the smart way to proceed, the thought occurred. Pain, she’d imbued the blade with, but what good pain if she killed instantly? And so Chi skipped from back to back, slashing shallowly into each one until she’d spanned the herd.

Only then, with half the sounder screaming wildly in agony and terror, snapping at their neighbors, did she go back to the killing. Those who yet lived were now as much danger to their fellows as they were to her.

The last stragglers, still writhing and snapping at anything near them, she dispatched with lower level ice bolts.

She was regretting the pain spell. She was also feeling ashamed at the exhilaration she’d felt when wielding it. Samus’ terrified face was lurking at the back of her mind, accusing. What if Sam had seen me then? She thought. That had been devil’s work, not the stuff of heroes.

Anyway, she told herself, shaking her head clear. Fear and agony ruined the meat, right? Made it bitter. It wasn’t that she was thinking of herself as a hero or anything. That was silly. She just didn’t want to ruin the meat.

Unspoken, and barely thought, the pain spell withered and vanished from her memory. Gone from her internal grimoire. Cast aside with a sliver more of who and what she'd used to be.

She’d left the house barefoot, and the coarse hair of the boars had made a mess of the soles of her feet, so she was sitting atop the rump of one of the dead swine examining them when the hunters arrived, the youngest leaning on his two brothers.

“That was....” Able Norley struggled for words. “That was amazing! I’ve never seen anyone move so fast before! I could scarce believe my eyes!”

“You saw?” her shoulders clenched.

“Well,” he scratched his head. “Mostly. We didn’t dare come down out of the tree until they were dead. We’d used all our arrows, you see, and none of us is exactly likely to so much as scratch one of those devils with only a sword.”

She flinched at the word ‘devils’, but nodded. From the tree, they wouldn’t have seen her lapse. Or so she hoped. “Oh, is your son injured?”

He nodded. “Jeeb, yeah. One of those things caught him with a tusk as I was pulling him up. Did you know those bastards can jump more than seven feet in the air? I sure didn’t.”

“Come here,” she waved.

They brought him over and she examined the leg closely. Ouch! The tusk had only grazed him, but it had gone deep. Reaching for her belt, she flushed, realizing her knife wasn’t there. Nothing was there. She was naked beneath the coat.

“Uhm... could one of you cut his pant leg clear? I... uh... forgot my knife.”

Jeeb’s older brother, Crey nodded and came forward, withdrawing a truly heroic blade from a scabbard behind his back and slitting the pant leg up nearly to the hip.

“You butthead,” Jeeb complained. "Mom’s gonna have to sew that when we get home, you know.”

Crey’s shoulders hunched, but his face remained collected. “Least she won’t have to bury your slow a— er... butt.” his face tinted as he stole a glance at Chi.

Chi ignored the brotherly byplay and laid her hands over the long slash. She closed her eyes and muttered the proper incantation, feeling the collar constrict. The wound was a bad one, so she’d needed to cast Intermediate Healing, which the collar felt was too strong a spell, apparently. But she kept at it, her face turning red as her breathing was cut off.

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She remained very still for a few moments after the glow of the spell had faded, neither raising her head nor removing her hands from the boy’s leg. The others leaned forward in alarm when the first tortured breath managed its way past the collar. And still it was a few minutes before she moved.

Raising her hands, she looked down, summoning a light spell that drew barely a trickle of mana. The skin where the slash had been was slightly reddish, but bore no mark. She looked up and smiled. “Th-there you go, young Jeeb,” she croaked still concentrating on hauling air into starving lungs.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his voice heavy with concern. “I’m sorry... I—”

“No, no,” she waved a hand. “It’s not your fault. An... old ailment. It’s nothing.

“Now,” she said, after a deep, cleansing breath. “How are we to get all of these materials back to the village?”

Able was stunned. “Back to the village?” he blurted. “That’s what you’re concerned with?”

She smiled, her composure fast returning. “Of course. What else would I be concerned with? These things were a lot of trouble, and I’d not like to see them go to waste.”

The four hunters looked to one another and shrugged. ‘Adventurers’ those looks seemed to say. ‘What are you going to do?’

“You’ll keep watch?” Able asked Chi.

“Of course,” she smiled back. “I’m certainly not going to butcher the smelly things!

“Oh,” she stood abruptly. “But one thing, first. I need to gather the drop— I mean, release the gifts of Jehsha.”

Able tilted his head, a puzzled look on his face. “Lady? I’m no adventurer, Jehsha knows, but doesn’t the release send the creature off? I mean, how do we both butcher and gather gifts?”

“Ah,” she laughed. “There are more spells than the le— rank one to release gifts, friend hunter. There is another, higher... ranked spell that allows the gifts to drop without sending the rest of the creature off. Fortunately, I know it.”

Unfortunately, its level was perilously close to where the damnable collar took a hand in things. She’d have to be scrupulously careful in doing this. One at a time, then. With a wait between.

She moved to her first kill. It had been the largest, and would not only drop the best items, but would take longer to skin and dress, giving her more time to rest before tackling the next. Closing her eyes, she concentrated, bringing the spell forth from her internal grimoire. Envisioning the forms as clearly as she could. Without tools or any ingredients, the spell would be more difficult, but so long as her focus was good, it would be possible. The key was visualization. The clearer it was in her mind, the less it required in material components.

The circle was complicated, so she drew it slowly. The movements were precise, so she pantomimed them carefully. The flow of mana and its aura were crucial, so she gave over to it her utmost attention.

This spell took longer than the basic soul release. Much longer. The men watching began to fidget,wondering was something amiss.

Finally, though, a faint glow began to emanate from the hide of the boar. A deeper gold than the normal glow, although they had no way of knowing that. Then, as though they were plants sprouting from the ground, a number of items began to ooze forth from the creature’s body.

Chi’s breathing was shallow at this point, the collar having tightened until she’d just the slightest airway. Still, she finished with the same care with which she’d started, rather than drop the spell all at once.

“A ruby!” Jub, Able’s oldest son hissed. “It’s given up a ruby!”

I wish! Chi snorted. “Not quite,” she said aloud. “That’s a fire opal. Not quite as valuable, although it is pretty. It's the life stone. They’ll all give one up.

“What’s that other thing, then?” Jub asked innocently.

Glancing over at the pile of drops, she smiled. “It’s a magical component,” she told him. “Same as that, and that, and that.” then she looked over her shoulder at him. “The rest is money.”

“Oooh!” he grinned. “I like money!”

She grinned back at him. “Don’t we all?”

She gathered up the spoils, stuffing it all into coat pockets, since her pouch was hanging from her bedroom wall beside her dress. If every one of these monsters was going to drop like this, she was going to run out of room and have to ask for help with the spoils.

While the men were butchering the big boar, she wandered back to the area around the tree, where she retrieved her signal. It could be reloaded with much less effort than it would take to make a completely new one.

While she was there, she had a look at the carnage at the base of the tree. Eight, she thought. It was hard to say for sure, as the remains were a bit scattered. Not much left. Certainly not enough to warrant butchering. Maybe, though....

Taking up her wand, she addressed one of the half eaten skulls. Almost immediately, scattered fields of gold popped into life, surrounding the scattered bits of the ravaged corpse. Within seconds, the glow faded, and a pile of gifts was left behind. She repeated the soul release seven more times. At her rank, the mana cost barely registered, so there was no need for interval.

“Lady Chi?”

“Hmm?” Chi turned to see Able Norley, blood to the elbows, approaching her, his face troubled. They’d skinned and dressed three of the boars thus far, and it was nearing midmorning. He looked exhausted.

“Lady Chi?” he repeated. “I understand the desire, and even the need. I mean, even just these hides’ll be worth a fortune now the road t’Mokkelton’s open again and we can trade. But how exactly are we supposed to haul all of this back home?”

She’d been pondering that very thing, and had come up with only a single solution. “Wagons,” she said simply.

“Ah.” he nodded his head confused. “Uhm... there’s a spell to produce wagons?”

She giggled before she could stop herself. “No, friend Able,” she said, forcing her tone serious. “There’s going back to the village and bringing back wagons. Perhaps more than one, I’m thinking.”

He looked back over his shoulder at what they’d accomplished and what had yet to be done, and turned back. “By the time we’re done?” he reckoned. “Probably five or six, and multiple trips. Some of those things dressed out big enough to go one-and-a-half or two to a wagonload. And there’s twelve of them.

“And the boys are getting pretty tired. Gonna start having accidents pretty soon if they don’t get some rest.”

She nodded. “I suppose you’re right,” she said low voiced. “How about this. I’ll— no, I don’t have the components. Wait! Yes I do.

“Bring me four of the biggest tusks you can find, and a sharp knife,” she ordered. "And I’ll put up some temporary wards. Then we can go back to town and come back with wagons and help in finishing the job.”

“You sure are persistent when you get an idea in your head, aren’t you?” he nearly put a hand to the back of his head before remembering what it was covered in. “Fine, I suppose,” he allowed. “Who knows how much all of these supplies might be needed in the future. I’ll be right back.

It took Chi less than half an hour to carve the runes onto the tusks and place them. Another twenty minutes to cast the wards on them, and they were ready to go.

“They won’t last as long as regular ward stones,” she warned Able as the five of them set out for Tumblebrook Village, “but they’ll last long enough. I seriously doubt anything remotely likely to be in this neighborhood will bother them, even with the blood and meat smell.”

The Norleys had been up for over twenty-eight hours without rest at this point. Chi, herself was going on the same with only an hour or so of sleep to break up the time. Perhaps if she’d gotten a bit more sleep, she might have remembered the catastrophe that would be awaiting her back at Tumblebrook.