The Mook Maker

I awaited the reports from my scouts with bated breath. 

 

Given the particular effects the sorceress barrier had on my girls, I reconsidered the most straightforward approach to scouting the villages. Instead of ordering ‘Displacers’ to bring our people as close as possible to the villages to reduce the travel time, I ordered them to keep their distance, unnoticed if possible, and merely deliver the ‘Eviscerators’ to run to their targets hidden under the cloak of their powers.

 

I wasn’t quite certain whether the humans were all fully aware of the variety between our breeds, and their respective abilities, but it was fair to assume that my feline companions would be discovered quite quickly. 

 

While the ‘Displacers’ were reasonably stealthy and quite silent, due to their catlike nature, their portals were the exact opposite of subtle. Those rifts in the space itself attracted the attention of anyone with eyes, not only that the tear opening often associated with some form of flash, their shifty nature attracted attention should anyone look their attention, not to mention causing severe vertigo in anyone who gazed into the distortions. 

 

Dazing enemies may be a boon, but there wasn’t a guarantee that the most dangerous opponents I plan to encounter -- the casters -- would look into the portal, and even if they did, it might not prevent them from casting. The robed women’s magic was quite unpredictable. 

 

My ‘Eviscerators’ may have a considerably better chance to approach the enemy, and even if detected, spotting them might not encourage the humans’ mysterious spellcasters to raise their invisible barriers and prevent us from using the portals to bring in reinforcements, denying us enough time to muster the response.

 

There was an absolutely tiny, but non-zero chance that I would encounter the rare group of humans who would not react to us with open hostility, and instead provide us with an avenue of communication in the future. For this purpose, a small group of volunteer scouts would work better than a large force. 

 

It still pained me that some of my scouts must risk being ‘sealed’, and the fact that I wasn’t able to find a unique name for the girl struck by the castle’s magic shield made me feel somewhat ashamed. 

 

Still, it seemed to be the only way. We needed to strike against those ‘casters’ before they were able to gather together. 

 

I wasn’t quite sure whether they could combine their powers, but I wasn’t going to risk an attack on multiple fronts.

 

This slow, methodical approach rendered unnecessary breaking off the siege or risking direct confrontation with that sorceress which resided within. Nevertheless, it was still a gamble, betting on my ability to drive the divide between the natives.

 

Luckily for me, there weren’t that many targets to choose from, if I still opted to be somewhat careful, at least initially. 

 

Although the valley itself was immense, there weren’t that many targets within our immediate vicinity which had to be dealt with before anyone and anything else, based on the large body of water serving as the temporary border, distance and elevation.

 

Before I upped our game attempting to bombard the castle tomorrow, I need to assure myself there weren’t any more surprises on our side of the river. 

 

Our area was relatively densely populated.  Our little corner of the valley hemmed in between the mountains and the wide river had at least five completely separated settlements, three of which were currently under our control, with only the mountainous mining town holding a portion of the original human population. 

 

Whether all of them counted as completely separate settlements to still survive local authority was up to debate, as it could be reasonably considered one large, particularly spread out village instead of a combination of a few smaller hamlets, each devoted to a different aspect of production. 

 

I had no idea how the locals organized themselves, but I was starting to get a grasp of our immediate surroundings, geographically speaking. 

 

There was an area overseeing the large stretch of fields growing either soy or another similar kind of beans, serviced by the one grouping of houses, now completely devoid of the human population with nearby farmlands left untended by anyone, yet still noticeably touched by the magic of the ‘Corruptors’ with the alien, otherworldly creeper vines slowly taking over the houses that went silent, spreading its sinister influence to the plantation itself, passively turning its crops into their more twisted, mutated variants, slowly and surely spreading the taint even further, even without any oversight.

 

Growth continued even without the magic that once started it at a much-reduced pace, yet never halted entirely, leaving apparent progress in the mere two days of my absence, hopefully discouraging humans from ever returning.

 

I decided to dub that place Maiville, to honour one of my ‘Alphas’, and her kin that made this possible, and more importantly, to give me a name to reference later on. Mai herself still slumbered from likely overextending her magic and had no chance to comment on the odd idea. 

 

Maiville, however, was nothing more but the taste for the verdant nightmare that lay to the north where the magic of the ‘Corruptors’ completely dethroned nature’s reign and made the forest submit to the whims of my adorable little reptilians, changing the landscape forever. 

 

Past it, to the north I believe, was the sawmill. It wasn’t visible from my current vantage point.

 

It was once the collection of huts where the local woodcutters, sawmill workers and perhaps joiners once lived, but now completely overrun by my horde and turned into our main camp where most of my monsters dwelled in between the skirmishes in their personalized dwellings of wood and thorns.

 

The place was currently nameless as I could always easily refer to it as our main camp or its main production building, though referring to it by the name of my girls that made it possible would also be an option, considering how most of our structures were merely grown rather than built, save the watchtowers erected by the combined effort of the rest of my people. 

 

Between the two places, isolated in the curve of the local river, was the human castle, largely untouched, still refusing to submit to our influence and release my girls ‘sealed’ by their sorceress’ spell. With the nearby bridge destroyed, they were cut off from the rest of the world, but still, they persisted. 

 

It was a few hours since our last ballista barrage, and there was still no sign that the fort occupants were going to surrender. They didn’t try to communicate at all, though they didn’t attempt to break the siege either. 

 

Maybe they debated the meaning behind my message, unsure how they should react. Or perhaps, the impotence of the ballista bolts gave them greater resolve to fight. I couldn’t know.

 

As much as it pained me to leave some of my girls ‘sealed’, the barrier created by their spellcaster was simply too dangerous for our people to enter, threatening to harm us all through the telepathic link feedback. 

 

Those sorceresses, or whoever they were, certainly had an upper limit to their powers, and it felt unwise to test those in circumstances already favourable to them. 

 

While there was a chance that the ‘caster’ may die under the falling debris or the collapsing beam should we attempt to drop the tree trunks or large boulders through the ‘Displacer’ portals high above the fortress, it doesn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t develop a counter to the kinetic energy. 

 

The castle, enveloped by this spell, was temporarily out of our reach, but it only motivated me to go after the other humans potentially capable of the very same magic - any village which hosted another of those spellcasters would feel our wrath. 

 

I wasn’t quite certain what role in the society those robed women have, they could be sorceresses or priestesses perhaps, but we never encountered them merely travelling alone.

 

Targeting their followers may be an option.

 

Strangely enough, I felt a little regret over ordering such a thing, the nagging sensation still lingering at the back of my brain insisted that ‘sealing’ my monsters was an unforgivable act that needed to be avenged. 

 

I had a little stomach for the senseless violence and would love to be left alone, but my empathy for the humans was slowly but surely fading away as my connection with my furry menagerie grew, and more insidious methods of harming us appeared. 

 

It was ultimately why I was so careful. 

 

My pondering over this was cut short by Miwah. 

 

“Master, the settlement located upstream has no spellcaster.” She reported, her gaze fixated on the horizon as she communicated with her kin out there, possibly kilometres away.

 

My werewolf was doing all the work, while Tama and Narita merely gathered some of their smaller sisters to serve as the assault force should the need arise. I was also forced to withdraw Kuma from the castle as well, to make ‘Ravagers’ ready for transport. As much as I hated thinking of them as such, my bear ladies would make excellent shock troopers, should the ‘casters’ have the guards for their protection.  

 

“Are you certain?” 

 

Finding out that not every tiny hamlet would have their own ‘caster’ was certainly a relief, but it still raised the question of how common they were, one I wasn’t able to answer right now. 

 

“Yes, Master. The human girl is talking to them now, my sisters thought it would be fitting to show ourselves.” Miwah said. 

 

“Crazy one? Ari! She is there already?” I asked, confused. Even if I had asked for her specifically, I wasn’t expecting such an initiative from my followers. 

 

“Sora brought her over,” Miwah replied, and I had to silently curse the ‘Displacer’ hyperactivity. 

 

Although giving the friendly humans a chance to do the talking was always a part of the plan, it didn’t mean that we would shove the crazy girl through the portal each time when the humans hesitated in their usual aggression. 

 

The girl, Ari, was a local human, immune to the side effects of our powers. We didn’t understand her, and her sanity was questionable at best since she was prone to quite strange behaviour. Nevertheless, unlike her countrymen, she was neither hostile nor terrified of us. If anything, she bowed to me and treated ‘Alphas’ like nobility, which made me doubly curious about what she was telling the villagers. 

 

“What did she tell them?” 

 

“We don’t know, Master.” My werewolf shrugged, her focus still elsewhere, “The humans don’t know how to react either, they might be in disagreement.” 

 

Unsurprisingly, this girl was also quite unpopular with her own kind, but I wasn’t going to let the natives stone to death the only friendly human we encountered. Ari may be crazy, but seemed to be more agreeable than the old scribe we captured.

 

The man may have an actual connection to the people within the castle, but his almost scatterbrained behaviour discouraged further interaction, and I merely kept him fed and imprisoned. 

 

The crazy girl, on the other hand, got results. The mining town retained a large portion of its human population because she managed to convince them to stand down, even if it involved simply threatening them. I wasn’t that successful when I tried to do the talking myself, which always resulted in a fight.  

 

“Just don’t let them hurt her.” I decided, followed by the question: “Are there any villages further upstream? Your sisters have been there before, I think?” 

 

“We had avoided the village before, Master, but there doesn’t seem to be any route upstream with cliffs lining our side of the river,” Miwah confirmed, her attention still elsewhere, making me wonder whether it was the right choice to leave Brave in the mining town. 

 

“No easy way to cross the river?” I asked to verify.

 

“No, Master. There is no bridge, and the current seems strong.” 

 

“End of the road then,” I concluded, thinking that this made our northern flank reasonably secure. For the time being, at the very least. 

 

I wasn’t under the illusion that the river itself was an insurmountable obstacle - someone would certainly manage to swim over or simply built a raft to cross the water in the absence of the bridge - but it was enough to give the locals pause until I found a better, more permanent solution to secure our territory. 

 

Relying on the fact that those women wouldn’t risk getting their immaculate robes wet would be foolish, and the ‘elites’ capable of running up a vertical wall wouldn’t be stopped by the little bit of water, but they would be at the very least separated from their mundane followers.

 

If I gave the ‘Corruptors’ more time to work the area under our control would be even harder to traverse, owing it greatly to the strange mutated plants created by my little lizard girls’ powers, perhaps completely covering the riverbank with some water variant of the thorn-encrusted, vicious looking greenery, making landing considerably more difficult.

 

Doing so may require more of my reptilian gardeners, but considering what they have done so far it wasn’t exactly beyond the realm of possibility.

 

Since the hamlet to the north - assuming it was a hamlet, I didn’t ask how large it actually was - didn’t attack us on sight, I would have to worry whether all the ‘Corruptors’ touched produce wasn’t toxic to humans. Some of the plants were definitely poisonous.

 

Perhaps if Ari’s natural resistance could be somehow transferred to the other natives, allowing us to create a symbiosis of sorts…

 

I didn’t finish my thought. 

 

My unspoken hopes for a village which simply doesn’t mind us at all were quickly crushed as one of the ‘Eviscerators’ materialized in a puff of ruby-red smoke. It was almost as if I was due for another lesson about diplomacy with the absurdly hostile natives.

 

“For Master!” She cried out, seemingly not worried, but the tug on our link did suggest she died in the combat. 

 

“Miwah?” I asked, calling for a report. 

 

The response in the form of the usual notification invading my vision came out sooner than words. I blinked. 

 

Skill “Slayer of Men” Lvl. 29” gained.

 

The usual red fog, appearing out of nowhere as many times before, gave birth to another set of shadowy canines, excited by their renewed existence. 

 

“I am sorry, Master.” Miwah said, “Situation is under control.”

 

“Under control?” 

 

“It seems there was a group of natives that decided to fight us anyway, Master.” My white werewolf explained, while their smaller, black, shadowy kin begged for being personally welcomed by me after their summoning.

 

I did so almost absentmindedly, giving a few hugs and pats, my furry companions were as cute and adorable as ever. 

 

“Ari convinced the rest to stand down, Master.” Miwah immediately continued. 

 

Despite the language barrier still being the major issue, it became more than evident that Ari had attempted to strong-arm the villagers, and the ‘Eviscerators’ were somewhat instinctively playing along. 

 

Although human, Ari was quite apathetic towards the lives of her countrymen, but it wasn’t her behaviour that was hardly surprising. 

 

My own reaction was. 

 

“I see, good call.” I said though the expected emotions for the loss of life among the humans were shockingly muted, with more concern felt for the ‘Eviscerator’ that came back to life seemingly no worse to wear than the humans permanently killed in some attempt at resistance. 

 

It was a nearly schizophrenic sensation, considering I clearly remembered I was terrified of my companions initially, a mere half dozen days ago, and now I was struggling to imagine being without them while planning violent retaliation against those who dared to separate us. 

 

Did it justify my actions though? 

 

“Master?” 

 

I didn’t finish the thought. 

 

Almost as if fate itself was annoyed by the introspection, the sudden, and at this point, familiarly unpleasant impulse brought me down to my knees, with the sudden jolt of pain without any apparent cause accompanied by the indescribable emotion that part of me was taken away. 

 

I didn’t need an explanation of what that meant, the feedback that travelled through our link spoke for itself, as well as the expression of my closest companions.

 

The message window that invaded my view felt almost taunting at that point. 

 

1 unit sealed until the caster is dead.

 

The trace of regret about the unjustifiable violence against the natives instantly disappeared as I was swept by the sense of loss, instantly knowing that one mind and the voice has been silenced among the many, even if I wasn’t able to hear them now. 

 

I, however, didn’t have the luxury to ponder about the nature of the link - I fully experienced it only briefly once. 

 

I was furious. My fury was undiminished by the doubt of where to lay the blame: the caster for sealing away my precious girl, or myself for putting my girls in harm’s way.

 

“Get my girls away from that bitch.” I groaned, “Where is she?” 

 

“The village downstream, Master,” Miwah answered, “We weren’t there before.” 

 

My white werewolf revealed her sharp teeth while her gaze turned to the unspecified direction somewhere on the horizon, this time I think to the south.

 

“If there is more than one of my girls, have them run and lure the enemy away so they can’t wait for us. We will free my girl and make them pay.” I decided and shot a glance at my retinue, as well as on Tama and Narita trying to help me back on my feet.

 

“Get Sora and her kin here. With Kuma and her girls too. Then your sisters.” 

 

“Yes, Master.” There was no objection.

 

I noticed rifts already starting to appear as the ‘Displacers’ were called over, but even their space-bending magic and instantaneous telepathic communication couldn’t stop the further damage. It came faster than expected - whoever that ‘caster’ was, she didn’t idle while we gathered our wits. 

 

1 unit sealed until the caster is dead.

 

Another of my girls was taken away from me, and I hated it. 

 

The loss throbbed in my mind, creating the feeling of direction towards the perpetrator of the attack, but the last vestiges of the calm, planning consciousness forced me to not rush forward and apply at least moderate caution in my decisions. 

 

Our most significant advantage was the numbers, I reminded myself.

 

The attack from multiple directions was probably the best course of action, even if it pained me that even more of my girls would serve as a distraction, risking more of them in the process. 

 

I waited as my girls assembled, banishing the thought that I would be able to negotiate with the humans supported by a person only capable of inflicting permanent harm. It was an endless couple of minutes until I was hit by the backlash once again. 

1 unit sealed until the caster is dead.

 

With another message, and a throbbing, beating sensation inside my brain, the last sense of sympathy with the humans completely evaporated, leaving only anger.

 

Act, I reminded myself. 

 

“We need to move now. Bring the Eviscerator first group to the edge of their settlement.” I ordered, fighting the distraction, “Then bring another group of Purifiers for the attack from the other side. Narita is to infuse the Displacers with more energy, then we can be brought over.”

 

The felines reacted almost immediately after the words had left my mouth, jumping through sets of portals while dragging the passengers with them, without hesitation or without prior warning. The swirling space of the portals was nauseating, their nature gave me motion sickness despite staying, or rather kneeling down, but I held strong.

 

I looked around, waiting a few moments for the groups to reassert themselves, my mates and my ‘Alphas’ fully focused on directing her kin preparing for inevitable confrontation once through the portal  

 

“We test whether there is a barrier. If there isn’t one, drop Kuma and her lot atop the caster…” Was my final words before I was dragged through the ever-shifting rift in space itself without any prior warning. 

 

Held by Sora, I fell through the void.

 

Up was down.  Down was up.

 

The space bent, and distance became the passing joke, lost in the ever-moving torrents of the void.

 

Among the shifting nothingness, I heard the voices all speaking to me. 

 

They mumbled together into the muddied cacophony of noise, yet somehow warming in their unifying purpose, encouraging me to add even more of them to the song they wove together to make it perfect, without the humans ever disturbing it again. 

 

There were more voices in the cracks.

 

Then, reality reasserted itself and I fell through the threshold of the rift, landing on the muddy road among the trees, with Sora holding me up before I stumbled to the ground. I had to hold tightly to my feline for a few seconds before my head finally stopped spinning, and then I looked around. 

 

Miwah, Tama, and Narita along with my usual retinue were brought in by the ‘Displacers’, handling the transfer much better than myself.

 

“Hold.” 

 

The aforementioned village was nearby. In fact, we stood on its very edge, on the small hill that overlooked it, and our current location offered me a relatively unobstructed view of the local equivalent of the village square where the crowd of humans had gathered. 

 

I was able to pick out the familiar and colourful robe, standing out amongst the relatively dull-coloured outfits of the ordinary villagers. She stood behind the relatively ordinarily dressed old man currently addressing the crowd, perhaps this village’s patriarch, his voice more remarkable than his frail-looking frame. 

 

What was he saying, I had no idea, my understanding of the local tongue was still practically non-existent, however, the fact that one of those robed women didn’t object against him made me doubt he was opposed to raising arms against us. 

 

“Wait. Where are our other groups?” I asked.

 

“We will approach from different directions, Master.” Tama said, “One of my sisters will test for the barrier.” 

 

I had to wait. There was no hesitation within me that the ‘caster’ must die.

 

Seeing the woman, even from a distance, made my blood boil. She was the one that sealed two of my girls, I was absolutely certain of it despite the fact I wasn’t here to witness it.  The urge to order the attack within me grew, though I held it back for now.

 

Though the man himself was unarmed, the villagers seem to have gathered whatever farm implements that could be used in a fight, along with a handful of actual weapons, and it was doubtful they were going for a peaceful resolution. 

 

Yet, still, I waited, doubting that Tama has the range to blast the gathering to oblivion.

 

The fact they gathered so quickly was remarkable, especially considering the advantage of how quickly we were able to react, searching for the potential trap.

 

There doesn’t seem to be one. 

 

The humans didn’t seem to know we were there, entirely focused on the man’s speech, and I assumed that my immediate retinue was actually obscured by the trees. At least, until the sorceress turned their head towards us, as she sensed our presence through some mystical means. 

 

From this far away, I wasn’t able to see her face, but it still felt like her piercing gaze reached down to my very soul. 

 

“There is no barrier, Master,” Tama announced almost at the same time as the villager crowd broke into a panic when the first Purifier appeared in between the buildings, scouting the buildings for the same shield we encountered at the castle. 

 

There was none, as Tama had said, but it doesn’t mean that the caster didn’t represent a threat.  

 

I didn’t know for certain what range the spellcaster had, especially now that she was looking directly at me. 

 

My monsters, however, moved before she could act against me, with several ‘Purifiers’ rushing between the buildings, their fire blasts directed against the woman. They missed, the flames diverting. 

 

The woman in the bright robe reacted almost immediately, she turned around and made a sweeping motion with her golden-headed staff. The effect was immediate. 

 

3 unit sealed until the caster is dead.

 

I cursed.

 

The backlash hit me before I even realized how quickly she cast her spell  Her attacks were considerably faster than those of her two colleagues we met previously. 

 

The sense of loss bore into me. 

 

My girls didn’t wait for me to gather my bearings, and the other group rushed to attack among the buildings.  Everything happened rapidly, first fireball explosions shaking the village and several ‘Eviscerators’ appearing in the middle of the crowd ripping and tearing. The red fog started to swirl around me. Despite being armed with only farming tools, the humans fought. 

 

The mist returned my girls to me.

 

It was complete chaos still. 

 

“Get Kuma there. Drop them from a safe height above, drain the forest if kitties are tired!” I barked out not looking at whether the order was followed, my eyes fixed on the scene.  

 

The woman with the staff wasn’t easily stopped, and with the other wide sweep of her staff more of my canines were swept away, their bodies immediately disintegrated from the magic even when the bodies of the humans stood in the way.

 

4 units sealed until the caster is dead.

The backlash from the ‘sealing’ once again hit me as the tidal ware. 

 

It hurt, and I mentally swore vengeance - it was a mistake to come there only with the small force limited by the immediately available numbers of the teleporting felines, it was apparent we needed a much larger force to effectively overrun the opposition. 

 

I noticed the sorceress even stopped the fireball directly heading towards her and was able to hit back at the ‘Purifier’ that threw it.

 

1 unit sealed until the caster is dead.

 

She was much better in this than others, but her luck was growing thin as the space above the humans shifted with the several rifts opening, dazing the few that made the mistake of looking directly at the portals.

 

The sorceress was able to block another fire blast, she was strangely good at this, but it was too late as my bear ladies jumped down the portals, with the ‘Displacers’ facilitating the transport holding tight to the hulking ‘Ravagers’ as they started their rampage. 

 

Kuma, with her considerable height and bulk, even more, apparent thanks to her armour, dropped from the rift in the middle of the fight, a large sword in hand. She grabbed the man by the head with an enormous hand, and threw the body into one of the buildings with terrifying ease, then followed up with a swing at the other enemy cleaving through him as well, until her blade met the staff of the sorceress, held up to block.

 

The robed spellcaster had no chance of stopping the blow, her weapon flew away from her hand to somewhere out of sight, and Kuma didn’t hesitate to follow up with another blow pummeling the sorceress’ head with the pommel repeatedly. The woman in the robe collapsed. 

 

It was almost anti-climatic as the ‘caster’ fell backwards, and the huge bear woman simply stomped on her enemy, crushing the sorceress under her paws and quickly ending the fight. 

 

The brutality of it all filled me with relief.

 

Some parts of my brain protested against the disheartening aspect of it all, appealing to my past self which was so unused to the violence, but it was quickly pushed away by the overwhelming sense of satisfaction as my beloved creatures were freed from the ‘seal’ and vengeance satisfied. 

 

I didn’t have a stomach for senseless violence - at least, it was what I told myself - yet I couldn’t help myself feeling vindicated as the ruby fog released even more of my people into this cursed world. 

 

Major Enemy was killed. Four more to advance the General level. Skill “Slayer of Champions lvl. 11” gained.

 

It seemed to be over. We shifted the tide of battle even if the majority of our people were still occupied in containing the castle, and there doesn’t seem to be any further losses. 

I waved the notification away and turned my attention away from the battle, welcoming the fresh addition to our growing horde, and somehow I felt right at home among my anthropomorphic foxes, bears, rats and wolves.

 

Five days ago, it had been different, but I pushed away my own doubts and questioned my sanity. 

 

The sound of the battle was fading as well, as my monsters dealt with the village, and I blinked out another notification as I greeted a freshly formed ‘Ravager’. 

 

My bodacious bear ladies may be able to crush the humans with ease, and even their nominally smaller variants were still taller and larger than myself, but they were all precious and beautiful to me. 

 

Skill “Slayer of Champions lvl. 12” gained.

 

“Don’t kill those who flee or surrender,” I said, almost unconcerned, though suddenly I noticed that my current retinue grew more alert, as though they caught a scent, or heard something.

 

I looked around. There were shouts coming from the village, even a few blasts of fire flashing among the houses, but what caught their attention wasn’t it. 

 

There was something in the other direction, up the hill, on the muddy path bending behind the trees. 

 

Then, a woman, dressed in a very familiar white and red outfit with colourful outlines.

 

She ran downhill, struggling with her footing on the sloped muddy path, but suddenly stopped upon noticing us, freezing in shock and stopped, nearly falling backwards. 

 

A young, black-haired female stared at us in shock and didn’t take a single step forward. 

 

In fact, she took a step back, but my attention, my rage, was directed at the fact she was, by those accursed robes, yet another one of those ‘casters’.

 

I wasn’t sure where they were coming from, but they would not seal more of my girls!

 

There was no regret when I gave my order. 

 

“Kill her!”