"Where did Hikari go? Meow?"
Camilia hid herself in the vegetation as a cultist convoy lumbered past her.
She had found herself following Hikari deeper into cultist territory. The vegetation was getting thicker. In the distance, she could see the thick vines of the swamp.
"Hmrp. That stupid Hikari. Meow, Running off like that."
Now that Hikari had put her boots on and continued her scouting, she had lost the scent.
"Meow.. one cartful of hooded men with pointy sticks. One cartful of powder. Meow.. this is boring… I should just head back to camp… it's getting dark… meow… "
She waited in the bushes, maintaining a low pouncing stance and keeping completely still.
It was past her dinner time, but the horse meat she got from Hikari earlier kept up her strength.
Soon it was dark. She got up and galloped in the direction of the camp.
The sound of her paws brushing against the grass below.
"Torches, meow. " She slowed down her pace as she approached what appeared to be a cultist lookout post. Prowling low in the vegetation, waiting for the wind to blow, rattling the grass to cover the sound of her approach.
"Sniff* Sniff*, hooded man. meow. no nasty nodded man smell, only normal hooded man…. Meow.. this'll be an easy kill."
She waited in the grass for two of the sentries to go to sleep in their tent.
Then she approached. The sentry tower had two upper levels.
The one at the top was staring only in the direction where the territorial army was.
Camilia avoided the middle sentry's gaze, climbed up to the top and choked the man to death.
The second sentry was completely unaware.
Snap! She got him with her claws.
Snap! Snap! She finished off the remaining two in the tent.
Pulling her hand out, she licked her claws.
"Urk, disgusting. Rurrr… what have they been eating?"
She sat in the tent, licking her paws clean.
"Meow.. at least I have something to report."
Bang! A musket shot from nowhere, piercing from the tent.
Camilia ducked just in time, the bullet grazing her back.
She felt a burning sensation on her back.
"Meow! I've been marked!"
She began galloping around in a random trajectory. Musket shots and aetherfire bolts missing her.
"I see you!" She swings her claw in the direction of the muzzle flares, a series of razer sharp wind rippled through the grass.
There was silence. Camilia took the brief respite from her attack and ripped out the fur where the aether fire struck her.
The next volley of musket shots completely whiffed. The assassins had lost track of their target.
Cautiously, they waded through the grass in a triangle formation, muskets loaded in one hand, aether fireball hovering above their other.
"Meow!" A claw came from below, piercing through the assassin's groin.
Bang! Bang! The other two fired, their shots hitting their former comrade. Camilia had disappeared into the darkness.
The remaining two assassins drew their swords and leapt back to the sentry post, where the torches lit a small area, and the clearing prevented an attack from below.
The wind around them stirred. Then they were hit with a barrage of razor sharp winds, ripping apart the wooden sentry tower. Their phasing magic allows them to dodge the initial blow.
They jumped in opposite directions, avoiding both getting caught in the storm.
"Meow!" Camilia appeared out of the dark and sank all her claws into the cultist.
The last cultist fires his musket in vain.
The winds died down. It was silent.
The last remaining cultist threw a smoke bomb and ran for it. A wind slash from the hack, the cultist blocked part of it with his sword, the slash ripping into his cloak.
More slashes came from different directions, one at a time. He held his ground.
The moment he phase, he's dead.
But he didn't and eventually bled to death after several more slashes.
Camilia bent down, grabbed the mana crystal and stuck it in her mane.
"This will definitely sell for horsey meat. Meow."
After retrieving all three crystals, she galloped away until she's quite some distance from the sentry post.
The vegetation has gotten more sparse as she got away from the cultist territory, offering her little shelter. Only the darkness covers her.
"Meow.. I'm tired. Too dangerous to sleep here. But I can rest here for a while."
The beast kin curled up in the grass. It was getting chilly at this time of the year.
Very windy too.
Blood. Flesh. Gunpowder. Death. That's all she could smell in the winds.
Her stomach growled. As a daughter of a house, she wasn't used to going hungry like this.
"So this is the front lines… meow… "
She scratched the part of her body that was hit by aether fire.
A fresh layer of fur had already regenerated.
Her ears straightened, taking in the sounds of the great wild.
It was quiet. Even the cultists require sleep.
Growl…. Her ears twitched. What is that sound? A guard dog?
Growl… It got a little louder. Thump! Thump! It was quite the distance away, but she could feel the vibrations in the ground.
She sprung up. "Run" Her instincts screamed.
She galloped at top speed. Despite her best efforts, the growling got stronger and stronger.
It was slowly gaining on her.
She continued galloping in the general direction of the territorial army lines.
The knight camp where she was based is the only stronghold with sufficient firepower to take on such a beast.
But it was several miles away.
She could hear the beast growling behind her. She dared not look back. But she could tell it was even more massive than Hikari.
A barrage of aether fire landed all around here, exploding in a brilliant and deadly pink flare.
Miraculously none of them hit Camilia.
Behind her, the beast kin could sense the aether fire building up on the beast's tendrils.
Panicking, Camilia abruptly steered to the right.
Thump! Thump! The sound of the beast's claws skidding on the grass. The barrage of aether fire completely whiffed, flying off in random directions.
For the first time, Camilia felt the distance between her and the beast widening.
"He! Can't handle sharp turns can ya, Meow!"
The beast picks up speed behind her. Soon, she sees the pinkish light of the aether fire lighting up the grass ahead of her.
She waited for the beast to charge up another barrage and then with another thrust of her hind legs, she made a sharp turn to the left.
It works. The beast fumbles again, growling loudly in annoyance.
It picks up its pace again, but is juked again by Camilia.
This time, it did not follow.
"Ha! Suck it! Meow!"
Camilia continued cruising towards the camp, humming as she went.
"Lalala, Meow. I can already smell the horsey meat from here."
Her little celebration was short-lived.
She heard a loud roar from behind her. Thump! Thump! The claws of the beast was stronger than before.
"Rurrr…! What now!" Camilia picked up the pace again, but this time, the beast was closing the head start fast.
"Let's see if the wind can support your speed, Moew!"
Camilia coats herself in a vortex of wind, her galloping speed went up as she rides the gale, matching the beast's speed. She changed course, following the direction of the wind, her much smaller body pulling the distance between them wider.
But the beast was still kept up. Though It was no longer bombarding her with aether fire.
"I can't keep this up much longer, meow! Where is the help?"
She turned sharply again, but the trick no longer works. The gap was gradually closing.
Camilia released the winds around her, leaving the gale. She came to a stop, turning to face the beast.
The beast leapt into the air, one paw faced, poised to smash her. Camilia darted forward, allowing the beast's momentum to carry itself past her.
The full horror of the flesh hound came into her view. Slimy furless flesh, wrapped in vines with pink flowers blooming.
As the beast stopped and began circling her, the flowers on its legs began shifting itself back onto its head. Tendrils with flowers on their tips appeared about the hound's twisted, faceless head.
"Bring it! Ya don't even have a mouth, how would you bite. Meow!"
The dozen tendrils on the beast charged up their aether fire. Camilia dashed towards the beast, starling it. It raised one of its claws, slamming it into the ground, but could not catch Camilia before she disappeared under it.
The ground around the beast lit up in brilliant aether fire.
The beast shuffled its legs, but the nimble beast kin was able to match its movements. After another barrage, the vines on its body began shifting, tendrils started appearing below its belly, sharp tips sprouting out of their ends.
"Uh oh." The tendrils thrusted towards the ground, penetrating through the soil as the beast kin hopped from side to side to avoid it.
"Meow!" Camilia darted back out from under it, dodging the tendrils. Once she was out of the tendril spears' range, she watched as the tendrils on its back re-emerge and charged up its aether fire.
"Meow!" Camilia darted around as the aether fire landed around her. "Back under! Back under!"
She dodged another swipe from the beast.
Being under the beast's belly, she readied herself for another barrage of the spearing tendrils.
"When is help coming meow!?"
The tendrils formed, thrusting themselves against Camilia.
"Rurrr… ! " The barbed tendril grazed her skin.
But she could not stop moving, once she does, she's dead.
She narrowly dodged another barrage of tendrils before making out from under the beast's.
The beast's claw came into her view. It's too late to dodge.
She was sent flying by the impact of its claw. It felt like her gut was beaten by a steel pole arm.
She landed in the grass, tumbling and rolling, briefly blacking out.
When she opened her eyes, she saw in horror the light of aether fire on its tendrils.
Her body feels heavy. She had burnt through most of her energy.
The aether fire landed all around her. No direct hit, but she had to tore off some more of her fur that caught fire.
The beast charges up another charge. "How are ya not running out of mana. Meow!"
Camilia stayed put, shifting very slightly to avoid the inaccurate barrage.
Another barrage, she watches the trajectory intently and repositions herself.
The beast roars in annoyance. More tendrils started appearing on its back.
"You got to be kidding me!"
The aether fire lighting up the area, revealing the tortured squirming flesh of the flesh hound.
Camilia crouched low, building up spring in her legs and watched as the aether fire built up.
She shivered at the cold wind blowing into her, bracing for the oncoming barrage.
Stab! A massive claymore pierced right through the beast's torso. The built up aether fire in the beast's tendrils were released in all directions. Hikari landed on the beast, mounting it by grabbing onto the handle of her claymore stuck right through the beast's chest.
The beast roared, the tendrils turned to Hikari. Drawing her shortsword and winding her sword arm around her neck, the sword flared with bright flames, she swung it in a wide sweep, releasing a crescent of fire setting all of the tendrils alight.
The beast roared as it tried in vain to shake Hikari off.
"Quiet. We're trying to sleep."
Despite being larger in size, the beast was barely able to keep its belly off the ground from the weight of Hikari's dense muscles sitting on its back.
As the beast was unable to move, more vines started growing out of its body to replace the severed ones. A stream of flames emerged from Hikari's palm, burning away the vines as they appeared.
"Sign. I'll never get a horse."
Hikari poked away at the beast's legs that were squiring as hard as they could to push her away. The flesh abomination does not bleed, but its strength weakens as its flesh was cut and scotched by Hikari's searing sword.
Eventually, without its legs, the beast collapsed onto the ground.
Hikari stood up, stepping on the handguards of her claymore to skewer the beast to the ground.
Its body was burning, but the vines were still growing.
"My shirt is going to get dirty as well."
She started poking her shearing sword into the beast's chest. Eventually, she hit something hard. Chiseling away and removing the top flesh, she yanked out its core that just about fit in the palm of her hand.
"Woah! That was awesome. meow! I wish I could fight like you." Camilia crawled up to Hikari and rubbed her fur against her boot.
Hikari placed a boot on the dead beast, pulled out her claymore and slotted it behind her.
Just as Camilia was about to rub her fur against her boot, she moved it away.
Bending both knees, she leapt off back to camp.