A tense situation

As we walked through the woods I decided to ask some questions: "What can you tell me about the raiding party?" Daiki turned to me "were the soldiers of lady Shinju who is leading us and a samurai to lord Kasuke, the raiding party is made up of 40ish soldiers from lady Shinju's land." I nodded, then asked "any spellcasters?" they shook their heads "how strong is lady Shinju?" Akane replied this time "stronger than any of us soldiers, to be more specific she's a dire wolf-kin and a skilled swordswoman." I nodded to that too and decided my other questions would be better addressed to her so I simply kept walking.

We walked for a little while longer until we could see the village through the trees, stopping I placed the kittens on the ground and told them to hide in the trees and if I lost to run away again, they wished me good luck, turning to the wolves I told them to protect the kittens with their lives which they responded with a bow and with that I headed into the village.

Entering the village I saw multiple bodies and a few soldiers who spotted us one of which ran further into the village, as they did a handful of soldiers surrounded me but with a wide berth seemingly worried to actually start a fight, scanning the soldiers I saw they were all level 5 to 8, after a minute I saw a wolf woman with a pure white coat in a somewhat ornate set of armor and an odachi over her shoulder approaching with another handful of soldiers behind her, I scanned her next and saw she was level 20, she stopped about 30 feet from me and said "who or what are you?"

Thinking for a second I decided on a name "you may call me Mitsuki, now I must ask, are you Shinju?" she narrowed her eyes "I am, why?" I responded "call off your men and leave this village without another word, if not there will be consequences." she chuckled, causing some of her men to chuckle as well before she replied "and why would I do that?" I replied calmly "because I'll kill you if you don't." This caused all the chuckling to stop, Shinju looked angry at that comment and looking at her men said "kill that rotting bastard!"

It takes a moment but several soldiers start approaching, in response I raise my hand and point at one of the soldiers in front of me before loosing a dark bullet, the soldier failed to react in time and the bullet pierces the left side of his chest where I guessed his heart to be, seems I was right as he fell over and after a few seconds of struggling died.

This scared the hell out of her troops causing them all to back off looking at their commander for instruction. Shinju was clearly pissed so seeing if I could bait her I said "your little pups won't save you, maybe we should see if you stand a chance?" My bait seemed to work. She said "fine if you want to die that bad then I'm happy to help!" before charging me sword in hand.

Raising my hand I cast a light bullet which seemed to catch her off-guard from the speed, she tried to dodge but she was too slow as the bullet struck her in the stomach, this didn't stop her she gritted her teeth and let off a pain fueled growl as she continued her charge, I tried casting another bullet but Shinju had closed the distance enough that she struck my hand with her blade causing the spell to fire off harmlessly into the dirt.

Shinju had closed within striking range but was still recovering from her swipe at my hand so thinking fast I activated dark cloak, causing a burst of dark magic to fill the air around me, Shinju was already off balance meaning that when the dark magic struck her she stumbled to my right as I shifted left, now to the side of her I grabbed her by the arm and twisting flung her 20 feet, as she tried to recover I threw a low power fire bullet at her, failing to react the bullet struck her center mass badly damaging her armor, knocking the wind out of her, and causing her to fall onto her back.

Making a choice I rushed her, she just started to get back up as I reached her, throwing my weight on her I gathered a light bolt in my right hand as my left grasped her throat, I then said "surrender now and I won't kill you." I could see the thoughts running through her head until finally she nodded, loosening my grip on her throat she took a breath before yelling "all of you drop your weapons!'' After a moment I heard the sound of metal and wood hitting the ground.

Not bothering to look at her soldiers I said "good choice, I'm going to cast a spell to make sure you play nice, resist and you're dead." she nodded and I cast mark of submission on her, after a minute the spell was done and I stood, dusting myself off Shinju shifted into a sitting position as she caught her breath, a few soldiers moved over to her one handed her a vial which she drank which mostly healed her wounds, others asked if she was alright which she confirmed before turning to me and saying "thank you for sparing me, but what was that spell you cast?"

Looking at her I said "the spell makes it so you can't willingly attack me and forces you to follow any orders I give." The soldiers went wide-eyed and turned to Shinju as she seemed shell shocked and said "how long will it last?" I replied "until I decide to free you." she was crestfallen at that, taking this moment I turned around to where I had come from and yelled "Daiki, Akane, get over here and bring the kittens!"

Shinju looked surprised at that but within a minute they ran up to me carrying the kittens who didn't look happy about it, was about to say something but before I could Shinju blurted out "what are you 2 doing listening to him!? Wait did you 2 get that spell cast on you?" Akane looked like he was going to say something but stopped when Shinju mentioned the spell, Daichi's eyes went wide and asked "did he cast the spell on you too?" she nodded, he bowed his head and apologized followed by Akane doing the same.

Deciding I wanted to move on I said "apologies later you 2 we have more important things to do right now." they stopped and I next said "good, now put the kittens down already." they did so, both kittens immediately ran up to me, probably not feeling safe, I then turned to Shinju and asked "now where are the rest of your men?" She looked at me and said "they're with the prisoners." my eyes narrowed "prisoners?" she nodded, "we were keeping the villagers together while we finished gathering them together." I nodded and seeing the kittens' fear and not wanting them to see anymore of the dead picked them up, I positioned them so they couldn't see the ground well before turning to Shinju and saying "alright then, take me to them."

Shinju lead the way with me behind her, Akane and Daiki just behind me and the rest of the soldiers following a bit behind them, we didn't walk far until coming upon a group of about 30 villagers surrounded by 20 soldier, most of the villagers were cat people with a few exception, same for the soldiers but with wolves, looking at the 2 groups I noticed some things, for the villagers it was how few adult men there were, most were woman, children, or elderly while the wolves were mostly men except a few woman, all adult as I'd expect.

As I finished scanning the groups I heard Jun yell "Mommy!" and started trying to wiggle out of my grip, Kiku started too so I put them down and they ran to the group met part way by an orange cat woman who pulled them into a hug, the soldiers around us were clearly confused so deciding to focus on that I turned to Shinju and said "explain to your soldiers what's happening."

She nodded before yelling "Men the situation has changed, the monster behind me is Mitsuki, he has decided to protect this village and has already beaten me in combat, as well he has placed some kind of **** crest on me so I can't resist his orders!" The soldiers were all pale at this point and the villagers looked hopeful so I decided to take over "Thank you Shinju, villagers you're free to return to your homes and continue your lives!" Turning to the soldiers I said "if any of you try to stop them I'll reduce you to ash, now I'm going to give you all a choice, serve me as soldiers or die for me as slaves, decide!"