It's Nothing Personal

The defense of the lair was not going well. There were too many tunnels to guard. Chloe had given out explosives to collapse several tunnels and while it had helped they had really expected to have a solid choke point to fend off the attack. They technically still did, but it wasn’t one where more than a dozen orcs would be able to join them. It was the final fallback point and they didn’t want to use it yet.

Chloe had been glad to find that, except for one room, the blasts hadn’t disrupted any of the chambers towards the ritual room. Luckily, they had a large resupply of darts for that room, and some of the orcs were restocking it now. Chloe figured this was her time to shine. A lot of the quests she had been doing for the base had a secondary reward depending on how well her efforts contributed to the defense.

She had gotten quite a few notifications that she wasn’t getting any further points from some quests as the initial attack from the other team had destroyed all the traps she had laid around their front gate. Now she was passing out the explosives and traps she had designed either to replace previous traps after they initially triggered or for when they needed to fall back.

Chloe saw Merida join her in the workshop and then head towards the back of the workshop to the area Merida had been working on something secret.

As Merida walked past, Chloe asked, “Okay, spill what are you working on right now that is so important?” Chloe didn’t stop making more explosives, passing a bandolier to an assistant orc.

“Why dae ye want tae ken?”

“Because it’s odd as fuck. We’re under attack, and you’re crafting. Which, sure, I can think of things that are helpful, like more bombs or traps, but if it was that, you wouldn’t be all hush hush about it. Moreover, I don’t understand why you’re even being secretive about it. It’s suspicious.”

Merida moved close to Chloe and whispered, “I haenae told onyone the fu’ details ‘cause Merigold wis informt by her spirits that we micht hae a traitor on oor team.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow hearing that. “You can’t be serious. Who?”

“Ellen wis likely the ane tae be gien the chance tae turn traitor based on whit I’ve learnt sae far, but I think she’s either playin’ the lang game or turnt doon the offer.”

“Shit! If Ellen betrays us, we’re done for, you realize that, right? If this is a crafting project, then I can speed things up; let me help if it’s so important.”

Merida shook her head, “Nae. Ye cannae help me wi’ this onyway. It’s part o’ ma class abilities.”

Chloe sighed, “Fine. How are things progressing?”

“Poorly. No’ tae lang ago Sam used her breith weapon tae cool doon several o’ the tunnels and clear oot a lot o’ orcs. We’re losin’ folk fast…” Merida tilted her head to the side as if listening to someone behind her. “And noo Sam has knockit doon oor front door. I’m fairly certain we’re gaein’ tae need tae use oor evacuation tae the ritual chamber plan far sooner than anticipated.”

Chloe nodded. “You’ll know where to find me.”

Merida nodded and walked off to her section of the workshop.

---

Aubrey was told she was needed at the front gate pronto. When she arrived, she found a chaotic mess. The area behind the gate was a long, narrow hall that was meant to allow them to mow down anyone who managed to make it past the gate. It had been littered with traps, but many had been damaged in the earth-shaking attack on the base. The hallway ended in a large rectangular room for the troops to organize in.

Near her was Kitty, rapidly firing arrows down the hall towards Sam, Sadie, Isa, and Brooke, not to mention their animal companions. What surprised her was how ineffectual the attacks seemed to be. Sam either raised her shield, which practically seemed to attract Kitty’s arrows to it, or used her sword and supernatural reflexes to swat them out of midair.

Sam was moving forward slowly as Sadie detected numerous traps that were still active and was disabling them with Isa’s assistance. If Kitty did manage to land a blow, Brooke simply fixed the problem swiftly with a few quick strikes on the wounded individual.

Aubrey asked, “How can I help?”

“Your milk blades should do something. Sam shouldn’t be able to negate them completely, and they might give me a few openings.” Kitty replied. Then she tossed Aubrey a vial. “Dump that in your blade’s milk supply. Chloe gave it to me to coat some of my arrows. I figure it should work with your milk too.”

Aubrey did as instructed. Then she heard Sam shout and saw her grin. “About time. I was waiting for you to send more than Kitty after us.”

Aubrey felt her hair stand on end and tackled Kitty to the ground as Sam unleashed her lightning breath down the hallway, feeling it graze her back. The orcs were immediately incapacitated, and nearly every trap remaining had been set off at once. Aubrey realized what was about to happen and stood the second she felt the lightning breath pass, while tossing Kitty out of the room down the hallway she had come from.

“NONE SHALL PASS!” Aubrey shouted. A barrier sprung up, enveloping the exit to the room she had tossed Kitty through, just in time as she raised her sword to deflect Sam’s attack in the nick of time.

Sam grinned as she was sent flying backwards from Aubrey’s deflection. “Hey, Aubrey, I told you, I could make you a competent fighter. I see you really learned your lessons well.”

Aubrey had an annoyed smile. “I have an excellent teacher.”

“True, and magic. You don’t stand a chance, though.” Sam gestured behind her. “Not when I have backup. You barely held me off with your whole team behind you before; now it’s just you and Kitty. Assuming she can even manage to stay and fight.” Sam saw Kitty trembling slightly and frowned, really sorry she had terrified her friend so much. “Do you really think you stand a chance against me?”

“I don’t need to win. I just need to buy time.” Aubrey retorted.

Just then Kitty vanished behind her.

Isa stepped up beside Sam. “We should get this over with then.”

Sam nodded and charged Aubrey. They exchanged blow after blow, with Isa darting in and out whenever she saw an opening in Aubrey’s defenses. Brooke primarily hung back to protect Sadie and provide healing as it was needed. Bertha and Sif had shrunk down to a more manageable size for indoors and mostly just positioned to limit Aubrey’s area of movement. Sam was surprised at just how quickly Aubrey had improved since the last time they had fought. “You’ve gotten better since last time.”

“As I said, I have an excellent teacher.” Aubrey grinned.

Sam heard the grinding of stone above her as a hole in the ceiling appeared. A Slevia with green skin and tusks, carrying a greataxe over her shoulder, along with nine other statuesque orc women, dropped into the room.

Aubrey mocked, “And I think she’s here to teach you a lesson in manners.”

Sam shouted, “Brooke, pull back!” Sam did something she really had been hoping to avoid doing, but she wasn’t going to be squeamish about it if it was needed for victory. She unleashed her dragon aura, focusing it on Aubrey and all the orcs besides Slevia. She knew it wouldn’t be enough to stop them completely, but she needed to slow them down long enough for their team to retreat to the hallway. Sam was surrounded, and Isa was out of position. Sam charged Slevia to give Isa a chance to escape.

Sam’s efforts, combined with Sif and Bertha attacking the newcomers with extreme hostility, bought Isa the time to regroup with Brooke and Sadie in the hallway. Sif and Bertha were able to deal significant blows to several orcs, as Isa danced through the crowd, landing her own blows. Unfortunately, Sif and Bertha couldn’t manage to stay up in the chaos.

Sam could tell after a brief exchange of blows that this version of Slevia was stronger than the one she fought in the arena, maybe a bigger threat than Little Miss-ter in the arena even, but only because Little Miss-ter had been constrained by the rules of the arena, but Sam didn’t think that was the case. Sam couldn't help but grin even as she was still surrounded. Oh, this is going to be great. A real chance to let loose.

Isa, Brooke, and Sadie were being penned into the hallway by five of the orcs while Aubrey, Slevia, and the other four orcs went after Sam.

Sam noticed something at that moment that would completely alter the course of the fight. At first, the gold of the crown had blended in with Aubrey’s glowing hair, but she could see it clearly now, and she had one thought on her mind now. Shiny! I wants it.

Sam was overcome by her desire for treasure and abandoned any sort of active defense and simply ravaged anything that came between her and the newest addition to her hoard. Sam caused her sword to crackle with electricity as she went wild. The four orcs helping Slevia and Aubrey did not last long and disconnected from the link instead of weighing the two remaining fighters down.

The three continued to trade blows, and it looked like Sam was winning. Isa and Brooke managed to down several of the orcs attacking them, partially because they were taking damage from Sam’s attacks being redirected towards them. When they were down to two in the hallway, Isa danced around them and went to help Sam, leaving Brooke to protect Sadie in the hallway.

The fight continued for another minute, with Isa and Sam slowly wearing down Aubrey and Slevia. Sam was too preoccupied with her dragon lust to actually notice she was doing more damage to her opponents as time went on, as less and less was being shunted off towards the orcs fighting Brooke. Aubrey tried to sing her healing hymn, but every time she started it, Isa would press her hard and make her stop mid-chant, knowing that if she completed it, they would get a considerable amount of healing.

As the two defenders began to flag, further help arrived as Kitty hadn’t run away in fear, but instead went to get help.

---

Kitty sprinted down the hallway away from Aubrey as fast as she could. I’m getting help. I’m getting help. I’m not fleeing in terror. Kitty kept telling herself that as she ran towards where she had left Mira. Upon reaching the amateur arsonist, who was currently lobbing flasks of various flammable substances down a tunnel towards oncoming troops and then blasting them with her firebolts midair, Kitty came to a halt. Mira turned to Kitty, who said, “Aubrey is fighting Samantha alone. Slevia and some orcs should join her shortly, but Samantha has Sadie, Isa, and Brooke with her. She needs backup, and I can’t seem to do anything with Sam protecting the others.”

Mira nodded. “Just relayed the message. I’m not supposed to leave here unless I need to fall back for communication purposes. You’ll need to go back. I’ll see if I can get Hilde or Ellen to come help you guys.”

Kitty nodded, “Are you sure? If one of them goes to help, won’t their other group be essentially unopposed? Shouldn’t I go to their position instead?”

Mira held up a finger as she communicated with Merigold and Merida. “Merida agrees. Go here.” Mira pointed to a place on their base map. “That’s where Hilde and Ellen are supposed to be.”

Kitty rushed to the location and found Hilde and a lot of orcs fending off the other team. Kitty immediately opened fire on Talia, and a group of four orcs grouped close to her. They had learned it was apparently harder to affect more people with a time bubble, and shaping a bubble into non-simple shapes was very difficult. So the tight grouping made her an undesirable target. Hilde had been going spectral hoof to spectral claw with Allie, but when she noticed the ranged support from Kitty, she zipped back, letting the orcs give her a moment to check with Kitty.

Hilde asked, “What are you doing here, and where is Ellen?” As if summoned out of thin air, Ellen appeared as Hilde the next moment. “Where the hell have you been?”

Ellen scowled, “I’ll have you know I just blew up most of the paths up the mountain. That’s what I was doing. If we can push them back here, we’ll have breathing room. Otherwise we’d be fighting until tomorrow at noon without rest. Even as is, we might have to sleep in shifts.”

Hilde said, “Sorry, just fighting those four with only the NPCs for help has been grueling. Kitty, why are you here?”

Kitty tackled Hilde to the ground as Luara attempted to snipe Hilde while she was distracted, but refocused on the orcs, seeing her attempt fail, and the three of them retreated a few more meters.

Kitty said, “Aubrey needs help. Sam, Brooke, Isa, and Sadie are at the main gate. They don’t have the troop reinforcements this group does, but I could barely even slow them.”

Hilde frowned. She’s shaking… Hilde let out a sigh. Probably afraid of Sam too, she got hit hard by the dragon fear. “Okay, you two stay here. I’ll go down one of the other tunnels and take them from behind. Maybe we can win this yet.”

Hilde didn’t wait for them to reply and zipped off towards another tunnel.

Ellen asked Kitty, “Are you okay? Your hand was trembling until Hilde told you to stay here.”

“I’m fine. We should see if we can get Talia. Think you can turn into her and time bubble her so I can snipe her?”

“Not likely.” Ellen shifted to Mary’s form, and then shifted to being a dragon. She saw Kitty flinch at suddenly being so close to a dragon. Ellen reached out and placed a claw gently on Kitty’s shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

Kitty asked, “For what?” Just as Ellen dug her claw into Kitty’s shoulder and coiled around her tightly, she barreled toward the enemy team, blasting a breath weapon at the orcs between them. She landed in front of them, pinning Kitty beneath her front claws. Kitty thrashed but couldn’t break free even with her enhanced strength. “WHAT THE HELL! WHAT IS THIS?”

Ellen said, “As I said, I’m sorry; it isn’t personal.” Ellen looked at Laura. “Finish her. I can only get up to half her level in points.” Allie moved to do the job, and Ellen snarled at her, “Not you. I’d take Kitty out myself otherwise. Your call, Laura.”

Laura looked down at Kitty sympathetically. “Sorry.”

Kitty looked up at Laura, confused. “What’s happening here?”

Laura smiled. “Again, sorry; we’ll explain later.” Laura then charged her lust bolt as much as she could and shot it into Kitty’s face, incapacitating her with a double tap as the spell twinned itself at point-blank range.

+9 CP Laura Incapacitated Contestant
+8 CP Ellen Incapacitation Assist (Betrayal capped)

Talia said, “I’m glad to see you’re taking our offer.”

Ellen transformed back into Hilde’s form. “Yes. By the way, the reason the orcs are acting so strange is because of Aubrey’s crown. It lets them share HP. They are only going down now because they would rather do that than let you dwindle their allies. Now I should get going. It won’t take them long to realize something has gone wrong here. I’m going to try and take out Mark; I’m hoping if they look at this tunnel they’ll think Mary just used her breath weapon, covering it in her slime.”

Talia asked, “Wait, can you give us a map of the place?”

Ellen looked at Talia. “I could, but let me make this abundantly clear, Talia. I took your offer because I don’t want horrid transformation options again. I’m prioritizing my point gain over you winning. Honestly, if you can’t win on your own after I take out Kitty and Mark for you, that’s fine with me; better even. If I gave you a map, they’d figure out really quick I turned traitor. So no. As for having Laura take the incap on Kitty here, I have a lot of reasons for that, but nothing against you, Allie.” Ellen didn’t wait for a response and simply sprinted back off down the tunnels.

Mary said, “She seemed kind of tense.”

Laura sighed, “Yeah, she’s probably conflicted over accepting. Also, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that even with Lucia separated into a different personality that the memories of that life have still made her more competitive. Plus Cassandra insisted that they weren’t separate people, just like you and Mark aren’t separate, Mary, even if you do have some differences.”

Allie asked, “Is that why you didn’t want her to accept the offer?”

Laura shook her head and gestured towards the unconscious Kitty. “Did you see her confusion? That’s why I didn’t want this, but this isn’t a game. There are real consequences to this, so I wasn’t going to decide for our team, or for Ellen, what was going to happen.” Laura put a hand on Mary’s shoulder. “I think I get your position about challenges a bit better now.”

Mary asked, “What should we do with Kitty?”

Talia gestured for some of the troops behind her to come forward and take Kitty back to the encampment and place her under guard. Preferably, to have her taken to the capital as soon as safely possible.

Talia pointed down the tunnel, “Laura, would you carry me? I’d rather not step in the slime.”

Allie moved to Mary, “Same with you, love.”

Mary snorted out a laugh as she picked Allie up, and Laura did the same with Talia, and then they flew down the hall over the slime. The Empire forces, however, decided it would be better to focus most of their troops in other tunnels instead of dealing with the acidic slime.

---

Hilde came in behind Sadie and Brooke. She mostly ignored Sadie, not seeing her as a threat, and just rapidly attacked Brooke from behind. She was caught off guard, and by the time she realized a new threat had appeared, the damage was done, and between the orcs and Hilde, Brooke went down quickly.

+9 CP Hilde Incapacitated Contestant
+5 CP Aubrey Incapacitation Assist

Unfortunately, Hilde arrived a bit late as she saw both orcs collapse, then Slevia, then Aubrey in rapid succession at the hands of Sam and Isa.

+9 CP Samantha Incapacitated Contestant
+4 CP Isa Incapacitation Assist
+4 CP Sadie Incapacitation Assist

Hilde saw her sister fall and realized she was in deep shit with her and Aubrey down. Hilde feigned an attack on Sadie, causing Sam, who had just regained control of herself with Aubrey defeated, and Isa to rush to her aid. Hilde used the opportunity to rush over to Aubrey’s and Slevia’s downed forms and opened her storage space under each of them and ran off towards the med bay, hoping she’d be fast enough for Mark to do his work.

Sam saw Brooke unconscious and nearly went into another frenzy until Sadie grabbed her. “SAMANTHA! Get a hold of yourself! I care about Brooke too, but she’s fine, if incapacitated.”

“She took the crown.” Sam replied, “And hurt her.”

Isa put a calming hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Sam, calm down. Those are your dragon instincts going wild.”

Sadie pulled out her phone to check the notifications she had set to vibrate regarding score updates for her team.

She saw that Laura had also jumped up quite a few points. Then she reached out with the mice to Laura and her group to confirm something. “Good news, Kitty is down and captured. ”

Sam took a few deep breaths. I can still get the crown in a bit. Wait for me, my precious. “We should fall back at least until we can pass Brooke off to the Empire forces to guard. Then we can press our advantage. I could also use some healing; that was a slugfest.”

Sadie nodded as Sam lifted Brooke into her arms and they went to get some healing.

---

Hilde rushed to the infirmary and unloaded Aubrey and Slevia. “Master! Quick, you need to remove their incapacitation; they just went down.”

Mark rushed over to Aubrey and groaned inwardly when he got the prompt for how to remove Aubrey’s incapacitation. He leaned over her body, and his eyes got watery as he stared down at her unconscious form. “You were my new dream.” A single tear fell and landed on Aubrey’s cheek, and her hair began to glow, restoring her to consciousness.

Aubrey felt sore and stretched. “Did I hear that right?” Aubrey smirked. “You’re dreaming about me now?”

Hilde said, “Save it for now, do Slevia.”

Mark moved to Slevia, then shook his head. “I can’t. I can heal NPCs, but I can’t use the incapacitation removal on them, apparently. She’s down.”

Ellen came rushing into the room.

Hilde immediately asked, “What are you doing here?”

Merigold stepped closer to listen in on the conversation.

Ellen said, “Mary used her breath weapon and took out most of the orcs and Kitty.” Ellen had made sure to scrape up against some of the slime so she would have some on her when she came here. “I only survived because I was also a dragon and the scales protected me. What happened to Aubrey?”

Aubrey said, “I went down.”

Hilde continued, “I managed to take out Brooke and rescue Aubrey in time and rushed here. If you’re here, Ellen, that means no one is opposing Laura, Allie, Talia, and Mistress’s advance.”

Ellen shook her head, “Not quite; that tunnel is completely covered in slime. I suppose they could fly over it, but they won’t have the troops with them if they do, and there were more orcs gathered in the next two tunnels over. So they shouldn’t be unopposed, but yes, none of our team is there. I don’t know if we can do more than slow them.”

Hilde nodded in agreement. “That was always the goal. Take out as many as we can while biding time.”

Aubrey said, “I just got word from the orcs guarding the main gate. It looks like Sam is retreating with Sadie and Isa.”

Ellen thought about that. “Should we try to take out Sadie while Sam’s retreating? Maybe Sam and Isa too if we can.”

Hilde considered it. “I don’t think we’d get Sam even if she’s been battered around.”

Ellen asked, “Do you think you can do it alone? If you can, I can go with Aubrey and Mark to try and stop the others.”

Ellen shifted into Aubrey and started humming the healing hymn to cause the orcs here to regenerate at a much faster pace.

Hilde thought about it. “Maybe, I think as soon as Aubrey is good to go, you two and Master should head towards the other team and slow them as much as you can. If I think I can’t get Sadie, Isa, or Sam, after a brief skirmish I’ll come help you three.” Hilde rushed off, not waiting for a response.

Aubrey stood. “I’m good to go.” Aubrey sent out a message to several elite orcs to join her, but kept all the orcs played by Freya, Slevia, Maja, and Petra at their respective posts.

Merigold finally spoke up. “Wait a second. Chloe'll be here in a minute, and she's gaun tae join ye.”

Aubrey and Ellen nodded. When Chloe entered the room, Aubrey moved to head out, but Chloe stopped her and gave her a grave look. Then she gave Aubrey a bandolier of explosives and handed one to Mark and Ellen. Mark readily put it around his chest, glad to have some offensive options finally. Aubrey put it in her pack, worried that they might get hit mid-combat and detonate.

Ellen hesitantly took them and moved to put them in her pack, at least until she heard the sound of a detonator being armed. Everyone looked at Chloe in confusion, except for Merigold.

Mark asked, “Chloe, what the hell are you doing?” He stayed very still as he saw Chloe had her finger already pressed on the button, to act as a deadman’s trigger.

Chloe calmly said, “Mark, step away from Ellen. Do so quickly. Ellen, if you try to drop those bombs, I’ll release the trigger.” Mark started backing away from Ellen.

Aubrey asked, “Chloe, what are you doing?”

“Dealing with a threat. Ellen, we're going to make a deal right now. In exchange for not blowing you up immediately, you are going to tell me the truth for the next five minutes.”

Ellen frowned, “And why should I agree to that?”

“Because I absolutely will release this trigger otherwise.”

Ellen grimaced, “Fine, I agree to those terms.”

Chloe said, “Were you offered a chance to betray our team?”

“Yes, Cassandra did make such an offer.” Ellen admitted without hesitation, while Lucia was scrambling to come up with a way out of this.

“Did you accept that offer?”

Lucia told Symbietta, “I need you to force her to say no. Or say it for her, but make it sound like she's the one speaking.”

Ellen could feel Symbietta’s hesitation, but was glad to feel Symbietta wrest control of parts of her body without taking full control. “No, I didn’t.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes. “So you didn’t have anything to do with Kitty being incapacitated.”

Ellen actually started this response. “I was there when it happened.” Then Ellen let Symbietta take over again. “But I didn’t attack her.”

Chloe thought about the responses, trying to see if there was any wiggle room or a way Ellen could have deceived her. She couldn’t find any and disarmed the detonator. As soon as she did, Ellen walked over to Chloe, feigning outrage, and shoved the bandolier back into Chloe’s hands. “Not really interested in carrying these around anymore.” Then she shifted into Hilde and zipped out of the room towards where they were headed.

Mark asked Chloe, “Why did you suspect Ellen? And how did you know she had an offer to betray the team?”

Merigold spoke up, “Merida tauld her, and I tauld Merida. When Ellen came back frae a situation alone where it had bin juist her and Kitty, we thocht she micht hae simply bin bidin' her time. Sae Merida asked Chloe tae come and test her.”

Aubrey said, “Well, now she’s mad at us for not trusting her. We should get going. I can tell the orcs are losing their collective HP at significant rates even with all the healers here keeping the orcs here acting as rechargeable batteries. We’re at a net loss.”

The group started jogging towards the last known location of Laura’s group.

---

Hilde saw Sam, Isa, and Sadie talking with some Empire forces. Hilde thought Sam did not look pleased with the response they were getting. Sam scowled as she picked up Brooke and Kitty, and started flying back towards the encampment at the base of the mountain. Sadie and Isa waited with those in command of this particular forward post.

Hilde saw that Freya was present in knight apparel, but otherwise all the other soldiers nearby were ASTRIDs.

I guess this is the best chance I’ll have to take out one or both of them. Hilde waited until Sam was a decent way down the mountain. Believing Sam was far enough away, Hilde rushed in. She had hoped to catch them by surprise, but even before she crossed the outer perimeter of their small camp, Freya and Isa were moving towards her with blades drawn. Hilde saw several mice scurrying away from her. Those blasted mice… Hilde didn’t stop her advance and slid between Freya’s legs while throwing a punch up at her as she did so.

Freya stumbled forward, stunned by the punch to her groin. Isa managed to land two blows on Hilde as she passed by. She rocketed up off the ground towards Sadie.

Those blasted mice came at Hilde in a wave. Hilde was shocked to see several hundred mice leaping towards her as a single swarm. She planted her feet and threw several spectral punches, scattering the wave coming right for her.

Sadie had already started flying back rapidly from the mountain, then Hilde saw the real problem in the distance. Sam was coming back, so she abandoned her attempt and sprinted back the way she came.

Sam landed and asked, “Are you all alright?”

Sadie nodded, “Yeah, I’m glad that you had those mice with you. She was aiming for me. Not Isa.”

Isa nodded in agreement. “I don’t think I could have protected her either. I can’t really block, I dodge.”

Sam cracked her neck, “While we aren’t chasing her we’re going to resume pressing them as soon as we’re healed up. Freya, can you come with us and act as Sadie’s guard?”

Freya nodded, “I can try but realize I’m not on the level of you heroes.”

Sam nodded understanding, “I still plan to be in front, I just need someone who can actually stand their ground and defend if someone slips by me.”

Sadie had started gathering up her fallen mice, as the swarm scattered as it went into the various mountain tunnels.

Isa watched the swarm go and asked, “Sadie… How many mice do you have under your control exactly?”

Sadie asked a question back, “Why?”

“It just seems like you have a lot.”

“I mean it is a lot. I’m really glad I got this bag of endless cheese as otherwise I wouldn’t be able to pay for them all.” Sadie was doing some quick mental math. “Assuming I got my numbers right, I should be up to thirty-three-hundred-sixty-seven of them.”

Isa’s eyes shot open wide in disbelief, “How? Why?”

“Cheddar has just been recruiting all of the local mice to the cause. She actually tried to expand it to all rodents, but I’m limited in my number of companions, but the mice count as one swarm as long as it’s only made up of mice.”

Isa asked, “Sadie… you realize Cassandra is likely to have you keep all of them, right?”

“Uh… no, I didn’t.”

Sam chuckled. “Do you still know all of their names? You said you did, back in Harper’s Haven. That was just five hundred or so of them at the time, though.”

Sadie rubbed the back of her neck, slightly embarrassed. “I know most of them. Some of them joined in groups, and I haven’t had the time to personally chat with all of them yet.”

Sam said, “If you know their names, expect Cassandra to have them hang around.”

Sadie looked slightly worried. “But I won’t be able to talk to them after the challenge.”

Sam waved off her concern. “Sadie, I can understand them, and I’m pretty sure that’s because I’m a dragon. Talia can understand them because of bullshit anime rules. Laura can understand them because Talia can. You’re already a fairy; it would surprise me if you didn't get something to let you talk with animals or if it was secretly baked into your transformation. Enough of this, though. We’ve got our friend’s asses to kick.”

Sadie smiled uncertainly as she was clearly worried at the prospect of having a few thousand pets as they reentered the mountain tunnels.