217. The Battle of Five-ish Armies, Part 5 [Suka]

Team Canine Crushers (Suka)

The Wolf Lord is a terror through and through. A dust explosion in his throat only gives him a cough. Despite my specialization in speed, he's faster than I am with his Leadership-empowered Wolf Rush. Our Strength doesn't bear comparing. All I have going for me is my flames, which he can practically ignore thanks to his Toughness.

Well, I do have something else on my side. Namely, the friendships and loves that Alex kindled in my life.

It's my bond with Gabby through Alex that grants me the Third Tier flames I need to even qualify for this fight. Then there's my companion, the prey bunny I'm taking for Mate. Without her, I'd already be finished.

Together, we can stall him.

Huge jaws snap at my flame construct as we fly away on a continuous stream of 'double jump' explosions emitted from my paws. Moka throws a cloud of dust in his eyes that I detonate in short order. That buys us a second.

The Wolf Lord's other senses are so sharp we can't hope to hide even while fully masked in dust clouds. He can hear my flames and smell our fear. No, I can't let myself think of defeat. Alex is counting on us!

Keep dodging those paw swipes by a hair! It's hard, but I'm getting better at predicting his attack vectors. If he opens his mouth to bite, shove another explosion down his throat!

He's chasing us around instead of crushing our allies. I don't think he's really taking us seriously, despite everything. Still, I'll use that against you, ya old prideful bastard!

Gabby and Bonny are in rough shape, too.

The Alpha Bitch is faster than them, only balanced by the fact that she has to jump to reach the flyers now that the Witch has properly adjusted their height. Mom's leaps sure are incredible. Not enough to hop over the Elder Tree, granted, but easily able to clear any other tree in the forest.

I'm not sure if it's Witch’s Intuition, but predicting the arc of each jump allows Gabby to stay a step ahead and launch spells in retaliation. She needs time to Enhance and combine spells into something that can damage the Bitch. Bonny, meanwhile, is focused on peppering Mom with annoying fire and electric bolts.

Curiously, the broken pieces of broomstick that Bonny cast her weird spell on are moving. In the periphery of my vision, I see them each grow to full size and... sprout arms and legs?

I must be delusional. Focus, Suka, focus!

It takes a lot of concentration to avoid the Wolf Lord's claws even with assistance from Moka's dust clouds, but I get glimpses of the rest of the battlefield.

Steelheart is balls-deep in the Omega. Their constant, loud plap-plap-plap can be heard over the growls, snarls, and flames.

Similarly, Cottontail is holding off the canine horde with nothing but her luscious butt, perky tits, and soft lips. Her outfit is in tatters, and she’s covered in cum, but as long as the Pack is distracted, they can’t interfere with the other battles.

The Beta Male appears to be winning against Olindia at a steep cost. He has the Large Jellyfish Slime’s bell in his jaws, and he’s shaking her like a chew toy, but she has her mess of stinging tendrils climbing all over his face, throat, and torso. The great wolf whines in agony between snarls. That Strawberry Moon healing aura is not selective; the pain she’s inflicting is truly endless. Neither can kill the other since she’s doing an admirable job of hiding her Core.

Flou and the Night Howler are locked in a fierce duel where one wrong move spells the end. The Red Slime is bleeding her enemy with each nick and scratch while striving to protect her vulnerable Cores. Vines and thorns don’t work on her; her crystal-blood flesh momentarily liquefies on contact to let them pass through harmlessly. Hack, slash, dodge, and bite, the momentum is slowly shifting to Flou’s favor as she uses one trick after another to keep up the pressure.

Each battle seems to teeter at the tip of a claw, ready to fall one way or the other with the slightest nudge...

"There you are!!!"

Screams of pain and fear instead of pleasure erupt from the orgy around Cottontail as a familiar figure makes their presence known. Black chitinous exoskeleton, triple horns reminiscent of a tiara, a voluptuous body, swaying gait, and a terrifying combination of chipper demeanor with a blood-soaked exterior. Tygge is here. Shit.

The Darkling Horror wades through the crowd without regard for life, limb, or what's going on around her. She has eyes for Cottontail only and makes a path straight through anything in her way. Rocks, plants, bones, and flesh are sheared through with equal ambivalence whenever and wherever they touch her carapace. On contact, the joints of her ‘armor’ open into ravening maws that bite with seemingly impossible strength and a bottomless stomach. She simply walks through multiple people, leaving nothing but splattered gore and a smattering of severed arms, legs, heads, and tails.

Needless to say, this kills the mood.

Predators-turned-prey scatter in panic as their packmates are devoured without fanfare. They shift back into beast form both defensively and to go on the attack. Several brave wolves, not knowing what they're dealing with, try to take a bite out of Tygge. They lose their faces for their trouble.

It’s turning into a bloodbath, quick.

The chaos this causes, on top of releasing the Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta wolves from the orgy, is the last thing we needed—not to mention Tygge's weird obsession with Cottontail. Instead of escalating things and attracting the Third Tier Pack members' attention, Tygge zooms off after the retreating Showbunny. Or, rather, I should say Cottontail is taking charge, leading the threat away from those the Horror would slaughter.

"F-fireworks?!?"

I don't know what that is, but she must have used her Luck Magic to pull them out of her hat, because I can't think of anything else that could advertise her presence better with all the panicking wolves rushing about. Cottontail carries a box in her arms full of elaborately decorated chaotic cartridges, each of them with a lit fuse attached, that launches a screaming, smoking, flashing projectile every few seconds. Tygge finds Cottontail with ease this way and obsessively tracks down every spent cartridge to devour for no apparent reason, further wasting time. The expression on the Horror's face, when I glimpse it, is pure joy and manic energy.

Thusly, the selfless Showbunny making a spectacle of herself drags Tygge into an exclusive confrontation far away from the rest of the battle.

That leaves the majority of two packs’ worth of Dire Wolves left to trouble us. Fortunately, a portion of them get caught up in the Omega's pheromone cloud next and join in a much smaller orgy with the pink-furred wolf and Steelheart in the center. Another dozen running for their lives from Tygge get too close to Delilah and Gale's cloud of hedonistic bliss and are drawn into that orgy instead.

The remainder regroups, rallies, and charges my allies. Scores upon scores of Dire Wolves bound forward with Olindia, Flou, Gabby, and Bonny in their sights, jaws slavering for combat. It’s way more than we can deal with on our own…

But that's when our support flock swoops in!

Alex purposefully set aside her Avian forces to observe both battles and assist as they see fit. It's a small comfort that Team Ogres Layers (Alex and her dumb names) doesn't need them as much as we do. They fall upon the enemy, talons out. This serves to stall the wolves while dealing significant damage as gaping wounds are carved into dozens of hides.

The cost is steep, however. Our Harpy allies are fragile creatures who depend on their flight and ambush tactics to succeed. In a protracted battle where they stick around, they’re practically inviting the enemy to reap a harvest of souls.

A score of poor birdbrains are dragged down to earth by bloodthirsty jaws and savaged. Those with damaged wings can’t escape the carnage. Dozens of Harpies ascend for another flyby while others remain just out of reach to menace the canines below with their talons. A few misjudge the jump height of an enraged Dire Wolf.

I’ve seen conflicts like this play out many times throughout my life on a smaller scale, though I’ve always rooted for the wolves before. It’s a bit surreal for me to cheer on the Harpies gouging their talons into my brothers and sisters, but I know this is the Wolf Lord’s fault. If he’d just agreed to the duel as I’d asked, we could’ve avoided this bloodshed.

However, the Harpies’ sacrifice is not in vain, because this plays into our last ace-in-the-hole. Scattered amongst the Avians are over twenty of Flou’s First Tier Cores acting as jewelry, bras, or panties. As blood is spilled by the bucketful, these Cores slurp it up until their capacity is saturated. When that happens, they drop to the ground, turn into Fuzzy Slimes, and scurry off to find their mistress.

Just in time, too, because the Pack and elites are causing our battles to spiral out of control.

The Delta Wolf gangs up with the Night Howler on Flou, forcing the bunny warrior onto her back-paw. Her disadvantage in speed becomes glaringly apparent. She can’t swing her axe fast enough when the wolves are constantly harrying her flanks. It’s only her Fuzzy Slime Flesh Shaping ability that allows her to defend at all, and that’s only a Second Tier ability. The Wolves are getting braver, more willing to let her maws take a nibble if it allows them to snatch a chunk out of her mass. Soon, her Cores won’t have anywhere left to hide.

The Epsilon Wolf buries his head in Olindia’s jellyfish flesh, searching for her Core. He whines and growls in pain as his face is stung in turn, but perseveres. Together, he and the Beta Male tear into the Strawberry Slime faster than she can regenerate. It won’t be long before she’s caught and shattered.

The Zeta Wolf hops onto the Alpha Bitch’s back, waits for her to make a running leap at Gabby, then jumps in the direction the Goblin Witch dodges. His jaws clamp onto the Persistent Spell shield protecting the broomstick riders and drag them down as he refuses to let go. Electric Magic shocks him, stones bludgeon him, and fire burns away his fur, but his teeth are embedded in the Fairy Bubble Shield.

No other member of the Pack is fast enough to aid the Wolf Lord, but he doesn’t need it. I couldn’t keep away from him even if I focused everything on evasion instead of building up my flame construct. It’s only Moka constantly shoving dirt into his eyes and nose or detonating a dust explosion in his face that lets me stay a step ahead of his insane speed. Except, he’s one good guess away from body-slamming us blind and ending the fight.

I have just enough situational awareness to register when the half-dozen broomstick soldiers approach the melee with little fanfare. It turns out I wasn’t hallucinating! However, despite being here to help, they’re kind of useless. They can’t fly, they can barely throw a punch with their twiglike arms, and they mostly get trampled under-paw as they fearlessly throw themselves at the Dire Wolf army.

It’s anticlimactic, but that’s war. Nice try, Bonny!

Speaking of, the big-eared Witch’s Apprentice is flinging spells straight down the Zeta Wolf’s throat while Gabby grows a thick thorn shield to protect them from the opposite side. The Alpha Bitch is upon them in seconds, relentlessly tearing into the tough and spiny vines without regard for retaliatory damage.

The blood-swollen Fuzzy Slimes are on their way to Flou, but it’s a race against time. Our hopes are riding on her making quick work of her opponents and coming to help us… a hope that rapidly fades with each bite the Night Howler and Delta Wolf take from the ruby Slime girl.

My flame construct is almost finished—I only need another minute or so—but, even then, I won’t be able to help the others due to the Wolf Lord’s immense power. I don’t know if I can actually take him on in a fight. We’re in dire straits, our backs to the wall with nowhere to go. I’m wishing we’d insisted on taking the Brand Summoning Token despite knowing my pride wouldn’t have allowed it. We’re supposed to finish up here and go help the others, damn it!

This war effort is stretching us too far. Even with all the monsters Alex has recruited to her side, it’s not enough! If only we had another ally to come fight at our side…

A gleaming shaft streaks through the air to strike the Alpha Bitch square in the shoulder, missing her eye by a hair. The great wolf back-peddles while growling in pain as she bites the offending weapon by the haft and yanks it out of her wound. It’s a bronze trident! Who the f—

A huge water jet slams into the Zeta Wolf, blasting him away from Gabby and Bonny. I track the stream to the source to identify these interlopers and the threat they could represent. The last thing we need is another Tygge to come and disrupt things!

Five monsters advance onto the battlefield before my eyes. I boggle at their arrival because this can’t be possible. Well, at least I didn’t think that Second Tier sea monsters could simply march out of the water like this!

The first one I recognize is Kani the crab girl. Her crustaceous form is unmistakable as she scuttles forward on four pairs of legs with two massive pincers held en garde. On her back is an enormous globe of crystal-clear water held in place by magic. This is the medium of transport for her four passengers.

The second monster, Kani’s first rider, appears to be a giant oyster, or maybe scallop (I don't eat much seafood). Her shell is easily as wide and deep as Kani’s main body, the ‘mouth’ open wide, forming the backdrop of the water bubble. The monster herself, a woman with pale skin who wears nothing but an abundance of pearl jewelry, is the fleshy part of the scallop. She has a humanoid torso with her legs ending below the knee, where they merge into the ‘bed’ of her body attached to the lower shell. Her ‘hair’ is made of flesh that attaches her upper torso to the other half of the scallop shell. She’s the curviest of the monsters by a healthy margin. This woman’s focus is clearly on holding together the Water Magic bubble, which would surely crush Kani without some levitation in effect to offset the weight.

Next is an octopus girl floating in the center of the sphere. She has a humanoid torso that ends in a skirt of tentacles, and her ‘hair’ is another set of eight ‘legs’ with a ‘mouth’ in the back of her head. Her skin is pink, although waves of various pigments occasionally roll through her from top to bottom, implying she has some control over her appearance. She’s the second prettiest monster of the bunch, with alien, gemlike eyes. Both of her arms appear to be busy weaving currents in the water bubble.

The fourth newcomer monster stands on the scallop’s bed with her arms on her hips. She’s a hammerhead shark girl with a broad grin, showing off her multiple rows of terrifying triangular teeth. Long hair bangs cover where her eyes would be on a human face. Instead, her monstrous shark eyes gaze back at us from the ends of the capital 'T' sticking out of her head to either side. She has big tits, gills on her neck, and a shark tail swings from the base of her spine.

Last, and by no means least, is an enormous mermaid-like monster swimming with her top half poking out of the water bubble. She’s a vision of beauty with aquamarine scales glistening on her piscine lower half, her fins waving like gossamer in the clear water, blazing red hair, teardrop-shaped breasts, an invitingly slender figure, and a stunningly sculpted face. Almost as striking are the dimensions of her body—this monster must be twelve feet from head to tail; one of the biggest humanoid Second Tier monsters I can remember hearing about. Comparing her to an ogress from the waist up, she’s significantly larger! She has fish-fin ears, gills on her throat, and her supple lips are twisted into a scowl. This girl is pissed .

“Gabby,” she says, identifying the Goblin Witch with a glare as her hands tighten on the shaft of a bronze trident, “Where. Is. My. Bride?”

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