“Squad leader Ray is dead, as are over half of Squads three and four.” The words hit Captain Bronte like a hammer. Her head whipped towards the blank-eyed mouse. “White Claw is confirmed injured and having disengaged from Squads three and four. Squad leader Darcy confirms it has run away in a North East direction. Celine has begun a search of potential areas White Claw might have hid in.”

Captain Bronte frowned as she heard this, glancing up into the night sky. The wind was blowing south.

“She’s coming for us.”

“Captain?” Kimi’s question came with an edge of concern.

“White Claw knows we’re here, our scent must have made that clear. She must think she can catch us by surprise since we couldn’t have had a chance to catch a whiff of the bloodbath.” A pause and a frown. “She’s aware there’s too many to fight all at once. She’d rather engage us now than let us join forces.”

“Wouldn’t that mean that she’s-?”

“It means she’s sure the other squad won’t find her human… and that she doesn’t want to run away.” Bronte frowned as the words rang out from her lips. “Does the human trust she would be able to fight us all without guidance or assistance?”

“He is an otherworlder, we should not try to guess at their line of thought.” Kimi proclaimed with a slight shake of the head. “If White Claw is coming our way… we should prepare.”

Bronte turned towards her squad. The maidens carried lengths of metal coil, heavy and cumbersome. It was the main reason for them not being able to keep up with the other squads. Their mobility as a squad was greatly reduced. “Ladies, prep the area, an important guest is coming our way.” Her focus turned towards the Mousegirl. “Bring Celine this way, White Claw’s bound to appear here, and we need her.”

At her command, the maidens dropped half the coils of cable they’d been carrying and hurried to move to tie some of the cables onto nearby trees. They worked fast and efficiently. As soon as their task was done, they’d ready their crossbows and take formation. Bronte was quite proud of her squad’s speed.

Mimi’s Mousegirl spoke with a shudder. “Orders confirmed. Celine will be here in- DANGER!”

Bronte’s hand thrust in a southward direction. She let loose a stream of sparks that flew into the darkness, piercing through the forest and vanishing into the distance. She’d not intended to hit anything in particular, the burst of light that had emanated from her attack had illuminated the dark, and in it, they saw White Claw.

It had been a split second, the feline’s left claw was badly burnt, fur gone and the skin on her hand blistered, there were another couple injuries on her side, the bleeding had stopped, but the trail of red had marked its way down her thigh. There was a slight strain to her steps.

But what Bronte worried over was the look on the maiden’s eyes.

White Claw was a maiden with a mission.

No wonder the other squads had nearly been wiped out. The Captain inwardly cursed at her Lord at having rushed this. They should have never approached the forest while it was dark and they weren’t prepared, it gave the predatory maiden too great an advantage.

“Celine better move.” Tightening her body, Bronte prepared the next bolt of lightning, her metallic skin glowing with her power. “Kimi, keep the others safe.”

“Yes, Captain.” The Terrielle spoke in a nervous whisper.

Peering into the darkness, the magnetics-wielding maiden tightened her core, sparks dancing across her metallic body. She needed exactly one clue, one indicator of White Claw’s position, or at least of her first intended target.

She needn’t wait at all.

“South South East!” The proclamation came right as White Claw had entered the range of light of their glow-spells.

The target was one of the maidens still attempting to tie the wire to the trees. And White Claw would have made it to Bronte’s subordinate if not for the very ground rising to block her path, courtesy of Kimi. White Claw bounced off of the wall of dirt and quickly rolled out of the way before the crossbow bolts could strike true.

Bronte didn’t shoot, keeping the charge at the ready and the aim squarely pointed at White Claw. The feline was moving between the trees and trying to avoid giving her a clear shot, clearly considering her the bigger threat. If she let lose her attack and it missed, the maiden would take the opening to fully commit.

White Claw lunged for another of the maidens handling the wire, and Kimi created another wall of dirt to block her off. As the feline switched target, Bronte saw she’d approached one of the abandoned coils of wire and smirked.

Holding back the attack, she reached out with the rest of her concentration towards the metal. The wire sprung to life, leaping upwards and coiling around a leg. The other end snapped towards a nearby branch and tightened. White Claw tried to break free, but Bronte kept the grip of her powers tight, reaching her hip and pulling out her metal whip.

With a crack, she snapped the whip so it would coil around the wire that had captured White Claw. Only then did she unleash the contained lightning, letting it flow down her weapon and onto the wire.

A shriek broke out, the elemental energy zapping its way into its intended target. But White Claw managed to break the metal before Bronte could release the whole of her power.

The Squad Captain felt a slight concern pool inside her as she saw White Claw stand back up with barely a tremble to her body as she dipped back into the shadows. The amount of lightning energy she’d poured into that attack would have put lesser maidens out of commission for a day. The pain alone must have been crippling.

Her eyes returned to the darkness, searching for her quarry as the squad had finished preparations. Kimi called them in and prepared walls, the work would let her create a small bunker with arrow-slits so they could shoot outwards. The objective was not to pose an actual threat to White Claw, but to protect the squad while Bronte dealt with the feline with support from Kimi’s geokinesis.

The interruption was brought to an end as a beam of light pierced the canopy and down onto the forest. In its center, surprised, stood White Claw, her eyes moving upwards towards the source. Bronte smirked. “About damn time, Celine.” The metallic maiden grinned, their guardian angel had showed up just in time.

“Everyone will converge in this location in five minutes. Squadrons two, three, and one will join first to give a chance to heal the critically injured.”

“Yay me.” Bronte tightened her jaw shut, holding her whip as she pushed her powers outwards towards the lengths of coiled cable that were placed around their location. “This is going to be tough.”

White Claw had shifted her focus towards the angel shining a literal spotlight on her location. The feline tried to use the shadows to dash out of sight, but the light followed her. Bronte would’ve attacked, but her objective was to buy time, for both her squad and the reinforcements.

No need to rush things.

And of course White Claw immediately opted to jump into action, headed straight towards the Captain.

Because things could never go smoothly.

Focusing her control on the cables, she forced them to obstruct the feline’s way, intent on tangling and trapping her in place. White Claw tried to dip into shadows to dash and close the distance, but Celine’s bright beam of light kept her unable to use those abilities in full, forcing the dashes to be short, which opened up for Bronte to snatch her up and unleash thunder in her direction.

Some of them were connecting, but White Claw’s movements were starting to become more and more erratic the closer she got. A desperate attempt to reduce the distance and dodge everything coming her way at the same time.

But it was a game of probability that was in Bronte’s advantage, and eventually one of the free-floating cables managed to latch onto the feline’s burnt wrist. The metal gave Bronte a point of leverage, and she pushed her powers to the limit to yank White Claw closer to the traps. More cables sprung out, wrapping around the restrained wrist and adding more metal that made it all the harder for her to break free.

There was a pause as Bronte began focusing on the other free-floating cables, she’d have to be careful but fast. The next length of cable was tossed toward White Claw’s throat. The feline was forced to block with her free paw, and that allowed Bronte to begin the process of restraining that one as well. She squashed the thought of victory before it could form, this wasn’t over, and one wrong move could spell her doom.

Just keep the feline focused on blocking cables, get her further tangled up. Reduce her movements.

“Have we-?”

“Shut up.” Bronte cut Kimi’s words with a harsh bite, moving the next set of cables to try yanking at the free arm towards the other length of cables, forcing the arms wide apart.

CRACK

Something hit against the Bronte’s shoulder, something that barely registered to her metallic skin. Barely a poke. But it was followed by a sensation of wetness, and a sudden burst of warmth and light.

Half her vision was abruptly covered with flames, Bronte’s shoulder seared with fiery pain. She didn’t shout, fighting against the instinct to duck and roll or do anything to stop the pain. Her hands tightened into fists as she refused to let go of White Claw, doing so would spell everyone’s doom.

She could use some of the healing potions they carried with them, but if White Claw broke free…

“Threat, South West!” She chocked, not entirely sure where the attack had come from, the fire blinding her near completely. The roar in front of her snapped her focus back to the real threat.

White Claw’s body shone as she clenched hard against the wires, one by one they began to snap. The sound drove Bronte to fight against the fiery kiss the Phoenix feather was bringing to her right side. Bronte grasped her whip and lashed out at the cables, intent on unleashing everything she had to stop the maiden even if it killed them both.

CRACK

The projectile fell onto the side of the improvised bunker that still had a hole, screams were heard within. Her squad! They hadn’t finished making the-

The roar in front of her made Bronte realize her mistake, seeing White Claw grasp the whip right as the metallic maiden had begun unleashing her power.

And then, the feline yanked.

Pouring everything she had into the metallic weapon, Bronte’s eyes widened in horror as White Claw kept pulling her closer. The feline’s eyes were sharp, snarling, her entire body shaking. The amount of lightning Bronte was pouring into her should have finished her twice times over!

But White Claw kept pulling.

“Nonononono!” There were shouts, but Bronte couldn’t look at them, couldn’t see in her squad’s direction.

She was entirely unable to look away from the blue-green eyes of the predator, there was fire and anger, hate and impossible determination. No pain.

It didn’t make sense.

“Bah-ron, bad.”

The claw grasped Bronte’s wrist firmly.