Trftdrwx sat idly on the edge of the fountain in the courtyard of the Villa the Royals had arranged for use in this scheme, use they’d arranged two years ago. They’d known that sooner or later the Herdkeeper who’s residence was next to this one would be a target and made certain that the actual owner thought it was another different Herd that was becoming a problem that had rented it. Trftdrwx could follow maybe 60% of the reasoning to get there based on what they’d known two years ago but he was out of his depth after that. There was a reason the Royals were the ultimate form of his race.

Standing up he started pacing around Hd should have contacted him hours ago, there was still time before the planned time of attack but it was starting to get worryingly close.

He breathed a sigh of relief when his badge vibrated, an affectation he’d deliberately been cultivating though early responses to him trying to make himself seem more lifelike, the results of this were… not encouraging. It was a worthy experiment but likely pointless because the archives had an entire section relating to it and he was following paths others had walked long ago. However even negative data was data.

Tapping the badge Hd appeared in midair from the shoulders up and immediately said, “The Minotaur has completed his task and all targets he was assigned to neutralise have been. I must apologise for the delay in contacting you with this information but there is a significant period I was not consciously aware of anything happening, I request a full diagnostic and memory search to find the cause and the lost data.”

Trftdrwx surprised said, “What? That shouldn’t be possible.”

“I am in agreeance Noble.”

“Of course we will find the cause of that, your request is granted and logged.”

“Thank you Noble, I found the experience disturbing. The Minotaur has achieved his goals in an unusual manner and I must ask you? Do we care enough to protect and place one hundred twenty-eight former slaves? They are currently leaving Chelavis City led by the Nrkka Driv The Minotaur was sent to neutralise.”

“What?”

“The Minotaur somehow made peace with Nrkka Driv Krahgek, something about Krahgek’s Herdkeeper’s actions not being honourable.”

Sighing again Trftdrwx said, “We will never understand the honour of these Minotaurs but it does make our lives easier at times. Yes we will care for his freed slaves, please contact the Royals and ask that they do so. Tell them at the same time that the attack on Herdkeeper Peesha begins as scheduled in half an hour.”

“Yes Noble.”

Exactly half an hour later Trftdrwx was walking through a manicured forest headed toward the section of wall they’d already prepared to function as a hidden door. But not too well hidden because they wanted it found just not for a while.

Once they were on the other side he tapped Gx on the shoulder and the hulking melee protected moved off into the dappled forest of the Villa’s grounds, moving much more quickly and quietly than something it’s size and shape should.

Je and Hn readied their rifles and flanked him as they followed behind but not too closely.

Shortly after they came across a beastman guard, folded nearly in half laying on the ground beside his rifle which had a crushed breech. Kneeling for a moment Trftdrwx studied the body then nodded, Gx’s grappling skills were becoming impressive.

A guard appeared from behind a row of trees but before he’d even drawn breath to shout his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell over, even as the purple glow faded from around trftdrwx’s hand.

Trftdrwx tapped Je on the arm and motioned, kneeling beside the fallen beastman and drawing a dagger with an edge that gleamed wetly from sharpness Je drew it across the guard’s throat. Moving on they left the corpse laying there as the pooling blood spread across the ground under the short neat grass.

Without any further encounters they reached the Villa, marble shining whitely in the early afternoon sun and absolutely swarming with guards. The unrest happening all over the city must have made Peesha nervous.

Trftdrwx waited in the treeline until he saw the unmistakable shape of Gx moving over the Villa’s roof then he motioned to his two protected to keep watch and started building a spell.

Purple energy built up around his hands until they glowed brightly, then thin tendrils of that purple light flashed out and merely touched every single visible guard. They fell like puppets with their strings cut already unconscious before they hit the ground.

Trftdrwx blanked out as he rode the feedback using such a powerful spell caused and once he could see again he motioned for Je and Hn to move off and engage any guards he’d missed. Their rifles would be extremely noisy but that didn’t matter, the time for stealth was over.

He walked up to the Villa’s gorgeously carved entrance to it’s central courtyard and shouted, “Herdkeeper Peesha! I am here for you and you alone, if you surrender I will allow the rest of your household to live! If not, I will kill every last one of them before I take you!”

Of course that was a lie, the Iaernide could not allow any to carry the story of what happened here today to anyone who might care.

A very threadbare volley of rifle fire came from the house and spattered across his shield and he heard screams as his protected’s rifles answered.

“Guards! Surrender and live! Resist and die!”

Another volley of ineffective fire met his words.

Sprinting toward the house he quickly built and released a quick low power spell that did nothing more than fire off thousands of whining tiny purple shards of energy. They should keep the guard’s heads down while he dashed into the house.

Rushing through the arched courtyard gateway a rifle barked to his left and his right. Without consciously thinking about it he threw a dagger at the one on the left, the unshielded one, and himself wielding his shield-breaker charmed dagger at the shielded on on the right.

The guards collapsed with dull thumps, shaking the blood off his dagger he headed deeper into the villa.

Hmm, the information he’d been given was that all but a very few of the guards were mercenaries employed by Peesha but all the guards he’d seen wore uniforms in the herd’s colours and these one were definitely house guards. He’d have some words with the archivists over this, incorrect information could not be tolerated.

Moving deeper into the Villa he heard a firefight erupt outside, annoying he must have missed a larger group of guards than he’d hoped.

Masonry from the wall beside him battered his shield and threw him into the wall on the other side of the hallway as a Bull came smashing through.

Three throwing spikes were on their way before he’d even righted himself.

Trftdrwx tutted as they struck sparks off the Minotaur’s hide, Earth Realm, annoyingly hard to damage because his shield-breaker charm would not work on that rock hard skin.

The Minotaur shifted and a warhammer suddenly appeared flashing down toward Trftdrwx’s head. Pushing up with his arm and bracing against the floor he pushed it aside, the nailed langet striking it’s own sparks from his metallic forearm.

As the Minotaur tried to recover from the missed blow he bounced to his feet.

Grabbing one large hairy shoulder and stepping on the Minotaur’s bent thigh the threw himself up and around, ending up on the Minotaur’s back with his legs wrapped around his waist and one arm around his throat.

His free arm plunged his charmed dagger directly into the Minotaur’s eye, even rocklike skin was not much protection when it was that thin.

Pushing off he threw himself into a flip as the massive body stiffened and changed form toppling to the floor. Landing he flicked the eye goop stuck to his dagger off and kept moving.

A short while later he ducked into a side room and quickly shut the door before he even realised why, then he heard the tromp of booted feet and clattering hooves rush past.

Stepping out into the hallway he saw the backs of half a dozen guards and two Minotaurs running toward the continued sounds of fighting from outside. The odds had just become quite bad for Je and Hn, he hesitated for a moment his desire to protect his protected warring with his need to finish the job he was here for. Pushing his feelings down he shrugged, ah well even if they lost Je and Hn would learn and killing Peesha had priority.

As he approached the rear of the Villa the atmosphere became thick and cloying, something was making him very uneasy. He could faintly smell old blood and decay under the strong stink of the sweet herbs usually used to mask the smell of rotting flesh, then the air shifted and now it carried the smell of fresh blood and a lot of it.

His uneasiness spiked and phantoms started appearing just at the corner of his vision.

With a metallic growl his shield appeared around him and instantly the uneasiness was gone as were the phantoms. That had taken much too long, he should have realised it was an attack well before it had started to affect his mind.

Up ahead a large arched doorway pulsed with sickly blood red light and it was where the stink of fresh blood was coming from. Flattening himself to the wall, he peered around the corner and saw a Centaur with a naked chest painted in sigils of blood, with a dagger formed of his own blood in his hand.

He was holding a beastman by the hair and ripping his head back he opened his throat.

The blood spurted out in a waterfall but instead of falling to the floor it floated to join the circle of eye watering runes in midair. Some of the lines of the floating circle of blood couldn’t exist in reality, they way they wove around each other was impossible.

Grunting the Centaur discarded the pallid drained corpse onto a pile of other corpses.

He spread his arms wide and the chanting became frantic building to a crescendo.

Trftdrwx stepped around the pillar and flung two lances of purple energy one at the Centaur the other directly at the writhing chest-high pile of ropey looking blood that sat within the circle.

And was not surprised when both had no effect, his first intercepted by a spinning disc of blood that appeared from nowhere and protected the Centaur and the other just disappearing into nothing.

Peesha turned mad bloodshot eyes and a maniacal grin toward him and said, “Ahh, there you are. I was wondering if you’d allow me the time to finish my summons, luckily for you I did! Have fun!”

A soon as his last word was said a whirling globe of thick black and red blood surrounded him, Trftdrwx hurled a handful of energy spears at the shell but was not surprised when they had almost no effect. Just small puffs of burned blood where they hit.

The pile of blood started pulsing more forcefully and a feeling of hunger filled the room. It swelled to three times it’s former size, a teetering tower of wetly shining red blood. Thick black lines of darkened blood covered it’s surface in veins and dozens of small mad eyes opened all over it. Eyes with nothing behind them but hunger, rolling wildly until one of them spotted Trftdrwx then all of them fixed on him and he felt their hunger as a physical force.

A wide mouth with jagged teeth of blackened blood opened and a tongue tongue lolled out.

Eleven blunt malformed limbs burst from it’s lower half and it scuttled toward him, gait ungainly but fast.

He quickly threw up a wall of spiky purple thorns of energy, before it could stop one entire limb and a portion of it’s blob like body was impaled on the vicious barbs.

Recoiling, it left behind chunks of jellied blood which burned into black and stinking smoke.

It eyes rolled madly then it turned and bolted toward the far wall where he’d left a gap.

With a grunt he extended the wall across the room.

The blob slid to a stop. Then it dropped to the floor as an undulating pool of thick red liquid blood and began flowing through the wall, the barbs passing harmlessly through it’s body.

Irritated Trftdrwx gestured and the wall exploded, the small keening shards of energy burning off another tiny fraction of the blood.

With a clattering roar a section of the roofs red tiles collapsed into the room as the dust cleared Gx appeared standing amid the shattered terracotta and splintered beams. It had a few fresh and shiny scars across it’s frame but was mostly undamaged.

Pointing at Peesha, Trftdrwx said, “Go after the shell!”

Gx dashed forward and hit the shell of swirling blood with a double handed swing.

Now all Trftdrwx had to do was destroy this blob, this blob that was basically immune to everything he could do.