The Werean force rushed ahead, infuriated by the horrible treatment of their queen and utterly oblivious to the fact that they were being out maneuvered. Their king in particular was incensed by the slight against him, but he also felt a humiliating sense of disappointment in himself for having even considered his now-dead wife worthy of being his spouse. She had proven herself to be weak, and this had resulted in her capture, defilement, and death at the hands of a bunch of mindless animals.

The fact that he had married such a pathetic excuse for a woman was a shame that he knew he would never be able to escape, and that knowledge angered him greatly. He would wipe away part of that shame here and now, crushing his foes underfoot as his unstoppable army of like-minded Werean tore the savages to shreds in retaliation for their acts against him and his kind.

He ordered the men and women under his command to make a frontal charge towards the area where the platform that his now ex-wife’s cadaver lay upon stood. He would crush any and all opposition, and the will of the strongest would prove his right to rule. His ancestors were smiling at him, and these barbaric animals would taste the wrath of a descendant of the Great Werean Kings themselves!

…

Vaile watched the Werean army, or at least what remained of it, make a bum-rush towards the position where the wheeled platform stood. According to the strategy, no one was going to be there to stop them because by the time they reached that place the Beastmen who had been there would be long gone. The aim of this stratagem was to force the Werean closer to the Karnarous Forest and away from their more defensible position in the clearing that they (the Werean) had made. Once they were dislodged from the area in which they had the advantage and found themselves in the Beastmen Tribes’ ‘backyard’, wiping the Werean forces out would be a far simpler and less dangerous task that if the Beastmen had decided to play by the kingdom’s rules.

As the Werean forces rushed onwards, portions of the ground gave way, to decidedly brutal results. The Werean had clear cut the area they had originally been holding themselves in, but despite having some animal parts they were not nearly as good at seeing in the dark as the Beastmen were. Therefore, it was child’s play to use a mixture of magic and physical labor to set a few traps here and there. Even in the heat of battle, the sense of smell of the Beastmen would alert them to the position of said traps, so even if the battle was to drag itself back into the clearing the descendants of Vaile’s tamed beings would know where not to step.

As feet and legs were impaled upon sharpened stakes, Vaile could hear the shouts of rage and defiance being slowly replaced with cries of agony and anguish. Vaile had given the Beastmen the idea for what were referred to in his world as ‘Punji Traps’, but the Beastmen had taken his ideas to the next level. He had left out that the Viet Kong would occasionally cover their versions of the traps with feces and other contaminants, but Blaer, in her usual sadism, had realized the effectiveness of such an addition by herself. By her order, the spikes were not just covered in excrement, but in all manner of other terrible things, ranging from blood-thinning poisons to what passed for concentrated poison ivy oils in their homeland.

It was beyond cruel, but by now Vaile had come to expect this from the vindictive monster that Blaer had long since become. But that all was neither here nor there; Vaile had to watch and wait for the potential time to arrive when he would be needed upon the field. He was glad about one thing, though. The feeling of someone watching him from the treetops was gone, for now. However, he had a sneaking suspicion as to who and what had been stalking him, and he began to prepare an item designed to help Players escape dangerous situations. Even though there was no way to set the destination his little ‘escape plan’ would send him to, he was pretty sure the ‘random teleportation coordinates generator’ would get him somewhere safe. As long as he didn’t end up back in Rattan-controlled territory, he was fine with ending up wherever.

…

Blaer tried looking for the stealthiest member of the Five-Clawed Paw, but after she had discovered and surprised the ‘Blade of the Vermin Queen’ that one time she was unable to locate her again. Skwiik’s momentary slip in concentration had allowed Blaer to realize that there was going to be an attempt made to steal Vaile away, and now that such knowledge was known to her and was being spread amongst her followers, there was little chance that Vaile would be kidnapped in the open.

Still, the battlefield was a chaotic place, so she had to be careful to make sure that Vaile was not snatched from under her nose. She still wanted to mate with him, because of course she did, but the war had not given her many chances. No doubt Vaile could feel that his time for delaying the affections of the many Does around him was nearing its end, and Blaer was unsure of how he would respond to the deluge of females heading his way at the end of the conflict.

With a flap of her large, jet black wings, Blaer made her way into the sky and began the preparations needed to bring down a whole lot of spells on friend and foe alike. Buffs for allies would be aplenty, and so too would be the number of debuffs and other nasty magical surprises for her enemies. She had barely tapped the surface of her mana pool, and she still had another nine hours before the sun began to vanish behind the tall and imposing trees. Of course, even when night fell, there would be no respite for the Werean forces here. She could go all night and still have enough energy to throw down a fair bit longer.

She may not have been a good frontline fighter, but her wings and proficiency with magic gave her all the capacity she needed to rain down devastation upon her foes. She flew off through the trees, all the while dropping buffs and debuffs here and there to make things easier for the Beastmen who had flanked the Werean. The idiots had rushed all the way to the mobile platform, going all the way to the very limit of the forest itself, and now were being pushed deeper into it. Truly, their moron of a leader was utterly unfit for command. Not that he would be in command for much longer; at least, not if Blaer and Dur’kor got their way.