Calvin recoiled backward.

“Shi-“

Splitting

0/11 Bent remaining

Calvin used the single Bent he’d acquired over the last twelve hours of meditating to duplicate the door to the carriage, placing it between himself and…whatever the hell that thing was.

The monster struck like a snake, lunging forward on a black, chitinous neck that hung out of the carriage, cinching the cage of teeth down around his makeshift shield.

The impact slammed him back into the far wall, the teeth quivering individually around the edges of the door, almost like fingers.

“Gods!” Cal shouted as he put his back to the far wall and attempted to shove the creature back out the door, using his legs to push it away.

Hey what’s going o-OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

“I thought you knew everything,” Cal said with a grunt as the monster’s claws and teeth dug furrows in the charred wood of the carriage.

“Widowmakers!” came a cry as the rest of the camp burst into activity.

“It’s a widowmaker,” Cal said, slowly extending his legs, putting every fiber of muscle he could into it. He’d seen a dead one paraded through the village once as a child. It had looked a lot smaller when it was cold and still.

Widowmakers were a very dangerous class of monster that took the form of someone you were attracted to in the night and then kidnapped you with their capturing cage before taking you back to their nest to feast. Needless to say, the naked lover bit worked better with men than women.

When people simply disappeared, one out of eight times a Widowmaker was responsible for it. Often enough that there were legal ways for widows to seek government aid after these disappearances.

Huh, learn something new every day. We didn’t have Widowmakers back in my time. They look like, what, a Warped centipede? Snake? You know, Warped mutations don’t breed true very often, so the takeaway here is that life, uh, finds a way.

“Kinda busy.” Cal grunted.

Alright, I’ll leave you be, but don’t die. It’d be a pain in the ass to start over with some other rando.

“Start over?” Calvin asked.

The pressure on the door went away suddenly as the Widowmaker backed off, and it started tilting tilting forward, soon to fall and expose him to the creature.

“Shit!” Cal lunged forward and grabbed the handle of the door, hauling it back to a standing position seconds before the creature hit the thin plank of wood like a runaway guar. Calvin was catapulted backward, the door in his hand splintering as several teeth went through the thin wood.

His back hit the wall, bruising every muscle he had as Calvin was propelled through the thin carriage siding, tumbling backward in the grass.

Calvin instantly came to his feet and took a second to get his bearings. He wouldn’t be able to walk in a few minutes most likely, but right now, he couldn’t feel anything.

There were four Widowmakers in the camp, including Cal’s, and one flying away on insect wings, some hapless young man trapped in its cage. There was one being fended off by six recruits, one looming over a tent, as yet unchallenged, and one dead, split in half by Andra.

“Horas, take Lee and bring down that one,” she said, pointing at the one in the sky. Horas nodded and picked up a massive bow studded with carved bone before sprinting off, tapping one of the other Royal guards on the shoulder as he ran, together they set off after the thing.

“Mr. Gadsint, Nice to see you up and about.” Andra said, glancing at his carriage that was rocking back and forth as the creature tried to extricate itself with a door stuck to its face. “And Alive.”

“Any Bent left?”

Cal shook his head.

“I see. If you would please join the princess at the north side of the camp, the other members of the guard will look after you.

Cal glanced over at Ella, who was watching the events unfold with some amusement, relatively safe inside her cage.

“And please, don’t make my job any harder than it has to be. Horas can run faster than a guar for four days straight.” Andra said, giving him an appraising look. The implied message was: We will catch you if you try to run.

But at least she didn’t directly accuse him of considering using the distraction to break Ella out of the cage and escape into the woods.

Not directly, anyway.

“Got it,” Cal said, heading over, where three of the Legends were forming a triangle around a miffed looking Kara. She was wearing skintight light armor of Slip Frog skin, her arms tucked over each other, frowning as she stared at the ground.

Cal found himself wanting to get a better look at her.

“Something wrong?” Cal asked when he was let through. The guards eyed him critically, but didn’t stop him.

“They won’t let me help.” She said.

“I’d appreciate it if you could convince her not to, boy.” One of the guards said without taking his eyes off the surroundings.

Cal glanced over and spotted Andra beheading the one still stuck halfway through the carriage, while another group of recruits was gathering around the one near the tents. In a minute or two, the fight would be over.

“There’s only two left and the entire camp is roused. I don’t see much left for a princess to do.”

“I’m a fifth Break Veteran,” Kala said, “I’m able to help!”

“Just because you’re a Veteran, doesn’t mean you’re a veteran,” Cal said, sitting next to her and receiving a foul look. “I imagine that like me, few of your Skills actually pertain to fighting monsters?”

“I’ve got some Skills for self-defence,” Kala said defensively in a manner that suggested otherwise.

“What about the one that lets you see things?”

“I…can’t talk about it.” Kala said, shifting uncomfortably.

“Hmmm…”

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Kala said, uncrossing her arms to reveal her modest breasts packed into the form-fitting magical leather. “I saw the widowmaker in your carriage, but they stopped me from going to help.”

Oh, that’s why she’s miffed.

“Okay is relative,” Cal said, tearing his gaze off her slim waist and back up to her face. He pointed at his back with his thumb. “I got pushed right through the wall. I’m already starting to feel like burger. In an hour or two, I might not even be able to move.”

They sat there in silence for a couple minutes as the last widowmakers were overwhelmed and slain.

“I guess…someone will have to take care of you while you’re incapacitated.” Kala said, a hint of red emerging on her delicate cheeks. One of the guards rolled his eyes, and Cal could feel another staring at his back, weighing whether or not to kill him.

“I’m used to bruises,” Calvin said, “You can just dump me back in the carriage like a sack of flour and I’ll recover in half a day or so.”

“So I was wondering,” Kala said, before the guards tensed up at something behind him.

“Calvin!” Ella said, waving her arm, her breasts somehow jiggling inside her leather wraps, the exaggerated, wide hips of a Genosian rolling as she approached.

Crap.

“What is she doing here?” Kala asked, glowering a bit.

“I dunno.”

“The Andra woman sent me over here as a gesture of good faith. She said I wouldn’t run away without you and vice versa, so I might as well have my freedom as long as I don’t harm anyone. She also said it would be funny.”

Cal glanced over at the General across the camp, who gave him a salute with a sardonic flourish. The woman was sadistic. That was the only explanation.

“So who did it look like?” Ella said, sitting next to him, her soft skin brushing against his arm.

“What?”

“The widowmaker imitates someone you’re attracted to. Who was it? I promise not to get mad.”

“I plead the Bower Amendment.” Cal said, standing. I refuse to testify against myself, especially if said testimony will lead to violence from one or more women.

“Bower Amendment? What’s she saying?” Kala asked, utterly confused.

Thank the gods Kala doesn’t speak Genosian.

“She asked who the Widowmaker looked like.” One of the royal guards, who apparently knew Genosian, happily chimed in, giving Cal a wink and a thumbs-up. Bastard.

Kala’s attention snapped into sharp focus on Cal.

“Who did it look like?” she asked, sidling up to his other side and peering at his face with an intensity that could only be derived from a Skill.

Cal froze, preventing himself from looking at anyone or doing anything that might be a tell.

“Welp,” Cal said, clapping his hands together and standing up, taking a step back before addressing the air between the two girls sitting there, keeping his body language tightly under control. “I would rather fight giant insect monsters than answer that question. I’ll go see if there’s more to be fought…that way.” Calvin started heading toward the other side of the camp.

“What did he say?” Ella asked the bilingual guard, whose stoic demeanor was starting to crack as he snickered. The rest of them weren’t far behind.

“He bitched out and didn’t answer.”

“Calvin Gadsint, you stop right there.” Kala said with a commanding tone that washed over him, putting a little hitch in his step. Something pressed in around him, almost physically weighing him down, like he’d been plated with lead. Cal shook it off.

He started running.

He heard one of the Royal Guards whistle.

“That boy…has a lot of Will.”

Cal was sprinting between tents, trying to outpace the two sets of feet he heard slapping against the packed dirt behind him, not really understanding why he was running, or what his plan was when he stopped. Some animal part of his brain had told him to escape from that situation, and so he had, but now he was running like a madman through a military camp with no idea what his next step was.

He was enjoying himself, and had no idea why.

There was a flash of green light and a paralyzing bolt struck him in the spine, causing him to topple forward, slamming into the packed earth of the camp, abraiding the side of his face. He could only be thankful it wasn’t straight into guar dung.

Cal was quickly overcoming the sudden stiffness in his muscles, since the effect was nowhere near as strong as her Aoehe’s. He managed to get his arms moving again and almost placed them under himself when Ella and Kala caught up, brushing past a gathering crowd of onlookers to leap on him.

Kala sat down on his lower back, her delicate rear weighing him down while Ella caught his shoulder with a vice-like grip, pinning him to the earth.

“Now,” Kala said, panting. “Which of us was it?”

“What she said.” Ella said, not having any idea what Kala actually said.

“Seems a little narcissistic to assume it was one of you, doesn’t it?” Cal said, looking over his shoulder at Ella. The angle she was leaning over him gave him an excellent vantage into the way her breasts hung low inside her leather top. “It could have been the General for all you know.”

“Then why did you run?” Kala asked.

“What she said.” Ella repeated.

Damn. Elliot, talk to me.

Nuh uh, I’m enjoying the show. There was more crunching and chewing noises in Cal’s mind.

Kala yelped and jumped off Cal, reacting to Elliot.

Lady killer.

Calvin began swiftly draining Ella’s Bent through her palm against his shoulder. It was very easy now, she let him through her defenses practically on reflex.

1/11 Bent Remaining.

“That’s…not..”

2/11 Bent Remaining.

3/11 Bent Remaining.

4/11 Bent Remaining.

5/11 Bent Remaining.

Ella pressed her lips together and stifled a moan before slumping forward, her left breast engulfing the side of his face. Cal had just enough room to slip out from under her, scramble to his feet and keep running, brushing past the crowd of gawking onlookers.

***

“Should we really be letting her do that?” One of Andra’s subordinates asked as the two girls chased Kala’s strange idiot-savant wizard crush around the camp.

“She’ll only be young once, and she needs a distraction from recent events.” Andra said, eyeing the road. “I teach every group of bodyguards to think dynamically about the princess’s well-being. What is truly a threat, and what builds character? Keep an eye on them, but don’t interfere unless something truly warrants it.

“Ma’am,” he said saluting before heading to higher ground to keep a better eye on them.

Andra watched as Kala and the boy’s pet Genosian began to use teamwork to flush him out, splitting up and guiding him to a dead end where they pounced on him, the Genosian holding him in a full nelson while Kala interrogated him, using her highly cultivated Intuition-based skills pry some kind of admission out of him.

Looks like they’re having fun, she thought before returning to the task of reorganizing the camp after the widowmaker debacle. Had they been sent by the Ilethans, or merely a coincidence? It didn’t really matter one way or another. They had been disrupted, slowed down.

The next two days she would have to have a forced march through the night to make sure the princess arrived safely at Mujenan. Soldiers with three Breaks should be able to handle it, but the ones with less might be unable to keep up.

It meant a few of them, those not strong enough to make a trip like that, might be left behind to die, and she was going to be responsible for it.

Never gets any easier, she thought as she got the camp in order to march at first light.

***Calvin***

“It was Kala, okay?” Calvin admitted, his spine aching where Ella was cranking his head down. His arms flopping around uselessly. Despite his best effort, they had eventually pinned him down and forced him to confess. “I haven’t seen her in two years, and then I saw her again, and she looked totally different and it was hard to stop thinking about it!”

“Whoo! Boom!” Kala said, whooping and jumping for joy while making rude gestures for a moment before she seemed to realize what she was doing. She coughed, settled down in a demure stance and put her hand delicately in front of her victorious grin.

“I mean, a young man shouldn’t have such thoughts about a princess of Gadvera, you rapacious animal.”

“I’ll show you a rapacious animal,” Calvin grumbled.

“She seems happy,” Ella purred in his ear.

“Ummm…”

“It’s fine,” Ella said, letting him out of the hold. “I already knew what the answer was.”

“Really?” Calvin asked.

“You’ve been thinking about her in a lustful way since you saw her, which means I have, too.”

Calvin blinked. What the hell does that mean?

“Care to explain that?” Calvin asked. All he got from the Guya was a desire to please, protect and a sense of possessiveness, not some kind of uncanny mind-reading.

“No. But you can explain to her about our new sleeping arrangements.”

“Our sleeping arrangements?”

“General Andra was kind enough to provide the two of us with a tent.” Ella said, walking away.

“Just one?” Cal asked, Kala still standing next to him.

Ella shot them both a wide, shark-toothed grin.

“What did she say?” Kala asked.

“Ummm…”

Boo!

Kala shrieked and stumbled away from Cal, tripping and falling flat on her pert butt.

Muahaha! EVIIIL!