Vivienne kept the messenger waiting, stubbornly holding position by the teleporter even as they pleaded her to advance. She had teleported into Jinzhou twenty minutes before, thankful that it hadn’t been an ambush awaiting her but rather just a lone messenger with a dozen high-tech guards.

Finally, one of her officers from Léonois came up to her. “It appears this is it, ma’am. We have 313 troops here and no more can come through.”

“That’s plenty,” Volkan said from beside Vivienne in a reassuring voice. “We’ll just raze through the streets and get to this Hou fellow,” the Pyromancer finished.

“Mmm,” Vivienne hummed, idly scratching Mirza’s neck. “It’ll have to do, I suppose. Go tell the messenger we’ll follow them, but send the scouts out to scan the area, anyway. Zhang may be a distance away, but we could still be led into an ambush set up by his lackeys.” She had brought all her tamed beasts for this mission, including Mirza, her dragon, Oscar, her eyeborn, Rex, her tiger, and her strongest, Ulysses, her Titanic Ynurl. Ulysses towered over all her other beasts, standing at twelve metres. He was currently hiding in his curved and twisted shell, which was shaped like a rumpled duvet and coloured midnight black with splotches of glittering green. Meanwhile, Oscar and Rex were excitedly playing with the troops.

After a second of thought, Vivienne said, “Katerina, do you think you can assassinate Zhang before he even gets here?”

The Hidden Blade was almost invisible in Ulysses’s shadow. “Perhaps, but unlikely. If he is alone, I can kill him, but I don’t think he would travel alone.”

“No, probably not,” Vivienne admitted. “Oh well, let’s get going then.”

The soldiers made normal pace, neither rushing nor taking their sweet time as they swept through the deserted streets. They passed hundreds of citizens, but these people all wisely hid inside their homes, and no wonder when they could hear Ulysses’s thumping footfall from a mile away. The shy beast still refused to leave his thick shell, instead lifting it up and carrying it on his back as he followed his master. Underneath his shell, his six pointed legs were visible, their steps cutting deep into the streets and leaving lasting damage.

Since Hou’s forces controlled the path from the teleporter to his base, it meant they didn’t come upon any enemies, although there were curious robots watching their progress. These robots were saucer shaped and clearly surveillance units, although their job got much more difficult once Oscar took an avid interest in them. Apart from this, their journey was rather peaceful, and they were admitted into Hou’s estate half an hour later.

Here, more of his inventions were on display. There were people in bulky mecha suits who moved with the ease of a panther, padding around the estate with peculiar rifles seemingly made of differently sized cannisters. When Vivienne questioned one of Hou’s men on it, he demonstrated its use, blasting out laser shots which scorched the ground into a gooey mess. Besides these combat tools, there were also droids stationed around, which, she later learnt, could fire missiles from their backs and lasers from their hands.

While her troops saw themselves to finding space in the estate, Vivienne continued on with Volkan and Katerina, as well as her beasts who the others, human and robot, regarded warily. However, she was the liberator, so there was little they could say about it. Reaching the final building, a large blocky one with advanced technology checks at every entrance, she advanced with only the two humans, Oscar, and Rex since Mirza and Ulysses were too large to fit inside.

It was like walking into a sci-fi base from the ridiculous level of technology displayed, and she was eventually shown to a small hall, where an attendant asked her to wait while Hou came up from the underground levels. No wonder he looked so sick, she thought to herself, He must spend every living hour in this bunker, designing this and that. When Hou finally graced them with his presence, he looked exactly as he had in the Sovereigns’ congregation, although he had taken the effort to dress to impress now in a dark grey cashmere coat, a white Henley shirt embroidered with gold leaves, beige trousers, and white designer sneakers.

“Greetings, I’m glad you could make it so quickly,” he said, gesturing at them to take seats.

“Cut the talk,” she replied, more amused than impressed by his appearance. “We’re here to deal with your pest problem foremost, and then we can chat if you like.”

“Of course,” he said, flicking a hand up to form holographic screens not dissimilar to the System screen in front of them. “Let me fill you in on the general situation then. I control this southern sector and the eastern one, but Zhang’s stooges still holds the north and west of Jinzhou. Ideally we want to clean those two areas up before he arrives, as otherwise the situation could worsen very quickly. His base is here in the west, where he has also left far more guards behind. They number about two thousand, whereas the north has about half that. Here you can see his notable commanders highlighted with all the information I’ve collected on them.”

Vivienne skimmed through the information, truly impressed by the breadth and depth of detail. She flicked through several plans in her mind. “Would you say these northern and western sectors are disposable?”

“If you mean to cause large-scale damage, I would prefer you didn’t.” However, with her stare boring into him, Hou scratched his waxy head and said, “I suppose, though, considering our total forces compared to theirs, we might have to use more devastating means. I would say then that the western part is fine to demolish - it has far more soldiers and fools sympathetic to that Barbarian’s cause. However, please take care to not destroy the hub crystal.”

“I can do that,” she said, looking over at Volkan. “What do you say, four, five hours?”

“Probably less,” the Pyromancer answered. “Maybe even three or two.”

“You heard him,” Vivienne said to Hou with a grin. “Watch the clock. You’ll have your town back very soon.”

****

Volkan led the bulk of Léonois’s troops to the north, while Vivienne headed for the west of Jinzhou with three dozen men, her beasts, and Katerina. In addition to this, Hou had sent two hundred of his own troops to support Vivienne and Volkan each - the majority of whom were armed with laser rifles and light armour, but there were also some droids and mecha warriors.

When she reached the western boundary, she slapped Ulysses on his shell. “Come on, boy, time for you to go wild.”

There was a groan from inside which she ignored, turning to her eyeborn. “Oscar, keep an eye on Ulysses. Make sure he doesn’t destroy the hub crystal.”

Oscar nodded, putting his entire body into the action, and zipped towards Ulysses, perching on the Titantic Ynurl’s shell. Ulysses lifted it up and began to advance when Vivienne slapped it again, speaking with a stern tone. “Alright now, you better stop playing around unless you want to be punished. Shell off.”

From behind her, the others watched curiously, particularly the Jinzhou residents who all stumbled back or raised their rifles when Ulysses leaned to the side, letting his dark shell fall off his body. They saw him for his true form: Ulysses was a giant crab-like beast with six thick needle legs and countless overlapping scales over his body. These scales were all different murky shades, coated with some sort of acid which kept them glossy. More importantly, each of these scales had individual bloodshot eyes, glaring in all directions with a demonic gaze. At the summit of the scales, there was a large hole which could be likened to a volcano or cannon.

None of Jinzhou’s residents were quite ready for his speed with his shell off as Ulysses raced forward through the streets with a thunderous gallop, Oscar zipping after him. It wasn’t long before the men and women left behind saw bizarre mortar shells in the distant skyline and heard devastating explosions and bloodcurdling screams. Even the mecha warriors felt their knees go weak, despite the support their exoskeleton gave.

Vivienne maintained their position at the western border for a full hour, in which time the screams and explosions sounded constantly. Only after this duration did she order all the troops forward. “Shoot anything moving on sight. Be careful not to step into any of the toxic sludge.”

The buildings they walked past were melted and smoking, and occasionally small surviving body parts were visible in these explosion sites as well. There were also many a dying person on the way, most of them stabbed through the chest or leg with a giant needle leg and left behind to bleed to their death. However, they came upon more and more healthy enemies as they progressed, not that they proved much a difficulty to get past.

It was another hour later, by which time Vivienne estimated they had collectively cleared seven hundred plus enemies, when she stopped the troops still with her. “Looks like Zhang’s finally made his appearance. Ulysses has made contact, so I’m heading over to support him. Come with me, Katerina.” She left Rex with the soldiers and climbed on Mirza, telling Katerina to hold on tight before the dragon flapped into the air, quickly building speed and making for Ulysses.

The Titantic Ynurl was easiest spotted by the mortar shells he shot into the air, where they reached their zeniths before plummeting down to cause ridiculous damage. Oscar was providing support, zapping the odd enemy and creating the occasional gravitational field, but mostly providing directions to Ulysses. Not that he needed any right now as Vivienne saw from the sky that he was pouncing on Zhang with his needle legs.

The Barbarian was deftly dodging them despite his large scarred body, his build a gross mix of muscle and fat, with his untamed hair sweeping behind him. He swung at Ulysses’s leg with his ridiculously-sized greatsword, chipping into the leg and causing the beast to stumble. Zhang thrust the sword up, sweeping the blade through Ulysses’s shell and rupturing a dozen eyes.

Vivienne cast Primal Frenzy and ordered Mirza to swoop, leaping off with Katerina when the dragon went low enough. She landed close to Zhang, immediately rolling and sprinting towards him before he could defend, slashing him twice with her rapier. Although she had intended to do critical damage, her attacks only left shallow cuts.

Zhang growled at her and showed her a wild, bloody grin, lunging so quickly and savagely that his blade blew her free arm off. The Beastmaster leapt back with a scream, but the Barbarian gave chase. He had almost caught up when Katerina appeared in his way, crouching with her daggers pointing up. They thrust up, digging into his stomach and remaining there as the Hidden Blade vanished from sight.

Yanking these daggers out, Zhang groaned. Ulysses came from behind, his front legs rising like a spooked horse’s, only they were about to stab down with terrible force. Zhang sensed this and spun so quickly he left a blur, his power visibly rising from his injuries as his sword swept cleanly through Ulysses’s raised legs. Just as Ulysses gave an otherworldly screech, Mirza swooped down from above, blasting Zhang with a flood of bone-melting fire.

It left the Barbarian scorched and smoking, but alive. He looked up and pulled his sword back as if he was about to fling it up, and just as Vivienne believed this, he broke the pose and sprinted towards her instead, catching her off-guard. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t learnt his lesson from last time. Where there had been no obstacle in his way suddenly appeared a dark-clad Katerina, sprinting towards him with two new daggers in her hands. He was forced to release his blow early, swinging hastily to ward her off, but she easily leapt onto the blade and bounced off its face, backflipping over him with flat, emotionless eyes.

Just when it appeared she had overshot her leap and ruined her chance, she landed past him and spun in a fluid motion to face his back, the torque lending to her attack as her hands pounced like snakes, thrusting their daggers deep into his neck. Zhang roared, traipsing onto death’s thread and gaining dreadful power from it as Vivienne sensed his aura skyrocket. Katerina had disappeared once again, and Oscar tried to slow the Barbarian in the meantime with a powerful gravitational field.

This did nothing except annoy Zhang, who picked a pebble up and lobbed it at the eyeborn, causing Oscar to explode with blood and sink to the ground as a ruined husk devoid of life. Simultaneously, Ulysses shot another mortar into the sky, but he missed as Zhang dashed towards him. He was being rent apart, scale by scale, when Mirza swooped again, blasting another stream of fire which gave pause to Zhang’s actions.

The Barbarian stopped ripping Ulysses apart. He looked dazedly at the sky, burst into manic laughter, then abruptly toppled over. He did not get back up.

Vivienne Durant (human), the Beastmaster, has killed Zhang Bao (human), the Barbarian.

30 Sovereigns remaining.

****

As Vivienne had promised, the rest of Jinzhou came under Hou’s control five hours after the mission had begun. Oscar was as dead as dead could be, but she managed to heal Ulysses back to life, although he would need far more healing to reach his best again.

For a second, the Beastmaster feared the Artificer would betray her there and turn on the Léonois soldiers, however nothing of the sort happened as Hou made space for them to stay and rest before leaving tomorrow. He agreed to join her to Riverside then too.