The trek to Brinegulch was long but uneventful. I learned some interesting facts on the way there: these ladies were there when the city fell, most of them were in the queen’s guard, and that Acace was the captain of the guard. I noticed that these ladies weren’t carrying blades of any sort, and if we were going in a stealth environment, then they needed to carry one.

“Pri, Acace, take these blades in my hands.”

“Why do we need these, we don’t know how to use these?” Acace asked with confusion.

“Because we’re on a stealth mission, not brute strength. You will practice with me and the girls until we get to Brinegulch.”

They were looking at me like I was crazy. I gave them a look that said ‘take them or else’ so they grabbed them out of my hand. As we were marching, we taught them how to hold, attack, and defend. They quickly picked up the basics, so the girls kept helping them until we got to our destination. Three days later we came upon our destination and man was it huge. My chest had burned more often as we got closer to the city. I didn’t know what to think and tried to not let my ladies know that I was hurting. This shit needs to stop.

Everyone gawked as they came up to Bringulch. The city was massive, tall pillars, grand walls and buildings, and the keep was just awe-inspiring. The walls still had holes in them, I suppose since the idiots had wyverns, then nobody would be checking out the facilities within. Movement caught my eyes and I squinted to check what creature was hovering above the city. It was a wyvern, damn, I wonder how many were here. I scanned the skies and found four other flying creatures were about, but couldn’t determine what breed they were. We moved closer to the walls under the cover of the forest and stopped when we heard flapping of wings to the north. I looked and groaned softly, we not only have to deal with wyverns, we get to play with harpies.

“Is everybody seeing this shit? Keep your mind focused, eyes alert. This shit just got complicated, who the hell could they be guarding in there? … Alright, just like we planned, let’s split up here. My group will go this way and hopefully find out where they’re being held.”

We moved silently around and quickly through a hole we found when the harpies weren’t looking. It was slow going at first since the sky was cloudy and light was blocked in certain areas. Crouching and slowly walking across the city made the day seem long, but we caught a break a couple hours later. They couldn’t hold all the prisoners in one location and we came upon one such location. Gnoll guards were posted outside of a two story building that looked to have an underground level.

“I count six guards. Tia you’re with me, Soph with Cass, and Val with Rach. Pri, you and the others sit tight.”

She nodded and blended back into the shadows. Our groups went in separate directions, focusing on our adversaries. The guards walked back and forth in distinct patterns, we just waited until they came back around to ambush them. They passed by us, so we silently came up behind them and jumped on their backs. With one motion across the neck the gnolls fell to the ground, silenced forever. We pulled the bodies back into the shadows and went to the front to wait on the others. After some time the others showed up, I signaled our group to join us, and we made our way inside.

Entering the building, we made our way down to the level underground and came to a stop. Prisoners filled the cages that lined the whole floor, they were filthy and dirty, and looking at them closely, some didn’t move. If the stench was anything to go by, then there were dead bodies down here.

“Damn, they look terrible. Girls, head down to the other end. Make sure we’re the only ones down here.”

They nodded and quickly made their way down to kill anything in their way. Several minutes later the girls came back and gave me an update.

“The whole floor is filled with numerous races, some are in bad shape,” Cass explained.

“Okay, speak to them and tell them to be silent while we get everyone out.”

Everyone took a cage and broke the locks that held them in. The captives had different looks upon their faces: stressed, anxious, and a little bit of hope. We came to a big cage in the middle that was like a metal tomb. Thick metal door with multiple locks on it, and with a wheel to open it like a vault of some kind.

“What the hell could be in here?”

“Whatever it is, they didn’t want it out,” Val said and Cass agreed with her.

I shrugged, if these bastards wanted them caged up, then I would happily release them. I broke all the locks and turned the wheel, finally able to open the door, and when it came open a burst of magic hit me as the person who sent it tried to take me out. The magic rolled off of me for a reason unknown to me, but I saw the punch way before it came close, so I caught it in mid-air. A gasp left the individual which tried to use their other hand to hit me, but had the same result.

“I don't know what your problem is, but we’re trying to save your ass, so a little appreciation would be nice instead of you trying to take me out. If you can’t play nice, then I’ll push your ass back in there.”

A feminine voice answered me, “I’m sorry, I thought you were with those foul creatures.”

She walked out, and I saw a tall woman with curves in all the right places. This lady had dark hair, blue eyes, pretty face, high cheeks, and full lips. Damn, not the time for junior to react. She was staring at me oddly, I suppose trying to figure me out, but couldn’t.

“What’s your name, blue eyes?”

She was startled by my question as if she had been entranced for some unknown reason. “Viki.”

“Okay Viki, we need to head out, you’re the last one in this building. Let’s go.”

I walked down the corridor to the outside and checked the perimeter for any activity. We made our way back to the whole in the wall and went through it to meet up with the others. We discussed our findings, then went back in to see how many other places we can find. As we went back to our spot to go further in the city, I found we had an addition to our little group. I fell into the shadows as the others strolled by, and when she walked by, I grabbed her by the arm to pull her into the shadows with me.

I covered her mouth where she couldn’t scream, “Speak very slowly and very clearly. Why are you following us?”

She replied in a low voice, “I want to help, my kin are in here somewhere. Please, I won’t be a burden.”

“Hmm…okay. Keep your head low and eyes peeled.” She nodded and followed me as I tried to catch up to the others. We walked around a few minutes before Viki shook my shoulder.

“Over there, the three story building. It’s one of the places we’re looking for,” she said.

“How do you know that?”

“One of my kin is in there. They have six of us in this forsaken place,” Viki looked into my eyes with her deep blue ones that I could fall into.

“Okay, let’s check it out.”

I signaled the others to follow and crouched down at the corner of a building to scan the danger around. Two guards out front which means there’s more inside. I looked at Viki and asked, “Can you tell which floor your kin is on?”

She nodded and replied to me that they were on the third floor. I noticed no windows on any floor except in the front or back of the building, so I made my plan. “Tia, let’s go.”

We sneaked around the building to the front as the two gnolls were talking in their own language, so they weren’t paying attention to detail. We got behind them and made short work of them. I beckoned the others to follow us into the building, but the doors were locked, so I searched the asswipes for the key and opened the door. Walking into the foyer, it had beautiful tapestries still hanging on the walls of past battles and queens of old, but one caught my eyes totally. I walked over, not caring what was going on anywhere else. I just stared at the tapestry, stunned. My mind was shocked and couldn’t force words out of my mouth.

The whole group came up behind me wanting to know what was going on and gasped when they saw it. This particular tapestry showed a huge battle, races against races, and demons against the united kingdoms. The one in the middle is what has everyone captivated. It was of a man that looked a lot like me, some differences could be seen, but he was leading an enormous army towards a powerful looking demon and his kin. The whole world seemed to be at war, fields burning, bodies everywhere, yet hopeful eyes were seen as their leader came to fight off the evil.

“It can’t be…” Pri whispered and everyone was shocked silent. They kept glancing at the canvas then to me and then back, mouths agape.

I turned back to them and smugly said, “That’s not me. That guy is taller and the hair is different, eyes too.”

I left them with their thoughts and knew shit was about to hit the fan after this rescue mission was over. The painting looked like me but had different features: white hair and white eyes, but the build was like me. Doesn’t matter, it can’t be me. Crouching down and moving forward I noticed two guards headed away from me, so I let out a little mana to build my speed and advised it what I wanted to do, then disappeared as I was upon them. I whistle softly and they turned around startled, which was the last thing they did, because my dagger slit their throats. The ladies gasped as they saw lines form across the necks of the gnolls, blood gushing out as they hit the floor. I grabbed their bodies and dragged them into the shadows. When I was done I let go of my magic and reappeared before I walked out to meet my group.

“Dammit Max, you scared the shit out of us," Val growled out her displeasure. "We didn’t know what happened to them.”

I smiled at their obvious nervousness and shrugged. “You pull some shit like that and you just shrug like it’s nothing. Oh, and don’t think you get off that easy. After we get done with this whatever it is, we’re all going to sit down and talk about what we saw back in the foyer,” Pri suggested with a hint of demand.

“Nothing to talk about, it wasn’t me, let’s go.” I walked down the hallway to find cages lining the walls like the other building.

“Bullshit! That was a depiction centuries ago about the next Great War and the leader that will unite all of our kingdoms. What we don’t understand is how the hell you’re on the fuckin painting!” Pri hissed out in anger.

I smiled but didn’t say anything, just winked at them and went down to the cages to check around. I didn’t see any guards. The women behind me were arguing and I just looked at them, they stopped immediately. Turning back to the captives in front of me, I went down in order breaking the locks one by one. My group helped the captives out of the cages into the hallway and it was filling it up quickly, so I gestured my squad to me.

“Three of you stay here, the rest up with me. I’m sure the next two floors have prisoners too. Viki, let’s go.”

We went to the next floor and found two guards but took care of them swiftly. Letting the captives out, I left others to protect and watch over them. We went up to the third floor and found four guards, but nothing we couldn’t handle. I walked with Viki over to the metal tomb like she was in and was cautious this time around when I let the prisoner out. They still tried to overpower me, but I grabbed them by the throat and brought them up to my height.

“Stop this shit or I’ll slit your throat. Either that or leave your ass here. What will it be?” It was another female about the same height and physique as Viki, but with blonde hair.

“I’ll s-stop,” she gasped out.

“Name?”

“Zidi.”

I nodded and let her down. Grunting, I walked away towards the other cages and broke their locks. The captives looked at us, hesitant but hopeful.

“Let’s go downstairs and meet with the others. No talking, just follow the person in front of you and we’ll get you outside.”

We went to the second floor and then the first, advising them of the same commands. The crowd silently fled through behind the shops and buildings in the darkness and made it outside the walls to our designated location. We noticed the other group with a crowd of people too, so we at least three more places to look. Our group handed the captives we rescued to the ones handling the outside camp.

‘Max, got a hostile coming toward your position. He looks pissed,’ Reap warned.

I turned to see a male about four inches shorter than me, snarling as he came towards me. My eyes picked up movement to my left which ended up being Zidi and Viki trying to head him off before he made it to me. He pushed them to the side roughly which got my hackles up.

“You! Who do you think you are, touching my kin like that? I will kill you slowly and use your bones as toothpicks,” he snarled as he poked me in the chest with his finger.

“Poke me one more time shithead and you’ll find your ass on the ground, unconscious.”

The shit head cackled, “You? A human, take me? Never in a hundred lifetimes, no, you will bend knee to me, and ask for mercy. That may not be enough to keep you from being slain.”

I heard snickering behind me when he said to bend my knee, so I turned around to see my girls with Pri and Acace watching the show.

Soph sneered, “You dumbass! You don’t know who you’re fuckin with.”

“I see you taking his side. You’re a wolf it seems and must be his woman.” He turned back to me after leering at Soph and smirked. “I’ll take her as your apology filth, and fulfill her every dream as my concubine.”

I glanced at Zidi and Viki, who were desperately trying to get him to pay attention to them, but wouldn’t listen as usual. Another fuckin alpha that doesn’t know his place, so I guess I’ll be the one to show him the errors of his ways. I glanced around to see a big fuckin crowd around us now.

“Leave or I’ll fuck you up and put your ass back in the cage they found you in.” Viki showed hostility in her voice when she spoke in her language to the prick before her. He again poked me in the chest.

“You won’t do shit to me filth, my kin rule these lands,” the dickhead snarled.

I grabbed his wrist and watched the stunned look in his eyes as he desperately tried to get away from my grip. I looked around the crowd before me and advised, “Everyone, you will need to be quiet, due to the harpies and wyverns roaming the skies. What you will see in a moment is between me and this shithead. Don’t make a noise, understand?” They didn’t know what I was talking about, but agreed with my statement.

Turning my attention back to my prey, “I told you what was going to happen if you didn’t leave asshole, then you popped off about taking my woman. Now, you’ll face the consequences.”

I took a deep breath, slapped my other hand over his mouth, and let my white fire and lightning flow around me. Gasps were heard all over the crowd and everyone was trying to keep their noise down. I took deep breaths and exhaled, fire came out of my mouth and landed on the prick in front of me. He whimpered, tears flowing down his face as fire and lightning touched his skin. He tried talking, but I couldn’t hear him.

I pulled my hand away from his mouth, “What the f-f-fuck are y-y-you?! Your fire shouldn’t be able to harm me, please stop, I’ll do anything! Please!” Shithead whimpered as he was red from the burns I was giving him.

I groaned and hit him with a right cross, knocking his ass out. I was pissed off, so I threw the puke about thirty feet away from us and he landed with a thud. Turning back around, I spoke in a deep raspy voice, “Everybody get back to it; we have at least three more places to check. Viki will go with our group and Zidi with the other. They have kin that they can feel, so have them navigate.” I left the area, trying to calm down.

“Damn, he's a scary fucker isn’t he? Pri asked Viki and Zidi. They nodded vigorously and watched Max’s back as he walked away.

“What is he? We haven’t seen one of his kind before.” Zidi questioned.

Tia laughed softly, “That's Max, and he will tell you that he’s nobody special, but we’ll let you gather your own opinions of him. Let’s go girls.” They walked away following their beloved.

“What the hell is going on? I’m confused and at the same time enamored by that being,” Viki shared with the others.

“Join the club sister, every woman you see here is infatuated with him. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a lethal motherfucker when he wants to be as you saw a few minutes ago, but he isn’t arrogant like that prick of yours over there on the ground.”

Zidi and Viki winced at that comment. “Yes, we tried to calm him down, but he wouldn’t listen,” Viki stated while looking in his direction.

“Serves the fucker right, he had no chance against Max. We knew his strength was too much for Victor,” Zidi responded.

“I don’t know what he is to you ladies, but I would keep him away from Max, otherwise he’ll kill him. Let’s go ladies, we have work to do,” Acace commented and the others nodded and left with their groups.

Viki and the others caught up to me as I had calmed down enough to let go of my magic. “Viki, where’s the next target location?” She closed her eyes and opened them to point in the direction we were to go. “Let’s go.”

Our group was walking faster than usual because we had taken out most of the guards on the way which made a quicker route for us to go. We came up to a one story building that looked to be falling apart, I looked at Viki to make sure this was the place and she nodded. Observing the place, I found six guards around the complex, so we took our places to neutralize the threats. Minutes later we opened the door to the broken down building, but when we entered a horrendous stench hit our senses, which meant some dead bodies. Scanning around the area, we didn’t see any gnoll guards.

“Viki, find your kin and release them. I don’t want another incident like the one we just had.”

She smiled, “I thought you handled it rather well.” I groaned and gestured for her to go.

“Break the locks so we can get out of here people.”

Our squad hurried along and got everyone into a position to leave. Viki brought over another female with the same physique as her but a little shorter, and sported pink hair. She stopped in front of me and stared.

“Max, this is Syky (pronounced Sy-kee), and I let her know the situation,” Viki advised. I watched the female with pink hair size me up, ogling me.

“Umm…what situation?”

“That you’re our male… leader, silly,” Viki purred.

“Oooookay? Let’s go, quietly people.”

The squad walked silently outside, carefully observing any movements or noises. The harpies and wyverns were still diligently making their rounds every so often. We hustled back to our temporary base, noting many, many captives have been set free.

“Damn boss, I’ve lost count on how many we’ve released,” Frank stated while watching the people around help each other out. I noticed that it didn’t matter what color of skin or race you were, those that could help, were.

“Yeah, observing the amount of people that are here, we need to move everyone back into the forest away from those roaming around. It will be safer for them and let them know to take a break, we’ve been at it all day.”

“Will do, boss!”

Frank set out to advise the others of the plan. I walked away with Herc and Reap in tow, watching out for me now since they couldn’t go into the city. Finding a spot near the wall, but out of site, I sat down and closed my eyes. I wasn’t going to sleep, but rest them.

‘Hey bud, you okay?’ Reap asked.

‘Yeah, just tired. What’s the status?’

‘Man, there are people here from every race. I’m shocked to say the least,’ Herc answered stoically.

‘Yeah, the amazons are some that are new here, so they don’t look bad, but some of the others looked like they haven’t eaten in a long time,’ Reap advised.

‘Hmm…well, the good thing is, they can eat all they want when we leave this place, but I’m wondering where all the soldiers are.”

‘I was thinking the same when we heard of those gnolls. Either they’re not here or hidden somewhere,’ Herc replied.

I heard footsteps coming our way, but didn’t look up. ‘You’ve got company, chief,’ Reap chuckled.

“Pardon me… umm, Max?”

I glanced up to find Viki and Zidi watching me, with a couple of others. I groaned to myself, “What’s up?”

“Well, umm… I’m just going to blurt it out, what are you?” Zidi asked.

“I’m human, why?” Thinking an argument is about to happen, I braced for an assault of the mouth.

“You’re being untruthful Max, the demonstration that you showed contradicts your answer,” Viki responded in a calm manner.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“The way you handled Victor, you shouldn’t have been able to nor burn him with your fire. You are an enigma to us, and we want to understand you. Please?” Zidi commented.

“Ladies, you don’t need to understand me; once this is over with, we will go our separate ways.” They looked at each other confused, so I didn’t give them a chance to respond. “Who’s the new face I haven’t met yet?” I pointed to the female behind Syky.

“Oh! I’m sorry, this is Yumi,” Zidi gestured toward the red haired female. She was shorter than the rest, but her body was curvy. Yumi looked to have a voluptuous figure: large breasts, wide hips, and a nice round ass. I had to look away to make sure junior wouldn’t show up unannounced.

“Nice to meet you, Yumi. Viki, where is your last kin?”

She stared at me for a moment before answering, “The big building in the far corner.”

“I thought so, okay let’s go tell the others so we can finish this.” They followed me back to the others that were gathered and waiting on me I suppose.

“Listen up, I believe the last place we need to check is the keep. I’m assuming it will be heavily guarded, so we’ll take both groups and see what will transpire.” I looked to Viki and her group, “Viki, none of you need to go, but I’ll leave that up to you. If you want to help, then it would be appreciated.”

She nodded and replied, “We will go. Our mistress may not take too kindly to you yet.”

“I’m sorry, you’re what?”

“Mistress, she’s the female lead of our kin,” Viki cheerfully answered.

I was confused at that statement, wondering what a mistress of her kin was. “Umm…alright, let’s go everyone, and make sure to announce if one of the harpies or wyverns come close.” Our squads left the cover of the forest and quickly went back in, slowly we made our way through the huge city to end up observing the keep for a few minutes.

“Man, this must’ve been a glorious sight to see back then.”

“It was Max. People were always cheerful, laughing, and above all, not worrying when the evil ones will come. Now, everyone is wary, but it is getting better or it was at least,” Acace responded. I glanced over to the amazons and noticed the sad, longing looks they had while scanning the city. Must’ve been tough having to leave their home.

“Guards in the front, not sure how we can do this without stealth, boss,” Frank stated.

I thought about that for a moment and realized we could appear invisible to them, so I smiled manically.

“Uh oh, I’ve seen that look a couple times. What trouble are we getting into now boss?” Jacob chuckled.

I laughed softly and replied, “Oh, watch and see. Girls, come over here.” They walked over to me, swaying their hips in a seductive manner. “Really? In the middle of a forsaken city, you girls are gonna pull that shit?”

“We've got to keep our man in check,” Cass answered.

“Yep, but we can take a break and hit one of those abandoned buildings to give you some A&P if you want,” Val purred and the girls giggled.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Ass and pussy, what else would it mean?” Rach answered.

I grinned at the banter they were showing, “Okay, but the screaming that would be made from your pretty little mouths could give our location away to the hosts.”

“Hmm… you’ve got a point, but after this, no excuses, just fucking all night. Got it?” Soph demanded and the stunned look on the others around us made me laugh.

“I understand, but I don’t think you can handle all night ladies.”

“Well, if we have to, we’ll have stand-ins until we’re ready again,” Cass responded and I had to seriously close my jaw hard to not have it drop to the ground. What the hell is she thinking?

“Ooooooh, that sounds divine. We could watch while he plows into some of the others,” Soph suggested to the others.

“Agreed!” My other girls said in unison.

“If you need a stand-in, I’ll volunteer my services,” Pri said and everyone around joined in with agreements.

I grumbled while I stared at my girls, and they all looked at me with a defiant natured manner, saying ‘you’re gonna do it because we said so.’ I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, and exhaled, these ladies are gonna be the end of me saying shit like that.

“We don’t have time for that shit right now, ladies. Take a deep breath and don’t freak out. You’re about to feel disoriented for a few moments.” They all looked confused until I let out some magic and covered us with an invisibilty spell. The girls gasped and swayed a bit for a few moments.

“Shit, where’d they go?” Viki asked, concerned.

“Just wait, they’ll be right back,” Pri advised.

I walked towards the guards with my girls in tow and watched them take out their foes, it was a thing of beauty. I smiled at them when they glanced my way. After we took out the gnolls, I let go of the magic sustaining us, and the women we rescued gasped.

“How the hell did you do that?” Zidi demanded.

“What are you?” Syky questioned with a worried expression.

“Nobody special, just a farmer from a small town.”

“You’re no farmer, that I can safely say for sure,” Zidi replied.

I beckoned them to the door and we silently went in.