***** Amandine’s POV 2:40 PM *****

When everything settled down, the drab grey of Uba’s secret castle had been replaced by the vibrant green and brown of the rainforest, plus patches of other colors sprinkled here and there. At least that’s what I saw to the left side of the formation, I can only assume the other sides were similar. We were teleporting into an unknown area, so each side of the formation faced outwards.

Then, before most of us could truly get our bearings, several things happened one right after the other.

The first thing was a strangled shout from Alphonse, followed immediately by the sound of breaking glass.

I turned towards the front to see what was going on, anything that caused that kind of reaction from Alphonse probably meant he was in trouble. This gave me just enough warning to shove my way out from under the falling dragon’s head.

The second thing that happened was, oddly enough, the reason any of us even made it into the dungeon. When Alphonse got pinned down by the dragon’s torso, the curse knew that I was in command now, so it shifted the command links around accordingly. In doing so, said links fell mostly into alignment with what the rest of the army believed, namely that I was the leader of this army. Something in the curse shifted that was never supposed to shift, changing the very nature of the curse throughout one seemingly eternal instant.

We were still bound to serve Lord Ubaro, there's no way that was ever going to change based on our opinions, not when he used the curse to make us his slaves. What did change was the parts of the curse that connected us all together, and forced us to obey his chosen commander as we would obey him. Before they had felt like chains on our souls, keeping us obedient to his will. I don’t know if the chains were actually anchored to our souls, but that’s what they felt like. But now…

Now they felt more like the camaraderie we had before we were cursed, like we were all one big mostly happy family, except this went deeper than that. Before we had been bound together by chains of slavery, but now we were bound together by bonds of family, friendship, and choice, because even now we refused to abandon our brothers and sisters in arms. The bonds were still attached to the same metaphysical place, but now the only reason that he had control of the rest of the army was that he had control of me.

It was not this change itself that saved us, rather one of the side effects of the change. The bonds could now convey information from one person to another, meaning that I suddenly had an instinctive understanding of the battlefield around us. It wasn’t that I got sensory input from every person in the army, that would have driven me insane in a heartbeat, but I was getting the combined highlights of what the rest of the army could sense.

The third thing that happened was what felt like the entire forest screamed at us in rage. It wasn’t an illusion, there was far too much power behind it for that, so the forest itself must have actually been screaming at us. If the forest was screaming at us, then the dryad was far stronger than any of us expected and we’d just ticked her off.

Against most other opponents I would have tried to at least get some of my people out from under the dragon before ordering a withdraw – but only fools tried to fight a dryad of this caliber head on inside their own territory. So I chose the only sensible option.

“Everybody into the dungeon! Quickly!” I had to yell at the top of my lungs to be heard over the cacophony coming out of the jungle.

As expected, everyone who could move did so with celerity. What I hadn’t expected was those who were partially stuck under the dragon followed my unspoken orders and played dead. There was nothing I could do for those who were completely pinned down by the dragon, so I sent a quick prayer for their souls and their survival as I ran.

What followed was a mad scramble as everyone who could ran for the dungeon, fighting foliage, roots, and random plant detritus every step of the way.

Once we made it into the dungeon, there were no more plants attacking us despite there being more plants in here than there had been in the clearing we just left. Since they weren’t attacking us or anything, I ignored them for now and focused on taking stock of our situation and making sure the dryad didn’t follow us in here.

“Turtle up! 1st platoon towards the dungeon entrance, all eyes out!” I called, specifying a defensive formation and an orientation.

To my dismay, once we were formed up it was immediately obvious that we had lost roughly half of our number to the dragon and the dryad before we’d even made it into the dungeon.

“Ma’am, your attention please!” called Draskovich, the officer in charge of 1st platoon.

“Yes, Lieutenant? What is it?”

“The dryad is standing five meters outside the dungeon holding what I think is supposed to be a parley flag made out of plants Ma’am.”

“I’ll go talk to her then,” I sighed, “Be prepared to cut me free if she attacks.”

“Yes Ma’am!” he saluted as I walked my way to the entrance and stopped just far enough in front of their shields that I wasn’t being rude to either them or her.

“Alright, I’m here. Do you want to talk?” I asked.

“Consider yourselves lucky that your potion didn’t kill my husband,” she replied, gesturing at the dragon. “Also, given the nature of your curse, I will do my best to save your men and women that have fallen in my domain. They will be my prisoners until such a time as you are able to free yourselves from the curse. No strings attached. I know that none of you were here willingly, not with a curse like that weighing you down.”

I wanted to thank her for her mercy and her generosity, but the curse didn’t let me. She must have seen something in my face that told her what I wanted to say for she inclined her head and started to walk away.

“Wait, how do you know we’ve been cursed? What can you tell me about–Hurk!” I doubled over in pain as the curse forbid me from finishing the sentence.

“Honey, are you keilwan?” Doskan asked, referring to a fruit/grain hybrid popular near his hometown and asking if I was truly hurt. He had temporarily abandoned his position with 5th platoon to come check on me, as I knew he would. He is my husband after all.

“Yeah, I’m just peachy. Stupid curse wouldn’t let me finish the sentence,” I said, straightening up so I could give him a quick kiss and send him back to his position.

“That looks rather unpleasant,” interjected the dryad, calling my attention back to her.

As she was speaking I could see a veritable army of her plant-based minions swarming around the dragon, presumably capturing and caring for those stuck under his prone form.

“You have no idea.”

“To answer your question, I can see your curse quite clearly since you are inside of my territory. It was veining its way through your auras like some tumorous black spiderweb that somehow looked like chains. Now, however, it looks like you are the only–” she paused with the familiar slightly vacant expression of someone reading a message from the World System before continuing. “Well then. It appears that’s all I can tell you at the moment. You had better get your people moving before what’s left of the curse notices your lolly-gagging. Good luck with the interview!” she finished with a slightly mischievous smile before splitting apart into a multitude of vines and joining the plant swarm.

Interview? What did she mean by that? Oh well, since I can’ t ask her about it now I’ll have to figure that out later. She was right, I needed to get my people moving.