Sivian tripped and managed to stop her fall only by burying her face into the behind of a person that was walking ahead of her, gripping him with her hands on instinct to prevent her fall. She could feel the fluffy tail in her face and smelled something that was not so nice.

Yuck . .weren’t these kind of cute fluffy creatures supposed to smell of roses or something? Guess an ass was what it was no matter the species.

“Hey! That is the wrong side girl! You need to service his other tail!“ She heard a loud shout from behind and laughter followed from all around her, except from the one she was now desperately trying to distance herself away from.

“I am really sorry, I didn‘t mean to . .“

“Just watch your steps human.“ The male in front of her just turned his head halfway and said almost growling, not amused at all by what had just happened, his ears leaning back slightly. Sivian quickly moved away from him, as she was already able to discern some of her companions’ body language. The cat-people that called themselves Bonbon often moved their ears tightly to their head when afraid or submitting to someone, but when the ears were only halfway down, it was a sign of aggression. She was not surprised, as every one of them was a little tense, after all they had been assimilated by humans and were expecting some kind of treachery.

And she was a human in their eyes, one of the few that had “volunteered” for this expedition.

She was especially nervous, because this was her second incident already. The first one had been her calling them Bonbon openly, she had realized from their reaction right away that the name of their species had been distorted by the stupid crusaders and had some pejorative undertone in their native language.

She had not dared to call them that again since then.

Many races had their own language, but almost everyone understood the common speech that was similar for everyone even in the demon world. Sivian remembered when she had overheard Faeldin explaining this to Irwen, but she had not paid attention that time, as there had been only swords in her head, but supposedly there had been some great unification in the past, the distorted common language surviving as a convenient relict.

“No seriously, let her blow you, you have seen her pleading with the captain, she is a bottom-feeder.” The commotion had not died down completely, a single specimen with black tail pestering the unlucky guy that Sivian had just accidentally smelled.

“Come on, I might even . . ”

“I would rather let her blow my sword, we would not have been here if not for them destroying our land!” He responded, it was clear that he was in a bad mood.

“And you shut up and get the fuck away from me!” The next second, the black-tailed Bonbon was almost slashed, as the object of his jokes had already a sabre in his hand.

“Wow easy, easy!” He quickly backed away, not expecting such an extreme reaction.

“Just chill psycho!” After distancing himself far enough, the black-tailed male shouted pretentiously, but was ignored

Sivian watched and almost felt the tension around her, everyone was stressed out.

Their species was not in a good position, The Rudichron Federation had been founded shortly after the crusaders used their favorite flaming tornado on their forest, destroying most of their habitat. Bonbon were quick on their feet, agile and skilled in guerilla warfare, they relied on large forests of giant fruit trees for both defense and sustenance. With the forests gone, they were vulnerable and without food, their land becoming swaths of dust and ash. They had no experience with farming and had to rely on humans to help them.

Naturally, they kept receiving the worst assignments, scouting the places no one wanted to go. It was not much of a racism, just no one wanted to die and Bonbon were in the most vulnerable position.

Everyone worked their asses off to pull all strings they could not to be on dangerous missions, as the death rates were staggering with all the chaos brewing in this lawless lands. Before, the demon world had been said to be a land withotu law, now it was finally not just a propaganda. Every single one demon lord or warlord was running madly around, trying to keep or expand their zone of control, as the power of everyone had been reduced to a joke. The few that were lucky and were somehow able to regain their magic power were expanding withotu limits.

Yes, and that was this suicide mission.

Lately, whispers had begun circulating about a powerful warlord, Frostfang they called him, with the power to personally crush anyone who dared to oppose him. Inevitably, his little kingdom‘s borders had touched the lands that had been claimed by The Rudichron Federation. Sivian and her group had been given the task to scout the land exactly at the place where their borders met, there was a ruin of a city there, the terrain all too suitable for hiding a sudden strike force of a warlord like Frostfang.

Why was she here? The cat people needed a human supervision they said. She was their agent amongs them, they said.

The reality was that there was already too many necks to feed and an elf among humans and Bonbons had a little choice but to listen to what others said. To Bonbons, she was a human with slightly longer ears and humans were not counting her as their own either.

She knew that her death was only a matter of time.

“I do not like this.“ She heard a voice and noticed that they had already entered the outskirts of the ruin.

“Cinawra, a smelly shithole, why would you like it?“ The black-tailed teenager had still not lost his smug demeanor.

“It is too quiet.“

“Does it matter? We cannot turn back.“ Most of the people here had coincidentally, just coincidentally, some family mambers still back at the camp. How could they run away?

“Hey, let the fetishist girl scout ahead!“ The teenager came with another smart line and Sivian gulped , almost choking herself with her own spit.

“W-What? Why me?“ She said meakly. She looked at the nearest leader of Bonbon for help, but it seemed that her face in his private parts had not persuaded him to become a benevolent benefactor.

“Go.“ He said, his facial expression turning hard. “Do not fret girl, if the warlord is here, we are all as good as dead.“

Sivian gritted her teeth hard to suppress a sob and walked forward without a word. It seemed that her time had come.

“Fine, I will not go down without resistence.“ Sivian thought, there was still a bit of a warrior’s pride inside her. Taking out her sword, she jogged forward with her head held high.

“Shame, she should first. . ”

“Silence.” The black-tailed teen had been slapped hard, his remark interrupted. He wanted to protest, but after glancing back, he understood that it was the leader of the group and fell silent. Their squad leader was a veteran warrior among his people, he knew that badmouthing a warrior going to her death would not be tolerated in his presence.

“You have one hour, scout the central area.” The leader said in a way Sivian could barely hear him and she responded with a wave of her hand.

It took only a few turns and she could feel the adrenaline pumping in her veins. Stealth? Useless, it Frostfang was here, she was dead meat only if only half of the rumours about him were the truth.

She looked around while walking through heavily damaged streets, the houses were nothing much, but some had even three floors and were made of stone, but these were quite rare, most of the buildings had just a single floor above the ground and were made mostly of wood.

She listened, her ears almost growing in size, but she was unable to hear anything suspicious.

There was absolute silence.

She heard some rumours what had happened in larger settlements and cities, they had become the hunting grounds for those who were able to kill without remorse. Which predator would refuse huge concentrations of meat? Before the incident, humanoid species were able to suppress wild beasts with magic easily, but that was no longer the case for most of them, turning cities into hunting grounds of the most dangerous territorial beasts. It would surely not last for long, but there was still enough living to supply the ravenous predators‘ demand for flesh and blood.

Walking swiftly around the corner, she could not suppress her intuition and began to tread lightly. There was a familiar smell, the one she did not want to encounter right now.

Fresh blood.

Nearing the corner of a narrow city street, she was almost shaking. It was strange, but walking through an empty city in total silence was actually more scary than walking in a silent night, it felt incredibly unnatural and eerie. From time to time, she could see torn bodies and unidentifiable corpses, but she had already forged her mind into a castle of determination and resolutely stepped forward, making her next turn and faced another empty street except for a large carcass.

Her heart began to beat faster, the huge carcass was that of a Blackstorm Tiger, a rare great cat that was an alpha predator in the area. There was a large, clean cut that ran along its spine as if someone had somersaulted above it while almost slicing it in half.

Looking closely, Sivian could see traces of white crystals along the wound.

Frost.

Chill ran down her spine, as if the frost crystals were touching her own backbone and she could hear noises that were quickly nearing her location.

“RUN! RUN, RUN, RUN!“ The next moment a few figures appeared from behind a corner dashing with a speed Sivian could not hope to match.

The one shouting was the teenager with black tail from before.

A few seconds after the escaping cat-people had emerged from behind a building, another one of them flew out of a nearby street, as if shot out of a canon. He slammed hard into a wooden building, passing through its mouldy wall.

It was the leader and he did not look like he would be standing up anytime soon.

Sivian watched in horror the one that emerged the last, shining with blue light that seemed cold just by looking at it, an armored giant of a man nimbly proceeding with his chase, not losing in speed to the already crazily fast cat-people.

“Weak!“ He thundered and another transparent blue sword appeared in his left hand as if the one he held in his other hand was not enough. She could tell some sort of energy began to gather around him.

“Fetishist come!!“ The group of three was already next to her and the black-tailed teen caught her, or rather slammed her against his shoulder. He must have known that Sivian was unable to keep up with them.

Her ribs had nearly cracked.

This way, she had the perfect view of their coming demise, as the terrifying giant that was clearly reminiscent of the demon she had seen in the cave upon their arrival into the demon world began to push the two blades together, only now she noticed that the ethereal blue blade was the exact copy of the real-looking sword he held originally

The moment the two swords merged into one, there was a loud thunderclap and the mana that kept flowing around the demonic frost knigh intensified by tenfold, a rolling wave of frost enveloping everything around him.

Was this really neccessary? This was a clear overkill for a group of kitties!!

A second later, he released the energy in a circular wave that moved with the speed of sound and only now Sivian noticed that it hit something behind the wooden wall the leader had slammed into and the area around the house brightened.

“We must help him, he will . . “ The one under her began to shout.

“Shut up kid, bullshit Frostfang, it is the former king of the dead! Move!“ Another shout interrupted the teen.

“Run, he is lost already, do not let his sacrifice be in vain!“ The one the smell of whom Sivian knew closely, reminded them of their dire situation and the three stretched themselves to the limit, the streets around them becoming a blur.

Edges of the streets began to blend in Sivian’s vision as she watched the streets while they were making quick, sharp turns, sprinting through the ruined city, trying to lose their pursuer.

However, it was not so easy and after a hopeful while of relative silence, one of the houses they had just passed exploded, an armored figure smashing through it, enveloped in a swirling cloud of icicles and cold air.

The hunt had started anew, but Sivian began to understand that the black-tailed youth was out of breath, obviously unable to bear the extra weight any longer.

“I seems you will have to find another girl.“ She jokingly whispered into the big, black ear and jumped to confront the swirling storm behind them while drawing her sword. There was no reason to také more people down along with her.

Locking her eyes with the enemy, she gazed into the two blue flames and prepared for the collision.

In the next moment, she felt the pain of a sword wound, after her sword had been unable to fully stop the casual slash of her opponent. She heard a thundering sound, rubble flying everywhere while she gripped her wet right side with her left hand and felt weakness spreading through her body.

* * * *

“Hoy, hoy!“ Artorias was retreating quickly after a vicious ambush of a group of golems. The robust humanoid constructs that had just roamed about the city up to now had suddenly launched an all out attack from all sides, carelessly trying to land a blow on his body. He wanted to slash them apart, but a ringing sound told him that their body had similar hardness to his adamantium sword, which was no longer reinforced by countless enchantments.

What would he do if he damaged his single important link to his power?

Although they were clumsy, the number of the golems increased and the one who controlled them appeared to have thrown away all caution.

Artorias wasn’t stupid, he focused his eyes on the white-haired girl in front of him.

He pondered about the connection between her and those golems that were actually pretty dangerous. He had not seen anyone able to produce golems after the incident with magic and would love to meet their maker, but he was not going to make a strong enemy just for laughs.

He jumped backward and put away his sword while still in the air, he landed some distance away and showed his empty palms in an universal gesture of peace. To his delight, the golems did not stop, but their ferocity decreased a lot, they were just trying to chase him away and that was a world of difference compared to before, when they had seemed to be hell-bent on tearing him into thousand pieces.

His objective of exploration of his border had been achieved anyway, he could pay a visit to the owner of these artificial friends in front of him later, when he chilled out a bit

Artorias gave the golems a final look and ran back in the direction of his new swelling empire.

* * * *

Toby held a body in his, meaning his golem’s, hands and thought of what to do next. He searched quickly through his repertoire of tricks that he could buy, but found out that rocks and minerals were not quite the right resources for healing.

“Not her, not her, not her.“ Toby tried to calm down, he knew that he was projecting, he had been unable to hold himself back when he saw the signature white hair and blue eyes of Irwen’s bloodline and all his stealth and caution had gone out of the window. Luckily, his golems were a match for the adversary, their adamantit not as brittle as expected when it was being served in big chunks.

Nonetheless, the word was out and he would have to keep growing stronger to deter any other potential visitors.

“Get crap out of your head Toby.“ He stomped his foot, knowing that someone was still bleeding out in his large hands. He had made the first step to save Sivian and had no intention of giving up now.

The three humanoid kitties that were about to disappear from his view were too quick, it was out of the question to catch up to them.

* * * *

“Are you crazy?“ Fulgwan placed his hand on the shoulder of his teenage companion to prevent him from committing suicide.

“I cannot leave her! Someone joined the fight, we can win!“ He tried to shake off his hand and Fulgwan had to hold him back with both hands.

“Hardly.“ He snorted when he managed to halt his companion, but his eyes bulged when he saw the far away scene where a squad of unbreakable golems gradually rose up to the human’s defense.

“Holy cow! They are really beating back the king of the dead! I do not think we should go close to them, come.“ The final companion of their trio did not wait and ran back in the direction of their base.

“She is right Shingu, come. With the intel we have gathered, the mission is over.“ Fulgwan said patiently.

“She could have dragged me down, but she did not! How can I leave her to die here?“ Shingu resisted, not used to the cruelty of a battlefield.

“There is nothing we can . . “ Fulgwan wanted to continue, when a stunning sight took all his breath away. “No way!“

Even his companion looked at the scene in the distance. The ferocious squad of golems was kneeling on one knee while facing them with the leading golem holding a body in his hands in a way an injury was visible, the side of the person drenched in blood.

“Wait!“ Fulgwan clicked his tongue, when his parter had used his daze to break free from his grip and dashed in the direction of the squad of golems.

“Shit! Shingu it is dange. . Screw it.“ He followed the example of the teen and made his way to meet the strange compassionate monsters.