Blaer held herself aloft in the dreary skies with her massive owl-like wings as she gazed down upon the assembled remnants of the Bestiral Kingdom’s main force. So many of the Kingdom’s soldiers had either deserted or had been cut down as an example to others by their own king, and all that were left were the brave, the stupid and the insanely loyal. It was almost funny how the once mighty kingdom that had pushed her people closer and closer to the brink of oblivion were now facing complete destruction at the hands of those they sought to enslave and eradicate. She could see the face of the king himself, as his gaze was focused up and into her general direction. She had to give the bastard some credit, he was certainly observant, however his tactical and strategic know-how left much to be desired.

Not to mention the fact that he was shouting challenges up at her from his position as if he expected her to fly down and accept a duel that she knew she would not be able to win single-handedly. Honor had no place on a battlefield where the survival of a species hung in the balance, and such archaic traditions were both meaningless and pointless. Who would go into a fight knowing that they would lose and call it the right thing to do? The answer was ‘a fool’, that’s who, and Blaer Wildheart was no fool.

She wasn’t up here in the sky just to enjoy the scenery or conduct aerial reconnaissance either. No, she was up here and using her magical prowess to shift the battlefield into something more in her kind’s favor, and she was doing so without the Werean noticing. She felt that one of the best parts of facing a meathead like this fool of a king was that his idiocy rubbed off on those around him, making the men and women who served beneath him just as focused on brute force and frontal assaults as he was. All of their attention was focused on herself, all the while they did not look to the ground and notice the subtle changes taking place all around them.

After weaving her last spell and making its effects felt upon the terrain, she felt that she had exhausted her need to be where she was and flew off in a random direction. The Werean mongrels turned towards the direction she left in, likely expecting that she was going to meet up with a warband, but this was only partially true. She went off in a direction that had a warband in it, yes, but so did numerous other two-dimensional directions, and she was only intending to retreat behind the tree line, become undetectable and reposition herself for the final battle. Besides, she had some psychological warfare to prepare, and what she had planned would take some time to get into position.

…

Dur’kor began to whip his forces up into a frenzy, downing cup after cup of herb and fungus filled brew to make himself and his fellows unable to feel fear, pain or even notice the loss of a limb or two. As the shamans wove their spells, empowering his warriors and further riling them up, he looked over at the platform prepared by Blaer and her subordinates that Vaile had described as an ‘aggro tool’. Before the battle would even begin, the female placed on top of the platform would be shown off in all her broken glory, and this would, hopefully, send the Werean into a rage that they would not be able to easily recover from.

He felt a bit bad for the queen of the Werean who was locked in place by ropes and chains, her body covered in no small amount of marks from edged weapons and branding irons and her mind so completely broken by what she had experienced that she likely would not register what was about to happen to her in a few moments. It was terrible to see anyone in that state, but he did realize that while she herself may not have actively contributed to the oppression of his people (that he was aware of) she was still a leader of the enemy and therefore a target of hatred and distain from many of his race. She had been broken days before the quickly approaching moment, and so, by his own daughter’s logic, what could a bit more torment possibly do to her?

As the battle-lust claimed him, he watched as the platform was rolled out from between the trees and heard horns and drums sound from both his side and that of the surrounded Wereans. His breath quickened and he could feel the power of the Beast Gods surging through his body like it had never done before. This was it; this was the moment his ancestor gods had waited and prepared for!

This was the moment of triumph over the Wereans who had taken so much from the children of the Beast Gods, and soon enough the line of one of the Great Werean Kings would be snuffed out. To hell with them all, to hell with the broken queen and to hell with anyone who tried to give up. They would taste the wrath of his ancestors and the gods themselves, and those who remained after the battle would be sorted out when the time came.

For now, however, there was only bloody revenge!

…

A figure watched from somewhat close and somewhat far away as the Beastmen stirred themselves into a frenzy and as the platform with the broken queen was made visible for the weak little members of the Races to see. The fluids dripping from the mutt of a queen and the insane look in her eyes was certainly enough to cause the Werean army to charge towards the place where the platform stood, only to be stopped in their tracks as the fallen queen’s head was ripped from her body along with a decent bit of her spinal column. This added further insult to the already terrible injury, but what was happening here was not her real concern.

No, she was watching the battle with far less interest than she was watching her true target with. Vaile, in all his sexy, sexy glory, was limbering up and preparing himself for the fight ahead. He occasionally would look in her direction, and she could tell that every single gaze sent her way was filled with dreams of spending days on end with her and the other four rulers of the Under-Empire.

She was certain of that fact, but as much as she wanted to simply ‘bamf’ him back into the loving embrace of herself and the others, she knew that doing so in sight of so many others whose loyalty was to him would cause… issues with the delicate web of connections that those who cared so deeply for him had formed. No doubt that if she were to take him right here and now, the Beastmen would tell everyone else that the Rattan had done something terribly self-centered and would inevitably get the others to invade and take Vaile away from them.

Skwiik had to be careful, as one bad move could cause a war that she knew the Under-Empire would not walk away from intact or unharmed. She had to silent, fast and most of all extremely careful. She could not let anyone know that she was-.

“Hello there, Skwiik. It’s been a while.” Blaer whispered into the oversized female Rattan’s ear.