The dry and warm air was starting to make Pyra really uncomfortable as she walked through the forest, making sure to keep her distance from the road, respecting the defenders as capable and probable to lay a few more ambushes on the way. On the other hand, Yag, the other commander was happily using the road, his massive host weathering the loses on the beach seemingly without effort, but Pyra knew better. His host was already breaking up into smaller groups, whispering in the dark, all tell tale signs of a coup in the making.

“As much as I would like to see the arrogant piece of shit knocked down a few pegs, any turmoil now would jeopardize our quest here” Pyra thought, watching the host of her rival marching, still separated in interest groups with a lot of them now openly looking towards Yag and his chosen warriors, their dark looks telling. Sighing, Pyra slowed down her pace, waiting for her vanguard to catch up to her. As far as she could see, the path towards Camp Hearth was clear, but she still needed to hear what other scouting groups have to say and to consult with a seer, only tool in her arsenal that the defenders of Camp Hearth consistently failed to answer. As the rest of the vanguard started appearing in her field of view, she quickly hastened her pace, moving towards the place where her informal council was, consisting of her best warrior and a representative of seers from her host.

“What words do our scouting parties bring?” Pyra asked without preamble.

“All of groups but one has returned and all of them report a clear way forward. Is it possible that we overestimated our enemies this time?” the giant man holding a bastard sword, her best warrior, asked.

“You saw the death trap back on the shore. I would rather overestimate them and win then rush them recklessly and lose” Pyra retorted angrily, the battle back at the shoreline still haunting her memory. That damnable swordsman managed to outsmart her, charging her flank and almost causing a complete collapse of her host, panicked prediction of her seers the only reason why she managed to confront him as they gave her a bit of a head start.

“And what about seers? Is there any new insight into our enemies” Pyra asked their representative, a weasel looking thrall that served as their envoy when they were deep into their trances.

“Mistress, masters are working hard, but unfortunately they still are not familiar with someone who is not powerful from the enemy settlement, so they remained blind” the thrall spoke with a frightful voice, his arms twitching, ready to try and soften the blows he expected to come. Pyra didn’t have any desire to beat up a thrall, aware he was just a messenger and doubly aware of the limitation of the seers. As much as she liked using them and as much as they represented a tool that proved able to drive the enemies crazy, the System, in all of its majesty, declined to give them ability to predict people more powerful than them, which was a curse as the class was proving exceedingly hard to power up and train, as much as Pyra tried. She managed to find a workaround, using her weakest troops as spearheads and judging the position of the enemies based on the massacres they predicted, but even that had its flaw, the biggest of it being the fact she had to safeguard that secret from her enemies, lest she lose her eyes in the skies.

She was pulled from her thoughts as the thrall began to shake viciously, his voice deepening as he started speaking again.

“Hard – working ants strayed too far from the nest, crushed for their mistakes. Meanwhile, the swarm devours itself instead of wheat, a hard shell defending the wheat frustrating the swarm” Finishing this sentence, the thrall fell down, tired by the ordeal.

“I guess we know what happened to missing scouting group. Send our runners in their direction, but temper your expectation as I have no doubt they will change their location by the time they arrive there” Pyra spoke, her warrior enthusiastically nodding his head as he started running to get her orders in order. Pyra frowned, the other weakness of her seers frustrating her now. They saw abstract images, forcing both them and the ones listening to comprehend them and draw conclusions from them. Luckily, this time the first part was easy, as it wasn’t first time that her host showed up as the colony of ants in their vision. The second part, however, was the more complicated one. The swarm she could only deduce as Yag’s host, which was on the brink of devouring itself, the losses from the beach and his incompetent leadership still fresh. Luckily, she managed to catch this development early and she was already preparing for when that comes to pass. The hardened wheat part was something that worried her, as that meant Camp Hearth had more defensive measures in store and she still hadn’t managed to figure what they were.

Pyra was analyzing the situation as the march continued, her monotony only broken when her warrior came to inform her runners found the bodies of the missing scouting group, but missed their killers, just as she expected. The slow, methodical march she insisted on left her behind, Yag not taking the same preemptive measures as she was, instead he just rushed ahead. She managed to reach the edge of the forest just as the day was on the end, the sight she found unsettling her. A thick membrane of white was surrounding the area where their maps indicated Camp Hearth was standing, Yag host slamming it without success, frustrating them further. Recognizing the signs of the immediate coups, as she watched the same process on her way back from the first visit to this area, Pyra decided it was time to confront Yag, quickening her pace.

Weaving through the crowds of restless warriors of Yag’s host, Pyra tried her best to restrain herself and not activate “Blizzard” to make way for herself free of the hurdles, the worries from unsuccessful attempts at her life Yag tried on their voyage here now front and center in her mind. Luckily, this time she managed to find her way towards Yag without issues, finding the man in the shouting match with some of his warriors, the words almost turning to brawl.

“Behave, warriors. What happened here?” Pyra shouted, her voice managing to break through to quarrelling parties.

“The cowards raised some kind of energy field to protect themselves and these fuckers are now accusing me of inadequacy. I should have guessed this was your doing, witch” Yag yelled, his face red in anger.

“The witch had nothing to do with this. Do you accept our challenge?” the woman in front of Yag responded.

“What is the challenge?” Pyra asked, interesting.

“The six of us here think we should lead the host so we came here to challenge Yag to a duel until someone beat him” the woman responded to Pyra, the Ice witch feeling respect in her voice towards their erstwhile leader.

“Well, I would propose different challenge. Me against the seven of you, for the leadership” Pyra said, words about a swarm devouring itself still strong in her mind.

“You dare to challenge me, witch?” Yag shouted, incredulous. Pyra didn’t even dignify him with the response, instead watching the six next to him. They shuffled nervously, but one by one thy nodded their heads and prepared for combat. Activating “Ice shaping” and manifesting herself a sword, Pyra also took her combat stance, immediately charging towards Yag, who jumped backwards, seemingly leaving her open for the counter attack by other six fighters. A small smile appeared on Pyra’s lips as she watched the other combatants close out on her, activating “Blizzard” with a mental command. Suddenly, icy winds sucked all of the warmth out of their surroundings as they started howling louder and louder, ripping everybody around her into the air. Watching her opponents struggle, Pyra managed to position herself close to one of them, piercing him through the heart with her ice sword. Just as she tried to reposition herself to the next opponent, Yag’s hammer appeared, swinging towards her and slamming her into the shoulder.

“You take 987 points of damage”

“I know all of your tricks, bitch” Yag shouted contently as he prepared his hammer for another swing, using the massive frame of his weapon as some sort rudder, allowing him to stay somewhat in control in the blizzard. Pyra snarled at him before ending her skill, turning the massive frame of Yag’s weapon from advantage into a hindrance as it barreled him towards the ground. “Polar ball”, she commanded as the ball of ice energy appeared in her hand, immediately being launched towards Yag, intercepting his fall to slam him into the flank. Her eyes caught the movement from the other fighters and she repositioned herself to see three of them charging at her. She quickly activated “Icicle barrage”, spraying them with ice projectiles, one by one falling down from relentless barrage, leaving the rest reluctant to attack the Ice witch.

“Let’s finish this” Pyra thought with grim resolve as she approached Yag, who was struggling raising his hammer, the side hit by Pyra skill completely black as frostbite sapped his Strength.

“You were never a proper warior, Yag, just a brute with a giant hammer and a giant army. And now, you will lose both” Pyra said as she launched another “Polar ball”, slamming ii into the hammer. The giant weapon creaked but managed to stay intact, forcing Pyra to actually strike it with her ice sword, the frozen wood giving way, hammer being cut in half. A miserable scream came from Yag, who was now completely helpless, Pyra knowing all of his skills needed a hammer to be active. She watched him squirm before raising her sword, pouring some more mana to restore it and make edges a little sharper, and decapitating the giant man. Taking his head into her hands, Pyra turned towards the remaining challengers.

“Do you yield?” she simply asked.

“We yield, mistress” both of them said in unison, Pyra happy she stopped the swarm devouring itself.

“Gather your warriors then, we have a shield to bring down” she said, watching as the two run to obey her orders.