When I finally return my attention from Hilde, to my own situation, Frank is staring at me. I flinch, before making myself meet his eyes. "Sorry about that," I start by apologizing.

He waves it off with a sigh. "No. I'm worried about you, kid. I don't know how you're doing all this, but it's clearly taking its toll. You need to get some rest. And a doctor," gesturing at just the wounds he can see. "Things are under control now, we can take it from here."

"I..." He gives me a single one of those adult looks that tells me there's no point arguing, and I slowly sigh out, and close my mouth. I'm so tired, no matter how much my mind is screaming to save people, I can barely even keep my eyes open, and Frank isn't going to listen to me anymore.

"Now, let's treat those injuries, then we can get you somewhere for some proper rest." I don't respond, some part of me unwilling to agree to stop helping, even if I can't anymore. Like... as long as he's the one who makes the decision for me, that makes it not my fault... or something...

Frank calls over one of the guards to check my wounds, while I sag forward where I'm sitting. With my panic after Hilde's battle trailing off, my pained body rapidly becomes so heavy, and my thoughts so slow, I waver and wobble, barely able to see the man looking me over. That scare must have taken the last bit of the energy I was using to stay awake...

When I feel the bandages, I rouse just enough to mumble, "No lele fruit..." And my head thumps against something hard and gray. Despite my futile efforts, my mind won't focus. I only get the vague sensations bandages wrapping all over my arms and legs. Then Riko slides out of my lap when I'm lifted up, and set down somewhere soft. My head lolls to the side. My eyes wander blearily across the ceiling until the lids won't stay open at all anymore.

With my own body unconscious, I don't remain in my own head like usual. Instead, my mind expands across all of the others I'm connected to. It's kind of like hopping from one to the next, wherever my attention falls. Sitting in the back of their heads, using their brains to think since mine isn't available right now. Pretty much like when I was injured after the first battle, and spent weeks sleeping to recover. Only this time, instead of tagging along for their ordinary lives, I'm along for them tearing through hordes of dangerous creatures.

Having fought for so long, their bodies are covered in gore. Especially Myra, who is more aggressive than the others, and ends up sprayed in it when she brutally tears open animals and monsters alike. Not that she cares. As long as they're dead, the grime doesn't bother her one bit. Even as the bottom of her paws grow sticky against the road, she keeps charging in to take on the biggest, most dangerous things she can find. At least the horrible monster blood disappears when the monsters die, so it's only normal gore they have to deal with...

The downside of all this is that the townspeople are clearly even more afraid of them when they see them drenched head to toe in blood... Again, she just shrugs it off, though Gram and especially Avara, are more uncomfortable when they hear the screams and see people attack or flee on sight. Which also happens more often now.

Without me telling Frank everything happening everywhere so he can perfectly direct their efforts, the guards and militia are much more disorganized. They run back and forth, manually searching through city blocks, some of which are completely clear of danger. Others get in over their heads when they run head-first into swarms, or more dangerous monsters I'd been directing them around, so the magical creatures could deal with them instead. Of course, they also stumble into my friends too, which just leads to more unnecessary conflict and damaged weapons whenever they actually try to attack.

Despite the sharply reduced efficiency of their efforts, the city is in much better shape than earlier, since the bulk of the danger has already been pushed back toward the west end of town. All of the non-combatants have retreated to a few thrown-together fortifications around the northeastern areas of town, using buildings and anything else available to defend themselves, in case anything makes it there. There are actually still new militiamen flowing from those areas, as the warrior's guild is still working their way through the city's population, drafting every man they can find.

The fighting continues for a few bells longer, maintaining the same shaky balance - the controlled chaos where things are barely being managed. Between my friends and the city's own defenders, hundreds of animals must die, until at long last, the flow of new animals being driven from the forest slows. I'd never thought of it before, but the number of things living out there is probably just as massive as the city's population...

It's after the fifth bell, with the sun quickly climbing overhead and noon on the horizon, when Myra, Gram, and Avara are beginning to flag. Even as powerful magical creatures, with a bunch of colored mana to help, fighting like this is exhausting.

Eventually, they have to rest. There isn't any good place to do that in the hectic city though. The best they can do is head over Hilde's way. There's a well near the corner of the plaza that the doctors have been using for water, for cleaning wounds and drinking water. They should be able to get a drink and maybe clean up a bit. Just have to deal with the humans first...

On the way, they pause to kill and eat a passing deer. The food should help keep them going, once they have a chance to rest. When they arrive near the plaza, the men start shouting, and they all share a tired sigh between them.

"Let's just ignore them," Myra groans while rolling her sore front legs, like a person would with their shoulders. "I think they'll get the point, right Hilde?" He's uncertain, but there's no point arguing anyway. The men are already building a spear wall in the gap between their wooden fortifications. Hilde tries squawking at them from behind, but they don't seem to be paying attention. Beth and a couple of the others working as doctors do come over though.

"Is there something?" asks a tall man, stepping past Beth. He must have be in the militia, because he has a spear set down a short way behind him, where he's been checking over people's bandages. Having watched him work, he's an actual doctor, like Beth. Besides him and one other man, all of the others who've been helping the wounded clearly didn't know much and needed the actual doctors to walk them through things.

Hilde cocks his head at the doctor. He would answer, but he's still unwilling to give away more than necessary, so he doesn't use telepathy. Instead, he squawks and uses his best wing to gesture toward the back of the defensive line that's formed.

"Is something coming?" the man asks, shoulders already hunching in terror as he looks that way.

"Squawk." Even without language, Hilde's response is so deadpan, a small, amused smile touches Beth's lips.

She puts a hand on the man's shoulder from behind. "That sounds like a 'no.' Now come on."

"What, you speak bird now too?" the man suddenly challenges. While we're stunned by the hostility that seemed to come out of nowhere, Beth rolls her eyes at him before turning away and waving for Hilde to come along. He follows after her, walking right past the man, standing with an awful scowl on his face, and I briefly scan back through Hilde's memories. I quickly find the problem.

It's not just this doctor - it's the other doctor, and everyone else helping treat the wounded too - they've almost completely been ignoring Beth, acting like she isn't there most of the time. Except for when she's checked bandages or ointments. Then, they would go through and re-check it right after she finished. But why...?

I'm forced to push aside those questions though, because everyone has almost converged on the wall of spearmen, from either side. Hilde squawks and Beth tries speaking up, but it looks like they don't notice, given their panicked shouts to hold the line. Fortunately, Myra figures this is easy to resolve. All she has to do is walk right through them. It's Avara nudging her in the side that reminds her to do it gently enough that she doesn't damage their spears.

"I'll try," she mentally shrugs back, and does so. When the men stab out at her, she shifts her weight, allowing enough give that their spears don't take too much of the impact. Then she tilts, getting most of the spear tips to slide up over her shoulder and continues forward. At that point, the whole line has to frantically fall back so she doesn't completely push through them. They back right into Hilde and Beth though, and the whole thing starts to fall apart the moment their formation shows the smallest crack. Men pull away from the ones who stumble, Beth catching them from behind so they don't trip, and Hilde ducking so he doesn't get stepped on accidentally.

With the men breaking off into two separated lines, they realize late that they've left the way wide open for the magical creatures to reach Beth, and start screaming even more. Again, Beth tries to calm them down, only to get drowned out. She stands, beginning to look irritated, an expression I've almost never seen on her face before, while they break ranks to rush back in front of her. Then her gaze lands on the large magical creatures, and she suddenly goes very still, eyes widening in fear. We all wince. The response hurts, even if it's understandable.

I quickly try to shake off the feeling, telling myself that of course she should be scared. I'm inside their heads and even I think they look terrifying, drenched head to toe in blood and gore like they are. Before Beth can recover, a couple of the guards practically tackle her, carrying her away, while the others renew their attempts to attack.

"That didn't go as well as I hoped..." Myra groans, too exhausted to come up with a new plan. Unfortunately, no one else is up to it either, and a silent agreement goes through the group to just give up and ignore them. "They'll get over it..." she grumbles, going over to Hilde. He doesn't want to walk all the way to the other end of the plaza in his condition, so she carefully picks him up in her mouth to deposit him onto Avara's back.

It turns out that does the trick. Seeing the supposedly divine magical bird getting plopped right on top of the bloody magical creature finally makes the men stop screaming and stabbing them. They back off a few steps, still watching warily, and Hilde makes a point of squawking at them, the most annoyed he can get it without words.

"I have to learn how to speak Ternian," Avara thinks yet again. She knows she has all the stuff she needs, like a mouth and tongue and all, so it should be doable, but everything's shaped so differently that she can't just use my muscle memory to make it work. She's tried, and it just comes out garbled.

Together, they all plod over toward the far side of the plaza. The well is there, with a few buckets hastily discarded on the ground around it. They get there and... right. No hands... With a tired sigh, Avara walks back, to where Beth is in the middle of a strangely heated conversation with a few men - the other two doctors and one of the guards. The other healers are all watching from a few steps away.

"I am a doctor!" Beth declares firmly when they listen in. "This is where I'm needed, I will not hide when there are piles of injured patients who need care!" waving her hand over to where a few people are still being carried into the plaza from another entrance.

"A doctor!" the tall man scoffs, even as the other speaks over him.

"You see what we're saying?" he addresses the guard. "The arrogance of this woman!"

That's when we understand. They're acting like this because women aren't supposed to be doctors. All of our hearts sink together, when the guard frowns at Beth and says, "This is a battlefield. It's dangerous. Women like you don't belong here." He grabs Beth's arm, the disbelief just beginning to register on her face. "I'll take you to the-"

That's as far as he gets before Avara has jammed herself into the space between them, a low rumble in her throat shocking all of the men a few steps back. Both her and Hilde send withering glares over the surrounding men. The looks alone has them cowering away, and the other guards in the area go on alert, all eyes on them.

With a nudge against Beth's side, Avara gets her to move, turning to walk away from the men. At the same time, she swishes her tail, blood and all, against the guard's chest. She barely taps him, but it's still enough to send him sprawling, leaving a smear of blood and a small dent in his chest plate.

She ignores the stares of all the men present boring into her, and walks back across the plaza with Beth, over to the well. When they arrive, Beth sighs, one hand to her head. "That was a bit much, you know..." Then she turns halfway back, to see a few men, the jerk doctors included, still watching her even as they get back to work. "Still... thanks."

Standing atop Avara, Hilde extends a wing slightly, so it doesn't hurt too much, to take her hand again. Once he's reach out to her soul, I just sigh across the connection and say she's welcome. She replies, speaking aloud. "So... I guess this is better than getting dragged away by the guard, but..." Even as she speaks, all of us are grimacing.

She isn't showing a single outward sign, but Beth is furious. And embarrassed, and ashamed. And a whole tumble of other awful feelings, all entirely crushed down inside herself. The only emotions she's letting show are her confusion and exasperation. Pretending like none of that bothered her. Not wanting to get into all these feelings she's hiding, I just... try to ignore them...

Instead, I say, "I'm glad to help, but, uhh, they actually need some help getting water from the well..."

The request is so silly, it actually gets a little smirk from Beth. "Right, I see how that would be an issue. So, what are all of these, uhh..."

Reading the rest of the thought, and how she doesn't know what or how to call the band of strange magical creatures, I jump right in to explain. "Long story. The short version is I used soul magic on a bunch of animals and stuff so now they're kind of all me, even though they're also themselves? They're basically my friends and they help me out." When a random thought pops into my head, I add on, "By the way, I'm at the guard barracks right now. I can see and talk through my friends, which is how, you know, this all works."

"A-ah..." she doesn't fully get it, but she feels like she understands enough, so I drop it there and draw back, so I don't need to keep overlooking the huge swarm of emotions Beth is hiding below the surface. She turns her attention to the well, working to lower and raise a bucket.

When she sets it on the ground, everyone starts by taking turns drinking. It's not that much when split so many ways, but it helps a lot. Unfortunately, they leave the inside of the bucket covered in blood, so she ties another bucket to the rope to draw more, dumping it into the bloody bucket when she gets it back up.

"Anyway, why are you all here?" She asks as she's working on the third.

When Hilde forms another telepathic connection, most of the unpleasant emotions in Beth's heart have settled down. "They've been fighting all day, they need to rest a little," I explain pretty simply. "Should probably get cleaned up a bit too. Everyone is scared of them like this. Even more than normal, I mean."

"That's... understandable..." she mumbles, momentarily reliving the terror when she saw them herself, before she shakes it off.

As I said, my friends take some time, and quite a number of buckets of water, cleaning themselves up, then flop onto the ground, exhausted. They send Beth back to her work, with a warning 'from the scary magical creatures' for the others not to bother her anymore. For the time being, it seems to help. No one is yelling at her or trying to drag her away at least.

The seventh bell comes, the noon sun hanging high overhead, when the magical creatures call an end to their short rest. Luckily, no one bothered them. No one even came close to where they were resting, except for the couple times they needed to get more water from the well. Of course, that doesn't mean people from all over the plaza weren't staring at them the whole time.

Now they all stand, groaning and stretching their sore, tired muscles, and ready themselves to head back out and finish things. The whole plaza goes on alert when the now somewhat cleaner magical creatures begin moving again, heading over to the center of the plaza, where Beth and the others are working on at least four or five dozen injured people now, some in better shape than the others.

Hilde hops to the ground and gives an experimental flap of his wings. They still hurt a lot, but the damage definitely isn't as serious as earlier. They traded around mana during their rest, getting Hilde plenty more earth so he can heal from his wounds. With that and some time for it to work, he feels much better than before.

Looking to meet Beth's gaze, Myra nods. Then Hilde splits off, returning to the patients. The others turn, and leave the plaza.

Gram, Myra, and Avara soon split up, each heading off in their own direction. Chisa took her own rest while they did, getting up a bit earlier than them so she could survey the city in advance. The situation has definitely improved. While the guards and townspeople haven't been working as efficiently without me, the warrior's guild has had the time to do their job and draft many more men into the fight. The ranks of the militia have swelled massively, to the point where they have whole forces, forty or fifty strong, patrolling areas of the city to ensure nothing makes it to the far eastern side of town where the women and children are still hiding.

Every block my friends pass has spearmen, dead bodies, or blood all over the ground. Usually a mixture of all three. It makes it a lot more tedious to get around, with so many humans in their way now. I'd call their work done and have them leave if it wasn't for the few remaining threats, larger monsters that came in on the heels of most animals. Could they be what drove everything out of the forest...?

They're still engaged in long, drawn out battles against the city's forces, being held back by swarms of men, fighting with everything they have against foes they are not equipped to deal with. It barely looks like their spears can scratch the stony hides of the closest monsters, which each magical creature head directly toward. They do their best to evade the humans blocking their way, without giving up too much time, and arrive at the battles as soon as they can.

When they do, the fights are surprisingly tough. Nothing they can't handle, but these monsters are almost as strong as actual magical creatures, their hides thick and strikes powerful enough to actually hurt. At least for Gram and Myra, so they have to get somewhat serious and use their magic to tear through their enemies. Avara is as unfazed as ever, though her monster actually manages to make her slide a little when it hits her.

As soon as they finish off their monsters and crush the cores, half of the surrounding men collapse in pure exhaustion and relief. The other half attempt to attack, so they quickly move on to the next area they're needed.