I didn’t truly understand the connection between me and my monsters.

Existence of such a link was, however, undeniable.

It was bringing me down to my knees every time one or more of them were ‘sealed’ - an effect that had some special meaning, and with how extreme the reaction was compared to injury, or even death.

Considering their cyclic, respawning nature of their existence, they perhaps considered it a fate worse than death, despite it being technically reversible.

Backlash I’ve suffered convinced me it may be the case.

I felt it myself.

It wasn’t entirely rational, but it was a sad, disheartening experience - it had forced my hand the first time, and it was forcing my hand now, even if something at the back of my mind screamed it wasn’t an entirely normal human thinking pattern

Not only was it an unpleasant experience, it made me furious as well, yet with no one to lash against.

There wasn’t anyone else around but me, and my monsters, my girls.

Pent-up anger made me shake. It made me scratch myself nervously while still struggling to stand. I simply held Miwah, embracing her.

With her armour on, my werewolf wasn’t as soft and fluffy as she was before, yet her closeness provided me with the both physical and emotional support I needed in a hard moment.

The others were equally supportive, swarming around us, showing concern for my well-being, with a handful of them joining for a group hug.

Their affectionate behaviour was very heartwarming, and this strange, symbiotic link I was developing strengthened it further. Maybe it was an aftereffect of life-energy channelled by the ‘Defilers’ to combat the suspected injury that didn’t really happen, but my rat-like healers didn’t leave this to chance.

The grass and greenery within range was turned to dust for the infusion of energy.

I realised that I never experienced this level of solicitude about my health, mood, safety or anything else in my life, which further increased the anxiety from the drive to free those who were imprisoned within that spell.

If my monsters cared for me, I should care for them.

“Master? Master!”

Remaining the hold around the werewolf waist, I turned to rest of my furry menagerie

“I am all right.” I assured them, patting and scratching the few of the most caring girls nearby, not only traditionally over-affectionate ‘Purifiers’ but also a smaller crowd from the other little ones showing their care.

Only the largest of them, the bear-like ‘Ravagers’ were a little left out, all of them being simply too big and bulky, but even then showed a certain level of fondness from the distance while a handful of small monsters huddled nearby.

“You need to rest, Master.” Miwah said, half asking, half stating.

“I am not hurt or tired.” I added, the life-force channelling ‘Defilers’ made sure of that.

Slowly letting go of Miwah, I made a few steps through the small crowd to Tama.

“Master?” the vixen asked, her tone of voice betraying concern.

Whatever this link, this feedback did, it didn’t leave any long-lasting physical after-effect, and even the temporary weakness waned away during mere few steps.

Psychologically, though, it was different.

The nudging, the compulsion, to act towards the person the system considered an enemy - the unexplained and mysterious ‘caster’ and the ‘sealing’ - was more lasting, and a much more pressing experience.

I could feel the pulsing sensation in the distance, roughly in the direction where I knew the castle was.

There was no reason to rush there though - my current predicament resulted from me rushing there, pushing the handful of ‘Purifiers’ to make a hastily mounted assault in order to avoid the larger, more drawn out battle ahead.

They suffered for that, as was the one who actually guided them.

I gave Tama a hug, and she accepted it with the passion that was typical for her, which I didn’t give up to.

“Did the others get away?” I asked, still holding the fluffy vixen close.

“Yes. We almost got her, but the human woman could use her ability in a much faster manner than the previous one…” She said and even through her usual demeanour, I was certain that she experienced the same loss that was gripping me at the moment.

Miwah had likely experienced something similar when the smaller ‘Eviscerators’ had been targeted, though the white werewolf was much better at not showing it in the same manner.

I felt it was my fault.

“No. It is too much of a risk. We lost too many.” I objected. While holding my fluffy vixen in my arms, I continued: “If we try this again, we need a diversion…”

“Yes, Master.” She replied, quietly.

Not letting Tama go, I turned my head to others.

“We need to sit down and figure out what to do next.” I said, “Miwah, Kuma… get Narita too.”

“Yes, Master.”

Brave, however, was already on her route towards the other settlement, and the only saving grace was the fact they were all, in fact, able to communicate over longer distances with little of a problem and the decision could reach her as it was being made.

“Some place private?” I asked, realising we probably just shouldn’t stay here in the open.

There was no reason to go uphill from where I could see the castle. Not right now, I thought to myself.

“This house is almost empty, Master.” Kuma suggested, pointing towards one of the many village huts, indistinguishable from others with the same woodwork and thatched roof as the others. My monsters already went through the contents during their pillaging spree, judging from the couple of items they dragged outside.

I accepted it wordlessly and headed inside, seating myself on the wooden floor, feeling exhausted. Mentally, not physically, the ‘Defiler’ magic worked its charm after all.

Miwah took her position at my side, scanning the empty, gloomy room, and Tama did the same, while Kuma simply crashed in the corner, looking somewhat weary or bored.

Only Narita stood up, arriving last, but not before the two of her smaller kin took position behind my back as guards - or emergency medics, perhaps. With each fit of weakness this weird connection brought, and after several attacks, my monsters became even more insistent that I should be guarded at all times.

One of the kobold-like ‘Corruptors’ was also there. I suspected one of those I named, but I was at the point where I was struggling with names, and sadly, Mai wasn’t around to speak for them.

“What happened out there, Tama?” I asked, trying to sound every bit analytic about the issue we faced.

“A group of people tried to escape, headed by that weird woman from before. They went for the bridge over the river.”

“A weird woman?” I queried.

With no knowledge of the local language, culture, and without the clear idea of how their own commanding structure worked, aside from a few assumptions based on the attire, I wasn’t able to tell who was who with any sense of reliability. The ‘woman’ was a very vague description.

“We should’ve killed her when we had the chance, Master..” Tama declared, and despite my continuous attempts to avoid bloodshed so far, I sympathised with my fiery vulpine’s anger. After all, things had a tendency to spiral out of control the very moment I mistakenly thought I had them figured out, the latest of which was caused by enemy action with more grave consequences than before.

“Humans. They will not let us have our peace and quiet,” Kuma remarked. I ignored her, albeit she was, in the way, right - natives were an unceasing source of trouble and hostility, without rhyme or reason to it.

I looked intently at my fiery vixen waiting for her to elaborate, rather than giving up to this urge to act rashly against the unspecified enemy.

“One you freed from the cage back in that shrine was there,” Tama explained, without being prompted, likely after my very brief silence.

“There was something wrong about that woman,” Miwah added. Werewolf eyes were still scanning the shadows of the room, almost as if she was searching for something.

I turned my attention back to the matter of conversation - I remembered the woman they referred to. Long black hair, mystical green eyes, and a very unsettling presence, along with quite the attitude.

“She is the one doing the sealing? I asked carefully, regretting releasing the women I found locked in the cage.

“No, Master.. Another woman in the castle did it after we took down a few soldiers to draw attention.” The vixen explained. “But both of them feel weird.”

So she wasn’t the cause of all this, at least not directly. I however, felt they must be interconnected somehow. She might be in charge around here, even. I remember her clothes looking quite expensive, although finding her in the dirty cage imprisoned by a local armed mob didn’t add up. There was a part of the story I was missing, I was certain, but that one was to be explored afterwards, once I worked out the solution to the dangers threatening my monsters.

“Then there was an old human male leaving by another gate.” Vixen continued, “He tried to run when we attacked the walls, but the humans shut down the gate for him, so he ran away in the other direction.”

“Where is he now?” I asked, still unable to form any unified theory about what was happening in those lands. “You let him go?”

“Somewhere in the fields.” Tama said, and quickly shifted her gaze towards the unseen horizon, probably trying to contact her smaller kin in the field, continuing with a slight growl: “I am sorry, Master. We will get him soon enough!”

While it was certainly plausible, or understandable, that the many people would try to flee the castle before the enemy could lay the siege, I still wasn’t even remotely close to understanding the situation at hand.

I assumed refugees would flee in large groups comprising entire families, while the leaders would be surrounded by their bodyguards, with lone escapees being a kind of rarity. As rare as those who would try to talk, despite the huge language barrier involved.

“Capture him if you can.” I quickly decided, before realising that without the ability to communicate, another captive would be next to useless, but before I recalled the order, my mind re-focused on something else.

“Don’t go in range of the castle!” I quickly added, “The caster is still in there?”

“Yes, she was there, Master. We lured her out, but she was more capable than I thought.” Tama confirmed, her attention occupied by the certainly telepathic connection she had with my smaller vulpine monsters.

I nodded. There were individuals with extraordinary powers among the natives. It made sense to those who would vary in rank and skill. I just couldn’t tell them apart with any measure of certainty until it was too late.

Nevertheless, the plan remained the same then, to assault the fortress, take down the threat to my monsters, and free those under this curse, this ‘seal’.

“We will need a distraction if we try again.” I repeated my previous thought.

My mind raced. First, I had to take care of those heading towards the inevitable fight, and have them not suffer for it.

The urge created by the link nearly dispelled the inhibitions towards ordering the assault on the settlement with possibly unarmed people: my people suffered, too, after all, and only because of the human’s stubbornness to refuse all attempts to communicate.

The anger, briefly quelled by the questioning, resurfaced again.

“If you can contact Brave, remind her to not take any risks.” I said, churning out orders, or rather ideas: “Make sure there are Defilers to cure our wounded. Try to use Corruptors to immobilise the enemies. And Kuma, make sure there are Ravagers in Brave’s group. You will bash together the cover for the siege there.”

“Yes-yes, Master.” Narita confirmed more enthusiastically, while Kuma acknowledged with the drawn yawn: “Will do, Master.”

“Have more scattered and hiding through places between us and the castle, like groups of trees, or some huts, and so on.” I continued. Unless our enemy possessed some extrasensory perception, they couldn’t attack what they couldn’t see, though I put little faith in that tactic.

The very reason we were in this mess was that this ‘caster’ could apparently see through ‘Eviscerators’ cloak of invisibility.

“Work all together,” I said, though I felt it was entirely arbitrary. They were accustomed to close communication, after all.

“And you…” I pointed towards the Corruptor in the room, stopping myself when I realised I didn’t actually remember the name of the small, scaly lizard girl.

She blinked at me with serpentine eyes, reminding me that ‘Corruptors’ had the third eyelid, an anatomical fact useless for the situation.

There were far too many like her, all of them similarly fond of the same improvised outfits, with scavenged cloth, and grass skirts, and the twisted flowers for decoration. Perhaps their naturally feathery manes had some patterns I should remember, but I, honestly, didn’t know.

“Lily.” I breathed out as something within my brain clicked.

“For Master!” The small, cute kobold-like monsters replied, overjoyed that I remembered her among dozens of her sisters.

My brain, however, quickly switched towards the plan. As poorly planned as it was, it could work assuming the grinding, endless nature of the historical sieges, sometimes lasting a few seasons.

I would rather not make plans for such long periods of time - my power was impatient, and my planning skills questionable.

“I want a few of you to sneak to the fort by the river.” I said, carefully. However, something about her readable expression told me she didn’t like the idea of swimming. Despite the eyes reminding me of alligators, the ‘Corruptors’ didn’t have the webbed fingers on their clawed hands. They were more likely climbers, likely not swimmers.

Not to mention that our scouts mentioned the river was wild and wide.

“No, don’t swim if you don’t want to.” I said, gesturing with my hands to express more of what I had in mind, “Work plants near the river to sneak near the castle from the riverside, slowly, day by day, in secret, possibly night, so we can get there unnoticed.”

I hoped she understood what I had in mind. This wasn’t a strategy that relied on haste, albeit still being admittedly poorly thought through. While slow, with the speed ‘Corruptors’ magic worked, it would be considerably faster than work sappers would have to do, digging under the walls for entire days, even months, with primitive tools.

“For Master!” She said, her voice more excited now, and rushed out of the hut immediately.

I thought I finally understood the importance of ‘Alphas’ in the management of my furry and scaly menagerie. They understood me, and likely comprehended the commands perfectly fine, but her eagerness to obey often sent them dashing out quickly, leaving the potential line of communication interrupted without someone to distribute the tasks efficiently.

Leaving Mai in charge of the remote location seemed more like a mistake in the hindsight.

I doubt she even talked to that captive merchant.

“I wish I had Mai here.” I sighed.

“We will catch the human in a moment, Master. We could corner him soon.” Tama announced, her focus still out there, with the sly grin across her vulpine features.

“Master, I think I have the idea.” Miwah said, standing up almost as if hit by the sudden inspiration, or realisation, and slowly walking towards one corner of the poorly lit room.

With glass being very rare, almost non-existent in those lands, local houses were doomed to have rather sombre interiors, and the dark corners where the light didn’t reach joining the myriad of other inconveniences.

There was a large basket in here, one of the few pieces which wasn’t turned upside down, or dragged out to the street when my horde went through the buildings.

My first thought was that the basket was the problem, hiding something, or possibly someone. It was not.

My werewolf didn’t reach for the item. She reached for the shadow in the empty corner; her clawed hand dissolving in the black, vanishing hue as it touched the least illuminated space. It created a strange, otherworldly contrast, as her fur was pure white since our last night, and not black as it was before.

Miwah's canine face expressed pure concentration.

It left me confused. Miwah, along with her shadowy kin, could become invisible on demand - it was frequently used and abused ability, but it hardly helped in our current situation.

Especially if it didn’t prevent the initial expedition from being ‘sealed’ in the first place, despite being composed of monsters with invisibility as their major power.

I still said nothing as Miwah pushed the basket away and stepped into the corner, her large furry body completely dissolving into this black, shadowy aspect, and then into nothingness.

“Why?” I whispered, utterly lost by the display. I suspected Miwah, and her ‘Eviscerators’ could lurk unseen behind the mirage for hours. It just didn’t explain why to do it now.

A brief glance at Tama and Narita revealed they weren’t any less confused than I was.

Then my white werewolf reappeared, pushing Mai with her from the shadowy haze into the room.

My mind took a second to catch up. The last time I saw my lizard-woman was likely a few kilometres away in our improvised camp on the hill, a distance that couldn’t be crossed in such a moment, shorter than a minute. Yet, there she was.

“Master! Please, let’s not do that again!” Mai protested as she regained balance, giving the impression of being slightly drunk.

I still saw the power for what it was - a teleport. It flashed through my mind that such power would certainly solve our current problem with ease. There were myriads of possibilities.

Before I could question Miwah about the ability she definitely didn’t have before, my werewolf collapsed to the ground, like a marionette with its strings cut, almost as from truly the severe exhaustion I never saw her experiencing.

I rushed to check on her, only to find my beast-woman was unconscious, and I could only yell for the closest equivalent of the medic we had.

“Narita!”