I immediately tried to roll Miwah over.

Unconscious and unresponsive, my werewolf was significantly heavier than I felt she would be, her body further weighted down by the suit of armour she wore, and the first thought that flashed through my mind at that very moment was one of fear or worry she may not come back to me as she did more than once already.

Fortunately, I had no time to ponder this.

‘Defilers’ didn’t hesitate. They quickly helped me in laying Miwah on her back, and bathed the room with emerald glow as their power manifested, filling me with a sudden spark of energy, yet it quickly waned away. I wasn’t the major recipient of it, and I didn’t want to be.

I wanted my Miwah to get better.

She opened her eyes, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Apparently, her strength returned to her almost immediately, and it didn’t seem like she was experiencing any notable discomfort, or dizziness, as she tried to rise almost immediately, once again full of vitality, and more concerned about me than she was about herself.

Miwah would probably be ready to run if I hadn't stopped to show her how much I was needlessly worried about her.

I kissed her.

There was a part of me that acknowledged that there was something inherently weird about kissing the anthropomorphic wolf, at least to a human it would be, even I thought so before, but that portion of me was growing weaker and weaker with each moment I spent entirely isolated from the sensible human company, and tied closer and closer with my monsters. My girls.

I shared my moment with Miwah, caressing her soft fur around her neck.

She didn’t mind. Quite the contrary, she reciprocated my closeness.

I would forget about myself completely if Tama didn’t use the opportunity to tease me about it

“Would you do this if I fainted too, Master?” The vixen remarked, with the usual, sultry tone very typical of her.

I didn’t answer. Truth was, I would be similarly distressed if something brought her harm, or discomfort, and I would be prone to similar, if not same, rash emotional acts should something threaten to separate us.

Although, I just wasn’t sure how Miwah would react to me, showing a similar amount of tenderness to the vixen. My werewolf didn’t show a single ounce of jealousy, but it ultimately didn’t mean she was not experiencing it.

It made me pause. Not only didn’t Iwant our group to be brought apart by my envy, I was becoming increasingly conscious of my behaviour, and it was very unlike my old self.

The experience was changing me.

Tama took my silence as the answer and said with an equally flirty tone: “I must work to impress you otherwise.”

Her gaze turned towards the unseen horizon again, usually an unmistakable sign of her trying to manage her unruly kin across the larger distances, abusing their abilities to communicate without words I didn’t quite get as yet.

Does she actually talk to them in her mind, or puppeteer them, or was the process entirely different?

I didn’t know.

But it wasn’t the time and place to query about it.

Something told me I should focus on it, cold and practical applications, instead of romantic feelings towards my anthropomorphic female monsters, but I failed myself almost immediately. I couldn’t quite separate my monsters from my girls - those two terms meant the same.

I gave my werewolf another brief kiss, the strangeness of which utterly escaped me until moments later. A glance in her bright blue eyes promised I would get back to it later, though.

My monsters didn’t seem judgemental about it even the slightest. While Tama spaced out after a quick moment of, well, being herself, Kuma looked positively bored.

Miwah rose from the floor from the position on her knees, where I held her for that short intimate moment, and gave me a few supportive touches, while in fact it was me who was supposed to be doting on her after she fell unconscious, and was brought back.

Narita, and her two smaller attendants, gave us some space right away, though they seemed quite agitated sniffing the air.

Mai‌, however, seemed disoriented from the teleport, or whatever Miwah’s new found power actually did to her.

“Mai?” I asked, feeling somewhat guilty for not paying attention to her state.

She registered me, but didn’t answer, once again giving the impression of being sedated, or drunk, something I never saw before in the ranks of my monsters. Narita seemed nervous about it, too.

“Something wrong, Narita?” I asked.

“Unexpected. Sense. Residue.” Narita answered. With her unusual speech pattern breaking the sentence into words, mixed with the fact she was genuinely surprised by something, it was next to impossible to understand what she actually wanted to say.

“What?” I said, then looking at the still fairly dizzy looking lizard-woman I understood. Or I thought I did - unforeseen side effects were the best explanation. Logical too. Miwah was knocked out by her own ability, after all. Unintended targets would likely get the worse end of it.

“From Mai?” I queried.

“Yes-yes, Master.”

“It did something to Mai?” I followed up with the obvious. I made a step towards Mai, placing my hand gently at the side of her beaky snout.

The lizard woman looked at me and babbled: “I don’t want to do this again, my Master.”

“Narita, could you please heal her?” I asked - what helped Miwah could help Mai.

“Yes-yes. Master. Need to get energy.” Narita replied, this time with more certainty in her voice. She had to lead Mai outside, though two of her smaller kin were once again behind my back.

Side effects, I said to myself. Either way, it seemed more and more useful to have them around for emergencies, especially now, when I was slowly learning that all those exotic powers did have their cost when pushed to the limit.

Perhaps it was a time to express gratitude to my ever present healers. In contrast to the occasional energetic behaviour, my anthropomorphic rats were possibly the most level-headed and collected individuals I had in my company.

And they were becoming more indispensable to the group, each of them fulfilling the niche the others could not.

Realising that I should show them more appreciation, I gave the little two rat-girls a hug. I was sure they were two of the named ones, but ‌I couldn’t remember.

“Thank you, you two. We will need you more than ever!”

They reacted with a cheerful tone in their high-pitched voices: “For Master!”

Today I found out that ‘Defiler’ powers apparently worked without a direct line of sight, through walls, which I didn’t know, but had limited range, which was something I already saw in practice.

They were also absolutely critical to have around, because of the wide, healing and empowering application of their ability, perhaps even reaching the point I had too few of them to balance the higher number of other monster kinds.

Part of me wanted to rush outside to figure out how far it could go, but my werewolf spoke before I became too distracted.

“I am sorry, Master.” Miwah apologised. “I didn’t expect it to be this exhausting.”

“It’s fine. It’s not your fault. Sorry for spacing out.” I replied, waving it away and returning my attention back to her. “Are you feeling fine?”

As much grateful I was for ‘Defilers’ help, I didn’t want Miwah to feel guilty that someone had to fix her up.

“Perfectly, Master.” She said, and I was tempted to go much closer to her again, but I worked my mind towards the current goal of beating the ‘caster’, or whoever the human woman was, and overcoming the defenders of the castle. It should have priority over personal relations.

Perhaps I should work to make use of the newfound power - it was a gift, not a burden, even with the apparent side effect.

“Can you sneak to the fortress this way?” I asked immediately, but before she could even muster an answer, I cast it away.

Miwah was special, both to me and to the logic of the system, perhaps no longer the subject of the poorly defined rules that governed my monsters, and I would not risk losing her.

“Forget that. Bad idea.” I waved it away almost right after I spoke it. “Risk is far too great.”

Sending her out there was unacceptable, risky, possibly fatal.

She would not only have to fight off the entire garrison of soldiers, but would have to face the most dangerous enemy yet in the term of this ‘caster’ who threatened to chip away my numbers from the growing menagerie of followers, one by one, making each subsequent attempt more difficult than the previous one.

I would not send my precious white wolf there. Not alone, not if I didn’t make a plan that had at least a slight chance of working.

Miwah still pondered it before she answered,

“I don’t think I can go to the places I haven’t seen.”

Strangely enough, I was pleased to hear this. I would not sacrifice my finest, dearest companions. I would sacrifice no one. By avoiding the daring, if not suicidal attack, wasn’t even theoretically possible to perform, I wouldn’t have to.

“Thank you.” I said. Despite my conscious attempt not to, I still came closer to show my werewolf more tenderness.

I was still disappointed with myself, pressured to think of the strategy, or plan, that provided tangible results which my monsters expected, and I wouldn’t get them by sitting idle. Problem was, there was very little to do here.

It made me feel a little inadequate

“Oh, Master. I think I have a plan.” Tama interrupted, almost as she caught up on my introspection instinctively.

“No sacrificing our little foxies.” I said, with little thought. I had enough contemplation of unnecessary sacrifices: “I don’t want them to charge to their death.”

Death had a very ambiguous meaning for my monsters. Many of them came back to life, no worse to wear despite their apparent demise, reformed from the ruby mist after suffering mortal injuries, sometimes fast enough to rejoin the battle that caused them.

I still refused to have them senselessly suffer, and I trusted Tama understood what I wanted to say - after all, ‘sealing’ wore on her badly. I saw it and sensed it as well.

“We won’t be charging to our death, Master.” Vixen assured me, sly smiling. “We chase the human you wanted captured. Besides, I have the idea of how to avoid the bitch sealing us.”

“I trust you.” I said. Tama had eyes in the field, and could coordinate the monsters better than I did. The only option I had was to trust my ‘alphas’.

I however, didn’t think of anything I could do - just sit there, until Brave’s group arrived at their destination. But then, what?

“Come with me again, please?” I said, and after affirmation from my companions, I walked out of the house. They followed me.

Stepping outside, I didn’t quite realise how much greenery was in an average rural village in times before widespread urbanisation until I noticed the patch of dead vegetation surrounding the hut, all sacrificed just to wake Miwah after over-exerting her powers.

‘Corruptors’ were already working on it, and were even more noticeably drowning the settlement in unnatural plant life, encroaching on every structure, on every patch of grass or lone tree.

It, once again, twisted the original flora to something more unearthly, almost as if I taint was following us where we went.

Sadly, I needed it. Under logic of healing based on draining the very life-essence, those were the equivalent of emergency services coverage.

It was random, though with Mai back, controlling the chaos was hopefully more feasible.

The lizard woman seemed more lively now too, waiting outside with Narita, which filled me with hope.

“Are you feeling better, Mai?” I asked

“Yes, my Master.” My scaly companion answered, “I would rather not do this again. It is not pleasant in between there, my Master.”

I looked at Miwah. She had quite a guilty expression in her deep blue eyes when she looked back at me, but I held her hand and returned my attention back to Mai.

“You don’t have to. That would be for emergencies only, I think.” I replied, unsure of what to say. My reptilian monster was, however, satisfied with the answer.

“Thank you, my Master.”

“Care to accompany me to the top of this hill?” I said, pointing towards the point from where I observed the fortress. There was little practical reasoning behind this, other than hoping for inspiration once I’d seen the layout of the land with my own eyes once again.

“Yes, my Master.”

Actually, I considered walking to the sawmill my scouts reported, but briefly checking the position of the sun, nearly completing its journey across the sky, revealed that the day would end soon.

And I was without a proper strategy.

“Master.” Kuma yawned in what clearly was a ‘do I have to’ gesture, though it didn't prevent her, and a couple of her hulking lookalikes to accompany us.

I started my walk with Miwah hand in hand. Almost as I was afraid she would drop once again. She held close. Tama did as well, though unusually spacy this time. Kuma was bored, though within the earshot, and Narita shadowed me dutifully.

Even with many monsters sent to various tasks, it was still fairly lively around here.

“Did you know about the grain we found there?” I asked Mai, which I immediately realised as something very redundant. If her connection with the small, rank-and-file ‘Corruptors’ was as half as good as Tama and Miwah showed with their kin, she was already listening to the conversation before she was dragged through the shadows.

“Yes. My Master.” She answered, as she visibly got more comfortable as we walked. “We are taking care of it. Many of them will require reseeding after harvest if we don’t alter them.”

“Alter?” I asked, even though it was painfully obvious that most plants affected by her power suffered from uncontrolled growth.

“Yes, I have so many ideas now!” Mai continued, looking slightly more excited and feeling more in her element, both in literal and figurative sense, “There aren’t many fruit trees nearby. But humans have some fruits stored, thus seeds, which means we can grow them as long as …”

Despite their enthusiasm, my little, cute, kobold-like gardeners operated from a limited pool of energy. The powers at work violated laws of physics as I knew them, but that alone didn’t mean they were entirely without costs.

“...there is energy.” I summarised, looking at Narita, “We will need to focus on dealing with the humans in the castle first.”

“Yes-yes, Master.” The rat-like monsters answered faster than the other one. Still, we reached the point where I could see the castle in the distance once more.

“Mai.” I spoke to get the attention of one of my companions.

“First.” I decided, “We need to encroach on the fortress with Mai’s plants. Don’t rush it, just do a little, then rest to recuperate normally.”

I gestured towards the grouping of trees that dotted the fields which wouldn’t really provide any cover for the approaching army, being too far between, then towards the snaking river that divided the land.

There was also the bridge Tama mentioned. It was just impossible to cross without approaching the fortress.

It was the path locals wanted to protect, and their way to escape, or to get reinforcements.

“...around the river.” Mai finished, proving she indeed knew what her smaller kin had heard.

“You seem to spread the creep on the ground, and there are mostly fields there, or pastures. As long as you aren’t seen, you can do it.” I said, commenting on the scenery spread in front of us. While the grass wasn’t exactly high, it also didn’t look like it was constantly grazed upon by the large herds of cattle or other animals.

“Yes, my Master.” The lizard-woman confirmed.

There was more agriculture than pasturage in this area, I suspected, and sneaking close with our control of local flora could be potentially more effective than assembling battering rams with movable cover. Though I should probably have them work on both.

“We have to take the slower path before we attack…” I said, however, I however didn’t finish my sentence before I was interrupted by the sudden burst of the familiar red mist that formed a Purifier.

“Master!”

I looked around, as I knew the implications.

There was a blast at the castle’s gate.

“For Master!” Freshly respawned vulpine announced proudly, with her girlish voice.

Still, I didn’t notice the commotion until the small fires bursted out somewhere else, at the other wall.

One of the lone huts still left in the fields caught fire, with the few small figures sprinting away from the spreading conflagration.

I tried to squint my eyes, only to be startled by the notification, and the five more materialised.

Skill “Scorched Earth lvl.26” gained.

“For Master!”

They cheered, but I ignored them. I realised all the commotion was somewhere at that accursed castle, but I couldn’t make out any details from the distance, however I noticed the. flashes as the few more ‘Purifiers’ out there must have hurled their flaming attacks at the walls.

Among the blasts, a distant gong could be heard, as inhabitants of the fortress raised alarm, along with the notion of motion down on the fort’s battlements.

Another small, fiery vulpine was re-birthed into the world from the ruby haze, announcing her presence with their usual cry.

“For Master!”

Then another.

“For Master!”

And another.

“For Master!”

I said nothing and did nothing..

Terrified.

Not scared of the enemies, or counter-attack, but of losing my precious monsters, however, I could only watch, too afraid to interrupt Tama and sounding retreat.

A quick glance at the vixen caught her vicious smile and the soft cackle.

Then more fire at the other wall from the other direction, and another batch of monsters spawning, excited and full of enthusiasm, while the usual window announced the further expansion of our numbers.

Skill “Scorched Earth lvl.27” gained.

A few more blasts, and then, the silence, or at least, no further explosions, though the humans back in the fortress may be in quite the disarray, or rather, preparing themselves for the inevitable charge.

There wasn’t one.

A few minutes of silence, I queried carefully when I saw nothing was forthcoming, my sight still fixated on a stretch of land along with the riverside’s castle.

“Tama?”

“I think I deserve my reward now, Master.” She said flirtatiously, “There are fewer humans, and your captive is only… slightly battered.”