Chapter 42: Burn it All Down

Another volley of arrows rained down on us like missiles from heaven--they were coming in from a considerable distance, and I grimly wondered if this meant that the attackers had defeated the centaurs. If so, that could be cataclysmic for regional stability--and a tragedy, if many were killed.

I looked behind my shoulder and saw that almost all of my girls were following on my tail, fierce looks in their gorgeous eyes. One part pride, one part sheer terror--that's what I felt when I observed them heading into the thick of it with me.

As the second volley descended, I shouted, "Take cover!" Some trees in the fields were perfect for hiding behind, and most of us dashed behind a couple of them--but Daisy didn't. She had other plans.

Daisy's big brown eyes lit up like embers as she opened her mouth, and a tidal wave of flames consumed the arrows and, with physics-defying efficiency, turned them to ashes that crumbled before her. However, a stray arrowhead did survive and make its way into the holstaur's shoulder, eliciting a gut-wrenching shriek from her sister and a growl of fury from me. Daisy only winced at the pain and plucked it out of her body, a stream of blood now dripping down her arm.

My eyes went wild. She was powerful, and she could fend for herself, but there is something very primal that happens in any man when he witnesses his woman--his pregnant sweetheart--get struck by a stray arrowhead in the heat of battle.

Adrenaline isn't the word. There was a surge of energy in my Umbercore, and inspired by Daisy's display, I charged forward as the throng prepared their next barrage.

Out of the corner of my eye, I realized that May Belle, too, had taken great offense at her sister's injury. She had effortlessly lifted up a stray flat boulder in her gentle hands and hurled it fifty yards into the throng of oncoming warriors.

The force that met them was enough to crush seven or eight of their bodies at once. May Belle dusted off her hands on her cute cowprint loincloth and charged back to check on Daisy, but I maintained my aggressive trajectory.

My eyes caught Autumn breaking from us, heading off a stray pack of soldier that had broken formation and were headed toward the town. In hot pursuit, she closed the gap with them in only a few instances. She was fast, agile as she dodged arrows, slings, and javelins with all the grace of--well, a cat, obviously. The sight of her ripping her enemies to pieces with her claws was a little less beautiful, but certainly just as awe-inspiring. Ivy backed her up with a rapid barrage of arrows.

"I've got Autumn's back!" she said. "Stay with the others!"

But I could only watch that tentatively as I focused on my part of the battle. She was out of my hands, and I had to trust her. I had to trust all of them--I couldn't be there for all of them at once, and that was indeed the hardest thing about my life in general.

My lance was in my hands, but I had no intention of using it. I activated Great Jump, first to leap into the pack of remaining orcs. Sprinkle was right behind me. I faced one mass of them while the unicorn girl took on those that were in my blindspot. I felt grim delight as I heard her manic giggles and squeals of pleasure, feeling splatter after splitter of blood spray hit my back and cake the side of my face. Good girl.

I took a deep breath and changed into my own unicorn form, a pure white steed with a gleaming silver horn and rainbow mane not unlike the hair of my blood-frenzied lover. I felt a craving for violence overtake me, and for a split second, I pitied the orcs as they attacked me in vain.

Their blades bounced off my hide like rubber knives. Whinnying in fury, I gored one straight through the heart and reared up to trample two more. Finally, I experimented with inhaling one more deep breath, this time emitting the Fire Breath ability while Dragon Affinity was attached.

The results were undeniable. An enormous blast of rainbow-colored flames burned bright with prismatic radiance as I made quick work of the rest of my adjacent assailants.

But there was more. Maybe a hundred yards away I saw another shape, larger, standing atop a mound. I neighed to bring Sprinkle's attention to the thing and she nodded darkly her understanding.

"Let's make a wreath from his guts!" she cooed, clutching her face lasciviously as though it were the most erotic suggestion she could imagine. At the moment, in this form, I more or less concurred.

Together, we charged, our rainbow unicorn fury certain to put the attacker on a collision course with the Grim Reaper. As we got nearer, though, it became abundantly clear that the figure, whoever it was, didn't fear us in the least, despite what we'd just done to his warriors.

He didn't move, though. He didn't step aside as I charged forward, with Sprinkle behind me. When my horn was milliseconds away from cratering his chest--only then did he take a single rapid step to the side, grabbing my horn and tugging me backward with such force that I went airborne and rolled, skidding on the ground.

It didn't hurt, but he'd made his point. Unfortunately, by the time I was on my feet--or hooves--he had done the same to Rainbow Sprinkle, but she managed to get a glancing strike on the warrior's cheek before being flung into the dirt.

I snorted a hot, raging puff of peppermint-scented unicorn breath as I prepared to charge again. He saw me coming--a troll, I realized--and planted his feet to perform a similar judo-like tactic once again, but this time I had a surprise for him. I enabled Hyper Dash at the last minute and compounded its effect with Charged Thrust as I lunged forward with malicious intent.

He wasn't ready, and I successfully impaled him right through the chest so deep that my cranium ultimately collided with his ribcage.

With the force of that impact, he flew back and tumbled on the ground. Dead, or so I thought.

However, when I was approaching to make sure the job was done, he kicked back up onto his feet in time to dodge another one of Sprinkle's attacks.

"What the hell?!" I grunted, shifting back into my human form, armor still donned, lance appearing in my hand as I stared at the creature in shock. I felt unable to believe my own eyes. "That was a killing blow," I grunted.

"Can't kill what can't die," it grunted, its voice deep, cold, and unfeeling.

I took another step forward, this time going for the neck, trying to slice his head off with the sword-like blade of my lance.

He dodged. And dodged again.

"What do you want?!" I asked in irritation as I continued to throw feeble attacks at him, praying one would connect.

"Am here to give message."

I stopped. Even Sprinkle stopped. "What message?" I asked skeptically.

The hooked nose of the lumbering troll angled down at me as he spoke, stiff, emotionless. The body of the troll was covered with open wounds that failed to bleed as expected. His words were simple but clear. "Goblin Queen time is done. Demon Queen and Witch Queen time begin. Join them, you live. Fight them, you die." Then he stopped and pointed at Daisy off in the distance, who was being tended to by Ivy and Autumn. May Belle was nowhere in sight. "They probably die first."

"You did not just threaten my girls," I seethed.

"You threaten them by not joining. Join Demon Queen and Witch Queen. Or all die."

I scowled at him with a fury beyond anything I'd ever felt before, clutching my lance tightly in my fist, but before I could spit a retort, I saw a busty holstaur descending from the sky with a face twisted in her own showy display of rage.

Just before her graceful landing, her fist made an impact with the head of the troll with so much force that it essentially vaporized it, only a few chunks of bone surviving to pelt the ground.

I was shocked--shocked by that display of raw power at first, certainly, but also at the lack of blood.

Sprinkle noticed it too. "No blood in him," she said, though it was like a whining complaint. "He must really already have been dead."

I kept my eyes trained on the body, waiting for it to move as I took a few steps forward and grabbed May Belle by the waist to pull her away from it. I just couldn't bear the sight of her beauty juxtaposed against something so unnatural, so ugly.

"Bucky-Baby!" she shouted, instinctively cupping my ass and kissing my cheek. "You were so amazing!"

"You were, too," I grunted, my eyes wide as I processed everything that just happened. "Really. I'm very, very impressed."

She pulled her face off of my shoulder to look me in the eyes. "You're making me blush, Bucky-Baby. Does this mean I'm your favorite?"

Sprinkle scoffed. "My Bucky, please tell May Belle to stop begging for your love at the exclusion of everyone else!"

I sighed, but a laugh escaped my lips, too. When I looked down at the troll's body, though, and at the now bandaged form of Daisy in the distance standing in front of our burning cabin, I frowned.

"Shit," I groaned, looking at the flames as they continued to spread and engulf our home. The home we built together and shared for so many nights.

May Belle shook her head. "That's okay. We'll build a bigger one! A better one!"

"I know," I said, smiling weakly. "That's not the only problem. The problem is we're not as safe as we thought we were." I couldn't help but feel like my life had gone from a romcom Isekai to Game of Thrones or the Witcher in a single moment.

"What are we going to do, my Bucky?" Sprinkle asked, her voice as sweet as always as she licked greenskin blood off of her body.

"I think we're going to have to move up the date of the attack on Keenfury's Keep. We need to rescue the Goblin Queen before it's too late."

Tater Town gathered together shortly after Aldon and Winter came back from their patrols. We watched the last flames consume the cabin, and I fought myself not to cry. But, Daisy couldn't contain the tears, and the sound of her weeping was enough that I, too, succumbed, though I did it in silence. If anyone noticed, they were merciful enough not to let me know.

"What happened?" Etherea asked me. Everyone involved in the attack, plus Aldon and Winter, were gathered in Etherea's home for a private meeting that felt all the more intimate for how tightly packed we were.

"The centaurs were apparently driven into the woods," Aldon said. "Not many dead, thankfully, but enough for them to retreat."

"And we were attacked by a throng of powerful orcs that were able to fire bows at greater ranges than what we'd expected might be possible for them," I added. "But the army was led by some kind of powerful observer--a troll. And he was dead."

Etherea's blue eyes went wide and dilated. "Dead? What do you mean?"

I sighed, looking at the others for help, but they all just shrugged or stared at the ground. "I mean undead. He didn't bleed. He survived being impaled through the heart. To top it off, he referred to himself as being dead in the middle of the fight."

"You can't kill what's already dead," Sprinkle repeated the words, imitating the grim voice.

"Something like that," I smiled at her. "Anyway, this changes things."

Aldon nodded and looked at me with a severe expression that showed he understood already what I was going to suggest. "You want to kill the generals sooner than planned."

"It has to be the generals. They've allied with the other queens."

Etherea appeared to swallow something--her nerves, most likely. Then, she looked at the two of us and said, "It must be the witch queen. She would have the power to do something like this."

Aldon and I exchanged looks. "Do you have that kind of power?" I asked. "Raising the dead and commanding them from afar?"

He frowned. "No. Necromancy is very rare. She is a powerful sorceress, to be sure."

"What do we do?" Sprinkle asked.

"We rush armor for you girls," I said. "Anyone who wants to join the battle is allowed to. We leave as soon as it's possible."

"Armor can take days," Etherea pointed out, and then nodded at Sprinkle, "even skimpy armor like hers. I don't have the energy to enchant so many in such a short time."

"Who does?" I asked. "We have to figure something out."

She was apparently deep in thought at that. "There may be one who can," she said. "But she hasn't been around in a while."

I looked at Aldon. "Darkmaw needs to know about this, too," I said flatly.

"I agree. She'll likely visit Vale tonight or tomorrow. Let's have her pass on the message if she doesn't approach you."

I took a long look at the wooden floor and my booted feet that stood atop it. "Things are suddenly so much worse," I muttered. "The enemy is burning down our home, and I have to drag my own girls into battle with me. It's too much. I don't know if I can handle this."

"You have to," Autumn said, wrapping her arms around my waist from behind. "There is no choice. This is why you're here. It was always going to end up like this eventually." Her words were muffled and buzzed in the back of my neck as she spoke with her lips pressed against me.

"I don't like it," I said. It was blunt and pointless to say, but I had to say something.

The room got silent. After a long pause, Daisy added her own suggestion. "Then let's get the job done so we can have our lives back, honey." She smiled at me warmly, but there was already a tired look in her eyes.

I nodded, trying to ignore my dizziness and the impending sense of being overwhelmed that was now encroaching upon my psyche. "Yeah. That's the right attitude. Let's take it back." But there was no way I was going to let a bunch of pregnant women fight my battles for me--if something happened to them--to the babies...

It was unthinkable. What I would do in such a scenario would be equally unthinkable.

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