Lycoris fidgeted with the bangles on her wrists, eager to take them off. The closer the moment came, the more restless she found herself, as though she were about to march onto a battlefield…

  It brought to mind one time in particular, when she had to lead half of the Second Ray against a Whisper incursion that had dominated a major trade hub and crossroads town in the Kingdom. Granted, there had been far fewer Whispers, and she was leading actual knights back then rather than civilians, but she felt something akin to relief that her mind hadn’t lost its edge on the eve of a battle.

  Or, maybe it was implacable anxiety, for something overlooked.

  Forcing herself out of her rumination, she looked from the exit to the groups behind her, arranged in formations she spent the past hour or so drilling into them. Well, “drilling” was a bit of an exaggeration; all she had really done was show the more physically capable how to properly hold their shields to avoid having their arms ripped off, explain that they could only move as slow as the slowest person within the group, and that their goal wasn’t to fight back, but to hold out until Lycoris or the vanguard team could intercept any Whispers that approached.

  As for said vanguard team, she didn’t bother with any sort of instruction, both because of the wide disparity of weapons and “soldiers.” They already knew how to use whatever they chose to arm themselves with, and there was no way for Lycoris to teach them how to avoid panicking that could compare to live combat experience.

  There was little point to having neatly filed ranks, given the battlefield they were moving through would be torn apart streets and alleyways.

  Still, she was rather proud of this group of sheltered civilians for getting themselves into a semi combat-ready state. Lycoris felt that between their few guns, the hopefully scattered hosts of Whispers, and her own battle prowess—assuming she was even a quarter as capable as her mother—they stood a strong chance of making it to the hospital without any casualties.

  Or, at least she sincerely hoped there wouldn’t be any. They weren’t trained soldiers. They hadn’t prepared themselves for sacrifice, and while she wasn’t exactly forcing them to abandon the relative safety of the shelter, they were still her responsibility.

  “An argentum for a thought, Princess?”

  “…What?” She cocked her head at Varilas as he approached.

  “An argentum for—”

  “I heard you just fine,” she glowered. “What do you mean?”

  “Ah, my mistake,” he chuckled and bowed his head. “I hadn’t realized Your Highness had never heard the phrase before. I wish to ask your mind of the situation. You seemed introspective.”

  “Is that so. I suppose I was briefly lost in… reminiscence.”

  “Reminiscence? Does Your Highness rally civilians against the forgotten sins of the world frequently?”

  “Ahaha…” She refused to answer. “Is everyone ready to move? I’ve had more than my fill of these cuffs and this cave, myself. I can scarcely imagine how everyone else must feel.”

  “The chaff and I are more than ready to move at your command.”

  “They’re not chaff,” Lycoris frowned, “That attitude is exactly why the air in this shelter has been so stifling and awkward. I won’t ask you to be friends with the Fangchasers, but if your pointless feuding endangers anyone, I’ll use you as bait.”

  Varilas smiled creepily and nodded, withdrawing with a deferential bow.

  His attitude sent a shiver up Lycoris’s back, but she pushed the disgust away and turned Mira around while clearing her throat, leading him toward the exit of the shelter.

  “Everyone, your attention please!” Lycoris waited a moment for the shelter’s focus to settle on her. “As a reminder, the vanguard team will move out five minutes after I’ve left, and the civilian team will vacate after. Remain in formation, and if there are any complications that will prevent proper escort to the hospital, I will return immediately and inform you. Otherwise, we move along the route that Bolte and Varilas mapped out. Are there any questions?”

  Deathly silence was her only response. A palpable tension filled the air as she could practically taste the sweat coalescing on the more timid individuals’ brows.

  “Then in that case, may our Ancestors watch over us.”

  At long last, she clicked open the clasps on her unfashionable bracelets, stowed them in a satchel fastened to the “saddle” on Mira, and rubbed her wrist as she watched the wound on her palm heal with alarming rapidity.

  Hmph, I still detest this… even if it’s a convenience I can’t ignore the benefit of…

  But she didn’t have time to grouse about the unfortunate advantage of her advanced-level vampirism.

  While the wound was nothing more than a scar on her palm, she once more repeated the art of drawing something from within herself; only this time, she found it to be far easier to withdraw her scythe.

  Whether it was because her magic had been backed up, or because she found it far, far easier without having literal restraints on her wrists hindering her like when she’d pulled the dagger out, Lycoris wasn’t sure. But it wasn’t an unwelcome revelation either. It felt like she had made tangible progress.

  Smiling to herself and flourishing the scythe before resting it against her shoulder, Lycoris wrenched open the door and gently squeezed her thighs against Mira to egg him on.

  Fresh night air filled her nostrils as the pair rushed out into the empty streets, her braided twintails fluttering in the air and her eyes scanning their surroundings for any signs of movement or malevolent machines.

  None jumped out at her.

  Spending her allotted time confirming the coast was clear, she doubled back around to the shelter entrance, tapping the wing jutting out the back of her scythe against the door twice to signal that the coast was clear.

  Part of her drilling had been introduction of quiet and silent signals to avoid making unnecessary noise. They were just as drawn to sounds as they were mana, if not moreso; there was little reason to risk drawing attention when hand signals worked just as well in most cases.

  The first one out the door was Bolte, his rifle at the ready as he perked his ears up and twisted his head around, before beckoning the others to exit after him.

  Once the vanguard group assembled in the adjacent street, the rest slowly shuffled out, those with their shields at the edge of the ring with everyone else huddled up inside. They moved slowly, as they could only go as fast as the injured and frail would permit. The shields were nothing but wooden planks mounted on steel beams, but they only existed to buy time anyway.

  As planned, the vanguard moved just behind Lycoris as she trotted along, serving as bait and distraction for any Whispers that’d dare approach, while the rest hung back and moved at a slower pace. Lycoris and the vanguard had to take occasional stops to allow the civilian ball to catch up, an inevitability with the injured and elderly among their ranks.

  In that coordinated and quiet manner, they moved down the large road and cut across three, narrower pedestrian-only streets, not encountering a single Whisper in that entire time. Something didn’t feel right. They should have been swarming on Lycoris, or at the very least, any in their immediate vicinity should have taken an interest and approached her on instinct.

  But they had marched for at least a dozen silent and tense minutes with nothing to show for it. The Whispers had to still be around the town, else the citizens would have started taking to the streets once more now that it was sundown.

  But where?

  Lycoris had never seen such behavior from Whispers in all her time with the Kingdom—as far as she recalled, at least. Not a day passed that she didn’t wish she’d drank slightly less.

  Assuming that was why her memories were so fuzzy. There were any number of possibilities she couldn’t even begin with fathom, when it came to all the strangeness that was part and parcel of her new life. Perhaps she should ask her mom about it, if she ever got another chance to.

  If they aren’t charging at us, then… are we walking into an ambush? Are they actually smart enough for that?

  They certainly had done something of the sort in the tunnel, and this was a much larger—and presumably more tasty—morsel. If they wanted as few to get away as possible, and could think far enough ahead to plan, it was possible they’d do so again.

  But the problem then became…

  How do I know where they’ll strike from? And how do we avoid or spring their ambush safely…

  Lycoris stopped at the mouth of a narrow alley and glanced behind the vanguard to the nervous civilians peeking between their tall wooden shields, crestfallen at the destruction their town had been subjected to. The heavy weight pressing down on their shoulders in the shelter had gradually dissipated, the quiet air and collapsed ruins replacing their fear with melancholy and, perhaps, a hint of impatience.

  Noticing that she’d come to a stop and turned around, one of the vanguard members slowly approached with the handgun held at the ready, cautiously looking at the open-air iron stairwells, trash receptacles, and other nooks in the alley.

  She tapped Lycoris’s shoulder, looked around, and then muttered in a hushed tone,

  “Is something the matter, Your Highness?”

  “Mm. Do you not think that we should have encountered anything by now? Whisper or curious survivor or something.”

  “Hmmm… it does feel strange. Whispers are extremely hard to uproot once they’ve settled somewhere, I’ve never heard of them just… leaving like that.”

  Lycoris glanced at the steel stairs. “Have everyone wait for a moment, I’m going to climb up for a better look at the surroundings.”

  “Yes, Your Highness.”

  The woman returned to the vanguard to relay the message, while Lycoris hooked the small wing of her scythe on the stairwell railing and swung herself up toward the roof.

  As soon as she left Mira’s back, the myrh began to caw morosely at up at her.

  “Kweehhh…”

  “Shhh, it’s only going to be a minute or two at most, Mira. Don’t attract their attention!”

  What a strange novelty it was, to face a creature that was overly attached, rather than terrified and distant. It almost reminded her of her old companions. Or perhaps it was just because they were the only people she recalled treating her like that.

  Though… perhaps she ought to include Athena and her mother in that list now, even if they were older than her.

  At the top of the building, Lycoris peered over the concrete parapet at the surrounding city. Her view wasn’t as good as it could have been; there were several buildings—some of the uncollapsed ones standing taller, even—surrounding her and blocking her view of the street below.

  But even still, she was able to look down and…

  And…

  “Oh… no…”

  Immediately realize her mistake, as she involuntarily spun on the spot and crouched down, pressing her back against the parapet as she began wheezing for air. Even three stories was too much for her.

  She sat there, clutching her head for who knew how long. Her vision was swimming, but upon forcing herself to recall the sight she’d seen, she didn’t think she saw any signs of Whispers…

  Until she was pulled out of her light-headedness by a sudden spike of anxiety, when a shriek erupted from down below.

  ＊

  Cecily held her sister’s hand tightly. Being the only pair of children—aside from Her Highness Lycoris, who was an exception among exceptions—the two of them were kept in the center of the group.

  She wasn’t a stranger to death; she’d helped out with their family farm for long enough that she had to bid at least a couple of tearful farewells to the animals they cared for. And her sister was that much more used to it than she was, being over twice her age and on occasion helping their father out with the process too grizzly for Cecily to bear want to even watch. But neither the forty-two year-old nor the eighty-seven year-old had fully processed what befell their parents. There was a mountain of difference between her favorite pearpifus, and papa or mama. Perhaps that was why Vanessa was clinging to her little sister so tightly, why she was terrified of Cecily associating with Her Highness Princess Lycoris Aster Aphtangloa.

  But Cecily, who had already shed all her tears before Lycoris even arrived, thought her big sister was overreacting.

  The Princess was anything but scary. If anything, she was probably just as nervous and worried deep down. Considering their parents were well-off enough to own their own land, Cecily thought Vanessa should really be smart enough to realize no matter how high or low on the noble ladder someone was, they were still a normal person…

  That said, she neither complained nor let go, because she wanted to do whatever she could to help her sister out; and she knew that Vanessa was almost certainly thinking the same about her. Even if she was the younger sister, she could still help ease her older sister’s emotional burden.

  And, even though she knew Lycoris was only a couple of years older than herself and they had conversed together about animals and the yucky tasting canned rations, seeing the girl ride atop her myrh, at the front of the pack, with her scythe at the ready, was a sight imposing enough to instantly sear itself into Cecily’s memories.

  All these thoughts swirled about in her mind while the group of civilians shuffled forward, the fluffy tails of Fangchasers brushing against her shoulders and leaving her feeling like she was being swarmed by bolles. She knew she had to be as quiet as possible, but all the fluff was starting to make her eyes water like she was about to sneeze.

  Until the group came to an abrupt stop, just outside of an alleyway.

  “What’s the holdup?” one of the adults whispered.

  “I’m not sure, Her Highness suddenly stopped in her tracks,” another replied, cautiously or anxiously, Cecily wasn't sure.

  “Do you think it’s… you know?”

  Those holding onto the shields tensed up as they readied themselves for something. The sound of their anxious breathing was pretty distracting, and a little nerve-wracking.

  Vanessa hugged Cecily protectively against her, blocking the girl’s line of sight to anything that might be a threat.

  She pouted up at her sister. “Sis I’m not going to be able to run if something happens.”

  “It’s safest in the center of the group, Cecily.”

  “But we’re already in the center. Mm… Can you see what’s going on?”

  “It appears as though Her Highness is scaling the fire escape.”

  “Eh, really? Why though?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s hard for me to see past the shields… Looks like someone’s coming over though.”

  “You don’t have to keep hugging me, Nessa…”

  Cecily’s words fell on deaf ears however, as Vanessa was busy listening to what the adults were talking about. Not that she couldn’t hear herself, but the quiet buzzing of her sister’s heartbeat was making it hard to pick out exactly what they were talking about.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Something about Lycoris, from the sound of things.

  “She’s gone to…”

  “…Why is she taking…”

  Hmm? Wait, my sister’s heart doesn’t buzz.

  The strange sound quickly morphed into a full-body sensation, spreading throughout her body and causing her legs to shake as she blinked in confusion. Before Cecily could fully process what was happening, her sister suddenly pushed her away.

  Everything happened so quickly, she didn’t understand it all. Where she and her sister had been a moment before, there was an odd multi-segmented steel object. She had fallen over and was stuck amidst a forest of legs as everyone suddenly panicked.

  Cecily wasn’t sure if it was her own voice or her sister’s or someone else’s, but a high-pitched shriek filled her ears.

  And then explosions, like when they first fled to the shelter. No, not explosions, gunshots.

  People began to stamp about in terror, unable to escape as they pushed against those holding shields while they attempted to maintain a perimeter. More shrieks rang out, and the elongated mass of steel wriggled about, pivoting and righting itself as it turned around. It appeared like a gigantic adult-sized winged centipede, with a square-shaped head like a toaster. It wriggled its row of knife-like, blue blood-covered legs. The buzzing came from the sound of its vibrating wings, the horrific image searing itself in Cecily’s mind as it clicked its “fangs” together and pounced.

  Cecily winced, shielding herself with her arms as… as nothing happened.

  Gradually, she opened her eyes and peered nervously up at the mechanical insect, her heart all but jumping out of her throat.

  `Would… …please complete… feedback survey…`

  “Huh…?”

  `Invaluable… to service…`

  Her chest throbbed painfully as she blinked, confused.

  The thing was struggling against a rose bush that had suddenly sprouted between it and Cecily. Or, at least, it looked like a rose bush. Except it was blue, and several of the thorns were elongated, sticking right through the Whisper’s body segments.

  “What is…”

  “Kweeeweweweeehh!!!”

  Dumbfounded and trembling, Cecily could barely move her legs. At the same time, Mira charged over and pounced on the Whisper like a long-extinct tiger, pecking at it with his beak as it thrashed about.

  The flowerless, blue-vined rose bush surrounded her like a cage. As Cecily looked around, she saw the rest of the people had fled or relocated, those with shields holding off more of the centipede Whispers while other people shot at them with their guns, or beat them back and stabbed at them with sharpened pipes.

  Her eyes went from them, up to the roof above, where she saw Lycoris sliding down the side of the building, her scythe digging through the bricks to slow her descent.

  ＊

  Mystified, the Vampire Princess stared down at the rapidly approaching scene.

  A dozen or so metallic man-sized centipedes had burst out of the windows of the dilapidated buildings around them—including the one she stood atop—and flew down to pounce upon the nervously waiting group of civilians. They had intentionally avoided the group with guns, and Lycoris herself. The people naturally panicked and fled from the sudden ambush, currently struggling to hold back the flying monstrosities. But that wasn’t what had the girl so bewildered.

  Like twin tassels caught in a breeze, the leftover thorny blue vines drifted toward the ground after bursting forth from her hand and wrapping around Cecily and the Whisper. Her mind was empty as she moved on pure instinct, throwing herself over the edge and sticking her scythe into the wall, letting the dangerously-sharp blade cut through the stone as she slid toward the ground.

  After a moment, Lycoris’s brain caught up with her body.

  How did I just do that?

  Doing her best to focus her mind as she descended—and not think about how quickly she was going down—Lycoris frowned and looked at her right hand.

  Release, Manifest, Shape, and Stabilize.

  She’d functionally done every single step her mother had gone over with regards to magic manifestation. But she had never actually managed the last step before, much less on her own. Especially not while panicking and shouting (internally) for Mizar to help or do something.

  Of course, there were several additional aspects she’d glazed over in the process, like making her own blood turn into brambles, of all things. Lycoris gently rubbed her thumb over her freshly-healed, raw-skinned palm.

  All she could remember was desperately wanting to protect Cecily…

  By the time she made it to the bottom, her trusty steed was already positioned to catch her, and needed no encouragement to charge a second time toward the girl and the monster. With her scythe at the ready, she shouted at the top of her lungs to the panicking civilians.

  “Remember your shields! Steady your nerves! Stand together and focus on defending each other! So long as you do not panic and run, they won’t have a chance to harm you!”

  Of course, her rallying cry sounded less like the heroic baritone she was expecting and much more… squeaky.

  Nevertheless, she refused to let the sound of her own voice deter her. Their morale had been instantly shattered, and there was no reason to worry about making noise.

  “Vanguard! Aim for the ones attacking from the air! Wait for them to dive, don’t waste your shots firing randomly!”

  There were a few chuckles from said vanguard as she dashed past, the sight of a little girl shouting like a military commander enough of a juxtaposition to startle them out of their shock and concern.

  She galloped straight past them, her focus shifting from the panicked groups of civilians to her target. The centipede was still struggling against the blue brambles, attempting to tear its way through to get at the girl cowering inside.

  With the lightest of gestures, she held out her scythe and hooked it around the midsection of the creature as Mira vaulted over, letting the momentum carry most of the weight behind her swing as she ever-so-gently “threshed” the Whisper. Her blade cleaved it in two as though parting water.

  Mira doubled back around a large piece of debris in the street, and as the bundle of nettle came into view, Lycoris saw the top half of the Whisper was still twitching. It wriggled its way out of the brambles by ripping off its lower segments and, having torn its wings off in the process, it crawled away from the girl in the brambles and redirected its attention toward the actual threat.

  Without any flourish or elegance, Lycoris readied her trick-scythe again and changed it into an axe. Silently and efficiently, she swung it right through the creature the moment it got within range. The Whisper tried to dodge out of the way, but Lycoris swung the weapon as big as herself faster than it could scramble out of the way.

  Briefly taking stock of the situation after making sure the thing had stopped moving for good, she saw some the civilians were continuing to fall back to keep themselves from being circled by the flying pests, and had even managed to injure a couple from the looks of things. At least one of them had jammed a sharpened steel rod through a centipede, but the reason Lycoris could tell was because it carried the lump of metal with it as it flew around awkwardly. Another group was huddled with their backs against a building, cowering behind the wooden shields and hoping they could deflect whatever monster tried tackling them.

  The vanguard team was doing its best to shoot them out of the air, but their accuracy was… poor, even with Lycoris’s instruction, though the Whispers were far more intelligent than she could have fathomed. Once they noticed where the gunfire was coming from, several broke off to attack them instead, forcing the firing line to withdraw the pressure from those hounding the civilian section.

  An ambush, and diversion tactics.

  None of the Whispers Lycoris could recall fighting had ever been this clever, and even those that came close still took ages to coordinate anything resembling a plan. She clenched her hands around the pole of her weapon tightly. She’d completely underestimated the creatures, and now all these people…

  “Lycoris! I-I’m okay, but I can’t reach Big Sis!”

  The panicked voice of the little girl inside the brambles dragged Lycoris out of her malaise before she lost herself to her own frustrations.

  Looking back at the barrier she’d conjured, she saw Cecily attempting to reach through the thorny vines with a scratched up arm for her sister, who was laying on the ground. There were quite a number of wounds covering Vanessa’s front, and she wasn’t moving.

  Lycoris breathed in sharply, choosing to believe that Vanessa would be alright. Her job was to protect all of them, not just one Vampire.

  “She’ll be fine! Stay inside there for now.”

  Calling back to convince herself more than Cecily, Lycoris urged Mira to race toward the pinned Fangchasers shooting erratically into the air to keep the centipede-Whispers from reaching their ranks and tearing into them. Using them as a distraction, she flipped her weapon back into its scythe mode and swung it overhead like a hoe instead.

  With one swing, she brought it through a centipede from an odd angle right as it dove down, shredding most of its limbs but leaving its “head” intact. Even though it couldn’t move, it was clearly alive as it tried to spread its foul blaspheming words.

  `Buy now and get-et-et-et thirty percent off-off-f-f-ffff.`

  Paying no heed as it fell to the ground, another turned on the spot in reaction to her arrival, only to receive a surprisingly solid projectile through the head—in place of the usual fireball. Following the trajectory back, Lycoris saw Bolte with the rifle crouched down and propping the startlingly elongated barrel on his knee to steady his aim.

  The other Whispers immediately broke off, hedging their bets and fleeing, though the ones attacking the civilians hadn’t gotten the message it seemed. They continued to pounce from the skies, their bladed limbs scratching and tearing into the wooden shields. Some of the civilians had been injured in the surprise assault, while those who could fight back desperately swung whatever they had on hand.

  The Whispers struck in waves, retreating to the air and charging down at once, before going back up to gather for another pass—almost like birds of prey, rather than insects.

  Nearly perfectly in sync with Lycoris’s wishes, or perhaps simply obeying his own instincts, Mira let out a shrill cry as he pushed himself to run as fast as he could, galloping right up to the shield wall and—much to the dismay of one of the Vampires holding one—used them as a springboard to jump into the air, snapping one of the Whispers out of the air with his beak while the civilians below them panicked to rush out of the way.

  Lycoris in turn used him as a springboard, catapulting herself toward the cluster of Whispers as they gathered high above for another pass at the civilians. Though she couldn’t control her trajectory all that well, she carved a wide crescent through the sky with her scythe, reaping the bundled together Whispers with one, two, three full spins in the air before her momentum gave way to gravity. She barely felt any resistance as the blade cleanly sliced through them, like she was cutting through silk while performing a strange low-altitude ballet.

  Metal rained down, flying centipedes struggled to recover from suddenly having their bodies carved through at random, and… Lycoris began plummeting toward the ground several meters below as gravity mercilessly gripped her.

  “A-AAAHHH!!”

  Flailing with the grace of a goose, she closed her eyes and let instinct take over. She heard the sound of something ripping, there was a subtle pressure on her back, and her scythe suddenly felt twice as heavy in her arms as her descent went from a head-first dive into a more parabolic curve. The impact of the ground still struck her like a dozen boulders, her body aching and scratched up as she rolled forward and opened her eyes.

  Staggering back up to her feet, she flapped her wings and shook her head, both hands still firmly gripping her scythe. Mira rushed over to her, the piece of Whisper still in his mouth twitching as he brushed his side against her and crouched down.

  But instead of re-mounting, Lycoris kept her attention fixed on the Whispers above, the remaining ones finally cutting their losses and fleeing as well.

  The intellect they were exhibiting sent a shiver through the scratched-up Vampire Princess. By all rights, they should have bee-lined for her as the most potent source of mana here, but they were cognisant enough to understand the threat she posed and… and had survival instinct.

  After ensuring that they weren’t going to double-back, Lycoris walked back over toward the brambles she had produced, gingerly reaching forward to touch them.

  They didn’t sear her hand, so it clearly wasn’t the same sort of thing Mizar had turned himself into. It was just… vines. They were as solid as rock and didn’t seem to budge when she applied a little pressure with her fingers, careful not to accidentally press down on any of the actual thorns.

  “That was amazing, Lycoris! …Um, though… Is… Big Sis…”

  Lycoris circled around and crouched down, pushing the piece of centipede-Whisper aside and nervously hovering over Vanessa.

  Her clothes were torn; there were several lacerations on her face and body; but when Lycoris closed her eyes and laid her hand against the girl’s chest, she felt a wave of relief as a frail heartbeat pulsed back against her palm.

  “She’s okay. Or, um well, she’s definitely not, but… she will be. She’s still alive, Cecily.”

  “Nessa…” The poor girl’s voice cracked as Lycoris shared the news.

  “Stay strong, okay Cecily? And step back, I’m going to cut you out of there now.”

  “‘Kay.”

  Whether it was because Lycoris was acting as a good ruler, or because she’d given the girl a source of hope, or even just because she was the same age but acting so much more mature, Cecily put on a brave face and nodded severely.

  Standing back up and gripping her trick-scythe once more, Lycoris split through the bramble patch she’d created as easily as she had the Whispers. As though it was a ritual that’d been disrupted, the moment she sliced through it, the entire patch melted into a puddle of blood, which… unfortunately splashed onto Cecily who had been inside the dome.

  “Auugh!”

  “Oh no! I’m sorry! I didn’t know it would… Are you okay!? I mean it’s just blood but… I’m sorry!”

  “I’m fine… it’s just gross…”

  “Your Highness! Are you alright!?”

  “Aahahaaagggh! Who cares about her! My leg! They fucked up my leg!”

  “How dare you!?”

  “Someone get a tourniquet!”

  Lycoris sighed, “No, that’s not her blood, she’s okay.”

  “Oh.”

  The civilians that had broken formation when they fled the danger gradually made their way back in scattered groups. At least, some of them did; several of the others were laying on the ground, some rolling about in pain, while others attempted to do whatever they could to bandage them up. At least one Fangchaser—the one who had been looking after Athena and Seraphine—had tied her hair back and was busy wiping away the blood and doing her best to tend to the smaller injuries.

  Several of the shield-bearers had their arms either broken, jammed full of splinters, or sliced through by claws that’d gotten lucky strikes. Miraculously, most of the civilians that weren’t fighters were okay, though at least a couple were on the ground unmoving…

  Lycoris hung her head and spoke softly, “I’m… sorry. This is my fault.”

  “You’re damn right it is!”

  “Shut the hells up.”

  Miracle or curse, at least two of the Fangchasers that had been anti-Lycoris were among the survivors. Surprisingly, Gier was in her corner, barking at the other before turning to give a nod toward the Princess. His mother wasn’t clinging to his back anymore, and he looked furious… but not at Lycoris.

  “You… did better than I expected. Honestly, I assumed you would have cut and run.”

  “Hmph, not so long as we have her friends here,” the other Fangchaser added.

  “You make it sound like we’re taking them hostage. And she just chased those things off for our sakes, you know! She could’ve just grabbed the bags and ran.”

  It was oddly nice, having Gier backing her like this.

  Arriving to spoil the fun, the vanguard approached with Bolte having folded up and slung his rifle back over his shoulder.

  “Your Highness, we should resume moving at once. There’s no telling when more might come.”

  She nodded in acknowledgement before looking toward the field medic. “Can we get them moving? Or have someone carry them?”

  But the woman had stopped in the middle of wrapping a piece of cloth around someone’s arm. She stared into the middle-distance, her ears were perked up, alert, and her long flowing tail trembled.

  Lycoris followed her gaze, and saw several people marching in their direction a few blocks down. Or, at first glace they looked like people. They approach from opposite the direction the centipedes fled to, and didn’t move with any urgency. It didn’t seem as though they were survivors.

  It was a dozen… two dozen, maybe three, that she could see. As they drew closer, Lycoris saw that all of them wore shredded clothes, were caked in blood both blue and red, and… large patches and scraps of flesh had been draped over them, as though they were attempting to literally wear the skin of their victims.

  Shuffling toward them like zombies, Lycoris saw a horrific sight, as repressed memories returned with painful clarity.