Two days of travel passed uneventfully. Well, the nights with my lovers were very eventful and my time in the Dream learning with Viranatta was not exactly boring. But the days saw little more than a gradual changing of scenery. Even as fast as the cruising speed of the ship was, Willow Creek Nation was enormous and the miles that passed under us were many.

  The Willow Creek territory was honestly smaller than I thought, we’d left it before nightfall the first day and crossed over the wide and seemingly endless forest of the Ash Lands. The clearings and bodies of water in the area were few but notable, like pockets of light in the dark and beautiful sea of green. A full day of travel and the trees began to thin out, then change. The waterways below multiplied and spread out in meandering trails and wide swamps filled with the kind of greenery that thrived in the wet soil and standing water. Not to mention the various creatures that lived in such a habitat. I could see the occasional lump that might have been an alligator, but mostly the things I saw were more monstrous in nature.

  Nearing noon on the third day of travel, Luv, Tendri, and I were watching the world pass by on the deck when Luvetra stiffened in shock. After a few seconds she suddenly rushed away so fast that I knew she had to have activated a Skill to speed up. Moments ter the ship started to slow and the captain’s voice called from the speakers.

  “Battle stations! Battle stations! This is not a drill! All civilian crew and passengers return to your quarters immediately! I repeat, this is not a drill!”

  As his voice continued to give the order I told Tendri to head back to our room while I made way to the bridge. “Captain, what’s going on?” As I walked in I asked the question at about the same time Olivia had as she came in from a different door.

  Luv was next to the captain, trembling softly in a mix of fear and anger. “S-saw a den.”

  The captain nodded to her then turned to Olivia and I. “That. Miss Swapmblood saw a den down there, we’re turning around and making it a smoking crater.”

  Liv stood up straight, fear in her eyes as well, but that swiftly changed to eyes that promised death. “How certain are you, Luvetra?”

  Luv turned to the other Saint, a haunted look on her face. “I kn-know what to look for.”

  “That’s good enough for me. I’ll prepare a cleanup group, Esme I want you and your rifle on deck providing over-watch with Ephirin. I’ll be borrowing the rest of your team for ground operations to make sure non of them get away.”

  I yelled in frustrated confusion. “What the fuck is going on!? What the hell kind of den!?”

  Luv came to my side and kissed my head softly. “Trolls.” Before she left with Olivia, to gather her combat gear most likely. I took a steadying breath and stumbled along after to grab my rifle and a box of ammo.

  Sixth Sense started a dull throbbing feeling as we turned and started to lower altitude. Once on deck I was directed to the port side with a group of four others with long rifles, Ephirin, and the quickly gathering group of combat shaman. Someone brought me a stool at one point, I barely noticed. Ephi gripped my arm, she looked scared. But we had a small army and a major advantage of starting with aerial attacks before ground forces moved in.

  In fact, as we slowed and Sixth Sense turned into a siren, the hum of arcanicraft machinery spooled up and the sealed gun ports hiding the various cannons opened. I could see it now, a massive brown and green lump with trees surrounding it. It looked less like a dwelling and more like a sandcastle made of mud by a sleepy toddler. But I saw movement around it and forms that made my breath catch, they were nightmarish, twisted things. Too tall, too thin, somehow even from so high up I could make out the malevolent grins on the faces that turned towards us.

  I thought we would slow and turn for a broadside, but we passed over instead. Then the ship vibrated as a massive THWUMP pulsed through the air. The ship immediately turned to bring the port side around to face the den properly and the sight caught in my heart.

  The mana cannon, they had very clearly used it. The den was fttened and the mud it was made of was somehow burning. A dozen of the emaciated looking monsters y in the shallow water around the crater that was once their den, unmoving and likely dead.

  No.

  I raised my rifle and aimed at one of the still ones, sending a round into it’s side. It leapt up and screamed in pain, turning hate filled eyes on me from too far away. I felt a shudder of terror through my body then screamed. “They’re faking it! Shoot the corpses to make sure!”

  Gunfire from the snipers and those on the mounted machine guns lit up the trolls, soon after joined by the big guns on the ship’s side. A hole opened in the crater where the den once stood and more trolls started to crawl out, too many, too fast. The guns and cannons were joined by elemental strikes from the shaman, sending power into the beasts even as their own counterparts leapt up from the swamp and started flinging magic imbued burning mud at us.

  One of the shaman got hit and screamed in agony, but a healer was there in moments purging the mud and healing the burns on the man’s chest. Ephi raised a massive bck gss wall into the air as a shield, but just as some of our side were about to start compining that they couldn’t attack through it, the whole thing suddenly shattered and sent millions of slivers of razor sharp obsidian into the massed trolls impossibly fast. At least ten were pulped instantly, the wall of gss death turning them into red mist. Dozens more fell back, still alive but badly wounded, it was enough to seemingly break their magic counter attack.

  “Damn good hit kid!” I heard one of the other snipers, a wrinkled human man with gray hair, yell cheerfully.

  Ephi gave a thumbs up and nearly fell over. “Kinda tapped out though, damn.”

  “Sit back and let us handle the rest, thanks for softening them up.”

  Suddenly there was a scream to our right. I turned to see a troll on deck, tearing off the arm of one of our gunners. I and another sniper turned and we both sent bullets into the monster’s head. I felt my heart catch when one of the medics ran to help the young woman it had maimed, only to shake his head and pull her body out of the way so someone else could mount the gun in her stead.

  The speakers boomed the captain’s voice. “Defensive force to the deck! We are being boarded! Saint Shieldheart, get your people down there or they’ll flood my ship!”

  Moment ter a couple dozen Uvtrayl soldiers swarmed the deck with sub-machine guns and shotguns. They rushed to the railing and aimed down over the edge, gunfire lit the air as they shot at targets I couldn’t see and hadn’t thought of.

  “Are they fucking jumping up and climbing the ship?” I asked in a mild panic.

  The old sniper snorted. “Trolls are scary fuckers. Fast, strong, smart, evil. Now focus on popping the ones still down there before they try and run.”

  “FUCK.” I turned back to the battle below in time to see an arrow seeming to sprout from the eye of one of the trolls, it had gone deep and the thing just toppled over dead instantly. I looked for Luv, but was disappointed to see the elf in Olivia’s group instead. Still, she was talented. Three more trolls with arrows in their eyes spoke of her being an even better shot than Luv if I’m being honest.

  I sent a few rounds into the targets, keeping my eyes open to see how the battle was going. A number of Uvtrayl soldiers were moving in a groups of four, gunning down any troll that got near them. But the tall monstrosities barely seemed to notice the troops. Redagga and Olivia had hit the group of monsters like the fists of an angry god and the trolls were forced to focus on them.

  Red crushed one against a tree with her shield, her axe cleaving through its neck before it could fight back properly, sending its head rolling towards a group of others. They turned to charge her and met the business end of her shotgun for their trouble. She yelled, her roar carrying over the battlefield and drawing the attention of almost every one of the beasts, her taunt skill triggering. Dangerous in this situation, but a tactical call that worked out. The distraction allowed the other soldiers and fighters to get in deadly blows and seriously reduce the trolls’ numbers in the several moments that the taunt seemed to st.

  Olivia however could not be ignored, taunt skill or no. Much like her goddess had in the fight against the Dream specters of the Thundering, her skin was aglow like metal in the forge and her hair had become a great plume of smoke. On her left arm was a round shield baring the open palm of the Warcry, a hand held up to warn enemies to stay back. In her right hand was a rifle with a fixed bayonet that she used like a spear. She could occasionally fire off a shot with it when there was not an enemy immediately within her reach, but for the most part it was effectively a melee weapon that she used with deadly precision.

  The trolls tried to swarm her, but she was faster and stronger than them and managed to keep herself from being surrounded as she broke them one by one. I feel it proper that I admit a personal failing. I had worried, before that moment, that Olivia would be more of a desk general than a leader in the field. I did not know what she was like in a fight and feared that perhaps her training and experience had been too focused on logistics and tactics and not enough on actual combat. Clearly, that was a mispced concern. It was not merely the enhanced physical capabilities from being a Saint at py, her every movement and change in position was one that spoke of experience and competence. She was a soldier, not just a commander of them.

  That combined with the experience and effort of the other soldiers made it clear this battle was going our way. Though not without losses. I saw four Uvtrayl marines ying still in the shallow muddy water, bodies broken and bloody. I knew that letters would be sent home, that families would mourn, that parents, spouses, children, friends, lovers, would be sending nterns far sooner than they wanted to. I knew more would likely join them before the battle was done.

  But through it all I kept my hands moving. Cycling the bolt, pulling the trigger, grabbing another clip from the box by my side, pushing the grief from my thoughts and focusing on the screaming death my rifle sent into the trolls.

  “They’re trying to run! Kill the ones on the edges first!” The old sniper roared over the gunfire, we all adjusted our focus as he advised. But we didn’t need to.

  The sky burned as a bck and violet streak of fire and wrath ascended and quickly circled the area. Everywhere that Azuriel flew, tall purple fmes rose, burning tree and rock and mud like it was all oil soaked cloth. Within moments a ring of violet death encircled the battle, preventing the trolls from escaping. I knew it was right, any that escaped would bring suffering and death wherever they went. But I also knew that what would happen next would be a nightmare.

  The trolls screamed in rage and fear and turned back on our forces with renewed furor enhanced by a frenzied drive to live. More soldiers fell, Redagga was wounded but kept fighting. I still couldn’t see Luvetra anywhere, not even the dark blur that had comforted me in so many battles. I would worry after the fight, but I would worry nonetheless.

  I watched a particurly massive troll leap at a squad of marines only to be bisected by Azuriel’s fming sword as she flew past, turning sharply towards the ship. I had a moment of realization as Sixth Sense screamed at me. “FALL BACK! AWAY FROM THE EDGE!” I screamed and retreated.

  No one hesitated to follow me, but some were too slow. The old sniper’s chest was torn open by the long thin cws of the first of the trolls that seemed to just appear. He fell with a quiet gasp and went limp. I fired into the beast with a scream and tried to hold back tears as it fell over the edge.

  But more and more of them crawled from seemingly nowhere and we were hard pressed to keep them at bay as we retreated. “ESME!” I heard the nephilim’s voice just before she removed two of the beasts’ heads, nding on the deck and turning her bde to the encroaching tide of death. “THERE IS A CASTER SOMEWHERE NEARBY, ONE WITH GROUP STEALTH SPELLS! IT NEEDS TO DIE NOW!”

  I nodded and fell back against the wall of one of the deck structures, then focused on seeking out this hidden threat. I listened to Sixth Sense and focused my perceptions in the direction it pulled me. Foredeck, up? I turned to look and there was a pce that I found it hard to look at. Like my mind was struggling to let me perceive it. My eye twitched as I realized the bastard had a goddamn SEP field. I drew on Heavy Heart Piercer and just as I’d hoped, the hyperfocus drowned out the sensation allowing me to aim at the troll there, seemingly muttering something at a rge raw crystal in its hand.

  I wasted no time and aimed for its head, but as I pulled the trigger something bit into my arm and threw off my aim. I screamed in pain and turned to see a troll pulling a dagger out of me then raising it to strike again. Fear filled me in the moments before a boom nearly deafened me and it crumpled over, with a great red wound in its chest. I tuned to see a young man with a shotgun give me a nod before turning to fire at another of the beasts that just kept appearing out of nowhere.

  I quickly returned my attention to the caster and saw it climbing to its feet, an angry red line across its face where my bullet had grazed it. It turned its eyes on me and the malevolent smile that it sent me was something I would have nightmares about for years if not for having a baku as a best friend.

  It raised the crystal again and I FELT the power it was drawing in, this was not going to be another stealth spell. But before it could finish or I could raise my rifle again, two familiar bdes erupted from its chest. Luvetra pulled her swords free and just for good measure, lopped the thing’s head off. Relief hit me like a tidal wave upon seeing her. Somewhat short lived as suddenly another thirty trolls seemed to poof into existence as the spell keeping them hidden ended with the caster’s death. Most had been stalking into position to strike a target and were caught by surprise when they were revealed. Guns, spells, and bdes cut them down quickly, Luvetra appearing at my side to protect me while the battle turned once more against the trolls.

  “Thank you, was hunting that one this whole t-time.” She said to me once the enemies on the deck had been cleared off and gunners and shaman returned to the edge to send death into the remaining targets below. What few remained at this point anyway.

  I sighed and leaned against her. I knew there were still trolls to kill but I needed her for just a moment. I said nothing, just enjoyed her warmth for a few heartbeats before nodding and wobbling to the edge to join the remaining snipers.

  At some point a shaman healed my arm, I don’t remember it happening but its hard to imagine another reason the hole there was gone by the time the st of the trolls was cut down by Olivia. The ammo box that had been next to me was about half empty. I found it strange I’d only used half of it, it felt like so much more.

  There was an announcement over the speakers, I missed what was said somehow. But it must have been that things were finished because support personnel came out to help. I tried to say something, I don’t remember what, but Luv simply shook her head and picked me up. She took me to the mess hall and sat me at a table, I could smell food and turned to see Weren there, sliding a mug of soup in front of me. It was barely more than broth, but I think I couldn’t have handled chewing. I sipped it and let the warmth and fvor pull me back into my own body.

  I leaned against Luv who had sat at my side. “How bad were the losses?”

  “Still c-counting, but not as bad as it c-could have been.” My giant love’s words were soft, an arm wrapping around my shoulders was like a warm coat on a cold winter day.

  “How the hells were there so many of them?”

  “That’s why d-dens are so bad. Two t-trolls find a big enough cave and one turns into a brood mother. They can make d-dozens a year, and other trolls come join the dens too from miles and miles ar-round.”

  “The den mother?”

  “Azuriel t-turned everything inside the remaining parts of the d-den into ash. It’s dead.”

  Weren stroked my back softly. “Are you alright, Esme?” The question was filled with expectation. I turned to look at her and saw a hint of worry on her face, along with a heavy dollop of annoyance. But at what I couldn’t tell.

  “Is something wrong?” I reached out to take her hand as I looked into her eyes.

  She sighed and nodded. “Yeah, the problem is that my dip-shit sisters forget that I had the same training they did and can sense them just fine, no matter what they do to hide.”

  Before I could ask what that meant, a voice spoke from the far end of the table. “Well here I was worried you’d gone and gotten zy and stupid.” Then an orc woman in a bck and blue leather vest simply appeared, sitting there, elbows on the table and chin resting on her hands. “Heya Were-bear. You look good.”