Kat PoV
"This... somehow feels worse than I thought it would. The climate here is... almost downright abhorrent if I’m being honest."
My gaze swept across the glimmering desert before it landed upon the crashing waves of the ocean, the conflicting bodies of mana creating an intriguing ’neutral’ zone that just felt foreign in a world that seemed to always harmonize itself.
An abundance of one or two mana types would create some kind of biome that made sense, and yet here the clashing of the Fire Mana and Water Mana created nothing but confusion for everyone, and that was reflected in the land itself.
The air behind us was scorching even as the sun drifted lazily down to the horizon, but the winds sweeping across the water brought a cold chill that sliced through that heat like a knife through butter.
"It only gets worse when winter draws near. Many a time we’ve had ice sheets drifting across the ocean while the city is baked beneath the sun... Hajar isn’t a nice place to live if you prefer a stable climate, that’s for sure. But after being here for so long... you don’t really notice it that often."
Unlike our previous ’chaperones’, these six Death Jackals were far more talkative and open than any of us - Anput included - had expected, and the short, petite woman was the one to approach us and say that.
Each of them were chatty compared to their peers, which was shown as an equally short man sauntered forwards to add "Born and raised here, and damn does it feel good to be back~! Hajar’s climate is a fickle bitch honestly~!" in a cheerful tone, ignoring the glare from the three women beside him... as well as our own.
"Hassim, I wouldn’t start that now if I were you... for my sake more than yours."
The other two men smiled wryly at the shorter one before gesturing towards the city as the tallest asked "So what’s the plan then, Begum? Princess? Do we have one yet, or shall we mull it over from a closer distance? That dune there should offer a decent vantage point..."Our attention was returned to the trade city, its towering walls decorated with tattered and burnt banners that were still in the process of being torn down and replaced, while the fires atop the walls cast a glow against the darkening sky.
"Not a concrete plan just yet, but the best idea I have is to just charge head on in different groups. We have adequate magical power to protect ourselves from whatever they could throw at us."
Anput’s careless answer made a few of the Death Jackal’s narrow their eyes as they stared at her, and while their Begum seemed to miss those masked, judgmental gazes, I certainly didn’t... though none of them cared at all since they knew their own worth and carried their own expectations well.
"That’s what I would say if we didn’t need to worry about Fiends, mind you; a moving barrier spell in this sort of battlefield is more than adequate to approach those walls and get close enough to launch a siege with just us, but if we have to plan around the unexpected prowess of Fiends, then... things change."
She didn’t win back their trust immediately, though Anput didn’t seem to care as she gestured towards the dune the tall man had pointed out, saying "Once we get there we can make a better plan. Kat, is Sla’Caligo willing to play with us, or is she remaining hands off?"
Just saying her name was more than enough for the pink skinned Arch Fiend to pop into existence, her snakes hissing softly at all of the Death Jackals as they took a step back and rested their hands on their weapons.
That was the only attention they got from the Arch Fiend as she leaned closer to Anput and grinned at her, showing off her ample cleavage and cooing "I can be as hands on as you want, baby~!", though Anput just rolled her eyes and replied "You’re a few hours too late, Sla’Caligo; Kat already made liberal use of her hands for me."
Glaring at my mate, I ignored the Death Jackals as some of them glanced at me and instead snapped at Cali as I asked "Are you going to help or not? Now is one of those times that I would appreciate you honoring our agreement, Cali!"
Some of her snakes turned to hiss at her instead, and she rolled her eyes this time, the pink skinned seductress turning towards me to say "Fine, fine~! I’ll do your reconnaissance for you, Katy Katy~! Let’s get a little closer than this though... and walk in front of me please~! All of you..."
The Death Jackals stared at the Arch Fiend silently at that, but I just sighed and shared a look with my lovers before beginning the journey towards the dune, leaving the mounts behind and walking along the edge of the smaller dunes as we remained far away from the city and out of sight.
Not even a moment after we reached the dune, Cali yawned and said "Oh yeah, that’s about three... nah, scratch that, it’s three serious Fiends and a little whelp pretending at being a Fiend. Ka, Ka, Tza, Nua. Fun. Is that all, Mommy~?"
She instantly switched from bored to horny as she leaned towards me this time, running a hand down my cheek as she tried to seduce me with such a bland physical and verbal play, and instantly her snakes hissed at her while Jahi smacked her hand away, earning a sulking frown from the Arch Fiend.
"You all are no fun..."
Cali disappeared in a puff of pink smoke after that, leaving us with that knowledge and making me sigh as I turned back towards the Death Jackals to ask "Assuming that she listed them in terms of strength, it sounds like we have a more frontal focused battle ahead of us with two Ka Fiends. A Tza Fiend in support either as a ranged attacker or as a healer, and then a Nua Fiend doing... honestly, either tanking or supporting."
All six of the Death Jackals just stared back at me, their silence telling me all I needed to know as I focused instead on my lovers, wanting their input on this before making a decision; to no one’s surprise, Jahi and Anput were smiling slightly at me, the two warriors agreeing on what they wanted their course of action to be.
That made me sigh as I nodded, deciding that it might be the best bet we had against foes we knew little about; they had numbers, yes, but that meant this wide open battlefield would do us more good than the closed walls of the city, even if that meant allowing them to make use of their numbers.
"Frontal assault with Leone and that one there acting as ranged support then? Draw them out towards us in one way or another, fight them out here on the sands instead of in the city? That way we can keep most of it standing..."
The Demoness and Jackalkin nodded before gesturing for Leone to speak, the Vampire letting out a sigh as she said "There’s no guarantee that they’ll take that bait and come out to fight us in the open. We could always flee, so we’d need to get pretty close to the walls..."
"Or- I go ahead and create our own little bastion right- outside of the walls and force them outside! Especially if we go ahead and sacrifice a portion of Hajar to flaming bombardment to display our destructive prowess~! Hassim there can go ahead and tell us what part can go~!"
The Begum’s smile made the six Death Jackals nod, with Hassim doing so reluctantly while the remaining man leaned on his staff and lazily observed us, waiting for confirmation that he would work alongside Leone to bombard one of our own cities.
"I have to go ahead and point out that you said ’us’, Miss Zara? Shall we all be participating in the assault from the front, or..?"
A woman the same height as me tapped her twin daggers the same way a teacher might tap an equation on the chalkboard as a reminder to young children, and for a moment I felt a slight urge to snap at her for that before taking a breath and shaking my head.
"No, I was planning on traveling around the side and infiltrating from the rear. There’s plenty of dunes to creep behind, and the cliff that leads down to the beach on that side would provide abundant cover. We could scale it and sneak in through those dock-esque locations and work our way towards someplace important and disrupt their flow."
She nodded and smiled back at me, though before I could continue on she grinned mischievously as she asked "Ah, there’s one more here who specializes in stealth for our three man cell. Could you guess who it is~?"
I looked around at the Death Jackals and studied their weapons, taking in the assortment of blades and other weaponry concealed on their bodies before pointing towards a thin woman
Wielding a rapier and a whip.
"Nope~! Saif, step forwards~!"
To my surprise the person to step forwards was the giant musclebound woman who had a two handed cleaver strapped to her back and a heavy mace dangling from her belt, and she gave me a sneaky smirk as she said "No one expects me to be the quietest one here... makes things
Damn easy~!"
Her blade was nearly as tall as me and almost as wide, and while she wasn’t Jahi’s height this Saif woman was incredibly built, her size perfect for a warrior... but apparently she had an assassin’s soul trapped inside of her since she made no noise as she stepped forwards.
She even made a point of it as she stamped her boot down and showed off her control, leaving behind a noticeable footprint that just appeared without a sound before stepping back silently, enjoying this moment of being able to show off.
"I guess the idea of fighting a few hundred well armed warriors doesn’t scare any of us here,
Huh?"
Jahi’s bemused words got us all to turn back to her, with a few of the Death Jackals just smirking at her while Saif and the other sneaky woman smiling wryly as they took another step back to show they were done, allowing us to go back to the task at hand.
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