A massive claymore came crashing down on the unassuming boulder.
The hissing of steam rose from the searing heat of the claymore.
The troll growled. It reached for its club.
Hikari dragged her claymore through it, cleaving it in half.
She hacked away at it several more times.
She knows from experience that a swamp troll could regenerate even when slashed.
Splash. She waded back onto the main road.
A column behind her tries their best to create one.
The lumberjack chops away the thick roots.
The geomancer hardens the ground.
The engineers lay wooden planks into a road.
Hikari hacks away the vines and branches with her short sword.
The mangrove trees are too massive even for her to cut through.
The column would have to go around them.
The splashing of water.
Something huge was coming.
The men raised their muskets nervously.
A giant crocodile lunged out of the water.
Its mouth wide open, chasing after the panicking engineers and riflemen on its hind legs.
Muskets were fired, but they couldn't pierce its thick hide.
Then it froze.
A giantess stood over it.
Its reptilian eyes turned upwards to see Hikari looking down on it with her ruby-red eyes.
Her stomach growled.
The crocodile whimpered and slithered back into the swamp.
Splashes followed it.
…
She returned to the camp.
Dragging the crocodile behind her.
Camilia gleefully pranced towards her.
"Oh hey, nice catch. Meow"
"Yes."
The beastkin playfully jumped around her in circles as she
Hikari drove her dagger into the underside of the crocodile skin.
She sliced down the middle and pulled out the thick skin.
It was thick and heavy, a decent alternative to her wyvern skin armor.
Perhaps Ria could make her a new pair of boots if she brings the skin back.
Ria. Her letter has likely arrived, but it's at a supply camp several miles back along the line.
She'll get to read it once she gets a break.
She cubes the meat into smaller pieces.
Camilia shreds the pieces into even smaller slices and drops them into the boiling cauldron.
Hungry men lined up for the meat.
Half rations due to the issues of supply through the swamping ground and attacks by giant crocodiles.
She stirs her cauldron.
The beastkin wags her furry tail as she watches the stew cook.
Hikari listens to her surroundings.
In a patch outside the camp, the eerie mana of the Rothenmore priests sprinkled their powder over the dead.
The sawing of wood and the hammering of nails to assemble siege ramps for the final push.
Hikari stuffs her ladle into her mouth.
Chewy. But rich. It tastes much better than ivory berries.
Camilia shreds the cooked meat between her claws to soften it further.
"Uhh…"
"Hey! Zark! Have some crocodile meat. Hikari just caught one."
She pushes the spoon into the zombie boy's mouth as he takes off his mask from corpse sanitation duty.
Hikari ate quietly.
She can't remember how long she has been at the front.
She hadn't had a proper change of clothes for days.
The sound of generals bickering in their tents.
"Silora's bottoms, we're sure that every scout had seen the cultists converging on Carla? Are the cultists really just playing dead on us?"
"Shall we send a scout team? Maybe the cultists all stabbed themselves in the stomach?"
"I say we just keep shelling them. We'll eventually hit their powder magazine."
"I disagree; let's just storm the stronghold as we planned."
Since she broke through the initial line, there were just a few swamp trolls to slay.
The coalition army has to march through the swamps surrounding the Port city of Carla to besiege it.
She felt lucky to have gotten a crocodile today.
Swamp trolls can't really be eaten; they can only be burnt to prevent them from growing back.
Only the mana crystal embedded in their bodies has value.
Like the soldiers resting on their polearms, she wants to go home.
…
"Meow, I was sure that the scent was this way."
Hikari waded through the swamp after the beastkin.
Her nose twitched.
She crawled up and down the roots, sniffing away intently.
"Camilia."
"Shush. I got it. The swamp is Meow stinky!"
She began digging into the mud.
"I hate this meow!"
But they found what they were looking for.
A RazenHeir scout's sword.
He met his end searching for cultists hidden in the swamp.
They were recalled after the scout master realized that the swamp was too hostile.
"Meow…"
Hikari picked up the sword and dropped it into her harvest sack.
"Let's head back."
"Meow!"
Camilia pranced after her.
The swamp around them moved.
Hikari stopped and drew her claymore.
The beastkin hissed.
They were not alone.
Vines moving around.
Hikari's sword flares with RazenHeir flame.
She throws a dagger; it cuts a vine in two.
It was nothing but a vine.
Movements.
Camilia's claws scratch on the damp roots.
A rush of vines shot towards them in all directions.
Hikari swings her claymore.
The beastkin let out a vortex of slicing wind.
The vines were cut down.
Movements.
"There."
The receding vines converge towards an unassuming mangrove tree.
Hikari's claymore flared.
She took a thrusting stance and charged the tree.
Acid spines shot out from the trunk.
Telekinetic blast pushed the needles away.
The vines shot out from the ground, but they could not stop the giantess momentum.
Hikari thrusts her claymore into the trunk.
Incinerate. She channels her flames through the steel, burning the Dire Ent's insides.
The Ent burns. Its vines shrivel and die.
Hikari takes out her short sword and chisels through the trunk, pulling out a mana crystal the length of her finger.
Camilia wags her tail as she watches.
Her tail is stained with mud, but the beastkin doesn't mind, as it hides her scent and helps her blend into the swamp.
"Hey, Hikari! Meow saw a good spot on the way here. Meow will bring you there."
Hikari hoists her claymore.
"Sure."
Hikari follows the beastkin through the swamp.
They arrived at the bottom of a mangrove tree large enough to be a landmark.
Hikari remembers seeing it from a distance as she marched towards the swamp.
Up close, its size intimidates even her.
"Meow! Come up!"
The beastkin began scaling the mangrove tree with her claws.
Hikari drew a pair of daggers.
She bent her knees and leaped up the tree.
She stabbed both her daggers into the tree and pulled herself up with the strength of both arms.
Boosting her buoyancy with her telekinesis.
They reached the top of the mangrove.
The area was large enough for even Hikari to set up camp.
But the view was even more stunning.
The city of Carla was right before them.
The abandoned ruins still kept some of their old splendor.
Its walls were taller than most of the surrounding mangrove trees.
Spires where zeppelins used to dock.
An observatory overlooking the vast spaces that stretch beyond.
In the distance, tiny specs of light from zeppelins flying along the ley lines of the world.
Boom! A shell hit the walls, chipping the wall made of the strange magical material that makes up spire nodes.
"Meow. They're shelling the city."
Another volley lands within the city, kicking up explosive shrapnel and debris.
No signs of resistance from the city.
Perhaps the cultists had already abandoned it?
It won't be long now before they get to go home.
"Let's head back."
…
"Whoa! What's that in da distance?"
Hikari puts her ladle in her mouth.
There was still crocodile meat for several more stews.
The lucky find really filled her up.
"Uh… "Camila stuffs her spoon into Zark's mouth.
A giant floating battleship loomed over the horizon.
The size of a small city.
It's great cannons mounted in all directions.
"The crown jewel of Herdial. The sky fortress."
The scoutmaster joins them, eating the crocodile stew from his modest mess tin.
"Sky fortress? Meow, it's huge!"
"Yep, it has a history behind it. Its cannons single-handedly held the borders against the demonic invasions from the darklands beyond the Herdial borders."
"Whoa? But why are they sending it?"
The scout master shrugs.
"Propaganda, the Herdial economy isn't doing so good. The sky fortress is expensive, so they needed to blow up something with it."
"Hey Hikari, wanna go see the booms from dat tree again?"
"Sure."
"I wouldn't recommend it. I have a lot of reports to write if you happen to get caught in the blast."
"Aww…"
"Anyway, Hikari. The supply shipment has arrived."
Hikari flips open the crate.
A new set of throwing daggers and musket balls.
She had chewed through most of her supply of expendable weapons.
She picks up a throwing dagger and hurls it at a tree.
The blade stabs all the way in.
She telekinetically pulls the dagger back to her hand.
"Nice."
She slots it into her belt.
The steel balls.
She loads one into her handcannon.
Her mana gathers in the chamber.
She aims at a mangrove tree and fires with a fraction of her telekinetic charge.
No smoke or powder, just a concentrated telekinetic push.
It was enough to bury the steel ball deep into the trunk.
She pulls it out and drops it into her pouch.
"Nice."
The scout master nods.
"They arrived a little late. But you never know if they'll come in handy."
Scribbling sounds.
"Meow… is… at… swamp…"
"Uh… the writing is wrong."
"Hey! I'm trying my best, Meow!"
"Camilia."
"Oh hey Hikari, how bout we write back to Ria. She can't come to the front, but we can tell her all about the front. The crocodile, the giantess tree, the scary tree. Meow thinks all good stories."
Hikari looks at the illegible piece of writing.
The beastkin has a hard time holding a quill with her paws.
"I try."
Hikari pinches a quill between her fingers.
She runs the quill up and down the paper.
A single letter covered the whole sheet.
"I'll help…"
The scout master slaps his forehead.
"Oh meow? Thanks! Bounty man!"