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Toireasa was still a bit unsettled, to say the least.
Not just because Ithel was busy in one of the camp slaves in the quarters below and his noises were a little annoying, though that certainly contributed. At least they didn't cry that loudly anymore, the screams from the first-timers made it impossible to ignore. It wasn't her thing, but it was a living and it was work she was good at, and it wasn't like the products they sold were treated any different than the ones they kept, so there was no point getting all in a huff about these ones.
The big thing was still the Gradigging demon that had popped up and eaten one of their captures last week. The thing had gone silent and still doing... something... after that, but there'd been a hell of a lot of screaming and running, and hiking the merchandise back to camp had taken far longer than it ought without a damn wagon. They'd been on edge ever since, but eventually they had to take the product out to the clearinghouse for sale rather than just sitting there freaking out at blood apes in the night that always turned out to be squirrels, but might actually be another demon out to eat their shinbones this time.
Toireasa and three more of the raid team had got to swap out with the camp team and stay behind to guard the home compound they'd set up out here in Lochmor, so they at least got a little break for rest and recreation before heading out again.
The camp was nothing impressive - a clearing carved out of the forest, palisade of logs planted right back into the ground right next to each other in a crude defensive fence, ricketier-than-she-preferred watchtower in the center that Toireasa stood on to give her a view past the palisade, add some inexpertly-built-but-still-solid log cabins for living in as well as slave quarters and storage of things they didn't want to get rained on, including the presently-unemployed mules.
They were going to need another wagon. Maybe go back and get some of the booty they'd had to leave behind, but they'd managed to make the captives carry the most valuable of it and the real high-value product was the slaves themselves so it wasn't that big a deal if they just left the wreckage back up north.
As a side benefit that also let them avoid drifting exactly past where that goo-demon had suddenly appeared, though they were going to have to pass in its general direction to get back up into Talinin - Lochmor was raidable but it was never good to rob the country you lived in. Hopefully it wasn't going to stay on their route because Toireasa did not look forward to encountering any more sunstruck demons.
She had left that behind with the War. Mostly. There were enough floating around after the sorcerers binding them had died it wasn't entirely avoidable, but at least they could avoid them rather than having 'charging in headfirst' as their job.
It was comforting to be military-equipped again, with a nice mail hauberk, steel spear and shield slung over her back, and a sheaf of darts, rather than the walking-staff armament they had to use on raids to get past Penguin patrols without drawing the attention heavy military gear tended to. It'd be nigh-useless, four against a demon was iffy at best even in full kit, but the weight was still soothing so at least she'd get to relax before they died if that demon went after them again.
Small comforts were the best comforts.
With a chuckle and a shake of her head, Toireasa turned around a bit to scan the other side of their camp - it wasn't big enough to justify more than one on watch at a time, but that did mean the one had to do a bit of a circuit, and the view wasn't really great in the middle of a forest at night. She'd need to do a check of the slave quarters once Ithel was done, make sure he hadn't forgotten to clean anything up and that no escapes were under way.
There weren't. Someone was coming in instead.
Just like the first time they'd met, she noticed alarmingly late. The girl was unreasonably good at slipping below notice.
Toireasa whirled back around to the front gate of the camp on some uncertain instinct, a sound too small to consciously register, just in time to see a ghostly white shape dashing through the darkness in out of the treeline and into the torchlight of the camp, a lowered shoulder slamming into the gate with a burst of green flame lighting up the night.
The heavy birch timbers creaked.
Toireasa was still blinking when the small figure brought her leg up and stomped it into the gate with another burst of emerald, glowing sigils crawling across the hinges and latches holding it shut.
With a loud, low moan, the writing on the hinges cracked and fluttered away, taking the hinges themselves with it into nothingness, and the gate collapsed inward, a familiar face dashing in over top of it as it fell - it was the slave the demon had taken last week, petite and curvy, still dressed with no particular care to accentuating her potential beauty, but... different. She'd gone pale, pale as the demon that took her - her skin had whitened from 'doesn't go out much' to nearly white, her eyes had drained from blue to amber, her knee-length cloud of honey-blonde hair had turned into the almost-white shade of linen or eggshells.
And she was smiling. The placid politeness from before was torn apart, her elegant features coiled into the unholy, manic grin of someone who really, really enjoyed what they were about to do to someone who really, really wasn't going to enjoy having it done to them.
Toireasa didn't spend any more time wondering whys and wherefores, she pulled a heavy lead-weighted dart from its sheaf on her cuirass, flung it at the girl, and sprung towards the ladder to get down on the ground where she could fight, screaming out "Under attack!" to wake up Diarmait and Finella.
The dart was on target but the girl dashed out from under it, faster than anyone should have moved, and almost completely ignored Toireasa, just delivering a thunderous, burning green strike of her elbow to one of the watchtower's support struts as she passed by on her way to the slave quarters. It snapped in half.
On the plus side it got Toireasa down to the ground quicker as the watchtower spun unmoored to slam into the ground with a tremendous crash. On the minus side, the landing wasn't exactly soft, knocking the wind completely out of her and sending her sprawling across the grass of the camp.
Screams from the slave quarters cut off in a wet gurgle in what sounded like Ithel's voice, and the girl's white body slipped out of the building and towards the main quarters before Toireasa could do much more than start getting back up and scream out a warning.
Thank Maeve, they were armed and out the door before the girl got there, though still blinking sleep out of their eyes as Finella let out a shriek and loosed a dart into the girl bearing down on them.
It bounced off her right tit.
Fortunately the girl seemed about as surprised by that as they did, so she didn't exploit everyone's moment of stupefaction and came to a blinking halt herself, but by the time the dart tumbled to the grass, she was moving again, a dainty arm smashing Diarmait's knife hand to the ground as Finella scrabbled for her handaxe, eyes wide and panicked.
The girl was inside Diarmait's guard, and she gave his attempt to grab her with his off-hand no attention, and no mercy, stomping down on the inside of his knee with her bare heel.
There was a burst of green flame as it bent the wrong way entirely, the skin charring, and Diarmait screamed, collapsing to the ground.
She kicked off the ground as her stomp landed, instantly reversing direction and completely dismissing Finella's attempt at cutting her with the axe as it passed meaninglessly through her mass of hair, flashing across to Toireasa, her twisted smile filling Toireasa's entire world.
Toireasa was on her feet and had her shield and spear off her back and in her hands, this was about as ready as she'd ever be.
It wasn't enough.
The girl barely moved, a few inches of dancelike twirl taking her completely out of danger from Toireasa's thrust, spearshaft close enough it would be brushing her cheek if not for the hand in between.
Then the hand clamped down on the spear shaft, and with a step the spear was torn out of Toireasa's hand and flung through Finella's throat.
She was alive long enough to start trying to scream when the viridian blaze flared up around the wound, charring the rest of her neck into torn paper and sending her head rolling on the grass, long red hair tangling in the stump and eyes just starting to understand what had happened.
Toireasa didn't whimper. She didn't!
The loamy earth tore under the girl's bare foot as she kicked off away from Toireasa, a tiny hop carrying her over Finella's body and to stand over Diarmait's gasping form. There was no smile on her face at all.
Diarmait lashed out at her with the knife still held in his white-knuckled grip - she barely even had to bob a foot back to avoid that, of course, and simply kicked him in the shattered knee, drawing a wail of agony from him as he curled up away from it.
She kicked him in the spine to uncurl him, and crouched down to grab him by the collar. "Get up!" she barked, hauling him up to his feet with surprising strength and punching him in the kidneys.
Diarmait obviously knew which way the wind was blowing, and he dropped his dagger like it was going to burn him. "I surrender!"
She shrugged. "That's your problem." She brought a knee up into his pelvis. It cracked.
"I-!" His voice rose higher than it ought to be. "P-please, I surrender!"
The girl stopped.
She took a slow, deep breath, and looked up into his eyes. "'No, please!'" she called out, voice high and mocking.
Diarmait slowly cringed as the meaning dawned on him.
"'I'll do anything!'" The girl's tone was different enough that it took a moment for Toireasa to recognize that the words she was scornfully repeating were her own, as her voice cooled. "You of all people..." She shook her head, slamming him into the ground, broken leg first. She waited for his next round of screams to subside before she added, "Anyone else, easily. Gladly. But you? You get as much mercy as you gave."
She crouched over him, eyes raised up to watch Toireasa for any attempt to sneak up on her as she shoved a fist into his ribcage with a wet crack.
Toireasa was not dumb enough to begin to try getting in the way of whatever she wanted to do to that man.
The girl looked down at the writhing, whimpering man, lips pursed, and just sighed. "A lot more, I guess, this isn't really getting any more satisfying the longer it goes." She grabbed his knife from the grass and plunged it into his eye, instantly ending his pain as the green fire boiled the flesh off his skull.
Toireasa swallowed and reached for the axe at her waist as the girl smoothly rose from Diarmait's body, stalking towards her. She probably stood no chance against whatever demon power the girl had imbibed or been imbibed by, but there was no way she'd outrun her, let alone in this armour, so she could at least die trying. Hopefully the girl didn't feel the urge to take her time as with Diarmait.
The girl simply calmly, steadily closed in on her, pale hair fluttering like a cloak behind her small body.
The forest was silent - most animals in earshot had probably gone into hiding or run away at the sounds of violence.
Toireasa clenched her hand on the axe, to make sure her sweating fingers didn't let it slip from her grip.
The girl's eyebrow quirked up. She didn't even have her arms up in a guard, just resting comfortably at her sides.
Toireasa swallowed, bringing her shield up and ready.
The girl just kept coming - she was unreasonably fast, Toireasa had seen that, but she just... didn't need to rush. There was no question what the outcome would be anyway.
Another step brought the girl into reach - Toireasa could get close enough to strike with the axe in a single step.
She didn't dare. That one step would take too long. She had to wait until the girl got close enough to strike without stepping.
And then the girl floated that last little bit closer, and Toireasa screamed for her life, cutting down for the girl's head, in the desperate hope of cleaving it open and surviving this night.
The girl simply swatted the blow away with a backhand, and stepped in behind it with a punch to the eye socket that turned into a controlled throw as her head rocked back, depositing Toireasa on the ground in a puddle at the girl's feet.
The girl followed her down as she fell, latching a slim hand onto her throat. And then she squeezed, and Toireasa shrieked as a finger and thumb dug viciously into pressure points, the girl's malicious smile the only thing she could really see above her as her vision slowly went blurry.
"Congratulations," the girl purred. "You get to surrender."
Toireasa nodded as fast and vigorously as she could manage.
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