Didi kept her rapier raised while Gazel planted himself across the carriage door .
Eleven escorts locked shields around the carriage while the driver clutched both reins.
"Shields out, hold until I call, and keep that damn road behind us open!" Gazel bellowed, jaw clenched over the nearest rim.
Four clawed arms rose from the mound on an armored torso larger than either carriage horse, plates sliding like scales. A horned face sat on top, human enough to grin, while a tail dragged soil from the opening behind it.
Didi bit the inside of her cheek, every breath pressing harder than her frost could push back.
'Tutors taught me where to put a needle, not how to stitch the whole earth shut.'
"What the hell are you, and whose road do you think this is?" he growled, squinting down the haft at the nearest open hand.
"A collector, and your name is absent from my list, so relax." The Collector waggled its fingers like a merchant shooing a beggar.
"Eleven shields, a barking guardian," it purred, one claw tracing the foremost shield without touching it, "and a royal gift tucked behind them, how generously you've arranged my morning."
It sniffed the wind like a hound, lips peeling back from far too many teeth, "Royal blood of the Underworld King, His Majesty will be so pleased when I carry you home."
Then it swung toward the western ridge, inhaled once more, and its nose wrinkled while the tail lashed.
"My real task concerns the Goddess's last bloodline, a filthy remnant still wandering somewhere I can smell it."
She squinted along its gaze across the fence and found only timber, nothing divine and nothing worth that much disgust. The archives placed the Goddess's death centuries before her father's reign, and no record she ever read allowed any survivor.
'Missing records, or a monster picking words to rattle us, and neither one earns my trust.'
"Too weak to bother with yet, so this royal prize will do until the other grows worth collecting." It flicked its tail and swung its attention back to her.
Gazel's hand closed around her wrist above the grip, leaving the rapier inside her fingers.
He jerked his chin toward the horse, voice low and flat, "Your Highness, get ready to run, the left horse still has an open path."
"Stop shoving me behind a door every time the fight gets real." She scowled and twisted against his grip without lowering the point.
"When I give the word, you ride, and you don't look back for anyone!"
"I won't sit behind cushions," she snapped, bracing her feet against the pull, "while everyone else bleeds for me!"
His fingers shook against her wrist as he hauled her toward the route, "Listen once, just once, before I lose my chance to get you clear!"
She went still, another retort dying on her tongue, when fear cracked through the steady man's orders.
Past his shoulder, the squire clutched his shield white-knuckled, lips pressed bloodless, his sword tangled against the neighboring rim.
'He scares me into running, but who scares that kid into staying here with both hands shaking?'
"Clear the lane on my mark, keep the route open until the carriage passes." The captain checked the driver, then called the order down the formation.
The Collector swept its tail through the fence, chuckling as broken rails tumbled, "Run as you please, the path only decides where I pick you up."
'Stay, and Gazel covers one more body, leave, and that shaking shield pays my fare.'
"The last frost bearer this proud went home in two sacks," it mused, lowering its face toward her frost, "perhaps your household prefers a neater delivery."
Didi tore her wrist free the moment Gazel turned toward the newly raised hand.
Teeth bared, she drove mana through the rapier into the cracked soil while three Shards flared around her arms.
Ice snapped across the squire's footing first, then spread beneath the captains and the men around them.
'Their men need ground too, so make it hold before anyone orders me away again.'
"Your Highness, behind the shields, now!" Gazel lunged after her, face gone gray, as frost raced across the cracks.
She stopped the ice short of the enemy, stitching loose turf without filling the deep opening below.
She swung her rapier toward the front rank, chin high and voice cracking like a whip, "Wedge on this ground, keep the road clear, set your feet where my frost holds!"
The captain planted his heel beside the squire while the knights angled their shields into a wedge.
A knight tested the ice with one short stamp and barked a laugh over his rim, "That holds, stay on her frost and mind the breaks."
"Horses ready, if the line opens, take the track and keep moving." The captain pointed his halberd's butt toward the road.
Gazel stepped back to her shoulder, placing himself between her right side and the nearest high arm.
"What are you doing here when I gave you a horse and a road?"
"Giving them ground they can hold."
"Your father ordered me to bring you home, and this makes that harder."
"Then explain it when we reach him," she drawled, arching a brow, "I intend to keep us alive for the argument."
"Then command, Your Highness, I'll hold this side." The corner of his mouth twitched as he settled the axe above the rim.
The Collector's smile thinned as it looked from her Shards to the braced and waiting shields.
Didi raised her rapier beside Gazel's axe, chin up, as the next clawed arm began to lift.
---
Hajin caught the boar's left tusk and hauled its head away from Juna's boulder until his ribs screamed.
"Nope, nope, side says no, letting go!"
He whipped the Chain low toward its foreleg, and the links caught below the armored shoulder.
"Get heavier, you ugly sausage, twenty times the pig!" he bellowed, yanking the slack tight and cackling like a lunatic.
Each increase drank deeper from his mana while the damaged links bit his palms and his shoulder shook.
'Weight eats mana, and these cracked links won't care whether I need one more turn.'
[ Divine Bind: Right foreleg | Twentyfold increase | Host mana sustaining ]
[ Warning: Critical link damage | Resistance approaching unsafe limit ]
"Shit, hold together, you cost me seven hundred fifty credits!"
He let go the instant its knee slammed into the earth, and the ruined joint stayed folded.
[ Stream: Active | Viewers: 57 | Trend: Rising ]
"Stay down there, buddy, don't spoil it by standing."
Juna dragged herself to peek past the boulder's edge, ears flat and jaw clenched, one arm clamped to her side. He stayed planted between her and the tusks, picking an angle that kept him off those bristles this time around.
[ CringeSlayer91: finish incoming, give him room ]
[ NewViewer_02: first day and apparently the pig funeral already has rules ]
[ ShadowMage44: released after the knee went, links look rough ]
[ LurkerNoMore: she moved by that rock, check her when this ends ]
"Rules, sure, rule one, nobody bites my partner, rule two, see rule one." He tossed a wink toward the boulder, eyes snapping straight back to the boar.
He laid the Chain across his wrist and gathered mana into his free fist as the boar's three Shards flickered.
The boar tried lifting the broken joint once more, and Hajin flatly refused to wait around for another bristle discharge. His knee braced behind the tusk with the links hanging free, and he cocked his fist above the exposed jaw.
'Bristles discharge, throat builds pressure, so keep the links loose in case it jerks first.'
He cracked a lopsided grin through the sweat, "Nothing personal, you brought the bite, I'm just fixing which end of the meal gets served."
The Ring turned against his wrist as he committed everything left in him to the blow.