Armed Enlightenment V2

Recce-in-force

There was a lot in Princess Angelica Olivia of Lestaria's mind. If the faint explosions earlier had any indicator, perhaps that stranger finished what he came for and did them a favor. But they were finally out of the damned forest and whatever lurked in it, and that was enough.

"Ellmur, do you see that?"

"A scout?"

A wolf howled. Angelica traced the noise to a humanoid figure on the top of the rolling grassland. It couldn't be human. It was too tall, arms and legs too long for its dark, furry body. Then it went on all fours alongside several more emerging from the other side, exposing their large tails.

"Lycans!" Angelica dropped the helmet visor and readied her sword. "Protect the pack animals! Do not show weakness!"

Their patriarch howled again, and the lycans disappeared into the tall grass. Black humps popped in and out of the land, but the children snuck past their sights and into the clearing. One lycan pup pounced at her. Angelica side-stepped it and let her blade entertain it instead. The beast whimpered, its salivating mouth replaced with blood.

It should've been their breeding period. Now wasn't the time to try their luck on humans, especially before winter, but the pup's ribs showed. It seemed they weren't the only victims of Thuidic marauders.

Angelica twisted her sword and overpowered it to the ground. Wiggling off, she stomped on the side of its mouth and kept it still, mangling its mouth with a pull, and jabbed its neck. For starving animals, they still had the decency to let the young continue their rite of passage.

A levied roared a deterring, aggressive growl but got cut short. A lycan was in the middle of munching on his throat next to another levied staggering back. Angelica clicked her tongue—scaring half-starved wolves would just raise their desperation. But it happened, and another adult lycan pounced on her.

She kicked herself forward, putting herself underneath its arc, and gnashed its thigh with her sword. She heaved as much air into the gaps in her helmet and shuffled herself towards the wounded lycan. Then its partner bit her left gauntlet, jamming its teeth into the armor.

Angelica twisted her body to the left, putting the monster into a position where Angelica threw all her weight into its stomach and pressed the edge of her sword to its chest. It whimpered, and Angelica shifted to her roundel dagger, shoved it to its neck up to the head, stirred it, getting a feel for the inside until its mouth got limp, and pried its teeth off her gauntlet by the snout.

The princess gasped for air and got back up, and upright pups around her size growled with a vengeance. They lunged at her, and Angelica let them talk to the hand, blasting a hailstorm of ice splinters their way and dodging their bodies.

Blocks of ice manifested above them and bodied the pups. Angelica opened her visor and grabbed a full breath. Again, two ice blocks appeared.

"Stalactite strike."

Then the blocks took their spear shape and slammed through the monsters. Another howl echoed, putting a halt on the lycans' offensive, and reared their heads to where it came from. Another pack appeared from the tall grass.

"Gather around our carriages! Let those dogs fight amongst themselves!"

The new pack jumped from the tall grass. The adults clashed while the younglings remained in the back, growling slurs only their kind understood until the ambitious ones of the two sides sprung against each other, and their siblings followed.

Biting, clawing, and manhandling one another—the brawl reflected the stark contrast between the mature and young. One amateur exposed its neck for a bite, and the other stood on its hinds to assert dominance, only to get slashed and driven to the ground.