Walking up a few minutes before sunrise the next morning with there being no attack overnight, I have to heave a sigh. Maybe I was a bit too hard on the girl. I was just so pissed off at the situation, I think I may have taken that out on her. Great. Now I feel like an ass. Getting up, I head off to find Dharma and Zahra. I end up finding them both directing others to pack.

"Could I speak with both of you for a moment?" I said.

"I-uh. I..."

Zahra looked like she was about to dash off, but Dharma grabbed her arm. Maybe inferring from my tone that it wasn't a conversation like last night. 

"Yes. Please lead the way, Queen Midnight," Dharma said, dragging Zahra with her.

I nod and we walk a short way from the castle. Stopping, I turn and sigh inwardly. I fucking suck at doing this.

"I owe both of you an apology. Especially you, Zahra, for how I treated you yesterday. Though I still stand by my words, the harsh way I said them and how I thrust you into that situation wasn't fair to you. I'm sorry for taking my frustrations out on you, and will make sure I do my part to get you, and as many here as possible, to the safety of my walls so that you can live whatever life you choose. 

"I will do better in controlling my frustrations in the future. You are obviously a very kind and caring person, and I hope we can work together for the trip, then my people can help you transition into doing whatever it is you want. Priestess Dharma has obviously done a good job raising you to be as kind as you are. This was all I wanted to say. I'll let you two get back to preparing and we can head out whenever everyone is ready."

As I step back, fully intending to leave the awkward situation, Dharma nudges Zahra.

In a timid voice with fidgeting hands, Zahra says, "Um, Queen Midnight?"

"Yes?"

"It's true that what you said hurt. But after thinking about it a lot last night and talking with Granny, I don't think you're wrong. I don't think I fully realized the decisions a ruler must make. I probably still don't. I know now that I'm not ready to be a queen. But I want to be. This is all I ever wanted. Both for myself and for my ancestors. I know it'll be hard, and that I'm lacking in a lot of ways. But please, Queen Midnight, help me learn what I need to know to lead the elves!"

She says this last part while bowing deeply. This girl… oh, whatever. I unequip my gauntlet but keep a layer of dark magic to block the sun poking out, and lightly chop her head.

"Ah!" She reaches up and grabs her head, looking at me with shock.

"A queen should never bow to anyone. Always hold your head high. You represent your people. If you're subservient, then all of them are as well. Nod if you need to but never bow. Also, when it's just us here, call me Lia. Both of you. Now go finish grabbing your things, and feel free to ask me any questions on the trip on why I do or don't do things, or about anything else. I'll teach you what I think, but don't copy me. Let your own experiences and knowledge from others guide you, but be your own person."

After a moment of hesitation as my words sink in, she stands up straight and shouts, "Yes!"

She then scurries off towards the castle. Dharma had a loving smile watching the girl during this time. She came over once Zahra was gone.

"You did good, Lia. She realized last night that everything you said was the truth, but didn't know how to approach you to ask for help. You can be pretty intimidating sometimes, you know that?"

I scoff at that. "Of course I do. I know how terrible people can be. If I didn't intimidate others and control conversations, how many people would try to take advantage of me? That's why I was so frustrated yesterday. I felt that even after agreeing to help the gods, they used me and set this situation up in a way I couldn't walk away from."

"That may be true, but you know what? You're still helping. You had the chance to walk away. You still do. Yet, you're here. I know vampires are immortal, and a woman never asks the age of another, but I have a feeling I'm far older than you, Lia. Underneath the masks you put on, and the power you exude, you're a good person. As much as I can tell you don't think you are, and as many terrible things as life makes you do. You're still a good person, Lia. Always remember that."

This old woman… What the hell is it with old people? Even on Earth, they always had a way to make me drop my guard and just chat with them… It's not a bad feeling.

"After I finish what I need to, whether you can still say that or not, I just want my daughter to never have to do what I must. I just want to live a peaceful life with my family. That's all I really want."

We walked back towards the castle so she could finish getting her things together. Less than an hour earlier, nearly two hundred elves were in a light jog heading due north. I stored all their luggage that they wouldn't need immediately into my bag to save weight and allow us to move faster. My plan, if it could be called that, included getting them out of the elven forest as fast as possible. I'm not worried for my safety, but with terrain like this, it's made especially for sneak attacks and guerrilla warfare tactics. Which would kill a decent amount of these elves if I miss something. I want out of here as soon as I can, so taking the shortest distance, it is.

The elves really live up to their stereotype. They're able to move in this jungle easily. While I would've fallen behind if it weren't for my stats. Even eating small meals and drinking on the jog, this may go faster than I thought. 

Stopping at noon, a couple parties of elves spread out to try to hunt anything. Talon and I kept an eye on the surroundings. I'm not sure how much time our little attack bought, but I know they aren't going to give up so easily. As long as I'm handicapped and can't just kill them all, I'll be on guard whenever I can.

Not too long after they left, the groups returned with various birds, monkeys, and other small critters. I put them all in my bag and we began jogging once more. Eventually, we came to a stop for the day and I took out all of the bags and food for them to get settled for the night. As I placed the saddle on Talon, Zahra came up to me.

"Lia? Are you heading out again?"

"I am. I need to make sure the other elves are delayed enough to give us a couple days' head start. There's no way they wouldn't be able to track us with how many of us there are, but if we can keep ahead of them by moving fast and light, it just helps our chances more. Just tell any other elves that I'm scouting around us.

"Also, Zahra. I've been meaning to ask. How did you notice me when we first met? I'm usually pretty confident in my stealth abilities."

"That? I was born with a unique skill that lets me sense presences a lot easier than the normal skill. Even then, I only knew someone was there. I couldn't see you until you revealed yourself. You had already gotten to the castle door by the time I noticed you. I've never had someone get that close before I knew, though. It's useful to have."

"Certainly. Do many people know you have it?"

"Hmm… I don't think so. Granny does, but that's about it. I think most people just think I have a high sense presence level."

"Good. Keep the skill a complete secret from now on and just say you have a high sense presence level if anyone ever asks," I tell her.

"Okay… But why?" She seems to be trying to think hard about why I want her to keep it secret.

"Use anything to your advantage. Right now you have an ability that can potentially counter an assassin. However, if everyone knows about it, they'll adapt their methods to it. Maybe using bows or darts to attack outside of your range. The less people know about your abilities, the more you can use them to their full effect."

"I can see how that could help."

"Yeah. Now get some sleep. We'll be back soon."

Talon and I flew towards where the camp was last night. If we're lucky, they still might be there. Talon flies while covered in my dark magic, helping to obscure her. We're also decently high to be able to keep out of any type of detection range. Thankfully, we saw some fires in the general area I thought their camp was.

"Land back here and keep a mile or so away. I'll go check things out."

"Pii."

She lands and I head into the jungle towards the camp. When I finally arrived, I saw the camp seemingly back in working order. At the very least they haven't marched out yet. I spend a few minutes just watching until I see a man different from the others. He seemed to be giving orders and was level 42. Not bad, but only human knight level. 

Is this guy the 'Colonel?' Must've avoided the completely random hippogryph attack. Oh well, we'll get him in round two. I watch camp for another thirty minutes or so until the guy finally goes into a completely normal looking tent mixed with the common soldiers. Oh, are you hiding to keep from being targeted like last night? Look at you being smart. Maybe not all elves are idiots. Doesn't change the fact you'll die.

Watching the area, I wait until a pair of guards wander into the jungle nearby. A quick stab later and both bodies are stored away. I take the clothes and armor from the one closest to my size. Not a great fit, but whatever. The elven helmets have cutouts specifically for their ears. Mine are pointy, but not nearly as long as theirs. 

Making full use of my resources, I take out one of the bodies, and cut off his ears, including the flesh a couple inches around the base. Poking the ears through the helmet, I magic a thin metal spike that I skewer the ears with. Then I connect the spike to a thin plate of metal that I meld to the helmet around the extra flesh. This sandwiches the ear between the plate and the helmet, and holds the ears pointing to the side with the spike. From the inside of the helmet, it's all metal with no spot for ears. 

Holding the helmet out, after a quick cleaning magic, it looks just like natural elf ears. Gruesome and fucked up? Sure it is. I'll keep this stored away for when I need it. It'll be my 'elf helmet.' I'll just equip this whole set. Should probably keep a couple sets of ears in storage too. Just in case. Wait a minute. Am I like a murderer taking weird trophies?... Nah, I'm not taking them because I want them. I'm taking them to use later. Yup. Totally justifiable and not creepy. Completely.

Now, with my full elf separatist grunt outfit on, like some macabre Halloween costume, I enter the camp. I channel dark magic under the face mask just to block out the color of my eyes. Plus, it's dark outside. It's natural a face mask will shadow your eyes. One thing I learned on Earth is that if you look like you know what you're doing, people don't ask questions. Move with a purpose, and don't look around suspiciously. Add in a couple yawns while walking with my elf spear, and I get to the tent with the presumed Colonel, walking right past dozens of elves.

Really, I don't care if this is him or not. He looked important, was a much higher level than the other trash mobs, and was giving orders. Killing him will just add confusion to the camp. Entering through the tent flap, the shirtless elf sits up in bed.

"What's the issue? What do you need?" he said.

As soon as I'm through the threshold and the tent flap closes, I equip my normal armor with a dagger in hand and burst forward a few feet to reach him. 

"Wh—Mmm! Mmm, mmm!"

Before he can shout, I cover his mouth and plunge the dagger into his stomach. Jerking the dagger upwards a couple times, I make a mess of his insides, but he's still alive, if barely. My stats and extra from my armor easily best whatever strength he tried to resist with. I withdraw my dagger and channel healing magic, only healing the cut outer skin, leaving his diced up insides to continue bleeding. This was something Navi and I found out with her tests on goblins. If something is alive, it can be healed, but you can't heal even a cut once it's dead.

Keeping my hand firmly over his mouth, he bleeds out internally. In a couple minutes, his resistance and consciousness fell away along with signs of life. Channeling cleaning magic on the bedding and on him, I only focus the image to remove the blood. Leaving him still as dirty or clean as he was before my visit. Now, unless an autopsy is performed, this man just died in his sleep. Tucking the body into bed, I equip my elf set and go to a seam of the tent. 

It takes a few seconds, but I'm able to find a darkened spot by another tent that seems to be completely out of view. Just because I'm a bit paranoid, I don't want anyone seen leaving this tent. Focusing on the spot I can see through the seam, I teleport over to it. Now out of the tent and with the job done, a nameless elf soldier with slightly too large of armor and clothes disappears into the jungle, walking right through camp.

As simple as just killing them all would be, this is kind of fun. Finding creative ways to harry these bastards, while concealing it's actually the doing of their targets, is a good mind puzzle. Making my way back to Talon, we fly to our small camp and I see Dharma and Zahra sitting by a fire, not yet asleep.

"Can't sleep, you two?" I said as I walked up to them.

"Welcome back, Lia." Dharma said. "We were both unable to, knowing our pursuers could be near. Were you able to discover anything?"

"Yeah. By the way, is the Colonel an elf that look like—"

I describe the man I assassinated to them. Their eyes opened a bit.

Dharma was the one to answer. "Yes, that level and the description matches what we know of him. I take it something happened?"

"Sure. I—"

I explained what I saw. How the camp hadn't moved, but was getting itself together. How I disguised myself as a guard and just walked into camp. How I assassinated him while leaving no outward signs, and how I just casually walked out. They seemed more surprised about how easily I killed one of their biggest tormentors like I was out for an evening stroll, than they did at my first big reveal. Really? What did they expect?

"You two seem more surprised than I would expect."

"I think we are both just coming to terms with common sense not applying to you."

Come now, Dharma. That's a bit mean.

"Right, Granny." Zahra nods. "It makes me glad that Lia chose to help us. I wouldn't want to be her enemy."

After chatting for a bit longer, they went to bed and I messaged Ailine and Anastasia to say hello and chat. After saying bye, I laid back against Talon to rest as well. 

The next day, during our jog north, I came up with a new idea of how to assail the fuckers. A grin spread across my face under my helmet. When we stopped at noon to let the elves rest and for them to hunt a bit, I went up to Talon.

"Hey girl, I could use your help. Can I make a mold of one of your toes?"

"Pii."

Not even phased by my weird request, she lets me make a mold of her toe, claw and all. I then take out a pair of gauntlets from my bag that we originally brought to trade. Molding it to fit on the outside of my own gauntlet, I also make it so instead of fingers, it has a bar I can grab and hold onto. The top of the gauntlet then extended an inch past my fist clenching the bar.

I took the toe mold and made six steel toes, claws and all, that I then combined with the new gauntlets. Checking that I could equip and unequip them on top of my armor, I laugh out loud. I get a couple glances from elves, and Zahra comes over.

"Are you alright, Queen Midnight?" she asks, likely a little weirded out by me just laughing to myself.

"Yes, Princess Zahra." Then in a whisper, I said, "I was just imagining the reactions of the elves after us, and how much time and energy they will soon spend hunting for a snark."

"Snark?"

"Chasing something that doesn't exist. It will just continue to give us more of a lead from them."

After jogging the rest of the day, I take Talon and fly our perimeter, just to make sure nothing is around. Once we knew it was clear, we flew back to the separatist camp. We found the area empty. 

"Did they finally check on the castle, maybe?"

Taking flight with an obscured Talon, we flew to the castle. Sure enough, they were camped out at the castle. Whoever is now in charge must've decided to check it out after not hearing from their spies. Oh well. It was going to happen sooner or later.

"Talon, land a couple miles out."

"Pii."

After dismounting, I took her tack off. Tonight, the wild hippogryph will return.

"Alright, Talon. Here's the plan. I'm going to go on ahead with my new toys. In half an hour, I want you to fly into the center of camp and cause some quick destruction. Maybe use that neat trick with their fires. Kill a few people, but get out of there before they rally. Just fly in, spend maybe five to ten seconds going wild, then fly away. I don't want to target their supplies yet. I think that would be too obvious tonight. Killing won't be the main objective this time. Just ruin their peace. I'll meet you back here after. Think you can do that?"

"Pii!"

What a dependable partner I have. She has four claws, but when she swipes, only three cut into her target with the last one pointing the other way and used to clasp. Equipping my new toys and using my shadow cloak, magic, and stealth skills, I rush off to the outskirts of the camp. 

Channeling my inner Hugh Jackman, I run around to the lone guards patrolling and swipe out with my new claws.

"Ahhh!"

The guard screams out before a second swipe rips out a part of this throat. The claws are sharp, but like most things made primarily for puncturing, raking them across flesh will tear it open and fuck someone up. The guard with him could barely scream in pain as I opened his stomach, before clawing him across his face and neck.

Looking at the mess I made for a second as shouts go up in camp, I marvel at how much it looks like they were attacked by a monster. Or a gigantic honey badger. Honey badger don't care. It just takes what it wants.

Disappearing into the jungle before I'm spotted, I hurry around to another pair of patrols. Now on alert, I come up behind one drop kick her, sending her flying face first into a tree. As the man shouts in surprise, I Wolverine him before also cutting into the woman for good measure.

Hearing more guards rush this way, I pull back a bit and quickly circle all the way around to the other side. Diving back towards the castle from this side, I ran into another unlucky patrol. This time I impaled my claws through one man's skull and gouged out a furrow from throat to dick before adding a couple more swipes on both. These guards managed to yell out, 'what!' before dying. That's good. The entire camp should be awake now. 

For everyone but fairies, sleep is a necessity of life. A tired army is a slow army. I'm going to make sure these fuckers always sleep with one eye open. After dispatching one more patrol, I heard my cue to retreat. 

"PIIIIII!"

I can just barely make out the shouts as Talon lands, kicking up a campfire and burning a few tents with the landing. She launches a couple wind blades and claws another two men before flying off as quickly as she came. With the camp mobilized on the edges, it left a great opportunity for this plan. Now all of my handiwork won't even be questioned and just accepted as the work of the angry hippogryph, attacking and leaving. Done now, I run back to our meeting spot.

"Pii!"

"Good fucking work, Talon. You didn't get hit by a stray arrow or something, did you?"

"Pii!"

She raises her beak up and puffs out her chest like saying, 'who do you think I am?'

"Well, I'm glad. Let's go back and get some sleep. None of these fuckers will rest well when a hippogryph could show up at any time."

Hopping on, we fly away into the night. Thinking over the elves at the castle, I should really start limiting how many I kill each raid. If I keep whittling away at them, pretty soon I'll end up killing all of them… Fuck it. If they're too stupid to retreat and abandon pursuit, then they had it coming. Just like the old elves during the Vampire War. You would think if a majority of your  people are getting slaughtered, you would abandon or reassess what you're doing. But no~, they just fucking pushed on into a meat grinder. 

Stupid fucking elves.