The moon hung high over the night sky. Eris hid among the construction work on the new star fort. She looked to her side, where several men were with her.

They were dressed in various forms of light armor and wielding arquebus. Many of them had dark paint on their skin for better hiding among shadows. The girl surveyed them with a talented eye.

"I'm still nervous about hiring these men. They're mercenaries, like usual, but foreigners to Foldzar. All the mercenaries I hired so far were domestic," Eris thought.

She hid a grimace as she surveyed them.

"But guerrilla warfare is not Foldzar's specialty. We can do it. However, we are far from experts."

Eris' gaze turned to a group of men who wore cutlasses on their hips.

"Buccaneers. Pirates. If Foldzar weren't landlocked, Armand would have them hanged. But they will hopefully be very useful to me."

Her eyes turned to a group wearing raccoon-skin hats.

"Fighters from some other kingdom's colonies. They often face other colonials and natives in hit-and-run battles. I hope they prove to be as good at tracking as my sources say. Otherwise, I wasted a lot of money on them."

Finally, Eris glanced at a man with darker skin than the others. His clothes were adorned with feathers. On his feet were a strange sort of animal-skin shoe that the girl noticed was very stealthy.

"And a savage from the New World. Well, he can be as barbaric as he wants to be in his free time, as long as he does what I pay him for. Besides, he's one of his peoples' leaders. As a noble, he's at least human, even if he's a savage human. Ashame that I can't say that about the rest of this common rabble."

She turned her attention back to the construction site. Eris and her mercenaries waited in silence. The night grew longer. When the moon was at its apex, motion flickered in the camp.

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Two people came running through the darkness. They placed and lit bombs at the base of a tower's framework. Then, the pair lit it before running.

It took Eris all her willpower to resist not shooting them for daring to harm something she was building. However, the Concord girl persisted, forcing herself to stay calm.

"Besides, I'll probably end up torturing them to death later anyway," she consoled herself.

Eris gave a signal, and the mercenaries started moving out. Being the experts in stealth, they took the lead. Barely a noise was made as they followed the fleeing saboteurs.

Nearby, some hussars started pursuit. However, they purposely went in the wrong direction to make sure that the saboteurs thought they were getting away.

The stealthy chase went on through the fields and into a dark forest. Sometimes, Eris' mercenaries lost sight of their quarry. But one of them soon found tracks after.

This pursuit went on for hours. Just when the light of dawn cracked, the targets stopped in a clearing. In front of them was a short, robed figure. Eris and her mercenaries slowed their pace. They got as close as possible without breaking through the underbrush.

Then, all at once, the mercenaries charged. They shouted at the same time.

"Down! Get on your knees! Yield and you will be spared!"

One of the saboteurs broke into a sprint. There was a loud crack! He dropped dead, felled by the musket shot. The other dropped to his knees, as commanded.

As for the robed figure, it started running off too. A bang! echoed out. For a moment, the target stumbled. But it got up and kept moving. Two more men fired their arquebus. Both hit. It wasn't enough.

Two more firearms shot. One exploded in its user's arms, turning them into a bloody mess. The other hit the robed figure, dropping it dead.

At this point, the mercenaries split their roles. Some saw to their injured ally, who was fortunate to have not died when his weapon malfunctioned. Others went to apprehend the living saboteur. The rest joined Eris in going to the robed figure.

The girl pulled out her personal pistols and shot it three times on the way over, just to make sure it was dead. Then, she stopped just outside of pike range.

"One of you, inspect it," she said. "It could be that this person was wearing some armor."

A mercenary moved over, reaching down with caution and pulling back the hood. He jumped back with incredible suddenness. Shock coated his face.

"What is it?" Eris asked.

"It's...that's no man! It's a monster!" he answered.

Concern flickered through Eris' heart.

"A monster?" she rushed over. "Let me see."

Eris grabbed the robes and threw them off. Below the clothes was a small, human-like creature. It was coated in scales rather than skin. A forked tongue lolled out of its dead mouth. Despite not being involved in the war against the monsters the last time around, recognition flickered in the girl's eyes.

"Oh, gods, no," Eris groaned. "Armand is going to hate this."

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