I laugh on top of my drake. Those humans are so screwed.

My wave of vess soldiers forms into two lines, three hundred strong each. My human and orc companions have fallen back to let my soldiers take the brunt of the initial damage. My knights are spreading out, ready to hit the humans from the flank when the time comes.

If the Tarenbaum army is afraid, they don't show it, in fact, they only pick up more speed when they see my summons.

At the tip of their formation, General Pirous easily cleaves his way through my vess. His soldiers aren't so strong, and get caught and stopped, separating them from their leader. Or maybe that was their plan? The General spurs his mount forward to engage with my companions, the tip of his drawn sword gleams with a blue light.

The Matron has been preparing a spell for a while now and finally stretches out her hands to release it. A giant spike of ice bursts from the ground right underneath the General. Pirous activates a skill and he and his mount turn ethereal, the spike harmlessly passes through them, and the pair pass through to return to physicality unharmed.

Jet engages, his mount attempting to blindside his opponent, but Pirous is too fast. Or rather, his mount is as it speeds up suddenly, completely avoiding the orc's hammer. Sarah adds her own attack, her sword gleaming with holy light, slashes towards the man. Pirous raises his sword and deftly blocks the strike, and with a twirl of his blade, he decapitates the Hero's mount, sending her crashing into the dirt. Sarah clearly isn't used to mounted combat.

The General pulls on his reins and turns, his horse rearing up to deliver a crushing blow to my human friend.

Enna leaps out of the shadow of his horse, scooping Sarah up and dodges out of the way, setting the Hero back on her feet. Enna rushes forward to put pressure on the General, swiping her claws dangerously close to his mount, but keeping her distance. The horse turns to the side and allows its rider to strike back, the blue glowing blade sending sparks off of Enna's claws, easily keeping up with her speed.

A blue barrier pops up to protect the vulnerable flank of the General, a warhammer bouncers off of it a second later, completely repelling Jet's attack. Before he can bring his hammer in for a follow up swing, the shield protecting the General explodes, sending the orc flying off his mount to smash into the ground.

Golden blade joins my caretaker's claws as Enna and Sarah fight together to overwhelm the man. He is clearly in his third class evolution and a master at mounted combat, his class probably is related to it. Despite being outnumbered, he maintains a controlled expression and never seems to panic, calmly attacking, parrying, and blocking.

Enna isn't well suited to a head on fight, unless she is massively over the level of her opponent, in this case, she isn't. So, she fights cautiously, never overextending, always moving. Sarah is too low level to really be a match, although her hero class certainly helps bridge the gap, it's clear she is outmatched. Jet is around level fifty I think, but he is taking a long time to recover from his recent encounter with the ground.

It starts to snow, the ground starts to become covered in frost, and an icy wind whips through the air. The Matron has not been idle; a giant spell circle is forming around her as she speaks the words of her incantation.

I quickly check on the rest of the battle. My soldiers are holding the line perfectly, while my knights are closing in from the flanks. They are surprisingly stealthy for how huge they are. The enemy soldiers are completely surprised when my knights and their whirling storm of blade arms start tearing through their ranks.

The human soldiers fight valiantly; their horses never once buck or act afraid. They cut down a good hundred of my soldiers, but the tides are quickly turned as my knights hack through them. The towering black monsters slowly stomp through the humans, carving up everything in their way. Gleaming blue blades are turned aside on my knight's obsidian armor, horses smashed under clawed feet, white plate armor is pierced as if made from paper.

There's no reason to drag this out, I order my drakes to fly over the battle, spewing flames, uncaring if any vess gets hit; they are very resilient to whatever fire my drakes make. The flames engulf the soldiers who seem to not have an answer for it. A few barriers are erected but quickly melt under the heat. Many humans die screaming and I actually have to look away. It seems like I still have some humanity left in me.

The Matron finally releases her spell, a blizzard snaps into existence around the mounted warrior, the winds howl with power, a complete white out forms; even my drake can't see through it.

When the snow clears, the General's horse is laying on its side, breathing heavily, most of its body frozen over in ice. The rider is kneeling next to his incapacitated mount. His left arm is completely encased in ice, his right arm is frozen up to the elbow, and both his legs have huge chunks of ice preventing him from standing. Sarah's sword shines at his throat, while all the others gather around the incapacitated man.

By the time I land, and Enna helps me down from my drake, a conversation has already been started.

The Hero presses her blade closer to the man's throat, "-no. Absolutely not."

Jet has recovered and is standing next to Fia while she magically treats his wounds. The orcs are breathing heavily, that spell must have taken a lot out of Fia, I know I feel exhausted after emptying my mana. At least Jet seems to have been the only one who was hurt, and not very badly.

The ground around us is covered in a thick blanket of snow, it's a new experience to walk through it without shoes on, but my chitinous, clawed feet don't seem to mind. Those feet take me over to stand behind Sarah. I wrap my arms around her and bury my face in her back briefly, trying to absorb some warmth; it is so cold down here. It's already cold enough to begin with and our mage just had to use ice magic, ugh.

Jet was saying something to Pirous, oops I should probably pay attention.

Still hugging Sarah, I peek my head around her to look at our new captive. General Pirous' eyes meet mine and he addresses me, "Vess Queen, you're a long way from the Spinesnap."

I stick my tongue out, "Not really, not when you can fly. How do you even know about me? Your god tell you or something?"

Despite being covered in ice, the man is stoic and doesn't flinch or shiver. "Spies in the Lotheris court." He openly admits. "Why are you here? What business do you have with me?"

"Well, it's too bad for you," I shiver against Sarah. I can't wait to have enough subordinates, so I don't have to do this stuff myself. "I took interest in the Karnakans and the orcs, and both parties led me to you. I want the Karnakan people that you took."

The General's breath comes out as a mist as he sighs, "I'm afraid it's likely too late, they are probably dead."

Sarah's voice is sharp, "What do you mean?"

"We are using them for a ritual."

"Explain." Sarah narrows her eyes, her voice hard.

"An old spell belonging to the royal family, I'm told." A small piece of ice breaks off Pirous' shoulder as he shifts, and lands softly in the snow. "It requires human sacrifices. I imagine his majesty wasn't so cruel as to use his own people."

The Matron finishes treating Jet and steps closer, "The force you were riding with seems fit for war. We did what you asked, why were you coming for us?"

General Pirous doesn't break eye contact with me as he answers, "It seems we were mistaken, orcs can be used too and are preferable even."

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"Bastard." Jet's voice is as cold as the snow, "I would execute you now if the Vess Queen didn't need you."

"And how may I serve, your majesty?" Pirous' voice is neutral, very hard to read. I have no idea if he is planning on being helpful or not.

I take a peek over at the other battle. It seems like most of the soldiers are dead, and the ones that weren't are surrendering, it's too bad my vess don't have instructions to spare anyone. Having a bunch of useless prisoners seems like more trouble than it's worth.

No wait. I peek up at Sarah who is still intently focused on the General. She wouldn't want me to kill the surrendering soldiers and I admit that it probably is wrong… Definitely wrong. Sending out a single thought, my vess starts to gather the captured soldiers into a group instead of killing them. I don't think too many of them were executed.

Returning my attention to Pirous, it seems everyone is waiting for me to answer him. I let go of Sarah and fully step out from behind her to stand in front of him. "How can you serve me?" A smile begins to crawl across my face. "Good, it sounds like you're already accepting your role."

"I don't understand." Pirous glances down at his horse, something like concern briefly flashes over his face.

I clasp my hands behind my back and bounce on my heels, "You're going to serve me. I need some competent servants, and you are very competent. I'm taking you for myself."

"And" A slight groan of pain escapes the human's lips, it seems he is more injured than he is letting on, "Why should I accept this?"

I tilt my head to the side, "You don't get a choice?"

Sarah clears her throat, "Think about it as your chance to make up for slaughtering all those innocent people."

"Please?" I step closer, pushing on Sarah's arm until she lowers her sword.

"Please?" Pirous barks out a laugh, "I don't know what I imagined when I heard of the vess queen who came from nowhere and decimated the Karnakan army, but this is certainly not it." He slouches under the weight of the ice, sparing a glance at his soldiers, "You allowed some of my men to live?"

"For Sarah." I clarify.

"The Hero holds sway over you?"

I pout and cross my arms, "Not really, I just listen to my friends. Are you going to join me or not?"

The General smiles a tired smile, "Very well. Perhaps good might come of this."

I deepen my pout, why does he have to act all mysterious, "What are you talking about?"

"Do you know why North Tarenbaum is attacking the south?"

"No." I shake my head. "You're greedy and want more land and stuff?"

"Not exactly. Well, there is more to it." The human actually shivers, finally feeling the cold. His eyes haven't left mine this whole time, "The winter has been getting worse and worse every year. Our diviners think it will only get worse, and the frozen wastes will only further encroach on our lands, pushing us south."

"Similar to Karnaka." I wonder out loud, "Is this world dying or something?"

"I wouldn't know, all I know is that my kingdom needs to move further south or we risk the high level monsters of the wastes causing untold destruction. We cannot afford to stay where we are for another winter, this one will be bad enough."

Even with her sword lowered, Sarah never stops glowering at the man, "It doesn't justify the suffering you are causing."

"No." Pirous doesn't hesitate to respond. "It doesn't. But I must, for my family."

"What if we save your family?" I offer, "Will you help us then?"

The General looks at me for a long time, not saying anything. The silence weighs heavily over our group, no one makes a move. I really want to get out of the cold, I get this is a big decision for him, but it's not like he has a choice anyways.

Briefly, I ponder trying to help the north in exchange for them not attacking the south but quickly discard it. I want to send powerful vess into the frozen wastes for the xp. It would help them, but even if I did that, I can't do anything about the worsening weather. My diplomacy vess still hasn't made an appearance, and none of my companions are that good at it either, so I really don't feel like getting wrapped up in that. You can't save everyone. Extracting the Karnakan citizens and retreating back into the Spinesnap seems like the move.

I have the orcs and I'm taking over the plains and its dungeons, the plains are largely empty anyway. I doubt Karnaka is going to have the ability to retake them anytime soon. I got what I came for, everything is turning out pretty good. My vess instincts are purring in delight, it seems I do have a strong desire to expand and grow stronger.

Finally, Pirous speaks, "Very well. I put my life in your hands, Vess Queen."

"Great! Release him and let's go get warmed up!" I cheerily order, beaming at my new recruit. A strong wind catches my cloak and dress, exposing some of my skin to the air, "Now! Please! Cold!"

The ice falls away from the man and his horse. Pirous quickly checks on his horse, looking it over for injuries. It struggles to stand, but the horse does, drawing a small smile from the General.

I don't think I was ever that into horses, but I still walk up and ask, "What's its name?"

Pirous glances down at me, his lips still smiling, "Courage, his name is Courage."

Sarah is hovering nearby, looking nervous at me standing so close. She has our new 'friends' sword, so I wave her over and take it. The Hero doesn't seem particularly thrilled about it, but she doesn't say anything.

I turn and offer the sword to Pirous, "I like that name, it suits him. He definitely lives up to it."

Pirous hesitantly reaches for the blade, sparing a look at the Hero, "Are you sure you want to arm me, so soon after our fight? What if I attack you when the others turn their backs?"

"Are you going to attack me?" I look up at him, utilizing one of my cutest smiles. I know my strengths!

He takes a second to respond, "...No."

"Then, there's no problem!" I cheer, bouncing a little.

Pirous turns to Sarah, sharing some sort of look with her, "It must be difficult to protect your queen."

Sarah shrugs, "You would think so, but she usually stays out of trouble and has plenty of protectors around her. Plus, I've been around a lot of you serious knight types before, you're honorable, you wouldn't strike down a defenseless child."

"Actually!" I cut in, "I've been growing a lot recently! I'm more of an adolescent; I have boobs now!"

Sarah looks down at her sizable bust and back at me with an eyebrow raised. The cloak completely hides my modest showing.

My face flushes, why did I say that. "W-well, you're older than me and I'm still growing!"

Pirous lets all this just wash over him, the model of a respectful knight. He simply turns and fixes his sword onto his saddle. After a respectful silence, he turns back, "I would expect the queen to be the strongest."

"Not in this case." Sarah deadpans, "Anyways, your help is much appreciated. The orc camp is being moved and is likely gone by now, so we are going to set up our own. We don't have enough tents for your men though…" She shoots a worried look towards the prisoners.

"I'll have my vess dig a hole for them." I send the order.

The General looks distinctly uncomfortable, "...Very well. Will you let me see to my men? They are still my responsibility."

"Please do." Sarah shares his worried look, "Honestly, I have no idea what to do with them. We only really planned on capturing you, so we could get the information we need. Any ideas?"

"You're asking the captured general what to do with his own men?" Fia's voice holds a bit of mirth.

"Do you have any better ideas?" The Hero shoots back.

Jet crosses his arms, scowling over at the captured men, "We don't need them, and they will only complicate our mission. I would suggest either holding them until we are done and then releasing them or have your vess take them back to the Spinesnap and hold them there."

"Pirous?" I ask the man.

His response is quick and cold, "I would execute them."

"Could you explain why?" I carefully ask.

"Yeah, no," Sarah shuts it down, "We aren't doing that. Why would you even say that? I thought you said you were responsible for your men!"

"I only said what I would do in your position, not what I wanted to happen." The General slowly explains.

"Whatever! I'm cold!" I guess I have the final say, "I'm going to put them in a nice cozy hole and have my vess guard them until we are done, then they can go home."

"They will spread word of you." Pirous cautions.

I shrug, "Apparently there are spies already doing that, so I don't really care."

"Thank you." Pirous bows to me.

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