227. The Battle of Five-ish Armies, Part 12 [Bonny]

Team Canine Crushers (Bonny)

We speed after Kiki the Hooded Falcon as she carries our friend Moka away in her prehensile leather tentacles. We're faster with the captive Dust Bunny slowing her down, but she has covering fire from her ally. 

Gabby is a whirlwind of wand-waving as she weaves Persistent spell effects to block or deflect a rain of arrows from the white-haired Pegasus while steering our flying broomstick with her legs. Feathered shafts shatter against floating rocks conjured from thin air. Other arrows are blown off course by gusts of wind or get stuck in the layers of Second Tier Fairy Bubble spells she's throwing up one after another. 

The two Third Tier monsters are at a stalemate, the Pegasus fending off Gabby's advances and preventing us from rescuing Moka while Kiki performs evasive maneuvers, leaving me to be the tiebreaker. I form snowballs filled with Cold magic in my spellcrafter gloves and toss them at the erratic Falcon or launch bolts of compressed Air Magic in turn. Without any special aiming abilities, my accuracy mostly comes down to luck. Unfortunately, I'm a mouse, not a bunny.

Beneath us, the battle rages on, and takes yet another major turn. The Cataphracts' new subordinates are crashing into the other melees to shift the tides. 

I see the fight between Ariella's aquatic quintet and the Alpha Bitch has entered a new equilibrium. Kani the crab monster is back upright, and the three other Mer monsters have reformed their bubble, but Ariella is too busy occupying the Bitch to get inside her watery transport. The Triton is barely fending off the Alpha with the help of her loyal retainers. 

Ariella's piscine lower body is much less agile on the ground compared to swimming in the Water bubble. It's only the crab pincers defending her flanks that keep the Alpha from finishing this in one bite. As it is, the circling Wolf will find an angle on either the Mermaid or her Cancer guardian before long, and then it'll be over in a flash.

At least, that's the way it looks before a wave of Chained Wolves slams into them. 

The Bitch seems already fed up with the five Second Tier monsters stymying her victory, and having her own canine pack-mates turn traitor is beyond the pale. She growls with feral rage as she's whipped by chains and her limbs are entangled with the metal links. This Alpha is far stronger than any individual here, but the number of foes attempting to hold her down is significant. They strain at the lines, tug as she pulls away, and let her drag them along the ground as living anchors.

Neither that, nor facing her former allies stop the Bitch from retaliating, however. Her paw contemptuously smacks a wolf aside to leave him in a crumpled heap. Her jaws clamp down on a dozen chains and sever them with a bite of her steel-sharp teeth. Then she bowls over the wolves still hanging on by a thread to make a break for it while an increasing number of them chase after her.

Kani manaces the encroaching canine minions with her claws as Ariella crawls back into the Water bubble. Hooded Falcons threaten their crew from every side as the Sharkkin and Tendra blast all comers with firehose jets. The Scallopia looks terrified as she focuses on maintaining the bubble. Pincers close on empty air with loud snaps, leather jesses are repeatedly battered away, and avian talons rake across the surface of the watery sphere over and over in search of weaknesses. 

Even getting Ariella resituated in the Water bubble doesn't help, because more and more converted monsters are trickling in by ones and twos. It's all the Triton can do to wave her trident about threateningly as playing defense gets harder by the minute.

I'm surprised to see another group of Centaurian subordinates attack the nearby Omega orgy. I expected their forces to continue leaving that one alone, but before my eyes the wolves and Falcons reach their tendrils into the pheromone cloud to pull out the participants and restrain them individually. The Omega themself is shocked by the rude interruption, unable to switch gears to combat-mode before getting hogtied in an undignified manner.

Steelheart, on the other hand, is enraged upon being ripped away from the object of his lust. He shoots an impressive stream of flame from all three heads to remind everyone of the threat he represents. I kind of feel like the bondage army is regretting setting him free as his fire breath stops both Falcons and Chained Wolves from approaching. They do keep him surrounded to prevent him from charging into the fray and wreaking havoc on the field of weaker monsters. Even the Pseudo-Hydra needs to take care not to expose his back to too many foes at once.

It sucks having Alex's Harpy flock turn on us, but at least Flou and Olindia are relieved to have the bondage army take some of the pressure off of them. 

The Slime Solidarity team had been hammered by the Beta, Night Howler, Delta, and Epsilon wolves for the past few minutes. The amount of damage they took overwhelmed Olindia's healing aura, and Flou can't restore her First Tier Cores since they aren't counted as part of her true body, apparently. It was a desperate situation as the elite wolves circled them while nibbling away at their mass with cheap shots and pack tactics.

Then the Hooded Falcons and Chained wolves completely flip the table with their arrival. Suddenly, it's the wolves getting harassed by hit-and-run tactics from the Harpies stooping at their heads and going for their delicate eyes or noses with sharp talons. Chains loop around the Beta's legs, bringing him to heel, or at least forcing him to abandon the Slime girls to defend himself from a multi-pronged assault.

While the Beta can't be tamed so easily, and the Night Howler has prehensile plant tendrils to defend herself, the Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta (who just freed himself from Gabby's spell again) wolves can each be leashed by as few as two Chained Wolves working in concert. It comes at a cost payed in bites and blood, but the bondage army has the will and troops to pay it. 

Neither Falcon talons or canine chains can meaningfully harm or restrain the malleable Slime girls. To the contrary, this ruckus gives Flou and Olindia a chance to regroup. The Strawberry Moon Jelly rises into the air above the battlefield with Flou in tow as they slip through or around the chains assailing them, both content to leave their enemies fighting amongst themselves. I'm sure they'll find somewhere more useful to pitch in and help.

And that help is sorely needed elsewhere considering the six Cataphracts have finished converting the avian and canine armies into bondage subordinates. All that's left is wrapping up my broomstick legion—literally, as the only way to stop the regenerating stick soldiers is to burn them or tie them up. The Cataphracts are using their lasso ropes to secure the broomsticks in angry bundles that helplessly twitch on the ground. The walking sticks can't exactly smart enough to untie themselves.

With them out of the way, (sorry, my little buddies) the six Cataphracts split into three groups. They're headed for the three main melees surrounding the Alpha Bitch, Beta Male, and Steelheart; our allies are about to be crushed! We need to finish rescuing Moka and go help before that happens.

Which is bad news, because I can't land a hit on this damn bird! Kiki the Hooded Falcon is preternaturally good at evading my bursts of Air Magic and snowballs while Gabby divides her attention between steering the broomstick and deflecting the Pegasus archer's arrows. Moka is bound too tightly with leather tendrils to offer meaningful resistance. 

That's why it's shocking to see the white-haired Centaurian buck in the air and shout in pain as if struck by a red-hot poker! Oh, I see what got her, now. It's looks like a Venom Dart lodged in her posterior, but that can't be, right? 

"Direct hit!"

"You did it!"

"Reina is the best!"

The Sweet Bees?!? They've really come? But it's not safe for them to be here...

As if in response to my thoughts, the angry Centaurian whirls about and raises her bow, nocking an arrow in preparation to fire. But before she lets the arrow fly, the white-haired mare is forced to dodge aside in midair to avoid a jet of steam. No, not steam, that's vaporized venom!

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" says a ruby-scaled flying lamia, our resident Melusine, Opal. She's not supposed to be here either. Also, why is she wearing a frilly dress and headpiece? "And you lot!" she turns to the Bee Girls, enraged, "Were you pretending not to hear or see me while I was shouting and chasing you all the way here?"

"Hmph," the lead Bee shrugs.

""Hmph,"" the other Bees echo the first and mimic her movements.

The Mare doesn't appreciate being surrounded like this. "We're kind of in the middle of conquer-, er, liberating the locals from their oppressors. Can't you—hey, that's mine!"

Gabby and I don't waste this opportunity. I take control of steering the broomstick while she uses her Witch Spellcraft to turn a Fairy Bubble inside out. With this modification, she's able to conjure a containment field around Kiki directly that she then upgrades to the bottom of Tier Three.

The Hooded Falcon bumps into the smooth inside of the bubble and slumps to the curved, transparent 'floor.' She scrabbles with her talons, but can barely scratch the higher Tier spell. 

"No, that bunny belongs to us. This is our territory, and we won't be 'liberated' so easily."

Wow, Gabby is so cool when she's dressing-down the harbinger of a major power on the continent! Or maybe I'm lightheaded from how scary the implications of everything happening today are. Oh, crap baskets, we're pissing off someone much stronger than the Wold Lord, aren't we?

I don't let my fears slow me as I reach into the bubble with my magic gloves and conjure stone sheaths onto Kiki's talons to blunt them. She's trapped with nowhere to flee from me. Moka starts wriggling free as I work. The Centaurian glares at me, and then Gabby.

"Heh. You have no idea what you're up against, Gobbo. You're all going to be belly riders by this time next week, and you'll be thanking us for the privilege!"

Gabby's eyes narrow and my jaw drops. I can't believe the mare just said what she said. Even Opal is shocked—it looks like she's trying to shield the Bee Girls' ears with her palms to little effect.

"That's our word." 

With a flick of her wand, a gap opens in the bubble that an escaping Moka now jumps through and onto our broom. With Kiki's talons capped, Gabby allows the bubble spell to weaken to the Persistent Spell Second Tier level and leaves it be. Then she turns her full attention to the Mare who is just realizing how outnumbered and outmatched she is here in the air. 

"...Shit."

"Potty mouth!"

Reina and the Sweet Bees throw volleys of Venom Darts at the mare. Opal shoots a stream of boiling venom from her fangs. I fling a snowball, and Gabby somehow restrains her anger. Instead of focusing on offense, she shields our allies and deflects retaliatory arrows with her copied version of Harpy Matron Air Magic. 

The white-haired Centaurian is running scared, evading our projectiles by soaring in erratic patterns at high speed while firing back at us. Her humanoid torso allows her to twist around, aim, and shoot behind her while flying blind. That comes with a price, however.

A red tendril of ruby slime snakes around the Pegasus's humanoid waist. 

Yep, it's Flou. The bunny slime girl had Olindia reach out a jellyfish tentacle while clinging to the tip, and stretched out her own form to the limit. With all twelve of her body cores connecting their crystal blood masses together by a thread, she can reach impressively far. No doubt, ignorant of her capabilities, the mare hadn't felt threatened by the Slime duo's proximity until it was too late.

Flou's other end releases Olindia and she reels in her elongated form while enveloping the Pegasus's upper half in a ruby sheen as the mare's eyes bulge with fear. 

"Oh, fuck. D-don't kill me!"

"Relax, we don't execute prisoners," Flou chuckles in a dark tone as she takes the shape of a crystalline bunny girl with her arms playfully wrapped around the Centaurian's neck, "I will take a little blood to recoup what I've lost, though." The Red Slime girl standing on the mare's back leans in, seemingly on impulse, to nibble the shapely throat before her.

"Ahn~" the Centaurian surrenders an involuntary moan as she's ravished.

When the white-haired mare's blood touches her lips, Flou undergoes a startling transformation. First, the brownish bunny fur on her head turns black as night. Then a cloak of dark fur secured at her throat by a ruby clasp grows down her back to billow in the wind. Pulling away after drinking her fill, leaving a flustered and wrung-out mare behind, Flou reveals two new, prominent fangs.

Something even crazier happens next. A small bead forms inside Flou's ruby body before surfacing as it grows. The bead gains mass, taking a portion of her liquid-crystal blood, grows its own black capelet, and separates. Once separate and free, it unfurls the capelet to form a pair of black bat wings. The bunny-eared, bat-winged Slime flaps rapidly to hover in place beside its mistress. 

"Oh, this is nice,” Flou announces as she admires herself, and grins like a devil.