IDWTBTHQ Chapter 105 - Of Wolves and Men

Dark clouds were gathering on the horizon, announcing the coming of rain and storms of winter, but for now the sun still shone brightly on the Brettholz province, making the colors of the late autumn even more vivid, and also reflecting on the shiny carapaces of thousands of insect-like creatures marching in a long line that stretched for many kilometers along the road that led to Grimdale.

For the first time since their arrival, the Vex were finally leaving Brettholz, moving to the wider world to fight against the orcs. Thousands of Warrior drones moved like a river of chitin, flooding the road and the surrounding countryside while the huge shapes of the Heavies surfaced from that swarm like logs carried by the current. A few Flyers were also scouting the area from above, keeping an eye out for any possible obstruction ahead, but the majority of them just rested on the back of their terrestrial brethren, saving up their energy for when they might need it more.

Despite their huge numbers the Vex advanced swiftly, as their perfect coordination allowed them to avoid getting jammed or delayed. In fact, they weren't even proceeding at full speed, since the goblin army marching behind them wouldn't have been able to keep up with them otherwise. Heck, even now they were struggling to maintain their current speed, despite allegedly being an elite force, formed only of veteran goblins hand-picked by the Goblin General himself. But as professional as they could be, they simply lacked the inhuman discipline that came with being part of a single, unified hivemind.

At the center of the Vex lines, a few humongous figures emerged from the column of drones like islands from a sea of chitin. There were four Destroyers, whose steps made the earth tremble and who stood at least a meter taller even than the Heavies, but even they were dwarfed by the Dreadnoughts coming behind them. At first sight, they looked almost like small hills, but a more careful inspection  revealed that they were actually four gigantic drones encased in a literal mountain of mold-wax. Each of them carried enough of the stuff to feed the whole Vex army for a few days in case they didn't find anything to eat —an unlikely event, since apart from the Destroyers the Vex drones could literally live off anything organic, but a possibility nonetheless. One of the mold-wax hills in particular had been molded in the rough shape of a  house, though the end result was more similar to a cave with a few windows and a ladder leading down to the base of the mound. The inside of the cave-house had also been furnished a bit, with a few beddings, chests and even a table with three chairs, on which Marcus, Klara and Felix were sitting, sipping light beer and talking with each other while Cooper sat at his master's feet. Or, to be more precise, the Vex Queen was  answering a seemingly endless stream of questions coming from the young man while the girl listened.

Earlier that day, as soon as they had departed from Oakfell on top of the Dreadnought drone, Marcus had decided to tell Felix about originally being from a different world, since he had already informed the marquis about it anyway and he didn't want to keep his friend in the dark. However the apprentice sorcerer had taken this information a little too well, showing an apparently bottomless curiosity about Marcus's old world and had been asking questions almost non-stop for hours now, drowning out any other possible subject. Luckily the Vex Queen didn't really mind talking about his previous life and answered everything the boy asked with an abundance of details, doing so while effortlessly guiding his army, an effort that would have once taken his full attention but that now, for some reason, just felt natural.

“I guess that practice makes perfect.” He thought. “Though I think that the training with Hoggs also helped with this.”

He then turned his attention to Felix, who was asking him another question, who apparently was puzzled by the latest topic they had discussed, that of religion in his old world.

“So, let me get this straight.” The apprentice sorcerer asked. “In your world, you don't have any form of magic, right?”

“Yep.” Marcus replied, sipping a bit of beer.

“But just said that you have churches and gods and religion.” The young man continued. “So what about divine magic? You do have that then?”

“No, I'm afraid not.” The Vex Queen said. “At least, not in the way you have it here. Our priests couldn't do magic at the drop of a hat like yours.”

“Then what use do they have?” Felix asked, in a puzzled tone. “I mean, what use is having clerics if they can't even use divine magic?”

“Well...” Marcus mumbled, a bit unsure about how to respond. Religion and stuff like that had always been a delicate subject in his old world, and since he himself was mostly agnostic and had never studied theology he didn't really feel qualified to talk about it. “It's complicated.” He finally said. “Some people believe that their deity will help them in roundabout ways, like making them more lucky or something, while others believe they'll go to a better afterlife after dying.” He shrugged. “I've never been particularly religious myself, so I'm not the best for talking about this kind of stuff. I was too busy trying to live to worry about what's after death.” He paused and snickered, pointing to himself. “Which is rather ironic since I then died and got reincarnated. I guess that if there is a god up there then he must have a weird sense of humor!”

Klara snickered at that joke.

“My grandpa used to say something similar.” She said. “Whenever he found something unexplainable in his travels, he said that it had to be a joke of the gods.”

“Well, for all we know he could have been right.” Marcus replied with a smirk.

“Indeed.” Felix nodded. “By the way, Marcus, I have another question... since you spoke about living, I'm curious about what you did for a living in your world.” He paused for a second and added: “I mean... you told us you were an engineer once... but what did you actually build? Did you make roads for those car things you told me about?”

“If only.” The Vex Queen replied in a jokingly wistful voice. “I wasn't really an engineer, I was just studying to become one —and I got killed before I could finish my studies.” He sighed. “In the meantime I made ends meet by doing a lot of odd jobs around the city. I worked as a waiter, as a delivery man, as a manual worker... hell, there was even that time I worked in a... uhm.” He stopped talking, as he didn't know the word for night club in the imperial language. “Uhm... well, let's say it was a place like a tavern, but with ladies dancing to entertain the guests.”

Both Klara and Felix gave him a really odd look at these words.

“Uhm... so, something like a brothel?” The young man asked in a rather embarrassed voice.

Marcus had never heard the imperial word “brothel” before, but thanks to his telepathy —which seemed to have become more reliable as of lately— he instantly got the meaning of it. And that wasn't the only thing he got, as somehow a weird mental image flashed in Felix's head so vividly that the Vex Queen somehow managed to take a peek at it.

It was an image of the monster girl, in his current body, “entertaining” a faceless man in a dimly lit room.

“No!” The Vex Queen cried vehemently, smashing his hand on the table and making both his friends flinch in surprise. “I... I never did anything like that!” He stopped, trying to get a hold of himself as he felt his cheeks burning from how hard he was blushing. He then took a deep breath and managed to regain control of his emotions before explaining himself. “Sorry for the outburst.” He said. “Anyway, no, it was not like a brothel... offering sex in exchange for cash was a crime in that country. The girls there could only dance and get naked for the guests. Nothing else was allowed.” He paused for a second before adding: “Officially, at least. There were some girls who would sleep with customers... but that was done off the books. I worked there as some sort of factotum. I cleaned, served guests at the bar and sometimes even watched over the girl to make sure that no one would harass them.” He stared at Felix for a moment and then stated, in a rather hard tone: “Also, I was a man at the time.”

“Oh... yes, of course.” The young man said, looking away in embarrassment and becoming silent for the first time in hours, while Klara started snickering, seemingly amused by that exchange.

“Seems like you had your fair share of experiences in your past life.” Klara observed sardonically.

“I suppose.” Marcus shrugged. “I was just... WHAT IS THAT!?!”

The Vex Queen screamed and jumped off her seat, making the two humans flinch for the second time in a minute.

“What is it!?!” Klara asked, in an alarmed voice. “What's wrong?”

“I don't know!” Marcus cried, looking north towards the road ahead. “There is something there... a weird creature is killing my drones!”

“What?” The girl raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I mean... all of them? Can't your drones stop it?”

“I'm trying!” The Vex Queen replied. “But it's too strong! I've never seen something move so fast!”

“What does it look like?” Felix asked.

“Kind of like a wolf.” Marcus answered while frowning. “Big and humanoid, with white fur. And it's tearing through my drones as if they are a pile of dry leaves.” He paused for a second, narrowing his eyes. “I'll send the Destroyers to take care of it. Together with the other drones, they should be able to take it down. Hopefully.”

“Wait!” Klara said. “Did you just say that this creature is a white humanoid wolf?”

“Yes.” The Vex Queen nodded. “Do you know what it might be?”

“By that description, it's most likely Alya Vilka.” The girl said. “The Marquis said that she was going to come and help us.”

“Help us? She's killing my drones!” Marcus gestured angrily. “That's not helping!”

“Well... it could be a misunderstanding.” Klara hypothesized. “I mean, your drones do look like monsters. If someone who doesn't know about them suddenly came face to face with them, they would be scared.”

“What do you want me to do then?” Marcus asked. “I mean, if she doesn't stop she's going to decimate my army!”

“You should tell the marquis.” The girl said. “I mean, he came to help us solve misunderstandings to begin with.”

“Right.” The Vex Queen nodded. “I'll do that.”

He then immediately shifted his attention to the Copy-Drone, which was travelling on a coach together with the marquis and the Goblin General. The two were talking about strategy, when the copy of Marcus suddenly moved.

“Lord Eisen!” The drone cried, making the nobleman and the goblin jump in surprise. “There is an emergency! A white furred wolf-person is attacking my drones!”

Eisen stared at Marcus in surprise for a second, taken completely by surprise.

“Wait!” He said. “A white furred wolf-person? Do you mean Alya Vilka?”

“I don't know!” The copy drone replied. “I've never seen this Alya Vilka before.”

“Why would she attack your drones?” Trakk asked. “Did you perhaps attack her first?”

“No, she attacked them first.” The Vex Queen shook her head. “She was riding a horse towards us, but dismounted as soon as she saw the drones and started slaughtering them without even saying a word.” He paused and stared at the marquis. “Klara thinks that this might be a misunderstanding on Alya's part, so I'm refraining from attacking her for now. But she's slaughtering my forces by the dozens as we speak, so we have to stop her!”

“Shit!” The nobleman cursed and jumped off his seat. “Where is she? I need to talk to her right now!”

“That wolf thing is still at the front of the army.” Marcus said. “Down right the road. But are you sure you want to go there?” He asked. “If it's not Alya but just a random wolf monster, then you could be in danger. That thing is terribly strong and fast.”

“I'll bring my bodyguards along.” Eisen said. “But I think it's her. Your description matches what I've heard about her, and the fact that it's so strong is just further proof.”

The marquis then got out of the coach, and started shouting for his bodyguards.

“Luther! Max!” He cried. “We need to go to the front of the army right now! Hurry!”

The two Aura Users, who were riding alongside the coach, obeyed without hesitation. They immediately took a spare horse for their liege and, after Eisen had mounted, they followed him down the road. They galloped at a breakneck pace, but the column was so long that even wat that speed it would take them a while to reach the front. Luckily, the Vex parted to let them pass, again showing a coordination that humans would find impossible to emulate, but right now the marquis was too worried to stop and admire them.

After a few minutes they finally reached the front of the army, and what they found was absolute carnage. The whole area was completely covered by smelly green ichor, pieces of chitin and still twitching legs of Vex drones.

But what was even worse was that the onslaught was still ongoing.

A white figure was chasing the Vex left and right, so fast that it was only visible as a blur.  Whenever it reached a drone it instantly ripped it apart before starting chasing the next one, something which usually only took a few seconds. In response to this assault the Vex had spread out, making it harder for the white figure to catch them all, but the attacker was so fast that even this didn't do much to slow down the massacre. However, even in this situation, the drones still moved with cool efficiency, without any sign of panicking and not trying to fight back even as they were killed.

Eisen observed this horrible spectacle with incredulity for a moment, before shaking off his indecision and screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Alya Vilka! Stop! These are not enemies! You are killing our allies!”

As he shouted, his bodyguards drew their weapons, ready to defend their master in case the mysterious figure decided to attack him. However, the stranger did no such thing, and instead stopped at the nobleman's cry and turned towards them.

“You know my name.” The figure spoke in an undoubtly female, if rather deep, voice. “Who are you?”

“I am marquis Eisen Brett of Brettholz, a noble of the Kingdom of Medelan.” The marquis introduced himself. “I assume you are Alya Vilka, the White Wolf of Thule.”

“I just told you that's my name, so what do you think?” Alya replied in a cold, snarky tone. “Anyway, I don't really like that moniker. It doesn't really compliment my femininity... I very much prefer what the Djinni call me: the White Bitch!” She snickered and got closer to the marquis and his two bodyguards.

She was a female lycan, a wolf beastwoman, but she was different from all other Thulians of that subspecies that Eisen had seen before. For starters, whereas most Lycans were lithe she was absolutely massive, being more than two meters tall and with square shoulders and thick, powerful arms and legs which were literally bulging with muscles. Combined with her snow-white fur that made her look like a marble statue, hard and chiseled, and her choice of clothing —a pair of shorts and a training bra, both made of a weird black and seemingly stretchable fabric— only furthered this impression since it left most of her body uncovered. She showed no sign of having just been in a battle save for the green ichor covering her hands, being completely unharmed and looking as fresh as a rose, and that spoke volume of her strength. Not only that, but an aura of barely contained violence surrounded her and a light so fiery it bordered on madness shone in her amber eyes, making the nobleman gulp nervously.

Never in his life had he met someone who looked more dangerous than the lycan woman in front of him. Not even Yasen came close.

Still, he forced himself to take a hold of himself and speak normally, as it was befit of a noble.

“Greetings then, lady Alya.” He said. “Welcome to the province of Brettholz. Captain Harp informed us of your possible arrival, but we didn't receive any telemancy message that confirmed it.”

“That's because I didn't send any.” The wolf woman replied, trying to clean her hands from the Vex ichor. “The officers of my country would have kicked up a fuss if they knew I was leaving. So I just packed up my things and left without telling anyone.” She frowned, as the green ichor refused to get off. “Damn this stuff is sticky! Does any of you has a towel or something?”

Cautiously, one of the bodyguards took out a towel from his bag and threw it to Alya, who grabbed it mid-air and used it to wipe her hands.

“So... your government doesn't know you're here?” Eisen asked, incredulous. The diplomatic consequences were absolutely nightmarish to contemplate.

“No they don't.” The thulian woman confirmed, finishing to clean her hands and throwing back the towel to Max. “But they can probably guess it. Besides, it's not the first time I leave the country without telling anyone, so they should be used to it by now.”

“Well... that's...” Absolutely irresponsible, the marquis wanted to say, but he held back those words and instead said: “Peculiar. Anyway, you're welcome.”

He quickly thought that, if Alya was indeed prone to such behaviour, then he could be fine with just informing the Thulian government of her presence in Medelan.

“Thanks.” Alya replied. Then she looked around, taking a good look at the Vex body parts scattered all around, and added: “By the way, sorry for killing so many of your allies.”

“It's... not really as bad as it seems.” Eisen said. “These were Vex drones. They are not really sentient beings. They are more like animals controlled by their Queen, so it's not as if you killed people.”

“Oh, that's good to know.” The wolf woman commented nonchalantly, almost as if she didn't really care whether or not she had killed people. “I mistook these creatures for some random monsters. Wimpy ones though, since they didn't even mount up a resistance. After I killed a few dozen, they just scattered  around and tried to get away without fighting me.”

“They knew you were not an enemy, so they tried not to hurt you.” The marquis explained, feeling particularly offended by that remark for some reason. “If that weren't the case, you would have had a much harder fight.” He smirked. “Vex drones don't know fear, or panic, or any other emotion for what matters. Once they receive an order, they follow it no matter what, even if it would result in their own death.”

“I see.” The wolf woman mumbled. “Well, I've never seen these creatures before so I'll take your word for it, milord.” She stretched a bit. “Anyway... does the strong aura that I sense down the road belong to this Queen you spoke about?”

“Uh... yes, I think so.” Eisen said.

“That's even more interesting.” Alya smirked. “And tell me... is this Queen strong?”

“In a peculiar way, yes.” The marquis replied, unsure about the reason for this question. “She does have a very strong aura, but she can't use magic or Aura Arts.” He decided not to mention Marcus's telepathy. “However, she can control all of her minions with her thoughts, so she can make them fight for her if needed.”

“I see.” Alya said once again. “That's a pity. When I sensed that powerful aura I thought I had found a strong opponent to fight. Well, at least there is still the Oni.” She paused for a second and turned towards the marquis. “Or at least I hope so. Wasn't the oni supposed to attack the southern part of this province? Why are you marching north?” She frowned. “Have you killed it already?”

“Sadly, no.” The nobleman replied. “The oni has changed target and is attacking Grimdale instead of Brettholz, and we're moving north in order to defeat it before it can get any stronger. Speaking of which...” He gestured towards the road. “We should probably resume our march, so if you have any further questions, it'd be better if you ask them while we move.”

The wolf woman studied the nobleman for a moment before nodding.

“Well, that's what I came for.” She said, “I just hope you have some spare bedding and food for me. I left my stuff on a bag on my horse, but that stupid animal ran away.”

“I'm sure we can get whatever you may require.” Eisen replied.

“Excellent. Then I'll come with you.” The wolf woman said. “Make way, milord. I'll follow you on foot.”

Without any further word, the nobleman started riding back to his coach, followed by his bodyguards and now by Alya Vilka as well. Behind them, the Vex quickly gathered and started clearing the road before resuming their march.

While he was riding, the marquis often glanced at Alya, who for now hadn't said anything else and just followed him silently, easily keeping pace with the horses. To be honest, now that he had met her he had mixed feelings about her presence. On one hand, she seemed to be incredibly strong and would certainly be a useful asset, but on the other she was absolutely irresponsible and her demeanour was utterly inappropriate. Sadly, these were hard times, and the power of the Thulian Aura Master was required to deal with the Oni, so he would have to tolerate her shenanigans and keep an eye on her.

He smirked. It was quite ironic that as of lately, his allies tended to be even more dangerous and monstrous than his enemies. But maybe that was a positive thing after all.