"AGHHH IT HURTS SO MUCHH!!!" yelled Nysira as she lay on the ground with her hand on the eye she had just lost. The pain ran through her whole body. Around them, the wires were shaking, and the enemies were destroying the wall with all their strength.
'I don't know how long this will last… I have to calm her down fast,' thought Jaune as he got closer to Nysira, trying to comfort her.
"Everything's alright, Nysira… you're still alive…" said Jaune in a soft voice, trying to calm her down, but it barely worked.
"YOU WEREN'T THE ONE WHO JUST LOST AN EYE, JUST SHUT UP!!" yelled Nysira back, her voice filled with anger and sadness. "I don't know what to do… before everything was going alright, now this…" she said, lowering her voice. Suddenly, a hole appeared in the wall behind her.
"Attention!!" shouted Jaune, noticing the hole and immediately throwing himself to save Nysira from the spike that came from it. Nysira was saved, but the spike created a literal hole in Jaune's right shoulder.
"Puff…" Jaune spat some blood on the wall while laying on Nysira, who watched him with terrified eyes. "JAUNE!!!" shouted her. Jaune simply smiled, trying to make her feel alright. Suddenly, the wall behind them completely collapsed, and they saw Sappho with the soldiers right behind her.
"In the end, you weren't even able to destroy all my toys… I hope you'll become better as toys," said Sappho as she raised her arm. But before actually ordering her soldiers to attack, she waited a moment and glanced behind at all her shadowed, dead soldiers.
"I'm so happy!!! I'll have many new toys to play with! To be honest, I was getting bored of all these soldiers, but not of you, General, especially because you didn't even have the time to do anything…" said her, looking toward the general of the army, who glanced down, mortified.
"Well, at least you'll make more of the beestrings (krukmongbee in Krukin language) that I summoned before the start of this fight," said her as she turned her gaze again toward the two humans, now more confused to see the krukmongbee there.
'Eh? Wait… I don't remember summoning one of these before…' thought Sappho, confused. 'WAIT…' she thought as she immediately looked again at the krukmongbee, who was about to shoot its stings.
'I NEVER SUMMONED ANYTHING LIKE THAT!!' thought her as the stings immediately flew toward the whole army and Sappho. None of the stings actually hit Jaune and Nysira.
"Reaper's Fur!!" yelled Sappho as she created a small shadow armor on her body to defend herself. As two stings reached her, one was totally deflected by the armor, but the other pierced right into her leg, making her fall to the ground.
The countless other stings completely destroyed the shadow army, but one was still standing. As Jaune and Nysira could now see clearly, they noticed that the only one alive was the general. Around him were several huge steel blades that created a small wall defending him. At first, they reminded of the blades of a pencil sharpener, but these were a hundred times bigger.
"Wait…" whispered Sappho as she realized that the krukmongbee was actually there, it was not an illusion like the one created by Liro like it happened in the cave. Suddenly, she remembered what Garwhole had told her after the attack to Skar-Zhul…
"Don't you guys find it weird that they already knew our position?" asked Rhihamr. Sappho, who had just woken up, glanced toward him, and Garwhole flew onto Rhihamr's shoulder.
"Phocylides already explained this to me… a traitor might be among us," said Garwhole. The two of them looked at him, frightened. "But not someone in the way you think… it's probably someone who comes here without anyone noticing, and listens to everything we say," added Garwhole. The two didn't feel relieved at all.
"How can you be so sure?" asked Sappho as she tried to stand up. Rhihamr gently helped her.
"You fought against the one who can create illusions, right?" asked Garwhole to Sappho, who simply nodded. 'That bastard created an illusion of one of my toys…' thought Sappho, furious.
"Well then, as you might have noticed, he was only able to create an illusion… while there's somebody else who can turn into us," said Garwhole. "They're probably using this magic to enter our planet and hear everything we say…" finished Garwhole.
"That means we'll have to pay more attention… but is it possible to tell the difference?" asked Rhihamr, trying to figure out if he had ever come into contact with one of these.
Garwhole shook his head. "It's basically impossible. That's why telling if they're an ally or not is nearly impossible… it happened to me once too…" he said, recalling the time with Eyrunik when they found a krukwyve that attacked them.
"IT HAS TO BE ONE OF THE HUMANS!!!" shouted Sappho as the only shadow remaining immediately created one of the blades on top of his head and threw it toward the krukmongbee, who simply destroyed it with her hands.
"Humans?" whispered Nysira, confused by what Sappho had just said. Then she realized who it was. "IT'S BIANCA!!" shouted her. Jaune could barely see anything as he felt himself growing weaker.
As Nysira noticed that Jaune could barely stay conscious, she got up and carried him in her arms. Using her magic, she rushed toward a safer place and laid Jaune there.
"Thank you…" said Jaune with what little strength he had left. He used the kinetic energy generated by Nysira to create some wires that blocked the blood coming from his wound.
"Go help her… I still have some strength to defend myself…" added Jaune as he lay on the ground, trying to rest and regain the strength to help in the fight once again.
Nysira nodded and turned away to help Bianca, who was now fighting against the fallen general.
Some time before, while Bianca was running away, bringing many krukins behind her…
'A lot of time has already passed… I have to go to the battlefield and help them,' thought Bianca as she glanced around. There were still many krukins. 'I have to eliminate them somehow…' Suddenly, an image popped into her mind.
It was when she was watching Sappho training with her toys. It was right after the fight in Skar-Zhul, and she had been so shocked to see power that strong. She didn't have the shape of a krukspy yet and was spying on the enemy woman. But she wasn't focusing on Sappho, more on the creatures she could summon.
'I wonder if I'll ever be able to turn into something like that…' thought her. But suddenly, without noticing, she stepped on a branch that made a strong sound. Sappho and her shadows turned toward it.
'RUN NOW!!' thought her as she immediately ran away. Sappho, realizing it was simply a krukspy, returned to training.
'Well, it's time to try now…' thought Bianca as her body suddenly changed. She turned into a krukmongbee, but not a normal one, the same kind that Sappho could summon from the ground.
As the krukins noticed one of Sappho's creatures appearing on the ground without her calling it, they got extremely scared, all of them fled in terror. Bianca then shot multiple stings, killing all the krukins around her.
'Perfect, now let's see if I can trick that woman…' thought her as she immediately headed toward the battlefield.
Now she was standing there, in the shape of a shadow krukmongbee, fighting against the old general who had the power to create thin blades on top of his head and throw them toward his enemies.