As you can see, there’s a debut in this one coming up.

Actually, I believe this is the first time we’ve really seen the slavers as well. Til now, they’d been pushed to the background in flashbacks and a recent interlude. This is a very significant twist in the mission story.

Fair warning: This is a dark roleplay with some very unfortunate subjects, but it's also an important one.

 
Strong language, material of a sexual nature

Despite his abundance of body hair, Xuin the Deranged was no furry. Not that many had called him that- a slit throat cures that problem quite well, for the speaker and for others.

He took a bite out of an old, rotted apple from his home region, still refusing to eat any of the local food. It tasted horrid, but he had no issue with that. Better than eating food from this rotten kingdom. He'd lost most of his taste many a knife fight ago, anyway.

He couldn't help but test the dangers of the political waters as they stood right now. "So why're we just watchin' this thing like a couple slave whores, anyway?"

A geeky little rat by the name of Slick (Not a rat actually, mind you- the Muir'i Dan would never have had anything to do with him) turned from the scrying screen. He was the only one of the crew that had the knowledge to set the thing up. "Because you wanted to plan when to make our move on the pussies. Besides, you liked the goblin giving that one guy a blow job."

"Shut up, or I'll pull your throat out of your still beatin' heart!" the other one answered, cheeks red.

Slick muttered, "Oh, sorry. Guess you were more interested in what she was sucking on." This sent chuckles through the room. Xuin responded by comparing it to Slick's mother.

"Me? I say we get somethin' and kill it for dinner," Xuin continued. "If you hadn't killed that elephant girl, we coulda brought her along to eat. Woulda fed me for a couple more weeks than what we brought. We shoulda killed off that bunny family."

"We tried, ya git!" another larger man chimed in. "If you forgotten, she was maged. Fried my clanmaster's heart to a crisp, barely left a warm corpse!"

Another specimen for steroids spoke up- or rather growled. "Yeah- I'm all for hunting. Watching this is mostly boring and when it does get good it pisses me off. I mean how's this beast getting all the tail he wants when I can't get into town to get me some?" He smirked. "Of course, watchin' that white bitch..." He settled down into an smirk.

Someone from the crowed called him a 'sick eff' for the comment. He didn't respond.

"The one that nearly took my eye out!" A beanpole, standin' maybe six and a half feet, wondered up towards the screen when Catrina briefly came on the screen. "We should poison her. Can we just poison her and keep the rest?"

Steroid boy growled from his fantasies. "Not into necro."

"Not what I heard about you and your mom," the beanpole answered.

Another, not as beefy as the dreamer but close, smirked. "You guys can play with Slut if you want. Me? I'd like to throw that foxbitch down and teach her what she's good for!" He then began to rape the air- and spank it too.

"I'll take me a real woman over an animal," Xuin said, chewing on the cloth of his sleeve. "Seriously, I want some real action."

The air rapist laughed. "Well- you can always bend that little girl over."

Slick choked. "Yeah- she'd be about your size too! Maybe you could get your.. hold up. It looks like they're headed out."

"Yeah? The hell do we care?" the beanpole asked.

Slick turned towards the other two with an evil grin. "Do you feel like a little hunt?"

The others gathered in closer like wild pray around freshly wounded kill.

Elsewhere, Becky Joy skipped and hopped out of one of the many entrances to the Feline Empire's headquarters. She wasn't alone, either. Red proudly walked out with her, finishing eating his sixth filthworm burger of the day. Yum, just like dad used to force them to eat when he got drunk and bored!

Green snuck out next, nervously glancing around.

"Remember, we don't have time to play," Becky said, frowning slightly.

"All work, no play," said Darson, who met her on the outside. "Or more accurately, mostly play, a little work in this case."

"Cause I like to play," Becky explained. The others just nodded.

Goblina joined the others. "Going to see Father Crimbo isn't really work, silly."

Becky's eyes lit up. "We're doing that! Yay!"

"Yay," Goblina answered.

"YAY!" Becky said, even louder. "How do we find Crimbo again?"

Cattaras was waiting for them, leaning back against a tree. He straightened as he heard them approach- then did a double take. "Wait- you invite me to come to a place you don't even know how to get to?"

"We know how to get there!" Becky pouted in protest. "We.. just don't know where we're going."

"We're heading north to Seaside Town," Drawson explained, facepalming. Wait, do Goblins have palms? Their hands are a bit mitten like. "That's where we'll find Father Crimbo. Also the St. Boris Day hams your sister wants you to pick up."

Cattaras growled- but smirked. "How the mighty have fallen. From mighty hunter to a glorified grocery boy."

"It is okay, because I will pick you up penny candy!" Becky said, smiling large.

"Oh joy." Cattaras said flatly- but smiled.

"And we're walking! Walking, everyone!" Becky said as she lead her Goblins and Cattaras off. Of course, Becky Joy had to bounce off faster than everyone else, and soon she found herself far ahead of the back.

"Better wait," she thought to herself. "They'd be lost without me, hehe."

Becky turned around and saw two dirty and grungy figures in front of her, each holding nasty looking weapons.

"A little girl like you shouldn't be out here along, bitch," one of the cursed at her.

"Huh?!" Becky asked, puzzled that they were throwing bad words at her for no reason at all!

"She's with those brainless beasts," one of them said. More of them showed up. "Take her, we'll use her for bait."

"Nu-huh!" Becky said defiantly.

"Grab her!"

The slavers rushed in, weapons drawn, and tried to attack her, but Becky demonstrated her anger by blasting each and every one of them with torrid icy winds! "Get away from me!"

She blasted several of the enemies but was bum rushed by a squat, powerful looking midget who send her crashing to the ground. The bum was set to rush her again- when suddenly a certain muscular tiger was standing over her protectively- perhaps too closely as she could see up his... nevermind.

He didn't really seem to care about it as he looked down at her. "You called?"

"Watch out, Cattaras, I'll protect you!" Becky said, standing up and stumbling.

Cattaras smirked as he grabbed the rushing bum. "Here, shorty- lemme show you a game I learned back home!" With that he grabbed the midget by the britches and tossed him at the rest of the thugs.

"You got tossed!" Becky boasted as she stood back up.

"Get them!" the slavers screamed at each other. "Destroy them! Kill them!"

"Here we come, Misses Joy!" Darson's voice announced the coming of Becky's four Knob Goblins. They joined her, ready to fight by her side.

Cattaras's eyes narrowed- but he purred as he looked over the slavers. "Oh, I've been dreaming of having round two with you lot ever since you took the village!" He then roared a battle challenge- knowing no other felines would answer.

"Yeah!" Becky echoed. "What he said!"

The biggest and ugliest slaver, with gnatty body hair covering most of his body and wild, nasty unkempt hair, stepped forward. "Gonna beat you like a little girl, you stupid cat!"

He stopped talking when he found that Cattaras had moved in and buried his claws deep in his gut. "Gotta touch me first." And he was gone.

The slaver just grunted. The wound sparkled with magic and seemed to quickly heal. Cattaras caught him from a mix of angles in the blink of seconds. Those deeper wounds took longer but they, too, healed in seconds. "We're ready for you and your lil Muri-dan tricks. You ready for us?"

Cattaras stopped, feeling funny- the same sparkle played across his body, slowing it- making it hard to move. He had to push himself to top form in order to just move at normal speed! He made a quick one word comment on procreation- loudly and with feeling.

"Heh, you got that right." The larger slaver pushed himself forward, shoving his shoulder into Cattaras, who struggled not to go down so easy. "Injected me with some drugs. Had me near dead for about six months. Took another eight to recover. All to get me the smallest advantage over you."

"Oh, we're ready for you pussies this time!" another one demanded. Becky got sick of watching and blasted them with a torrid ice storm!

Cattaras glanced over at her. "Becky, no! Nothing you can do for me...Go...get C-.. Get Daisuke, Get Fahari! Tell them what's-" The big guy didn't wait for him to finish his orders.

"I am not leaving you, big kitty!" Becky stood over him. The air around them started dropping dangerously. From the looks of things, the effect was much worse outside of the small area. Snow began to fall at random and uneven intervals.

Becky's eyes and nose suddenly watered as a strange purple mist enveloped her and Cattaras! The two struggled to breathe as Becky fell to her knees. The temperature returned to normal. The large slaver walked over, and backhanded Becky, sending her unconscious body to the ground.

"Stench and sleaze, perfect for an ice elemental." He then grabbed Cattaras, hoisting him up by his head fur. "Oh, I'm gonna enjoy this..." He chuckled.

"No!" Xuin cried out, grabbing the brute's arm. "He's mine to kill!"

The conversation was interrupted as a bright flash of light and a deafening roar were evoked inside the battle lines. A cry of "Mortigu!" was heard for those not rendered completely insensitive to sound, briefly preceding a flurry of spears and sling bullets, selectively targeting the slavers.

The slavers, caught by the surprise attack so soon after they had thought the battle won, suffered several critical wounds. The buffeting of the blast also seemed to shake Cattaras awake for a second- but he faded back out before he could take advantage of it.

Every second another bone was snapped by the fierce sling bullets, and several spears scythed through slaver bodies. However, the spear barrage petered out quickly, replaced by three charging kobolds, their single spears held aloft as they closed to melee range under cover of sling bullet bombardment. Becky's four Knob Goblins rallied around their distant cousins, morale raised considerably by the reinforcements.

"We need to get word to the Empire!" the oldest looking one yelled. "Green, you're best suited to the task. Forget us and go -"

Green ran into the distance, hands on head and screaming, before Darson could get another word out.

Xuin quickly got over his shock and gathered three of his subordinates to charge the reckless fools who dared to interrupt his fun. Despite their many injuries, most of his other minions joined their leader’s charge within seconds, creating an intimidating wave of flesh directed at a single target.

Flashes of light and claps of thunder joined the barrage of lead bullets but while several dropped every second, the wave of death continued at full speed. The kobolds slowed to a halt and glanced about nervously before settling down for a vastly different battle than expected.

Spears slashed at unarmored flesh, each strike causing heavy damage, but the slavers leapt over downed comrades, and the kobolds were forced to give ground as the slavers sought to grab hold of their limbs and pull them apart. One of the spears was yanked out of its wielder’s grasp, and the kobold line broke. The kobolds barely dodged the triumphantly diving slavers and rushed for the trees, heading towards the ranged attacks that had never faltered.

Xuin snarled and raced after the kobolds, gaining ground with every groundeating stride, ignoring the goblins executing his underlings that dared to let themselves fall to such pathetic adversaries. Xiun smiled as he quickly calculated that he would catch the fleeing kobolds long before they could reach the treeline and possibly evade him. He felt a strong urge to laugh as he saw what they were fleeing towards... a little girl had run out towards him with a stick!

Lalucia’s left hand flashed a few quick hand signs at the kobolds, and they obligingly continued running past her, heading for their local burrow. Her eyes assessed the situation in a flash; the apparent leader was still on his feet despite multiple direct hits from her spells and sling bullets. Seven of his subordinates were still on their feet and moving towards her, albeit slower, and none of the forces that were opposing the slavers could possibly get to her fast enough to matter. She grabbed three more sling bullets and quickly shattered the femurs of the closest minions before holstering her sling and drawing her trusty quarterstaff, her stance centered a half second before the behemoth was upon her. Her quarterstaff parried his first strikes with relative ease, Xiun’s poor form squandering his considerable mass advantage.

Her eyes narrowed as his form tightened, clearly moving from a berserker’s brawling to a slightly more disciplined style. Each strike pushed her speed and strength more and more, and she suddenly realized that he was playing with her! Lalucia resolved to punish him for underestimating her so badly. Her style switched from defensive to highly offensive in an instant, a blade of force projected from her staff flaying open his forearm, his side, and his left leg. Her thunderclap spell rang out right next to his ears, and her solar flare flashed before his eyes. Finally, she manipulated the earth beneath his feet and let him fall through the ground before she slammed it shut above, her triumphant smirk causing the others to stumble to a halt.

Her triumph turned to shocked horror as Xuin broke through the earthen prison and reached for her left ankle; she barely managed to jerk away as his hand clamped down on empty air. Now fully aware how badly outmatched she was, she turned and ran, briefly hoping his previous targets had recovered enough to escape before her mind turned to her more immediate concern of making sure she survived herself. Not looking back for an instant, she focused her reinforcement magic to enhance her speed as much as possible, and sped for the trees she hoped would break up the pursuit.

Barely keeping the presence of mind to travel in a roundabout manner, she found one of the burrow’s entrances and sped through, collapsing the tunnel behind her in a manner she desperately hoped would look natural as she continued to head for the central chamber. Lalucia collapsed in relief when she saw that each of her three friends were unharmed, and only then did her burning muscles' screams reach her. Sobbing from terror, pain, and relief at each of them escaping with their lives, she curled up with the kobolds for a very long night.

Lalucia comes to the rescue but the slavers prove to be too tough! That’s important for a number of reasons. We’ll find if Catt or Becky were able to escape soon, although it doesn’t look good for them right now.

First, however, we’ve got a bunch of people to check in on, from debuting space elves to Zedika Dash and Sebastian Dash, all the way to Wildfall & Summer and Fahari & Green!