30. Where’s the Respect? #2
“Did you really think having L.A.M.B speak for you was going to save you?” Julian calls out mockingly.
He leans on the male warrior orc next to him, who’s brandishing a sword over his meaty shoulder and a Furryteaspout at his feet.
Looking at the spider-and-teapot hybrid sends chills down my spine. They are some nasty hunter pets.
“Being the next heirs of Hell doesn’t grant you a free pass,” a male fae blurts out, coming up beside Jules.
“Yeah. It just gives us a bigger bullseye,” a female fae warrior at the front mocks us.
“How can we beat them? There are so many.” Moni’s voice trembles as I feel her confidence waver.
Wait…I can feel her confidence—since when?
‘You’ve always had a connection; you’re just tuned in now,’ Conquest’s voice whispers inside my head without pausing time. ‘Now use it to your advantage.’
“Huh?”
Before I can say anything, a few spells shoot our way along with two arrows and a knife. It happens so fast that I can’t tell who their targets are.
Boom!
Moni’s sonic boom cracks across the ground, sending the projectiles and the first line of enemies falling to the ground, but it doesn’t slow down the wave in the back from advancing.
Shit.
“There are too many. Don’t split up. That’s what they want us to do,” Knots calls out, but it’s already too late as Knox runs to the left and Lynx runs to the right to take on a few of the stragglers.
As they move to take the bait, they become surrounded and pull Knots’ attention, splitting our forces even more when he tries to save them. He never makes it to either one because the Furryteaspout spits its web, cementing him to the ground.
“Damnit!” he shouts as he tries to cut himself loose with his sword.
Chester’s white rhino slams into a group behind Lynx, taking down a couple of demons while Moni continues to use her boom to propel enemies.
All it’s doing is slowing them down or making them choose a different target as they split up.
Levi and JP fire back with their spells and water arrows, but there are so many targets that it’s almost impossible to take them out efficiently.
My family is scattered, we’re overrun, and I have no clue who to help first. As panic starts to overwhelm me, the scene freezes again, and I hear a groan of frustration behind me.
‘Seriously, I’m going to check with HR and see if I can trade you in. I swear it’s not this hard.’ Conquest gives me a wink, lessening the sting. ‘Look, I’m not going to do the work for you, but I’ll tell you how to do it to win this scuffle. Then you can practice using it daily, okay?’
It’s not like I have a choice; I need him, and anything that he can teach me will make me better, so I nod my agreement.
‘It’s as simple as feeding off of lust, but you’re searching for confidence instead.
The difference between your lust and their combat confidence is the fact that you can share that morale with your family.
That is part of my power, striking fear into your enemy but siphoning their confidence, what little that they had to begin with. ’ Conquests steps before me and smirks.
Seeing the cocky swagger and how he talks to me, I can see why Rez wants to deck me at times.
I want to deck this ass, and it’s me. I get a genuine smile as if he can read my mind.
Oh. He can. Conquest slowly fades out, giving me time to reach out to the closest enemy, Jules, and feel for the confidence feeding him.
The only emotion I catch since there’s no lust is a strong, intense kick that sparks adrenaline; a spicy, bold flavor with a hint of fire. Confidence.
‘Just remember, once your enemy has none, it’s nothing for you and your armies to cut through them.’
I feel time return to normal just as I pull Jules’s confidence and watch in fascination as his steps falter and his eyes go wide in shock. JP’s water arrow pierces his neck in the next second, dropping him like a fly. Good riddance.
Now that I know what the warrior's confidence feels like, it’s nothing more than selecting the targets and plucking their confidence away like picking a flower.
Being at the center of the chaos, I feel as if I’m center stage as a maestro of a world-renowned orchestra that everyone is watching.
Adrenaline rushes through me, making my entire nervous system vibrate as if I’ve touched a live wire.
I turn and pull the confidence from the enemies surrounding Lynx and Chester.
The reactions are the same, except a few of the attackers turn and run off.
I don’t waste my time on them; I focus on channeling the confidence I just pulled into Lynx, Chester, and Moni.
The change is obvious: it’s as if a bolt of energy hits them, and their hits look harder, and their stances more precise, and instead of defending, they take on more of an offensive stance.
It’s the same results as I turn towards Knox and find Reaper at his feet, trying to help take down more enemies.
Once I pull and swap the confidence, it’s nothing for Knox and Reaper to dominate the ones that don’t run away.
Zeke has moved closer to Knots and is running interference while Knots attempts to free himself from the webbing.
So, I turn and pull from their small group of four and beam as Knots forgets about the webbing and slashes out with his sword, decapitating two of the demons, and Zeke rips out the throat of one fae and disembowels another.
Turning to check out the rest of the group, I almost yelp as I come face to face with a fae male with a knife in his hand, creeping up on Knots and Zeke.
I side-step him at the last minute and pull my knife, but the wires in my head are sparking out of control, trying to figure out what's happening.
This guy's eyes haven’t once flickered towards me as they are lasered on his target, but being right next to me, I should have been his first target.
Did he just get here? Is that why we didn’t see him before? Is that how I missed him from my glamour reveal?
“Holy baby batter! We did it!” Moni shouts out, spinning in the air. A few of the guys join in her celebration, but it’s Zeke who answers the question I’m secretly asking myself.
“Wait, where’s Ryker?” Zeke asks, sobering the group.
Instead of answering him and giving away my position, I focus on the rogue enemy. I break his hold of the knife as I grab his wrist and step around, slicing his throat in one motion. His blood sprays out and cascades like a waterfall down his chest, exposing his body to everyone.
“Another one bites the dust,” Lynx sings, shifting back to his human form.
“I agree, but where the hell did he come from?” JP asks.
I glance around once more to make sure there’s no one else sneaking around the area and let out a long sigh when I see the all clear.
The buzzing adrenaline slowly drops down to a drizzle, leaving a cold chill behind as it drains from my body.
“There you are!” Zeke calls out, running over to me and grabbing my shoulder. “Where did you go?”
“I was right here,” I confess.
“You might have been, but you weren’t to our naked eye,” Knots agrees. “What happened out there? I felt like I got hit with a bolt of lightning right before our enemies faltered.”
I don’t know how to explain how they couldn’t see me, but I can tell them about the confidence they felt.
‘Oh, did I forget to tell you that one of my powers is that you can turn invisible, especially while manipulating adrenaline?’ Conquest’s cocky voice filters to me.
That would have been nice to know before all of this. Conquest’s laughter trickles off as I shake my head.
“It turns out it’s a new development, and I’ll explain more in detail when we have fewer eyes and ears to deal with,” I laugh nervously, trying to figure out how to explain this to make sense. “Let’s just say, it’s something that will help us all.
“Ohhhh.” Moni’s eyes go wide as her bark goes dark green. “It sounds fancy. Especially since we just took on all those guys and won! That’s even more than what we did in Hell. Eek!” She squeaks and does a spin, and suddenly stops and looks at us with bright eyes before she crashes to the ground.
“Shit!” Chester yells, diving to catch her.
“Damnit, who changed her coffee?” JP yells the accusation.
“Well, that’s one!” Lynx rocks back on his heels while he looks on.
“It was you, wasn’t it, Hairball?” Knots growls.
“Eazy there, Queen LaTreefa. The queen of chaos doesn’t need my help for anything.” Lynx looks Knots up and down and throws him a bored look. “Did it ever occur to you that she might have just gone through all of her coffee or picked the wrong cup?”
Knots’s jaw opens to respond, but immediately closes when Moni wakes up and looks up at everyone.
“Did I just faint?” she asks, pulling on her tail. “Dang it. I grabbed the wrong cup.”
Turning to look at Lynx, a slow and deliberate smile appears on his face as he stares down Knots. I have to hand it to him, this time… the cat really did piss on the door.