“You’ve made your point,” I Whispered to the Ebon Death Scorpion King, which had turned to face this direction. It was watching that great pall of rising Poison, a cloud which could have, should have, swept out and killed things for miles. It was instead being washed away and devoured from below by shining silvery-white mists.

“It’s time for you to go.”

There was a moment of hesitation, yet this whole flank of the attacking Swarm of Scorpions slowly ground to a halt. The Snakes had already stopped, trying to shake off the mental effect of feeling the death of their Queen.

A moment later, the oily-black image of the towering Scorpion King turned around, and it began to scuttle back west-northwest.

Like a wind passing over the prairie, the arched tails of the Scorpions turned around and flowed back in the direction they had come from. With them went the writhing Rattlers and Sidewinders, all too eager to leave this place now that their Queen was dead.

“Soldiers of Texas, you need to shift east at all speed and carry the momentum on! MOVEMOVEMOVE!” I Shouted at them all.

The gaping soldiers woke up and realized they were standing around like fools. Sergeants and officers bawled out orders, and in seconds, the forces on the wall were racing east on Earth Waves and Wind Trails, the more powerful mages riding Contracted Beasts or flying via magic or Magic Wings, racing to press the attack and defense against the Spiders, and carry the fighting to them!

------

The fighting dragged on for another hour, but the battle was already over.

With the collapse of the western flank freeing up dozens of powerful mages, there was no way the Spiders could hold back the apocalyptic level of attack spells that came roving out to devour them, especially from the Archmages.

Singing Thunderbolts descending from on high, smashing Commander-class Spiders and clearing the way, only enhanced the zeal of those fighting. The Thunder above was beating a drumroll of crazed power and fanatical defense against the faltering attack of the broken Horde.

The Archmage from the western flank joined his peer in attacking the Sapphire Horned Tarantula King, and the massive Spider decided it had had enough. It scuttled away with incredible agility and stealth, disappearing into the night with remarkable speed, and the Archmages chose to let it go, opting to slaughter as many of the suddenly retreating Spiders as they could instead.

After all, they’d been fighting for more than a day, and weren’t at full strength, either. If their superiors wanted the Tarantula King dead, they could always hunt it down later, now that its territory was so weakened.

I rode Reynard about, contributing the Sublime Chord and descending Thunderbolts to the offense, along with Dartrays. Whooping, howling, and screaming soldiers poured onto the battlefield to give chase to the Spiders, harrying them and increasing the death toll until the command came from above to cease chasing them back across the mowed-down plains the Horde had left behind.

It would be a long time before the Sapphire Crowned Tarantula returned to bedevil Human lands, but there was at least one force of Branded Humans who were going to be attacking them forever... and they were somehow still alive, or at least some of them were, I noted, seeing green-tinged flames in the distance.

Once the pursuit ceased, I promptly headed back east, because I still had some ground-sweeping to do. The KIA team was happily waiting for me, and Driver Sam fired up his Earth Wave to retrace our path of pursuit. We swept along the two moats we had abandoned and whose vivic fires were still spreading west, eating up Ant and Spider corpses as they did, and followed our vanguard trail backwards to pick up all the Soul Crystals just waiting around to dissipate without some loving attention being paid to them.

It was all money, and we weren’t going to let anyone else grab it out from under us.

Reynard rejoined me about an hour into our quick scavenging and occasional popping of Spiders. The KIA teammates were Hunters, after all, and not part of the military, so if they wanted to keep sniping off Spiders, they were perfectly free to do so... and many Hunters were, for the chance at sets of eyeballs, mandibles, and foot spikes. However, just because they were fleeing didn’t mean the Spiders couldn’t fight back, but that was all on us.

Reynard had with him the severed, shrunken, crystalline skull of the Sidewinder Queen, all nice and preserved and ready to be made a Baneskull. It joined several dozen Spider, Scorpion, and Ant Commander Skulls in my Pocket, the KIA guys very curious about them. I sent Reynard back home with tales of his first trip to the mortal world and a bellyful of Commander Scorpion meat.

“Dish on the skulls?” the Mick asked, his Lightning Runner, Hopper, resting in the Summoner Space, having had a long and active day and night.

“They make Baneskulls, things which carry that Bane to Vermin effect I put on your Rods, so you don’t need the Buff.” I dropped my voice thoughtfully to him. “Any Commander-class that died and was consumed by vivus should have dropped a crystal skull, and I know we didn’t get all of them. I imagine there’s people wondering what the things are used for, and are probably willing to sell them.”

“Everyone noticed how much harder spells hit with the Banefire that was on them,” he agreed quietly. “You’ll be able to sell those for a lot of money, especially around here. Everyone really wants to have their Rods all powered up like you did for them full-time, too!”

“The ones I handed out are basically only good for receiving Buffs, not permanent enchantments. I didn’t have time to make anything better, and there weren’t any materials or Crafters around who could make something permanent.” I shrugged. It was what it was.

“Yeah, it’s been a little busy, hasn’t it?” he agreed, watching as Soul Crystals came flying in from all directions, Driver Sam following a little ball of light across the plains on his retracing path. Everyone else kept watch, and occasionally snapped off a shot at a fleeing Spider here or there, before a Dartray smacked it and reduced it to a Soul Crystal for me to recover.

“Are your deliveries going to go up in the air with the delay?” I asked him.

He shook his head. “No, the terms are still the terms, and the fact we were called up to defend the line will extend the delivery date by fiat. They may be a little irritated that suddenly there’s going to be a lot of eyeballs flooding the market, but the fact is most of those sets get damaged during the kill or the recovery, so they won’t be too put out.”

I nodded once. “All of us need some downtime. There are more things I want to show you, and it all takes some time.”

“And we all want to Tier up our Stars. The difference they made in the fighting just now was bloody apparent to everyone.” All the KIA guys nodded in agreement. “We’ll get more than enough money out of this all to keep us fed for months. What kind of downtime do you figure we are needing?”

“Two to three months?” I hazarded. “There are things I have to make that I wish you already had, like true Implements.

“You need to get registered at the Hunter’s Guild, Lady Fae,” Red interjected pointedly. “There’s going to be a lot of awards given out for what people accomplished here, and that includes militia as well as soldiers. You can’t collect them without a Hunter’s Guild account.”

I groaned. “Wonderful, more paperwork...”

“It doesn’t take long,” the Mick assured me with a grin, “and they’ll coast you right through as soon as they find out who they are admitting.” He made a contemplative face. “As a matter of fact, if you’re not too tired, we should do that first thing in the morning. You know the high-ups are already looking for you after all the spells you threw around.”

“Sure, it’s not like I’ve not been Casting spells for forty goddamn hours straight,” I groused, popping another scuttling Warrior Spider and reducing it to ash and mist, its Soul Crystal joining the manner others being yanked in by Zeben continuously as we rolled steadily forwards.

“That’s the spirit!” he grinned, his dark eyes flashing once. “More to the point, Miss Fae, you’ve nowhere near the wealth and connections someone with your ability normally has. Assuming you don’t want to drag in your Family, have you thought about how you’re going to earn real money?”

I nodded once. “Yes. I figured I’d sell the beginner spells through the Hunter’s Guild for a thousand dollars each.”

The members of the team all turned to look at me as they did the math.

Red whistled. “You’ll be a multi-millionaire overnight, Lady Fae.”

“A billionaire within a month,” agreed Burt, watching the sky alertly.

“That will definitely take care of your money worries!” the Mick agreed.

“And I’ll be able to pay you all a living wage, at least,” I confirmed for him, not missing the way the men clenched their hands in delight.

“The government will immediately want you to release those spells to everyone, for ‘the good of the world’,” Big John spoke up cynically. “They might pay you a nominal fee for them...”

“I can certainly make them cheaper after a time for students and the like, but the idea of not being paid for what I have developed will not sit well with me. Perhaps I will start with only the Light spells, and see how they react.”

“Every non-Light mage in the world is going to be screaming for their own sets,” Glenn chimed up instantly. “Especially once those with the spells start showing them off!”

“You think word hasn’t already spread that the soldiers here were shown combat spells for their Elements?” Bjorn huffed. “It is freaking everywhere!”

“Marketing expenses,” I noted. “Getting a good return, am I?”

“It’s spreading like wildfire... as is the fact the soldiers can’t pass them on to others, regardless of how they try,” Glenn confirmed, sending out a dim flash of Light which drilled right through the back of a Spider, lighting it up as it stumbled, and I flashed it to misting dust and a Soul Crystal a moment later.

“It’s like I’m not an idiot about how greed and money work, or something.”

“What exactly are you planning then, Lady Fae?”

“Before I tell you that, I’m going to have to get another Oath out of you all.” They all sighed, but didn’t look offended. “There is a LOT of money at stake here. I think we can consider that they will start leaning on those close to me as soon as they can’t lean on me, and that means you... and those close to you.”

The KIA men all looked at one another sharply. They obviously hadn’t considered that aspect of things.

“I’m willing to take all of you along with me on the things I’m going to be doing,” I went on calmly, nothing of what I was doing spell-wise interfering at all with what I was saying. “You’re all going to end up at least Mages, you’re going to be powerful, and you’re going to be fairly wealthy.

“But there are plenty of people out there more powerful than Mages, and they feel entitled to anything they want from those less powerful than they are. The only way to stop them is to be too tough to mess with casually, and to stick together so that you are too tough to mess with without a really damn good reason... or, as the case will probably be, a really damn Bad reason.

“You aren’t at that point yet, and it’s going to take years before you are. If you want to cash out now, get your Stars up to Four and call it quits, that’s fine with me.

“But if you want to go all the way, I’m going to need Oaths to protect all of us, where even if someone does get leverage on you, you can’t betray the rest of us. There will be solidarity in this, gentlemen, or it will be so long.”