Praetorian Rising, стр. 89
Neeko took a few woozy steps, and, then, without warning, flexed and grew, his muscles bulging beneath the slick black fur still covered in a mess of blood and dirt. He coughed, grunted, and then growled before shaking his body in a flurry of flying blood and dirt.
"Not-So-Little-Guy," Camille said, smiling and hunching to embrace the jaguar. His body was warm, and covered in splotches of blood and thick globs of mud, but he was alive.
Neeko licked her face, nuzzling her cheek with affection before turning toward the north end of Romeo Village and loping away toward the surge of beasts.
"Follow him!" Theo bellowed, taking up his sword and dagger before lunging after Neeko.
She didn't advance more than a few sprinted steps before two Chimera dove at her, their fangs dripping with venom and paws churning the ground. She downed them in less than three minutes, but their brethren surged around the trio. One would go down, and two more would take its place.
"We need to move toward the east!" Theo hollered over the mass of growls and yips of pain. "Our horses are tethered along the eastern outskirts."
It was slow-going, but Camille held nothing back. She slashed throats and tore out chunks of hair as they charged in close. She kicked and stabbed everything in her proximity, knowing nothing but the never-ending slew of attack. Theo ducked and twisted behind her, narrowly avoiding the onslaught, throwing what weapons he could at the ravenous creatures.
There was a handful of Rogues in the distance faring no better. Camille watched as they too fought viciously, pushing toward the east side of the battlefield. Fending off the slash of teeth and swipe of a claw, she tripped and stepped over many bodies pock-marked in oozing puncture wounds. The ground glistened with the fresh fall of rain, but the liquid that shone was red. It covered the slick tendrils of grass poking through the piles of bodies like fragile flags in a sea of death.
Camille ducked in time to miss the lunge of an unusually large beast, catching the monster along the back of his hind legs with her sword. She whirled to face the Chimera rearing back toward her, but her eye caught sight of Vesyon charging toward her, Phillip and Charlie flanking him.
"Vesyon!" she screamed, though she wasn't sure if it was in welcoming relief or in a flood of panic at seeing the stampede of thundering Chimera behind him. Theo turned in time to see Vesyon and froze in bewildered shock—as did Camille. The Chimera had ceased their attacks on the others and raced toward Camille. Perhaps Vesyon had been wrong: maybe the High King had come for her, after all.
Power thrummed wildly through Camille’s system, making her feel invincible as she realized she could lead the Chimera away, giving the remaining fighters a chance to escape.
Camille scanned the commotion, finding Neeko battling two Chimera nearby. "Neeko!" she yelled, and with a sharp swipe of his four-inch claws, both beasts were killed, and the jaguar was at her side. "Keep them safe," Camille said, pointing to Vesyon, Theo, Phillip, and Charlie.
His head turned sharply toward her, uncertainty flitting across his features.
"Thank you for protecting me, my friend," she said with a soft pat to the top of Neeko's head. He seemed wary of her words, but only for a moment as she ducked the attacks of Chimera, putting several feet of distance between them.
She turned without another word, not glancing back at Theo or Vesyon, unwilling to risk them stopping her or allowing her mind to keep her from doing what she knew she must.
Ducking under an advancing black beast, Camille ran up the hillside she and Theo had fled. The plateau just outside the cave opening would give her ample height advantage. If she could gain a foot or two over the Chimera, it'd be easier to knock off more at once. As she slapped back every advance of the beast, she began to notice their extreme hesitancy to go in for the kill. They attacked Theo with deadly intent, but with Camille, the Chimera held back. It was making it easier for her to kill them. Even if they'd been ordered not to kill her, she knew they'd pluck her up in an instant and take her straight to the High King if she faltered.
The ground gave way several times under her feet, but Camille dashed through the muddied plains as fast as her legs could carry her. She heard a strangled call from over her shoulder, but she wasn't positive if it was Theo or Vesyon. The air was biting and dense with the chilling mist seeping through the layers of her clothes. She bit down on her lower lip as she acknowledged that this was the end—she'd never see Theo, Vesyon, or Neeko again. She would fight and perhaps lose, but they would make it out alive—they would live. Gripping her sword with intense determination, she crawled up the last towering slope to the cave, and faced the droves of Chimera, screaming as loudly as possible, "Come and get me!"
Hundreds of heads twisted up to Camille's location. The beasts moved like a black wave of fur and fangs to pursue her and no one else.
She stared down at the pockmarked battlefield below, a cold trickle of terror snaking down her spine as the Chimera advanced. Reaching for her bow and holstering her sword, Camille took down several Chimera in succession with the snap of her bowline. She picked them off quickly, snagging two with a single shot, but she only had a small handful of arrows left.
"I'm coming, Camille!" someone cried from below, a man's voice, but one she couldn't place.
Another explosion vibrated through the ground, and Camille glanced over to see