70 Chapter Seventy – My Army Against Yours (1/2)

There were some definite changes today, before I even got out of the first room.

For starters, all the formerly twenty-foot-plus giant people were now down to between ten and twelve feet tall, tops. The house rescaled to fit them. Of course, oversized creatures remained oversized creatures, and the house's scale was more than happy enough to adjust to fit them.

Fido and Shirley came loping in the door as usual, all set to play with us, but without extra playmates today. The room was a mess of ripped-apart toy and doll beasts, but that was normal.

I pointed at them. ”Henchman. Animal Companion.”

They both basically froze in place, blinking at me. After all, they weren't truly animals, they were dream incarnations of Hellbound souls.

But I seriously didn't care at this point. The Curse could stretch the rules of the stuff I was fighting, so naturally I could stretch the rules of what was fighting with me.

Very importantly, I got to determine the Feats and combat tricks of my henchmen and animal companions, so I effectively rebuilt them on the spot.

”Fido, there! Shirley, there! When the rats come up, give them the One-Two!”

There was only a flicker of resistance, and then they bounded into position on either side of me.

The floor erupted upwards, and the swarm of cranial rats came flowing out like a living river of squeaking flesh.

”One!”

Flaming breath blew across the rats, and y'know, Swarms, double AoE damage. They cooked pretty nicely.

Didn't stop the flow of them from continuing. Three swarms of them, after all.

”Two!” Shirley's frost breath came howling out, there was a mass squeak, and then everything crystallized nicely as a couple hundred negative degrees Celsius did their heat-destroying thing.

I charged forwards this time, Tremble Singing in low tone that was being translated by my Whiskers, and the last swarm shredded as Swarmbane tore it apart from one Whirlwind, sending rat bits flying in every direction.

The two-headed rat came out, tried to brainfry me, and I took off its heads, whisk-whisk.

”Nab a couple rats if you want them, there's more fighting coming.” The hellpoodles delicately scooped up a couple bucketfuls each, frying and freezing them down respectively. ”You will be able to fight some of what's coming, and not others. Be careful and work together to take down an enemy.

”This house is under assault by supernatural forces, and the nexus of their attack is in this room. We will hold them off until morning, and then move to deal with the insurrectionists responsible!”

Both hellpoodles barked understanding, being full sentient and well, Lawful. Rebels were simply the most horrid things in existence to them.

And so, I started some very active changing of the narrative to fit what I was going to do. This pure grinding stuff was getting old and no longer appropriate. If the Curse wanted to use mass combat, so be it!

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The night was entertaining, to say the least. Having a couple of frost and fire-breathing hellpoodles on my side certainly gave me an AoE option I hadn't had before… and, hey, I could pick Feats for them. Way of Shadow, Assassin's Stance, and Improved Flanking seemed just perfect for a pair of dogs used to fighting together, and who wouldn't love +4 TH, +3d6 damage to the 2d6+15 of a hellpoodle's jaws?

Now, the devils and incorps didn't have much to worry about, but the Hags didn't much like the breath weapons toasting a lot of them, and then Improved Trip and Savage Them filled out the roster. Once something hit the ground, instant follow-up attack from both hellpoodles, and the total damage was enough to send off a Hag very quickly, especially with her head torn off.

Did I need them to contribute? No, I could and had handled all this stuff. But when I kicked a grimm down in between them, well, I just had to sit back and admire their artistry as they ripped into it, then One-Two'd it without needing a command. Mostly to clean off their tongues, Fido was quick to tell me.

I nodded sagely.

The maid came in, and went down with Tremble in its skull. I carved it open and accelerated the return to form, and was waiting as the first guardsman came running in, sword out.

”Corporal!” I shouted out before he could say anything. ”Old Mera was replaced by a doppelganger, we've got infiltrators in the mansion!”