Chapter 57: The Swarm

The tide had finally come in, and they were on the way to Beast Island's port. What was left of it, anyway. Victory's Daughter cut through the waves as Seacat turned the ship just a little more towards the north to align it perfectly with the buoys marking the passage. She licked her lips and took a deep breath - it wouldn't do to make a stupid mistake so close to their goal.

But the courier ship, propelled by Entrapta's new engine, slowly slid through the treacherous waters without coming too close to the deadly reefs on either side. It was a tighter fit than Seacat liked, but not an impossible one. A frigate would've wrecked herself on those jagged rocks already, though.

Whoever had settled this island had been crazy. Or desperate.

Sea Hawk was in the bow, sounding the water's depth. And Mermista was ready to use her magic to push the ship back if the engine wasn't strong enough. But they wouldn't need either. Seacat wouldn't make a mistake.

There came the first bend. It wasn't a tight curve, but still a little tricky. Seacat turned the wheel slowly and carefully, watching as the ship turned her bow. Almost… almost… now!

She steadied the course, and the Victory's Daughter sailed on towards the second bend. That one, too, she took with a careful turn. And then it was mostly straight sailing towards the harbour.

Seacat still didn't relax until her ship was safely past the reefs and they dropped anchor in the harbour.

Then she closed her eyes and sighed with relief. This had been… taxing.

"You know, I think we could use bombs to blow a safer passage through the reefs," Entrapta suddenly said. "An enhanced engine bomb could probably clear a passage for a frigate!"

Seacat looked at her. "That would probably change the currents with all the underwater reefs being destroyed."

"Yes?"

"That might lead to more silt being swept into the harbour, and the need to dredge it up regularly," she explained. "And the currents might grow even stronger."

"Nothing a better engine couldn't handle! And I could build a bot to dredge the harbour!" Entrapta beamed at her.

"But then, everyone could reach the island," Seacat retorted. "That might not be a good idea, depending on what we find here."

"Oh, right. I forgot about that. Although I could build bots that protect the harbour and the rest of the island!" Entrapta nodded. "We probably should do that anyway - even if we don't clear the passage, someone else might do it."

And wasn't that a frightening prospect? Others with enhanced engine bombs? "Only the Horde and the Alliance have those bombs," Seacat pointed out. "And the Horde lost the knowledge of how to build them with Hordak."

"Yes, but it's science! Now that people know it's possible, they'll find ways to duplicate it! That's how science works!" Entrapta smiled, then frowned. "Which is usually a good thing but miiiight not be a good thing in this case. I think."

Seacat nodded. More people with enhanced engine bombs… Well, perhaps the Alliance would hold in this case. And they would need closer ties to the Horde - the Fright Zone. Their soldiers would have some headstart for building such bombs thanks to their prior knowledge. At least Perfuma seemed to be getting along well with the Horde princess. "Well, that's a problem we can solve once we have solved this problem." She pointed at the island's shore, about a hundred yards away.

She wasn't going to tie her ship to the pier. Not with monsters around. And they still didn't know who or what had razed the port's buildings. "Prepare the longboat!" she yelled. "We're going to the shore!"

"Oh, yes!" Entrapta jumped over the railing and landed on her hair on the deck below. "Finally!"

Seacat would've preferred to keep her safe on board, but they would need her should they encounter First One's tech. And Castaspella… well, the sorceress looked as if not even a giant monster would keep her from finally stepping on dry land again. Seacat wouldn't even try to make her stay on the ship.

Sea Hawk and Mermista, on the other hand, were still tired from sounding out the passage. And if things turned bad, they could save the ship with Alcy, Licy and Horas.

Which meant the longboat was still a little crowded but not too much when they finally cast off and headed to the shore. After a quick detour to let Adora and the Horde princess figure out how to row together.

Then they quickly sailed towards the sandy part of the shore. Seacat jumped off the bow and into the surf, sword drawn, and looked around. It looked, smelt and felt like any other tropical island she had seen, and yet… She felt the fur on her neck rise.

Beast Island.

"Something's out there," she whispered.

"Huh? What?" Adora joined her, her head turning as she looked around as well. "I don't see anything."

"I know," Seacat replied. "But I know it's there."

"Ah."

"Well, we suspect that whoever poisoned the frigate's water is on this island," Bow said.

"Finally, land!" Castaspella sighed with obvious relief as she climbed out of the boat, which the Horde princess had driven up on the beach.

"The plants…" Perfuma trailed off.

"What about them?" Seacat asked.

"They feel… different." The princess knelt down in the sand and touched it with her hands. A sapling appeared, growing quickly as usual - but it grew crooked. Warped. And the fruits it bore…

Seacat grimaced and held her nose.

"Tiny frui…ew!" Entrapta let the fruits she had grabbed drop into the sand.

Seacat stared at them. They were rotten.

"This isn't natural," Perfuma shook her head. "I would have to use my power to keep the plans from growing… wrong."

"The jungle looks normal, though," Bow commented.

"Yes," she agreed. "Which means this might be a new development that is limited, so far, to new seeds."

"A new development?" Seacat clenched her teeth. "How new?"

"I can't say. A few weeks? A few months? I don't know what would be natural growth rates on this island. No longer than two or three months, though."

"About the time we killed Hordak?" Adora asked.

"More or less," Seacat agreed. "And about the time Shadow Weaver tapped into the Black Garnet."

"Great." Glimmer scoffed. "As if she hadn't done enough vile things!"

"It's just a hypothesis, though," Entrapta said. "We need more data to verify or falsify it! So… can you identify what's causing the changes in the plants? Is it a curse? Is it a princess's power?"

Seacat really hoped that they weren't facing another princess who could manipulate plants.

"It's a sort of magic spell," Castaspella said. "Not a power. But I can't identify the spell."

That was a relief. Seacat turned towards her. "Is it too old?" Like she hadn't been able to identify the spell that poisoned the water?

"No. I've never encountered such a spell - it seems to cover the entire area," the sorceress replied.

"Oh! Interesting!" Entrapta beamed. "That must be related to the First One's base!"

"Or it's related to something after the base," Seacat said.

"Either way, it's interesting! Something we haven't encountered before!"

"Well, let's stay out of the jungle for now and examine the ruins of the port."

"Yes!" The Horde princess nodded sharply. "Someone destroyed our outpost."

Glimmer glared at the princess's back but held her tongue for a change, and they walked down the beach towards the remains of the Horde waterfront. The stone remains had already been overgrown with plants.

"More signs of this… corruption," Perfuma said after touching a few leaves. "This was recently grown. Same time period as the curse."

"Great. Something triggered evil plants," Glimmer said.

"And something definitely not plant-based razed the port," Entrapta chimed in. "Look at this!" she pointed at some stonework half-buried in the sand. "That was done by explosives!"

"And someone must have moved all the rubble. Either they carried it away, or they pushed it into the sea," Adora said.

Seacat took a look at the water. "It's down here. The seabed should be far deeper here. They ruined the port." If she had steered the Victory's Daughter towards the pier, they'd have run aground - well, not really, since Sea Hawk would've been sounding out the harbour, but still…. Someone really didn't want visitors. "Port razed, harbour filled with rubble… I don't think this was done by someone visiting the island to take it over," she said.

"They wouldn't have tried to wreck the port," Glimmer agreed. "They either wanted to keep anyone else from using it as a base… or they are on the island and don't want anyone else coming by."

Seacat knew on what possibility she would bet.

"Well, we're here anyway," Adora said. "And we won't leave! Not until we've done what we came for!"

"So… jungle expedition? The base is supposed to be located inside the crater in the middle of the island," Bow asked.

"Let's check the rest of the ruins here, first," Seacat replied. "We might get some more clues."

"Yes," Adora agreed.

They started to walk down the waterfront's remains, Perfuma clearing the plants with her power.

"Found one!" Entrapta announced after a few minutes. "Oh! It's a bot part!" She was looking into the harbour's water.

Seacat walked to her and looked at where the princess was pointing. Indeed, a segmented leg was poking out from under a heap of rubble, half-buried in the water.

It looked a little familiar. As if… Seacat frowned and tilted her head sideways. From this angle… The water wasn't deep, not with all the rubble on the bottom, but there was a danger of getting stuck in the loose debris.

"Let me get it!" Adora jumped into the water.

"Adora!" Seacat yelled.

But her friend was already underwater, grabbing the leg. If she got stuck…

She didn't. Adora ripped the leg out, then resurfaced. "Look!"

Seacat looked. And recognised it.

It was the same sort of leg that...

"Oh! Those are the same parts Light Hope's bots use!" Entrapta said what Seacat was thinking. "I wasn't sure. Let me check something…" She pulled her device out and ran it over the leg as soon as Adora climbed back on the pier. "Oh! It's as old as Light Hope's. Same generation."

"So, that means the port was razed by First One's guard bots?" Bow asked.

"It's possible," Entrapta replied. "Though they could also have been defending it against the attackers and gotten caught in the rubble."

"It was supposed to be deserted. If they lost a bot razing empty buildings, then they can't be too dangerous," Glimmer commented.

"I wouldn't go that far," Seacat cautioned her. "Accidents do happen."

"Yes!" Entrapta nodded several times. "Especially when experimenting with bots. Like, say, giving them new orders to do something they haven't done before."

"Like razing buildings instead of killing people," Seacat agreed.

Adora looked pensive. "If those are the same bots Light Hope uses… does that mean there's another, ah, Light Hope here?"

"Oh! That would be great! More memory banks!" Entrapta beamed.

"I think that depends on the purpose of this base. Light Hope was meant to support She-Ra, wasn't she? Train and help her," Bow said.

Seacat scoffed. Manipulate Adora, more likely. And try to kill Adora's friends.

"So," Bow went on, "it depends on whether or not they wanted another such bot for this base."

"Like for controlling the whole weapon," Entrapta said. "Just tell her what to do, and she does it. That makes sense. Automated targeting and firing. Like my bots, but with a much larger weapon."

"A weapon that will destroy Etheria if used," Seacat reminded her.

"Right. That would be bad. But it's a great idea, anyway. Imagine self-aiming cannons! Or rockets!" Entrapta beamed. "It's a logical step from using bots - even a step backwards since they wouldn't have to be mobile."

A ship crewed by bots… Seacat didn't know if she should laugh at the idea or fear it. "In any case," she said, "we must prepare to face such bots. Hordes of them."

"Hey!" The Horde princess frowned at her.

Seacat ignored her.

"And we won't be able to hit the bot controlling them, not when we haven't found the base yet," Glimmer said.

"Too bad we didn't find the control box of the bot," Entrapta said. "I might have been able to find the path it took to arrive here in its memory. Or the path back. Unless they use a homing signal, of course."

"*I can go down and look for the rest of it," Adora offered.

"It's too dangerous to just go diving," Seacat objected. "If a bot got stuck in the rubble, so can you."

"Glimmer can teleport me back," Adora pointed out.

Seacat pressed her lips together. Her lover was right. She still hated the idea. But it might save them a lot of time combing the jungle for a stupid base. So she sighed and nodded.

And Adora stripped down to go diving.

It took Adora almost an hour to sift through the rubble until she found the crushed remains of the bot the leg had belonged to. An hour of diving, moving some debris, coming back and waiting for the mud she had stirred to settle, and diving down again. She was obviously tired by the time she lifted the bot's body out of the water but she was still smiling widely.

"There!"

"Great!" Entrapta beamed at her. "Let's hope the memory banks survived the water. And the crushing."

"Oh." Adora looked disappointed.

"But this is First One's tech," Entrapta assured her. "It's built to last! I should be able to find something…" Her hair tendrils flexed, and the broken shell was torn off. "Oh, the communication crystal's busted. But the control box is OK!"

Bow knelt down next to her, and Seacat took a step back, offering a towel to Adora. "Good work," she said.

"Thank you," Adora replied, drying herself off. With a little bit of help from Seacat. "I liked doing it, you know?"

"I know."

"Using She-Ra's strength not for fighting, but…" She trailed off.

"...for moving rubble?" Seacat grinned.

Adora pouted. "You know what I mean."

"I know." Seacat stepped up to her, rose on the tips of her toes and kissed her. Adora was dried off now but hadn't dressed yet, and this was a great opportunity...

"Oh, here it is! I found it!"

Seacat sighed as Adora pulled back and started to dress again. Entrapta was a great friend and a genius, but her timing sometimes needed a little help.

She ignored the snickers from Glimmer as she walked back to the broken bot.

"Alright! The home base of the bot is in the centre of the island - in the middle of the caldera. Well, the entrance is. It's almost the exact centre, too. I wonder if the First Ones liked the precision - or, maybe, they created the island in the first place? It's theoretically possible to create an island if you can control, say, a volcano. How long did your kingdom have control of the island?" Entrapta turned around and started walking backwards while talking.

"Uh… A few hundred years?" the Horde princess replied. "I would need to check the detailed records."

"So, less than a thousand years. This could be the work of the First Ones!"

Making an island? In the middle of the ocean? That sounded… Well, the First Ones could destroy an entire planet, so creating an island might not be too impressive in comparison. "If they made the island, does that mean they could've created the reefs as well?"

"In theory, yes." Entrapta nodded. "Although we might need to take samples from the reefs to determine their origin. A volcanic origin might support my theory."

"Does whether or not we're on an artificial island affect our mission?" Glimmer asked.

"Well…" Entrapta scrunched her nose. "Not really? They could've tunnelled under the entire island either way."

"Then we should focus on finding the base," Glimmer said. "Priorities."

"Yes," Castaspella agreed, looking around. "I don't like this jungle. It's steeped in strange magic."

Seacat wouldn't have liked the jungle even without knowing that. Too many plants to hide behind, too many ambushes. Too many sounds from animals to mask an enemy's approach.

"Well, it's not enough to stop us!" Adora was at the head of their group, literally cutting a path through the jungle.

"But the bots could," Bow pointed out. "And whoever poisoned the water. They must be aware of our presence."

Seacat nodded. They couldn't exactly hide the Victory's Daughter.

"They are hiding. Or gathering their forces," Adora said. "Probably both."

Seacat clenched her teeth. They were one hour into the jungle, halfway up to the caldera, and hadn't encountered anything larger or more dangerous than a dog. What was the enemy doing? Why didn't they try to stop them?

"Or waiting in ambush," Entrapa added. "If they have created tunnels, they could wait until we're surrounded."

And wasn't that a lovely picture?

"So, stay alert!" Adora said. "Be ready for anything!"

Seacat wiped some sweat from her face and suppressed the urge to reply with something snarky.

"I'm ready for anything!" the Horde princess boasted.

A moment later, she yelped when the earth suddenly rose around her, then crashed down on her.

"Ambush!" Adora yelled, jumping back and landing in a crouch, sword ready.

"Scorpia!" Perfuma shouted, running towards the giant molehill that was all that was left of the Horde Princess. She knelt down and stuck her hand into the hill. A moment later, plants shot out of it, breaking it up - and revealing a coughing Horde princess covered with dirt.

"OK, I wasn't prepared for the earth to swallow me," she said, coughing and spitting out dirt.

"Are you hurt?" Perfuma asked.

If the Horde princess could joke, then she wasn't seriously hurt. Seacat, blade drawn, looked for whoever had done this.

"That was… a spell," Castaspella said. "They must be close!"

"No shit, Auntie," Glimmer snapped.

"No follow-up attack." Adora looked around, "Hit and run tactics. They'll try to pick us off one by one or tire us out for the main attack."

Smart. And annoying. Seacat hissed under her breath. Why couldn't they face some dumb bots?

"Hello? We're not here to fight! We're not the Horde. We're the Princess Alliance, here to save the planet!" Perfuma called out.

"Yes!" Entrapta yelled. "We're here to fix the First One's base! Can you show us the way?"

Right. If whoever was hiding here had driven off the Horde, then they might be allies. They didn't have to fight them. Seacat nodded. "We can…"

A huge tree fell towards her, cutting off her words as she jumped to the side. "Hey!"

But more trees were already falling, some tearing other trees with them as they crashed to the ground, forcing the group to split up to avoid being crushed. And it left the ground covered with crisscrossing tree trunks and a dense tangle of branches and foliage. They were split up and isolated.

And the footing was worse than a deck covered in fallen and torn rigging. Seacat scoffed as she jumped on the biggest tree trunk near her. "Rally!" she yelled. "We need to stick together!" This was almost the perfect setup for…

...a swarming attack, she finished her thought when her ears picked up the sound of hundreds of legs hitting the ground. "Incoming bot swarm!" she yelled, as loud as she could. "Get ready!"

Before she could say anything else, the trunk below her blew up.

The force of the explosion threw her through the air, and she barely managed to flip in time to avoid crashing head-first into a still-standing tree. As it was, the claws on her feet deeply dug into the bark as she absorbed the impact.

And she hissed as the pain from a few splinters in her legs and side registered - she was hurt. But not out of the fight. She quickly swung up on a branch, then looked for the others. Adora was standing in a small clearing of her own making. No, she was moving towards the explosion.

"I'm fine!" Seacat yelled.

"Cat-Seacat!" Adora whipped her head around, and their eyes met.

"Watch out! Swarming bots!" Seacat screamed - by now, everyone had to hear the sounds of moving bots.

She saw Adora's eyes widen, then her lover gritted her teeth and nodded with that firm expression Seacat liked so much. "Bow, get up on a tree and start shooting as soon as you see them. Perfuma, clear the space and make some barriers! Everyone else, rally around me!"

Seacat pulled the largest splinter out of her leg, then jumped down. She hissed again when her leg hurt more than she expected but didn't let that stop her from rushing towards Adora.

Just in time to see the wave of bots flood through the jungle and towards them.

Plants rose to deflect and entrap them, but there were too many. For every bot caught or stopped, two more swarmed over their bodies and continued towards the group.

"I can't control the plants quickly enough!" Perfuma cried out. "Something is blocking me!" She stretched her hands out, more vines shooting from the ground, but that didn't stop the onrushing bots, either.

Seacat was about to jump over Perfuma's head to cover her - if they lost the princess, they'd die in the jungle - but the Horde princess was there already, in front of Perfuma, her pincers grabbing the first two bots. "Take that!" she roared, throwing the two machines back and into the next bot. All three exploded, taking two more with them.

A yellow bolt flew towards her from somewhere in front of them, but it ricocheted off the pincer she threw up to deflect it. Someone was shooting at them. But he was behind a wave of bots. No way to get them. Unless…

"Bow! Take out the sorcerer!" Seacat yelled.

"Hyah!" Adora swung her sword, and the first two ranks of the bots charging at her were sliced in half, exploding as well.

Seacat looked at the others. Castaspella had created a sort of glowing shield for herself and Glimmer, who was using it to smash the bots trying to get through it with her staff. Entrapta was behind them, fiddling with her device.

"It's… I can't find the frequency they're using! It keeps changing!" Entrapta exclaimed. "Fascinating!"

Seacat blinked, shook her head, and went to back up Glimmer and Castaspella. They weren't as tough as the bug princess or Adora, and if the shield broke…

Arrows flew past, towards the jungle in front of them. Seacat couldn't tell if they hit anything. A few yellow bolts came back, so Bow had probably missed.

Seacat leapt - or limped - forward and cut down a few stragglers trying to sneak up behind them, then started on the flank of the bots still trying to get at Glimmer and Castaspella. Her sword easily cut through their shells - they seemed weaker than Light Hope's bots. But there were so many of them…

Still, between Adora and the bug princess, they had the raw power to handle them, as long as they could hold off the swarm.

"Seacat! You're hurt!" Adora blurted out.

"I'm fine!" she yelled back. "It's just a few scratches!"

"I can see your blood!"

Oh. Seacat looked down. Her leggings were covered in blood. Damn. She cut down another bot, then scrambled back behind Castaspella's shield. Perhaps she needed to bandage that before Adora got even more distracted.

She hadn't even taken out some bandages before a wave of magic hit her. Healing her. Adora!

She turned, glaring at her lover, who was smiling as she lowered her sword - and was promptly buried under a wave of bots.

"Adora!" Seacat cursed and rushed the monsters. "You idiot!"

She cleaved one apart, cut the legs off the next, then stuck her blade through the head of a third, but a dozen more were on top of Adora, legs and pincers striking…

With a guttural scream, Adora rose, throwing the bots off her, then grabbed her sword and swung it in a wide arc, cutting more of them apart.

"You're hurt!" Seacat yelled as she joined her, stabbing at two twitching bots on the ground trying to get up.

"I'm fine!" Adora replied.

Seacat almost hit her for that. "Don't take your eyes off the enemy!" she snapped instead as she cut another bot in half. Above her, arrows and spells flew past each other - it seemed their enemy was focusing on Bow.

"Don't let yourself bleed out!" Adora snapped back, smashing three with one sweep.

"I wasn't!"

"You were covered with blood!"

"You were covered with bots!"

"I'm not any more!"

"I know how bleeding out feels, and I wasn't!" Seacat insisted. Another bot took a swing at her, and she ducked beneath it, then stabbed its underbelly. It collapsed with lightning crackling over its shell.

"You were seriously hurt!"

"And you were seriously in danger!" What if the bots had been bombs?

"I'm not any more!"

"Save the lover's quarrel for later!" Glimmer spat. "Focus on fighting!"

She could fight and quarrel at the same time, but Glimmer was right.

More arrows flew above them, disappearing in the jungle. Bow still hadn't nailed the enemy sorceress. But he was still drawing their attention - yellow bolts of magic shot out of the jungle in rapid succession, blowing up the trees behind them.

"Bow!" Glimmer yelled.

"I'm OK!" Bow yelled back. "But that enemy is good."

Well, that was obvious. Seacat wanted to go hunt the bastard down herself, but there were too many bots still attacking them - and they couldn't close ranks or they would get blown up by a single spell. Like…

"Watch out!" she yelled, throwing herself to the ground as another spell hit the ground near them.

Instead of exploding, though, or rising to bury them under a wave of dirt and rocks, the whole area started to glow instead. And Adora was closest. "Move!" Seacat screamed. "Move, Adora!"

Adora turned, but a bot jumped at her, and she had to duck to avoid it. And before she could recover, the area behind her started to collapse as if the earth itself were vanishing.

No, Seacat realised with sudden horror, it was as if someone was compressing the entire area in the centre; she saw a bot getting caught up in it get dragged towards the centre and squeezed like a lemon. "Adora!"

Adora's leg was caught in the area. She was tugging against it, but she was getting dragged back. She stabbed the sword into the ground to stop it, but Seacat could see how she was straining.

And then Castaspella stepped up, hands flashing - literally - and the area suddenly stopped collapsing. The sorceress was panting. "This was… whoever is doing this is very skilled. I haven't seen such spells before."

"And he's very slippery!" Bow added, landing next to them with a roll. "I keep missing him."

Which was very rare, Seacat knew - Bow was a master archer.

"Then we need to take the fight to them!" Glimmer announced. "Auntie, cover us with a shield while we advance. Adora, Scorpia - keep the bots off us. Perfuma, keep the plants at bay. And pave us a way. Bow, Seacat - as soon as you spot the bastard, go and get him!"

It was a better plan than just staying here. And Seacat liked the thought of cutting down the enemy who had almost killed Adora. So she stuck with Bow as they gathered under Castaspella's magical shield and advanced towards the other edge of the jungle, bots and spells smashing against the shield.

Adora and the Horde princess lunged, stabbing and crushing the bots who scrambled against the shield, but they couldn't do anything against the spells hitting the shield - and Castaspella already looked exhausted. Sweat was running down her face, and her feet trembled while she moved forward.

But they were close to the enemy's position now. Judging by the locations from which the spells were cast, they were jumping back and forth from tree to tree.

Well, Seacat could copy that! "I'm coming for you, you scumbag!" she yelled, dashing forward.

"Cat-Seacat!"

But she was already passing through the magic shield - which made her fur stand up - and launching herself at the closest tree. A green bolt of energy flew at her, and she twisted her body, making it miss by inches. Then she was at the tree, claws ripping into the trunk, and scaled it in seconds.

"To your right!" Bow yelled.

She turned her head, still scrambling up the tree, and saw an arrow hit foliage two trees away. Snarling, she pushed off, jumping towards the next branch. She grabbed it and swung up, landing on her feet on top of the branch. Where was the enemy? There! Something moved behind that tree.

She dashed forward, on top of the branch, then jumped off again, claws digging into the next tree. Almost…

Something appeared in front of her, and she gasped, throwing herself back a moment before a bolt of fire passed through the space she'd been in.

Bow moved up, sending two arrows at the bastard, but one missed, and the other broke against a shield.

And then the entire tree Bow was perched on suddenly fell. He tried to jump off, firing a grapple arrow at the next tree, but another bolt struck him. Screaming, he fell and crashed into the ground.

Seacat cursed and moved towards his dazed form, but she knew she couldn't reach him in time - the tip of a staff sticking out from between the leaves was already glowing. No! She couldn't...

And Glimmer appeared between Bow and the enemy.

"Glimmer!" Seacat yelled as the princess reached for Bow. The stupid princess! She was too slow - the enemy was… Seacat blinked. No Spell. No crying. No death.

A moment later, Glimmer and Bow disappeared in a burst of sparkles. The enemy hadn't sent a spell at her back.

Seacat gritted her teeth and kept running towards the enemy's hiding spot. She jumped from branch to branch, cleaving through some foliage in her way. There was the enemy!

Only they weren't there. Seacat whirled, jumping around the trunk, looking and listening. The chittering of the bots, Adora scolding Glimmer, with Castaspella chiming in, but… no sign of the enemy sorceress. Or sorcerer - she had never caught a clear glimpse of them, only some dark figure hidden by leaves and branches.

Cursing under her breath, she jumped off the branch, returning to the ground with a few leaps.

She reached the others just as the bug princess wrecked the last bot, and Adora healed Bow. "They got away," she told them.

"They fled?" Adora asked.

Seacat shrugged. "Perhaps their magic ran out or something. They had Glimmer and Bow at their mercy."

"Magic doesn't 'run out'," Castaspella told her. "The caster might become exhausted, but that's not the same." The sorceress certainly looked exhausted.

Seacat shrugged. "It works out the same. And Glimmer runs out of magic."

"She's a princess; that's different."

She also ran out of lives, but Seacat didn't say that. She knew better than anyone that Glimmer wouldn't have let Bow die.

"So… we won?" Perfuma asked.

"The enemy withdrew," Adora corrected her. "That can be a victory, but could also mean that the enemy completed their objective."

"They tried to kill us, and we drove them away," the bug princess said. "But this might have just been a probing attack to gauge our strength."

If they could get such a number of bots for a scouting attack, Seacat wasn't looking forward to facing a real attack.

"But as they know how we fight, we know how they fight." Glimmer had stopped trying to crush Bow's chest through hugging and stood up. "Next time, we will get them."

"Unless they change tactics," Seacat pointed out. "They were pushing us hard."

"They are good," Bow said, getting up as well. "I never got a clear shot at them. Almost never. And they have magic shields, like you." He nodded at Castaspella.

"They used spells I knew, but also spells I never saw before," the sorceress added.

"And the tactics?" Seacat asked.

Castaspella shook her head. "Nothing special, just common sense when facing superior numbers. They'll probably focus on taking out Bow and myself next time. To remove Bow as a threat and me as our protection."

She sounded rather matter of factly about the whole thing. Bow grimaced, and Glimmer grabbed his hand and whispered something in his ear, but the sorceress just laid out things. Perhaps she was too tired to care.

"Well, then we need a plan to counter them!" Adora stated with a grim expression. "I'm not going to let them kill any of us!"

"And what do we do?" the bug princess asked. "This feels like fighting in that weird wood of yours - monsters in every bush, magic working against you, and some shadowy enemies peppering you with arrows without ever facing you in open combat."

"And you never found a counter?" Seacat asked.

The princess shook her head. "Flooding the forest with soldiers didn't work because of all the magic. There were talks about cutting down the whole forest, but they never amounted to anything - too much of an effort, and without magic of our own probably impossible anyway. Wouldn't have surprised me if the trees regrew faster than we could cut them down," she added with a grin at Perfuma.

The other princess blushed a little. "We'd have done what we could."

"Well, we do have magic of our own," Glimmer said. "Plenty of it."

"But so does the enemy," Perfuma pointed out. "It was all I could do to keep the plants in check. So much bad magic…"

Then things had been even more dangerous than Seacat had realised. "That means we need to stick together," she said. "No chasing after obvious bait," she added with a brown at Adora.

"Hey!" her lover protested, then pouted. "If we bunch up, we'll be vulnerable to attacks with magic. Like that crushing air thing." She shuddered, and Seacat reached out to grip and squeeze her shoulder.

"That was, as far as I can tell, gravity manipulation. A very complex magic - at least at Mystacore," Castaspella replied. "I wouldn't have thought it was possible to create such a strong gravitational draw, though."

"That's because they use First One's technology and magic together!" Entrapta piped up.

Seacat looked at the princess - she was kneeling in front of a gutted bot, one hand still stuck in its head. "See? The control crystals are First One, but the runes carved on it, and the smaller crystals… that's the work of a sorceress."

Castaspella quickly joined her. "You are right. That's Etherian rune magic."

"That's why I couldn't control their network: They're using magic for it!" Entrapta sounded happy about that. "They might even be powered by the magic in the jungle! No need to return to refill their crystal reserves that way. The bots could patrol the forest forever! This is so fascinating!"

And very, very dangerous. Seacat pressed her lips together. Entrapta meant well and was a good friend. "Is there a way to use this against them?"

"Only if we manage to combine First One Technology with magic as well." Entrapta beamed at Castaspella. "And since we're here to do that anyway, since that's probably needed to deal with the runestone network buildup, we might as well start early!"

And hope that the enemy didn't attack them in the meantime. Great.

"We should move to a safer location for that, though," Adora said.

"But we've got all the bots here!" Entrapta pointed out. "Enough parts to build dozens of them!"

"And we're surrounded by magic trees that might crush us if the magic controlling them isn't kept in check," Seacat told her. "Just grab a few and let's return to the ship. I'm getting thirsty, and I don't trust the water in the jungle. Or the water we had on us. The enemy had plenty of time to poison it."

"Ew." The bug princess looked at her bottle. "That's something we didn't have to deal with in your wood."

Seacat nodded. But it was something they had to take into account here. Well, no one had claimed that saving the world would be easy.