The following day, the four adventurers and the giant wolf set forth on their journey back to the orc encampment. They had spent their time in the cave sharing their abilities, css information, and combat styles. From this, they learned that Deirdre was a ninth-level Huntress of Artemis, which appeared to be a ranger-themed css, heavily favoring nature, stealth, and ranged combat. She also had her bond with Moonwhisper, who was a Primal Dire Wolf, apparently. It gave the wolf a lot of special abilities, making her stronger, faster, and obviously much rger than the typical gray wolf. Deirdre was willing to accept the interface's party invite once it was expined to her, allowing her to see the friends' statuses and for them to see both hers and Moonwhisper's.

  Deirdre had grown up in Wyoming, she didn't mention her mother but said her father had moved to the mountains when she was six years old. The two of them had lived on a farm tucked into the mountains near Bondurant, a town of less than a hundred inhabitants. It was a remote life, but she had grown up in the mountains and didn't know much else at this point. Hunting, hiking, fishing, she loved every minute of it. She'd been twenty-one years old when the world changed, her father vanishing one morning while the two of them had been out hiking together.

  She had spent the st year working her way back and forth through the mountains of Wyoming, killing monsters and surviving as she always did. Deirdre had seen a few other adventurers from a distance, but never interacted with them. A few times, the adventurers had fallen to the monsters, which she shrugged and considered part of nature. A few more times, they had grown scared of the challenge and left the mountains, fleeing for easier terrain. Alice's party was the first that had stuck around, able to go toe-to-toe with the threats of the Wind River Range, and so Deirdre had intervened, not wanting to lose her hunting ground.

  Now, however, the orcs were the greater threat. The orc tribe was hunting down the small bands of farmers that had survived, killing them and eating them, as well as starting to tackle the monstrous beasts that inhabited the Wind Rivers. Deirdre was insistent that the orcs needed to die, at which point nature would be in bance again. Bridgette shrugged, willing to take any excuse to get revenge on the orcs. Colin was happy to do anything that ensured he stuck around the female elf, and Alice thought it would be good to help stop the evil orcs before they returned to Iowa.

  As the five had worked their way back to the south through the mountain range, they saw evidence that the orcs had been out in force looking for them. Warg droppings littered the rocky mountain paths, with paw tracks and orc footsteps evident everywhere. They couldn't expin how their random hiding spot had gone unnoticed, but Alice credited her prayer to Fi for keeping them safe. The rest shrugged, willing to accept that expnation, as nobody could come up with a better reason for how they had stayed undetected.

  The five hunkered down on the same rock outcropping that Alice, Bridgette, and Colin had observed the orc camp from three days prior. Moonwhisper y on her belly, nearly invisible against the gray rocks. Deirdre also blended into the terrain, so much so that Colin had multiple times thought she had vanished on the group and panicked, before she grabbed his arm and yanked him back down next to her. Her cloak shifted in color as they traversed through mountainside, always just the right coloring to perfectly blend her into whatever background she stood against.

  "Okay, so. At dawn, we start with Colin throwing a fireball at that hut," Bridgette pointed, "which appears to be the one housing the majority of their grunts. Deirdre will have snuck within a hundred yards of the encampment and start hitting them with arrows as they run out. Alice and I will stage nearby her, but I'll have Moonwhisper rush me into the camp once the shit starts. We'll all advance, I'll lock down the chieftain, Colin and Deidre will take out the rabble, and Alice will keep us alive. Should be pretty straight forward."

  Alice gnced at her, bemused. "You think it'll be that easy, huh?"

  "I mean, obviously not, but as far as pns go, I think it's a good one. My main concern is honestly whether my clothes are going to be there when it's all over."

  "To think, I have lived long enough to hear Bridgette compin about being naked," Colin joked. "I guess my time on this mortal coil is at an end."

  Bridgette punched Colin pyfully on the arm, still wearing the t-shirt and leggings that Alice had provided her the day before. "Shut it, nerd boy. I have no problems with nudity, but I just really want those clothes back. I looked sexy as fuck in that outfit, and it would be a shame to have some orcs ruin it."

  "You're just going to end up naked in combat again anyway," Alice countered, teasing. "Presumably you're going to do your magical transformation if the fight is challenging enough, which it almost certainly will be, and then it won't matter what you were wearing, because the clothes are gone, and you have your insane buffs from that instead."

  Deirdre gnced at Bridgette, curious. "I was mostly unconscious st time. Did ... tentacles?" She blushed, unsure of how to continue.

  Colin sighed, bluntly expining while rolling his eyes, "Yea, so she triggers her ability, and basically it turns into one of the depraved magical girl transformations you've ever seen with a tentacle monster showing up and gang-banging her into submission, then cumming all over her before she resumes combat. Her hair and eyes change color while she runs out drenched in glowing pink semen, waving that fucking axe at the bad guys. It's truly fucking ludicrous, but I guess after a year I've somehow gotten used to it?" He shrugged as Deirdre blushed, staring in shock and horror at Bridgette.

  Bridgette grinned at the flustered ranger, "Don't knock it until you've tried it, elf girl. Sure, she's a little rough, but I get mine too. Plus then it leaves me all fired up after combat, and then Alice benefits as well. Speaking of, I need to go drag her off somewhere and have my lecherous way with her before we start this. Why don't we go stage out of that cave we passed a half mile back?"

  "Sounds like a good pn to me," said Alice with a grin as she stood, pulling the busty barbarian to her feet, and led the party back toward their camp site. Deirdre followed, a stunned expression on her face, clearly second-guessing her involvement with the trio.