The solution to the nest of vipers is unfortunately obvious, though I’m not entirely comfortable with it. Nonetheless, I champ at the bit to get going – our people need us! Perhaps I can multitask here. After all, the quicker we can get back home, the more likely it is that we’ll be able to impact whatever it is Flying-blade is doing.

  “Windy, Hades, Persephone, Earth-former stay with me and make sure not a single one of these samurans sets a foot out of line.” I look at Earth-former with a hard look in my eyes. “It’s in your best interest to make sure that they don’t because any sign of resistance and we’ll kill them.” I’m not cruel enough to make her do the distasteful task herself, but I’m being completely honest here and she feels it.

  I hear, Pathwalker Tamer. My village will be calm and obedient, I promise you that, she replies with a shudder.

  "See that they are," I tell her, turning to Sirocco. "I need you to fly ahead as quickly as possible. Borrow Ptera's Lighten ability to make yourself go faster. Be careful not to be seen by anyone who may be in our village. I will need your report as soon as I come within range." The bird quickly takes to the air, a fierce agreement flowing down the Bond between us.

  Next, I turn to the rest of my Bound. "I need you to fetch materials that we could use to make this." I send them a package of images of what I'm imagining will be possible to make. It's a pity that we didn't bring Joy with us as she could have quite easily finished the job for us without my input, but unfortunately that's not the case. Still, we can at least get the materials collection started, which will speed up the process when I've finished doling out judgement to these samurans who set themselves against me and mine.

  My party members quickly stride off, none of them having the remotest desire to linger longer than necessary. They have just as much motivation to return to the village as quickly as possible as I do.

  Just as I am turning to the samurans we have captured, I hear the sound of something approaching very quickly from behind me. I turned to see a gratifying sight meet my eyes.

  "Bastet, Storm, Ninja! You're back." They are just as happy to see me as I am to see them, coming to greet me enthusiastically, though Bastet immediately expresses remorse that she was not with me for the recent battle. I sent her wordless forgiveness, not that I think it’s needed as it wasn't her fault that she wasn't present. "You'll be able to help keep these samurans in line while I work on making sure that they won't do us any further harm."

  With the raptorcats joining us, I feel less concerned about some of the samurans potentially taking advantage of my divided attention to try to escape or to kill me.

  "Right," I say, turning to the samurans on the ground with my arms crossed. "Some of you probably know what I am capable of," I venture levelly. "The last time a village of samurans crossed me, I took over. I'm going to do the same to you. From this point on, thanks to your leaders’ decision to plot against me, your village no longer exists as a separate entity. I'm going to Bind each Evolved, and absorb the Unevolved under the wing of my village."

  The reactions to my words range between the horrified and the relieved. I suspect that some were expecting me to kill at least a portion of the village while others were hoping that they would get away practically scot-free. It's going to be a difficult transition, I think. Especially since everyone will know that these samurans are part of the reason for whatever is happening in my village. But I don't want to kill them, and I equally don't want to leave them as a threat so close to my people.

  "You can't do that," shouts one of the Warriors who looks the most horrified. "We-we are a different Tribe, a different village. We've always lived here. You can't just...absorb us."

  "Well, there is an alternative," I inform him casually. He looks vaguely hopeful for a moment, though others around him, I think, suspect what my 'other option' is going to be. "The Unevolved don’t have to join if there’s another village they’d rather go to for shelter – I doubt they had any part in the decision-making so I’m not going to punish them directly for it. But for you who did have choices, I’m not letting you remain a threat. Either you take my Bond or you can join your friends.” I look pointedly at the three Warriors lying dead on the ground to make it clear what I mean.

  The objecting Warrior pales and looks down. However, it seems like there are a few actually seriously considering that option. And ultimately, I find myself unable to feel too much sympathy for them if they do. They are the ones who made the choice to come into conflict with me and my village, so if they wish to die as a consequence of their choice, that's up to them.

  "I will accept your Bond," says a quiet voice from the side. I look over to see Healer speaking. "I don't want to die. I didn't agree with it to begin with, but I will accept the consequences of not putting up enough of a fight."

  "I'm glad to see that someone has sense," I say with grim satisfaction. Moving over to her, it's not long before I've added someone else to my Bond network. Healer's choice sparks a number of others offering themselves up to be the next to take the Bond. Some then try to fight back when we are in the Battle of Wills space, as if they are hoping that by defeating me here, they will hurt me in the real world. Their resistance doesn't even approach what is necessary to overcome my Willpower, however, and it ends with them Bound to me nonetheless.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Once I have finished Binding those who volunteer for it, I move onto those who do not. Each time, I give them a choice: submit to my Bond or die. The one who puts up the most fight is, predictably, Beast-tamer. Her own willpower is nothing to sniff at. It's not surprising, as out of all the samurans here, she probably has the most occasion to use it. And as I have experienced myself, use is quickly followed by growth.

  It's quite interesting to experience a Battle of Wills with another Tamer. Not only is it a question of her own Willpower, but I sense that it's also affected by her Bonds.

  In this case, she is disadvantaged. I feel that the unwilling Bonds she holds actually sap some of her Willpower from her. I have few truly unwilling Bonds now, in fact only the most recent ones can be classed that way, and even among them not all of them unconsciously put up a constant fight. Beast-tamer clearly has quite a different approach to Taming.

  It gets to the point where I sense her making the choice between maintaining the Bonds and handicapping herself, and releasing the Bonds to free up the Willpower involved. Perhaps in the sense of mutually assured destruction, she abruptly releases all of the Bonds at once. This frees a significant chunk of her willpower to then attack me. I fight through it and force the Bond on her not long after, but when we emerge from the Battle of Wills, I realise that it's had another consequence. Namely, that there are suddenly a whole group of beasts running free and desperate to escape from the place that has been their prison for who knows how long.

  Fortunately by this point, I have thirteen Warriors, and all three of the local Pathwalkers Bound to me. Doing damage control is therefore quite simple, though I call Beast-tamer back, when it appears that her presence is an active negative. Either the beasts turn to attack her, or they become even more frenzied in their attempts to escape.

  Once the beasts have been dealt with, Healer proves herself helpful, quickly going to those injured to mend their wounds. She prioritises the Warriors, but I’m pleased when she also moves to heal the Unevolved caught in the crossfire without being asked.

  By the time I Bind the last of the living Warriors to me, even my much higher Willpower is starting to feel the strain. I still sense that I could add another ten or so if necessary, but I doubt much more than that. Without knowing what's going on in my village, I don't know whether that will be sufficient.

  At least my companions have been making good progress with collecting the materials I asked them to. Once I've finished bringing the rest of the local samurans under control – only one chose death over a Bond, in the end – I send them off to corral their Unevolved and prepare them to make the journey up to my village. I deputise three of my Warriors to stay behind as party leaders since I can’t afford the time to travel with a whole village of slow-moving samurans. I’m tempted to leave Poison behind but decide against it in the end – I know he’s very sensible and practical, but since I don’t know what’s happening back in my village, I want to take everyone I can with me.

  While they’re getting organised, I take a piece of spider silk out of my Inventory and start feeding my magic into it. Using Flesh-magic to extend the piece of silk, I create a cord which will hopefully hold my contraption together. I also pull out the lengths of camo-spider silk fabric which I created months ago when we flew with Raven to kill the fellapodil. Fortunately, the mana infusion which made the mana fabric able to change colours seems to have become part of the fabric – storing it in my Inventory doesn’t suck the mana out of it.

  With the materials all collected, it doesn't take me too long to complete my task. I really wish that I had both Sticks and Joy here, but if wishes were fishes, there'd be no such thing as hunger.

  It's not pretty, but I hope that the hot air balloon will be sufficient for the task. After all, past experience has shown that flying in the air is far faster than running on the ground. A hot air balloon is not exactly the best device for quick motion, but we have one big advantage: Windy. If the wind works in our favour, then we will be able to go far faster than we would normally. I would prefer to make some sort of zeppelin, for aerodynamic properties, but I simply don't have enough fabric. Making more cloth from spider silk will take too much time for me to consider it for more than a few moments. I’ll just have to manage with what I have.

  The balloon part of my contraption is rather small; I hope that it will be big enough – and that its lift will be enough to carry as many with us as I want. I consider who the priorities are to take with me if the balloon can’t carry everyone.

  My Pathwalkers are obviously essential, and in terms of weight they are not too heavy. I intend to take Healer with me too as having another being capable of healing may be a great boon. I also definitely want to take Poison and the other two Warriors who aren’t staying behind to organise the village here as they will be instrumental in helping to defend the village if it comes to a fight.

  The juvenile kiinas are obvious choices to leave behind. Although their combat potential is significant, it's not enough to make up for their relatively large weight. Hades and Persephone too. Upon being told that, River goes over to Persephone and starts making much of her – and warning Beast-tamer that if there’s even a single scratch on the kiina when they meet again, she’ll take it out of the other Pathwalker’s hide.

  Bastet and the raptorcats are shoo-ins for coming with us. Not only are they good fighters, but they are remarkably light for their size. Lathani is one I struggle with deciding one way or the other. She's big and heavy, but at the same time if I leave her behind and she's hurt, I'll have hell to pay from her mother. I decide to see how the weight allowance is going before making a decision.

  Fenrir may unfortunately be one of those left behind. He's just so big and heavy. I’d rather have him with me if I can, though – he’s an essential part of my party. If so, I’ll need to wrap something around his tail so he doesn’t accidentally poison us during the journey. Komodo is probably a bit too large and heavy to take with us, though.

  Eventually, I finish constructing both the balloon, and the basket that will dangle beneath. It would have been much easier with Sticks around, but I've managed to use bone to create the majority of the basic structure and link in the branches which my Bound brought to me. The advantage of using bone is that I'm able to hollow it as much as possible to reduce the weight of the basket itself – I couldn’t have done that with wood.

  Hopefully Windy will be able to get us there in good time with her Tier three abilities. My own Wind-Shaping is still at a very low level, but I will offer what aid I can as well, though I suspect that I will be limited to heating and controlling the air within the balloon itself.

  To that end, I ask Windy to direct air into the balloon, filling it quickly. Once it's full, I start raising the temperature of the air with an application of my fire-magic. I decided it wasn't necessary to have a fire when I could just heat it up myself. The balloon rises in the air, and I have to quickly tie the basket down with a spare rope to avoid it being lifted into the air prematurely.

  "Right everyone, first test. Get into the basket one by one starting with the Pathwalkers from my village, then Healer, and then we can see who else is able to fit." Putting action to my words, I step into the basket myself to prove that it's safe.

  here!

  here!

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