The fighting continued to rage on outside as Dessa still stood in the doorway.

Orchid gave a startled yelp and hid behind Doug nervously.

"Who are you?" Streak demanded.

"That's not important. What is important is that you shouldn't be here."

Doug growled and barked angrily at Dessa, who shook her head with a quiet 'tsk, tsk, tsk.'

"I wouldn't make so much noise, if I were you. You don't want the others to know you're trying to escape."

Doug stopped barking, but still gave a low growl and paced angrily, his lips curled back in a snarl. Orchid peeked out of hiding and looked at her former friend with tears in her eyes and a betrayed look plastered on her face. Dessa's glare melted away when she saw her.

"I'm...sorry, Orchid. But I had no choice. It was join or die."

"Let us go, or I'll make you." Sasha said firmly but calmly.

"Joke's on you. I'm a siren, too. You can't hypnotize me." Dessa said simply. "Even if you could, like I said...you don't wanna make any noise."

She suddenly looked behind her as she heard footsteps coming over.

There stood Katie with Choco and Barry behind her.

"What's going on over here?" she asked curiously.

Dessa glared. "Are you kidding me?"

Choco whined and hid behind her father nervously. "O-oh n-no..."

The group suddenly jumped back as Blake was flung towards them.  The injured werewolf grunted as he got up, then noticed what was going on and froze.

"THE PRISONERS ARE ESCAPING!"

Rosa immediately snapped her attention over and directed the others to go fight off that group too.

Streak was the first to jump into action, fighting off the attackers.

"SASHA, KATIE, GET CORY, ORCHID, DOUG, AND THE TWO DOG NEKOS TO SAFETY!  I'LL HELP THE OTHERS!"

The two girls hesitantly nodded before running off, shortly followed by Barry and Choco.  Doug waited for Cory to climb onto him before he ran off, with Orchid loyally by his side.

Meanwhile, Flash, Zakk, and Kasai glanced over at the smugglers, who had now all switched targets.

"Aw, are you for real?" Flash complained before rejoining the fight.

"Maybe this wasn't as easy as I first thought..." Zakk groaned.

"Don't lose face just yet.  I have a strong feeling we're still gonna win this." Kasai said firmly, then resumed fighting off the smugglers.

The whole place was in chaos.  Blood was being spilled all over the ground, and fire was spreading all over the camp. 

Suddenly, a loud, unmistakable screech pierced the air, catching Natalie's attention.

"MAL!" she roared, rushing over.

Sure enough, there was Malorey, just having her neck sliced by Kasai's sword.

The injured griffon coughed up blood as she weakly looked up at her companion.

"Mal!"

"N..Nat..."

It hurt for her to speak.  Natalie quickly scooped her up and raced away from the camp before setting her down.

"Mal, please...please don't leave me..."

"...hah..." Mal gave a weak cough.  "... I'm not leaving.  Just...going on vacation."

She gave Natalie a final smile before her eyes fluttered closed and she went limp completely.

Natalie immediately started panicking, checking for a pulse or for any breath.  She relaxed when she felt a faint pulse.

"Don't worry, Mal.  I'll get you through this."

Despite the danger, Natalie raced back to camp and grabbed the first aid kit and running back to fix her friend up.