Monstergirl Quest Book Three

by Darknight, C. S.

  She shrugged. “To tell you to quit while you’re ahead,” she said dismissively. “You’ve done plenty of damage to the Empire already, Earthman. This can stop now, right here.”

  I laughed. “You know that’s not happening,” I said.

  Therena looked around casually. “Seeing as there are no little magic eagles spying on us, nor any of those idiot legionnaires, I’d like to speak freely with you, Gamelord.”

  “Get on with it,” I said. “The quicker you’re done, the quicker I can run my sword through your throat.”

  She chuckled lightly. “You know as well as I do that the Emperor will never yield to you,” she said. “And he’ll never risk losing this war. Look into the depths of your heart, Earthman. Imagine the wicked, vile measures the Emperor will take to keep his throne. Then take the very worst thing you can imagine and double it.”

  I grit my teeth. “You’re not telling me anything I didn’t already know.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “Do you think his armies are mere men in tin suits?” she asked. “You must have seen the lupines in the woods, how vicious they were. The Emperor keeps legions of those mutts and other beasts that make the wolves look like puppies.”

  “It sounds like you’re shitting your pants,” I said. “It sounds like you know you can’t win this battle.”

  She waved me off. “Fear has never been a concern of mine, Gamelord. But just think of the awful suffering that awaits the Imperial citizenry. You’ve gotten your way, Earthman. All around the Empire, these Red-Hand rebels are rising up, and even the smallfolk are starting to take up arms. What do you think will happen to them once the Emperor grows tired of their insolence? You say you want to free these people but, in attempting to do so, many of them will be slaughtered.”

  My mouth tightened into a thin line. For a moment, I didn’t know what to say. Because Therena was right. The Emperor had so far conducted himself in a manner that made it look like he wasn’t a monster, but he’d shed that flimsy artifice the moment the war turned against him.

  “Ah, I see the ambivalence, the hesitation,” Therena said softly. “It’s okay, Earthman. You’ve fought with honor. So, the Emperor proposes this. You can go back home. Go back to the Earthrealm. What’s more, you can take your Mananymphs with you.”

  I looked her in the eye but didn’t open my mouth.

  “Even Ciara,” Therena went on. “Then, you’d have done your duty. You’d finished what Ciara had summoned you to do. Now, you and the Mananymphs can live your days in peace.”

  Pandora turned to me nervously, as if she were wondering if I was actually considering the offer.

  I spit right at Therena’s feet. “You might want to get your men ready,” I said, then turned away from her. My allies followed me.

  Behind us, I heard Therena laughing.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I had to give it to Therena, she was no coward.

  As we prepared for the assault, I saw through Pandora’s looking glass that Therena was standing on the battlements right over the city gates, with six seraphim on either side of her.

  “Good,” I said to myself. “The quicker I can hack her head off, the better.”

  Pandora was sitting atop buddy when Sephara came to join me.

  “Alright men!” I shouted. “Give the Earthman a moment to turn you into total badasses!”

  The army cheered at that then Sephara took my hands and held them tight. She had a cute, vicious little smile on her face that drove me nuts. “Let’s do this, Earthman,” she said.

  I closed my eyes, reaching out to Sephara’s inherent mana-dense nature. She gave her essence to me willingly, and as our magical energies combined, we both glowed with bright blue motes of restoration magic.

  Then, we cast the first spell.

  GAMELORD’S MASS FORTIFY STRENGTH

  EFFECT: FORTIFY STRENGTH ON ALL ALLIES WITHIN RANGE FOR ONE HOUR

  The armies behind us vanished momentarily under a rippling blue wave of restoration magic. At once, they were all looking at each other in disbelief as they felt their strength immediately enhance.

  Then came the next spell.

  GAMELORD’S MASS FORTIFY SPEED

  EFFECT: FORTIFY SPEED ON ALL ALLIES WITHIN RANGE FOR ONE HOUR

  The magic rolled over them once again. I felt the mana draining from me but, when combined with Sephara’s, we still had more than enough between the two of us to finish the job.

  Then we cast the final master-level restoration spell.

  GAMELORD’S MASS FORTIFY SPELL ABSORPTION

  EFFECT: FORTIFY SPELL ABSORPTION ON ALL ALLIES WITHIN RANGE FOR ONE HOUR

  Our forces were all enhanced physically and resistant to a certain degree of magic for an hour. That alone was going to limit our casualties.

  As I guzzled one bottle of restore mana potion after another, I called out to Esmerelda. She slid up to me, sensual as ever, and kissed me as our fingers intertwined. Bella appeared next to us. I turned to her.

  “Are you ready for this?” I asked her.

  Bella nodded eagerly. Esmerelda laughed and gave us a moment while I gave Bella a long kiss on the lips. “I’m ready, Earthman!”

  I rejoined Esmerelda and we combined our energy to cast the next spell.

  GAMELORD’S FOG

  EFFECT: ICE AND FIRE COMBINATION CREATES HEAVY MIST (UNTIL DISSIPATED

  We roared then threw our palms open, toward the soil hugging the walls of Homehold. At once, a thick sheet of ice glazed over the grass, over the gravel and the soil. Yet, mere seconds later, a sweltering fire began to blaze over top of the ice, and massive veils of steam and mist rose up and down the length of the city wall.

  “Men!” I shouted. “Follow Bella’s seraphs!”

  Bella let out a roar and the green illusion magic exploded from her palms. A second later, an entire legion of facsimile seraphs came roaring to life. They threw up their swords and bared their shields as they charged toward the city gates.

  “NOW!” I shouted, then hopped upon Buddy’s back once more with Pandora, and led the charge toward Homehold.

  Though the Imperial archers up on the battlements were blinded by the mist, they nevertheless panicked and launched volley after volley of arrows. My fortify speed magic did the job, though, and most of our forces had fast enough reflexes to block or dodge the arrows.

  Similarly, up on the battlements, the Imperial battle mages were letting loose with their destruction magic. A dozen or so mages, along with Therena presumably, started launching fireballs in our direction.

  As the explosions rocked the ground around us, I grit my teeth and winced when I saw handfuls of our men being torn apart by the magical fire. However, many more would have died if not for the spell absorption boost.

  Ahead of us, Bella’s seraph legion was just about to reach the city gates when, as planned, the Red-Hand Legionnaires yanked the gates open. The seraphs went spilling inside, through the misty veil, and a cry of panic roared out from behind the walls as the seraphs starting hacking away at the loyalists.

  I patted Buddy on the head. “You take good care of Pandora, big guy,” I said, then Pandora shimmied around me to take the reins.

  She grinned at me as she drew her daggers. “See you a few,” she said, then kissed me.

  I made a quick save point, but I hoped that I wouldn’t have to use it. As the world rippled, I made my move.

  Just as we were about to pass through the gates, I teleported myself up onto the battlements, hoping to find Therena.

  I reappeared over the gates, on the battlements, just as Bella’s seraphs were charging up the stairs toward the hapless loyalists. With my blade drawn, I summoned a fire spell then looked around, but Therena was gone.

  Half of her seraphs, however, had remained behind.

  All six of them fell on me, swinging their immaculate swords which now burned with righteous, heavenly fire. They were damn fast, and that was before they sprouted their angelic wings and began taking flight,
attacking me from all sides and, now, from above.

  I fried one of them with my fire spell then fortified my speed, just in time to parry what would have been a killing blow, coming right for my neck.

  “Die now, False Champion!” that seraph said.

  I shrugged. “Maybe later,” I said, then rammed my amber longsword through his white breastplate.

  Two down, yeah, but the other four were coming at me with blind, righteous fury. “We’ll take your head then shove it down Gaia’s throat!” one of them hissed from above as he tried taking my head off, flapping his wings a few feet overhead.

  I struck him with a TK force bomb that knocked him out of the air, and the seraph, though still alive, went down hard to the ground below.

  MYSTICISM SKILL INCREASED +1

  The other three were still coming. I dodged a slash from one in front of me, but one behind me caught me in the leg. I howled in pain as his flaming sword cut a divot into my thigh.

  These guys were no joke. Plus, they could take a beating. The one that I’d knocked to the ground below was back on his feet. As the orcs and wood elves stormed inside, he hacked through over ten of them in quick succession, despite being outnumbered.

  My leg was bleeding badly and hurt like hell, but I didn’t have time to heal it yet. I whipped my sword around just in time to parry another slash, then hit another seraph with a fireball, but he endured the flames, shrugging them off.

  The third remaining seraph hacked his sword down. I blocked it with the Soulguard but he managed to bash me against the head with his hard, white shield.

  BLOCK SKILL INCREASED +1

  As I reeled back from the blow, I got a look at the fight going on in the streets. The city gates had turned into a real quagmire, with a surge of loyalist reinforcements forming up with the seraph to provide a nasty defense. Our new Red-Hand allies helped even the score, but now our forces were largely bottlenecked at the gate, and Bella’s spell over the seraph legion had faded, leaving us on our own.

  Now, the mist was clearing. The loyalist archers on the battlements were firing arrow after arrow at our forces outside the walls, like shooting fish in a barrel. Our siege towers were on the way, but those lumbering machines would take several more critical minutes to reach the walls.

  Yeah, eventually, our forces would push through their gate defenses, but it killed me to see our soldiers being mowed down so easily. I wanted to take out the archers on the battlements, but these three seraphs were a handful.

  I’d take them on later. Now, I had an idea.

  I parried their last few slashes, backing away, before I launched myself down into the loyalist forces trying to hold the gates. When I was still in mid-air, I pulled up my summon tree root spell and cast it. At once, a writhing tree root burst from the ground and wrapped itself tightly around the defending seraph’s ankle.

  GREEN MAGIC SKILL INCREASED +1

  The seraph roared and slashed the root from his foot, but before he could finish, I came down on top of him, driving the point of my sword right through his heart.

  The loyalist forces in front of me charged despite the fear in their eyes. I rewarded their bravery with the most powerful TK force bomb I could summon.

  The telekinetic blast rocked through each one of them. Those unfortunate enough to be at the front of the charge had all their bones shattered. The ones behind them were blown back ten feet or more.

  I looked back at the surging troops behind me. “The doors are wide open, friends!” I shouted, and the orcs, wood elves, and Red-Hand Legionnaires came roaring into Homehold.

  Our forces flooded the streets. Ahead of us, I saw that Pandora had just helped out a squad of Red-Hand Legionnaires that had almost been overwhelmed. She blasted through the loyalists with TK magic, slashed their throats with her daggers, or let Buddy trample them under his hooves.

  Esmerelda was riding with Gorrok, in the saddle behind him. She launched powerful destruction spells at any loyalist she saw. Layla took a position on our left flank, rapidly firing her arrows at every Imperial loyalist stupid enough to approach her. Back outside the city gates, Sephara was tending to wounded soldiers. Bella remained far off, recharging her powers so she could eventually send another legion of seraphs.

  Above me, the seraphs that I’d fought on the battlements were circling me and preparing to strike. This time, I was ready for them.

  Using my TK magic, I gripped one telekinetically by the throat and quickly snapped his neck. They might have been fast and strong, but their spines could shatter just like anyone else’s.

  The remaining two got the hint then went flying off, toward the castle. I saw exactly where they were going, because there, in the distance, I saw Therena and the other seraphs. They were fighting off an encroaching mob of both Red-Hand Legionnaires and…holy shit…

  Someone had freed the Homehold soldiers from their prison! They came spilling into the streets, out of their dungeons, with none other than Sir Lucien leading them. They looked like shit, starved and malnourished, but they were powered by their rage. With Sir Lucien at the fore, they hacked through loyalists defending Therena and helped drive the wicked wood elf back toward the castle.

  Quickly, I healed that ragged wound in my leg. I called on a handful of orcs and wood elves to help me clear as many archers as we could from the battlements. We charged up the stairs, and I threw up a TK shield to block the volley of arrows coming down on us, then hurled a firestorm spell that fried a half-dozen loyalists.

  Just as we reached the battlements, I saw that Erhoff, Hingar, and several dozen allied forces had already charged up from a separate stair case. We hacked through the remaining archers nearby then linked up over the city gates.

  A roar of panic rose up from the other side of the city, and I wasn’t surprised to see why.

  The spriggans had arrived! Just now, I could see Greenbeard and several other spriggan elders climbing over the city’s northern walls. Beyond the wall, I could see the tops of other spriggan elders. They were swinging wildly at foes that I couldn’t see, which I assumed were loyalists who were attempting to flee through the city’s secret entrance.

  I let out a sigh of relief. After a dicey couple of minutes, I could see that our path to victory was just about complete.

  “Hingar, Erhoff,” I said. “Spread your forces out along the battlements. Take out any archers you see.”

  “Aye, and what of you, Earthman?” Erhoff said.

  I nodded toward the castle. Therena and her seraphs were cutting through our men like butter as they backed away into the castle. “I’ve got a date with a high elf,” I said, grinning.

  *****

  All around the city, the fighting was dying down. That’s not to say that the fighting was over, however. The Imperial loyalists’ line had fallen. Their defense forces, those that were still standing, anyway, were scattered into pockets around the city.

  There was still plenty to do before Homehold was secure. Erhoff and his Red-Hands were doing their best to talk the loyalists into standing down. Some defected to our side fairly quickly, but there were far more holdouts. “Many have got family back in the Imperial City,” Erhoff said grimly. “They know what’ll happen if they turn their backs on the Empire.”

  I frowned when he told me this. “And they won’t allow themselves to be taken prisoner?” I asked.

  Erhoff shook his head. “No, there are many of them that wouldn’t dream of it,” Erhoff said. “The Emperor has commanded the legion to fight to the last man. It's a shame, Gamelord, but these men will indeed fight to the death.”

  I grimaced. “Alright,” I said. “Talk to Gorrok and Hingar about gathering troops to mop up the last of them.”

  This wasn’t exactly an easy order to give. In a very real way, a good number of Imperial loyalists were just as oppressed by the Emperor as anyone else.

  But this was a war and we had to do what it took to win it, and that was how I lived with giving that order.

  Up at
the castle, there were a fair number of loyalists holed up, with the gates barred. Now and again, if our forces got close, a few arrows might come down, but nothing too terrible.

  That was where I found Sir Lucien convening with some of his officers.

  He grinned wider than I ever thought was possible for him when he saw me. “Earthman!” the grumpy old knight said.

  When I went to shake his hand, he laughed, swatted my hand away, and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in for a bear hug.

  An odd sight considering that, not all that long ago, we’d hated each other’s guts.

  “It’s nice to see you, man,” I said as I embraced the knight.

  He jerked his thumb toward the castle. “What awaits us in the castle isn’t all that nice, Earthman,” he said. “Several hundred loyalists willing to fight to the death. We could take them, aye, but given their defensive advantages within the castle, we’d lose three times as many men.”

  That was true…but I had an idea.

  “Yeah, there’s no sense in sending a large force in there,” I said. I smiled. “But what about a small one?”

  Chapter Twenty

  We all hung on tight to Greenbeard’s branches as he silently scaled the castle tower. He had to take his time, even with Belle concealing us with her illusion magic from below us, on the ground.

  There were archers manning the windows, ready to fire a volley at a moment’s notice. The last thing we wanted was to have them unleash their firepower while the huge spriggan was trying to keep a foothold during his long climb up.

  I was hanging off the branches on Greenbeard’s head. Pandora hung to my right, Esmerelda to my left. Layla clung to the branch just below me and Sephara was clinging to my back.

  Below us, Gorrok was on Greenbeard’s left shoulder along with Hingar. Sir Lucien and Erhoff were clinging to Greenbeard’s right shoulder.

  Given that invading the castle from below would have become a slaughter, I figured, shit, why not just climb to the top?

  I already knew that Therena would be up there, likely sitting on Duke Gladios’ throne, as if she had any right to it. Along with her were the seraphs. At any given time, four or five of them would fly around the tower in lazy circles, glaring at the rebel forces down in the street.