by James Archer
“King Gregor and Xin Jang aren’t happy you have the sword,” King Gerald said, resting his hands on his enormous belly. “You will get the swamp and everything underneath them. Anything else you wrestle under your control is up to you.”
“What about the League of Twelve?” I asked.
King Gerald laughed. “You’re ambitious, aren’t you?”
“Give it some time,” Ouber said. “We’ll teleport you back in an hour. Please go get ready.”
Harper and Morgana locked their arms with mine before we walked out of the throne room. I saw a few people looking at me differently as we walked to our room. We hadn’t brought a lot of belongings because we didn’t own much.
“I’ll meet you three back in the badlands,” Newton said as we walked.
“You’re not coming with us?” I asked.
“Not yet,” he said. “I’ve got some things to do here in Gristle.”
I nodded. “Come see me when you get back.”
“You know it,” Newton said. “I’ll bring help if all goes to plan.”
Morgana put a hand on his left shoulder. “You’ve already been a help.”
“And we need all the help we can get,” I added. “King Gregor and Xin Jang will both be coming at us, wanting to fuck us hard, fast, and without protection!”
Morgana grinned. Harper moaned.
“Have you named your kingdom yet?” Newton asked. “Fuck Cancer maybe?”
“I haven’t come up with a name yet,” I said. “We’ve got too much to do.”
He nodded, turning serious again. “See you guys on the other side.”
I waved as he walked away. Harper and Morgana followed me back to our room. Just a few minutes after we arrived, Ouber showed up, knocking at the door.
“Are you ready?” he asked, walking into the room.
“Ready as we’ll ever be,” I said.
“Is there a fourth?” he asked, glancing around.
“He left already,” I said. “Just us three. Unless you want to come join us?”
Ouber laughed, shaking his head. “Gristle is the armpit of the League of Twelve, but it’s still in the League of Twelve if you know what I mean.”
“I’ll clean up the badlands,” I insisted. “Just you wait and see.”
“King Gerald and I hope you do,” Ouber said.
After so much time with him, I’d come to accept him not wearing a shirt with leather pants at least two sizes too tight. He wasn’t like a lot of other players in the game. Instead of craving power for himself, he helped others achieve it. Having someone like him on my side would be helpful while I clawed my way to the top ranks of the game.
“We’ll be watching your progress,” Ouber said.
Before I could answer, he snapped his fingers. We blinked and appeared at the edge of the swamp in the badlands. I glanced around, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.
“Let’s walk the perimeter,” I said. “See what we have to work with.”
“I wonder if King Gregor’s men are still around,” Harper said.
“Probably not.” Morgana stepped forward. “They need to give us a chance, or they’ll piss off King Gerald and the League of Twelve.”
“We won’t have much time,” I said, taking off after Morgana.
Harper followed a few feet behind. I took note of every bit of high ground and thought about where to put the wall and guard towers. Newton bringing back dino-men and dino-women would help me grow my kingdom until I could attract other player characters.
“We should fill in the swamp with dirt,” Harper said.
“Don’t you mean drain the swamp?” Morgana asked.
“Yeah, that,” she said.
“No.” I shook my head. “Having the swampy land is better for defense. Even if they breach our walls, they’ll have to contend with the harsh land. We’ll keep everything good underground and out of reach of anyone. Once we get settled, we can start looking at joining the League of Twelve.”
“You are ambitious, aren’t you?” Morgana grinned and stepped toward me. “Come here, you.”
We kissed, drawing Harper to us. No matter how many people I added to my kingdom, the two original women in my “harem” would remain closest to my heart. I adored both of them. The three of us kissed, our lips and tongues pleasuring each other.
“Get naked,” I said. “We’re breaking the ground in the right way.”
Both women smiled and obeyed my commands. I put down my still charging dino sword and got undressed myself. Fucking in the swamp isn’t recommended for a reason, but I couldn’t resist being inside both of my queens. We did the best we could hope for given the circumstances. I wasn’t complaining.
* * * * *
A week later, Newton returned with just over a hundred dino-men and dino-women ready to join my still unnamed kingdom. With less than ten days remaining until I could fully activate the dino sword, I watched as a group of them worked on the wall surrounding my slice of virtual land in Dino World. Newton stood next to me, drinking from a flask.
“You hate NPCs, but they fucking work hard,” he said then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Am I right?”
“I never said I hate NPCs. I just don’t enjoy fucking them.”
“Keep laughing,” he said, oblivious to my teasing. “You’ll come around someday.”
“Not when he has us,” Harper said as she and Morgana walked up.
“How are things going below ground?” I asked.
“Good,” Morgana said. “The wall and gate are complete. We came to get you.”
“Thanks, I want to see how they turned out,” I said then turned to Newton. “Are you coming?”
“No,” he said. “Womang is cooking my favorite tonight, turtle soup.”
“Lucky you,” I said.
Harper, Morgana, and I walked to the center of my plot of real estate in the badlands. We had straightened the boathouse literally and figuratively. After adding supports to keep it straight in the marshy ground, we removed all traces of it being a whorehouse. The rooms became barracks and offices for various people in my fledgling kingdom. As we grew, we would expand underground where it was safer for the most part.
“It looks great,” I said.
“The dino-beings did all the work,” Harper said.
“Yeah, but you two guided them. I can’t wait to see the gate.”
“King Gregor’s already got a few dozen men stationed on the other side,” Morgana said.
“That’s fine as long as they stay on their side of the tunnel. At least for now. When we get our basic defenses set up, we’ll go on the offensive.”
I climbed up the rope ladder to the deck of the houseboat, the others following. Once inside, we went straight to the room with the pit leading deep into the earth. Morgana and I had constructed an elevator platform large enough to carry a dozen armored men. After climbing on board, I activated the switch to lower it. Harper walked over to the edge.
“We really need a handrail,” she said. “For safety.”
I nodded. “Good idea. We can bring it up at the next meeting.”
The platform quickly reached the bottom of the pit. We got off and walked through the cavern to the wide tunnel leading south to Yusgood. The rails weren’t entirely complete, but they got us almost all the way to the wall we’d constructed three fourths of the way to the city. At the end of the rail construction, we got out of the cart and walked.
Gump, the most senior dino-man under my command, waved as we approached the wall.
“How’s it going?” I asked as we stopped in front of his booth near the iron gate.
“Good,” he said. “We’ve come so far in such a short time.”
“Time’s of the essence,” I said. “King Gregor is likely to attack.”
“I hate the King of Gregor!” Gump shouted, getting worked up.
“Settle down,” I said. “Save your energy for battle.”
“I’ll die for this kingdom withou
t a name,” Gump said.
“You really need to come up with a name,” Harper said.
She walked over to the iron bars of the gate and peered through.
“Don’t antagonize them,” I said. “We’re lucky they haven’t made a move yet. Let’s go see our bedroom. I heard they completed it today.”
Harper turned and smiled, nodding her head. “It looks great.”
We walked back to the cart then rolled toward the pit leading up. Instead of converting any of the existing rooms into a living area for ourselves, I’d dug an entire new section to the west of the main tunnel. Well, I’d told others how to dig it out. I smiled as I checked out the bare room when we reached it.
“Needs some furniture, but it’s nice. What do you two think?”
“I think we’ve got something good going here,” Morgana said.
“People will try to copy our underground kingdom,” Harper added. “Or we might run into other civilizations under the earth.”
“We’ll deal with problems as they arise,” I said. “The dino sword will be done charging in another week or so. Once that happens, we’ll be in a good position to attack.”
Harper walked over and peered into the room that would become her library and study area. She turned and smiled, looking happier than I’d seen her in a while.
“You like?” I asked.
She nodded. “Very much. You listened to what I wanted.”
“The arena down below is ready too,” Morgana said.
I walked to one of the walls and moved a curtain to display a set of stairs leading down. Harper and Morgana followed me down. We emerged on a stage in a vast cavern carved out of the earth with muscle and magic combined. I saw more than enough room to train a few dozen men or dino-beings at the same time.
“This is great,” I said. “We’re moving so fast.”
“Magic makes anything possible,” Harper said. “My new magic book helped.”
“We’ve got gold to spend,” I said. “We shouldn’t be afraid to get what we need.”
“They’re going to be coming after us soon,” Morgana said. “I can feel it like a storm coming.”
“We’ll be ready,” I said. “They’ll probably attack before my dino sword charges completely, but we have enough to stop them without it.”
“I’m surprised they allowed us to porc up so much,” Morgana said.
“They’re cocky,” I replied.
A dino-man ran across the cavern, waving his hand.
“Messenger,” I said, nodding at him.
He stopped at the stage, waving a piece of paper in his hand. I walked over and took it from him. After unfolding it, I read the words on the paper twice.
“What is it?” Morgana asked as she and Harper came up to me.
“It’s from King Gerald,” I said, not elaborating.
“Spit it out,” Harper snapped. “Good or bad?”
I grinned. “Definitely good.”
┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑
CHAPTER 23
┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙
The Battle of Three Kingdoms
“The League of Twelve have decided Gristle can choose to help any of the three kingdoms in the badlands,” I said, lowing the paper to my side. “King Gerald is sending help for us.”
“King Gregor and Xin Jang aren’t going to like that at all,” Harper noted.
“Fuck both of them,” I said. “We’re not ceding anything to them. Not now.”
“We have put so much work into this place,” Morgana said.
I nodded. “Exactly. With a bit of help, we can take them both out and bring some fucking stability to the badlands. I could end up controlling everything above and below ground in the area.”
Morgana smiled and wrapped her arms around my waist. “You’re my hero.”
She kissed me, slipping her tongue into my mouth. I didn’t resist.
“You need to tell him everything,” Harper said.
I pulled back and turned to her. “What do you mean?”
“She can tell you,” Harper said, nodding at Morgana.
I turned back to her. She frowned and looked away.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I told you already,” she said. “I have my own dino sword.”
“Fuck, I forgot all about that,” I said. “You weren’t joking?”
She shook her head and waved her hand. A temporal hole opened up in the air near her. She reached in and pulled out a magnificent and fully activated dino sword.
“Damn,” I said as she held it aloft.
The temporal hole closed.
“Fuck,” I said. “King Gerald’s going to be mad if he knows we stole it.”
“That’s why he can’t find out,” Morgana said.
I loved and hated her at the same time in that moment.
“You should keep it hidden,” I said. “Nice temporal hole, by the way.”
“That’s what all the guys tell her,” Harper quipped.
I grinned. “You’re bad…”
“Two dino swords will ensure we take control of all the badlands,” Morgana said.
“I agree, but we don’t want to piss off the League of Twelve,” I countered.
A second dino-man rushed across the cavern, also out of breath.
“What now?” I muttered.
“There’s an attack topside,” he said. “Below ground in the tunnel, too. They’re trying to wipe us out before King Gerald can send us help.”
“Fuck,” I said. “This day just went from good to bad in a flash.”
“Welcome to ruling your own kingdom,” Morgana said.
“How are the walls holding up above ground?” I asked.
“They’re holding, but Xin Jang is bringing in Gnomish engineers,” the messenger said. “They’ll breach them eventually. We just haven’t had the time to fortify them enough. Sir Newton the Brave is commanding everyone up top.”
“Good,” I said, turning to Harper and Morgana. “Top or bottom, ladies?”
“I think the tunnel’s more important than anything above ground right now,” Morgana said. “Newton and the others will have to keep things under control up there on their own.”
“Good thinking,” I said. “You should put the sword away. We can’t let anyone know we have it yet.”
“No, we need it to win this fight,” she said.
“What does the sword do, anyway?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you all about it later,” she said. “We’ve got another battle to win. Unlike the arena, this one is for keeps. If we lose, our kingdom is gone forever.”
“You’re right,” I said. “Let’s go.”
We rushed offstage and back upstairs to the main tunnel. On the way, I picked up my own dino sword. While not yet fully activated, I had to use it every day. Harper grabbed her new Staff of Icy Things on too. I kept glancing enviously at Morgana’s dino sword, wondering exactly what it could do. The powers of the swords were a closely guarded secret.
A dino-man rushed up to us as we entered the wide, main tunnel leading south.
“They breached the wall,” he said. “They’ve made it about a half-mile up the tunnel.”
“King Gregor and Xin Jang must be working together to get rid of me,” I said.
Chaos continued around us as dino-men and dino-women both rushed back and forth, preparing for the onslaught of enemy forces.
“How long before they get to us here?” Morgana asked the dino-man.
“Don’t know,” he replied, shrugging. “Can I go help prepare?”
“Yes, keep up the good work,” I said.
As he ran away, I peered down the tunnel. The clash of steel rang out further down. Another dino-man ran up as I decided what to do.
“There’s a dragon topside!” he shouted. “It’s burning everything!”
“Fuck,” I said. “Can this get any worse?”
“I’ll go take care of it,” Harper said. “T
his staff needs to be broken in.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
She nodded. “You two stay down here. We can’t let them lay claim to our underground lair.”
“Be safe,” I said.
“Always,” she replied as she ran toward the pit leading to the surface.
I turned to Morgana. “You ready for this?”
She nodded. “This sword’s more powerful than you know.”
“How did you get it to bond to you?” I asked.
“Long story,” she said. “I’ll tell you later. We’ve got to save our kingdom.”
She held her dino sword aloft and chanted some words.
<< Area buff activated. >>
<< +50% to hit and damage for 30 minutes while you’re in the sphere >>
“Stick close to me, and you’ll enjoy the benefits too,” she said.
I nodded, already craving the same ability for my sword. Unlike most run-of-the-mill magic items, dino swords were each unique in their abilities.
“This is even better,” she said, stepping forward.
I cringed as she stuck the blade into the stone floor. Amazed, I watched as she dragged it across the entire width of the tunnel.
“What is it?” I asked. “The scratch of doom?”
She laughed. “No, it’ll stop any low-level characters from getting past.”
“Great,” I said. “We need all the help we can get.”
I heard the screams of dying dino-men further down the tunnel.
“They’re going to come at us with everything they’ve got,” Morgana said.
“No kidding. This scratch in the floor is our red line.”
“Agreed,” she said.
I saw a group of dino-men run out of the tunnel from the south, retreating from something.
“Dragon!” a few yelled as they rushed past.
“Hold the line at the scratch in the floor!” I shouted. “Make a stand!”
The dino-men who had sworn allegiance to me lined up behind Morgana and me. I gripped my sword as a few dozen soldiers ran into view.
“Back up!” Morgana shouted. “Give them room!”
We listened to her and moved our defensive line back. The soldiers rushed past the scratch in the floor, all of them dropping dead as soon as they passed.