by Eric Vall
“As long as you don’t turn Alfred into Deya’s personal chef rather than our household butler,” Cayla grumbled.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Shoshanne replied. “I had Alfred write out his burger recipe for Raynor, and now that both pubs are serving up Flynt Burgers, the mages are delivering them every few hours for Deya. I’ve instructed them to alternate the toppings so she gets a good balance of various nutrients, too, and this should help cut her cravings down to one griffin per day by my estimate.”
I chuckled when I caught Deya’s giant eye roll.
“Remind me to bother you about your appetite as soon as you’re pregnant,” the elf mumbled through her next bite.
Shoshanne pursed her lips. “I am simply trying to ensure--”
“Leave her alone,” Aurora sighed. “She’s been eating whatever she likes for weeks, and not only is she absolutely glowing, but her little bump is getting cuter every day.”
“A cute bump does not equate to a healthy bump,” Shoshanne preached. “Mason’s babies should be handled with the utmost care, and I for one do not believe eating like a dragon is what Mason’s babies should--”
“Clearly Mason’s baby likes burgers and hunting for fresh kills,” Cayla interrupted. “You wouldn’t tell Mason he can’t eat what he wants, so how can you tell an adorable little baby who probably looks just like him, but with pink hair and silver eyes, that they’re not allowed to make us eat--”
“Ladies, let’s be friendly about food,” I suggested. “There’s no judgement here, alright? If Deya wants five burgers, then she gets five burgers. Same goes for the rest of you once you have equally cute belly bumps. So long as everyone’s healthy, and our babies don’t come out with fangs or fur, I’m all for it.”
“Deal,” Aurora agreed. “Although, I feel like I must be pregnant by now. I had to remind myself not to kill an ogre yesterday when he bumped into me by accident at the training fields. Normally, I don’t have to remind myself not to kill allies.”
“Is that so?” Cayla mused as she tapped her bottom lip. “I had to resist the urge to punch Captain Huntley in the throat today.”
“What did he do?” I asked with concern.
“Nothing.” The princess shrugged. “I just really wanted to collapse his esophagus, and punching him in the throat seemed like a good way to go about it. I held back, though, for the sake of improving morale and such.”
I raised my brows as my concern only grew, but my women chuckled with approval.
“That poor captain doesn’t know how close he came to dying,” Aurora snickered.
“Too close,” Cayla admitted. “Either way, my breasts feel larger, too. See?”
I turned my head just in time for the princess to whip her porcelain tits out for us, and while my women took turns fondling them to gauge how heavy they were, I just sat there nodding to all of their opinions.
The way Shoshanne kept kneading Cayla’s breasts to test how firm they were was almost as enjoyable as hearing the princess urge the other women to give it another feel, and watching her rosy nipples get tauter with every squeeze made my jaw finally go slack.
Then Stan sent three rockets skittering to the floor as he failed at another balancing act, and I diligently refocused on my work. The thought of my women being pregnant made my legs jiggle impatiently every time I considered it, but I’d been pretending to be calm about the subject so they wouldn’t notice how much the suspense was eating me alive.
I felt like I should be neutral about the topic since it was inevitable they’d get pregnant now that we were all one thousand percent dedicated to the task, but still… there was a definite difference between making love to Deya and fucking my other women’s brains out for hours on end.
One was like an Olympic feat that could put Zeus to shame, and gods knew, I enjoyed the hell out of this approach. On the other hand, though, being with Deya lately was an experience that continuously blew my mind in ways I never anticipated. Every time I penetrated my pregnant elf, she gave herself to me like I literally owned her now, and listening to the way she begged me to take her like this undid me to my very core. It made my veins surge with a possessive drive that only spurred Deya on, and it didn’t matter what I wanted from her, the pregnant elf let me have it like it was not only my right, but like she loved obeying me even more than she had before.
Standing on the precipice of shifting my dynamic with all my women closer to what Deya and I had made my blood boil to a downright greedy degree, and while my legs shook more violently beneath the table, I didn’t realize I was grinding my teeth together until Aurora tapped my shoulder.
Then she smirked when my body suddenly went still.
“You alright?” the half-elf chuckled. “You look so tense over here.”
“I’m not tense,” I lied. “Just trying to finish these rockets up so I can get them shipped out to Dragir by this afternoon.”
“Does this mean the prototypes worked out?” Cayla asked as she eagerly stuffed her breasts back into her leather top.
I offered a casual shrug. “Yeah, they work.”
My women gasped with excitement, and Aurora snatched my arm away from my work.
“Will you please tell us what these rockets do now?” the half-elf begged. “I hate surprises, and I’ve been ridiculously patient the last week while you work on it. Haven’t I been patient?”
“You have been patient,” I allowed.
“And you never make us wait for your new weapons,” Cayla muttered as she crossed her arms. “It’s like you don’t want us to be proud of you when you know we thrive on how innovative you are. It’s the third sexiest thing about you.”
“I know, but this one was a tossup whether it would be possible or not, and I didn’t want to disappoint you if it didn't work out,” I replied. “Dragir sent a few prototypes over this morning, though, and after testing one of them, I’ve decided we can go ahead with the idea. I just need to finish the last few hundred rocket shells to get them shipped to House Quyn, and then I should have a spare moment to show you--”
“No, show us now,” Aurora interrupted as she dragged me up off my stool. “Please? The suspense is killing me.”
I smirked as my other women begged their hearts out, and when I finally relented and grabbed a runed rocket off the table, they covered me with kisses while Cayla snatched a bazooka off the wall.
“Okay, okay,” I chuckled as the four women shuttled me toward the entryway, “but we’re gonna have to do this way out in the western woods to avoid injuring anyone.”
“This invention is that dangerous?” Shoshanne asked uneasily.
“Definitely,” I said with a firm nod. “This is probably the most dangerous weapon we have in our arsenal at this point, but it’s intended for long range use. Very long range.”
Cayla squealed with excitement as she clutched Aurora’s hand, and the two women trotted out the front door with a bazooka propped under one of their arms. I nudged Shoshanne as I sent her a reassuring grin, but while the healer only managed a half-hearted smile, Deya didn’t seem at all concerned about risks.
My beautiful elf munched happily on her next burger while she followed along after us, but when we got to the clearing, all of my women paused to let out dreamy sighs at the sight of what awaited us.
Then the fifty Bom army I’d built over the last week saluted me as I joined them, and I admired the newly minted AR-15s each sentry had propped in the high port position.
“Looking good, boys,” I said with a deadly grin.
“Will you do the thing again?” Cayla whimpered as her cheeks went pink. “Just one more time? I swear I’ll stop asking after this.”
The rest of my women turned their pleading eyes my way while they pouted for good measure, and I chuckled before I looked at my Boms and sent them a single nod.
The clank of magazines being loaded followed immediately after, and within three seconds, all fifty sentries had their rifles loaded at the ready while m
y women went weak at the knees.
Chapter 2
We were twenty minutes into the western woods when we came to a demolished area about forty feet in diameter, and my women stopped short of the gnarled remains of the clearing in front of us.
“This is the general blast radius we’re working with,” I explained as I gestured to the peculiarly shaped trees surrounding the test site. “It’d be best if you stand back another thirty feet or so, just to be safe.”
I held my hand out for Cayla’s bazooka, but the princess was busy staring at what used to be the forest floor.
“What happened here?” the princess asked.
“The last prototype happened here,” I chuckled.
“Mason, the ground is glowing,” Aurora mumbled blankly. “Why is the ground glowing?”
Shoshanne blinked a few times. “Are those trees melted or frozen?”
“Both,” I replied. “What blows my mind is the liquid Halcyan itself has burned up by this point, so you can technically walk on this mess, but the strange blue glow it gives off must stick around for who knows how long. From what I can tell, the substance inside these rockets is so cold, it freezes whatever it touches immediately after contact, but as it sits, it begins to burn. Or something like that.”
“Okay, this is not a good idea,” Shoshanne decided.
“If I intended to play with it, no,” I snorted. “These rockets are for us to use against the Master’s forces, though, so they’re probably our best idea yet.”
“Can we use them to take down the fire titans?” Aurora asked, and her emerald eyes glinted when they met mine.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “The steel shell should technically melt from the kind of heat the titans put off, same as when we had to lower their body temperatures in order to use our laced bullets against them. These prototypes have been runed to keep the liquid Halcyan from affecting the shell, though, so for all I know, the same runes could protect them from the fire titans’ heat as well. Unfortunately, there’s not much of a way to test out the theory, so we’ll just see how it goes.”
“Definitely not a good idea,” Shoshanne mumbled.
“I think this is a wonderful idea,” Deya chimed in. “I’m pleased to know my grandfather’s discoveries are still changing history so long after his death. He almost halted his investigations into Halcyan when he learned how dangerous the substance was in this form, but to see its destructive power and know he continued onward in his endeavors is so admirable.”
“I agree,” the princess said as she looped her arm in the elf’s. “Your grandfather was a true visionary. Much like Mason.”
“Actually, Dragir and I both made this happen,” I clarified. “I just--”
Aurora smacked my arm before I could explain our process, and when I glanced at my four women, they all wore identical glares that were difficult to misinterpret.
“I mean, thank you,” I tried. “I am proud of how this one turned out.”
“Good,” Deya replied, “because I know very well you came up with this idea. Dragir only agreed to try it out with you.”
“Well, for the sake of putting credit where credit’s due, your brother engraved the runes, melted the Halcyan down, and filled the prototypes so we could… ” I trailed off under the withering glares of my women, and then I cleared my throat. “So, do you want to see how it works?”
“Yes,” Aurora snorted.
“Okay, stand back, though, and we’ll use the bazooka this time,” I decided.
Shoshanne caught my sleeve as the others turned away. “How did you make this explode the first time if you didn’t use a bazooka?”
“I threw it,” I said with a grin, and the healer’s eyes bulged from her head as she looked down at the rocket in my hand. “You’ll love it once you see it in action, don’t worry.”
I brought Shoshanne over toward the line of women standing twenty feet away, and while Aurora patted the healer’s arm to keep her calm, Cayla loaded the bazooka up once I had it poised to fire.
“Everyone ready?” I asked as I took aim at a half-melted, half-frozen tree ahead of us.
“Yes!” Deya sang.
Then I pulled the trigger, and as soon as the rocket detonated, a flash of blinding white light flooded the western woods while a thick, glowing blue liquid burst out from the shell and exploded in every direction.
An icy draft immediately blasted over the five of us as the temperature plummeted, and a low droning sound resonated through my body while I braced myself against the uncomfortable sensation. My women were already clinging to me from both sides, but all of us kept our eyes on the chaotic aftermath from the rocket, and as the droning sound heightened in pitch, smoke began to billow through the trees along with a sizzling sound.
Soon, all we could make out was the blue glow behind a sheet of white smoke, and I pulled my women back a few more feet as the curtain drifted closer. What I hadn’t noticed during the first test run was the smoke left a sheen of frost on everything it wafted over, but by the time it cleared enough to see the blast zone, the frost was already melting away.
The tree I’d aimed for had combusted along with the ten surrounding it, but beyond this point, the oaks were misshapen and charred while the Halcyan clung to the jagged spikes of their trunks like icicles. The longer we waited, the darker the smoke became until only black tendrils spiraled up from the last of the hardening Halcyan, and I inched forward while I craned my neck to check if it was safe yet.
“Should be fine,” I muttered as I eyed the molten ground.
Shoshanne clicked her tongue. “Mason, you are not going anywhere near--”
“I’ll be alright,” I chuckled as I unwound my women from me. “Watch.”
Then I carefully approached the disaster zone, and the chilled air made the hair on my arms stand up as the last remnants of the eerie drone faded away. The molten ground was solidifying now, but it was still glowing a vibrant blue as the substrate writhed throughout the hardening process, and when everything settled, hundreds of tiny, abnormally shaped and hoodoo-like formations jutted up ahead of me.
I took a tentative step to test it out, but as I started stomping on the gnarled hoodoos, they didn’t crumble under my boots.
“It’s like they’re indestructible once the Halcyan burns away,” I realized as I jumped a few more times, and then I waved to my women. “It’s safe for you ladies to come closer!”
Aurora was the first one to run over to me, and she didn’t hesitate to hop all the way to my side while a giant grin came to her face.
“I love it!” Aurora announced as she bounced some more. “Did you see the way that tree curled in on itself before it exploded?”
“Right?” I snorted. “Imagine what these rockets could do to a living creature.”
“Gods, it would be the most excruciating death,” Cayla murmured, and her lips curled into a seductive smirk while she prodded a crooked hoodoo with her slender finger.
“A mass excruciating death,” Aurora clarified. “With a blast range like this, we could wipe out dozens of minions at once.”
“Or our own soldiers,” I warned. “We need to be careful when and where we utilize these, because once the fight picks up steam, there’s a good chance it’ll be too much of a risk to detonate them.”
“Does it only take one drop to have this effect on a creature?” Deya asked.
“Well,” I mused as I turned full circle to find a good example. “Do you see the smoking pits a few feet from the molten area?”
“Yes,” Deya replied.
“That’s where the smaller droplets landed,” I explained. “So, in theory, one droplet will form a pit that large in whatever it touches, be it a Saurbrin, or a mage.”
“But only after it’s frozen them and then exploded, first?” Cayla hoped.
“Pretty much,” I confirmed. “I think the process is a subzero freeze, followed by combustion, and then some kind of melting that also freezes in the final phase? I�
��m still unclear on all the details.”
Shoshanne whimpered as she tightly crossed her arms around herself, but the three women ahead of her only smiled more as their eyes lit up.
“I love everything about this,” the princess informed me. “How long until we have more?”
“As soon as I finish the last thousand rocket shells, Deya’s delivering them to House Quyn,” I replied as I rejoined my women, and I pried Shoshanne’s arms apart so I could escort her home. “Dragir thinks he can have all the runes engraved by tomorrow, but the process of filling them is obviously quite dangerous, so it’ll be two or three days before they’re completed.”
“We should make bigger rockets,” Aurora decided, and Cayla and Deya gasped in agreement while the three women looped their arms together ahead of me. “Huge molten Halcyan explosives big enough to destroy a whole village.”
“A whole town!” Deya giggled.
“No, a whole capital,” Cayla moaned.
I furrowed my brow in confusion. “What capital are we needing to destroy?”
My women didn’t bother answering, though, as they trudged ahead with their plotting, and the more lavish their ideas got, the stiffer Shoshanne’s steps became while I dragged her along by her hand.
“A rocket so big, we could launch it over twenty fields and obliterate an entire region!” Aurora gushed.
“We can call them Flynt Blasters,” Cayla mused.
“No, call them Mason’s Secret Rockets of Doom!” Deya laughed. “Doom is a good word.”
“Doom Blasters,” Aurora chuckled.
“Now you’re just being childish,” Cayla sighed. “We want them to sound fierce so our enemies quiver in fear when they hear what’s coming for them. A name as powerful as Mason is.”
“Semen Blasters?” Deya offered, and even Shoshanne had to giggle at that one.
“We’re not calling them anything semen related,” I informed the women.
“But we love your semen,” the half-elf countered, “and your seed is probably ten times more potent than anyone else’s. We should pay homage to it by naming our deadliest weapon after--”