“I don’t know yet. I haven’t taken the time to think about it.” The question coming from her took me by surprise. More so when you factor in the feelings of contentment coming from Izzy.
“Did you have a thought on the subject?” I asked.
“I think you should.”
That was like being hit in the face with a cold trout. “You don’t think I’ll be a pig of a man for adding more women?”
“No, I never thought that. I was just… I don’t know. Fighting against the feelings I had. Turtles are not just slow when it comes to racing.”
We chuckled at that. “You sure they will fit in?”
“No doubt about those three mercs. I imagine they will be part of the sisterhood right away. The fire mage though… she is a little reserved, so it’s hard to get a read on her. But if she were in your pervy space, I bet you could tell.”
I chuckled. “Damn pervy space. When do you think I should do all of this pack inviting?”
“I don’t see. Reason to wait,” Izzy said. “Actually, if you do it now, it gives you more power and makes them stronger.”
“Good point. Let’s go over and start the invites.”
“I’m going to wait here. Go ahead without me.”
I nodded and left her to be by herself.
“Everything good?” Porshia asked.
“Yes, and I have an important question for all of you, except Scarlett.”
Chloe ran up to me with a wide grin and wide eyes. “You’re going to make us pack?”
I smiled at her enthusiasm. “If you agree to it. I’ll make you all pack if you like.” I looked at Morgana. “Same for you, Morgana. If you want it, it’s yours.”
“The abilities Scarlett has shown makes me want to be a part just to see where my power can go. I’m in.”
“I’m in!” The werehawk sniper said as she burst into the room. She rushed over breathing heavy. “I want in.”
“How did you…”
“Throat mics are on. I’ve heard everything.”
And the rest of you?” I looked first to Merc girl two, then to Merc girl three. Both nodded.
Then everything was white with blue swirls. The merc girls stood before me wearing nothing. The all dropped the their knees while looking around in awe.
“Is this some Mandela Effect shit?” Merc girl two asked.
“No,” I chuckled. “This is inside my head.” I stepped closer and looked down at the four amazing women. “Stand please. I’m not a dictator or a king I want you all standing with me for whatever may come. Is that acceptable?”
One by one they rose and raised the heads high. “We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Porshia said.
“Unless you wanted us to kneel,” Chloe said. “Then we probably would have.”
“That’s good to know. All it takes now is for you to accept me as your Tuatha.”
One by one I felt them become Tua. Once the last one had they rushed me buried me in a group hug. Then they were gone.
I reached out and pulled the fire mage. It was easier than it had been with Scarlett.
She stood before me nude as the day she was born.
Chapter 32
"So how does this work?" Morgana asked.
"It's really simple, you just have to accept me as your Tuatha and its done."
"That seems rather mundane."
"It's way better than some crazy ass ritual takes forever."
"I won't argue that. But I do have to know what's up with us both being naked?"
I smiled, and not for the first time, was grateful that we didn't appear naked. Morgana was a stunning woman neither thin nor think. She didn't support the lines outlining muscle like so many a Lycan women did. She looked soft and curvy in all the right ways.
"I think it symbolizes coming before each other as we are. I used to be a skinny little guy, then your stick figure. But as my body changed and I adapted to this new lifestyle, my periods here also changed but not as fast."
"That is interesting. Would you mind allowing me to study magic to make this happen?" Morgana asked.
"I don't mind at all, in fact I encourage it. The more we know, the better informed we are, the stronger we can become."
Morgana came up to me and wrapped her arms around me placing her head against my chest. I pulled her into a tight hook and as I did I felt her become mine.
"Thank you," I whispered.
Then I was alone in my mind speaks. Looking down I saw a new marks on my chest representing the. Latest additions to my pack. There were the four symbols for the hawk, the bore, the bat, and the badger. There are also two more than I had expected. One circle held look like a small flame and the other an ocean wave. I couldn't wait to see what the fire badger hawk bore and that skills look like.
I returned to the real world to find I returned the Merck girls shifted into their hybrid Tua forms. They marveled at how their bodies maintain their human shape and were covered in the hair of their beast form. Their faces were largely uncovered by for with the exception of small peaks the crowd rose up from their necks and touched their cheeks. The two mages, my two mages, stood off to the side talking amongst themselves.
"This is good," Izzy said. "This might give us the edge we need to get out of here in one piece."
"I agree. I think it was a good call on your part."
"So, don't you think you should do that whole skill tree thing and make everybody including yourself a little stronger?" Izzy asked
I chuckled "yeah I guess I should."
Curiosity made the decision of which of my new Tua to level up. Morgana was the first in line for the gamer mechanics treatment.
Insert Fire Mage stats
I couldn’t wait to see Morgana in action. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, we would see her fight soon enough. It was time for my mercs to get stronger.
Insert Badger Skills
Insert Hawk Skills
Insert Bat Skills
Insert Bore Skills
My excitement grew tenfold after seeing the awesome skills the merc girls now had. It was time to see how adding them to my pack made me stronger.
Buy Abilities for Terry
Power flooded me as the abilities took hold. I breathed in deep and tried to clear my head. The energy wanted release and the rage in me wanted to help. Counting to ten and deep breaths didn’t reduce the need to hurt something.
“You OK, boss?” Porshia asked.
“I need to keep moving. Get my mind in the right place with a purpose.” I shook my head and held it between my hands for a second. Nothing helped.
“Let's open the door and move out,” Porshia said.
My mercs stood to both sides of the door with the hawk at the knob. She counted down with her fingers then threw open the door. When nothing jumped out to hit us they rushed in. Izzy followed with me coming in after her.
The next room was a large space that may have been three quarters of the house long. This building was much larger than Michael’s house. Along the walls were little stations set up on counters that looked like a mad scientist’s playset. In the center of the large room was a circle of chrome colored tiles. Various symbols wrapped around the circle.
“I must admit that I’m impressed you made it this far. Usually, the dogs are the end of anyone who dares challenge me here. Kudos to you, Tuatha.”
A man walked toward us from the far side of the room. He looked old and frail. He wore a blue suite that looked three sizes too big. His facial features were covered by a neat white beard that stopped just above his chest leaving his sunken eyes as the only clue to how gaunt his face must be.
“I suppose the question is, can you make it past the last boss?”
His eyes glowed a green color and he knelt placing his hand on the ground. The circle began to glow.
“I am feeling generous, Tuatha. I’ll offer you a chance to live. Leave now and leave those mage women behind. You will be unmolested and free to li
ve your life. What say you?”
I looked at Izzy. “Did this dick just ask me to leave my Tua here for him to have?” I clenched my jaw while waiting for her response.
“Sounds like it,” she said. Her face was a mask of concern. “Stay calm.”
“Fuck that,” I growled then looked back at the mage. “And fuck you!” I shouted.
“Very well.”
A tube of light shot up from the circle then flared out. A giant stood in the circle. It was a twisted mass of stone, dirt, vines, and trees. It’s presence created a scent of forests and wild z,flowers. The thing looked like something out of a nightmare designed by Gillermo Del Torro.
“This one has been waiting for a chance to come out and play. I suppose I owe you a debt of gratitude for that. Too bad you won’t be around to collect. Toodles.” Vines shot up from the ground and wrapped around the mage encasing him. The bundled up mage sunk into the ground and was gone.
The earthen monstrosity let out a roar and raised its arms high. We waited as it stood there doing nothing.
“Is that supposed to happen?” I asked. No one had an answer.
“This might be a good time to head back,” Izzy said.
“Yeah, what she said,” bubbly merc said.
“Uh, guys,” Scarlett said from behind us. “Where’s the door?”
We all turned to see a flat wall where the door had been. The mage really did set this up like a boss fight. The only question was why hadn’t the fight started?
A grinding noise overhead caused us all to look up. A section of the roof slide away revealing large panes of glass embedded in a black lattice framework. The sun shone down on the giant and it began to glow a soft gold. It was charging up, had to be. Once it was finished, the fight would be on, and we would probably be squashed flat.
“Take it down now!” I shouted.
The mercs ushed the giant while my mage’s hands glowed. Lauren was first as her wings gave her a huge speed advantage. She came to an abrupt stop against a shield that flared green where she hit. Lauren fell straight down in a tumble that caused the shield the light up green every time a part of her touched it. She hit the ground with a loud crunch.
Porshia shouted and poured on the speed. She slid to her knees and came close to sliding into the barrier. While she shook Lauren I reached out and felt that she was alive, but in bad shape.
There was only one option left to me, I pulled. The draw I took was eighty percent from all except Lauren. I routed the majority of that to her. She shot up to her feet with her back arched and her head back knocking Porshia away.
“What’s happening?” Chloe shouted.
Then I closed the hawk gate and she collapsed. Porshia caught her and lowered Lauren to the ground while I joined them.
“She should be OK,” I said.
“What was that?” Chloe asked while Reina stood next to her quiet with concern etched on her face.
“That was me,” I said. “I pumped a lot of power into her to ramp up her healing she should…”
“Hey,” Hawk girl said as she looked up at Porshia.
“How do you feel?” I asked.
“Like I stuck my hand on a power line. And good, really fucking good.”
Chloe turned to me with wide eyes. “You really healed her?” She asked with tears brimming in her eyes.
“I did.”
Both Chloe and Reina wrapped me up in a group hug and thanked me profusely.
“It’s no big deal,” I said.
“It is,” the Lauren said. “We used to be eight, but we lost half our number on various missions. We all thought one of these missions would be the end of us.”
“Everyone is happy to pay the mercs, but no one cares if we live or die, just that we do what we were paid to do,” Porshia said.
“You are my Tua. I care, and I will do everything I can to make sure you live. No deaths on my watch if I can help it.”
Izzy placed her hand on my shoulder and pointed at the statue. “What are we going to do about that?” As she spoke as pressed herself against my so that it ran down her torso between her breasts.
I wanted to tell her we ignore it and fuck like beasts. I kept that to myself and tried to keep it from getting to my Tua, as they could read my thoughts. Since no one commented, I thought I succeed. “Have the mages hit it yet?”
“No,” Morgana said. The hawk hitting the barrier stunned us and we dropped our spells.”
“Let's move away and try,” I said. “If we can break the barrier, maybe we can finish this fight before that thing is charged up enough to fight.
I helped Lauren to her feet and walked with her. We moved to the far wall as that was the farthest distance we could manage. Once we were all leaning against it Scarlett and Morgana stepped forward. Their hands glowed once more.
A fire ball formed in front of Morgana and water streamed from the bottles on Scarlett’s belt. Both created balls that condensed to half their size. Two beams, one red and one blue shot out in a continuous stream. The beams hit the shield in a shower of multi colored sparks. The entire shield became an opaque green cylinder, but it didn’t break. Five minutes passed before Morgana, then Scarlett collapsed and their beams died.
“Are you two OK?” I asked as I knelt between them.
“I’m drained,” Scarlet said.
“Me too,” Morgana added.
“I should have thought of this sooner, forgive me,” I said.
Once more, I opened the gates and directed energy flow to my mages. Both smiled wicked grins and rose to their feet.
They formed their balls, Scarlet from the water returning to her, and Morgana from thin air. Morgana’s fireball was huge, but the water ball had a limit due to the amount of available water. Then glass containers all over the room shatter and water rushed to Scarlet. She couldn’t generate a ball as big and the car sized ball Morgana had.
When the balls compressed, Scarlett was able to get her ball much smaller and it shone like a sun.
Chapter 33
Two beams shot out, one as big as my torso and the other as thick as my wrist.the smaller blue beam hit first with another splash of rainbow sparks. Then the red beam hit and the shield went opaque.
As the beams continued to stream forth the shield grew brighter, but remained. The light from the shield became bright enough to hurt our eyes.
“Maybe they should stop,” Izzy said.
“I think your right,” I said.
My mouth opened to tell them to stop, but a loud explosion drowned me out. A wave of green energy shot out in all directions from the shield. The wave hit us knocking us all against the wall. I slid to the ground landing on my ass then passed out.
Bright light woke me from unconsciousness. My head fucking hurt and the light didn’t help. Cracking an eye open I saw everything blurry. The shield was gone but the giant was surrounded in swirling light.
“What the fuck?” I asked. Not understanding what I was seeing. Then it hit me as my mind cleared from the healing I received because I was still pulling eighty percent.
“Oh shit!” I shot up to my feet. “Wake up!”
Taking turns I sent each of my Tua a shot of energy. They gasped awake one at a time, until Izzy woke.
“What’s happening?” Izzy asked climbing to her feet.
“I think it’s time for the boss fight,” I said.
“What?” Porshia said as she rose. “Shit, we aren’t ready.”
“I don’t think…”
“Weapons ready!” Merc girl two shouted, interrupting me. “This thing going to blow at…”
A loud roar filled the room driving us to our knees with ear splitting pain. The world spun and pain thumped through my skull. The giant slammed it’s fists down and the shield shattered. If it could do that to the shield, what chance did we have?
Before I could give voice to my worry rifle fire range out. The mercs were up and moving. They ran a circle around the giant firing as they went.
; They were awesome, and I was glad to have them. “Everyone up!” I shouted. “Scarlett and Morgana, let’s get some beams going.”
I sent some power to my mages, but not all. I needed some to fight as well.
In less than a minute two beams shot out hitting the giant in the back. It was spinning in an attempt to catch the mercs. The powerful beams sheared rock and dirt from it. The giant started to turn the opposite direction.
“Shit,” I mumbled. “Stop. Just fire short bursts. Let the Lycan’s keep its attention.”
“We will,” Scarlett said.
“What are you going to do?” Morgana asked?
“Kickass.”
Running as fast as I could, which was fast, I caught up to merc girl two. “Are your shits having an effect?” I shouted over the stomps of the giant and the booms of the rifles.
“Doesn’t look like it. It just absorbs them. What are you going to do?”
“Find a way to hurt it. Not sure how though.”
“Try this.” Merc girl two reached over her shoulder and pulled a machete free then tossed it to me.
I grinned like the chesser cat. “Thanks.”
With weapon in hand I changed course for the giant. It towered over me and had to be close to one hundred feet tall. From the ankles down, this fuck was mine.
Ten feet from him a massive arm swung down hitting me. One second I was running, and the next I was Superman. The flight through the room ended with ne being a crash test dummy as I hit the wall. I couldn't say how far up I was, but the long fall down the wall ended in a second painful crunch.
I inhaled a sharp breath as my ribs reformed. The rest of my bones took their normal shape while agony gave me temporary amnesia. The pain ebbed and I looked up confused for a second. The reality of the situation came back after a second. Then I jumped to my feet and looked around for my machete. It lay on the ground halfway between me and the giant. I scooped up my blade as I ran back to the fight.
“Are you alright, Terry?” Izzy sent through our mental link.
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