Dennis the Conqueror: A Harem Fantasy (Sword and Sorority Book 1)

by Scot C Morgan

  "What?" Nithia asked.

  "Stuff for her wounds. Clean it. Wrap it loosely with the gauze—the cloth in the pack."

  "I know what you mean," Tara said. "I'll gather some herbs which will help."

  "Okay, good," I said. "But keep a lookout. Keep your bow handy. I'll be as fast as I can."

  "How are you going to find Sydney?" Alara asked.

  "I'll follow Saber-Kong's blood."

  Nithia was taken aback by the name. "Saber-Kong?"

  "Saber-toothed tiger? King Kong? Nevermind."

  I took one more look at the three beauties. They'll be safe, won't they?

  "Hold on," I said, then I jogged over to retrieve Alara's staff. I brought it to her. "You can still use this, if you have to. Right?"

  She looked at me and nodded. "Go get her, Den."

  "I will. And I'll come back to the three of you as soon as I can. Watch over each other until I return."

  "We will," Tara said.

  Nithia stood and hugged me. I kissed her on her forehead. She furrowed her brow and drew her lips inward, as if to say, "Hey, is that all." I slapped her on her ass.

  "That's better," she said. "Now hurry back, so we can all head home."

  "You got it."

  I walked toward the beginning of Saber-Kong's trail of blood, spotting my sword and getting it on the way. I turned and gave the girls a wave, which they all returned, then I set out to track the creature, to find Sydney.

  Chapter 20

  Following the trail of blood wasn't a problem. Ignoring the pain in my back, the lower ribs on my right, and the scrapes across most of my torso wasn't quite as easy. My cloak was torn badly from Saber-Kong knocking me into the trees during our first encounter. Now it was rubbing the raw wounds on my back and chest. I thought about losing it, but I realized I could use it to avoid getting the beast's acid spit on me—like Alara had used hers. The burning sensation on my face had lessened, but it lingered enough to convince me the cloak—though it inhibited my movement a little—was worth keeping.

  I moved as quickly as I could, running alongside the spills of blood. Saber-Kong's gate was many times mine. I knew it likely he wasn't going at top speed, but evidently he'd cleared a good distance before I started after him. I followed the trail for several minutes before I heard him…and smelled him.

  I stepped carefully through the last cluster of trees leading to what I could see was the foot of a rocky hill. It rose beyond what I could see through the canopy. I heard Saber-Kong's breathing. It was labored and punctuated with grunts. I hoped the sound meant he was losing strength, but I couldn't be sure. So, I moved closer to take a look, hoping he didn't spot me.

  Turned out, I was not ninja material.

  A long thin branch snapped under the weight of my boot.

  Shit.

  I didn't have to wonder if Saber-Kong heard it. He grunted sharply and loudly. His slow heavy breathing had stopped. I heard another grunt, then I felt the ground rumble as I heard him moving.

  I knew I might as well give up the stealth attempt and get on with it. I rushed out of the trees, sword overhead in my right hand. I figured charging worked last time. Don't change what's working. Right?

  I spotted a cave behind Saber-Kong. It was too dark to make out how large it was or whether Sydney was in it. I wanted to go in for a closer look, but Saber-Kong's massive forearm had something to say about that. He must've known exactly where I would come out of the trees. I probably smelled too, come to think of it. Before I could swing my sword down on him, he smacked me with his arm. He didn't really hit me in any particular place. It was more like he struck my whole body at once.

  My sword went who knows where. My body—thundering with pain—shot across the ground like a foosball on a shot for the game-winning goal. Problem was, a defensive line of trees had taken up just the right positions. I grazed the first one and hit the next two solidly—my legs against one and my shoulder against the other.

  The throbbing pain was overwhelming at first. I tried to focus, to see where Saber-Kong was. I knew I hadn't been hit in the head or any vital area. I'd live, I realized, but only if I got up before the jackass from Monster Island decided to have another whack at me.

  I saw Saber-Kong staring at me. His face looked pained. His breathing heavy again, and he was on his side—the one I hadn't cut open. He tried to push himself up, but couldn't. His arm gave way and he collapsed his chest back to the ground. I tried to get up too, but didn't get any further than he had.

  For a good ten seconds, we stared at each another. I knew it was a question of who could get up to kill the other guy first. I saw the blood still coming out of his side. It was obvious he was getting weaker by the second, but he still looked extremely pissed off.

  "Help me!" It was her, Sydney—gold medalist in the best chest competition from class. Still sprawled out on the ground, I tried to see where she was. I couldn't locate her until she called out again. "Please! Help me!" Her cries came from within the cave, where I had suspected Saber-Kong had her.

  I saw him glance in her direction, and then he stared at me. He moved again to get up and it looked like he was going to manage this time. He must've realized I was there to take his prize. The notion evidently put some fire in him. He rose to his feet, taking a second to steady himself before stepping toward me.

  The muscles in my legs throbbed and ached, but I could move them. Nothing seemed to be broken. Chalk that up to barbarian muscles. Same with my shoulder. The double motivation of Sydney calling out to me for help and Saber-Kong heading my way to stomp on me drove me to my feet. I gritted my teeth to push through the pain as I stood.

  Kong was only a few steps away, but he was hobbled, almost dragging the leg on his gouged side. I quickly glanced around me to see if there was anything I could use as a weapon—a broken tree limb, a big rock. No such luck. The sheer intensity of the moment caused me to ball up my hands into fists. But I looked down at my hands and then up to his and thought better of straight hand-to-hand.

  I must've been thinking slower than usual—still stunned, no doubt, from the impact with the trees. I hadn't moved and he'd already made his way over to me. I felt the ground quake as he dropped his foot down in front of me and followed with a hammer fist swooping down toward my head. I felt the rush of air blow past me as I dove out of the way just in time.

  Behind me I heard a booming thud and the sound of splintering wood. I finished my haphazard diving roll and scrambled to my feet. I rushed past him, looking for something or some place which could give me an advantage. I noticed a slope on the side of the rocky hill, just in front of the cave. It looked like I might be able to get up to the height of his head. I scanned the ground and grabbed the first strong-looking piece of wood I found—a broken tree branch, a couple feet long, pointed on one end, and almost as thick as my wrist. I heard him behind me, but I didn't even take the time to glance over my shoulder. With the makeshift weapon in my right hand, holding it pointy end down, I ran up the slope of rock.

  Saber-Kong roared and I knew he was directly behind me. I felt his hot breath across my back and the burning mist of his acid spit on my lower legs and the backs of my arms. At the top of the natural stone ramp, I leapt up several feet, pushing off with my right foot against a large rock jutting out from the hill. I turned in mid air, clasping my other hand on the two-foot piece of wood. Saber-Kong was even closer than I thought. He leaned in with his fanged mouth, in an attempt to chomp down on me. But my barbarian legs had launched me higher as I came off the rock.

  I fell toward him, pointy end of the stick aimed at him. He took a fateful glance upward and the splintered end of my makeshift dagger pieced his eye. I held on and my weight forced the wood deeper into his skull. The sudden convulsion of his towering body jolted my grip loose, sending me crashing to the ground. I did what I could to tumble with the impact to dampen the blow, but it still hurt like hell. I rolled away from him to avoid getting bludgeoned by the erratic contortions of his
arms.

  He dropped to his knees, reaching for the wood in his eye. I couldn't believe he was still conscious, or even alive. Arrow to the groin. Sliced open. Stick in the eye. What the fuck?

  With my back to the ground, I scooted away from him. I moved as fast as I could. He fell toward me, unfortunately managing to brace himself enough as he went down to keep the stick in his eye from hitting the ground. I knew that would've finished him off, but I wasn't so lucky.

  Without raising his head to look for me—however well that would've worked with only one eye—he reached out both arms, feeling and grabbing, clearly hoping to crush me with his big leathery hands.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted my sword just out of reach. Saber-Kong's hand swung toward me and I flattened myself to the ground as must as possible. It worked. He passed over me. As soon as I was clear to move, I rolled the seven or eight feet to my right to get to my sword.

  Saber-Kong heard me and quickly cast his blind grasping hand back in my direction. I picked up my sword and thrust the blade through his palm, lunging forward, both my hands on the sword. I used all my strength to drive the blade through and force his hand to the ground. I leaned over the weapon and buried the blade as deep as I could into the dirt, pinning him to the ground.

  He roared. I couldn't tell if it was more from pain or more from anger. But it was clear he had plenty of both. He clawed the ground with the fingers of his free hand and got himself closer to me. As he raised and turned his head to face me, I saw the wood still sticking out of his left eye socket. The blood had soaked the wood and was dripping from the end of it. With his good eye he glared at me with a fury I'd never before seen. I wanted to do something else to put him down, but I knew I needed to keep his hand pinned with my sword. I only had a second to consider my options before he made his move, lunging toward me with his huge fanged mouth open. I leaned back and dropped to one knee to brace myself as I reached up and took hold of one of his fangs with my right hand over my head and the front of his lower jaw with my left. It wasn't by choice, but I was performing the head-in-the-lion circus trick—only it wasn't an act and Saber-Kong made a circus lion look like a child's kitten.

  I felt my arms, shoulders, and back flex to their limits as I fought to keep him from biting down on me. My hands burned from the acid saliva coating them. I saw a large glob of Saber-Kong drool gathering at the roof of his mouth behind his teeth. As it dropped toward me, I leaned my head down and to the side as much as I could without losing the fight against his jaws. I felt it splash against the outside of my cloak over my shoulder. So glad I kept that on.

  Saber-Kong violently jerked his head to one side and then the other. With the second move my grip on his jaws slipped, but I flew clear as he bit down. This time I came to the ground in a somersault which would've made my grade school gym teacher proud.

  Something struck me in my back. It hurt, but it wasn't nearly as painful as when Saber-Kong hit me before. I turned around and saw Saber-Kong back on his feet.

  You gotta be fucking kidding me! How'd he get his hand free?

  "Oh," I said, spotting my sword on the ground in front of me. I knew that was what I'd felt in my back—evidently flung at me when Saber-Kong yanked his hand from the ground. Lucky break.

  I reached down and took my sword, but that one short move gave Saber-Kong time to reach down and take hold of me. He clutched me in his hand with absolutely none of the gentleness Kong had shown Fay Wray. Guess he hadn't seen the movie…or maybe it was because I wasn't a beautiful damsel in distress…and because he was an inconsiderate monster.

  He had me in a death grip. There was no way I was going to squirm out of it—and if I didn't I was going to be dead really soon. I had one shot. I held onto my sword despite the feeling my bones were being compressed to powder and my lungs were running on fumes. Maybe to make a point after I'd stopped him from chomping down on me before, or maybe because he just had a taste for barbarian protein bars, he lifted me up toward his mouth and was opening up again to take a bite.

  I gave him props for persistence and plain stubbornness for not being dead already, but zero points for ignoring the fact I still had my sword in hand. I tried to draw in a deep breath to ready myself for what I hoped would be the final death-dealing blow to Saber-Kong, but his grip was so tight I couldn't draw in more than a wheezing sliver of air.

  That and a strong desire not to be eaten by a giant fanged ape turned out to be enough. As he brought me up toward his fangs, I rushed the blade of my sword up through the bottom of his mouth. The flesh underneath was softer than his hand and my weapon split the skin and muscle easily. The blade flew up through his tongue and broke through the roof of his mouth. Blood spilled and gurgled as he threw his head back. As I fell toward the ground, I watched with relief as he fell back away from me. I hit the dirt first, which knocked out what little remaining air I had in me. I felt the ground under my back quake as Saber-Kong landed with a boom. I could tell by the wretched sound of him choking on his own blood I didn't need to get up to finish him off—which was good because I didn't feel like moving for the next several minutes. When I did finally get up, it was through all kinds of soreness, aches, and sharp pains. I almost didn't want to know all the injuries I'd suffered. At least, I was standing, I thought. And my head wasn't separated from my body. Bonus.

  When I did stand, I looked over to Saber-Kong. The gurgling sounds had stopped. He wasn't moving. I couldn't see the rise and fall of his chest. There were no grunts. As shitty as my body felt, I knew I'd gotten the best end of the deal.

  "Oh, thank you!" Sydney's voice was like a hot fudge sundae. I was in no shape for dessert, but I was looking forward to seeing her just the same.

  Chapter 21

  I came around the stone edge where the outer surface of the low mountain, or really large hill—I wasn't sure which; geology class was next year—opened up. The cave was large and not as dark as it had looked from a distance, when I was fighting Saber-Kong. Of course, I had been busy trying to not get killed. So, it's likely I just didn't get a clear look before.

  "Thank you," Sydney said. "That creature was terrifying. I thought I was going to die here."

  I staggered a few more steps closer to her as she spoke. I'm pretty sure my mouth hung open several seconds before I said anything. I dropped my sword, not intentionally, but I dropped it. It clanged as it hit the ground. I was a little embarrassed, but seeing her made me lose my focus for a moment.

  "I'm just glad to see you're okay."

  She was more than okay. She was smoking hot. And did I mention she was completely naked? Someone had chained her to the rock wall, rusty metal clasps around her wrists. I figured it wasn't Saber-Kong. His hands were too large to work the clasps.

  Must've been some of those ape men, I thought, remembering the ones who'd attacked us.

  Her legs were free of shackles, but she was sitting on the ground. Her arms were above her head; the chains were too short for her to bring them lower. I didn't go in for the chained up thing. I felt sorry for her, seeing her trapped like that. Despite my sympathy for her situation, I couldn't help but be aroused at seeing her. With her arms up, her overqualified breasts were on full glorious display. Her skin was a little dusty, and she had a few small scratches, but otherwise nothing was wrong with her appearance. Her blond hair, while fairly long, like I remembered it, was doing me the favor of cascading to the sides, over her shoulders—not blocking the front view.

  She made no attempt to cover herself, though she really couldn't have done so if she'd wanted. I had no idea if her lack of modesty was just her sorority-girl standards or if she was just too exhausted to care at this point. She sat on her rear, her knees up, and her feet flat on the ground in front of her. But her feet were placed a couple of feet apart, giving ample clearance to see her bare loins.

  I glanced back, out of the cave, and noticed there was a clear line of sight from inside the cave down to the area where Saber-Kong and I had fought.


  "So, you saw that, huh?" I said.

  "Yes. Most of it. I don't know how you did it."

  Yeah, me neither.

  "Well, you know, sometimes you just have to man up." I flexed my chest muscles. I realized it was cheesy, like my response, but I went with it. She was a babe and I'd wanted her ever since the first day of class.

  "Can you?" She looked up to the shackles on her wrists.

  "Oh, yeah. Sorry." I realized I had been staring at her, taking everything in. I stepped in front of her and leaned over her to reach one of the shackles. I figured I'd try to muscle them open. They were rusted and each had a quarter-inch gap where the curved metal around her wrist almost met. It took me about ten or twenty seconds to get the first one. I actually paused mid-attempt to apologize to her for taking so long.

  "Oh, that's fine," she said. I was a little surprised by the tone of her voice. She seemed a little too…elated, given what she'd been through. I glanced down at her and noticed she was getting an eyeful underneath the leather flap that served to guard my manhood from public view. From her vantage point, it failed at that purpose. I almost said something about the unintentional exhibition I was putting on, but I decided to say nothing. I shifted my feet to get to the second shackle after I'd pried open the first. I worked it steadily with my fingers as I straddled her knees, obliging her eyes once more. Okay, I could've moved to her side to get the second shackle loose, but after months of trying to get her attention I was enjoying the moment.

  Oh, wait. I freed her wrist from the second shackle and stepped back, looking at her face. I was checking to see if she registered who I was. I'd just realized she never said my name and I hadn't said hers. I'd forgotten how different I must look to her. She had no idea who I was.

  She slowly rubbed each of her wrists, then looking up at me she said, "Thank you, again. I've been like that for almost a day now." I could tell she was not just thanking me for the rescue. She was checking me out. Yeah, she was staring at my junk a minute ago, but I kinda put her up to that. Now, she was giving me the once over with her eyes.