by Dante King
“Oh thank the Gods,” the proprietress of the Hungry Herb Tavern whimpered, leaping into my arms. “A few people from the second floor of the inn made it here, but they told me you were still inside. And the whole place must have collapsed by now—”
“I couldn’t save your tavern,” I confessed, gripping Lyra’s shoulders. “But I’m alright, and so is Hazel.”
If the destruction of her business hurt Lyra, she wasn’t letting it show on her face yet. Like me, she’d probably made the conscious decision not to think about such things until the Hollow Frog were either dead or routed.
“What about Regina?” Lyra asked, her eyes widening. “Did she make it out?”
“She’s right here,” I said, lifting my arm to show Lyra the rope dart wrapped around my forearm. “Brand new weapon. Blessed with the element of Fire—for all the good it’ll do us right now.”
Lyra chuckled at that. “Turn the girl back,” the redhead said, her voice almost pleading. “I need to be in snake spear form, Eric. I’m doing the best with the water spells I have, but it’s not enough to turn back the blaze. If we’re going to salvage anything from the town, we need more power.”
Lyra trailed off at the look in my eyes.
“We have to stop those cultivators,” I told her firmly. “Hazel and I killed two outside of the Hungry Herb. Has anyone else run into them? How many are there? One of them said Plini is leading the assault.” Something awful occurred to me. “Wait, where the hell is Anna!?”
Just then, a figure emerged from a nearby warehouse. It was Anna, who carried two children over her shoulders like sacks of grain. Soot stained her face, horns and body, but the look of determination on my girlfriend’s face told me she didn’t even notice. The kids screamed and squalled, more frightened of Anna than they were of the flames. Only after a moment did I realize she was in fully demonic mode, embracing her magic as hard as she could.
“That’s the last of them,” she said, setting the two kids before the fountain. A middle aged woman grabbed them both and began to sob, thanking Anna profusely. “Glad you finally made it to us, babe. Ready to start putting out these fires?”
I shook my head. “The cultivators. We have to find them. They can’t be allowed to escape.”
Anna drew back, thinking my words over. She scanned the group huddling before the fountain, her lips forming a tight little line. “I see,” she whispered. “Lyra, you’re the expert. How many people are left out there in the blaze?”
This clearly wasn’t a question Lyra had expected to have to field. She counted heads with a frown on her face, ignoring the way a few of the men stared at her naked body in her open robe. I wished I could close it. I didn’t like the idea of other men getting a peek at what belonged to me—but under the circumstances, it would’ve looked bad to put that ahead of catching the Hollow Frog cultivators.
Finally Lyra sighed. “I see your point,” she said. “This is just about everybody. Kij led the others out of town, so everyone’s safe.” Her gaze turned to me, going as hard as a statue. “But I love this town, Eric.”
I gave her a kiss. “I know, babe,” I said, dropping my voice low enough that only she could hear me. “But it’s just buildings. We can rebuild them. We can’t replace the people.”
Lyra’s bottom lip began to tremble. “Fuck it. Fine.” She reached out a hand. “But I want to be in your hand when you kill the bastards who did this. Let me be the snake spear, Eric. Let me get my revenge.”
I grinned from ear to ear. “Now that I can do,” I told her. “Give me just a minute…”
Moving quickly, I unwrapped the rope dart from my forearm. Regina shimmered in mid-air as I let her go, quickly transforming back into the form of the lithe, mature brunette. In moments she stood before me, her shoulders rising and falling rapidly as she adjusted to being human again.
I’d completely forgotten Regina had been naked when she transformed. Now she stood in the middle of the Market square, naked as the day she was born.
“Oh shit,” I grunted, looking around for something to shield her with. “Sorry, Gina.”
“Here,” Lyra said, stripping off her robe. She tossed it around Regina’s shoulders, tying it loosely in the front. The robe was a little larger than Regina’s sides, tailored to mold around Lyra’s curves. “Don’t worry about me. I don’t intend to be human for a while.”
Lyra was shimmering like a Pink Floyd laser show, transforming into the snake spear.
That’s better, the redhead groaned in my head. Just like it always did, the girls reacted as if becoming a weapon supercharged all their pleasure centers. Was holding the hilt of Lyra’s weapon form like groping her naked body in the real world? Was that why I kept hearing all those little giggles and sighs of pleasure when I handled my women? I’d have to ask later.
“Pop quiz,” I grunted, spinning the snake spear through a quick warm-up. “You’re Plini. Guildmaster Ji’s told you to burn the whole fucking town down. Looking at the damage you’ve done so far, where do you go next?”
I could feel Lyra’s non-existent lips pursing in thought inside of my skull. Next to me, Anna and Hazel did the same thing, along with Regina wrapped up in her new robe just behind me. I couldn’t lie, it felt good to have the whole gang together. My harem girls had my sides and my back—and with Lyra in my hands, anything in front of me would get utterly destroyed.
“If I’m Plini, I’m probably running for the hills by now,” Anna grunted, scanning the flaming alleyways for any path through the blaze. “This whole place is pretty much finished.”
“Except for us,” Regina whispered behind me. “That was quick thinking, Eric. Guiding everyone to the Market square saved a lot of lives.”
Regina trailed off. Next to me, Anna and Hazel had just stiffened.
“Shit.” I turned back to my harem, fully in command. “You’re all thinking what I’m thinking, aren’t you?”
“The Market’s the obvious place to run,” Anna said with a nod. “Both you and Lyra thought of it instinctively. And if they’ve seen Kij escape with the refugees from the Hungry Herb Tavern, they know the main bulk of villagers are huddling in the dead center of town.”
“Trapped,” Hazel said, gritting her teeth. “Like fucking rats…”
As if in response to this revelation, a pillar of flame exploded on the horizon.
All around me, villagers hit the deck. Wails of despair filled the market square as the flames rose high into the night, turning the darkness into midday for what felt like a full hour. As the blaze faded, I realized what must have just happened.
“That would be the gate,” I growled, gripping the snake spear with both hands.
Hazel’s hands dropped to her side. “They just cut off our only escape path,” the blonde warrior realized, her features contorting with rage. “This is it, then. It’s kill or be killed!”
I laughed, startling the harem. “They just fucked up,” I informed my girls. “Now we know exactly where they are! All we’ve got to do is clear a path.”
“Guess what, Lyra?” I said to Lyra telepathically. “Looks like you’re going to get to use those water spells to save some buildings after all.”
“Glad to hear it,” the redhead groaned back. “Let’s clear a path to those bastards!”
“Be ready to follow me,” I said, pointing the snake spear at the street leading to the front gate of the town. “Stick together, and we’ll make it through this. Everyone else, stay near the fountain. We’ll handle this.”
I readied myself to clear a path. What I didn’t realize was just how big of a path I was about to make.
The water of the fountain provided the perfect reservoir of energy to power Lyra’s water magic. It’s still, shallow depths flowed through my veins, a cool balm against the pain and anxiety of constant combat. My head lolled back on my shoulders as I concentrated, preparing to channel pure Water through Lyra and open a hole in the inferno.
But Lyra and I were no longer alone.
My other harem girls shimmered around me, flashes of light covering their beautiful skin. I couldn’t quite get my mind around it, but it was almost as if they wavered between their human and weapon forms, embracing a bit of each without becoming fully either.
I heard Lyra’s voice in my head, rising in a triumphant scream. In an instant, that note became a chorus.
“Let’s do this!” Hazel roared, her voice echoing on the interior of my skull.
“I’ll help as much as I can!” Regina added.
“We’re gonna tear those fuckers apart limb from limb!” Anna chorused with her characteristic enthusiasm for killing.
I could barely hold them all in my head. Their voices overlapped—and the energy did as well. I wasn’t just channeling my spell through Lyra’s snake spear any longer. It moved through all of them, bouncing back and forth in cascading waves that made it stronger and stronger.
If I didn’t have my harem surrounding me, I would’ve been torn apart. I may have been carrying the Black Core that Eleizer the Peak Supreme God gave me, but my mortal body was nowhere near prepared to wield the kind of power this configuration sent through my veins. My girls made sure it didn’t destroy me. They passed it between themselves, handing it from woman to woman like a hot potato, keeping the flow just barely in check.
I could hear them panting in my head. Whatever we were doing, it felt good—and each of them moaned and writhed in ecstasy. My mind filled with rivers, oceans, entire worlds of water. As the sensation became unbearable, I gripped the snake spear with both hands and stabbed it down the village’s main thoroughfare.
I let go, and the whole thing exploded.
Eric Casts Torrential Typhoon!
I’d never seen anything like it before. A wall of water shot down the street, engulfing the flaming town in a tsunami of foamy sea brine. The flames lapping at the buildings died as if they’d never been there, snuffed out in an instant. Icy cold rain fell from the sky, as if the force of the spell had pushed the weather itself into a thunderstorm. In an instant the clear night transformed into the heart of a hurricane, all flowing from the central point where I and my harem stood.
More walls of bright blue expanded out in a spiral from my position. Only those near me were safe—the group of villagers we’d ordered to surround the fountain, clinging to each other like refugees in the eye of a typhoon. We were in the center of a tornado made of water, spraying in all directions to destroy the best-laid plans of Guildmaster Ji.
As the storm inside me began to ebb, the walls dissolved. What had been a flaming street made of rubble only a few moments ago was now soaked through to the bone. A few fires still burned on the edges of the town, but we’d made a huge amount of progress on that front. I held the snake spear in my soaking wet hands, unable to believe the force my harem had just unleashed.
The shimmer over my women’s bodies ceased, and Anna, Regina and Hazel returned to their human forms. Each of them looked like they’d been rode hard and put away wet—literally. Their bodies trembled, legs shaking like they’d just received the hardest, most satisfying fuck of their lives. Glazed looks of relief and pleasure showed on their faces as they readjusted to the world around them, coming back to themselves.
“Holy… what did we just do?” Anna groaned, gripping my shoulders. “Fuck, Eric, that felt so good…”
It did. I had no idea if we could do that again, or if merely trying would tear us apart. Was this what Eliezer was talking about when he told me the Black Core could make me stronger than my wildest dreams? It felt as if I’d had a taste of the Peak Supreme God’s power—and liked it more than I dared to admit.
Slowly, my gaze traveled to the front gate of the town. Just as we’d assumed, it lay completely destroyed beneath the pillar of flame the cultivators had unleashed.
Those cultivators stood next to the ruined gate now, staring back at me with awestruck expressions.
At their head, his face contorting with fury, was Plini.
Chapter 19
“That was quite impressive,” the gray-bearded cultivator said with a smirk, striding down the main street of the town like he already owned it. “I daresay it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a display of cultivation that spectacular, Eric Hyde. It’s a quite suitable high note for you and your guild of rats to go out on.”
A growl rose from the back of my throat at the sight of the man. I couldn’t believe I’d ever thought this cultivator had more honor than his fellows. I supposed anyone looked good next to an abomination like Seth. Plini might have been able to hold his emotions in check better than most of the Hollow Frog Guild, but that didn’t make him any less of a monster. He was just better at hiding it.
“That’s Governor Hyde to you,” I snarled, swaying a little on my feet.
The aftershocks of that incredible magic still coursed through my bloodstream, filling me with a dazed, spinny sort of sensation. If I was in bed, surrounded by my naked harem girls, I could just lay back and enjoy it—but here, I needed to keep my wits about me.
“My apologies,” the man said, as if he’d actually committed a faux pas. “You are correct: it’s important to use the proper terms of respect. What would assassinations be without a little culture, after all?”
“So that’s why you’re here,” Hazel growled, stepping up beside me. “You burnt an entire town down, tried to kill hundreds of people, just to get at Eric!?”
“We heard about the Hyde Clan’s activities in Jinshu,” Plini said, making air quotes with his fingers as he spoke our guild’s unofficial name. “For the record, I was against moving on the town in force this early in the game—but Guildmaster Ji insisted. Now that I’ve seen that water spell of yours, I have to admit Ji was right. You’ve made impressive strides, Eric Hyde. Most impressive.”
I was still working through the implications of his little ‘game’. “You were waiting to kill me until I got stronger?” I asked, frowning. “That doesn’t make any sense. The smart move is to defeat an enemy when they’re weakest, not to let them build an army.” I snickered, glancing at my harem girls for support. “No wonder the Hollow Frog Guild is run so poorly.”
Plini shook his head, looking for all the world like a disappointed tutor. “Killing you is incidental, Eric. What my Guild really desires is inside you.”
Of its own volition, my hand slipped beneath my shirt to touch the swollen knot beneath my side. “The Black Core,” I whispered.
“A great treasure,” Plini agreed, nodding with a smile. “But infinitely more so if ripped from the chest of an experienced cultivator, rather than a novice.” Plini spread his arms, his smile growing wider. “You see, Eric, this was always the plan. You’re just another resource: to be planted, cultivated, then harvested.”
Next to the barrel-chested man, his cronies had begun to chant. I knew his underlings were getting their spells ready, and that they had no intention of making this a fair fight. Weakened from the massive blast of my magic my harem had just unleashed, could we stand together and prevail?
“Of course we can,” Lyra’s voice whispered in my head. I’d forgotten she could hear me. “We’ve got this, Eric!”
I let out a savage laugh. Of course we did.
“I watched your protegee die,” I said. Plini hid his anger well, but I could see his expression darken. “Tell me: did you know about his murders? Did you help cover them up? Or did Guildmaster Ji have to order you to do that, too?”
Plini swallowed hard, clearly fighting to master his rage. “Certain lapses are to be tolerated,” he pronounced, taking a stride forward, “in a pupil of great power.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “He tore people apart,” I growled, gripping Lyra’s hilt tighter. “Hung them like slabs of meat in a butcher’s shop! He deserved to die like a dog, and I’m glad Hazel killed him.”
Plini’s eyes bugged out of his head. It took me a moment to understand why the man’s face suddenly paled—and then it dawned on me.
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“You didn’t know that, did you?” I nodded toward Hazel, who stood sharpening her dao sword. “That’s right, Plini. You thought I killed Seth? He wasn’t even worthy of facing me. Your ‘pupil of great power’ got gutted like a fish by a woman.”
“Sacrifices,” Plini said through gritted teeth. “Those people were nothing. You fail to understand, Eric, that cultivators are a different breed. Your infatuation with a few whores has blinded you to the truth—”
I barked out a harsh, flat laugh. Something about it stilled the man to silence — and now, real fear shone in his eyes.
“Regina was a widow,” I said, matching his step with one of my own. “Lyra ran a bar. Hazel was disgraced and tossed out of her own guild. These people are the very trash you’re talking about needing to be sacrificed—and look at them now.” I didn’t have to turn to know my girls were surrounding me, supporting me with their very lives. “They’re powerful. They’re dangerous. And they’re going to kill you.”
“Bah!” Something inside of Plini snapped. “Enough of this! Kill them all!”
The man stepped backward, letting his cronies take the lead. There were three of them—each in the robes of the Hollow Frog Guild, each with identical expressions of hatred on their faces. Magic crackled between each of their outstretched palms, having been charged up during my conversation. This wasn’t anything like a duel—it was an ambush, an attempt to stop the fight before it could even start.
As one, the three Hollow Frog cultivators attacked. Fire flew from the hands of the leftmost mage in a soaring pillar, shooting down the street toward our group. On the far right, a bolt of ice shot from the cultivator on the opposite side, freezing the street beneath it as it rolled toward me. And in the center, most worryingly of all, came a storm of pure lightning—a ball of the stuff, crackling between fire and ice like the saving throw to ensure I’d be cooked to a crisp.
Fire, Electricity, and Ice. Plini had chosen his cronies well. No single cultivator could repel an attack like that. Not unless they were at Eleizer’s level. I could block as best I could, but I’d be overwhelmed, destroyed — and the Black Core would belong to my enemies.