“Whatever. Let’s just keep going.”
Kevin and Iris made their way over to Phoebe and the other yama uba. All of them had been captured at some point. The tentacles were wrapped around them like a strange form of shibari. Their breasts were outlined by the tentacles, which had coiled around their tits and were vigorously rubbing them. One had even slipped into Phoebe’s shorts.
He twitched several times.
A quick trigger finger and liberal application of fox fire freed the women, who landed unsteadily on their feet. It was easy to see that they were more than just a little worse for wear. Their flushed, sweaty faces showed signs of mixed disgust and pleasure—an odd combination to be sure. Their slime-covered legs also wobbled. Small muscle spasms made their thighs quake every so often. Kevin recognized the signs, but he didn’t say anything for fear of getting hit.
Women hit hard when angered.
“All right, ladies. Here’s the plan…” Kevin quickly outlined his plan, knowing that time was of the essence. Unfortunately, no one actually liked his plan.
“You want us to help that… that snake?” Phoebe asked, spitting out the word snake like a child regurgitating broccoli.
“Yes.”
“That is the most imbecilic decision I have ever heard someone make.” Polydora didn’t mince words.
“I have to agree,” Euryale said.
“I keep telling him that he’s too nice for his own good,” Iris told the others, “but he never listens to me.”
Kevin felt several veins throb angrily on his forehead. “Look, I like that woman even less than you all do. However, if we want to survive to the end of this chapter, then we need to work together.”
“What did you just say?” asked Polydora.
“What?” Kevin blinked. “That we need to work together?”
“No, I could have sworn that you mentioned something else.” Polydora eyed him suspiciously.
“Nice fourth wall break, Stud.”
“You must be hearing things,” Kevin said.
“No, I could have sworn I heard you say—”
“You’re hearing things!”
Iris gave Kevin a thumbs up. “Nice tsukkomi.”
“Be quiet, Iris.” Kevin scowled. He turned back to the others—then was quickly forced to unload several bullets into three tentacles that tried grabbing Phoebe and her comrades. The yama uba looked surprised by his quick actions, but he ignored their shocked faces. “Look, you girls don’t have to help if you don’t want to, but I’m going to give them a hand regardless. I want to live to see another day, and the more people on my side, the better our chances are for living.”
The yama uba all looked at each other, all except Phoebe, who eyed him with a curious gleam. She seemed more interested in something he said than what they should do.
“You are a very heroic young man, Kevin Swift,” Phoebe declared. “I am moved by your words and shall do everything within my power to help you.”
“Thank you,” Kevin said.
“I knew that I had chosen right when I decided you would be the one to impregnate me.”
Kevin imagined this would be the moment where he tripped over something and his face planted into the ground. He probably would have done just that ten months ago, maybe even as far back as six months ago. Now he just felt tired.
“Let’s… let’s just do this already…”
Shrrrkchuhk!
“And what the hell is that noise?!”
***
With the seven of them working together, they made good progress. Kevin would shoot the tentacles from a distance, working alongside Iris, who used her Kitsune-Bi to great effect. Phoebe, Polydora, Euryale, Thoe, and Menippe would take care of anything that came too close. It didn’t take long for them to reach the snake-woman.
“What the hell are you doing over here?!” Felia scowled at Kevin the moment she saw him. He would have frowned at her, but there were more important things to worry about than some snake-lady’s rude attitude.
“I thought we could try working together,” Kevin said.
Felia’s scowl deepened. “Work together? With you? I think not.”
While many of the women seemed to agree with her words and were nodding their heads, a few of them, namely the ones he’d rescued, looked uncertain. They didn’t say anything, but he could tell that they remembered who’d saved them.
“What choice do you have?” Even as he asked that, Kevin spun around and fired off six rounds, hitting six different tentacles. Meanwhile, Phoebe smacked several more tentacles away, while Polydora stabbed even more tentacles with her spear, and Iris used her fox fire to keep the rest at bay. “Look around you. We’re surrounded by very horny tentacles. If we don’t do something, then this situation is going to fall even further into the gutter than it already has. Do you really want that to happen?”
Felia clicked her tongue in anger.
“Do whatever you please,” she spat. “Just don’t get in my way.”
“You heard her,” Kevin said to his allies. “Let’s work with the snake-lady and make sure that everyone makes it out of here alive.”
“I’m not a snake! I’m a nure-yomejo! Get it right, brat!”
“Like I care!”
Even after teaming up with the snake-woman to face a common enemy, there were still many problems. Like the fact that Felia didn’t like him, or how they had numerous women to protect, women who, despite having attacked them with great zeal before, were not really combat reliable. That their enemy happened to be a strange tentacle monster only exacerbated an already tenuous situation.
“IYAN!”
One of the woman shrieked as a tentacle grabbed her leg and tried hauling her off the ground. It didn’t get very far before Kevin pumped the thing full of holes.
“Iris!” he shouted.
“Right! Extension!”
One of Iris’s tails extended to abnormal lengths and caught the woman before she could break her neck. The tail set her down on her feet, then uncoiled around her and quickly smacked another tentacle away before it could try anything funny. The woman stared at Kevin in shock, but he was a little too busy trying to think up a plan to get them out of this predicament to pay attention.
We need to do something soon.
The cartridges of youki that he’d been using were nearly empty. He used to have enough youki for one hundred shots from each gun; now he only had enough for maybe twenty. Sure, he had four and a half more in his case, but opening his case would take time—and he’d been hoping to save as much ammo as possible for when he and Iris broke into the Bodhisattva’s Citadel of Light.
I need to think up a plan.
The problem with concocting a plan to deal with this pesky creature was twofold. First, he didn’t even know what they were dealing with. Was this a single creature? One being of pure entropy, a single mass of writhing tentacles? Or was this more than one creature? Was each tentacle its own sentient life-form? Kevin didn’t know.
The second problem was that they lacked the firepower necessary to take these tentacles out permanently. Kevin’s guns did damage, blasting holes through them and damaging their spirits little by little. However, they lacked the firepower necessary to truly kill the things. Maybe if he shot each one a couple hundred times, it would work, but with the amount of ammo he possessed, there was little chance of his weapons killing them.
The others were even worse off. Phoebe and her companions could only deal physical attacks. While each attack was powerful, it didn’t really do anything in the long run. The only one who did any real damage was Polydora with her spear, but the amorphous blobs of writhing flesh seemed to heal up seconds after she stabbed them.
Phoebe also seemed capable of doing some damage; every time she swung her club, the air around her would distort. Then a tentacle would find itself writhing and bleeding from a new cut. Kevin didn’t know what she was doing, but it seemed similar to a vacuum blade, or perhaps a wind blade.
Iris might have been able to deal some tremendous damage with her void powers, but she also ran the risk of destroying her comrades, too. Kevin knew that while Iris could reach into the Void and control it a bit, she had yet to truly master her void powers. Unlike celestial abilities, the Void had a mind of its own. A dark, malevolent desire. A need. An all-consuming hunger. It longed to devour everything, and only someone who had trained in its use for centuries had even a chance of controlling its power.
Perhaps if this were a one-on-one battle, where she didn’t need to worry about other people, she could deal this creature tremendous punishment. But, this wasn’t a one-on-one battle. She was with allies, on a ship sailing across the sea, at that. If her attack hit a person or, gods forbid, their ship, it would pretty much screw them all.
Six tentacles came at Kevin from all sides. He raised his guns. Finger twitched. He spun around a full 360 degrees, firing off twelve rounds, six from each gun. Each bullet struck one of the tentacles before it could come near him. They recoiled, blood spurting from holes that his youki bullets created. The wounds sealed soon after, however, much to his frustration.
He glanced around the deck, observing the battle. Phoebe and Polydora worked in unison to keep several tentacles at bay, same as Euryale and Menippe. It seemed the four had split into teams of two, while Thoe acted as a go-between, fighting off tentacles when and where needed. Likewise, Felia’s tail lashed out at the tentacles at insane speeds, fending them off while protecting a group of women huddling near her.
Euryale and Menippe were a lot more mobile than Phoebe and Polydora. They leapt around the battlefield, ascending high into the air before bearing down on a tentacle with a powerful attack. Several tentacles would try to attack them while they were in the air, but one of them, either Euryale or Menippe, would defend while the other attacked.
Slipping through the four was Thoe, who appeared and disappeared as if she was using a teleportation jutsu. Kevin noticed, belatedly, that she was also using kunai. Seriously? Was that woman a yōkai or a ninja?
Someone’s back pressed against his. The feeling of two fuzzy tails let him know who that someone was.
“Have you thought of a plan yet?” Iris asked.
“Maybe.” Kevin’s gaze strayed to the lifeboats, his mind working in overdrive. They couldn’t keep this up for much longer. “Iris, how much of the Void can you call upon?”
“Depends on what you want me to do?” Iris’s tails flicked forward and launched some fox fire at a horde of tentacles crowding around them. The appendages jerked back as the fire struck them. “If you don’t care about me indiscriminately destroying everything, then I can call upon quite a bit, though I won’t be of much help afterwards.”
“Can you call on enough to destroy this ship?”
Iris thought about his words for only a second. “I don’t know. I can try.”
“You’re gonna have to,” Kevin said before raising his voice to shout over the din of battle. “Everyone needs to get to the lifeboats!”
Felia tossed him a glance, the look on her face incredulous. He had the distinct impression that he just said something she thought was stupid.
“Are you stupid? Wait, forget I asked that. Of course, you’re stupid! You’re a man!”
“I fail to see what being a man has to do with intelligence,” Kevin muttered dryly.
Felia ignored him. “What good will getting in those lifeboats do? It’ll just make us more vulnerable.”
“While I do not like the tone that she used, I must agree with the nure-yomejo.” Phoebe slammed her club into a tentacle, which exploded in a burst of gore, before directing her gaze to him. “I am not so sure that is a good idea. There is not much room for maneuvering in those lifeboats.”
“I’ve got a plan,” Kevin told them, “but I’m gonna need you to trust me.”
“You heard the stud,” Iris said. “Let’s get over to those lifeboats.”
While Felia and the group of yama uba were wary, they didn’t really have much choice but to follow along with his plan. What else could they do? No one else had a plan, and they were all beginning to tire out. Everyone was running on adrenaline and fumes.
The group slowly made their way over to the lifeboats. By the time they arrived, Kevin was on his last few bullets. The case, slung over his shoulder by a strap, slammed heavily into his side.
“Everyone into the lifeboats!”
One by one, everyone boarded the lifeboats. They were tiny things, only able to fit six or seven people. Kevin, Iris, and the yama uba defended the others as they climbed on, and then hopped on themselves. As his group had seven people exactly, they were a tight fit.
“Okay.” Kevin winced as he fired off his last few shots. His guns clicked empty, making him scowl and set his case on his lap. He put the guns in the case, closed the lid, and wrapped the strap around his shoulder like a bandoleer. “Iris, once we’re safely at sea, I want you to light that ship on fire.”
Iris actually looked flabbergasted. “Light it on fire?”
“That’s right. Light the whole thing up with void fire. We’ll hurt this thing and use the fire as a distraction to escape.”
Iris bit her lip, but quickly nodded. She knew, just like him, that now was not the time to hesitate.
“I’ll try.”
“No. Do or do not. There is no try.”
“Yes, Master.”
“And don’t call me ‘master.’”
“Okay, Honeybuns.”
Kevin nearly gagged at the horrid nickname. Meanwhile, Phoebe undid the latch that kept the lifeboat secure. Their boat along with the others fell down into the sea with a huge splash.
Kevin used the oars to row them away quickly. The tentacles hadn’t noticed that they had vanished yet. That was good. He rowed faster than ever before, putting as much distance between them and the boat as he could.
Once they were far enough out, Iris called upon all of the youki left in her. Having been blasting tentacles with fox fire, she didn’t have much left. She could feel it, the tiny trickle of energy, and she used all of her considerable willpower to bring that youki forth and use it to call upon the powers of the Void.
It formed above their heads, coalescing into existence like a horrendous black hole. It flickered in a mock parody of life, a flame of darkness that absorbed light, that consumed everything. That hungered. By this point, Iris was sweating heavily as she struggled to contain the void fire, to keep it from trying to consume her and everyone else.
“Release it now!” Kevin ordered.
Iris grunted as she let the void fire go, giving it one final command: consume the ship. The giant ball of black flames flew forward, striking the ship’s deck and exploding with the force of several sticks of TNT. Black flames spewed outward and up. All of the tentacles in its vicinity were consumed, the void fire latching on and quickly eating away at them like a horde of ants eating a corpse. They writhed, twisting and contorting and slamming against the hull, seemingly in agony, before eventually being completely devoured by the sentient flames.
The black fire expanded. The flames spread quickly. Like the tendrils of some alien entity, they crawled along the deck and hull. Those tentacles that hadn’t been fast enough to get away became victims of the all-consuming fire, the blackness eating away at them, almost as if it was dissolving them.
Kevin, along with everyone else, sat in the lifeboats that now drifted along the Caspian Sea. They watched as the ship was completely engulfed in black fire, watched as the tentacles were also devastated. Many of them tried ducking into the water, as if that would help. However, these were not normal flames. Fire was put out when dunked in water, but this was not truly fire. The flames of the Void acted like fire, but only to a point.
As he watched the tentacles try to futilely put out the flames that refused to be doused, he hoped to the Shinto gods that this was the end of their troubles, at least for now. With everything that had happened, he really could use a break.
Sitting next to him, Iris slumped forward into his chest. Kevin was startled out of his thoughts. He looked down at the raven-haired vixen to see her panting worse than someone who’d finished an Ironman. Her body was soaked with sweat, and her breathing sounded harsh and raspy. Pained gasps escaped parted lips, the sound reminiscent of someone whose lungs had been burned from the inside out.
“Iris?”
“Sorry,” she rasped, “I can’t… I’m…”
“I understand.” Kevin wrapped his arms around the girl and pulled her to him. “You did a great job. Just relax now. I’ll take care of the rest.”
Iris didn’t say anything, but she did nuzzle her nose against his chest.
“It looks like we’re safe now.” Menippe slumped against Euryale, who was so tired that all she could do was nod in agreement.
“I want to have sex,” Euryale said.
“I'm too tired to even think about that.”
“I am beginning to wish that I was the one with kitsune powers.” Phoebe’s lips had curled into a frown. “Perhaps then it would be me resting my head against Kevin Swift’s chest instead of her.”
Shrrrkchuhk!
“Okay, I’ve been hearing this for the past few days. What the heck is that sound?” Kevin demanded to know.
Unfortunately, none of his companions had an answer. Even if they did, they would have never been able to give it because at that exact moment, several dozen tentacles shot up from the water’s surface, ascending above them like something out of a deep-sea horror movie. None of them even had time to scream before the tentacles descended, crushing the lifeboat and sending everyone into the sea.
Kevin lost his grip on Iris as they were both cast into the water with a loud splash. Tentacles latched onto his arms and legs and began dragging him beneath the water’s surface.
He struggled against them, fighting his bonds, but he quickly ran out of oxygen. One last thought occurred to him, an image that penetrated the haze of his mind before the lack of oxygen shut it down; it was a vision of a beautiful girl with fiery locks of crimson hair and brilliant green eyes.
Lilian…
A Fox's Rescue Page 25