by Eric Vall
Pindor was ordering his own troops as what sounded like a volley of boulders crashed down in the lanes, and when we veered south and crept unseen across the tracks, I motioned for Mina and Aurora to move as quietly as possible.
We tracked the hoard of spiders for half a mile before the trail curled northward, but eventually, we located the portal they were transporting through. It must have been concealed somewhere in a knot of brambles, but I didn’t even get close enough for a look before Aurora blasted the whole grove with her flames. The moment the brambles ignited, every spider froze in place and turned, but Mina shoved past me to send a sea of fire out across the forest floor.
The intensity of the heat increased as the spiders squirmed and tried to flee, and I just stepped back and let Mina and Aurora do their thing while I eyed the strange smile on the young mage’s face. She wasn’t as brazenly murderous as Aurora, but I could tell she was enjoying herself as she giggled and nudged the half-elf with her elbow. Then the two Ignis Mages shifted the flames to a deep blue before sending the inferno back toward Falmount, and they forged ahead as casually as ever while the shrieks of the dying beasts echoed throughout the forest.
Finally, their efforts met with Kurna’s in the village, and the two women ceased their flames. They’d left a trail of ashes in their wake, but I noticed they did their best to avoid the trees where possible, and I smirked as I joined the two of them.
“You’ve been practicing,” Aurora acknowledged as she turned to Mina. “I can sense how strong your connection to your element has gotten. You’re making incredible progress.”
Mina shrugged. “Pindor said Mason needs mages as effective as the two of you, so he’s been making me study twice as much. Something about the way he rolls his eyes and shoves a book into my hand just makes me want to tear his clothes off.”
“Then I’m glad you two worked things out,” I chuckled as we headed toward the tracks. “I was a little worried you might kill him when I left him with you at that party.”
“Yeah … I actually tricked him into bed so I could leave him tied up like he did to me,” Mina admitted. “I was planning to light the walls on fire, so he thought he was going to die, but come back the next day and let him go. Then he was shackled, though, and he just looked so sexy and completely at my disposal, so I slept with him instead. That’s how we learned we’re way more into that arrangement. Now, he makes me study, and I make him get in bed whenever I get bored. It’s a nice balance.”
My eyebrows shot up to my hairline while Aurora nodded without surprise, and I just stared as Mina sent us a sweet wave before she hopped down from the tracks. Then she headed into the crowd of mages who were already celebrating their victory, and I shook my head as she trotted over to Pindor and promptly curled up in his arms.
“Interesting,” Aurora mused. “I always thought Pindor was just like you, but it turns out you and Mina have a lot in common. You both like eels and chaining your lovers up.”
“You and Mina have quite a lot in common, too,” I muttered, and the thought of young master Pindor being driven to the bedroom with flames nipping at his heels made me grin.
Then Aurora turned a greedy smirk my way. “Does this mean I get to chain you up sometimes?”
“I’m one thousand percent okay with that,” I said without skipping a beat.
When the two of us jumped from the tracks, Kurna was waiting to give me a firm clap on the shoulder, and I could tell by the energy of the mages that he had good news for me.
“No casualties,” the brawny mage hollered with a broad grin. “Not a damned one, and only three injured. Do you believe those numbers?”
“No,” I laughed, “but I’m relieved to hear it.”
“These young mages are really shaping up,” Kurna admitted as he surveyed the lanes. “Pindor’s already handled the repairs, the Flumen Mages saved the forest, and no one’s pushed their limits too far with their magery.”
“Damn,” I mused, and when I looked out across the town, I didn’t see a single mage who appeared shaken or even concerned that they lived in a town that had been attacked twice in two days. They looked pumped, honestly, and I wondered if all barons felt the way I did about their residents.
Probably not, since they weren’t training them all up to form a magical army to defeat the Master, but knowing my mages were on board with this crazy train made my heart swell with pride. Especially because, once again, I realized I could trust them to handle the details up to standard without me having to undertake every task myself.
They took orders, got shit done, and fixed the mess when it was all over, which was a lot more than I could say for the Master’s forces tonight.
“Hey, Kurna,” I said as I turned to the mage. “How do you feel about being a general?”
For a second, Kurna’s grin fell as he stared at me, and I thought he was going to shoot me down, but then he lurched forward and locked me in a bone crushing hug.
Aurora snorted as I wheezed, but when Kurna released me, he had tears glistening in his eyes as he clutched each of us by the shoulders.
“We’re gonna fucking decimate those bastards,” he decided, and Aurora nodded in agreement as she patted his back.
“Glad to have you on board,” I chuckled. “Now, first task as a general … help me figure out who to promote to Defender. We need to triple our numbers without making the same mistakes Wyresus made.”
“Yes, sir,” Kurna said with a firm nod. “I’ve got about twenty names for the list already, but where’s our metal men? I kept expecting them to show up and do their thing.”
“They’re out on an important mission,” I replied. “We need to counter this new element, and they’re helping me locate someone who can help us. I’m working on building a couple of automatons to stand in their places, but they’ll be a little bigger than the others. I should be done with them soon, as long as that letter you sent to the Elders for me is received alright.”
“Got it sent out the moment you left yesterday,” Kurna assured me. “Bagneera brought it north herself, so I’d say it’s already arrived in Aurum.”
“Excellent,” I sighed. “Hey, would you mind cracking some Rosh open for the mages? They did a hell of a job, but I really do have to get back to work.”
A devilish grin came to Kurna’s face. “Gladly.”
The moment Kurna announced a celebration in light of our victory, the mages erupted with roars of approval, and Aurora and I waded through the crowd on our way back to the mansion. Mages shook my hand and clapped me on the back without me knowing who it was, but eventually, we made it to the flaming pillar I’d left Cayla on. She was smiling proudly down at us as she holstered her pistols, but when I raised my palm to lower the pillar, she immediately protested.
“Wait!” Cayla called. “Can you soften my landing if I jump? I’ve been dying to try that.”
“Sure,” I chuckled. “Just make sure you brace for your landing.”
Cayla nodded diligently as she crouched at the ready, and when I nodded, she launched into the air.
The view looking up between her thigh-high boots was enough to numb my brain, but paired with the icy cast of her eyes looking down at me, it was a miracle I managed to soften her landing in time.
The princess landed in a perfect crouch as the ground bowled out around her, and she had a glittering smile on her face as she rose unscathed.
“I want to do that again,” Cayla informed me.
“Remind me next time I need a sniper,” I said with a grin, and I looped my arms around my women’s waists as we turned toward the bridge. “Aurora, could you check to make sure the healers are all alright?”
The half-elf nodded. “I can do that. Will you be working late?”
“Most likely,” I sighed, and I sparked my Terra powers to unseal the windows and entrances of the infirmary for her. “I want to get some magazines engraved with the lightning rune once I finish the pistols for the automatons.”
“Okay, but
don’t forget, Shoshanne and Deya ordered cuddles this evening,” Aurora snorted, and she jogged off to check the status of the healers.
“Right. Can’t forget to fit that in.”
When Cayla and I got inside, Alfred was waiting at the door, and he held an empty silver tray out to us. I furrowed my brow in confusion, but then Cayla piled her pistols and daggers on the tray and thanked the man, and I couldn’t help grinning while I did the same.
“I trust your battle went well, sir?” Alfred asked.
“It went great,” I informed him. “We kicked ass, and the town is unmarred.”
“Very good, sir,” the man said with a nod. “Dinner is prepared, and your other two women have already eaten and retired to the bedchamber. They instructed me to leave your meal in the atrium and asked that I make sure you do not sleep in there this evening.”
“Damn, you’re on top of this,” I chuckled. “That’s perfect. Aurora will be in soon, she’s just seeing to a few details for me. Will you do the bowing and calling her a lady thing when she gets here? She did a hell of a job out there tonight.”
“Certainly, sir.”
Cayla sent the butler an affectionate smile before she left a kiss on my cheek, but I caught her and pulled her in for a more passionate kiss before she could head for the kitchen.
“You did a hell of a job out there, too,” I murmured against her lips.
“I did, didn’t I?” Cayla sighed. “While I was up there, I began to wonder if we could hide little platforms in the trees throughout the town that I could utilize in the same way. Then I could fire from any angle we need during attacks. There was so much magery flying around tonight, I didn’t know how I could contribute, but I enjoyed being your sniper. I’d like to do that more if you don’t mind.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” I admitted. “Where I’m from, what you’re talking about is called a FFP or a final firing position. We can do some scouting of the village to find a handful of areas with an ideal field of fire, but we’ll have to make sure it’s somewhere with enough cover to conceal your access to each of them.”
“Can I store a bazooka up there in case I need it?” she asked, and her lashes fluttered in a way that made me instinctively lean closer to her lips.
“Anything you want,” I assured her.
The princess let out a soft moan as she kissed me once more, and even after she coyly turned away to head for the kitchen, I still stood there admiring those boots of hers until she was out of sight.
Then I sighed and turned for the atrium, and I found Stan jogging laps around my dinner platter. He waved a greeting without stopping, and I grinned as I sat at my stool to admire Alfred’s handiwork.
The butler not only prepared a three-course meal for me, but he also had a polished goblet of wine waiting beside the pistols I was working on, and I noticed he carefully arranged my engraving kit beside it so it looked more orderly. The fact that he did all of this despite the attack raging outside was impressive, and knowing he was so prepared for me to not die in battle instilled a confidence in me I didn’t know I needed.
No wonder Batman was such a self-assured guy.
So, I smiled to myself while I picked away at my dinner and built a couple hurdles for Stan to practice jumping over, and then I turned my attention back to the pistols for the automatons.
I had their engravings finished in record time, and once the pistols were mounted into place and fused to each automaton’s palm, I double checked the alignment of the altered barrel with the magazine wells.
Then I engraved the fireball rune on a slim piece of copper, and I concealed it within the magazine well of one automaton. This way, if the Master somehow captured either of them, he still wouldn’t have access to the secret behind my incredibly effective laced bullets.
Now, all I had to do was engrave the lightning rune on a similar slip of copper for the last automaton, and while I prepared to start this process, I could hear Aurora giggling in the entryway over the butler’s lavish greeting. Then she trotted off to tell Cayla all about it, and I chuckled as Alfred entered the room.
He had all of our weapons neatly arranged on his tray, and it looked like he’d taken care to polish every barrel, grip, and hilt for us, too. Stan paused mid-lap to nod in approval as the man carefully arranged our pistols on one of my racks, and he returned the unused magazines to their proper shelf in the ammunition cabinet as well.
Then Alfred retrieved my empty platter from dinner and offered me a slight bow.
“Lady Cayla and Lady Aurora are retiring for the evening, sir,” the man informed me. “They have expressed that you have one hour to join them.”
“Thank you, Alfred,” I said with a grin. “You’re probably heading to bed, too, huh?”
“No, sir, I retire when the entire household is settled,” Alfred replied. “Should you need me, I will be tending to Lady Ruela. I believe she has a thorn lodged in her left rear paw.”
And with that, he left the atrium.
“What a handy guy,” I sighed, and Stan nodded once more before sprinting toward his next hurdle and clearing it by several inches.
I had a feeling Deya was the reason Ruela was a lady of the house now, but I didn’t mind in the slightest. The idea of Alfred bowing to the wolfish beast only made me like him even more.
I had my work cut out for me, though, if my women really expected me to be in bed within the hour, so I pulled my empty lightning magazine from my pocket and spent a few minutes memorizing the length and width of every elemental line until I was sure I had it right.
Then I sparked my Terra powers to ground me and began summoning each element in turn, and once I’d completed the automaton’s copper insert and implanted it in his magazine well, I moved on to forming a pile of fresh magazine cases.
A little diamond skittered across the table, though, and I glanced up to see Stan shuffling his toes on the worktable.
“Oh, yeah, I won the bet,” I realized as I eyed the two automatons.
Without gems in them, they looked even more intimidating as they stood there taking up half my atrium, and after admiring the full effect for a moment, I turned back to Stan.
“I’ll tell you what, buddy,” I sighed. “Do you feel a little better now that the automatons are built?”
Stan shrugged and nodded at his toes.
“And do you trust me to take care of shit even though I have a new sex jungle, and I might spend a little too much time in there?” I asked, and when the little metal man nodded again, I grinned. “Then how about you keep your diamond, and I’ll keep on doing what I do? We’ll call it even.”
Stan nodded vigorously as he finally looked up at me, and when I held my palm out with the diamond in it, he rushed over and wrapped both arms around it like it was a teddy bear. He nuzzled his cheek against the diamond all the way back to his metal stash, and then he tucked it at the very bottom of the pile of scrap metal for safe keeping.
Stan was so happy after that, he began acting like he was Alfred while I worked on forming new magazine cases, and he focused on arranging them in unnecessary stacks, so they were as orderly as my pistols on the wall. The little metal man even bowed to no one in particular when he finished each stack, and I thanked him without pointing out that he really didn’t need to bother.
I spent the rest of my hour painstakingly engraving the lightning rune over and over again, and I realized I could use my mental mapping to overlap the image of each rune with the original in order to check my accuracy. This meant I wouldn’t have to test every magazine, which was a huge relief, and I was able to power through most of the stacks Stan had arranged before my metal magic was nearly maxed out for the day.
My head was pounding, and my limbs felt jittery when I finally stopped my work, and for a while, I just sat there trying to feel like a human again after tampering with lightning for nearly an hour straight.
Every time I blinked, I could actually hear my eyelids scraping across my eyes, which w
as a bit unsettling, but after I stripped down and soaked in Nemris’ enchanted waters for a while, I started to feel like myself again.
Alfred must have heard the water sloshing around, because the moment I stood up, he appeared with a towel for me, and then he organized my work table without any prompting.
“I’m gonna go to bed,” I told the man. “You should get some rest. You’ve worked your ass off today.”
“Very well, sir,” the man said with a bow, and he headed for his own chamber without a second glance at the two hulking metal men he passed.
I was chuckling as I shuffled past Stan, who was curled up in a ball on his hoard of metal, and I made my way through the darkened mansion and up my diamond studded stairs.
Two tiny amber flames flickered from our bed posts when I silently crept into the room, and my women were all in a deep and naked sleep while their hearts thudded soft and slow. There was a little gap left between Shoshanne and Deya that I knew was meant for me, and after I blew out the enchanted flames and tossed my towel into the corner, I tried my best not to wake up the others as I climbed in amongst the women.
Shoshanne and Deya let out sleepy sighs as they immediately snuggled against me, and they each hitched their thighs over my legs and wove their arms around me to keep me there. They were silky and warm all over while they wiggled a little so their breasts were firmly nestled against me, and with their cheeks resting on my chest, contentment washed over every inch of me.
I drifted into an almost immediate sleep, but somewhere in the back of my mind, there was a whisper of a thought I was too tired to register the full weight of.
If there was an attack here in Falmount tonight, then where had the other one taken place?
Because if the Master had a new tactic he was trying out, that meant somewhere out there, another portal had been used to unleash his forces while we battled against our own possessed beasts.
Chapter 10
“Good morning, sir,” Alfred said, and my eyes shot open.
My first instinct was to cover my women from view, but there were four of them nakedly tucked around me, and I was only one man with absolutely no means of actually shielding that much flesh.