by Reed James
“How?” he demanded, jamming his blade into the gap between cobblestones, buckling up the paving stones, to keep his balance. “How do you have that power?”
“Because I love Sven!” I cried out. “I'm his wife! And this is what it's gained me! A family who loves me! Not one who enslaves me!” Anger boiled through me.
“Yes, yes, we're going to destroy you with our love!” Aingeal howled. “Cernere's black fingers and Las's fertile cum!”
Violet energy gathered before us, forming a large drop of undulating, liquid power.
~ * ~
Zanyia
Greta gained her feet as I scrambled on the back of the monster. “Ooh, I got you,” I said, allowing my voice to make sound and be heard. “You thought you were a hunter, but no! I out-hunted you! I stalked you!”
It howled. Clawed hands swept behind it, blindly slashing at me. I moved, punching my katars into his flesh to pull me along. A foul, black liquid oozed out, spilling down its back as I moved. I twisted my blade in him, loving each and every bellow.
“Zanyia?” Greta gaped.
“Go help out with that ooze-thing,” I hissed. Ealaín and Carsina hammered it with no effect. “Maybe water hurts it.”
“Right!” she said. “Thank you!”
“Can't let one of Master's sex slaves get hurt,” I said.
~ * ~
Kora Falk
The ooze kept writhing and gurgling. I stood utterly flummoxed. It didn't fight to defend itself at all, just let Ealaín and Carsina hammer it with their ineffective blows. What was going on? My illusion was still whole, still corporeal inside of it. I could feel the monster squeezing down with its oily body.
It couldn't hurt my illusion. And it couldn't fight. Why?
Bellows of pain drew my attention. Zanyia scampered along the back of the other monster, stabbing into the bear-like monstrosity's flesh as it tried to bat her away. Greta darted from them, her large tits jiggling in the low-cut armor, the skirt of banded mail rippling about her pumping thighs. She rushed towards me, holding her watery weapon.
“I'll help, Mistress!” Greta shouted.
I nodded and released the amulet. My left hand throbbed from grasping it. My palm felt cut from squeezing the facets too hard. I flexed my hand as water swept from Greta's blade and splashed over the monster.
“FREEDOM!” the monster bellowed in its gurgling, noxious voice.
Its tentacles lashed out at the water slamming into it. It moved again. Why did water do that?
Chapter Thirty: Iron-Hot Rage
Prince Meinard
I was so greedy for this new power my step-daughter had developed. Even as she battered me with the balls of purple energy, driving back my body with each hit, I craved it. I yearned for this ability. What other secrets of imbuing had the priests of Krab shown her? Why had I never thought to patronize the followers of the very God whose blood gave me this ability?
“You know you want to be my sweetling again,” I said, falling to my knee, ramming my sword into the cobblestones again to weather the attacks. They hit my iron body hard. It quivered, the structure growing stressed in places. “Yes, yes, you have to be.”
“I don't!” she snarled.
“Don't tell me your pussy isn't hot for my cock. That you aren't craving writhing in my bed again. I know you yearn to be my whore.”
“Never again!” she hissed. “You will never touch my body!”
“But you want me.” I stared at her acorn eyes. “Even in this wooden form you wear, I know your true body is aching for me. Your pussy so wet for your daddy's cock fucking you.” I smiled despite another set of energy balls slamming into my body, rocking me to the side. “You called me Daddy. You moaned it with that wanton mouth.
“When you weren't sucking my cock!”
“Shut up!” she howled.
CRASH!
Purple energy washed over me.
“When you weren't guzzling down my cum, you called me Daddy in that sweet voice. I can feel the passion from you. You want me. You may hate me, but your body is addicted to me. Sven can never—”
CRASH!
My head snapped back. A numbness fuzzed through my control of the proxy for a heartbeat.
“I don't have to do anything for you!” she snarled. “I'm not bound by that spell! I'm free! And I'm pregnant with Sven's son.”
“What?” I growled. “That pup tried to use that same lie.”
“It's no lie! We conceived a child. All those times you pumped your cum into me didn't matter, Father. Your seed was wasted!”
CRASH!
“Sven's son will rule Kivoneth one day! Not yours!”
CRASH!
As I reeled back from the blow, anger surged through me. A rage so deep, so black, encompassed me. How could my daughter betray me for him? I raised her. I loved her. I worshiped her with the same fervent passion I gave her mother. Only two women had ever shared my bed. Two! I loved them both.
How could she do this to me?
A purple shield sprang around my daughter's proxy, blocking my slashing sword. I gained my feet, gripping my blade in two hands, and hammered it down at her. Blind fury consumed me. I hacked and hacked at the purple shield, battering at it, compelling my proxy to its limits.
Beyond.
Betray me!
Cuckold me!
Molten rage built in my proxy, heating me.
~ * ~
Zanyia
“That's it, get that ooze!” I shouted as Greta slammed her water at it.
That got a reaction from the slime. It did not like that. It undulated and gurgled in anger. Tentacles lashed at her, bursting through the waves to attack her. She cut one with her blade. I loved it. I slammed my punching daggers deep into the monster's back and watched Greta unleash her passion in frothy waves of—
A bony elbow cracked into my head.
The world spun around me. I hit the ground, rolling in silent agony. I came to a rest, the world blurring into doubles before me. My temple pounded. I groaned, struggling to understand what had happened. My stomach writhed. I let out a groan, ears twitching.
I had to... do... something... What... Think...
The monster loomed over me, ichor dripping down its sides, running from its back. A maw of sharp teeth opened.
~ * ~
Ealaín
The ooze retreated before Greta's water. It slashed tentacles at it while contorting and writhing. Somehow, the liquid was hurting it. I lowered my glowing weapons, not sure what I should be doing. I was useless against the monster. Then her blade cut through a tentacle that burst out of her water. It fell to the ground in a splatter of jelly.
“NO!” gurgled the monster.
I took a step back, breathing, gathering myself. The other monster, the one Zanyia was fighting, howled in agony. I glanced over in time for my stomach to tighten. Zanyia hurtled from its back and crashed onto the ground, her silent tumble eerie. She came to a halt on her back, her body limp.
The monster loomed over her, teeth flashing.
My armor flared in brightness. My weapons' brilliance shone upon me as I raced across the temple, boots thudding on the stone floor. The ooze gurgled in pain behind me as jaws snapped down at my lamia-wife.
“Zanyia!” I screamed, raising my ax and hammer.
~ * ~
Kora Falk
Ealaín charged past me, rushing to Zanyia's aid. Carsina scrambled back to me, soaked by Greta's water. She gripped her diamond hammer in her hand, her face wide and trembling. She stared at me, shaking her head.
“How did you do it?” she asked.
“I thought that was you,” I said, glancing at the hammer. “You hit it, and it went still.”
“No, I thought it was you. You shouted at it and it was like... like it listened.”
“Why would it do that?” I demanded. “That doesn't make any sense.”
Carsina just shook her head while the monster gurgled. Greta hacked at it with her sword now.
Every watery sweep sent more and more jellied flesh to splatter the ground, the ooze shrinking in size now, dying.
Did I control it?
~ * ~
Ealaín
My blows slammed into the back of the monster. Black ichor spurted around the bade of my ax while I felt the satisfying crunch of bone beneath my hammer. Light exploded. The monster howled, its bulk stumbling over Zanyia.
She lay dazed, but I was in time.
The monster whirled around and then flinched from the light pouring off my weapons. It held up a clawed hand, taking a step back from me. I grinned and stepped forward, moving between it and dazed Zanyia.
“It's a hunter... like me...” Zanyia groaned. “It doesn't like... the light.”
I glowed brighter.
~ * ~
Zanyia
I groaned and pushed myself to my feet as the incandescent aoi si rushed at the monster. It snarled in fury, claws slashing at the brightness. A wave of dizziness swept over me as Ealaín drove the monster into retreat.
I smiled, my prey distracted. It was time to go in for the kill.
Lights and shadows danced, the brilliance of Ealaín's sweeping weapons creating deep pockets of darkness. I skirted around their fight, my katars dripping with the monster's ichorous blood. I yearned to defeat it.
“Rithi's inspiring vision!” snarled Ealaín as she pressed her attack.
I darted in and leaped at the thing. It threw up a bony arm, blocking a hammering blow. Its arm shivered, somehow not breaking. But the burst of pure, white light stabbed into the monster's eyes. It flinched, head twisting.
Its neck exploded.
My katar slammed into the side of its neck, severing deep into the flesh. Its roar cut off into a gurgling wheeze. Ichor spurted as I cut through veins and its windpipe. It stiffened and thrashed. Ealaín, her face a dark spot amid her glowing armor, slammed her ax and hammer into the thing's chest. The blade split through its ribs while the hammer crushed the sternum.
The monster toppled backward. I leaped off of it and landed in a crouch beside the aoi si. I whirled around and smiled as it crashed onto the ground. It spasmed, clawed fingers twitching. The ache in the side of my head faded as I purred my delight, letting the sound rumble out of my throat.
I was a better hunter.
~ * ~
Kora Falk
Carsina darted back to fight the monster.
“You can't hurt it!” I cried out.
“I have an idea!” she shouted, brandishing the diamond hammer.
Despite Greta hacking at it, she was only carving off small chunks. It retreated farther back, working around the room and... coming towards me. It still wanted the amulet.
A wave of fear shot through me as tentacles formed. I took a step back. They shot out at me.
Carsina didn't charge at the monster like I thought. She reached Greta. As I threw myself to the floor in a vain attempt to dodge the tentacles, I caught a glimpse of Carsina slamming the hammer into the back of Greta's armor.
Diamond energy pulsed.
I hit the ground.
Tentacles seized me in a slimy grip.
“Sven!” I howled against the terror of the disgusting appendage lifting me up in the air.
The diamond energy poured into Greta's armor from the hammer. The blue glow flared. Her sword burst with water. It spilled out around her, splashing with its purity. Any part of the ooze it touched dissolved away, washed clean by her water.
With a shout, Greta leaped forward and slammed her sword into the monster's depths. As it dragged me towards its bulk, it suddenly swelled. It let out a gurgling cry. The tentacle squeezed tight about me as it ballooned larger and larger.
Water burst out of the sight, a stream washing through its body, cleaning it from the inside. It erupted again and again. It deflated now, dissolving in the torrent of purity Greta poured into it. I gasped as the tentacle melted into muck, dropping me into the water flowing across the floor. I grunted, landing on my side, my robe soaked in an instant.
The glow in Greta's armor faded. The vast flood dwindled. But it was enough. The thing melted away, leaving behind the desiccated corpse of poor Theophil. I shuddered, looking away as Carsina let out a low, keening moan of grief.
We won, but...
~ * ~
Princess Ava
“His body is strong,” Aingeal gasped. “He's battering through the abjuration spirits with just metal.”
I trembled, staring up at my father's sword hammering down at me. I was close to his proxy. I had been around his proxies before. He and mother had taught me how to use my abilities from when I was a child.
“We need to move, Ava! The shield's going to fail!”
I never noticed... strings before. It couldn't see them, but... feel them with my mind, sensing them with a means of perception beyond sight or hearing or touch or smell or taste. They moved the sword, the body, puppeteering it.
“Ava!”
Something in the back of my mind flared with diamond energy. It swept through the world, most pouring into an armor, supercharging its abilities. But... it was my hammer. Krab forged it for me to do... something. I could use it to create.
To destroy.
“What's wrong? Ava! Move! One more blow and he's battered through!”
I siphoned off a minute amount of the energy. The strings were delicate things. I didn't need a hammer to destroy them. Just a sharp pair of scissors. I imagined them all around the body, guiding them with this sixth sense.
I severed them.
As my father's sword fell, his entire body went limp. The blade crashed through the shield. I leaped to the side as the iron sword hit the pavement, purple energy falling like rain around us. A moment later, his body clattered to the paving stone.
“What did you just do?” Aingeal asked
“I... I banished him. That's not a proxy any longer. He can't imbue it.”
“You can do that?”
I nodded the feyhound's head, wondering why the hammer suddenly surged with its power.
~ * ~
Sven Falk
I raised my left arm before me as the splashes of flaming oil hurtled at me. They landed on my bare skin, sizzling. My sword lunged forward, my thrust true. I braced myself for the searing pain. Felt the first kiss of fire.
Shadows slithered down my arm and swallowed the fire, leaving only raw, stinging flesh behind.
My sword plunged into the gap of the centipede's carapace. This time, I didn't glance off its armored chitin. My blade drove deep at an angle, cutting into its organs. I plunged deep, twisted my blade. It thrashed as I pinned it to the pavement. Flaming oil flung off in all directions, splatting the ground as it hissed and thrashed.
Its head lifted up. Its mandibles opened wide. In its maw, flames gathered. I cursed and wrenched my sword free, throwing myself back. It vomited a gout of flame at me. The heat seared before me, chasing after me.
I closed my eyes, bracing myself for—
Flames whooshed in front of me. I felt a new heat that was somehow... loving in its warmth. I opened my eyes to see a curtain of fire burning before me, absorbing the liquid vomit, burning off the oily gout spewing burning from the monster's mouth.
“Master, strike!” Nathalie shouted. Her flames died.
The centipede's mouth still gaped open after breathing. Flowing with the speed of shadows, I threw myself forward. My rapier lanced through the air and rammed down the monster's gullet. I penetrated so deep into it, the hilt slamming into its mandibles. They twitched as the monster spasmed. Its legs collapsed.
I wrenched my blade free as it spasmed. Its tail curled up into a ball as it went through its death throes. Inky ichor poured out of its mouth, forming a noxious puddle on the ground. The flames licking at its body caught fire, the reek driving me back.
“Master!” Nathalie shrieked in delight and ran to me.
An owl hooted.
~ * ~
Prince Meinard
Pain exploded through my soul.
I howled as I slammed into my body. I shuddered on my chair. I bucked and groaned. I ground my teeth together from the pain of my proxy's destruction. How did she do it? How did Ava so neatly destroy me? I was moments from battering down the shield and hacking her form into kindling. Then I would find her. Seize her.
Remind her who owned her pussy after I had Sven's brat expunged from her. I would breed her, even if I had to tie her to the bed and make her my broodmare!
“Your Highness,” an agitated voice shouted from beyond the door. “Please, Your Highness, are you in pain?”
“I'm fine!” I growled. “Go away, Shevoin!”
“But... my Prince, we have word from Az. It just arrived via the priests of Seljan. Monsters are attacking the city. The town militia is being butchered.”
“It's nothing,” I growled.
“It's failure,” a new voice said from the door.
Shevoin let out a yelp of surprise. “Wh-what are you doing here?”
My office door burst open. The Paragon ducked her massive form through the wreckage. She rose like a shadowy monolith above me. Through the pain stabbing into my mind, I groaned. My stomach twisted with more than nausea. A cold sweat broke across my body.
“Your other monsters were still alive,” I said.
“All dead,” she reported. She loomed over me, her voice that strange rumble of masculine and feminine. “You are afraid.”
“Of course not,” I growled, straightening despite the cold dribble running down my spine. “Setbacks happen in any conflict. We must regroup and find a new avenue of attack. They had... armor. Abilities we did not anticipate.”
“They opened the vault. They have the key.”
“But we can still get it,” I said, desperation swallowing fear. I rose to my feet. “We can still get the amulet, kill that cuckolding bastard, and then you will help me save my Princedom.”
“Yes, we still can,” she said, holding her hand before her. She had a strange thing in it, like a beetle, but with ten legs. They flexed, each ending at sharp claws. It made a skittering sound.
“W-what is that?”
Before I could move, she thrust her arm forward, pressing the beetle into my chest. Ten needles stabbed into my flesh, sliding past my ribs. Such agony exploded through me. I fell backward into my chair, spasming, my fingers clawing at the hard carapace.