by Reed James
Carsina glanced up at me, her ruby-bright hair spilling about her shocked features. “Okay, Mistress.”
She scooped up the diamond hammer and charged at me, her face twisted in fear. Her body trembled. She reached me and held the hammer in her hand. I pointed down at my husband fighting Prince Meinard and...
Gasped.
Sven gripped the insectoid arm of Prince Meinard, his claws sunk into my step-brother's flesh. My hands clutched at my breasts, reaching out of reflex for the amulet. My brother fought to keep the claws from sinking deeper into him.
I conjured an illusion of the ogre. That hulking, brutal monster that ripped apart the boarding house we stayed at in Az. It was the most powerful thing I could think of. I drew back its fist, my fingers dancing before me as I painted my will, Rithi's magic bringing my art to life.
“Supercharge me!” I howled as my illusion punched at Prince Meinard.
“I... I can't,” Carsina said.
My illusion's punch slammed into the prince. Passed through him. In a ripple of rainbow light, the fist barreled through him, the ogre's arm sinking into the insectoid thing's body. It had no substance. Prince Meinard laughed, cruel. The inhuman sound sending a shiver down my spine. His arm twisted.
Sven grunted in pain.
“Why didn't that work?” I gasped.
“Your illusions aren't something constructed,” Carsina said. “I... I didn't supercharge them when we fought the slime. I don't know why your illusion had substance then and not now.”
How did this happen? My right hand kept clenching at my tits. I was so used to grabbing the amulet when things were stressed, to feel it in my hand while painting with the fingers of my left. Despite what it contained, it always made me feel... in control. To hold it. To wrap my fingers around...
The Biomancer's soul...
I was gripping it when we fought the ooze. I squeezed it tight when I made my illusion that suddenly had substance for the Biomancer's loathsome monster. And I was squeezing the amulet when I shouted for it to stop. When I somehow... controlled it.
My head whipped around. The amulet rested on the altar. Did it have... power over the monsters Biomancer Vebrin created?
I darted for the altar. My robe flared open. I didn't care about modesty right now. Was this the key? Was this why the Paragon and her forces had used proxies for so long, relying on others to get the amulet, because they knew it was the key to controlling them? Did I wear victory around my neck all this time?
My mind wrenched back to the moment I faced the ooze. How hard I clutched the amulet. The way I thought it pulsed and twitched. The Biomancer remembered his children. It had a kind of will. It... twitched as we were coming up the hill. Right before we got to the altar.
“This is it!” I gasped and scooped up the amulet.
“What is?” Carsina asked. “Are you going to bargain our surrender?”
“I'm going to save the day!” I shouted back, whirling around to face the battlefield. “This is why they use proxies. Why they brought all those soldiers and the master mage. The Paragon knows I can dominate her with this!”
Sven shouted. His cries of pain were so shrill. So sharp. Prince Meinard was killing him. But I could save my brother. I would rescue him like he protected me so many times. His love had saved my soul after our parents' and sister's death. He gave me purpose. Following him this last year showed me so much joy and beauty.
I wouldn't let it end. I would use every ounce of strength I had to save the day.
~ * ~
Ealaín
I stumbled back from the blows. My crossed weapons buckled before me. I stumbled back a few steps. But I didn't flinch. I didn't flee from the danger. Greta groaned behind me. I would protect her. I would protect all the people my charge loved. Sven and his harem were Kora's inspiration for her art.
I had to defend them. I was her muse.
“Rithi!” I screamed and swung my weapons at the Paragon. For a moment, I drove the brute back. She couldn't block my blows. Her big tits heaved before her as she stumbled back. “Guide my strokes. Let me create such a martial display of art and beauty today! Let me slay your enemy!”
I screamed. Light burst from me. Scintillating halos danced around my swinging weapons. The Paragon snarled, her face twisted in bestial fury. More blood sheeted down her arms. My ax left bloody scores, scraping along her bones. My hammer slammed into those iron limbs, quaking them.
I would defeat her.
“NO!” boomed the Paragon.
Her gaze shot up the hill. A flash of ruby caught my attention.
Kora stood on the summit. She held the amulet in her hand. She stared down at Prince Meinard, shoving Sven to the ground. Nathalie swung her flaming sword at the prince, her blows bouncing off the transformed man's carapace.
Fear spread across the Paragon's face. Kora holding the amulet frightened her. It gave me an opening. I swung both my weapons at the monster's chest. My ax and hammer fell, crackling with the divine power of my armor. Krab created a work of art when he forged it.
My weapons blazed with radiant beauty.
They landed on the brute's chest.
The thud of impact shook up my body. My ax sheered through a flabby breast and struck its iron rib cage. My hammer bounced off the sternum. The Paragon grunted. She stumbled back a step, head snapping down to me.
Her lips peeled back, revealing a mouth full of jumbled teeth, all different sizes and shape.
My attack didn't kill her. I hardly hurt her. Blood sheeted from her severed breast, but her ribs were so strong. How could I hurt her? How could I harm her? How could I protect Greta? My family? How could I keep Kora alive?
The Paragon's fist blurred at me. I struggled to recover from my attack, but I had put all my strength into my attack. I overextended myself to deliver the lethal blow. Now I was open. I had one option. I gathered the light. It burst from me, blinding sunlight engulfing me.
The Paragon closed her eyes, ready for this tactic.
Her fist slammed into my chest. Nothing blunted her blow. The armor groaned. I felt the metal drive into my flesh. My ribs cracked beneath it. I flew back as pain exploded through my lungs. I hit the ground with a thud.
Greta screamed.
Blood filled my mouth.
My entire body went numb.
The Paragon stood over me, death painted across her face.
I failed.
Chapter Forty: Choking Air
Aingeal
The abjuration spirits danced around me, darting through the air, leaving streaks of purple, coated in the aura of my will. They slammed into the magic rippling off Shevoin that was trying to kill us. The wicker body of the feyhound creaked as Ava maneuvered us, dodging around the ground rumbling beneath our feet.
Shevoin faced us with a face twisted in concentration. He brimmed with magic. He drank more of those vials of pussy juices, fueling his power, creating a vast reservoir of magical energy to throw at us. The wind slammed down at us. The earth burst up to grab us. Fire sparked in the air. Water formed into spikes of ice to find me.
I sent blasts of evocation spirits at him, forming beams of purple death lancing at him, stabbing at him from different directions. He defended himself. Bursts of rocks ripped out of the ground absorbed the energy, or air solidified into solid blocks of frigid gas. Dust and steam billowed through the air.
Shevoin's magic seized a rising gout of steam generated by my last attack. He channeled his power into the clouds and swept the hot vapor at us. He sought to wrap us up in superheated air and set alight the wicker body of the feyhound.
“What are we going to do?” asked Princess Ava as she darted the feyhound's body to the right.
“Keep trying to kill him,” I shouted back into the shared soul. Ava's trembled against mine. She writhed about me, clutching to my own spirit.
We darted forward. She leaped over ground that was bursting up with stone spikes. Wind whipped down at us, slashing at our fey body.
I sent my abjuration spirits to slam into his control of the air, disrupting his magic. His face clenched.
A different power surged into us. Something new.
Immediately, our wicker body spasmed. Ava gasped as the wood creaked. She lost control of our body as Shevoin soared backward, using wind to carry himself away from our hurtling body. He settled on the ground as we crashed hard into the earth, limbs spasming. It was life magic assaulting the wicker body. He was attacking the enhancement spirits holding the woven wood together.
I snarled while Ava whimpered, her soul brimming with concentration. I seized more enhancement spirits, dragging the green orbs down at our body. They surged into the wicker body, strengthening the bonds holding us together. Blue abjuration spirits crashed into the life magic attacking my body. Our legs twitched.
Shevoin's face twisted in anger as we rose, Ava back in control of her proxy's body.
Frustrated, I fired a beam of evocation death at him. He ripped up another shield of earth. I hated this. We were at a stalemate. We couldn't get to him. We couldn't harm him. It took too much of my power to stop his magic. I couldn't keep attacking him and defending us, but he couldn't overcome us.
I snarled in anger.
~ * ~
Zanyia
I yowled in delight as I darted among the soldiers. They scrambled around, clinking in the slow armor, their horses snorting and neighing. My katars punched and slashed. Blood spurted in crimson streaks. It filled the air with that coppery tang. I darted beneath a stallion. I slammed my weapon into its belly. It whinnied in pain, throwing its rider to the ground. He crashed in a clattering pile. I landed on him.
He gurgled as my katar ripped from his throat.
My ears twitched as I leaped straight up in the air. My tail slashed behind me, turning me, letting me witness the battlefield. The soldiers were in disarray, half down or dying, others broken and shattered.
“That's right!” I shouted. I let out a chortle of delight.
The air crackled nearby. The black-robed mage dueled with Ava's feyhound. Purple energy clashed into magic. Stone burst out of the ground and spikes of ice appeared out of empty air to slam down at them.
My eyes narrowed. The mage's back was to me. A smile grew across my lips as I descended back to the ground. The soldiers were routed. It was time to help out my family. My legs bent. I landed on the blood-smeared ground without making a sound.
In a low crouch, I stalked my newest prey.
~ * ~
Sven Falk
The hill burned around me as Prince Meinard pinned me to the ground. His pincers dug at my armor, struggling to penetrate the black leather. I growled, feeling the pressure, pain swelling across my chest. I had to do something. I snarled, the power of my armor filling my limbs. I reached out to seize shadows and...
I grabbed smoke.
So much poured around me. Thick and black. It swirled in currents of boiling air. The pain grew. My ribs creaked. The smoke flowed at me. It was like shadows staining the wind. It swirled down at us, drawn from the flames. I slammed it into Prince Meinard's face. He had to breathe. Right?
I could choke him.
The smoke surged around his mandibles. I thrust it into the bastard's mouth. I smothered his face. He squeezed harder. I snarled, trembling. Nathalie shouted. She stood over him, her sword slamming into his armored back.
“Master! Master!” she shouted as my hands clenched against the agony.
Was the smoke working? He kept crushing me. How long could the insectoid hold his breath?
Unless... could he breathe smoke? He wasn't human any longer. Was I getting myself killed? My leg thrust up into his armored abdomen. Pain shot down my knee. My ribs creaked more. They were on the verge of breaking. His pincers about to rip through my armor and—
Prince Meinard coughed. His body trembled. His head released me. He jerked up, hands batting at the smoke wreathing his face. Nathalie's flaming sword slammed down. She hit him in a flare of sparks. The force knocked him off of my body.
“Yes!” I growled, rising, more smoke surging down at Prince Meinard. I forced it into his mouth. Down his gullet, deeper, strangling him. “You Las-damned bastard! Do you know what you did to your daughter?” The anger surged through me. “How you hurt her? Illth curse you! I hope she afflicts your soul with a pox in the Astral Realm! I hope Las makes you his man-whore and Gewin practices his sword strokes on your soul! I hope Henta hunts you for eternity!”
He spasmed. I was killing him. He rolled over onto his belly. The smoke covered his head. Nathalie stood beside me, heat rippling off of her as she kept the flames burning, feeding more smoke to choke the bastard out.
Dirt flew up into the air around him. Prince Meinard vanished into the earth, burrowing into it like an insect. Smoke spilled around the hole. The ground rumbled beneath our feet. My brows furrowed. I whipped my head around. Dirt bulged like a massive mole moved beneath us.
“Master?” Nathalie asked, backing away, her head moving around.
“Be ready,” I growled, forming my shadow rapier. I couldn't choke him any longer. But how could he breathe now? “He'll come—”
Earth exploded before Nathalie. Dirt spilled off the insectoid form. His mandibles slammed into Nathalie. My sex slave screamed as he wrenched his head, neck twisting. The straps of her armor snapped. Prince Meinard ripped open her breastplate as his weight knocked her to the ground. Her small breasts came into view, exposed and vulnerable. His clawed hands lanced down at her chest, his hungry mouth lunging down to feast on her flesh.
“No!” I howled.
~ * ~
Kora Falk
I rushed down the hill towards the flames. I had to get closer so Prince Meinard could hear me. Through the flames, I witnessed my brother rising. He looked so handsome, the heat rippling his blond hair. Smoke swirled around him. He guided it at something.
I squeezed the amulet, hope surging through me. Sven was standing, back in the fight. Maybe I should help Ealaín. Then my brother's head whipped around. Nathalie looked confused. What was going on? I couldn't see. There was so much flame and—
Prince Meinard's monstrous form burst out of the ground. He ripped away Nathalie's armor and knocked her to the ground. My brother screamed and darted at him. The bastard went to tear apart our innocent, vulnerable sex slave.
“Stop!” I roared.
~ * ~
Sven Falk
Prince Meinard growled. My sister's shout rose over the flames. It was a command. It did nothing to Prince Meinard. He ignored it. My body flowed, the shadows propelling me forward. My legs pumped. I threw myself between him and Nathalie.
His two claws slammed into my abdomen. Those knife-like talons punched through my armor. His mandibles bit around my chest. He crashed into me, bearing me to the ground. Nathalie gasped as I landed atop her, agony burning through me.
His claws twisted inside of me. Choking, coppery blood filled my mouth. I spat it out at him, splashing it on his segmented eyes. My legs spasmed. I tried to thrust my rapier at his neck, but the blade was too long. He was too close.
I shaped it into a dagger.
“Release him!” snarled Kora. “Now! Release my brother!”
The bastard ignored her. I groaned, stabbing at his neck with the dagger while the pain twisted inside of me. My knife scratched at his armored joints. I probed, trying to crack his neck. His head pulled up, ripping his mandibles away from me. His eyes stared down at me, his mandibles slashing.
“Master!” whimpered Nathalie, squirming beneath me, trapped.
“Prince Meinard, you will release him!” screamed Kora, her voice shrill. “Now!”
Prince Meinard's head shook for a moment. Something pulsed in his chest, that hard nodule in the center of his thorax. It... twitched. Through the pain, I noticed it had... little legs buried into his chest. Ten of them. It was... separate from him. It reacted to my sister's words somehow. I didn't understand why but...
It had to
be important.
I stabbed my dagger at it.
Chapter Forty-One: Desperation
Kora Falk
My will slammed into Prince Meinard. I could feel it affecting a part of him, a small sliver that was from the Biomancer. It twitched and throbbed, but it didn't control him. I didn't freeze the bastard like it did the ooze. He kept tearing at my step-brother's guts. Sven's growls of pain rising above the crackling flames. The insectoid bastard was killing Sven.
And I couldn't affect the bastard. There was too much... human in him. A shudder rippled down my back. He wasn't created from scratch like the ooze was. Like the Paragon. The fraction of a monster in him wouldn't let me control all of Prince Meinard. I... I couldn't help my brother.
Pain clenched my heart. I had to help out somehow. And that meant...
“I'm sorry, Sven,” I whispered. The Paragon was here. Maybe I could affect her.
~ * ~
Ealaín
The watery shield saved my life. Greta screamed at me.
I had a reprieve. I forced myself to stand. My entire body ached and throbbed. I shuddered, struggling to rise. Light bled through the cracks of my armor. The Paragon grinned at me, her mongrel face twisted in anger. I had to protect Kora.
My broken ribs screamed in protest as I moved. I pushed my semi-divine body to its limits. I grunted and snarled. My armor dug into my body. I staggered to my feet as Greta scrambled clear. She threw a wall of water between me and the Paragon.
“You have to run, Ealaín!” Greta shouted.
“No running,” I growled, gripping my ax and war hammer, their light flickering and spluttering.
The Paragon slammed her fist into the wall of water. The flowing liquid blunted her attack. Her fist burst through but fell short of my face, droplets raining on me. She snarled and battered at the barrier. With a howl, she ripped through it, her misshapen breasts heaving at me. Water spilled over her face.
Her eyes stared past me at my charge. At my Kora. I didn't intend to fall in love with Kora and her family. I was just here to inspire her, to be her muse, and protect her so she could create art to enrich the world.