by Eric Vall
“It’s time to show this shitstain what happens when ye’ fuck with the ogres,” Grot continued, and piggish chuckles rippled throughout the hoard of ogres. “It’s gonna be a bloody show, too, if ye’ know what’s good for ye’, and all in Jagruel are joinin’. We follow Flynt in the fight and leave today for Falmount, so gather your clubs and sharpen your teeth, but be warned! If any of ye’ wanna live to make the journey, you’ll respect the man’s dragons. He’s got balls big enough to kill us all… and he’ll use ‘em!”
Roars erupted through the cave as Grot gave a decisive nod, and the ruckus drowned out Aurora’s hysterical laughter. She turned bright pink when I sent her a shameless grin, but then she doubled over on the ground without being able to help herself. Cayla struggled to stay composed as well, but Shoshanne mostly flinched repeatedly while the ogres pounded their clubs against the stone, and their war cries only got louder when Grot ordered everyone to drink some more.
I was so relieved the issue was resolved that I swiftly followed suit, and as Cayla stood to refill my mug again, Grot dropped onto his sweaty ass again with a merry glint in his red eyes.
“Never flown on a dragon before,” the ogre ruler chuckled behind his mug.
“Well… I’m sure it’ll be an experience you’ll never forget,” I snorted, and the sudden idea of Grot soaring through the skies with his arms outstretched like the girl from Titanic made Rosh spurt from my nose.
“Aye,” Grot agreed with a happy pat to his belly. “Tell me Flynt, can ye’ steer a dragon with a club?”
Then Grot mimed clubbing a beast left and right with his massive arm, and my women abruptly sobered as my vision went red.
Chapter 2
Since there was no way I’d let an ogre as big as Grot throttle my woman to steer her around, I decided to devise a system of transport that allowed my dragons to deliver the ogres without anyone coming into direct contact with either of them.
This was only half the reason I was balancing on the jagged boulders outside the caves, though, and while the waves crashed wildly against the cliffside, Aurora rubbed my shoulders as I took my tenth deep breath in the last minute.
“You alright?” the half-elf asked as she eyed the tense set of my jaw.
“Oh, yeah,” I lied. “Just, uh… getting a plan in order.”
“I’m proud of you,” Cayla chuckled. “I was a little worried you were about to kill the largest ogre in Jagruel right after you sealed the deal.”
“No, I’ve got this,” I decided. “If I make large enough platforms to suspend under the dragons, the weight of the ogres will be distributed better, and we can get them all to Falmount in one trip. Plus, no one will even be able to reach Deya let alone use their massive clubs to try and steer her around, so no one has to die over it.”
“Maybe you should explain who the dragon is,” Shoshanne suggested. “I’m sure Grot will understand.”
“I’d rather very few people know, to be honest,” I muttered as I rifled my hair. “It’s hard enough to let her go off on her own with the Master so close to Mors Pass, but if word got out that someone I love as much as Deya flies around on a regular basis without me there, I’d never be able to let her transmute again. Especially with this attack on the horizon. The less people know who she is, the less risk for her.”
Cayla nodded. “I think that would be best. Besides, this platform idea resolves the issue. What are you going to build it out of?”
“Stone, I guess,” I said with a shrug, and I scanned the rocky cliffs jutting up behind us.
“Ooo, do lava again!” Aurora gasped.
“Please?” Cayla begged, and she dropped onto a boulder to get a front row seat. “I love watching you work with lava.”
“It’s so incredible,” the half-elf agreed. “You look like a god.”
Shoshanne furrowed her brow. “Mason can work with lava?”
“Apparently,” I muttered. “Those huts you saw in the lair were part of a drunken rebuild I performed last time we were here, but I don’t remember any of it.”
“Well, I remember it,” Aurora snorted. “You called yourself the Infamous Lava Man of Illaria, and you did that thing where you throw your arms out to the side and laugh like a villain whenever you said it.”
“How many times did he say it?” Shoshanne chuckled.
“Too many to count,” Cayla giggled. “It was cute.”
“At least I’m not as drunk this time,” I mumbled as I shook my head. “I think I’m not, anyways. I can’t remember how much I drank in there, but I do feel like my head isn’t attached to my neck anymore.”
“Probably because you finished four heaping mugs,” Shoshanne sighed. “Don’t worry, though, we’ll make sure you don’t fall off Deya on the way home.”
“Thank you,” I laughed. “It shouldn’t take too long for my healing rune to burn off most of this Rosh, and if everything goes smoothly with this phase of the operation, we could be on our way to Aurum in only a few hours. I doubt the dwarves will be as picky about their mode of transportation, so I’m gonna plan to hit Nalnora before nightfall if I can.”
My women nodded in agreement as I turned to eye the nearest lava fall, and when I let my powers connect with the molten rock, a strange sensation surged in my veins. It was different than when I worked with soil or stones, but it was energizing in a way I didn’t expect, and I grinned as I began drawing the molten fall over to the shore.
Then I let it all pool into a large puddle before I split the flow off to form a second pool, and once I redirected the excess back to the cliff, I raised my palms and focused on the glowing orange mounds I’d created.
The energy of the lava felt like a heated magnet pulling my powers into it, but this didn’t seem to drain the strength of my magic away. It was more like I was recharging from the stuff, and I understood why I’d been feeling a little infamous during my last lava build. Watching such an aggressive substance bend to my will was mind-blowing enough, but after I noticed the way my women watched me while I worked, I was definitely feeling way too powerful for my own good.
The vigor involved with the process was almost as rejuvenating as the icy sea spray that kept bursting over the rocks, and any residual demon urges I had seemed to melt away while the spinning in my head steadied out as well. I probably could have spent all day on the coast molding the molten lava while steam billowed up around me, but as majestic as the situation was, I could hear Grot making preparations with his ogres to move out.
I’d already spent longer in Jagruel than I planned to, so I only let myself revel in the moment for another few minutes. Once I had two platforms large enough so one could carry a hundred and fifty ogres while the other handled the remaining fifty, I lowered the temperature of the lava until it hardened to black volcanic rock, and then I cut off my connection and turned to my women.
“Okay… that was… I liked that,” Shoshanne announced as she fanned herself.
“Right?” Aurora moaned. “He’s like a lava god.”
“Do the thing!” Cayla ordered. “With the arms out to the side!”
“No,” I chuckled as I wiped some ocean water away from my face.
“But I never got to see it,” Shoshanne pouted, and the other two mirrored her disappointment.
So, I sighed, threw my arms out to the sides, and declared I was the Infamous Lava Man of Illaria, and while steam and sea spray washed over me, my women fell into a fit of giggles that sent them tumbling from their boulders.
It was pretty awesome.
“Now, we’re leaving,” I snorted.
The women struggled to stand up again as they wiped the tears from their eyes, and I waited until they managed to stumble into proper formation before I led them all back to the caves. After we waded through the throng of feasting ogres, I let Grot know he could expect my dragons to arrive in about two hours, and I explained how to rig the chains they’d be bringing with them to suspend the platforms from the dragons.
Then
I reiterated my threat to slaughter his entire population if anything happened to my dragons, and once the two of us exchanged grunts and chest pounds to solidify the deal, I bid the ogres safe travels.
They roared some more as I led my pride from the feasting caves, and we were all splattered with Rosh and ogre sweat by the time we made it out of there. Still, everything seemed to be in order, and as soon as we were out of sight of the ogres in the lair, my women broke formation to sprint through the forest.
“I hope Deya isn’t worried sick,” Shoshanne whimpered.
“She isn’t you,” Aurora snorted. “She’s probably eating something awesome right now.”
“Does she have her elven hearing in her dragon form?” Cayla panted as I passed her up.
“No idea,” I replied, “but you should ask her so we can avoid being this worried next time.”
“I can hear her breathing up ahead,” Aurora announced, and I nodded in agreement as my half-elf and I burst through a low-lying bough at the same time.
Then we sloshed into a puddle of bloody dragon vomit that almost crested the tops of my boots, and Deya let out a pathetic snarl from the other side of her puke pool.
“Aww, sweetie,” Cayla sighed. “Are you okay?”
Deya puffed some flames from her black nose, and when she turned her snout to the side, I saw a half-eaten wyvern strewn across the blue pine needles next to her.
“I take it the baby doesn’t like wyvern?” I asked.
Deya snorted again, and Shoshanne tip-toed through the puke to come pet her scales.
“We’ll get you some water on the way home,” the healer assured her. “I’m sorry we took so long, we were dealing with the large ogre named Grot, and he’s insisted Mason let the ogres--”
The black dragon let out a soft screech to interrupt Shoshanne, and I smirked.
“I guess your elven hearing does carry over.”
“That’s so fascinating,” Aurora mused as she shook the puke from her boots, and I helped hoist her up onto Deya’s back before I turned to the other women. “Maybe if you transmute long enough, your dragon instincts carry over into your elven form, too.”
“That’s concerning,” I muttered.
“No, it’s amazing,” Aurora corrected, and since Deya snarled in agreement, I decided it’d be wise to bite my tongue.
My new motto was to do whatever was necessary to get through the next couple days with as little difficulty as possible, so while Aurora began chatting about all the dragon instincts she wanted Deya to adopt in the future, I saddled up and tried to focus on my list of things to do instead.
I ended up spending most of the flight to Falmount worrying about sending Deya back to Jagruel, though, but Grot had been an ogre of his word so far. We shared a chest pound over the deal and everything, and I clung to this scrap of reassurance while I kept Shoshanne’s ass flush against my groin for the next hour.
The way her supple thighs slid beneath my palms with every beat of Deya’s wings was enough to keep my spirits up, and by the time we touched down in the clearing beside the mansion, I was struggling to get my blood flowing in the proper direction again. The healer had a coy blush on her cheeks when I reached up to help her to the ground, but it only took a wink from me to make her turn red all over again.
“Enjoy the ride?” I murmured as I dropped my arm around Shoshanne, and she giggled before she slapped my chest to bat me away.
“You said you have a full schedule,” the healer reminded me. “If you expect me to let you keep that schedule, I’m gonna need more than an inch of distance between us for the next hour or so.”
“Yeah, but I’ve got some building to do today,” I casually tossed out. “Maybe we could work it out so--”
“Mason Flynt, there is a war going on,” Aurora scoffed. “Do I have to remind you how much depends on you not dropping the ball?”
“I know,” I sighed, “but in all fairness, I think we’ve determined balls are not an issue for me.”
My women burst out laughing as I cracked a lewd grin, and I could tell by the silly snarl coming from Deya that she’d heard everything Grot had to say about my killer balls, too.
Then I summoned all my spare chains from the infirmary while Shoshanne made sure Deya was in perfect health, and I linked them all together until I had four massive chains sturdy enough for the dragons to carry two hundred ogres by.
“Make sure Grot crosses these at your back,” I said as I looped the chains over Deya’s scaly neck, “and if anyone looks hungry or brings a club over by you, light them on fire.”
“Mason… ” Cayla muttered as she sent me a pointed look.
“What? That seems fair.”
“Deya, try not to light our allies on fire,” Aurora sighed. “Mason would appreciate their help even though he’s a little conflicted right now.”
“Just… don’t let anyone do anything,” I said as I tried to keep Deya’s attention. “I mean it. If one thing goes wrong, you have my full permission to--”
“Have a safe flight!” Shoshanne cut in.
I ground my jaw. “Fine, I’m done. Head to Mors Pass, and if you channel your intentions toward the metal dragon, he should pick up on your orders and follow you west to Jagruel. Make sure you fly as low as possible while you're leaving the pass, though, and stick to a northern route to avoid any villages. If the ogres behave themselves, then bring them straight here with no stops, but if they don’t--”
“We love you,” Aurora interrupted as she patted the dragon’s scales. “I know you’ll keep those ogres in line.”
Deya happily snapped her fangs together, and then she nudged her snout against my stomach as her violet eyes met mine.
“Yeah, I know,” I muttered. “I’ll work on it, but if you’re allowed to butcher people, I’m allowed to kill a whole race for you. Just saying.”
Cayla curled her arm in mine to tug me away, and I reluctantly let her lead me out of range of the dragon’s wings. Then I hollered my last few instructions for Deya to take it easy, use the smaller platform, and to not overexert herself, but she was out of sight by the time I finally trailed off in defeat.
“Godsdamnit,” I sighed. “I can’t believe I’m the clingy one right now.”
“Deya’s clingier than you,” Shoshanne assured me. “But when I said she’s in a delicate condition, I didn’t mean she’d shatter into pieces.”
“Yes, fire breathing dragon,” Aurora clarified. “Poison-tipped tail, bloody fangs… she’ll be fine.”
“So,” Cayla led as she stubbornly kept me moving toward the mansion, “what’s next on your list?”
“Right,” I agreed with a nod. “Gotta stay focused. Next on the list is summoning the snatchers back to Falmount, and then getting the three of them sent to guard Mors Pass as soon as we can. It won’t take Deya long to get there, and I don’t want to leave the pass unguarded.”
“Why don’t you try connecting directly with the snatchers’ gems from here?” Shoshanne suggested. “You’ve learned to send your magic outside yourself, so distance shouldn’t be an issue, right?”
“Then they’ll be there sooner, too,” Aurora pointed out.
“What would I do without you guys?” I chuckled as I looped my arms around my women’s waists.
“I don’t know if you’d be more or less productive,” Cayla admitted. “We distract you so often, but we also simplify your life in a hundred ways.”
“And complicate it in as many,” Aurora snickered.
“I’m gonna go with less productive,” I decided. “Sex is less time consuming than running in circles all day.”
Alfred was waiting with a tray of refreshments in hand when we came through the door, and Stan saluted us from the butler’s shoulder before they both offered prim bows.
“I hope your impromptu trip to ogre country was successful,” Alfred said.
“It was,” I assured him as I gave Stan a high-five. “Deya and the metal dragon should deliver the ogres in a
couple hours, and I’ll be building until then, but if any of my generals stop by, could you send them to the atrium?”
“Certainly, sir.”
Stan climbed into Cayla’s palm as I took the tray from the butler, and when we got to the atrium, my women promptly began stripping out of their clothes as they headed for the fountain.
“Is this the part where you don’t distract me?” I chuckled.
“Oh, please,” Aurora sighed. “You know you always focus best when we’re soaking wet.”
I nodded. “I won’t argue with that. Let me get the snatchers’ orders sent out, and then we can decide how the hell we’re gonna execute this attack.”
I left the tray of snacks on the edge of the fountain for my women before I dropped onto my stool at the work table, and as I summoned my Terra Magic and sent it through the soil, I checked on the status of Falmount.
My generals were posted at Flynt’s Pub while Haragh and Taru worked on improving their home in the northern woods, and I guessed they’d all been in these same spots since we returned on the train this morning. The rest of my residents were carrying on with their days like always, and I could hardly believe how much had occurred in my own corner of town in the last few hours.
I’d come back from stationing our troops with every intention of settling in at home, but from the moment Dragir and I left the Oculus, I’d been going at full bore to make sure I didn’t lose a scrap of time.
Now, I just had to fill everyone in on the unexpected developments, but for now, I tried to focus on one task at a time.
I could sense my magic gradually disconnecting from me as I neared the foothills north of Serin, and shortly after my powers separated completely, I sensed the presence of my lead snatcher’s gem.
Venkman was powering his way through the woods with Egon and Ray on either side, and when I focused on their channeling gems, I felt my veins tingle as a connection was formed.
Then I channeled my intentions as clearly as I could in case the distance was too far, but it only took one try before their treads changed direction and headed for Mors Pass. I tracked the three automatons until they’d stationed themselves at the mouth of the pass, and when I called my magic back to myself, I was less lightheaded than I’d been the last time I practiced this new skill.