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Summoned by Monster Girls - Chapter 85
🕑 Added 2024-11-05 09:00:02 +0000 UTCAll the color drained from the faces of the four women when I rattled off a quick explanation. Kassandra did not hesitate to act, though, unwrapping her coils from around me.
“Go! Take care of her, and let me know what happened when you can!” The redheaded snake-woman barked, slapping me on the back.
I didn’t hesitate, mentally hammering the Transit option as I jumped to my feet. The world slid sideways, but did not spin nearly as much as I was used to for a regular cross-dimension summon.
A moment later, I landed on hard-packed dirt as someone screamed nearby moments before a crack of lightning tore through the midday sky. The bolt sent a body flying backwards to sprawl in the grass by the road. All around me, the clash of weapons echoed.
A whirl of blonde hair to my right drew my attention, and I turned to spot Rieka ducking the swing of a sword from a man dressed in tattered clothes. My princess slammed her metallic spell-rod into the side of the man’s knee like it was a club.
Yelping, the man brought his sword around so he could bring it down in an overhand chop at my girl while struggling to stay upright.
Shape-Shifting reacted to the threat without conscious thought. My body lunged to interpose itself between the danger and my princess.
My right arm flowed, elongating and taking on a dark sheen as carapace oozed out from my skin and hardened. The entire limb bulged in size enough that the sleeve of my new shirt exploded into shreds even as the fingers on my right hand merged together into a wicked spike.
The blade at the end of the eight-foot-long, lashing tail drove itself into the grubby man’s shoulder with a wet, shunk noise before I commanded it to expand into a sharp-edged plate. While it had been a blade half as wide as my palm before, the sharp chitin abruptly fanned out to the size of a dinner plate.
The bandit’s arm was separated from his shoulder with a wet tearing noise. He had just long enough to scream in pain and begin to turn towards the injured limb before the sharp plate caught him in the side of the head and removed that, too.
“Liam!” Rieka’s breathless cry of relief brought me back to myself and I scooped my princess up with my left arm, my boosted strength score more than enough to support the slight woman without a struggle.
“What’s happening? Fill me in,” I demanded, lashing out with the bladed limb to fend off another of the bandits that was approaching far more carefully now that his fellow was down.
“Traveling by carriage with mother. We were stopped by bandits while traveling. She went to confront them. Need to help her,” Rieka panted in response.
Light flashed and words scrolled over my vision as the System alerted me to the mission and purpose she had assigned to me for this summon.
Assist your contracted companion, Rieka Coldeye, with the defense of her queen and mother.
Reward - 900 SP
Bonus: See that your summoner remains unharmed - 200 SP
I’d never seen the System offer a bonus like this before, but I didn’t have time to think about it.
I could feel Rieka shaking slightly against my chest. The hand that wasn’t clutching her spell rod was trembling as it knotted into my shirt. Rieka wasn’t fighting my manhandling her like this. Instead, she was burrowing into me for reassurance.
“Where is she?” I asked as I reversed my retreat and lunged towards the lone bandit that remained to threaten us.
The wide blade at the end of my right arm converted once more into the armored spike, and I lashed out at the bandit with it several times.
The first three strikes he managed to parry, but the fourth was a feint for his left shoulder. When he fell for it, I slammed the spike into his thigh instead before using the pierced limb to yank him forward into the ground. Another stroke ensured he wouldn’t be getting up before I resumed my movement to put my back to the carriage.
“Ahead, she went to confront the bandit leader when they stopped the carriage train. A minute later, these ones attacked and killed the guards left in the rear,” Rieka said, pulling her face from my chest long enough to point with her spell rod at the three still forms in armor towards the back of the carriage.
The lives of the fallen guards had cost a high price, as more than a half-dozen still bandits lay crumpled around them and four more showed testament to Rieka’s spell-work from the smoking burns on their still bodies before I’d arrived. All told a dozen bandits had tried to hit the rearmost carriage and paid for it with their lives.
I could still hear fighting from further ahead, around the far side of the damaged carriage, so I moved to circle it in that direction.
Rieka wriggled slightly in my arms, not trying to get free, but I realized that she was likely uncomfortable. I paused long enough to settle her on my left hip and wrap my arm around her waist and bottom to keep her there.
“This is so undignified, Liam,” Rieka chuckled, an edge of mania in her voice as she rode like a child on my hip.
“Would you rather ride on my back?” I asked, breaking into a trot.
“Is that an option?”
“No, if I let you ride me into battle before I let Kass, neither of us would hear the end of it anytime soon.”
My dry humor had the desired effect and Rieka giggled, clinging tighter to me for a moment before relaxing as the mania dropped away from her features. I’d been watching out of the corner of my eye, trying to get a feel for her mood and totally not staring at her beautiful face marred with smoke and a bit of blood as it settled into a look of intense concentration.
We rounded the carriage to see the battle in full swing.
A half-dozen guards fought five times their number of scruffily dressed men and women. Bodies lay everywhere from both sides, as well as the horses for two of the four carriages. One carriage showed signs of fire damage, but was no longer burning.
The remaining guards fought clumped close around a regal-looking woman who had a look of intense concentration on her face while wielding a scepter in her left hand and a sword in her right. With a gesture, a lance of deep blue ice formed over her head and arched into the enemy lines.
At the back of the group, a bone thin man with crazily rolling eyes hopped back and forth. He wielded a staff topped with a pair of curling ram’s horns made of iron and made a thrusting gesture with the staff. A rolling ball of fire slammed into the ice before it reached his people and the ice pillar detonated under the heat, scattering fist-sized ice chunks everywhere.
“Protect the queen!” shouted a swarthy-skinned feline kin even as he shield-checked one of the bandits and knocked the smaller man off his feet. His open-faced helm had a blue-green plume on it, and I guessed this had to be the captain of their guards.
“Stop hesitating!” yelped the staff-wielder. “The longer you take, the less we earn. I’m burning money here!”
“We have to help them, Liam,” Rieka murmured in my ear, shifting to take aim at the bandit spellcaster with her rod.
“No, wait. Not yet,” I hissed as the queen and the shaman traded another volley of spells. This time a gout of flames sought to consume the guards, but the queen warded it away with a glittering barrier of ice-crystals that devoured the fire. “Hit him right as he’s about to cast or after he’s parried one of the queen’s. Don’t try to kill him yourself. Give your mum an opening, or wait for her to give you one.”
A quick glance around confirmed that the bandits had encircled the queen’s forces and had them backed up against the two intact carriages. Even as I watched, one bandit lunged forward and slammed an axe into the wheel of one of them, splintering the wood with a loud crack.
They are trying to prevent them from escaping. The thought wandered through my head idly. They must be trying to capture the queen, but why? Ransom?
“Liam…” Rieka’s voice was thick with worry, pointing towards the outnumbered guards.
Even with their better armor, several had been wounded and likely wouldn’t survive long, and others already lay at the queen’s feet, protected by their fellows.. The queen had the bandit shaman in a stalemate, but if her guards went down, that would end rapidly.
“Focus on the shaman, disrupt him so your mum can counter. I’ll get the rest of the bandits. Up you go!” I reminded her quickly before lifting her up to the roof of the carriage we’d been hiding behind.
Rieka didn’t have time to protest, barely managing to suppress her shriek of surprise when I hefted her upwards and tossed her onto the roof of the damaged carriage. It gave her a high-ground advantage and would prevent any bandits who got past me from reaching her as easily.
I only waited long enough to confirm she was safely up there, getting a glare for my trouble from my annoyed princess, before I turned back to the fight.
Time to put some of this mental boost to use, I thought and pushed changes to all four of my limbs.
My left arm flowed, fans of brick-colored carapace oozing out to form a rudimentary shield while my fingers merged and thumb thickened until a heavily armored crab-claw replaced that limb. On my right, the arm folded in on itself, tucking in close to my body while the spike that had replaced my hand balled up and turned into a knob of bone before settling in next to my chest, ready to fire off in a punch that would make any heavyweight jealous. My legs shifted as well, though I didn’t change my feet as my boots would still get in the way. Knee joints reversed. Muscles rearranged, then bulged as I shifted my legs to take advantage of the fast-twitch reflexes and acceleration of a cheetah to ensure I was able to dodge and maneuver as needed.
Before I’d taken the chance to boost my mental abilities, this would have consumed several seconds and I’d have had to focus on each shift individually while pointedly not thinking about the specific how.
Now, though, all four shifts flowed in unison. I was already in motion by the time Rieka had settled onto the roof of the carriage on her stomach, lining up her spell-rod like it was a pistol while she made the required gestures with her other hand.
Springing forward, I barreled into the backline of the enemy troops with a purpose.
Using the broad fin of armored shell partially as a shield and partially as a plow, I bodily shoved one man out of the way while firing off with the bone mace that was my right hand into the backs of several of the bandits. Three blows fell and three different bandits crumpled with caved in skulls as the thunderous blows landed.
A sword swung out at me from my left. The reflexes I’d borrowed from the cheetah came into play, allowing me to sway backwards out of the way of the blow, then lash out with the bone club I’d used so well in the ruins, courtesy of the mantis shrimp, to shatter the hand holding the weapon.
Yelps of surprise, fear, and anger surrounded me as I skipped backwards, working my way around a bit closer to where the queen’s forces fought. Finding an opening, I drove into the bandit group once more, doing what I could to disrupt their cohesion and give the men and women in armor a fighting chance.
Lightning crackled and thunder boomed in protest as a bolt of energy arced over our heads aimed at the shaman.
The bandit shaman used his staff to deflect the bolt of lightning into another of the bandits, killing the man in the process but leaving the shaman only barely singed with his staff smoking. However, Rieka had jumped the gun. Her mother wasn’t ready to capitalize on the opening at that moment.
“Fools! I told you to kill the princess. Must I do everything myself?!” squealed the shaman even as he conjured another ball of fire to shatter a boulder of ice that the queen was still forming.
“Rally! Rally, my warriors! Your princess needs you!” barked the queen, her refined voice still showing her noble nature even as she shouted above the din of battle. The guards let out a roar of determination and pushed forward into the bandits with renewed vigor.
I had to duck away from the swiping sword of one guard when they killed the bandit between us and immediately struck out at me.
“Monster! There’s a monster with them!” screamed the guard, eyes going wide inside her helmet.
I don’t have time for this, I thought with a growl and turned bodily slam my claw-shield into another bandit, knocking the husky bear kin off her feet. I followed it up with a bone-shattering punch from my club-hand before leaping backwards to separate myself from the fray.
Two bandits turned to pursue me. A tug of thought brought spikes of hardened clay rising up from the packed earth of the road to stop them. One was able to slow down in time. The other wasn’t so fortunate, being shoved by an ally trying to get away from me, and tumbled forward onto the spiked ground.
I used the distraction to put further distance between myself and the queen’s forces. I couldn’t risk trying to join up with them. If they thought I was a monster and attacked me, I wasn’t sure I could bring myself to attack them. Also, I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of the queen’s magic either. The last thing she needed was a distraction from the shaman.
A chain of lightning arced through the air, striking a bandit to my left that had been raising their weapon to attack me. I wasn’t sure if Rieka targeted them intentionally or if the bandit’s sword had just risen into the way at the right time, but an echoing zot noise emanated from the contact point before the man began to tremble and thrash when his muscles locked up.
A moment later, I saw the other end of the chain go flitting overhead, its links glimmering in the sun as it drifted lazily to the shaman, who was in the middle of conjuring a roiling bead of flames. He didn’t see the floating strand of energy as it reached out for him, having disregarded the threat when Rieka’s spell hit the other bandit.
The chain of lightning drifted to the iron horns on his staff, attracted by the metal. The second they made contact, the remaining power in the circuit raced up and out that point of contact.
Wood doesn’t make a very good conductor of electricity, especially old and dried wood like staves are made of. So the power ended up collecting in that metallic headpiece, causing the iron to glow bright orange for a single moment before the wood detonated with a snap and sent the searing hot iron head of the staff spiraling through the air.
Shrieking in surprise, the shaman fell backwards and vanished from sight.
“Forward!” the queen screamed, hope finally breaking through her stoic facade as she saw the opportunity for what it was.
The lance the queen had been conjuring fragmented into a hundred shards and she urged them forward like a storm of arrows to pepper the bandits.
This had the unfortunate effect of also hitting me with several, but only one actually drew blood. A hit to my thigh sent a racing icy chill through that limb, even as my reflexes dulled in response to the creeping cold from the injury.
Swearing under my breath, I scrambled back from the bandits that I’d been fighting, they were no longer a threat as they had wounds of their own. I pried the blade of ice out of my thigh using the claw on my left arm as it was the closest thing to a hand I had left.
“Liam!? Are you okay?” Rieka’s voice echoed from behind me moments before another bolt of lightning slammed into the area that the shaman had vanished. Clearly, my princess didn’t trust that he was down.
“I’ll be fine! Focus!” Even as I shouted it, the shaman bobbed into view and hurtled a ball of fire forward, something shining in his left hand.
The queen was able to ensnare and snuff out the fire before it got to her people, and the guards set about making the most of the disorganized bandit lines.
It was clear to me that the bandit’s spirits were breaking and the battle was turning. But even as I watched, a lucky blow brought one guard down to a knee in spite of their armor. Their fellows slowed their charge to protect their fallen comrade, and the queen’s line faltered as well for a moment.
“Lay down your weapons!” ordered the queen, imperious command echoing over the battlefield as she obviously saw the waning fighting spirit and tried to capitalize on it. She gestured with both her sword and her scepter and a wide blade of ice formed in the air above her.
The bandits hesitated, and I saw the shaman turning towards Rieka, his tiny eyes glittering with malice as another spell began to grow in his hands.
I saw the stack of coins in the shaman’s left hand, the source of the glittering, and reacted with my earth magic this time.
“She said DROP THEM!” I roared, my magic lashing out and snatching at anything and everything made of metal in the group and yanking hard on it.
Bandits lurched as weapons tugged free of their hands or nearly so, guards stumbled as their armor tried to wrench free of their bodies, the queen jumped as her scepter and sword tried to spring free of her hand. Most importantly the bandit’s coins zipped out of his fingers to scatter into the grass.
Directing the magnetic tug I had started, I directed a storm of flying weapons towards the shaman to give him something more to worry about as he flailed to find more of the mana-infused coins. I could feel the mana spiraling out of my body before it hit rock bottom after having pulled on so much metal. I hadn’t tried to shape it, just pull it to one location, thankfully.
The next bolt of lightning from Rieka claimed his life.
It struck two grubby short swords along its way and the flowing electricity found flaws in the metal, causing the swords to explode and send metal fragments in a storm like a hand grenade. The bolt caught the shaman in the chest and sent him into a juddering dance before he collapsed in a heap.
Silence fell as the bandits turned towards me and Rieka where she perched on top of the wagon. Blood flowed from the injury on my thigh and dripped off of both the crab-claw of my left arm and the bone club on my right. It was spattered all over my tattered shirt and ragged pants, speckling my face as well. I’m sure I made quite the terrifying sight to the onlookers.
“Down! Now!” I barked at the bandits in the echoing silence.
Weapons clattered to the ground from nerveless fingers, and the queen broke free of her surprise as well.
“Bind them! I want answers as to what happened here!” The regal wolf woman snapped, her smoke and battle stained dress flowing around her as she moved to circumvent her remaining guards and hurry towards us.
“My lady! That creature is dangerous, we—” protested one of her guards, the swarthy feline man from earlier trying to stop her.
“That is my daughter’s guardian. Do as I ordered, Captain!” the queen barked, not slowing in her hurried march over the packed earth of the road.
Assist your contracted companion, Rieka Coldeye, with the defense of her queen and mother.
Reward - 900 SP
Bonus: See that your summoner remains unharmed - 200 SP
COMPLETED - Bonus awarded
Seeing that the fight had come to a rather abrupt ending with the death of the shaman, who was obviously the bandit leader, I let my combat shifts drop away and shook the blood from my hands, wiping what I couldn’t shake off on my already stained shirt before turning to hold my hands up to Rieka.
My princess smiled down at me, a flyaway bit of her platinum blonde hair having escaped her braid to whip in front of her face. She shifted to sit on the edge of the carriage before dropping down into my arms. I caught her gently and set her on the ground, gently tucking the hair behind her ear just as the queen arrived.
“Rieka, are you okay, my child? I am sorry I left you in that carriage. I didn’t realize how many there were to deal with until they already had us encircled.” The queen’s voice still had that regal tint to it, but I could hear the undercurrent of worry that threatened to shatter her composed facade as she sheathed her sword.
“I’m fine, mother,” Rieka stepped around me to give her mother a curt bow. Her usual outfit of riding pants and a blouse was tattered and stained from the fight, but her mother was in much the same condition with her more elaborate dress so neither looked out of place.
Queen Coldeye studied her daughter for a long moment, her gaze snapping up to me when I shifted to stand behind Rieka.
I ignored her, instead watching the bandits as the handful of guards still on their feet set about binding their hands. One was rifling through the carriage for something and returned with several glass vials that contained shimmering liquid, which they began administering to the injured amongst the guards.
When I didn’t react to the queen’s intense gaze, instead focusing on assessing any threats, she turned her attention back to Rieka with a satisfied smile.
“You were wonderful there, my daughter. Your power has grown by leaps and bounds these last months, as well as your decisive actions. We owe our victory to you in this.”
“No, you owe it to Liam,” Rieka replied bluntly, shaking her head and making her thick braid bounce behind her. “Without his assistance, their attack on the rear would have overwhelmed me. His attack split their attention. And it was his earth magic that disarmed and intimidated them, giving me the opportunity to end their leader.”
I was about to protest her giving me credit, but the queen was already speaking before I could.
“But he is your guardian summon. His actions, therefore, are yours. Without you calling him, he would not have come to aid us. While he did contribute mightily to this, ultimately, that credit lies with you.”
Rieka looked like she was going to protest, so I gently rested my hand on her back, just above where her tail protruded from her riding pants. The light contact made her start and she looked up at me.
“It’s fine, Rieka. She has a point. I’m yours after all,” I murmured to her, giving my princess a wink.
Rieka blushed sharply at my statement, stuttering while she tried to find words to protest.
The queen looked on with an amused smile and a raised eyebrow for a long moment before taking mercy on her daughter.
“We need to check the bandits for any evidence and interrogate them. I will send a rider for more guards and replacement carriages for those that were damaged. I also need to check on the others who were traveling with us to make sure they are okay. For now, I need you by my side, daughter. But take a moment to collect yourself.”
With that, the queen swept away, her regal bearing returned in spite of her singed clothes as she snapped orders to her guards.
One bandit reached for a weapon as she neared. The queen flicked her scepter almost negligently at the man, sending a spear of ice through him with all the interest one gave a fly. That cowed the rest of the bandits to sit and accept their fates.
“Liam, you deserve most of the credit for this!” Rieka protested, turning to look up at me with her sky-blue eyes full of a mixture of emotions that I recognized as affectionate irritation.
“Nope, my princess called, and I answered. Everything else is her credit. Isn’t it lucky that I could help and didn’t make things worse?” I booped her on the nose lightly, making her blink rapidly and cross her eyes to look at the tip of her pert nose for a moment before she turned her gaze back to me, her cheeks coloring faintly.
“Fine… then I will have to find a way to thank you later. Think of this as a deposit on that for now.” Rieka’s blush grew deeper, but she didn’t hesitate as she gripped the front of my shirt and tugged my face down.
I could have resisted, but I didn’t see a reason to do so.
Bending down, I accepted the soft kiss from my wolf kin princess. I could hear the quiet shush of her tail whipping back and forth as she did it and a faint moan of desire trapped between our lips.
To any observer, the kiss was a chase peck on the lips as Rieka had her back to any observers.
Just out of sight of those observers, though, her hand had dipped below my belt line and stroked over my crotch, teasing my manhood into full hardness with her lithe fingertips.
Our lips parted and Rieka panted slightly, her eyes glazed with desire before she took a breath and mastered herself.
“Looking forward to the rest of that repayment,” I muttered, kissing the tip of her nose lightly.
“So am I, my Liam. You’d better go before I jump you right here. My mother is understanding, but she would take exception to that,” Rieka said in a husky tone while working to pull herself back under control.
“Are you sure? There could be more bandits in the area,” I started to protest but Rieka shook her head.
“It’s fine. They won’t catch us by surprise this time. If any do show up, I will summon you back. I’m sure my mother will compensate me for the material cost.” Rieka gave me a wink and started to pull away, but I stopped her.
Instead, I pulled Rieka into a tight hug, crushing her to my chest. My princess stiffened for a moment before softening and snuggling into the hug, the tips of her black-dusted ears tickling my chin for a long moment as we held onto each other.
“Let me know when you are on the move again, okay? And check in to let me know when you arrive safely,” I ordered when we separated.
Rieka nodded, before making the gestures to send me home.
Comments
MDMcVay
Will he go back to Kass or Earth?
