Monstergirl Quest
Book Three
by C.S. Darknight
Copyright 2021 © by C.S. Darknight
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter One
Having a fifth Mananymph joining my party brought a whole new slew of possibilities. Between her promise to help us gain an army of wood elves, along with the power she brought to the party with her mysterious green magic, I was more than excited.
But Pandora agreed with me. Once they finished their long-overdue reunion in front of Corvus Gavrus’ cottage, we got right back to training. After all, I was still learning to get comfortable with my new battle mage class.
Corvus Gavrus and Bella were inside the cottage, complimenting each other’s illusion skills to get the word out to the Empire’s citizens that the Emperor had been in league with the Necromancer. “Earthman, before we start, let me call on Corvus or Bella to come out here and cast a muffle noise spell on us,” Pandora said.
That was a good idea, yeah. Though we were well-hidden with the help of Corvus’ illusion skills, having a loud training session out in the open might lure in some of those Imperial Legion bastards that were scattered around the area.
Pandora was just about to go inside to ask for help when I stopped her. “Hold on a second,” I said. “Let me see if I can handle it.”
Becoming a war mage had boosted all of my magic skills, along with my illusion magic. With that came a number of new spells for me to cast, as well as all the bonuses that came with it. I pulled up the spell list on my Second Sight.
MUFFLE NOISE (GROUP)
EFFECT: MUFFLE NOISE ON ENTIRE PARTY FOR 30 MINUTES
Sephara and Esmerelda were watching impatiently. Sephara cocked her head to the side, and the warm afternoon sun washed over her face. “Oh no, the Earthman knows more spells now,” she said, grinning to her sisters. “I bet ten gold coins that he lights his own butt on fire playing with destruction magic.”
I laughed then cast a sarcastically stern look her way. “If I keep boosting my illusion skills, maybe I’ll cast a long-term silence spell on you,” I shot back.
Sephara giggled then scampered up behind me and poked me in the ribs with the dull end of her silver spear. I threw an arm around her and hugged her as I cast the muffle noise spell.
Green illusion magic mist burst quietly around the area. Now, anyone outside of the range of the spell wouldn’t be able to hear any of the noises we made.
Yeah, I was starting to appreciate my new war mage skills. The boosts easily outweighed the drawbacks.
All the while, Layla sat off to the side, sitting cross-legged in the bushes, watching me interact with her sisters. Though I gained a measure of her trust when I told her that I’d killed the Spriggan King, the newest Mananymph in my party was more distrustful than the rest had been. She’d come around eventually, or so I hoped.
“Alright,” I said. “Let’s do this and –”
Sephara, though the healer of our party, still never resisted the temptation to put herself in a position to strike first. She jabbed her spear at me, giggling as she thrust it, and I quickly cast a fortify speed spell and blocked it with the Soulguard.
“Too slow,” I grinned.
“Not me,” Esmerelda said in her silky tone as the destruction-skilled Mananymph hurled a ball of lighting at me.
Now, this was what I was really interested in. Though I hadn’t gotten the skill boost initially, with a little practice, I managed to unlock a hidden spell absorption boost for my war mage skillset.
+5 SPELL ABSORPTION
Not quite overpowered on the face of it, but absorbing offensive magic was a tough skill to learn, and even more valuable in the field. Though the plus-five didn’t seem like much, it made my spell absorption skill that much more formidable. I’d already trained the skill to a decent level and the Soulguard inherently boosted that stat, as well.
Sephara darted to the side to get out of the way of the lightning blast. I casually raised the Soulguard and absorbed it immediately. I harnessed the lightning and the Soulguard hummed and crackled with electric energy. Back when I first started my quests in this realm, when I absorbed spells, I’d feel at least a little bit of the impact. Now, with my skill boosted and trained, I hardly felt it at all.
I dispersed the magic, rather than launching it back at Esmerelda. We were just training, after all, and her spell absorption stats weren’t as high as mine.
Sephara came at me again, giggling her familiar girlish giggle as she peppered me with spear thrusts. She came quicker this time, having cast a fortify speed spell of her own, and twice she nearly caught me off guard, but I still managed to parry every blow.
BLOCK SKILL INCREASED +1
From the other angle, Esmerelda cast an ice spell that frosted the ground beneath my feet. I nearly slid and lost my balance on the frozen earth below. Sephara took this advantage to press the attack some more. Yet I kept one eye on my surroundings, knowing that Pandora had yet to –
“Hah!” Pandora laughed as she came up to my left, unleashing a TK blast just as I was about to slip and bust my ass on the ice.
I spun, Soulguard at the ready, and absorbed the spell with hardly any effort.
Pandora let out a friendly grunt of frustration, though it was mostly for show. “Alright sisters, we need to think of a new strategy,” Pandora said.
“Yeah, it turns out even idiot Earthmen can learn to wield magic efficiently,” Sephara laughed.
I carefully stepped off the ice underfoot and waved at the Mananymphs to attack again. “C’mon now, show the Earthman what you got,” I said, laughing.
That was when I noticed the strange, pulsating light emanating from Layla’s eyes.
Her eyes, which were already a mixture of muted golden amber shades, suddenly shone bright as she sat by the bushes, watching us train.
It took me a moment to realize why she was smiling.
I went to cut left as Pandora came at me, only to realize that my left foot wouldn’t move. I looked down at the ground and saw a writhing mass of vines and tree roots constricting around my ankle.
“You should learn to keep one eye on the ground when you’re in the forest, Earthman,” Layla said from afar.
The next thing I knew, Sephara was giggling as she pointed her silver spear tip at my neck. Pandora was winding up with a massive TK force bomb spell, and Esmerelda was behind me, with twin fireballs hovering over her open palms.
“Yield?” Pandora said.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright, just this once, I yield,” I answered. I turned to Layla. She still had the leafy hood of her robe pulled around her face, but even with her features in the shadows, her smile was downright arresting.
“That was a nifty spell you used,”
I told her.
“Green magic isn’t well understood among the city folk,” Layla said. She leaned against a tree trunk with her arms crossed. I tried not to stare, but I was dying to know what she looked like under that robe. But even more than that, I was dying to know her story.
I’d known that there was a handful of Mananymphs living hidden around the Empire, but how did Layla end up living in Darkwood Forest among the wood elves for all these years?
Her small, yet sharp smile turned sharper, because she must have seen these questions written across my face. “I suppose we have plenty to talk about,” Layla said.
“We do, sister,” Pandora answered. “We have lots of catching up to do.”
Layla nodded. “Indeed,” she said. “But my stomach is rumbling. I was out looking for breakfast when I ran into those Imperial stooges earlier. How about lunch before we get into it?”
*****
Though Layla insisted that she didn’t need an escort in the woods, me and Pandora insisted that we come along.
“You’re deadly as hell with a bow and arrow,” I’d told her, “but bumping into two-dozen Imperial Legion bastards would still be a tough fight.”
“And I’ve grown accustomed to having my sisters around me,” Pandora added. “And I don’t want to risk harm coming to any of them.”
Eventually, Layla relented, though she refused to let me cast any camouflage magic on her. “The woods are my camouflage, Earthman,” she said with a smile, then strode into the dense woods with a confident stride.
Of course, while she didn’t let me camouflage her, she did allow me to cast a spell on her that would allow her to see and hear me and Pandora, despite our magical cover. Otherwise, though, no one would have been able to see or hear Pandora and I following along behind her.
Watching Layla hunt was intriguing. She strutted through the woods as though she could do it with her eyes closed. Of course, she didn’t actually have to go hunting. Using her green magic, she could gain a certain amount of control over animals. She’d displayed this to me when we first met, when she’d gotten a bear and some wolves to attack me. With that power, she could have simply gotten a deer to come to her.
“But that’s one thing I’ll never do,” she explained. “Living as I have, in these woods, you learn to respect the life that surrounds you. I love and respect a deer, even if I’ll hunt it and eat it. However, given that love and respect, I’d never manipulate it in that way. There’s no honor in it and, besides, it would disrespect the forest.”
I appreciated her willpower immediately and admired the way she strode through the forest. Then, even though she didn’t have any way to cast a detect life spell, she sensed some prey deeper in the trees, perhaps twenty yards ahead of us.
She stopped, slowly and silently took the bow from her shoulder, and slid out of her robe made from all those vines and leaves.
Her hair was the color of tree bark, an organic shade of brown that bounced down to past her shoulders. I admired her vaguely elfin features, her pointed ears, but when she let her robe drop to the ground, my jaw almost did, as well.
Her light armor was a lot like her robe. It was woven from leaves and vines, thick enough to provide some protection yet clinging to her lithe body like a second skin. Small as she was, her body was both athletic and full of graceful femininity. Her every movement was both precise yet fluid, and I did my best not to gawk at her.
Pandora laughed. “Layla always was a pretty one,” she said.
I slid an arm around Pandora and kissed her cheek. “You’re all knockouts,” I said, which was certainly no lie.
Then Layla sprung into action. We had to hurry along to keep up with her as she suddenly and silently leaped up into the trees. Even as she scaled the trees to hunt the deer, she kept to her word, and used none of her green magic to assist her in her hunt.
No, she tracked down the deer on pure skill alone. She blended into the trees effortlessly, and so completely that Pandora and I had to cast detect life spells so we wouldn’t lose track of her. She swung from branch to branch, hardly making a sound, until she came upon the single adult deer lapping up water from a stream.
Deftly, she drew her arrow back in yet another fluid, certain motion. When she let the arrow fly, it hardly made a sound. In less time than it took to blink, the arrow struck true, right through the deer’s heart, killing the animal instantly and painlessly.
“Wow,” I said.
Layla skittered down to the forest floor, toward the dead deer. She knelt down to it, pressed her forehead against it, and whispered a prayer of thanks.
When she was finished, I stepped forward to help. “I can carry it back to the cottage if you’d like,” I said.
Layla shot a look at me that could have penetrated a full suit of iron armor. I didn’t know why she was so offended, not until she hefted the adult deer up onto her shoulders.
I backed away from her playfully, putting my hands up. “Sorry,” I said.
Layla winked at me, flashing her golden gaze, and she was so cute that she nearly knocked me onto my butt. “Soon, I’ll show you the ways of the forest folk,” Layla said, then started back the way we came. “Now let’s hurry. I’m starving.”
*****
Pandora and Esmerelda were outside, helping Layla with the deer. Pandora helped dress the meat then Esmerelda used fire magic to cook it.
Meanwhile, I was inside with Bella. She’d been working tirelessly throughout the morning, using her illusion magic to create eagles that were, as we spoke, darting around various cities and towns in the Empire.
Bella, though timid most of the time, was an absolute warrior when it came to illusion magic. Somehow, she’d been able to compartmentalize her usage of every eagle. At the moment, she was speaking through the illusory eagles to various townsfolk around the Empire, informing them that the Emperor had been in league with the Necromancer, willing to sacrifice so many lives just to crush the rebellion.
“She’s quite driven,” Corvus Gavrus said as we watched her work from across the room.
“Yeah, no shit,” I said.
She was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, with her eyes shut tight as she channeled her illusion magic across the Empire. It was physically taxing for her, that much was obvious, and there were beads of sweat rolling down her face.
Of course, Bella wasn’t the only one sending eagles across the Empire.
Though Corvus Gavrus couldn’t put forth the same effort that Bella was – he was too busy sustaining his illusion magic to keep us hidden in the woods – he did have an eagle in the air, as well.
“Have you seen them yet?” I asked.
Corvus frowned and shook his head. This morning, after I told him my plan, he’d sent an eagle to the Southern Mountains, in search of the orcs that resided there. The orc warlord named Gorrok would bring a big advantage to our side if he agreed to help us push the Imperial Legion out of Homehold and Silverton.
“Nothing yet, Gamelord,” Corvus answered. “But don’t be disheartened. It’s big, big country to the south, and the orcs are never eager to let outsiders know their whereabouts.”
“Still, I thought that, with the Necromancer dead and his forces having vanished, the orcs might be easier to spot,” I said. “They don’t have to hide out in their mountains strongholds like they did before.”
“Perhaps they’re unaware that the Necromancer is dead?” Corvus asked.
“Maybe,” I answered.
Or, and this was something I didn’t want to consider, maybe they were still hiding out in the mountains because a new threat had emerged.
“Let me know if you see anything suspicious,” I said to Corvus.
“Of course, Gamelord,” he answered. “I’ve been to the South Mountains more than a few times, I must say. Though I don’t know this Gorrok character, I’ve met other orcs aplenty. Stout folk, they are. Forget the undead. They’d long endured myriad other threats and, still, the orc tribes remain alive and well.�
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Yeah, I wouldn’t bet against Gorrok and his people when it came to a fight. Still, something about the situation had me feeling uneasy. I guess we’d find out what was going on with the orcs in due time.
Now, Bella was just about finished her work for the morning. Her face suddenly relaxed. She exhaled, long and loud and full of relief. When she opened her eyes and saw me admiring her, she smiled sweetly.
“How are the citizens taking the news?” I asked.
Bella smiled as I helped her to her feet. “About the way we expected, Champion,” Bella answered. “Some are enraged. Some aren’t surprised at all. There are some, of course, who laugh off the news as nothing but rebel propaganda…but some of that might be for show.”
That could have been true. As we’d seen time and again during our travels, the smallfolk of the Empire would often be loudly anti-rebel in public, but that was just to make sure they weren’t accused of being rebel sympathizers themselves.
“More interesting, though,” Bella went on as I helped her take a seat at the kitchen table. “Are the reactions from some of the Imperial troops.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Is that so?” I asked.
She nodded. “Don’t get me wrong. Most are nakedly hostile toward the eagles, and usually try to kill the illusions before I have the chance to finish speaking my piece. But more than I’d hoped seem to be displeased by the news. Obviously, they don’t say as much aloud.”
“Well yeah,” I agreed. “They know that, if they do, they’d be tossed into jail or worse.”
“But I can see it in their faces, Gamelord,” Bella said as she sipped from a cool glass of water. Her smile grew wider. “Many legionnaires are beginning to doubt their Emperor.”
And why wouldn’t they? Though cruelty and naked corruption were common among the Imperial troops, a number of them were, naturally, just regular people doing their job. Not every Imperial was a rabid supporter of the Emperor. Maybe, just maybe, we could use that to our advantage.
Bella was already thinking what I was thinking.
“I’m doubling my efforts in areas containing large amounts of Imperial troops,” she said. “If we can get just a bit of support among them…”
Monstergirl Quest Book Three Page 1
