by Russ Primo
Her tits really did look gorgeous in her tight shirt.
"It is," Mette beamed. "That was good spotting, Pryvet!"
"Great," I growled, glancing around and making sure no other elves on our level saw us. "Is the insignia what I think it is?"
Mette nodded, but Kacie looked confused.
"It's an entrance to, I hope, an escape tunnel like the one we used to flee Mette's temple," I explained. "Do you know where it goes, Mette?"
She shook her head, and said, "Away from here?"
I couldn't help but laugh at that, and felt that we might just get out of here in one piece just fine.
"Come on, then," I said, pointing to a set of cleared stairs leading down to the courtyard. "Just jump the bodies."
It should have been a straight shot to the door.
It would have been a straight shot to the door.
But, of course, we'd made at least one serious enemy, who seemed determined to harry our every step.
The gorgeous, blonde elf commander looked beyond furious at us, as we leapt a dead Valkyrie on the last two stairs, running out into the courtyard.
"Double shit," I breathed, stretching my fingers that had grown tired from supporting the shield through so many strong shots and deflections.
The elf general, or whatever her position actually was, carried her long bow easily in one hand, a bolt half as tall as herself and as wide as my wrist was clutched in her other hand. Three lay on the ground at her feet, ready to be used.
Her long, blonde hair flowed around her face like angry tentacles, and her face itself seemed horrid.
The burning oil that had set her alight had clearly burned for some while, and a furious red splotch of burned flesh ran from her temple to cheek.
Her right eye was completely missing, and its empty socket made me nothing so much as hopeful that it would at least hinder her depth perception.
"You!" she snarled as her one good eye alighted upon us. "I will kill you here and now! And then I'll take your eye for my own, you fucking Debtor!"
With terrifying smoothness, she knocked her arrow and drew her bow back tight, aiming it dead at me.
She stood, at most, fifty feet away, a distance far too close for comfort. After all, she’d struck me from across a whole temple yesterday.
I figured, eye or no eye, now was not the time to trust my instincts and deflect her shot.
Now was simply the time to block.
Block or die, Pryvet.
Gritting my teeth at the thought of how hard this would slam into my arm, I raised my shield in front of me, assuming a stance to let my legs absorb a good part of the blow, and motioning the women to get in line behind me.
“You think that little thing will save you, boy!" the elf general cackled. "This will break your arm, even if it doesn't break your shield. Then, I'll finish you!"
I took a deep breath at the moment I saw her fingers release the bowstring, tensing my whole body in preparation for absorbing the impact.
And then it hit my shield, traveling with such force that I felt my shield's bindings strain against my bone, that I felt every muscle in my whole body cry out in protest at my demands to deal with it, felt my shoulder nearly pop out of the socket as the elf's words were nearly proven right, and the impact's force threatened to shear my bones apart.
"Aggghhhh," I moaned when the huge arrow banged to the ground at my feet.
Another one of those, and she’s right. I’m done for.
My whole arm felt like it was on fire, every muscle crying out for healing that I didn't have time to provide, the shield's blue light still thrumming with the arrow's impact, even as the elf snickered and stooped to retrieve the second.
Straightening up and knocking the arrow, I figured her next shot probably would break my arm, even if I managed to deflect it.
If we didn't find another way to escape.
"Mette, Mira, Kacie," I groaned, holding my shield aloft once more. "See if you can find another way out. Because this one probably will break my arm, and then we're done for."
"Right," Kacie cried, her head whipping around to scan the area.
"I can just shoot her, Pryvet!" Mira yelled behind me. "Let me shoot her!"
I shook my head.
"If this next one breaks my arm, Mira," I groaned. "You can shoot her. But, otherwise you’ll be in her line of fire, completely exposed.”
With what felt like agonizing slowness, the elf general drew back the string until it was set at its furthest point, so taught I could practically see the bow's wood humming with the pent-up energy.
I braced myself for what would come, any thought of what to do next submitting to the animal need to simply block, to save myself for the next assault.
"Acwellan!"
The call came a set of stairs to our right, and I found my eyes darting over to it, even as the elf herself trained her arrowhead on the noise.
Running down the stairs, with her guardswomen in tow, was none other than Lyst.
I didn't know whether to hug her, or tell Mira that she could shoot her.
"Acwellan, cease!" Lyst yelled, moving her hands in a strange way and sending what must have been something like magical shockwaves blasting from herself, at the same moment as the elf, Acwellan, sneered and loosed the arrow.
All around Lyst, the shockwaves knocked down elf and Valkyrie alike, even sending Acwellan, herself, to her butt in consternation.
Our path to the doorway was suddenly cleared for us.
But, still, Acwellan's arrow sailed on, cutting through the shockwave like an over-sharpened knife through warm butter.
With a sickening snap, the arrow struck Lyst's arm and, in a show of gore and blood and sinew, tore the entire thing away from her body.
Lyst's body thudded heavily onto the ground as she collapsed.
"Pryvet!" Mira yelled as my eyes absorbed her fall, "The door! We can make it!"
I looked behind me, seeing each of the women ready to make a mad dash to safety, but waiting for my lead.
And, surprising even myself, I could not move towards our escape, not while Lyst lay there, the pain so intense in her body that she'd surely die shortly.
"We can't leave her like that," I said, still surprising myself as the words exited my lips. "Mette, will that healing pendant of yours help her?"
Mette looked sick at the mere thought of helping Lyst, probably of helping any of the Valkyries, who'd tried to ensnare us.
"I don't know that I even want to try," Mette groaned, even as I could see in her face that she'd do whatever I asked of her.
"She's your Sister, right?" I reasoned, my brain working hard and fast, seeing the elf Acwellan rise from the ground again. "And maybe this wins her over to our side. What The Mother's plan is, I've no idea. But, we need allies, for whatever happens on the other side of that door!"
Mette screwed up her face, grimacing at Lyst's motionless body.
"All right," she said. "Block for us, though. And if I say that it won't work, believe me and lead us out of here."
I smiled, nodded, said, "Thank you, Mette. You women all stay behind me, now."
My shield-arm was still deadened by the blow Acwellan's arrow had dealt me, but I gripped our protection even stronger to spite it.
Behind me, Mira and Kacie knelt with Mette over Lyst's blood-soaked body.
I was getting used to not knowing certain languages, alphabets, or speech, and I had no idea what the words that Mette whispered over Lyst's body meant.
But, I had an idea that it was working, as I heard the soft shush of flesh dragging itself over smooth stone, her severed arm returning to her shoulder, her shoulder popping back into place, the weird sickening slick of what must have been her tendons embracing one another, the hushed slap of muscles rejoining each other.
All my sight, though, was focused on Acwellan, as she drew back her bow, her eyes locked onto mine.
"Almost finished?" I called behind me when Mette's muttering came to
a lull.
"Yes, Pryvet," Mette whispered, sounding amazed at what she'd accomplished. "Another ten seconds."
"Good," I growled. "Everyone, get down. She's about to shoot.”
A soft twang reverberated throughout the courtyard as Acwellan loosed her arrow, and at that moment everything around me seemed to slow to a stop.
I don't know whether it was due to the magic released from my Debt, in seeding Kacie, or some weird fluke of adrenaline, but at once it seemed like I could actually parry this shot, and do some real damage to the elf.
Closing my eyes for the briefest of moments, I called on my battered arm one more time, and then called on my Debt itself to aid me.
When I opened them, I was amazed to see all the broken twigs, sticks, and branches of my Debt flowering into gorgeous whites, yellows, reds, growing longer and wide, stretching out in a soft arc over my head even as fruit of all kinds sprouted from the flowers' petals, apples, pears, even oranges.
Soon, it was like we were, all of us, enclosed in a deeply-wooded grove, the branches cocooning around us and protecting us from all harm.
Through those branches, I followed the arrow's path as it soared towards us, and prepared to block it.
But, the strange pause in time wasn't the only odd thing that would occur.
For, strangely, I heard my shield's desire, almost like a voice inside my head, to parry the arrow.
"Let me do it, Master," my Debt seemed to say. "I have been so cooped up for so long, I desire to stretch my limbs.”
What in the Hell?
But, when a manifestation of your primordial Debt asks you to do something, I was quickly becoming of the opinion that you should do it.
And so, I waited, watching the arrow's slow arc towards us, until it was mere inches away from the branched surface of my shield's new strength, and at that moment I left the shield guide my arm forward and up, towards the arrow itself, clacking into it and following through, sending the arrow right back, for a second and I hoped final time, to the elf Acwellan.
Or, so I hoped.
All at once, the slow motion of the world resumed its frantic pace, and all the leaves, branches, fruit of my shield shrank back into it, leaving it just as it had been a moment before.
"Ready, Pryvet!" Mette yelled. "Give the word, and let's go!"
But I didn't give the word, not right away. I wanted to see the arrow kill that elf, and I wouldn't let my wishes be sidetracked when they'd only take a moment to fulfill.
Alas, Acwellan must have been well-loved, for though the arrow I parried shot straight and true, one of her compatriots had leapt up from the ground and lurched into its path, letting the force pierce her breastplate to the heart and still knocking her fully back, tumbling into Acwellan and sending the pair sprawling.
"Fuck!" I yelled, in spite of myself. "I hate these gods-damned elves!"
Then, spinning around on my heel, I called to the women, "All right, let's go!"
Kacie and Mira sprang up in an instant, but Mette's forearm was grasped tight in Lyst's fist.
"Mira," I yelled, about to just give her the order to yank Mette away, when Lyst's fist uncurled and Mette, to my surprise, yelled back, "You ungrateful cow! I should kill you here and now!" and kicked hard at Lyst's just-repaired shoulder.
Turning to us, she growled, "Ready, Pryvet!"
We all took off towards the door, Mette yelling out an incantation that swung the stone insignia wide open, letting us pour into it and away from the crush of chaos and danger behind us.
Chapter Nineteen
A sickening crack, from inside Aegid, split the portal-blocked room as we spilled bodily through the door.
Turning mid-fall, I glimpsed Lyst’s face screwed up in concentration, a look of utter and complete contempt writhing on her every feature.
Fury played itself out so plainly on her face that I raised my shield instinctively, ready to defend against whatever magic she worked.
“Down!” I yelled to Mira, Kacie, and Mette as Lyst’s hands rose in the same way as that which preceded the blast she’d bowled over Acwellan with. “Now!”
The women dropped to the ground in an instant, their bodies thudding against what sounded like soil, instead of stone, and I moved into position before them, to guard the gorgeous beauties with my shield.
“I’m going to close the doors!” I yelled, advancing toward the shimmering image of Aegid which floated in the air before us.
But, I needn’t have bothered.
With a slam, Lyst’s hands clapped down hard against the paving stones before her, and I watched in awe as the whole mezzanine in front of the portal collapsed, crashing down to the floor in a cacophony of splintered stone.
The stones fell heavily. First, one, and then two, and then ten in a jumble of heavy solidness that fully blocked the entrance from the portal, and locked us safe within whatever new world we’d walked into.
The vision of Aegid, even obscured as it was by crumbled stone, flickered as though fighting to remain visible.
For a few moments, it hung there, shimmering like it was fighting back against some great force, bent on its destruction.
Then, the portal collapsed.
Every side of the shimmering string that constituted the portal’s barrier clapped together like the strings on a harp.
Darkness descended upon us, cloaking our bodies in the night of whatever world we had stepped out into.
But, is it the darkness of a child’s bedroom, or of a surgeon’s chambers?
“Is everyone all right?” I called out, swinging my shield above my head and casting light upon the grass at our feet. “Are any of us hurt?”
Soft, amazed answers of, “No,” of, “I’m fine,” of, “Pryvet, how are you so amazing?” greeted me.
Good. At least, if we have no idea where we are, we at least know what we are.
Safe.
We’re safe
“Mette?” I called out, searching amongst the grass at my feet for the busty temple priestess. “Where are we? I thought that the portal would let us out into a tunnel?”
“Here, Pryvet,” Mette sighed, and I followed her voice to see her sitting, huddled together with Mira and Kacie. “I don’t know where the portal took us to. It’s too dark to recognize this forest. And, even if it weren’t, I have the feeling that I wouldn’t know the trees, anyway. This was an escape door, not one of those hallways to connect the temples. We priestesses are not supposed to use it.”
Sighing, I slumped down to the ground with the women, and laid my tired, sore body against their huddled warmth.
“You may not know where we are,” Mira said happily, “But I know what we are.”
“Oh?” I sighed, closing my eyes and feeling my exhaustion overtake me. “And what are we, Mira?”
“We’re safe,” Kacie cut off the perky temple maiden. “We’re safe, Pryvet. Because of you.”
In spite of myself, I smiled and laughed.
“You know, Kacie,” I yawned, feeling like resting my head on their warm breasts was much more comfortable than letting them rest their heads on me, “I think you’re right.
“We are safe. At least, we are for now.”
Kacie sighed, and started running her long, slender fingers through my hair.
Gently, I felt her plant a soft, tender kiss on my head.
Then I felt two more pairs of lips do the same, as I closed my eyes and let my body relax into their warmth.
Hey, Pryvet. After all, you’ve earned this and more.
Enjoy it.
End of Book 1
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Russ Primo writes Men’s Adventures in many styles, but leans towards the harem-y.
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