Metal Mage 12

by Eric Vall

  “Shit,” I hissed, and the man let out a gravelly chuckle.

  I kept my grip on the hilt, though, and within two more blows, my arm had healed itself.

  Now, the man hesitated, and I could tell the darkness was confusing him.

  I should have faltered after a hit like that, but I was coming at him just the same, and I grinned when the moonlight glinted through the trees and fell over us.

  The assassin’s eyes went wide as he realized my wrist was fully healed, and his sword lowered a few inches.

  “Bet you wish you took the money now,” I growled, and I caught his shoulder with the tip of my blade.

  The cloaked man lurched backward and ducked behind a tree, and he bolted for the rocky incline as I tore off after him. I pursued him for several yards all along the edge of the canal before I managed to strike him down, and he rolled and shot back to his feet with his sword at the ready.

  Then I countered his strikes as I drove him up the rocky incline, and he was out of breath when I finally knocked his sword from his hand and planted my boot against his chest.

  The man crashed back against a lofty outcropping of stone, and he wheezed as he tumbled to the ground.

  The Rosh was buzzing full throttle in my head now, and my adrenaline was spiked as I wiped the sweat from my eyes. This guy really put up a hell of a fight, but I couldn’t deny I was having an awesome time fucking with him. Part of me didn’t even want to kill him anymore. I just needed to get that name out of him.

  In the meantime, though, dueling my ass off for it was surprisingly fun, so I snatched his sword from the ground and tossed it over with a grin.

  The assassin fumbled to grab the blade from the rocks as I slowly came forward, but he managed to block my next attack before he got to his feet.

  Then I kept after him as we sparred our way over the outcropping, down the incline, and along the canal, and I was grinning the whole time while I countered every one of his maneuvers. We tore through the shadows of the trees once more before I switched up my stance, and I couldn’t help chuckling as I forced him back up the incline again.

  The assassin’s grating breaths shook with exhaustion now, and when I threw him off balance, he crashed back down the hill as his head slammed against the rocks. He still got back up on his feet by the time I reached him, though, and he let out a furious roar as he drove his blade at my throat.

  Luckily, I wasn’t nearly as tired as him, and I blocked his attack in two quick steps, and when I recognized the panic etching his bloody face, I knew I had him on the ropes now.

  Another few minutes like this, and that name would be mine.

  So, I went full bore on him again, and the cloaked man’s breaths came heavy and fast as he growled with every strike. Sweat flew from both of us as I drove him toward the edge of the canal, and the exhausted man struggled to keep his footing on the jagged rocks. Then he risked a glance toward the raging river at his back, and in one swift motion, I cornered him between the stone and the thirty-foot drop.

  “Last chance,” I warned as I caught my breath.

  The cloaked man was smattered with blood, and his sword was shaking, but despite how much blood I had on me, I was unmarred and could’ve gone for another hour. He knew it, too, because his sword began to lower as he eyed the black water rushing below.

  So, I waited him out while I swayed a little from the Rosh, but then the assassin’s free arm shot out from beneath his cloak, and he hurled a dagger identical to the one that had gotten me in Yerich.

  The blade pierced me right in the hollow of my shoulder before I could duck, and my sword clanged to the ground as my arm went limp. I dropped down while I wrenched the dagger free, but when I reached for my sword, I had no control over the muscles in my hand.

  I willed my rune to heal me faster while the assassin bored down on me, and I felt the steel of his blade graze my ear as I rolled to dodge him. He was only two strides from me now, but he stopped short of reaching me, and when I looked up, the man was clawing at his neck while he struggled to breathe.

  That’s when I noticed four slender silhouettes coming down the outcropping in the moonlight, and one held a revolver while another had a Halcyan dagger in hand.

  “Wait!” I tried, but my women were too fast.

  Cayla fired two shots, and Shoshanne must have released the man’s lungs, because he shrieked as his elbows shattered. Then the princess took out his kneecaps next, and Aurora’s flames ignited beneath him to catch his fall. The man flailed to escape the flames as his tortured screams rent the air, but Aurora didn’t let him burn up completely.

  Instead, the Ignis Mage doused her fire as Deya pounced from the boulders.

  Then my buck-naked women closed in to watch as my beautiful elf stabbed the guy five times in the neck, and even after his gurgling wails cut out, she kept at it.

  Deya screeched Elvish curses while she went full-on Jack the Ripper, and as blood splattered the other women, they just silently looked down on the scene.

  I was gaping in horror, though, because I’d seen my women kill a lot of shit, but not like this. This was ruthless, gory manslaughter, and the sound of innards being hammered to a pulp by Deya’s blade made me gag repeatedly. My shock kept me numb while bits of shredded flesh flew in my direction, and as I considered the cold glares of my bloody, naked women, I couldn’t decide if I should throw up or run for my life.

  Eventually, I realized the elf wasn’t stopping any time soon, and I had to intercede.

  “Deya, he’s dead!” I yelped, and I dragged Deya off the mutilated assassin while she continued hacking away until the last moment.

  Only when she stopped flailing did I finally release her, and my women came over with smug grins as Deya caught her breath.

  “Don’t worry,” the elf panted. “We got him, Mason.”

  “Are you okay?” Aurora asked as she placed her hand on my arm.

  “What the fuck!” I exclaimed. “What … what? What did I just see?”

  “We saved you,” Shoshanne said in confusion.

  “You thrashed that guy!” I clarified. “You picked him off one limb at a time, burned him alive, and massacred him!”

  “Good riddance,” Deya snorted.

  “He deserved what he got,” Cayla informed me.

  “He almost had you,” Aurora growled.

  “I was wearing him down so I could get him to answer the fucking question,” I sighed.

  “What question?” Shoshanne asked.

  “Who is trying to kill me!” I groaned.

  “Ohhhh,” Deya muttered. “That was a good idea.”

  My women all looked back at the butchered corpse lying in a pool of blood, and then they kept their eyes lowered as they turned to face me.

  “Sorry, Mason,” Shoshanne mumbled. “We didn’t know.”

  “Yeah, we’re really sorry,” Cayla sighed.

  My blood-splattered women fidgeted with their weapons as they continued sheepishly apologizing, but I could only stare at the lacerated guts of the assassin while I tried to keep my cool.

  “It’s okay,” I managed through gritted teeth, “but frankly, I don’t understand how all of this came about to begin with.”

  “We woke up and heard the blades clashing, and you were breathing heavily …” Aurora muttered.

  “And it was so dark, and you were near the edge,” Deya added.

  “You were bloody and swaying,” Shoshanne mumbled.

  “Uh-huh, breathing … darkness … sure.” I shrugged. “This was one guy, though. One! One not possessed, totally regular guy with nothing but a couple blades. What gave you the impression this one guy required all four of you to come out here and slaughter the fuck out of him?”

  “Mason, you are the father of our hypothetical babies!” Cayla scoffed.

  “And my real baby!” Deya added as she waved her bloody dagger.

  “Yeah, do you expect us to just sit back and do nothing to protect you when you’re in mortal danger?�
�� Aurora challenged. “You mean everything to us, and we’re building a family together! If anything happened to you … ”

  The half-elf trailed off, and silence fell while the women looked at each other.

  I could practically see the light bulbs going off as they realized what they were saying, and I couldn’t believe this was what it took for them to understand where I was coming from all this time. Still, despite the mutilated corpse next to us, I wasn’t even upset anymore.

  Because my women had inner mommy demons.

  Ruthless, cold-blooded mommy demons who would meticulously cut a man down and butcher him to a pulp just for me.

  So, yeah … I was grinning like a jackass as I crossed my arms and nodded.

  “Feeling a little overprotective, are we?” I asked. “Almost like you couldn’t help following your most basic instinct to protect the person you love at all costs. I can relate.”

  Cayla bit her lip. “Okay, we get it now.”

  “Good, because … ” I took a deep, rejuvenating breath. “I genuinely cannot promise I won’t try to protect you guys when the shit hits the fan. It’s physically impossible, as I think you understand now. The best I can do is try to step back a bit so you guys get to do your thing, but there will definitely be times when I kill your attackers for you, and we all need to be appreciative of that, rather than pissed as hell. Deal?”

  “Deal,” Cayla agreed, and the others nodded.

  “Does that mean you’re appreciative now?” Deya asked hopefully.

  “No, Deya,” Shoshanne sighed. “We overdid this one.”

  “But I’m still grateful,” I clarified. “This was sorta sweet. Very scary, but sweet … and inconvenient.”

  “It won’t happen again,” Cayla promised. “Not like this, anyway.”

  “Yeah, this was admittedly sloppy,” Aurora agreed. “Too much at once.”

  “You know, I bet if Nulena was here, this would have been more impressive,” Shoshanne pointed out. “We could have tightened up the execution.”

  “Or not,” I tossed out. “You could have let me do my thing, and by now, we would know who’s been trying to kill me.”

  “Or that,” Deya mumbled.

  “Are you mad?” Aurora checked, but as my naked half-elf blinked her emerald eyes in the moonlight, I couldn’t find a scrap of irritation in me.

  “No, this was good for us,” I sighed. “I think we’re all understanding each other a little better. Let’s just … get the blood washed off you guys and call it a night.”

  “What about the body?” Shoshanne asked, and we all turned.

  After my women’s attack, the assassin looked like juicy ground beef with four charred limbs sticking out, and his guts were splattered on every rock for five feet in each direction.

  So, I summoned my Terra powers, and I let him sink far below the surface with all his bloody rocks, too.

  Then I dropped my arm around Deya’s shoulders, and with Aurora’s hand in mine, I led my nude women back up the blackened hill toward the train.

  “I need a cuddle,” the beautiful elf pouted.

  “You need to give me that dagger first,” I muttered, and I carefully disarmed her. “And a shower.”

  Chapter 18

  We left Rainard at sunrise the next morning to make our way north to Rajeen, and my women seemed to be twice as snuggly after their manslaughter episode. While I worked with the Defenders to get more provisions loaded up, my lovers followed me around sneaking hugs or kisses, and when I spoke with Lord Allen on the platform before departure, all four of my women had their elbows perched on the windowsill while they waited.

  It was like losing their minds for those ten minutes last night had put everything into perspective, and I wasn’t the person keeping them from enjoying their battles anymore. I was the amazing guy who would go into kill-mode in seconds flat to protect them, and this was a positive thing.

  Go figure.

  So, when my women began discussing how they might have coordinated their murder better, I just nodded along and worked on my breakfast, because if butchering people was gonna be a thing, may as well keep it orderly.

  Deya agreed she should work on self-control, though, and she insisted she’d never been one to get so stab-happy before. Shoshanne decided it was either the pregnancy or all of her time spent transmuting with dragons that was to blame, and Aurora was ecstatic to hear it.

  “Gods, I hope we’re that kind of pregnant by the time we storm the Master’s fortress,” the half-elf mused. “I bet the four of us could massacre half his troops on our own if Mason gets even a little close to danger.”

  “Mason wouldn’t have to go at all, then,” Shoshanne said with a hopeful smile. “He could stay safe at home, and we can take care of--”

  “No,” I firmly countered. “Just because you have mommy demons, doesn’t mean I don’t have to do shit anymore.”

  “We have what?” Cayla asked with a smirk.

  I shrugged and focused on my food. “Um … mommy demons? I mean that in a nice way, though. Like, I have an inner daddy demon, and you guys have mommy demons. Never mind … ”

  “Daddy demon?” Deya giggled. “That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard!”

  Aurora grinned. “Mason’s a demon daddy now.”

  “Nooo. Don’t call me that. It’s a ‘daddy demon,’ and it’s more of a mood than an alter-ego.”

  “I like demon daddy more,” Cayla murmured.

  “Why are you blushing?” Shoshanne giggled as she nudged my side.

  “I’m not,” I groaned. “Calling me daddy is not becoming a thing, okay? Go back to ‘my lord’ and eat your breakfasts. I’m gonna go work on the AR-15.”

  I ignored my women’s laughter as I pulled my sketches from the compartment under my seat, and while I stubbornly focused on building the stock, they kept whispering “demon daddy” now and then just to make me cringe.

  Now that I didn’t have anyone’s tongue lapping at my cock to distract me, I was able to make some decent headway on the rifle. It only took me a few minutes to secure the buffer spring and buffer, and with the lower receiver completed, I moved on to rigging the upper receiver of the rifle, starting with the bolt carrier group.

  Aurora and Shoshanne eventually let it go and decided to practice their magery, and while Deya headed off to transmute for her breakfast, I secured the firing pin, bolt, and cam pin before I began forming the charging handle.

  Once the AR-15 started to really come together, though, Cayla was so riled up, she sank right out of her seat and under the table, and I felt her undoing my belt seconds later.

  So, I decided to focus on getting the barrel formed because I’d probably be incapable of doing anything more complicated than that.

  I still ended up muttering my way through the details of the barrel nut and extension for the princess since she was moaning around my cock for more, and I had the barrel, forward assist, and ejection port cover mounted when Cayla’s nails dug into my legs. Then she brought me to a climax so intense, I accidentally melted the edge of the table in my grip, but all I could do was hold on for dear life as Cayla gulped what felt like a pint of my cum down with a zeal I never knew she had.

  The table was warped by the time my arms fell limp at my sides, and when the princess climbed up to straddle my lap, I let her cover me in kisses while I tried to steady my breathing.

  Then I was useless for ten minutes after that, but it was just as well because we were nearing our first post of the day.

  My women were so excited to see Nulena that they’d already gathered near the windows a mile outside Rajeen, and I joined them once I could move my legs again. I did a decent job of acting casual while I watched the farmland give way to hills, but when I caught the first glimpse of a chalk-white palace with a black slate roof, I couldn’t help bouncing on my toes.

  Hearing Nulena had technically been in touch with us for the last few days helped eased my concerns a bit, but I’d feel better about our
sudden departure once I saw her again. It’d also been months since I’d first visited the Baroness’ castle, and I was eager to get a second look at her village with a different perspective now that I wasn’t terrified of the mysterious Tenebrae Mage.

  She was so secretive that anything I learned about her felt important lately, no matter how minor it was, so when I noticed the walls surrounding Rajeen Castle were formed from obsidian blocks instead of the usual granite, I randomly pointed it out to my other women.

  “I can’t wait to see the inside!” Deya squealed. “I never knew Nulena had her own castle.”

  “You’ll have to wait for another time to see it,” Aurora said. “Remember, Bagneera’s only giving us ten minutes.”

  “Mason, can’t you make her stay here longer?” Deya begged. “I want to learn everything I can about Nulena’s home, and ten minutes isn’t long enough.”

  “I know it’s not ideal,” I admitted, “but I’ve learned not to piss off Ignis Mages. Especially ones who are in charge of delivering all my Defenders to their posts in time to fend off the Master’s attacks.”

  “We can always come back again, don’t worry,” Shoshanne assured the elf. “For now, we’ll enjoy it while we can.”

  I nodded in agreement as the train began to chug its way up the last hill, and in a few minutes, we came to a stop at the Rajeen station outside the castle walls. The mills and local shops were bustling with residents like it was any other day, and I shifted my weight impatiently while I looked around for a glimpse of Nulena.

  My concern heightened when I didn’t see her anywhere, though, and I had to command myself not to sprint out the door while my women gathered their weapons real quick.

  Then I heard a familiar and pointed cough, and Aurora shrieked as she tripped over her heels in shock.

  I chuckled as I whipped around, and Nulena jumped out of a swarm of shadows and right into my arms.

  “You took too long to come out,” the Baroness mumbled against my lips.

  I stumbled forward as she locked her legs around my waist, and then I pinned Nulena against the wall and let her kiss me all she wanted. Her powers sent a pleasant numbing sensation across my skull as she knotted her fingers into my hair, and since neither of us felt like letting go of each other, we stayed like this while Deya cleared her throat about five times to get Nulena’s attention.