Monstergirl Quest Book Two

by Darknight, C. S.

  The men were listening. Therena grinned. Having Duke Gladios publicly turn against the rebellion would be like a knife through our hearts.

  “Today, as I’ve done before and will until my dying breath, pledge myself as a loyal soldier…TO THE UNITED REBEL FRONT!” he shouted. “And that bastard Emperor can kiss my hairy rebel ass!’

  He turned at once to Therena and spat a disgusting glob of spit and blood that splattered her fine silver robes red.

  The knight to his left bashed Duke Gladios against his head. The knight standing to his right kicked his legs out from under him, bringing the proud duke once more to his knees.

  Therena stepped forward, smiling her haughty smile as a mystical hellfire flared about her open hand.

  “Very well,” Therena said. “It’s death, then.”

  She opened her palm and Duke Gladios’ face was scorched off, every bit of skin blasted away, leaving nothing but a charred skull, and his limp body fell dead to the ground a moment later.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Corvus Gavrus ended the vision. The Mananymphs broke out in tears. All of them, that is, except for Esmerelda. She hadn’t known Duke Gladios, so I guessed it hadn’t impacted her as badly.

  I rose up from the table. “I need to rest,” I said, because it felt like all the energy had been sapped from my heart.

  Sephara attempted to help me up, but I waved her off. If Duke Gladios could get to his feet on his own to face his death, surely, I could make it up to the guest bedroom on my own.

  Inside the bedroom, I tossed my pack to the floor, with the contents spilling out messily. I didn’t care. I was so exhausted, the most I could do was fall face-first onto the bed, feeling so utterly defeated that I was on the verge of giving up.

  The rebellion was done. With a few master strokes, the Emperor had depleted the main source of the rebellion’s arms and forces, and just as importantly, decapitated the rebellion’s leadership.

  Duke Gladios had been the beating heart of the rebellion. Now, he was dead. Duke Elfblood was a fiery leader of the United Rebel Front, but she was now a prisoner. I doubted the Emperor would keep her alive much longer, anyway.

  The Emperor was a powerful being, I now understood. A god-tier being, if the Necromancer was to be believed, and he’d grow even more powerful as he went about collecting the other Gaia Gems and Gaia Stones.

  I’d need another one if I had any hope of defeating him, but where to start? There might have been some info in the Imperial Library, but that was so far off. In the time it would take for me to get there, the Emperor could collect any number of powerful stones and gems.

  Despite all the grim challenges I’d faced in this realm, never before had I felt so hopeless.

  I rolled onto my back, staring at the ceiling. I couldn’t even begin to think of our next move. What was the point? It seemed no matter what I did, the Emperor would be one step ahead of me.

  The guest bedroom door creaked open. I saw Esmerelda standing in the doorway, now leaning against the wall, taking gingerly sips from a cup of red wine.

  “You mourn for your friend,” she said.

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “I’m sure he was a good man,” she said.

  “A great man,” I countered. “The heart of the rebellion. And now he’s dead.”

  “I mean no disrespect by what I’m about to say, Gamelord,” she said. “But have you considered celebrating his death?”

  “I don’t know what you mean by that,” I said.

  She took another sip of her wine and smiled gently. “If Duke Gladios wanted to live, he’d have lived,” she said. “He could have done what was asked of him and kept on breathing. Instead, it appears to me that he died the way he lived. Defiantly.”

  “I’m not sure I can come around to view things the way you do, Esmerelda,” I admitted. “Because whenever I close my eyes, I just see the pain in his eyes as the flames overtook him.”

  She stepped closer to the bed, then sat down next to me, and sipped her wine again.

  “The flames that took him could very well be the flames that spark the rebellion all over again,” she said. “He died a hero. He died for what he believed in. Tell me, Gamelord, what would have truly killed Duke Gladios?”

  I looked at her.

  She leaned toward me. “Could you imagine such a man giving in? Could you imagine him damning the rebellion, then living out his days in shame? I don’t think you could. That would have killed him far more completely than merely departing this mortal realm, Gamelord. For now, for all those who witnessed his death, he’ll remain a symbol of resistance. Though the Emperor likely counts this day as a victory, he may have inadvertently worked against himself, for I suspect Duke Gladios will be far more powerful in death than he ever had been in life.”

  She was right. I’d been so overwhelmed by grief, but god damn it, she was absolutely right.

  “Grief and despair are two entirely different concepts,” Esmerelda said softly as she curled up next to me in the bed.

  She lay her hand on my chest, over a large bruise on my sternum. Despite Sephara’s healing magics, it would take me awhile longer to regain my strength, but Esmeralda knew that, and touched me gently.

  “I can’t stand by idly watching you despair,” she said, and now she was running her fingers through my hair, then down the stubble across my cheeks. “Me and my sisters need you too much to have you grow so hopeless.”

  I laid back, enjoying her gentle touch on my ravaged body. I slipped an arm around her. “I’m trying so hard,” I said. “But no matter how hard I fight, the Emperor just keeps staying one step ahead of me.”

  She trailed her forefinger down my cheek, then down my neck, then down across my chest, before she slowly unbuttoned the top button of my shirt.

  I started to feel ashamed. Yeah, these last few days had seen one victory after another dashed before I could even celebrate them, but this Mananymph had been through such a hellish existence. She was able to see through the agony, through all the trouble, to focus on the greater situation at hand.

  She took her mug of wine from the table next to the bed and raised it to my lips. “It’s been so long since you let your guard down,” Esmerelda said. “Share my wine with me, Earthman.”

  “I shouldn’t,” I said. “I need to stay sharp.”

  She smiled a comforting smile and ran her fingertip in circles around the bruise on my sternum. “You’ve been fighting very hard, as you’ve said,” she went on. “So hard that, in killing the Necromancer, you nearly killed yourself, as well. I know you grieve for your friend. I know your heart is full of worry for your friends in Homehold and Silverton. But Earthman, there’s nothing you can do about that today.”

  I reclined on the bed, lost in the sensation of her gentle fingertip making circles around my chest.

  “You’re right,” I said.

  “Allowing yourself to recuperate, allowing yourself to let your guard down for just a few hours…there’s nothing wrong with this, Gamelord,” she said.

  That brought a smile to my face, because she was making a lot of sense. “I guess you’re right,” I said. “It’s been some time since I let myself relax.”

  “Thanks to Corvus Gavrus, we’re safe here,” she went on. “And you need to start considering yourself more often, Gamelord. You won’t do us any good as a dead man. Let go, Earthman. Let go, and do it here, with me. Do you want to know why I feel this way?”

  I nodded. “Sure.”

  “Because I learned many valuable lessons while I was imprisoned by the Necromancer and his lich lords,” she said. “One of the most valuable was this: Even in the worst of times, we can keep our sanity by focusing on the pleasures at hand, no matter how small, from time to time.”

  Again, she offered me her wine. As I stared into her stunningly beautiful eyes, I took the cup and drank from it.

  The wine wasn’t too sweet, but wasn’t too dry, and it felt heavenly on my tongue. I swallowed it and
savored the way it soothed my throat, enjoyed the warmth it gave me in my chest, then my stomach.

  She grinned. “You enjoyed that sip,” she said.

  Now, I couldn’t take my eyes off hers. I rested my hand on her hip. “Yeah, I enjoyed it very much.”

  She offered me the cup again. “Here, enjoy another.”

  I took another sip, then she did the same. She set the cup aside on the table and ran her fingers through my hair.

  “Lay back and relax, Earthman,” she said as she slowly began to loosen her dress.

  I laughed. “I’m, um, not quite in good enough shape to give you what I’d like to give you at the moment,” I said.

  Her sensual smile turned playful, and I couldn’t ignore the growing tent in my pants.

  “I know that, Earthman,” she said. “And that’s why I told you to lay back and relax.”

  She kissed my neck as she straddled me, slowly grinding herself on the stiffness below my waist.

  I lay back, just as she told me, and let out a long, deep exhalation as her soft lips peppered my neck with kisses.

  I ran my fingers over the smooth silk of her dress as I explored her trim form with my hands.

  Slowly, she began pulling off my shirt. She trailed her tongue down my sternal notch, then to my chest, and she slipped one hand down between us as her sparkling eyes were locked on mine.

  She sucked lightly on my chest, making me so hard that I thought I might burst. I clenched my teeth in anticipation as I felt her hand tickling its way down my abdomen, then down to my waist.

  She stared into my eyes with a focused intensity as she ran the tip of her forefinger across my waistline, before softly brushing her fingers across the erection tenting in my pants.

  Her fingers were cool and soft, yet determined. I grunted a low grunt as I felt them press under the waistband of my pants, gentle on my skin. I dug my fingers into her back as I felt her hand close around my erection.

  And still, she was kissing me, sucking my chest, and with each movement of her lips, her face went farther down my abdomen.

  As she pleasured me, I slowly but meticulously helped her in undoing her dress. I pulled it off her, silken lace by silken lace.

  Her dress fell from her shoulders, then down to her waist. I couldn’t take my eyes off her perfect, round breasts, nor the feminine firmness of her abdomen.

  I reached up with my left hand and placed it over her heart. I trailed my fingers down her soft skin, through the narrow gap between her breasts, and enjoyed the goosebumps that had broken out across her belly.

  She tightened her fingers around my shaft and began to stroke my erection. With my free hand, I ran my fingers over the adorably small horns curving around her head.

  Her horns were pleasure centers, I found out.

  The moment I touched them, I saw an intense desire flicker in her eyes, and Esmerelda moaned as her body suddenly shuddered.

  I continued to massage her there, one horn and then the other, as she began to stroke me faster, more vigorously.

  Now, she ran her tongue down my abdomen, making a bee-line toward my erection. When I looked at her soft lips, her welcoming mouth, I knew what she was going to do next was going to blow my mind.

  She yanked my pants all the way down, never once breaking eye contact with me. I ran my fingers through her golden hair and she shot me a desirous smirk right before kissing the tip of me with her soft lips, then taking my mass into her mouth.

  “Shit!” I cried out, teeth clenched, my entire body suddenly convulsing at the intense pleasure of her mouth.

  Just as Esmerelda had been saying, I did everything I could to stay locked into this moment, to enjoy every pleasure, no matter how small.

  I enjoyed her tongue swirling around my cock. I enjoyed the way she stroked me in unison with her tongue.

  I enjoyed every soft, wet texture of her mouth, from her soft lips to the tiny, bumpy taste buds that were blooming across her tongue.

  I enjoyed how soft and light her blonde hair felt as I curled it into my fists. I enjoyed the smooth, bare curvature of her back as I ran my hand down the length of her spine.

  As for how long we went on like this, I just couldn’t be sure.

  I was lost in the pleasure, in the wet, soft sensations of her mouth. We might have been doing this for five minutes, we might have been doing this for an hour.

  It didn’t matter.

  Finally, she plucked my erection from her lips. The smile was gone from her face, replaced with a desperate sort of desire that made me harder than ever before.

  As she climbed on top of me, Esmerelda shed the rest of her dress, leaving the perfection of her body on full display. Naked save for those delicious thigh-high stockings, I took in the sculpture of her, which now included the sight of her moist sex.

  I reflexively licked my lips when I spotted her mound, the golden tuft of pubic hair over her dripping-wet lips.

  Straddling me again, she kissed me softly on the mouth and gripped me by my base. Her tongue pushed past my lips as I felt her position my tip against her wet, tight opening.

  “I’ve been dreaming of this, my love,” Esmerelda said.

  As for a response, all I could muster was a heavy moan, then gripped her tight by the hips again.

  I arched my back and nearly shouted in bliss as she took me into her. I slid into her virgin sex smoothly, and the tight walls of her comforting nook were both wet and warm.

  At once, untold years of pent up desire came roaring out of Esmerelda. Her face contorted into a picture of sensual delight as she came almost immediately.

  I watched in satisfaction as the goosebumps grew more pronounced across her porcelain body, as her breasts heaved with every breath, as her body trembled from the pleasure of my erection inside of her.

  “Earthman…” she gasped.

  She dug her fingertips into my chest, gripping me tight as she began swinging her hips, a rhythmic motion that caused her glistening nectar to go dripping down my shaft.

  “Esmerelda, my god,” I grunted.

  As I watched her rocking back and forth, I licked my lips then let my right hand drift down her belly.

  She gasped when I reached down to her mound and began massaging her rosebud with my thumb.

  “OH!” she cried out.

  That quickly, I had her caught in the throes of yet another orgasm. Her eyes sparkled with red fire magic as she exploded on me.

  She came down on top of me, locking her lips onto mine, as her body convulsed with another explosion.

  The walls of her sex snapped around me, making me tense up inside of her. I gripped her tight, growing closer to my climax with every passing second.

  As she came, her eyes went from that fiery magical red to glacial blue then to crackling white, like lightning, as the destruction magic rippled through her.

  Her wet warmth then became too much for me.

  I gripped her tight, squeezing the globes of her ass in my palm and pushed myself as deep inside her as I could.

  “SHIT!” I shouted.

  She gasped as she felt my explosion within her. As we finished the binding process, the magical and ancient runes of destruction magic shot across my vision.

  I spent myself inside her, longer and harder than I thought was possible, then lay shuddering beneath her light, firm, beautiful body.

  Beads of sweat were rolling down my temples as she lay her head upon my chest. Gently, she’d squeeze herself around my mass, as if trying to get every last drop that she could to drip out of me.

  SKILL UNLOCKED: DESTRUCTION MAGIC

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  When I woke up, Esmerelda’s naked body was still lying on top of mine. Her head was nestled up against my neck, and I could feel her sweet, warm breath blowing against my skin as she slept.

  Not the worst way to wake up, but I had a bonus.

  After binding with her, I’d learned a plethora of new spells, all in the destruction school. To be honest, wakin
g up with her lithe body on mine was more than enough to put a smile on my face. Seeing all the spells I’d learned was just a bonus.

  FIRE FIST

  EFFECT: +50 FIRE DAMAGE DURING MELEE, SPELL LASTS FOR 30 SECONDS

  I grinned when I saw that one. Not the most overpowered spell, but it would add some magical kick to my melee repertoire. I wondered if I could channel the magic into weapons, though? I’d have to experiment later. Either way, being able to compliment my melee damage with fire damage for thirty seconds was nothing to sniff at.

  FIRE STORM

  EFFECT: +30 FIRE DAMAGE ON RANGED TARGETS FOR 10 SECONDS

  At first, I was disappointed to see the effect of the spell. A measly +30 fire damage, compared to the fire fist’s +50?

  But then I took a moment to think about it. The fire storm spell was only +30…but it lasted for ten seconds. For the duration of the spell – in other words, for the duration of the time my enemies would be burning – they’d be getting +30 fire damage for each second.

  Which meant they’d be burning alive. I knew there’d be more than enough enemies in the coming days that would deserve to burn alive.

  ICE STORM

  EFFECT: +30 ICE DAMAGE ON RANGED TARGETS FOR 10 SECONDS

  Pretty much the same as the former. However, it was nice to have options. I could use the fire storm spell on undead, for instance. Meanwhile, I could use the ice storm variant on fire-based enemies, like wyverns or dragons.

  And, hell, maybe there were more outside-the-box uses for ice spells. If I was trying to cross a rickety bridge and it looked like it was so weak that I might fall through it, I could probably reinforce the structure temporarily by freezing it.

  LIGHTNING STORM

  EFFECT: +60 LIGHTNING DAMAGE FOR 5 SECONDS

  Whoa.

  While it ultimately dealt as much damage as the fire and ice versions, the lightning storm spell really packed a punch. I supposed out of all the elemental destruction spells, lightning had the most intense damage stats. This spell would come in handy during horde attacks. I could knock back any number of enemies with this spell, while also causing major damage.