Tribe Master 5: A Fantasy Harem Adventure

by Noah Layton

  ‘Go and get it,’ Kali growled, looking between the remaining six dark-elf guards. ‘All of you.’

  They moved towards me with deliberate but cautious footsteps.

  The dark-elves were disciplined, well-trained, regimented – but they still knew a threat when they saw one.

  They just didn’t know how severe the threat was.

  I didn’t either – but I could feel it.

  I tightened my grip on the handle of the huge glowing sword.

  Four of the dark-elves slid their rapiers slowly from their sheaths and made towards me, while their two ranged companions held back.

  I didn’t have time to mess around.

  Just three yards from me, all of them suddenly rushed forwards, drawing their rapiers fully.

  They were ready to skewer me like a pig drowning in a pocket of mud. They were fast, well-trained, capable…

  But they wouldn’t get the chance.

  I sliced through the air as they came within proximity, cutting through all four of them in a descending diagonal swipe.

  The path of the strike was perfect, so perfect that I wondered whether the sword was acting with a mind of its own.

  In a single strike it struck all four of the guards’ swords.

  Not only did it deflect their strikes – it cut their rapiers in half.

  My blade’s end sliced through the chests of my four attackers, sweeping them to the side with the force.

  My attackers’ bodies should have struck the ground like dominoes, but that never happened.

  Before they did, their bodies suddenly disintegrated into a glowing blue dust, falling apart into nothingness.

  Their remains scattered onto the ground, the blue glow of their ashes quickly dimming until they were nothing but scattered dust catching on the breeze.

  I had barely broken a sweat.

  The two ranged attackers quickly drew an arrow each.

  I managed the weight of the sword in one hand, while my other brought up my spell selection wheel.

  I only had one shot at this.

  No shield, no protection – if I timed it wrong I was dead.

  But it was my only option.

  Switching to my Telekinetic Blast power stone, I felt the weight of the object land in my hand just as my attackers’ fingers slid from their strings.

  ‘Telekinea!’

  The arrows fired just as I spoke the words.

  The projectiles met the translucent field halfway and twanged off, snapping and striking the ground.

  My attackers were too far away to feel the full effects of the blast, but close enough for me to get to them without them having enough time to draw another arrow each.

  I raced forwards and yelled out with a vicious war cry, slicing my sword straight through them.

  They spun to the side from the force of the strike, their forms collapsing into dust just as the others had.

  I looked up at Kali. Now, the fear finally presented itself.

  The terror in Kali’s eyes was becoming more and more palpable.

  Even with the stoic nature of his kind, he could no longer hide what he felt.

  But he was backed into a corner.

  If he ran, he would have to report his failure to his master.

  If he faced me, his chances didn’t exactly look good.

  ‘Watch the women, Morok,’ Kali ordered.

  While the goblin drew a blade and moved behind my wives skeptically, the final dark-elf drew his rapier and made towards me.

  Kali was fast – I had seen that back at The Market.

  A pulse of pounding blood suddenly seemed to surge through my arm and into my hand.

  It felt like the sword had become an extension of me.

  The weapon shook hard and I fought to gain control.

  Kali saw his chance and rushed me.

  The glowing of the sword suddenly transformed into an electrical thunder. Sparks of lightning burst from the blade, becoming more aggressive with each inch that Kali moved closer.

  CRACK.

  A bolt jumped from the blade and hit Kali in the chest. He guffawed and struck the ground hard, his rapier dropping from his grasp and flew away from his reach.

  Kali fought to regain control of his body. He scrambled for his sword madly, crawling across the floor until his hand finally slammed down on the handle.

  I had already crossed to him when he turned to face me.

  He swung his rapier wildly at me with ferocious eyes. I met the swing with my shimmering weapon.

  With a high ringing, the rapier sliced in two at the exact point where it had struck my own sword. The blade flew away and into the grass.

  Kali watched it go, baffled, and turned back to me with terrified eyes.

  ‘This is for the fallen warrior you killed at The Market,’ I hissed.

  With a heaving war cry I swiped the sword in a horizontal arc, cleaving Kali’s head from his shoulders.

  His body turned to glistening ashes just like his fallen lackeys, and as his head toppled into the snowy undergrowth, it befell the same fate just seconds later.

  I turned my attention back to Ariadne and Talia.

  If the admiration on their faces when I had returned from the ruins had made me feel like a man, the looks on their faces now made me feel like a god.

  Morok stood behind them, his hand still on a blade no bigger than a butter knife, but deadly in its sharpness all the same.

  The expression of terror on his face was much more honest than the one that Kali had possessed.

  It was the face of a man who knew that he was fucked.

  He didn’t even make an effort to threaten the lives of Ariadne and Talia. This time he didn’t have a crossbow or the possibility of explosives on his side.

  All he had was a knife, and the promise of death that I had given to Garrison and his men – one that I had promptly kept.

  I approached Morok, the huge glowing sword still firmly in my grasp.

  The goblin darted to the side, away from the girls.

  ‘No…’ He whined, dropping the knife and backing away from me. He tripped suddenly on a frozen root protruding from the dirt and crashed to the ground. ‘No…’

  ‘No, what?’ I replied, raising the sword. ‘No, forget the fact that you betrayed my trust? That you stalked me and my women and my tribe, and ratted me out to an enemy tribe master? That you threatened the lives of my wives and my people and everything I hold dear?’

  ‘Please,’ Morok groaned pathetically from the floor. ‘Have mercy, tribe master…’

  ‘Mercy?’ I breathed. ‘No…. No more mercy. You’ve made me realize one thing about this world, goblin. In this world, you’re either with me or against me. And I think you’ve made your position clear.’

  Morok’s eyes went wide with terror, not at the sight of the sword but at the vengeful rage that gleamed in my eyes.

  I yelled out in a sudden battle cry and swung the sword high over me.

  I brought the sword slamming down into his head. In an instant his body turned a shimmering blue before vaporizing and collapsing into blue dust that disappeared over the snowy forest floor.

  My enemies vanquished, I held the sword high before me and felt its blue glow ensnare my mind.

  I could feel the power and energy of this weapon coursing through me, bewitching me.

  ‘Jack!’

  I shook from my daze, looking over to see Talia and Ariadne where they were tied up.

  I slammed the sword into the ground by its blade. The ground around it immediately cracked and splintered, the marks spanning out at least a yard in several directions.

  I pulled myself away from the sword and hurried to my wives, retrieving my dagger from my belt. In seconds I had cut away their bindings, and after ripping the ropes free from their mouths they both wrapped their arms around me.

  Talia showered my neck with kisses while Ariadne ran her hand into my hair and kissed me hard on the lips.

  I had never been
so glad to see them. The lasting energy from the sword was still running through me, amplifying the delight in pressing my body to theirs.

  I could have had them right there on the forest floor in the most intense love-making session of my life, but right now we had more pressing matters to deal with.

  ‘Are you okay?’ I asked Ariadne. ‘Your neck… I’m sorry, I should have put an end to it sooner.’

  ‘No,’ Ariadne said. ‘No, you shouldn’t. I could not let a man like him, or especially the man he serves, get away with such a powerful object. The whole tribe was at risk…’

  As Ariadne mentioned the sword, my wives finally turned their attention to where it stood, blade jammed into the ground.

  ‘That sword…’ Talia said, dragging herself from me and staring at it with bewildered fascination. ‘Where did it come from?’

  ‘That’s the agrarium,’ I replied. ‘That’s what the dwarven blacksmiths fashioned it into.’

  ‘Gods…’ She exclaimed with excitement. ‘The power that it commands… With that in your grasp, you could be unstoppable, husband…’

  ‘Maybe,’ I said eagerly, ‘but we’re not out of the woods yet. Let’s gather our things and get back to the land.’

  ‘What’s going on, Jack?’ Talia said. ‘What are you planning?’

  ‘War,’ I replied. ‘It’s time for us to take down Garrison.’

  Chapter Sixteen

  ‘Good gods… It’s real.’

  We made it back to the land just as the sun was setting. By now word had spread among my tribe of the nature of our current quest, and every one of my people gathered around in the southern pasture where the horses grazed during hotter weather.

  I made sure everyone stood back, then produced the glowing sword from its sheath and presented it before my people.

  Every pair of eyes shone with the blue glow that emanated from the blade. I moved slightly on the spot with it held in my grasp, and everybody took three steps back.

  ‘There’s no need to be afraid,’ I said. ‘Well… Maybe there’s a little need to be afraid. Nobody wants to get too close to this thing.’

  I turned the sword blade-down and pushed it into the ground. All of the snow within a three-yard radius quickly melted, giving way to damp mud and trodden grass.

  Onilsia and her dwarven companions stared at the sword in disbelief, caught between a desire to approach the weapon and a reluctance that stemmed from the sheer mythological existence that the agrarium it was made from had taken on in their minds. Onilsia was the one who had spoken first, uttering the first words that I had heard upon returning, simply swearing to the gods and uttering those two little words.

  ‘It’s real.’

  Alorion and my wives moved to my side, gazing at the weapon.

  ‘I take back all of my doubts,’ my imp said in earnest, gazing at the weapon with captivation. ‘How…? Where…?’

  ‘I’ll tell you the story sometime,’ I said to him, before turning to address my people. ‘Right now, we have more pressing matters at hand,’ I began. ‘A tribe north of here also seeks this weapon. The tribe is led by a brutal leader who goes by the name of Garrison. The warriors who occupy our land north-west of here, some of whom are here with us right now, were held captive by this man and sold as slaves.

  ‘The dwarves that we have played host to had their land destroyed by this man, and their people were enslaved by the very same master. He seeks to take as much as he can, to enslave as many as he can, and to destroy our way of life. We must not let that happen. We will destroy him before he has a chance to destroy us.

  ‘All of you know me. Most of you have broken bread with me, drank with me – many of you have even fought alongside me. Today, I ask you to honor that call to arms once more.

  ‘I know that many of you are not fighters, and I am not asking you to become such a thing now. But if you can wield a sword, if you can fire an arrow, if you can tend to the wounded, I ask you to march with me and our allies tomorrow.

  ‘Till now we have been hidden from the larger tribes, been at the liberty of enemies, of monsters. That ends now. So who’s with me?’

  Silence filled the land. Every pair of eyes was no longer directed at the sword, but looking straight to me.

  Then, in cascading agreement, my people began to step forward.

  ‘We are always at your side,’ the five warriors nodded, ‘as are the rest of our people.’

  ‘We do not live as warriors, but we can wield knives,’ the de facto leader of the fox-people nodded. ‘We are with you.’

  ‘As are we,’ said the satyrs. ‘We are not warriors by nature, but you have given us more freedom than we could ever hope for in this world.’

  ‘I don’t know how much use my lute would be,’ Juliet said, waving her hand awkwardly, ‘but I will gladly risk my life during the battle to play a song that will ring for the ages.’

  I couldn’t help but smile in admiration.

  ‘That’s more than I could ask for,’ I smiled. ‘More from any of you than I could ask for. If any of you choose to withdraw from this duty before tomorrow, you can do so knowing that you are just as valuable to this tribe as any other member. We’re a team. We might all have different practices, different beliefs and different ways, but we believe in the same overarching principles – peace, wealth and strength. Those are the values that bind us, that have brought us together.’

  Riotous applause suddenly broke out. A figure in the crowd yelled ‘To Master Jack!’ and the cheering grew louder.

  This is what we had been moving towards since I had arrived. If we submitted to the will of a tyrant, we were doomed.

  If we fought, we risked destruction.

  But my people were free, and so was I.

  We would do what we had to do.

  I dismissed my people to return to their preparations for tomorrow. I joined Alorion and my wives back at the treehouse and closed the door behind us.

  ‘This is going to take everything we have,’ I said. ‘I don’t expect you girls to join me during this battle, but-’

  ‘When are you going to get it through that ironclad head of yours, husband?’ Lara said, sitting on the edge of the bathtub and shaking her head at me with a smile. ‘There’s no way we’re letting you walk into a battle without our help.’

  ‘Seconded,’ Ariadne said, her fox-ears twitching. ‘Lara is one of the best ranged fighters I know, and I don’t think I’m too bad with scimitars and throwing knives.’

  ‘Need another sailor’s legs freezing?’ Elera asked. ‘Or a few dark-elves? I am with you.’

  ‘As am I,’ Talia nodded.

  I turned to Santana. She smiled between us all.

  ‘Seeing you all venture off into battle like this makes my heart ache,’ she smiled, a tear rolling down her cheek. ‘I love all of you, not just Jack. We are all together, as one.’

  ‘You’ve been through so much,’ Lara said. ‘You do not have to join us. We know that you are as brave as us all.’

  ‘Someone has to stay and keep our tribe running,’ I said. ‘You delivered our newest member. It’s only right that you stay to make sure all are safe.’

  ‘Perhaps…’ Santana nodded, considering the situation deeply. ‘But… I don’t want to do that. I can fight, and I want to fight by your sides. We don’t know what tomorrow will hold. We never know when the wrong blade may swing, or the wrong arrow may fire. I am with you all.’

  ‘We’re all together,’ I repeated. ‘As one.’

  My wives all approached me, wrapping their arms around me tightly from all sides.

  I loved them all, my beautiful wives who were as stunning as they were deadly.

  And while they were all different, all could wield their weapons of choice with ferocious accuracy, yet all were capable of bringing me to my knees with the slightest word, the slightest touch.

  ‘I need to, uhh…’ Alorion spoke up nearby, turning away and taking a heaving breath while he covered his face. ‘I for
got, I need to go and tend to… Something.’

  ‘Alorion, are you crying?’ Talia smiled genuinely.

  ‘No, you’re crying!’ Alorion said quickly, batting a hand at us and refusing to look our way.

  ‘You can let it out,’ Santana said. ‘It’s okay…’

  ‘Let what out?’ He choked, trying to sound strong. ‘There’s nothing to… Oh…!’

  He quickly rushed to us, indiscriminately wrapping his arms around as many legs as he could gather in his small arms.

  ‘Please don’t die!’ He cried. ‘I can’t bear the thought of losing any of you! What in the name of the gods would I do with myself? While away my days in the beds of the imps of the tribes and tribal lands we have allied with? What an empty existence… I am nothing without a tribe master to serve.’

  ‘You don’t serve me, Alorion,’ I laughed as the girls pulled away from me and we turned to him. ‘I’ve told you a hundred times. You’re my friend. Ever since you jumped out of that freaking box in the corner and almost broke my neck falling down the stairs.’

  ‘We’ve come a long way since then,’ he laughed through the tears.

  ‘Damn right we have, and we’ve got a long way to go before I’ll ever consider hanging up my boots for good.’

  ‘I know I do not often suggest this,’ Alorion continued, ‘but on this one occasion, as we ride towards danger, do you think… I could join you?’

  ‘It’d be an honor,’ I smiled.

  ‘Anyway, enough belly-aching,’ Lara cut in. ‘We’ve got a war to prepare for. What’s the plan, Jack?’

  ‘Complicated,’ I replied. ‘We’ve got a lot of work to do. Let’s get started.’

  ***

  I immediately sent messages to the sun-elves and the warriors, informing them of my decision to go to war and that I was making a request for assistance. With any luck the letters would reach them before they slept that night, and they would be able to reach us within 24 hours when we would set off for Garrison’s land.

  In the meantime I checked, double-checked and fortified the defenses at the borders of our land, making sure that all those on duty were armed and ready to alert us to any threat that might appear.

  The only ones from Garrison’s tribe that knew the location of our land were Morok and the dark-elves present at the location of the ruins, and they were all dead.