by Dante King
Her face was round, and her cheeks had deep dimples. Fine, curved horns protruded from her graceful forehead. Delicate hooves, in place of hands, struggled against the ogres grip, her face twisted with anger. Her body was curvy, and her bosom ample. But Ben didn’t let himself be distracted by these details at the time.
The aurochwoman didn’t seem as terrified as the other monsterkin. Ben gave a small smirk. He knew exactly what spell he’d give her. She seemed the most capable—and the most eager to rebel.
He made a show of inspecting her as well, grabbing her shoulder and spinning her around. As he held her, he summoned up his mana and activated Drain.
Ben took her hooves and held up her arms, inspecting the undersides. Then he pushed a chunk of mana and his fireball spell into the woman. It was a big gamble, but he would get no better chance than now.
The monsterkin woman’s mouth dropped open and her body tensed as the power entered her body, a mana pool growing inside her. Ben deftly put a hand to her open jaw and held it open, inspecting her teeth, ensuring the ogres wouldn’t ask why her jaw had slacked open.
“She’s… satisfactory,” Ben begrudgingly murmured. “Are you sure you don’t have any better slaves?”
“Me think there are no betterer,” the toothless ogre grumbled, following it up with a shrug.
Ben fixed him with a stare. “Check again.”
The ogre met his eyes, narrowing them and trying his best to stare Ben down. But Ben didn’t budge. Finally, the orc grumbled once more, then shook his head and stomped back to the other monsterkin, cursing in his native tongue.
Ben turned the woman’s head roughly to the side and inspected her ears while the ogre was watching. He leaned forward, as if to look inside her ears more closely.
“Tell the others,” he whispered. “Wait for my signal, then attack the guards. I’ll give you all more strength.”
He gripped her jaw again to stop her nodding. She regarded him with a wide-eyed expression, her mouth slightly open. The look on her face made Ben more aware of just how pretty she was, but he pushed that thought aside for now.
She didn’t say a word. Trusting that she understood as well as he could hope, he shoved her backward. The other ogre approached, with a weak young male monsterkin in his grip.
Ben shook his head. “This female might do. I have to talk to my companions first.”
The ogre cursed, grumbling under his breath. “Make a decision!”
Ben held up a hand. “If you want more gold, you’ll wait until I return.”
He turned away, not giving them a chance to reply. He strode back to the alley, where Melody and Lexi were waiting.
“What’s the plan?” Melody asked.
“I’ve given spells to two of the monsterkin, and strength to a third. I told the young woman they showed me to tell the others.”
They looked back at the monsterkin and saw the woman mingling with the others and whispering. The guards stared lazily ahead, paying little mind to their feeble prisoners.
“Do you think they’ll be able to fight?” Lexi asked.
“With enough strength they will. I’ll need you both to distract the guards while I drain their strength and give it to the monsterkin.”
“There are thirty guards against two of us,” Lexi said.
“We don’t have to attack straight away,” Melody said.
“That’s right,” Ben agreed. “Just go up to the nearest guards and start an argument. I’ll use Drain on as many of them as I can, and by the time a fight breaks out, the monsterkin will join you.”
“What about when the other guards come running?” Lexi still looked a bit concerned.
“The longer I have to give strength to the monsterkin, the more the balance tips in our favor,” Ben said. “And if the other guards run over here, that will allow Sir Gallant and the nymphs easy entry to the town.”
“That’s as good a plan as we’re going to get,” Melody said. She gave a quick, confident nod. “I’m ready.” She pulled her wand out from where she’d concealed it beneath her clothing, and stowed it at her belt, ready to draw.
“In that case, I’m also ready,” Lexi said. She put a hand to the scimitar at her belt, ready for the coming fight.
Ben nodded. “Let’s do this.” He strode out of the alleyway, his own sword, newly taken from the governor, strapped behind his back. Lexi and Melody flanked him.
“You can’t keep the slaves here,” Lexi announced, walking up to face several of the nearest guards. “You have to move them to the other side of town.” She pointed back toward the gates.
Ben crept toward the monsterkin until he was within five yards of them – his current range. He took a breath and activated Drain, seeing a complicated web of energy spilling from every nearby being.
“We’re not moving these slaves anywhere, wench,” a guard gruffly stated, a touch of surprise to his tone, as if mildly shocked that someone was speaking to him in such a way.
“Governor’s orders,” Lexi said flatly. “Come on, let’s get moving.”
Ben saw a monsterkin child near the front of the line shouting back at his mother. He had a long nose and eyes much too wide for his face. His mother desperately tried to silence him.
“Let’s give him something to shout about,” Ben said to himself. He pushed the Wail spell into the boy. As the monsterkin boy felt the sudden influx of power, and the growth of a mana pool, he went quiet, and collapsed to the ground, writhing in the dirt.
In the meantime, the guard arguing with Lexi drew his sword. She drew hers in response, and Melody pulled out her wand. The ogre slavers, still standing to the side, gawked, their eyes raised in confusion.
Ben drained the strength out of the guard and pushed it into several of the nearest monsterkin. They all perked up as the new energy entered them, their shoulders squaring and their chests sticking out.
The guard slumped forward. Lexi didn’t hesitate. She raised her blade and brought it down in a hard arc onto the back of the guard’s neck. The swing was powerful enough to cleave through the guard’s neck and decapitate him, his head hitting the ground with a dull thud. His body fell limp, dropping to its knees, dark red jets of blood spurting from the wound. His body slumped into a heap, still and lifeless.
The other guard froze as he watched, his sword trembling in his hand. Melody didn’t hesitate. She flicked her wand and cast a lightning bolt at him. The purple bolt crackled through the air and connected with his head, exploding it and leaving nothing but a smoking, charred stump.
Ben allowed himself a small smile. Two headless guards was a solid start to the plan.
“Monsterkin,” Ben yelled. “Attack!”
A number of the monsterkin appeared confused, but the woman Ben had given his fireball spell to led got the message. “Attack!” she cried “Everyone, attack!” She cast a fireball at a guard, setting him ablaze before he knew what had hit him.
The other guards didn’t waste any time jumping into the fray. They formed up in front of Melody and Lexi. Melody summoned another lightning bolt and blasted the nearest guard, the force of the bolt enough to blow a chunk out of his torso, showering the dust behind him with red gore.
Fear painted the other guards’ faces. One dropped his sword and shield, running away as quickly as he could, leaving a trail of armor as he tore pieces off. The rest of the guards brandished their weapons and moved toward Lexi.
The hawkwoman didn’t give them a chance to attack. Sword in hand, she twirled the blade in a flourish as she dashed at the rightmost guard. The scimitar blurred in her hand, but it soon came to a stop buried in the forehead of the guard. Her victim stood straight, blood trickling down his shocked face. Lexi lifted her foot and pressed it against his chest, tugging her blade out of the skull of the slain guard. When it was free, she turned her attention to the remaining guards, an eager smile on her face.
But she seemed to realize she had a problem: she couldn’t let that guard escape and raise the alarm.
She squatted down and drew the knife from the hilt of the fallen guard. Once it was in her hand, she rose and squinted her eye in the direction of the fleeing guard. With a quick toss, she sent the blade sailing through the air. The guard froze in place, and Ben caught the glint of the knife sticking out of the back of his neck. He dropped to the ground, dead.
Ben grinned, pleased to see that Lexi was capable of such effective and deadly work. He moved quickly, draining as many of the guards’ strength as he could, funneling it into monsterkin. The slaves bustled as strength flowed through them. With their new strength and superior numbers, the guards would soon be overwhelmed—and the slaves were starting to realize that.
The kid who’d received the Wail spell promptly began doing exactly what he was meant to do: yelling in the faces of guards. His yells were weak at first, barely enough to make the guards stumble backward, but he quickly found his voice. He shouted at one guard so loudly that it exploded the head of the man, a spray of blood and jelly flying off the guard’s neck.
Ben watched as the two slaver ogres retreated toward their tent. After seeing how the slavers treated their prisoners, he felt less inclined to let them all go if he didn’t have to. He reached out and drained the ogres of their meagre intelligence.
The boost to his own intelligence was welcome. It allowed him to analyze the battle more clearly. For the ogres, who had so little to begin with, the effect was catastrophic. They ranin panicked circles, banging into each other and injuring themselves, their stupefied expressions making it clear they hadn’t the faintest idea what was happening to them.
A sharp crackle drew Ben’s attention to Melody. She had summoned her lightning blade, tearing through the guards’ torsos as their flesh was seared. Crackles of electricity left black singes on the bodies of the hapless guards.
Lexi continued to fight with ferocity and skill, zipping her sword through the ranks of encroaching guards with the agility of a hawk. The monsterkin grew bolder too, attacking the weakest guards from behind, strangling them with their chains.
The woman he’d given Gust to had worked out how to use her spell. She was blowing guards off their feet, sending them tumbling through the air, their weapons thrown from their grips. They were easy game for the maddened slaves after that.
Ben kept draining guards and feeding energy into the monsterkin, until he felt his mana dropping to about half. Then he held off. The number of guards who could still stand had dropped to less than a dozen by now.
The others could finish them off easily enough. Ben needed to save his strength. With the amount of noise they were making, it was only a matter of minutes before more guards came from the town entrance.
Ben had a strategy in mind, however, which would divide the enemy forces.
It was time to test out the transformation spell he’d drained from Lexi.
Chapter 10
Dozens of monsterkin had spilled out of their confinement into the square. The guards and slavers were on the ground, beaten and bloodied. Only a few looked like they were still breathing, and those were quickly being dealt with by the monsterkin as they scoured the square for any sign of surviving enemies. It was a brutal sight, but one that gave Ben satisfaction.
While he watched, Ben spent more of his mana using Healing Touch and Drain to bring the strongest monsterkin up to fighting condition. He would help the feebler ones later, once his mana was not in such critical demand. The guards’ reinforcements would be here soon, and they had to be ready—or it was their bodies that would be looted and discarded in the dirt.
Several monsterkin were rifling through the orc slavers’ pockets before they were even dead. Ben was hardly inclined to intervene and show the slavers any mercy, but he did drain some of their physical strength, allowing them to pass out before their lives were ended by claw, tooth, or stolen blade.
A squabble broke out between some of the monsterkin over the gold coin they found on the toothless one. Ben smiled. The greedy ogres hadn’t gotten any joy from being paid for slaves. And Ben wasn’t displeased in the slightest to know that a few slavers had been wiped from his realm.
The monsterkin woman to whom Ben had given his fireball spell strode between the mob of squabblers. She was clearly brave—she had to be brave to put herself between a group of monsterkin and a gold coin. And, judging by the way the other monsterkin obeyed her orders, the monsterkin clearly respected her.
“Stop fighting each other,” the monsterkin woman said, her voice clear and strong. “We still have guards to worry about.”
The monsterkin perked up. She seemed to have quite a bit of authority over them. The ones who didn’t get the gold coin did appear peeved to be denied their prize, however.
“There will be plenty of loot for you all later,” Ben spoke up. “First, we have to eliminate the other guards and slavers.”
The monsterkin woman turned to face Ben. “You are our rescuer. I can’t say how grateful I am. Can you tell me your name?” The woman spoke with respect, but not fear. Her forearms and legs were covered in dark fur, her eyes a deep, golden yellow. Her body was short and stocky, her face narrow. She struck Ben as confident and fearless – two important traits for a ruler.
“I am Benzhameen,” Ben said, curious to see if his name alone was enough for them to recognize him.
The woman wrinkled her brow in thought. “That is a curious name. I have never heard of anyone called that way. That is… except for the ancient Forgotten Ruler.”
Melody came to stand beside Ben, clearing her throat and speaking up. “Benzhameen is the Forgotten Ruler, returned to this world.”
Confusion took hold of the monsterwoman’s face. Her expression showed a mixture of skepticism and curiosity. Ben realized it made her face look kind of cute. In fact, the rest of her was attractive, too. Her body was powerful, her breasts ample and her hips round and wide. Nothing but a small leather top and matching leather shorts covered her figure.
“Can you tell me your name?” Ben asked, putting aside the question of her looks.
“My name is Sybil, I am the leader of our small tribe,” she said, gesturing to the monsterkin.
“A pleasure to meet you,” Ben said.
He glanced at Melody out of the corner of his eye. To Ben’s surprise, she was biting her lower lip as she stared at Sybil’s breasts. Her gaze swept downward, toward the woman’s incredibly large thighs. Was Melody checking Sybil out?
Ben had to admit, this woman had a body worth admiring. He hadn’t had much time to look with slavers breathing down his neck before, but she was quite attractive. Her body reminded Ben of a Viking shield-maiden’s—powerful, sexy, taut.
“And how am I to know if you are telling the truth about who you are?” Sybil asked.
Ben gestured to the square behind them. “You have seen my magic. I have other spells that you will see if you wait long enough to witness them. If that’s not sufficient proof for you, I can show you the tower I recently built to the north of here.”
Melody smiled slyly at Ben, and he could tell what she was thinking, whether or not he was trying to proposition a woman he had only just rescued from captivity.
If Ben hadn’t known Melody so well, he would have thought she was offended.
Sybil’s eyebrows shot up. “That is your tower? I have seen it darken the skies. It is a great edifice that is shrouded in mystery. All anyone can talk about here is who the tower might belong to.”
“That tower is mine, yes. As I said, I can show it to you, but first we have a battle to fight. The other guards will most likely be here any minute now.”
“What do you need us to do?” Melody asked.
“I need you to lead the monsterkin to attack the market and the courthouse,” Ben said. “Sybil, I would like to introduce Melody, my, uh, my assistant.” He could explain their relationship later.
Melody’s tail twitched as she nodded at Sybil.
“Sybil,” Ben continued. “Can I trust you to follow Lexi and Melody?�
�� He pointed to Lexi, who had just walked over to join them. “They will lead your attack on the market.”
Sybil narrowed her golden eyes, as if she were trying to ascertain whether or not Ben was worthy of being followed.
“Fine,” she said, her stare relaxing. “It can be done.”
“What will you be doing?” Melody asked.
“I’m going to test out a spell I acquired, and see if I can bring Sir Gallant and the nymphs in to join us.”
“Which spell is that?” Melody asked.
“You’ll find out as soon as I discover if it works.” Ben glanced at Sybil again to get her answer.
She sighed. While she didn’t seem pleased to take orders from someone she’d only just met, she decided it was in her best interests. “I will tell my people to follow the instructions from Lexi and Melody,” Sybil promised.
“Thank you,” Ben said. “We will get justice for your people today.”
“I hope so,” Sybil said with a sigh. “They’ve suffered much, and we’ve never had the chance before now.”
Ben glanced over at Melody and Lexi. “Target the courthouse,” he said. “We’ll wipe those slavers out before they get a chance to escape to the north.”
“I thought you wanted to let them escape,” Melody said.
“That was before I’d seen the way these monsterkin have been treated. They’ve been herded like animals. If we let these slavers escape, they will only enslave others. Besides, there is a time for justice, and that time is now.”
Sybil’s eyes gleamed with righteous anger as Ben spoke, a small smile spreading across her face. “It will be my pleasure to see that justice is carried out. And when I am done, we shall see about your tower.”
“Can you use the spell I gave you to set the courthouse on fire?” Ben asked her.
“I should be able to,” Sybil said as she lifted her right hoof. She frowned and concentrated, then a tiny flame appeared on the hard surface. She gritted her teeth, and that flame suddenly became long as a short sword. “It is… much more difficult right now.”
