by Dante King
“I think your Overwatch Company are not entirely convinced I can be trusted to hold my temper in check,” I said, trying to keep the impatience out of my voice, while simultaneously endeavoring to keep my gaze from straying to the fat bastard who’d been so adamant about the whole probing thing. “I think they believe me to be dangerous.”
The Overseer cocked her head to one side and then looked slowly around the room at the six men and six women that made up the Martial Council.
“You are a dragonmancer,” the Overseer said pleasantly. “Not only that, but you are also a father who is worried for the wellbeing of his offspring. I would be concerned if they did not think that you were a danger to me and everyone in this room.”
A brief silence stretched out. A heavy silence loaded with unspoken words of warning.
“All I want to know,” I said, “is when we’re leaving and what we’re doing. Give me it in layman’s terms, if you’d be so kind. I’m a simple guy at heart, and I’d like to think that this is a simple mission. I’m going to save my son.”
The Overseer nodded.
“Very well,” she said.
The gorgeous woman held up a hand to stop the fat Martial Council member from opening his mouth, as he looked like he was threatening to do.
“Indulge me a moment,” she continued, “and allow me to tell you a little of what has been happening. In this way, you might better understand what is to happen next. Empress Cyrene gave the go-ahead for the Drako Academy to increase our movements into the Subterranean Realms. Now, admittedly, the Mystocean Empire has been doing so for the past year, but without any real kind of dedication or direction.”
“You were basically just showing your face down there, were you?” I asked. It was a blunt question, but not rude. I just was not in the mood to dance about when we could cut to the chase in far less time.
The man with the salt and pepper mutton chops began sputtering like a kettle on the boil, but was quieted by another graceful hand from the Overseer.
“Our previous expeditions were, as you so eloquently put it, mainly just to show that we were there,” the Overseer admitted. “To show any potential spies of the Shadow Nations that we, indeed, still have a presence down there. I will tell you that it was mostly a team of sappers, a handful of dragonmancers, and a small company of regular troops. We were hoping to find some useful relics in some of the myriad networks of tunnels.”
“And now?” I asked. “Now that you’ve found out what I am? What I can do? And what we need from down there?”
“Things have changed, yes,” the Overseer replied. “Our patrols, and our efforts, have increased tenfold. You hold the key to the regeneration of our dragons, Mike Noctis. You personify the continuation of the Mystocean Empire.”
There was some muttering around the table at this declaration, but I ignored it.
“I assume that you must have some sort of staging post now then,” I said. “It’s taken quite a while for this expedition to get the go-ahead. I couldn’t think what the goddamn hold-up was, but now that I come to think about it, I guess that it’s because you’ve been fortifying your position.”
The Overseer gave me a searching look. “That’s right. A veritable town has been constructed within the shadows of the Western Gate of Galipolas Mountain. It is there that the initial work and labor of clearing a path to enter the Subterranean Realms is being undertaken. All of the entrances that used to exist—at least those known by the Empire—were sealed with rubble and debris after the Shadow Nations were defeated a millennium ago. We are carefully clearing one of these entrances now.”
I nodded. Penelope had given me a brief history of the old war with the Shadow Nations. This seemed to tally up with what the Knowledge Sprite had told me.
“The entrance that we are trying to excavate lies somewhere within the ruins of what was once an Iron Dwarf city,” the Overseer said. “Now that the Martial Council has been sent word that the first area of the mines is secured, we are willing to allow you, Dragonmancer Noctis, to travel to the Western Gate of Galipolas Mountain. “
It took all my self-control not to say, “About fucking time.”
Instead, I said, “I appreciate it, Overseer. When can I leave?”
The waspish woman with the pale pink hair was the one to answer this question. She peered at me superciliously down her nose. “You should understand, Dragonmancer Noctis, that, typically, students of the Academy during an expedition such as this would guard the rear, flanks, and the supply lines. They would act as messengers and runners. They would move around supplies. They would man pickets ahead of, or around the main body of troops, so that they can detect the enemy and slow them down before they encounter the main body of troops.”
Somehow, I managed to hold my tongue as this woman explained herself to me, as if to a recalcitrant child.
“You, however, will not be doing any of this,” continued the pink-haired member of the Martial Council. “By the express wishes of the Overseer, you shall be placed in the middle of a powerful group of dragonmancers and sent out into areas that have already been cleared.”
“Sounds good to me,” I butted in, firing a small smile right into the waspish woman’s face. “I’d like to be in the thick of things, but I understand that you don’t want to risk your one hope to stop dragon extinction. Either way, I just want to find what I need to save my son.”
The woman’s lips peeled back from her pale gums, as if she was about to spit venom at me.
“Your job is to seek out the crystals and whatever might restore your potency, Mike,” the Overseer interjected. “Thus, the mission of everyone in the group that surrounds you is to protect you and keep you safe from harm.”
My lip curled in slight disdain at this, but the Overseer held up a finger; a gesture that made me hold my peace.
“You are very, very important to this Empire, Mike,” she carried on, her words frosted with unmistakable sincerity. “Given your special abilities and your personal interest in this mission, the Drako Academy and Empress Cyrene herself are making an exception for you. Your company will be called in after the main body of our fighters clears out each area and frees it of enemy troops.”
“You think there will be resistance, Overseer?” Saya blurted from behind me.
“There will surely be enemies,” the Overseer said. “As surely as the Subterranean Realms have been home and sanctuary for the Shadow Nations all these long years.”
“I thank you for making the right decision, Overseer,” I said, trying to interject my voice with the proper respect and gratitude. “I thank you for making this easy for me.”
“Knowing the sort of man you are, we are left with little choice,” the Overseer said, with the ghost of a smile. “You must go there, into danger.”
She was right on that score. I did.
“But I have something to ask of you, Mike Noctis,” the Overseer said. “A personal favor to me.”
“Anything,” I said without hesitation.
“Follow the orders that you are given. Please. Even if those orders mean that you will survive while all your fellow dragonmancers with you perish. You must not die, nor must you place yourself in any kind of danger. The fate of the Mystocean Empire, and all those who call it home, lies in your hands, Mike. Will you do that for me? Will you fight for us, as we need you to fight?”
I swallowed. I could not look at Elenari or Saya standing next to me.
“I will fight as you need me to fight,” I said stiffly. “I will fight for the Mystocean Empire. I will fight for Wayne. I will fight for my blood.”
It was the hardest promise that I had ever had to make. This world though, this land and the people in it, had become my home over the past few months. And if you weren’t prepared to fight for your home, what else was there worth fighting for?
We left the chamber after that. There seemed precious little to say. I was elated, but thoughtful. When the girls asked me whether we should head straight back
to the dorm, I shook my head.
“I’ll catch up with you two,” I said. “I won’t be long. I’m just going to take a quick lap around the castle. Breathe the air. Try and clear my head.”
Elenari and Saya kissed me on the cheeks and smiled understandingly.
Chapter 4
When I arrived back at the dorm room that I shared with Elenari and Saya, I found the other two women already there. They were dressed in the same garments they had been wearing when they had left the Overseer’s chamber; the uniform of Rank One dragonmancers and their battle armor. Given our progression in the last few months, I doubted we would remain Rank One for much longer.
Saya was covered in grime and blood, of course—a lot of blood. None of it, as far as I could tell, was hers. It was one of the things I found so appealing about the tall, strong blonde: the fact that if she had been strutting about on Earth, on the streets of L.A., she would have been pigeonholed as just another vapid glamor model. However, she was far from useless and empty-headed. The juxtaposition between her outer appearance and her ruthless capabilities was one that I found uniquely intoxicating. She was as deadly and self-assured as any panther that stalked the forest.
Elenari, having arrived in the capacity of messenger, looked only windswept. Her eyes, though, burned with an urgency that I felt in my own chest. Clearly, she wanted to get moving as soon as possible. She was champing at the bit to get into the Subterranean Realms and find what we needed to craft a crystal for Wayne so that he could attain maturity.
Time was running out. Running fast.
Saya removed her armor and set it down carefully. Then, she pulled her filthy, gore-covered shirt over her head and threw it in the corner. She was revealed in all her glory then; the hard muscles of her arms and stomach etched out in her tall, athletic frame like they had been carved with a chisel. Her large, perfect breasts were coated in a layer of sweat and dirt.
She caught me gazing admiringly at her and smiled knowingly.
“Looks to me like I’m not the only one whose blood is up after that fight with the wildmen,” she said.
With groan-inducing slowness, Saya unbuckled her sword belt and let it drop to the floor with a heavy clunk. She kicked off her boots. Then, wriggling that muscular gymnast’s ass of hers, she slid her pants slowly down her thighs until she stood buck naked on the floor.
“I’m going for a bath,” she said, her eyes flicking between Elenari and myself. “Anyone care to join me?”
With little to no conscious thought, I stripped off my own armor and placed it by the foot of my bed. Then, I ripped my soiled shirt over my head, pried my boots off, and flung my breeches into the corner where they were picked up by whatever kind soul did the dragonmancer’s laundry.
Saya was right, my blood was up. It might have been the lingering effects of the battle. Could have been the anger and resentment that was slowly leeching out of me now that the Overseer had finally given us the go-ahead. It might have been a combination of the two. Whichever the reason, I could feel my sex-drive revving up. My insides burned with the need to lose myself in a sea of red lust.
My cock twitched in anticipation as Saya ran her bright blue eyes over my body.
“I guess that’s one,” she said.
I grabbed a towel from the stack and tossed one to Saya. The Amazonian blonde caught it deftly and wrapped it around herself.
“Elenari,” she said as she opened the door to the corridor leading to the dragonmancer’s private shower and bathroom, “I know you’re not dirty like Mike and I, but we can remedy that…”
Elenari bit her lip, glanced at me, and then pointed at the stack of towels. In the time that it took me to turn, grab another fluffy towel, and throw it to her, she was already out of her breeches and wriggling out of her long fighting shirt.
My breath caught, as it always did, on observing the beautiful waif-like elf. Her skin was as pale and flawless as milk, contrasting brilliantly with her long, red hair.
“Um,” I said, suddenly struck by something that must have been as close to parental responsibility as I had ever come. “Where’s the little guy? Where’s Wayne?”
Elenari’s excited face fell a little. She pointed over to her bed. Looking, I saw a slight haze of pale blue smoke coming from underneath it.
“He’s under there in a nest he’s made of yours, mine, and Saya’s clothes,” the elf said. “All he does is sleep now, basically.”
I opened my mouth to say something, some bullshit about sleep being the great healer or something, but Elenari shook her head and hitched a mischievous look onto her face with an effort.
“Come on,” she said, smiling wickedly as she wrapped the towel around her. “You don’t want Saya to start without us, do you?”
I grinned. “I can think of worse things to walk in on than that,” I replied. And the two of us walked out of the dorm door and followed Saya into the luxuriously appointed bathroom.
This communal bathroom was mostly taken up by a circle of shower stalls. At the back of the room, however, there was also a line of sunken tubs and, in one corner, an opulent spa bath that could comfortably fit about eight dragonmancers.
The faucet was already gushing forth foaming hot water when Elenari and I entered.
I had been worried that there might already be dragonmancers making use of the facilities, but I needn’t have worried. It was that time in the afternoon when dragonmancers who had not been sent on patrol, or on some mission or other, would still be on the parade grounds training. After they had finished up there, chances are they would make straight for the refectory for a meal before their evening classes.
Judging by the mischievous and excited smile playing around Saya’s lips as she sat in the filling tub, she had come to the same conclusion: we had a good long while before we might expect to be interrupted.
Elenari and I stepped down into the marble spa bath. The water was already lapping at my knees and was deliciously warm. The thick, foamy bubbles smelled like vanilla and cinnamon.
Elenari instantly dropped down to her hands and knees, so that her perfect ass was pointing in my direction. The elf crawled toward Saya. The blonde reached out and pulled the fiery-haired elf toward her, and they kissed gently.
There are some sights, such as the spectacle of two women soaping each other’s breasts and making out, that need to be savored. For a couple of minutes, I simply sat on the edge of the marble spa bath and watched the erotic show play out in front of me, while all but one of my muscles started to relax thanks to the rising hot water.
Eventually, I slipped into the sudsy water, though my eyes continued to move slowly over the glorious sight of the two naked dragonmancers in front of me.
“Why this sort of thing isn’t a prerequisite for all post-mission wind downs is a mystery to me,” I said as Saya disentangled herself from Elenari for just long enough to shut off the faucet.
“Well, we could broach it to Sergeant Milena, couldn’t we?” Elenari said innocently. “I’m sure she and Lieutenant Kaleen would go for it, don’t you think?”
Saya grunted with amusement as she scooped up a handful of bubbles and rubbed them over the elf’s chest. Elenari’s pink nipples stood up like a couple of guardsmen coming to attention.
“Damn me, but if there was ever a woman who could benefit from getting laid, it would be the Sergeant,” the blonde warrior said as she soaped Elenari, running her hands over the elf’s slick skin.
Elenari sat now, leaning against one end of the enormous sunken marble spa bath, while Saya administered to her. The elf’s legs were spread, and Saya was nestled up against the slighter woman as she cleaned her off. Elenari groaned gently and slipped a hand beneath the surface of the water. She began to rub at Saya’s crotch while the blonde dragonmancer continued to lather up her tits with soap and occasionally leaned forward to flick her tongue across Elenari’s nipples.
As I watched, captivated, I cleaned the worst of the grime and blood from my arms, ches
t, and face, leaving my skin clean and fresh.
“You better join us, Mike Noctis,” Saya growled, giving Elenari’s nipples a firm tweak so that the other woman gasped and writhed against her. “You still look a little filthy.”
My cock throbbed with a building lust that almost had me tearing the women apart so that I could plunge myself into one of them.
“You just sit back and let us clean each other up first though,” Elenari purred, a wicked grin lighting up her usually composed and reserved elven features. “Like the gentleman that we all know that you are not quite. Then Saya and I will take care of you. You just sit back and enjoy the show for now.”
I did as I was told. I had learned enough in my few months at the Drako Academy to know that, very occasionally, it was prudent to bow to superior numbers.
Elenari squirmed against Saya’s wet, more muscular body, sending the bathwater sloshing about like a storm-tossed sea. Saya’s hands continued to glide over Elenari’s porcelain skin, leaving bubbles in their wake. She carried on toying and teasing the elf’s nipples for a while, until I could see that they were stiff enough to cut glass. Then, slowly, deliberately, she moved her hands down, under the water, mimicking the motions that Elenari was making in the watery depths. Elenari moaned loudly and started to hump Saya’s hand as Saya fingered her.
All this was happening under the water, obviously, and I couldn’t see a thing, but the whole situation was almost made sexier because of that. I had seen how these women liked to get down, and knew exactly how they liked to get off, and my imagination easily stepped in to fill in the blanks.
It was all I could do not to jump in there myself, as the two beautiful females finger-fucked one another. The longer I held out though, the better it’d be when I subbed into the game.
Every now and again, both Elenari and Saya glanced directly at me as they played with each other, their mouths open, teeth gleaming, eyes brimming over with pure carnality.
