Chapter 30: Iron-Hot Rage

Note: Thanks to WRC 264 for beta reading this!

Prince Meinard

I was so greedy for this new power my daughter had developed. Even as she battered me with the balls of purple energy, driving back my body with each hit, I craved it. I yearned for this ability. What other secrets of imbuing had the priests of Krab shown her? Why had I never thought to patronize the followers of the very God whose blood gave me this ability.

“You know you want to be my sweetling again,” I said, falling to my knee, ramming my sword into the cobblestones again to weather the attacks. They hit my iron body hard. It quivered, the structure growing stressed in place. “Yes, yes you have to be.”

“I don’t!” she snarled.

“Don’t tell me your pussy isn’t hot for my cock. That you aren’t craving writhing in my bed again. I know you yearn to be my whore.”

“Never again!” she hissed. “You will never touch my body!”

“But you want me.” I stared at her acorn eyes. “Even in this wooden form you wear, I know your true body is aching for me. Your pussy so wet for your daddy’s cock fucking you.” I smiled despite another set of energy balls slamming into my body, rocking me to the side. “You called me Daddy. You moaned it with that wanton mouth.

“When you weren’t sucking my cock!”

“Shut up!” she howled.

CRASH!

Purple energy washed over me.

“When you weren’t guzzling down my cum, you called me Daddy in that sweet voice. I can feel the passion from you. You want me. You may hate me, but your body is addicted to me. Sven can never—”

CRASH!

My head snapped back. A numbness fuzzed through my control of the proxy for a heartbeat.

“I don’t have to do anything for you!” she snarled. “I’m not bound by that spell! I’m free! And I’m pregnant with Sven’s son.”

“What?” I growled. “That pup tried to use that same lie.”

“It’s no lie! We conceived a child. All those times you pumped your cum into me didn’t matter, Father. Your seed was wasted!”

CRASH!

“Sven’s son will rule Kivoneth one day! Not yours!”

CRASH!

As I reeled back from the blow, anger surged through me. A rage so deep, so black, encompassed me. How could my daughter betray me for him? I raised her. I loved her. I worshiped her with the same fervent passion I gave her mother. Only two women ever shared my bed. Two! I loved them both.

How could she do this to me?

A purple shield sprang around my daughter’s proxy, blocking my slashing sword. I gained my feet, gripping my blade in two hands, and hammered it down at her. Blind fury consumed me. I hacked and hacked at the purple shield, battering at it, compelling my proxy to its limits.

Beyond.

Betray me!

Cuckold me!

Molten rage built in my proxy, heating me.

Zanyia

“That’s it, get that ooze!” I shouted as Greta slammed her water at it.

That got a reaction from the slime. It did not like that. It undulated and gurgled in anger. Tentacles lashed at her, bursting through the waves to attack her. She cut one with her blade. I loved it. I slammed my punching daggers deep into the monster’s back and watched Greta unleash her passion in frothy waves of—

A bony elbow cracked into my head.

The world spun around me. I hit the ground, rolling in silent agony. I came to a rest, the world blurring into doubles before me. My temple pounded. I groaned, struggling to understand what had happened. My stomach writhed. I let out a groan, ears twitching.

I had to ... do ... something ... What ... Think...

The monster loomed over me, ichor dripping down its sides, running from its back. A maw of sharp teeth opened.

Ealaín

The ooze retreated before Greta’s water. It slashed tentacles at it while contorting and writhing. Somehow, the liquid was hurting it. I lowered my glowing weapons, not sure what I should be doing. I was useless against the monster. Then her blade cut through a tentacle that burst out of her water. It fell to the ground in a splatter of jelly.

“NO!” gurgled the monster.

I took a step back, breathing, gathering myself. The other monster, the one Greta was fighting, howled in agony. I glanced over in time for my stomach to tighten. Zanyia hurtled from its back and crashed into the ground, her silent tumble eerie. She came to a halt on her back, her body limp.

The monster loomed over her, teeth flashing.

My armor flared in brightness. My weapons brilliance shone upon me as I raced across the temple, boots thudding on the stone floor. The ooze gurgled in pain behind me as jaws snapped down at my lamia-wife.

“Zanyia!” I screamed, raising my ax and hammer.

Kora Falk

Ealaín charged past me, rushing to Zanyia’s aid. Carsina scrambled back to me, soaked by Greta’s water. She gripped her diamond hammer in her hand, her face wide and trembling. She stared at me, shaking her head.

“How did you do it?” she asked.

“I thought that was you,” I said, glancing at the hammer. “You hit it, and it went still.”

“No, I thought it was you. You shouted at it and it was like ... like it listened.”

“Why would it do that?” I demanded. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

Carsina just shook her head while the monster gurgled. Greta hacked at it with her sword now. Every watery sweep sent more and more jellied flesh to splatter the ground, the ooze shrinking in size now, dying.

Did I control it?

Ealaín

My blows slammed into the back of the monster. Black ichor spurted around the bade of my ax while I felt the satisfying crunch of bone beneath my hammer. Light exploded. The monster howled, its bulk stumbling over Zanyia.

She lay dazed, but I was in time.

The monster whirled around and then flinched from the light pouring off my weapons. It held up a clawed hand, taking a step back from me. I grinned and stepped forward, moving between it and dazed Zanyia.

“It’s a hunter ... like me...” Zanyia groaned. “It doesn’t like ... the light.”

I glowed brighter.

Zanyia

I groaned and pushed myself to my feet as the incandescent aoi si rushed at the monster. It snarled in fury, claws slashing at the brightness. A wave of dizziness swept over me as Ealaín drove the monster into retreat.

I smiled, my prey distracted. It was time to go in for the kill.

Lights and shadows danced, the brilliance of Ealaín’s sweeping weapons creating deep pockets of darkness. I skirted around their fight, my katars dripping with the monster’s ichorous blood. I yearned to defeat it.

“Rithi’s inspiring vision!” snarled Ealaín as she pressed her attack.

I darted in and leaped at the thing. It threw up a bony arm, blocking a hammering blow. Its arm shivered, somehow not breaking. But the burst of pure, white light stabbed into the monster’s eyes. It flinched, head twisting.

Its neck exploded.

My katar slammed into the side of its neck, severing deep into the flesh. Its roar cut off into a gurgling wheeze. Ichor spurted as I cut through veins and its windpipe. It stiffened and thrashed. Ealaín, her face a dark spot amid her glowing armor, slammed her ax and hammer into the thing’s chest. The blade split through its ribs while the hammer crushed the sternum.

The monster toppled backward. I leaped off of it and landed in a crouch beside the aoi si. I whirled around and smiled as it crashed into the ground. It spasmed, clawed fingers twitching. The ache in the side of my head faded as I purred my delight, letting the sound rumble out of my throat.

I was a better hunter.

Kora Falk

Carsina darted back to fight the monster.

“You can’t hurt it!” I cried out.

“I have an idea!” she shouted, brandishing the diamond hammer.

Despite Greta hacking at it, she was only carving off small chunks. It retreated farther back, working around the room and ... coming towards me. It still wanted the amulet.