Chapter 47

After Alya cleared the table of the supper plates, the cat-girl who kissed her when they first met, Kashka, stood up at the table, pulled her shorts down, and bent over the table without pausing her conversation with Alya’s master and the oni. Kal got up from his seat and stood behind her, unbuckling his belt and pulling his pants down with the same nonchalance. The conversation stopped for a moment as Kal slid his cock into the cat-girl but continued after Kashka laid her head on her arms and began rocking back into Kal’s slow thrusts.

“This will probably be a common sight during his visits,” Ikuno warned her with a chuckle. When the oni spoke to her, Alya realized she hadn’t moved a muscle since her master and the cat started. After a few minutes, Kashka asked Kal to speed up, and the conversation stopped as the two focused on making love to one another. Kal came first, which set off a quiet, shaking orgasm in the cat. Kashka stood up and bent backwards to share a kiss with the mage as he slipped out, then put her clothes back in place and took her leave.

Seeing the fox-girl’s confusion, Ikuno explained to Alya that Kashka had another lover aboard The Scarlet Bitch. She left to spend the night with Ratt since the Perdition was about to arrive, and their chances to be together were dwindling.

Afterward, Ikuno remade her bed in the living room and made it abundantly clear to Kal she needed a long, hard fuck all three ways to make up for neglecting her at the manor.

Alya had experienced her master’s stamina firsthand but was not expecting his cock to grow to gigantic proportions as he placed the head at the oni’s entrance. The moan that escaped the blue woman as he sank into her pussy informed the fox that her Master had become the perfect size for the woman. The lights on Kal’s bracers lit up as he pulled Ikuno back onto his cock so hard Alya had to believe it was hurting one or both of them, but the howls from the oni and grunts from the mage said otherwise.

A handful of minutes passed as her master hammered his cock into the oni hard enough to make the fox wince before he held himself against her ass with a long groan. Ikuno buried her face in the cushion beneath her head as she announced her own orgasm with a muffled wail.

Alya sat nearby, silently hoping it was her turn next, but her Master shifted the oni’s hips downward and placed his enormous prick against the wrinkled purple skin of Ikuno’s pucker.

“Yesss,” hissed the woman as Kal pressed against her backdoor. The oni gasped as the head finally slipped inside.

The fox had been taken in the bottom numerous times as a slave, and whether or not it felt good or hurt seemed to be up to chance. As she watched Kal’s prick slide in and out of the oni’s rear and listened to the Ikuno’s throaty moans that sounded more intense than when he was in her pussy, Alya began wondering if it hadn’t been chance, but the poor skills of her former masters. Then again, it wasn’t as though many of her former masters showed any interest in her pleasure or discomfort the way Kal did.

The mage increased his pace until he was fucking the oni’s rear just as hard as he had her pussy. Ikuno was loving every moment, rocking back into his thrusts so they came together with the sharp slap of skin on skin. It took quite a bit longer this time before Kal buried himself in the oni’s bottom. Alya watched with fascination as his balls drew up to pump their load into Ikuno’s rear as the oni’s pussy twitched and clenched from her orgasm.

After taking a few seconds to catch his breath, Kal pulled his half-hard cock from Ikuno’s bottom. Alya stared at the sight of the oni’s pucker filled with Kal’s cum as it slowly closed. Her eyes widened with shock and a little disgust when she looked away to see her master feeding Ikuno the cock that had just come out of the oni’s rear. Ikuno hardly seemed to mind as she moaned around the mage’s cock.

Kal must have seen the look on her face and said, “Monster girls tend to be very clean back there anyway, but I have spells that keep my partners’ bottoms pristine, and Ikuno was the one who taught them to me.”

“What do you mean by, ‘we tend to be very clean’?” asked the fox.

Kal sunk his oversized cock into Ikuno’s mouth before answering. “The mage who created monster girls enjoyed a woman’s backside just as much as I do and made some modifications that keep your bottom cleaner than a human’s.”

Ikuno pulled off of Kal’s prick and looked over her shoulder. “We also make a natural lubricant back there, and it feels much better for us to have a cock up our ass than a human woman,” she said, swaying her bottom back and forth in front of the fox.

Alya had been ordered to lick her master’s backside on many occasions and never enjoyed the experience, though her masters certainly did. However, her former master’s bottoms never looked as enticing as Ikuno’s was, freshly filled with Kal’s seed. But if it’s clean...

The fox stuck out her tongue and leaned forward.

Kal slowly opened his eyes and looked out the living room window. The sunrise had just started to lighten the sky outside. With the season’s shortening days, they probably had slept in.

“Awake, finally?” Kashka asked over the bond, confirming Kal’s suspicions. He saw through her eyes that she was up in the crow’s nest of The Scarlet Bitch, giving instructions to one of the new girls. She appeared to have been up for a few hours already.

“You could have slept in had you stayed,” he replied while slowly extricating himself from Alya and Ikuno’s tangle of arms and legs. Despite Alya reporting that the master bed had been repaired, Ikuno didn’t trust herself not to break it again, especially since she had hardly spent much time with Kal the past few days and planned on having him inside her most of the night when they arrived.

“Just getting my time in,” she said defensively.

“I know, and I approve, but I don’t want to hear any harassment because you volunteered to go back to work sooner than the rest of us,” he grumped while quietly making his way to the restroom to relieve his bladder.

He returned to find the oni wrapped protectively around the fox. “Can we keep her?” asked Ikuno, giving him wide, puppy-dog eyes.

“I’m pretty sure you were there when I made that promise to her,” Kal chuckled before a far-off look crossed his face. “The Perdition is here, but Kashka says it’s not even at half sail, so it will be an hour or two before it gets into port.”

The oni groaned with annoyance before looking down at Alya. “I guess that means I need to let you go.”

The fox smiled up at Ikuno. “I should be making you and Master Kal breakfast, Mistress.”

Ikuno growled playfully and scooted the two of them around until she held herself over Alya. “Let Kal take care of the food. He’s an excellent cook, and I’d rather have you for breakfast,” purred the oni before leaning down to capture one of the fox’s nipples between her lips.

“But ... it’s my duty...” Alya pleaded, giving him a look filled with worry, then gasping as Ikuno made a trail of kisses from the fox’s breast and down her belly.

“I think last night made you as much a lover as a maid,” said Kal, pulling a loose tunic over his head before donning some pants. “Be the lover this morning. I’ll handle breakfast.” The mage leaned over and kissed the fox on the forehead. As he stood back up, Alya moaned from Ikuno’s tongue dipping into her sex before then sliding up to brush across her clit.

Kal chuckled and turned to leave but came face to face with the oni, begging for a kiss. The mage glanced at Alya before pressing his lips to Ikuno’s. They let the fox see how their tongues swirled around each other so Kal could taste Alya as well.

The mage broke the kiss and frowned. “How am I supposed to cook a tastier breakfast than that?” With a final chuckle at the blush spreading across the fox’s face, he made his way into the kitchen.

“Master Kal, this is Master Samad Beel. I invited him here to speak with you today,” said Olvo, introducing the man standing next to him. He was a couple of inches shorter than Kal and dressed in fine black and green fabrics with silver trim. A silver badge on his chest displayed Beel’s crest, also in green and black. Given Kal’s emerald-colored shirt and black cloak, The mage approved of the man’s color scheme. Silver-rimmed glasses sat on his nose, and the man’s hair looked to be thinning on the top of his head. Kal guessed he was a few years older than Jurien and close to Olvo’s age. “Master Beel is an expert on heraldry and will help you design a flag for the ships in your fleet as well as a crest we,” he extended an arm to include the office workers, “and your guardsmen can wear to show they work for you.”

“I’m not sure this is the time, Olvo,” said Kal, stepping to the side so Ikuno could come in out of the chill morning air. “The Perdition is on its way into port.”

Beel’s eyes widened as the oni squeezed through the doorway, but Olvo must have done a good job of warning him about the mage’s companions since he quickly turned his attention back to Kal.

“I have been informed,” said Olvo. “Which is why I felt it important to speak with Master Beel now since you will need flags for The Perdition as well as one for The Scarlet Bitch within a few days.”

“I get The Perdition, but why does The Scarlet Bitch need a new flag? She already has one.”

“The Scarlet Bitch has a ship flag. She will need a fleet flag to show it is part of your fleet but not owned by you.”

“I see. So, what do you need from me, Master Beel?” Kal asked.

“Since Silvermoon will be where your fleet operates out of, it would be wise for your ships and The Scarlet Bitch to fly a city flag as well,” Beel began. “You may find this odd, but I would like to sit down and talk to you for a while, perhaps over some tea. I find that patterns often emerge naturally from the tales of a person’s life.”

“I have some time,” said Kal, taking a seat at the office’s empty desk. “But I have some important matters that will require Ikuno’s and mine’s attention on the horizon. Do not be offended if we have to leave on short notice.”

“Mister Olvo has informed me already,” he replied as an office worker brought a chair over for the man to sit on. “Would it not be more comfortable to use your office, Lord Runesmith?”

Kal stared at Beel. “What?”

“I purchased my maid from your predecessor and spoke with him at length in his office upstairs. I believe it would be more comfortable than here among your workers.”

“That’s not what’s thrown him off,” Ikuno chuckled.

“You called me Lord. I’m just a mage trying to figure out this whole merchant business.”

“It is merely a title of respect used when doing business with Silvermoon’s aristocracy,” Olvo explained. “The only true Lords are those sitting on the city’s High Council.”

“For a moment, I thought you were about to tell me I also inherited some degree of nobility.” Kal looked confused for a moment. “I don’t know if I’m relieved or disappointed,” said the mage.

“Silvermoon has a city council, not a king. There is no nobility like you speak of,” Olvo said before directing Kal’s attention back to Master Beel.

“Ah, yes,” said Kal. “The office would be more comfortable. However, I would like Ikuno to be here for this conversation as well, and she does not appreciate the stairs up to the office.”

“As you wish.” Beel pulled out a small stack of papers, each about the size of Kal’s hand, and a thin box of brightly colored chalk. “Since she appears to be a big part of your life, tell me a little bit about how you two met...”

“The Perdition just passed the seawall,” Kashka sent over the bond.

“It looks as though our time is up,” said Kal, getting up from his seat.

“Give me just a few more moments,” said Beel as he scribbled furiously on the paper in front of him. The desk was littered with designs that the man had drawn up and then discarded as Kal recounted a heavily abridged version of the past few years since meeting Ikuno. Some of the rejected flag designs bore wolf heads as he described the time Dax traveled with him, while others had snakes from when Sera was his companion.

After Kal mentioned Prentas’s tower, it became a main component of Beel’s flag design, but he kept on making more and more as Kal spoke, simplifying and refining the pattern until he cleared a spot among his rejects and placed down a drawing for Kal to consider. He immediately began drawing out the shape of a shield or badge without waiting for the mage to give his approval.

The design was deceptively simple. A thick line of blue that matched Ikuno’s skin ran diagonally through the flag. A field of black sat above the line, while below was a blue-green that closely matched his eyes when glowing, according to Ikuno. In the flag’s black portion, a grey line extended from the middle of the design to the far corner.

The grey line was the final iteration of Prentas’s tower, which Master Beel explained as a representation of his relationship with monster girls. The blue-green stood for his magic, which played an enormous part in his life. Lastly, the blue line symbolized Ikuno and the other women central to his life. Kal wanted to add more colors to represent each of his women, but Beel insisted that a good ship’s flag needed to be easy to read at a distance, which meant keeping the design simple. Since Ikuno was the first in his harem, he felt it appropriate to use her skin color.

Kal lamented not being able to put colors for Perra and the others on it, but overall, was quite happy with the man’s design.

“Master Beel...” the mage started.

“Here,” he said, sliding the paper over to him. Kal picked up the paper and studied it as Ikuno came over to look over his shoulder. On it was a shield, half blue-green and half black like his flag but split down the middle. On the blue side was a staff with a dagger on each side, while the black half had what appeared to be Ikuno’s horns at the very top, with a white dot surrounded by a whirlpool of magic taking up most of the bottom.

“My horns look a little like hair, but I like it,” said Ikuno. Kashka also sent her approval over the bond, happy to see her daggers represented. Kal again had misgivings about not representing the rest of his women. But he quickly realized that Kashka and Ikuno were best suited for representation here in Silvermoon. It was so close to Ikuno’s homeland, and Kal felt there was a high probability that Kashka would make a permanent home in the city.

Master Beel looked more closely at Ikuno’s horns and nodded. “I’ll fix it and leave it with Olvo for your review. Is the flag acceptable?”

“Yes, I think we all agree,” said Kal as Ikuno nodded. The mage smiled. “And it sounds like Kashka is going to claim the black in the flag as representing her cloak.”

“That cheeky bitch,” chuckled the oni as she moved toward the door. “Come on. The Perdition’s getting close, and Kashka’s getting anxious.”

“On my way. Master Beel, I’ll need four of the flags right away. Coordinate with Olvo to see what else we will need from you. Thank you for all your help,” said Kal before darting out the door after the oni.

“That was ... interesting,” Beel said to Olvo once the mage had left and the door closed behind him.

“What part, Samad?” the office manager asked.

“Most of it. The boy’s seen more in the past few years than in a lifetime for most of the men and women I’ve done work for, and I know there’s an ocean of things he didn’t have time to mention. What’s more, you warned me of his dislike of slavery, but he didn’t bat an eye when I said I bought one from Crowell.”

Olvo chuckled. “I’d almost forgotten Darrow had a first name. It’s been so long since I heard it. As for Kal ... I think he understands that there’s more nuance to the slavery situation in Silvermoon than he can grasp at the moment. He wants to be a hero, but those women of his keep him grounded. I’m looking forward to seeing how this will all play out ... assuming he doesn’t bankrupt us first.”

“Perhaps I need payment up front?”

The office manager shook his head. “No, our finances aren’t that bad, but Kal released all of the slaves working for him and turned them into employees. That much more money going out is worrying and will continue to be worrying until the ships start bringing in a fair bit of coin. If we’re lucky, a few merchant vessels might switch over to slavers to fill the void Kal’s ships will leave, or else Silvermoon will have too many vessels and not enough cargo.”

“Knowing you, you’ll get by, just like you always do, old friend.” Beel wrung his hands in anticipation. “Now, let’s discuss the cost of your flags and how many you will need.”

Olvo groaned as he waved for his friend to follow him back to his desk.

Kal stood in front of a tavern near the docks, watching as The Perdition pulled up next to the pier. Ikuno crouched beside him, covered in a canvas tarp to conceal her blue skin, as there wasn’t a cloak in town big enough for her. Passersby who noticed the two quickly looked elsewhere and hurried on their way after seeing the intense expressions on the mage and oni’s faces.

The moment the dockhands secured the ship, Ikuno shed the canvas and followed Kal through the people milling about as he strode toward The Perdition. Off to one side, Kal saw Thiben coming toward them, accompanied by his men and a smaller figure in a black cloak.

Kashka broke away from the security detail and ran down the pier to where The Perdition’s crew was extending the gangplank. As the long board bounced on the dock, Kal leapt high into the air and landed on the forecastle’s deckrail.

“Where is the Captain?!” shouted the mage, amplifying his voice so it carried across the entire ship. As everyone turned to look at him, Kashka sprinted up the stairs and ran up the side of the mainmast to stand on the mainsail’s yard.

A man around Kolas’s age wearing a long white coat open in the front stormed down the aftcastle’s stairs to the maindeck. Beneath his coat, a cutlass swung from his hip while a shoulder strap bristled with throwing knives.

“Who the hell are ye?! I gave no permission to come on my ship!” he shouted. The crew drew their daggers or swords and followed behind him as he passed.

“I don’t need permission to come on my own ship!” Kal shouted back loud enough to make the men in front wince. “Your former employer is dead, and I am the new owner of this ship. You and your crew have five minutes to pack your belongings and get off before I start throwing you into the harbor,” he continued at a lower volume.

The captain let out a barking laugh before snarling at the mage, “Did ye think I’d just hand me ship over to you with no proof?”

“The proof is in the city administrator’s archives. You can go see them once you’re off my ship. If you need more proof, you’ll have to swim to the bottom of The Jagged Spine’s waters and see if you can find a bone or two left of him.”

“No. We’re not leaving Darrow’s ship until I know what ye say is true.”

Kal looked over his shoulder at the men gathered on the dock. “Guard Captain Thiben!”

“Yes, Sir!” the man called out.

“Can you verify that your former employer is dead?” Kal asked as The Perdition’s captain and crew moved over to the port-side rail.

“Aye,” Thiben replied. He turned to The Perdition’s crew, “The transfer of Crowell Darrow’s entire estate and death thereafter were witnessed by two captains who swore under oath the statements were true and they were under no duress.”

“Bloody hell...” the captain muttered, stepping away from the deckrail. He turned to Kal, “The cargo needs unloadin’...”

“I have a crew ready who will take care of that. Just get you and your men off my ship.”

The captain walked over to the middle of the maindeck and turned to address his crew. “Me boys! The owner of our fine ship is dead and has left it to this man,” he said, gesturing toward Kal.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Kal growled under his breath.

“There’s some valuable cargo aboard, men. Cargo we fought for, and a few of us died for.” The captain drew his sword and pointed it at Kal. “I say we take The Perdition for ourselves and start making our own money.” Most of those who still had their weapons sheathed drew and raised them in the air as the crew cheered. “Raise the gangplank and cut the mooring lines! We have money to make!”

“Why did you have to prove me right,” Kal groaned before pumping more mana into the voice amplification spell. “LOWER YOUR WEAPONS AND GET OFF MY SHIP!!” The mage’s voice boomed, making many of The Perdition’s crew drop their weapons and clap their hands over their ears. His eyes glowed blue as balls of crackling flame sprung from his hands. Kal jumped from the deckrail and floated to the maindeck in front of the forecastle. “I will reduce this ship to cinders before I let you take it.”

The crewman closest to the mage raised his sword and charged. Steel rang against steel as a dagger struck the blade and sunk into the deck boards by the man’s feet. His sword hummed as it flew from his hand and over the rail. An enormous blue hand reached up to pluck it out of the air, then spun it around and sunk it halfway to the hilt in the deck before Ikuno used the blade to hoist herself onto the ship.

The oni pulled the sword from the deck and inspected it before shrugging and tossing it up onto the forecastle.

“You could have come up the gangplank,” said Kal.

Ikuno shrugged again. “This way was more fun,” she said, paying no attention to The Perdition’s crew and using her thumb to flick out the wood stuck beneath her claws.

Kal turned to the captain. “Did you think I came alone?”

The captain guffawed, but his laugh sounded strained as he kept glancing over at Ikuno. “Two against me crew? You don’t stand a chance.”

“What do you think Ikuno?” Kal asked while amplifying his and Ikuno’s voices.

“They’re slavers,” she said, sounding bored. “Cut them down. Make them an example. When the rest of Darrow’s ships hear what happens to mutineers, they won’t give you any trouble.”

“We both know they’ll run off with my ships and never come into port.”

“It’s possible, but we also both know they’ll just be hunted down and slaughtered if they do. The only way they get out alive is by leaving the ship peacefully.”

“You all heard her,” said Kal, turning back to the crew. “Sheathe your weapons, or die.”

There was a moment of silence before one man put his sword back in its scabbard and ran for the crew quarters. Nearly a dozen others followed his example.

“Just so you know, Darrow died trying to take back The Intrepid, and he hired an entire mercenary company to make it happen,” said Kal, addressing the rest of the crew. “Now his bones and those of every mercenary he hired lay in the depths of the Spine, and The Intrepid is still The Scarlet Bitch. My companions and I played a large part in that fight. I suggest you choose wisely before raising your sword against us.”

A few more men put away their weapons and made their way to the crew quarters as the first group rushed out and scampered down the gangplank carrying armloads of their belongings.

“Cowards,” spat The Perdition’s captain.

“I think you will quickly discover that they are the smart ones,” said Kal. “I would much rather you all leave my ship alive but it appears you lot are too stupid to realize how much stronger we are.”

“Me boys an’ I have seen plenty of battles.”

Ikuno growled deep in her chest and said through bared fangs. “Torching villages, then killing the men and raping the women as they flee isn’t a battle. It’s a massacre. There’s a difference. Shall I show you what it’s like to be the ones running and screaming in terror?” she asked, brandishing her claws as her mouth widened into a disturbing grin. Two sailors dropped their weapons and bolted for the crew quarters, while another nearly stabbed himself in the hip in his haste to sheathe his dagger before following them.

Ikuno’s expression returned to normal as she looked at Kal. “Looks like that’s all we are going to save out of this bunch.”

“Nah,” said Kal, studying the crew’s faces. “There’s a few more who will run once the captain is dead. Ria, staff.”

Kal spun up the Haste rune as the staff appeared in his hand. Seconds later, he summoned the magical shield in front of his arm and calmly batted away a half-dozen of the captain’s throwing knives.

“I’m done waiting,” the captain growled as even more of his men ran for their belongings. He had barely taken a step when a dagger buried itself to the hilt in the top of the captain’s head.

“You shouldn’t have attacked me,” Kal tsked as the man fell to the deck mid-stride.

There was a moment of surprised silence aboard The Perdition before the crew exploded into motion.

A handful of men rushed Ikuno. The oni batted aside the first sailor’s blade before raking her claws across his throat. The man spun away, choking as his lifeblood poured onto the deck. The second approaching sailor hesitated at the sight. Ikuno grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up over her head. Her other hand came up and grabbed his crotch before she spiked the man overboard, sending him headfirst into the pier below hard enough to make the wooden structure vibrate.

The other three men wisely dropped their weapons and ran for the gangplank.

Two men appeared from the door leading to the helm holding bows. Two daggers from above cut the bows’ strings and bit deeply into the men’s thighs, severing arteries that ensured they would bleed out in minutes.

The four crewmen who challenged Kal fared no better. The first wielded two daggers, which utterly failed to deflect the mage’s staff before it crushed the man’s throat with a magically strengthened jab.

The next man swung a smaller version of Roka’s scimitar. The sailor stopped and stared in surprised wonder when, instead of slicing clean through the wooden staff, the heavy blade stopped as though met with steel. The hesitation cost him as Kal spun around and struck the sailor’s temple with the other end of the staff.

Kal batted away the longsword of the next man. Knocking it from his hand, the sword flew over the rail and dropped into the harbor. The mage let the man run when he bolted for the gangplank.

Kal’s final opponent brandished a curved cutlass and dagger and moved with a degree of skill. He wasn’t on Asahi’s level by any means, but the man was good. Unfortunately, good wasn’t enough when dealing with a mage with enhanced strength and speed, and it meant almost nothing when the mage had friends. After a brief exchange of blows, Kal caught both blades with his staff and shoved the man backward but didn’t step in to engage the sailor again. A moment later, the man jerked as the tip of Kashka’s dagger burst through his chest. The sailor’s weapons dropped to the deck as he turned around to see a cat-girl in a black cloak drop to the deck from the lowest yard. He jerked again as the blade vanished, and blood began pouring from the wound.

The man looked back at Kal. “Help?”

Kal laughed and patted the man on the shoulder as he walked past. “Save a slaver? Not a chance.”

As the crewman collapsed behind Kal, the remaining men all dropped their weapons where they stood. Some of the crew rushed for the crew quarters, but many decided their belongings weren’t worth the risk and ran for the gangplank, only to be stopped by Ikuno blocking their escape route.

“You lot ... go get your shit off our ship. You were smart enough to drop your weapons, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to clean up after your sorry asses.” She stepped aside and waved at Thiben to send back the crew who ran away earlier without collecting their things.

“What the hell is going on?” asked one of the crew as Ikuno reached to the side, grabbed a man trying to get past her and jump from the ship, then threw him roughly back onto The Perdition’s deck.

“Only those who mutinied died,” said Ikuno. “You threw down your weapons, which means you went back to just being sailors.”

“Make no mistake. In a different setting, I would happily kill any and every slaver,” said Kal, spitting the word as he walked up to stand beside the oni, “aboard this ship. But in Silvermoon, what you did is morally disgusting but not illegal. So, I can’t justify cutting you down like a bunch of criminals, no matter how much I think you deserve it. Go get your belongings and collect your final pay from Captain Thiben once you are off my ship.”

The Perdition’s crew looked among themselves in confusion for a few seconds before one turned and made his way to the crew quarters. More of the men cast wary glances at Kal and Ikuno before doing the same, with a few turning toward the officer’s quarters instead.

“I hate this,” muttered Ikuno as the remaining men left to collect their things.

“I do, too,” said Kal. “But I’m looking toward the future and trying to make it easier to take control of the other ships. Rumors travel faster than sailing vessels. If their crews understand that running means getting hunted down and slaughtered and that their safest option is to give up the ship peacefully, my hope is that the rest of the transitions will go smoother, or at least without bloodshed.”