Chapter 8

Swamp slimes. He’d never heard of them but they existed. The small blobs were composed of puddles of green goo, twigs, and moss.

He’d battled them throughout the swamp, his hammer having little effect. Brute force failed to defeat them. Instead, he looked for other monsters and the dumb swamp slimes would get distracted and engage them instead. Using this method, he made his way through the forest with swamp slimes acting as his unknowing allies.

He needed more varied skills. For one, when force failed him, he found himself in a disadvantageous position. Another point he wrote in his notes. They also needed another party member. Not to round out the balance of their party but to have another body if they had to split up like this again. Now he was in a swamp looking for dragons alone.

He pulled out the compass, checking again the distance to his goal. He was getting close. The compass was an incredibly useful item, always pointing him toward the exit. If he went the opposite direction, it led him to the center of any location. He made a note to get more items like it.

Something was strange. The villagers made it seem there were many dragons infesting the area, yet he had seen none since coming to the swamp. He saw no signs of them when passing the villages on his way here as if they were never there. Once he got to his destination, all would be known. The women and girls about to be sacrificed to the dragon needed him. He would be a hero.

Reaching a clearing he finally saw the evidence of the dragons, fallen trees marking the ground where they had slithered. But the dragons themselves remained elusive. Then he remembered this was a swamp. These dragons must have adapted to the area meaning—a sound came from his right, a mighty beastly screech.

Here comes the dragon. He ignored the little swamp puddles before, now he knew them for what they were: It was where the dragons slept. Another dragon joined it, then another and another.

Axel told him if he had learned anything from his battles, it was that the one who hesitated died. Taking Axel’s advice, he activated all of his skills. He used Roar at the closest dragon, knocking it back. Then he let out a Battle Cry feeling confidence and vigor flooding his body. It stunned the dragon; he ran at it and activated Rampage for the first time by his own will. Battle Cry improved his morale and made his body feel filled with life, while Rampage felt like a jolt to his mind and heart, forcing his body to push forward. Rayner leaped at the dragon and used Force Hammer on its head, green light smashing into it.

The dragon screamed, trying to get him off its head. Instead, he continued to smash it on the head until it stopped moving.

The creature still lived but as long as it wasn’t attacking him, he could kill it later. Another dragon slithered toward him. Rayner jumped behind the body of the unconscious dragon. When the attacking dragon raised its body above the defeated dragon to peer down at him it got a Roar to its jaw, followed by a Force Hammer. It was not enough to knock it out so Rayner switched tactics. He would make it hurt. He didn’t need a skill like Pain Knife to do that.

Rayner grabbed onto the dragon’s mouth and smashed its teeth with his hammer right at the base of the tooth. It produced the desired painful result, causing it to thrash around on the spot. Ignoring the pain in his back due to the haze of Rampage, he got back up in time to roll to the side to avoid another dragon’s bite. He used the pick on the other side of his hammer to drive it into the side of the dragon. The dragon’s own forward momentum created a giant wound all along its scaled side.

He took stock of his surroundings. One dragon down and two screaming in pain. Weak. These dragons were weak. Truly not the fearsome beasts from the stories. The others that had come out of their swamp puddles were hesitating. The ones that hesitated died. He said that over and over again in his head.

Briefly, he wondered where the maidens were being held but he would find out later. For now, he had to fight. These things were able to steal EXP, that’s why they wanted the maidens, or so he was told. It all seemed strange to him.

He expected a boss to appear but only more dragons followed, most of them smaller than the ones he had just fought. Like the villagers had told him, their scales were not hard, but they were thick. Bad for stabbing if Axel was here. Good for smashing and it was him they were fighting, not Axel. Too bad for them.

He’d downed four and killed six of the creatures, moving deeper into the swamp, using the trees to his advantage. Most of the dragons were not big or strong enough to smash through the trees to attack him. Instead, they hurt their own jaws when he rolled out the way and they bit into the trunk of the trees.

Rayner could tell they were angry, they had to be. Some puny human had come into their home and tried to ruin a sweet deal for them. All the creatures did was sleep in their swamp beds and wait for sacrifices to come to them. No natural predators hunted them. No strong Worshipers were in the area, and few would come to the Alea region of Alta. The easy living they had before was over.

Deeper into the forest the fight went on. He didn’t need to worry about other monsters attacking him, he’d cleared out many of them on his way here. That was his plan, for what the dragons didn’t know is that they had a predator or at least an annoying creature to deal with.

The swamp slimes fell upon the dragons. They were vastly weaker than the dragons but the swamp slimes didn’t have the intelligence to know that. The dragons slithered around on the ground trying to rub them off their bodies. Some of them succeeded. Most of them only rubbed themselves onto more swamp slimes.

Still, no boss appeared. He had to keep reminding himself that this was not a game, no law required a boss to exist. This was it. Yet the villagers told him the largest dragon could wrap around a small hill. He counted himself lucky for once.

He took the chance to stab them all in their soft spots with the pick end of his hammer. It didn’t kill them all, but it didn’t need to. The point was to leave them weak enough for the swamp slimes to finish them off.

He had counted twenty-four dragons. The villagers had made it sound like more. He gave it no further thought, the path was clear to find the maidens. After spending several hours looking for the maidens and killing a stray dragon, he began to think they were already dead.

Then he remembered the swamp beds. Heading back to the clearing that the dragons once called home he searched for an undisturbed swamp puddle. When he found it, he put his hand down into the puddle. He felt a hand and pulled the body up; it was a girl, naked under all the mud. He would ask how she survived under there later. He tried waking her up but nothing worked. He hoped it would not be like this for all of them.

He spent the next few minutes looking for similar puddles and hauled the maidens out. The girls who were awake explained what happened.

“They did not want us because we are virgins; that makes no sense. Men are virgins as well ya know,” the oldest of the girls told him.

“True. I should have thought of that.” He’d read too many stories. “Then why?”

“They wanted to demoralize the population. Taking the community’s women is a great way to do that.”

“So, they don’t steal experience?”

“No. Their claws have a skill that lets them attack a Worshiper’s experiences directly, causing memory loss and impeding the growth of Worshipers.”

That was a better explanation of why nobody wanted to fight the dragons.

“Demoralizing the population. They were softening up the area for war.”

She nodded. “Every village and town in this region is walled, and all have a militia. We have a high population of fighters and we would not roll over while an enemy army invades.”

“When and where is this attack coming?”

“Soon, in a week maybe. If it hasn’t started already. They will want to attack the neighboring region, Alis, first.”

Ridgehill would be in danger as the only real stronghold left in the region of Alis. He had a bad feeling about this, the Inimi even used dragons to fight for them. “They told me there was a giant dragon. It is part of the attack, isn’t it?”

Again, she nodded confirming what he suspected. “C’mon I will take you all home.”

“Hold on,” she said. “Girls, I know you are all scared but some good must come of this. We have a bunch of dead dragons to loot!”

He forgot about that. “Are the scales valuable?”

“No, but the claws are. They damage EXP. Monsters, unlike us humans, have skills ingrained in their body.”

“Wait, does that mean they don’t need gods?”

“They do. It just means they have all the skills at the start, they just need to grow into it and they do so with the help of their gods. At least that’s what I think. I don’t exactly chat with them.”

Done with answering questions they looted the dragons.

Rayner returned to Gregory’s house with the rest of the women to give them time to recover before leaving. That and he could not escort every girl to her village.

Sasha’s mother fussed over them, while he explained to Gregory what he learned.

“It all makes sense, those damn Inimi.”

“I don’t know what to do. Ridgehill and the rest of the Alis region cannot defend against another attack.”

He took a moment to ponder his predicament. “If they defeat our neighbor, we will fall next.” He stood up. “Too long have we believed ourselves defenseless and look what it has brought upon us. No, this time we will fight. They are afraid of our potential. We may not have fancy equipment or important gods blessing us but we do have each other, we always have.”

“I heard the miasma is gone! We should gather up every fighter from the villages and defend our countrymen!” Sasha said, pumping her fist. Gregory was quite the speaker, and so was his daughter. “Dad, could you leave us alone for an hour?” Rayner knew what she wanted but was this really the time? Gregory must have thought so because he left them alone.

“Sasha, I think we should save this for another time.”

“It’s not just me who wants you right now.” The door opened and in entered a group of the girls he had saved. This was not happening.

“We wanted to thank you.”

“Being a maiden has never brought us any luck.”

“Could you help us with that?”

How could he say no to these maidens asking him for help? He was a hero after all.

The girls let their dresses fall where they stood, presenting themselves for him. He grabbed a cute chubby girl, kissing her while gripping her plump bottom. He could hear Sasha behind him encouraging the others to join in. He could feel lips kissing his back, hands feeling his sides, then roaming his chest.

The others surrounded him, fawning over him, worshiping him. He rolled with the chubby girl on the ground and entered her. Her hands on his behind encouraged him, helping him push deeper into her.

He moved onto a leggy brunette, the first girl he pulled from the swamp puddle. She wrapped her long legs around him using them to hold him inside her.

All of them had prepared themselves before entering the room, he could feel the lube on their sex. They didn’t need it; they were already soaking the ground. The girls not taking part were being entertained by Sasha. She was rubbing one girl’s pussy lips and fingering another, putting on a show for him as he thrust into the girl under him.

He pointed to a woman left unattended. “Come here.” He opened his mouth, she caught on, placing her pussy on his mouth for him to lick.

One girl after another came over his shaft. He used everything he had to please them. Rayner played with them using his fingers, he nibbled on their breasts and explored every part of their bodies.

This was the girls’ first experiences; however energetic at the start they tired quickly. Even Sasha slept in the arms of the first plump girl he entered, leaving him with the older girl he’d spoken to in the swamp.

“I hope I am not too old for you. By the way, I am no maiden, the village elders just hoped the dragons couldn’t check.”

He answered her by grabbing and pulling the girl into a deep kiss. She melted in his arms; her fingers ran through his hair. She lowered herself onto him as he sat cross-legged on the ground humping her hips onto him.

“I’m going to cum,” no longer able to restrain himself.

She picked up the pace of her hips as their bodies shook with the force of her movements. She wanted it; she wanted his cum inside her.

She bit into his shoulder to stop from screaming as she climaxed after feeling him fill her with cum.

“How was that for a reward, hero?”

Axel didn’t like what the rescued villagers had to tell him. Not only were the monsters being used by the Inimi to attack villages, but they were impersonating Coalition forces in order to besmirch their name. His wisdom kicked in providing him with an answer. This was the preparation for another attack.

The villagers were outraged on learning of this, and with the confidence gained from fighting off the siege, contacted the other villages and told them what was happening.

What was Axel doing during all this? Resting. He would not make a move until he joined up with Rayner again. Martha was giving him the stink eye; he had made a bad impression on her. First by having a ball of miasma in his possession, a cursed object. Then, when she healed the burn wounds of Fred’s wife, the woman he used as a human shield to defeat the bandit mage.

“So, nice weather we are having,” he joked.

She clicked her tongue and left him alone. Fine with him. He used the privacy to check his stats.

Name: Axel, Level: 3, Class: Thug, Mana: 21, Skills: Pain Knife(1.0) Fear Knife(0.5) Malice Seal(X), EXP: 44.

Focusing on the new skill Malice Seal, he read the description. It used his mana to seal up malicious entities; the mana cost varied using as much mana as needed to complete the task.