Dragon Goddess’s chosen

After an hour of walking including the small detour to rescue the hopelessly tangled Xolotl:

“Guess that's why they called it a wood cave,” I mused as we stopped at the edge of the water. Across the cove we stopped at, but not in the cove, a somewhat large, two-masted ship laid beached with a large hole on the side facing us.

“Guess so,” Kat agreed.

“Is that the one we want, or are we going to keep walking?” Eris asked. My girlfriend shrugged and brought out the quest page before my magic detection lit up around her.

“Yep. Inspect says it's our goal,” she mused and looked into the large cove thoughtfully. “Hmm I don't really feel like walking another twenty minutes to get over there…”

“Not like we have much of an option.” I pointed out and she smirked a bit at me.

“We can swim over, it'll be faster~” I noticed Max tense up behind her and his ears shyly folded back.

“H-hold on, I don't want my clothes to be soaked, or the rest of my things…”

“Unless you want to make use of those wings,” Eris joined in, knowing full well I still haven't figured out how to fly yet. “All of our stuff should be fine in my magic bag”

“Most of us have seen you naked anyways~” my girlfriend added, playfully pressing up against me from behind as she reached around and undid the first buckle of the armor on my stomach. I felt my cheeks quickly grow warm from a combination of embarrassment and arousal from her chest pressing against my back.

“D-dammit,” I huffed softly, my main arguments vanishing before me, and reluctantly started helping Kat remove my armor and clothing.

“You're g-going along with it??” Nicolas stammered, pointedly trying to look away from me then also Eris as she also stripped down to underwear. 

“...They're right though,” my tail flicked a bit as I admitted this. Kat snickered a bit and helped get my shirt off of me.

“B-but still… Max, help me here… wait you too?” I glanced over to my boyfriend and sure enough he was already half undressed and shyly stuffing the clothing he took off into his bag. 

“Still against a bikini?” Kat teased, distracting me from them as she tugged on my pants. ”Not much different from what you're in now~”

“S-shut up…” I grumbled more but let her continue. Unfortunately, though, all her grazing touches were starting to add up and I could feel the warmth of arousal building inside of me. As soon as I could, I stepped out of my pants and pulled away from my girlfriend. “I n-need to cool off… can you put my things in Eris's bag…?”

“...um, sure, you ok though?” She gave me a concerned look and dropped her playful tone.

“ ‘m fine… y-you were just making me feel warm t-too fast…” I answered and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before making my way over to the water. The ocean felt even colder than earlier as I submerged myself up to my neck, but it was the only thing I had that I knew would definitely calm me back down. 

I tried to take a minute to relax while I waited for the others but I soon got the uneasy feeling I was being watched. My first thought was to check the open ocean for any movement but there was only a small two-masted boat cruising by in the distance. When I turned around to check the cove and shore, some movement up on the cliffs caught my attention. 

“U-um A-alex?” Max's voice asked nervously and I glanced over to find him standing where the water was up to his thighs.

“Yeah, pup?” I responded, looking back at the cliffs for a moment as I waded over to him but whatever I saw moving was gone.

“S-so… um… I… I can't swim…” 

“Wait… what?” 

“I-I don't know how to s-swim…” he whined softly, looking away.

“Shit… um,” I glanced at the distance from our shore to our goal. “I definitely can't touch the whole way…”

“Sorry, I-I should've said s-somethin…”

“It's fine, Max,” I assured him, moving closer and gently scooping him up in a hug to comfort him. He yelped in surprise at first then quickly relaxed in my arms. This closeness didn't help the warmth I was trying to escape but his light weight immediately gave me an idea. “You know… you don't weigh that much… Maybe I can try holding you when we go over. How does that sound…?” He nodded a little without removing his face from my chest. ‘Of course you would like the idea… You just want to stay buried there…’

“So you ran away from me just to cuddle him?” Kat called out with obviously feigned hurt as she came over, the water making her approach audible for once. She lowered her voice once she was close though. “Is something up…?”

“He can't swim,” I explained and a look of realization dawned on her face.

“That explains that prediction…”

“You worked as a lifeguard before, right? Any advice on how to swim with someone else?”

“Only for a summer, in high school,” she laughed softly. “But this'll work out. Hey Eris! when you're done stripping your boyfriend, meet us on the other side!” This earned her a middle finger in acknowledgement from the fighter while she was in the middle of taking Nicolas's armor. 

“You're a menace,” I chuckled softly as I watched the two visibly turn red even from this distance.

“Maybe~” she giggled with a slight smile. “Ok so… first, turn Max around, he'll need to breathe instead of enjoying your tits~” I rolled my eyes and gently followed her directions. Our boyfriend protested quietly but didn't resist, still probably shy about admitting he couldn't swim. “Now lay back, use your wings to backstroke and your tail to help push you through the water.”

“You… seem awfully sure about this…” I sighed and did as she directed, keeping my arms wrapped around Max's chest. It was awkward coordinating my wings and tail at first but I was able to keep my and Max's heads above the water easily enough. The growing darkness in the area as the sun set behind the cliffs started to concern me now that I was going into deeper water, however, knowing sharks hunted at dusk. I decided to keep that to myself for now but the slight fear somehow helped get my wings working in sync with my tail better and sent me cruising across the water with surprising ease. Max stayed quiet the whole trip over, just clutching at one of my arms nervously.

“I-it's over?” he mumbled when I finally reached a point where I could stand again. I giggled softly and kissed the top of his head. 

“Yep, already over~ nothing to worry about after all~” I laughed softly, happily still carrying him as I walked back onto the shore.

“Of course you're faster at swimming now too…” Kat half-grumbled when she reached us a few seconds later. 

“Sorry… didn't mean to show you up… I wanted to avoid possibly running into a shark…”

“Wait, a shark?” Max squeaked.

“...that's what scared you into going so fast? Alex, you probably looked like a giant gator with wings.” our girlfriend giggled slightly “Anyways, there's no sharks here, I wouldn't have suggested the water if I saw one of us getting attacked while swimming.” The mage immediately relaxed again in my arms.

“That's… good to hear…” I gave a relieved sigh and put Max back down on the dry sand. A chilly breeze in the next moment made sure he didn't stay away for long, though, and he immediately clung to me again. Kat quickly followed suit, both of them happily taking advantage of my body heat. “Thieves. Both of you”

“You're warm though…” Max mumbled against my side. I sighed and let them continue to steal my warmth as I undid my ponytail to work on trying to wring out my hair.

“You know, if you let me, I'm sure my fire would work too,” I pointed out, shielding my boyfriend from the water from my hair with a wing.

“We can't cuddle fire. Right, Maxie?” Kat countered, giggling softly as our boyfriend agreed with a nod against me.

“As much as I love this. I don't want to be dripping wet…”

“Too bad~”

“Wait a second. Both of you have Create Water. Destroy water is normally with that spell,” both of my partners tensed up. “I'm right aren't I?”

“Y-yes…” Max admitted first before mumbling the spell against me. The water clinging to my body vaporized almost immediately, sapping a lot of heat with it that left me shivering. Unfortunately, the spell didn't work on the water soaking the clothing I was still wearing and that didn't help the sudden lack of heat issue.

“Fucking hell, I didn't think that would steal heat too…” I grumbled as I gathered the fluid for my fire in my mouth.

“A-always does…” 

“Mhmm…” I protectively wrapped my wings around them before spitting a stream of the oily fluid onto the sand, the resulting flame growing as it pooled together. 

The three of us huddled together around it for the next few minutes, my partners also drying off with the same spell, as we waited for our remaining party members. When they finally came ashore, I noticed the two of them still seemed flustered but I decided that they had enough teasing and left them alone about it. Each of us took turns behind a nearby rock to change out of our current wet clothes and get our gear back on. Unfortunately I didn't have another bra for my current size so I had to make do with some linen wrapping around my chest instead, it somehow ending up more comfortable than what I had been wearing. Before long, we were back on our way towards the wreck we had been putting out of mind until then.

The ship seemed even bigger up close but nowhere close to the frigates and galleons that docked in Rookport. It didn't help that the front half of it was beached onto the land and nearly all of the parts that were supposed to be in the water were visible. Interestingly, I noticed that what was left of the sails were fully opened and were fluttering in the light breeze as night fell, as if the entire boat was just directed at land and left at full tilt towards it for some reason.

I ended up literally stumbling into a terrifying discovery on our approach while I was distracted studying the ship: a set of giant three-toed prints that led from the gaping hole to the water's edge.

“...Are those dinosaur tracks…?” Nicolas spoke up first, having the same first impression as me. The footprints definitely reminded me of a half-sized version of a t-rex’s

“Dinosaur…?” Eris asked with a confused expression and our mage looked just as lost.

“Giant lizards that used to live on our planet…” I explained.

“So you mean like you?” She half-joked.

“Very funny.” I rolled my eyes and looked at my girlfriend. “Um about time you check further ahead for this…”

“I know, I know, working on it…” Kat responded before spacing out for a moment.

“We better not be up against a small spinosaurus or something….”

“Small? It's like twice the size of your foot!” Nicolas pointed out.

“Pretty sure a spinosaurus is about as big as a rex, this is small” 

“Um… well… it's not a dino… um not exactly ” my girlfriend announced. 

“W-what is it t-then… less scary t-than what you're making those seem…?” Max asked hopefully.

“Um… no… it looked like an killer whale with arms and legs…” She started walking towards the ship. “Come on, we have some time before it comes back…”

“Wait… we're going to fight something like that?” Nicolas protested even as the rest of us followed Kat to the breach.

“It is our job,” Eris called back to him, a little too cheerful.

“W-why do you sound excited?” Max shyly asked.

“It'll be my first big monster~ Since Alex took on that Draugr by herself.”

“That was not fun, remember?” I butted in as we entered what looked like a ruined cargo hold that reeked of fish behind Kat. 

“Definitely where it was sleeping…” my girlfriend mused to herself as she stood in front of a tangled mess of nets and bones among the scattered crates and barrels. There was even a path broken through the ceiling to the next floor from the breach to this nest for further evidence of her observation. Upon reaching her side, Kat smiled a little up at me and pointed to the next floor. “You think you can give us a boost up? it'll be easier than trying to clear the stairs.”

“The stairs?” I took a look past her and sure enough, in the depths of the floor we were on, a staircase up was cluttered with more cargo. “Oh um sure… it's not that high up…”

“Thanks~ oh, um… we should make this quick though…” She added the second part with the urgency one doesn't want to hear from a clairvoyant.

“Kat… how much time do we have?”

“Enough,” she replied simply, she seemed nervous again but was putting on a calm face.  I sighed before positioning myself below an edge of the opening above us and lacing my fingers together to make a foothold for her. 

“We're going to be ok, right?” I asked as she stepped onto my hands.

“It'll be tough, but we'll all be fine” she gave a small smile before playfully kissing me. “Alright, up, up, please~” I rolled my eyes  and easily lifted her up to where she could clamber to the next floor. Next was Eris, followed by Nicolas, and finally it was just Max and I in the cargo hold.

“How are you going to get up…?” My boyfriend asked shyly as he approached.

“I'll figure out a way, It'll be fine” I gave him a comforting smile when he stepped on my hands. Nicolas and Kat were waiting to help him up when I practically tossed the lightweight mage up to them. Almost as soon as  he was completely up though, I heard Kat curse and she peered over the edge.

“Alex, get up here now!” she hissed. 

“I thought you said we had time!” 

“Shit changed!” As she said this, I heard a snort outside followed by an eerie series of clicking noises.

‘The hell is this? Fucking Predator??’ I thought in a panic as I rushed to one of the crates to drag it over. Just as I was climbing onto the box, a blunt, jet black snout entered through the hull breach. The pinging clicks got louder as I jumped up to the others with the assistance of my wings instinctively fluttering. The creature barreled past below me and slammed into the hull with enough force that a crack rang out and the ship rocked slightly. “Kat! You need to learn to estimate time better!” 

“Sorry! It's hard to tell sometimes!” My girlfriend responded and drew her bow, aiming at something behind me. I glanced back to find that the creature had recovered and was peeking up onto our floor like a normal killer whale does when it's hunting seals on top of ice chunks.

“Max, Eris, Nick, find the stairs, go up top “ I ordered quickly as I drew my poleaxe and used Inspect.

 

Orca King

 

Rank C Small Kaiju

 

Stats:

 

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Abilities:

Echolocation

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“A Kaiju??”

“Shit” Kat grumbled as the creature's head ducked back down out of view. “Alex! Jump back… Now!” Without thinking twice, I followed her direction, my horns grazing across the ceiling as I moved. In the next moment, a jaw full of conical teeth burst up from where I was once standing and snapped shut on empty air. I quickly brought my weapon down, hammer side first, but it bounced ineffectively off of its round snout. It gave an annoyed snort as it pulled away.

 

Bludgeoning damage resistance(Greater) discovered for Orca King.

 

“Of course” I growled, flipping my weapon to the ax side forward right before a high-pitched squeal followed by clicks rang out from below. 

“Fuck, ow,” Kat hissed, shaking her head as she side-stepped its next attempt to burst up from below. This time, it shoved the entire front of its body up through the floor, giving me a full view of the abomination of an orca and a carnotaurus that it was, as it clawed at my girlfriend with its stubby arms. I immediately threw myself in between her and this monster, feeling my lightning start to build up on its own.

“You ok?” I asked quickly.

“Fine, that noise fucking hurt though.” She replied as the monster attempted snapping at us again. I retaliated with a quick slash across its snout that earned an enraged bellow before it ducked back down. Kat tried to warn me again but her words were drowned out by the sound of splintering wood as something else came crashing up from below that catapulted me up into and through the ceiling.

 The next few seconds were an aching blur as I stayed where I landed. Everything hurt. I was wheezing to try to catch the breath that was knocked out of me. A dull pain across my entire back, sharp pains in several spots across my wings and one in the middle of my back. Even worse was that it felt like the world was spinning despite staying still. I wanted to just close my eyes and sleep it off but the rage building in me demanded I keep going.

“Alex?!” Max's voice yelped before I heard several pairs of footsteps rush to me. 

“Hey… pup,” I groaned, flinching as speaking made the sharp pain on the side of my back worsen. ‘Shit… is that a broken rib? What hit me???’

“Nick, heal her… please!” 

“Shit, shit, shit” Nicolas’ voice cursed before I felt a hand roughly press into the middle of my back.

“Fucking, ow!” I roared as more pain erupted from that action.

“Sorry! Remedium!” Instantly, numbness radiated out from where I was being touched, the pain disappearing with the horrible sound of my bones cracking as they set on their own. I could do without hearing my bones but like the last time he healed me, it was definitely a lot better experience than the potion. I quickly sat back up once I could with the aid of my weapon to find Max, Eris, and a slightly drained-looking Nicolas surrounding me.

“How did you beat us up here?!” the noble asked as I pushed myself to my feet, still sore.

“In case you missed it… there's probably a me-shaped hole somewhere,” I groaned then Immediately remembered that my girlfriend was still down there with the monster. “Shit, Kat!” It wasn't hard to find where I was launched through and rush to it.

 I wasn't sure what I thought I'd see when I looked through the hole but a close up of the Orca King's face as it clambered up was not one of the things I hoped for. The surprise alone made me release the charge I had been building until then but the resulting pop-up as it bellowed angrily made my heart sink.

 

Lightning damage resistance discovered for Orca King.

 

It continued pushing itself  up onto the top deck despite the lightning burn. Amazingly, Max was the first to act.

“Ignus Sanctus!” Nothing happened, no golden flame, nothing. “Ignus Sanctus!! W-why isn't it working???” 

‘Wait… his magic isn't working?’ I thought as I glanced back in time to hear and see him cast a new spell in his panic. 

“Vis Fragor!” A deep purple rune etched into the air in front of his staff, electricity arcing from the edges to a ball of energy that was quickly forming in front of it. A split second later it launched with a familiar screaming whistling noise. The energy ball detonated against the side of the creature's neck and earned an enraged roar before it started charging for him. I heard him yelp as I jumped in the way again to buy him and the others time to move. 

“No the fuck you don't!” I growled, feeling a slight drain in my mind as the head of my weapon erupted in flames. I barely got a chance to slash across its blubbery side before I was swatted away. The strike hurt but nowhere close to when it tossed me up through the boat.  It thundered past a few steps as I skittered across the deck, my claws digging into the wood and stopping me before I hit the mast.

“Eris, what are you doing?” Nicolas yelled as I watched the Orca King turn its attention back to me. 

“Ballista, at the front!” The fighter replied, her voice still too cheerful for the situation. I couldn't even get a chance to look where she was heading due to the monster deciding to charge at me. I had to duck under it to avoid getting caught in its gaping maw but let it grab me with its forelimbs.

“Fuck!” I roared, summoning up the fluid for my fire in my mouth as I was lifted into the air and ignoring the claws trying to dig into my back through my armor and scales. As it went to slam me back down, though, another bolt of energy detonated on the front edge of the white marking on the side of its head. I was immediately dropped and a spray of flame was forced out of me when I hit the deck. Meanwhile, the monster turned and charged away towards the helm.

Fear rushed through me when I recovered enough to look up and see my boyfriend fleeing up the stairs to the helm while casting spells at the pursuing monster. I scrambled to my feet and chased after both of them. Along the way I passed Nicolas while he was carrying a spear-sized bolt in the opposite direction and I felt my rage flare over him not directly helping but in the moment, Max mattered so much more.

“Alex?!” the mage yelped, pushing me to sprint even faster up the stairs… only in time to witness the monster effectively headbutt him over the railing, damning him to fall into the water.

 

Emotional threshold greatly exceeded, initiating rage.

 

The ability was different this time. It wasn't simply growing to a larger size. Even as I ran, I could feel my form essentially explode outward. My clothes, armor, and straps of my pack burst at their weakest seams as I grew and I was forced to go to all fours without stopping. Instinctively, I dove over the side after my boyfriend with my wings tucked against me, whipping my tail across the snout of his assailant. 

Once I hit the water, I frantically looked around for Max, the sudden increased range of motion of my neck barely registering in my mind. Luckily, his panicked splashing made him easy to spot and I was able to push off the boat's hull towards him. I quickly found multiple things when I finally reached him: One: he seemed even smaller than before and two: my hands were now more reptilian claws than anything. Without further thought, I grabbed the back of his collar with my newfound maw and lifted my head as high as possible out of the water as I doggy-paddled to shore. Grabbing his collar was what finally made it click for me though.

‘I-I'm a full dragon right now!’

“A-alex??” he coughed as I finally set him down on dry sand, his eyes wide and ears back while he stared up at me.

“Yep… i… it’s me, pup” I sighed, giving him a comforting nuzzle, thankful I could still speak, before crashing from the deck above got my attention again. I silently cursed the weirdness of the feeling of the serpentine neck as I looked back at Max, who was still coughing slightly. “Are you ok? I-I need to go back up there to help but…”

“I t-think so…? Gods… t-this is all so much…” 

“You think you can keep figh- “ I flinched and paused as the sound of cracking wood came down from above before the thunderous boom of the mast falling over.  Max took a deep breath and got a cute determined look on his face before giving a slight nod. 

“Y-yeah…” he patted around the sand next to him and frowned before glancing around. “Wait… where's my staff…?”

“Sorry… I was too focused on grabbing you to make sure you had it…”

“...Dad got that for me…” 

“We can get you another one but first we have to get back up there… um…” I checked myself over, noting that my body itself was as big as a draft horse's and it would be hard for him to climb on me on his own. “Ok, I'm going to put you on my back, don't panic…”

“What?” He yelped slightly as I quickly moved behind him and pushed my head under him and scooped him up on top of me. He managed to catch himself by wrapping his arms around my neck as he slid down to my shoulders “H-hey! I need a b-bit more warning than that!”

“Sorry… not a lot of time and I really want to make it pay for throwing you into the water…. Hold on tight, ok, pup…?”

“O-ok…” He hugged my neck tighter and I waited until he was settled, then I bounded up to the hull of the boat and dug my claws into it to start climbing up. It was surprisingly easy to climb and barely took any time before I was able to peek over the railing. My blood felt like it was boiling when I saw that Kat had finally joined the fight but had claw-shaped gashes across her abdomen and one of her legs while she engaged the Orca King.

“Hi, cuties!!” the ranger yelled as I scrambled onto the deck and she added another pair of arrows to the numerous ones pincushioning the monster.

“Max. Off now.” I ordered and he slid off to the deck without hesitation. As soon as he was off, I rushed at the Orca King. My weight was still probably half of its but it was more than enough to make the monster stumble when I slammed myself into its side. We started circling each other slowly after that impact, I didn't seem to hurt it but I definitely had its attention now.

I instinctively kept my body and head low like a big cat, letting the fire fluid build in my mouth again as I watched for an opening. That finally came when a series of Scorching rays and arrows hit the side of the monster, making it turn its head slightly. I took the opportunity to pounce onto its back while clawing wherever I could and restraining one of its legs with my tail. The floorboards creaked threateningly under the strain of our combined weight.

“Shit. Out of arrows!” Kat yelled while I clung to the bucking orca-rex and tried to aim my mouth solely at it so that I didn't light the boat aflame as well.

“We got one!” Eris's voice laughed maniacally. I looked up at the odd sound to see that she and Nicolas had gotten one of the ballista towards the front of the boat turned around and aimed right at the monster.

‘Shit’ I thought in a panic before sliding so that I was hanging on the side of my prey.

Ca-thunk!

Another roar thundered from the beast as the massive bolt went through its leg, way too close to my tail for my liking. Unfortunately, it stomped down with its other foot in its own rage and that broke the last of the integrity of the wood holding both of us up. We were sent tumbling through the floor below and crashed on the ground at the bottom. I was left dazed and aching once again. 

‘You ok?’ Kat's voice echoed in my head as I heard the monster struggle to its feet next to me. Instead of attacking me, though, it started hobbling towards the shore.

‘Fine. It's getting away though’ I sent back, unsteadily getting back up.

‘Let it go!’

‘No! It hurt you and Max, I'm going to bring it down!’ I shook the fuzziness out of my head and focused on my prey again, finding it to be already slipping into the water. With a roar, I charged after it and jumped onto its back again. 

‘Dammit, Alex! Listen!’ I felt a pang of guilt as I ignored her but my rage demanded that it paid for causing us pain. I managed to get a short burst of flame off across its back before it dragged me into the water with it and made it sputter out in my mouth. Enraged, I quickly sank my teeth into its neck while trying to claw at it more. It writhed and twisted in pain under me as it dragged me at surprising speed out to sea. 

‘Ok, you're resistant to lightning, not immune’ I thought as my lungs quickly started to ache from the lack of air, starting to charge my lightning. A faint blue glow emanated from my chest in the dark water almost immediately as the charge built up

‘What are you doing?! Let go! You're going to hit another boat!’ Regrettably, I ignored her again and discharged what I had built up. 

 

Self-Electrification immunity prevented user from suffering lightning damage.

 

The water seemed to boil around my mouth at first, then I could feel a tingling sensation across my entire body as the bubbling spread. The Orca King writhed even more and in a last bit of retaliation, twisted around and clamped its jaws down on my left forearm. The searing and crushing pain was immense as I felt it crack through the scales there. I hardly had time to process it when a large dark shape quickly approached us. Then everything went black.