Summoned by Monster Girls

Excitement made it hard to sleep that night. Even after the long work week and the exertion of going out with the girls on Saturday, as well as the meeting with Cariad and Cerebaton afterwards.

I wanted to be fully rested and ready to go, but also needed to figure out what my plan was. That ended up with me down a rabbit-hole researching sword techniques and the like on my phone. What finally worked to get me to fall asleep was turning my attention to practicing the slow-motion application of Shape-Shifting that I was trying to master.

The intense focus and intent ended up making my brain sluggish enough that I fell asleep eventually. Unfortunately for my comforter, I fell asleep with eight of my ten fingers tipped in sharp claws. Waking up clutching a shredded comforter and surrounded by downy fluff was startling enough that I panicked for a moment, before I remembered and had enough context to be able to get my hands turned back to normal once again.

I made a quick potato and egg hash for breakfast and sat down at the table to look over my stats and skill one more time to see if there were any clues that I might be able to glean from it.

Shape-Shifting (Minor) - Allows the user to draft minor changes to the body based on animals he knows of. Changes such as: thickened skin and fur, advanced hearing, improved night sight, claws, or increased muscle mass. Cannot assume full animal form or even a half form yet. Unable to mix more than two animal’s features at a time. No more than a total of five pounds of additional mass may be added or removed.

Mastery - 23/1000

The fact that it mentions a full animal form or half-form already bodes well for the future. Though no clues on a stat that I could use to boost the speed that it takes effect in. Is it fortitude because my body is changing, mental acuity to imagine it, or willpower to focus? The big limitation at the moment is the weight of the shifting. Five pounds isn’t a whole lot and the girls primarily need me for combat reasons. I thought to myself before grabbing my phone and doing some research.

It turned out that the almighty Internet had a few ideas for me to apply and a lot of random facts about animals. I learned that sperm whales had skin as thick as fourteen inches, which was something I’d never thought about but made sense given their size.

Following the line that the sword would make a decent weapon, and I had no better idea of how to use claws in a fight than I did a sword, I researched natural armor and hit on something that was surprisingly efficient for its weight: Crocodile hide. Apparently, it was dense enough to stop bullets from penetrating, though I figured that only applied to the older crocs rather than smaller, younger ones.

The armor that the girls had bought me was a leather jerkin that covered the torso and upper thighs but not the arms. Doing some research revealed that five pounds of hide wasn’t a lot, but it was something that could add a bit of armor to my arms. While focusing, I ended up touching the symbol on my right forearm that had appeared when I bonded with Kassandra and I felt a flood of mischievous energy from the mark. I could almost imagine the brunette snake-girl giggling as she led me down the street the previous day, which was a mental image that made me grin as well.

I was still trying to figure out how to approach adding the scales to my skin when the edges of my vision flashed with the dark-light, purple color and words scrolled over my vision, blocking out my view of the mug of cold coffee sitting in front of me.

Kassandra Silverscale and Rieka Coldeye have sent a non-urgent request for your presence regarding your guardian contract.

Transit? View summoning?

I didn’t even hesitate and hit the ‘Transit’ option with a mental assent and felt the rushing sensation of movement envelop me.

A moment that stretched out into three passed before the sensation of motion and whirl of colors stopped and I landed in grass just off the cobblestone road that led out of Juneau. The curtain wall loomed high above me and I could see a trio of guards peering over the edge curiously at both me and the girls.

“Liam!” Kassandra’s happy yell was all the warning I got before she tackled me again. Despite the warning, I wasn’t quite ready and she knocked me sprawling onto the grass.

“Kass! So that’s why you asked me to hold his gear.” Grumbled Rieka from nearby, her icy-blonde ears flicking in irritation where they poked out of her carefully braided hair.

“Good to see you two again.” I grunted while buried under Kassandra’s, not inconsiderable, weight. For someone who was a ‘dwarf’ breed of her species, Kassandra was still nearly ten feet long and her tail was densely muscled. Most of her weight came from that scaly length. Her human torso was small enough that I could easily lift her, I just had to find a safe hand-hold on her curvy body. A curvy body that was currently pressed to my chest and wiggling back and forth in a sinful fashion that was very distracting.

“Are you ready to head out, Liam?” Kassandra asked, her eyes dancing with amusement while her voice had a tinge of lustful purring to it. She was propping herself up on my chest, not enough that her boobs weren’t pressing me, but just enough that they were resting there and I could feel her hard nipples through the soft material of her top. At the same time, her snake tail and broad hips were sliding back and forth innocently, like they were just trying to find a comfortable spot so that every inch of her long tail could rest on me.

“Nope. You gotta let me up for that.” I replied, trying to use humor to keep myself from showing my obvious arousal at her actions.

“Aww.” Kassandra pouted down at me, her eyes twinkling behind the little, silver-rimmed spectacles she was wearing currently. The look left her full of a more mature blend of mischief that made it more urgent that I either get her off of me, or distract myself before I made things awkward.

“Why do you wear those?” I asked curiously, focusing in on the accessory in a desperate attempt to resist the rising erection that she would be unable to miss with her current position.

“Because she’s nearsighted. Kass, seriously. Let him up. People are staring at us.” Rieka answered my question in an exasperated tone. “Hello, Liam. Welcome back. We need to get a move on if we are going to make it to the mission location and back before dark.”

“She’s right.” Kassandra sighed, giving one last wiggle and shooting me a wicked grin when she felt the growing bulge of my erection under her. I’d tried, and obviously failed, so I just blushed. Despite the fact she was half snake, the short woman was all feminine allure and curves. She just had extra curves where a human would have legs.

Kassandra slithered off of me finally. She and Rieka gave me a hand up from the ground. Rieka helped me get the leather jerkin on and secured while Kassandra got the sword buckled onto my waist. They chatted as they did so, and while I did notice a few passersby staring as they walked, there weren’t that many people out and about at this time of the day.

“So yea, I wear my glasses when I expect to have to see a fair way off. I’m not blind at a distance, but it makes aiming easier.” Kassandra explained while she tightened the arming belt and made sure my sword was set right.

Once the girls were done fussing over me, we headed out the gate. There were a few early risers heading for Kintos at this time of day, but the girls guided us onto a turnoff that I had missed previously.

While we walked, they filled me in on the job and the System popped up a prompt finally with how to earn the SP from this summon.

Assist your contracted companions, Kassandra Silverscale and Rieka Coldeye, with their mission and see them home safely.

Reward - 300 SP

Huh, wonder if the increase in value is due to the amount of work I’m doing? Or the danger? I thought to myself as we headed down the turnoff.

The open plains that surrounded Kintos and Juneau academy gave way to a scrubby forest that rolled with the hills under it. The trees were kept back from the road enough that it felt secure, but there were many turns to the road as it wound through the hills. Which made sense as the road took a path that allowed it to avoid as many of the inclines as possible. While we walked, the girls talked about tactics and plans. Apparently, the mission pay would depend on how many of the kobolds they had to clear out. The report was just a sighting of the creatures when they attempted to waylay a caravan coming from another town along this road.

“Yea, Broadshore is a port town down this way. A fair amount of trade goes back and forth. Kintos sends them grain and farm foods, while Broadshore ships fish and seafood. It’s only a day or two trip, three if you have a really big caravan.” Rieka explained while Kassandra slithered along. We’d been walking for around two or three hours at that point and the girls had been taking it in turns to lead the discussion.

“Interesting. How big is the Coldeye queendom anyway?”

“Big enough. We share borders with three other independent lands, as well as the northern wilds. Four if you count the island kingdoms.” Rieka answered. “If you were looking for an exact size, I couldn’t tell you. It’s not something that I know, though I’m sure that the tax officers are the most likely to have that complete information, since they have the reports from the different fiefdoms.”

“I was just curious. Back in my world, they have the different nations measured down to a close estimate of square miles, though I’m not sure exactly why they do it. My guess is to firmly establish borders now that measuring something like that is possible.”

“That’s silly. If they are worried about establishing a border, they should build a wall or something.” Kass laughed, her voice a tinkling bell of amusement.

Both she and Rieka were dressed in similar outfits to the previous day, blouses and skirts in simple but sturdy cloth rather than silks. They both carried their rods, which was what they finally explained to me that the metal batons that held the mana infused coins were called, as well as several pouches and a small pack each. Kassandra was wearing a deep burgundy blouse cinched in at her waist by another underbust corset that rode high on her ‘hips’, as well as a short skirt of an earthy brown tone to match that portion of her scale pattern. Rieka was dressed in a dark-blue tunic with long sleeves and a knee length skirt of dark brown, plus a set of sturdy boots. All in all, they cut much more respectable figures than my tattered work jeans and scratched up steel-toe boots poking out from under the leather armor, but that was a given since they were natives.

“Fair enough. I know of at least one nation that tried to do that, but I don’t think they ever finished it.” I couldn’t honestly remember if the Great Wall of China was ever finished, I could only remember that it was massive.

“Magic helps with that sort of thing too. You mentioned that there wasn’t any magic in your world, right Liam?” Kassandra twisted so that she could look back at me without stopping her forward slither. The movement of her scales and the pattern of the red and brown made the movement hypnotizing and I glanced up to find her smirking at me like she’d caught me staring at her ass.

Which she kinda did. I thought wryly. Kassandra didn’t seem offended though, she just smirked a bit more before turning back to the road.

“So, how far out was the sighting? Should we be keeping watch?” I asked after a moment of silence, the slowly rolling hills and trees made me a bit nervous since they blocked obvious sight lines. I’d played enough shooter games when I was younger to feel exposed, but the girls were unconcerned. The short forest of trees was growing ever taller as we went, and colorful birds in a variety of sizes would flock overhead on occasion. Their shapes looked odd to me though. I saw the normal crows and blue-jay type of birds, but there were a handful that vaguely reminded me of flying manta-ray’s, but they moved too quickly for me to get a good look at them.

“Oh, another hour or so, but I did some digging when I picked up the contract from the jobs hall. The ruins that we believe to be their nest are some ways off the road and are coming up in a bit. We should start keeping an eye out for a cart track that leads to it. Some folks with larger caravans like to camp there so they keep it cut back. However, if monsters have made it into a den, we need to clear it out before the next big merchant caravan comes through and tries to use it.” Rieka explained, gesturing to the right side of the road. “The maps I looked at had an old, but scouted, ruin recorded in that direction.”

“Are there a lot of those?” I asked curiously, double checking that I had a clear draw on the sword at my hip.

“Oh loads. There are ruins all over the Coldeye queendom, as well as the rest of the world. Our world isn’t a safe one, Liam.” Kassandra answered this time, toying with her rod where it hung in its holster at her side. “We do our best to carve out a place to survive in it, but monsters, magical disasters, and even the predation of other kingdoms tear chunks out of each other. The borders are riddled with damaged and ruined keeps and strongholds, especially along the border to the wild lands up north and the western border we share with the Emirate. We’ve been dealing with raids and fighting over the border for…I don’t remember how long to be honest.”

“At least seven generations of my family sitting on the throne. So around two hundred years. Our kingdom existed before then, but we came into conflict with the Emirates in the time of my ancestor, Queen Gretta, who’s war-title was ‘Glacial Wrath’.” Rieka threw in as well. “The conflict with the northern wilds is more stop and start, since the tribes there like to raid our borders for supplies and slaves. We alternate between peacefully ignoring each other and then conflict for a few years before it repeats. They usually can’t overcome our border fortresses, but occasionally one of their raiding bands avoids the patrols or they get really lucky and smash a border fort. It’s been pretty solid since the Ironclaw Clan took over the passes. That lets us focus on the flatlands more, at least that’s what my elder sister said.”

“Interesting. You mentioned sharing borders with a few other countries, can you tell me about them? I’m also curious about these Emirates.”

Rieka was about to answer my question when Kassandra stopped moving suddenly. Since she was slithering ahead of us, that resulted in us nearly stepping on her trailing tail. Looking up to see what had stopped her, I saw that she was staring into the tall grass on the side of the road with an intent focus.

“What is it?” Rieka asked, her voice a hiss. She’d already drawn her rod from her side and was scanning our surroundings, so I drew my sword as well.

The sword had felt good yesterday while we were in Silas’ shop, but now it felt awkward in my hand as I stepped forward as quietly as I could to stand in front of Kassandra and scan the forest.

“Thought I heard something.” Kassandra murmured after a long moment of waiting. She slowly drew her rod from the hip holster as well, scanning the trees to either side of us with intense focus.

We stood there for another few seconds, listening closely to the surrounding forest. I strained my eyes and ears trying to catch whatever sound that had set Kassandra’s attention off, but I couldn’t detect anything. Rieka’s fluffy ears rotated and twitched while she listened closely as well.

“I don’t hear anything. And I mean anything.” Rieka muttered after a few more seconds. “No birds, no animals. Not even the bugs.”

“Yea, something’s out there. Last time I felt like this, a drug addict tried to jump me with a knife.” I muttered, the creeping sensation up my spine a familiar and unwelcome sensation.

Movement in the brush on the right side of the road had me lunging forward to get between Kassandra and whatever it was, bringing the sword around automatically like I was swinging a bat. I hadn’t even figured out what I was swinging at yet, just that it was moving fast and coming right at us.

The creature that lunged out of the brush was just short of waist high on me and covered in a mixture of muddy brown and green scales. A head not unlike a scaly shark sat on narrow shoulders. It gnashed vicious teeth in a wide mouth, while lunging forward with a crude wooden spear.

“Liam!” Kassandra yelped as I pushed past her. She tried to back up only to run into Rieka and bowl the wolf-girl over. I was moving on autopilot though and focused on staying in between the girls and the creature as it ducked my first swing and jabbed at me with the splintery end of the spear. I could see that it was just sharpened wood, but it still looked vicious. The spear caught in my armor and didn’t penetrate, though the hit was firm enough that I stumbled and missed the backswing with my sword.

The creature bobbed to one side, hissing even louder and tried to lunge past me towards the girls, who were fighting their way upright. Off balance, I couldn’t get my sword swung around in time, so I kicked wildly at the creature. Surprisingly, the kick caught it in the ribs and sent the creature sprawling in the grass with a squeal of pain.

Turning on it, I raised the sword in my hand and brought it swinging down on the little beast like I was trying to split a log in half. The creature gnashed its teeth at me and tried to block with the spear held across its body. The sword hit it and, while it didn’t cut through the spear haft like you would expect it to from anime or a movie, the momentum of the blow slammed the spear haft downwards on top of the creature’s chest. The top half of my sword buried itself in the little bastard's face in an explosion of blood and shattered bones.

Hot, sticky blood splashed onto my face and I froze like that, sword held in a two handed grip and buried in the little monster’s still twitching body.

I just killed someone. The thought raced through my head like a particularly drunk bumblebee. I just…cut his head in half… My stomach roiled in protest and I felt the little breakfast I’d been able to eat start to rise up in my throat. My pulse rushed in my ears and my head spun in response to this revelation.

I’d been in fights before, I had scars on my body from them after all. Getting stabbed or cut with a knife sucked, but the worst I’d done in those situations was break someone's arm or crack a jaw. You couldn’t go around killing people back home, even in self defense. That sort of thing just didn’t fly. I’d gotten blood on myself before, but it was always such a mix with my own usually that I couldn’t tell who it belonged to. But this time…

My stomach did another roll as I felt the hot liquid run down the edge of my lip.

Come on, Liam. You and the girls came out here to kill these things after all. If this is one of those kobolds they were talking about that is. Or was this just some kind of weird, native child species and you just murdered someone who was playing in the woods?

That thought was enough that I couldn't hold it back anymore and I promptly vomited to one side in the grass, my whole body rejecting the idea. I didn’t let go of the sword, but I swiped at my face with one hand to try and clear the vomit away and ended up smearing blood all over it instead.

“Liam!” Kassandra’s scream sent ice down my back and I whirled to check on them.

During my little scuffle with the monster, a half dozen more had emerged from the brush on the other side of the road and were racing towards the girls. Kassandra was gesturing wildly with her rod and launched a spear of ice into one while Rieka did the same with a short flash of lightning.

“Ice Lance!”

“Bolt!”

The spells claimed the lives of two of the scaled bastards, but the other four were still in motion and closing fast.

Any hesitation and the fear that I had just killed someone's kid, promptly vanished as I saw bloody murder on the little beast’s faces. Fresh energy surged through me and it shoved the dregs of panic down into a hole for now and replaced it with anger.

I’ve had it happen before, when I had to fight someone unexpectedly. The sort of instinctual lashing out of violence and rage to defend yourself. I’d heard it called ‘caveman instincts’ or some other such garbage. One guy told me that he would ‘see red’ when he got pissed off. I honestly thought it was a load of crap to explain a bad temper honestly. When I felt that surge of anger and violence in my gut, it was as cold as ice and I acted with extreme focus.

Ripping the sword out of the first body, I lunged towards the approaching enemy in three large steps. That put me between the girls and the monsters. The fact that also put me in the way of their spells was not something I thought about though. All I could think of was protecting them, like I’d promised.

Again, I gripped the sword like a baseball bat and swung it from right to left in front of me. One of the little monsters ducked and lunged forward, stabbing into my thigh with his gnarly, wooden spear. The guy next to him didn’t react though and caught my sword in the side of his head.

With a whunk like slamming a knife into a watermelon, the top half of the critter’s skull separated from its head and sprayed more gore into the air. I yanked the sword back towards myself and then raised it overhead to slam the flat of the blade into the head of the one that stabbed me. Squealing in pain, it let go of the spear in my thigh and backed up.

Another spear jabbed into my left hip, finding the slit in the armor and burying itself high in my thigh to hit the bone of my pelvis.

Roaring again in pain and still gripped with that icy focus from before, I let go of the sword with my left hand and snatched hold of the spear as the beastie pulled it out of me. A quick jerk backwards tugged it off balance and I slammed the sword into it again with all the finesse of a pissed off carpenter driving a nail that had already led to three bruised fingers. The creature went boneless when the sword hit it, again getting caught by the flat of the blade rather than the edge, but the blow still being enough to knock it senseless.

Three of the four were distracted, and that was when the fourth decided to try and take me down from behind.

I heard Kassandra shout again, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying until I felt the impact in my back, just to the left of my spine. It knocked me forward and I almost fell to my knees. The two spear wounds were already leaking blood and making my legs weak, but the blow to my back thankfully hadn’t penetrated my leather armor.

I spun around to deal with the little bastard. He managed to deflect my heavy, chopping swing with the haft of his spear. Though it tore the weapon out of his hands, my sword stuck in it as well and put me off balance. This was apparently part of his plan, as the little bastard jumped at my throat, his wide mouth scissoring open to snap sharp teeth at me. I knew if he got hold of me, he’d rip my throat out. Then he’d go for the girls.

The girls! My mind screamed and my focus narrowed on that approaching mouth. Protect them! My instincts screamed back.

I didn’t think, I just acted. I swung with my left arm as hard as I could, and punched him in the open mouth like his uvula was a speed bag. This caused that mouth to slam shut over my arm and he should have bitten my forearm off. Instead, I just felt a dull pain as the teeth impacted my forearm before I managed to shake the spear off my sword and bring it around to run through his skinny body.

Shaking the dead creature off my left arm, I quickly checked for injuries from those vicious teeth. I was stunned to find a knobbly layer of mud brown and algae green scales covering my forearm like a loose gauntlet. Blood dripped from a dozen small cuts, but the monster's sharp teeth hadn’t penetrated more than a tiny bit into my arm.

The crack of lightning echoing brought me back to reality and I whirled around to find that the very first one, the one that had dodged then gotten bonked for his trouble, had tried to repeat his companions' attack, only to get caught midair with one of Rieka’s lightning spells.

“That’s right…not dead yet.” I muttered to myself and turned to stab my sword into the other one I’d clubbed earlier, just to make sure it was dead. Then I stabbed the others again just to be sure. At least I’m pretty sure that was why I stabbed them. It might have been the fact I was feeling rather lightheaded at the moment from the blood loss. The spinning about had dislodged the other spear from my thigh and the three sets of wounds all worked together to leak my blood about.

“Liam!” Kassandra’s voice penetrated the fog and I whirled, ready for another attack but she was rushing towards me with her rod out and concern in her eyes, not fear.

“He got stabbed at least once from what I saw Kass. Do what you can to patch him up, I’ll stand watch.” Rieka ordered, jogging along behind her friend. The wolf-kin’s tail was puffed out in concern and her face was set in a mask of anger, aimed at the dead creatures.

“Where are you hurt, Liam? I’m sorry you got hit, they managed to get a lot closer than I expected. I’d have warned you if I could have. I’m so, so sorry!” Kassandra babbled rapidly, tears streaming down her normally smiling face. The fear, concern, and tears threw me. I’d never seen someone so concerned for my well being. The throbbing of my wounds didn’t let me stay distracted for too long.

“Hip, leg…and arm.” I grunted. Stabbing the tip of the sword into the turf next to me so it was close at hand, I tried to put pressure on both of the larger wounds.

“Okay, I can handle that. It’s going to get cold for a minute, Liam. Water can heal wounds, but my magic always manifests with ice.” Kassandra smiled wetly, her lips trembling, before gesturing with her rod. “Waters of life, renew and replenish.”

My wounds, previously hot and achy, went cold immediately. Like someone had taken a fistful of ice and pressed it into the injured flesh. I bit back the urge to scream as the pain itself seemed to freeze and then fade away slowly. There was still a bone-deep ache in both spots, but when I pulled my hands away there was only bloody skin and torn cloth in both places. Checking my forearm showed that the teeth marks were gone too, though the thick hide and it's dense scales remained.

“Are you okay?” Kassandra’s question drew my gaze back to her and I blinked a few times before I figured out how to answer her question.

“Physically, yea. Emotionally, I’m not sure.” I glanced at the first creature that I’d killed and the pile of vomit next to it. The fear and loathing that I’d felt in that moment was gone now, replaced with a numb certainty that I’d done what I needed to do.

Up until that point, I hadn’t really come to terms with what being a protector for these girls had meant. But now it was quite literally painted on my face. The blood there was cooling and it made my skin crawl. Glancing over to both Kassandra and Rieka, I did feel a minute amount of satisfaction that neither of them had any blood on them and were both unmarked by the fight.

My resolve hardened in my gut at that moment and I let out a cleansing breath before grabbing the sword out of the dirt and turning to find some grass to wipe it on, before sliding it back into the sheath at my side. Turning back to Kassandra, I found the dwarf lamia watching me with concern in her bright eyes, tear stains still marking her cheeks.

“I’ll be fine, Kass. Don’t you worry. I’d give you a hug, but I’m a right mess right now and I don’t wanna get blood on your clothes.” I gestured to the blood all over me and she bit back a little laugh, nodding in understanding. I could see the concern in her eyes still as she scanned me from top to bottom once more.

Hoping to distract Kassandra from her worries, I kicked one of the dead monsters before looking up at her.

“Kobolds? Or did we end up with a random encounter?”

“Yea, those are kobolds. Either they are getting more impatient for prey or there are more of them than expected, since we ran into some this far out.” Kassandra sighed, her teary expression turning to one of anger as she glared down at the dead monster.

“Okay, do we have any idea how many there might be? These nearly did me in, after all.”

“That’s because they got the drop on us and we were being lazy.” Rieka said before turning back to shoot me a concerned look. “Sorry as well, Liam. I should have been paying better attention. Any time we are outside of the city or the academy, we need to be better about keeping watch. I’ll do better in the future.”

“It’s fine, Rieka. We all messed up here, but we made it through. Do we need to do anything with these?” I nudged one of the bodies with the toe of my boot and she nodded.

“Yea, we should at least move them off the side of the road some ways. The wild animals and other monsters will deal with them quickly enough but we don’t want to draw them actually onto the road.” Rieka grimaced as she looked down at the one who’s head I’d cut in half and moved to put her rod away.

“I got it.” I said automatically and she stopped, looking at me in confusion. “Look, I’m already a mess, so I can take care of it. You girls keep watch for me, okay?” I still felt like a bit of a failure for what had happened. I’d frozen, then thrown myself into the fray like an idiot and gotten hurt. We’d gotten out of this okay, but I was going to need to work on my fighting skills more so that I can do better in the future. Going to have to be extra careful, since the girls seem insistent on finishing this mission off. I mean, they need to now. They’re already in the hole equipping me. Every time they have to cast magic, they are digging themselves deeper. Since magic literally costs money here.

My thoughts swirled into what I could do to improve as I focused on dragging the bodies out of the road. I kept my right hand on the handle of my sword, ready to draw it if something happened, while I dragged with my left. The scales on my left arm and hand actually helped because they muted the sensations of touching something as gross as a dead body.