Clash of Fates

Rosa walked placidly along behind her Lord as he entered the castle, quietly chanting under her breath. It was her duty and privilege to assist him in this evening’s entertainment, that she might be blessed with his favor. The very thought of getting the same treatment Opal had the night prior made Rosa shudder with pleasure, but she needed to focus.

The defenders were no serious threat. Her Lord was enjoying himself, laughing and dispatching them one at a time in the center of King Anguish’s feasting hall. Sometimes he punched someone’s head clean off. Sometimes he’d throw them into the arms of their fellows. Sometimes he’d pick up one of their weapons and swing it around until it broke or got stuck in an enemy’s body.

The two martial artists really didn’t have any reason to be here at all. Their job was to protect that useless whore Ginny, but even without the witch they’d been taken along regardless. They were dispatching the local men at arms easily enough, only occasionally taking hits, but all they really contributed was extra competition. Rosa could keep him safe enough. He was a saiyan after all. If he was injured badly, it would only make him stronger while giving Rosa an opportunity to remind him she was useful.

Rosa grudgingly healed Kim when the slut let herself get cut by one of the defenders’ swords. She waited a few seconds first, so she’d really feel it. What a shame that her Lord would be disappointed if he lost any more of his honor guard. Ginny had probably gotten herself detained, when she was very clearly ordered to kidnap a new recruit. Rosa couldn’t bring herself to be upset at the failure itself, since every new recruit was more competition, but on principle it was offensive. How dare she fail their Lord when given an order.

One of the defenders tried to charge at Rosa, probably intending to take her prisoner, but Jessica took care of him easily using a giant wooden mallet pulled directly from her cleavage. His brains splattered against the floor. Jessica had once told Rosa that toons were supposedly intended to be entertainers, with no taste for battle, but she’d fight just as hard as any one of his loyal servants and was nearly invulnerable in practice. The former lounge singer served with a bit of dignity, though, which made her more tolerable than the showoffs that were trying to steal the attention and praise that was rightfully Rosa’s.

Several men made a push for Rosa’s lord. Five spears simultaneously? Too much for him to manage unscathed. With barely a thought on Rosa’s part, time slowed around three of them at her behest. They would still reach her Lord in a few seconds, but he’d have time to kill the vanguard and then turn upon the second wave. For good measure, she also shrank one of them to only a foot tall so her Lord could stomp on him. It was important that her Lord feel powerful. He was more lustful when he felt powerful, and they’d be on the ship again soon.

Just to be careful, Rosa reapplied the magic enhancing her Lord. Protect to give him diamond skin, haste to quicken his mind and body, and berserk to drive him forward with greater intensity. It was not as if driving him berserk would interrupt some kind of strategy. She even tossed in shell, just in case it turned out someone in this place actually had magic worthy of the name.

A man entered the room. A tier 5 from the blue team by the name of Sir Balin, who held a bronze blade that seemed to radiate the heat of the forge. He was almost certainly going to be trouble, so Rosa started working her way through the spells she knew. How to ensure this man went down satisfyingly?

Confusion was a bust. He struck off the head of one of the armsmen ably enough, but then shook it off in record time. Hold was even worse; he just shrugged it off immediately. Slow, the old standby, stuck. He hacked off Fiona’s head at some point during all of this, which was an excellent opportunity. Rosa just needed to focus on weakening him for a few moments, and then the part time ogress was too far gone to matter. One less woman competing for her Lord’s attention until the end of the expedition.

When her Lord closed in on Balin, it was with the same overwhelming speed and strength he brought to every battle. A single blow shattered the shield that Balin tried to block with, at which point the middle aged knight swapped to using his blade two handed. Unfortunately, even with every advantage, her Lord was unable to land a decisive blow on the man. He would twist and deflect with the near-indestructible blade. In fact, before she knew it Balin was poised to ram the point of the sword under her Lord’s arm, potentially landing a fatal blow that would distress her Lord greatly.

“Holy.” She breathed out, focusing on Balin.

A pillar of light enveloped the man, and when it faded he was nothing but a pillar of salt encased in armor. The blade clattered to the floor, its cherry red glow fading. Her Lord turned towards Rosa with a look of rage.

“What the fuck was that!” He demanded. “I had him, you dumb slut!”

Rosa apologized dutifully, unwilling to disturb her Lord’s self image. She comforted herself with the knowledge that he was about to get a new toy in any case. He’d be busy breaking her in, and would have minimum time for the other girls for at least one night. Her Lord picked up the sword, but unfortunately it no longer glowed.

He shoved it under Rosa’s nose, demanding that she make it work. She examined it, ascertaining its properties as he demanded. Alas, it was a weapon which would only awaken when used to do battle with those who were a threat to all of humanity. The disappointment that he couldn’t use it was tempered somewhat by the implicit threat.

No matter. It was a perfectly adequate trophy.

That was when Hinata burst in upon them, and a mere glance at the blue and white numbers on the horizon confirmed that she too had failed their Lord, and come crawling back for healing. Her face was practically melting away, lips shriveled to reveal teeth, at least one of which had already fallen out from the rot. Her nose would go next, and her eyes after that if the rot didn’t reach her brain by then.

It was tempting to simply Cure her so that their Lord would never again look upon her with desire… but that would distress Him if Hinata did not have the good sense to die before they returned to Republic City. She’d be permanently marked, and Rosa would have displeased Him. So too was it tempting to pray, and risk a lesser miracle that she could justify as a cost saving measure.

But no. She wanted to please Him, and Rosa reminded herself that restoring another to serve Him was, technically, still pleasing Him. Even if the sensation of doing so could never hope to compare.

“Esuna.” Rosa said quietly, and a blue light enveloped Hinata’s body. “Curaga.”

The rotted flesh fell away in a flash of green, replaced by fresh and smooth new lips. Even the tooth retuned in perfect order. Rosa glared at Hinata; she’d wasted precious mana in a lower magic setting. What a shame that her Lord had barely even noted the entire exchange, instead swinging around the bronze blade and making “lightsaber” noises, as he’d once called them.

••••••••••

Echidna didn’t think it was necessary for Breuse to yell at her. She was doing a perfectly adequate job swinging around the astral sword and her fists. She did appreciate that the humans were assisting her with the animals. They bunched up around Echidna, and did a lovely job stabbing the creatures that got too close so she could finish her job. Maybe they were worth keeping around after all.

A trio of women staggered onto the ship’s deck, towards the woman who was swinging around a stick and making animals attack Echidna. As the dragoness closed in on the ship, she coiled herself for the last stretch and examined the women who had just arrived.

Master Gil had said to, if she had an opportunity, snatch away an offworlder. Unfortunately, Echidna had no idea what that meant beyond the painfully vague description of “people who didn’t fit the world.”

The woman with the brown hair obviously fit this world. She had armor on. All the knights Echidna had ever fought had armor. Definitely a local.

The new woman with the short black hair, the one who couldn’t walk, was mostly naked. Even when she composed herself, she just had a stick. She didn’t have anything incriminating on, so Echidna had no way of knowing what she was or if she was a threat. She certainly held her stick like a weapon.

The third, the red one with the horns, was almost certainly a local. She had a pretty dress on, and she had a smaller number next to her name.

That left only the woman with the strange head covering that left much of her hair exposed, as well as the top of her breasts and her belly button. The head covering and lack of skirts in particular tipped Echidna off. She’d never seen anything like them.

First things first, though. With all the space in the world, there was only one reasonable way for her to fight. When she was around 30 feet away from the ship, Echidna coiled and rose into an S shape, ready to strike. Once ready, she lunged forward, placing the sword broadly in front of herself and at an angle, slicing through the immobile mast of the ship with the force of the lunge. It was at an odd angle so there was a bit of a jarring sensation when she hit, but it was a work in progress. “Hands” and “weapons” were still a whole new world of possibilities.

She wasn’t anywhere near as fast as a rattlesnake, who could lunge and reset themselves in a fraction of a second. No, it took nearly three seconds from the start of her lunge to the moment she was poised to strike again. She was certainly quick enough to be out of the way of the falling mast, however.

The second blow was knocked off course, unfortunately, as the wind got in her eyes. Very strong wind, in fact, right after the girl waved a stick at her and started flying around. Terribly annoying, and it meant her sword got stuck in the ship itself instead of cutting through the second mast. She needed to stay extended a second longer so that she could tug it out, and that’s when the green armored woman smashed her stick down on Echidna’s back.

That. Hurt.

Pain was bad. Pain meant a fight wasn’t worth it. Pain could mean starvation if she couldn’t hunt. Echidna almost left right then and there.

Echidna drew back with the blade in hand, and tried a few times to swat the naked woman, but she was too fast. She was flying around on a little ball of dust, easily outrunning the men on horses, so obviously Echidna wasn’t the only one having trouble. The naked woman even managed to knock Breuse off of his horse. After that the wolves did the rest.

Huh. Well, this fight was terrible. She couldn’t kill anything but animals that vanished before she could even eat them, and she was getting hurt when she got near the armored woman. Why was she even here?

Ah, right, there was that other thing.

The horned woman had already fled beneath deck, but the yellow haired woman was still around, examining the broken mast and yelling words Echidna didn’t know.

Echidna lunged. Echidna grabbed the blonde woman. Echidna left.

Echidna didn’t look back or give a second thought to the horsemen. They weren’t part of her Waugh. A shame she didn’t have an extra hand for one of those horses though. She was hungry. Maybe she needed one of those sheath things so she could put away the sword more easily.

Vines erupted from the field around her, attempting with virtually no success to impede her movements. The hammer blows of air, which she was starting to think might be related to the naked woman, were quite a bit more unpleasant, almost as bad as the armored woman’s stick. Once or twice she could have sworn that a blade was hitting her, though it didn’t quite make it through her scales. She just wanted to leave!

She tried spraying at the naked woman, but somehow all the spray came back to her when the wind suddenly shifted. It tingled unpleasantly, though thankfully her inner eyelids were able to wipe away the acid before it caused any harm to her eyes. Her captive started screaming and thrashing even harder at that point, though. Probably some of it got on her.

She burst into the clearing where they’d all agreed to go, and thankfully the only people of any note were still here. Most of the members of her Waugh, plus the two enchantresses and a few more of the bandits. It was funny watching Nimue blanch in fear when she heard the wind rising. She snapped a twig, and they all stepped through a wooden archway.

She needed a nap.