Day 16

The giantess clasped her hands together and looked down at her hidden booty with a delightful smile.
"Now, this is a surprise!" The towering woman licked her lips, "If it isn't something valuable hidden in the loot! Now let's get you all wrapped up and ready to be shipped off."
"Eh... How about no." Thomas lunged his sword at the collosal lady, aiming for her chest. She casually wrapped her hand around it it and wrung it off course, before stomping at his face and shoving him to the floor.
"Oh, what's this here~? A little parting gift? Oh, you shouldn't have!" The tall woman laughed boisteriously, as she held up the sword to look at it, tossing it to the side, "Strap 'im up, boys!"

As the group was preoccupied with capturing the one man they found, Ofelia unwrapped herself and leapt into action. With a flap of her wings sent herself leaping on top of the pyramid of carpets with Simon in her arms.
She extended her open palm towards the gigantess, "Wodum!"
...Nothing appeared to happen.
Both of the men looked at each other confused and laughed.
"Heh... No idea from where you crawled out, lady," Bobby said dismissively as he aimed his crossbow, "But an apprentice mage really should've thought twice before going up against real, dangerous bandits. Right, Bess?"
Bobby looked behind his shoulder to find Bess staring at him, her expression warped with ferocioius lust aimed squarely at him.
"...Bess?"

The bandit lady tackled her subordinate, wrapping her arms around him and forcing him against her ample bossom, before taking him down to the floor and wrapping her legs around him.
Their masks torn off their faces, Bess pulled him closer so as to drown his neck and face with wet kisses as she humped him relentlessly, her hands greedily exploring his body while holding him down.
"What the hell, Bess!? Snap out of it now! Get off me!" Bobby tried pushing the much larger woman away, but it was utterly useless to fight against her power. All he managed to accomplish was groping her chest, which only drew her friskier.

"Sounds like we got ourselves a nasty case of intruders!" The maskless woman by the reins yelled from the driver's seat, glancing backwards as much as she could without pulling her eyes from the road, "Just keep them at bay until I get ourselves to the den. Then the rest of the gang will take care of them properly."
All the meanwhile Simon had climbed on to the driver's seat and snuck up on the unsuspecting hijacker, wrapping his arm under her armpit and across her chest as he shoved the edge of his dagger against her throat.
"I'm afraid we're gonna have to make an emergency stop, lady. Right now in fact." Simon whispered into her ear, "In case you couldn't tell, this isn't demonic silver, so you better do as you're told or start seeing red."
Her startled eyes glanced towards the knight who had ambushed her, then smiled, "Looks like we've got ourselves a regular comedian here. Well, you're not the only one with tricks up his sleeve, you know?"

The woman grew slimmer and paler, her shoulders grew to be more square as her neck became longer and more slender. Animated by some invisible ****, her long hair undulated and twirled, forming into a more wavey form. From the roots of her hair, a blue hue devoured the blonde and traced itself up to the ends of her hair until she was completely blue haired.
Her eyes dimmed and turned from a pair of glowing blue topazes, into sweet hazel. The spirited confidence in her eyes were gone as well, replaced by a mature gentleness, even a cowardice.
Though she lost a lot of mass, Simon's grip on her remained firm. That in no way meant he liked where this was going, and he pressed the edge of the dagger harder against her now ghostly pale skin.
"You better cut that out this instance."

Gus looked between the succubus and one of his comrades forcing herself on another, confused and alarmed, "What did you do to her!?"
Ofelia laughed, folding her arms over her chest, "You think I'm to blame for this? Were you not the one who chose to travel with mamono? Did you think you could take advantage of her strength and stamina, without taking her needs and desires into consideration?"
Gus glared up at the succubus, "...Don't talk about our bond like you understand anything about us!"
He unsheathed his short falchion, pointing the tip of it at the dark priest, lunging forward.

Finding that the tables suddenly turned in their favour, Thomas knelt down and picked his sword up, rising to his feet into a guard. As he was making himself ready to charge in to the aide of his comrades, he stopped in his tracks as someone called out to him.
"...Thomas!"
All colour drained from his face as his eyes lit up with astonishment, "...No. It can't be... Is that really you?"
His breath seized in his lungs, he climbed over to the driver seat. He confirmed everything he had always been terrified to believe, but which he couldn't help but to hope for.
"...Mildred." He whispered as he saw his trusted friend pointing a blade against the throat of his wife.
"Thomas!" The woman shrieked, her voice seized by a **** sulk, "I'm scared, Thomas! This... This isn't your friend, is he?"
Simon's attention kept shifting between his hostage and his pupil. He sighed in frustration: they just had to run into a doppelgänger of all things...
"Listen to me Thomas," Simon earned Thomas's attention, "This isn't really your wife. It's just the trick of some monster trying to deceive you. An illusion."
"It's been so very long, Thomas." A faint smile of nostalgia adorned 'Mildred's' lips, "I'm sorry I never found you again... I was lost... But I'm not anymore. Remember we had a son together. The most beautiful baby boy in the world..."
"...Mildred..." Thomas loosened the grip on his sword, before tightening it even harder, pointing the tip at Simon, "What kind of friend do you pretend to be!? Release that woman this instance!"
Long had Simon dreaded the time he would have to face off against a doppelgänger, and when the time was upon him he found it was everything like in his nightmares, and so much more.
"Listen, Thomas... It's not going to make much sense, but that too, is also part of the illus... Ow!"
Thomas stabbed Simon in the face, "I said release her! You have no idea what she means to me!"

Over and over the curved blade in Gus's hand swiped through the air chasing the evasive movements of the succubus, without ever getting close to her. Ofelia kept herself out of harm's way with nimble, playful movements that ended in a flirtatious pose. Occasionally she moved close to him, pressing her breasts against his arm or giving him a playful squeeze. Somehow Gus didn't appreciate this kind of attention, and became increasingly flustered by how she looked down on him.
The way Gus handled the falchion with renowned finesse betrayed his experience with fighting against monster girls, yet his human abilities frequently proved insufficient when tested against the power of a monster, even one not specialized in physical combat.
When Ofelia noticed the men in her group struggling with some nonsense the one with the reins cooked up, she sighed and landed in front of her opponent.

"Listen... As fun as this has been, my boys need me now. So I'm gonna have to end this promptly. Unfortunate, I know. But this isn't something that can be helped. Feel free to look me up if you wanna do this again~"
"You... Damnit..." Gus hissed between exasperated breaths, the hand tightly clutching the sword trembling in frustration. He looked around for some kind of recourse... Any kind of recourse. A wicked smile grew on his face as he knew what he had to do. He dropped his blade, and through a feat of equal bravado and foolishness, he jumped off the moving cart.
"No!!" Ofelia yelled as she swept through the air towards him, swiping him up in her arms before he could fall to his demise. When she looked towards the wagon, she saw it speeding away and leaving her behind. She looked down at the man she caught in her arms, who shot her a shit-eating grin.
Ofelia scowled at him, "Let's see if that smile of yours won't be wiped away when I drop you into some nearby devil bug pit."

While his physical abilities might be diminished, Simon still had every single bit of magical energy in his system. That was kind of the problem, really. But that meant Simon's energy reserve would not be drained by an amateur attack to his mana. And while the thrust didn't hurt, it startled him to no end.
At this point Simon had little choice but to make good on his threat, but if he did then Thomas would never forgive him.
"All right, listen lady... You change back into your true form this instance, or by the Fallen God's name..."
"Eeeh... Th-thomas! He's serious!" The doppelgänger flinched and sulked, covering her mouth. Soon after, Thomas delivered another slash to Simon's face. He was starting to get weaker, and at this point he probably wouldn't be able to hold on to the monster.
"Ugh... Thomas... Don't you get it? If we lose now, then they'll take you away and sell you off at the dark elf market. You'll be **** to be with another woman either way, and either way you'll be **** to accept that your wife is no more!"
Thomas exhaled a torrent of mist, looking annoyed down at the fallen knight, "Don't talk to me like you know me! Like you know my Mildred! I'd do anything for her! To see her happy once more!"

Thomas looked at the terrified image of her alleged wife. Where she had been all this time, he didn't know, but he always thought of himself as married to her; even after he said his farewells. Since she stood before him in the very flesh, he confirmed what he always knew in his heart.
And her life was in danger.
Was he going to have to see her leave forever once again? Was she going to be lost forever this time?
When he looked at her face, he found her just as beautiful as he always remembered her.
...Even though so long has passed.
Since then, he had grown old and grey. Their son grew up to become a man, without ever knowing his mother.
But the woman before Thomas looked just like in his memory.
...Of course she did.
Memory was all that remained of her.

With a twist of his wrist, a pink leash shot out of Thomas's sleeve, which he grabbed on to. The leash was connected through his sleeve to a pink collar under his standard.
Thomas squinted, his heart filled with determination, as he spoke a command to himself, "...Accept that... That your wife is... Dead."
Thomas stepped towards the blue-haired woman, who looked up at the looming man, terrified and confused.
"...Thomas?" 'Mildred' squealed.
"...Forgive an old sailor for being so upfront, but where I'm from impersonating someone's dead wife is unacceptable."
Thomas raised his sword and plunged into the woman's chest, who fell in Simon's arms as her true form; a crooked, young woman with lithe physique, long, unkempt black hair concealing a single eye of her cute but immaciated face.

Simon looked up to Thomas and smiled proudly, "Thomas... Nicely done."
The fallen knight pushed the imposter to the side and took hold of the reins.