Kinktober #10

This is a Monster Girl Encyclopedia Fanfiction

Labyrinth / Booby Trap

The moment lord Tharron's stepped into the chamber, the torches erupted in flames, from the one nearest the passage he entered from, all the way to the end of the room; illuminating the chamber in an amber shine reflecting off of the gold and silver piled up against the walls all the way to the ceiling.
"Cooper!" Lord Tharron said as he spun around in the center of the room to behold the treasure in all its glory.

"Yes, milord?" the bronze-skinned young man entered after his master.

Look at this, Cooper! Now I finally shall have a wealth to my name that reflects my greatness! Pack it all up, will you Cooper? And if I find you have pocketed as much as a copper coin, that will be your fingers on a platter."
Cooper looked around, but instead of impressed or overwhelmed he merely looked confused, "The treasure is placed, of all places, here milord? Milord, there are twenty floors in this labyrinth, and this is but the fifth floor. Wouldn't they keep all their treasure deeper in the dungeon, milord? And more hidden, milord?"
"For goodness sake, Cooper! Why does anyone do anything? You're just thinking of excuses to skim on work." lord Tharron bent down and picked up an emerald necklace, "Really, do you ever think you'll become a knight if you talk back and.... ahhhhh!!" The gold had merged together into a tentacle made of viscous purple fluid which immediately wrapped around Tharron's ankle. The rest of the gold merged into a slime woman whose body was formed by tentacles of slime wrapping themselves around each other into a woman in a french maid outfit. The tentacles forming her body wrapped themselves around Tharron trying to seize his arms. In one last moment lord Tharron takes out his sword and stabs the slime woman right into the chest... causing not so much as a flinch, though the sword was lodged into her body.
"Shall I escort master to our chambers?" The slime maid asked as her tentacles vibrated excitedly.
"Cooper! Do something!!"
"Right away milord!" Cooper doused the end of the rope in oil, lit it on fire with his torch and tossed it towards the slime, he had identified as a shoggoth. She screeched and dropped Tharron on his head. Cooper rushed to help his master to his feet, "Are you all right milord?"
"Cooper you dounce! Why didn't you save me in a way that was easier on the head?"
"I'm sorry, milord. " Cooper dusted off the armour of his master, who just shoved the young man away.
"Tsk... and of course not even a shred of the treasure left. Why do these forsakened monsters have to make everything so damn difficult?"
"I am sorry milord. Probably they don't want any home intruders to have an easy time plundering their homes."
"So what? They're nothing but mindless beasts thinking of only one thing. No, I will take everything of value from this labyrinth, and in doing so earn enough fortune to let me live like a king for the rest of my life!"
"And what about the children milord?"
"The what now?"
"The children of the village, milord. That woman told us the children are starving after the crops were wiped out by a flood. She said we could buy food to last until the next harvest if we got the treasure out of this dungeon milord."
"Yeah, if there's enough left over for them then sure, but I'll be damned if I have to lift a finger for their sake! " Tharron exited through the other end of the passage, followed by Cooper who picked up a torch from the wall.
"Just be careful, milord. In this kind of dungeon traps and monsters are hiding everywhere."
"Honestly, just who do you think I am, Cooper? As if someone would ever get the drop on me with such a dirty trick.

Next thing they knew, Tharron and Cooper were being chased down the corridor by a horde of female zombies clutching towards them.
"Coooooooper!"
"I'm sorry, milord! I was trying to stop milord from stabbing them dead bodies!" Cooper had thought it suspicious none of the corpses they had found had any wounds, abrasions or sign of any struggle whatsoever which immediately raised an alarm for him. All for naught however. Soon enough the corpses had risen and were clutching after them. They were not slow either, like you'd expect zombies to be. Their limbs were stiff and unresponsive, but it was like they were falling forward yet kept on their feet, which meant they had to keep running to avoid their grasp.
Already lord Tharron was gasping desperately for air.

Fortunately for him a staircase going up wasn't far away. The undeads' falling forward trick might have worked in a straight corridor, but they can't do that when there are stairs in the way. At the very least they would be slowed down significantly.
When Tharron saw his chance of escape he got a second wind, pushed Cooper away and almost leapt at the stairs.
Cooper fell behind and had to dodge under the hand of one of the zombie girls before he could recover and reach the stairs his master was climbing. At that point he noticed the stairs were actually in a surprisingly neat condition for a structure that has been around for centuries and centuries. It looked as if these stairs weren't scaled very often.
Well most of the steps. Some stairs had clear signs of being worn, the markings on them fading and signs of cracks and indents. From what Cooper could figure these were the steps that were stepped on, and the others were...

"Milord!" Cooper yelled out as the knight was just about to put his foot on a step that showed little sign of being worn,"No! Don't!"
Too late. The armoured boot struck the step of the staircase, and with a click the tile sank down like a button. At that point all the steps of the stairs folded and tilted slightly, forming a slide which lord Tharron slid down towards the hungrily awaiting zombies at the bottom. Before lord Tharron could fall down to his fate, Cooper grabs hold of his hand while he is falling past him; he himself having grabbed hold of a brick sticking out of the wall.
"DON'T LET ME FALL DOWN TO THEIR GREASY HANDS!!!" lord Tharron cried out with wobbling lips as the zombies grabbed onto his legs and waist trying to pull him down with unparalleled strength.
Cooper wasn't a big man, in fact he was two heads shorter than lord Tharron and half his weight. Still he held onto the brick and, summoning strength beyond what he ever could even hope to muster. He took out the lord Tharron's partisan that he was made to carry and whacked the zombies over their head with the shaft of the weapon in an attempt to make them lose their grips.
"Oww! Ow my head!" Tharron whined as the pole hit him rather than around him. The zombies however were pushed away, and Tharron used the partisan to hook the doorframe to the next room at the top of the stairs, then pulled himself and Tharron up all the way.
When all was said and done, Cooper sat down against the wall and looked at his hand. As lord Tharron's hand had been encased in metal, he had managed to crush Cooper's hand and left a nasty bruise. Cooper took out a flask of water to douse his hand, but lord Tharron grabbed it out of his hand and drank it. All of it.
"Don't be greedy, Cooper. We only have so much water, and we will have to make it last until the bitter end!" Tharron burped and tossed the empty flask to lord Tharron, and sighed.
"Very well, milord. Shall we get going now?"

After many hardships,the both of them stood before a large, ornate double door twice the size of lord Tharron's height. Unmistakably this was the door to the final chamber of the final floor.
"Took us long enough," lord Tharron was in a battered state at this point, his hair unkempt, his armour dented and torn and he smelled of shame and fear, "I thought we'd never find our way with you weighing us down like this."
"Milord, I apologize profusely." Cooper too looked quite in a distressed state, though not as bad as lord Tharron, with his tunic and hood torn and thoroughly dirtied.
"No, Cooper. I think knighthood is not something for you. It requires discipline, selflessness, courage... no, I really can't see you doing in the ranks of me. When we get back I'm gonna have a talk with your father... but don't worry Cooper, if you get disowned you are welcome to stay as my personal manservant."
Cooper stared down, defeated and depressed over hearing this after all of his hard work, "...thank you milord."
"Of course... now what are you waiting for, Cooper? These doors won't open themselves!"
Cooper pulled on the wedge between the doors. At first they wouldn't budge at all, but soon enough they opened by themselves.
When both of the men looked inside, they found it empty apart from a big altar with a bed on it. A woman entered their view clad in a long cloak, its tail trailng behind her like that of an actual snake tail.
"Welcome, travellers, to my humble abode."
"You..." Cooper started as he recognized the voice... it was the same woman who had tipped them about the labyrinth in the desert to begin with. She had said it was filled to the brim with treasure, but not even a penny could be spotted anywhere, "Milady... we came all the way here... yet milady already knew no treasure was there for us to collect!"
She shakes her head, "Oh, but there is treasure here. " The woman pulled off the hood of her cloak, revealing she had green skin and pointy ears. Instead of legs she had a snake's tail that her oversized cloak managed to hide under its tail, "I am looking at him now." She looked down on Cooper and smiles contently.
"...milady?"
"Oh, don't be so humble. You have bested my dungeon singlehandedly. You have displayed courage, valor, determination and resourcefulness. You have the heart of a true hero in you, one worthy of the love of an echidna." The snake lady brushed the hair out of Cooper's face. He looked up at her with a mixed expression of joy, triumph and relief; a beautiful smile of hope; of having achieved his dream.
"You must be mistaken," lord Tharron pushed Cooper out of the way and brushed off his chest plate with his hand, "The one who conquered the labyrinth is me. Cooper here is just my squire and progege."
"Lord Tharron..." The echidna starts with a patient smile but is soon interrupted by the knight.
"Now don't get me wrong, I have no intention of sullying my name with a monster wife. I mean, what will I do with a wife who cannot birth me a son? But you are free to follow me back to my castle as my hostage, and be released as soon as..."
The echidna waved her hand, and in a flash lord Tharron had turned to stone.
"I do apologize, sir Cooper. " The echidna said, "but in just a moment I will have one of my sisters take out the trash."
"Oh, I absolutely would love that!" The one who spoke was a creature with the upper body of a green skinned woman with big white horns, and the lower body of a big hairy spider. She picks up the stone statue of lord Tharron and carries him under her arm, "Oh, just wait until the spell ends! You and I are gonna have some fun!"

When the ushi oni had taken away Stone Tharron, the echidna turned to face Cooper.
"I apologize for deceiving you and putting yu through all these trials. An echidna can marry only a worthy hero."
"But milady, I am no hero... I am only a mere squire, and now not even that."
"You are a squire no more, sir Cooper. You have bested any trial only a hero can be expected to overcome. You have defeated my sisters and escaped all dangers. You are the equal to my father, and any other hero worthy of his name. From this day on you shall be known as... sir Cooper."
Cooper smiled and blushed.
"Sir Cooper, will you take me as your wife?"
"Milady..." Cooper wrapped his arms around her waist, her tail wrapping around his legs in response, "you have made me happier than anyone has ever made me feel. How can I say no?"

The both of them kissed passionately and laid down in the bed as the double doors closed, sealing them in for a night of passionate love-making.