Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 110

Mohan didn't realize the trap had been set until he crashed into one of Ratu's tunnels, letting out a grunt of pain. While it was a simple matter to command the rock to break apart, glass was unexpected and didn't have natural fractures to exploit. Ratu slammed into Mohan from behind, sinking her teeth into his gut as he tried to coil up and escape.

When they burst free, it was through the rubble that had been the central building of Paradise. A cloud of dust and debris obscured the sun, the two serpents twisting and coiling amidst the wreckage.

Though Ratu couldn't see anybody, she could still feel Mike's presence. Whether that was a function of his power or their personal bond, she couldn't be entirely sure.

"Are you finished?" asked Mohan. "This destruction was unnecessary and has only delayed the inevitable."

The vortex up above was closing in on them, causing larger pieces of debris to shift amongst the rubble. If his spell continued building for much longer, he would make any fight above the ground untenable. It would also serve to create large projectiles that would harm anyone still around.

Ratu couldn't scowl as a snake, but she would if it was possible. Summoning her magic, she created several flaming geysers that swirled around them, each one climbing into the sky to dance along with the vortex.

"You should know better." Mohan attacked her again, but she could tell his focus was on the vortex. Her flames threatened to go out, but she refused to let up. He was attempting to starve her magic of the oxygen it needed, believing the spell had been formed in an attempt to harm him.

On the contrary, she was taking a different tack. Her fire was hungry, and she poured her concentration into the spell, generating larger flames that attempted to consume whatever air they could. The air became so hot that nearby structures burst into flame, which ate away at Mohan's storm and formed fiery tendrils that reached into the sky.

Mohan likely caught on to her tactic, because he redoubled his efforts. He bit at her face, attempted to strangle her, and even tangled their bodies up like a massive gordian knot. She allowed instinct to take over, putting very little thought into their physical altercation.

As they fought, Ratu felt a presence at the edge of her awareness. Something was shifting rubble and squirming free from a ton of broken concrete. Uncertain what could have survived the collapse of Paradise, she rolled onto her side to try and catch a look.

It was a demon. Wreathed in fire, wings extended, the creature rose from the wreckage and sighed, her molten body shedding ash. The demon was naked, unable to produce any clothing capable of surviving the inferno. When their eyes met, the demon licked her lips and winked.

Lily.

The succubus was barely recognizable, a result of the flames. A creature of hellfire now, she crawled quietly toward the top of the nearest smoldering pile and extended her wings. Massive thermal currents ripped her into the air where she hovered above the fight, her body like a tiny star in the darkness.

Mohan squeezed, and Ratu's vision dimmed. Upon learning that Mohan had been behind everything, her first impulse had been to kill him, to prove to herself that she was stronger than he was. Only now did she see the problem with that line of thinking. For so many decades, she had been content on her own, believing that true power lay in the individual. Distrustful, she had put herself on a pedestal in the belief that nobody could be her equal.

But then she had met Mike, a man who had been happy to give her not only friendship, but the space she desired for herself. He rarely asked anything of her in return, and one day it occurred to herself that she enjoyed doing little things just to help him and the household out. Over time, she had gotten to know the others, to connect with them in ways she had long forgotten.

Most importantly, she had learned that she was no longer alone. Ratu was part of a family now. In her anger, she had almost forgotten this fact. She should never have confronted Mohan on her own, but the past couldn't be changed.

But now she was no longer on her own. It was time to ask for help.

"Kinky!" It was hard to speak now, and her flames were dying. What little air she could breathe was moving too fast, and not enough blood was flowing to her brain. "Get...kinky!"

Mohan actually released his grip a bit in confusion. "Kinky?" he asked. "I don't...um...was this foreplay?"

"Wasn't...talking...to you!" Ratu twisted her body around and slammed Mohan into the ground. He opened his mouth to sink his fangs into her, then froze in shock as the fiery figure up above crashed down into his mouth like a meteor. The naga choked and released his hold on her, his coils unwinding as he coughed and gagged on Lily.

"Wha...hrgg!" Mohan tried to vomit the succubus back up, but when he opened his mouth, it was to reveal Lily's tail briefly swaying about in the back of his throat. He let out a cry and fell to one side, his body writhing in shock as steam escaped his mouth.

Taking a deep breath, Ratu swung her body around Mohan and concentrated on the heat and flames she could sense coming off of Lily. Mohan cried out in agony and actually belched up fire as Ratu regained control of her element. Up above, the vortex collapsed, allowing fire to rain down on the area. Ratu rose to her full height, the devastating heat swirling around her harmlessly.

She bit down on Mohan's neck, her fangs piercing his scales. The naga let out a gurgling cry, then recoiled away from her in an attempt to escape. With the remains of Paradise burning down around them, she picked him up and slammed him through the nearest pile of rubble, causing both of them to tumble free onto the beach. She could see the merfolk had summoned a sphere of water which was slowly boiling away over the bay. They were all gathered along the shoreline, many of them with their backs to the resort.

Something was wrong. With the two naga fighting, all eyes should have been on the naga combatants. Ratu was able to pick out Mike through the watery barrier. He and Kisa were standing protectively over injured men and women while Beth and Opal stood along the water's edge.

Ratu stared down at Mohan in rage. If she wanted, she could kill him. However, they were now down on the beach and she had no doubt in her mind that it would still take her several minutes to accomplish. To continue fighting would only put her family at risk.

Groaning mentally, she slammed Mohan's head against a rock she summoned from beneath the sand. The massive cobra sighed and went limp, his eyes on hers.

"Yield," she demanded. "Yield and I shall do you no further harm."

Mohan laughed, his jaws open wide with blood trickling from the corners.

"I yield, Upala." He rolled onto his back to reveal his belly. "You got lucky."

She ignored his response, but used her magic to bind him with his words. Should he attempt to betray her in the near future, it would cause him a great deal of pain and buy her plenty of time to respond to the attack. Her massive form shrank down and she was human once more. Mohan started to do the same thing, but paused halfway when a massive bulge formed in his neck.

"You can come out, Lily." Ratu moved to Mohan's side and gave the scales a playful kick.

Mohan's jaws parted and Lily forced her way past his teeth with a grin on her face. The succubus was clothed now, her demonic features mostly hidden away. She stabbed Mohan in the roof of his mouth with her tail upon exiting, and the snake went limp as he continued a slow transformation back into human form. Ratu stared down at the quiet figure dozing on the sand, then looked up at the succubus.

"Was it everything you hoped it would be?" she asked.

"Not really." Lily smirked. "I prefer guys who swallow." She looked at the watery sphere. "What the hell is happening there?"

Ratu grabbed Mohan by the foot and dragged him toward the shimmering barrier of water. Mohan grunted in his sleep, but didn't wake. "Let's go find out."

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Leilani hated running. She didn't like how the ground felt on her feet, the cruel way that concrete and stone somehow bit through the thick soles of her sandals, or the way her knees got jarred with every impact. Knees were absolutely the dumbest thing ever, in her opinion, and were proof that the gods truly hated terrestrial beings.

And yet, run she had. Straight across the pool deck and down to the beach. At least a couple of merfolk spotted her, but they ignored her when she asked about her mother's location. Even from the shore, Leilani could sense several dozen of her people swimming around and waiting, as if in standby. There weren't many merfolk who could manifest legs like she could, and she strongly suspected that most of the ones who could were currently up in Paradise.

Helping that bastard. Leilani tried not to grind her teeth while thinking about Captain Francois. The man had always gotten on her nerves, but she had always assumed this was just the generational gap. Even her mother had admitted once that she used to dislike Francois, but that had changed as she got older.

But now Leilani knew better. Francois had never been a true friend to her people. It had always been about his own quest for power and immortality. The man had the ability to change the world for the better, as she saw it. But he was a schemer. The attempt on her life had colored her previous interactions with the man. If he was willing to murder her to cement the merfolk's support in his plans, what other dark deeds had he committed in the same vein?

Out on the sand, Leilani sprinted the last hundred feet into the surf. She saw the Captain's boat floating at the end of the dock, a sight that filled her with anger and spurred her forward. The waves rose to greet her as she dove into the water head first, the water pulling her out into the depths. Her legs melted together back into a tail, and she let out a sigh of relief as she swam deeper into the bay.

The royal guard met her by the pilings at the end of the dock. They were a school of ten warriors, each one carrying a spear. They formed a semi-circle in front of her, and a woman in the middle wearing a coral necklace that denoted her as the captain held out a hand to stop her.

"Princess Leilani, you're alive!" The woman looked surprised, but there was something about the way she floated that warned Leilani that something was off. "We had heard that you were killed."

"A deception!" Leilani declared. "Captain Francois attempted to assassinate me so as to lay the blame at the Caretaker's feet. I must speak with my mother immediately on this matter."

The royal guard looked at each other uneasily, and a few cast their gaze toward the surface and Paradise. Leilani let out a groan as she turned around.

"Seriously? I just came from up there." With a powerful kick, she headed back toward the shore, but a strong current pulled her back out to sea, causing her to essentially swim in place. Puzzled, she tried to change direction, but the current flowed in the opposite direction. She turned to look at the royal guard, who had formed a circle around her.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking you into custody." The captain looked apologetic. "We were warned that the Caretaker may have turned you against your people, so this is a safety precaution."

Leilani scowled, but bit her tongue. There were ten of them and only one of her. They were manipulating the currents to hold her in place, which was customary for prisoners.

Could she talk her way out? No, not if they were already under the impression she was compromised. Fighting wasn't an option. They were too far away for combat, and throwing her trident would only confirm their false suspicions.

Sinking down into the water, she attempted to seize control of the water, but it was no use. Cursing inwardly, she stared helplessly toward the shore. She had had only one job, and had failed it already. Clutching her father's trident tight against her chest, all she could do was wait.

It wasn't long before the other merfolk in the bay suddenly became agitated. The royal guard holding her in place gave each other dubious looks moments before a group of merfolk entered the water. They were injured, several of them sporting massive burns. The last figure to enter was none other than Princess Kailani, most of her hair burned away. Her eyes were haunted, and it looked like she was having trouble swimming.

Another school of royal guard assembled around Kailani and assisted her out into the bay. They swam together toward Leilani, as if unaware of her presence. The royal guard tried to usher Leilani out of the way, but she fought. Forcing her to stay in one place was child's play, but moving her somewhere specific? Far more difficult.

"Mother! Mom!" Leilani hollered over her captors, then dropped to the bottom to smack the butt of her trident against a rock. "Princess Kailani! Over here!"

When Kailani looked up, her eyes narrowed. "Traitor," she said, her fingers trembling as she pointed in Leilani's direction. "You betrayed your people."

"I have not!" Leilani rose from the bottom and thrust her chest forward. "I even came back to warn you about Captain Francois' deception. The man tried to have me killed so he could turn our people against the Caretaker."

"That doesn't make sense," snapped Kailani. "We have always been against the Caretaker ever since she...he...they took that land from the native people!"

"Mother, that land wasn't taken, it was given away." Groaning in the way that only a daughter could to her mother, Leilani jabbed her finger toward the direction of the volcano. "The Kahu gave that land to the Caretaker to protect it from Captain Francois and others like him!"

"Falsehoods spouted by the Caretaker himself, I'm sure." Kailani sneered at her daughter, then looked at the captain nearest to her. "The Caretaker's people are too strong above the water, but we can mount a defense here. We must ensure that none of them escape or else--"

"The goddess Pele told me herself." Leilani stared hard at the merfolk around her, many of whom immediately turned in her direction. "She was up there, waiting to welcome us, to explain why that land must never fall into Francois' hands."

"You lie." Kailani spoke harshly, but now looked unsure.

"I swear by the tides it is true." Leilani looked at the men and women around her. "Pele was there when our people were killed. She was the one who boiled the sea."

There was an outcry from several of them, but Leilani only had eyes for her mother.

"Why?" Kailani asked, suddenly fearful. "Have we angered her?"

"We have not. Captain Francois brought a fearsome creature up from the deep, and it was Pele and the volcano's guardian who were forced to answer." Leilani gestured at the surface where she could already see that part of Paradise had crumbled. "Our people died in order for him to lure the Caretaker here under false pretenses. My assassination was going to be the event that turned the merfolk and the Order against Mike Radley."

"But why?" asked Kailani.

"So that he can live forever." Leilani gripped the shaft of her trident tightly. A loud thudding sound propagated outward from the shore and shouting could be heard up top. "As for why he desires this so strongly, you would have to ask him."

The merfolk muttered to each other as Kailani stared out into the depths. Her mother clearly wasn't swayed, but she no longer argued. In her eyes, a maelstrom of emotions boiled over. Grief. Denial. Rage. This was a man who had her implicit trust, and Leilani understood why it must be hard to process.

There was another loud thump, and now Paradise was in flames. The merfolk all moved to the surface, and Leilani felt the grip of the water on her body loosen. She joined her people as they watched Paradise in horror, the main structure shuddering from the impact of two massive snakes that now wrestled at its base. Her people and the Order fled for the safety of the beach, and she noticed with a smile that Mike was there, helping tow a merwoman to safety.

But her attention was caught by the figure running down the dock, a panicked look on his face. Captain Francois's arm hung poorly, and one of his eyes was swollen shut. He was already halfway down the dock, his boots thumping on the wood. The destruction of Paradise had the merfolks' attention, but Francois had Leilani's.

She dove all the way down to the bottom, her tail flexing powerfully as she raced ahead of the man. Even at full speed on the dock, he couldn't hope to keep up with a mermaid powered by anger, and Leilani surfaced ahead of him, letting out a shriek of rage as she hurled her father's trident straight into Captain Francois' chest. The tines caught him in the ribs and he jerked backward violently, his body flopping on the sanded wood as he came to a stop.

"Got you," she muttered as she fell back into the water where the royal guard caught up with her. She punched at them as they tried to wrestle her into submission, suddenly aware they had failed to contain her. Leilani no longer cared. They could spend all month debating about Captain Francois now, but it wouldn't change the fact that he was dead and no longer a problem.

Paradise smoldered, the beach now packed with members of the Order who had fled. The smoke was trapped by the magical barrier surrounding Paradise, which meant it could only blow out to sea along the beach. Ash and burning debris rained down from above, and people started coughing. The humans were moving into the water to get away from the intense heat being generated on the shore. Leilani laughed maniacally as her captors wrestled her to the bottom. If not for her royal status, they probably would have killed her instead.

CLACK

The noise was barely audible over the chaos up above, but Leilani turned her head to look for it. Sound was so fast underwater that it was often hard to figure out which direction it had come from, especially when you were in the shallows. She looked away from the shallows, her eyes scanning the darkness of the depths. With the sun blotted out by smoke, it was only the flames of Paradise that illuminated the shadows now.

CLACK

This time, her captors heard it, too. The royal guard turned away from Leilani, gazing out in the same direction she was. Something massive lurked in the depths, a rippling shadow the length of the bay that moved toward them.

Up on land, the firestorm exploded, temporarily illuminating an army of skeletons. They were hovering in the water in a perfect line, their ranks spreading out behind them. As one, they landed together in the sand, their bones and joints creaking in time with one another.

CLACK!

They leapt forward again, the waves propelling them onward as one giant mass. The royal guard let go of Leilani and turned to face this new threat. There were easily hundreds of them, the corpses of those who had perished at sea. Some had been picked clean of their flesh while others still rotted, surrounded by tiny fish that nibbled at them. They were armed with bladed weapons that passed through the water with ease.

"Defensive positions!" called out a royal guard captain, and they raised their spears. The merfolk shifted the currents in an attempt to force the skeletons back out to sea, but the undead just hunkered down, sinking their bony fingers into the ground to wedge themselves in place.

There was a loud splash as several skeletons threw themselves from the Captain's ship, these ones wielding scimitars and spears. The water became stained with blood as the undead murdered their way through the defensive line, breaking the ranks of the merfolk.