Unconquered Pt. 04

The water of the river came down first, in sheeting, pattering rainfall - timed perfectly with the flare of red light and the unfurling whump of Chirp expanding their umbrella from their soulgem. A single confused catfish plopped onto the umbrella, skidding and falling to the ground. Chirp crooked the umbrella against their arms as they clapped as hard and as fast as they could while Ember drifted, gently down to the ground. June and Goat, who had been watching him from the awning of Goat's rather ramshackle house, nodded.

"Good enough," Goat said.

Ember wrung out his knuckles, which were cracked and bleeding. "Why is punching water so fucking hard?" He asked, wincing. "It felt like punching boulders. Water's all...you know..." He wriggled his arms in a vaguely waterish sort of way.

"Ever jumped into it from a great height?" June asked, flicking her tail once behind her.

"No," Ember said, making a face. "Who would jump into water on purpose?"

"Swimming," June said.

Ember cocked his head. "Never heard of it."

"We lived in the same village, Ember," June said. "I know for a fact that the other village boys swam."

"Not...ringing a bell, anywho!" Ember gestured back to the river. "I punched the river in half, si-" He stopped, his eyes widening. The river that ran through the city of Nex-Ho had, indeed, been punched in half...for a few seconds. But by now, the water was flowing sluggishly through the empty area that his blow had opened. The only thing that had changed was that the houses near the river were glittering with moisture and the detritus that had flowed through the brackish, heavily polluted waters was now draped from awnings and spread through the alleyways. "Aww man..." Ember scowled. "Is there, like, a trick to punching a river in half? Oh! Do I need to figure that out before you teach me any more martial arts, sifu?"

Goat sat down on a small stool by the front door. "Five..." he said.

"What?" Ember asked. "Oh! Is this a riddle?"

"Four," Goat said, pulling a pipe from his loincloth. Ember made a face as, without a single sign of disgust, Goat popped the tip of the pipe into his mouth. "Three." Flames bust from Goat's fingertip and he touched it to the pipe, then puffed on it once.

"One," he said.

"What happened to two!?" Ember exclaimed.

And then the city guards came charging out of the alleyways. They leaped across the river, they surged out past the rickety houses. They came holding spears and swords and trunchons, and were led by a four armed woman with a huge mane of red hair, encircling her head - which itself had a muzzle and cat ears, rather than the more normal shape of a human's face. Her armor was heavy, but she wore it without seeming to notice the weight as she thrust her upper right hand out, pointing at Ember. "You!" she bellowed. "Did you set off a bomb in the river?"

"No!" Ember exclaimed, holding up his hands. "I'm the Unconquered! I just punched it really-"

The lion maned, four armed catgirl snarled, her two lower hands punching together with a crunch of metal gauntlet on metal gauntlet. "He's a blasphemer as well! Men! Take him under irons - the Regency's laws are clear, blasphemer: Any claiming to be the Unconquered are to be put immediately to death!"

"What!?" Ember yelped. He looked to Goat - and saw his sifu was whispering to June.

"Now, we see what he's good for."

"You tricked me!" Ember whispered.

"I mostly tricked the guards, actually," Goat said, cheerfully, then blew a smoke ring out. The ring formed into a gong, and he flicked it with his finger - the loud chime filling the air timed at the same moment twelve guards charged Ember, all at the same time. They rushed forward with trunchons and yelled at the top of their lungs as they went. Ember had a scant few seconds to throw up his hands before the guards smashed home. Each of them was clad in armor that was several degrees less expansive (and expensive) than their leader. They had armor plating over their most important bits, not heavy armor over their whole bodies. Between the plating, they merely wore leather.

That didn't make them any less heavy.

They piled onto Ember and slammed him onto his back. The hard stone of the sidewalk bit into his bare back and Ember felt the breath of his lungs rush out of him. Men scrambled to grab at his wrists, while feet stepped onto his shins, his feet, mashing onto his fingers. A truncheon would, occasionally, slam into his side, his head, his arms. He felt something crack in his chest and tasted blood. More beatings came - but the men who were tackling him had actually started to get in one another's ways. It remained the most confusing, terrifying moment in Ember's life.

Thus far.

Then one of the truncheons smashed into his forehead and cracked the back of his head against the pavement. White flared before his eyes and he felt everything grow distant. Ringing. He could hear, very faintly, Chirp, shouting.

"Ember! Ember!"

Ember closed his eyes.

He gritted his teeth.

The men atop him had gotten themselves in some measure of order, so that three were kneeling onto both of his arms, and one of them had stopped whacking him with their club and was beginning to fumble around for a collar made of solid brass. It was studded with green gemstones, etched with small runes that he almost recognized. One of the guards shouted: "He's got a weird looking soulgem - not one I've ever seen before."

"I don't care if he's got an emerald in his forehead. Damp him!" The leader bellowed.

The man with the collar lifted it upwards, angling it down, and Ember saw they were going to smash it down over his soulgem. He strained, gritting his teeth, while the soldier stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth, focusing more.

"I'm...not...a blasphemer!" Ember snarled, feeling blood slicking his teeth. "I am...Unconquered!"

His arms flexed. Gold flared across his body.

And quite suddenly, he was standing. The world seemed to move in glacial slow motion - he could see the twelve men who had dogpiled him flipping through the air, their arms cartwheeling, their faces filled with shock. Their weapons tumbling. The collar that had been about to wrap around his head was in the air before him - and he snatched it. Time seemed to speed up again and the men collapsed to the ground with a clatter and clunk and a cry. Ember lifted the collar, then twisted it in half with a bellow - the brass shattering, the crystals cracking. He threw one chunk at a man who was drawing his sword. The impact drove the air out of the man and toppled him into the river.

"Kill it!" The lion maned woman shouted, pointing at him.

Men charged, with spears. Ember punched a spear in half - shattering the wood apart, then snatched the wooden shaft from the nerveless fingers of the stunned guardsman. Using the defanged spear as a broom, he swept four men into the river, letting go of the spear to free his hands as three more men, coming around from the flank, darted at him with swords. He twisted to his side, presenting a thin profile, and one blade whistled past his nose. Another came at his shoulder and he caught it by clapping his hands together, then twisted the blade in half. The man gaped at the broken sword and Ember kicked him hard enough to send him cartwheeling into three other guards, all four tumbling to the ground.

The remaining guards - all five of them - hung back, glancing at their leader.

Their leader rolled all four of her shoulders. And from the sideline, Chirp was doing a little dance, still twirling their umbrella. "Go Ember! Yeah!" They called out - and when Ember and the guard captain looked at them, they subsided. For a pale saris who was the aspect of a vampire bat, Chirp managed to turn nearly as red as their soulgem.

"Thanks Chirp!" Ember said, then thrust out his arm and gave Chirp the biggest, most emphatic thumbs up he could. Chirp blushed even more, then mutely stuck out their arm with a tiny thumbs up right back. Tentative. Like they didn't quite know if they were doing the gesture right.

"I am Guard Captain Varish, Foo Dog of Nex-Ho!" She growled. "I am the daughter of a god and have trained in Four Arms Combat Style - to the third level." She lifted up her arms, then stretched them out, before bringing them crashing together, knuckles to palms. Her upper arms remained locked so, while her lower drew a pair of wickedly long daggers, held in a reverse style. "You won't find me as easy to beat as my men."

"Then why didn't you fight me first?" Ember asked.

"Silence!" Varish bellowed.

Ember readied himself, breathing slowly in as he glared at Varish. Varish was drawing her own breath, her mane actually beginning to glow and crackle with a kind of white energy. Her daggers sparked and hissed, sending out sparks as she snarled, then growled, then roared, her mane turning white as a column of pure force exploded around her, cracking the ground and sending chips of pavement flying up into the air as she roared her defiance to the heavens, her blades having become much longer - the daggers wreathed in flaming heat, heat that stretched them out into full swords.

Ember gulped, then shifted his stance, glancing down at his feet.

He looked up.

And saw the right hook that came out of left field, catching Varish right in the jaw. The guard captain's bellow broke off as sharply as if she had been stabbed. She wobbled, slowly, her eyes going completely out of focus - one actually looking up and to the right while the other remained fixed on Ember. Then, slowly, she began to lean forward before gravity took hold and she crashed, face first, onto the ground.

Silence filled the air.

"Uh, sorry?" A husky, feminine voice replaced the silence. The tall, robed figure that had melted up, unnoticed, out of the shadows stepped forward to stand before the unconscious guard captain. "Just, uh, trying to help. Didn't mean to steal your thunder. Gods, you're not mad, right?" She reached up and tossed her hood back, revealing that they were...were...

Ember stood in perfect stillness as, once more, the world seemed to slow. He had felt something similar to this once before - seeing someone's face for the first time. And like with Chirp, it felt like a thundering punch to the breast: To see the pale blue face, the tiger stripes along her cheeks painted in a pale gray color. Her hair was white and tousled and jagged, framing her sharp, sharklike features now that her hood was down - but it didn't hide the fact that she had a large, sleek fin that emerged from the back of her head, adding to her aquatic aspect. Her forehead had a purple gemstone set on the brow, and her eyes were a warm purple hue.

"...hey..." Ember whispered.

"H...Hi..." the shark girl said, her eyes widening.

Silence filled the air again.

"Well, get it out of your system and fuck her," Goat said, his voice as raspy and scratchy and unsexy as ever. "Then we can get back to discussing your style - or lack there of." He puffed on his pipe. "Strength doesn't make up for that foot placement."

"Fuck? What?" Ember spluttered, turnign around. "I don't even..." The idea of tugging the shark-girls robes off, laying her down on the pavement, and slamming her blue ass until she couldn't walk did seem like the single most important thing in the universe at the moment. "We just-"

"She's your Amethyst," June said, looking exasperated. "No one else would have that kind of gemstone, honestly, Ember. So, get to it." She waved her hand - but Ember only had eyes for Chirp, who was looking with wide, wide eyes at him, and at the shark-girl. Ember wanted to reach for them - but Chirp shook their head, turned, and turned into a bat, and flew away as fast as they could.

Ember gaped.

Then he turned to June and Goat. "Y-You fucking assholes!" He shouted, then turned to the shark-girl. "Wait here! Sorry about my friends, they're dicks!"

And he sprinted after Chirp.

The shark-girl looked at June - who was looking pensive - and Goat - who was smoking placidly. Then she sprinted after Ember.

"...okay..." June muttered. "I guess I could have been more tactful."

***

Ember scrambled up the ladder that was bolted to the side of the strange, tall building that lined the main streets of Nex-Ho and peeked his head over the lip, to find Chirp ducked beneath a large, golden box that made a low, constant chugging noise for reasons that Ember could not decipher. The shadows of the box and the slowly narrowing eye of the Sun made Chirp almost invisible, but he could hear them whispering to themselves: "Stupid, stupid, stupid."

Ember gulped, then nodded. "Yeah. Who puts a ladder on a building? Am I right?" He scrambled up a few more steps, then landed on the roof. "I mean, who even needs to get to the roof?"

Chirp had snapped their head up - their eyes and their soulgem both glinted red in the shadows. They looked away. "It's so people can get out of the building if it catches on fire."

"Uh, Chirp, it's made of stone, stone can't burn," Ember said, grinning. Then his grin faded. He walked slowly over to Chirp, sitting down at the very edge of the buzzing machine. His back pressed to the burnished side and he found that his head was resting near a gemstone that glowed a pale blue and filled the air with a muggy heat. Very faintly, he could hear the crying of babies, the arguments of married coups, the moaning of people fucking. He shook his head and then looked around the corner, at the shadow of Chirp. "You wanna talk about it?"

"No..." Chirp said. Then the avalanche started. "I know! I'm not an idiot, I know that the Unconquered has five Lunar Wives, five! Five! Who the fuck ever thought that the Unconquered needed a frigging harem of all things! I know, it's cause the Sun has five wives, five moons, and the Unconquered has this really dangerous job and you need as many people as possible watching their backs. But did the second one have to show up so soon? We just met, I don't even know your parents names. I don't know what you did as a kid! I don't know anything but that...I love you, I love you so much it hurts. But I didn't ask to fall in love with you. I didn't ask to become a Lunar, I didn't ask for any of this, and then your second wife shows up, and...and..." They trailed off. "And I wanted to see you...and her...and...I hated that I wanted it. I should be jealous! I should be blind stinking jealous, furious that you're sniffing after another girl, instead of just glued to my butt, but instead, all I can think is: Oh, yay! Ember has a woman to fuck too. Maybe she'll even have a pussy she doesn't hate!" They paused. "N-Not that I have one! I mean, I might. I might not. Who knows! Hah. Ugh!" They trailed off. "Am I making any sense? Nope, not even a little."

Ember placed his hand down, on the rough pavement of the roof.

A second later, Chirp put their hand on his - cool and silky smooth. Ember smiled, ever so slightly. "If...it helps...if I wasn't Unconquered. If you weren't my Lunar. I think I'd still love you, Chirp."

"Yeah?" They asked, their fingers sliding along Ember's - five cold points, as soft as a cloud. They paused on his knuckles, and Ember closed his eyes, focusing on that connection.

"Yeah," he whispered.

Chirp sniffled. "N-Now I'm crying, you...jerk."

Ember turned, his palm rasping along the roof as he put his other hand down, crawling on his fours into the shade. He found Chirp's face with one hand, cupping their cheek and lifting their chin, thumb crooked underneath. "Then let me fix that," Ember murmured, kissing their cheek, tasting the warm salt of their tears. He kissed gently, his lips exploring their face until every last tear was gone and Chirp was trembling his hands, their entire body as taut as a coiled spring.

"Uh, hi?"

Chirp turned into a bat and leaped into Ember's belt pouch, hiding so effectively and so quickly that it took Ember patting his belt to realize where they had gone. He sprang to his feet and peeked out above the top of the buzzing machine - and saw the shark girl. She was still in her robes, but the hood was still back. She was also puffing softly.

"You, uh, you're pretty fast," she said, nodding. Then she waved, awkwardly. "So, uh, hi. M-My name is Xora." She blushed. Her fingers lifted up to her robes and played with the tie around her throat. She looked aside, gulping slightly. "Did you find-"

"Chirp," Ember said, his voice soft. "And, uh, they. They're a saris."

"Oh!" Xora nodded. "I've met a saris once - they were married to these two nice ladies and..." She closed her mouth with a clamp, her cheeks darkening more. "Gods, I...I have no idea what to say."

Ember chuckled. "Yeah..." He put his palms on the side of the humming box and swung himself up, his belly mashing against it. He squirmed, wriggled, and finally got his butt under himself - his feet hung over the side, with almost two feet clearing the roof as he leaned back, trying to look casual. "So, uh, my name's Ember. Sleepy Ember. I'm from Rataka village."

Xora nodded, then leaned against the side of the ladder, trying to be casual as well. The ladder groaned and several of the connecting screws pinged free with a squeak and the entire ladder fixture swung away from the wall, causing Xora to flail her arms to keep her balance. Ember leaped off the side of the golden box, running forward and grabbing her arms. Xora overtopped him by almost a full foot and when she stumbled forward, her robes slipped open. Ember had a single, fleeting moment of glacial slowness to admire the massive size of Xora's blue-tinged bust before his face was mashed between her breasts.

The two of them collapsed to the ground with a grunt and all of Ember's life became the firm fullness of her shark-titties. Though, he did have the presence of mind to be remarkably impressed by the fierce, iron hard strength of her abominal muscles as they ground against his belly, or to grope blindly at her large, taut biceps. She was sleek and slippery, and by the time Ember had gotten his face free, nearly naked - her robes having slipped off in the confusion. Xora planted her hands to either side of Ember's face and pushed herself backwards, the last dregs of her robes falling around her hips.

Ember drank her in.

She was really a fusion of a girl and a shark. A muscular girl and a sexy shark. Her breasts were nearly the size of his head, her belly muscles had belly muscles, and her hips had the most spectacular fusion of cushy breadth and muscular sleekness to them. Her rump, clad only in a pale white loincloth, sported a short, stubby tail that flicked from side to side behind her, while her feet ended in thick, heavy claws that dug into the rooftop. Her body was lined with more of those faintly tigerish stripes - gray on blue - and he could see thin gill slits on her neck, barely visible and closed tight against the lack of water.

Xora blushed.

"You're...beautiful," Ember whispered.

"I'm basically a man," Xora muttered.

"Well, I mean, if you want to be a man," Ember said. "You'd make a beautiful man. But right now?" He shook his head. "You are all woman. A woman...I...badly want to have sit on my face and choke me to death between your thighs."

Xora blinked at him, her mouth opening in shock. "I would never!"

"Shame!" Ember said. "I've heard from my friend June that having a girl sit on your face is quite the experience."

"I meant choke you to death!" Her cheeks were dark and her eyes darted aside, avoiding his. "I hate hurting people."