Unconquered Pt. 12

I still wanted to make there be as few losses as possible.

I opened my eyes and sat up, looking down at the girls around me. Xora and Chirp were slumbering, while Ceaith had curled up like, well...like a cat. She was snoring quietly. And to my left was Jaquline, curled up under her blankets. I bit my lip. I looked around for Rose – and saw that he was out. Of course.

"Well..." I murmured. "Maybe one more quickie could..."

I reached out, gently. I knew that Jaquline was always up for something. I shook her gently. "Hey, Jaquline..." I whispered, leaning down, my lips touching her cool ear. She didn't move. I frowned, then shook her again. Fear tingled along my spine. I shook her more – and the blanket opened and then Jaquline tumbled from the pile of bedding that she had curled up under.

Except it wasn't Jaquline at all.

It was a log. A small log of wood, with a crude red wig fastened to it.

My eyes widened. "What. The. Fuck?" I whispered.

I shifted onto my hands and knees, then focused, letting a tiny glow of golden light flare around my palms. I held it up, scanning the ground with my palm – and saw that there were footsteps leading out of the tent. They were clearly Jaquline's footprints in the brownish dirt that made up the majority of Harpy Pass. I padded, quietly, out of the tent, flowing mana though my body to try and make myself as stealthy as I could be. I stole through the camp, following after the footprints carefully.

I came to a tent – Ejana's tent. She was, unlike what her status would indicate, not one for a complex or fancy tent. It was the same color, the same size, and the same general level of luxury as the rest of her soldiers. However, a thin light was seeping from under the flap, the slight flicker and dance of a candle or a lamp. My ears perked – and I heard the soft moan of a woman's pleasure. It wasn't Jaquline. It was definitely the husky, green skinned Ejana Black Rose Kah. I leaned forward, perking my ear, and head the soft, slick sound of a member plunging into a woman's cunt.

"Ah, Black Rose..." the Rose of Versail's voice purred out and I heard Ejana giggle.

"I thought you were the Rose here...ah!" She shuddered. "G-God that knot feels good."

I shook my head, slowly. I must have lost Jaquline's footprints in the dirt. Well...

I mean...

It was my duty, as the Unconquered, to make sure my Lunar was safe. Assassins might be out here. And so, I settled in, listening to the sudden increase in the tempo – the hot slap slap slap slap of thigh meeting thigh, the pap pap pap of balls rebounding against a firm ass. I wondered if Ejana shaved, if she was as primp and proper as her brother, Jerin. But then I was only wondering how she wasn't screaming her head off with pleasure as I heard Rose fucking her faster, harder. I could hear his grunting and I grinned to myself.

Go get her, I thought.

"Ah!" The Rose hissed.

"F...Fuck-" Ejana groaned, her breath catching. "Oh gods. Oh gods. Oh Unconquered, that was good..." She breathed, then laughed. "Ah. You're still stuck."

"Mm, what a trial."

The soft sound of kissing filled the air and my palm caressed along my bulge for a moment, teasing myself with the idea of fishing my cock out and stroking it – but then I heard a quiet pop and a groan. Then one last quiet kiss – and then the Rose slipped from the tent, as confident as if he had been in there discussing strategy, not fucking the high general of the Seventh Legion. I caught a momentary glimpse of Ejana, her green skin slick with sweat, her dark green-black nipples achingly hard. Her sex, which had a small rose bloom rather than pubic hair, was dripping with thick, white cum. She looked slightly dazed.

Then the tent flap slipped shut and I realized the Rose had missed me. I crept after him, frowning slowly. Was this all he did during the nights, while Jaquline had me distracted? My feet moved silently across the dunes as I saw him creeping to the tent – was he so insatiable that he'd fuck Jaquline too?

The Rose stretched. Rolled his shoulders.

Then he touched his fingers to his hips and slid them up, as if he was caressing two slightly curved lines. Where his fingers touched, his skin glowed, and there was left behind a glowing afterimage in my eyes: A pair of winding rose vines, which marked him from hip to chest. Once he was done, though, the Rose...was gone. His chest had swelled. His rump had firmed up. His cock had shrunk. In its place was a sleek, cute little pussy. And his hair had grown into a wild mane of brilliant red hair.

Princess Jaquline stood there, her rose tattoos still glowing.

But it was a Princess Jaquline with fox ears and a tail.

I gaped at her, completely stunned.

"And oop!" She said, focusing. Her left fox ear retracted into her head with a soft popping noise. "And oop!" She retracted her right ear. "And shimmy shimmy shimmy-" Her tail drew back into herself. Finally, she reached up and put her thumb against her forehead, murmuring. "Slurp!"

Her soulgem sunk into her flesh, skin growing over it – and now, she looked like an utterly normal mortal.

"That's why I love both of you!" I said, standing up.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Jaquline screamed and leaped almost ten feet straight into the air.

I tensed, ready for the entire camp to brighten up, for soldiers to come boiling out of their bungalows. But instead, to my shock, Jaquline reached out with her hand. A golden-brown light flared around her fingers, shimmering in bands of white and green. The colors of an agate gemstone. She closed her hand tight around the air – and I saw a shimmering string of letters appear: Ahhhhhhhh. She grabbed the farthest H with her palm, put her palm against the A, then slowly mashed the two of them together. Soon, the whole jumble of glowing letters were contained between her palms and she was able to pop the whole tidbid into her mouth. She chewed it, swallowed, then burped.

I looked around myself.

No one else was stirring.

"You're the Rose of Versail?" I hissed.

Jaquline, who had been licking her fingers clean, blinked at me. Her green eyes glittered in the pale light of the stars and Lapis, which was the only moon out tonight. "Wait, seriously?" She whispered.

"What?" I asked.

"You didn't guess?" She asked.

"I..." My cheeks darkened almost black with my blush. "No! You had...you...but I..."

Jaquline laughed, softly. "Gods, Ember, this is why I love you, you're so dense."

"I am-" I clenched my teeth. "How long were you planning to just...to just...to...to...flip flop without telling me?"

"My whole life?" Jaquline asked, grinning impishly. She closed her eyes and pinched her nose shut, then ballooned out her cheeks, as if she was trying to blow out through her closed lips and her pinched nose. Her soulgem, her fox ears, and her fox tail all popped out at once. "You didn't get one Lunar with me. You got two: the seductively charming Rose of Versail and the charmingly seductive Princess Jaquline D'Augerie." She bowed low, her full breasts swaying with the movement.

"It was the not telling me-" I started.

"And ruin the surprise?" she asked, grinning at me, then walking forward. Her finger caressed my chest. "My darling Unconquered, this is a moment you will remember your entire life – and what exquisite drama there was. How much did you toss and turn, wondering who you truly loved – was it the dashing and mysterious Rose? Or the mortal Jaquline? How could an Unconquered love a mortal so intensely. Oh!" She sprawled against me, her full breasts mashing against my chest as she nuzzled against my cheek. "Oh, I'd kill to have that kind of delicious agony..."

I blinked. "I...I wasn't actually agonizing that much..." I blushed. "I'm already married t-to four other Lunars. I have to have a big heart, or else have no heart at all."

Jaquline drew back, pouting.

I blushed, then gasped. I stepped away, turning my back to her. "No...I...I cannot lie to you!" I exclaimed. "Every night, the decision twisted my heart!" I clutched at my breast. "Like a heart...twisting thing!"

Jaquline giggled, then leaned forward and nipped at the back of my neck. "Nice try, my Unconquered," she murmured. "But I appreciate the effort."

I blushed and then slid my arms around her. I nuzzled the top of her head, my nose breathing in her scent. I kissed my way down to the tip of her fox ear, whispering into her. "We should really get to bed," I whispered.

"Ah, but you cannot sleep," she crooned. "I know a way to fix that."

"Fucking?" I asked.

She scoffed. "As if. You'd still be up by the time the battle was done. I've been holding back in Jacqueline's form. I didn't want to make the guessing too easy." She grinned at me, her eyes sparkling. "No, I know how to get you right out."

"How?" I asked. "Warm...milk?" My face twitched as I became acutely aware of her large breasts, pressed right up against me. She chortled as she felt the other part of my anatomy that twitched at the thought of those breasts.

"No," she said. "I'm an excellent pick pocket. I'll just steal your wakefulness and exhaustion both." She said.

"You'll steal my-" I started.

I woke up with a gasp, my eyes widening as I sat up. Jaquline, Ceaith, Chirp and Xora were all rousing around me – it was the early, gray morning light of dawn and I could hear the soft, hushed voices of soldiers and their sergeants. I shook my head – then blinked as I saw Ceaith, Chirp and Xora looking at Jaquline, who now had her proper soulgem and her foxy bits. I hurried to get ahead of their confusion: "Jacqueline is the Rose! The, uh, the Rose of Versail!"

"You didn't know?" Chirp asked, sounding honestly shocked.

Ceaith clapped her hands over her mouth to stop herself from cackling so loud she would warn the approaching Legions. She nearly passed out. Which was good. Made it easier for me to wrap my arm around her neck and strangle her.

***

The Sun's eye opened slowly, and transformed the dark twilight sky into a pitiless blue one. It was deep, infinite blue – not a cloud in sight. That Sun showed no mercy that day, neither to me, nor to my soldiers, nor the other Legions. Ejana's prediction was right, though: The infantry had been left behind and the Legions had brought their calvary. They had split into three columns, and each column was marching through the narrow passes. They had avoided using the most narrow of the passes – which meant that some of Ember's men's hard work had gone to a waste. But that was all right.

The entire Seventh Legion detachment was crouched low against the tops of the ridges. Their artillery had been situated at the very ends of the passes, so they could fire down upon the passes – each one concealed under tarps covered with dirt and rocks.

Then Ember noticed the faint quiver of dirt and rocks. The ground shook – rhythmically. I saw what was causing it a few moments later as the first of the two warstriders walked into the passes. They were both marching in file, one leading, the other trailing. They were huge constructs, unique and beautiful in their own way. The first was made entirely of blue jade and green jade and white jade, slabbed and layered into the shape of an immense woman of glittering chromatic hues. Her face was serene and beautiful and distant. Unlike most humans, she had four arms, each one holding an immense saber – the length of an entire Starshrike.

Behind her, the other Warstrider was considerably more esoteric. It was not legged. Instead, it was a torso that looked somewhat like a large bear, with the burly ursine face and carved armor plating intermixed with artificial fur that shone gold. Underneath the belly of the ursine torso, though, was an almost twenty foot high mass of swirling fire. It cracked and roared in time with the surging movement of the ursine beast, hovering it forward and leaving behind a blackened field of glass behind it. That was why it 'marched' at the very rear of the column.

"Warstriders..." I whispered.

"That's them," Ejana whispered beside me.

I nodded, then glanced to my left. Chirp was there, and they smiled at me – then flapped into the air.

The legionaries would have merely seen a small bat circling overhead – as unusual in Harpy Pass as seeing a dolphin in the west. In other words, not odd at all. But my men had all been instructed to watch the flapping of Chirp's wings. If they flapped in one way, then they would be sending one signal. In another way, another.

This sequence of flaps was quite simple.

The advancing legions reached the midpoint of the pass. I felt my balls clenching tight, crawling up into my belly with gathering fear and anticipation. My heart hammered and I tightened my fists. The time was coming...soon.

Two squads of infantry that were waiting near their hard handiwork sprang to their feet. Their sergeants had seen the moment, and taken it. I watched as the men and women of the Piss Boot Legion came to their feet, their spears at the ready. But they were not used to stab or to throw. Instead, they were used as levers – pushing seemingly secure boulders out of their sockets. The boulders rolled forward and away from the walls of the mountains. They rumbled forward – and the Earth Knights we had stationed stood, then punched the ground.

Dirt shifted and tracks appeared, shifting the boulders from wild, random tumbles into directed weapons.

Two of them struck ramps that had appeared from thin air, arcing upwards at incredible speed. They punched directly into the chest of the Ursine warstrider, impacting with the resounding clung of stones being flung against a bank vault door. The flames flickered and crackled and the Ursine torso sagged, then crashed into the ground with an earth shaking roar. At the same time, the vortex bows were unveiled by shouting Piss Boot Legionaries. They wasted zero time – triggering the bows and sending arcing, crackling arrows into the air.

The vortex arrows staggered across the valley floor of the advancing legions. They exploded with a shriek like the end of the world. Sweeping, cascading waves of blue-white light roared outwards and where it touched, it left behind swirling Sunderstuff. The red chaos matter began to roil outwards, sweeping across the field – and that was my cue. I sprang to my feet, focusing my will, then leaped onto the side of the cliff. A path formed under my feet, an Ice Knight and an Earth Knight working together to give me a friction less slide.

The ramp appeared at the end and I shot into the air, reaching down to caress the shimmering clouds of chaos matter - and imparted my imagination into it with a surge of mana. The sunderstuff collapsed with a whump, forming into dozens iron fences, which slammed down into the ground. Suddenly, the survivors weren't merely stunned and blasted – they were separated from one another by heavy fences. I sprinted up the cliff on the far side, Earth Knights popping out steps to carry me. Then I went down and did the same trick in the next area.

Overhead, Chirp continued to flap, and continued to signal – to me, and to the men. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw them flapping and...

I stumbled on the run up the third of the ridges, pausing near a line of infantry, who were preparing to set spears against a counter-charge from the enemy cavalry. But as I looked down at the swirling chaosmatter I hadn't had a chance to touch yet, I saw that the raptors and horses that the Second Legion rode were fleeing, desperately, towards the far end of the pass. They were fleeing. They were routing.

I shouted to Chirp. "Now! Now! Now!"

Chirp flapped.

And as the stunned, routing masses of the Legions were fleeing out of the passes, away from the vortex arrows and the boulders, the cavalry that Ejana and I had hidden away burst from their defiles and their trenches. Their raptors charged down the steep cliffs, rushing down, kicking up dirt and snarling and hissing in the air. They swung around like a long, flexible door – and began to impale men and women who were fleeing from the passes. They had to kill remarkably few people.

The Legionaries who had been fleeing were routing – running as blaring horns and screaming voices filled the air. They saw the glittering spears of the raptors, and they threw their weapons to the ground and their hands into the air.

I blinked, slowly, looking down. Knots of battle were still raging, where men and women who had been knocked off their mounts were finding places in the valleys where they could try and keep our forces at bay, with spears and swords. Screams and shouts still rang. But the majority of the Second, Fourth and Eighth Legion – the elements who had been dispatched from their normal garrisons at least – were being rounded up. The final warstrider was still standing, but I saw that one of the arms had been blown off by the vortex arrows.

I blinked again.

"That worked?" I whispered.

Ejana landed beside me with a grunt. She smirked. "In a week's time, the Regent is going to be screaming in his throneroom." She looked down. "Give me back my legions."

I grinned. "W-We've only taken out, like, half of them!"

Ejana's smile was a wolf smile.

"Those cities..." She pointed to the south. "Are guarded by fifteen thousand infantry. We've got three thousand..." She looked at him, brightly. "They don't have a chance."

TO BE CONTINUED.