X Centaurus Ch. 023

"It's fine Baerinda," said Braddox, "The cautious move is to retreat but if we were being cautious we wouldn't have taken this job in the first place. This doesn't change anything, the Kobogons are simply more aggressive than first thought, not more powerful."

Fey trotted around another building a grimace on her face as yet more signs of violence littered the streets, an overturned cart scattering apples, a basket trodden into the mud, a discarded sword, and as always, the ever present bloodstains.

"But how are we to find them?" she murmured.

"Oh that's easy, we have a tracker in our band!" said Astrid behind her.

"You do?"

"Yup! it's the one who thought Baerinda was a blanket last night."

"What are you blathering about Astrid?" said one of the black furred male minotaurs coming up behind them. He wore green-dyed leathers and over his shoulder was slung a heavy yew bow that looked as though it had an impressive draw weight, all of this together suggested he had something like a Scout Class.

"You can find the villagers?" asked Fey.

He squinted at the centaur, his gaze passing over the three female minotaurs squeezed onto her back, barely fitting. He paused as he noted a number of slim rivulets of wet that had rolled down the sides of the centaur's barrel each coming from the rears of the girls. He blinked, his brow furrowing.

"What-"

"The villagers Raeger? Can you find the villagers?" Chloe was waving a hand in front of his face and he blinked for a second before refocusing on priorities.

"Er, yes, I believe so. They may have taken to the air but I suspect with this many villagers taken that they will have simply walked and will be nearby, the amount of effort needed to move them by flight over a long distance is not worth it, at least I would assume."

"That's great!!" said Fey, her voice rising in hopeful excitement. "Quickly, you must take us to them! You must!"

Raeger rubbed at an ornate gold ring on one of his horns in thought, then his tracker's instinct taking over his eyes darted from blood stains to footprint, analysing. Then he began to walk.

The others followed in his steps and he quickly led them to the back of the village where they found a second door, this one in much worse a state having been ripped off its hinges. They emerged back out of the village and found themselves stepping through the forest once more, this time off the main road. Raeger darted around them to confirm they were on the right trail, pausing by the occasional spot of blood, or broken twig.

Half an hour later they arrived at their destination, the entrance to a cave. Ellaria had to command Fey to stand back as she was on the verge of rushing straight in.

"Take it slow. If we can see them before they see us then we will have every advantage."

"What?" said Flora

"It's because of me," said Baerinda. She flicked her fingers and a flock of green snails with moth wings burst from the undergrowth and whizzed around the bands' heads. "I can hide our presence with illusions that fool the eyes, make us invisible."

Magic Mog with the exception of Fey stared up at the illusion flabbergasted, that is until Braddox made a cutting motion with his hand.

"Save the displays until later Baerinda, we've got work to do."

"Er, right."

Flora blinked at the dissipating illusions, then her eyes darted to Fey, then to the three minotaurs atop her back. "Ah, I see how it is. Welcome to the club girls."

The three minotaurs very carefully avoided meeting Flora's eyes.

Raeger was first in as the only one of their party with some Skills related to hiding, then came Baerinda, or rather Fey with Baerinda still atop her. The minotaur had point blank refused to get down, her legs still too wobbly, which of course she hadn't explained.

Fey had managed to settle the issue by showing just how surprisingly silent she could be despite being so large, much quieter than Baerinda could be walking by herself. Her high level of dexterity and strength allowing her careful balance on three hooves while she placed the fourth down without a single sound. That combined with her excellent awareness of how her own body was placed meant she could be almost as silent as Raeger.

Raeger hadn't been pleased with this arrangement at all, but under his captain's orders had slipped into the entrance of the cave with Fey in tow.

The shadows of the cave rolled over Fey and the three minotaurs atop her back, engulfing them in gloom. She followed after Raeger at a distance, keeping him in sight as he checked ahead at each corner of the winding cave tunnel. This continued until he halted ahead of her and waved his hand. Fey caught up and carefully peeked around the corner he had stopped by.

A vast cave met her eyes, lit from above by a shaft of sunlight where the ceiling had partly fallen in. Ahead of her were people, a pile of people six foot high, the villagers, and all quite clearly dead, their heads removed. She had to bite down on her wrist to stop a scream of anger from ripping from her throat. She heard similar noises of distress from behind her, particularly Kayla who let out a sob.

Raeger waved at her to catch her attention then silently pointed. Fey looked and saw a spiderweb of chains and manacles at the edge of the cave, and more importantly, actual living people, villagers, or what remained of them, not as many as Fey would have liked but there were survivors, survivors she could save, survivors that she could help.

Her eyes shifted once more and she found the things that had done this to the villagers.

They were many coloured, their scales bright and clean, their bodies lithe yes, but also beautiful, as though carved by a master of aesthetics, each a paragon of physicality, their colourful eyes luminous with magical power. They were talking around fires, chatting freely as they ate. What they ate nearly made Fey choke. Well, now she knew what they were doing with the heads.

A small flame of vengeful wrath sparked to life in her heart.

She looked over her shoulder at Baerinda and the minotaur nodded. It was done, the Kobogons were all under her influence.

Without hesitation she stepped into the cave fully, completely visible to the Kobogons, holding her breath, waiting for the cry of alarm to go up.

Nothing happened.

"They can't see or hear us at all," said Baerinda, "We're essentially invisible."

Fey bit her lip wondering how she was going to go about this, as a healer she really needed to check over those imprisoned.

Ellaria glanced at her as she stepped up beside her. "It's fine Fey." A dozen green and black fireballs that pulsed with a promise of agonising death bloomed to life around her, "We'll clean the trash up. Just make sure we all make it out alive."

The two bands advanced on the Kobogons. There must have been nearly four Kobogons for each of the bands' members, outnumbering them by four to one. Fey did not like their odds, illusion advantage or not.

Vivi held her sword above the neck of a Kobogon casually sitting cross-legged by a fire, a roasted human head held daintily in its claws that it occasionally took bites out of like some kind of grisly apple.

Astrid slipped from Fey's back, and immediately fell over as her jelly legs gave out, then with difficulty managed to climb to her hooves. Braddox gave her a funny look but didn't say anything as the minotaur loosed her axe and held it over the head of a Kobogon.

He was more distracted by Chloe who summoned a dozen immaculate white lances from a bottle at her side, the cum lances hovered in the air over the backs of a dozen kobolds promising swift death.

Averys couldn't help himself. "What the hell is that Chloe? Since when could you do anything like that! You don't have that level or ability or skill!"

"Shut up Averys," said Chloe, ignoring the agitated paladin, her cheeks going a little pink.

The bands were ready, blades and arrows and magic all pointed at the unknowing Kobogons.

Ellaria and Braddox turned eyes on Baerinda. The minotaur still atop Fey bit her lip then nodded.

"So be it," said Braddox, "On three. One. two. -"

All the adventurers moved at the same time and the air was suddenly filled with screams. Cum lances plunged down instantly skewering hearts, green and black fireballs slipped inside open mouths, wreaking havoc on the unfortunate Kobogon's insides and destroying their lungs leaving them choking and dying. Axes and swords fell, Raeger's bow loosed taking one through the back of the head as he nocked another arrow.

Even as this slaughter happened the Kobogons who were not being attacked carried on their conversations, completely oblivious to the fact that their comrades were being killed right in front of them. When one fell across another they simply laughed and pushed their corpse onto the ground mocking them for getting blood drunk.

The two bands moved efficiently, as soon as the first strike had taken place they were already moving on to the next.

But as Vivi's blade decapitated her target and its head flipped and tumbled through the air a light of shocked understanding seemed to go through its still momentarily alive head, as well as a flash of magic. The head landed in the lap of another Kobogon and they picked it up rolling their eyes with mirth.

"Oh really? if you do not wish to feed then it is I who shall make up the difference," said the Kobogon in Common.

The Kobogon opened its mouth to take a bite out of its comrade's severed head, but then the severed head reacted and a cone of fire exploded from its mouth. The Kobogon screamed as its upper body was engulfed and it used its own magic. A hailstorm of needles suddenly exploded from its black scales, a shower of slender agony that shot in every direction, everyone still upright being struck by the vicious little things, the needles digging deep into flesh and eliciting howls.

Agitation. Instant agitation.

The illusion Broke and the remaining Kobogons went from cheerful eating to fury as the adventures were revealed amongst them and all hell broke loose.

The Kobogons didn't hesitate for a moment and they put the full breadth of their magic to use, a positive broadside barrage of spells exploded at the bands. Worse, it seemed they had a fire manipulator amongst their number as the green fireballs in the choking Kobogons were pulled free, which didn't help much with the Kobogon's destroyed insides, but that still left Ellaria desperately fighting for control over her own extremely dangerous fireballs.

Astrid screamed a warcry and charged into battle, a gigantic red and black halberd forming in her hands which she swung down as hard as she could.

Braddox let out a bullish roar and switched to a massive hammer pulled from his back, or at least that was what it looked to be at first glance, the hammer was in fact a massive solid iron blacksmith's anvil atop a leather grip staff. He swung it and the unfortunate Kobogon that took the hit didn't so much as die but splash, cratering into the ground and causing fractures to run across the cave floor for dozens of feet in every direction. The captain didn't pause and used the momentum to leap forward ripping it from the crater and swinging it around, it hit a second Kobogon and they were launched into the nearest wall where they became a bloody smear dotted with scales.

Despite the bands' extreme aggression the Kobogons were not going down easy and the adventurers were taking hits. Averys ran past holding a shoulder wound, his situational awareness shot. A disc of darkness was flung from one particular furious Kobogon and took him in the hip. He fell, or rather the top half of him did, his legs managed to make it a few more steps before toppling over. He looked at his severed body in abject horror even as his guts spilt free and puddled on the cave floor in a steaming mess.

Fey recognised he was already going into shock and acted quickly, charging forward and slapping her hands down, grabbing his legs and hauling them up to his hips. Green light and particles poured from her hands so fast that some of it missed and went streaming across the ground. It didn't matter, his flesh was already knitting together, his spine aligning, his intestines snaking back into position, his skin zipping back up. It didn't take long with Fey applying everything she could and soon the paladin was whole again.

It was then that she realised she was touching his bare skin, she was touching him, a male. With a yelp she snatched her hands back but it was already too late, Averys was over an inch shorter and looked like he had de-aged by about ten years.

"What in the..." murmured Chloe looking over Fey's shoulder.

They didn't have time to talk further however as a heavily injured Astrid slumped nearby, and Fey was forced to dash over to help.

Ellaria and Braddox were fighting back to back as Ellaria desperately wrestled with the fire manipulator, and Braddox smashed apart incoming plasma blades from another

They were being pressed, the powerful magics of the Kobogons working together in concert, none more so than when Flora rose up, her hands spread wide and an undeniable force slammed into every Kobogon slowly crushing them against the ground and allowing the others to go in for kills. This, unfortunately, drew the attention of every Kobogon onto the gnome and they let her know their disapproval with a barrage of magic that positively erupted into her sending her screaming out of the air, tumbling across the ground. She coughed and fell limp, struggling to move.

Throughout all this danced Vivi, fighting like a pregnant maniac.

But when she saw Flora fall her demeanour changed, they were in trouble, and she knew it.

"WUMMY! I NEED YOUR HELP!"

The fox girls shorts exploded and dozens of tentacles whipped into the air, spreading the fox girl's thighs wide. She gasped and let out a rising moan, her eyelids fluttering. Then she got ahold of herself, spinning her blade in paw.

"Fuck, and I thought I wouldn't need it. LIMIT BREAK: OMNIRAZOR!"

A second sword made of golden light appeared in her other paw.

Then a sword appeared at the tip of one of the tentacles.

Then another.

And another.

Then more, and then more, until the cloud of glossy white tentacles around her was armed to the teeth with glowing blades.

She held her dual swords out to either side and then she seemed to let herself fall forward on her feet, leaning, then dropping toward the ground. Then she simply disappeared.

She appeared in mid-air behind a number of Kobogons and the tentacles around her became a terrifying blade storm, a steel blender. The Kobogons didn't stand a chance, within moments they became half a hundred cubed chunks of meat. The cubes hadn't even started to fall before Vivi blinked away, jumping to another group, then another. The fox girl became a blinking hurricane of death, jumping across the cave, only appearing for a fraction of a moment before blinking away again to another group, or to finish off a previous one. The air became filled with nothing but the whirring of blades and the thunkthunkthunkthunkthunkthunkthunkthunkthunk of blade meeting flesh in such rapid succession the sound nearly became one.

It was over shortly after it began. The white furred foxgirl left standing in the middle of utter devastation, breathing heavy, her swords limp at her sides, the tentacles crowding the space between her thighs and pushing her legs apart. A moment passed and then the tentacles and Vivi all flipped their blades as one, flicking free the blood from the surface of their weapons.

Magic Mog and The Hammer Horns stood and stared bug eyed at the fox girl.

"See, I told you!" said Astrid from where she lay, a line of blood leaking from her lip as Fey healed her, "I told you they were good!"

"...what just happened?" said Braddox.

"Since when could you do that..." said Ellaria looking at the fox girl with a strange expression.

"Is that a fucking slime monster in her pussy?!" squawked Averys desperately trying to sit up.

It was at that moment that a trio of Kobogons stepped into the cave, each dragging behind them an unconscious human.

They froze up as their eyes came to rest on what remained of the other Kobogons. Truly not a lot remained after what Vivi had done with them.

Raegar turned and snapped a shot at them, an arrow taking one in the eye. The remaining two took one look at their comrade and then turned and ran for it.

"After them!!" roared Ellaria and Braddox in the same voice.

Fey grabbed up Astrid, throwing her on her back and raced after the captains. She was not about to let Ellaria go into danger without a healer. Not happening.

She quickly caught up, racing through tunnels she soon found them. Already they had caught and killed the two Kobogons. Behind her came the rest of the bands' members, most of them injured in some small way, even Averys came, holding his recently healed stomach and looked faintly ill, and Flora, who floated with a hand held to her leg.

The captains put their fingers to their lips and shushed them as they arrived, commanding quiet. Fey looked between them wondering what the issue was, then Braddox gestured at her and she trotted forward slowly and silently. He glanced at her then to Baerinda on her back. Then he pointed past himself and Fey leaned by to see. There was another cave ahead, and in it one last Kobogon.

This Kobogon, however, was different.

She was shorter than the others, and she radiated a surety of motion that was almost jarring. Her scales were snow white and fringed with pink, her breasts petite, her eyes violet, slitted, and glowing. She rolled her claws as she spoke to someone out of view, each motion smooth as though averaged out removing any minor imperfections of motion that were present in other creatures, she moved like flowing silk, the epitome of exquisite poise, and danger.

Beautiful terrifying danger.

"I've got her," said Baerinda, "She's under my influence, she won't notice us even if we put on a parade in front of her."

"Excellent. Tell me, does anyone else in your band have a Limit Break Ellaria? I doubt I am the only one who senses that it would be wise to kill this one in one powerful attack."

Ellaria hesitated. "We have some," she glanced back at Fey, "But used recently."

"Even yourself?"

"Yes, I have one too, but I also used it recently, and time is the least of the prerequisites before being able to use it again."

"Very well. Your band is fascinatingly powerful, we should discuss this over drinks after all this is done. For now it seems I shall deal with this last one myself."

Braddox gripped his anvil hammer in both hands and slowly advanced forward into the cave.

Fey and Ellaria followed close behind, Chloe who was still on her back floated a dozen cum lances above her, ready to rain death on this last Kobogon.

As they neared voices became clear. Two voices. The Kobogon was speaking to someone just out of view, a tall stone formation blocking line of sight, the entire scene lit by a beam of sunlight from a hole in the cavern ceiling, and dotted glowing blue crystals that patterned the cavern walls.

"You are a curious one, children and goblins are as a rule not particularly intelligent yet you are both a child and a goblin and from what I can observe of an intellect that far outstrips both."

"Appearances are deceiving Shiva, I am not as I appear, the lottery of memory rebirth did not favour me as well as I would have liked but one cannot always get their way, we make do as best we can considering the realities of our own situations."

"And this is the answer to your reality?"

"It is an avenue I wish to explore."

"An alliance between you and I? What a curious concept."