PgueDaddy

  Shereen poised herself into a stance good for attack or defense with her spear while Orstelia had her falchion to her side in an arrogant pose. They stood there, examining each other and waiting for each other to make the first move. Shereen struck first.

  The sound of a shockwave filled the air as Shereen used wind magic to propel herself forward. Orstelia however remained calm as she leaned slightly to the right and parried the spear's tip away from her. She immediately went for the kill, aiming a horizontal ssh towards Shereen's neck. With practiced fluidity, Shereen let go of the spear and hardened the air around her arms into bdes to block the attack. The cng of steel hitting a hard object was heard as Shereen used more wind magic to create a gust of wind that pushed her away from Orstelia. A distance she quickly closed again with wind magic enhanced speed. Shereen then swung her wind bdes in a series of twelve sshes and thrusts that only seemed to get faster with each swing. Yet Orstelia blocked or dodged all of them, then stabbed with the tip of her tail to catch Shereen off guard. A gamble that worked as Shereen had the air pushed out of her lungs with the attack's force as she was knocked away from their csh. Her focus broken, Shereen's wind bdes disappeared into motes of green as she clutched the area where she was struck.

  'The sudden attack limited the amount of strength she could gather for it. Otherwise, I would have ended up like those who had their bodies crushed. Wait, now that I think of it, where were everyone else's corpses? I didn't see a single one. Not the time to think about this, ter.' thought Shereen. With a gesture of her hand, she summoned wind the grab her spear and bring it towards her. Something that Orstelia seemed to allow as she once again got into the same stance as before. Shereen held the spear in one hand and positioned it behind her back as she lowered her center of gravity.

  'She is skilled. Probably the most skilled opponent I've ever faced. If I can subdue her in a bind by wrapping around her then I can end this quickly. Then I will make her submit to her rightful queen!' thought Orstelia, a more primal urge taking over her mind again as she could not control herself. She coiled her tail behind her, preparing to lunge with great force, as she pulled back her arm holding the falchion and extending her other arm in front of her as if it was a guide rail.

  Both once again waited for the other to move first. This time it was Orstelia that decided to move first.

  She lunged forward with a speed that normal people would be unable to track and stabbed the tip of her falchion towards Shereen's chest. Shereen parried the thrust with the pole of her spear and with a flourishing spin struck toward Orstelia's chest with the spike on the end of the shaft. Orstelia smirked as she pushed the end of the spear upwards with the ft of her bde and went to wrap around Shereen.

  The memory of what happened to the body that was pulverized fshed into her mind. She reacted instinctually. Gathering all the magic she could muster at that instant she used one of the two {Combat Arts} she knew she could use.

  "{Sylph's Aegis}!" she yelled while throwing up a hand sign that was all of her fingers curled inwards except for her pointer and middle finger with their tips in a vertical straight line in front of her face. An orb of transparent green wind surrounded her, the sharp wind currents cutting into the enclosing tail. Orstelia let out a guttural primal hiss that no humanoid throat could emit as she quickly fell back, purposefully hiding the cuts away from Shereen's vision so she couldn't see them start regenerating.

  Orstelia gred at Shereen, studying the shielding orb of sharp wind, not hiding the annoyance she felt as she continued to hiss while her forked tongue flicked in and out repeatedly. Shereen meanwhile stayed still and maintained the posture she had when she summoned the shield. That was its main downfall at the moment. One had to stay still while it was in use. If she trained enough with it she would eventually be able to use it without making the hand gesture and then move with it. She rarely had to use it so she neglected training it, a decision that she had come to regret and if she lived through this then she would fix that.

  Suddenly Orstelia smirked knowingly, like she had just figured something out. She casually picked up a loose stone and threw it towards the shield with minimal strength. The stone was deflected easily and hit a metal bar of a nearby cell, sending the sound of ringing metal reverberating through the passage. Orstelia's smile grew so much that the seams of her full mouth were visible and her eyes seemed to glow with sadistic glee.

  "You can't move with that shield can you little snakelet?" she redundantly asked. They both knew the answer to that question. Orstelia's throat unduted in unnatural ways before she swiftly opened her full mouth and spat a rge glob of poison towards the wind shield. As soon as it hit it turned into a fine mist that sprayed in every direction around Shereen with some even making it through.

  "I doubt that weak poison will even work on you little one but you can feel it can't you? The sweet intoxicating ambrosia that it is for your kind. How long do you think your feeble will can fight your instinctual urge to submit to a higher existence? The pheromones that naturally mix into my venom are quite potent after all. Can you imagine what would happen if I intentionally used my pheromones like I would if I were marking territory? You would not st long I imagine. Submit to me and all your worries will be swept away like a leaf in a storm. All you have to do is give in. You just need to stop concentrating on your magic shield, drop your spear, and walk into my open arms." With the st words of temptation said, Orstelia held out her arms to invite Shereen into a warm and accepting hug.

  Shereen was fighting with herself mentally. Too much of her mana was used for the {Sylph's Aegis} and more was being consumed the longer she held. When it ran out not only would the shield drop but the various enhancement magics that were keeping her from succumbing to Orstelia's temptations would also disappear. She had only one option that could turn the tide of this battle and it would hurt.

  Shereen dropped her shield, and through her will alone, forced all of her mana into her spear. A tornado formed along her spear with winds simir to her {Sylph's Aegis} but since it was hurriedly made it was not harmless to her. Hundreds of cuts deep enough to draw blood appeared on her arms in the seconds it took to manifest and as soon as it did she struck. With all the strength she could muster, she threw her spear.

  'It won't be as powerful as the full {Combat Art} but it's all I have at the moment.'

  The attack caught Orstelia by surprise as she was certain that she had already won. The spear hit the center of her chest with so much force that she was flung to the end of the hallway, the four that were pampering her earlier just barely got out of the way, and she crashed through the wall revealing the secret tunnel behind it.

  Shereen slumped to her knees where she stood. Her arms were profusely bleeding from the myriad cuts, her breathing was shallow, and her ears rang as if thunder magic was used right next to her. She could barely keep her eyes open and through her ringing ears she thought she heard the faint rumbling of thunder but it quickly vanished as all she could hear was her rampaging heartbeat and her breathing. After what felt like hours to her she could finally start hearing things again. And what she heard filled her with dread.

  Laughing could be heard from the secret tunnel. It was quiet but there. But it started to get louder and louder. Eventually, it was just the ughter of the insane. Then a bck cwed hand covered in dark autumnal scales grasped the edge of the hole into the tunnel and a figure pulled itself out of the gloom. It was unquestionably Orstelia but her upper half of humanoid skin was repced with scales except for enough of her face that it looked like the scales were creeping up to engulf what little was left of her humanity, bck cws capped her fingers instead of nails, and the light radiating from her eyes had gotten bright enough to light up her surroundings by just a little. She looked as if no wounds had ever touched her except for the spear that was piercing through her. Orstelia looked directly into Shereen's eyes before pulling the spear out of her body in the most painful way she could do quickly, almost like she was trying to prove something. Orstelia just dropped the spear beside her and Shereen watched in horror as the rge wound closed itself in seconds. But Shereen barely noticed that it quickly healed in the beginning but almost imperceptibly slowed down halfway through. It seems that whatever was powering that regeneration was starting to run out of power.

  "Admirably done Knight Bdegale" spoke Orstelia, her voice now one that emitted only regal pride as if she was a true queen speaking towards a vassal. "Futile but admirable. You have earned the right to willingly surrender and not be broken into a gibbering mess that only craves my touch. Now do you surrender or shall I be forced to break you?" she asked while slithering upon the ground until she towered over the colpsed figure of Shereen.

  The question hung in the air for what felt like an eternity to Shereen. But both were so focused on each other that they failed to hear the rumbling of thunder coming from the stairs leading towards the hallway of cells. Before Shereen could answer she felt something appear beside her. Orstelia was sent reeling back clutching her stomach in pain, something hit Shereen on the back of her neck making her lose consciousness and as her vision went bck she heard and felt a cp of thunder.

  Orstelia gred at the figure that hit her in the stomach faster than she could react and her hostile temperament vanished like steam in summer. Standing before her was Fulger, lightning crackling across her human skin and a look of boredom on her face. A myriad of emotions and thoughts flooded her mind causing her concentration on her current magics to falter, causing the unstable and improperly applied magics to go haywire. She had seconds before the backsh of her magic hit her and her body moved on instinct alone, her primal desires elevated due to her recent transformation.

  She unched toward Fulger at a speed that surprised them both but she did not attack. She instead gently cupped her hands on Fulgers cheeks, said "You truly are a being worthy of standing beside me," and went in for a kiss. But the backsh of her wild magics hit her before she could. The wild magics overloaded her nervous system with indescribable pain and went unconscious, colpsing onto Fulger who hurriedly caught her before she could fall further. Her body transformed back into her regur mia form, her magical clothes reappeared on her body, her skin and eyes returned to normal, and the crown of horns on her head disappeared into motes of golden light.

  Fulger gently set Orstelia on the floor and examined her surroundings. The stonework was scarred with gouges made from intense wind magic, those who were still in the cells were crying from fear, and four figures were huddled together near the broken remains of a wall that covered a hidden tunnel. All four were women but only three were beastkin. One was a bck-furred catkin, a rarity due to superstition surrounding them, another was a rose mantiskin her extra pair of raptorial limbs raised defensively towards Fulger while holding the third beastkin against her small chest with her humanoid arms. The third beastkin was smaller than the rest of them but that was due to her being a dwarf rabbitkin with chestnut-colored fur. The fourth one was in front of the other three and was pushing them back defensively. She was taller than the rest of them, unnaturally pale and thin, and had long wine-red hair that seemed to subtly flow as if influenced by an invisible wind. They all gred toward Fulger warily while occasionally catching glimpses of Orstelia, a subtle expression of worry creeping on their face before switching focus to Fulger.

  'They feel harmless enough. They can take care of this oaf while I sort out this pce while waiting for reinforcements from the guards and guild.' She gnced towards Orstelia who was sleeping peacefully on the stone floor. A slight blush crept onto her cheeks and she hurriedly looked away. 'Next time you try to kiss me you better be yourself, you stupid idiot.' She turned her gaze toward the snakekin she had knocked unconscious. "I better hide you away from everyone. I have some questions for you before I let those vultures have their way with you."