Over the next several days, the girls kept me pretty busy. And not just in bed, either. While each of my girls wanted time alone, they also made sure to give me more than a little bit of hell over getting directly hit by the odd weapon.

  I couldn’t really argue with their concerns too much, since it was entirely possible that the fires of the weapon might be even more dangerous than I might have expected at first glance. Everything from a caustic chemical added to the fire, to it being true napalm of some kind, or more. So I bore up under their chastisement as best as I could because I knew it came from a place of honest concern for me.

  When the girls weren’t trying to cuddle me half to death, I worked with them on their different powers. Everything from coaching Rieka on her aim and bringing her books from Earth on electrical conductivity so she could explore her lightning more, to sitting with Jane while the mouse-eared scholar disassembled the flamecaster carefully and took samples from the tank to analyze, ready to pull her to safety if things went awry.

  Shayla was the easiest of my girls to reassure and mollify in the wake of the battle. My curvy moth spent a fair bit of time clinging to me and we talked it out. She recognized that I would do the same thing for any of them, given my protective streak over the girls. Rather than chewing my ear off with chastisement, she worked to remind me of what I’d be missing out on if I got hurt or killed.

  Kassandra was the most insistent of the girls, though. The dwarf lamia insisted that I resume my role as her personal space heater as much as possible, using the excuse of training her ice magic to enforce it. She followed a similar line to Shayla, in that she wanted to remind me of what I’d miss out on, but she also didn’t hesitate to grumble at me rather cutely and order me about to ‘earn her forgiveness’ for taking the risk.

  Valda was the only person in the bunkroom that wasn’t riding my ass, but I think that was more to do with the fact she didn’t believe she had the authority to do so. Or maybe the lizard-folk woman had decided to cut me some slack after seeing how hard the girls were being on me.

  During that time, we had several more attacks on the walls by raiding bands. Twice more there were night attacks, while one raid at dusk did some damage too. All three were driven off, but with minimal casualties as the raiders had apparently taken the rout I’d delivered with Jane to heart.

  Most of my information on this came from listening to Valda while she walked Rieka through the tactics of it all. My wolfish princess worked hard to absorb everything that she was being taught by the older, scaled woman. It was obvious to me that Rieka was actually enjoying the tactical side of what was going on, and I made a note to see if I could find some classic books on tactics for her when I had time on Earth next.

  Since these meetings were done in the private room that we all slept in, I usually ended up listening in while working on one or more of my various skills.

  I’d learned quickly that my usual tactic of training Shape-Shifting by sitting in one location and using it to mold and shape various limbs and hands was rather distracting for the girls, so I kept that part to more benign changes like sharpening my vision with the telescopic vision of a hunting bird or sharp claws on my hands and feet in various configurations.

  With the need to continue expanding my mental abilities, I also worked with my Manipulate Element ability at the same time to continue building up a supply of pieces to pass off to Gloria. With her handling the business side of things like licensing and the like, it was far easier to focus on the important side of production and preparation that was my primary focus.

  The last time I’d talked to her, she’d mentioned getting in touch with my accountant to ensure that things were sorted with the national jewelers guild and the like to ensure I wasn’t being taken advantage of by my suppliers. I still hadn’t admitted to her that I was panning most of the gold for the supplies, but that was something on my list of things to figure out and explain.

  So there I sat, with Shalya leaning against my back while she sketched and Kassandra wrapped around both of us and the dwarf lamia laying sprawled out over my legs with a book in her hands, while Rieka and Valda talked over the table in the corner. Jane had disappeared to go and get some refreshments from the kitchen a bit ago.

  In my hands was a filigree gold cage wrapping around a lump of polished lapis-lazuli shaped like a guitar pick. The Manipulate Element ability flowed through the gold, allowing me to carefully mold it like soft clay with the sharp claws of one hand while my telescopic vision zoomed in like I had a powerful magnifying glass on. It was one of a series of necklace pieces that I was working on for one of the commissions that Gloria had set aside for me. Apparently, a music student and her two best friends were graduating in a few months and her mother wanted to give it to them as a gift at the ceremony.

  But even as I carefully spun the threads of gold to cup and accent the natural variations in the stone, I was also listening to Rieka and Valda talk over the map in the corner.

  “It still concerns me with how often we are being attacked. Isn’t it wasteful of these barbarian tribes to just throw themselves at the defensive wall like this?” Rieka was asking, her tail hanging limp behind her as she studied the map.

  “One would think that,” replied Valda. “But their culture is one of raiding and constant fighting. If they don’t raid us, then they raid the Duchy of Sarbor, the Glass Stars, or each other. Since they are moving on us, Sarbor, and apparently the Glass Stars at once indicates to me that someone is uniting the disparate tribes, or at least trying to.”

  “Which would make sense if they are using this to weaken the different tribes that oppose them,” Rieka countered, chewing on her bottom lip. My princess gestured to the map and the expanse of rocky plains and high plateaus that lay to the north of the mountains our camp was in. “Push those tribes to attack neighbors, couch it as a proving of dedication or an opportunity for the first pick of plunder. Then when those tribes have weakened the defenses, roll in with even more forces to push through.”

  “Which would only work if there was someone strong uniting those tribes,” Valda said with a nod. “But we haven’t heard any reports of that. Just that there is a lot of activity across the border and in the plains. We may call them barbarians, but they are in their element out there. An expeditionary force might be able to gather information, but individual scouts and the like stand no chance if they are caught in the open.”

  “Which is why we just sit on the borders and hold them,” Rieka murmured, her tail flicking in annoyance now. “And if the Coldeye Queendom were to help back a push like that, it would expose our flanks to the Emirates to the west.”

  “Exactly,” huffed Valda with a nod. “The Ironclaw have our backs to allies, so we are content to hold our place right now. We have safe trade through the lands of the Coldeye to our partners west and north, and support to hold this flank. But we don’t have the numbers to mount a proper expeditionary force either, not without the Coldeye sending a lot more troops.”

  “So we are at an impasse,” Rieka sighed, her ears flopping to either side in frustration.

  “Unless we know where to go specifically, yes. We can mount counter-raids, but with the amount of support a proper army would need into the wild veldt?” Valda sighed and shook her head again.

  “I just wish I knew where they were getting those weapons… the one Liam captured worries me,” Rieka murmured, and I felt Kassandra’s coils tighten around me a touch more, telling me that my snuggle-spaghetti was also listening in to the quiet conversation.

  “And it’s not made any better with the knowledge that your little scholar has divined from it,” Valda added firmly, and I heard a quiet rasp of something sharp against wood.

  A quick glance in their direction revealed that Valda was scraping her clawed fingertips against the edge of the wooden table. From the deep divots around the edge, I could tell this was a common habit for her but since she didn’t seem upset with Rieka, I didn’t say anything.

  “Jane confirming that the runes on the equipment come from the human era is concerning, but just how complex the device is also makes me worry,” Rieka replied with a gusty sigh. “It’s clear that this… flamecaster was not made by any of the tribes out there. Just the refining of the chemicals alone is beyond casual alchemical work. I wonder if even my mother’s alchemists could do it…”

  “We need information,” Valda grunted in frustration. “But every report that I have heard from the other passes is that those with the strange weapons either don’t know where they came from as they were gifts from superiors, they get away, or they kill themselves in capture. As far as I know, the one flamecaster Jane has to study is the only one captured so far.”

  “Which makes her study of it all the more important,” Rieka said with a nod. “If anyone here can figure it out, it’ll be Jane.”

  It made me smile to hear the confidence and pride that Rieka put in the little scholar mouse. Jane’s confidence had only grown the longer she associated with our group, and that had shown returns in her spell power and growth, too.

  I wonder what would be the best way to tell Jane how proud I am of her? I wondered as I carefully molded the hook into the gold pendant with a flick of my mind. She alternates between being so shy and focused on her research, and then being as bawdy as possible at times.

  My thoughts were interrupted by the distant clanging of the alert bells to mark another attack on the wall. Everyone in the room froze as we listened to the rhythm to try and discern what the attack was.

  A flash of light around the edges of my vision preceded a message arriving from Jane as I was focusing.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Liam! There is a major attack on the wall right now. Somehow, they got ladders to the wall and are already up on the east side fighting the defenders. I’m moving to help support the defenders, please send help!

  “Shit, I gotta go,” I snarled. A flick of my wrist and the necklace vanished into my Dimensional Pocket.

  Such was my girls’ trust in me that none of them protested. Kassandra instantly unwound from around me and Shayla leaned away as soon as she could to let me stand.

  “Jane?” Rieka asked in a businesslike tone, striding to the hook that held her spell rod and its sheath.

  “East side, they are on the wall already and she’s moving to help. I’m going ahead,” I answered tersely as my features flowed and shifted into my ‘war form’ before I engaged one of the powers I’d been meaning to train more.

  Tunnel to Contracted was, as far as I was concerned, one hell of a trump card to have in my back pocket. With it, I was able to force my way to one of the girls in need. I didn’t know why Jane hadn’t just sent me a summons to come to her side, but I sure as hell wasn’t about to let the brave little mouse put herself at risk at the moment, and I didn’t want to waste time trying to chase her down.

  The acid-green text appeared for a brief moment as the power displayed my list of contracts, but I didn’t pause to read it, mentally slapping down on Jane’s name as my body continued to flow and shift.

  I’d done this once before already to test it, so the sudden jerk and racing sensation wasn’t unexpected. But the world only blurred slightly before I saw the street coming in fast as Jane used the stone edge of a building as cover from a brace of arrows being fired from up on the wall, before returning fire with a storm of small wind-blades from her spell rod.

  Landing in a crouch in front of and slightly to the left of Jane, I snapped out with the lashing blade-tail my right arm had become to snap an arrow out of the air while the thick, armored paw on my left caught two more in a sweeping gesture. The flint arrowheads bit into the thick, leathery palm of the paw, but felt barely like a splinter before I brushed them free.

  Bellowing in anger, the sound deep enough that it vibrated the windows in their frames, I bounded forward. The reverse-joint legs of a kangaroo launched me into the air before blending into those of a hunting cat as I flew.

  Behind me, I heard Jane’s surprised yelp of ‘Liam!’ before my pounce carried me nearly to the top of the wall. The claws on my left hand bit into the stone of the wall, drawing deep grooves in one large brick until they caught while my snapping blade-tail right arm lashed at the two archers.

  One of my targets was able to dodge backwards, having reacted as soon as he saw me crouching to leap so my attack only caught the bottom half of his bow instead of his thigh. The weapon snapped under the combined pressure of its string and my attack, sending splinters flying into his face.

  His companion was not so lucky and the bladed tip of my arm ripped into his thigh, deflected up off the thigh-bone and into his stomach with a squelch like stomping on a packet of jelly.

  Not caring, considering they’d been shooting at Jane, I used my left-hand grip to propel myself upwards onto the wall while my right dug deeper into the injured man’s torso. A twist of my waist and the bladed tip of my arm caught on his ribs before it sent him over the edge of the wall to fall with a crunch on the wide road below. He barely had a chance to scream before impacting headfirst.

  Blinded by his splintering weapon, the first archer’s luck ended there as my kick to his sternum compressed his ribcage with a crunching noise and sent him flying backwards. Catching the back of his legs on the low merlons of the stone wall, he flipped over backwards to meet a similar fate as his companion only on the other side of the wall.

  All of this happened in a bare few seconds, and my roar of challenge was still ringing over the wall. It caused the fighting nearby to slow as I slammed directly into the middle of the space that the enemy had claimed on top of the wall, lit by the handheld torches that many of their raiders had.

  I didn’t slow down, knowing that I needed to move quickly while people were distracted. Mid-flight, I’d shifted my eyes to those of a cat so I could see just fine in the darkness of the late twilight. That improved vision revealed the tops of two ladders poking above the wall, and I immediately swept towards the first as my skin boiled and hardened into a thick chitin which deflected a pair of arrows a moment later with sharp pings.

  “Stop the monster!”

  “Demon!”

  “Kill it!”

  And other cries came up from the roughly dressed barbarians as they tried to stop my charge, but the lumbering lope I’d adopted—shifting my right arm back into a thickly muscled and armored arm as I went—bowled right through them.

  Two more were sent screaming over the inside edge of the wall, while more wind magic slammed into their ranks from a cursing Jane below.

  “I think it’s a summon, and on our side!” I heard the gritty voice of one of Valda’s clan, which was followed by a cheer. To confirm their assumption, I let out another roar before ducking a two-handed chop from one large barbarian with a heavy axe.

  Rather than just slug the man to drive him back, instead I snatched hold of him by the ankles and whirled in a turn, bellowing the whole way. The other man was large, but I’d been working hard to get the hang of my System-boosted stats and was now able to put them to work.

  In my best Incredible Hulk impression, I proceeded to use one enemy to beat another senseless.

  Whirling the axe-wielding barbarian up into the air with a grip on his thighs, I turned my loping ape-like charge into a spin. Using the screaming raider as a club, I drove others back in a large circle, making two full turns before I threw the man directly at the furthest of the two ladders.

  He missed, but only barely. His large body slammed into two of his fellows and all three tumbled off the wall and to the ground below.

  “Slay the demon!” bellowed someone from amongst the ranks nearby, even as I backhanded the nearest ladder and sent it skidding away, dumping the climbing raiders screaming to the ground.

  “Push! Wipe the invaders from the wall!” shouted someone else from below.

  I was surrounded on all sides by enemies, enemies that were finally coming out of their shock and realizing that they needed to get rid of me before I could kill them. I knew that my girls would soon be here to support me, even as Jane continued to lash the wall with her attacks and unbalance or knock down enemies.

  Cut off the head, I thought with a grim smile, spotting the shouting raider who was giving orders in a knot of people near the second ladder. In his hand was an elaborately decorated sword that twigged on my memories and I let out a snarl. My face had shifted to something more akin to a steel-trap now, and blood drained from the faces of those nearest me, but they gamely pushed forward.

  Another push with Shape-Shifting robbed some of the mass from my legs and lower body to armor my arms and shoulders even more.

  Moving on suddenly shorter legs, I was a lot more stable and close to the ground as I bounded forward. My thickly armored forearms turned swords while I slapped axes or spears aside with frying-pan-sized hands.

  By the time the leader realized I was aiming for him, it was far too late. I’d already knocked four more raiders off the wall, pounded two flat, and broken the leg of one with an open-handed slap.

  The leader was a tall man with bear features, his dirty blonde beard stained with grease and matted. His long hair was an untidy mess behind him, intermixed with bone charms. His clothes had seen better days, with a patched tunic and a thick bearskin cloak over his shoulders. But the scabbard on his waist and the sword in his hand shone like they were brand new and oozed quality out of every inch of them.

  Knowing that blade was far more dangerous than the crude weapons of his fellows, I feinted a lunge for his legs like I had the axe-man earlier.

  The raider leader took it, slashing downwards with his sword and sending sparks up from the stones as the weapon bit into them. But I’d already used Shape-Shifting to restructure that arm.

  Balancing on the open palm of my left arm, I swayed and lunged forward to wrap my suddenly-flexible right arm around his neck and yanked the man forward and further off balance.

  He stumbled, his hands coming off the handle of his weapon to try and catch himself from landing face-first on the stones of the wall, and that was all that I needed.

  Kicking out with my right leg, which extended back to regular length with the help of Shape-Shifting, I touched the blade of his sword with a toe and banished it into my Dimensional Pocket for now.

  “Liam!”

  The familiar shout from below drew my attention to the corner where Jane hid, and I saw my girls arrayed below with their rods pointed upwards, and spells already forming in the air. Right at the front was Shayla, my gorgeous moth woman’s wings spread wide as she conjured a massive sphere of light.

  They are getting ready to sweep the wall clear, I thought instinctively. I need to get off the wall to let them work!

  With the leader in hand, I gave another victorious bellow and leaped from the wall over to the ally side, dragging the screaming man with me through the air.

  I landed heavily in the open road, but my legs shifted midair to help absorb the blow. My captive was not so lucky, and I heard the crack of breaking bone from one of his legs as he landed awkwardly behind me.

  Dragging the screaming man into the shadows of an alley, I heard the thunderous roar of my girls’ combined spells slam into the enemy forces. There was a cacophony of cracking lighting, breaking ice, rushing wind, and the burning thrum of Shayla’s bright laser spell as she swept the burning beam over a section of wall.

  Confident that my girls would sweep the rest of the wall clear, and having removed the leader from the equation to direct them, I whirled on my captive with a growl.

  The filthy blonde man was pale with pain and blood loss, with the bone from his left leg sticking through the meat of his thigh. His face only went paler though as I slammed him into the wall with the thick, muscled tentacle that my right arm had become.

  “Where?!” I snarled, the words coming out garbled by my tooth-riddled maw as I menaced him.

  “Wh… wh… what?” the man stammered, and I caught the ripe scent of urine as he pissed himself.

  I needed answers and quickly. I could remember all too well how Rieka had mentioned that captive raiders would often take their own lives rather than speak.

  “Where are you getting these?” I snarled, blowing spittle all over him as my mouth split wider and focused on one of my all-time favorite villains, Venom, for inspiration.

  The sword that I had banished to my Dimensional Pocket appeared in my left hand and I waved it in front of his face. This close, I could see the same familiar runes that were on the blade that Jane had been studying on the flamecaster earlier. I hadn’t wanted to risk the sword touching me after I’d recognized them on the wall, in case it was enchanted.

  My captive swallowed once, looked between the sword and me, and his expression hardened. I could see the defiance in his eyes and he lunged forward, trying to drive his own throat onto the blade.

  A blink of the eye and the sword vanished into my Dimensional Pocket once more. Instead, the man drove his greasy forehead into mine and knocked himself half-senseless, as I’d already reinforced my bones to support the earlier combat.

  “Demon,” the man gasped, his eyes going wide with fear again.

  “Oh no,” I growled. “You want to see a demon? I can show you a demon. Now answer the question, and if I like the answer, you might get to do something besides scream for the rest of your miserable little life.”

  Pulling from my inspiration—and when it worked I tried not to think about the implications of it—I felt my mouth split wider as row upon row of razor sharp teeth sprouted from my gums until I had enough teeth to make a shark jealous. All while leaning forward with the maw slowly spreading wider like I was about to take a bite out of the man.

  “The cave of the ancestors! Ancients spare me!” he screamed shrilly as those teeth neared his face. I could feel him struggling, battering at my chest with his hands ineffectively, but none of his attacks did more than jostle me around a bit. I caught the knife in his off hand when he tried to stab me with it, twisting and breaking his wrist before vanishing that blade too. “It was a gift from the ancestors, meant to take down demons like you!”

  Retreating a bit, I let the Shape-Shifting subside and my face resume a more normal appearance, though I intentionally produced more eyes than I normally should have to keep the man off balance.

  “Go on,” I demanded, satisfaction ringing in my voice. Hopefully, soon I would have the answers my girls had been needing earlier.

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