Monster Breeder

108. Charlatan Forest, Part 6

“MOTHERFUCKER!” I shout loud enough to shake the leaves on the trees. The Grubbin biting my teat is of little concern. Despite the pain, it’s more of a pinch than a cut because my Lizardman Scales and Ogre Toughness together make my flesh impervious to first-tier attacks. Much more critical is raising the alarm to protect my lovers and allies. “Murder Hornets!”

There’s an amount of shock and confusion, sure, but I’m the leader of our group and my girls have come to respect my word and follow my lead. If I say there’s danger, they’d believe me over their own senses. Others are new to my group but have strong predator instincts.

Some responses are quick and deadly.

Clearly, the Murder Hornets hadn’t expected their ruse to be uncovered so soon. The one who accidentally let an egg slip early because of how hard I fucked her really screwed the pooch (I know what that's like). Several of her sisters are in compromising positions with Slime monster tendrils on or inside them. The result is predictable.

Flou3 bites through the ovipositors fucking her and attacks the closest Murder Hornet with a storm of maws. Olindia skewers the Murder Hornet she was screwing, melting them from the inside and thrusting bloody Jellyfish tendrils all the way through. Brenda fills a Murder Hornet’s ass with Green Slime acid instead of sour-apple-flavored cum. Two more insectoid monsters retreat from the Stone Ooze’s mouth and ass with their ovipositors torn off. Drosera switches his sweet and sticky Sundew to acidic glue with a thought, trapping and melting several Murder Hornets.

Some responses are measured or nimble.

Gabby channels Ember Magic through each of her rods to burn the Murder Hornets sucking them. Then she hops to her feet and kicks the ovipositor that was seconds away from filling her with deadly larva. 

Gale bites through an ovipositor with her sharp carnivorous teeth, flaps off the ground with her wings, and carves into enemy flesh using her talons. 

Megan is surrounded by larger monsters but manages to extract the ovipositor inside her before the Murder Hornets realize what she’s doing.

Some responses have surprisingly good instincts.

Jonny hears me and spits out an Ovipositor even as it starts spewing Grubbin eggs. He stands, jerking his cock from the Bee Girl on her back, and dodges the eggs she tries to shoot at his butt. I can’t blame the poor man for clenching his cheeks now. Then Jonny makes a running dive for Brenda, who accepts and molds herself around his body protectively.

And then there’s Tokt.

Our Goblin captive is clueless, doesn’t know me, and only really understands that he’s being enjoyably fucked by some beautiful women. The fact those supposed cute ‘Bee Girls’ proceed to hold him down and pump all his holes full of Grubbin eggs comes as a complete shock and betrayal.

He dies screaming, his corpse overflowing with scissor-mandible maggots that swell in size by the second before eating their way out of his body in search of more meat.

Unfortunately, we’re still outnumbered by Murder Hornets and now they’re covering the battlefield in their hatching spawn. The Grubbins are jumping five feet high in an arc, making them dangerous foes for unarmored second-tier monsters like my girls.

The Murder Hornets themselves summon their venomous darts to hand (four at a time) and tear off their own faces, wigs, and breasts to my shock and horror. Then it makes sense. These monsters cover themselves in waxes, fur, and papery pulp mâché made from masticated wood shavings, drink nectar to sweeten their saliva, and rub themselves with flowers for perfume before completing the disguise with some form of magic. The creatures underneath are barely humanoid with chitinous exoskeletons and sharp mandibles.

At least I don’t feel too guilty about the ensuing carnage.

Close quarters with friend and foe intermingled makes Air Blades a poor choice. That attack is so strong it’ll cut through one enemy to hit the ally beyond. But I have Pitcher Vines and Fishman Spears.

I’m no longer a novice with weapons. Gone are the days when I needed to study my opponent for minutes before I began my counterattack. Fast Learner will improve my efficiency as the battle progresses, but I’m dual-wielding and stabbing vital points from the word ‘go.’ In the thicket of combat I rely on Predator Sense for evasion, but the number of attacks coming at me from the four-armed monsters on all sides is immense.

Thankfully, venomous darts skid off my Lizardman Scales, and leaping Grubbins are unable to find purchase on my flesh. The few stingers that find the hollow of my armpit, neck, or back of my knee have trouble puncturing Ogre Tough flesh. “You need to be stronger than that to cut me!”

A few Murder Hornets take to the air, but I throw Ember Spears at them, scatting sparks onto their flammable wings. My spear points find compound eyes and open mandibles to be effective vulnerable targets. The two sluggish Hornets I Pacified with milk before combat started are the first to die with their reflexes slowed. I break my spear shaft against Hornet heads and jab spear butts into their chests and stomachs, summoning new spears as necessary. This is what happens when my strength exceeds my weapon’s durability.

Others try to run, but my Vines catch their legs and pull them in close. A stomp of my foot raises a spike of Earth through the torso of a tripped Murder Hornet. I could do this all day, but my companions need me.

Gabby is forced to play defensively. She’s not equipped to fight on the frontline surrounded by so many deadly foes. Instead, she raises earthen walls around herself and covers the top with vines. Anything that gets close is strangled by animated weeds or sucked ankle-deep into the ground, and anything probing her dirt wall gets set on fire.

Gale focuses on evasion. She’s agile in the air and able to protect herself with talons, but this means she’s naturally pushed out of the melee the more she dodges. The Harpy girl can’t get into her attack range without suffering counterattacks she can’t afford to take.

Drosera may have powerful acid-glue at his disposal, but he’s focusing everything on the Grubbins launching themselves his way. He’ll be in serious trouble if even one of those scissor mandibles gets past his guard. Their bites are sharp and deep enough to sever an artery that could bleed out in minutes. He ends up using the bodies of fallen Hornets glued to his Sundew tendrils as shields.

Granted, Olindia, and Flou3 are massacring their opponents. The Murder Hornets are ill-equipped to deal with inorganic monsters, their stinger venom having a reduced effect on Slime. The Grubbins that land on either Slime Girl get dissolved or chomped instead of vice-versa. Long Jellyfish tentacles whip around the battlefield striking opportunity attacks on distracted Hornets and the bunny-eared Fuzzy Slime leaps at neck after neck like a certain famous killer leporid from ancient human lore.

Jonny, now safely ensconced in his Green Stone Ooze Brenda-suit, is mowing through the enemy at a steady pace. Stingers break against his rocky edifice and Brenda focuses on protecting his face from leaping Grubbins. Several times, the openings for his eyes and nose close in the nick of time before something dark with mandibles lands there.

“Retreat!” calls the distorted, insectoid voice of a Murder Hornet hovering above the melee. Their losses must have reached the tipping point. With little to gain from continuing the fight, they all take to the skies as one. They throw their summoned stingers at us and poop their Grubbin babies on our heads as they flee.

*Routed the Murder Hornets – Two Swarm Marks!*

“Where’s Megan?” I ask, dreading the answer.

Sure enough, the mouse girl is in the air, fighting off the advances of questing ovipositors as the swarm of Murder Hornets flies away.

I leap fifteen feet into the air with Ogre Strength and Harpy Lightweight and come up short, throwing spear after spear, but I haven’t trained my aim against their flying trajectory. Few of my attacks hit. I still can’t use Air Blades with Megan in the mix. Gabby’s Plant Growth vines claw uselessly at the air. Olindia’s Jellyfish tendrils catch another Hornet and drag it to earth but it’s not the one who has Megan. It’s Flou3 who makes progress where others fail.

The Fuzzy Slime latches onto my leg at the peak of my jump and crawls to my head before leaping again while stretching a fleshy maw to catch hold of an insectoid leg. She flows up the Hornet like water and leaps from the monster’s head to grab another higher limb in her teeth. Flou3 continues to bounce, leap, and swing from Hornet to Hornet, getting closer to Megan by the second.

“DON’T TOUCH MY WIFE!” screams Gale as she swoops into the swarm with her talons bared. She fights like a Harpy possessed, slashing at insectoid flesh, and beating foes with her wings like bludgeons.

I’m not about to let these bitches carry off my favorite mouse girl pregnant with my and Cottontail’s daughter! After landing, I scramble through my menus for the Hornet Wings I’ll need to hunt the fuckers down when another notification stops me cold.

*Nursed the Sweet Bee Girl – One Swarm Mark!*

What. The. Fuck?!?

My horrified eyes fall to my chest, where the first Grubbin latched onto my nipple. I never bothered to remove it since the mandible couldn’t pierce my defenses. Instead, it started drinking my milk. My milk set to Pacification.

The Book of Monsters had said they shared a ‘common evolutionary starting point.’  What if the divergence in their evolution paths is their diet after hatching?

The former Grubbin has swollen in size, dropped its scissor-mandibles entirely, and turned a creamy white. It begins to metamorphose before my eyes. A sticky substance produced from both ends glues it to my shoulder and waist like a sling. Its skin dries and hardens while the life inside liquifies before slowly reforming into a new shape.

My stuttering brain finally clicks over from Fight mode to Protect. I’ve got a baby strapped to my chest. This changes everything. Fuck.

“STOP KILLING THE GRUBS! Catch them and bring them to me!”

Fuck, fuck, fuck, what am I going to do? This isn't like the Servitors. Those fucking bitches were literally throwing babies at us. FUCK!

If Gabby holds the Grubbins safe for me, I can still grow wings and chase after Megan.

Predator sense gives a barely noticeable signal an instant before something hits the back of my head, splattering on impact. It doesn’t even hurt. I’m just God Beast damned annoyed. Incredulous, I turn to see a Twisted Apple Treefolk at the opposite end of the clearing throwing rotten purple apples at us.

“Take this, you whores!” he shouts.

My eye twitches. I almost forgot the entire forest is hostile territory. The enemy can look like trees. Nowhere is safe.

The rotten apples are barely a threat, certainly poisonous to anyone without Goblin Gut, but not caustic on contact. It’s almost like…

This is a distraction.

“Help!” Gabby screams as wooden tentacles drag her into the underbrush the moment she leaves her earthen walls to help gather Grubbins.

I run after her without a moment of hesitation.

The ground moves beneath me as the Twisted bastard uses his Earth Magic to make me stumble, costing precious seconds. Damnit, I should’ve taken Mouse Balance! My own Earth Magic launches me into the air on a pillar of stone, then my vines catch hold of a branch and I swing out of the Twisted Treefolk’s sight.

Cinderwolf Rush! Cinderwolf Rush!

I can’t go any hotter without cooking my baby Sweet Bee. Several unseen attackers throw vines and Plant Growth attacks at me, but Predator Sense and my developing experience from Fast Learner allows me to navigate the obstacles before they can trip me. The speed boost sets me running at a breakneck pace with my Partner Tracker guiding my path.

My pounding feet devour the meters separating us until the Strangler Fig Treefolk comes into view. He’s tall and man-shaped with his entire body woven from wooden tentacles. I don’t see Gabby, but I trust my Partner Tracker mark. There’s only one place she could be.

I grab the Strangler’s shoulder and clamp down until bark shatters. I pull him in close, put another hand on his head, and tear the fucker in half. Wooden tentacles snap like twigs before my Ogre Strength to reveal Gabby bound and gagged in the hollow of his chest.

The pieces of him remain animate, resisting me as I rend and tear every tentacle apart from every other until there’s no piece long enough to strangle. Then I pull the phallic gag from Gabby’s mouth and snap the binding on her wrists.

My Goblin wife leaps into my arms and presses her face into the hollow of my throat. I clutch her to me, careful to avoid the infant Bee Girl larvae glued to my chest.

We return to the clearing at a brisk, if slightly less urgent pace. The unseen attackers had no interest in sticking around for me after I effortlessly evaded their vines. Things have been resolved by the time we get back.

The Twisted Apple bastard is dead with Jonny and Brenda standing over him, tree trunk snapped in half by acid burns and repeated stone punches. Olindia has six Grubbins safely in her pink Jellyfish tentacles. I set Gabby down.

“Gale and Flou fought their way to the Hornet carrying Megan. They were all alive the last I saw of them, but they fell over there,” Olindia says as she points deeper into the woods. “The other Hornets fled.”

I pray to the God Beasts my Partner Tracker would let me know if any of my mates died.

Nodding, I turn to Drosera… who has a dozen Grubbins glued to his Sundew tendrils.

“You could’ve escaped in the confusion,” I say to him.

He smiles at me. “Alex, you might never be on the receiving end of your own dick to verify this, but let me just say you fuck like a Valkyrie.”

Despite the dour mood, I laugh. Typical monster thinking with their cock, or ass as the case may be. Then I run my fingers through his hair and lean down to kiss him chastely on the lips. Straightening, I shed a tear, but wipe it with a fist.

Gabby puts a gentle, comforting hand on my thigh. “We’ll get them back.”

“Yeah. That, get you some Mandragora nectar, and fuck Charlatan Forest.”