Hall of Fame (4)

The next day, we picked up our raid on the Hall of Fame where we'd left off.

"We're up today, right?"

Kanisia was already spinning her spear in lazy, eager circles, her blood running hot. The day before, we'd only meant to dip our toes in, so we'd called it the moment Aquaril put down Mighty Rakkabish. That left Kanisia, Abraham, and me sitting on the sidelines without a single swing between us.

She's got a real fighting-cock streak hiding under all that pink.

Kanisia was pink from the roots of her hair down to the tips of her toes — and, against type, she was a brawler.

Then again, maybe it wasn't against type at all.

Sex with Kanisia was nothing like sex with my fairies. With my fairies, I always ran the show. With Kanisia, we traded the reins. Sometimes I pinned her flat. Sometimes she pinned me.

"Yeah. You and Abraham take the third and fourth rooms."

If she was that hungry for a fight, I might as well throw her in. At our party's level, the fourth room was well within reach.

"Hell yeah!"

"You have my thanks, Lord Alan. I shall endeavor to meet your expectations."

The second I nodded, Kanisia and Abraham lit up like kids handed a toy.

"Hiiing... Master, Oralisa can't go out today?"

"Master. Please allow me to fight as well. This time will be different from yesterday."

Then Oralisa and Aquaril started in from the side, both of them begging to be sent out too.

Uh... what was this? Why was everyone acting like this?

Apparently the one-on-one fights had been more fun than they'd expected, because every last one of them was clamoring ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠for a turn. Well, damn. Looked like I wouldn't be needed at all.

"Fine. If the chance comes up, you two can go out too."

I wouldn't earn a scrap of EXP even if I killed the monsters myself, so I handed the combat slots over to the party.

We'd cleared through the second room the day before, so the fighting picked up right at the third.

The moment we stepped into the Hall of Fame, the space folded in on itself and unfolded again, over and over, until a new battlefield took shape before us.

"A swamp, huh..."

Pockets of bog pocked the floor at irregular intervals. Solid ground was scarce. A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nasty piece of terrain.

"Looks like I should take this one."

"That would be for the best, Master."

Kanisia gave Abraham a pat on the shoulder and walked forward. For someone as slow and heavy as Abraham, a swamp was about the worst battlefield you could draw.

The instant she stepped onto the field, a window bloomed in the air.

Kanisia took her place on the field, and the third monster made its entrance.

Shaaaaaaa—!

Same as the first two, Venomous Grash threw its head back and screamed at the sight of her.

"Hnh? Oh-ho?"

"....."

"Aaaang~! Don't look, Master! Cover your eyes right now!"

Aquaril's face tightened the second she got a look at the thing. Oralisa threw a full tantrum and tried to clap her hands over my eyes.

She had her reasons. The third monster, Venomous Grash, had the upper body of a stunning woman.

Pale, creamy skin pebbled with snake scales. Melon-heavy breasts, purple nipples dangling pitifully from the tips. If she felt any shame, she didn't show it. Not a scrap of cloth on her. She put every inch of that body on shameless display.

"I said don't look, Master!"

"Haaah... Oralisa. You actually think I'm going to get worked up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over a monster?"

I sighed at her as she kept trying to cover my eyes. Beautiful upper body or not, there was no universe in which Venomous Grash was getting a rise out of me.

Because from the waist down, she was a snake.

Fuck me, that thing looks thicker than an anaconda. That's dinosaur territory.

Venomous Grash's lower half was thick. Too thick. Thick enough to swallow a cow whole, easy.

Its — no, her — species was half-human, half-serpent. A Lamia.

I liked sex. Grash was beautiful, in her way. Neither of those facts was enough to get me going.

"Hiiing! Then what's THAT?!"

"Huh?"

Oralisa's opinion — and my cock's opinion — were apparently not the same as mine.

"It got big, Master!"

"...Why the hell did this get hard?"

Oralisa jabbed a finger at the tent pitched in my pants and squawked. I was just as thrown as she was. I had not felt a shred of lust for Venomous Grash. My dick had gone and gotten hard anyway.

"Master...!"

"Hmm... Lord Alan is a man of many... talents."

Aquaril stared at me like I'd grown a second head. Abraham muttered to himself and gave a slow, considering nod.

"N-no! This is a misunderstanding! I didn't tell it to do that!"

I protested with everything I had. It wasn't nearly enough to clear up the misunderstanding.

Shaaaaaaa—!

"...Hey. Guys? I'm about to fight here?"

Kanisia, whom everyone had completely forgotten, muttered it under her breath.

Shaaaaaaa—!

"Hah!"

The third fight was on. The instant they were free to move, Kanisia and the monster launched at each other.

Venomous Grash loosed an arrow. Kanisia swept her spear through the air and, in the same motion, fired back with a skill.

Shaaaaaa—

The monster rippled her lower body like a snake and slithered across the surface of the bog, slipping every last Magic Javelin without effort. How she moved that freely over swamp water, I had no idea. It was almost impressive.

Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!

"Kh—!"

Venomous Grash kept moving and kept shooting at the same time. Same as the first monster, Indomitable Banum, her main weapon was a bow — but the way she used it was a completely different animal.

Banum's whole game had been rate of fire. Grash conjured two extra arrows out of mana, so every pull of the string put three shafts in the air.

"Tch!"

One real arrow and two mana-forged ones came screaming in. Kanisia clicked her tongue. She wanted to throw herself clear, but the swamp hemming her in left her no choice — she had to sweep the spear and knock them down.

Her spear rang, three sharp notes in a row.

The regular arrows are fine. The mana ones, she cannot afford to eat.

The monster's mana arrows were laced with poison. I'd given Kanisia an antidote just in case, but there was no chance a crafty thing like Grash would sit politely and watch her drink it.

That said...

I watched Venomous Grash glide over the bog like it was a paved road.

Those tits are bouncing like crazy.

No bra. Every time she moved, those melon-sized breasts heaved and rolled. The entire fight, my eyes kept drifting there on instinct.

Snake from the waist down or not, the top half was a knockout. The view, at least, was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠solid.

"Haaaaah!"

Kanisia hadn't taken a single step from where she'd started. She swept a mana-charged spear through every incoming arrow and answered with Magic Javelin after Magic Javelin.

Boom! Ba-boom! Boom!

The javelins slammed into the bog and went off like bombs. Thick, sticky mud fanned out in every direction.

And then—

"...Alright. I've got it mapped."

Kanisia, who had been planted in place playing pure defense, finally moved. She broke into a run.

Shaaaaaaa—!

Venomous Grash must have decided the turtle who'd been huddled in her shell was finally offering a kill shot, because she came forward too.

Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!

She never stopped shooting, even on the move. An archer loosing arrows at a dead sprint is supposed to have to plant their feet. Venomous Grash didn't have that problem. A snake's lower body made the impossible look easy.

"Dumbass. You should be running, and you're coming at me?"

Kanisia batted the arrows aside and laughed in the monster's face. The reason showed itself a second later.

A pillar of searing light crashed down from the sky and swallowed Grash whole. An attack from directly overhead was the one thing she hadn't accounted for. She never even had time to flinch.

"Whoa... when did she even cast that?"

The sucker punch from above was Solar Beam, a skill we'd picked up at the black market a few days back. I hadn't seen that one coming either. There hadn't been a casting motion. Nothing.

The second Grash couldn't shoot, Kanisia tore across the swamp without a shred of hesitation, picking only the solid ground between the bogs and leaping from patch to patch.

"...She was mapping the safe spots with Magic Javelin!"

That was when I finally understood the strategy she'd been running.

The monster hadn't been dodging her Magic Javelins because they were hard to dodge. Kanisia had never been trying to hit her. She'd been using the skill over and over just to read the layout of the swamp.

Charge Solar Beam in the sky where Grash wouldn't notice. Use Magic Javelin to mark every scrap of solid ground. Close the distance until Grash was inside the beam's range.

That was the plan Kanisia had built to put Venomous Grash in the ground.

"Not bad at all."

"Haaaaah!"

Shaaaaaaa—!

The words were still in my mouth when Kanisia's mana-charged spear punched clean through the monster's throat.

"Not bad."

"Right? The second I saw it I thought, that's the one."

I checked the item info and handed the green-gemmed necklace back to her. It was the loot Kanisia had pulled off Venomous Grash. Hers, obviously.

"Hey... Alan?"

"Yeah?"

"This... I'm giving it to you."

"What? To me? Why?"

For some reason Kanisia went painfully shy and pushed the necklace back into my hands.

"I mean... you've given me so much, and I haven't really done anything for you."

"Aww, look at you. So that's why you're handing this over?"

I gave her firm ass a playful pat as I said it. Between the two of us, that much contact barely counted as teasing. Kanisia's lips pushed out in a pout.

"I'm not kidding, okay? I'm really giving it to you."

"I appreciate it. I'll take the thought. You keep the necklace."

"What? You're not taking it?"

"After everything I've given you, you think this little thing settles the score?"

"Excuse me?"

"Hit me with something bigger later. Besides, your Endurance stat is low. This thing happens to bump it by a point, so you're the one who should be wearing it."

"...Hmph! If you don't take it now, don't come crying and begging for it later."

"I'm really fine. Put it on."

I took the necklace out of her hand and fastened it around her neck myself. For some reason her face went scarlet. Pink hair, red face — Kanisia, now available in two colors.

"Then I shall be off."

"Abraham, hold up."

"What is it, Lord Alan?"

"Sorry to go back on my word, but I'm taking this one."

"Hm... as you wish."

I caught Abraham before he could walk onto the field. I'd said I would send him, and sending him would have been the honest thing to do — but the fifth monster's traits had surfaced in my memory, and I decided to go in his place.

Abraham clicked his tongue, disappointed, but he didn't push to go out anyway.

I walked onto the field in Abraham's place. A window opened, and across from me the monster took shape.

—

A set of white bones drifting in midair, an old black cloth fluttering over them like a tattered banner.

The fourth monster of the Hall of Fame was a skeleton mage.