Monstrous Horizons Chapter 6 (Patreon)

“Cleo is a Pharaoh. Desert Queen isn’t a joke, she literally rules the southern desert.” Sylvia hit me with it quick.

“Pharaoh as in a ruler’s title, or is that a type of monster girl?” I didn’t have to hide my lack of knowledge from Sylvia. It was freeing in its own way.

“Type of Monster Girl, extraordinarily rare, like one alive at a time sort of deal.”

That sort of rarity always came with extreme power. At least that’s what logic told me. “Okay, so how do I deal with her?”

Sylvia was agitated now, standing and pacing. “I might be able to talk to her, let her listen to you. Apep will be there though.”

“Who’s Apep?”

“Apep is a Queen Cobra, one of two leaders that rule of every lamia south of Khopesh. The second she smells you, her fangs will be in your neck, then it’ll be over.”

Sylvia gave me an appraising look. “I’ve seen what happens when she bites another monster girl. They become creatures of wanton, insatiable lust begging for her every touch, and we monster girls have some resistance to lust venom. If she bit a human male…”

The way she trailed off told me it was game over if I let myself get bitten.

New goal, don’t let Apep bite me.

“Got it. What do I need to worry about from each of them?”

“Apep has magic, far more strength than the average human and of course her lust venom. Cleo has power over sand and curses. Within the desert she has no equal given her power over sand. Her curses only effect those she sees as under her rule.”

I raised a brow in question.

“If she considers you part of her kingdom, all she has to do is touch you and can lay almost any manner of curse on you.”

I whistled appreciatively. “So, if she captured me?”

“She’d consider you a slave and under her rule. If you bend a knee to her, same thing. Then all she has to do is touch you.”

“How likely is she to curse me if something happens?”

Sylvia winced. “I’d almost guarantee it. Given how you smell to me, any monster girl is going to jump at the chance to tie you down. But Cleo plays mind games, she enjoys them above all else. If you can remain dominant in front of her, you have a good chance.”

I groaned. If I ever met her, it was going to be a battle of wills. “Then we just make sure I don’t end up in any of their clutches. I think the first thing we need to do is have you scout for this oncoming attack.”

“Cleo won’t come herself, but with her power over sand, she won’t have to. She’ll support from the back in a big way.” Sylvia explained.

This is where I could never ask one of the people in the base this question. “What does an attack look like? What sort of monster girls am I fighting?”

She blinked at me dumbly. “I’d forgotten for a moment you really have no idea. Okay, so the girls from the desert will attack with the intent to capture. Killing might happen, but their goal is going to be to capture and to feed off your men or sell them back in Verdant.”

“Verdant?” I asked, having not seen that in any of the reports.

“Our city, it is about three days on foot south of here.”

Now I was confused. There were no records I’d seen of their city. Not even on the maps in the meeting room. “Is it hidden?”

“No, it is quite out in the open, surrounding a massive oasis, but think about it, Master. Air elementals like me, or other flying monster girls. If you sent any scout more than a day from your fort, they are as good as gone.”

I scowled at her.

“I’m sorry master, I didn’t mean to upset you.”

No, it wasn’t her fault. I just didn’t like how obvious of a tactical advantage they had. “No, I shouldn’t blame you for your people as a whole. I hope you don’t hold my humanity against me.”

“Never.” She licked her lips.

I rolled my eyes at her antics. “Okay, thanks for the lessons. We can talk more specifics when you get back. I need you to go on that scouting trip. Can you do that safely?”

“Of course.” Sylvia slipped out of her clothes, putting on a show for me as she teased them off her shoulder. “Open a window for me, Master.”

Stepping away from her was harder than it should have been. I opened a window as she breezed behind me, molding herself to my back.

“Leave the window open for me.” She whispered into my ear as she squeezed her ample chest into my back. Then the wind picked up and rushed out of the room, leaving me along in my quarters and with a stack of papers floating in the air.

I was going to make her restack those.

“Well, let’s hope she comes back with good news.” I said to the empty room.

The concern over the oncoming attack led me to the wall. I wanted to see for myself that Tar had done his part to keep his men from being too distracted at the water carts.

“Colonel.” Tar was the first to notice me and snapped a salute. His men were a ripple of coming to attention.

“At ease, men,” I told them to relax. The last thing I needed was to be disrupting to an otherwise thinly crewed force.

And they were thin. I let my gaze slide from them to Tar.

The Major, however, returned my gaze with one of firm resolve. “This is almost a third of the men. No one is off their shift with the carts.”

I nodded. We really were running thin to do three shifts at the carts. “I see. Any news to report?”

The men went back to work. They were boarding up the room in the tower built into the wall.

“Storm is coming, it looks like a big one.” Tar pointed out to the south. On the horizon there was a black patch that almost seemed to be growing as I stared at it, but at the same time when I blinked I swore it was an illusion.

“Sandstorms come faster than you think. They seem to stay out there on the horizon and then rush in on you in a blink of an eye. We are sealing up the tower and the other half are down sealing up the fort. Part of why we seem so short up here.” Tar grumbled.

“Good work, I’d rather not have to dig sand out of the buildings for the next few days.” I gave him a winsome grin. That story had made me laugh when I read it in Sam’s journals.

Tar gave a snorting laugh. “I was knocking sand out of my pants for weeks after that one. It caught us by surprise, coming out over the east dunes. We have plenty of warning on this one.”

A thought tickled in the back of my head. Could Cleopatra make a sand storm? Sylvia had indicated she was powerful, but that was a level of power I hadn’t heard of in any human magic user.

I wished she was here for me to ask, but it would have to wait till she got back.

Still, a kernel of doubt was growing in my gut as I looked out at the churning horizon. I had a bad feeling about it.

“Sam, I wanted to let you know despite what rumors come up, I have your back.” Tar interrupted my thoughts on a serious note.

“Hmm? Thank you Tar. I know it was a little impulsive, but I’m trying to find us advantages. Our scouts can never get far through the desert, maybe she can.”

Tar looked surprised at that. “I… never thought of that. We stopped sending scouts for more than the immediate area over a year ago. Do you think that there is something out there?”

I decided to tell him what I learned, describing how far and where Verdant was. Apparently, a large city of monster girls only three days’ travel from where we were stationed was terrifying to Tar, as his face went white as a sheet.

“Do you realize what would happen if that city moved as a whole? They would run right over our fort if it is as big as you describe.”

That was grim indeed. “But they haven’t, I can only hope they aren’t able to move that many across the desert.”

“Right, some of them might be tied heavily to a water source. At the very least though it is a target for us to fight back against.”

“Wait, what?”

“Don’t you see Sam? We could go on the offensive for once.” Tar grit his teeth in frustration.

I could practically hear his grievance at having to stay on the defensive and realized just how deep some of the hate between humans and monster girls might be.

“And do what, Tar? Kill a bunch of them only to rile up that whole city? You said it yourself, they are an incredible danger to us, why poke the hive when our job is to defend the Kingdom from the exact invasion you’d cause.”

Tar ducked his head. “Your right. Sorry I… I got ahead of myself.”

I quickly thought through some of the scenarios, setting out was a terrible idea.

“It’s okay. I understand, but we need to play our role, which is defending the southern border and Khopesh. Imagine the horror if we set out only to have the fort flanked and Khopesh exposed. There are too many risks to go on the offensive.”

“That’s why you 're the Colonel and I’m still the Major. You’re right Sam.”

“Now, don’t go forgetting that,” I said, trying to hold back a smile.

“Oh great, I can practically see it going straight to your head.” Tar rolled his eyes, but turned to look back out at the horizon.

I followed his gaze and saw the storm had doubled, or maybe even tripled, in size from when we last looked at it. It was coming in fast.

Whistling, I was impressed. But when I turned back to Tar, the blood was gone from his face. “It’s coming too fast. We need to hurry. Lend a hand?”

“Course, what do you need me to do?” This wasn’t time to exercise my rank, it was time to lend a hand however I could.

“Just help us bring some wood in from storage to the tower. The men will do the rest.”

We set to work and fifteen minutes later the storm was almost upon us. I snapped my fingers and made a visor of wind in front of my face to block the sand. I wished I could have done that in my past life.

My other concern for the storm was still lurking in the back of my mind, but a monster girl that could control a sandstorm was outside of what was thought possible. If I’d told Tar he might have called me crazy and the last thing I needed was people to start thinking I was losing it after Sylvia.

The howling winds hit the fort first before sand blanketed the world from earth to sky.

“Get inside, Sam!” Tar’s voice sounded like it was a mile away through the raging storm. He was barely holding the door open against it and even though my air sorcery was doing a great job at protecting me, I acquiesced. There was no reason to tire myself out against the storm.

I tried to pull on Sylvia’s bond to get her to come back to me, but I could feel she was outside the storm and couldn’t get in.

That made me frown as I stepped inside the tower. The door slammed shut behind me without Tar holding it against the wind.

“Did you hear that?” One of the younger soldiers asked, hovering by the door. He couldn’t even grow a beard yet. I took stock of who was in here. There were several dozen soldiers from all walks bunkering down in the tower with me and Tar.

“Just nerves, you can’t hear anything past this blasted storm.” A grizzled veteran growled back, sitting far more calmly at a bench.

My ears pricked up, straining to listen out into the storm. He was right. The sandstorm was a roar that drowned out anything that would have been beyond it.

A big thump hit the side of the tower and the young soldier jumped out of his skin but stayed hovering near the door. “Something is out there.”

“Put on a brave face, you have the Colonel and Major here.” The veteran, and likely his superior, was embarrassed for him.

“It’s fine we all have our first.” I tried to calm the situation.

But splintering wood shattered any calm I had tried to instill.

A tall Amazonian woman scantily clad in dark polished armor stood there.

It took me a second to realize that the armor looked like pieces of exoskeleton and I lashed out with a burst of air to throw her back out into the storm.

A scorpion tail lashed over her shoulder at the young soldier just as my spell hit her in the chest.

There was a tug of war for a moment as her tail continued to stretch out, hovering inches from sinking the venomous tip into the soldier and my spell, pushing her out of the tower.

The tip of the barb glimmered with a drop of pink liquid. Just a hair’s breath from the soldier before my spell won out and ripped her out of the tower and into the storm.

The young soldier’s eyes rolled back up into his head as he collapsed.

“Is he okay?” I asked. I thought I had stopped her in time.

“Fainted, Sir.” The grizzled vet was already checking on him. “What are we going to do? We can’t fight out there in that storm.”

I grinned, pulling on all the magic I’d gained from my bond with Sylvia. “No, but I can.”

It was time I found out just what I could do with this power.