Dragon's Tale 3 (Patreon)

Lillian’s hand lingered over her shoulder when she realized I was yet to turn my back. A dissatisfied expression boomed on her face immediately. “I asked you to turn your back,” she repeated, her voice much sharper. 

“You did,” I answered, still motionless, except my lips, which formed a wider, more infuriating smirk. 

“So…” she said, her anger flaring once more. “Hurry up and turn your back.” 

“I don’t feel like turning,” I answered, my eyes lingering over her body. “So, hurry up and undress. We have a long way to swim.” 

“How dare you ask me to undress in front of you, you degenerate,” she said. A couple of strokes later, she was next to me once more, her arm flying, ready for another slap, once again interrupted before they could collide. 

“Are you sure you want to treat your savior with this level of callousness,” I said while using her momentum to pull her even closer to myself, her body pressing against mine under the water. “My forgiveness is not unlimited, you know.” 

Reminded of the precariousness of the situation, Lillian’s anger evaporated once more, but indignation remained. “You can’t ask me to undress in front of you,” she managed to say. 

“What’s the difference? I’m going to see you while we swim. Is an extra minute such a big deal?” 

Reminding her that I would receive a lengthy show of her nakedness only made the situation more awkward, so awkward that she managed to miss the fact that her body was pressing against mine while we were having that discussion. And while the sensation was delicious, I had an even more entertaining way of messing with her. I pulled back a bit, and one smooth movement, removed my shirt and threw it away, revealing the chiseled body that had been built through countless hours in training. 

“What - what are you doing!” she exclaimed with a sudden blush, though her eyes locked on my muscles, which, I had to admit, shining rather impressively under the moonlight. 

“I need to limit the drag to swim that long,” I explained, which was partially correct. It would help a bit, but I wanted to display my body to tease her. It was nice to finally show-off after all those years of playing the worthless weakling. “So, are you going to get rid of your dress, or should I start swimming and leave you behind?” 

The blush on her face reached a monumental degree, but I could see that as her eyes danced over my chiseled chest, her reluctance had decreased a serious degree. “Are you really not going to turn your back?” she asked once more, but this time, she sounded resigned. And when I shook my head, a smirk still on my lips, she sighed and turned her back to limit the view I could get. Her delicate fingers slowly reached to her back, and she grabbed the zipper. 

Since she was willing to be petty enough to deny me the full view, I decided to deliver a small prank, and cast a locking charm on the zipper. Normally, it would be impossible to cast a spell targeting her without her notice, but due to interference of the runic bracelets and her earlier adrenaline rush, her senses were far from their peak. The spell worked wonderfully, and her zipper proved to be impossible to move no matter how much she struggled. 

And she struggled for quite a while before admitting defeat. The sheepish expression mixed with resentment she had on her face as she turned was simply legendary. “Can you help me with my zipper,” she whispered. 

“I’m your servant, milady,” I answered exaggeratedly as I closed in. She turned her back once more and I grabbed the zipper, but from the angle, I was able to catch a glimpse of her cleavage when I used some magic to get a boost. With her dress soaked enough to stick to her skin, the sight was simply heavenly. Watching her curves for hours sounded tempting, but I needed to hurry up. Freezing waters of the sea were particularly unbearable during the nighttime. 

But I made sure to cover my fingers with a minute amount of fire mana, enough that while I dragged my fingers down, I left a trail of comfortable warmth, a trick that should be particularly effective while she was suffering cold grip of the water. And just like I expected, she started to tremble the moment my fingers grazed her skin, something she covered up with excessive shivering to play it off as the effect of the cold weather. 

I continued to pull down to zipper, letting her assume that I had been convinced by her transparent ploy. When I reached her bra, however, I let another string of magic to wrap around it, weakening it so that it would snap after one wrong move. Then, I continued to pull the zipper down, until my fingers caressed the small of her back, making her shiver once more. This time, she dashed forward, but didn’t even say anything. 

I was tempted to scold her for her rudeness because she hadn’t thanked, but decided it would be too much. Instead, I observed as she slowly wiggled out of the dress, revealing her pale shoulders, shining deliciously under the moonlight. However, when she turned to me once more, I failed to catch a glimpse of her amazing cleavage, because she made sure to stay buried up to her neck, hiding her body from my eyes. 

“Let’s go,” I said, and started swimming, slow enough that she could catch up even with my lead. It didn’t take long for her to catch up, and for a while, I stayed at a pace where she could follow me without straining herself. I discreetly observed her while we swam, appreciating the gentle lines of her back, but she managed to keep most of her body submerged in the water. And from the occasional smug smiles she sent to my side. 

I let her have that victory, which was pretty inconsequential on the greater scheme of things. After all, we were still quite a distance away from the shore — I remembered from the maps I had examined that there’s a tiny island just three miles away, a place I could build a crude canoe to cover the rest of the distances. I had no intention of swimming thirty miles until we could reach the mainland. 

About a mile into the journey, I started to pick up speed, and she sped up alongside, even though I could see clear signs of exhaustion on her movements. In her competitiveness, she didn’t want to admit defeat. And a minute into our new speed, she gasped in shock. “A moment-” she called me before stopping abruptly. 

“What’s up?” I said as I stopped. 

“I need to help me fix my clothes,” she explained without going into detail, her eyes drifting away. I looked at her with a suggestive smirk, and she quickly continued. “You wouldn’t hold back such a small help from your school friend, right?” she asked.

My smirk widened, unable to believe that she actually gave me such a huge hook to reel her in. “Sure, though I want a very simple thing from you. What’s my name?” 

The shock on her face was delicious. “Scipio?” she managed to murmur after a long consideration. 

“Not bad,” I said, but before she could relax, I continued. “But that’s my family name. Do you want to try once more for my name?” This time, her blush intensified even further as she hesitantly shook her head. “Good call, it’s better than trying to guess. My name is Marcus, by the way, so keep it in mind.” 

“Marcus, I’ll remember it,” she said, shivering a bit now that we stopped, depriving her of the energy we got from the move. “I promise I’ll treat you much better, but can you help me fix my clothes before we freeze.” 

“Sure, but since you failed on your previous task, I’m going to give you a chance to compensate. You just need to give me a kiss.”

The cry of outrage that left her pouty lips had been enough to give me an erection, and the amazing view as she quickly swam towards me while unable to properly hold her bra in place was just a bonus. When she arrived, another slap flew towards my face, but this time, I chose to pull back a bit. Lacking the resistance she had been expecting, she spun beautifully, then started to struggle to balance herself on the surface of the water. Her bra got dislodged even further in the process, enough to give me an eyeful of her bountiful breasts, even getting a hint of her rosy areola. I chuckled as until she finally managed to still herself once more. “You bastard!” she exclaimed. 

I just smirked at her attempt to insult. “That’s your one chance, honey,” I explained. “You either give me a little kiss as a reward, or you deal with your bra yourself.” 

With a huff, she turned and buried herself even deeper into the water, only her eyes out as she twisted and turned. She removed her bra, but I failed to get any good views. But watching her increasing frustration had been almost as fun. I knew she would fail, because I had put several points of weakness to her bra, and her attempts to fix it only made her more frustrated. “Okay, I admit defeat,” she murmured, finally coming to a decision that a fleeting kiss was not worse than constant exposure of her body. “Can you-” she tried to continue, but I cut her off. 

“Nope.” 

The sudden answer surprised her. “What do you mean, nope!” 

“It’s clear. I gave you two chances to earn my help, and you pushed both of them away without even blinking. Now, you’re going to suffer the consequences.” She tried to complain, but I already started to swim once more, leaving her behind, sputtering. A few seconds later, she started following, but the distance started to get widen until she let out a frustrated cry and threw away her bra, getting rid of the dead weight that slowed her down. 

When she caught up with me once more, her eyes were burning with impotent anger, but for me, it was sweeter than nectar. After years of suffering under her dismissive enmity, turning her into sputtering wreck impotent to exact revenge was a good change of pace. Even just that was enough to make me glad that I had saved her. Of course, the additional benefits, such as the occasional glimpse of her breasts whenever her arm moved wider than she intended, was welcome as well. 

Nothing noteworthy happened during the next hour, until we finally saw the island on the distance, though, calling it a rocky outcropping would be more accurate. It was an empty, desolate place, barely a hundred feet across at its longest direction. There was no tree, no clean water, no easily-usable resource. I stepped into the ground, but Lillian chose to stay in the water, despite the fact that at this point, she was shivering visibly. “You know you would start freezing if you don’t come up to the floor,” I said, earning a dismissive harumph in exchange. “Your call,” I said with a shrug before walking deeper into the island, my mind already on the best way to create a shelter that I could rest for a couple of minutes. 

I started using my magic as a makeshift shovel to quickly dig a hole in the middle of the small island, pulling large stones with telekinesis and putting them around the hole as additional windbreakers. Whenever I moved, I could feel the discomfort from the small box in my pocket, but I didn’t dare to pull it out. Whatever it was, it was clearly valuable, and I had no intention of unlocking it on Lillian’s presence.  

While I was focused on that, I finally heard footsteps closing in. I waited until they were just a few feet away, and only then I turned, meeting with one of the most glorious views I had the pleasure of seeing in all my life. Lillian stood straight with her body on display, her wet skin shining under the moonlight. Her golden locks were stuck together messily, and any makeup she possessed had long been washed away by the swim, but neither fact managed to steal a bit from her beauty. Her blue eyes burned with a delicious kind of anger, one that tempted me to drop everything and focus on earning the favor of the goddess that stood in front of me. 

Of course, I had no intention of doing so, not when I had a better plan to get access to that sinful body. Her delicate neck and shoulders were adorned with water drops, while her arms were wrapped around her chest, but even with both arms, she failed to adequately cover her impressive breasts, their pale flesh peeking from the edge. Her stomach was flat with a hint of muscle despite her curves, showing the hints of dedicated training. 

Then, my eyes moved lower, only to meet with the edge of her panties, which had long turned transparent after hours she spent in water. She had angled her body so that nothing important was on my sight, but still, I had the view of her long toned legs to compensate, lacking any flaw. Just having them wrapped around me once would be fair compensation for all the torture I had gone through the school. 

But that was a topic for another day. 

“Will you remove the bracelets,” she said in a confrontational manner, clearly expecting for me to push for another onerous condition after what I had asked to fix her bra. 

“You know that you won’t be able to use any magic for a day at least, right?” I warned her. 

“I know how a runic bracelet works,” she answered bitingly. 

I shrugged. “Give me your hand, then,” I said even as I raised mine. 

“Just like that?” she asked, shocked and suspicious. 

I smirked in response. “Well, if you are not happily accepting my generosity, I’m more than happy to ask for a trade…” 

Once again, panic exploded on her face. “No need! I’m very happy!” she exclaimed, and presented one of her hands to me, the other still wrapped around her chest. 

It was unfortunate that the runic bracelets had to be removed one by one, as I would have liked to have an excuse to get both of her hands together. Still, removal of one arm increased the view I was exposed to rather radically, so I was happy with the results. “Brace yourself,” I said even as I flared my magic, wrapping around the runic bracelet. Removal of a runic bracelet was never trivial, even the weakest one, and the one on Lillian’s wrist was the strongest I had ever seen, much stronger than the ones that had been used as a punishment back in the Halls of Saturn. 

It took ten minutes to remove the first one, and twenty minutes to remove the second one. When finished, both bracelets crumbled into dust, and a stiff wind carried the dust away. But as a result, I was trembling with exhaustion. Their removal took a decent amount of power, and even more concentration, and combined with the earlier exhaustion, I needed to sleep. So, I accepted her mumbled pleasantries with a node before speaking. “I need to rest,” I murmured as I stumbled towards the pit I had prepared. 

Just as I was stepping inside, she spoke once more. “Where I’m going to rest?” 

“The pit is big enough for both of us,” I mumbled as I sat down, enjoying the opportunity to rest. 

“I can’t stay in there with you in my current state of dressing!” she exclaimed, this time, a flare of instinctual magic accompanying her outburst. That wild display of magic was the reason for the recommendation of not using magic immediately after the removal, as it weakened the control of a magic-user significantly. Trying to cast a spell under those conditions had the risk of damaging the caster permanently.  

“Not my problem, honey. I’m too exhausted to create another pit. Either come here, or stay out and freeze. Either way, it’s not my problem.” 

Once again, her anger was nourishment to my soul. “You-” she tried to shout, but noticing my satisfied smirk, she cut it short. “Close your eyes, or I’ll kill you.” 

This time, I decided to follow her request, because I was beset with a desire to sleep, and she had the potential to be quite the annoyance. I lay on the ground, amused by the steps closing in. Soon, I felt a presence next to me, a presence that shivered ceaselessly. I acted like I was asleep, curious about what she would do, but I was already planning to cast a ward that would help by warming the area. I was waiting to rest a bit first. 

“Turn your back,” she suddenly ordered, and curious about what she was about to do, I followed, turning my back towards her, though I was ready to blast her in case she actually tried to stab me from behind. But I was really surprised when instead of an attack, I felt a pair of arms wrapping around my torso. Even more interesting was the presence of her breasts, distinctly pressing against my back. “Don’t get any ideas, I’m just doing it to keep up warm,” she explained, but her outrage didn’t prevent her voice from hitching. 

“Whatever you say, honey,” I said, and received a painful pinch in return, which only made me chuckle. She needed much more to spoil my mood while I could feel the spectacular nakedness of her breasts against my back. Still, I said nothing, prioritizing rest over messing with her. Tomorrow was going to be a difficult day. 

However, with her almost naked body pressing against mine, her breaths tickling my ears, unconsciousness had been rather difficult to attain. Still, in the end, darkness took over…