Trial by Conquest: Chapter/Scenes 23 (Patreon)

Max dreamed.

In the dream, a hundred armies battled across a hundred lands. Hundreds of thousands died, until finally, only one remained. A mighty empire rose, ruled for a hundred years, and then fell.

A giant green dragon, as large as a skyscraper, soared through the sky burning and eating everything it saw.

People screamed. They ran. But nothing could outrun the giant flying beast.

Max stood on the top of a cliff as the winged monstrosity dove for him.

No.

Blackness took him and the dream ended.

The next morning, Max woke to find the outline of what would hopefully soon be Swarm Central covered in fog. He’d made a makeshift blanket for himself from one of the bolts of Amberweave Silk and it had been by far the most comfortable night he’d yet had since he’d come to Isolation.

Fog wasn’t the only thing he woke up to.

A prompt was hanging in his vision. It hadn’t woken him, so the usual sound effects that accompanied such messages must have been turned off while he slept.

Master Builder No. 30 has been defeated.

Cause of Death: Impaled on a centaur spear.

Max grunted. It was a stark reminder of what was at stake. He looked over to find Wildflower asleep on the ground nearby. Unlike him, she didn’t seem to care for such needless comforts as a blanket to cover her while she slept in her leafy lingerie on the damp village grass.

She looked incredible. He’d compare her to a mythical nymph, except that was exactly what she was.

Well, time was a-wasting. They had stuff to do today. He threw out of his silks and wandered down to the river to wash. Both himself and his shirt and jacket. He still only had the makeshift kilt and he was damned if he wasn’t going to make sure it didn’t smell like a damp locker room.

“Master Builder,” Thorax’s voice joined him while he bathed, followed shortly by his elephant-sized eight-legged hairy body.

“Ho, there!” Max replied, totally naked, slapping his wet shirt against a rock. Despite the morning reminder that he was in a deadly fight to the death, he was in a good mood. “What’s news, my spidery friend?”

Thorax’s hairy proboscis vibrated, maybe with annoyance or boredom, Max couldn’t quite tell, and quite frankly he didn’t care. He’d spent the night making out with the a mythical being of beauty and fertility and he wasn’t letting his arachnid companion’s usual dour mood get him down.

“Something has appeared at the edge of the village, Master Builder. Someone has mounted five goblin heads on wooden stakes and left them at the forest edge.”

Max looked down at his wet shirt.

Mmm… well, maybe he could let his mood down, just a little.

Back up in the middle of the village outline, Wildflower stired from her slumber. For a moment, she wondered why she felt so amazing. Then she remembered. “Mmmmm…” She let out a contented purr, rolling over in the grass, wet with dew, letting the soft greenery caress her smooth skin.

Unbidden, she brought the tips of her fingers to her lips.

She’d never realized kissing would feel that good. And the connection she felt to Max now. She shivered. If her sisters had even suspected she was capable of feeling like this, they would have done more than simply banish her.

A giggle slipped out.

Her sisters could go stuff themselves.

Max was not only worthy of a Forest Nymph’s love, he was worthy to lead them all, and everything that came with it.

She’d heard the tales back in the Satyr’s Dungeon. After the battle, the warriors of the giant village had spoken to her all about Max. She’d heard all about how he’d fought at the breathtakingly large walls of stone. How he’d single handedly taken down one of those gigantic beasts — so large they carried Tier Zero buildings on their backs. And she’d heard about the way a Master Builder of old had made him a commander for slaughtering wave after wave of goblins fighting up that hill.

Max was everything she’d been told the Master Builders were and more.

And one day, his masculine seed would quicken her fertile soil to bring the unicorns back into this world — along with the fertile soil of any other females she could persuade to join with him.

Wildflower felt herself blushing just thinking about it.

And now he had created this. She still couldn’t quite believe the buiety of it all. The fog concealed most of the yet-to-be-built village, but even like this, the faint blue glow surrounding her and occasional lines of light piercing the veil were like nothing she ever thought she’d see.

“Wildflower!” Max’s firm voice cut through her reverery.

She snatched up the unicorn-plumed helmet. “I’m here!” she cried back. By the Great Dragon that voice made her shiver.

Max emerged through the fog, strong and tall and carrying his spear made of mythical metal, and as she bounced to her feet, she couldn’t help letting her eyes trail over him.

She’d also never encountered a male like him before as a male. Even though she could see every one of the muscles in his chest and arms, Max looked well-fed and strong. Those muscles covered him like the fur coat of a wolf. She couldn’t see a single hint of bone poking through anywhere.

His shoulders were like rocks. She’d never seen a male with shoulders like rocks before. And his chest wasn’t flat, but it was also nothing like a female chest. She’d pressed up against that chest last night and while a female’s chest was soft and filled with milk for feeding young, Max’s chest was hard and powerful. She just knew that if he could turn into a Briarwolf form, like she could, he could wrestle her form to the ground without so much as creaking.

Max apparently sensed her gaze. He gave her one of those smirks that now made her tummy flutter. “Yes, you’re hot, too, Miss leafy lingerie.”

Wildflower didn’t know what lingerie was, but she understood enough from the tone to blush.

Max’s smirk vanished. “But not now. C’mon. Thorax found something that might be trouble.” He bent down to kiss her cheek as he passed and her heart skipped a beat.

But as her new mate led the way through the blue-glowing fog, she let those soft gooey feelings inside her die down.

Donning the unicorn plumed helmet, she reminded herself what she now was — Max’s first commander — fighting to win the Trial by Conquest. Wildflower’s gaze firmed. Her Master Builder would need everything she was. And she would give him everything.

Max’s quick strides soon led them to the space in the fog Thorax had spoken of. It was a gristly sight. As Thorax had said, five goblin heads had been placed on spikes. Green blood ran down the wood and soaked in the earth below. Each goblin’s face was caught frozen in a terrible rictus, though it was difficult to tell if it had been fear or anger that the beasts had felt just before the end. One thing he did notice was that the necks hadn’t been clean cut—as though from a sword stroke or axe strike. Rather, they looked like someone had painstakingly sawed them off with a sharp stone. The spines poked out as though whoever was carrying out the operation had got as far as bone and decided that was good enough.

For better or worse, Max felt like he was getting used to such sights. Seeing what the goblins in the Dungeon dream had been doing to their captives went a long way to his not giving as much of a crap about the fate of these particular individuals as he might otherwise have felt he should. Maybe that was racist. The goblins were sapient, after all, but with his life on the line, he found he really couldn’t muster up a single shit.

“Any ideas?” he asked Wildflower.

Wildflower shifted beside him into her briar-wolf form. She sniffed around the heads a bit before shifting back.

“Forest Elves,” she said, simply.

“They were here?” Max looked around wearily. The thick fruit trees surrounding the village suddenly looked a lot less benign.

Wild Flower nodded. “Yes. But I don’t think they mean harm. If they didn’t like us being here, they would have simply killed us while we slept.”

“Charming. So, what? These are gifts?”

Wild Flower shook her head.“I don’t think so.”

“So, a show of power, then?”

“More likely, yes. They may also be watching to see how we react.”

“What should we do with them? The Forest Elves are the only life aligned people in the Amber Vale, right? If we’re going to have a chance, we need to get them on our side.”

Wild Flower reached forward and yanked one of the stakes out of the ground, causing the goblin head it was attached to to jostle. “We could take them into the village and place them in front of the commander’s residence. That way we both honor the kills and show that we are not cowards.”

“Good call.”

“Master Builder,” Thorax said, arriving through the fog. “I have found more deliveries left for us.”

“Really?”

The more deliveries turned out to be five long lengths of what to Max looked like bamboo. Unlike the heads, these looked like the’d just been dumped with little fan faire.

— Ping! —

You have found Iron Grass x5 units.

“I’m guessing this isn’t meant to be a show of power.”

Wild Flower snickered. “No, my Master Builder. This is definitely a gift.”

Max smiled widely. “Excellent.” It was good to be getting on with the neighbours. Thinking about neighbours, it occurred to him that they really needed to be getting on with exploring up the river to find the quarry and the workers there, but seeing his primary building material just laying in front of him, he just couldn’t help himself. “Hey, grab that side of one of these, would you? I want to try something out.”

Together, he and Wildflower carried the long pole of iron grass over to the Commander’s Residence, Wildflower still holding the goblin head stake.

While Wildflower was busy burying the stake back into the ground on one side of where the 3-D constellation showed the door was going to be, Max rolled the length of irongrass into contact with the building. He wasn’t really sure how this was going to work, but he knew he wanted to find out. A prompt appeared.

— Ping! —

You are about to add one unit of Iron Grass to the construction of the Commander’s Residence.

Integrating this building material into the construction will take approximately one hour and will result in 0.5% of total construction needed to finish this building.

Be aware, at least one follower with the construction skill must be within the area of construction to compete this integration. Leaving the area will result in paused integration until they have returned.

Do you want to add one unit of Iron Grass to the construction of the Commander’s Residence?

[Yes] or [No]

Max immediately did some thinking.

He wanted to take Wildflower with him to go explore up the river, but he also wanted to start on building the village as soon as possible.

Right now, the two of them were the only ones with the construction skill, seeing as the two of them were the only residences in the entire village.

They did have a third possibility though…

“Hey, Thorax!” Max called through the fog.

Soon after, the giant spider lumbered up to him. “Yes, Master Builder?”

“I was just wondering. Would you like to be an official resident of the village? I know you’re an ambassador, but you are also part of the team, after all.”

The hairy proboscis quivered. “You wish me to stay behind and babysit your building while you run off with your new mate.”

“What? No, no, nothing like— Well, yes, yes, but it’s not like that, I swear.”

“Are you sure you can handle traveling through the forest by yourself?” Thorax continued. “I wouldn’t want to miss an opportunity to make you throw up again.”

There was a moment of silence.

“I apparently said that out loud,” Thorax said, deadpan.

Max pointed an accusing finger at him. “You were doing that on purpose! I knew it! What the hell, man?! Seriously, What did I ever actually do to you?”

Thorax just stared back at him.

“Well?” Max said, feeling like he was getting agitated now. “What did I ever do to you? I swear, ever since we met, it seems like you’ve been giving me crap. I get that it’s because of me that you had to leave the dungeon, but is that really so bad? I’ve seen you enjoying the fruit that Wildflower brings you. I can’t do anything about whatever it is if I don’t know what’s up.”

Thorax continued to just stare back at him. With all eight of his eyes. Max was seriously starting to get creeped out along with being agitated.

Eventually, after what seemed an age of the two just staring each other down, Throax finally answered.

“You fucked my mom.”

Max opened his mouth and raised his finger to rebut, but stopped half way. He just stood there with his finger up and his mouth open.

“You fucked my mom, “ the spider continued. “While I had been ordered to stand just outside the room. I heard you fucking my mom, repeatedly. You were both very loud.”

A rather manic grin spread over Max’s face. “Ahhh, yes…. I did do that, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

Max looked to the side where Wild Flower was putting the finishing touches on a second goblin head spike combo outside the Commander’s residence. Part of him knew that saying sorry was the intelligent thing to do. The problem was that he didn’t feel sorry at all. The choice had been, be eaten or have repeated passionate almost hate-sex with a bombshell femfetal. Given that, he didn’t regret his sexy time with the Spider Nymph at all!

Wildflower looked up at him from her work and smirked. Yeah, she could definitely hear what they were talking about.

He finally looked back.

“Okay, I get it, that was kinda messed up. But it wasn’t exactly my fault. She’s the one who gave me the sex or die choice, and she was also the one who ordered you to stand guard. She probably just forgot you were there.”

The proboscis twitched. “No. She would not have forgotten.”

“So, she knowingly ordered one of her kids to listen in on her banging some guy who fell into her home? Damn. That really is messed up. But I guess she is the kind of person to feed people alive to spiders and commit a bit of casual geanaside when the mood takes her…”

A thought struck him.

“Wait… does that make me like, your step dad?”

“No!”

Nothing else seemed forthcoming.

Max sighed. “Look, we’re probably going to be working together for a while. I can’t imagine me failing to win the Trial would be great for you either. We need to sort this out. What can I do to make up for what happened?”

Thorax stared at him. “There might be one thing… If you could find me a mate then I could perhaps scrub these memories from my mind.”

Max’s eyes widened in surprise when a prompt appeared.

— Dong! —

You have been offered a quest!

Tit for Phat

You have learned the cause of Thorax’s passive aggressive antics towards you. Being forced to listen to his mother and queen’s wild sex with a stranger has seriously messed with his sense of place in the world. He has tasked you to find him a mate with whom he can hopefully override these memories.

Be aware: Few arachnid species are compatible with a fully grown Amber Weave Spider. To be eligible to meet the question criteria, the lady spider in question must at least 80% the size of Thorax, but preferably bigger. In female spiders, thiccness is everything.

Do you accept?

[Yes] or [No]

Bigger than Thorax?! Thorax was the size of a tank! Were there even any spiders outside of the Spider Nymph’s dungeon approaching that size?

He supposed there were those spiders Wild Flower had told him about where the forest butted onto the mountains to the North. He’d just have to hope they had a queen of there own or something. One that wasn’t woman shaped.

He hit [Yes].

After that, Thorax agreed to become a follower of the Amber Swarm and a resident of Swarm Central.

Max left him standing next to the Commander’s Residence constellation as the Iron Grass and Amber Weave Silk slowly fed into the building’s construction.

That left him and Wildflower alone to push up river. They needed to find the quarry and hopefully negotiate with the workers there. Hopefully that would give them leverage with the elves, who could help protect Swarm Central from whenever the goblins turned up in force. He was under no illusions that they would eventually.

Max held out his hand for the beautiful nymph beside him, who smiled brightly and placed her smaller hand in his.

The river sloshed and gurgled beside them.

The morning sun was melting the fog away, his make-shift kilt felt slightly less wet, in his off hand he held the steel-tipped spear, and his inventory was full of various equipment, fruits, nuts, and beer.

It was time to explore.

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