Asher's Futa Chronicles

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Asher and crew desperately fight off the attack, but is it enough?

Enjoy!

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Chapter 2

ASHER

I'd been practicing in armor for quite a while now. Daily exercises, sparing matches, even hunting in the woods. I was used to it and knew it could protect me. That meant nothing as I instinctively reacted when I saw the crossbow bolt sailing towards me.

My body twisted of its own accord, flinching from the incoming bolt. The solid metal protection of my breastplate now turned to the side, offering up the bolt a soft new target.

The bolt sank into the unprotected inside of my bicep. I say unprotected because there wasn't a metal plate there. Instead, it was the thinner, padded suit underneath.

I cried out in pain and spun, the bolt's impact twisting me around even more than I already was. Off balance, I sank to a knee to try and recover.

This wasn't the first time I'd been injured in combat, far from it. But the metal-tipped piece of wood had turned my arm into a friggin' kabob, and it hurt like hell!

A roar from outside caused me to look up from my wound. Several dark shapes were now rising from the tall grass and charging the barn. The rain and darkness kept their identity from me, even with my night vision. All I could tell was that there were a lot of them, and they were armed.

A blinding light began to strobe outside, stunning the attackers and causing them to falter in their charge.

I didn't see the flames because I shied away from the mini-sun outside, but I heard the flames. The rain sizzled as it fell on the wave of fire I knew was now coursing towards our attackers.

Thomas's specialty was light magic, while Terri's was fire. Together, they made a vicious duo.

I glanced up at the loft and saw both their naked forms in the window, launching spells down on our attackers. They didn't seem bothered by fighting in their birthday suits.

I don't know if it was my wound, or the post-orgasmic glow, or what, but every fighting lesson I'd been given flew right out of my head. I was under attack, wounded, and I wasn't even looking towards my attackers! I was staring at a couple of naked elves chucking spells!

I finally managed to bring my attention back to the fight just in time to look up into the snarling face of a gray-scaled monstrosity who was just about to bring his sword down and cleave me in two.

As I said before, Remmi isn't a magic user. But when one of her knives appeared, buried hilt deep in the creature's eye, I wasn't so sure.

"Get up!" Remmi barked, appearing at my side a moment later. She yanked me up by my wounded arm, fresh pain cutting through my daze as I watched the creature she'd stabbed fall.

"Some made it through," Remmi said as she reached down and retrieved her knife from the dead creature's skull.

The strobe lighting outside had been replaced by pencil-thin streams of searing light that scorched everything they touched. Fire still blazed, but seemed to be dying out.

Meanwhile, five creatures reached the barn.

My injured arm wouldn't move as I locked eyes with the closest creature and drew my sword.

"Gremlins!" I growled and yanked the bolt out of my arm without thinking about it. The pain turned the world red for a moment before coming back into focus.

Gremlins were the nickname we'd given the creatures when we first saw them. They reminded us of nasty little creatures we'd seen in an old movie. At four feet tall, they didn't seem like much, but they fought dirty, and their pea-sized brains didn't know the word retreat.

My arm throbbed with each beat of my heart, but at least it moved now.

"Choke 'em at the door!" Remmi barked as we both took a step forward and apart in a well-practiced move.

Even though the creatures could only come at us one at a time through the door, it didn't stop them. They just lined up so Remmi and I could start cutting them down. I shot the main double doors of the barn a glance. They were shut, but not that far. If these guys had even a lick of sense, they'd be heading that way.

Remmi went low, opening the belly of the gremlin coming through the door. At the same time, I went high, neatly severing the creature's sword arm.

These guys didn't wear armor; they just wore ragged clothes. Their real danger came in numbers and their weapons.

Gremlins were temple cannon fodder. They were designed to test warriors, ensuring only the best would conquer the temple. The weapons they used looked crude, but their edges were designed to give even Guardian armor a run for its money. This was the main reason Guardians had to be dispatched to these sorts of breakouts. If everyday adventurers came up against them, they'd be cut to pieces, even in heavy armor.

"Another wave!" Terri called out from the loft.

"Where are they coming from?" I called out.

"Can't tell, the tall grass is full of them," Terri replied.

"This isn't normal," Remmi grunted as she repeatedly perforated our next guest.

I kicked the dying gremlin to the side and drove my sword deep into the next one.

"How would you know?" I asked. This was the first time we'd run into any monster outside the temple.

"There was never more than a dozen or so at a time, that's why!" Remmi replied as she took up a stance for the next intruder.

Between the four of us, we'd already taken out at least that many, and they were still coming. If this was how these kinds of encounters were going to go, we needed more guardians, and fast! Gremlins were nowhere near the worst thing in the temple.

Then the world fell on me.

One minute, I was braced for the next baddie coming through the door, the next I was on the ground, and it felt like my head exploded. I watched in a daze as a hammer the size of my chest smashed into Remmi's side and sent her flying through the wall of the barn.

An eight-foot gremlin grunted as it picked up its Warhammer and turned back towards me, the double doors of the barn now wide open behind it.

*I was hit by that?!? How the hell is my head still attached? Was it?* I thought. When I tried to move my head, my vision went fuzzy. At least my helmet was still on. It had somehow kept me from getting squashed flat as a pancake.

As if it were happening to someone else, I watched the gremlin's massive hand reach down towards me. Somebody brought my sword up to parry, but it wasn't me. I couldn't feel my arms anymore.

The monster batted my sword away as if it were a toothpick and took hold of my breastplate. I couldn't feel it, but I heard when my armor crumpled in its grip. Slowly, it brought me up to his face.

This was surreal. I couldn't feel anything, and the sounds of the battle had faded into the background. All I heard now was the loud grumbling of the creature's breath. To add insult to injury, my vision was beginning to go black around the edges.

Passing out was something I used to do when I was a fresh futa and having way too much fun with someone. In time, I'd learn to pace myself and keep from losing consciousness at an inopportune moment.

This was definitely the wrong moment to take a nap. If I did, I wouldn't be waking up.

The gremlin reached up with his other hand and took hold of my helmet. I heard another crunch and felt the helmet collapsing as the monster started to pinch and pull, intent on pulling my head off!

The sharp, pulsing pain in my injured arm flared. Had he switched to my arm? Was he going to pull me apart one limb at a time?

Then my arm was on fire. Had Terri set me on fire? The burning dwarfed the pain of the crossbow and raced down my arm towards my hand.

*Holy crap, he IS pulling me apart!* my mind screamed just before the pain overwhelmed me, and my mind shut down to protect itself.

***

The blue light surprised me.

Well, to be honest, I thought I was dead, so everything surprised me.

My world was nothing but the color blue. I couldn't move and felt nothing. All there was was blue. There was a song in there somewhere.

loading cw.v.4.1

The words and blue screen were gone before I could finish reading them, let alone ponder what they meant.

Then the world came crashing back around me.

I woke with a start, my body jerking up off the table, as I gasped for breath.

Strong hands pushed me back down and pinned me to the table.

"Asher!"

My eyes snapped open. I stared up into the reptilian face of Patty, Terri's mom. I studied the midnight blue scales of her face, trying to figure out why she was in Heaven with me.

Patty's hands were about the size of my head, and she roughly patted my cheek as I stared at her.

Who was I kidding? There was no way I was in Heaven with all the crap I'd pulled. But what had Patty done to end up down in the basement with me? There was no way a little adultery would really land you in Hell...would it? I sure hope not.

"You in there?" Patty asked, slapping my cheeks hard enough to make my eyes water.

"Fuck, yes, quit hitting me already!" I snapped and tried to bring my hand up to my cheek. It wouldn't move, but at least I could feel it still attached to me. I guess the gremlin didn't rip my arms off after all.

*Oh shit! Had that gremlin snapped my neck? Was I a quadriplegic now? Why couldn't I feel...* My mind went off on an irrational panic ride, imagining the worst. I finally realized that I could feel the rest of my body; I was just being held down.

"What--" I started, but Patty cut me off.

"Move her," Patty barked.

Without any further ado, a pair of hands lifted me off the table and swept me out of the room.

I managed to focus on Sinjin's face just as he set me down on a small bed.

A quick glance around the room, and I realized I was in Cr'eon's room, just outside Patty's surgery. Cr'eon had taken up residence here when we'd first moved in and had yet to move. Even after we got The Roadhouse back up and running, she'd stayed here for some reason.

"Stay here," Sinjin ordered in a tone I hadn't heard from him since I was in High School.

"But--"

"I have to help with Remmi," he said and turned to the door.

"Remmi?" I asked, as I started to sit up.

"STAY PUT!"

Sinjin's order made me flinch. He'd never yelled at me before, not like that. Angela had always been the one to pitch a fit around the house. Sinjin was the level-headed one of the couple.

My eyes were wide in shock as he left the room and returned to the surgery.

*What was going on?* I thought to myself, my head spinning. I took several deep breaths, trying to regain control. I was a liability if I totally freaked out.

Then Terri and Thomas were there. They came into the room and closed the door behind them.

"Is it that bad?" I asked, staring at the door.

Thomas leaned against the door as if guarding it, as Terri sat on the bed next to me. The way they looked at me, I knew it was bad.

"How bad is she?" I asked, every fiber of my being wanting to jump up off the bed to be with Remmi.

"Ash," Thomas started softly, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand up.

"She's still alive, right?" I said in a voice rapidly heading towards panic.

"Yes," Terri said, putting her hand on my chest.

I hadn't realized I'd sat up again.

"She's still alive," Terri continued. "But you know Mom won't let you in there till she's done."

Patty was a doctor. She'd been an ER surgeon back home and had continued that path even here. Only here, she'd taken up a religion where her God, Cammot, was a healer. He was a lizard healer, but still a healer. More than once, I'd been present when Patty performed one of her healing "miracles."

I wasn't about to start worshiping a lizard or anything, but I knew Patty had saved more than one life with her new abilities.

"What happened?" I asked, more to keep myself from jumping off the bed than anything else.

Terri looked back at Thomas.

"What?" I asked, new panic in my voice. "What was that look for? What happened?"

"We're not sure," Terri said slowly. Then she took a deep breath and continued. "The big one snuck in the main doors behind us while we were all focused on the gremlins outside."

"Gremlins don't sneak," I countered.

"They're also not eight feet tall," Thomas chimed in.

"Well, this one did," Terri replied, giving Thomas the side eye. "Thomas and I were trying to do crowd control outside, and seemed to have things in hand until that thing showed up. Next thing we knew, you were on the ground and Remmi was flying through a wall."

"That much I remember," I said as a sudden stinging sensation in my arm made me hiss. I pulled up the thin shirt I normally wore beneath my padded suit and saw a spiderweb of blue lines all spreading out from where the crossbow bolt had been. The wound was gone, but lines snaked out nearly six inches in all directions from where it had been.

"What the shit?" I said as I touched one of the lines. It was hard and slightly raised. "These aren't veins."

"Mom thinks it might be some kind of poison, from the crossbow bolt. But she doesn't know," Remmi said. "It slowly spread the entire way here. Mom thinks she stopped it, but you'll need to keep an eye on it."

I frowned as I continued to stare at my arm.

"Ash," Terri said softly.

Her gentle tone set off warning bells in my head as I turned to her.

"How did you do it?" Terri asked.

"Do what?" I asked.

"How'd you kill it?" Terri asked again.

"I dunno what you're talking about," I said and glanced at Thomas, who was staring at me. "Last thing I remembered was passing out as the big guy tried to take my head off."

"What I saw was you cutting the big guy's head in half with a blue sword," Thomas said.

"Yeah," Terri agreed. "And as soon as he went down, the rest of them sorta fell apart. They were easy pickings after that."

"Guys," I started, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I've never even seen a blue sword, let alone have one." I looked between them, but they didn't seem to believe me. "Seriously!"

"OK," Terri said and gently pushed me back as I'd leaned towards her without realizing it. "Well, after the rest of the small fry were done, we piled the two of you into the farmer's cart and hightailed it here."

"We told the farmer we'd be back for the bodies and not to touch them," Thomas said. "Safer that way."

"What about Remmi?" I asked quietly. "What happened to her?"

"The hammer caved in the side of her chest," Terri said slowly. "But she still wasn't as bad as you, that's why Mom did you first."

I wasn't in the mood for crude jokes and just stared at Terri in silence.

"I'm sure Mom won't have a problem getting Remmi back up on her feet," Terri said.

"It wouldn't surprise me to see her walk through this door any minute," Thomas threw a thumb at the door he was leaning against and then jumped as someone knocked on it from the other side.

It was Cr'eon. The eight-foot-tall, red-skinned Daemon looked at each of us in silence. For a moment, I thought she was going to tell me off for being in her bed. Instead, she stepped away from the door and disappeared.

I felt waves of emotion beginning to well up inside me. I hadn't realized they'd been there with all the craziness going on.

Terri must have seen it.

"Go see what's what," Terri said to Thomas.

It seemed their "couple's telepathy" was working because Thomas didn't say a word, just stepped outside and closed the door.

As soon as he was gone, I fell apart. I'd tried to hold it back, but there was too much inside me. The fighting, the injury, almost dying, Remmi getting hurt. It was all too much, and I sobbed like a baby as, without a word, Terri took me in her arms and rocked me gently.

***

It was dark when I woke next, and someone was in bed with me. Even in the darkness, I knew it was Remmi. I recognized her breathing...and her touch.

Remmi was gently stroking me. She didn't say anything, and when I tried, her finger touched my lips, silencing me.

Silently, she moved between my thighs and raised my legs. Then she was inside me, having grown the goo-girl cock I'd come to love. Her body was truly amazing.

She filled me again and again in total silence.

I could hear someone in the outer room, shuffling around, but it didn't stop Remmi. She continued to fuck me, her need evident from the trembling of her body.

I reached up and touched her face in the darkness, pulling her down to my mouth.

As we kissed, Remmi's body shuddered and went rigid. I could feel her bulge inside me, and what she used for cum poured into me.

Without a word, Remmi withdrew from me and cuddled up beside me. Before I knew it, she was snoring softly, completely out of it.

*Well, that was weird,* I thought. Remmi wasn't one for wham-bam-thank you, ma'am, like that. I sighed and carefully rolled out of bed, cautious of anything that might still hurt.

I padded across the cool stone floor to the small water closet. Once inside, I closed the door and touched the glowstone above the sink.

After taking care of necessities, I washed my face. I froze as I glanced up into the polished mirror. What I saw shocked me. My hair had turned from my normal blonde to completely white. Not gray, but snow white. And short! I had a pixie cut now. It was spiky and unruly, just like--

I jerked awake violently, the pain in my wounded arm flaring hotly. The dream? Nightmare? Whatever it had been was already fading in my mind as I glanced at my arm. Nothing had changed; the ugly spider webs were still there. But had they gotten bigger? I wasn't sure in the darkness.

I was alone in bed. I glanced at the water closet, but pushed the thought away as my eyes started to close on their own.

Shae's face waited for me behind my closed eyes. Her face was still transposed over mine in the water closet mirror.

*What the hell?* I thought, stirring myself awake once more. *How'd it come to this?*