Fighting Them There

### Fighting Them There ###

### Fighting Them There ###

### Chapter Twenty-Seven ###

### Chapter Twenty-Seven ###

"Master Max," Chaeryn warned, "that is the salt." He realized that she was right, and he blushed over his near catastrophic condiment mishap. It still surprised him that sugar and salt were essentially the same on other planets. The lack of black pepper or red pepper on the tables was really starting to annoy him, but the presence of salt and sugar bowls made it feel less like he had traveled the galaxy and more like the spice cupboard needed to be restocked.

It had, of course, been explained to him. Pepper came from a plant, and that plant came from Earth. But salt and sugar were fundamental chemicals present all over the galaxy. There werereasonsthat was the case, but he couldn't pretend to understand what they were. He'd seen the chemical diagrams of sugar and capsaicin, and they both seemed very complicated to him. Yet apparently one was a universally available galactic standard and the other was an Earth delicacy that orcs and elves couldn't even tolerate. Salt, on the other hand, was apparently just produced by stars, and that made sense to him. The sky did have a lot of stars in it.

The brown liquid they had been given had a name that translated to "tea." As far as Max could determine, the word just meant that something had been soaked in water and then strained out. By such a definition, he supposed thatcoffeewas also a kind of tea. Probably most sodas. Beer, he wasn't sure about. He also wasn't sure about the tea of Nurn, it kind of tasted like what had been steeped in the water had been laundry of some kind. It was never going to replace any of the Earth drinks he was aware of on taste alone, although he could easily imagine it getting hyped up by some net influencer as a healthy drink based on its obscurity alone. In any case, it needed sugar to be palatable, and it certainly didnotneed salt.

He sighed. "Thank you, Chaeryn." He thought about it a bit more. "How did you know?"

Smiling, the black-skinned elf tapped her nose. "The sugar on this world smells like a hairy melon, the salt smells like the sea." Max didn't know whether the seas on Ithil smelled the same as the ones on Earth. Not that he'd hadmanyopportunities to smell the ocean of his home planet. He held the correctly identified sugar bowl up to his nose. There wasn't a lot to smell, in his opinion. Gun to his head, he would have to say that it smelled like it had been driven near a mango at some point. Whether that was what a hairy melon smelled like, he couldn't say. He was impressed by the Assassin's sense of smell. Her perception boosts were of course tremendous, but seeing them in action like that was very impressive.

As it happened, there was an easier way to tell them apart, as their local team member explained. "Vine drawings on bowl rim are sweetberry vines. Make sugar from sweetberries here. In Bladereach," she oinked uneasily after mentioning her birthplace, "sugar made from ulzhari roots." She'd been spending more time speaking in her home tongue, and was leaving out more when she switched to English.

Max blinked. "Wait," he turned his full attention onto his orcish harem member, "are you named after a plant they refine sugar out of?" It was such a regular girlish name concept that he'd never really considered that the powerful Bloodletter who had recently been a Berserker might have one. He had somehow expected that her name would reference strength or bravery, or some other Berserkerly virtue. Finding out that she was named after her planet's version of sugar beets was both surprising and charming. She groinked demurely, and he knew she was embarrassed by it. "Well, it's a lovely name. Now that we're going to be raising your...ourdaughter, do you think we should go there? I mean, to Bladereach. We could show Luhgra the ulzharis. And like, whatever it is that's there." He nervously scratched his head. "I'm sorry, I don't really know anything about that part of the planet, but it's like, her heritage, right?"

The orcish woman made a confused expression and a negatory hand gesture. "I'm Iron Claw Clan now. My old clan... sold me. We don't go there." That seemed to be a pretty final verdict, so Max put some sugar into his tea rather than press the matter.

Sophie had a different matter she wanted to talk about. "We need to get presents for people back home. My parents. Max's parents. Michelle." She anticipated Ulzhari's question and preemptively answered it. "Michelle is Master Max's younger sister. She has a hunter's rune that is going to open during our second tour. So her first tour is going to happen during our third tour. But we're going to see her during the first break, so we have to bring her something from this planet." She paused. "Something that a young woman who's going to be away dungeon raiding would like to have in their home to come back to. Something to say that travel to Nurn happened. But also something that won't fall apart if she's gone for five months at a time." The blond Valkyrie realized that Ulzhari really didn't have a good idea what a month was. "Um... for one hundred and forty-one rotations of the Ancient world." She substituted a time quantity that the orc would understand.

"We'reallgoing to need souvenirs," Miriam reported, "we've gone to a whole otherplanet. If we don't bring back alien stuff for our families, they'll never let us hear the end of it." There were nods all around the table.

Chloe made the most terrifying suggestion of all. "When we get to Earth for the winter break, my father and brothers want to meet all of you." All eyes turned toward Chloe with expressions that ranged from second-hand embarrassment to offended incredulity. Max desperately wanted to ask the Hoplite what exactly she had told them that they now wanted to meet the other members of the harem she was in, but he also did not want to ask that question in front of Luhgra in case the answer wasn't appropriate for a child that age. Not that he knew what age orcs were supposed to hear about such things.

Maybe he needed an orcish parenting book. Ulzhari had several ideas for them to get transportable objects that were culturally connected to Nurn. They had targets for the next time they went to the market.

####

Children managed to become incredibly filthy at astonishing speed. Luhgraneededa bath. On the one hand that was obviously inconvenient; but on the other hand, it gave Max some alone time with some of his harem members. It was weird to think of being in a bed with five women asalone time, but time away from the child was precious in its own way.

Bath time duty had been claimed by Miriam and Chloe, both of whom wanted to earn mommy-points with Luhgra. He didn'tthinkthat mommy-points were a literal thing that his class created, but he was at the point where he'd wouldn't be overly surprised if he saw an update that told him that his slaves were actually getting such things.

Watching Sophie crawl up his naked body while lying supine on a bed seemed like something that would never get old. He would be content to not have a harem at all and divest himself of all interplanetary expectations if he could just see such a sight every morning. The blond Valkyrie was strong and gorgeous, and she was his. His aesthetic preferences had modified her only slightly, a modest increase in breast size that they hadn't initially even been sure of. Other than that, it was the same Sophie who had won his heart in high school and won everybody else at school's heart with how she looked in the swim team uniform. Her powerful arms placed her hands on either side of his naked legs, and she moved deliberately hand over hand to bring her lovely face closer to his own. Along the way, her breasts dangled tantalizingly close to his skin, a whole hand's distance from the rest of her chest.

Each corner of the bed had another naked woman, and all four of them had been born on a different planet. Fiona had been born on Earth like Sophie and Max himself, but Ulzhari had been born on Nurn, Chaeryn on Ithil, and Kwrtzl on Tartarus. A funny thought passed through his mind that he might well be the first maneverto enjoy the attentions of women from four different planets. His eyes furtively checked on each woman in turn, confirming their expressions of lust and anticipation. Max felt a little guilty tearing his eyes away from the first woman he had ever romantically loved, though there was a part of him that absolutely needed to know that the other women weren't feeling neglected and put upon. They were not. The envy seals ensured that they gained pleasure from watching him getting romantic with Sophie. He knew that, but he did not want to take them for granted. He did not want to be a person who would take his harem for granted.

Sophie could not help but to regain his full attention. A soft kiss to his belly brought her breasts into contact with his skin. Max's cock twitched at her touch. Sometimes he wondered if he was actually themasterin their relationship. He'd been very surprised at how much the Valkyrie enjoyed playing out the role of the slave. The realization that he could hurt her more by not spanking her than by spanking her had been hard for him to accept. Placing his hand on her head, he grabbed a handful of Sophie's blond hair. When he exerted a slight tug on her scalp, the Valkyrie sighed and immediately allowed him to physically maneuver her body. He was strong, but as a B-tier vanguard she was much stronger. That she followed his hand with her head until he was able to kiss her lips was proof of her surrender.

He kissed her gently at first, and then with increased intensity. She opened her mouth and sucked on his tongue. With one hand still clutched possessively into her hair, Max ran his other hand up and down her back. Despite her power and durability, Sophie's skin felt soft and supple under his fingers. Only if he tried to cut her with a blade would she briefly become impenetrable. The blond woman met his kisses with equal hunger, never shrinking away from him or even pulling up for air until he manhandled her away from from his face. She looked down at him with need, and it stoked the flames of his own need.

"Slave Sophie?" Her hopeful expression was everything he needed to see to confirm that he had correctly guessed what treatment she had wanted. "It's time for you to ride my cock. Slave Fiona and Slave Chaeryn will help guide your master's cock into your hole." To his own ear, it sounded pretentious and presumptuous, but Fiona's squeal of delight proved that the intended audience found it appealing.

The hands of Chaeryn and Fiona were both small against his shaft. They werevisuallydistinct with the Shadow Elf having skin that looked to have been marked with a sharpie and the Vietnamese American having skin the color of aged ivory; but as they playfully directed his rod their small hands were difficult for him to distinguish by feel. Guiding his cockhead into Sophie's pussy was certainly a priority for them, but hardly a matter of urgency. Both sets of hands gave him more squeezes and strokings than was strictly necessary to get the peg into the hole.

When Sophie's pussy touched his cock it was a source of heat and moisture better than anything he could imagine. His rod went into her smoothly, like her pussy was made for his cock. "Nnnnng!" She groaned at the penetration, and the other women giggled. Sophie could hover and fly in any direction she chose. Even without her magic powers, her hard won swimmer's muscles and youthful endurance could easily move her body up and down while impaled by his cock. It was not, therefore,strictlynecessary for Chaeryn and Fiona to grab her under her arms and yank her around in order to get her pussy sliding both directions along the length of Max's pole. But they did it anyway, and from the "I love you Master! Ahhhgh!" that came from Sophie's mouth, it seemed that she was happy with their work.

Max would have been happy to allow Sophie to do all the work of milking his cock. Or to allow Fiona and Chaeryn to do all the work tossing Sophie up and down to stimulate him with her pussy grip. But he found that her convulsions, especially the spasms of her orgasming pussy, to be too much. He found himself thrusting his hips up to meet hers, driving his cock into the hole that seemed made for with even more force. As he began his own orgasm, and his white goo began spraying into her cunt, a strange thought passed through his mind. He wondered if perhaps her insides had been tweaked to match his aesthetic preferences like her outsides had been. Sophie's was the first pussy he'd ever been inside, so he wasn't sure how he could even have aesthetic preferences when it came to pussy before he'd made Sophie into his first slave. It was undeniable that her pussy felt fantastic wrapped around his cock, he wouldn't change a thing.

A thoroughly fuck-drunk Sophie lay back on the bed, a vacant smile plastered onto her face. Max got up on his knees and looked down at his handiwork. His lover was panting in sexual afterglow, her chest rising and falling with each heavy breath. His erection hadn't gone down, and he thought there was still more jizz to be extracted. "We don't have a lot of time..." Max's verdict was melancholic. He grabbed his pussy-slick cock and jacked himself furiously until he sprayed the rest of his cock-juice onto his supine girlfriend. Glistening pearls of semen dotted her taut belly and ample breasts. "Luhgra's bath time is going to end soon. Slaves? Clean that up." His order was immediately interpreted by Ulzhari as an oral challenge, one that she took very seriously. The orcish woman brought her tusks close enough to Sophie's flesh that in other contexts it might have looked aggressive. Then she darted her tongue out and began lapping up the jizz globs that he had left for her.

Not to be left completely without their master's Essence, the other three got onto their hands and knees and got to work like they were kittens presented with cream. Fiona began lavishing Sophie's breasts with her tongue while Kwrtzl got in opposite from Ulzhari to lick up more of the cum from the Valkyrie's belly. Chaeryn crawled between the human's legs and began extracting as much of Max's Essence as she could directly from Sophie's pussy. It was a beautiful sight, four women's asses swaying this way and that as they licked up the evidence of his sexual conquest. One by one, each of them got the message that the Essence had been acquired, and they moaned in turn. Sophie came again under their ministrations, squirting onto Chaeryn's delighted face.

Sadly, they did have to get dressed or have to explain things to their daughter that weren't age appropriate. With clothes mostly on, Max's thoughts turned to the market expedition. "We should get something for Luhgra," he turned to the assembled women, "what did you guys want at that age? I've never been a little girl myself." His self-deprecating joke was lame, but he really did feel out of his depth shopping for a child.

Sophie shook her head. "I don't really remember being that age very well. Actually,youhave a younger sister. You probably remember what Meesh wanted at that age better than any of us rememberbeingthat age." She made a good point.

A point that earned a heavy sigh from Max. "When Meesh was that age, she just wanted to play with whatever I happened to be playing with. Or eat whatever I was eating." He thought about his few memories from that period and sighed again. "Not that she wanted her own toys and food and whatever that was the same as what I got, she just literally wanted to take whatever was in my hands." It had been a source of incredible frustration at the time, but in retrospect he did see how it was pretty funny.

####

Winter wolves circled. The dungeon had been much harder than they had expected from the beginning, and Rosalita had already drawn down more mana than she was comfortable with. Their team wasn't supposed to face against such stiff opposition, most of them were E-tier. Thomas, Gorgra, and Jack on the front rank, Baethiel, Linda, and Rosalita herself on the back. They were supposed to be clearing minor dungeons to protect the Home Worlds from dungeon breaks that would threaten real tragedies. It was an important job, but it wasn't one that was supposed to require powerful hunters. A necessary arrangement, because Rosalita's party did not include any powerful hunters.

The hillside was frost-covered and a chill wind blew across it despite the spatial limitations of the dungeon. With the insistent bitter gale, it was easy to forget that they had stone walls on all sides. In the unearthly blue light of the will-o-wisps, drifts of snow and icy mist passed among the piled stones. The rime-mist reflected and scattered the blue illumination, creating a diffuse azure glow around ankle level, leaving the rocky and slippery ground as hidden as if they had been plunged into darkness. Rosalita was not dressed for this weather, her magician's robes left scandalous amounts of her skin uncovered, a legacy of a treasure chest that wanted her to dress like a whore. Her hunter's rune kept her from freezing to death, but it was horribly uncomfortable.

Beasts of Jotunheim did not obey orders from the giants of that planet, but they did reliably attack people of the Alliance. Hunters or civilians, every human, elf, or orc was a target for slimes, rage bears, and winter wolves. Of all of them, the winter wolves were the ones that were most tactical about their approach. The might not understand or follow commands from the vaetti or trolls, but they still sought out opportunities to attack from the flanks or sides. They were, Rosalita supposed, much like wolves of Earth. Except for the frost breath,thatwas very much unlike any animal from Earth.

The wolves loped up and down the slope with a surety of step that the hunters could not match. Their team had the advantage in individual strength, but the terrain favored the enemy. Rosalita's team had done the best they could to mitigate that by seizing the high ground immediately. Among the stone piles, the bodies of the vaetti they had slain lay where they had fallen, some splayed out to freeze into the ground and others were propped against the stacked rocks. The small vaetti had not been massive enough to knock over any of the columns of stones, even when Jack's ax or Thomas' sword had hurled them to their final destination at speed.

While the high ground was an advantageous location in many ways, it was also a place where retreat was limited. Rosalita could go in any direction, but only by ceding the advantage and risking the waiting jaws of the winter wolves. Their fortress was besieged, and in a prolonged battle Rosalita did not think they would be able to hold the ground. The possibility they would have to was snatched away as the giant in the ravine bellowed a challenge and gestured with its spear. The Jotunheimers were going to charge. A poor tactical choice, given their strength and position, but one which heightened the immediate danger more than anything else could have.

The second squad of vaetti had hammers rather than the light bows used by the vaetti who had been on top of the hill. Perhaps they had originally been deployed to ambush hunters who decided to travel along the half-frozen stream. Traveling by that route had seemed like an absolutely terrible idea to the Alliance team, so whatever ambuscade awaited them was never seen. There were two trolls following them, each wielding a long-handled pick that could strike over and beyond the smaller creatures. Over their faces, they wore masks with horizontal lines that seemed to have been very large turnips that had been hollowed out and given eyeholes with a drill.