*(mood song: "Minor - Remember The Name")

Fire tribe leader "well then, I guess I should give you my name before I slaughter you all, I'm Kraktar" pointing then at his scars "I won by position as the leader by defeating many other's like you, and today-"

*ZHWOOOSH!*

But soon Erik then opened fire with the plasma cannon as he had been charging it while they talked, the Leader was incredibly fast as it tried to cut the slower plasma ball, only from it to explode, causing a steam explosion that burned his arm, despite the pain it didn't stop though, charging quickly at Erik's like a spring as it dodged right and left like a grasshopper, getting closer.

Erik then took out a shotgun, the wide coverage of the exploding sodium pellets making Kraktar retreat "I'm just Erik, an engineer" throwing then a solid sodium grenade from a container on his ammunition belt.

*BOOM!* the explosion filling the throne room with bubbles as Erik reloaded a new steel block bullet, "shit... he's too fast, I need more firepower then- agh!" but out of the bubbles from the explosion came a knife, stabbing through his armor and into Erik's right chest area, really close to where crab people had their heart.

Kraktar then coming out of the bubbles intact "wow you are still standing huh? that was poisoned... but oh well.. I have more!" throwing three more knives as he sprung forward.

Erik had to use the rifle as a shield, two knives getting stuck in the charger and combustion chamber, releasing a cloud of bubbles as the third knife stabbed his belly, then using it to barely parry his right sword in time, the sword cutting almost halfway into the thick barrel of his gun, the other sword going for Erik's waist, luckily Erik had the advantage of his pincers, while Kraktar seemed to only have arms, so Erik used his right pincer to catch the sword as it completely trashed the lower chainsword, he then twisted it to the side and out of Kraktar's hand, throwing it far to the right while his left pincer went for Kraktar's torso, but Kraktar easily parried it sliding his saber down and stepped back, leaving a big gash on Erik's left pincer as he did so, and taking a big two handed sword from his back, advancing for a stab to the heart.

Erik was about to block but he suddenly felt weak "huh?" falling to the floor, the pain he expected never came though, he looked up to see a gruesome sight, Inky was standing in front of him, the sword penetrating her from side to side as she firmly held it in place.

Inky held the blade inside her with her life, her lips leaking blood as she strained to hold the stronger Kraktar, her muscles in pain, a sword literally splitting her heart, and shouted "NOW ERIK!-"

but just then "foolish girl..." Kraktar grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled up, the sharp blade going up and splitting her chest open, she then gurgled a couple of times her avatar dying as she looked at Erik in the eyes.

Timberly: "this bastard!" she was about to advance, but 12 heavily armoured guards and an extra 40 soldier's then came out of side doors, swarming them in close quarters.

Rose: [ERIK! GET UP!]

Rose's voice resonated on his head as Erik stared at Inky's corpse dumbfounded, the sadness quickly turning to rage 'I know it's just an avatar but... even then... she felt herself dying, someone I love... by a bastard like him...' he gritted his teeth 'I won't forgive him...' the adrenaline flooded his system spreading the poison faster, but also giving him a little extra strength, as he used all he had left to take out a syringe from his belt and injected it on his neck, a mix of stimulants he had made as a prototype for an emergency, then as it spread like fire through his veins, time seemed to go slower, his eyes going bloodshot, he felt his entire body ticklish, veins popping over his forehead and inside his caparace, his heart beating faster than ever, the pain coursing his body forgotten, his entire being focused on one task and one task only... revenge.

Kraktar was feeling pretty confident though and mocked him "haha~ are you despairing already? so sad..." he saw her silently staring at the corpse on the ground and checked Erik's body thinking 'She's really hot and has weird technologies... if I conquer her.. hehe~ can't wait to make her squeal below me~' saying with a smile "well, if you won't satisfy me on the battlefield I might need to make you satisfy me on bed~"

Erik chuckled and started laughing though "ja... jaja... jajajaja JUAJAJAJAJA!!!!"

Kraktar frowned "what are you laughing about?"

Erik didn't respond though, and just shot a secret dart from his left claw, but Kraktar deflected it "you think you will defeat me with tha-"

Erik had bolted closer in that instant though, coming with his chainsaw claws and 2 trench vibro knives on his humanoid hands, a huge smile on his face as he had used Kraktar's same trick from earlier.

Kraktar easily deflected his charge though, sidestepping as he cut off one of Erik's legs.

They exchanged cuts again and again, but Erik didnt care though, feeling no pain as he turned and caught Kraktar's weapon with his pincers, pulling him closer with all the strenght his avatar body could generate, and stabbing himself through the side of his abdomen, his smile never leaving his face as Kraktars grew horrified, he wanted to let go but Erik's pincers were firmly grabbing his wrists "wha-" and before he could say anything, a blur split his neck open, gurgling and falling to the floor bleeding from a swipe of one of the trench knives, as Erik then spewed a plume of poison from his mouth to Kraktars face, paralizing him and putting one of his legs of his head, pushing it to the floor "don't worry, i wont kill you, but you ain't going anywhere, you now belong to me" he then took the sword out of himself, and pulled an obedience necklace out of his back, putting it around Kraktar's neck "we will need lots of cannon fodder to reach the Forge, you and your guards are also good candidates to train other crabmen how to fight, you are too useful to just kill you right~?" managing to mantain his sanity thanks to this beeing an avatar body, his real brain wasn't beeing affected by the stimulants other than the information received coming much faster, so everything seemed to be happening in slow motion around him, it was a weird feeling for him as the avatar body alost felt like it was on fire.

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On the side, the royal guard was already mostly annihilated and suppressed, Rose's puppets had superior weaponry and moved with insanely precise and quick movements, as the moment she had seen Erik's avatar was in danger, she had gotten serious, processing the information much faster and making the puppets go as fast as they biologically possibly could, rendering the elite royal guards years of practice unusable as they could barely keep up with her blows, the common soldiers getting butchered quickly as only the last 12 elites were barely holding on by joining backs, totally surrounded by Rose's relentless puppets and the elders.

Kraktar: "we won't- GYAAAAH" Kraktar tried to complain, but he was electrocuted again and again for 10 minutes, with the 12 guards finally falling exhausted to the floor, their heavy armors clanking against it, Rose's puppets had taken turns as they harassed them in groups, forcing them to the limit until they just couldn't keep up.

Erik: "no no, where did all that pride go~? tired already~?"

Kraktar struggled to talk "you... cheater..." as his body kept spasming.

Erik: "he~ you expect me to defeat a quick and veteran swordsman in a fair duel? Who's the one who first used poison then you hypocrite? it's not like I can't win in a fair duel, but... I don't wanna, I need your men and you at my service, you will convince your people to put these collars, it will make them calm down"

Kraktar: "I will never serve a cheater-"

Erik: "but you know... you angered me and for that..." and clicking a button on his wrist "you will pay for hurting my wife"

Kraktar: *GYAAHHH! aAHhaaaah... ggghhhh* Kraktar convulsed as his body peed and defecated itself, all its legs and body flailing around.

At that moment reinforcements came as the army outside had been annihilated, Khroom accompanying Maktar as he came into the room, sighing at the state the room was in from the bullets and explosions.

Erik turned to the rest, giving them a sack full of slavery collars "put one in all of those blacksmiths and artisans first, put Maktar in charge of the search, he knows the place and how to convince those that are willing" seeing them node and walk off.

Hearing about his friend now happily becoming a traitor, Kraktar lifted his face with difficulty, looking at Maktar with hate, saying "you traitor... where is your pride..."

Maktar sighed t "lord... no, Kraktar... times change, even all your training and power turned to nothing here, they have better mysterious technology, compared to that... we are just a backward place, I cannot let such an opportunity pass by"

Erik put a hand on Maktar's shoulder as he reassured him "yeah, that's right, so go back with your family and friends, make sure to convince those who look for a golden age on weapon making" showing off his chainsaw claw.

Maktar nodded and went away with the rest of the elders as only some shadow claw avatar puppets stayed keeping guard.

Rose: [you plan to make him suffer?]

Erik: [I plan to break him and turn him into a nice little puppet, he said he wanted to fuck me right~ guess I should give him the same honour~]

Rose: [yeah, fuck that looser (╯ಠ∩ರ)╯︵ ┻━┻]

Erik: [he's ugly as fuck though... ] he then spotted a bone mace by the side and had an idea, a sadist smile emerging on his face [oh, I came up with a plan~]

Rose: [and I like it too~ (≖ᴗ≖✿)]

Erik: [yeah, also I know you ain't really inside those avatar bodies but... wanna try doing the honors?]

Rose: [yeah, it could be fun, also... you probably can't feel pain right now, but you should have someone close those wounds to at least stop the bleeding if you wanna keep this avatar body alive]

Erik looked down at his body and frowned, he was a mess, he still had the knives stabbed, cuts on his belly with his guts kept in just thanks to his armor that was also full of deep cuts, "you are right..." Erik then grabbed Kraktar's 3 swords and went out, they would be a good addition to his weapons, or he could melt them and make a chainsword version.

A nearby shadow claw warrior puppet stopping guarding the entrance as it grabbed the bone mace, also getting a boner as it got closer to the immobilized Kraktar, though it was provoked by electric signals without sensitive feedback so she could get the boner but still not feel it.

It had an effect though, the moment Kraktar saw her boner, he grew scared as he couldn't move an inch "n-no! not that! you have no honor! you have no- aahhhAAAAHHHH!" the 5 inched of meat rod penetrating slowly his ass, as Rose started humping him, to get him loose enough for the mace.

Meanwhile, Erik exited the room and got bandaged by Shana and a healing jelly to apply on the wounds from one of the shadow claw tribe alchemists, his wounds stable, he started walking around, inspecting the remaining ruins of the city, most of the civilians had died in various ways, but at least places like the armoury and library seemed to be fine.

So after leaving orders to keep those places guarded, he went to a room and disconnected, going to look for Inky, the moment he opened his face she was already there though, looking at him with a worried face, hugging him the moment he opened his eyes.

Inky: "I was so worried... I'm glad you are okay... did you win or...?"

Erik combed his fingers through her slightly slimy feeler hair and said "I'm glad you are okay too sweety.... that must have hurt a lot right?"

Inky just nodded with "hmm" as she hugged him tighter.

Erik: "It's alright sweety... it's alright..." lightly patting her back "tell you what, what about a massage to relax? would you like that?"

Inky then stopped hugging him and kissed him "I would be delighted my love"

--- Second floor, massage room ---

They spent then a relaxing afternoon as Erik used kelp oil to massage all of Inky's now silky skin, his thumbs tracing her spine and then massaged the muscles of her thighs and legs, and then her feet, adding heated stones to her back as Inky got more and more relaxed, finally falling asleep as Erik then kissed her cheek and left her there sleeping while he took a rest on the onsen.

Once inside he noticed the transparent scales now covered up to his knees for his legs and to his elbows for his arms 'well, they are kinda flexible so its fine but... maybe I should extract other kinds of DNA...' with those thoughts in mind he slept in the onsen, attaching a breathing mask to his face so he didn't drown by mistake, and getting up early the next morning, connecting to his avatar again after a brief breakfast with Inky,