As much as I enjoy my time with my girls and the cool powers that being a Traveler has given me, there is a part of me that wishes I hadn’t actually made it back to Earth that first night and just been trapped on Cortha without the Traveler powers.
In the moment, I’d been relieved to find myself in familiar surroundings. But as the reality of it all set in and I realized that I had to deal with keeping my apartment and earning a living still, all while knowing something as wondrous as magic, and as adorable as my girls existed.
It didn’t help that the times I spent with them were so much fun and so emotionally charged. I love Kassandra and Rieka dearly, and with the growing affection I’d been feeling for Shayla and Jane, I knew that I’d have more and more ties to Cortha as time passed.
I wasn’t sure when it was that I started thinking of home as wherever my girls were, but when I woke up in my own bed, in my shitty little apartment back on Earth, I couldn’t help the grimace or the feeling of disappointment that swelled up to engulf me.
Shayla and I had spent several hours exploring each other. I learned all about her on a physical and emotional level. Beyond just the sex, we had connected even further.
I learned that her antennae were ticklish and sensitive, but she dearly enjoyed them being stroked and kissed when she was in the mood. Her wings were surprisingly durable, and while they weren’t as sensitive as her antennae, she did enjoy having them stroked. Shayla’s dream was to travel and paint all sorts of scenes in the world.
We’d fallen asleep on the mess of her bed after the first few hours, with Shayla snuggled up to my side and her wings spread over us both like a colorful and warm blanket.
Waking up naked on my own cold bed had been another blow to morale.
Reminding myself that I’d be seeing my girls again soon for the last fight of the tournament, I got myself up and going.
I showered, shaved, and got breakfast going, sending an affectionate morning message to all four of my bonded companions, though I might have been a bit more risqué with the ones that I sent to Kass, Rieka, and Shayla.
I didn’t want to push Jane, despite the suggestions that Shayla had made the previous night that she was just as interested as the moth woman had been.
While staring into my steaming coffee, I had an epiphany and closed my eyes to access the interface for the System. It only took a moment to navigate to the lesser-used Contracts tab.
The last time I’d checked this was weeks ago, and I was curious what the contracts were ranked at, since at that time Kassandra had been slightly ahead of Rieka with a level three contract.
The information spooled across my vision in glowing letters, a compact stack of information that made me smile.
Kassandra Silverscale (Guardian Contract level 4)
Rieka Coldeye (Guardian Contract level 4)
Shayla Valo (Guardian Contract level 3)
Jane Carsan (Guardian Contract level 2)
“Wonder what the difference between the levels of contract means,” I muttered, taking a sip of my coffee and opening my eyes to let the information fade. “Maybe it’s how often they’ve summoned me? No, that doesn’t seem right. Jane and Shayla have summoned me basically the same number of times, far fewer than Rieka did in the past and she was only a level two. So how is Shayla ahead of Jane?”
I pondered it long enough for my coffee to go cold, turning over different ideas and discarding each of them when they didn’t fit quite right. My best guess was a level of trust that existed between us, though I wouldn’t be surprised if somehow the physical intimacy played into it.
After all, for most people trust is needed before sex occurs, I thought with a wry smile.
Before I could fall too far down the proverbial rabbit hole on that idea, I felt a slight tremble at the edges of my vision before a message scrolled into place in front of my eyes.
Kassandra Silverscale, Rieka Coldeye, Shayla Valo, and Jane Carsan have sent a non-urgent request for your presence regarding participation in their competition.
Transit? View summoning?
Reminding myself that I needed to be better at looking ahead to make sure things were safe or to know how to react, I mentally activated the View Summoning option.
An image appeared showing my four girls standing together in what looked like Rieka’s room, with Shayla blushing furiously, while Kassandra grinned at her. Rieka was focusing on the summoning with her spell rod out. Jane stood beside her, blushing, but trying to focus as well.
Everything looks good. Let’s do this, I thought with a smile.
My earlier annoyance at being separated from my girls had faded as soon as the message for the summon came through. I focused on the Transit option and pushed my cold coffee away to lean back into my lumpy dining-room chair.
A moment later, the tugging sensation of the Traveler magic wrapped around me and yanked me through the barrier between worlds.
Keep off the grass, I thought with a laugh that sounded both like the cawing of crows and the color chartreuse at the same time. Colors flooded my vision and briefly, the image of a sprawling valley appeared before me, dotted with tiny villages and sparkling rivers as the rolling green hills vanished off into the distance. Almost as if whatever power it was that guided me between worlds at the call of the summoning magic had heard me and decided to poke a bit of fun at me.
A moment later, I felt the softness of a carpet under my feet and the bright light of the sun faded to a more quiescent glow of candles and lamps with all four of my girls arrayed in front of me.
“I’m just saying, now you know why—” I heard Kassandra saying. Knowing something was coming, considering that she’d made a habit out of it, I decided to reverse the surprise on my loving lamia.
“Kass!” I shouted and dove towards the smaller woman just as she turned towards me, her hips already wiggling slightly as she coiled to throw herself in my direction in greeting.
Her slitted chocolate eyes widened in surprise behind the silver rims of her glasses, and then I was on the much smaller woman before she could react.
Scooping Kassandra up off the ground with one arm around her hips and the other part way down her scaly length. I spun with the serpentine woman in my arms while she squealed in surprise, wrapping her arms around my neck to stabilize herself.
“Well, that is just adorable,” Rieka commented, laughter thick in her voice as I finished my third pirouette with Kassandra, the dwarf lamia’s shriek of surprise transitioning into happy giggles.
After lifting Kassandra up for a quick kiss that got a happy coo from my redheaded lover, I gently set her down. For once, she didn’t fight it. The mischievous sparkle in her eye told me that she had an idea of what it was that I planned to do.
“It is sweet,” Shayla was saying before I turned and lunged for Rieka this time, grinning widely.
My princess didn’t have time to react either before I wrapped my hands around her slim waist and hefted her up into the air for a spin.
Rieka gave a brief, surprised scream before she laughed too, smacking me on the shoulders and head playfully.
“Put me down, Liam—mph!” I cut her protests off by doing as she asked, lowering my wiggling, platinum-blonde lover down to press a kiss to her soft lips. Rieka’s tail whipped back and forth happily as she molded herself to my chest, humming into my mouth contentedly.
Kneading her hips gently with my hands, I savored the kiss with Rieka for another long moment before setting her gently on her feet.
Rieka opened her mouth to say something, but I was already turning towards Shayla. The moth woman’s black eyes went wide, and she took a half step back with her wings spreading out before I reached her as well.
Just like with Rieka, I got hold of Shayla’s much broader hips and hoisted her into the air. Despite her larger size—being nearly my height, after all—I had no issues getting the giggling moth woman up into the air. Especially after Kassandra’s greater weight because of body density.
Shayla’s wings pumped furiously, sending a gusting breeze of moving air over all of us before I carefully lowered my newest lover to within kissing range.
Shayla clung to me tightly, her arms looping around my shoulders while her soft antennae bonked my head lightly, like little fists trying to chastise me for my cheek. Her thighs spread to cling to my hips, and I shifted my grip slightly to use her plush bottom to pull her against me while we kissed.
After a moment of savoring the contact, I let Shayla slide to her feet and stand on her own once more.
“Well then, that was definitely interesting,” Jane said dryly. Shayla arched her brows at me, out of sight of the smaller girl from being on my other side, and I just smirked at her.
“I’m glad you thought so,” I said before spinning in place and lunging at Jane.
The energetic mouse girl was ready for me though, leaping directly upwards and away with those powerful legs of hers, her long tail flicking merrily as she sailed a good five feet directly up and her ears nearly brushed the ceiling.
“Ha! Thought you’d—EEP!” Jane started to gloat before I altered my balance and pushed off the ground to jump upward as well.
She was just beginning to descend when I caught her in my arms, one arm going around to scoop her into my chest while the other went around her shoulders and pulled her to me.
“Gotcha, Jane,” I said with a laugh, landing lightly and giving the little mouse woman a gentle hug that brushed her large ears against my cheek.
Since I wasn’t sure how far Jane was willing to go just yet, I just hugged her for a moment before kneeling to set her on the ground once more.
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Jane was blushing furiously while she tried to glare at me, but I just smiled down at her. A part of me that I know was influenced heavily by Kassandra wanted to tease her, but I held it back. Instead, I turned to smile at my other three girls and nodded to the door.
“I missed all of you. Shall we get going?”
<><><>
On the walk over to the arena, I’d asked the girls why they had summoned me before we departed, rather than waiting till they were at the arena grounds.
Apparently, the tradition of summoning your companion in the ring itself was only part of the first portion of the tournament. Once it went past the first round, it wasn’t expected anymore since it had already confirmed to everyone that the creatures fighting were, in fact, summons. The rule had been included to prevent people with lower skill from just buying a trained monster and trying to use that rather than following the summoning guidelines.
“So, now that we’ve gotten this far, does anyone know for sure what I’m gonna be facing? You ladies dragged me off last night before the last match. Not that I’m complaining about being fussed over,” I teased as we entered the large stone arena and followed the dim passages around to the waiting area for the contestants.
“Lady Josephine won the last match of the semi-finals, so you will face off against her in the final.” Jane was the one who supplied the answer, the mouse kin bouncing along at the head of our little group energetically. I was just glad she didn’t hold my earlier actions against me, though she’d pouted for a bit at how easily I’d caught her midair.
“Josephine… Why is that name familiar?” I asked thoughtfully.
“She is the daughter of Duchess Icefang, who holds land further north, on the other side of the capital from here. She’s… not very nice.” Rieka sighed from her spot on my right, her arm resting in mine.
“You mean she’s a bitch,” Kassandra piped up from the rear where the dwarf lamia slithered along. I could feel her eyes drilling holes in my butt, and given what I knew of my snuggle-noodle, she was likely already fantasizing about what she wanted to do to celebrate tonight, win or lose.
“That’s not… inaccurate,” Rieka hedged, and I glanced down at my blonde-haired princess. She was grimacing as she clearly tried to find the right words to explain.
“The Icefangs are a hard family and Duchess Icefang often clashes with my mother over how things should happen in the Queendom, but that is normal for the nobility,” Rieka said with a half shrug.
“I wasn’t talking about Duchess Icefang. I was talking about Josephine. Her cronies have been annoying me for years, and you know that you had problems with her back in the capital before she aged out of the academy there and came to Juneau two years ago,” Kassandra insisted and Rieka sighed, letting her head fall forward and her hair shadowed her face.
“Knowing her personality is good and all, but wouldn’t knowing her summon be better for Liam?” Shayla added in a quiet tone, the shy moth woman clinging to my left arm even tighter than usual.
“Shayla is right!” Jane chirped, turning to walk backwards for several bouncing steps, a forced smile on her lips. “Better to strategize right now. I don’t want Liam to get hurt again during his fight. So Lady Josephine bonded herself to an ice-aligned creature. You might remember it. The thing looked like a giant centipede with a head like one of those pinchy beetles with the mandibles.”
“Okay, big bug I can handle, centipedes are creepy, but I can deal with that,” I said, trying to remember what the monster had looked like.
There were easily two or three dozen different summoned creatures the previous day, and while I had been trying to keep an eye out and scout what could do what, it was harder than I wanted to admit focusing with the distraction of my girls all around me.
And having to keep watch on those near us, I thought with a quiet sigh, remembering the altercation with the trio of wolf kin that had been harassing Kassandra.
Thinking about those three jogged my memory. Coupled with Kassandra’s statement about Josephine bothering her, I was pretty sure I’d at least seen this ‘Lady Josephine’ at a distance, back when I’d tried to scare the trio off the first time.
Either way, I just need to keep moving and avoid the creature. Ice attacks generally are split between area of effect slowing or bludgeoning, or individual sharp attacks. At least the ones that I’ve seen Kassandra use while we fought and hunted, I thought.
We emerged from the tunnel into the edge of the arena a moment later, the rumble of the spectating crowd having slowly risen as we got closer to the sands.
While it had been busy before, the majority of people in the stands were just the students and the staff. Apparently, the finals were a bit more anticipated than the lead up, and there were a number of finely dressed people in the crowd that stood out from the robed professors or the clumped groups of students.
“Huh,” I muttered, scanning the crowd idly. The sands on the other side of the arena were empty at the moment, so the girls settled in around me to wait comfortably.
“Yeah, it’s a bit of a spectacle. I think you’ll do just fine, though, Liam. Don’t worry about it,” Rieka said reassuringly, not looking up at the crowd as she unlinked our arms and stepped back slightly. Jane scampered over to join her while Kassandra moved up to settle in beside the princess. Shayla shyly nuzzled my cheek with hers, the rightmost of her antennae stroking over my face as well before she fell back to the others.
In turning to return the nuzzle to Shayla, I spotted a familiar shade of platinum-blonde hair in the crowd accented by a gray, silk dress that glittered in the afternoon sunlight. She wasn’t looking our way yet, but was instead deep in conversation with a stern-looking woman with similar hair color and wolfish ears that sat next to her, dressed in a military uniform.
“Hey Rieka, is that your mum up there?” I asked idly, nodding my head toward the woman I was studying.
I wasn’t looking at my princess, but I heard the quiet cursing that came next and guessed that my assumption was correct.
“Really?” Jane’s voice was a little louder. “The Queen is here? Oh, gods and magic…”
“Easy, Jane. Even with the Queen here, our part in this is done. All the pressure to impress is on Liam,” Kassandra said, her throaty voice full of mischief. I could just imagine my redheaded noodle’s wicked grin, and that helped calm the sudden feeling of butterflies in my stomach.
“I’m not worried about Mother,” Rieka grumbled under her breath. “She’s already content with Liam’s work. What bothers me more is the fact that my sister is with her. Griselda is currently the heir to the throne, while I am fourth in line for succession. She’s… well, she’s very focused on maintaining her position.”
“Don’t worry about it, Rieka,” I said gently, turning to lock eyes with my princess over my shoulder. She smiled weakly, and I could see the concern in her ice-blue eyes now. Her mother and sister being here clearly rattled my princess, and while I wanted to reassure her, I knew I couldn’t be overly familiar with her in public like this.
“Yeah, don’t sweat it, Rieka,” Jane added from beside the princess. “You trust Liam, don’t you?”
The question was innocent enough, but I saw Rieka’s back stiffen suddenly and she nodded, her worries visibly falling off of her.
“You are, of course, right. I forgot for a moment there,” Rieka said quietly.
“We can trust Liam with anything,” chirped Kassandra with a grin, shooting me a wink to go with it. “You do your best, win this fight and impress the Queen, Liam!”
Assist your contracted companions, Rieka Coldeye, Kassandra Silverscale, Shayla Valo, and Jane Carsan, by winning the competition and impressing Queen Gemma Coldeye.
Reward - 2000 SP
As the message flashed in my vision, I had to fight the urge to swear. I knew going in that this fight wasn’t going to be easy, given that it was to be the final fight. I didn’t want to think about the fact that they’d dedicated the entire morning to this, having raced through the other engagements the previous day to save just the final of the competition for today.
That reward tells me this isn’t going to be fun or easy, I thought while grimacing.
“I need you four to stay well back during this fight,” I said, locking eyes with each of my girls in turn. “Kass’s words triggered a System mission, and if the reward is an indicator, this isn’t going to be easy.”
“Shite… sorry Liam,” Kassandra groaned, slapping one hand to her face.
“It’s fine, Kass. This just warned me that I need to be ready. Did any of you bring a spare set of clothes for me?”
“What?” Shayla said, blinking in surprise at my question.
“Think about it, Shayla. Yesterday, his shirt was destroyed during the fights. If this is going to be as hard as Liam expects, his whole outfit is probably toast,” Jane interjected.
“No, sorry Liam. I didn’t think of that…” Rieka said with a grimace.
“You focus on ensuring you get out of this fight in one piece, Liam, and you can wear me as clothing to preserve your modesty,” Kassandra said with another salacious grin.
I could tell she was teasing to hide her own growing worry, but I decided to accept the encouragement as I could use it.
The rumble of the crowd growing quiet brought my attention back around to the front. I spotted a group of four stepping out of the exit on the other side of the arena. Three of the number were young men dressed in the elaborate clothes of the young noblemen, but they didn’t proceed more than a single step past the door before settling into an at-ease posture.
Guards? I wondered as the wolf kin woman I assumed to be Josephine continued past them to stand across from us.
Josephine still had the same haughty air about her that she’d been sporting the previous time I’d seen her, in the market months ago when I confronted her cronies.
She had her nose up in the air like she smelled something that offended her, and a haughty tilt to her shoulders. If it wasn’t for her expression, she would have looked beautiful, though. Fine features with high cheekbones and full red lips. She moved with grace as her elaborate blue and white dress swirled in her wake.
A thin silver necklace with a large blue stone hung about her neck, the stone drawing the eye to her very full bosom. A jeweled belt tucked her dress in at the waist by clinging to her round hips, and she had a jeweled scabbard hanging from her belt that held her spell rod.
Her plush gray-white tail flicked behind her in annoyance, while pointed wolf ears of a matching color protruded from her rich, red hair done up in deep curls that hung out of sight behind her.
Shayla’s got a better ass, Rieka’s attitude is better, and Kass has both better boobs and hair than her, I thought wryly. Hell, Jane’s got a better butt than her, I’m sure of it. The way she’s mincing across the sand makes me wonder if she walks anywhere willingly or only if she has to.
As if she could hear my thoughts, the haughty young woman’s eyes met mine and her lip curled in a sneer.
“We want to welcome all of you to the finals of our semester tournament for the summoners here at Juneau,” Rainfist’s words cut through the air and I let my eyes drift to the side to watch him.
“Today will be only one match between our two finalist teams. To those of you who were present yesterday for the other portions of the tournament, I welcome you back. To those just joining us today, I promise you will wish you’d been able to see the earlier part of our tournament. Many of our students showed their skills and that of their summoned companions, and these two you see before you are the ones who have risen above them all!”
“He’s really playing it up,” I heard Kassandra mumble from behind me, followed by a quiet thump and oof as someone, I guessed Rieka, smacked her to quiet her down.
“Now, as you can see, we have one team of four students and their summoned companion against a sole student and her summon. I will remind you all that the summoners, once their companion is deployed, cannot intervene with magic. You may direct your partner with orders verbally, but you cannot directly act. If you dismiss your companion, that is considered forfeiting. Otherwise, you will listen for the sound of my horn to declare the end of the match. This is to incapacitation, not death, so keep that in mind!”
The rumble of the crowd picked up for a moment before dying off again as Rainfist continued without pausing. I spotted the man finally standing on the edge of the upper ring by the professors. Apparently, he wasn’t going to be down in the ring with us this time.
“On this side, we have our group of four led by Princess Rieka and their summoned creature, Liam the Human. Facing them is Lady Josephine and her companion, Gyrallia the Polar Worm!”
Another rumble of whispers came through the crowd, this time mostly the nobles and people that I guessed were the family of the students, when I was announced as ‘Liam the Human.’ But the whispers dropped off at the mention of Gyrallia’s species.
I heard Rieka curse quietly under her breath while Rainfist called out to Josephine to summon her companion and hold them ready.
“Liam, you are going to have to be fast and hit very hard. Polar worms have heavy armor and can move ridiculously fast despite it. Don’t let it bite you, as they will swallow just about anything that can fit in their mouth. The only real weak spot in their armor is the joints, and that is only ‘weak’ by comparison,” Rieka rattled off as Josephine drew her spell rod and began to cast.
Light flared in front of the lone wolf kin as she worked her spell, consolidating a moment later into a long, tube-shaped monster perched on dozens of articulating legs that ended in sharp spikes.
The creature was a deep blue with a white underbelly, like the dress that Josephine was wearing. Fog rolled off of its carapace and I could feel a chill billow through the air towards me. Its head was cone-shaped, but as it settled into being and reared up over the arena, that head segmented into four distinct sections that spread open to reveal a cavernous maw of chill-looking pale-blue flesh. Long fangs hooked up in a series along each of the four jaws that the creature displayed.
I could see two small eyes set deep within the carapace of its head glaring at me as the creature hissed malevolently while the sharp legs on the body that was now upright lashed the air angrily. The creature’s thick chitinous armor was edged with sharp horns and hard spikes, giving it a weapon-like appearance.
“Well, crap,” I muttered, squaring my shoulders and starting to run ideas through my mind of what sort of changes I could do to handle this monster.