Chapter 372 – Getting Practice Dolls

*** Tanatsu ***

Can these stupid, useless beasts just show up?! I thought only minutes would pass. Not hours. Why would they not be scouting out here? How are you ok with not knowing what is out here? Bugs can't be the only thing scouting. I don't believe it. How would any of her creatures ever get ambushed if bugs are Nature's scouts?

So, where are they?

Finally, a branch snaps. The beasts are even ape-like for me. The best we can do without getting dryads or snatching some elves off the street. I just need to cut their limbs off and jump back home. A little prayer mentioning Alzi should help me out in the temple to the Goddess of Space. It worked getting me out here.

Soon, the group of five moves into my vision. Easy pickings, honestly. I hope every trip out here is this easy. But it would be better to have this be the last trip out here.

No need to let them take the first strike. Just a short teleport over, and a few swings of a sword, and the first ape is taken care of. Next, I just need to expand the space around us and cut up the remaining apes.

They don't stand still like they should. Their hairy arms swing wildly as they count on luck to land a blow, but it makes it simple for me to cut off their limbs. Hardly a minute passes before I have them all cut up. A bit of bandages and a splash of a healing potion, and I have five little lab rats ready to go.A loud crash ruins my plan of a quick little visit. The circles I need to get out of the forest quickly haven't been made yet.

It's a three-eyed giant that has more muscles in a single thigh than I do in my entire body. How does something like that even get here without me noticing? Space isn't going to let this thing teleport without the circles.

Are five little apes really this important to Nature? This thing would be far more likely to just step on the apes than save them. There doesn't seem to be much thought going on behind those eyes, just enough to walk and not fall over.

But with all that mass, I have plenty of striking spots, with Nature's disdain for armor or her inability to get her creatures to create them. I launch forward and aim for the toes. The beast is too slow to touch me, but its skin is too thick for me to scratch it.

It picks up one of the many trees it broke and starts to swing it around. Of course, I can just teleport past the tree. I'll just have to keep trying to strike at different spots and eventually find one that isn't covered in rocks or something.

Its three eyes would be nice to reach. I just need to get up there and get past the tree. Its aim is terrible, but all the branches make it cover a lot of space.

Every strike I try below the knee accomplishes nothing, and I can't get in a good strike any higher. There's nothing to push off of and get my weight behind it.

We just get to dance, with one being unable to hit, and the other being unable to hurt.

I'm going to have to use more mana or just run. If they have this thing around, there has to be someone who will pick up the extra mana we're using. Or at least the mana I'm using, since this beast hardly uses any mana. I'm sure its real use is to find those who can use mana in the forest.

I jump past the tree and move in for a strike, but my body spins instead. My left arm must have been caught by a branch after my teleportation. I didn't hear the crunch, but I feel the broken bones. A quick look confirms it won't be doing anything for me anytime soon, so I just cut it off so it can't get caught on the tree again.

I need to find one of the apes and just run. My swords are too dull to do anything now; I had to coat the edge with mana to cut through my shoulder. Any big Skills and whatever this thing's master is will come running, and I can't face someone with a brain right now.

Or I could just run away without them. I'm on the right side of the beast to just run.

No, I need at least one for Aya. I get into a sprint, aiming to go between its legs. The tree starts its arc again, but it's too big an arc for it to reach me now that I don't need to slow down to aim a sword.

Just as I reach the beast, its leg spins and cuts off my path to the apes. I don't have time to stop, so I brace with one arm and...

Fall through him?

Blood and guts rain down on me. The massive beast is gone, popped like a balloon. Blunt weapons are how you kill it? Is it a balloon or something? I lost an arm to a fucking balloon!

"These damn fucking beasts don't make any sense. What was the thought behind these things? Just make them big and everyone will try to cut them up, so who cares if another beast trips into its massive fucking legs?!" At least I can take the apes that lived and get the fuck out of here. I'll have to tell Mother about that thing.

But what about its handler? She just decided to show up at the edge of the clearing.

You should've done something already, girl. You can't be surprised that someone tripped into your balloon.

"You should've attacked already," I say, popping in right behind her with a knife already in my hand, and it slides right into her soft belly. "Did you think I don't keep at least a knife in reserve? Now, my pretty little dryad, do you know anyone who can heal a knife wound?"

"No."

"Interesting. As long as this knife stays still, you'll be fine, but a little twist or jostling, and you'll bleed out in just minutes."

"Your arm."

"Already got a potion stopping the bleeding. But yes. We both need some medical attention, and I know a wonderful dragon that will help us. You just have to help me get out of here, and I'll take us to her. Of course, I need you to put on this collar for me. We can't have you killing our healer after all."

"You wish to make me your slave?"

"You'll be the healer's slave. I don't need anyone besides my lover. Do you wish to live? Then accept it, and help me. Otherwise, you can die here. I don't care."

"Promise me that I'll live."

"I won't kill you, and the healer will save your life. Why would we kill you after saving you?"

She stands still for a bit. Long enough that I'm thinking more may have heard this fight than just her. "Three seconds."

"Fine."

"Very good," I say. "Use some mana to keep the knife in place. I only have one arm to put the collar on you. There we go. Now, help me get these apes back to my lab, slave. We both have a time limit here." A potion would save her life, but it's better if we both have reasons to move quickly.

*** Cornelius ***

"She has a royal Dragon daughter, a Dragon son, Goddesses, elementals, and a succubus as her children," Eliyen says. "How did we become friends with such a great breeder?"

"Eliyen!" I say. "After everything we just told Alzi, you say that to me?! What do you mean by that? You really went shopping while lying to Alzi's face? Is that it? You're just trying to get her to forgive us for having a kid with her already. Do you want another, or to set up one of our kids with a son of hers?"

"No- I just- No," Eliyen says. She stumbles through the gazebo, trying to show off her pregnant body. "I'm carrying your child, and I'm happy about that. The women in this family are yours. If they are blessed with children, they will be your children. I've said that, and I'm not taking it back. But come on! We have kids to think about. Four of them so far. We aren't some powerhouse; our claim to fame is in a silly little game we take too seriously because it makes us feel important. But even that almost screwed us over. And now we're having our daughter stay over at the Queen's castle. A pregnant Phoenix was there, and we both know she's a Princess. Elora is around, another Princess. Alzi is a Princess. That family is going to be the next royal family. Everyone knows Alzi is going to end up there somehow, even if the Queen has to bend the rules to do it. And little us are her friends. Not through me or my wives, but you."

"None, absolutely none of that is a reason to talk about the kids like we were just strolling through the market!"

"I was raised that way," Eliyen says, worming her way into my lap. "I was five when my Mother started worming her way into my head. Telling me I have to find the boys. Get them to love me. Figure out how to get them alone. At thirteen, Mother told me why and made it even clearer that I had to do it. If I don't, the house will disappear. Marrying you was a gamble. Literally, a gamble is how my Mother won the right for me to marry you. But I was told that wasn't enough. It made everyone respect me enough to invite me to parties, and I could make you join women in bed for better deals. But that wasn't enough, I was told. I had to have as many men's blood in my family as possible. The stronger, the better. I had to find them for my daughters and lie, cheat, steal, bitch, and moan if I had to, to get a man for the next head of the house. Thirty years! Think that goes away easily? No. So yes, that was walking through the market for me. Alzi has my respect. I won't make a deal where she has to promise a son of hers to marry my daughter, or even let my daughter join one of her daughters' harems. But there isn't anything that will make me stop seeing how amazing a breeder she is. If the world burned down, so that only her house was left alive, she would repopulate all of the realms in just a few years. She may replace us all, even if that doesn't happen. That's a fact. It's a fact that she has a lot of children of different races who are going to be extremely strong. She had Goddesses hanging out in those cribs! That is just a fact. Part of me really wants to exploit that. But I won't. We have you, and that is enough. We'll teach our daughters to be respectful. We'll count on the Goddess of Fertility fixing the world she created. I've promised you that, and I'll stick to it."

"Then don't say things like that again. Toss them out as the useless thoughts they are. We said we are going to help Alzi, my friend, so that is what we are going to do. Or I will go to the Goddess of Fertility's altar and pray she makes you all infertile."

"We are going to help her. I'm just not going to be able to change all my thoughts on a dime. But I'm not going to act on any of it. She's more than just a breeder. Much more. But it's amazing to see all the races that are with her. The strength of her house. We plan to be her friends, and I will do that. If we manage to have a marriage between our two houses, it will be because our kids have grown to love each other. I promise."

"Good. If I find out differently..."

"You won't. You'll be the main contact between her and us. But it is fine to call me out when I stray too far in my thoughts. We'll need help."

*** Alzi, main body ***

Tanatsu is gone again today. I don't know if I prefer her looking over my shoulder at everything or if it's better when she's gone. She knows the body well and can answer a lot of questions I have, and I'm learning a lot more about it than Oriphusa ever taught me. But...

"Alzi," Tanatsu says. When did she get here? And where is her arm? "I've got the practice dolls, but this dryad and I need some healing. She's about to bleed out, so get to her first."

"What the fuck?"