Stratothrax

Chapter 170

◈ Chapter 170:

A single carriage lantern lit the deep dark night ahead, creating a fast moving circle of paving that marked the winding road away from the city and deeper into the mountains.

It was a night to do concerning things.

The mountains that overlooked Florens were vast, a many split spine that crawled and sprawled across the land, each vertebra prong a different peak, the arc of one mountainous line butting up against the mega city. Ever deeper the carr...

Chapter 169

◈ Chapter 169:

There was a sense of nothingness in the place she floated.

No, that wasn't quite true, not nothing. There was a shroud over the nothing, an ephemeral lie that the nothing was something, and because the nothing was stated as being something it was no longer nothing, it was the thing that was claimed as something.

It was a lying space.

Lyra floated in the lying space alone and disembodied. Alone, that is, apart from the black knife that floate...

Chapter 168

◈ Chapter 168:

Zack pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Bounty hunting was not going as well as he would have liked. He did wonder how he had ended up at this strange stage of his life. Really he was the inheritor of a not insignificant amount of wealth from his family, or at least he had been before gambling it all away and ending up in a small backwoods town known as Lynthia.

He had started to make something of himself in that town, but then she had come, the...

Chapter 167

◈ Chapter 167:

There were those in the crowd who panicked, yes, but there were also those who when faced with an enormous solid black panthara stepped up to fight.

Many had experience fighting dungeon surges, and the panthara themselves in the dungeon, they felt their chances were good against a singular panthara with so many allies around, even if it was a particularly large one.

So did Brax as he eyed the massive thing up and down.

"Big, but just a trick...

Chapter 166

◈ Chapter 166:

Baera struggled up from where she'd been washed up against the wall along with nearly a hundred others, wails of alarm emanating from the tangled party goers, their clothing soaked through to the skin.

Something was happening that was for sure, perhaps the flashy showing off the high levelers liked to indulge in had gotten out of control?

She pushed aside a waterlogged wooden butler who was still trying to serve her drinks and strode through the m...

Chapter 165

◈ Chapter 165:

Lyra and the water mage met as she was plucking an appetiser from a passing butler, hand halfway to mouth as she turned to find Lyra standing before her.

"...Yes?"

"Hi." said Lyra.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Sorry, but… who are you exactly?"

"I'm, uhm, like here for the party, and stuff. And for you!"

Rain groaned and buried his face in his paws, just how drunk was she?! It had only been one drink for god sake!

"I...

Chapter 164

◈ Chapter 164:

The mansion was a vast thing, as the excesses of nobility were wont to be, the gardens more so, great fountains spewing water dozens of meters into the air, bushes trimmed into monsters, and curling white stone paths illuminated by intricate magics.

Lyra's stride slowed to a crawl as she realised she'd actually managed it, she'd bluffed her way inside! Okay admittedly that was with a bit of luck and things hadn't gone quite as planned, but still!

...

Chapter 163

◈ Chapter 163:

The party.

The welcoming party more specifically, the return of the prodigal son, a momentous moment in the Fenhorn family's history.

A party that they were going to crash.

Lyra bit her lip as she looked over her dress once more in the mirror, a very preggers opal beside her, trying to help by stroking the folds of the dress to make it appear more natural, which helped precisely zero percent.

Lyra looked… Regal, was probably the best...

Chapter 162

◈ Chapter 162:

Baera stepped out onto the streets, her metal heeled boots clicking against the white flagstones.

She wondered for a moment if it really was wise to leave Jilli with Bane. The hellhound had been… problematic. While it was highly useful to have someone with her who wasn't related to the inquisition, and who was also highly motivated to hunt their quarry, that didn't stop her from wondering if the man had quite mentally survived being subsumed by the he...

Chapter 161

◈ Chapter 161:

The grand city walls of Florence rose far above like chalk white cliffs, hundreds of feet high and stretching into the distance either side of the road to the main gate, they were an impressive sight to any newcomer.

The gatehouse itself was like a castle, a huge building with a cavernous entrance that swallowed the ever constant stream of people entering into the city.

One of those was Inquisitor Baera, her long legged stride steadily eating up t...

Chapter 160

◈ Chapter 160:

Bylrielle scowled and picked burnt carbon from beneath her fingernails. That was the problem with working all day at a massive commercial forge, you got incredibly filthy from the dirty burn of cheap shitty coal or whatever else it was the smithery masters had decided they could get away with.

Seriously, sometimes she swore they used random street trash tossed into the flame to fuel the forges, awful stuff, it smelled like death, no, it smelled like dea...

Chapter 159

◈ Chapter 159:

Boom.

The windows rattled as violet fire flowed out from the impact point, a wave of purple plasma that crisped the wallpaper to ash revealing and blackening the plaster beneath.

"Hmm. Not bad."

Myra waved her hands and the flame shifted, forming shapes, huge exotic bird wings, layered wings made from violet fire. The many wings curled in on themselves, surrounding her in a shell of shimmering flame, blade-like feathers enclosing, heat haze wafting out...

Chapter 158

◈ Chapter 158:

It wasn't long before morning light filled Warwick's home and the devastation was lit up bright, all the rubble of Rain and Erin's fight strewn across the grass, the long dining table shattered, stone and tile pockmarking the ground and of course the hole he had punched through into the floor below.

Warwick was left looking hungover and gloomy sitting against a piece of detached wall half embedded in the ground.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" said Lyr...

Chapter 157

◈ Chapter 157:

The scythes slashed wide and Erin only avoided their touch by flapping her wings, wings that seemed to give lift completely out of proportion with their size. Dragged back unceremoniously on her rear the succubus came mere inches from being sliced to ribbons.

She looked down at herself, surprised to see herself whole. Then she snarled, eyes flashing with anger.

"I've changed my mind, my intent was to accost you in your sleep each night, but now I'...

Chapter 156

◈ Chapter 156:

Consciousness came slow and very fuzzy, but sooner than expected. It was not the morning light that had woken Rain, it was a sound. Somehow Rain doubted either would have woken him at all if it weren't for his body slowly absorbing the obscene amounts of rotgut he had consumed. Unsurprisingly he felt a lot like he had when he had been severely poisoned by a butler in Lynthia, limbs like heavy lead, his mind a fog.

Even now the fuzzy feeling hung over him like a sm...

Chapter 155

◈ Chapter 155:

Lyra slowly towelled herself dry, her mind still stuck in the moment Opal had accosted her and like some kind of breast massage wizard had driven her to climax through touch alone. Had the goblin girl always had such insane skill with her hands? It was honestly hard to believe.

Secondly, and perhaps more strangely still, why had she wanted detailed descriptions of her time with Rain, she certainly knew what that felt like so why did she want to hear it from Lyra's...

Chapter 154

◈ Chapter 154:

"The problem is," whispered Lyra, "Is if anyone starts asking questions. I can't prove I'm strong enough to control you Rain, any check on my level and they will instantly know that you aren't anyones slave, especially as you have no provable heart pin, and that's not even to mention that I don't hold a permit for you from the Ranker."

"Questions will come because you don't look strong enough to control me."

"Hey! I resent that accurate statement!"

He ...

Chapter 153

◈ Chapter 153:

Rain pulled away from the bookshelf with Lyra held in his grasp. The sheep girl was of course completely stuck tight and fast on his length and wouldn't be coming off any time soon, which was a problem as the fireflies of light buzzing around them clearly indicated that the great library's head librarian was about to find them.

"I don't know how strong she is, and to fight like this?" He glanced down at the sheep girl on his dick, "Is… problematic." 2022-01-15 00:24:17 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 152

◈ Chapter 152:

Bookkeeping as a librarian was a tough job. Lyra the librarian spent many a day reorganising the mess pesky customers left or dealing with the pesky customers themselves who often seemed to think of her not so much a living breathing person but as some kind of convenient book golem in the shape of a person.

Seriously, it was like she was some kind of brainless dispenser of book related information to these people! She loved her job as a librarian, she really did, ...

Chapter 151

◈ Chapter 151:

Opal and Lyra watched with absolute perfect concentration as the teapot packed full of tea leaves slowly poured into the teacup until there was nothing left.

Steam wafted off the surface as the waterline reached the rim and opal eased the teapot back onto the pile of embers, all that remained of the damaged books they were using as fuel to heat the water.

"Are you sure this will work?"

"One hundred percent."

Lyra gave the goblin girl a sceptical ...

Chapter 150

◈ Chapter 150:

Rain devoured the last of the gangs, drakes and lapines all, dozens of them. Those who had been killed by each other, or by himself. He had to admit of the two species Lapine was definitely the tastier, rabbit was just so moreish, drake was just a less spicy kobold.

Careful not to make too much of a mess he carried the bodies away from the street and into Lyra's family garden before digging in. Probably for the best as there were a few neighbours peeking through t...

Chapter 149

◈ Chapter 149:

Food.

Food was annoying.

Annoying because Rain felt he needed so much of it to prevent himself from accidentally eating Opal or Lyra. It was a fairly inconvenient thing to have to deal with to say the least.

Worse, it was getting more inconvenient to deal with. The various animal stables they had been preying on were starting to disappear. Mostly that was because Rain had either eaten every single animal in them or because the panicking owne...

Chapter 148

◈ Chapter 148:

Elves possessed naturally long and shapely legs, but even amongst elves Myra's were particularly long and shapely.

She stretched her legs out like a cat on the sun lounge, splaying her toes, before crossing one leg over the other, gracefully and in a very intentional manner. The elf was very clearly aware of what she was doing, although maybe that was obvious since she was entirely stark naked.

Brax raised an eyebrow at the naked elf.

"An el...

Chapter 147

◈ Chapter 147:

A dog trotted its way through the camp on the plain.

It was a boiling hot summer's day and the sun beat down relentlessly, not even a breeze to stir the endless long grass stretching to the distant horizon. The sounds of millions of crickets making their home in the grasses made the air buzz, creating a low constant music below the sounds of the camp's own: Mindless chattering, the crash of metal against metal from cooks and smiths, the clop of hooves o...

Chapter 146

◈ Chapter 146:

Opal peered into the handkerchief embroidered with Lord Wranvyre's insignia. Inside were a number of bone fragments that rattled and clattered against each other as she moved the cloth side to side.

"Should we really be doing this?" whisper hissed Red.

The kobold was watching her nervously, rubbing his claws together like a person wringing their hands.

"Well yeah, I owe Boner for doing what he did, and it's not like Rain is going to be eager...

Chapter 145

◈ Chapter 145:

A radiant azure butterfly fluttered across the grass, gently flitting from blade to blade. Pickle watched her target with a furious focus, like a tiny tiger, only her eyes visible from where she hid in the long grass.

After many minutes of patience the butterfly at last came close to where she hid and she pounced. Leaping into the air, reaching to catch the pretty sparkly thing!

She missed completely of course, and rolled head over heels across th...

Chapter 144

◈ Chapter 144:

The journey back to Warwick's place went smoothly. Most levelers seemed to figure that a large monster was not very likely to be wearing a giant bear plushie and just walking around calmly on its own. He was left alone, and especially left alone as they neared simply because there were so few people. Bean seemed to act as a natural geographic falloff, the nearer you got to where he lived the less people wanted to be around.

Rain looked for ...

Chapter 143

◈ Chapter 143:

Walking through the streets of Florens without the protection of Lyra's invisibility was a new experience, and a worrying one, yet Rain found himself being left alone to his quiet disbelief. A giant teddy bear plushie with a Lamia wrapped around its hips and a goblin under one arm drew looks of confusion or curiosity but nothing like the howling mob that had chased him from Wranvyre's estate.

It seemed that this far away from the estate no one had a clu...

Chapter 142

◈ Chapter 142:

"Is that what I think it is?" murmured Rain.

"He used these tiny deadly fireballs, lots of them, and they just went through everything," said Opal. "He didn't seem to care very much. I guess if they didn't stop when they went through you..."

"Hey, what are you saying?" said Rose, unable to take her eyes off the maid.

Opal shrugged. "Those guards said attack. I don't think they meant the Lord, I think they meant everywhere. I think t...

Chapter 141

◈ Chapter 141:

Opal sat up from her hiding spot just inside the slave Gobbo door.

She hesitated... then felt at her front. The scar where Wranvyre had stabbed his knife into her was gone, not even a scratch on her stomach, just smooth taut perfect skin. The potion she had taken from Red had done its job very well, which was not that surprising considering the upper-class shop the potions had been stolen from.

That didn't make her feel any better. The mo...