Night brought with it a sense of comfort; the cool wind against your face helped you focus and feel sharp. Your shoulders were relaxed, and there were few to no people mulling about, most gone already. There was only one source of warmth nearby; she clung herself against your arm with a smile that was predatorial as she looked upon the cobblestone streets ahead. Your partner's sky blue hair almost glowed under the dim orange light of the street lamps. Her naked body was pressed against you in all of the right places; she knew exactly how to tease you and she was doing it even while pretending not to.

Good thing you had something to keep her attention onto, as otherwise she might actually attempt something that'd distract you from your goal.

The monstergirl had been clear in her warning; there were some people who were bothering the locals, and you wanted to see if you could earn something out of them. The plan sounded like a waste of time, but considering the kind of money you could potentially get out of it, the effort could very well be worth it. It would certainly set you up into a more comfortable position when it came to looking for a way to expand the harem.

"You're distracted," Kiara whispered, squeezing your arm between her ample breasts, her head leaning down to lick your neck. "I can help with that."

"Let's just do this and get it over with." You pushed yourself to ignore the erotic chill of her apple-scented kiss as it had nearly reached your jawline.

The road was widening, the buildings slowly receding and turning into empty plots of land. The walls of cloth that had been there hours prior were no more, leaving dirt and stones in their place, barely a sign anything had been there other than some holes here and there where the posts had been standing.

The dark sky hung above with more stars than you remembered seeing in your lifetime, but you paid it little mind, focusing on the sound of the scuffle instead.

There were, roughly ten meters away, five people present. The first two were naked and wrestling one another, clearly monstergirls. You could barely make out their features: one had green skin, and vine-like appendages were wriggling out of her body as they attempted to help pin down her adversary, a pale-skinned lithe monstergirl who seemed quite adept at slapping the vines away while trying to close in on the other one.

Your focus moved from the two naked monstergirls and on to the 'crowd', a human with two monstergirls.

The human was a strong-looking male. With short messy brown hair and a severely square jaw, the clothes he wore looked as if they were just about ready to burst at the seams of his suit, and his biceps alone were just about the size of your head. The look on his eyes spoke of amusement as he watched the two monstergirls fight one another.

At either side of him were two equally sharply dressed women, wearing black suits.

The first had a frail-looking short white hair and sharp grey eyes, her body stood poised, her hand comfortably at the hilt of one of the two swords, and she was looking at the two fighting monstergirls with bored ease. Yet you could feel there was an edge of attentiveness there, a readiness to jump into action at a moment's notice.

The other woman looked far less professional.

Long and dull red, her braided hair almost looked like a whip hanging behind her head, an eager grin as she kept herself focused on the fight, appearing very much as amused as the man was. Small cheers left her as she seemed to be trying to urge the duo to kick things up a notch, her gloved hands would pump up from time to time as she celebrated when a particularly brutal blow would land.

"This guy's dangerous," you commented with a scowl, focusing on the blades on the white-haired monstergirl, clearly something that was not cheap.

"Not really, no." Kiara shook her head. "He's some low-life pretending to be a big shot, actually rich people don't make street girls fight." A smirk crossed her lips. "I'm sure we can clean him up, people like him have more ego than sense."

You frowned at that proclamation, eyes glancing at the swords, the suits, the clothes, the overly imposing muscles and jaw. This man looked exactly what you'd imagine from a mob boss, or at least someone sufficiently important in some criminal organization or another. "No," you said after a moment.

"What?"

"No," you declared again, turning to leave before they could spot you. "It's an unnecessary risk we don't need to take."

Kiara did a double-take, scowling. "What? Are you serious?"

"Dead serious."

"You've got to be shitting me, I'm telling you, he's an easy mark. I can feel his ego from over here."

"And I'm telling you I'd rather not risk it, we're not losing anything from just moving on."

"Fine, fucking fine, make this into a big waste of time because you're too much of a coward, Rick." She threw her hands into the air and growled.

You'd been turning to carry down the street when you realized your little spat had been noticed, and the man had turned to look your way. Even from this distance, you could notice the gleam in his eyes as he focused on Kiara. A word was spoken to the white-haired monstergirl; she was gone from her spot and right in front of you the next.

Both you and Kiara froze as you realized the white-haired monstergirl had opted to place herself closer to you than the Succubus was. Her hand rested comfortably at the pommel of her sword, and her piercing blue eyes looked upon your own with absolute coldness. "My Master has called for you."

Your hand was on the capture sphere on your hip- Monica an instant from being called, would you be faster than the woman?

"Sorry, not interested." You moved to sidestep her, but the monstergirl moved with a single easy step to block your path, it made you scowl, turning towards the shorter monstergirl and looking into the cold eyes. "Are you threatening me?"

The monstergirl did not move for a fraction of a second, then stepped back and out of your way. But no sooner had you moved did you feel a heavy hand on your shoulder, and you turned to look upon the rectangular head of the brick-house made flesh. The man was surely younger than you yet almost half a head taller and definitely half of you wider. "Hey brother, no need to take offence, my girl can get intense sometimes."

Brother? "No problem, I was leaving anyway." You noticed Kiara had not moved a hair from where she stood, her gaze squarely fixed on you.

"What's your name, brother?"

"Rick."

"I'm Steven, I was wondering if you'd be interested in selling your girl? Never had a Succubus before, I've heard some great things about them." A wide grin spread across his face. “I know some people, I’m sure I can make it worth your time.”

You'd have to wonder exactly what those things were. "My girl's not for sale, sorry," came your answer, turning to leave once more, but you were halted by the hand upon your shoulder.

“Understandable, don’t want to give up your best, eh?” A little amused chuckle. "Listen, brother, she’s a succubus, and I'd really like to have some fun with your girl, how much would you loan her out for? Just a couple of hours?"

"You wouldn't last a minute," Kiara growled under her voice.

The man laughed. "Oh, feisty, I like her even more." His gaze turned back to you, two black coals within the flat surface of the chiselled white face, and his hand squeezed your shoulder. "I'll pay handsomely, brother, I can even hook you up with some food stuff, don't worry."

Your jaw tightened. "No," you spoke flatly, moving to shrug off his hand, but finding his grip tightening instead.

"I insist, brother, I'm sure we can find a reasonable compromise."

"And I'm sure we won't," came the words, and your hand pushed his own off. "Sorry, but my monstergirl doesn't like peppermint."

The infernal let out a loud snort, covering her mouth and chuckling. The gesture did not go unnoticed, and the crease of his expression into a scowl brought upon your mind the sound of rumbling stone. His brows descended and his eyes appeared to become even smaller pinpricks of blackness within the sculpted expression of growing displeasure.

"I'm trying to be nice here," his voice came as a hiss. "Old man like you? You can do with a break, I'm sure she'll be appreciative by the time I'm done with her, little bitch of a Succubus could do with some manners as well, clearly."

"Not interested," you repeated with a scowl.

"It's clear you don't know who you're messing with."

"Yes," you said. "I don't care who paid for your suit either."

You didn't see the punch coming; you only really noticed it had come by the fact that your head was on the ground, the earth was spinning, and there was a dull ringing in your ears. Half of your face felt numb, and the other half stung like a thousand little angry pinpricks upon the side of your skull. Your hand moved to stand but failed; something was wrong with your body, and you had to take a moment to realize someone was talking to you.

With your thoughts in a whirl, you could barely resist as the large hand gripped your shirt and yanked you to your feet as if you weighed nothing. You suspected it must have been a monstergirl's work, but as you saw the tree trunk of an arm of the man holding you up, you realized it was not the case. "Let's try this again." He flashed pearly white perfect teeth.

The first thought to cross your head was to let Monica out. Dimly, you looked to the side; Kiara was standing with a growl on her lips, the two suit-wearing monstergirls standing between her and you. Why weren't they fighting? You quickly realized the reason.

It didn't matter if they fought; they couldn't touch either of you.

If you let Monica out and she killed him, would you have to put her down?

The man had spoken something else, but you hadn't really heard; your head was ringing, and your thoughts were slow but oh so loud. "Hey." His free hand gave your face a small slap, snapping you back to focus on him- your right eye couldn't see that well.

"You really shouldn't hit the head," you mumbled under your breath. Your jaw felt like it'd been a step away from getting unhinged; the pain was coming in slow, and your heart was starting to beat faster. "Can't think straight like this."

A deep bellow of a laugh. "Right on, brother."

The punch came onto your chest and drove the air out of you. You could hear your ribs groan; something probably snapped. He didn't drop you though, so the hand holding you up kept you up even as you coughed out, wheezing air and heaving, trying to catch your breath. The pain was spreading through your body, red hot and throbbing at the beat of your speeding heart. Focus was becoming harder as you struggled against the lack of oxygen.

Again the man spoke, words you couldn't hear past your own coughs- he was laughing? You groaned; if you let Monica out now he'd probably be dead, wouldn't he? Fuck. You definitely couldn't let her see you like this.

"Hey," you muttered under your breath, a small whisper.

"What's that? Change your mind?"

Opening your mouth to speak, you had to wheeze out a word, barely audible even for your own ears. "Fuck," you groaned weakly.

"What's that? I didn't hear you, louder old man." He pulled you closer to his face, turning it to the side as if to make it easier for him to hear you.

Your jaw tightened, your left hand caressing Monica's ball let go and moved to hang limply at your side. Your right hand did so as well; you pushed to relax your body and reach out. Opening your mouth, you let out a small gasp of air, and he pulled you closer.

"Asshole."

You leaned forward and bit into his ear, locking your jaw tightly. Before he could try anything, your left hand reached between his legs, finding your soft target soon after.

It seemed the man was not made of bricks all over.

You squeezed with everything you had, clenching your fist tightly. Your right hand dove to find anything else to grasp.

Steven tried to yank you off, but it only made you squeeze tighter; the man screamed, and the next gesture he straight up tossed you to the side. You felt yourself arc across the air a short distance and roll on the dirt; you spotted the man falling to his knees and vomiting. The next moment the two monstergirls were at his side.

Kiara was at your side the next moment; she didn't hesitate to lift you off of the ground like you were a sack of potatoes and take you to the air along with her. Something whizzed and the infernal let out a grunt, but you couldn't focus. You could feel breathing was becoming heavier, harder- the world was spinning and things were becoming hazier. The cold air brushed against your numbed face; your chest and neck were on fire.

"If you fall asleep I'm dropping you," the infernal's words came harsh and strained.

The flying didn't take very long, or at least it didn't seem that way; you were put down somewhere that felt uncomfortably hard, and there was a flash of red light. "MASTER!" Diane's voice shrieked. Her hands were upon your body and relief came to you immediately; the pain vanished with a snap.

A cough, you could barely breathe.

"What. Happened," the nurse's words came with poison in them, and through your blurry gaze, you could see her glaring at Kiara.

"Shhhh." You reached up to caress her arm with your left hand. "My fault."

"Don't speak, you're in a bad condition, I'm stabilizing you, we'll take you to the centre as soon as you can handle being carried," the nurse spoke and you nodded.

With a nod, you raised your right hand and opened it, revealing a smooth black rock between your fingers. The gesture caught both monstergirl's focus, Kiara's eyes widened with surprise. "Oh shit."

"Master...?"

Whatever else Diane was going to say, you didn't hear it; you felt the edges of your consciousness slip, and darkness took you.

You woke to a body that ached and felt like it'd been through the morning training session four times too many. You'd not even grunted when a hand fell down to press lightly against your chest.

"Stay."

It was Monica; you opened your eyes to find her sitting next to the bed and looking at you intently, her hand on your chest and pressing down. Blinking, you turned to look around. It was a hospital room, not a taming one. There was a window and light was streaming inside, the walls were an off-white and blue, and the bed was scratchy and stiff.

Your gaze turned towards your arms- no tubes. That... was good news at least.

"Hello," you spoke with a slight cough.

"Rick hurt, stay," Monica declared firmly.

A slight grumble left you, and you kept your eyes closed and breathed in. "Water?"

"Stay."

The feline gave you a warning look, standing up and walking over towards what you assumed was the bathroom. You heard running water for a second, and she returned with puffed up cheeks. You had to blink at the look of determination on her face as she approached as if a guided missile. You'd have laughed if not for how utterly tired you spent right now, watching the monstergirl lean over and seal her mouth with your own.

The kiss was nice even if it kind of got half of your chest drenched in the process. You reached out to caress her hair a little. "Thanks," you muttered. "The others?"

"Out, here soon," she stated, moving back to the chair, leaning over and laying her head on your lap. Golden eyes looked upon you with a slight sadness to it, half a pout. "Rick hurt, no Monica."

"I know, I know..." Nodding, you moved your hand to caress her hair, scratching her behind her ears until she closed her ears until she began to purr.

Slowly you went over what had happened and grimaced inwardly; things had not gone well. You should've probably just flat out not taken the infernal's offer to go around the place to look for a prospective target to begin with. The thought made you sigh, watching your fingers playing with the ashen white hair of the impossibly strong monstergirl comfortably lying against you. Maybe you should've called her out? The thought was dismissed- getting roughed up was better than having to answer questions to the police as to why some human had been torn to shreds, as Monica would not have held back.

With a moment to look about, you found your dex and fished it out. There were several unread messages, much to your surprise. The first of which being from... Tomas and Kat?

Hope you get well soon, we'll stick around to wait for you.

The timestamp was yesterday. You would've sat up a bit more abruptly if not because Monica instantly pinned you back down to the bed. Grumbling, you stared at her as she then proceeded to take your free hand and return it to the top of her head. An exasperated sigh escaped you, and you returned to scratching, hearing her purr while you glanced at the dex and read the other messages.

A couple came from the other survivors, small updates. None of them asked for advice. They were more of a series of FYI's as some of the survivors appeared to be coordinating to head towards Golden Rod to see what they could find there. Others wanted to head over to Cedar; it seemed they'd some had heard monstergirls there were treated far better than in other parts of the government due to the presence of some powerful elves or somesuch.

Then came the response from Felix, a simple apology and a contact address of some colleague he knew that might have some answers. He proceeded to ask for a potential new call, but you definitely weren't feeling up to things right now, so you commented that you'd have a go at it once you reached Violet.

A deep groan left you as you returned the dex to the table next to the bed.

Monica proceeded to pat your head as she pouted while you scratched her own. "Water?" She asked.

"No, thank you, Monica."

"Rick." She patted you some more, and relaxed, closing her eyes after a second and just relaxing.

Seeing that the beautiful mocha-skinned feline Amazonian woman was keeping you put into the bed, you didn't see much sense to do anything other than just lay back and wait. Just like how Monica had mentioned however, it didn't take long before the room's door opened and Diane stepped in.

"Master!" She hurried to your side as soon as she'd noticed you were awake, putting down the backpack she'd been carrying along the way. Before you could even talk, she reached out to touch your chest and head, a sigh escaped her. "Everything's stable, good."

"Was I in a bad place?" You wondered.

"It would've only been life-threatening had you not received aid within the hours following the injury," she said calmly. "There was neither surgery nor requirement for medicine, the healing merely kept you out due to exhaustion. You'll be officially discharged later today."

"Great, so what happens in these situations?"

Your question gave her pause, and a frown crossed her features as she moved closer, reaching out to grasp your free hand. "Depends." Her expression was complicated.

"Depends on what?"

"On... who you know, and who they know." Her voice was soft.

"There's psychics and truth spells." You scowled. "How can this be complicated? I show up, answer some questions, get my brain read by someone like that Irene woman over at Bark, that's that, heck, I'm half betting the dex keeps track of all audio at the least."

Diane nodded. "Dex has the audio recording function always on, so that, upon retrieval from an expired tamer in the wilds, an autopsy of the black box would allow determining likely cause of death." A moment of hesitation followed. "As to legal proceedings, I am no expert, but I have heard of how expensive it can become to attempt to get a surefire thing through when the one on the other side has more funds to draw from."

"There are damn psychics with mind reading powers." You frowned. "How complicated can this shit get?"

The former nurse sighed, sitting next to you. "Well, how sure are you that you weren't under an illusion? Or that someone changed your memories?" She gave a sad smile. "How certain are you that the other man was not under the control or influence of another monstergirl? Can you be absolutely sure the concussion or stress from the event didn’t cause an alteration of your perception of what took place?"

"What?" You frowned, moving to sit up, only to get Monica to press you back down. An annoyed growl escaped you even as Diane quirked the tiniest smile.

"He's ok now, Monica, he can move," she said. "Master's not hurt."

"Not hurt?"

And as soon as the confirmation came, Monica was hugging you tightly, enough you groaned a little. Monica's lips were on your face, your lips, your jaw, neck, hair. The bed rattled as she moved to straddle you, her hands pulling down the covers.

"Stop!" You proclaimed loudly, bringing the half-naked monstergirl to halt, looking down at you with a pout.

"Sex good," came the declaration. "Rick fight, win, sex good."

"I think she wants to reward you," Diane giggled loudly this time.

"What did you...?" A huff escaped you, and you turned back to the insistent feline. "Down, later, not now." Monica pouted even more this time, crossing her arms and staying there even as you sat up. The distraction of her naked chest and perky dark... You shook your head, not wanting to lose your line of thought. "Down, now."

Grumbling, Monica obliged, unamused; you turned to Diane's smirk.

"The gist of it is that legal cases can become very complicated if you have the money to make them complicated," she said, trying to summarize things before you could proceed. "But you would probably have an easier time pinning your injuries on the monstergirls that were there than on the man."

"Awesome," you growled, then shook your head. "I guess that means I'll be putting this to the side for the time being. What else you have? What's the status on things?"

Diane hesitated a second. "Kiara and Raven are currently buying clothes. Raven had been producing silk cloth and was in need of basic clothes she could modify and use as a template for her sewing. Her budget was low however since Master didn't want to splurge..."

You shot her an unamused look, sighing deeply. "What else?"

"That would be it, Master, I came back with some good food-"

Monica perked up her head. "Food?"

"-for you to recover your energy," the nurse continued without missing a beat, quickly cheering up. "I also got very good news, but I was waiting for Raven and Kiara to share it."

"Good news?"

"About the... incident." Her grin grew a little.

For your part, you didn't feel amused but nudged this to the side. "Tomas and Kat?"

"Oh, I sought them out while my sisters were treating you, I informed them that you got yourself into a brawl protecting some monstergirls and that you were going to need a day's worth of rest and recovery."

"I... wait, what? Protect... what?"

Diane's cheeks flushed a little. "I know it's stretching the truth a bit, Master, but your actions did protect the two monstergirls that had been brawling. Kiara confirmed that as soon as you'd attacked the man, they'd made a run for it."

"I don't even... what?" You shook your head, this time leaning fully forward, ignoring the discomfort of the hospital gown and adjusting yourself, crossing your legs and looking at the brightly smiling pink-haired monstergirl as she adjusted herself to sit closer to you. A deep breath. "Try that again."

"Kiara commented that the man had likely shown up likely to recruit a monstergirl, get them to fight, the winner gets bought out," she spoke softly. "This kind of things happen often enough, but sometimes people just show up to get them to fight and then walk out. Kiara insists that night was of the second type, but anyway, they were fighting one another, thinking the winner would get bought off and get a proper home, maybe even shift. You helped put a stop to that by causing an incident."

"I didn't..."

"You did, Master, you could have given him Kiara to have some fun, a taming wouldn't hurt anyone, but by turning him down things escalated." She reached out and grasped your hand. "And I know Kiara will say that it's what you should have done, but I know that you're kinder than that, Master... even if she shouldn't deserve that."

Looking at Diane's bright cheery smile, her deep purple happy eyes, her short messy pink hair, and how she practically vibrated with excitement, you kept yourself from answering the first thing that came into your mind. Instead, you reached out to pull her into a slight kiss, feeling her bubbly energy dissipate as she relaxed.

Her arms slowly moved to hug your neck, and she leaned into you.

"No sex now." Diane was pulled back by a grumpy looking Monica, it only made the former nurse giggle louder.

Relaxing your shoulders, you tilted your head and focused on your alpha. "So, that good news?"

Flushed, Diane nodded, appearing to have forgotten about wanting to wait for the other two monstergirls. She reached into the backpack and pulled out a bundle of paper. Slowly, she opened it, and within you saw the stone you were half certain you'd snatched last night. Shaped like an egg and a bit smaller than a baseball, the stone was black, a darkness that pulled your attention from the slightly gleaming surface and towards its centre.

The Rapha dropped the stone into your hands and you felt it tingling under your touch, your eyes becoming further drawn towards the centre of the crystalline object. There was swirling purple energy within, shifting, growing, expanding, moving in whisps as it followed an impossible pattern of chaos, ever spinning around the pulsing centre, ever building in momentum yet slowing down an instant afterwards.

"This is a refined elemental stone," Diane declared. "It's at the second tier, but it could certainly be charged up."

"Elemental stone?"

"Remember Monica's shift?" She asked, waiting for you to nod. "Certain monstergirl breeds can shift using the energy contained within this stone, at that point the stone breaks into smaller unrefined ones." A little pause. "Shift aside, refined elemental stones are sought after by enchantment and artefact builders, it's only of the second tier, but... it is worth plenty if sold to the right buyer."

"Plenty?"

"It's no fortune, but it's certainly something that will make the man that attacked you rather angry," she smirked.

That was a lot more than a week's worth of good meals for everyone. You looked at the stone and tightened your grip ever so slightly, remembering the sting against your cheek and pain in your chest, of being carried by the Succubus as you ran away from the man named Steven.

Idly, you wondered whether the one that should be concerned over being sued would be you.