Chapter Six: Sexually Transmitted Destruction

The three newcomers dismounted their horses as the body of the remaining demon crumpled into black dust, and blew away on the hot breeze. Cahaya ignored the red-headed women, hoisting Casey onto her shoulder and walking over to the black smear that marked the ground where the last demon once stood.

She pushed the black dust with her toe, and then bent over to pick up a tooth, which she slid into her pouch.

“Always the superstitious one, aren’t you, Cahaya?” chided one of the women, the oldest of the three. Casey stared at the redheads. They wore leather armor, armless but covering the women to the neck. A leather flap embellished each breast, for no functional reason that Casey could see. Pleated leather skirts spread out over the backs of their mounts, which at first glance looked like horses, covered in various patterns of white and brown. Further inspection revealed them to be merely horse-like. They had no manes, or ears for that matter, and their eyes were shaped like elongated almonds, giving them an alien appearance.

All three of the women wore a short sword on their hip and a long spear on their back. Leather bands pulled their mops of fiery red hair tight against their temples, ending in tightly-tied ponytails that spilled down their backs.

“Tua,” Cahaya mumbled, addressing the one who had spoken. The red-haired woman was not quite middle-aged, and possessed a mature attractiveness that Casey had always found appealing. Jamen would have called her a MILF. “Why are you here?”

The one called Tua gestured to the axe that Cahaya held to her bloody chest. “Normally, I would say we are here for you, as you are the one named in the prophecy. But your importance may have been overestimated, as it turns out. We’re here for your weapon. Our master requires his presence.”

“The Ibu have no master,” Cahaya said, wrinkling her brow. “Merah leads you, we know. But she is no master.”

“Yet a master has come to us, and Master Jamen requires your weapon,” Tua replied.

“Wait... Master Jamen?” Casey blurted.

As one, the three women brandished their spears.

Tua leapt off her horse and went into a crouch. “Who said that? Show yourself, demon!”

Cahaya held the axe in front of her, blade end up. “It is no demon. It is a no-man.”

“God dammit, Cahaya. You have to stop calling me that.” If the woman heard him, she gave no sign of it.

Tua cautiously approached the weapon, and her two companions dismounted and slowly brought up the rear, spears at the ready. “What...”

Lost for words. Yeah, I feel the same way.

“Rhoma has sent us two,” Cahaya said. “But No-man cannot function without his companion.”

The two women in the rear chuckled. One whispered to the other, “And vice versa.” Casey was quickly realizing his hearing was just as magnified as his sight, but he felt the wisest course of action was to keep these abilities to himself for the time being.

Tua merely grunted. “Hmph. Jamen said the same thing. Not at all how I remember men to be. But Jamen is our savior. He asks, and we deliver.” She furrowed her brow. “But what function can an axe...”

Tua’s eyes ran down the length of Casey’s shaft, and recognition dawned in her eyes. “Oh. Oh.” The woman took a step forward, hand outstretched.

Cahaya brought the axe to her chest, which was now sticky with the half-baked demon blood. Casey didn’t mind.

“No-man is mine. Where it goes, I go.” Her eyes dared Tua to say otherwise.

The older woman let her hand drop. “Well then come along.” She glanced at the pile of demon remnants. “There’s worse than that out here.” With a fluid motion, she mounted her horse, and held out a hand to Cahaya.

She eyed the beast distastefully, but accepted the hand, her other clasped tightly to the Casey’s shaft. Tua pulled her up, and Cahaya lay the axe across her lap. The other women mounted, and they were soon galloping southwest across the barren landscape.

After a handful of minutes, Casey spotted a group of figures, running on foot in the distance from where they had come. A first glance suggested demons, but as he focused, he made them out for what they were. For an instant, he thought to keep the information to himself, but he was nearly certain that the women would be able to see them at this point.

“Your mother is coming,” Casey said. “And she brought friends.”

Tua brought her horse to a halt and turned it around. She snorted. “They can meet us at the village. Hiya!”

The next half hour went by quickly. Casey soon lost sight of their pursuers as the beast galloped onward. He had no doubt they were still following.

Soon, the scent of wood smoke and cooking meat filled his nostrils, and he felt a twinge in his stomach. Wait... I don’t have a nose. Or a stomach. What the hell.

Tua reined in her horse to a trot as an encampment formed around them. More women, all of them redheads and all of them as well endowed as Cahaya and Tua, watched them as they passed. A few of them gave Casey strange glances as he passed. The women looked... hopeful. For a moment he had visions of these women passing him around as the cave women had. He felt a tingle along his shaft.

They stopped in front of a large, red tent adorned with white and gold embroidery and trim. Everyone dismounted, and Tua’s two companions--Casey had learned their names were Susu and Darmi--led the animals away. Cahaya looked around apprehensively, still clutching Casey to her bosom. This was quickly becoming her usual position with him. Casey was okay with that.

The front flap of the tent opened, and another women stepped out. She was shorter and younger than Tua, but exuded an aura of authority that Casey couldn’t miss. That, and and she was incredibly attractive. Again, he found himself grateful that nobody could see where he was looking.

As he looked her over, his gaze drifted downward. Her chest was impressive, but in this land, impressive chests were par for the course. He did a double take... both of her chest flaps were open, exposing two cherry-colored nipples the size of vanilla cookies.

“Tua!” the woman exclaimed. “You have brought what our Master seeks!”

Tua knelt before her leader, and bowed her head. The younger woman approached her, placing a hand on the older woman’s red hair. Tua raised her head, then took her leader’s nipple into her mouth, sucking gently, almost ritualistically. After a couple of seconds, she pulled away, stood up, then wiped a string of milky saliva from her lip with the back of her hand.

“Yes, Merah. We have.”

The one called Merah glared at Cahaya. “And what is she doing here?”

“She refuses to be separated from the weapon.” She rolled her eyes. “Or he from her for that matter.”

A questioning look washed over Merah’s face. “What do you mean? How can...”

“Nice to meet you,” Casey interrupted. “Name’s Casey.”

Casey was getting a kick out of surprising people. He thought it might get old, but it hadn’t yet. Merah reached to her back for a non-existent spear, then slowly lowered her hand. She approached Cahaya, who took a step back.

“I will not hurt you, girl.” Merah smiled. “It seems you were destined to save us after all.” She reached out a hand toward Casey. “May I?”

Cahaya clasped the axe tighter to her chest, much to the delight of Casey and the apparent dismay of Merah.

“I need to bring him to our master. For the sake of both the Ibu and the Tante.” Her gaze lingered on Cahaya’s blood-caked cleavage. “Plus, you should get cleaned up. Demon blood leaves an awful rash.”

“No-man goes, I go,” she said matter-of-factly.

Merah sighed. “Fine. Follow me. But be gentle around our master. He hasn’t quite... adapted yet. Follow me?”

Cahaya hesitated, then nodded. and Merah led them across the camp. Neither woman spoke a word.

Casey took a moment to admire the leader’s legs as she walked ahead of him. It was easy to forget a woman’s other attributes in this place. He resisted the urge to shift his point of view to ground level and have a peek. It didn’t feel right, with Cahaya clasping him so tightly. Still...

He was saved from further contemplation by their arrival at the largest tent in the encampment, this one more ornately decorated than the others. Merah opened the flap, and gestured for Cahaya and her charge to enter. Cahaya scowled at the redhead, then stepped inside.

Jamen leapt to his feet from a comfortable-looking bed covered with a crimson blanket. “Spoony!” The cleric crossed the carpet in two steps, reaching toward the pair. This didn’t sit well with Cahaya, who clapped the charging man on the head with the flat of Casey’s blade.

Both men, well, man and axe, swore in unison.

“What the hell?” Jamen protested.

“How the hell do you think I feel? I’ll tell you. Like I just got kicked in the nuts!”

Jamen rubbed his head, and his scowl turned into a laugh. “Oh yeah. I forgot.”

Casey thought it was odd. When cleaving demons in battle, he experienced no testicular oddities at all. Just the pleasurable endorphin rush of battle. But smack a cleric on the head...

Merah stepped around from behind Cahaya. “Master, we have brought you your blade. You didn’t mention he was...”--she glanced at the weapon, her eyes running down the shaft-- “so talkative.”

She turned to Cahaya and her tone took on the aura of authority. “My master requires his weapon. Give it to him.”

Casey felt an odd mixture of pride... and something deeper... when Cahaya didn’t budge. Maybe she likes me. Or maybe I’m just a seed-shooting means to an end. He sighed internally.

Jamen looked from Cahaya, to Casey, to Merah, to Merah’s nipples, then back to Cahaya before finally resting on Casey’s handle. “No, she can hold him. As long as he’s here.” He folded his arms. “He needs to be here.”

Casey agreed, making Merah jump again. “Yes. We need to stick together. But damn, Jammie, you shoulda seen it. We battled a horde of demons. We cleaved through them like they were in a newbie zone. We...”

“Two demons is no horde,” Cahaya interrupted, her face confused.

Jamen chuckled. “Yeah, he’s good at embellishing things.” He glanced again at the handle, nearly lost between Cahaya’s breasts. “Although now he doesn’t need to as much.”

Casey smirked, not that anyone knew it, while the two women appeared the equal shade of lost.

Merah stepped quickly between Cahaya and Jamen, then faced the cleric. Her face melted from sternness into a more... suggestive expression. “So,” she said softly. “Your friend is back.” She ran a hand down the front of the cleric’s robes, stopping at his crotch and giving it a gentle squeeze. “Can we try again, this...” She searched for the word. “Cock fucking?”

Casey snorted, and Jamen’s eyes went wide, darting from Merah to Cahaya to Casey. “Um... I think... I mean, yeah, but...”

Merah pouted. It was a good luck on the redhead. “You said your friend needed to be here. He is here.”

Cahaya looked around the tent, seemingly wanting to be any place other than inside it.

“Well yes,” Jamen stammered. “I wanted him here. But not here here. Just... close.”

Merah looked to Cahaya. “Are all men this confusing?”

The dark-skinned girl opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted from the sound of a horn blaring somewhere outside the tent.

“Shit.” Merah snapped her nipple flaps closed, then grabbed two spears from a container by the entrance. She pointed one at Jamen. “You stay here, do you understand?”

“What’s happening?”

“Demons,” Merah spat. “And you are the most valuable thing in our world.”

“But...” Jamen protestd.

Merah stepped toward the cleric and prodded him in the chest with the butt of the spear. “You. Stay. Here.”

He held up his hands, then plopped down on the bed.

The redhead turned to Cahaya as she strode to the entrance. “Follow me.”

Cahaya let the axe fall to her side, holding it nearly effortlessly now, almost as if it were a meat cleaver. It looked odd with her small frame, almost impossible, but Casey had long given up on deciding what was possible here. He assumed it had something to do with the same force of will he summoned in battles.

“Wait!” Jamen said, and the women turned around by the entrance. He held out a hand, which glowed dimly. “Berkati.”

A cold wave swept over Casey. “Bless weapon. Dunno how long it will last or how much good it will do you.” He chuckled. “I’m level one, after all.” He repeated the phrase two more times, once for each of Merah’s spears, then once more for the sword at her hip. “Be careful out there.”

“Thanks, man.”

Casey felt a rush of anticipation as Cahaya hauled him out of the tent. He half-expected demons and redheads to be locked in a battle royale just outside of the tent, but there was just the shuffle of the Ibu readying weapons and covering nipples. Susu and Darmi, on either side of the entrance, snapped to attention as Merah and Cahaya stepped through.

“Tua waits for you on the rock,” Darmi said.

Merah sheathed both spears in a harness on her back, where they formed an X behind her. “Thank you.” She caressed a breast of each of the guards in turn. Not sexually, really, in Casey’s opinion, but more as a sign of friendship, like Casey would clap Jamen on the back. “Guard the man with your lives. Without him, we are lost.”

Casey almost shared his own sperm-fountain abilities, but judged this wasn’t the place.

Merah sprang into a jog, weaving through the tents with surprising agility for one so top-heavy, with Cahaya on her heels. Casey shifted his POV to a spot above the women, so he could see where they were headed. Just outside of the encampment, he spied Tua crouching on a large sandstone boulder, peering through a telescoping eyeglass. A minute later, Merah and Cahaya were crouching next to the tactician. Casey made note of a brass-colored horn strapped next to the spear on her back.

“Report?” Merah questioned quietly.

Tua gestured to the south and handed Merah the eyeglass. She peered through, and swore.

Casey didn’t need the assistance. A cloud of dust glowed brightly in the light of a sun that was quickly setting in the west. At its head, he could pick out nearly twenty of the stocky demons they had fought earlier. How many more were in the cloud behind them, Casey had no way of telling. Above the cloud, two larger demons, lanky and muscular, glided over their brethren with leathery purple wings that nearly stretched the width of the horde below.

Damn.

Movement caught his eye to the west. “Over there,” he pointed.

Merah turned and glared at him. “Over where?”

“Oh yeah, sorry, I forget. Towards the sun.” He had no way of knowing if his west was their west, here.

She gazed where he directed, and saw what he did. Nearly thirty of the Tante, Cahaya’s kin, ran across the desert, their light steps not kicking up nearly the dust of the demonic horde.

Cahaya looked down at Casey. “What?”

“Your people are coming.”

“They follow. This we know.”

“Yeah, but they’re about to run head long into a horde of demons.”

The ranks of the Ibu were quickly amassing behind the rock, awaiting the command of their leader. Tua turned to Merah. “The Tante want the axe back. I’m not sure why, or if they’d fight for it.” She turned her attention on Cahaya. “Any idea as to why they’d send half their womanpower out here after a bloody axe?”

Cahaya, gratefully, remained silent, but Casey could feel her hand close tighter around his shaft.

Tua turned back to Merah. “But they will fight alongside us against the Demons, as they have before. And their barriers will be a blessing. If we take the horses and circle behind the Tante, we should be able to reach them before the demons do. The horde is fierce, but slow.”

Merah nodded, then stood, turning to address the women behind her. Most donned helmets, and nearly all wielded the short swords, with one or two spears attached to their back. In the rear, he counted eleven archers. Not a bad force. I like the odds.

“Ibu Ibuku!” Merah shouted. “The horde is back, in greater numbers. We have fought them before and emerged victorious, and we shall do so now. For now, we have something to fight for. The rumors are true. A man has come to us. His heart is true, and his seed is pure.” A cheer rose up from the crowd. “And he will make us all fat with children! But only in a world free of this demonic infestation. Ibuku! Today we ride to a victorious future!”

The cheer arose anew, and women began mounting their horses, sometimes two to a mount. A guard led Merah’s steed to the rock, a sleek, grey, muscular animal. Its oval eyes and earless head gave Casey the creeps, but once Cahaya climbed on behind Merah and lay him across her soft lap, he put it out of his mind. Her hands eased her grip on him for a moment, but tightened again when Merah kicked the beast to a gallop out of the village, with the rest of the party spread out behind her. The sound of hoofbeats and the smell of dust filled the twilight air.

Within minutes, they had circled out of the camp and approached the advancing Tante from the west, as planned. Casey saw Cahaya’s mother... Wehweh?... and images from their encounter in the cave flashed into his head. A pulse shot through the length of his shaft. Not now.

If the Tante were surprised to see a hundred Ibu on horseback, they didn’t show it. Merah dismounted and meed a beeline for the Tante leader, who was flanked by Daun, the woman they had encountered shortly after he had been abducted by Cahaya.

“Merah,” the woman said curtly.

“Wehweh. Do you see what approaches?”

“We see. But their interest is not in us. They see us. They care not.”

Tua looked through her glass at the horde. “She’s right. They’re on a direct route to our encampment. They must not have seen us.”

Wehweh chuckled. “They see you. It is not you they want either.”

Merah looked back in the direction of the village, a look of realization washing over her face. “Shit.” She leapt to her horse, Cahaya adjusting the axe to give her room. The redhead looked down at Wehweh. “Fight with us, as we have before.”

Wehweh paused nonchalantly. “We will. But after, Cahaya and no-man come home with the Tante.”

Merah followed Wehweh’s gaze toward her daughter and the axe. “Fine. We fight.”

Casey thought. There’s no way she’ll turn us over to them again. Thoughts of a line of shapely posteriors presenting themselves to him filled his brain, and he felt the familiar tingle of arousal. No. They won’t. I have to stay with Jamen.

With a kick of her heels, Merah spurred her mount toward the northward-bound dust storm. “For the master!”

Ibu mounted one to a horse snapped up Tante as they passed them, while others, Wehweh included, ran alongside, nearly keeping up, spears at the ready. Casey shifted his view above the advancing troops. Never in his life had he seen such a grandiose display of bouncing boobflesh. He took a mental snapshot.

Two minutes later, and they were close enough to pick out individuals in the advancing horde, which had now shifted direction to meet the them. From his above-view, Casey counted at least eight of the squat, short-winged demons they had fought earlier, many of them already conjuring their balls of dark energy. The two gigantic gliders above the horde, circled higher and higher. For normal eyes they would be tough to pick out against the rapidly-darkening sky. A smattering of stars began to appear, and the planets rings began to rise in the east.

“Is no-man ready?”

Casey snapped out of his observations at the sound of Cahaya’s voice. “I’m ready.” He was, too. The adrenaline had been pumping, not to mention a dozen other chemicals and hormones, and he could still feel Jamen’s blessing tingling over his skin. It felt a lot like it had back on Arousia. This place...

With a ululating cry, Cahaya leapt from the horse and charged at the nearest demon, Casey raised two-fisted above her head.

Cleave!

His first attack did as the name suggested, splitting the short demon’s helmet in two, not to mention its skull and half its torso. The attack nearly took Cahaya off her feet, but to her credit she hung on. The demon’s flesh sizzled where the blade wedged into the creature’s sternum. Its wings went limp as it hit the ground.

-20 SP

There’s that damn message again.

Cahaya wrenched Casey free of the demon and looked around for her next target. Things appeared brighter than they should have been in the rapidly-darkening evening. He chalked it up to his super-vision, but then he noticed the hovering orbs of light, the same that decorated the Tante’s caves.

A line of the dark-skinned women formed to their right, each of their hands extended in the sigil that summoned their sevel. A glowing wall formed in front of them as they advanced into the throng, and any demon that came in contact with it hissed and ran away yelping, usually to be met in the back with a Tante spear.

Cahaya had summoned her own protective sevel as well, and Casey shuddered as the mild, pleasurable sensation washed through him, numbed slightly by the coldness of Jamen’s blessing. The sensation was interrupted as she launched Casey at his next target in a wide horizontal arc just a foot above the ground.

Cleave!

The demon dropped to its knees, which was it’s only option, really, as anything below them had been cut clean off. It had managed to get off one of those balls of black energy as it fell, which Cahaya swatted away with the flat of his blade on the recoil stroke. To his surprise, it hurt a little.

-20 SP

-10 HP

Ouch. Damage. Um... what happens when I get to zero?

The half-legged hellspawn tried to flap its meager wings, but they didn’t have nearly enough lift to accomplish anything. Cahaya and Casey finished it off with a stroke that cleaved him from his right ear to his left shoulder.

Around them, the battle continued, but there was no doubt the Ibu and Tante were winning. The little demons were just no match for the band of trained warriors. It was the gigantic demons that worried Casey. He didn’t see them anywhere on the battlefield. He looked up.

His stomach sank. They had left the battle, heading north, and were now plummeting.

Right at the village.

Right at Jamen.