Iliasport

Alice was excited about Iliasport, since a port city could be expected to have a lot of exotic foods. I'd started becoming more excited for her than anything else, even though I loved to sample new foods as well. I just didn't have the same level of joy that she did about it. I thought it was adorable.

Less adorable was her attitude towards me. I'd felt we were getting along pretty well, despite her default mode of being insulting, but I guess I hadn't thought through the full implications of her unwillingness to aid me in battles. Since all the fights I'd been in up to this point had not been to the death, I hadn't been terribly offended by it. She was a powerful monster and I was just a human. If I couldn't fight any of my own battles I'd just grow dependent on her. As a woman who wasn't even willing to carry supplies even though I had to acquire extra to feed her, I was sure she wouldn't be willing to do all the fighting. So I was okay with that, mostly.

That was until I ran into the roper. For reasons I couldn't figure out, there was a forest that we had to get through before reaching Iliasport. The forest wasn't the bewildering part, it was the lack of a clear path through it. As we entered the forest, at first I noticed how overgrown it was. As we delved deeper into the forest, it got tougher to stay on the path. Eventually, I lost track of it altogether. The good news is that this didn't mean we were lost. As long as we continued straight ahead, I knew that we would run into Iliasport. But it did slow us down, which meant more opportunities to get ambushed.

That's where the roper came in. Alice, of course, never got ambushed, she just disappeared before the monster came into sight. If I was talking to her or looking at her, that would at least provide some warning. Given how easy I was to sneak up on, that was actually a big help. This time, however, despite the fact it was an extremely dangerous monster who would kill me if it could, she just vanished without me being aware she was gone. I didn't know there was a roper in the vicinity until I was grabbed by its tentacles.

For the first time I was genuinely scared. It wasn't a tough fight despite the successful ambush. I broke free of the roper's hold and sealed her fairly quickly once free. But when Alice reappeared, I wasn't too happy.

"Would you actually just stand by while I got slowly dissolved?" I asked.

"It would be unfortunate, but yes, I would just watch," she replied.

"I know you said you wouldn't help, but just letting me die like that? How can you do that? I thought we were really starting to get along."

"What are you, a child?" she said contemptuously. "What does getting along have to do with anything?"

I wanted to say that friends don't let friends get eaten, but I realized we weren't friends. We weren't even both human. I'd been learning quickly that monsters and humans do not think alike. Another important piece of information on why humans and monsters didn't get along, and a pretty important one at that. I guess I'd been deluding myself that she actually cared.

We did make it to Iliasport in one piece, but it was pretty disappointing. Port towns should be busy. This one was not. I wondered if maybe there was some crisis going on as in Iliasburg, but there was no monster trying to take over the city. The problem was a more lingering crisis. For the last two years, no ship had been able to reach Sentora, nor had any ships come from Sentora. Whenever a ship tried, a horrible storm would come and destroy it. The resultant cutoff of trade meant that Iliasport was basically a dead city.

Alice seemed to know something. Since this would end our journey here, I was really hoping she'd tell me.

"A strong youma is blocking the ships from crossing," she explained. "Their goal is to block pilgrims from making it to Ilias Temple."

"So if it's a monster doing this, I just have to find a way to beat the monster, right?"

"You wouldn't even be a match," she said flatly. "But at this rate I won't be able to enjoy any of the foreign delicacies."

"More importantly," I noted. "Our journey ends here. There's not much more to see on this little continent."

There was a small lead on a possible solution, however. Questioning the fishermen at the port, there were rumors of a pirate cave not too far from the city that contained a legendary bell used by the pirate Selene that could enable a ship to get through any storm. It sounded like a long shot, but at least it was something to do rather than just give up and go our separate ways.

The next morning we arrived at the cave. I was very well rested, and to my surprise, not sore from the intensity of the previous night's training. I must be getting in shape. Now, I was in pretty good shape in Ilias Village, but I had discovered on my short journey so far that there was a huge difference between "in shape" and "fighting shape". Real combat is SO much more intense than sparring!

As we entered, Alice crinkled her nose. "It smells like fox in here," she announced.

"What does a fox smell like," I asked.

"Thin fried tofu," she replied, matter of factly. That didn't help me at all.

I noted to Alice that this hideout seemed to be really well made. It wasn't just a cave, it had some pretty extensive work done. Alice reminded me that this infrastructure was probably built with traps in mind, so I needed to be careful.

Something was odd, though. No bodies. I had expected for some reason to find skeletons all over the cave. If adventurers are coming in and not coming out, they had to be somewhere, right? I mentioned that to Alice, then said something I probably shouldn't have.

"It almost seems like ghosts are going to come out at any second."

"G… Ghost?!" Alice said, voice trembling.

That was an unexpected reaction. "Are you okay, Alice?"

"I'm fine!" she insisted. We continued on.

As we walked through the cave, I noticed that she was much closer to me than usual. Actually, REALLY close. Correction: she kept on creeping even closer, until she was really invading my personal space. When I asked her why she was so close, she insisted that I was the one walking too close to her. But whether it was me or her, we started to walk at a more reasonable distance.

Now, inexplicably for her, she started to run at the mouth. "Why do you think I'd be afraid? You know? I mean, ghosts are so unscientific and everything. Just an ignorant product of foolish humans."

She really is afraid! I thought. How weird. I'd run into plenty of things that were worth being afraid of in just the last few days, I had no time to be worried about incorporeal things. I didn't know if ghosts were real or not, but I regretted saying something. And yet I found her reaction endearing. Careful, I thought. Don't start to like her too much, she'll only disappoint you.

Suddenly we heard a sound. Alice screamed, jumped at me, and wrapped her tail around me. If there truly was something dangerous, how was I supposed to protect her from it all wrapped up? Wait a minute, why was I thinking about protecting her? Turnabout's fair play, if a ghost comes for her, she's on her own, I'll just watch, and if she survives, I can give her ghostbuster training by the campfire. Heh. Ghostbusters. There's a memory I'll never tell her about in a zillion years.

She calmed down and released me. Her face had returned to its resting mildly annoyed default. "That's no ghost."

"No ghost, good," I replied.

"Don't say that word," she commanded. "Finish this quickly."

But…. She had said "ghost"! Oh well, more important things to worry about. I knew from previous experience that "finish this quickly" meant "not a difficult fight". That's a relief, at least.

Alice disappeared, somehow in an angry way if that's possible to imagine. You had to see it to understand.

As I walked through the passageway, I heard the sound again. "Show yourself!" I yelled into the darkness. Stepping out was an adorable fox girl.

Refocusing myself, I tried to remember all that I had read about fox girls. They could range from very powerful to very weak. Really, a very diverse group that came in many shapes and sizes, sharing mainly their fluffy ears and extra fluffy tails as a common characteristic. This particular fox girl only had two tails, so must be pretty weak. That would explain why Alice felt I could finish this quickly.

She didn't seem like she was interested in a fight, which was a first. Maybe I could finally avoid one? She was also yammering to herself. "I got separated from Tamamo and now I run into a human! What should I do? What should I do?"

"You could let me by," I suggested. "There's really no reason for us to fight. I've got nothing against foxes."

As usual, rather than get me out of a fight it only seemed to harden her resolve. "She told me not to let a human take Poseidon's Bell! I won't let you by me!"

"Who told you not to?" I asked. "this… Tamamo?"

Her face said that she'd said too much. But she recovered quickly and said, "I won't let you by! So I guess it's time for a match!"

A match? Foxes weren't known for being particularly bad monsters, even the powerful ones, so it seemed likely the stakes wouldn't be too high here. If I failed, I probably just didn't get the Bell. Although that was pretty high stakes when I thought about it, given that my journey would have to end here.

This time I attacked first, feeling that announcing a match meant she was ready. She was. I had forgotten to open with Thunder Thrust, and while her quickness wasn't in the class of the Queen Harpy, she was faster than any normal human. She dodged easily and before I knew it, had my pants off and her hand around my penis. She giggled and started pumping. Alice had to be watching of course, and was probably livid that I let myself fall into that.

The rest of the fight was the ugliest dance ever, with her bouncing around like a ping pong ball off the walls while I took wild swings at her. I could almost feel Alice's disapproval. The fox girl tried to use teeth and claws on me as well as pleasure attacks, but they didn't seem that effective unless I was to die by a thousand cuts. She didn't seem that patient, so quickly gave up on them, leaving me with nothing worse than a few scratches and teeth marks, as if I'd been in a fight with an angry kitten.

She was quick, and more importantly, she was also tricky, coming at me at weird angles off the walls. I reached a dubious milestone as she became the first monster girl to ever actually get her mouth on my dick during a fight. She also utilized her two fluffy tails to stimulate it in very interesting ways. But here's where you, the reader, may be proud of me. In every fight so far, I've talked about my resolve slipping, how I was just THIS close to surrendering to the pleasure. But perhaps my encounters with a Heavenly Knight and a Queen, not to mention Alice's… er… special training that one night, were increasing my tolerance. Don't get me wrong. What she was doing felt REALLY good. Her tongue was pleasantly rough, her tails pleasantly fluffy. My lack of distraction from her pleasure attacks was definitely progress, but would do me no good if she actually brought me to orgasm, at which point I'd be helpless, and then never be able to reach the bell, much less take it from a more powerful fox. But maintain my focus I did(be proud of me!) and finally stopped flailing wildly at little Miss Bouncing Ball and landed a solid hit. She cried out in surprise and pain. I still hated that. Angel Halo didn't kill and didn't even make real cuts. Couldn't it have also spared its victims the pain of cutting?

"Damn you!" she yelled at me. "Clone time!" Huh?

Suddenly three of her were standing before me. But I immediately saw the flaw in her spell. They couldn't move. It was as if she was standing with two cardboard cutouts of herself. I waited for one of them to blink. The one on the left did and I immediately responded with Demon Decapitation. She was sealed before she could even scream.

Now she actually was a fox. A cute one too. I reached down to pet her. She bit me and ran off. Guess I couldn't blame her.

Alice reappeared and surprisingly didn't dress me down right away. "Foxes are infesting this place. But this type of monster doesn't live naturally in caves."

I had guessed that myself. "Do you think the foxes are here for the Bell?" I asked her.

"Sheesh," she said. "Those things are really annoying."

I hurried on, knowing that I had to reach that bell before they did. Since this was a combat situation I felt no need to wait on Alice. She'd follow or not follow. Either way, she wasn't going to be helping, so why worry about her?

I slowed as I approached a large boulder in the center of the passage. I also noticed a large ball with spikes, and even a pitfall! Traps! But already triggered. I saw no bodies or blood. Hmmm, maybe it's good the foxes are here. Foxes are quick and clever, precisely the kind of monsters who would be good at evading traps. Maybe I should follow behind them rather than try to get ahead of them? I might stand a better chance fighting them for the bell than trying to beat them to it.

"It looks like someone triggered the traps already," Alice said behind me, stating the obvious.

"Why does a monster want the Poseidon's Bell anyway?" I asked.

"If you use your head a little you can figure it out," Alice replied. "They're obviously trying to get the bell so a human can't use it…. Idiot. Going to all the trouble to cause that huge storm would be pointless if a human could just get this bell and sail past it. So they just have to get it first."

This seemed like awfully organized behavior on the part of the monsters. Was the Monster Lord ordering this? Perhaps Alice wasn't the Monster Lord. She certainly didn't seem to be overseeing this operation the monsters were conducting to keep heroes off the Sentora continent.

I had a thought. "But why are they here just when we're here? The storms have been going on for two years and adventurers have been trying to get the Bell ever since. And now they show up just when we go looking for it?"

Alice nodded approvingly. "Oh, it looks like you aren't completely hollow up there."

"So… is this about me? Did they hear about me somehow and rush to beat me to it? Because they didn't seem to care that all those other adventurers were trying to get it."

"You are such an idiot," she responded.

How was that idiotic? I had no time to debate it though, so I hurried along the passageway in search of more foxy ladies. Because who wouldn't?

"You'll need to be careful about them, though," Alice cautioned. "I don't know if it's Tamamo or Alma Elma, but it's sure to be trouble."

"Oh," I replied. "You know this Tamamo?"

Before she could reply I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. It was that little fox I'd battled earlier, still in her sealed form. She seemed to be caught in something. A trap? No! A web! A web that huge couldn't just be an ordinary spider. It would have to be a monster girl spider. But a monster wouldn't prey on a monster, would they?

I asked Alice about it. "Not all monsters consider each other allies," she replied. "Like you humans, they fight and prey on each other sometimes. Especially the insect types, they'll make almost anything their food. That kitsune was stupid." Kitsune? Is that a derogatory term?

I decided against reminding her that the "insect" in question was actually an arachnid. Demonstrating a rare bit of intellectual superiority over her might be satisfying but this wasn't the time.

Alice must have seen something in my face because she disappeared again. She must have known what I intended to do. Maybe I'm stupid, but I also have a sense of responsibility. I'd sealed the fox into a weaker form where she would have no chance against the spider girl. I felt responsible for her being in danger. I couldn't stand by. So I charged forward, with that very certainty that Alice was always so worried about.

"Stop!" I yelled to the spider girl.

She turned towards me, a sadistic grin on her face. "Another stupid catch appears. A delicious looking boy, too."

"Let her go!" I demanded.

"Sure," she said. "If I can get a human male, I don't need a tiny monster. Instead, I'll eat you. I'll wind you up in my web and suck everything out."

Why did all the monsters out to prey on me have to tell me in detail what they were going to do? Was it for the purpose of tempting men to just surrender without a fight? I had to admit it was smart. Predators fear injury because it makes it much harder to catch food. Having your food serve itself to you is so much easier. You'd think that their prey would have evolved resistance to their sexual magic. I'd have to ask Alice about that, she seemed to know a lot of science, even if this world's science wasn't on a par with my own.

This marked the second monster who was playing for keeps. I knew that when she said "suck everything out", she wasn't talking about just the fun stuff. Spiders sucked all of their prey's bodily fluids out. That sounded like a fate to be avoided at all costs. I also noted that this was the first monster girl I'd seen who wasn't all that attractive. She was downright scary looking, all things considered. Someone would have to really want their juices sucked out bad to surrender to this monstrosity.

Remembering my mistakes with the fox girl, I opened with Thunder Thrust. It connected with satisfying force, but disappointingly neither sealed her immediately, nor took the fight out of her. She began busily wrapping me up in silk. Even the silk seemed to have erotic properties because it was making me feel pleasant everywhere it touched. This magic really did seem to be universal to monsters, regardless of species! The silk felt strong. I still wasn't sure how strong I really was, but I was reasonably certain I couldn't just break this material. I had to finish her quickly before she could wrap me up!

Fortunately, it was easier than I'd expected. She failed to get my sword arm wrapped, preferring to prevent my escape first by starting with my legs and working her way up. Perhaps she wasn't that intelligent, because this strategy felt like a standard predatory approach rather than an adaptation to the threat that actually faced her. This allowed me to hit her twice more with Angel Halo, which sealed her into the form of a little spider.

For some reason her web vanished. Maybe it was a part of her and thus was sealed with her? The small fox, released now, fell to the ground. I approached her to reassure her that she was all right now. She backed off, frightened, hissed at me, and ran away. Hmph. No gratitude.

"You finished?" Alice said. "You really like doing pointless things, huh?"

"Pointless?" I responded. "She was going to be eaten!"

"You're a bigger idiot than I thought," she shot back. "If that spider girl doesn't eat, she'll die. You should have just let survival of the fittest take its course. Thinking that what the spider girl was doing was evil is thinking all of nature is evil. Do you get it?"

"I do," I admitted. "But I was the reason she was vulnerable. I couldn't sleep at night if she'd died horribly because of me."

Alice folded her arms. "As if you wouldn't have saved her if she was in her monster form."

I had to admit I would have. It's hard to see something suffering and not help. Alice seemed about to go on a discourse about morality and nature, the relative virtues of carnivores vs. herbivores, but I didn't have time. That could be a conversation for long walks or nights by the campfire.

As we continued through the cave, we came upon a treasure chest. Supposedly Selene had kept more than just the Bell in this hideout. There was also rumored to be a lot of gold and gems and such as well. While I didn't need money for this journey, could one ever really have enough money? I remembered the plant I didn't yank on the first day of our journey. This chest was also giving me bad vibes. I checked to see if Alice was still here. She was. I asked her what I should do.

"Do whatever you want," she retorted. "But if something happens, I'll leave you without hesitation."

Even though I was well aware of that I hated it when she said it that way. I realized that I didn't just need a useful or interesting traveling companion. I wanted her to give a damn too. Ride together, die together, right? I resolved again that if she ever got into trouble I'd make a point of not helping and be sure to critique her combat abilities afterwards.

She was still here, so maybe this wasn't a monster threat? Still, I didn't know how she'd react to traps, and her tone definitely seemed to imply that she suspected one. Eh, I've got enough money, I didn't start on this adventure to get rich. But what if the chest contained the bell? Argh, this was a tough decision. I raised the point to Alice.

Alice sighed. "The Bell isn't in the chest." Oh? I didn't know how she could know that, but she seemed pretty confident.

Truth be told, I really didn't know what to do, and if I'd been in this cave alone I might have chosen poorly. Alice claimed to not be helping me but she was sure giving me plenty of clues that I shouldn't touch that chest. Despite my rising dislike for her attitude, I had to admit she hadn't steered me wrong yet. I decided to leave the chest.

"Hahaha" she laughed. "So you're not too dumb after all."

"So it was a trap?" I asked.

"If you're curious, why don't you open it?"

That made me angry. I understood why she didn't want to help me against her fellow monster friends, but if she even gave the slightest damn about me she'd help me avoid a trap. I guess she did though, so maybe her lack of caring was more to convince herself? She was a complicated one. Maybe I shouldn't be quick to judge her.

The cave was surprisingly deep, but eventually we came to a door. A door I strongly suspected was hiding something important. I don't know what a door to a treasure chamber looks like, but I imagined it must look like that door. Or it could have been the seven tailed fox guarding it that tipped me off.

"Are you Tamamo?" I asked.

"No," she replied. "I am Nanabi. Past this door is the treasury. So I can't let you pass. If you turn back, no harm shall come to you."

Great. For the first time I was being offered a way out and I couldn't take it. Alice had already vanished, of course. A seven tailed fox! How powerful must Nanabi be? It occurred to me that I should probably ask for names more often. It seemed that I should know who I was fighting, rather than just referring to them as slime girl or fox girl.

"I have to get that Bell!" I said.

"Understood," she replied. "I'll show you the power of Tamamo's aide!"

The fact that she didn't go into lewd detail about what she was going to do to me was intimidating, to my surprise. She wasn't going to treat me as prey, or fight for sheer amusement, or as part of some contest. She was all business.

I struck immediately with Thunder Thrust. It landed with a satisfying blow, but to my dismay barely fazed her. She was powerful! I also learned, as with the roper, that some enemies might not be the best for this technique, because it resulted in me getting too close. She immediately wrapped me in some of her tails, lifting me off the ground. "That was a pretty good blow. No human's ever even hit me before. You're as powerful as your reputation suggests." I was getting famous?

She raised me up further so that my groin was in front of her face. She quickly removed my pants. "You may be an enemy but I like you. If you don't resist I'll make you very happy and then let you go. You're pretty strong, you should still be able to walk out of here after just one orgasm. But if you do resist, it's going to get very violent, and after I beat you down I'm going to wring you out until you're dry and then leave you here as an easy meal for one of the cave monsters."

I was sorely tempted. All this journey had gotten me was fighting, random memories that didn't begin to tell me what was really important about my old life and a companion who would also just leave me lying in this cave to be consumed by some random creature. Heck, she might even watch! Well, maybe I should just let her watch me having the time of my life with this foxy lady Nanabi. Have the best experience of my life, go back home, and savor the memories. Life wasn't so bad in Ilias Village anyway.

As if to help me along with my decisionmaking, Nanabi brought me to her face and began to suck me softly. Her mouth was divine, her tongue pleasantly rough like the other fox. I could easily drown in this pleasure, and her soft, fluffy tales holding me in place were wonderfully comfortable as well. You, the reader, probably think I'm back to my old paper thin resolve again, but cut me some slack, this was a very powerful monster! And our story doesn't end here, so you know I didn't just give in and go back to my adopted home.

No, despite what she was doing to me I thought of the people I'd already helped. I thought of the entire Ilias Continent, slowly being strangled by a blockade. Eventually my life in the village would not be great, as critical supplies stopped being available. The village was self sufficient in food, but we didn't manufacture our own farming equipment. Eventually old equipment would break down and we'd be in dire straits. I had to get that bell, for everyone's sake!

I started struggling. "Mmph.." she said, surprised. She took me out of her mouth. "Will you hold still? I'm about to send you to heaven here! It's not like you can escape my tails anyw-"

But that's precisely what I did, steadily increasing the pressure until she could hold me no longer. I must be really strong, although apparently I couldn't apply that strength in one big push. I landed hard on the ground and scrambled away from her, trying to decide what the best distance was for this battle.

"So it's to be the hard way," she said regretfully. "I have to confess, I was bluffing about leaving you here to be eaten. We foxes aren't so barbaric. Once I defeat you I will stay with you until you can move under your own power again. By then the bell will be gone, so you might as well return whence you came."

I was touched by her kindness after traveling around with a cold blooded reptile for the past few days. It was a mean thought, but so far I'd judged Alice to be the kindest monster I'd met. But maybe foxes were actually nice monsters! Why couldn't someone like Nanabi have fallen out of the sky outside my village?

"Make no mistake, though, human," she said. "I promised you this would get violent. You are about to receive a very painful beating for your defiance, and after the beating, a severe chastisement and humiliation."

She was true to her word. It was the longest, most violent battle I'd fought up to that point. Her seven tails all attacked independently of each other. Some bludgeoned me, some she formed into a point to pierce me, and while I was concentrating on not getting brained or skewered, some of her tails were trying to wrap around my penis, which had the effect of adding to the pleasure I'd experienced from her already, as well as limiting my movement. Still, lest you think the battle hopeless for me, whenever Angel Halo made contact with one of her tails, the tail would go limp, seemingly paralyzed, for a short time. I didn't know if hitting her tails was leaking out her power the way normal hits to monsters heads and torsos did. Probably not, because the ferocity of her attack never seemed to wane. I was taking a beating, since I had to prioritize avoiding the piercing tails, which seemed to be the most dangerous to my continued good health. I was reminded of Hercules fighting the hydra(another useless memory), in that I'd disable a couple of tails, but never seemed to be faced with less than four or five, since the tails would recover. I just couldn't get in close to land a hit on her body, and even if I did, how could I avoid getting wrapped up again, unless I disabled enough tails to prevent it?

For reasons unknown to me, however, she was getting impatient. As I've said before, when you're in a fight it always seems to be lasting longer to you than it really is. It seemed like we'd been fighting for an hour, but it was probably not even close to that long. But she must have been feeling like this was going on too long as well, because she started to do something. Alice had warned me during one of our training sessions that some monsters have special abilities that take time to focus, and that I had to decide between one of two strategies when I saw this occurring: attack hard to disrupt whatever she was trying, or ready myself to block or dodge whatever was coming.

Not knowing what she was going to do, I elected for the aggressive approach. The concentration was causing her tails to lose their coordination and aggressiveness, so maybe this was the opening I needed! I charged forward and swung my sword at her, but a tail that must have been held in reserve for this very purpose blocked my path and hit me in the chest with the force of a baseball bat. I backed off and switched to a defensive stance, because it looked like she was about done.

She was. With a battle cry, "Go mad with pleasure!" all seven tails made a beeline for my groin and immediately wrapped around my penis, testicles, and surrounding areas. The feeling was indescribable. She'd had her tails on me before, but this was on another level. It was as if she could focus her sexual magic on one part of her body to maximize the pleasure and destroy my resistance. I was transfixed and dropped my sword. Her eyes were triumphant as the delightful tails continued to work on me. But just as I was about to climax, the magic must have worn off, and the tails that had been amazing before she had put extra oomph into them and irresistible afterwards now just felt like… a tail? No, even that should have felt pretty good, if kinky. Was the expiration of her magic resulting in the tails not even feeling good at all? I reached down and picked up my sword again, ready to cut at all the tails at once and paralyze them, which would definitely give me the opening I needed. Assuming I had the strength. Being brought so close to the edge I was feeling very woozy. She wasn't looking too good either. She withdrew the tails and tried to recombobulate herself.

For a moment we stood staring at each other, two tired combatants, one of us beaten up pretty badly, the other just exhausted from her efforts. I prepared for her renewed onslaught, but it never came. Instead, she began focusing her magic again! It had come so close to defeating me that she must have felt it was her best bet to finish the job. I must be getting strong, because I'd endured an awful lot of stimulation from her and was still holding out. Not to mention, getting batted around by tails that hit like clubs doesn't do anything for your fighting spirit either.

I gathered up what reserves of energy I could and charged again, hoping to take advantage of the opening that now presented itself. But once again she hadn't left herself entirely defenseless. A tail swooped to knock me away. I dodged it and raised my sword arm to slash at her torso. But unbelievably, another tail crashed into me so hard I flew back, landing with a thud, the wind knocked out of me. My sword clattered out of my reach. I was prone, on my back, my erect penis in the air. Her eyes were focused on it, her mouth sporting a grin of triumph. All seven tails shot towards the target with blinding speed, yet the impact of their arrival was soft as a feather. They wrapped around any erogenous zone they could find and went to work.

I was in sheer ecstasy. I knew I was defeated and no longer cared. The only thing my mind could process now was the pleasure. I'd done my best and this was my reward. All in all, not a bad fate. I'd still have great memories to savor while lying in my comfortable bed in Ilias Village.

But to my crushing disappointment, and probably even moreso Nanabi's, the magic wore off again just before I reached orgasm. She continued to rub me determinedly, knowing she was so close that a light wind should have sent me over the edge. But her insistent rubbing, deprived of the magic, was actually starting to get unpleasant and causing me to retreat from the edge. I mourned the loss of that feeling and raged in the frustration of being denied release.

In disgust, she withdrew her tails. I staggered to my feet and began to cast about, trying to locate my sword. "No! This battle is over now!" she raged, and then made a big mistake.

Nanabi's eyes flashed and I blacked out for a second. When my mind reset I saw something shocking. Nanabi was plastered against the wall next to the door. A Nanabi-shaped indentation surrounded her. She'd nearly been put through that wall! Alice? Nanabi slowly slid off the wall and fell face down. Alice immediately rematerialized and bent down over her, looking for a pulse. Alice breathed a sign of relief and nodded to me. She was still alive. Thank goodness. But what in the world had happened?

Alice must not have done it, because she demanded to know the same thing.

"I don't know!" I insisted. "I never saw what happened! Her eyes just flashed like she was trying to do that thing you used to do to me, I blacked out, and when I came to she was like that. Did that all just happen in a split second?"

Alice looked hysterical. "You just exploded! And then you were still standing there and she was…nearly put through the wall! You didn't do that on purpose?!"

"No," I responded. "I had no idea I could do that! Honest!"

She looked for a moment like she wanted to flash me herself, but common sense cautioned against it so she refrained. "Right. Fine," she said. "Another mystery to solve. At least she'll probably be okay. She doesn't look badly injured, the impact just knocked her out. She's a tough one."

"Tell me about it," I agreed.

The first fox I had fought arrived, and seeing Nanabi ran around her frantically before settling down next to her.

Then I remembered why I was here. The Bell! I went to open the door. "Forget it," Alice said. "It seems like you were too late."

The door slowly opened. Another fox girl exited the room. If this was Tamamo, I expected more. Nanabi had been much larger than the first fox girl I'd encountered. This one looked to be even smaller than that first one, and younger too! Maybe Tamamo would come out after her? No, it looked like it was just her. Maybe it would be fine! Taking the Bell from an even weaker fox girl than the first one should be like taking candy from a baby.

Alice seemed to know what I was thinking. "Idiot. Count the tails."

I did. Nine. Nine?! I counted again. And then again. Always nine. Nanabi nearly squashed me like a grape. How could I take on a nine-tailed fox?

The little fox girl also bent over Nanabi to check on her. By now Nanabi was moaning and mumbling. "Mushroom cake, mommy? My favorite…." She cradled Nanabi's head and said something to her that sounded like praising her for doing her best and rose to face me.

Alice spoke up. "Luka, I would like to introduce you to Tamamo, one of the Four Heavenly Knights."

What?! That little girl is as strong as Granberia?

"Sorry you two," she said to the fallen Nanabi and the small fox that lay next to her. "I was in the treasure room while all that was going down. Here, let me give you some of my power, little one."

Tamamo patted the little fox on the head and she immediately resumed her form. And then hid behind Tamamo. "Nanabi," Tamamo said to her fallen aide. "You're gong to need a vacation after this. " Nanabi weakly nodded.

Tamamo turned back to me. "Hmmm, so you're Luka?" she said. "Defeating Nanabi, you must have some skill."

She began walking around me, sniffing me. "So cute!" she exclaimed playfully. "You'd make a good mate. You're a good guy. I want to play with someone cute like you in my bed."

I'd never been called cute before. I have to confess I'm not much to look at. Perhaps monsters responded more to smells than appearance? Nevertheless, I was flattered. And still really horny to the point of not thinking straight. Which is why it took me so long to notice that she was holding the Bell.

"Is that..?" I asked, pointing to it.

"Indeed," Tamamo confirmed. "This is the Poseidon's Bell. Crossing over to Sentora is so annoying, so I'm taking this. Honestly, it doesn't really matter to me. But Alma Elma is so annoying."

"Alma Elma?" I asked.

"Another one of the Heavenly Knights," Alice said. "Looks like she's the one causing the storm."

"Are they blocking the route to stop the heroes?" I asked.

"You're astute," Tamamo said. Well, it was nice that someone around here didn't think I was stupid. "So… if you want this bell, what are you going to do?"

I knew there was no way I could defeat her in my weakened, and don't forget, horny state. She could brush my toe with a tail and probably send me to critical ecstasy. But what choice did I have? I needed that Bell! All of Ilias Continent needed that Bell!

I moved to unsheathe my sword and realized that not only did I not have it, I still hadn't put my pants back on either. Alice put her hand on my shoulder. "Stop. You can't defeat her."

Tamamo giggled. "Haha, that's surprising. That human caught your interest, Monster Lord?"

Monster Lord? So it WAS true! I had thought it might be so, but Alice was right. There's a huge difference between knowing something and thinking you know something. A dizzying array of questions popped into my head.

"Yes," she said. "Who did you think I was?" Smartass. "I am the Monster Lord, Alipheese the Sixteenth."

"Oops," Tamamo said, in a clearly sorry/not sorry tone. "Was I not supposed to say that? I spoke out of place. Anyway, I'll be taking the Bell. Hmm?"

The small fox girl, whose name I never did get, was pulling on Tamamo's sleeve. "What?" Tamamo said as the little kitsune whispered in her ear. "I see. So you saved her life, Luka? Then as the leader of the Kitsunes I must thank you.' Ah, so Kitsune wasn't a derogatory term.

She walked up to me and laughed softly. "How do you want me to thank you?"

Now in my defense, I did point out not too far back that I was horny and exhausted from the last battle, plus I got a good brain zap. I plead insanity. I started staring at her tails. Now much like staring at Alice's tongue, I'm not a pervert that way, or a fetishist. But after spending the last hour or two experiencing fluffy fox tails and wanting release really bad, I couldn't think of anything better to end my day with than for the Heavenly Knight of foxes to finish me off. My mind just kept repeating over and over, "Touch fluffy tail. Touch fluffy tail. Touch fluffy tail."

Alice seemed to agree, gesturing frantically at Tamamo and mouthing "Tail! Tail!" What an amazing finale to my adventure on Ilias continent! I was going to experience the greatest tail on Earth. What a lucky guy I was!

Wait a minute! But I wasn't just touring this continent, I wanted to see the world! And the continent was blockaded and suffering! I needed the bell! And now that I looked at Alice again, she wasn't mouthing "Tail!" She was mouthing "Bell!" Yes, definitely bell, her lips were pursed together for the first letter. Bell. Bell. Bell. Touch Fluffy Bell. No, wait.

"is there any chance that Bell is available?" I asked.

"That's what I expected," she replied. "Well then, here you go."

She handed me Poseidon's Bell. It was that easy? "Thank you. Didn't you need this though?" I asked.

"I don't really care," she said, laughing. "the traps in this cave looked like fun so I wandered in here."

I just couldn't understand how monsters thought. What was she even saying? She interrupted my thoughts. "Now what are you going to do, Luka? Are you going to try to defeat me?" Her tails waved around, whether threateningly, enticingly, or both, I was in no condition to decipher. I was also in no condition to fight someone like her.

"There's no point in fighting you, " I said. "I didn't go on this journey to get into fights. I think we should all be able to get along."

"An admirable endeavour," she said. I looked at Alice. See? I said with my eyes. She doesn't think I'm an idiot for thinking that. I was really starting to like these fox girls. Nice folks.

"However," she cautioned. "We will fight eventually. After all, I'm one of the Monster Lord's Four Heavenly Knights."

"I don't see why us fighting would be inevitable," I countered.

"You're cute! Well, see ya around!" and vanished, along with the other two foxes, leaving Alice and me alone in the cave.

"So," I turned to Alice. "Now it looks like YOU need to do some talking."

"What?" she said innocently. "I didn't hide it. You're just slow."

"I did suspect."

"Yeah, " she said. "Like, yesterday! You were utterly clueless before then."

"So why are you traveling with me?" I asked.

"I never lied to you. You're interesting. In addition, I want to see the world with my own eyes. Traveling with you satisfied both of my interests."

"Okay, so now for the really important question," to which I dreaded the answer. "Did you really order all out war with humanity?"

"My orders," she said. "Were that only in self defense were monsters allowed to exert their power. It must have gotten distorted when It reached human ears. I don't want war."

I sagged with relief, but that wasn't a fully satisfying answer. "It doesn't seem to me like anyone is listening. Granberia tries to take over a city, monsters attacking humans all over the place. Alma Elma conducting a blockade of this continent… It's not a full scale war, but it's pretty warlike."

"With the Slaughter of Remina, the humans were burning with hatred toward the nearby monsters. With a dangerous situation brewing, violence was only approved for self defense purposes. But… A lot of monsters seem to have taken a more liberal interpretation of what I meant. An inexcusable act."

Each answer just seemed to spawn more questions. I focused on what I thought was the most important question. "So what happened at Remina? The reports that the Monster Lord ordered that no survivors be left, were those reports false?"

"I don't know," she said. "Trying to find the truth of that situation is another reason for my journey." So she's doing this for similar reasons to me, I thought. She wants answers.

"If you don't know," I said. "Did the monsters do it on their own?"

"The Slaughter took place before I took the throne," she replied. "However, I know that the previous Monster Lord didn't order it either. I still don't know who gave that command. But the most mysterious part is that it wasn't just the humans that were slaughtered. The monsters were as well."

The monsters and humans were all murdered? What have I been dropped into? But the answers to Remina wouldn't be found in this cave. There was a more immediate problem.

"So this storm that Alma Elma is causing," I said. "You didn't order that either?"

"Granberia and Alma Elma insist that the Ilias Temple is the ringleader of evil," she replied. "Before the blockade it was a hero manufacturing facility, churning out hero after hero to fight monsters. She argues that destroying it is self defense. As a theory, it's not too far off the mark. The people who call themselves heroes are pretty unsightly."

I wasn't naïve, I had expected that the conflict was complicated. But this was even more complex than I could ever have imagined. The Monster Lord wasn't ordering any of this directly, but two of the Heavenly Knights were waging a war in "self defense", at least as they saw it, to prevent the creation of new heroes. That's why there were no mighty armies marching, or front lines. These two powerful monsters were waging the war all by themselves, and doing it effectively! If not for my intervention in Iliasburg, Granberia would be marching on the Ilias temple as we were speaking! But had she really given up on destroying the Ilias Temple? I doubted it. That told me that the only way this would end is if she first got rid of me, or I got rid of her. And the odds weren't looking too good on me. Then there was the matter of Alma Elma and the blockade.

It didn't seem like there was much that I could do, at least not right now. I could get to Sentora. I had the Bell. But just because I could successfully run the blockade didn't mean the blockade would be lifted. My only option seemed to be to just carry on as normal with my journey and hope that some answers presented themselves. I didn't set out on this journey to be a hero, but my adopted hometown was threatened. There was no way I could turn my back on that. Alice had been correct to keep her identity from me, even if she insisted she hadn't been. Knowing all this now would trouble my thoughts as we continued our journey, doing exactly what I'd planned to do if I didn't have this information. There was only one thing I decided I had to change. I was going to go to the Monster Lord's Castle. I was going to confront whichever Knights were causing trouble and defeat them. Tamamo didn't seem to be a problem, although her own words made me think that she was going to side with her fellow Knights and fight me as well. That was a discouraging thought. I didn't know who the fourth Knight was, but I had to assume that if the other three were going to fight me, the fourth would as well.

Alice interrupted my thoughts, "So what will you do now?"

"I guess I'll just have to follow your earlier advice," I said. "I can't stop the fighting, but at least now I can get to Sentora, so maybe traveling around that huge continent will present me with some answers. Especially now that there are so many more questions. So I guess we just act as if none of this is happening and just enjoy traveling, eating interesting foods, seeing interesting places. You were right to not want me to know too much. I can't change anything right now anyway."

"I can understand their viewpoints," Alice said. "That's why I usually leave them alone. I have my own viewpoint as the Monster Lord. All monsters are my cute little subordinates. No matter what, I won't lend a hand to defeat my cute little subordinates. You understand, right?"

So she answered the question I didn't want to ask. I was wishing right about then that she would be less forthcoming. As the Monster Lord, she was condoning this even if she wasn't the mastermind. What a fool I'd been. I'd assumed there wasn't really much of a war, but not only was there a war, I was now neck deep in it, with no honorable way out. I could not abandon Ilias Village to its fate. I owed them too much.

"Okay, I get it." I said. "You're not my ally, you're not my friend, you're just traveling with me, and apparently we're going to travel all the way to your own castle and you're going to watch me invade it and defeat your Heavenly Knights."

"Exactly," she said.

"Yes," I replied. "Makes total sense." No. No it didn't.