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Xera and Her Companions #7: No Weapons

by Sigma

I

"Over my dead body, little man," Gurka said, folding her muscular arms across her ample chest.

Ava stood behind the orc, one hand on the hilt of her sword and other on Gurka's shoulder. "Gurka, this is not a fight to pick."

"Bah!" Gurka scoffed and smacked her hand away. In front of the orc stood a small group of guards in shining armor, unthreatened by the orc's stare.

Xera and Minerva stood behind Gurka and Ava silently, looking in every direction to see the people of the small town they had just wandered into staring at the scene unfolding in front of them.

"I will not repeat myself, orc," the constable leading the guards said. He was an older man with a hard look in his eyes and a grim expression on his face. "So long as you occupy our town, you are to surrender your weapons," he said, pointing to her axe.

"No," Gurka replied, leaning in so she and the constable were close.

"Damn your stubborn hide, Gurka," Xera said, slowly taking her sword belt off and laying it at the constable's feet. "These people live in peace. Respect that."

Without a word, Minerva put her staff next to Xera's sword.

"They look weak to me," Gurka said. "I suppose peace does that to a person. If I still had my clan, we'd run all over this place."

The other guards moved to draw their weapons until the constable held up his hand for them to stop.

"This is your last warning," he told Gurka.

Before Gurka could answer, Ava stepped in front of her with a smile on her face. "Hello, good sir. I'm Ava from the of the Order of the White Rose. My brash friend here is quite attached her axe," she leaned in to whisper. "Between you and me, she likely pleasures herself with it when no one is looking."

Ava laughed and the constable said nothing. He simply stared and narrowed his eyes at her.

"I think, good sir, that we could skip this little weapons issue just this once. My friends and I are trustworthy," Ava reasoned, motioning to the others. "We promise we'll stay out of trouble as long as we're in your...HEY!" Ava instinctively pulled her arm back when a guard grabbed it and tried to twist it behind her back. Another guard was on her, grabbing her other arm and the two men attempted to subdue her.

"Ha! A lot of good running your mouth did you!" Gurka laughed, only to feel something bind her ankles together. With a curse, she fell face first into the dirt and looked back to see a guard holding a whip in his hands, the other end coiled around her ankles. Before Gurka could pull herself free, the other guards were on her and had her hogtied in short order.

"Goddess damn it..." Xera sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head as the pitiful scene unfolded. Minerva stepped forward, but didn't dare interfere as the town guards dragged Ava and Gurka off.

The constable scooped up her staff and Xera's sword and looked at them. "Your weapons and your friends will be at the town jail when you're ready to collect them," he told them before following his men and his two protesting prisoners.

"Wh...what are we going to do?" Minerva turned to Xera.

"I saw a tavern a few moments ago. I'm going to get a drink," Xera muttered before walking in the opposite direction.

"But what about..."

"We know where to find them," Xera told her before grabbing the collar of her robe and pulling her along.

II

"You. Amazon. Bitch," Gurka growled from inside the cell. Xera stood outside the cell, Minerva at her side, with a smirk on her face and her hands on her hips.

"You wait an entire day before you decide to show up and collect us?" Gurka said, scowling at her. She grabbed the bars and put her forehead against them. "Get us the fuck out of here, now..."

While Xera simply stared at Gurka, Minerva looked in the large cell and saw Ava sitting against the wall with her knees to her chest. Her eyes constantly darted to the other end of the cell, where a group of filthy looking men were clustered, some with visible erections and others with their hands moving in their pants as they laughed among themselves and eyed her and Gurka, as well as Xera and Minerva.

"Can we leave already?" Ava called out. "This place is filthy!"

"Guard," Xera said to the lone man standing watch at the doorway. "How much to get these two out?"

"50 pieces of gold. Each."

Xera turned to Minerva and nodded. Minerva then reached into her robe and pulled out a small pouch and began rifling through its contents.

"Okay...we have an issue," the sorceress said meekly.

"What is it?" Xera asked.

"We have exactly 50 pieces of gold. So...only enough for one of them."

Gurka growled and Ava got a panicked look in her eyes. 

"We had much more than that yesterday," Gurka pointed out.

"Well," Minerva started. "After you got arrested, Xera and I went to the tavern. We ate and drank and then Xera lost money playing cards. Then it got dark, so we got a room, too."

"A suite," Xera said, eyeing Gurka up and down.

Gurka's lips twisted into a snarl and her eyes burned with anger. "I'LL KILL YOU!" she screamed, reaching between the bars. Xera deftly slipped back to avoid being grabbed and Minerva yelped and hid behind the Amazon.

"Guard," Xera called the man again. "We'll take the knight. The orc can stay a bit longer until she gets ahold of herself."

Ava jumped up immediately and ran to the door as the guard walked up and put his key in the lock. When the door was opened, she walked out, a big smile on her face. "Bye Gurka!" she said, waving and beaming.

Xera simply smirked at the orc and followed Ava. Minerva handed the money to the guard and lingered behind. "Uh we'll be back for you. I promise," she said before following the others.

"I am going to gut that fucking Amazon..." Gurka swore to herself as they disappeared through the door out of the cell block.

She grunted when she felt rough hands on her skin, one of her left hip and the other on her right thigh.

"Guess it's just you keeping us company for a while, yeah?" a man with hot breath said in her ear.

"Always wanted to taste an Orc lady," another of the inmates chuckled.

"Fuck..." Gurka groaned.

***

"She'll be fine, Minerva..." Xera said for the third time as they stood in the main area of the town's jail.

"But how are we going to get her out?" The sorceress asked.

"The only way to do that is to pay her fine," the constable said from the doorway, having walked in as the women were talking.  "And, per our own laws, since you claimed responsibility for her co-conspirator," he motioned to Ava, "You have agreed to raise her funds within the next three days."

"What happens in three days?" Xera asked.

"We sell her to a nearby labor camp where she'll work off her crime for five years."

"Huh..." Xera responded.

"How are we going to raise the money by then?" Minerva asked, a worried look on her face.

"Do you have a bounty board?" Xera asked the constable.

The constable nodded and motioned behind the three women. When they turned they noticed a board pinned to the wall with drawn pictures of criminals and their associated bounties.

"There you have it," Xera said. "Bringing in one of these outlaws will cover Gurka's fine and then some. Give us back our weapons and we'll see to it."

"There's an impound fee for your weapons," the constable explained.

At that, the three women stared at each other in disbelief and then at the constable. Silence hung in the air until Ava stepped forward, her index finger raised.

"How dare you...mmph!" her tirade was cut short when Minerva leapt onto her back and covered her mouth.

"What is the matter with you?! Do you want him to throw you back in the cell?!"

Ava huffed and Minerva climbed down when she was satisfied Ava understood the point.

"Good luck," the constable said before walking away.

***

"Without our weapons, our choices are limited..." Xera explained while she and her companions looked over the bounty board.

"It's just you and me," Ava said. "Minerva's useless without her staff."

"I am not! I can still use my magic...it's just harder to channel...a lot harder...especially if I get scared..."

"I have an idea..." Ava said, catching their attention. "What if we...just left and went to the next town after getting our weapons back."

"What?" Minerva looked at her.

"We still have to get Gurka," Xera reasoned.

"Do we?" Ava questioned. "She's kind of an asshole to us. All the time. Maybe a few years of hard labor will be good for her."

"You aren't wrong," Xera admitted. "But if we leave her, you just know she'll escape and track us down out of pure hatred. We're stuck with her just as much as we are with each other."

Ava simply sighed in response.

"This one," Xera pointed to a bounty worth several hundred pieces of gold. He was a bald man with a goatee named Carmac. "We can do this without our weapons."

Ava leaned in close and read the details. "Illegal animal fighting ring? Yeah, okay, I can agree with bringing justice to someone who's mean to dogs. Let's go."

***

"THESE ARE NOT DOGS!!" Ava screamed as she ran through a spacious warehouse on the edge of the town. At her heels was horde of twisted, mutated monstrosities, all gnashing teeth, slithering tentacles, and glowing eyes. They ran and crawled behind Ava, the entire pack intent on catching up with her.

"They're called chimeras!" Xera growled, holding back a pair of writhing tentacles with every ounce of strength she had. The creature they belonged to had the lean body of predatory cat with the head of a goat, and it chittered as it pushed against Xera, trying to pin her down. The Amazon widened her stance and pushed back, clenching the thing's two tentacles tight in her hands as she felt her footing begin to slip underneath her.

Minerva flew above the scattered, massive wooden containers that dotted the warehouse on a pair of glowing, spectral wings, diving low when a creature that had bird's wings and a snake's body attacked her. She made a tight turn around a corner and the winged serpent hissed as it slammed into a tower of crates and plummeted. Minerva then flew to the top of the crates and looked around. "Xera's right!" she called out. "Chimeras are all controlled by their creator. If we can knock him out, they'll stop attacking." She looked around frantically, trying to find the man whose picture was on the bounty board.

"Let's save Gurka! We're stuck with her!" Ava said in a deep, mocking voice as she ran by Xera. "Great plan, Amazon!"

"Shut up, Ava!" Xera gritted her teeth. "Gah!" she yelled in surprise as the creature she wrestled with pulled her in instead of pushing against her. Xera fell forward and landed on her chest. She immediately rolled over, only for one of the tentacles to wrap around an ankle while the other grabbed her by the neck. The monster lifted the Amazon up and pulled her in, and her defiant fists against its hardened body did little to make it let her go. A long, black tongue slipped from the creature's mouth as it pulled Xera in, and she recoiled as the thing began using it to explore her exposed flesh. The appendage around her neck loosened only slightly, just enough for the creature to extend it so that it could slither down Xera's torso and snake its way into her outfit.

"Ugh. No!" Xera groaned, feeling it probing at her flesh as it made its way down her body, across her flat stomach and across her thighs, but moving its way back up to waiting pussy. The creature pulled Xera's immobilized leg aside and began teasing the lips of her vagina with the tentacle, a maddened frenzy in its black eyes as it did. Xera growled and renewed her efforts to punch her way out, only for the monster to let out a strange sound before slamming her into the floor, knocking the wind and the fight out of her.

She lay on her back, moaning, her vision blurred, as the tentacles grabbed her legs and pulled her in while the creature stalked over to her and mounted her.

Elsewhere in the building, Ava bent over at the waist, her massive chest heaving while she fought to catch her breath. She had managed to weave between massive towers of containers, losing the monsters in the narrow passes because they had been too big to turn quickly and keep up with her. She looked around, seeing no signs of life anywhere. "How do I get out of here?" she whispered to herself, jumping when she heard a loud moan that she somehow recognized as Xera's. "That stupid orc better appreciate everything we do for her!"

She then moved to the edge of the narrow passage she was hiding in, and she started to step out into the larger warehouse when she heard what sounded like a roar. She immediately turned and ran in the opposite direction, but let out an involuntary cry when she ran into something that caused her to stop in her tracks.

"Wha...what is this?!" she said out loud, kicking her legs and swinging her arms as an invisible force kept her place. In the sunlight coming in through the building's skylight, she could see glints of thread and her heart sank. "Oh no! No, no, no, no!"

It was then that she felt a massive shadow looming over her. She craned her neck upward and saw the thing slowly crawling toward her on eight, long, narrow legs. Its body was segmented in a brown exoskeleton and it had the head of a primate with the mandible of a preying mantis. Ava shrieked and fought harder as the strange horror moved on her. Before she could make any progress, it reached her and the dagger-like tips of its legs lashed out, shredding what little armor and clothing she wore. She froze in stunned silence and looked the thing in its glowing red eyes. It opened its mandibles wide, spitting out a thick, clear goo that coated Ava from head to toe.

"Agh! What the hell is this?!" she screamed while struggling against the thing's web. As she did, the goo covering her body shifted, and she noticed then and there that her remaining armor and clothing were beginning to melt away. She opened her mouth to let out another scream, but only whimpered when something sharp and thin jabbed her in the back. The scream died in her throat and her jaw went slack. The rest of her body went limp but her eyes stayed open as the creature removed its stinger and plucked Ava from the webbing and carried her naked body away as it skittered along the walls of the stacked containers.

***

"Where are you?  Minerva asked with a hint of frustration while she flew overhead and scanned the containers. The various chimeras moved along the warehouse, hunting, seeking, but she escaped their notice and was able to stay low enough to avoid being seen by the flyers. She continued searching for their creator when something suddenly slammed into her and sent her crashing into the top of the crates below. Minerva rolled several feet and groaned as she came to a stop.

"Ooooww..." she pushed herself up and turned to see a short, bald man with animal-like digitigrade legs bouncing up and down with a smirk on his face. She immediately recognized Carmac from the bounty poster. She looked behind him to see a thick tail slithering back and forth. "Your turned yourself into a chimera?"

"Uh huh..." Carmac nodded and grinned. "Nice wings," he complimented. "Maybe I'll give you a real pair?" He then leapt and tried to stomp on Minerva, but she flew up, only to be brought back down when he jumped after her and whipped his tail, wrapping it around her neck. Carmac fell back down and slammed Minerva into the crates, stunning the sorceress.

Before Minerva could get up, Carmac landed so that his feet straddled her body and knelt over the sorceress. He ripped open her robe, exposing her small breasts and slim body. Minerva screamed and tried to cover herself, but Carmac held her wrists together with one hand and lowered the other over her chest. Minerva squealed when she saw a small opening in the center of his palm and screamed again when it shot out a stream of red ink.

"Hmm..." Carmac mused as he drew patterns all over Minvera's naked chest. "Yes, yes...remove this, replace these with scales...hmm...I think insect wings might look better than feathers..."

"Wh...what are you doing?!"

Carmac blinked. "Making you better. I'm going to do it to all three of you, and eventually the whole town. Just like my pets," he said before fondling her breasts with his free hand, testing the soft flesh. "Very nice. I'll have to add more, of course, so you can feed a bigger litter. Couldn't hurt to make them bigger, too..."

"What?!"

"Yes, three woman of prime breeding age? You're all going to be broodmares regardless of whatever else I do to you. Now, hold still..."  Carmac said while holding up his hand. A long, thin barbed spike slid out and hovered above Minvera's chest. She squirmed in his grasp, trying to push him away.

"Stop it! If I don't do this right, it'll kill you instead of temporarily paralyzing you." 

Minerva looked at the skylight overhead and began chanting a spell. Her eyes flashed as storm clouds rolled in. Thunder crashed outside, loud enough that the warehouse shook.

Carmac stopped his stinger inches from Minerva's exposed neck and looked up. "A storm? Now? It was clear just a few minutes ago..."

Minerva let out a scream as the storm outside surged.

***

Xera groaned as the creature she was fighting had her pinned to a wall, pumping in and out of her throbbing, dripping pussy with its thick cock. The thing's tentacles held her arms and legs in place and the goat-headed beast made terrible sounds as it continued to violate the Amazon. She couldn't do anything to fight back. The monster was too strong, and its assault on her as it penetrated her over and over was too overwhelming. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her whole body trembled as she cried out, exploding all over the creature's cock again. The creature let out something that sounded like a laugh and just pumped harder. Its stamina seemed to be without limit, and there was nothing Xera could do but spread her legs just a bit farther apart.

Just then, the whole building shook and there was a deafening explosion. The creature's body stiffened and it fell over, its monstrous cock sliding out of Xera and remaining stiff as it fell over on its back.

Xera stared at the creature blankly and fell to her hands and knees. She was covered in sweat and the monster's fluids. Her naked, swollen tits jiggled as she caught her breath. She looked around the warehouse to see all the other chimera laying on the floor, unmoving.

"Let's go, Xera..." she heard a sullen voice behind her. When she turned around, she saw Minerva trudging along, dragging an unconscious Carmac behind her. Scorch marks covered what was left of the sorceress' robes and Carmac had smoke emanating from his body. Xera got up and followed behind her. It didn't take the pair long to walk past Ava where she lay groaning next to the spider creature.

"Come on, Ava..." Xera said, grabbing her under her arms, but recoiling when she realized Ava was all sticky.

III

The door to the jail cell opened and Gurka walked out with her arms folded, staring daggers at her three naked, bruised, exhausted looking companions. 

Minerva looked in the cell and saw the male inmates. Some of them had smiles on their faces as they watched Gurka. Most of them were covered in scrapes, bumps, and bruises. She glanced at the orc and noticed the way she walked.

"Hey...why are you walking so funny?" she asked.

Gurka's response was to shove the sorceress into the nearest wall. She then looked the three of them over. "What the fuck happened to you idiots?"

Ava huffed and walked away. "We should've just left your big, green ass in there."

The constable stood to the side and gave Ava plenty of room when she walked past. He then presented a coin purse to Minerva. The bag was heavy, obviously filled with coin. "Excellent work. Carmac and his monsters won't be terrorizing anyone else again. You can collect your weapons up front," he told them before leaving the cell block.

Xera and Minerva stared at the coin purse and then each other.

"How much is it?" Xera asked.

Minerva opened the bag and did a quick count. "Wow. 500 gold coins..." She then jumped and gasped when Gurka snatched the coin purse away.

"Excellent, I can get a decent meal. I think I'll try that suite, too..." The orc said, laughing as she walked away, tossing the money up and down. "I'm feeling generous, so you three can have the floor."

"Wait..." Minerva said. "This was all her fault..."

Xera sighed. "Yes."

"So, we went through all that to free her, and we get nothing?"

"Yes."

Minerva started to say something, but couldn't find the words.

"I know..." Xera said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Come on."

As Xera walked off, Minerva looked at her tattered robes and her naked body stained with red ink. "...She could at least offer to buy us new clothes..." She grumbled before following the others.

The End