Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Utawarerumono Fan Fiction ❯ No Turning Back ❯ Chapter 3: Ripples in the Pond ( Chapter 7 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: RangerShade 
One truth. Many interpretations.
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Utawarerumono Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Hentai / Fantasy / Post-apocalyptic / Sci-fi | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.23.2009 | Pages: 10 | Words: 8.1K | Visits: 2.4K | Status: Work In Progress
One truth. Many interpretations.
Anime/Manga: Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Utawarerumono Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Adventure / Hentai / Fantasy / Post-apocalyptic / Sci-fi | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.23.2009 | Pages: 10 | Words: 8.1K | Visits: 2.4K | Status: Work In Progress
No Turning Back
A Pokewomen Universe Story
by Shade
Porn with Plot Warning.
Copyrighted character use warning.
Ignoring what a lot of other people wrote warning.
Warning about warning warning warning.
"People die if they are killed."
-Emiya Shirou
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Chapter 3: Ripples in the Pond
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Images flashed through his head in an unstoppable torrent that moved at the speed of thought.
Faces of strangers, all of them women, some smiling, others scowling and some of them that
looked back with eyes full of madness.
*Flash*
A kind faced beauty with shimmering silver hair looked so wistfully at him that he wanted to cry with her.
*Flash*
A serious white blonde warrior with silver eyes and lips that formed a faint smile that held no warmth.
*Flash*
Hair the color of pale smoke and eyes filled with such bloodlust that it made him want to scream in horror.
*Flash*
Almost regal with her amused look, her long dark hair joined in front to form a single combined braid beneath her throat.
*Flash*
Pink eyes and soft blue hair, so lovely that it almost made his heart ache.
*Flash*
Faster and faster they appeared, one after another, never the same one twice.
Not just people anymore, but scenes of destruction and suffering, here and gone in the blink of an eye.
*Flash*
It was going too fast. Everything was jumbling together. A school, no, a battlefield, smiling cute girl,
but no she was angry and now her hair was short, a girl wielding some kind of shovel, but it became a ribbon
and her hair was no longer brown but dark as sin-why a Panda-shriveled monkey-red eyes and blonde princess-
red flames-dark skin-EYESLOOKINGBACKATHIMFROMBEYONDTHEGLASS-
And then it was only a kiss again, soft and sweet.
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Urutori withdrew from the wide-eyed boy and touched her tingling lips with a hand that trembled slightly.
Whatever she had been expecting from the spell, *THAT* had not been on the list.
If Lightning could be distilled down to the very essence of power or if the sound of a pure note
could be rendered in perfect color then she might begin to describe what that had felt like.
The young priestess had a little knowledge of kisses, but nothing in her limited experience had prepared
her for the brief sensory overload that had seized her when they'd made that brief connection.
She wondered absently if it had been as good for him as it had been for her.
And then she scolded herself mentally for that thought, he was still only a child.
"What did you do that for?!"
The Onkami looked back at the pale masked face that had finally started speaking understandably.
"Does this answer your question?"
He gaped at her.
"I can understand what you're saying now!?"
Well at least the books had been right there, men were indeed a little slow on the uptake.
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"What is your name?"
"I don't remember."
"Where did you come from?"
"I don't remember."
"How did you enter the forest?"
"I don't remember."
He looked miserably at the angel, no, that wasn't right. Her name was Urutori.
She had introduced herself and the woman who kept her eyes closed was called Shiryu.
Strange names, but at least they had them to call their own.
He could see she was trying hard to help him, the sense of honest purpose was almost
visibly radiating from the winged...Pokewoman. He didn't even know what that was supposed
to mean aside from the woman part. The word itself was understandable, but the only visual
association he could find for it was gibberish inside of his head.
They looked human, but they were not. Not quite. In some undefinable way, he could sense
a difference between them and him. Like a color that shouldn't exist or an extra silent
note in a familiar piece of music, it was just something that he knew was there.
"Well we need to be able to call you something other then 'you' or 'boy."
Urutori tilted her head as she seemed to consider something.
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It was most unfortunate that the boy had amnesia. Especially the loss of his name.
Names were important. They were a Pokewoman's individuality, the unique identity that distinguished
them apart from each other. To have no name was to be on the level of an animal, a dumb beast
that merely existed.
She had tried to lighten his worried mood but she could see the concern in her eyes reflected in his own.
She would give him a name then.
Urutori thought back to her childhood, when her mother had told her stories at bedtime.
The stirring tales of Taro Kei and his Pokewomen companions wandering around dealing justice, the bittersweet
love ballad of Satomori and Hild and even the misadventures of Seina the Unfortunate. Those days of yore when
knowledge had been shared freely among Humans and Pokewomen and many miracles had graced the world.
But most of all she remembered her favorite story, one she had never tired of and begged her mother to
tell her night after night until she knew the tale by heart. The Tragedy of Saito Melan and the Three Sisters.
'Once upon a time, there had been a young man strong of heart and full of courage. He traveled to many strange
and distant lands learning many wonderous things until one day he arrived at the home of three sisters.
Upon seeing their beauty he was determined then and there to choose one of them as his bride. But wanting
a wife who was as fair in her heart as she was beautiful, he decided to test them to see where their true
nature lay.
The youngest sister who was proud of her strength he confronted in a challenge match and using what
he had learned in his travels, defeated her completely. Enraged at her defeat, the youngest sister
flew into a frenzy and tried to destroy him, for she was a proud and powerful Oni.
Saito fled from her and encountered the second sister, who he begged to shelter him from the wrath of the Oni.
She agreed to do so but only if he would give her all that he possessed down to the clothes on his back.
Having no other choice, he agreed to her terms and stripped himself naked before the middle sister's greedy eyes.
The crafty Dark Queen hid Melan in a secret compartment and told her younger sister that the man had run away.
But the Oni was not convinced and summoned two servants to hunt down the human who had shamed her.
The two servants offered many riches to the middle sister, who had never really intended to uphold her
end of the bargain with Saito, until at length the Dark Queen was satisfied with the bribe
and led the servants to where she had hidden the man.
But Saito had suspected this treachery and had already fled. With the two servants fast on his heels,
the young man at last sought sanctuary with the eldest of the Three Sisters. The oldest of the sisters
was as kind as she was fair and protected the young man from her youngest sister's servants who fled
back to their mistress.
The Megami healed his wounds and nursed Saito back to health. But when the young man declared that
he had chosen her to be his bride, she refused his offer. For while the Megami knew of kindness
and compassion, she did not understand what it meant to love someone other then her sisters.
Undaunted by this setback, Saito swore that he would show her what love was even if it cost him
his life. But the other two sisters learned of this oath and grew angry, for they had been
rejected by this man who had tricked them both into revealing the truth behind their beauty.
And so they laid a trap for him. Saito learned of a potion that could unlock any heart guarded
by a great beast. He went to the beast's lair and after a long and terrible battle that shook
apart a mountain, defeated the beast and seized the potion. But because of the wounds he had
suffered during the battle, his journey back to the Megami's home was slow. The Oni sister
and her minions attacked him, inflicting many more wounds as he fled from them in his determination
to fulfill his promise to the eldest sister.
Seeking to slake his thirst, Saito drank from a stream on the way to the home of his beloved.
But the Dark Queen had poisoned the water so that with each step Melan took towards the Megami's house,
he slowly began to fade from world. With his breath no more then a sigh in the wind, Saito reached the door
of his beloved and knocked on the door with the last of his strength before disappearing entirely,
leaving behind only the potion on the ground and the Megami's name singing in the air.
The Megami drank the potion and realized at last that she had loved Saito all this time but not realized it.
She searched for him everywhere but to no avail. For Saito was no longer in the world of men. And at last
the other two sisters revealed to her what they had done to the man who had shown her love, For this was their
final planned revenge on Saito, to take away the love he had given everything to bring to the Megami and
turn it into darkness. For the two sisters knew of the love their older sister had for them and believed
nothing could ever change the protection that gave them.
But they were wrong. Enraged for the first time ever against her younger siblings, the Megami used her
power, the power that could not save Saito, to banish both her sisters to dark and lonely places until
the end of time. Yet not even this was enough to cure the pain of lost love in the Megami's heart.
And so the Eldest Sister left her home and wandered the world, endlessly searching for the land
where men could not follow, the place where her beloved Saito had gone.'
The feeling of that old story seemed to resonate with this lost child.
"Saito Melan. Will you accept that name for now?"
Not his true name, but not a false one either.
The boy nodded hesitantly.
"Saito...Melan."
Odd that, the way he pronounced it the "L" almost sounded like an "R".
Shiryu entered the tent quietly.
"My lady, we must be on the move soon."
Urutori looked outside and gauged the sun's position in the sky.
"Yes, you're right. We don't want to be caught out in the forest tonight.
I just hate having to leave the tent and the other things behind."
"It can't be helped, Urutori-sama. Speed will be of the essence."
"Very well then."
She turned back to the confused youth.
"Saito, we have to leave now."
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They kept to the older trees, going as high as the branches that would support their weight allowed.
Two figures supporting a third between them as they leaped with the kind of perfect coordination that
came from long hours of practice. Urutori supported most of the boy's weight, using the anti-gravity
field that normally enabled her fly to nullify most of the additional burden and help her conserve
her stamina through the hours of travel. Shiryu provided some stabilization on the other side, but
most of her attention was on their surroundings and her free hand was never far from the handle
of her blade.
Saito bore up with this grueling means of transport without complaint, though his face was pale
and he winced every time Shiryu put pressure on his injured shoulder. He understood that there
was danger somewhere around them and he did not want to be a distraction at the wrong moment.
He was amazed by the pace they set. It seemed to steadily devour the miles without actually
feeling like they were going very fast at all. They couldn't move in an exact straight line
since they were staying above the forest floor, but even with the occasional detour and
need to change direction every so often, Saito could tell they were moving steadily towards
the north-west.
They stopped only for a brief meal on a large branch where the two Pokewomen shared dried meat
and fish and some rude corn pones that had been baked in the ashes of the camp before they'd left.
The three of them had drunk from the waterskins to wash the food down and a blushing Saito had
taken care of a call to nature on the other side of the trunk. He'd wanted to die as the sound
of his piss hitting the leaves below was so loud he knew they could hear it on the other side
of the tree. They'd given him a shapeless dull brown robe to wear and after he'd finished
emptying his bladder he hitched it up as best he could with a piece of hemp rope around his waist.
When he'd stepped back around the trunk he was glad that neither Pokewomen brought up the
matter. Even though it did leave him feeling a little off balance, it was as if their sense of
propriety wasn't concerned about something so mundane as hearing a guy take a leak.
Saito wasn't sure if he was grateful or annoyed.
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The sun was red and low on the horizon when Shiryu abruptly froze.
Urutori's brief puzzled look vanished a moment later as she too noticed it.
The forest around them had gone completely silent.
The boy seemed to sense it as well as his body tensed up next to her.
They were all perched on a respectable oak, but one glance down told her
that they were too close the ground for either Pokewoman's comfort.
And then the smell hit their noses like a granite boulder.
It was a foul greasy mixture of aging filth and decay, a scent that
skipped right past the brain and went directly to kicking in the stomach
with an irontoed boot.
Dires.
The Onkami and the Ryutoshi had trained together for so long that short hand
gestures and brief eye contact conveyed everything that needed to be said without
wasting breath on words.
The priestess hefted the startled Saito in her arms like an oversized infant and leaped
for a higher perch as her bodyguard softly eased the first few inches of her sword from
its dark sheath and let her fingers gently grip the handle in expectation.
The thick undergrowth exploded as a huge dark shape sprang up after the retreating pair,
moving so fast that it actually raced up the side of the oak tree as its claws found purchase
through the bark and into the wood.
As it came level with Shiryu there was a brief glint of metal and suddenly the shape was falling
in two pieces back to the ground.
Saito's eyes widened as he saw what had tried to catch them.
Like the nightmare from last night this was a beast that had never evolved in the natural world.
He briefly glimpsed long jaws full of an impossible array of hundreds of razor sharp teeth,
glowing red eyes and dark scales before head and body crashed seperately into the undergrowth.
Urutori deposited him higher up in the boughs and told him in a tone that brooked no argument
to stay put. Then she took to the air again, her wings flapping silently as she hovered on high,
her hands crackling with blue light as she assessed the growing pack that circled the tree that
Shiryu was on.
It was a full pack, like a horror story right out of the Second Revenge War. The Ryutoshi
must have only found the stragglers earlier because there were at least two dozen of them down there.
Her friend seemed to have also done the calculations as well and come to the same conclusion as
the bodyguard swiftly abandoned her position for a higher one and drew her blade fully from the sheath.
A quick draw strike was only effective against the monsters if one could get a clean shot at
the throat that was the unarmored chink between the bony head and the armored chest scales.
It was unlikely that the Ryutoshi would get any more openings like that, from here on out
Shiryu knew that it was going to be a matter of brute strength and trying to hit whatever
vulnerable opportunity presented itself without getting killed.
While she appreciated Urutori's aid, Shiryu also knew that most of the dirty work was going to
fall on her. In addition to their incredible physical durability, Dires were notoriously resistant
to magical attacks.
Unfortunately while her sword was deadly against most foes, it was not the first thing the Ryutoshi
would have picked to fight what was essentially a group of ravenous biological tanks. She had other means
at her disposal of course, but those needed time to prepare and she didn't think she was going to have
much of that once the pack decided to attack in earnest.
But when they finally moved, it wasn't against her.
"Sukebe's balls!"
They were going straight for Melan.
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The first Dire hit the trunk like a battering ram, making the old forest giant shake violently
as the young man clung desperately to the trembling branches he was on. He could see those blood
red eyes looking up at him, the primal hunger in them made all the more worse by the accompanying
awareness there that was more knowing then any simple animal should have been.
They wanted to devour him not just as simple prey but because he would know what that death would mean.
A bolt of lightning sizzled down and splashed harmlessly off of thick scales as Urutori tried to distract
the beasts, but they would not be denied. Another two smashed against the tree, their claws gouging deep
into the wood as they climbed up as high as they could go before gravity won the battle against their
scrabbling momentum and forced them back down.
Saito started to slip as the continuous heavy blows shook the old oak, a twinge of pain
lighting up in his wounded shoulder as he grabbed the mossy bark for dear life.
He was going to die.
'Then fight.'
It was a strange voice, almost an echo inside of his skull.
'But I lost the knife!'
The tree started to creak ominously as the main body of Dires attacked it with a single minded fury.
'Why do you need a knife? You have your own strength.'
He could distantly hear Shiryu's sword ringing against metal hard scales and the crash of talons
smashing earth and vegetation. Urutori was crying out to him to move, but it seemed that her words
were coming from a long way off. All the sounds of the outside world seemed to be slipping away from
him as he stared down at those hungry snapping jaws and merciless crimson spheres.
'But I need a weapon!'
The terror ate into his belly like a blade slowly being pushed inside.
'Everything is a weapon in the hand of the one who understands.'
And then the sickening snap of wood below told him that he was out of time.
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Urutori launched another Graviga spell at the mass of Dires, but they were murderously quick
and even the ones she managed to hit were only temporarily slowed down by the crushing force.
Their bodies were too dense and their scaled hides were incredibly tough. Air and Lightning spells
deflected off those dark shapes like water off of a duck's back. And they were just too fast to target
with Holy, the strongest attack spell that she had and was normally intended for an individual target.
As soon as she'd let go of Saito, she'd launched a signal flare spell into the air over them,
but there was no telling if anyone would see it or how long it would take help to come.
She spared a moment to curse the long dead inhabitatants of Viridick. They had set out to design
an army of creatures specifically for killing Pokewomen and more or less succeeded. What those
foolish people hadn't anticipated was that all of their horrific creations had developed a taste
for regular human flesh as well. The complete annihilation of the fortified city had been as much
about containment as it had been of vengence.
She saw out of the corner of her eye that Shiryu was fending off a pair of hungry Dires who had managed
to climb up into her range, the Ryutoshi abandoning her perch as a heavy blow took out the entire branch,
her sword deflecting a swipe from those razor sharp claws.
But the majority of the pack was going straight for Melan like iron filings to a lodestone.
"Move Saito! Get out of there!!"
She redoubled her efforts to distract their attention away, trying to hit whatever looked vulnerable.
But she couldn't stop them.
They just kept on coming after him.
She flew towards him, shouting at the boy to hold on as the trunk started to tilt and sway.
He looked up, gave her a small wan smile and then let go of the branch.
"NOOO!!"
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He was falling towards those hungry jaws.
The terror was smothering him, contricting his chest like bands of iron.
And then in the space of a single heartbeat, he let it all go.
Saito Melan did not lose.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"
All of the kinetic force of his falling body focused on the heel of his outstretched foot.
The first Dire's dark snout crunched audibly under the impact as the teeth missed him by inches.
It squealed like a stuck pig even as he springboarded in the fraction of a second that he
was in contact with its putrid smelling flesh. From there he was on top of another beast's
scaly head, noticing almost absently that this close he could see the oversized tusks like
some nightmare of a wild boar. Jaws snapped all around him, so many that the air seemed to be
a sea of yellowish triangular death. The smell was overpowering and the sounds were even worse.
Had he tried to even think of what he was doing he would have died then and there.
This ordeal had moved beyond rational thought or even simple instincts.
He ducked, dodged, weaved and spun as his center of gravity twirled like a kaledoscope.
He dared not stay on any one monster for more then a single step, but neither could he separate
from the pack without instantly being brought down by them. Blackscaled forms leapt at the tasty
taunting flesh that bobbed in and out among them. More often then not, they hit another member
of the pack instead. Rather then inflicting any injuries, this only seemed to drive them into
a frothing rage.
It was sheer madness.
No hesitation. No second guessing. Just a single endless moment of now.
So why couldn't he stop smiling?
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Urutori nearly fell out of the sky from sheer shock.
There hadn't been terms invented yet to properly describe the insanity level of what she was seeing.
He was using a pack of Dires as stepping stones?!
The Onkami could barely get her mind around the very concept of it. The logical part of her insisted
that it wasn't possible. It was like trying to dance in the middle of a tornado without being
touched by the wind. It couldn't be done.
And yet, there he was.
She didn't dare attack the pack now or do anything that might disrupt the flow of his movements.
Urutori hovered, uncertain about what she could do to help him.
As long as he stayed on top of them he was safe, but there was no way for him to get out.
He had the Tigress by the tail and didn't dare let go.
And then he missed a step.
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He was flowing on the fine edge between seconds.
But the simple robes he'd been given, sturdy and well made though they were,
had been intended for someone taller and "fuller" in certain areas that the
young man lacked. It trailed after his movements just a heartbeat behind.
Just far enough for a Dire's teeth to catch hold of one flapping piece.
The unexpected pull caught Melan off guard as the robe tore under the strain
and as it tore away from him he fell.
Saito's fingers grabbed desperately at the dense wiry hair on the Dire's side. It cut his hands
as he gripped it with all his strength to stop from hitting the ground. The squeals and snarls
were going wild all around him. He spun from one uncertain handhold to another as teeth snapped
at his wildly shaking legs. He kicked out and caught a snout that gave him enough momentum as
his foot bounced off of it to lift his legs up high enough to avoid the second beast that had been
going for them. Even as it prepared to lunge again the monster that he'd been holding onto began
to run and twist around, trying to shake its unwelcome passenger off while at the same time attempting
to take a bite out of him.
The boy clung on for dear life as the world became a blur of dark bodies, hot stinking breath and
always those hungry jaws a single heartbeat behind him. He made himself as hard a target to hit as
he could, shifting and bending like a gymnast drunk on adrenaline. His hands felt like they were on
fire as he rolled up and then hammerkicked a leaping Dire right where it would hurt the most, armor
be damned! The ensuing roar of pure animal pain was music to his ears even as the Dire he was holding
onto tried to scrape him off of it by running into a tangle of thick brush. Branches and thorns scratched
and slapped against his battered form as he held on as best he could, dropping closer towards its belly
as it slammed its sides against fallen tree trunks. Rotten wood exploded as the furious creature smashed
straight through an old log, pale white grubs showering down on Melan's body like a nightmare of snow.
Grunts from his blind side alerted him to another threat. His unwilling ride was circling around, taking
back towards where the main body of the pack was waiting. His arms were already aching from the strain
of clinging to the beast, he wondered if perhaps he might as well let go now and take his chances.
Then the horns sounded. Their long rich notes rang throughout the woods like the challenge of some ancient beast.
Something whizzed through the air in front of the bouncing boy and suddenly he was tumbling to the ground
as the Dire he was clinging to stumbled and collapsed with a crash into the dead leaves and bracken
of the forest floor.
More thin whistles sounded over his head as he lifted his dazed eyes up to see the yelping dark forms ahead
of him go down with bright blue fletching sticking out of their eyes and noses. He rolled to avoid a collapsing
body that hit where'd he'd been, the dying monster still snapping and clawing at an enemy that was out of its reach.
Something summersaulted over him in a blur of white and brown and then the sounds of rapid gunfire opened up.
To Saito's complete disbelief, it was coming from a pair of oversized pistols that the spinning figure was
holding in either hand even as it tumbled through the air. He couldn't even begin to understand how she could
aim at anything like that but somehow she was hitting the snarling enemies on either side, sending out
huge plumes of dark blood from each hit.
More arrows were coming from what seemed to be every direction now, accompanied by the occasional bark
of what sounded like some kind of rifle. The only thing the astonished young man could do was stay down
as squealing Dires attempted to circle around to face this new threat. The young woman with the dual pistols
was rolling and diving at the edges of the pack, snapping off shots at a slightly slower pace but with lethal accuracy.
The look of excitement on that lovely face sent a chill through Melan's body, had he had a similar expression
on his own face when he'd dropped into what had seemed like certain death at the time?
Shiryu ran up to cover the newcomer's left flank, her sword so covered in blood that the metal of the blade itself
seemed to be nothing but scarlet. The silent Pokewoman baited the closest Dire into lunging at her, sliding
aside at the last moment as a spear flew out from the forest behind her to take the beast straight through its
open jaws. It hit the ground with a crash, legs jerking in wild spasms as Shiryu finished it off with a two handed
stab through a rolling red eye. More figures were appearing out of the undergrowth now, all of them distinctly
female in appearance. As Saito looked up he saw dozens of slender figures perched on the branches above, loading
from the quivers on their backs and firing their sturdy bows with experienced ease.
He wondered if he was dreaming.
A Dire leaped at him, vicious yellow froth bubbling from its mouth and its eyes filled with nothing but rage and hunger.
An arm stuck itself out of the tree next to him and batted the large creature away as if it was nothing more then a small ball.
As the rest of her stepped out from the trunk like it was just an open door, Saito's eyes widened.
Long olive green hair, fine cut features and a body so voluptuous that melons were the only thing he could think of.
Her skin was an attractive shade of light green and he could certainly see a lot of it. If it wasn't for some strategically
placed bits of greenery she would have been completely naked. Even with the skimpy foliage he could still see almost every
detail and his face heated up as that realization fully settled in.
'Amazons?'
Now where had that thought come from?
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They were here! They'd seen her signal and managed to come in time!
Urutori almost wept with relief at the sight of the village's strongest Pokewomen out in force.
There was Sei, using her heavy pistols to pick off stragglers from the main body of the pack.
Behind her a fiercely glowing Shirakawa opened up with her signature red hot Flamethrower attack
to help drive the confused predators into an ever tightening circle while Vaya and the other
elven archers barraged them from above.
Even with nearly half of the pack down, the survivors darted this way and that as they tried to
escape from the trap closing in around them. They were incredibly tough, Dires, absorbing arrows by
the score unless one managed to hit an eye with a clean shot that drove straight into brain.
But there was no hole to break through, no weak point to exploit. Heavy spears and lances met any
individual monster trying to break out, piercing through the tough hide and driving the wildly struggling
creatures back into the killing circle. None of the hunters fought alone, they worked in teams of three
so that any attack on the front would be instantly countered by the other two in support.
Even then, it still took a long time for the pack to die. They fought to the death, clawing and snapping
at anything they could reach, sending over a dozen of the village's hunters down with badly bleeding wounds.
Their companions pulled them back and filled the gaps, their faces grim with determination to protect
the forest that they called home.
At last only three of the largest Dires remained and they rushed as one towards the side of the living net
that seemed to have less of the death dealing prey that harried them so. Only a single small figure stood
in the way of their escape. Mouths drooling green and yellow saliva, they charged forward with savage purpose.
"Reigan."
The smell of burning meat filled the air.
"I'm getting too old for this."
"Elder!"
Genkai, Leader of the Forest Village, looked up to see young Urutori starting to descend for a landing.
The old though still handsome Pokewoman looked from her to where Shiryu was wiping the gore from her blade
and then to where a small group of the villagers were curiously inspecting the small figure that had been daft
enough to try and take a ride on a Dire. She had a bad feeling about this, as if the world around her had suddenly
become something like the village's watermill, with the movement of small gears bringing about a change
for good or for ill with the inevitability of a river's flow.
She pulled out her pipe, filled and lit it as the priestess hurried over to her.
"Interesting times, indeed."
-End Chapter 3
-Bonus Features-
-University Grand Library Archives, Ankmorecunt-
Pokedex Entry #000119
Name: PsiDyke
Aliases: Psidope, Widowbane
Classification: Psychic
Elemental Affinity: None
Lifespan: Unknown, estimated to be human average.
Reproduction: No known cases. Theorized to be a pure parthogenesis Pokewomen species
Habitat: Populated regions, Psidykes have never been found away from civilization
Reported Encounter Rate: Rare to Uncommon in city and rural areas. No reported encounters in the wild.
Diet: Omnivore. Most seem to have taste for sweets.
Libido: None observed. Possibly a side effect of their limited mental capacity.
Strong vs: Psychic
Resists: None
Weak vs: Physical
Evolves from: No recorded cases of an evolution to Psidyke.
Capture Difficulty: None. But who'd want to capture a Psidyke anyway?
Strength: F -Weaker then standard adult human
Agility: D- -Within range of a normal human
Speed: F -Top speed is estimated at 2 miles an hour
Durability: D- -Slightly more frail then a normal human
Endurance: F -Tires twice as fast a normal healthy adult human
Intelligence: C- -estimated to be the equivalent of a small child
Hostility Rating: F -Harmless unless startled or frightened
Distortion Field Strength: D+ -High likelyhood of deflecting small caliber firearms
Armor Rating: F -No Physical Defense
Psychic Ability: B+ -Empath, Mindblock Auto-defense, Confusion, Distress Call
Overall threat Rating: D- -Mostly Harmless
Special Abilities:
-Confusion: The Psidyke's single known offensive psychic ability. Used only when this childish Pokewoman
is startled or scared, this powerful omnidirectional attack scrambles the minds of all sentient creatures
within a certain radius. In addition random telekinetic energy can cause objects and people to be lifted
and flung around at random, possibly resulting in injuries.
-Empathy: Psidykes can sense the emotional state of other creatures around them as well as project their
own emotions to let others know what they are feeling. They appear unable to control this ability most
of the time.
-Mindblock Auto-Defense: Perhaps the only real oddity of these innocent creatures is a strong automatic
mental defense against cursory scans by other psychics. This appears to be a completely instinctual reaction
beyond the conscious control of the Pokewoman. Psychic Pokewomen, especially Type One's acquired in the wild,
will refuse to do any deeper probes of a Psidyke up to and including disobeying a direct order even after
Level 5 conditioning. Attempts to mindprobe Psidykes by Humans with Psychic bloodgifts results in the activation
of the Psidyke's Distress Call Ability and always results in failure.
-Distress Call: In addition to their own natural childish innocence, this unusual ability is the main reason why
all Pokewomen training manuals and schools strongly recommend leaving Psidykes alone and unmolested. While
accidently spooking a Psidyke can result in an embarrassing or painful incident as a result of a Confusion
attack, *deliberately* harming or attempting to harm a Psidyke can lead to a very painful death, often at the hands
of one's own Pokewomen. This psychic ability acts as a beacon to all Pokewomen within several square miles who will
immediately target the offender with hostile intent. Even should that person manage to escape from immediate danger,
they are psychically "marked" and any Pokewomen they encounter in the future will have "a bad feeling" about them.
Notes:
First recorded in P.S. 24, the childish Psidyke is widely believed to be one of Sukebe's failed designs abandoned
near the end of Sukebe's War. These innocent creatures sought refuge in the ruins of human civilization among the
hodgepodge of human survivors that managed to survive outside of the Great Fortress-Cities during the fighting
and subsequent rebuilding. Their cute appearance and innocent nature soon made them quickly accepted by many who
otherwise distrusted Pokewomen in general. Although some prominent figures voiced suspicions of the Psidyke's nature,
over the decades there has never been a single recorded attack by one of these gentle creatures.
Psidykes are named for their well known psychic abilities as well as their equally famous lack of attention to the male gender
over the age of puberty. Ranging from four and a half to five and a half feet in height, these Pokewomen tend to be slender
and normally petite breasted, though on rare occasions more developed Psidykes have been observed. Hair color runs the standard
range of every possible shade, though black and reddish pink are the most common. The most easily recognizable feature
of these females are the two small horns on found on the sides of their head protruding from swirled bone platforms on their skull.
In the event that this features is concealed it is very easy to mistake these Pokewomen for normal humans as their physical capabilities
are otherwise on par or weaker then a normal woman of the same size.
Temperamentally a typical Psidyke can be considered on par with that of a five year old child. Although it is possible through
long and patient training to teach them simple phrases and tasks such as how to use a toilet, they never seem quite able
to grasp more complex ideas and concepts. Some individuals have even mockingly compared them to cats, though this is of course
a huge insult to the intelligence of the typical domesticated feline. Although they can be quick to throw a silly tantrum,
these Pokewomen are equally easy to distract out of their huff with a sweet or shiny toy.
Shunned by any serious tamer, Psidykes are the very definition of useless when it comes to Pokebattles or Pokesex.
Not only are they incapable of attacking other Pokewomen, virtually no other type of Pokewomen will try to harm a Psidyke
in any way. Even the most violent Demoness will display a gentleness to this breed that is otherwise unheard of from Dark-Element types.
No explanation has ever been found for this curious behavior, even Tamers who are very close to their Harem have been unable
to ever learn the reason for this universal taboo. Further explorations into this matter has been hampered by numerous accidents
and gruesome suicides in the field which have contributed to the perception of Psidyke research as being extremely "unlucky".
Shiroshi Lao Mao and the Limptit Pirates
-See Also: Red Reign of Terror, Tail of OneHotPiece
Shiroshi Lao Mao (P.S. 217 - P.S. 342) is perhaps the most infamous and brutal Pirate of the Silver Age.
Born during the First Revenge War to a small noble family in what would later become the Crescent League,
Mao was legally registered as a Purebred Human Birth. Little is known about her early years until Shiroshi's
enrollment to Lesba University in P.S. 233. Reportedly distant from her fellow students, the young woman was
nevertheless considered a diva on campus and displayed an exceptionally strong grasp of Magical Lore and
the concepts of advanced Pokewoman Training and Taming. She also displayed an unusual interest in Pre-Sukebe
devices including banned Lost-tech which resulted in several official reprimands filed by League Officials.
Despite this worrying stain on her record, Mao seemed destined for success in whichever field she would choose
after graduation. However all of this came to an end in P.S. 235 when it was discovered that Shiroshi was
the culprit responsible for at least twenty seven horrific murders in Whitewash City. When authorities attempted
to arrest her it was discovered that at some point in time the once human Mao had undergone Threshold into a Weretigress
which proceeded to kill all three officers and their Pokewomen partners before fleeing.
The rogue Pokewoman disappeared for several years after her flight, though there are dozens of unsolved murders and disappearances
across Crescent and Blue League territory that are believed to have been her handiwork. The first official record of her reappearance
was in P.S. 241 when her flagship, Red Ragnarok, attacked an ocean convoy traveling between Crescent and Red League, wiping
out the naval escorts and destroying or capturing every cargo ship except for a single crippled survivor which managed to flee
and arrived in the Red League several weeks after the stunning attack.
What followed over the next century would become known as the Red Reign of Terror as Mao forged the various scattered ocean
pirate clans into a powerful empire on the high seas. Striking from hidden island bases, the Limptit pirates ravaged ocean trade
between the Leagues as well as pillaging coastal villages and towns. Despite many battles, arrests and executions the number of
Limptit pirates seemed to increase every year. Conservative estimates place the total number of ships lost to the Limptits during
the Red Reign at over 10,000 and human casualties around 250,000 men, women and children. For decades it seemed that Mao's grip
on the sea would remain unbroken and eventually challenge even the Leagues themselves.
But in P.S. 288, following the elimination of the Sons of Sukebe, ULC forces turned their full attention and resources on the
pirate threat that was crippling interleague trade. This anti-pirate campaign climaxed in P.S. 342 with the location and destruction
of Mao's primary island base after a six month siege by a combined strike force from Red, Blue, Crescent, Gold, Orange and the normally
reclusive Edo League. Unconfirmed reports also mention that a large band of Laymores and the Legendary Pokewomen Teresa and Miya
were involved in bringing down the island's hardened defenses. During the battle, the self-proclaimed "Pirate Queen" Mao was eventually
captured by ULC marines along with most of her pirate subordinates that failed to escape during the assault. Following a speedy trial
in the port city of Grandcock, Mao was publically beheaded in P.S. 342 in the main city square before a packed crowd of thousands.
Her final words were, "Death is merely another doorway. My treasured Onehotpiece shall be that door."
Following Mao's execution and the destruction of most of the Limptit pirates the few remaining survivors fled across the world, eventually
reforming the individual rival Pirate Clans that had existed prior to the Red Reign of Terror. The largest group that fled would
later become the modern Kuja Pirates, one of the strongest factions in the Pirate Clans. Inter-clan warfare between the various factions
ever since has prevented the Clans from ever forming a united threat against the United League Council and reduced the pirates to more of
a civilized nuisance on the high seas with codes of behavior that have greatly reduced loss of precious human lives.
-Chronicles of the Pokeleague, 9th Edition -EDITED DRAFT APPROVED BY THE UNITED LEAGUE COUNCIL-
A Pokewomen Universe Story
by Shade
Porn with Plot Warning.
Copyrighted character use warning.
Ignoring what a lot of other people wrote warning.
Warning about warning warning warning.
"People die if they are killed."
-Emiya Shirou
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Chapter 3: Ripples in the Pond
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
-Contact-
Images flashed through his head in an unstoppable torrent that moved at the speed of thought.
Faces of strangers, all of them women, some smiling, others scowling and some of them that
looked back with eyes full of madness.
*Flash*
A kind faced beauty with shimmering silver hair looked so wistfully at him that he wanted to cry with her.
*Flash*
A serious white blonde warrior with silver eyes and lips that formed a faint smile that held no warmth.
*Flash*
Hair the color of pale smoke and eyes filled with such bloodlust that it made him want to scream in horror.
*Flash*
Almost regal with her amused look, her long dark hair joined in front to form a single combined braid beneath her throat.
*Flash*
Pink eyes and soft blue hair, so lovely that it almost made his heart ache.
*Flash*
Faster and faster they appeared, one after another, never the same one twice.
Not just people anymore, but scenes of destruction and suffering, here and gone in the blink of an eye.
*Flash*
It was going too fast. Everything was jumbling together. A school, no, a battlefield, smiling cute girl,
but no she was angry and now her hair was short, a girl wielding some kind of shovel, but it became a ribbon
and her hair was no longer brown but dark as sin-why a Panda-shriveled monkey-red eyes and blonde princess-
red flames-dark skin-EYESLOOKINGBACKATHIMFROMBEYONDTHEGLASS-
And then it was only a kiss again, soft and sweet.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Urutori withdrew from the wide-eyed boy and touched her tingling lips with a hand that trembled slightly.
Whatever she had been expecting from the spell, *THAT* had not been on the list.
If Lightning could be distilled down to the very essence of power or if the sound of a pure note
could be rendered in perfect color then she might begin to describe what that had felt like.
The young priestess had a little knowledge of kisses, but nothing in her limited experience had prepared
her for the brief sensory overload that had seized her when they'd made that brief connection.
She wondered absently if it had been as good for him as it had been for her.
And then she scolded herself mentally for that thought, he was still only a child.
"What did you do that for?!"
The Onkami looked back at the pale masked face that had finally started speaking understandably.
"Does this answer your question?"
He gaped at her.
"I can understand what you're saying now!?"
Well at least the books had been right there, men were indeed a little slow on the uptake.
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"What is your name?"
"I don't remember."
"Where did you come from?"
"I don't remember."
"How did you enter the forest?"
"I don't remember."
He looked miserably at the angel, no, that wasn't right. Her name was Urutori.
She had introduced herself and the woman who kept her eyes closed was called Shiryu.
Strange names, but at least they had them to call their own.
He could see she was trying hard to help him, the sense of honest purpose was almost
visibly radiating from the winged...Pokewoman. He didn't even know what that was supposed
to mean aside from the woman part. The word itself was understandable, but the only visual
association he could find for it was gibberish inside of his head.
They looked human, but they were not. Not quite. In some undefinable way, he could sense
a difference between them and him. Like a color that shouldn't exist or an extra silent
note in a familiar piece of music, it was just something that he knew was there.
"Well we need to be able to call you something other then 'you' or 'boy."
Urutori tilted her head as she seemed to consider something.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
It was most unfortunate that the boy had amnesia. Especially the loss of his name.
Names were important. They were a Pokewoman's individuality, the unique identity that distinguished
them apart from each other. To have no name was to be on the level of an animal, a dumb beast
that merely existed.
She had tried to lighten his worried mood but she could see the concern in her eyes reflected in his own.
She would give him a name then.
Urutori thought back to her childhood, when her mother had told her stories at bedtime.
The stirring tales of Taro Kei and his Pokewomen companions wandering around dealing justice, the bittersweet
love ballad of Satomori and Hild and even the misadventures of Seina the Unfortunate. Those days of yore when
knowledge had been shared freely among Humans and Pokewomen and many miracles had graced the world.
But most of all she remembered her favorite story, one she had never tired of and begged her mother to
tell her night after night until she knew the tale by heart. The Tragedy of Saito Melan and the Three Sisters.
'Once upon a time, there had been a young man strong of heart and full of courage. He traveled to many strange
and distant lands learning many wonderous things until one day he arrived at the home of three sisters.
Upon seeing their beauty he was determined then and there to choose one of them as his bride. But wanting
a wife who was as fair in her heart as she was beautiful, he decided to test them to see where their true
nature lay.
The youngest sister who was proud of her strength he confronted in a challenge match and using what
he had learned in his travels, defeated her completely. Enraged at her defeat, the youngest sister
flew into a frenzy and tried to destroy him, for she was a proud and powerful Oni.
Saito fled from her and encountered the second sister, who he begged to shelter him from the wrath of the Oni.
She agreed to do so but only if he would give her all that he possessed down to the clothes on his back.
Having no other choice, he agreed to her terms and stripped himself naked before the middle sister's greedy eyes.
The crafty Dark Queen hid Melan in a secret compartment and told her younger sister that the man had run away.
But the Oni was not convinced and summoned two servants to hunt down the human who had shamed her.
The two servants offered many riches to the middle sister, who had never really intended to uphold her
end of the bargain with Saito, until at length the Dark Queen was satisfied with the bribe
and led the servants to where she had hidden the man.
But Saito had suspected this treachery and had already fled. With the two servants fast on his heels,
the young man at last sought sanctuary with the eldest of the Three Sisters. The oldest of the sisters
was as kind as she was fair and protected the young man from her youngest sister's servants who fled
back to their mistress.
The Megami healed his wounds and nursed Saito back to health. But when the young man declared that
he had chosen her to be his bride, she refused his offer. For while the Megami knew of kindness
and compassion, she did not understand what it meant to love someone other then her sisters.
Undaunted by this setback, Saito swore that he would show her what love was even if it cost him
his life. But the other two sisters learned of this oath and grew angry, for they had been
rejected by this man who had tricked them both into revealing the truth behind their beauty.
And so they laid a trap for him. Saito learned of a potion that could unlock any heart guarded
by a great beast. He went to the beast's lair and after a long and terrible battle that shook
apart a mountain, defeated the beast and seized the potion. But because of the wounds he had
suffered during the battle, his journey back to the Megami's home was slow. The Oni sister
and her minions attacked him, inflicting many more wounds as he fled from them in his determination
to fulfill his promise to the eldest sister.
Seeking to slake his thirst, Saito drank from a stream on the way to the home of his beloved.
But the Dark Queen had poisoned the water so that with each step Melan took towards the Megami's house,
he slowly began to fade from world. With his breath no more then a sigh in the wind, Saito reached the door
of his beloved and knocked on the door with the last of his strength before disappearing entirely,
leaving behind only the potion on the ground and the Megami's name singing in the air.
The Megami drank the potion and realized at last that she had loved Saito all this time but not realized it.
She searched for him everywhere but to no avail. For Saito was no longer in the world of men. And at last
the other two sisters revealed to her what they had done to the man who had shown her love, For this was their
final planned revenge on Saito, to take away the love he had given everything to bring to the Megami and
turn it into darkness. For the two sisters knew of the love their older sister had for them and believed
nothing could ever change the protection that gave them.
But they were wrong. Enraged for the first time ever against her younger siblings, the Megami used her
power, the power that could not save Saito, to banish both her sisters to dark and lonely places until
the end of time. Yet not even this was enough to cure the pain of lost love in the Megami's heart.
And so the Eldest Sister left her home and wandered the world, endlessly searching for the land
where men could not follow, the place where her beloved Saito had gone.'
The feeling of that old story seemed to resonate with this lost child.
"Saito Melan. Will you accept that name for now?"
Not his true name, but not a false one either.
The boy nodded hesitantly.
"Saito...Melan."
Odd that, the way he pronounced it the "L" almost sounded like an "R".
Shiryu entered the tent quietly.
"My lady, we must be on the move soon."
Urutori looked outside and gauged the sun's position in the sky.
"Yes, you're right. We don't want to be caught out in the forest tonight.
I just hate having to leave the tent and the other things behind."
"It can't be helped, Urutori-sama. Speed will be of the essence."
"Very well then."
She turned back to the confused youth.
"Saito, we have to leave now."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
They kept to the older trees, going as high as the branches that would support their weight allowed.
Two figures supporting a third between them as they leaped with the kind of perfect coordination that
came from long hours of practice. Urutori supported most of the boy's weight, using the anti-gravity
field that normally enabled her fly to nullify most of the additional burden and help her conserve
her stamina through the hours of travel. Shiryu provided some stabilization on the other side, but
most of her attention was on their surroundings and her free hand was never far from the handle
of her blade.
Saito bore up with this grueling means of transport without complaint, though his face was pale
and he winced every time Shiryu put pressure on his injured shoulder. He understood that there
was danger somewhere around them and he did not want to be a distraction at the wrong moment.
He was amazed by the pace they set. It seemed to steadily devour the miles without actually
feeling like they were going very fast at all. They couldn't move in an exact straight line
since they were staying above the forest floor, but even with the occasional detour and
need to change direction every so often, Saito could tell they were moving steadily towards
the north-west.
They stopped only for a brief meal on a large branch where the two Pokewomen shared dried meat
and fish and some rude corn pones that had been baked in the ashes of the camp before they'd left.
The three of them had drunk from the waterskins to wash the food down and a blushing Saito had
taken care of a call to nature on the other side of the trunk. He'd wanted to die as the sound
of his piss hitting the leaves below was so loud he knew they could hear it on the other side
of the tree. They'd given him a shapeless dull brown robe to wear and after he'd finished
emptying his bladder he hitched it up as best he could with a piece of hemp rope around his waist.
When he'd stepped back around the trunk he was glad that neither Pokewomen brought up the
matter. Even though it did leave him feeling a little off balance, it was as if their sense of
propriety wasn't concerned about something so mundane as hearing a guy take a leak.
Saito wasn't sure if he was grateful or annoyed.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
The sun was red and low on the horizon when Shiryu abruptly froze.
Urutori's brief puzzled look vanished a moment later as she too noticed it.
The forest around them had gone completely silent.
The boy seemed to sense it as well as his body tensed up next to her.
They were all perched on a respectable oak, but one glance down told her
that they were too close the ground for either Pokewoman's comfort.
And then the smell hit their noses like a granite boulder.
It was a foul greasy mixture of aging filth and decay, a scent that
skipped right past the brain and went directly to kicking in the stomach
with an irontoed boot.
Dires.
The Onkami and the Ryutoshi had trained together for so long that short hand
gestures and brief eye contact conveyed everything that needed to be said without
wasting breath on words.
The priestess hefted the startled Saito in her arms like an oversized infant and leaped
for a higher perch as her bodyguard softly eased the first few inches of her sword from
its dark sheath and let her fingers gently grip the handle in expectation.
The thick undergrowth exploded as a huge dark shape sprang up after the retreating pair,
moving so fast that it actually raced up the side of the oak tree as its claws found purchase
through the bark and into the wood.
As it came level with Shiryu there was a brief glint of metal and suddenly the shape was falling
in two pieces back to the ground.
Saito's eyes widened as he saw what had tried to catch them.
Like the nightmare from last night this was a beast that had never evolved in the natural world.
He briefly glimpsed long jaws full of an impossible array of hundreds of razor sharp teeth,
glowing red eyes and dark scales before head and body crashed seperately into the undergrowth.
Urutori deposited him higher up in the boughs and told him in a tone that brooked no argument
to stay put. Then she took to the air again, her wings flapping silently as she hovered on high,
her hands crackling with blue light as she assessed the growing pack that circled the tree that
Shiryu was on.
It was a full pack, like a horror story right out of the Second Revenge War. The Ryutoshi
must have only found the stragglers earlier because there were at least two dozen of them down there.
Her friend seemed to have also done the calculations as well and come to the same conclusion as
the bodyguard swiftly abandoned her position for a higher one and drew her blade fully from the sheath.
A quick draw strike was only effective against the monsters if one could get a clean shot at
the throat that was the unarmored chink between the bony head and the armored chest scales.
It was unlikely that the Ryutoshi would get any more openings like that, from here on out
Shiryu knew that it was going to be a matter of brute strength and trying to hit whatever
vulnerable opportunity presented itself without getting killed.
While she appreciated Urutori's aid, Shiryu also knew that most of the dirty work was going to
fall on her. In addition to their incredible physical durability, Dires were notoriously resistant
to magical attacks.
Unfortunately while her sword was deadly against most foes, it was not the first thing the Ryutoshi
would have picked to fight what was essentially a group of ravenous biological tanks. She had other means
at her disposal of course, but those needed time to prepare and she didn't think she was going to have
much of that once the pack decided to attack in earnest.
But when they finally moved, it wasn't against her.
"Sukebe's balls!"
They were going straight for Melan.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
The first Dire hit the trunk like a battering ram, making the old forest giant shake violently
as the young man clung desperately to the trembling branches he was on. He could see those blood
red eyes looking up at him, the primal hunger in them made all the more worse by the accompanying
awareness there that was more knowing then any simple animal should have been.
They wanted to devour him not just as simple prey but because he would know what that death would mean.
A bolt of lightning sizzled down and splashed harmlessly off of thick scales as Urutori tried to distract
the beasts, but they would not be denied. Another two smashed against the tree, their claws gouging deep
into the wood as they climbed up as high as they could go before gravity won the battle against their
scrabbling momentum and forced them back down.
Saito started to slip as the continuous heavy blows shook the old oak, a twinge of pain
lighting up in his wounded shoulder as he grabbed the mossy bark for dear life.
He was going to die.
'Then fight.'
It was a strange voice, almost an echo inside of his skull.
'But I lost the knife!'
The tree started to creak ominously as the main body of Dires attacked it with a single minded fury.
'Why do you need a knife? You have your own strength.'
He could distantly hear Shiryu's sword ringing against metal hard scales and the crash of talons
smashing earth and vegetation. Urutori was crying out to him to move, but it seemed that her words
were coming from a long way off. All the sounds of the outside world seemed to be slipping away from
him as he stared down at those hungry snapping jaws and merciless crimson spheres.
'But I need a weapon!'
The terror ate into his belly like a blade slowly being pushed inside.
'Everything is a weapon in the hand of the one who understands.'
And then the sickening snap of wood below told him that he was out of time.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Urutori launched another Graviga spell at the mass of Dires, but they were murderously quick
and even the ones she managed to hit were only temporarily slowed down by the crushing force.
Their bodies were too dense and their scaled hides were incredibly tough. Air and Lightning spells
deflected off those dark shapes like water off of a duck's back. And they were just too fast to target
with Holy, the strongest attack spell that she had and was normally intended for an individual target.
As soon as she'd let go of Saito, she'd launched a signal flare spell into the air over them,
but there was no telling if anyone would see it or how long it would take help to come.
She spared a moment to curse the long dead inhabitatants of Viridick. They had set out to design
an army of creatures specifically for killing Pokewomen and more or less succeeded. What those
foolish people hadn't anticipated was that all of their horrific creations had developed a taste
for regular human flesh as well. The complete annihilation of the fortified city had been as much
about containment as it had been of vengence.
She saw out of the corner of her eye that Shiryu was fending off a pair of hungry Dires who had managed
to climb up into her range, the Ryutoshi abandoning her perch as a heavy blow took out the entire branch,
her sword deflecting a swipe from those razor sharp claws.
But the majority of the pack was going straight for Melan like iron filings to a lodestone.
"Move Saito! Get out of there!!"
She redoubled her efforts to distract their attention away, trying to hit whatever looked vulnerable.
But she couldn't stop them.
They just kept on coming after him.
She flew towards him, shouting at the boy to hold on as the trunk started to tilt and sway.
He looked up, gave her a small wan smile and then let go of the branch.
"NOOO!!"
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
He was falling towards those hungry jaws.
The terror was smothering him, contricting his chest like bands of iron.
And then in the space of a single heartbeat, he let it all go.
Saito Melan did not lose.
"YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"
All of the kinetic force of his falling body focused on the heel of his outstretched foot.
The first Dire's dark snout crunched audibly under the impact as the teeth missed him by inches.
It squealed like a stuck pig even as he springboarded in the fraction of a second that he
was in contact with its putrid smelling flesh. From there he was on top of another beast's
scaly head, noticing almost absently that this close he could see the oversized tusks like
some nightmare of a wild boar. Jaws snapped all around him, so many that the air seemed to be
a sea of yellowish triangular death. The smell was overpowering and the sounds were even worse.
Had he tried to even think of what he was doing he would have died then and there.
This ordeal had moved beyond rational thought or even simple instincts.
He ducked, dodged, weaved and spun as his center of gravity twirled like a kaledoscope.
He dared not stay on any one monster for more then a single step, but neither could he separate
from the pack without instantly being brought down by them. Blackscaled forms leapt at the tasty
taunting flesh that bobbed in and out among them. More often then not, they hit another member
of the pack instead. Rather then inflicting any injuries, this only seemed to drive them into
a frothing rage.
It was sheer madness.
No hesitation. No second guessing. Just a single endless moment of now.
So why couldn't he stop smiling?
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Urutori nearly fell out of the sky from sheer shock.
There hadn't been terms invented yet to properly describe the insanity level of what she was seeing.
He was using a pack of Dires as stepping stones?!
The Onkami could barely get her mind around the very concept of it. The logical part of her insisted
that it wasn't possible. It was like trying to dance in the middle of a tornado without being
touched by the wind. It couldn't be done.
And yet, there he was.
She didn't dare attack the pack now or do anything that might disrupt the flow of his movements.
Urutori hovered, uncertain about what she could do to help him.
As long as he stayed on top of them he was safe, but there was no way for him to get out.
He had the Tigress by the tail and didn't dare let go.
And then he missed a step.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
He was flowing on the fine edge between seconds.
But the simple robes he'd been given, sturdy and well made though they were,
had been intended for someone taller and "fuller" in certain areas that the
young man lacked. It trailed after his movements just a heartbeat behind.
Just far enough for a Dire's teeth to catch hold of one flapping piece.
The unexpected pull caught Melan off guard as the robe tore under the strain
and as it tore away from him he fell.
Saito's fingers grabbed desperately at the dense wiry hair on the Dire's side. It cut his hands
as he gripped it with all his strength to stop from hitting the ground. The squeals and snarls
were going wild all around him. He spun from one uncertain handhold to another as teeth snapped
at his wildly shaking legs. He kicked out and caught a snout that gave him enough momentum as
his foot bounced off of it to lift his legs up high enough to avoid the second beast that had been
going for them. Even as it prepared to lunge again the monster that he'd been holding onto began
to run and twist around, trying to shake its unwelcome passenger off while at the same time attempting
to take a bite out of him.
The boy clung on for dear life as the world became a blur of dark bodies, hot stinking breath and
always those hungry jaws a single heartbeat behind him. He made himself as hard a target to hit as
he could, shifting and bending like a gymnast drunk on adrenaline. His hands felt like they were on
fire as he rolled up and then hammerkicked a leaping Dire right where it would hurt the most, armor
be damned! The ensuing roar of pure animal pain was music to his ears even as the Dire he was holding
onto tried to scrape him off of it by running into a tangle of thick brush. Branches and thorns scratched
and slapped against his battered form as he held on as best he could, dropping closer towards its belly
as it slammed its sides against fallen tree trunks. Rotten wood exploded as the furious creature smashed
straight through an old log, pale white grubs showering down on Melan's body like a nightmare of snow.
Grunts from his blind side alerted him to another threat. His unwilling ride was circling around, taking
back towards where the main body of the pack was waiting. His arms were already aching from the strain
of clinging to the beast, he wondered if perhaps he might as well let go now and take his chances.
Then the horns sounded. Their long rich notes rang throughout the woods like the challenge of some ancient beast.
Something whizzed through the air in front of the bouncing boy and suddenly he was tumbling to the ground
as the Dire he was clinging to stumbled and collapsed with a crash into the dead leaves and bracken
of the forest floor.
More thin whistles sounded over his head as he lifted his dazed eyes up to see the yelping dark forms ahead
of him go down with bright blue fletching sticking out of their eyes and noses. He rolled to avoid a collapsing
body that hit where'd he'd been, the dying monster still snapping and clawing at an enemy that was out of its reach.
Something summersaulted over him in a blur of white and brown and then the sounds of rapid gunfire opened up.
To Saito's complete disbelief, it was coming from a pair of oversized pistols that the spinning figure was
holding in either hand even as it tumbled through the air. He couldn't even begin to understand how she could
aim at anything like that but somehow she was hitting the snarling enemies on either side, sending out
huge plumes of dark blood from each hit.
More arrows were coming from what seemed to be every direction now, accompanied by the occasional bark
of what sounded like some kind of rifle. The only thing the astonished young man could do was stay down
as squealing Dires attempted to circle around to face this new threat. The young woman with the dual pistols
was rolling and diving at the edges of the pack, snapping off shots at a slightly slower pace but with lethal accuracy.
The look of excitement on that lovely face sent a chill through Melan's body, had he had a similar expression
on his own face when he'd dropped into what had seemed like certain death at the time?
Shiryu ran up to cover the newcomer's left flank, her sword so covered in blood that the metal of the blade itself
seemed to be nothing but scarlet. The silent Pokewoman baited the closest Dire into lunging at her, sliding
aside at the last moment as a spear flew out from the forest behind her to take the beast straight through its
open jaws. It hit the ground with a crash, legs jerking in wild spasms as Shiryu finished it off with a two handed
stab through a rolling red eye. More figures were appearing out of the undergrowth now, all of them distinctly
female in appearance. As Saito looked up he saw dozens of slender figures perched on the branches above, loading
from the quivers on their backs and firing their sturdy bows with experienced ease.
He wondered if he was dreaming.
A Dire leaped at him, vicious yellow froth bubbling from its mouth and its eyes filled with nothing but rage and hunger.
An arm stuck itself out of the tree next to him and batted the large creature away as if it was nothing more then a small ball.
As the rest of her stepped out from the trunk like it was just an open door, Saito's eyes widened.
Long olive green hair, fine cut features and a body so voluptuous that melons were the only thing he could think of.
Her skin was an attractive shade of light green and he could certainly see a lot of it. If it wasn't for some strategically
placed bits of greenery she would have been completely naked. Even with the skimpy foliage he could still see almost every
detail and his face heated up as that realization fully settled in.
'Amazons?'
Now where had that thought come from?
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
They were here! They'd seen her signal and managed to come in time!
Urutori almost wept with relief at the sight of the village's strongest Pokewomen out in force.
There was Sei, using her heavy pistols to pick off stragglers from the main body of the pack.
Behind her a fiercely glowing Shirakawa opened up with her signature red hot Flamethrower attack
to help drive the confused predators into an ever tightening circle while Vaya and the other
elven archers barraged them from above.
Even with nearly half of the pack down, the survivors darted this way and that as they tried to
escape from the trap closing in around them. They were incredibly tough, Dires, absorbing arrows by
the score unless one managed to hit an eye with a clean shot that drove straight into brain.
But there was no hole to break through, no weak point to exploit. Heavy spears and lances met any
individual monster trying to break out, piercing through the tough hide and driving the wildly struggling
creatures back into the killing circle. None of the hunters fought alone, they worked in teams of three
so that any attack on the front would be instantly countered by the other two in support.
Even then, it still took a long time for the pack to die. They fought to the death, clawing and snapping
at anything they could reach, sending over a dozen of the village's hunters down with badly bleeding wounds.
Their companions pulled them back and filled the gaps, their faces grim with determination to protect
the forest that they called home.
At last only three of the largest Dires remained and they rushed as one towards the side of the living net
that seemed to have less of the death dealing prey that harried them so. Only a single small figure stood
in the way of their escape. Mouths drooling green and yellow saliva, they charged forward with savage purpose.
"Reigan."
The smell of burning meat filled the air.
"I'm getting too old for this."
"Elder!"
Genkai, Leader of the Forest Village, looked up to see young Urutori starting to descend for a landing.
The old though still handsome Pokewoman looked from her to where Shiryu was wiping the gore from her blade
and then to where a small group of the villagers were curiously inspecting the small figure that had been daft
enough to try and take a ride on a Dire. She had a bad feeling about this, as if the world around her had suddenly
become something like the village's watermill, with the movement of small gears bringing about a change
for good or for ill with the inevitability of a river's flow.
She pulled out her pipe, filled and lit it as the priestess hurried over to her.
"Interesting times, indeed."
-End Chapter 3
-Bonus Features-
-University Grand Library Archives, Ankmorecunt-
Pokedex Entry #000119
Name: PsiDyke
Aliases: Psidope, Widowbane
Classification: Psychic
Elemental Affinity: None
Lifespan: Unknown, estimated to be human average.
Reproduction: No known cases. Theorized to be a pure parthogenesis Pokewomen species
Habitat: Populated regions, Psidykes have never been found away from civilization
Reported Encounter Rate: Rare to Uncommon in city and rural areas. No reported encounters in the wild.
Diet: Omnivore. Most seem to have taste for sweets.
Libido: None observed. Possibly a side effect of their limited mental capacity.
Strong vs: Psychic
Resists: None
Weak vs: Physical
Evolves from: No recorded cases of an evolution to Psidyke.
Capture Difficulty: None. But who'd want to capture a Psidyke anyway?
Strength: F -Weaker then standard adult human
Agility: D- -Within range of a normal human
Speed: F -Top speed is estimated at 2 miles an hour
Durability: D- -Slightly more frail then a normal human
Endurance: F -Tires twice as fast a normal healthy adult human
Intelligence: C- -estimated to be the equivalent of a small child
Hostility Rating: F -Harmless unless startled or frightened
Distortion Field Strength: D+ -High likelyhood of deflecting small caliber firearms
Armor Rating: F -No Physical Defense
Psychic Ability: B+ -Empath, Mindblock Auto-defense, Confusion, Distress Call
Overall threat Rating: D- -Mostly Harmless
Special Abilities:
-Confusion: The Psidyke's single known offensive psychic ability. Used only when this childish Pokewoman
is startled or scared, this powerful omnidirectional attack scrambles the minds of all sentient creatures
within a certain radius. In addition random telekinetic energy can cause objects and people to be lifted
and flung around at random, possibly resulting in injuries.
-Empathy: Psidykes can sense the emotional state of other creatures around them as well as project their
own emotions to let others know what they are feeling. They appear unable to control this ability most
of the time.
-Mindblock Auto-Defense: Perhaps the only real oddity of these innocent creatures is a strong automatic
mental defense against cursory scans by other psychics. This appears to be a completely instinctual reaction
beyond the conscious control of the Pokewoman. Psychic Pokewomen, especially Type One's acquired in the wild,
will refuse to do any deeper probes of a Psidyke up to and including disobeying a direct order even after
Level 5 conditioning. Attempts to mindprobe Psidykes by Humans with Psychic bloodgifts results in the activation
of the Psidyke's Distress Call Ability and always results in failure.
-Distress Call: In addition to their own natural childish innocence, this unusual ability is the main reason why
all Pokewomen training manuals and schools strongly recommend leaving Psidykes alone and unmolested. While
accidently spooking a Psidyke can result in an embarrassing or painful incident as a result of a Confusion
attack, *deliberately* harming or attempting to harm a Psidyke can lead to a very painful death, often at the hands
of one's own Pokewomen. This psychic ability acts as a beacon to all Pokewomen within several square miles who will
immediately target the offender with hostile intent. Even should that person manage to escape from immediate danger,
they are psychically "marked" and any Pokewomen they encounter in the future will have "a bad feeling" about them.
Notes:
First recorded in P.S. 24, the childish Psidyke is widely believed to be one of Sukebe's failed designs abandoned
near the end of Sukebe's War. These innocent creatures sought refuge in the ruins of human civilization among the
hodgepodge of human survivors that managed to survive outside of the Great Fortress-Cities during the fighting
and subsequent rebuilding. Their cute appearance and innocent nature soon made them quickly accepted by many who
otherwise distrusted Pokewomen in general. Although some prominent figures voiced suspicions of the Psidyke's nature,
over the decades there has never been a single recorded attack by one of these gentle creatures.
Psidykes are named for their well known psychic abilities as well as their equally famous lack of attention to the male gender
over the age of puberty. Ranging from four and a half to five and a half feet in height, these Pokewomen tend to be slender
and normally petite breasted, though on rare occasions more developed Psidykes have been observed. Hair color runs the standard
range of every possible shade, though black and reddish pink are the most common. The most easily recognizable feature
of these females are the two small horns on found on the sides of their head protruding from swirled bone platforms on their skull.
In the event that this features is concealed it is very easy to mistake these Pokewomen for normal humans as their physical capabilities
are otherwise on par or weaker then a normal woman of the same size.
Temperamentally a typical Psidyke can be considered on par with that of a five year old child. Although it is possible through
long and patient training to teach them simple phrases and tasks such as how to use a toilet, they never seem quite able
to grasp more complex ideas and concepts. Some individuals have even mockingly compared them to cats, though this is of course
a huge insult to the intelligence of the typical domesticated feline. Although they can be quick to throw a silly tantrum,
these Pokewomen are equally easy to distract out of their huff with a sweet or shiny toy.
Shunned by any serious tamer, Psidykes are the very definition of useless when it comes to Pokebattles or Pokesex.
Not only are they incapable of attacking other Pokewomen, virtually no other type of Pokewomen will try to harm a Psidyke
in any way. Even the most violent Demoness will display a gentleness to this breed that is otherwise unheard of from Dark-Element types.
No explanation has ever been found for this curious behavior, even Tamers who are very close to their Harem have been unable
to ever learn the reason for this universal taboo. Further explorations into this matter has been hampered by numerous accidents
and gruesome suicides in the field which have contributed to the perception of Psidyke research as being extremely "unlucky".
Shiroshi Lao Mao and the Limptit Pirates
-See Also: Red Reign of Terror, Tail of OneHotPiece
Shiroshi Lao Mao (P.S. 217 - P.S. 342) is perhaps the most infamous and brutal Pirate of the Silver Age.
Born during the First Revenge War to a small noble family in what would later become the Crescent League,
Mao was legally registered as a Purebred Human Birth. Little is known about her early years until Shiroshi's
enrollment to Lesba University in P.S. 233. Reportedly distant from her fellow students, the young woman was
nevertheless considered a diva on campus and displayed an exceptionally strong grasp of Magical Lore and
the concepts of advanced Pokewoman Training and Taming. She also displayed an unusual interest in Pre-Sukebe
devices including banned Lost-tech which resulted in several official reprimands filed by League Officials.
Despite this worrying stain on her record, Mao seemed destined for success in whichever field she would choose
after graduation. However all of this came to an end in P.S. 235 when it was discovered that Shiroshi was
the culprit responsible for at least twenty seven horrific murders in Whitewash City. When authorities attempted
to arrest her it was discovered that at some point in time the once human Mao had undergone Threshold into a Weretigress
which proceeded to kill all three officers and their Pokewomen partners before fleeing.
The rogue Pokewoman disappeared for several years after her flight, though there are dozens of unsolved murders and disappearances
across Crescent and Blue League territory that are believed to have been her handiwork. The first official record of her reappearance
was in P.S. 241 when her flagship, Red Ragnarok, attacked an ocean convoy traveling between Crescent and Red League, wiping
out the naval escorts and destroying or capturing every cargo ship except for a single crippled survivor which managed to flee
and arrived in the Red League several weeks after the stunning attack.
What followed over the next century would become known as the Red Reign of Terror as Mao forged the various scattered ocean
pirate clans into a powerful empire on the high seas. Striking from hidden island bases, the Limptit pirates ravaged ocean trade
between the Leagues as well as pillaging coastal villages and towns. Despite many battles, arrests and executions the number of
Limptit pirates seemed to increase every year. Conservative estimates place the total number of ships lost to the Limptits during
the Red Reign at over 10,000 and human casualties around 250,000 men, women and children. For decades it seemed that Mao's grip
on the sea would remain unbroken and eventually challenge even the Leagues themselves.
But in P.S. 288, following the elimination of the Sons of Sukebe, ULC forces turned their full attention and resources on the
pirate threat that was crippling interleague trade. This anti-pirate campaign climaxed in P.S. 342 with the location and destruction
of Mao's primary island base after a six month siege by a combined strike force from Red, Blue, Crescent, Gold, Orange and the normally
reclusive Edo League. Unconfirmed reports also mention that a large band of Laymores and the Legendary Pokewomen Teresa and Miya
were involved in bringing down the island's hardened defenses. During the battle, the self-proclaimed "Pirate Queen" Mao was eventually
captured by ULC marines along with most of her pirate subordinates that failed to escape during the assault. Following a speedy trial
in the port city of Grandcock, Mao was publically beheaded in P.S. 342 in the main city square before a packed crowd of thousands.
Her final words were, "Death is merely another doorway. My treasured Onehotpiece shall be that door."
Following Mao's execution and the destruction of most of the Limptit pirates the few remaining survivors fled across the world, eventually
reforming the individual rival Pirate Clans that had existed prior to the Red Reign of Terror. The largest group that fled would
later become the modern Kuja Pirates, one of the strongest factions in the Pirate Clans. Inter-clan warfare between the various factions
ever since has prevented the Clans from ever forming a united threat against the United League Council and reduced the pirates to more of
a civilized nuisance on the high seas with codes of behavior that have greatly reduced loss of precious human lives.
-Chronicles of the Pokeleague, 9th Edition -EDITED DRAFT APPROVED BY THE UNITED LEAGUE COUNCIL-