Chapter 266: Tentacles vs Human, Round 2 (1)
"Time to eat, harpy~ coo coo coo~"
The harpy I picked up this time was staying in the empty house where Mollang used to live, and maybe because it was dark inside, even with the blindfold off, she usually just sat quietly and dozed off.
Every mealtime, I tried to feed her raw meat. Since we were in a military unit, getting meat for protein wasn't hard. The quality wasn't great, but it was still better than animals tearing into raw carcasses. So I gave her human-grade meat chunks...
"Pii~"
...but for some reason, every time, this harpy would rub her head against my lower abdomen, asking for something else.
'...Did I do something wrong?'
Sure, I fed her semen once as emergency nourishment when she was starving and too weak to eat.
But that was a last-resort lifesaving measure! And now this harpy had apparently acquired a taste for it, clinging to me and begging for cum even when meat was around. I guess she liked it more than the meat.
'Is this why people say if a wild animal develops a taste for humans, you have to kill it no matter what...'
Whether she got addicted to human semen or it meant something else, I followed standard raptor-handling advice: I positioned myself in her left-eye field and fed her slowly.
Of course, I also prepared food for Mollang. But if I carelessly released cum inside this house, things would get messy, so I stored it in a flask and handed it to her. Mollang would reach out from a safe distance to take it.
'What happens if the thing inside her belly gets born...'
Honestly, it felt more like a seal than a pregnancy.
I had Frederica run tests to see if something was wrong with the Demon King's fragment. It turned out it had split its core and was roughly a 1/7.2 millionth piece. Basically, she and the fragment had shared it evenly, and it didn't mean much.
It might give the baby slime more magic, but that just meant it would be healthier or have some special abilities. There was no need to worry about reviving the Demon King. Still, Mollang was being cautious.
But right now, a harpy was rubbing her face all over my crotch in front of her, and Mollang's expression was growing terrifying.
"No, this isn't what it looks like."
"She's chirping 'Let's fuck, Master!'"
"Shut up already!!"
Seriously, I'm gonna lose it. This bicorn always runs over and spews dirty jokes the second anything vaguely sexual happens.
This morning, Silvia came over again with her leash, and Uni showed up naked with a bit in her mouth too. The morning walk was a disaster.
Even when I tried to quietly send her back, she refused to listen. She crawled naked across the training field in full human form (not even half-horse), scraped her palms and knees, and moaned things like "Hnngh~ My body's being scraped and it feels so good~" so loud that the other cadets came running.
I had to force her to revert into a horse and roll her away. Everyone begged me to get rid of that damn horse.
Even in this Magic Knight Order full of horny people, Uni's mouth is so filthy no one wants anything to do with her. Probably the same among horses.
Half the horses in the stables are now useless because they're pregnant, so we had to isolate Uni in this side room to prevent more chaos.
'I wanna dump her in the elf forest.'
Why are elves worried about birth rates? Just drop one Uni in a village and they'll be hitting record highs in no time.
Ignoring Uni, I diced the meat and fed it to the harpy. She seemed disappointed it wasn't semen but still chewed and ate it dutifully.
"Let's see... I think her body's recovered now."
Her ribs, once visible, had filled out. Her belly had been so thin you could see muscle outlines just from lack of fat, but now it looked like healthy skin clung to her body.
Her feathers, once dull and dry, were now shiny again, and her distinctive black hawk stripes were visible. Even the feathers covering her crotch had once drooped but were now...
"Huff... huff..."
"Don't look at me like that. I'm not doing anything."
Thankfully there were no succubi assigned to this base. If we had a succubus handler, things would be an utter disaster.
Uni would probably team up with her to make even more trouble.
"Oh, and here's one more meal. Save it for later."
I tucked a flask between Mollang's now noticeably developed cleavage (she had made herself boobs... how did she know I liked them?). Her body was warm, so it should keep the cum inside from cooling down.
"I might not be back until tomorrow."
"...?"
Mollang tilted her head, asking why. I pulled a mutation potion from my bag and shook it.
"Once you're done eating, let's go."
"Master, what about me?"
"You stay."
I tried to carry just the harpy in my arms. She climbed on quietly, but her wings got in the way, so I ended up putting her legs on my shoulders like a piggyback ride.
'Please don't freak out from the sunlight and claw my shoulders to pieces...'
But I needed her help right now.
"Let's go, Silvia."
"Yes, Master."
Silvia, the harpy, and I left the Magic Knight Order.
The hunt had begun.
---
The story began two days ago.
I had gone to buy underwear for the dryad (to prevent bugs or debris from getting into the hole in her body), and while delivering them, Pai told me something.
"Did you hear? Small animals have been disappearing from the outskirts of the capital."
Iris was busy sharing knowledge with other Rangers, and Pai had taken to patrolling near the capital for fun.
She said small animals were vanishing near rivers or waterways. First it was just rats, which made things cleaner. But then rabbits, dogs, and cats started going missing.
She went to investigate and found sticky slime residue by the riverbank. Stuff she'd never seen in any forest. She asked me about it.
That goo, slightly corrosive to skin, was all too familiar.
'Nell.'
Nell was still near the capital.
I thought she might've given up on me and gone after other men, but lately Silvia kept saying the drainage near our unit smelled musty. And every other day, the sewer would clog, and our cadets would take turns unclogging it.
It was obvious. Nell was trying to get close again.
So I decided: this time, I'd finish her off.
I bought dehydration potions and prepared mutation potions just in case.
"Huff..."
Last time, Mollang protected me with her body from the corrosive slime. But now I was alone. I planned to transform into slime form to resist the acid, but who knew if that would work.
Mollang could discard her own dissolving body and still survive as a slime. But if I lost more than half my human form while transformed, once the potion wore off, I'd be left with a crippled body...
I couldn't be sure I'd survive. I was literally gambling with my life.
'Professor Pandel said he wouldn't help, but Pai promised to cover me from a distance...'
Here was the plan:
Pai would monitor the capital outskirts and inform me. I'd move to a low-water area where Nell couldn't escape and use myself as bait.
With Silvia pinpointing the location and the harpy helping in pursuit, we'd chase her down and end this.
In case the fight went bad, Silvia and the harpy were standing by above or nearby in hiding. I was completely alone, without Shuru or Mollang, lying in a field of weeds.
'...Why isn't she coming?'
Could it be that the animal kidnapper wasn't Nell?
Maybe she'd lost interest in me, and I was sitting here thinking I was bait when I had no value?
Or...
'What if Nell is smarter than I thought and realized this is a trap?'
I had no way of knowing. All I could do was wait. 30 minutes passed. The harpy said her wings were tired and glided down to a nearby cliff to rest.
Crrrunch.
The ground began to rise, like a mole tunneling.
I quickly reached for my bag to grab a potion.
Thunk!
"Wha?!"
But my feet suddenly gave out. My lower half got buried in dirt. From afar, I heard the sharp whistle of an arrow and Silvia rushing in to rescue me. The harpy, sensing danger, dove from the cliff to help.
SPLAAASH!
But before backup could arrive, giant tentacles erupted from the ground, forming a huge ring. As I struggled to escape the collapsing dirt, one tentacle shot out and snatched my bag.
"Tch!"
My bag had been tightly secured, but I'd opened the top earlier to grab supplies. Now, two dehydration potions and one mutation potion tumbled to the ground.
I barely managed to grab the mutation potion. The dehydration ones were lost in the dirt.
Thud!
As I discarded the bag and braced for a fight, the earth split open just 3 meters ahead. And from within rose a figure, her body drenched in sticky slime and caked with sand.
"You... were waiting... for me...?"
Nell was emerging from the ground.