The two goblin brothers continued to watch the minotaur Speaker regale the legend of his Icon before the Sacred Monolith. In the audience, the other encircling monsters listened against the cacophony of bestial noises echoing through the subterranean cathedral. The elder brother, Ballem Sak, picked his teeth with a shiv. He had started to lose the thread of the tale and was now merely ogling the beautiful women that sat upon the centaur's back. In contrast, the younger brother, Nutten Sak, was enraptured. The tale seemed to come to him like an old forgotten memory and the profanity of it all filled with a strength he had never before known. The small one-eyed goblin clutched his shoulder brand that every single member of the Emerald Horde shared. Something was building inside him. Something powerful and twisted. But he did not care. He wanted to hear the rest of the story.
---
Vacaras, son of Garlan, arose in the necromancer's cabin and stretched his mighty arms. It had been a long day but the sun had finally set and he would soon be ready to travel. The cover of night served him better in these lands even if his snow white hide offered him little chance for concealment. The Great War still raged, even if it was at a stalemate, and there was no way of telling where or when an Axiom patrol might be passing through this part of Barthica. As he slung a heavy bag over his shoulder filled with rations and supplies for two, the minotaur realized he had forgotten something vital. He turned around. Burbling on the floor in a pool of his seed, quivering in the last aftershocks of orgasm, nude save for the depraved messages she wrote upon her own pale skin, pussy agape and leaking jizz, Valerie Duskal, necromancer of western forests, was in no state to travel.
"Sorry about that." The minotaur said, handing her a towel after moving her to the couch. "N-Not at all. It was my pleasure eheheh." The thick necromancer laughed as she wiped herself down. Vacaras still found the woman's laugh unnerving, like some crude wall protecting her sanity was rumbling apart, but in spite of this he had also grown to care for her. "You must be excited to find that other mage. You fucked me so hard this morning I thought my eyes were going to fall out...wait, never mind." Valerie quickly said after seeing her partner's genuine concern in not being able to tell whether she was exaggerating or her power over undeath had some new horrid surprise for him. "She's not too far. About a week's journey by foot. The forest is nice this time of year. Nobody out hunting. Nobody to interrupt us." On the last note the witch tossed her towel away revealing her plump naked body.
"Indeed." Was all the staring minotaur could muster. His arousal was obvious but he still was at a loss when it came to Valerie's voracious sexual appetite. That aside he was happy to have a traveling companion. He had no idea what he was heading towards but he gripped his greataxe in determination. Whatever this mage had he would bring her down.
Noticing her partner's thick muscles tightening in mental preparation Valerie smiled, "O-Oh. You don't have to worry about Cass. She's really not all that powerful."
---
Vacaras, son of Garlan, dislodged his axe blade from the wreckage of a stark white suit of armor. The inside of which was empty but it had attacked him nonetheless. It had been animated by magic. The hulking minotaur grunted and looked ahead. No less than a hundred more white suits marched towards him in mechanical resolution. "Monolith lend me strength." he grunted and charged the battalion with a mighty roar!
---
The elder goblin looked at this younger sibling. The one-eyed youth was fully entranced in Windrunner's tale and Ballem couldn't help but smile at this. Goblins had a hard existence, constantly under assault by adventurers and other stronger monsters. At least in the Emerald Horde nobody here would attack him outright. The larger shiv spinning brother felt reassured in this. His brother would be safe in the Horde even if he would not be around to see how long.
---
The pair had found themselves in a valley before a large black and white tower that rose into the sky like a spear threating the heavens. It was surrounded by various plates of white painted metal littered about in the dry brown earth seemingly at randomly. When Vacaras asked Valerie about it she became sheepish. "S-Sorry I only know necromancy. I know it's not super useful. I'm sorry." Pale, sleep deprived eyes hid behind a large black brimmed hat that matched her long black gown. Not wanting to upset her further Vacaras let it go and proceeded forward.
Before long, the various pieces of metal vibrated and rose from the earth. They floated straight into the air and then shot into one another colliding with a sharp clang. They began assembling. With a final clatter of iron, a floating pile of white irons had formed a complete suit of armor and marched on the intruder. "I-I didn't know she could do this!" Valerie panicked more out of fear of upsetting her distracted lover than for her own life.
Vacaras shorn through the walking metal guardians in a roaring storm of battle. The ex-infantry beast was untouched in the melee. As he split a charging suit in half he saw one of the guardians stab another until it could no longer function. When it turned around Vacaras saw that it was only partially armored, underneath which was a shambling skeleton. He turned to Valerie who was quietly yawning to herself as her eyes glowed with foul magic. She waved at her partner as though she wasn't surrounded on all sides by animated marauders intent on bringing about their death. Vacaras wondered if the girl truly had anything to fear at all.
When the last of the white armored suits fell Valerie was exhausted. Two haphazardly armored skeletons supported her shoulders. Vacaras had sustained a few injuries. Though it was nothing serious, his white coat was bloodied. He too was feeling the fatigue set upon him but not nearly to the extent of his partner. "Are you alright? Do you wish to travel back and rest?" "No. I guess I'm just a little out of shape." She mumbled.
The large square doors to the tower, one black and one white, yielded to the minotaur's raw might. Inside was a white carpeted room. A few black couches were arranged. Alongside the room and rising all the way upward were black display shelves protected by glass. Inside which were countless books of obvious age and myriads of strange artifacts of varying sizes and shape. The rows of shelves stacked all the way up the interior of the tower and one could see that they ended only at the ceiling of the room dozens of stories above. A spiraling stair case ascended the walls. A black and white chandelier the size of a carriage hung within its spiral.
Valerie entered and looked at the staircase. Her eye twitched in grim horror as she saw how far it rose and considered the impossibility of climbing it. Noticing this, Vacaras told her to wait down on one of the couches. After a brief and befuddled protest the thick witch agreed she would only slow him down. The mage slayer ascended the stairs. After much climbing he felt his fatigue suddenly surge only to dissipate a moment later with a faint glow from the scripts etched into his horns. "Animated armor. Sleeping wards. The foul witch is skilled in enhancements." He brooded. The beast looked over the white railing and saw far below Valerie had passed out gracelessly on the couch. Whether it was real exhaustion or a spell he could not tell but he knew it would not matter if he did not confront its caster. The minotaur pressed onward until he was met with a door to the uppermost chamber. With a grunt and crack the door was no longer an obstacle. Vacaras, son of Garlan, entered the room and saw the witch responsible.
"Guess I shouldn't be surprised." A similar design was present in the large personal room. White carpet held black furniture including a bed and desk while the shelves were decorated with books and artifacts. The only unique feature was a large painting of a pair of nobles. Axiom nobles as far as Vacaras could tell. The woman standing in the center of the room wore a suit of white armor. Intricately etched across every plate was some kind of magic circle, rune, or script. Draping across it all was a black cloak with the Axiom Army regalia on it. Straightened blonde hair, meticulously cut and styled, framed the figure. Her bangs fell in a single sharp diagonal and it was layered in a way that gave it the appearance of long arching strips. The sides of which ending much further than the back in an arc past her hips. Green disciplined eyes ran contrast to pink inviting lips on her soft face. Her voice was proud and feminine. Confident like a warrior's but soft like a lover's. "When I saw you coming I did not think some suits would have much of chance. But you also resisted all of my sleeping wards. Who are you? Elysian? Mercenary?" Before Vacaras could answer he was interrupted by the unsheathing of a thin steel blade. "It doesn't matter. You now stand before Cassandra Lusa, wizard of the White Council." The young woman surged forward without a hint of change in her expression. Emotion had been suppressed in favor of cool steely focus. The glyphs on her armor glowed and her body moved through techniques with incredible precision. The small nimble blade began to glow orange hot before bursting into a sustained flame.
Vacaras deflected each thrust with the heft of the axe. Though the threat was undeniable the ex-infantry beast was able to read her attacks with ease. "I have no desire to hurt-"
"Silence!" The wizard cast her hand out and glowing script appeared in a circle before her palm. When Vacaras saw it he could not read the words but could not resist looking. He felt something trying to cloud his mind. His horns glowed white once again and the magic was repelled. He quickly returned to his senses. This occurred two more times before green eyes fell into a glare and the sword maiden rose from her casting stance. "Damn. My spells won't work then?"
"No. I am resistan-"
"Fine then." The knightly Cassandra announced, interrupting Vacaras again. "I am the foremost enchantress in the realm. I did not think I would have to use this. It would be unacceptable if I were defeated by some beast. If enchanted armor and blades will not fell you and magical enchantment will not halt you then...I will rely on natural enchantment."
"I'm sorry-" Vacaras was about to ask but the woman tossed her cloak onto a nearby chair and the various sigils on the plates of her armor flashed. She brought her arms behind her head and as she did her armor fell off piece by piece until she stood boldly in a pair of small plain white undergarments. Her body was thin and lean, quite different from Valerie. Her bust and behind were well-rounded, almost ludicrously so given her athletic frame, even if there were smaller than the slumbering necromancer's. Cassandra stood there in half-naked pride. Only cold rigid focus could be read from her posture. She stood stiffly for a while. Our kin tells me later it felt as though she believed that if she stood still in that pose long enough and with enough determination something would happen. There was silence. The tension of battle drained from the room. Her white cheeks grew pink. "I'm afraid I don't understand." The minotaur finally announced.
