If the man thought he had secured an easy job informing the ship of beautiful women that a lockdown was in place and they couldn't go anywhere, he regretted it the moment Liddy handed him a bill. It wasn't that the numbers confused him or that they were so high. After all, he wasn't paying it. No, the regret came when he realised he was going to have to go get the money from someone far more concerned with war and his excuses weren't finding purchase.
"I don't care what some rabble-rousers are up to!" Liddy didn't normally use her aristocratic tone, but laid it on thick to make the man more uncomfortable. "We landed and engaged in business under contract and if our services are no longer needed, then we will be paid!"
The man looked up from the bill, then up from Liddy to the battle raging in the air above them all; the city's ships fired on each other upon emerging from the smog, thinking they were an enemy ship -- until their mistake became clear.
Emma, sensing no better distraction, moved past the man and his guards and through the door they had come through. Their definition of lockdown was rather lax. Although she was wearing a seductive black silk dress that didn't hide the red lace under it, the dress itself was just cover in case of discovery. Her mission was different. Emma could hear Liddy dismissing the battle as irrelevant -- like anyone with more money than sense often did to severely important matters.
Mari was near Liddy and found her task of distracting the men to be as simple as ever, allowing her to watch Emma get through the door. She huffed in boredom to signal Liddy that the elf had gotten through. They continued to keep the men distracted as long as they could so Emma wouldn't need to worry about them getting her from behind; Emma advanced cautiously, sneaking through the halls.
****
Easy, too, had been making efforts to not be noticed while discreetly passing through the halls, but a sparkly fairy with wings catching the overhead light in the dank belly of the city stood out. She felt the wind shift suddenly on her wings and leapt forward to dodge the heavy club that had narrowly missed her. Easy cursed as she turned to see a giant troll and wondered how, even with the noise of battle and machinery, she had failed to hear it.
"Vile! Someone!" Easy called out in panic as she dodged another strike.
She didn't know if he was an Emberborn or simply a monster but Easy knew she was alone until she could find someone to help her.
Running in what she thought was the direction of the battle as well as the last known location of her friends, she couldn't shake the pursuit of the thundering steps behind her.
Easy skidded to a halt once she realised she had run into a dead end. She was certain it was a stock room that had been stripped bare ages ago. There was nothing for her to grab as a weapon or hide behind. Turning to face the giant brute, the tattered remains of what might have been a tunic hanging from his waist, Easy was mustered her courage. She knew her only chance would be if she could dodge him and escape the room.
"I'm here to free you! I just want to help!" Easy called out, trying to buy time.
His tiny face on the brutish head furrowed his brow.
Easy wondered if he could understand her at all. The giant greenish-brown leathery skin was marked with scars that suggested he had been brutalized into submission. She felt a pang of sympathy for him even as he roared and charged. A collar on his neck had a snapped chain that dangled, so whatever control he normally had was gone. His wild swing came in low and Easy jumped as high as she could to get over it, fluttering her wings to control her landing.
"Seriously! Vile! Foxy! Anyone!" Easy shouted at the door as she dodged, hoping her voice travelled.
A loud snarl from the hideous face of the troll was the only response she got. Easy knew she was going to get tired quickly if she stayed in range of the club, but every attempt to get to the exit was thwarted mostly by poor luck than by any strategy from the troll.
As he towered over her, she ducked beneath another swing, trying to keep her wings low when she saw the door between his legs. Easy sprinted forward. Getting under the rags the troll wore, he shifted his stance and Easy felt her path blocked by a leg. She tried to move around but it was the other leg. Easy was safe from the club but now she desperately tried to avoid being stepped on. Backing away from another monstrous step, she bumped into the troll again yet both of his legs were visible to either side of her; fearing a hand reaching to touch her, she spun around. Easy needed a moment to grasp what she was seeing, and it was long enough for it to smack her in the face as the troll backed up. In order to avoid falling over, she grabbed on tightly. Without proper footing, Easy had to keep hold as the troll stumbled about awkwardly. Easy felt her lifeline stiffen and it lifted her upwards until she was almost upside down.
The horrific truth finally sank in.
"Please tell me I am holding onto something else for dear life!" Easy shouted in denial.
She felt a giant hand grip her by her feet and pull her up. Easy wanted to let go but also resisted the grip. The troll made different noises as she squeezed him tightly by the shaft.
Dangling Easy while she struggled, the troll let go of his club and pulled off her clothing, breaking her grip on him. He was amused at her fluttering wings as he rubbed Easy against himself. The troll sat down and let Easy go, using his hands as a cage to keep her between his legs.
Easy got the message. The troll was like any man suddenly finding out what women could do for him and didn't care about her. He rubbed her breasts with his fat fingers and pressed them between her legs. Knowing she certainly couldn't fit him inside her and doubted even Vile could, she had to think of something else. Easy guessed his member's size being a full third of her weight and so would need to do something new. She wrapped her legs around his base and pressed her breasts against his shaft while her tongue ran along the tip. It tasted terrible and smelled worse but she could tell the troll was enjoying himself. A sound that might have been a giddy giggle came from behind her as she ground her womanhood against the giant shaft. Moaning entirely without merit, Easy rubbed her hands over the shaft trying to scale up her technique for getting men off quickly.
"I would appreciate anyone coming in and stopping this now!" Easy called out as she felt fingers holding her against the shaft.
Her body was moved with the hands as if he was trying to gratify himself with her body. Easy tried to work her way around so she could be on the other side of the shaft where the grip wasn't so tight on her. Against her sense of standards and self-respect, she felt her body twinge at the teasing.
"No no no! I am not getting turned on by this!" Easy angrily growled at herself.
Denial didn't help as the efforts of thrusting her hips against the giant shaft resulted in him being slickened by her arousal. She could taste the arousal coming from him as well and instinctively ran her tongue through it. The forced moans of earlier were replaced by the thrill of pleasuring such a giant member.
Easy was about to lose herself in the moment when she felt the shaft pulse and the troll making strange noises. She tried to back away but the hands holding her in place got in her way. Sudden horror came over her as his efforts had aimed his member directly at her the moment it burst. By random chance or intentional aim, even after the pressure knocked her off her feet the pulsing shaft remained aimed at her until it finished. Over and over she was doused from head to toe. As the few last spurts landed on her, Easy couldn't breathe or even open her eyes to take in the disgust of what she knew covered her. Slowly, she cleared her eyes and mouth to let herself breathe. A few tentative glimpses confirmed she really didn't want to look at theresulting mess.
The troll was snoring loudly.
Easy tried to look at the door, knowing it would be the best time for her escape. Standing in the doorway were Vile and Foxy with the others behind. She cleared her mouth with her hand again.
"Where were you when I needed you!" Easy whined, trying not to sob in disgust and failed.
The girls stared in stunned silence as they tried to find any part of Easy not covered in seed only to fail as they watched it drip and slide in heavy blobs down her body.
****
Grey didn't have time to enjoy the good news. There was a fleet moving overhead on its way towards the train. It started moving the moment the Steam King's airships started emerging from the smog. Many smaller ships surrounding a massive metal ship that the appearance that until recently the lower hull had been sitting in water for a long time.
They had taken shots at the Steam King's army attacking him as they passed overhead, but what should have been the nail in the coffin of the enemy's morale instead turned into a fanatical frenzy. They were throwing themselves into his guns heedless of their losses and the enormous size of their reserves gave him no rest. The forest had kept the enemy from overwhelming them by slowing them down -- but more were arriving than the defenders could kill.
"What are these lunatics thinking!?" an infantryman from Harlottown asked while reloading.
"That if they take the tunnel, they can still win." Grey passed back the magazine the soldier had dropped from his tired paws.
"Will that actually work?" Having reloaded, the soldier returned to the firing step and lined up his shots.
"No, we collapsed the tunnel right after coming through," Grey replied, wondering if the enemy would believe it if they told them.
The Harlottown soldiers around Grey glanced at him surprised. Evidently, they hadn't been told the whole plan.
"Our goal was to guard the tunnel entrance to keep them all focused here while the southern forces swing in to hit their flanks. Since what's left of our fleet is doing their thing I suppose that explains why they haven't been airlifted. But the point was that we were never going to take the chance on them getting the tunnel."
Their distraction allowed two enemy soldiers to reach the edge of the trench. In an instant, they were cut down by the Scepter Guard stationed with them. The rest of the Guards were scattered all along the forward trench to help prevent a similar breach in their lines.
