Princess master 3, p.30
Princess Master 3, page 30
When my head stopped tingling, I looked down at my body for a moment, and I couldn’t believe I was actually twenty feet tall. Genie’s Wrath had to be ten feet long in my hand, and when I looked up, Eudora’s watery green face floated directly in front of mine.
“Ohhhhh, hell, yeah,” I laughed, and with one huge blow from my sword, I struck all the snakes from her head. The serpents drifted down through the water toward the floor of the cave, and I watched them shrivel up on the ground near the princesses.
“Get ready, Joe!” Cienna shouted, and I stepped as far back as I could from the witch and held Genie’s Wrath up into the water. “You have about ten seconds!”
“Put the double shield up, Ariana and Jessamine!” My voice boomed down to the ground, and I saw my wives cover their ears. Then, before I knew it, a glass bubble surrounded all three of the princesses. “Hang in there for a minute!”
“What a surprise, hero!” While I’d been looking down, Eudora had sprung back to life, and her jaw hung open for a moment in shock before her mouth twisted into a cruel grin. “How lovely to see you up here!”
As quickly as I could, I grabbed the hilt of Genie’s Wrath with both hands and slashed outward toward the witch’s neck as her features floated in and out of view. The witch put up a hand to block me, but the blade actually cut through her watery flesh this time, and black blood began dripping out.
Eudora looked down, and her eyes widened like she was surprised I’d actually managed to injure her.
“How do you like that, you fat bitch?” I panted as I prepared to strike out again. I noticed the snakes were starting to regenerate, but I was less worried about my wives now that they were in their glass bubble.
The snakes finished regenerating, but I noticed they were shorter this time, and they were exactly the right length to attack me in the face. As they swam directly at me, I instinctively raised a hand to bat them away. One of their mouths made contact with my flesh, and the bite immediately began to sting as I saw a cloud of my own blood drift out into the water.
Shit.
I tried to ignore the pain as I raised Genie’s Wrath again to slash them away. I didn’t get a great angle, though, and I only managed to cut several of their heads off before the serpents immediately grew back.
I stepped back a few feet as I contemplated my next move, but the snakes grew even longer and started to snap out close to my face again, so I did the only thing I could think of, which was to blast the very top of Eudora’s head with Genie’s Wrath.
Luckily, the snakes were the most solid thing about the witch, and shooting them at their very roots seemed to destroy them. Their writing bodies exploded in a shower of sparks, and then the serpents’ remains disintegrated into ash that washed away in the water.
Eudora patted the top of her head and roared with anger, and several eels that looked like smaller versions of Morgar came swimming out of her mouth.
This was really starting to get disgusting. The eels didn’t seem like a huge threat, but the sight of them emerging from her gaping, rotten mouth made me want to vomit.
I slashed the eels easily away with my sword, but I gagged on the mist of green blood that emerged from their broken bodies. Then, as I wiped the goo from my eyes, I realized Eudora had come up with a new trick.
“How do you like this, hero?” Eudora taunted me, and out of seemingly nowhere, the sea witch produced a sword the size of giant Genie’s Wrath with a bright red heart on its hilt. “Thanks for giving me my amulet back!”
I slashed out at the witch at chest level, but she expertly parried my blow. We began to spar back and forth for a few minutes, but we seemed to be fairly evenly matched. Occasionally, her sword would melt back into the water, and I hoped I could strike at one of those moments.
The next time the sword disappeared from Eudora’s watery hand, I pulled back my arm and jabbed straight into the place I thought her heart would be. Unlike when I cut her hand, though, Genie’s Wrath went straight through her body into the water behind her, and since we weren’t making any progress, I knew I needed a little help.
“Cienna!” I thundered as I glanced down at my wives. “Are you down there?”
Something flashed in the corner of my eye just then, and when I looked back up, I saw a huge wave of something bright red coming toward my face. Before I could put my hands up, I got hit with what felt like battery acid. I dropped Genie’s Wrath to the ground with a thunderous crash, and I tried desperately to wash off the pain from my eyes and skin with the saltwater around me.
I briefly heard Eudora start to cackle, but then she went silent, and the burning sensation disappeared. I looked up as my blurry vision cleared, and I watched the red substance float away from my face and back into the tip of the sea witch’s sword. Cienna had reversed time again, and I picked my sword up off the ground as I had an idea.
“Hey, I think I can deflect this red shit back at her,” I said as I bent down to talk to my wives with time still frozen. “I want you all to swim around her back, and when Eudora gets hit in the face with the red poison, or whatever this is, I want you to strike out at her with your weapons. My hope is she gets distracted, and that will give me a chance to finish her off. You see how parts of her look more solid right now? I think those solid parts are exactly where I need to strike, and that explains why I was able to cut her hand but Genie’s Wrath went right through her heart. And Cienna, thanks for helping me out. That stuff was burning the fuck out of me.”
“No problem, Joe.” The blonde swam up and kissed me on my giant cheek. “So, let me get this straight. As soon as you’re ready, we swim around her back, and I unfreeze time. In the meantime, you deflect the red blast back into her face, so we’re hitting her from both sides practically at once.”
“That’s right.” I nodded. “Ariana, Jessamine, do you see any flaws in my plan?”
“I think it sounds like it could work,” the mermaid told me, and she patted me on my huge fingernail, which was the only thing she could reach.
“It’s going to work!” Jessamine smiled brightly at me. “Now, let’s get this over with so we can get out of here!”
“Yeah, let’s kick this bitch’s ass once and for all,” I said as I smiled at all my wives. They began to swim around Eudora’s back, and I stood up and held Genie’s Wrath in front of my face. Then I counted down. “Three… two… one… Cienna, start time again!”
This time, when Eudora shot the red substance from the tip of her sword, I was prepared. I watched as the poison struck the edge of my blade and streamed back out into circles through the water. The red whirlpools hit her directly in the face, and though only her eyes and nose were solid, it clearly stung, because the giant witch stumbled backward. The princesses must have attacked her with their weapons at the same time, too, because while the sea hag was still reeling from the blow to her face, she turned around and glanced at her back.
The moment the witch turned around, I quickly scanned her body for a solid spot to hit. In an instant, I saw a location around waist level, and I slashed out horizontally with both hands on the hilt of Genie’s Wrath.
To my total surprise, I must have hit the sea witch in exactly the right spot. My blow slashed her directly in half, and when she whirled forward to look at me, the expression on her face was one of pure horror. Then I managed to dive out of the way before she toppled face first to the ground in a puddle of black blood and body parts, which had apparently all become solid again upon her demise.
I looked up and saw the princesses floating in the space that had been behind her, and their eyes and jaws were wide open with shock. They quickly swam down to meet me, and I leaned my giant body up against the wall and stared at Eudora’s corpse.
“Joe… is she dead?” Ariana’s aqua eyes were like saucers. “I-I-It all happened so suddenly. I’m not saying I wanted a chance to say goodbye, but I wanted to tell her to… to go suck a jellyfish, at least one last time.”
“Yeah, I think she’s dead.” I honestly couldn’t believe it. Either I’d seen the exact right spot to hit Eudora, I’d gotten incredibly lucky, or maybe it was a little bit of both. “We’ve been fighting her and her minions for so long, I know it’s hard to believe, but yeah, I think we did it.”
“Wow.” Jessamine shook her head. “That was unbelievable, Joe. I’m so proud of you, my hero. But I actually had a thought before I shrunk you back, which was that I wanted to see what you looked like… extra big…”
“Oh, my gods, Jessamine,” Cienna started to laugh. “You have the dirtiest mind of anyone I’ve ever known. Although, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take a quick peek…”
“Whatever you princesses want to do…” I rolled my eyes and laughed. I’d started to feel a stirring in my shorts at their discussion, which I found slightly terrifying to contemplate, and Ariana was bright red, of course, but I had a serious question for her. “I’m going to take out my ear plugs, because I want to listen to something. Ariana, do you want to see if you have your singing voice back?”
“Um… yes, that’s a great idea, Joe, and I’m feeling so strong, I even can control it so it doesn’t overpower you the way it has in the past,” the mermaid declared with a big smile.
“I think I want to be overpowered right now, just a little…” I grinned at my red-haired wife. “Maybe it will help me relax.”
“Okay, then, Joe, if you’re sure.” Ariana cleared her throat, and when she opened her mouth, a sound like I’d never heard before emerged. It was much more incredible coming from the source than when either Eudora or Jessamine had mimicked it, and this time, I felt like I had the luxury to actually enjoy it. The mermaid’s voice was birds chirping on the first day of spring, water splashing down a waterfall to create misty rainbows, and a choir of angels singing all at the same time.
As I vaguely felt Cienna and Jessamine messing with my shorts, I sat back and let Ariana’s music take me over.
“We’re going to have to try this out in the bedroom,” I heard myself mumble in my giant’s voice, but then I realized Ariana had abruptly stopped singing, and when I looked down at Jessamine and Cienna, the two princesses I’d thought were impossible to embarrass were actually bright red as they swam in place near my half-unzipped fly. “What, what is it?”
“U-Um, hi, D-Daddy,” Ariana stuttered.
“Daddy?” My eyebrows shot up. “Well, that’s new… I’m not saying I don’t like it, but--”
“Joe!” Cienna hissed as her eyes widened, and then her gaze shot over my shoulder.
And when I turned around, I realized King Liron had swum into the room.
Oops.
Chapter 18
“Hello, Daughter!” the huge blue king boomed in his resounding voice, and I saw a slight smirk on his face. “Joe, Your Highnesses…”
King Liron turned away from us to look at Eudora’s dead body, and I wasn’t sure how much he’d seen. As Jessamine quickly reversed the growth spell, I experienced an odd tingling combined with the sensation of my organs shifting themselves back into place. Once I was normal sized again, I buttoned my shorts as quickly as I could, and I was relieved the situation hadn’t been much worse. Then I quickly jumped up to greet the king, and I ran my fingers through my hair in an effort to look more presentable.
“D-Did you see, Father?” Ariana asked with cheeks as red as apples, and I could tell the mermaid was trying to smooth over the situation. “I-I mean, did you see that Eudora’s dead?”
“I saw lots of things!” the king chuckled, and Ariana grew even redder. “But, yes, very impressive. Tell me, how was she defeated?”
“It was a blow from Genie’s Wrath,” his daughter informed him. “Joe cut her in half, and that was it.”
“Ah, yes, the Hero’s Sword.” King Liron nodded his huge head. “Indeed, I’m not sure any other weapon could have taken the sea witch down. As I’m sure you saw when you traveled here, many have tried, and many have failed. But none of them were… equipped… like you were, Joe.”
“It all happened so fast,” I admitted as I tried to keep my own blush at bay. “I tried to hit her several times to no avail, and then I must have found the right spot, and she was dead before I knew it. Of course, I couldn’t have done it without help from my wives. Jessamine, uh, made me big, and Cienna reversed time, and your daughter has very impressive powers that protect us whenever we’re in a tight spot.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Joe,” the blue merman said with a grin, and when he patted me on the back with his hand the size of a dinner plate, I tried not to flinch. “There’s no way anyone other than the hero of legend could have brought the sea hag down. It wasn’t only your sword, it was your intrinsic powers, and the whole undersea kingdom thanks you for your deeds. We will be forever in your debt. Hell, I’ve been battling that witch for centuries, and I was never able to do what you’ve accomplished today. I’m proud to call you my son.”
“W-Well, thank you, sir, Your Majesty,” I said as I tried not to stumble over my words. “I’m proud to be part of the royal family, as well.”
There was definitely something to be said for receiving the ultimate compliment from my father-in-law.
“Anyway, I came as soon as I heard you were in trouble,” King Liron roared. “I could have sent the royal guard, but I wanted to see my daughter for myself. Once I heard your chariot was gone, I felt like it should be me who rescued you. Sending the seahorses in the bubble was a very impressive trick, by the way. Princess Jessamine, was it your illusion magic that allowed the animals to travel safely? I’ve never seen glass quite like that before.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Jessamine curtsied. “Actually, we worked on it together. Ariana made the original protective bubble, and Joe came up with the idea for the glass, and then I was able to create it.”
“Excellent,” the king thundered. “It was a well-conceived and well-executed plan. Wonderful job, all of you.”
I suddenly realized Ariana had tears in her eyes, and her father gazed at her with a sad expression.
“Ariana, are you alright?” I asked the mermaid.
“I-I just need to talk to my father about something,” Ariana told me, and she swiped at her face and looked up into the huge merman’s eyes. “Father, I think I learned some things about w-well, my m-mother while we’ve been traveling, and I wanted to ask you about her. Is it true she came here and never returned? I-Is she just another mermaid skeleton in Eudora’s tunnel?”
The redhead broke down into sobs, and her father placed a giant arm around her shoulders.
“Come, Ariana, let’s all sit down for a moment.” With a snap, the merman created two large coral benches in the middle of the cave, and King Liron and his daughter settled down on one.
I thought it was a little creepy to be sitting so close to the sea witch’s corpse, but I supposed there was nowhere else to go for the time being. So, I flipped the switches on my armor before sitting down between Cienna and Jessamine on one of the benches.
“Father, I think it’s time for you to tell me about Mother,” Ariana said in a firm tone once everyone was settled. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I had to hear her story from a stranger. It was very shocking and sad to me, and I know you probably haven’t told me for a reason, but…”
“I don’t know if there was a good reason.” The giant blue merman put his head into his hands for a moment. “I… I’ve had more than one wife over the years, Ariana. It’s just something that seems to happen when one’s been alive for so long. But there was something about your beautiful, red-haired mother that was different. I never meant to keep her story from you, because she died a hero, but I was just so sad when she passed that I suppose I didn’t want to talk about it. And no, her body isn’t here. We brought her back to the heart of the kingdom for a proper burial.”
“I understand, Father,” Ariana replied as she looked down at the ground. “I’m glad to hear how much you loved her, and I hope you’ll tell me more stories about her over time, but we don’t have to sit here now. I know everyone is eager to get back to the palace after all this time, since we’ve had quite a journey!”
“I’m sure you have,” King Liron chuckled, and I had a flashback to the earthquakes Eudora had generated. “Especially without your chariot. I’m sorry it got destroyed, and I’ll definitely replace it. However, there is some news from the surface. There has been more trouble in Princess Rachel’s kingdom, and your presence is being requested there. I actually have a different sort of surprise for you, but I’ll tell you more about it in a few minutes. Are you feeling ready to leave now, Daughter?”
“Yes, Father, as long as Joe and the other princesses are ready,” Ariana said, and she looked over at us. “Do you all want to leave?”
“I definitely do,” Cienna responded, and then she laughed. “Eudora’s body is, well, gross, and I’m not as into the outdoors as you might think from the amount of time we spend there. I much prefer a luxurious, royal setting.”
“Well, you’re certainly tough enough to handle anything,” I complimented my blonde wife, and I kissed her on the cheek. I didn’t want to forget Jessamine, though, so I gave her a kiss as well. “You, too, Jessamine. You’re all so brave.”
“You are all very courageous, that is true.” King Liron gazed at the three of us fondly. “And the seas are going to be an entirely different place without the threat of Eudora hanging over them. I hope this ushers in a new era of peace in our undersea world.”
“Me, too, Father,” Ariana replied, and she squeezed the huge merman’s arm. “I know our citizens definitely deserve it.”
“They certainly do,” the king said with a nod before he chuckled again, and I watched in amazement as his laugh sent more rocks falling from the ceiling. “Now, would you like to go out to the chariot? I’m sure traveling back in style will be better than your swim here. What a nightmare!”
