A heavy downpour, like rain pounding the earth.
In the dense, overgrown tropical forest, several figures dashed through, their footsteps splashing and clattering loudly.
Amid occasional flashes of lightning, they ran relentlessly, shouting something indistinct.
Their tattered clothes and the occasional sight of bloodstains on them showed that they were survivors of defeat.
Ahead, the landscape suddenly opened up. It was a shallow river.
It wasn’t always there—it was also a path for people during the dry season.
The defeated men clicked their tongues and turned to look behind them.
There, lightning flashed repeatedly, as if slowly closing in on them.
With no other choice, they stepped into the shallow, swift-flowing river. “Finally.”
Before the men could cross, something rose from the water with a soft ripple. Five of them.
They halted their crossing and, through the veil of rain, prepared themselves for the enemy’s appearance.
Standing there were monstrous lizardmen, their red eyes glowing in the twilight rain. “Tch.” “Lizardmen!!”
The defeated men staggered in the swift current of the river, each wielding their own weapon.
Broadsword, short sword, winged spear.
Their weapons, clearly suited for a light and mobile force, were ideal for this region with poor footing and soldiers rarely wearing armor. But.
“Is that all you could bring? How pitiful.”
The lizardmen mocked, drawing their own weapons.
Great axes, spiked balls, or two large tomahawks.
The defeated men gasped in horror.
Even without armor, the lizardmen’s scales could withstand and deflect even clumsy attacks. And their heavy weapons could crush any defense before they could even think of using fine techniques like swordsmanship.
Moreover, the rocky footing of the river was no different for the lizardmen with their thick tails and low center of gravity. There was no escaping. The men were overwhelmingly outmatched.
“But compared to fighting Overnights, a few lizards are nothing!” The men rallied their spirits.
And they charged fearlessly at the demi-humans in front of them.
It was common knowledge that lizardmen were the most reliable and stable fighters in the swamp.
The depth is too shallow for a merman to move, and the footing is unstable for humans. In such a place, a lizardman’s ungainly posture and strong tail become powerful weapons.
The existence of its transparent inner eyelids that do not block its vision in any splash of water also contributes to its combat prowess. But.
“You’re good… For a mere bandit!!”
“Damn it, don’t act all high and mighty just because you’re a pawn of merchants!!”
Before I knew it, we were one-on-one.
Most of the stragglers… no, the bandits had no chance against the lizardmen, but there was one man who wielded a winged spear. He had mastered the art of precisely and sharply striking at the lizardmen’s weakness—their bellies.
The lizardman squad, which had once cornered the bandits 5 to 2 in an instant, was now reduced to just Gash Zapper, a twin tomahawk user. The rest were pierced by the winged spear and fell one after another, leaving only him alive.
Gash had survived because he was unusually skilled in defensive techniques for a wielder of heavy weapons. Still, the bandit, who had been leaping across the water like a water strider while fighting, must have been exhausted.
Gash hurled his axe to prevent him from recovering his strength. “Tch!!”
The bandit didn’t try to block with the winged spear but instead threw himself into the water to dodge it.
A tomahawk strike that exploded on the surface of the river.
But Gash immediately pulled back his tomahawk. The twin tomahawks, which were also a family heirloom and said to be a dragon’s treasure, were connected by a strong yet slender cord called the “Silk Chain.” In this rain, it might have looked like he was pulling them back with magic.
Gash uses both tomahawks as shields to deflect the bandit’s spear strikes. The lizardman’s strength doesn’t seem powerful enough to pierce his forged tomahawks, which is a relief for Gash. This repeated pattern.
The bandit knows that if they run away, Gash will catch up to them. Gash, driven by pride in the national army, won’t let them escape.
Time passes in this stalemate between just the two of them.
Then, a sign of reinforcements arrives.
Lightning approaches.
“Ha, it’s time to pay your taxes, you rotten bandit!” “…Maybe.”
The bandit grins with a filthy face.
Gash is certain this is just bravado, born of the relief from the approaching reinforcements—or perhaps from their carelessness.
Determined to strip away that facade, Gash unleashes his secret weapon. “Just die easily!”
He throws both tomahawks with all his strength at once. “Hyahaha!!”
The man dodges the axes… and then collapses backward, restrained by a thin “silk chain” between them.
Gash charges forward. His final weapon is a horizontal sweep of his tail, forged in ancient tribal martial arts with enough power to even break a large tree.
Just as I was about to attack the man, a fist-sized stone came flying toward me from beyond the rain. ”!!”
I instinctively weakened my momentum and caught the stone in my hand.
As I did, I saw one of the bandits I thought I’d defeated climbing ashore from beyond the rain, using a makeshift sling he’d made from his belt to hurl it back at me.
Before I could even process this, the bandit standing in front of me quickly got up and raised a winged spear from the water. ”!!”
The blade sliced through my tail, zakuri.
The blade cut through the soft underside, leaving only a single layer of skin flapping in the air. “Guh… ahhh!?”
Even though it was just my tail, it was still a living organ. Blood gushed out as I fell to the ground. ”…I win, you lizard.”
The bandit with the winged spear stood up and grinned.
I slammed my fist into the riverbed. If I were a real lizard, I’d probably be fine losing my tail and keep running around, but as a lizardman, it was different—my tail had grown too much to just let it go. The pain made me feel like I might pass out. I no longer had any weapons.
I was already defeated the moment I let my guard down. “Damn… oh.” I waited for the final blow. …But it never came. ”…?”
I looked up. The bandit with the winged spear was gone.
All that remained were the piles of corpses and the heavy rain.
The bandits declared Gash had no tracking ability and fled with the survivors.
”…Damn… damn it…!!” Severe pain. Loss of blood flow. Humiliation.
In his fading consciousness, Gash screamed with a hot, bitter emotion.
“Damn youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!” And then he collapsed onto the riverbed.
Even for a Lizardman, hemostatic ability weakens in water. Knowing this could cost him his life, Gash still felt so humiliated that he had thrown caution to the wind. ◇◇◇
A rainbow was visible against the dawn sky.
When the intense rain of the rainy season subsides, a thick and beautiful rainbow sometimes appears.
In the oral tradition of the Lizardmen, it was said that the seven-colored form was the afterimage or trail of the primal dragon that gave birth to the Lizardman race.
It was said that the primal dragon loved the race it had created—the Lizardmen.
Even in death, as a spirit, it would guide the Lizardman to paradise with a kiss at the moment of their passing. ”…Is this my welcoming?”
Gash muttered while looking up at the rainbow.
He thought it was fine. The Lizardman soldier, Gash Zapper, had died in battle against a formidable foe.
The easiest thing to think was that I had died from that one blow.
However, a voice scoffed at Gash’s pleasant delusion.
“Hah, the lizard riding a rainbow to paradise? Don’t make me imagine it, it’s gross.” “What the hell are you doing, you bastard?”
Gash couldn’t help but widen his eyes and lift his head.
Gash thought of himself as someone who wasn’t particularly prejudiced against other races, unlike the lizardmen who had stayed holed up in their colonies. That said, he wasn’t exactly a thrill-seeker who lusted after other races. Smooth skin with no scales or gradients was hardly alluring, and his preference for lizard-like features extended to faces as well. Or so he thought.
But when the girl sitting astride him, who seemed human, ran her hand through her hair, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of desire that he couldn’t suppress. “…Whoa, it’s getting bigger.” “!?”
The girl said it as if something as simple as a bug moving had happened, with no hint of allure.
In that moment, Gash realized that one of his hemipenes was already inside her.
“What… what the hell are you doing!?”
“Saving a life. …Whoa, whoa, it’s still getting bigger, or wait, is it this big!?” “W-wait, hold on!”
Gash was in a state of confusion. Not only had he never felt desire for humans before, but also, waking up and finding himself having sex was a first. And to make matters worse, even though he should have been near death, he surprisingly felt surprisingly energetic, which was completely unexpected. He didn’t know what was going on.
This man was used to dealing with inconvenient surprises, but this was the first time he’d experienced something entirely unexpected in return.
”…Ugh, just let me do it already!!”
And as a result of the confusion, I decided to completely rely on instinct. Since I’d already given up and thought I was dead, it seemed silly to try to handle things rationally. “Wha—? Wha—?”
The girl was flustered by the sudden swelling of both her internal and external hemipenis, but she didn’t seem to expect Gash to suddenly wake up with bloodshot eyes and demand sex.
He grabbed her waist and arms, then began thrusting back and forth on one of the two swollen penises. It was a rough, forced cowgirl position, with no room for atmosphere or subtlety.
“Ow… w-wait, this is…!?”
“You’re acting all high and mighty after suddenly shoving someone else’s dick in your mouth!?”
“H-hey, that’s not right… ugh, stop…!!”
The girl slapped Gash across the nose with her free hand.
Gash didn’t seem fazed at all and kept thrusting. As a lizardman who could maintain his position with both legs and his tail, he was good at giving strong, deep thrusts.
She realized halfway through that she didn’t have her tail anymore and vaguely understood that this wasn’t heaven and that the battle wasn’t a dream.
The girl kept slapping Gash’s nose, but after a while… or maybe because she was starting to feel it… she stopped.
“Stupid… stupid lizard, you ungrateful bastard…!”
“Haa, haa… Know it? Know it, my ass! While someone’s slowly dying, you’re suddenly doing something lewd and disrespectful, you little bitch…!!”
”…R-really, I’m gonna make you bow your head to me later…!!”
“Know it, huh?! Ahh, it feels so good, your womb!!”
It was practically rape now, Gash rubbing his penis mercilessly against the squirming girl’s vagina.
I’d had sex with a few lizardmen women before, but this felt completely different from that.
Instinct commanded. I wanted to pour myself into her. I wanted to make her lay eggs from deep within her womb.
I wanted to make her lay eggs filled with my seed, one after another.
Precum began to overflow from his penis, and Gash thrust his other penis against the girl’s stomach while pounding his hips hard, finally climaxing.
“Ngh, oooooohhh!!”
“Nnnn… W-wait, …this is too tight… haahh!!”
He poured his seed both into her womb and onto her stomach, filling her pouch and her belly at the same time.
Deep within her womb, on her stomach, her navel, her breasts, her nipples, her chin, her collarbone.
An unexpectedly large amount of sticky semen gushed out.
“Y-You idiot… I’m going to burst…!”
The girl’s face twisted with pain as sweat beaded on her forehead.
The girl was enduring the repeated sensation of the overly enlarged penis thrusting into her cervix, and even more persistently being filled with an unnatural amount of thick semen that no ordinary human could produce. The area below her navel swelled strangely, then drained down the shaft of the penis—this cycle repeated over and over.
“Haah… haah… A-human female… it’s so good…”
Gash was still fully intent on continuing. He thought he’d died, so he had no need to think about anything else. Or rather, he didn’t want to.
But the girl finally struck him with a fist.
“You’re not human!! I’m a water spirit!!” ”…Huh?” ——A legend passed down in the swampy region.
In some marsh somewhere in this area, there is a water spirit.
Its power can sometimes surpass even that of dragons, and it’s said to embody nature itself.
People must respect its power and be grateful for being allowed to live. Otherwise, this region would dry up like the northern Lassell desert, becoming a barren land inhabited only by lizards and monsters——
“Why is that water spirit having sex with a lizardman, you idiot?”
“Hey, you! You just saved my life, and that’s the thanks I get!?”
The naked girl, freed from Gash’s crotch, was pouting in anger.
“That position was just convenient for sending ‘ki’ energy, that’s all. I don’t need your sperm or anything!” ”…Hmph.” I’ve heard of it before. The Art of the Chamber.
A ridiculous health-enhancing method used by some dark elves and ogre women.
I always thought it was just some exaggerated advertising from the adult industry.
I never thought I’d be saved by it.
”…So, uh… why did you save me?” “Is it wrong to save you?”
“There were plenty of others who died, weren’t there?”
Gash isn’t any special lizardman. He’s not the strongest lizardman, and his lineage isn’t particularly prestigious.
”…I just smelled something nostalgic.” “Huh?”
“The smell. That’s all. And you were dying right where I happened to be.” ”…I don’t get it at all.”
“Doesn’t matter, does it?”
“What the hell is this, helping someone and then saying something like that?” Gash felt dizzy. “But if you feel indebted to me…”
The girl hit Gash on the head with a tree branch (since hitting him with her hand had no effect, she picked it up).
“Then lend me a hand. Gash Zapper.” “Huh?” “I want to see the Spirit Festival.” ”…The Spirit Festival?”
It was a festival held once every six months across the entire country, a celebration of thanking the spirits of heaven and earth.
Originally, it was supposed to be a wild, spirited affair dedicated to the spirits.
”…Wait, you haven’t seen that Spirit Festival thing before?”
“You can’t see it unless you go there. The spirit core elements aren’t very good at moving on their own to where they want to go.” ”……………”
In Japan, spirits are recognized as ubiquitous beings that exist everywhere and nowhere.
The shocking truth that this wasn’t entirely accurate was revealed to Gash, who hadn’t been particularly interested in it before. “Can’t you?” Sigh.
”…Alright. It’s my life that you saved, so I’ll give it to you. …Where do you want to go? What should we do?”
“Yay! So, like, scoop up some water from around here… put it into a bag or something…” ◇◇◇
Time has passed since that day in midsummer, and the season of the spirit festival is upon us.
“Another season is coming soon, Healy.” “Yeah.”
A low-rent bar located between the desert and a lake.
A tailless lizardman and an oddly strikingly beautiful elf girl were sitting together drinking alcohol.
Gash Zapper and Healy Water. A retired soldier and a half-elf who claimed to be half-elf.
Humans, unable to use magic much, grew their ears long to show off, but since they couldn’t reveal their true nature to real elves, they began calling themselves half-elves. Over time, the water spirit, who was good at showing off, had become a reliable partner for Gash, who tended to get worked up easily.
”…Hey, after the spirit festival is over…”
As Gash was about to say, “What are we going to do?” Hilly, with her little stick made from a branch of the tree from that day, gave him a light tap and smiled faintly, raising her index finger.
“Don’t talk about what happens before or after the fun festival starts.”
“I mean, if you say that, we can’t even talk about next year, can we?”
“Yeah. The most we can do right now is…” She brought her lips closer to his.
“Maybe ask, ‘What are we going to do tonight?’” ”…You perverted spirit.”
“You’re just like that perverted lizardman who always prepared stuff every night, aren’t you?”
While constantly cursing under their breath, the two of them surprisingly seemed happy. (To be continued)