A thunderstorm that felt like a beating. Amidst the thick, lush subtropical forest, several figures ran with splashes and thuds. Occasionally lightning would flash, illuminating their frantic cries as they raced on relentlessly. Their tattered clothes and often visible red stains marked them as survivors.
Suddenly, directly ahead of them, their view opened up to a shallow river. It wasn’t always a river; during the dry season it was merely a path for people to traverse. The men spat and turned back to look behind them. There, lightning flashed repeatedly. As if slowly cornering them. Without hesitation, the men stepped into the swift-flowing but shallow water of the river.
“Been waiting for you.”
Before the men could cross, five figures rose from the water with a slight sway.
They stopped their advance and braced themselves through the veil of rain at the sight of these monstrous humanoid enemies with crimson eyes in the twilight.
“Shit.” “Lizardmen!!”
The surviving men staggered in the swift current, each drawing his weapon. Broadswords, short swords, winged spears.
Their equipment was typical for a light infantry unit: broadswords, short swords, and winged spears suited to this region where soldiers rarely wore armor due to poor footing conditions.
But.
“Is that all you could bring? Poor things.”
The lizardmen mockingly brandish their weapons: great axes, chain balls, or two tomahawks each. The defeated men hold their breath in awe.
Even without armor, the scales of the rain-soaked lizardmen repel any unskilled attacks and send them bouncing off harmlessly. Their heavy weapons are capable of crushing an opponent’s defenses before they can even employ fine techniques like sword-and-shield defense.
And for these lizardmen with thick tails and low centers of gravity, this flowing water is as good as flat ground. There was no way to escape.
The men were hopelessly outmatched.
“Still, compared to fighting Overnite, a few lizards are nothing!”
The men try to rouse their spirits.
And he fearlessly leaped at the lizardmen before him.
Lizardmen are renowned for their stability and strength in swampy terrain. Fishmen mermen find it difficult to move in shallow waters, while human types struggle with unstable footing. In such conditions, a lizardman’s awkwardly low stance and powerful tail become formidable weapons. The existence of transparent inner eyelids that prevent any spray from obstructing vision also contributes to their combat effectiveness.
But…
“Nice work… you damn thieves!!”
“Chit! Don’t get all high-and-mighty, you merchant scum!!”
Before they knew it, the two were facing off one-on-one. Most of the defeated—no, the thieves—had been no match for the lizardmen, but there was one exception: a man wielding a winged halberd who had known how to exploit the lizardman’s weakness in their stomachs with precise and sharp strikes.
Once they had driven down the odds from five-to-two, the lizardmen fell one by one as pierced by the winged halberd. In the end, only Gash Zapper, wielding twin tomahawks, remained standing amidst the carnage.
Gash had survived due to his exceptional defensive skills, which were rare for a wielder of heavy weapons. However, the thief with the winged spear should also be exhausted from jumping and fighting over water like a dragonfly. Gash threw an axe at him to prevent him from regaining strength.
“Tch!!”
The thief dodged by throwing himself into the water instead of blocking it with his weapon.
A tomahawk that exploded on the river surface.
But immediately, Gash pulled back his tomahawk. His twin tomahawks were connected by a strong and thin rope called “silk cord,” which is said to be a dragon’s treasure. In this rain, it might look like he was pulling them back with magic.
And then Gash used both of his tomahawks as shields to deflect the spear attacks from the thief. It seemed that the power of the lizardman’s strength and forged tomahawk could not break through, which was a relief for Gash.
The cycle repeated itself.
The thief knew he would be caught if he ran away on foot. Gash wouldn’t let him escape at any cost, as it would tarnish his pride in being part of the national army.
Time flowed endlessly over this battlefield where only two people were locked in combat.
There, a sign of reinforcements arriving could be seen. A bolt of lightning was approaching. “Hah, time to pay your taxes, you damned bandits!” “…I wonder.” The bandit grinned with his dirty face. From the confidence that came from seeing the approaching reinforcements, or rather, the carelessness born from it, Gash decided he was just bluffing. Gash took out his trump card and aimed to strip away this false bravado. “At least die easily!” With all his might, he threw both tomahawks at once. “Hahaha!!”
The man arched his body to dodge the axe… and was pushed back by a thin “silk chain” between them. Gash charged forward. His last weapon was a sweeping tail strike, honed in tribal martial arts, capable of snapping thick tree trunks. Just as he prepared to deliver it, however, a fist-sized rock flew at him from the rain. “!!” Unable to resist the urge, Gash slowed his momentum and caught the stone with his hand. From beyond the rain, one of the thieves he thought had been defeated emerged on shore, throwing rocks at them using a makeshift sling made from his belt. Before Gash could even think about it, the thief in front of him quickly stood up and raised his wing-blade spear out of the water. “!!” Gash’s tail was sliced off with a zakiri sound. The blade entered through his soft underbelly side, leaving only skin hanging loosely.
“Guh… Aaahh!?” Even though it was a tail, it was still a blood-filled organ. Gushing out large amounts of blood, Gasht fell to the ground. ”…I won, lizard.” The thief with the winged blade spear stood up and grinned. Gasht pounded the riverbed with his fist. A real lizard could probably run around without any problem even if they lost their tail, but a Lizardman’s tail had developed too much for that to be possible. The pain was making him lose consciousness. He also no longer had any weapons left. He had already lost when he let his guard down. “Ku… damn it… oh.” Waiting for the finishing blow… …but it never came. ”…?”
I raised my head. The winged spear thief was nowhere to be seen. All around me were the corpses of fallen comrades and a torrential rain. The thief had concluded that Gash could not track him, and ran off with his surviving companions. “…Damn it… damn it!!” Severe pain. Blood loss. Humiliation. Gash screamed these scalding bitter emotions as they faded from consciousness. “Damn youuuuuuuuuu!!!” And then he fell to the riverbed.
Even lizardmen lose their ability to stop bleeding underwater. Though he knew it could cost him his life, the sheer humiliation had made him reckless.
◇◇◇
A rainbow appeared against the backdrop of dawn. During the rainy season, there were times when a thick and beautiful rainbow would appear as the rain stopped. According to lizardman lore, this seven-colored phenomenon was the afterimage and flight path left behind by Origin Dragon, who had created their race in ancient times. It was said that the Origin Dragon loved its creation, the lizardmen. Even after death, it became a spirit and offered them passage to paradise along with a kiss at the time of their demise. ”…A welcome…?” Gash muttered as he looked up at the rainbow. He thought it was fine. Lizardman soldier Gash Zapper had died in battle against a formidable enemy.
The easiest thing would have been to think that he was dead after that blow. But a mocking laugh shattered Gash’s comfortable delusion. “Hah, you mean the one about lizards riding rainbows into paradise? Don’t make me imagine it, it’s disgusting.” “What the hell are you talking about?” Gash couldn’t help but open his eyes wide and lift his head.
He was a soldier after all. Compared to lizardmen who had been cooped up in colonies their whole lives, Gash thought he wasn’t particularly prejudiced against other races. But that didn’t mean he got turned on by them either. He liked scales and color gradients on skin, and preferred faces that looked more reptilian. That was how it used to be. But now, seeing the naked body of a girl who seemed human, sitting sideways across his lap and ruffling her hair… he couldn’t suppress the sudden surge of arousal. “…Wow, you’re hard.” “!?”
A girl who speaks as if a bug had moved, without any hint of sensuality. Gash suddenly realized that one half of his hemipenis was inside the girl.
“Wh-what are you doing!?”
“It’s an emergency rescue… Oh my god, it’s still growing!? It’s getting so big!”
“Wait a minute—”
Gash is confused. He had never felt aroused by a human before, and he certainly hadn’t expected to be having sex at this moment. Moreover, he should have been near death but somehow felt surprisingly energetic, which was completely unexpected.
This guy was used to dealing with inconvenient surprises, but the opposite was entirely new territory for him.
“Whatever, just let me do it!!”
And as a result of his confusion, he decided to go purely on instinct. Since he had already given up thinking rationally after assuming he was going to die anyway, this seemed like the only sensible option now.
“What? What?”
The girl was flustered by the rapid erection of her hemipenes, but she hadn’t expected Gash to suddenly go crazy and demand sex as soon as he woke up. He grabbed her hips and arms and started thrusting one of his swollen dual penises in and out. It was a brutal forced mount position. “Ow…! W-wait, this is…!? ” “You’re the one who suddenly decided to suck on someone else’s dick! What gives you that right?!” “S-stop it…! Th-this isn’t r-right…!!” The girl slapped Gash across the face with her free hand. But he didn’t seem to notice, and continued thrusting his hips wildly. As a lizardman, he was able to maintain balance using both legs and his tail, making him skilled at thrusting. At some point she realized that this wasn’t heaven and that battle hadn’t been a dream. She had been slapping Gash’s face but eventually gave up—more likely because she started enjoying it—and stopped. “Y-you…! You ungrateful lizard…!!”
“Hah, hah… I don’t care if you know or not, you slutty bitch, doing something perverted while someone’s slowly dying like this is just disrespectful…!!” “…Y-You better do seppuku later on…!!” “I said I don’t care!! Ahh, your pussy feels so good!!” Gash was practically raping her now, mercilessly rubbing his penis against the squirming girl’s vagina. He had mated with a few lizard women before, but this felt completely different. His instincts were telling him to spill his seed inside her. To make her lay eggs deep within her womb. To make her bear and break open his fertilized eggs. Pre-cum started leaking from the exposed penis, and Gash pounded it against her belly while thrusting furiously with the other one until he finally came. “Kuh, ohhhhhh!!” “Nngh… Ahh, wait a sec… this is tight… hah…!!”
I spurted my cum into her pussy and stomach at the same time. Inside her womb, on her belly, navel, breasts, nipples, chin, collarbone— An amount of sticky semen that even surprised me gushed out. “Y-You idiot… My stomach’s gonna burst…!!” The girl was in agony as she sweated profusely. Her womb was being penetrated by a penis larger than expected and doused with an unimaginable quantity of viscous cum, causing her belly to swell strangely around the shaft. “Haa… Haa… You humans are so good at this…!!” Gash still had no intention of stopping; he thought himself dead and didn’t need to think about anything else—or rather, he just didn’t want to think about it. But finally, the girl punched him. “I’m not human!! I’m a spirit, a water spirit!!”
“…Huh?”
There’s an old legend that circulates in the marshlands. Somewhere within this region, there is a spirit of water. Its power can sometimes surpass even dragons and be described as nature itself. People must respect its strength and be grateful for their lives, or else this place would become like the northern Russell Desert—a barren wasteland inhabited only by desert lizards and monsters.
“Why’s that water spirit having sex with a lizardman? You idiot.” “What kind of thing are you saying after I just saved her!? ” The naked girl released from Gash’s groin was fuming. “It’s simply because it’s more convenient for sending ‘energy’ in that position. And no, I don’t need your seed!” “…Nuu.”
I’ve only heard about it. Room techniques. Some Dark Elves and Ogre women use them as some kind of health booster method. I always thought they were just exaggerated claims in the adult entertainment industry. I never expected something like that to help me. “…So, uh… why did you save me?” “You shouldn’t have been saved?” “A lot of others died too.” Gash isn’t a special Lizardman. He’s not even the strongest one and his bloodline isn’t particularly distinguished either. “…It smelled familiar.”
“Huh?” “It’s the smell. That’s all. And I was about to die right here.” “I don’t get it…” “What does it matter anyway?” Gash felt dizzy at her words, considering how she’d just saved him. “But if you feel grateful,” The girl hit Gash on the head with a branch (she picked it up because hitting it wouldn’t work). “Help me out. Gash Zapper.” “Huh?” “I want to see the Spirit Festival.”
“…the Spirit Festival?” It’s a festival held every six months across the entire country to thank the spirits of heaven and earth. It was originally supposed to be an all-out celebration dedicated to the spirits. “…Maybe you haven’t seen any spirits before?” “If I don’t go, how could I see them? The core elements of spirits aren’t really able to move in directions they like on their own.” “…” Spirits are recognized as omnipresent yet nowhere specific within the country. The shocking truth that this wasn’t actually the case was revealed to Gashu, who had no particular interest in it before now. “No good?” A sigh.
「…Got it. I dropped the life, and you picked it up, so here it is. …Where do you want to go? What should we do?」 「Yeah! Well, around here… scoop up some of this water in a bag or container…」
◇◇◇
Time has passed since that hot summer day, and the season for the Spirit Festival has arrived. “Soon it’ll be time for your favorite season, Heely.” “Yes.” In a cheap bar located between the desert and the marshlands, there sat a lizardman without a tail and an elf girl with an unusual presence. They were drinking together. Gash Zapper and Heely Water. A retired soldier and a pseudo half-elf. Since humans can barely use magic, she had grown her ears long to look like one, but when asked by real elves about her true identity, she found it awkward to lie so now calls herself a half-elf. She has somehow become Gash’s good partner who gets easily riled up.
“…Hey, after the Spirit Festival…” Gash was about to ask what they were going to do when Heely hit him playfully with a short stick she had made from that tree branch. She smiled and raised her index finger. “We don’t talk about things before or after the fun festival starts.” “You can’t even plan for next year then, huh?” “Yeah. All we should really be doing is…” Bringing her lips close to his. “What are you going to do tonight? That’s all we can discuss right now.” “…This slutty spirit…” “Some horny lizardman put that idea in your head every night, didn’t he?” Despite their constant bickering, the two of them seemed surprisingly happy.
(To be continued)