B5 — 13. Relica’s Envy

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1. Selvaria (Our Cosplaying Leviathan!)

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Illuminated teal-blue irises appraising the raging storm, ominous clouds, and flashing lightning in the distance, Selvaria balanced on the Dreadnought’s bow with Galatea beside her.  The open trench coat she’d bought at the island blew back in the increasing gale, yet she wasn’t moved by such trivial things as the weather.

“Onwards, to the next challenge, Second Lieutenant Galatea,” she slowly chuckled, hearing her baby leviathan-seal’s telepathic voice roar with vigor.

“To battle, First Lieutenant Mama!  Arg!  Our battle against the fishy fishes continues.”

“It does indeed, Lieutenant.  Keep your senses about you; I smell dark clouds ahead.”

Galatea paused, working through her words with a few blinks.  “Hmm.  Smell dark clouds?  I see them—with the flashy-flashy booms—I’m not scared!  It should run from the Grand Fleet of the—oh, is it time to go, Mama?”

They turned to see Cahira motion at Nemesis, Jack, and Mara, shouting, “Prepare for battle, mi fair-faced crew!  Jackie, I be on the guns, so I be needin’ a helmsman.”

“Aye, aye, Love!”  He gave her a salute, half-smile, and wink.  “Strap in fer a rough ride, mi ladies, but I think ya may enjoy such a treat!  Eh, mi beasties?  Hehe.”

“Shut yer pipe!”  Cahira laughed, summoning a bottle to throw at him.

“Ooh!”  He caught it and popped it open to take a swig before racing off in his funny, wobbly jog.  “Always with the gifts, Mi Queen!”

Selvaria sighed as his other hand waved the woman’s panties she’d given him previously.  Cahira’s such a pervert.

Mara shifted to the railing with a wry smirk.  “I’m guessing Nemesis covers you with his ‘large’ muscles while Selvaria and I—”

Cahira stumbled to the side as the rising waves and wind tilted the ship a little, carrying her right into Nemesis’ hands.  “Hehe—whoops!  Thank ya, Nemmy.”

Mara’s eyebrows raised as she finished her thoughts, “…oh, really now…”

Selvaria rolled her eyes; the woman was hopeless.  “Let’s go, Galatea.”

“Carnage!  Blood!  Fishy meat!”

Selvaria tossed her coat onto the deck in a dramatic fashion and turned around to give the others a short wave; leaning back to slide down the outer hull, allowing the turbulent winds to be replaced by sea as her tail propelled her into the deep, activating her Leviathan State.

She spun in a circle with the ships above appearing to shrink with her growth, and she giggled at her little sea dragon frantically weaving her body to keep up, yet a pulse and rumble caused her to pause—a crying girl.

Selvaria frowned as she felt something nearly as large as her far ahead in the murky, storming sea, yet there was a pulse from those noises that twisted her stomach, telling her to be cautious.

“Mama?”

Scanning the large fish fleeing toward them, she had flashbacks of their first Legend’s Quest and the huge crustacean jellyfish that had almost killed her; it was because of that fight that she’d been able to take the Hydra venom—with her far higher level advantage, no doubt.

“Stay close to the ship,” she growled, deciding to push on ahead; the sea life didn’t feel dangerous, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t for her little seal pup.  “If you know you can’t fight something, run up to Nemesis.”

“Okay, First Lieutenant Mama, I hope the slaughter fills your belly!  And, umm…”

“Hehe.  Yup.  I’ll bring you back a treat.”

“Yay!”

Increasing her pace, she weaved through the building tide toward the danger ahead, noticing hundreds of smaller predators rising out of the seemingly bottomless depths; they were fixated on the blood Selvaria smelled.

Don’t worry, Lady, I’m coming!

Breathing in deeply, she released a low rumble through the waters.  “Just hold on a little—”

Her words caught in her throat as the blurred mass in front of her cleared with over a thousand oversized great white sharks, acting in unison to swarm a mass of flesh, tentacles, and bone-like draconic heads.

Black blood oozed out of small rips in her thick hide—at least, Selvaria assumed she was a girl by her voice—but she couldn’t be positive as the titanic, writhing horror battled the massive black eagles overhead and swarming sharks below.

Twelve tentacle-like legs wrapped the monsters into a death grip, crushing or swatting them away; the creature didn’t seem to know whether it wanted suction cups or jagged spikes on each as some cleaved through whatever they came into contact with.

A long, furry appendage—like a cat’s tail—raged above with the six dragon heads, snatching birds out of the air to swallow, and from what Selvaria could tell, she healed by consuming.

If all of that weren’t enough to put a shiver through Selvaria’s petrified mind at the amalgamation, wolf-like tumors grew out of the mass, snarling and snapping at anything that came by, yet even those weren’t the crowning piece that made the Leviathan stop in her tracks.

Screaming at the top of her lungs, a bald, grotesque face with hollow, black pits for eyes with a tiny, red, inner glow darted around the fleshy lump as if not even attached; ghastly jaws spread wide, its red tongue slithered like a snake with the bloody tears running down her body.

“Nope!”

Selvaria instantly did a one-eighty and rocketed back to the Dreadnought; sharks were now circling it—Mara was keeping a sonic barrier in place—yet upon her approach, the mossy-haired mermaid froze in her song and scrambled to the side of the ship as Selvaria shot out of the water as if going to body slam the vessel.

Shrinking to her normal size, she landed on the deck with a loud, resounding thump with the cry of the birds and roaring monsters in the distance, veiled by the curtain of rain.

“What the—Selv—woah?!”

The wave she brought engulfed them, tilting the massive warship to the side as Jack tried to fight the rapid current; Nemesis swiftly snatched the Pirate Queen out of the torrent as she failed to hold tight to the rope she’d summoned.

Once the rush passed, Nemesis sat the shaking woman down, coughing and sputtering.  “T-The hell, Selvaria?!”

Jack’s choked voice came through the speakers.  “Best be holdin’ tight, loves… it be rainin’ monster ladies.”

“Nope!  No!  No!  NO!”  she flatly refused, circling her hand in the air.  “Around—turn around—we’re going back home.”

“What did—did you see ahead?”  Mara asked, using the wave she’d caused to make it to the deck; Selvaria was happy to see her baby seal in her arms.

“An Eldritch thing that no one should see!  It’s as big as me, and I’d rather see Hell than that thing again—Jack—retreat!”

Nemesis chuckled.  “Now I really want to see this Eldritch thing; I didn’t think we’d fight the creatures so early.”

“It’s not,” Mara growled, crossing her arms under her exposed breast as she glared at her.  “She’s saying it’s ‘Eldritch-like,’ but I don’t believe we can escape these Legend Quests, or at least as I understand them.”

Cahira breathed out slowly, looking up at the shower that blanketed them; all of the cannons on her ship swiveled to the approaching Rocs.  “We… can’t leave, Selvaria.  You’re a freakin’ Leviathan!  How can you—ack… be scared of something like that?”

“You didn’t see it!”  She shot back.  “It’s—eww… wiggly movements—and its head!”

The Pirate Queen sighed, her jaw tightening.  “I told you, Selvaira, we need to befriend and rescue some lass that be in trouble; seems we found ‘er, huh?”

Selvaria’s gaze went to her baby seal, pulling in her lower lip as the cute thing gave her a big-eyed stare.  “Are you scared of the big, crying monster lady? She sounds sad.”

Gut tightening at the question, she tried to gather her courage; she hated playing games with unnecessarily ugly and horrifying monsters.  How she ended up as a Leviathan and not a fantastical, pretty android woman was beyond her.

“Ugh…  Mmgm!”  Scratching her head, she felt the agitation with how everyone was looking at her.  “Fine—I’ll talk to her, but… you guys will totally agree with me when you see her.  Wait…”

Selvaria’s eyes lit up as a thought crossed her mind while recalling the backstory Cahira told her; this woman had been turned into a monster and abandoned by her lover.  She was the frog and the prince story, but she was supposed to be the prince—not that she’d be kissing that thing—never in a thousand-million years.

Jogging to the side of the rocking boat while smiling, she jumped over the side again.  “Oh!  I have an idea; I’m going to go talk to her…”

Cahira threw up both hands with an expression that asked: what are you doing?

Not giving an answer—not enough time—she transformed again as the dull pounding of artillery shells beat through the water; they’d engaged the Rocs.

Selvaria kept her distance as she approached the conflict, not caring much for the sharks that could do absolutely nothing to her thick-plated scales.  “Hey…  Hello, umm—”

She fought the gut-churning urge to run again; whoever this was, she was just so hideous—terrifying—even if it was mean, it was totally true.

“Mmhmm-hmm… I just want to die… but it hurts…  Everything hurts…”

Selvaria swallowed as the swiveling head stopped, jaws stretching an uncomfortable degree to wail.  “I—I know how to make you pretty again!”

“I’m so…  Who’s there?  I can’t see anything…”  Her tentacles twisted in a sharp circle as she pulled them in to defend herself, creating a maelstrom that sucked most of the sharks into its current.  “A-Are you here to hurt me?  I just want to be left alone…”

Selvaria cheered, drawing in her water as she charged her laser; she sent an electrifying blast of freezing energy through it, creating a pillar of ice that fractured moments after, destroying most of the current wave.

“Yes!  One-shot!  Umm…  No, I just—can you talk to me for a second?  I can help you!”

“Please, don’t look at me—just… just go…  No one can help me,” she wept, covering her fleshy center with her dragon heads and tentacles.  “I’m hideous…”

Selvaria noticed Cahira’s ship nearing, though she was a little surprised that Bonnet’s was nowhere to be seen. She swiftly shoved it from her mind, and, gathering her courage, she swam through the raging storm to approach the woman.

Please, don’t be a trickster monster that lures in your prey…

“Umm…  I can help you.  Really!  I’m sure…”

“Glaucus tried—he tried everything—nothing worked.  I’m cursed by the gods…  How can you help me?  I’m only good for fish bait with these… these things,” she whispered, flexing her tentacles.  “No one can love me ever again…  Why would Relica do this to my sister and me?”

Selvaria's jaw tightened at the name—the Myth of Medea—the evil woman had likely used some connection to the Goddess Circe—Medea’s aunt—to curse this creature sometime before her death.  So far as she knew, Relica was one of Rachel’s enemies she’d killed a few days ago.  The woman that had had a hand in everything in Cuba’s armageddon was also responsible for this girl’s tragedy.

“Relica’s dead.”

“I was so…  What?”  Her tentacles parted to show her black eyes, shining with a tiny, inner red light that probably meant her eyesight wasn’t that good.  “Relica is… dead?  Who are you?”

“I’m Selvaria,” she returned, closing her eyes to not look at her terrifying, wriggling arms and heads while praying they didn’t go around her; she didn’t want a repeat of the jellyfish.  “What’s your name?”

“M-Melissa…  Selvaria is an unusual name.”

“Thanks, hehe.  I get that a lot.  Umm…  Ask your Seed to make you more beautiful if you want; look—I did it—I look pretty and scary!”

“I’ve asked for that—so many times!”  she cried, and the pulse of water shooting past her told Selvaria her tentacles were flexing with agitation.  “It doesn’t work!”

“No!  No!  Grarg…  Calm down, dammit!”

“S-Sorry…  I don’t feel the beaks or teeth anymore?”

“Nope!  You scooped them all up, and I blew them away!  Hehe.  So… you need to be specific—you remember Ursula?”

“The Little Mermaid?”

“Uh-huh!  I know it may not be the most flattering image, hehe, but work with me here!  Try to make just your body more human-like; maybe you just don’t have enough points for turning back to what you used to look like.”

“I see…”

Selvaria shot back as a cyclone encircled the woman, and when it lifted, a blue-skinned woman with monstrous tentacles and wild black hair remained; her serpent heads had grown scales to look more dragon-like, which now seemed pretty cool.

“Wooh!  Nice!”  Selvaria cheered, flipping in a circle as she lifted her hands to stare at them.  “Eh-hehe, but maybe you should try to get a bra next?”

Melissa didn’t seem to be listening now, enthralled by her arms as she twisted them around.

“I… I have normal hands… fingernails…  My hair—I have my hair…”  Sniffing back tears, the woman’s bare chest quaked while hugging herself.  “I have a body again…”

“Hey…  Yeah, it’s okay…”

Selvaria swam forward a bit, reverting back to her human form to illustrate the next step with the wolves around her waist and dragon heads paying close attention to her; it was a bit challenging to keep in place without her vast body.

“Can you hear me?!”  she shouted, feeling sounds from the dark depths below as the next wave of monsters gathered to assault them.  “Do you see how small I got—you can’t look like your old self—you have to take it one step at a time.”

Melissa frowned as she stared down at her horrific lower body, mixed with hounds, tentacles, and the bulging lump of flesh that kept her almost entirely immobile.

“What do I do…  Please, help me, Selvaria!  What should I do?”

Her heart went out to the woman, and ideas spun through her mind.  “See if you can separate your Branches—you should have a ton of points after fighting for so long in there—so we can do anything.  Do you believe in me?”

The monster-turned-girl swiftly nodded, desperation on her face.  “Tell me what I need to do!”

Beating her tail to swim to the side of Melissa’s head, Selvaria scanned her form with a critical eye; she could work with this.  It was makeover time, and boy, did she need it.

Getting her to focus on destroying the new monsters—repeat crustacean jellyfish—Selvaria warned her to be careful of their poison; Cahira sailed around the big blue monster lady, blasting Rocs since Melissa couldn’t move more than a kilometer a day in this bulky form.

Selvaria grinned as she completed explaining everything she envisioned.  “Isn’t it amazing?  You’ll be adorable, and the best part is that it should totally work!”

Melissa gave her an unsure look.

“What?”

“It’s just…  Do I have to look like… that?  I promised my parents…”

“Bah!  You have to have restrictions, Melissa.  Okay?  It’s how these Seeds work.  We’re wasting time—Davy Jones is coming for you!”

Melissa hissed, scratching both sides of her head in fright.  “Mmh—I know!  I know!  Okay, don’t yell…  Do I have to do the ears?”

“It will look terrible without them!  Trust me, I’m a cosplayer,” she grinned, throwing a confident thumbs-up.  “I know what I’m talking about, and you can totally join us.  I’ll talk to our boss, so you’ll have a job and a place to stay—Maria can’t let a sick puppy go by without healing it, so she’ll love a cute little sister like you.”

“Huu-haaa… haha.  Thanks.  I have a big sister, but…  I don’t know where she is.”

“We’ll find her, but we gotta go!  C’mon!  C’mon!  Transform!”

Hugging herself, Melissa squeezed her eyes shut, tentacles wrapping around her body as the thousands of sharks and dozens of crustaceans surrounding them shot forward at their dropped guard.

“Please work…  Please…  I don’t want to be a monster!”

Selvaria kept stable as a maelstrom encircled them, yet this time her view of the woman wasn’t obscured, and she grinned at the 18-year-old, naked Mythickin woman that she compressed into.

Tail slamming the water, she dove to scoop up the stunned woman, eight tentacles trailing behind them, the other four being converted to tattoos, and she carried the woman to the surface; Selvaria darted past a shocked Mara, leaping into the furious wind and rain to land on Cahira’s deck.

The massive, horrific monster was gone!

Helping Melissa to stand on her shaky, human legs, Selvaria giggled at the girl’s cry.

“I have legs—Selvaria… I have legs!  Real legs!”

“Hehe.  A lot more than just two, but yeah…  Look!”

Melissa’s rosy red lips fell as she stumbled to support herself against the railing; her miniature, crimson-lit irises in their void were filled with melancholy by the creases in her face as her gaze settled on the mass of tentacles protruding out of her back and between her black locks.

“I’m… still a monster…”

Selvaria leaned next to her, causing the metal to groan under their combined weight.  “Welcome to the club!  It looks like my tattoo idea worked.”

They followed the wriggling tattoos that marked her white skin, Melissa’s fingers brushing the areas.  “It actually worked…  Can I do it to my tentacles, too?”

“Probably,” Selvaria shrugged.  “You have four tattoos on your back, but you probably ran out of points to make the rest into tattoos—ooh-mmh… yeah, the tattoos are moving all over the place.”

“The tentacles are a bit… bulky,” she whispered, reaching under her arm to press her fingernails against the mass that started just above her cat tail and between her shoulder blades to branch into eight wiggling limbs.  “These wolves, too…”

“Mhm.  You can summon them out to fight for you, because—yuck—attached to your waist… yeah, no thank you!  Now you get cute wolfies and scary dragons to attack your enemies!”

“Hehe.  You’re… so positive, Selvaria.  Thank you…”

“Mhm!”

Selvaria leaned a little closer to see the snarling, moving tattoos of her six dragon heads and wolves with four of her twelve tentacles compressed into the animated pictures on her bare skin, yet one thing drew a small smile from the girl.

“I… heh, really am a cat girl now, huh?”

Selvaria pointed at the long black tail in the same spot as Rachel and Maria’s appendages.  “To be clear, you’re a wolf and dragon summoner, tentacle, cat girl!”

“Eh-hehe… quite the mouthful,” Melissa mumbled, working her many appendages to get used to them.

Cahira whistled as she neared, looking her up and down.  “Nice work, Selv!  I knew you had it in you.”

“Mama!  New friends?”

Selvaria glared at the smirking red-haired pirate, examining Melissa as she blushed, hiding her front with her tentacles.  “Don’t be a creep, Cahira!  Get her something to wear.”

“Tough luck, Darlings,” Cahira snickered.  “I don’t got squat that can accommodate those ‘meaty’ things!  Hehe.”

“It’s fine…”  Melissa whispered, keeping herself covered while staring down at the bubbling waters.  “Should we go help her?”

Selvaria followed her gaze.  “Mara?  Mmh… yeah, probably; she can’t hold them back forever, but are you good to fight?”

“Like this…  If I can be a human again…  Absolutely!  I just want out of here!”

The determination in her ominous, black irises made Selvaria puff up her chest; she had to be the big sister to protect this abandoned girl who had no one to rely on.

“Okay!  Full speed ahead, Captain Cahira; let’s blow this joint.”

Cahira’s gaze wandered between the hundreds of chests and loot falling out of the sky, with Nemesis ripping the Rocs to shreds above.  “Don’t have to tell me twice; we’re not getting the best of loot here anyway, an’ Bonnet, keep yer men below deck.  Ya can’t do nothin’ but get in our way with yer ship torn ta hell.  Let’s go, Jackie!”

Selvaria hadn’t even seen the man’s ship go down, but apparently, it got totaled somewhere along the line; a frown came on as she caught Jack peering through the windows above to catch a peek at Melissa.

“We pick up a new dame, Love?”  he called through the speakers.

“You’ll get to gawk at the lass later, ya scallywag; punch it!”

Knowing what he was looking for, and catching a glimpse of him aiming his spyglass their way, she glared up at the control room’s windows and shouted, “I’m going to punch you for looking down at her!”

“Aye, aye, Cap’n—eh?!  Mi eyes not be seen a thing, Love!”

“Maria will find out if you’re lying or not, so we both can punch you!”

“Eh-hehehe… let’s be reasonable!”

“I’m not eating you; I am reasonable!”

Cahira snickered.  “She’s got a poin—ack!”

Selvaria lightly smacked the Pirate Queen’s shoulder, sending her stumbling several meters away to hit one of her cannons.  “That’s for being a creep!”

She smiled at Melissa’s forced chuckle, seeing her hands still trembling while examining her new body with tears and rainfall streaming down her cheeks.

“I’m human again…  I’m human.  I’m not a monster…”

“Mhm,” Selvaria scooted over to stand beside her, bringing a peppy Galatea over, who’d been a good girl and waited to be introduced, “and if your sister is out there somewhere, we’ll find her, too!”

“Selvaria…”

She stiffened as the girl’s tentacles and arms wrapped around her, drawing them together; Selvaria couldn’t help but feel nervous at the slick appendages drawing her into a shockingly powerful grip.

“W-Woah!  He-hehe, calm down a little…  There, there,” she whispered, patting her head and making her cat ears twitch in their back-turned position.  “Everything’s okay now.  Big Sis is here to make sure no one hurts you again.  So… what Mythikin are you?”

Regaining control, Melissa drew away, building her courage while covering her privates again.  “I’m the Myth of Scylla…  I used to be a beautiful Nymph… before Relica dumped that horrible potion onto my beach, changing me into… into that horrifying, ugly thing.  Thank you, Selvaria…  Thank you for helping me.”

“Aww… I can’t say no to that,” she laughed, seeing her cat-like, pleading stare, and she opened her arms to allow herself to be pulled into another strong hug; head pats always helped.  “Everything’s going to be okay.  You’re not alone anymore—yes!”

Melissa’s head lifted in question as Selvaria pulled away, spotting the previously tossed aside item stuck on a hatch.  “What… a coat?”

“A coat!”  Selvaria repeated, returning to hold it up in the powerful gusts that did nothing to phase her.  “Carefully poke your tentacles through the back.”

Cahira’s smile became strained, tittering at the big welt beginning to show on her arm from where Selvaria smacked it.  “Imagin’ that… heh, I suppose that could work…”

“Undies, too!”  Selvaria expectantly demanded, holding out her hands knowing the woman had plenty of spare clothing. as Melissa tentatively swiveled the appendages around to test the fabric.  “Humph… creeps.  Better?”

Melissa tentatively accepted the item from the rueful red-haired woman.  “Thank you…”

“Aye.  My bad, love; I let the—oh, I happin’ ta also have some shorts in mi storage on this here beastie.  Here we go!”

The Myth forced a smile after putting on the items; it was a bit disturbing that Cahira knew Melissa’s sizes by just eyeing her once, but that was the type of pervert she was.

Once dressed, Melissa hugged her again, eliciting another head pat.  “Thank you…  Thank you so much.”

“See,” Selvaria whispered, “I told you I’d help; I’ll save you from all the perverts.”

Yes!  Score, little sister cat girl—surprise—tentacle, dragon, and wolf summoner, cat girl!

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