Chapter 156 – Hot Cop, Cold Cop

Chapter 156 – Hot Cop, Cold Cop

“Now that was a flashy way to deal with them.” Cornelia smirks at us as we reach the place where they are grouped. “Fighting water creatures with water so strong not even a speck of dust remains, eh?”

Neira chuckles quietly as I rub her side. It’s obvious that she didn’t mean to cause such a scene but we have all learned a lesson today. And that of course is not to fuck with a passionate artist. You don’t want to be on the other side of a creative person’s imagination when their only goal is to fuck you up as badly as possible.

“Those Dragons were awesome!” A cute giggle reaches our ears from behind and we turn to see Lianne running to us with Alyssa right after her.

“I never thought I would get to witness something so grand. It was like watching the descent of three gods.” The captain smiles reverently. “For a moment there, I was scared that our ship would be blown into bits but it looks like there isn’t even a scratch on the deck.”

“I might have overreacted a little bit, but even so, I would never cause harm to any of you or your precious ship.” Neira makes a polite nod as a delicate blush tinges her dark cheeks.

“That’s an incredible control you had there. Just one of those water Dragons could have split the vessel into two, and I don’t mean with the unimaginable blast they showed near the end,” Cornelia praises our incredible artist.

“For some time, I’ve been practising. It’s certainly not much but I can’t focus only on my paintings all the time. I was getting ready for a situation like this, where Alastair could need my help with something. I can only do my best so as not to drag everyone down,” my modest wife admits.

“The results are showing,” Lianne says with a gentle grin. “We should all work hard for our godsent husband!”

“Alright, alright. I know what kind of working hard you have in mind.” I squint my eyes at the sly nympho Queen.

She giggles and makes an innocent face, evoking a bunch of chuckles from the other ladies gathered around. As the casual banter gradually dies down, we all glance towards the sole survivor of the Sahuagin scouting party. Unfortunately, we lost many potential informants, but the leader of the squad might possibly know something. I just need to figure out how to communicate with him properly and extract any useful information from the captive.

“Are we going to make this monster talk?” Safi glances at me.

“Yeah, that was the entire point of taking prisoners.” I nod at her and brush over her jelly hair. “We need to interrogate that guy. I’m not sure if we will be able to get anything useful out of him before he flips over like a dead fish, though.”

“We can make him talk with Emi,” the sapphire beauty offers. “Since their muscles and skin are quite tough from the outside, we can burn him a little bit from the inside.”

“Yes! Emi can flow from the top while Safi flows from the bottom and we can meet in the middle!” my emerald tomboy adds.

A cold shiver shakes my body as my mind tries to visualise the suggested form of torture without my permission. Even with the memories they have inherited from the dead adventurer girls, I don’t think they realise how vicious and evil such a method is

And just one glance at everyone around confirms that. It’s hard to spot someone who isn’t holding onto their crotch. I definitely wouldn’t want anything acidic going up either my front or back. I can’t decide if the former option is worse for girls or guys, honestly.

“Let’s maybe save that for later. We don’t want to break his mind right away, alright?” I chuckle wryly and move to pat the dejected Emi.

She seems to have been looking forward to being useful to me again, but I would like to avoid traumas as much as possible, thank you very much.

“Do we have any other options?” Lianne asks. “I do know a little bit of Illusion Magic but I don’t think it will be enough. My abilities are mostly combat-oriented.”

“I can try Charm Magic. It’s not the highest level but I’ve been trying to get it up in the meantime,” I answer.

“You? Having trouble getting it up? That’s a first.” Cornelia smirks at me.

I roll my eyes as the ladies giggle and chuckle at her little quip.

“You know who to look for whenever you need a hand.” Lianne winks at me and I shake my head at them.

“Let’s for once keep things off the sexual themes and maybe focus on the task at hand.” I raise a brow at the two troublemakers.

“At the one that is trying to get it up for you or...?” Neira joins in and I groan quietly.

“Now you are doing that on purpose. You girls are getting too much fun out of this,” I complain, causing them to giggle again.

“Alright. Let’s calm down now. For real this time.” Lianne clears her throat. “You can understand his language, yes?”

“If he doesn’t slur or speak like a machinegu—really fast, I can grasp the meaning of his sounds, noises, words, call it whatever you want.” I nod at the Queen.

“So, we need to hurt him just enough for this monster to offer everything to us but not too much so as take away his ability of coherently communicating,” she sums it up. “This will make things a little bit difficult considering the fact that the leader might be quite stubborn.”

“But, he can also be in possession of the most useful information out of all the Sahuagins that jumped onto the ship,” Alyssa says. “The grunts might not have known anything except for their mission.”

“True.” I stroke my chin. “Any suggestions other than the first, quite horrific plan? Does anyone on your crew have any useful skills for this?”

Just the mention of the forbidden interrogation technique makes the girls shiver.

“I don’t think I remember anything like that but let me ask,” Alyssa offers and quickly escapes the conversation, clearly taking the first opportunity to get away from the painful talks.

“Well, I think we actually can get something going here with just us.” Cornelia recaptures our attention.

“Anything on your mind, beautiful?” I smile at her warmly, causing the tsun magician to flush faintly.

Don’t you ever think that I’m not going to get back at you for all that.

“While I know a thing or two about Water Magic, my speciality is ice, but we do have an expert on the former.” She gestures at Neira with her dazzling, hazelnut eyes. “I bet she can control the temperature of water well. And while it’s not water per se, every creature is full of a certain liquid.”

“Blood.” Neira’s eyes sparkle in understanding. “That could work.”

“They say back at where I’m from that Humans are like sixty percent water.” I chuckle. “I think Sahuagins aren’t that far off, and I think I’m beginning to see where this is heading.”

“While Neira can control the temperature in the upper degrees, I can reach the lower degrees. Just imagine thousands of tiny spiky balls of ice being forcefully created inside your body, or even dragged around your bigger veins. If we do it right, we should be able to find the perfect amount of pain for our little captive.” Cornelia’s lips twist in a devilish grin.

“That’s not much better than Safi’s and Emi’s plan but I guess the control over it is a bit more accurate.” I rub my forehead, not wanting to imagine how that approach would go with a few certain specific places in mind. “If you are confident that you won’t just kill him by forcing the poor guy to go through neverending cycles of hypothermia and hyperthermia.”

The two ladies exchange a glance and nod at each other. Since no one has any other ideas and my head is pretty much empty too, I let them prepare themselves for the interrogation. While they are doing their own thing, I still try to figure something more certain out by scrolling through my abilities. Unfortunately, many of them can be a bit risky for the target’s health.

There’s still the Charm Magic that I mentioned earlier. Just in case, I check some of the skills and spells banded under that category. But, I’m not as confident in getting him to like me. As wrong as it sounds, my Class makes it much easier to do that with girls. I can potentially use the more forceful techniques that demand strict submission but I’m afraid that with my stats and his toughness, I will blow his mind into thousands of little pieces faster than get anything out of him.

Cornelia and Neira wrap their preparations up, finish discussing their plan, and get to work. If we start losing the guy while going with their method, I’ll take over and try some of the more invasive Charm Magic spells. I can’t say that I’m not curious to see how someone on the brink of a mind break reacts. But, only if they are a really, really bad person, like this murder fish person who is closer to a monster than a Human, I guess.

We move closer to the restrained Sahuagin, who is now tied up to the main mast with my Void Chains. Since he is still unconscious, Meru gives his ugly mug a mighty smack to wake him up. Seeing how far the monster’s head snaps to the side, I get a little worried for a second or two that his neck does too, but he opens his yellowish eyes with confusion written all over his fishy face.

The captive Sahuagin utters some sounds and noises that can hardly be recognized as words. But, my Linguist is able to deal with much worse shit so I catch a meaning or two. There’s no need for me to translate for the girls since, as everyone should have expected, he is just cursing at us violently, trying to convey what things he will do to them and their mothers.

Poor fathers. No one ever wants to fuck them.

Just as he has promised so vehemently, our new friend named Hlgha’lhulrae, begins his story. And no, I have no idea how the fuck is that thing spelt and pronounced. The sounds his throat makes are just the closest to what a drowning person would say while gulping down litres of seawater.

As for what he knows, it isn’t that much, but it’s certainly useful.

The small squad we killed was sent out to find the next target for the expansion of the Sahuagin army. Their entire forces are split into a few battalions that are marching, or swimming, in different directions. As their emperor commanded, they are to take over the entire underwater land for him, enslaving or killing off all the other residents, depending if they are male or female. What to do with which half should be obvious.

The sudden order came fairly recently, even though their species has been planning such a crusade for generations. The common leaders have no idea what caused their current emperor to finally make that decision, but considering the scale of their success, they are assuming some kind of divine prophecy or intervention that functioned as a signal for their race to take from the other underwater residents what has always been rightfully theirs, meaning everything under the surface.

This guy’s team belongs to the battalion which has just taken over a hidden settlement of Merfolk. Well, he says taken over, but they were supposedly sent out to look for more prey shortly after the rest of the battalion breached the Merfolk defences. So, they basically were kicked out before the fun part. At least from their perspective.

I don’t want to delude myself into hoping that the raided settlement and its inhabitants are still repelling the invaders or even pushing them back considering the supposedly unbroken streak of wins for the Sahuagin army, but we are close enough to it that we should be able to come for their aid in a day or two at most. That battalion moving near us is most likely going to end up as our next target anyway.

He spills the beans on the size of the unit, common weapons, abilities, and strategies while the older woman threatens him with the mysterious substance. They don’t communicate that much with the other battalions but he gives us some information on the potential location and state of the nearby ones.

After learning as much as possible from him, we discuss what to do with the captive and agree on getting rid of him. Before that happens, I test a few spells from the Charm Magic school to see how much effort I have to put into them to extract anything useful out of a male individual this tenacious.

It certainly isn’t easy, I have to say that. With females, it’s literally a snap of my fingers. Again, as wrong as it sounds. Just like with the Goblins back in the day when we were exploring the sewers underneath Evaneheim.

But, most likely thanks to the fact that he is already greatly weakened from the torture and the psychic damage caused by the unidentified material, I’m able to bring him under my control with Dominate Monster. Charm Monster doesn’t really work as it seems that I need to have at least somewhat favourable standing with the target even to try.

The other spell requires some mental gymnastics inside the targeted party’s mind to achieve the desired result. Thanks to the fact that he gave up, I’m able to practise a bit on him. Even in this situation, it isn’t a walk in the park so I openly welcome any experience that can help me in the future when I’m forced to attempt Dominate Monster on a much less cooperative enemy. The stats and mental power are there, I just need to become proficient in it.

Having the Sahuagin leader under my thumb, I confirm if what he said earlier isn’t utter bullshit and we discuss what to do next.

“We can use him,” Alyssa begins. “Send him back to his battalion and have him act as a spy. Maybe sabotage them from the inside while at it. He can check how things are going in that besieged settlement and give us more ideas on how to approach the situation.”

“If they don’t instantly kill him for being weak and failing at his given task,” Meru joins in. “Sahuagins are cruel and the leaders above hate the incompetency of those below them with passion. They are almost as vicious to each other as they are to us and everyone else.”

“There’s also a chance that someone manages to break my Dominate Monster,” I add. “Even if the chance of that happening is low, if that does happen, we will be the ones at a disadvantage when he shares everything he learned about us with the army. Currently, we have the element of surprise, not them.”

“The only viable options are to either lock him up on the ship or get rid of him, then.” Cornelia crosses her arms under her ample chest.

“Do we want to keep this ugly thing next to us for Goddess knows how long?” Lianne scrunches her face. “Someone will have to take care of him and I can see the girls not being too happy about that prospect.”

“We can kill him off, I guess.” I shrug. “We got a lot from him already. We can’t know if he won’t come useful alive at one moment but I’m sure we will be able to deal with everything on our own.”

“That’s decided, then. What’s our next move?” Neira puts her fists on her hips.

“We move to the settlement and wipe out the bad guys?” Safi suggests. “Or are we continuing towards Meru’s home?”

“I’m sure Alastair wouldn’t be able to just pass by suffering people who we can help,” Meru replies. “I don’t think I could either. If this raid is recent, we might even save some males from being executed, and some females from becoming breeding slaves. Depending on how many of them they already have in the unit, they might need to send the women back to their own settlement soon.”

“Well, what are we waiting for, then?” Lianne smiles at us charmingly. “Let’s make these waters great again!”

Since she throws her fist into the air, we follow her lead and cheer too. Everyone then scatters and the older woman starts returning to wherever she came from with Alyssa by her side, sending me a wink before going away. I leave the Sahuagin to the girls, especially Meru, and catch up to Lianne.

“So, care to tell me what that thing was? If it’s that powerful, why can’t we use it against the other Sahuagins by, for example, covering our weapons with it?” I ask, looping my arm with hers as we stroll through the deck.

“You are seriously going to regret it.” The petite Pirate Queen sighs and giggles sweetly. “It’s connected to their beliefs, but also constitution. As you already know, they have no females of their own kind and use breeding farms for reproduction. Taking women from other species is deeply ingrained in their very existence. They can’t even get close enough to another male to become friends in the true meaning of that word. That’s why their communities are so vicious, as Meru said.”

“Yeah, I get that much. They are monstrous bastards who should have been wiped out by the other races banded under a single banner ages ago.” I nod, stroking her hand resting on my forearm.

“Further on, any closer physical contact with another male is already a huge deal for them. They are extremely sensitive to the characteristic scent of their species. It makes them repulsed and can even lead to serious health complications if not risk,” she continues. “Therefore, the thing they are the most scared of is the other males. And especially intimacy with them, even accidental. And when they even think of getting in contact with certain bodily fluids of other males...”

“Wait. You can’t be serious.” I stop and raise my brows at Lianne.

She chuckles quietly and grins at me. “There’s always been a quite special girl in our crew. She weirded out many men with her obsession of them not coming inside. You see, it’s not only because of that request, but also because she would demand her partner to cum... into the jar in which she collected semen from all the men she slept with as a hobby.”

“Gods save me...” I shudder for Goddess knows which time today.

“So, if that concoction of hundreds of fluids from other males got anywhere near a Sahuagin’s nether regions, be it front or back, it would be an ultimate torment for that individual. I’m fairly sure that quite a few of his organs would actually explode from the blood pressure and such. He would definitely lose his mind too,” Lianne finishes her story.

“Great.” I chuckle wryly. “So, what stops us from weaponizing my cum against those monsters? Fuck, I can’t believe I’m asking that question.”

“As you have seen, they can smell such things from an insane distance. We weren’t even in the water and that Sahuagin was able to tell what was inside with our mature friend barely lifting the lid just a little,” she answers. “Two things could happen if we did what you suggested. One, they would all keep running away from us until we got bored chasing after them. Two, they would focus literally everything on you so as to take down the source of the cursed fluid. And I mean everything.”

“I’ll have to keep that in mind just in case.” I shake my head while rubbing the bridge of my nose.

I escort her for the remaining distance to the helm and leave my precious Queen in Alyssa’s hands. When I return to the other girls, the Sahuagin is already out cold forever. Safi and Emi apologise lots and lots, explaining that they wanted to try their method out to see what they should do not to kill the captive.

Well, needless to say, they didn’t get that far before their test subject failed to put up any meaningful resistance and his brain and body literally shut down.

I cheer them up a little with some pats and kisses, trying not to think about what exactly they tried, and we clean the deck up after the recent party with a bunch of fishy, uninvited guests. Some of the crewmates help, but Neira takes care of most things with her Water Magic, leaving only small details here and there for them.

Alyssa sets the course towards the location described by the Sahuagin leader and we continue our journey. With the current winds, we should reach our destination in more or less a day. Time is of the essence here so no one slacks off and we all fulfil our roles on the ship to make sure that we are going as fast as we can and that the vessel is in the best possible state.

After about a day, Meru notices a dense kelp forest reaching the very surface of the water. Even we can see the green area from the ship, spanning damn wide and far. Supposedly, there’s an underwater city hidden deep between these massive kelps so Meru, Cornelia, and I head out to try and locate it with the hints extracted from the Sahuagin.

After about half an hour of careful swimming around since we have no idea if these monsters are still here, Cornelia spots something resembling an illuminated half-sphere and we move closer. My jaw literally drops as far as it can when fucking Atlantis enters my sight.

There’s an entire fucking city hidden between those kelps, sealed under a giant, crystal dome. I knew about the settlement since our captive mentioned it, but he didn't make it sounds like we would be discovering Atlantis. Naturally, the buildings inside aren’t as modern and technologically advanced, but it’s truly something else. Blue colours dominate the palette and many different structures of various heights fill the space under the protective shield.

Unfortunately, that shield is broken in at least a few places. Something still prevents water from leaking in but the city definitely isn’t safe. Looking around, we are able to notice numerous Sahuagins swimming around the dome, between the kelps, and into the big breaches.

Considering the fact that they aren’t in too much of a hurry, the main battle must have already ended. The victor is obvious.

“It definitely hasn't been long since the battle ended. Some of their soldiers look exhausted,” Meru points out.

“Then we need to prepare fast. The more time we take, the more people die or suffer a fate worse than that. Let’s go.” I glance at both of them and they nod with determined expressions.

It’s time for our first clash with the real bad guys.