Fantasy Dungeon Builder's Harem

Hagane gained the west wall with Mrs. Baldwin, Smerta, and Lei, Siwang's cyclops companion. The animated statue stared out at the battlefield.

A line of catapults firing at the wall was set up before something bigger. Mangonels. The largest of catapults that could throw boulders. Hagane tapped her arm-blade against her thigh, her body vibrating from the impact.

"Those look bad," Mrs. Baldwin said.

"Very bad," said Hagane.

The first of the mangonels fired.

"Get down!" Hagane shouted at the arachnes, oozes, yuki-onna, salamanders, oreads, and sirens that manned the wall. "Now!"

A massive boulder arched in the air. It seemed to move so slowly as it tumbled down at them. It grew larger and larger. Hagane ducked low beside Lei. The cyclops blinked her large, blue eye. The artillery stone struck the wall.

The battlements shook. Stone shattered as it crushed the crenelations and rolled over a group of monster girls. Sreaga, Moroz, Dongara, and Dala were all killed in a heartbeat. An arachne, yuki-onna, oread, and a siren.

"We have to take those out," Smerta growled, the valkyrie standing back up. She held her icy blade in her hand.

"And what do we do about the army!" Mrs. Baldwin demanded, pointing down at the charging force rushing at the wall.

"They have siege ladders," Hagane said. "They're going to scale the wall."

"Incoming!" Lei shouted.

Another boulder fired at the wall.

Hagane ducked behind the crenelations wondering what good hiding behind them would do. The boulder slammed into the wall. The entire structure shook from the impact. Stone exploded and rained down on the ground below.

"How long can the wall withstand that?" demanded Smerta.

"It's to keep our heads down so the assault force can reach the wall," Hagane said. "And if they get lucky, they'll breach--"

BOOM!

Another boulder slammed into the wall. Hagane gasped at how much it shook. Dust rose in the air. Hagane forced herself to stand. She peered out over the battlements at the enemy forces. They were getting closer. The catapults hurled their smaller missiles. Rocks the size of watermelons slammed into the wall or arched over to crash into the village.

"Take down the siege ladders!" Hagane cried. "Now while the mangonels are reloading!"

"For Leo!" Mrs. Baldwin cried. "For Leo!"

"FOR LORD LEO!" the monster girls cried.

The arachnes scrambled up onto the battlements, risking exposure to the catapults' fire. A stone hissed past Damhanalla's head as she fired spider silk down at the soldiers carrying the siege ladder. She webbed them, tripping them up.

Down the wall, the other three arachnes did the same, firing their sticky webbing at the men. They gasped, falling to the ground and tripped up by the silk. Several of the ladders faltered, but only for a moment.

The yuki-onna threw daggers of ice. They slammed them down into the enemy soldiers. Their attacks struck armor, bursting into icy mist. Others found flesh, dropping the soldiers. The army came closer and closer.

We don't have a lot of ranged firepower here, realized Hagane. That was a mistake in our deployment.

"GET DOWN!" Smerta cried.

The three mangonels fired.

Three huge boulders hurtled in the air at the wall. The arachnes scrambled off their posts. The yuki-onna ducked down. Hagane watched the three boulders falling at them. Her arm-blade tapped against her thigh.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

She gasped, staggering as the entire wall rippled. Stone ground on stone as the shock waves propagated through the structure. A loud crack rent part of the wall, a section of the teeth-like crenelations on the battlements falling away and crashing to the ground below. They were batting down the wall.

"We can't survive these assaults much longer," Smerta hissed.

"Doesn't matter," cried Lei. The cyclops pointed her silver warhammer down at the enemy. Matching armor clad her body. Her blonde hair whipped in the wind. "They're on us."

Siege ladders slapped up as the thousands of soldiers had reached the wall. The enemy surged up the ladders. Men climbing fast, the lead soldiers holding a shield before them. They moved fast, their comrades waiting to get on.

The yuki-onna threw their icy daggers. The arachnes fired silk. Soldiers with bows down at the wall fired arrows up at the monster girls. Hagane watched the fight, thinking. She noticed the three oozes. An idea formed in her mind.

"Cikata, Cikhala, and Philtara," she thought, "jump down the ladders!"

The three oozes darted into action. Their gelatinous forms rippled as they reached the nearest ladders. Soldiers were nearing the top as the oozes jumped off. They formed into large balls of slime that struck the lead soldiers coming up the three ladders. Their weight knocked each one off. The poor men fell into the soldiers beneath them.

The three oozes cleared the ladders, driving the men down to the ground. It was a command Leo would never give. He hated sacrificing his monster girls, but Hagane was not him. She would hold this wall and do what it took.

The oozes and soldiers landed at the bottom in a clatter. Screams rose as men writhed. The oozes spilled off and formed into their monster girl forms. They lashed out arms as tentacles, strangling soldiers. Philtara threw herself at one, engulfing his head.

Swords and spears hacked and stabbed at the oozes, but they were not easily killed. Their bodies flowed around attacks. Or they threw themselves on the enemy, forcing soldiers to stab each other in an attempt to kill them.

"Good girls," Smerta said. "Now get those ladders burning."

The salamanders rushed toward the ladders and breathed fire. They engulfed the tops of them in heat. The wood caught. The twine binding the rungs in place failed. Soldiers recoiled from the heat surging down at them. One screamed as he burned and fell.

The two oreads melted into the walls. In moments, holes opened on the ground, swallowing a soldier whole, then closing back up. Hagane smiled at the oreads working their deadly magic. They had to stop this assault.

But there were so many soldiers.

And they had more ladders.

An arrow took Sukkub in the face. The yuki-onna vanished into a burst of mist. Hagane watched the battle. They were so few to stop so many. The enemy was determined, and behind them, the mangonels waited.

Mrs. Zoe Baldwin sent her roots down a ladder. The lead soldier gasped as the dryad's tendrils wrapped about his arm. He tried to draw his sword, but she ripped him off the ladder and sent him falling thirty feet onto the waiting soldiers below.

An arrow flashed past Mrs. Baldwin as her roots rushed at the next soldier. He had his sword out and swung for her tendrils. Pain flared as he cut some, but more wrapped around his neck. With a hard jerk, she broke his vertebrae and sent his limp body crashing into the men behind him.

The arachnes fired webbing that tangled men on other siege ladders, binding them in place and stopping the assault. The sirens sang at the men who managed to get near the top. Soldiers swayed to their beautiful music.

Then jumped willingly off the ladders.

To Mrs. Baldwin's horror, she saw rocks hurtling at the wall. The mangonels had fired during the assault. The boulders rushed towards the damaged section where none of the ladders had been placed.

"BRACE!" Mrs. Baldwin cried, pointing.

As a soldier cut at her roots, she gripped the battlements before her.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The three massive boulders slammed into the wall. The structure shook. The cracks worsened. More of the wall crumbled, creating a small ravine in the battlements. A gap only a few feet across, but it was the beginning of the end of the wall.

It was not going to withstand another volley.

"We're in trouble, Hagane!" Mrs. Baldwin gasped, pointing at the section of crumbling wall.

"I know," Hagane said and glanced up in the sky.

Alizee watched the fight at the west wall with horror. Those massive boulders hammered the wall. It was failing as thousands of soldiers gathered for the assault. She had to do something. That was her job. She was Leo's sylph.

"Come on, girls!" Alizee cried to the harpies. "Let's go crush those big, scary boulder throwers!"

The harpies around her screeched, "YES!"

The sylph surged forward, thrusting her arm before her like she was Supergirl, the best superhero on the CW. Alizee's white hair streamed behind her as she soared out over the wall and the chaos below. Ladders burned. The oozes fought amid the soldiers. A hole opened and a man vanished into the earth. She caught catches of beautiful songs over the screams and shouts.

She focused on those three super-big boulder lobbers. She wasn't sure what else to call them. Maybe catapults. She wasn't sure. This wasn't her thing. She didn't watch war movies. She liked romcoms. Or just straight romance movies.

If big boulder lobbers were in a Nicholas Sparks movie, she would know what these things were.

"Archers!" shouted Kaputan.

She threw out the wind before them, knocking back the arrows. They reached the weapons. Alizee sent slashing blades of wind down there as more arrows surged up into the air. The harpies screeched and dodged back and forth.

They didn't have ranged attacks.

The crews working the weapons pressed amid the complicated frames of heavy woods that Alizee's attacks hardly damaged. She soared over them with frustration. More arrows surged into the air at them, driving them back.

"We need a plan," Alizee cried, flying higher, her harpies surging with her. "Something to distract those men. I don't know."

Hota glanced back at the wall. "We're strong fliers, sis. We can carry another monster girl."

"Right!" Alizee studied who was on the wall. Salamanders? They could burn the dangerous siege engines.

Their fire set fire to siege ladders that kept slamming up. The enemy army had hundreds of them. They were effective against the enemy's assault. Alizee decided against them. She needed something perfect. Something that would get the crews to stop working.

Soldiers jumped from one ladder for no reason.

"Sirens!" gasped Alizee. "Yes, yes, with their beguiling voices. Ooh, they can lure enemies into traps and kill them. Or men into their embrace. Yes, yes, let's grab the sirens and put the hypno-whammy on the enemy."

"Yes, yes, sis!" screeched Bittaraya.

Alizee surged across the battlefield with her harpies. She dodged through the flights of arrows fired up at them. Her wind blades cut through more as they surged for the walls. She spotted the two sirens, Nimfa and Veszeli, that were still alive.

"I need you, sirens!" Alizee sent to them. "Your voices are just so rocking. You can bamboozle those crews and save the day! I know you can! Woot!"

"We'll make them kill each other!" Nimfa answered with such enthusiasm.

"Grab them, girls," Alizee cried. "And let's drive for the big W! Let's go!" She clapped her hands as Bittaraya and Hota dived for the wall. Their wings flapped as she swooped over the two harpies. They grabbed them by the upper arms and lifted them into the air. "Let's go, harpies! Let's go!"

Alizee felt a rush of excitement through her airy body. The wind around her spun, caressing her naked flesh. She surged over the army, slashing her arms right and left, sending blades of wind out that cut through the archers firing blasts of arrows up into the air.

"Flying through the sky!" she cheered. "On sexy feathered wings! Screeching and clawing! Harpies win the day! Go Harpies!"

She felt so pumped. Her five harpies screeched with her as they soared over the enemy. The crews on the big boulder lobbers were ready to fire again. Alizee couldn't let that happen. She glared at them as they swooped in.

"Archers!" snarled Pihatu.

"Pihatu, Kaputan, and Piyayuru, screen the sirens!" Alizee cried as she dived. "They have to make it!"

Arrows snapped up into the air. A flight of them. Alizee swung her arms, slashing blades of arrows. She cleaved through the arrows, clearing a path for them, but there were so many of the deadly missiles flying around them.

Kaputan screamed and vanished, protecting Hota carrying Nimfa.

Hota and Bittaraya dove for the large boulder lobbers and dropped off their sirens between the weapons. The harpies screeched and slashed their talons at soldiers rushing to attack the sirens. Blood spurted from their talons.

Alizee fired air blades that cut off another soldier's head. Arrows flew up into the air at her harpies flying around the big weapons. Alizee danced around a flight of them and sent her blades slamming into the mass of men who fired at them, ripping through a half-dozen.

The singing began.

A beautiful duet rose amid the violence. It was too wondrous to be found on the dirty battlefield. It didn't fit in with the blood and smoke and screams. Their voices wove a melody that tugged at Alizee's attention.

The soldiers and crew who worked and defended those nasty weapons turned on them. They attacked the wood, hacking at the structure. They cut at ropes that held it together. Mighty twangs filled the air. Pieces of the weapons sagged.

One collapsed.

"YES!" Alizee cheered, the thrill of victory surging through her.

Other soldiers surged, officers pointing at the men attacking the siege weapons. The second one collapsed. Then the third. The men attacking the weapons surrounded the sirens. They sung loudly as the fresh forces came in.

Soldiers fought soldiers, the sirens' song rising above the clatter of steel and the screams of the dying. Alizee slashed at the air, her blades of compressed wind cutting into the enemy. She killed an officer, his blood spurting.

Harpies dove, ripping spears from the enemies' hands and shoving them back into vulnerable body parts. The air resounded with screams and shouts. Alizee fought for the sirens, but there were more soldiers than they could control.

A spear lanced past one of Nimfa's defenders and ripped through the siren's guts. She staggered, her song faltering. Her defenders swayed, coming out of her control. One turned and buried his sword into her breast.

She vanished.

Philtara died.

The oozes had created chaos, but they couldn't avoid every wound. They lost slime as limbs were severed or blades caught their gelatinous flesh. More soldiers were pressing in with fresh ladders. Hagane shook her head.

How many were there?

The arachnes webbed how they could. Fire billowed from the mouths of salamanders, setting men and wood on fire. The wall shook. More stones broke from the split. It grew worse even without the mangonels firing.

They had gone silent. The large siege weapons fell apart. The harpies and Alizee soared in the air above them. It was too far for Hagane to make out what was happening on the ground. Were the harpies even still alive?

Hagane had no idea.

A ladder slammed up near Hagane. She looked around. Smerta fought soldiers spilling off another ladder, their blades crashing ineffective into her icy armor. She slashed off heads or left men reeling from spurting wounds.

An arrow stuck Hagane and bounced off her body, leaving just a scratch on her mirrored finish. She readied her arm-blades as soldiers came up. More arrows swept the battlements as more archers surged to the front.

Nimhe burst into motes, the arachne felled by arrows.

The soldiers climbed higher and higher, the lead one holding a shield over his head. Lei fought nearby. She swung her warhammer and caved in a soldier's head, crushing his helmet. Gore spurted from the ruined metal and thunder resounded. Other soldiers reeled from the burst of sound.

The cyclops swung her hammer. Every time it struck, a thunderclap boomed. She threw one soldier over the wall with a crumpled chest. She shattered another's leg. She shattered the ladder with a hard swing, splitting the rungs. Men screamed and fell.

An arrow took Lei in her big, blue eye.

She vanished.

Hagane ground her metal teeth together as the first of her soldiers reached the top. She swung her arm-blade into the shield, knocking it to the side, then stabbed with her other. The soldier gasped at the sight of her.

She buried her arm-blade into his open mouth, feeling the wet warmth as she buried it in his flesh. He gurgled. She ripped her arm out. It came smeared in blood. He didn't vanish after she killed him. He fell to the side and another soldier scrambled after.

He thrust his blade at her. She parried and slashed, cutting into his face and blinding his right eye. She screamed and she buried her other arm-blade into his throat. Warmth engulfed her arm. A disturbing shudder ran through her.

She did not like this.

She almost felt sick in her guts but she had no innards.

Malvada, one of the salamanders, burst into motes. Arrows raked the walls as Hagane fought the next soldier up the ladder. A missile struck her in the face, bouncing off her cheek. She hardly felt it as she cut off an arm. The soldiers screamed and fell backward, his hand still clutching to the ladder. He crashed into the next soldier. Three more fell.

Dolor rushed up and set fire to Hagane's ladder.

The animated statue looked around. She didn't see Prekrasnyy any longer. An arrow took Belyy in the stomach, the yuki-onna vanishing. The mangonels had gone silent, but the enemy still came. Still brought more ladders.

There was more fighting. More killing.

Another ladder slapped up.

Where do they get them all, rippled through Hagane's thoughts, blood dripping from her arm-blades.

Mrs. Zoe Baldwin's roots ached. The soldiers had hacked at them as she fought to keep them back.

She pushed with her roots on a ladder, tipping it back. The men on it screamed as she shoved it out farther and farther. Archers fired arrows at her, trying to kill her. One took Engana nearby. The salamander stumbled, the missile buried in her throat.

Then she vanished.

The ladder hit its tipping point and fell into the mass of soldiers, the men holding it falling into the crowd. She wasn't sure how many died. More soldiers with more ladders were rushing the wall. More assaults.

She looked up and down the wall. Smerta stood ready to fight. On the other side of the crack, so did Hagane. The harpies and Alizee soared back for the wall, but the defenders were dwindling and Leo had not replaced their losses.

I don't think the battle is--

An arrow slammed into Mrs. Baldwin's head, cutting off her thoughts. She melted away into the black of the Void.​