I snapped my fingers. I sighed in a mixture of pleasure and pain as my nose snapped back into place and my black eye healed. Sitting up, I looked around the courtyard.

  A dead headless dragon was over by the still going fountain. Ember’s arms and legs were broken and she was cursing loudly and trying to force herself to get up. “Well, that went about as well as expected.” I snarked before climbing to my feet and stretching.

  “That girl can throw a punch though, one hit knockout! I gently touched my fully healed nose and sighed in contentment. Turning, I snapped my fingers and watched as Ember began to slowly heal.

  “Any chance she would do that for me again?” I asked Ember seriously. Ember’s response was to glare daggers at me as her wrist snapped back into place. She didn’t even flinch. That must’ve hurt so bad… I was jealous.

  I had to set regeneration twice more for Ember to fully heal. I also summoned Wavey again, he had despawned while I was unconscious. “Alright then, we should check on Hero and Alia, that was a fun fight but they have probably handled the fake Alia already.”

  Ember, who had finally gotten to her knees, spit on the ground and snapped her fingers. The fountain was set on fire again. I stared longingly at it, then I had an idea.

  I put on an innocent face and asked. “Ember, why are you so bad at fighting?” She brought her hand up to snap at me and I almost let out a giggle of excitement.

  After a moment though, she dropped her hand and stood up instead. “You are gonna have to try harder than that Aqua.” She said simply as she smirked at me. With that, she turned, and began walking back towards the clothing shop.

  I checked my dress, it was surprisingly in one piece aside from the blood splatter caused by my broken nose. Wavey sprayed my dress down and I noticed it went see through. “How.. interesting.”

  Looking over at the castle, I began making my way inside. By the time I reached the doors, Ember was already caught up again. She had a new red dress on, and she had cleaned up. “That was fast.” I commented as I grabbed the door handle.

  Instead of answering, Ember looked me up and down and snorted. “Might as well not even have the dress if it's seen through idiot!” She pushed me aside gently and pulled the door open before storming inside.

  I giggled at her impetuousness before following. I was surprised to find Alia unconscious in a puddle of what I can only assume was her own juices, Hero and the fake Alia were talking, and the entire room looked like a fight had happened.

  Ember stormed up to the throne Hero sat on. “I demand a rematch right now! Also, why are there two of you! I will take you both on!”

  “First of all, this is Alissa, not Alia. Alia is the puddle of disappointment over there and my first wife.” Hero said, pointing at Alissa, then over at Alia on the floor. He stood and pushed Alissa off of him before stretching and walking down the steps.

  He began putting his pants back on as he spoke. “Also, we have a capital to storm, and an Empress to save from herself. You can come with or you can go do your own thing.”

  Ember froze at that. Looking between Hero, Alissa, and Alia. I spoke up. “I.. kind of want to explore a bit, and storming a castle doesn’t sound like fun to me,” Ember turned and looked at me. There was a flash of uncertainty in her eyes.

  Then she rushed over, grabbed me by the wrist and called out. “Alright Hero! We are gonna get stronger. You do whatever you gotta do! One day I will kill that bitch and become the new first wife and you will grovel at my feet!”

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  With that, Ember began to pull me towards the door. “Wait! Shouldn’t we.. help.. Them…” I tried. Ember just snorted as we stepped outside the castle.

  Turning to me she smirked. “I wanna go fight some shit and get stronger, and you get to be my meat shield!” I considered that for a moment and smiled. She smiled back brighter and we made our way to the forest nearby.

  Or at least we tried to. “For the last time you moron! We are leaving the city, not going in. and even if we were, I was not asked to provide papers coming in. If you do not stand aside I will burn this city to the ground with you in it!”

  The googly eyed guard stared at Ember’s outburst and opened its mouth to speak. I giggled as Ember screamed and picked up a rock. She imbued it with fire, smiled evilly, then went to town on the guard. The guard turned to goo for some reason when he died.

  Honestly, I wondered idly how much that rock would hurt. How much it would sear into my skin causing blisters and pain. “Focus! Let’s go!” Ember snapped at me. I said dreamily as we continued on into the forest.

  We made our way about thirty feet into the vast expanse of trees when a large snake suddenly came down from above and swallowed Ember whole. Ember of course set it on fire, but I heard as it swallowed her whole.

  The sound of her body slowly being consumed, the most likely acidic saliva of the snake burning her every.. Inch. I rushed forward and kicked the snake. It ignored me and slid away. A few minutes later Ember reappeared naked next to me.

  “AAAAAAAAHHHHH” She screamed and she looked around. “Where the fuck did it go!” I shrugged and she tried to set a nearby tree on fire. It burned for a second, then extinguished. We stared for a moment where the fire once was.

  She tried four more times with the same result, then again a dozen more times over multiple trees. It appears much like the fountain, the trees were fireproof. Ember did not appear to to that well. “Are you fucking kidding me! I need more fire power!”

  She picked up a branch, imbued it with fire, and began attacking a nearby tree. The moment she hit it, a massive spider fell from it and chomped her head off. The spider turned and rushed at me.

  I opened my arms and glee filled me. Sadly, such a fate was not for me as Ember respawned and punched the spider hard in the face in front of me. She then picked up another stick, imbued it, and began beating the ever loving shit out of the spider.

  It was dead long before she stopped beating it. Panting, she stood covered in blood and ichor. “Fucking spiders.. Fucking forest.” Was all she muttered before grabbing another stick and imbuing it. “Worth the 20 xp though!”

  “Wavey.” I said simply. Wavey fired his waterbolt and refreshed Ember while cleaning the stuff off of her. “Say Ember, can I be in front?” I asked hopefully. In response Ember spit at me and wandered deeper into the forest.

  She made it about thirty more steps before a single small spider rushed up to her. She stomped on it, killing it. “Ha! Pathetic!” She snorted. Then more came.. A lot more. Ember cried and screamed as hundreds of baby spiders consumed her.

  Excitement filled me as they, much like the larger spider had, rushed me. Ember spawned over me again and tried to stop them, but she failed. Their bites felt so painful. The venom flowed through my body and I jerked as I squirted all over the forest floor while I was eaten alive.

  Everything went dark as pleasure and pain mixed perfectly… I reappeared next to Hero and Ember. We were standing on the castle walls. “Why..” Before I could finish a voice called up.

  “We have the city surrounded! You will surrender Hero now!” A Foxkin girl called up. She was standing at the front of a very large army of beastkin. “Well.. that’s new.”

  “You wish to claim Hero for yourself! You will have to defeat me first!” Ember screamed and jumped off the wall. I could hear her legs snap like twigs as she fell over sixty feet and crumpled into an unusable mass on the forest floor.

  Here sighed and rubbed his temples before turning to Alissa. “Alissa,” Alissa just nodded and whistled. That large dragon from earlier appeared and she hopped on before taking off.

  “I will let her majesty know you are coming, but will be a little late.” Alissa said reverently. Hero just nodded and Alissa took off.

  Hero summoned a spear, looked over at me and smiled. “Did you enjoy yourself?” I giggled and nodded.

  “Yea, those little spiders are so aggressive!” Hero flinched at my words for some reason before nodding.

  “What the heck is going on!” Alia, not Alissa now? Said as she rushed up next to the battlements. She was mostly cleaned up and had a new dress on, but there was a look in her eyes.

  For some reason she looked at me.. Lustfully… then looked over the beastkin army. “Oh! Play time!” Was all she said before summoning her bubble rifle.