Monster Breeder

“Okay, it’s, like, Slime Solidarity’s turn, now,” Olindia the Strawberry Moon Jellyfish insists as she grabs Flou and takes the fore. Her flowing, luminescent dress literally glides over the ground as she moves. “Guys, I can totes float! And I’m positively glowing. This fight will be a breeze with us around.” Her healing aura and flight will allow her to stay up out of harm’s reach while dipping down to strike with attacks of opportunity using her Jellyfish tentacles or ease the pain of the injured. “And my main squeeze, Flou, here, has a present for everyone.”

The glistening ruby Bunny girl nods in affirmation. “I’ve confirmed my nine Second Tier Swarm cores regenerate when I receive healing magic.” No doubt thanks to Olindia, of course. “However, I can’t easily replace the First Tier cores the Elves broke. I’m down to a score.”

“All I’ve got are about a dozen of these,” Olindia produces a handful of blank marble-like Cores from her purse that didn’t spill out earlier, untouched by Flou’s imprint.

“Let’s hand those out, then,” I say. “If Olindia’s healing aura can stabilize the injured, we should all have a blank Core to potentially save the mortally wounded. Most people would probably rather become Slimes than die if it comes to that.”

The lovely Pink Slime proceeds to distribute the blank cores across our teams. As for where most girls store theirs… let’s just say they’re someplace nice and warm.

“I’d like to hand these out too,” Flou says as her jewel-like cores surface from her transparent flesh to roll into her palms. “I’m giving these nine Second Tier ‘Flou’ Cores to those who need them the most.” The ruby bunny proceeds to present them one at a time to Cottontail, Megan, Jonny (for his merger with Brenda), Isabella, Opal, Dura (handed to Suka for safekeeping until tomorrow), Moka, Effie, and Delilah.

“Oh! Thank you, darlin’. Do I, um, put it in my hoo-ha like the others?”

“Eh? Whoa, look at this! It’s gorgeous, thanks!”

Effie seems unsure what to do with the Flou Core, while Delilah the dank Mothra stares entranced at her pretty jewel.

“I do so enjoy exquisite stones. Perhaps I can start my hoard with this…?”

“I’ve never seen the like in the desert!”

Opal and Moka marvel at their Flou Cores.

“Just relax and let me do my thing,” Flou reassures them. Then all her Cores discharge a globule of blood slime around themselves that shlorps onto the women’s bodies before morphing into or merging with their clothing. Playmate outfits get a rhinestone coating, Effie’s Nurse outfit gets ruby-encrusted hearts, Delilah’s maid outfit gets ruby accents, Opal’s diaphanous belly dancer outfit gains a delicate ruby trim, Isabella’s flowery dress gains a few crystalline roses, and Jonny gets a ruby choker that he seems to rather like.

Everyone is excited over the enhancements, giving oohs and ahhs over all the lovely additions. Flou practically glows from all the compliments.

“My gifts will serve as emergency armor, a dagger of last resort, or a communication device as needs be.”

That’s right! Flou can coordinate everyone while being aware of the entire battlefield simultaneously. “That’s incredible, Flou!”

I’m sure she’d turn beet-red at my exclamation but already bears a ruby hue.

“A-ahem, also, these are for everyone else.” Flou presents the remainder of the group with the First Tier Flour Cores that survived her battle with the Elves. Their ability to attack and defend is much inferior compared to the Second Tier Cores, but they ensure everyone has access to a Flou phone and a ruby accessory.

“Oh, that’s wonderful, Flou! Everyone matches, now,” Cottontail cheers.

Steeltooth admires his blood-crystal claws, Jeff the Sand Goblin stares at his ruby-edged bone sword, Janine and Gabby don their ruby earrings, Spindle gets ruby cufflinks on her maid outfit, and Suka smiles as she touches her new collar with a ruby dog tag calling her ‘Alex’s #1 Bitch.’ Sue also receives a collar, this one with a tag reading, ‘Megan’s First Retainer.’ Gale, Rosie, and Monal all get earrings, and there are a few First Tier Flou Cores left for the other Hobs’s bone swords and a few Lizardmen’s claws.

“Flou, this is…” I’m in awe. Her new Swarm evolution has shown its potency for certain!

“My Wardrobe,” Flou finishes with a flourish.

Janine the Hob Secretary steps forward next, “I personally will be handling arrangements for transporting everyone to the safety of Home Town for the duration of the war—however, we have something prepared for all our lovely warriors.”

The Fleecy Sheeple come up behind her brandishing dozens of outfits. My girls all stare in awe at the display as individual Sheeple bearing gifts approach each of them.

Everyone gets a set of sexy lingerie, chemises, babydolls, rompers, garters, slips, stockings, and lacy teddies. It’s truly glorious! I shed a tear at the incredible display as my lovers don their new apparel. On top of that, those in need get a daywear outfit.

Suka pulls on a white sports bra and a pair of unbuttoned shorts so short they leave the bottoms of her buttocks exposed—it’s little better than a bikini, but covering just a bit of skin adds so much to her sex appeal! Her flaming tail threads through a hole in the back.

Megan dons a black crop tank top and a pair of skintight bike shorts that cover her nips and groin, while in reality looking more like a layer of body paint. Bonny and the other mice receive cute shirts and miniskirts that lift up to show the lower portion of their ass cheeks when they raise their tails in invitation. Bunnies that don’t have their Playmate evolution yet get corset teddies to encourage their development.

Lizardmen get speedos and Kobolds get slit skirts that cover their nethers while parting around their tails. Sheeple help the Harpies get into their new shorts and crop tops, except Gale, who still enjoys shaping clouds into ‘clothing’ too much to give it up yet. Spindle ends up making a dark magic thread bikini for Sue since wool isn’t a great fabric for aquatic monsters.

Cottontail claps her hands excitedly. “Everyone looks so good!”

“Well said,” I agree. “This place is starting to feel like a real settlement of civilized monsters. Excellent job, Janine.”

“Thank you, Lady Mayoress. I’ve organized a team of monsters to herd the Fuzzies, the Mandragora children, the Fruit Nymphs, the Fleecy Sheeple, the rodent kin, and all Fieldton humans to the safety of Home Town tomorrow morning during war operations. Matron Lois, Matron Aello, Mother Heather, Mrs. Fleece, I, and the Doggin Patrol will make sure they both arrive safely and remain secure.”

“I’m sure things will progress flawlessly with you at the helm, Janine.”

The Hobgoblin Secretary nods and dismisses herself.

“Ah!” Spindle can’t contain her elation as she finishes the book on Ritual theory, and something clicks into place in her mind. “This segment on modifying existing Rituals tickles her interest.”

“Hmm,” Gabby considers, “I did see that, but one would need an immense talent for Ritual craft or an ability to compensate like my Ritual Instinct—plus a source of insight into how the Ritual was designed, at least. Otherwise, the problem is simply too big to reverse engineer on a practical timescale.”

The Webling maid cocks her head curiously and asks, “I thought Vermillion received just such a tome from the Wargs?”

“That piece of garbage? I read the whole thing cover-to-cover and there wasn’t a single passage worth recalling.”

While Gabby goes on a rant about the madman who wrote the thing, Janine silently produces the leatherbound book and hands it to Spindle, taking our copy of the Ritual Mechanics for Dummies in the process. The Webling herself flips through the book as her eight eyes flash with razor-sharp wit. After a few seconds, a devious smile splits her face.

“Miss Goblin, have you considered that this book’s true contents are concealed through encoding?”

“Coded? No, it can’t be…” Gabby says, but the wheels are clearly turning as her eidetic memory flips through the tome one more time. “Wait, page forty-three references—and one-oh-two has—but then on page thirteen… Ahah! That’s it!”

“Already?” Even Spindle seems impressed. “Finding the cypher would’ve taken her at least a day of concentrated effort.”

“I did have the tome memorized,” Gabby says, “But it took an outsider’s perspective to see the problem from a different angle.” The two of them eye one another with growing respect. “Rearrange the fifth word on page thirteen and then use that for the substitution code you apply here and here,” the Witch points to various places in the text. “From there—”

“—It’s simple,” Spindle agrees, pleased as punch.

“I have no idea what this is leading to,” I say, “But it sounds exciting.”

Gabby clears her throat, “Ahem, well, what the Web-head, er, what Spindle is getting at is that there’s no absolute upper ‘cap’ on the Hybridization Ritual. The diagram is calibrated for two, but theoretically the leylines can be rearranged with a bit of math for any number of participants.”

“Physical limitations become the main constraint at that point,” Spindle continues. “As Miss Suka’s team no doubt learned from Nicandre’s experiments, body plans for unifying more than three living beings can become quite… horrifying. Bilateral symmetry being what it is in biology, etc., you see?”

“But you think you can improve the Wargs’ Ritual?”

Gabby and Spindle look at each other again and nod before turning to me. “If we have enough volunteers,” the Witch begins, “Trio Hybrids of basically any monster type shouldn’t be a problem. As you know, adding in another monster to a Hybrid can elevate the result’s effective Rank by sheer stat volume.”

I didn’t really know that, but I gathered something to that effect from Suka’s adventure today. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If I understand this correctly, the Hybridized monster is basically a dead end in terms of evolution. Are there even any volunteers willing to go through with this procedure?”

Janine promptly hands me a clipboard. “I took the liberty of polling Fieldton residence and prepared this chart organized by compatibility. Below this red line is the threshold where, by my estimation, the chances of success seem slim to none.”

“Yes,” Spindle agrees, “It wouldn’t do to forget the importance of Hybrid harmony. The new monster must be able to live with themselves, after all.”

Gabby peeks up at the list in my hands and frowns, “Knowing your softhearted approach, Alex, it’s too bad we won’t be seeing any interspecies Hybrids…”

My secretary elaborates on her reasoning, “Warg records show the stress of perceived dysmorphia is elevated for interspecies attempts. It’s difficult enough to adjust to sharing a body with a second consciousness, let alone a monster with instincts that could be contrary to one’s own.”

For instance, a rodent kin / Harpy Hybrid would argue with themselves about whether to roost up high or burrow into the ground. Their desires would war with one another. Yes, I see the problem.

“Still, though.” I whistle in shock. “With all the restrictions, we have twelve likely candidates!” While I’d never force them, I can’t exactly afford not to make the offer if they’re willing.

“Miss Witch,” the Webling Weaver says, “Spindel is graciously willing to make the necessary modifications to the Ritual circle on her own… In the meantime, don’t you have something else to contribute?”

I whip my head from spider girl to Gobliness.

Gabby sighs. “You noticed it, did you?”