Untitled Selene story

Selene released a pleasant sigh as she strolled down the newly paved road. All around her, men and monsters alike were hauling wood and brick along with the occasional magitek item that she really needed to remember what they were.

“It won't be long now.” She thought happily as looked at the beginnings of her new town.

Selene hadn't thought her arena would catch on this quickly what with people beginning to set up their tents outside when the mansion could not accommodate them. As quite a few had plans to stay there for some time and she had the funds given who she was, in no time her work force (and several of her visitors) had laid the foundations.

Renovating the old town also helped giving people a place to stay as the new houses and shops were being made, it was becoming quite the site.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard flapping, she turned around to see her assistant Lily land in front of her. “Morning, Lily.”

“Morning mistress,” Lily said as she straightened herself. “Will you be attending today's fights?”

“Probably the later ones. I might just enjoy the fresh air and see how the construction's going It's been some time since I just wandered about. Care to join me?” she asked. Lily nodded and the two started walking down the street.

“Have you thought of a name for the town yet, mistress?” Lily asked as they went along.

“I can't think of a good one, even the battle mansion might be renamed, or at least have some sort of `official` name,” Selene said as the two walked down. “Any news about the-”

“Lady Selene!” A succubus ran up to the two. “We have trouble!”

“Trouble? What kind?” Selene said. She was thinking that somebody back at the mansion probably got a bit too rowdy... again.

“Soldiers are coming from the southwest,  they have order insignia!” The succubus shuddered.

That got Selene's attention. Was the order coming here? It was bound to happen eventually. Still, soldiers meant warriors, and warriors meant... “How many people are there?” she asked.

“At least thirty, not including the leader. They will be at the gates within the hour. What should we do?” the succubus asked.

“Gather some of the warriors, I'll port more over if things get hostile, Lily will go with you to help while I shall meet them personally.” Lily nodded and took to the skies, the succubus that gave the message following after her.

Selene was trying to hide some excitement. Order soldiers could mean she could get a better fight than bandits and other undesirables. But she didn't want to keep her hopes up, this troop could just be low ranked rabble sent to investigate, the loss of such a group to the monsters would not be missed, a sad but honest assumption.

Reaching the southwest edge of town, She leaned against the open gate doors and waited. Soon, Lily and various others monsters gathered around her, giving her enough to match them in numbers.

Eventually, the sound of marching could be heard as the troop made itself known. They were all in uniformed armor, most of them equipped with swords or spears. They at least carried themselves like soldiers, which was a good sign.

What the succubus lookout didn't mention was that the group had a female priest with them, a woman dressed in white robes, wielding a staff with gold inlays. `that one could be trouble for the others.` Selene thought.

The leader's armor was trimmed red and held the cross of the chief god. He was at least in his early 30's and had a sense of pride about him. When he reached a reasonable distance from the gate, He called out for his men to stop.

There was silence as the soldiers and the monsters stared at each other, the odd monster making a lewd gesture and the odd soldier shuffling. Selene decided to speak first “Welcome, what business do you have here?”

“You know exactly why we are here, Demon princess! I am Marcellus, the Falcon knight! You are sullying this holy land with your ring of debauchery, and my men and I shall put a stop to it!” He declared.

“Sullying? I've owned this land for quite some time, It's the fault of you humans for not noticing. Selene said with a shrug.

“Then we shall be the ones to reclaim it from monster hands! Now return to the darkness you spawned from!” He shouted.

“And if I refuse?” Selene said,  brushing some dirt of one of her horns.

Marcellus drew his sword and pointed. “Then I shall show you why the the Falcon knight has been untested against man or monster.”

Undefeated? That certainly Interested her. “I hope you know what it means to fight a Lilim,” Selene said drawing her short sword. “It's been quite some time since I've had a decent fight. I hope you can entertain me.”

The knight stepped forward “Does the monster I'm slaying today have a name?”

“My name is Selene and you would do well take caution,” Selene said as she stretched out her wings and let her power flow through her before launching forward. With a slash. Marcellus managed to block the attack only for the Lilim to knee him in the stomach and kicked him away. The knight stumbled back but stayed up right to deliver an attack of his own. Selene dodged stab after stab before parrying his blade and swiping him across his arm.

The Falcon knight fell backward in pain and rolled to the side when Selene attempted to stab him while he was down. He slowly got to his feet as the Lilim laughed. “Really, this is what counts for undefeated these days? Have the standards of man dropped, or are you not as skilled as you say you are?”

Marcellus got angry. “I will not stand for this! Men! Take her out!” He ordered. The soldiers readied their weapons and rushed forward in order to take out Selene.

Selene was both excited and disappointed. “A true warrior would finish fights themselves, you coward. No matter. I may get my fill yet.” With a grin, she pointed her sword at the incoming men. “Everyone, let us have some fun!”

The monsters cheered as the rushed forward, Selene leading the charge, and the two forces battled in an all out brawl. The sides were evenly matched, with both men being claimed my monsters while other monsters getting injured to the point they could not continue, lest their wounds become too great.

Selene herself was in constant movement. Cut down one man and kick another right after, smack a guy in the face with her tail that tried to get her from behind, grab a soldiers spear and spin both it and him around, clearing the area around her.

It was when the numbers were lowering what he say white portals open up, and more soldiers come out.`so that's why the priest was here, reinforcements if the going got tough.` She looked around, most of her side had left the field for various reasons while others had come to join the fray, but that still left the stronger end of the soldiers still fighting. `So many soldiers... as fun as this is I can't let them reach the town.`

With that, she charged forward “Come on! Fight me! You wanted me gone from here right? You people aren't trying hard enough!” she shouted as with a single flap of her wings she jumped into the air and came down kicking a soldier in the face. Before fighting off the crowd she landed into.

~X~

Leon didn't want to be here.

He wanted to be back at home, sparring with traveling warriors, doing his job as a city guard protecting the people from bandits and brigands.

And yet here he was, in the middle of a battle against monsters, fighting with all he had because of that idiot knight Marcellus. He was a skilled man who had been in a few fights, that was true, but the ego he gained from those victories made him annoying a best and downright hate-able at worst.

So when the falcon knight heard rumors of some sort of fighting arena being held by the monsters and travelers not returning. He used his hype to persuade the king for men to destroy the monster threat.

Leon thought that only knights and heroes had to go up against monster forces. While that was true he didn't know that soldiers could be ordered to go with them. Leon didn't care about monsters, he just wanted to keep himself out of trouble.

It went bad when the troop made to the site and it was discovered that a Lilim had laid claim to it, it worse when the Falcon knight folded at the first sign of trouble, and it got chaotic when the locals got up in arms to fight.

At the very least, he was able to keep up at least skill wise, he knew that monster hide was difficult to cut through and the combination of instinct and skill meant for a fearsome opponent on the average monster woman. He decided to keep it simple, dodge and counter with a knockout or deep wound, that should do the trick.

It was when he had scared of one aggressive harpy that he realized his fellow soldiers were running away, mostly in fear.

“Run!” shouted one soldier.

“The white devil.... it's unreal!” cried another.

“I don't want to be claimed” A third cried as he in panic as he ran past Leon.

Leon turned to where the men were running from just in time to see several soldiers be sent flying with one hit by the Lilim, her back turned to Leon as she started to laugh.

“Seriously, can no one last longer than one hit! Give me a challenge!” she said while laughing and looking around until she locked eyes with Leon. “Hmm? what do we have here?” she said more to herself than to him.

The soldier froze and cursed. The had the Lilim's attention. Maybe if he put more fear into his expression she would leave him alone?

The fact that she stretched out her wings and readied her sword with a grin made it clear he had no such luck. In an instant, the Lilim has closed the distance with one flap of her wings and swung her sword at his head. Leon dodged and then had to keep back stepping when she continued to attack, barely avoiding her strikes before he met her blade with his own. The clash made a loud ringing in his ears as both man and monster fell back a few steps.

The Lilim was no longer grinning, if any thing she looked deep in thought as she stared him down, before she struck again, this time a little faster. Leon decided to parry the blow, sending the sword to the side, he tried to exploit the opening by punching her, but she caught the hand with her own, the impact barely moving her.

The grin returned. Wider than it was before.  “So it's not just a fluke, finally a man with some skill!” She said as they circled each other. Her red eyes gleamed in way that drew him in, sent a warmth through him that almost hazed his brain. “I want your name, human.”

“...Leon” He told her.

“Leon...” She said as if committing to memory. “Let's see how far you go, I hope you don't disappoint me! She shouted, resuming her attack.

The two of them seemed lost to the world, only caring about each other as their fight went on. Both soldier and Lilim got faster with their blows. With each clash she got visibly happier while he was losing breath and energy from the constant assault. His body shook with every blow and struggled with every counter, but he grit his teeth and pushed himself to match her, even if it got harder to do that by the second.

After getting knocked back for what felt like the 40th  time, Leon fell to a knee. He was exhausted, and his heart felt like it was going to jump out of his mouth and take his lungs with it. Looking up he stared into the eyes of his opponent again. There was now a gleam there that wasn't there before and her face had gone red.

“Wonderful! To push me this far at this level, there is a great warrior in you Leon.” Her excitement was evident in the twitching of her tail and wings. “It's almost a shame you can't go any further, but that's human limits I'll guess,” she said.

Something inside Leon latched on to her words. Can't go any further? Human limits? It felt like she was insulting him, he didn't like being looked down one, even if he was just a low-rank soldier. Sure she was stronger than him by a mile but didn't mean he couldn't bring her down a peg before going down

Gritting his teeth, Leon stood back up gave a shout. It was so loud and unexpected that the lilim almost jump in surprise.

“Don't you look down on me!” He growled. Before he rushed his opponent, the combination of pain and the effects of getting cut with a demon silver sword was putting his body through a sensation he could not really describe, on he went, attacking his opponent with all he had.

The lilim was either tired her self or thrown off by his second wind, but he managed to get a cut on her cheek as she stepped back to dodge. The wound closed up almost instantly, but he had got her, he had hit her! He was going to go for another strike when everything started to glow and before he could question it, his world flashed white.

When the light left his eyes, Leon slashed nothing but air. Looking around, he saw that he was back in the gathering hall for the city's military. “What the hell? What happened? Around him were soldiers in various conditions, the only certainty was that a good number of men were left behind.

“It was a fail safe teleportation spell.” He turned around to see the priest, Maria, approach him. “I had tagged the armor of the both the first group and the reinforcements so we could get back here, those left behind either lost their armor or had their escape blocked my the monster's energy, I've yet to perfect it.

Leon looking around again, Leon did see random armor plates scattered about. “I see... What about Marcellus?”

“I don't think he made it, I haven't seen him anywhere, even so, the day is lost, clean up and rest, we will report in the morning and work our way from there.” Maria said as she walked off, Leaving Leon to his thoughts.

He made it out of this stupid battle in one piece, he had even squared off against that crazy demon! The look of that dangerous, beautiful monster lingered in his mind, his father had once said that some women were flowers that bloom on the battlefield, though he was sure he didn't mean a demon princess.

He didn't expect to get credit for fending her off, nor did he want it, fame brought the bad kind of attention in his head. So he was happy just to return to being a cog in the great machine, and just let that fight be his personal achievement.

He still clearly remembers what she said about human limits, and decided he was going to up his training, but even then he doubted he would see that beautiful monster warrior again.

Besides, Lilims are succubi at the core so she would be going after other men and forget about him soon enough.

~X~

Selene had stared at the spot her opponent just vanished from for some time. The only noises now where men struggling to get free from their monster captives

It was perfect, a man with swords skill few had, fought her longer than any had in the past, an excellent ending to such a great fight. And just when she thought he was done, he manages to nick her cheek?

It still tingled, the wound was long gone but she still felt it, she had taken hits before, many in fact, but the look in his eyes when he went for that second blow, that urge for her to take him just that more seriously.

It was that moment that Selene decided there was more that could be done here, more to see of this human beyond fighting, she wanted to see just how far he would go.

And then like that, he was gone in a flash.

Selene felt cheated, She assumed it was something to do with that priest, and that made her angry, she had thought about how that woman would be trouble for others, but to take her chosen man from her the moment she chose him?

Selene gritted her teeth, this will not be taken standing down? That man was hers...no, that man IS hers! The thought of finding out about this man, getting to him and laying her claim, it stirred thing in her, things her sisters once joked she didn't feel. There was work to be done.

“Lily!” she roared as she marched back to the town. At once her assistant appeared at her side.

“You called mistress?” the succubus asked.

“Gather, the unclaimed prisoners of battle and place them up somewhere, we will probably stage an event at the mansion for them in due time. Also, interrogate them and find out what you can about the soldiers and knights and where they came from for today's fight and have Carla handle the mansion fights, while I shall get ready to go on a trip.”

“A trip mistress? What for?” Lily asked.

“I believe I may have found my husband, Lily.” Selene said as she touched her cheek. “and I want to collect what is mine.”

Selene then to the air and flew back to the mansion. Laughing to herself about how interesting things had gotten.