Engage Engorgements: VanderNSFW

"Look out, Prince Alcryst!" Lapis yelled, darting back to cover her beloved prince with her sword, deflecting a lance swing that was aimed right at his midsection. She skidded back a few feet, gritting her teeth and watching her sword bounce aside. As her opponent readied another swing, Lapis did her best to cover her stomach with a guard stance - and then watched, dumbfounded, as her opponent was blasted off the side of the great bridge known as the Grand Crossing by a surge of magical energy.

Citrinne snapped her tome shut, taking her place alongside Lapis. "Look out yourself, Lapis. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I lost you." Her intense gaze kept Lapis's eyes locked on her.

The touching moment between the two women was interrupted by an arrow shooting between the two of them. It found its mark - a pegasus-riding Elusian who had been bearing down on Citrinne with clear intent to grab her, but was now tumbling into a heap beside the trio.

"S-sorry, I interrupted things again," Prince Alcryst said, sheepishly lowering his bow.

"Awww, c'mere, you!" Citrinne said, yanking Alcryst into a group hug with her and Lapis. "We did it together!"

"The power of love is gonna prevail!" Framme gushed, clasping her hands together and bringing them up beside her cheek. "Oh my gosh... That's so cuuute! Divine One, don't you want to be next to me so the power of our love can prevail too?"

"Love is not what wins battles, Framme, it is positioning and power - and need I remind you how inappropriate it is for you to be flirting with the Divine Dragon in the middle of battle?" Vander cantered back from a clash with a now-fallen Elusian soldier, taking the opportunity to scold Framme from the saddle. "This is how your brother was eaten, you know! And Prince Alcryst, I would expect you and your retainers to know better - save the polycule drama for later! We are in combat!"

Framme pouted, skipping up to the front lines to join the Divine Dragon. "Does my flirting bother you, Divine One?"

"Uh..." Alear took a step back as Princess Hortensia flew ever closer, her beautiful pegasus little distraction from the murderous look on her face. "There are other things that bother me more."

Hortensia giggled. "What are you so worried about, Divine One? You're just gonna give me the rings because I'm so cute, right?"

"Hey! Get away from her!" Framme yelled, stomping past Alear. "You smug princess-"

Or at least, she would have, had Alear not grabbed her long braid. "You keep back from her. She has some kind of evil Emblem."

"What's the matter, Divine One?" Hortensia teased, showing off the Ring of the Princess Exalt. "I thought you were so jealous of my pretty ring... don't you want to come a little closer? Get a real good look?"

Vander marched up alongside Alear. "You're right, Divine One. She is preparing something truly devastating."

Hortensia fanned herself. "Please, praise me more~"

"Fortunately, I think we have little to worry about," Vander said, nodding to himself. "Though she is undoubtedly powerful, the danger she poses is limited by her very weak strategic mind."

"What?" Hortensia asked, her eyebrows dropping hard. "Speak up a little, you weren't loud enough the first time."

Vander gestured to Hortensia, satisfaction on his face. "Look. See how easily riled up she is? Her obvious immaturity makes her an easy mark."

"Um, Vander..." Framme started.

"Further, it's obvious that although she is quite powerful, that ring can only hold so much charge before it's exhausted." Vander nodded, guiding his horse toward the Elusian princess. "So stand by and watch as I render her threat null."

Hortensia's eyebrow was twitching. "What did you say about me?"

"I said you were an immature brat with more power than prowess, and that you'd prove easily disp-"

Hortensia surged forward, her tome flipping open and hovering beside her of its own accord. "I heard you the first time, you jerk!" Her hand closed around his throat, squeezing down on it and cutting off his air supply. "There's a saying in the Elusian court..." In her other hand formed a massive ball of flames. "Don't mess with the princess."

Nearby, Alear's eyes went wide. "That's- That's enormous! Putting that much energy into a tome is foolhardy! She doesn't really mean to-"

"Elfire!" Hortensia rammed the fireball into Vander's mouth, and for a moment it looked like the steward had swallowed it without any trouble.

Then he exploded. Pieces of his armor, burning red hot, streamed down over the assembled group. When the rain of metal had stopped, there was only Vander, dangling limply in Hortensia's grasp as smoke lazily poured out of his mouth. Now unconscious and dressed only in his light underclothes, a thin cotton shirt and a pair of boxers, with his skin a bright red from the heat energy still trapped there.

Wow, Vander is jacked under there, Alear thought, then quickly squashed that thought. Sorry, not an appropriate thought to be having when soemone sacrifices themselves for you!

"Goldmary, Rosado? See to it that my lunch isn't disturbed," Hortensia said smugly, carrying her catch to the back lines.

The golden-haired maiden wielding a razor-edged sword and her pastel-flavored wyvern-riding companion approached the group obediently.

"It would be my pleasure," Goldmary said, adopting a combat stance. "I understand if any of you are so frightened by the prospect of facing me in battle that you'd rather just submit yourself to my gullet now. I don't envy your position, having to stare down this perfection..."

Rosado's wyvern fluttered down, letting its feminine rider brandish his axe. "That's right! I won't let any of you disturb the adorable Princess Hortensia's cute lunch! But if you want to help make me even cuter, I won't turn down the offer!"

In reply, each of the Divine Dragon's soldiers readied their weapons. Well, all of them except one.

"I don't really care which of you gets me, but I'm probably going to let everyone down again, so..." Alcryst lowered his bow, approaching the two Elusians. "Which of you would like me more? Assuming both of you don't find me disappointing as well, that is..."

"You idiot, don't take their offer!" Citrinne hissed, yanking Alcryst back by one arm. "You're not disappointing."

Lapis nodded. "Stay behind me, Prince Alcryst. Just let me protect you and we will get through this fine."

"Well, if either of you wants me instead..." Alcryst sighed. "I just want to be of use..."

"We could never!"
"This isn't the time!"
"Though if you really wanted me to-"
"Er, right, there's no good time!"
"I wouldn't want to take him from you, though, Citrinne..."
"Lapis, don't be ridiculous. You're the one whose assets would benefit the most."

While the Brodian retainers argued over who would get to have a very flustered Prince Alcryst, Hortensia was indulging herself thoroughly. Showboating quite blatantly, in fact. "Awwww, I thought you were so tough and you were going to beat me! Shows what my weak strategic mind knows, huh?"

Vander, still unconscious from the force of the magic that had been shoved into him, moaned indistinctly.

"While I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, and of course these weaklings are no danger to me, I would appreciate your company on the front lines!" Goldmary yelled, passive-aggression dripping from her tone.

"Ugh, fine!" Hortensia grumbled, hoisting the helpless steward's head to her mouth. "Down the hatch!"

Her throat worked quickly. Vander's muscles may have given him significant strength on the battlefield, but they did nothing to slow nor stop Hortensia's ravenous gulps. Even as he stirred, twitching in Hortensia's grasp at the curious princess's probing tongue on his sensitive stomach, his faint squirms did little to slow her.

"M... mmh... Lumera, please, that tickles," Vander muttered. Muffled as it was from inside Hortensia's throat, Alear could hear it with mortifying clarity. "Keeping me up and now waking me early... You sure are insatiable..."

And so could Framme, apparently. "Wait, did Vander just say your mom's name? He thinks Hortensia is your mom?"

"We really should not be talking about this," Alear said, face as red as the well-done Vander's. She tried to push through the embarrassing feelings and focus on the fight. "Or thinking about this. Or even acknowledging that this happened." Every second I'm focusing on this is another second I'm not rescuing Vander!

Framme clicked her tongue, weaving between weapons as she danced along behind the Divine Dragon. "Wow... And he scolded me for flirting with you, when he was sleeping with Queen Lumera!"

"We don't know that he was doing that!" Alear protested, swinging her sword through another attack and repelling the axe fighter making it. Framme, you really aren't making this any easier! Please just stop talking about this!

"Hmm, yeah, you're right, Divine One..." Framme nodded to herself, casually kneeing a screaming Elusian soldier in the kidneys before grabbing his arm and hurling him off the side of the bridge. "He could just have been having a wet dream about her. I'm not sure if that's better or worse."

Alear groaned, watching helplessly from a few yards away as Hortensia fondled Vander's thick, heavily toned thighs with all the subtlety of her bright purple-and-black striped clown outfit. "You know what would be better? If we dropped this subject."

"Oh, of course, Divine One! Does it bother you to think about Vander and your mother being together? I'm sorry, I'm just so curious about you!" Framme said, bouncing along behind Alear as they cleared a path to Goldmary.

"Does it bother you that your mentor is being eaten alive over there?" Alear asked, glancing over. No, Vander's body had completely disappeared - only the shape of him remained, trapped inside Hortensia's swollen gut.

Hortensia tipped her head back, pounding her chest and summoning forth a mighty and entirely unladylike GHOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuurp.

Muffled though it was by the princess's stomach wall, Vander bemoaned his fate. "35 years of training... 25 years of knighthood... all brought to an end by a bratty princess with a stolen Emblem Ring..."

"I didn't even need the Emblem to deal with you!" Hortensia snapped haughtily.

Goldmary paused for some polite applause around the hilt of her weapon, while Rosado cheered from atop his wyvern. "Cute as ever, Hortensia!"

Annoyed by the insinuation and the interruption, Framme sniffed, taking her combat stance alongside her beloved Divine Dragon as they faced down Goldmary. "If he didn't worry so much about positioning and power and worried a little more about showing love on the battlefield, maybe he wouldn't be. As long as I'm with you, nothing that happens out here can bother me!"

Goldmary sighed, readying her blade again. "Then perhaps the two of you would be so kind as to spare me this tiresome charade and simply crawl down my throat together?"

"And if not, you're going to have to deal with me, too!" Rosado announced, his wyvern flying into the other two's reach. "I'd hate to see cuties like you go through all that effort only to lose to an even cuter duo like us!"

"Don't worry, Goldmary, I'm ready to urp fight too!" Hortensia cheered, approaching with her massive steward-shaped gut. Her pegasus struggled to hold the additional weight. "Any last words to your friends, tough guy?" she added smugly.

Vander's voice was weak and trembling. "I can't... I can't fall here... I promised Queen Lumera... I would look after... you, and if I-"

Impatience stole across Hortensia's face. "Ugh, shut up!" She pressed both her hands into her stomach, crushing its occupant with terrifyingly casual ease. There was a low, shiver-inducing splorch from inside, indicating that Vander was no longer a person anymore - just a puddle of meaty soup for Hortensia's hungry body to eat up. "Learn when you're being played off!"

"Honestly." Goldmary tossed her hair. "Now can we finish this?"

"Let's," Rosado agreed. "You two against us three - may the cutest be victorious!"

"The cutest were totally routed," Rosado moaned, putting an arm around Hortensia to comfort the frustrated princess. "We can at least take comfort in that... knowing that we're way cuter than them..."

"Goldmary, you said that if you massaged my boobs before I finished digesting him, he would go onto them and I'd have big boobs like yours!" Hortensia whined, prodding at her chest. "But he ended up on my thighs like usual!"

Rosado peered over at Hortensia's thighs beneath the hem of her ruffled skirt. "Aw, but I like the way they look now!"

Goldmary lifted her head, glancing over at her beloved princess. "Oh, did I say that? You must have misheard me. What I meant to say was, if I massage your chest now after you've finished absorbing him, you'll get big beautiful breasts just like mine! Well... not just like mine, but a close enough approximation."

"You just wanna rub my boobs," Hortensia muttered accusingly under her breath.

"E-excuse me?" Goldmary asked, raising her eyebrows. "Are you suggesting I have an ulterior motive? Hortensia, why would I ever be anything less than perfectly sincere with you?"

Hortensia considered this, then sighed, beckoning Goldmary closer. "Welll... I guess it doesn't hurt... kinda feels nice, actually..."