It had been a week since Helga's training started and though the party hadn't seen any significant improvement in their abilities, they'd grown far more confident in using their latent talents. But the use of woodland magic by Mel as their party kept progressing through the forest, had begun to upset the settlers on the other end.
The proud race of shamanic Lamias, territorial and not exactly known for their tolerance for those trying to test it. Settling in swamps they often built houses of clay that resembled titanic anthills with their matriarchal ruler's seat at the very top.
This settlement was no different, if anything the ruler was far too stern to the point of growing a brittle ego towards anyone who dared oppose her rules.
"Kill him," her eyes carelessly admiring her nails, Libyan the shining queen of Lamias condemned her own son to death.
"W-wait! What did I do?!" Gazing upon his mother–her scales shining every color of the rainbow, the half-bred druidic Lamia hasn't a clue what he'd done wrong.
Yet utterly unbothered by his tantrum, her diamond-like eyes slowly turned to look at him. Baring her razor teeth with a smile, she glared at him with devilish joy.
"Nothing, but you remind me of your father, the idiot who thought he could control me with just one night," slowly climbing down her throne of gathered gems and jewels, her entire body began glowing a dark shade of pink. "Besides, I think your corpse would make for better practice for the young prospective female warriors."
Moving closer and closer to her son, the aura of murder just bleeding out her every pore, Libyan wrapped her tail around her son and pulled him as close as possible. Squeezing his body she popped his eyes out of his skull. Suffering in utter agony her son attempted to beg for his life, but with the air choked out of his lungs he couldn't form a word much less speak a full sentence.
"Oh how dearly you suckled like a baby~" Relishing in her sadistic nature as the female warriors of her race watched alongside their male retainers, Libyan stuck out her slithering tongue and licked her son's bleeding face. "Yet you're nothing but a disappointment, just more feed for my daughters to torture."
Staring from the region she'd just licked, the druid's body slowly turned to stone. It took only a matter of a few seconds before the once-live son of Libyan was turned into nothing but a stone toy for her daughters to piss on. Even plauding the death of their own brother, the girls licked their lips as their bodies quivered with excitement at what they'd just witnessed.
Drawing her tail away from the corpse with a round of applause going about, Libyan glanced around at her daughter's faces, her skin slowly turning back to its normal pale blue color. Her scales, however, still shimmered like the rainbow showing different colors depending on the angle.
"Slaughter, feed, and grow!" Grinning ear to ear, she threw her hands wide. And following her command began a flurry of slaughter.
Killing their retainer lamias with bites, and weapons, even whipping their heads off with the tip of the tail, the girls followed her mother's lead and flooded the room with loud echoing horror.
Relishing the melody of pain, Libyan brushed off the blood from her rugged horn and made her way back to the bejeweled throne under which laid the bodies of the fathers she'd ever laid with as well as the bodies of their children.
'Incompetent fool thought he could give me news, less than pleasing?' Having just heard her son's disappointing performance at vigilance of the forest, Libyan, while ecstatic at the sight before, couldn't help but worry. 'Something approaches us, but who could it be? The corrupted forest has been great at insulating us from the rest of the world, yet now someone dares to threaten my throne?'
"Oh how I wish to taste their marrows," whispering to herself, she could already imagine squeezing the life out of those fools. It was just a matter of their arrival and they'd be slaughtered and turned into food.
"Mother!" a sudden voice pulled Libyan out of her thoughts, turning towards it, she noticed the youngest of her sons holding his hands up for her to pick him up.
For a spell, she wondered how she would trample him once he grew old, but since that time was far from now, she picked him in her arms and nestled him up to her breasts. Letting down her silky lapis blouse, she fed him her blood right through the tits.
"Dare you be a disappointment, I'll squeeze every bit of my blood out of your body," she warned, though the child was too young to comprehend anything.
Coiling his tail around her waist, he kept drinking from his mother until he was completely full and ready to sleep. Lulling the child in her hand whilst enjoying the blood and viscera scattered through her throne room, she smiled once more.
'My daughters are growing strong by feeding on our own, but I wonder what this new meat will taste like? What new powers will it grant them? They'd already gathered every creature's abilities that lives in our swamp, perhaps it's finally time for us to spread wings and stretch our reach further?'
"But first, we shall wait for these intruders and defend our land!" getting off her throne again, Libyan slithered her way down the throne and even dragged her lustrous scales through the bloodshed. Stopping in front of one blood-ridden daughter of hers, she handed her son for her to take him back away inside his chambers.
As the baby was taken away, the babble from his sleepy mouth invoked a moment of nurture in the queen's heart. But quickly looking away she called in a few more of her daughters so she could give off defensive orders.
"Watch the edge of the corrupted forest and keep a keen eye on everything. If so much as a leaf is plucked from our soil, you better rid that thief of its life." Brushing off her daughters with those orders, Libyan decided to make her way to her chambers as well. Just the mere thought of going back made her mouth water with lust.
Young boys were snatched from their parents of all races, trapped inside her room, and given a chance to impress her for their survival.
'I wonder how many I have to kill tonight?' She thought, already knowing that by the night's end, she'd be out of every single one of them.