Hunting Land Sharks

Story by Kodyax on SoFurry

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Kind of a sequel to an earlier piece I wrote. It is a precursor to something else I'm working on. In any case here we have some steam punk fantasy for you to feast your eyes and your brain on. I'm open to suggestions and comments as usual. This took longer than I wanted to to produce but hopefully in the end it will be worth it.


Professor Kodyax von Fenryx and Helga Valkyree are

Hunting Land Sharks

A sexy female who is half wolf-half bear whose fur pattern is roughly that of a German Shepherd in an armored trench coat approaches a large tent on a stony field in the foothills before the side of a mountain with a the muzzle of a hunting rifle on her shoulder. The canvas of the tent in question is gun metal gray and it is enclosed at present as it abuts flush with the side of the mountain in question with the blackened iron pyramid of a camp stove chimney rising up somewhere in the middle. She opens the flap and walks in on a male of the same general hybrid species of herself, red furred with black markings in similar attire cooking eggs and bacon on a makeshift stove.

"Smells good, Herr Professor," She coos to him as he looks at her once and snorts derisively. "I would thought you had more important expeditions to guard instead of joining this safari, Kodyax, what gives?"

"If you must know, Helga," Kodyax growls, "I have want of new armor. The monster advertised for this safari was land shark. And I've been meaning to make myself a suit of armor of the hide of such a monster for some time ago. I may turn a helmet from its skull."

"You're going to enchant the armor aren't you?" Helga inquires in an accusational tone as she glares at him. "And what sort of spells could you want to cast that you need to hunt down a land shark?"

"If you must know, Princess Aurora is planning on making a trip out into the ether," Kody returns, "And in order to survive indefinitely I plan on making the suit a conduit for a bubble of life spell."

"That's a fairly powerful spell," Helga asks mockingly as she takes off her trench coat to reveal a busty bodice of black leather and red lace with pants to match, "Is your faith strong enough to cast it?"

"At least I get access to it," Kody returns with a smirk. "You're a gun mage, which means it's not available from you unless you kill a wizard with it in his spellbook. Plus I don't have to be as experienced as you would as my powers come my faith in nature's power." Helga gives a dark look that causes him to smirk. "So what did you come to see me about?"

"Spotter's report," Helga says with a sigh. "Stone fins popped up on the high plains headed fro a gypsy caravan."

"May I assume someone sent a kite to warn the gypsies?" Kodyax asks with a growl. "I know there are a few here who are true blue bloods and think such folk beneath them but they should be warned."

"I don't think so," Helga returns. "The clan in question was Blood Shell."

"Alright, I realize the blood shell clan are a bunch of cutthroat gypsy turtles who would rather kill any mammal that comes into their vicinity," Kodyax cautions, "but it's still courtesy."

"Are you still with the Druid Council?" Helga asks to which Kody just nods. "They aren't so belligerent to those mammals that show the tree of life."

"Why do you think I have it tattooed on my chest?" Kodyax says with a smirk as he folds the eggs back and shredded cheese into omelets. "Breakfast is ready if you want to partake."

"Can I have sausage afterwards?" Helga asks cryptically with a lusty smirk.

"Sure," Kodyax says and with an equally lusty smirk.

The devouring of breakfast is not really rushed but no time is wasted either as they greatly enjoy the results of his skills as a chef. Fresh brewed coffee is enjoyed as well although Helga has what seems like a permanent smile on her muzzle as she reaches over and playfully gropes at his groin at random intervals as a not so subtle hint of one thing she actually came into his tent to collect. Kody just shakes his head ruefully as he lets Helga do as she pleases.

Once she is done eating, Helga puts her plate and utensil to kneel before Kodyax and unbuttons his fly and licks at his scrotum to get his member out to play. While she is bent over him Kodyax has some of his fun and undoes the bodice as it falls apart and she only smirks in reaction as if invited his naughty behavior. As Helga performs fellatio Kodyax beds and fondles her now naked breasts which are more than a handful as one might expect for a female of a race that looks like it was put together by substituting wolf body parts for certain parts on a grizzly bear basic frame.

Helga lowers her own pants as she bobs her head up and down Kody's cock as she prepares to ride his pole when she gets him hard enough to do so. Kodyax takes his own pants off but a hand from Helga prevents him from stripping further as she mounts him. But not even she can deny him a taste of her tits as licks and suckles on her tits as she lightly bounces her rear up and down his shaft.

They moan in pleasure as one with Helga gripping Kodyax's shoulders as she is riding him for all he is worth and more as her face is a mask pure pleasure clearly showing the sheer ecstasy she is experiencing right at this moment. Unfortunately they are not completely alone at their base camp as the small stove starts to rattle from vibrations cases a scant few meters below their feet. Subtle things like that are missed by Helga but not by Kodyax who is rudely brought out of his own blissful revelry by the commotion.

Kody and Helga still howl their climax together but while Helga leans against Kody exhausted, Kodyax has procured his halberd carbine and waits for something to surface. A tapered oval creature covered in gray armored plate with a large fin on its back and a quartet of powerful legs propelling it leaps out of the ground, it's beady eyes focused on the couple as it opens is mouth to reveal row upon row of jagged sharp teeth. But as it comes down expecting to chomp on unsuspecting prey, Kodyax fires his carbine at point blank range and puts a bullet in what counts for its brain through the soft tissue of its mouth.

The land shark falls lifeless at their collective feet as Helga jumps off of Kodyax in fright. Kodyax for his part stabs and slices at the corpse with the blades mounted on either side of the gun muzzle just to make sure he had truly killed it before he determines that the initial shot truly caused to demise of the critter. Once satisfied of the deceased status of the beast he next assesses the suitability of the creature and finds that it is not as old as he might have hoped it could be.

"Young adult," Kodyax assesses. "Still a legal kill but not what I might have hoped for." Then he gets a thought. "Actually for my purposes this is pretty much the size I need. This will make one complete suit my size. I just need a slightly smaller one for Aurora."

"You can turn that thing into a suit of armor?" Helga asks. "How exactly?" And she watches as Kody starts to get to work butchering carcass and then taking the worked pieces including most of the skull of the creature into a cave that just so happens to at the back of the tent itself. "You set up a tanning station?"

"Yeah!" Kodyax retorts back. "I wanted to at least get the preliminaries of the process done. I am going to eventually enchant it after all."

Helga just stands there dumbfounded as she hears chanting and smells incense wafting back from the cave into which Kodyax just departed. She would go in there after him but she knows better than to disturb the ranger as he is working. He would occasionally come back and grab some oils from his haversack, and from the way the glistened, she could tell the oils were a kind of potion made to rubbed into something as it's being made so it's enchanted and reasons the spell oil is something he doesn't have access to and checks his notes.

Formulae for making special boots and glove gauntlets are written down as the armor he intends on making are scattered among his papers that Helga peruses. Then Kodyax comes out of his cave and takes out of his sack a log covered in gold onto which runes have been stamped. He feeds the log to the camp stove and then goes back to work in the cave where he is casting spells from what Helga can hear.

It looks as though he is going to be at this for the rest of the day so Helga takes up her stuff and leaves. After turning a bend to go to the one valley where the zeppelins would land to take them home it occurs to Helga that she should washed the dishes she used for breakfast as a courtesy to Professor von Fenryx and turns back. But as sure as she was that she had retraced her steps she could not find the tent again.

Smoke like clouds floated hither and yon but no sign of the temporary shelter that Kodyax had set up could be seen which bewilders Helga until she remembers the special log that he had thrown on the fire. She reasons that it must have been one of the uncommon spell logs she had heard so much about that only those associated with the Imperial armed forces have access to and since she knows that in addition to being a well known rogue scholar that Kody was a filibuster, it only stands to reason that the log released a powerful cloaking spell into the area that concealed his camp from view. Armed with this knowledge, Helga dons a set of Explorer's Eyes which are a set of goggles with various enchantments, not the least of which is the ability to detect and read magical signatures.

With the enchanted lenses of the goggles to aid her, Helga easily finds the globe of illusionary magic hiding Kodyax's tent. But when she gets there she finds him preparing a second, slightly smaller land shark to be made into leather the next day. It takes about a week for the suits to cure enough to be useable as armor either way and if magic is being used to enhance their properties that time increases to a month.

Unbeknownst to Helga she is being followed by a quartet of blood shell warriors intent on taking her to be sacrificed to the land sharks in order for them to spare the tribe, or to be devoured by the tribe in a ritual fashion so the warriors might have the strength to fight off the land sharks. All the sights around her are rather distracting while wearing the goggles as the whole mountain seeps eldritch energies making for some rather particular displays for those with the eyes to see. Fortunately for Helga and unfortunately for the turtles while she has not observed her murderous followers; Kodyax has and he's already grabbed his shotgun to take care of the problem.

Due to the fact that he is part of the Druid Council and his reliance on firearms, the Blood Shell tribe has a special name for Kodyax: Thunder Warrior. If the hunting party only knew that the furry squaw they have selected for their prey was sleeping with the thunder warrior they would choose another rather than risk his wrath. As it stands the four, one with a bow, one with a spear, one with twin tomahawks and one with twin war clubs, at one point decide to do the one thing that will seal their doom: separate.

Kodyax stalks his shelled prey with almost inhuman precision, the main caveat to that is that he is a trained hunter and scout as well as a soldier and a scholar so following a quartet of humanoids with the intention of separating them so he can kill them that much more easily is only natural to his instincts. Of the four he has decided the order in which he will take them down based on a hierarchy of the threat they pose to Helga: the archer first, then the piker followed equally by the two twin weapon users. His shotgun has a special load for them all and plenty of cased ammunition to take them all down.

The shotgun, like all of Kody's firearms has a diamond shaped barrel and a revolving cylinder feeding ammunition into the firing chamber. Like the others the maximum number of shells the cylinder can contain is four. But unlike the carbine, which it semi resembles, the shotgun has a pump action to cycles through its cartridges.

The archer gets as close as he dares before taking aim, intending to take out the female's legs to give his brother warriors the maneuverability they need to take her down. Behind him, Kodyax takes aim as well, at his head. One squeeze of the trigger sends a storm of needles racing towards and into his skull with a retort that sounds like distant thunder.

Gunfire has been common enough this weekend that none of the brothers pay it any mind as they assume that another of the invading hunters has discharged his boom stick. It's only when their archer brother fails to fire that they get mildly concerned. He never got the chance to fire a single arrow; Kodyax made sure of that as he reloads a shotgun shell to replace the one he just expended as he leaves his victim with a myriad of holes in the back of the head to air condition his brain.

The spear wielder has a long spear and javelins to further distract Helga as his brothers bludgeon her and cut her to ribbons. The range of those javelins is much shorter than the bow which is why the archer's death took priority for Kodyax. He thinks he smells the stench of gunpowder and death before he gets taken with the needles of the flechette shell bouncing off his shell where Kody's aim was a little lower than it should be as it takes two shots to take him down.

Kodyax loads two extra special shotgun shells to replace the ones he just expended and manually rotates the chamber to ensure those two are the next to be fired as he knows the double weapon users will have to taken down together. Almost as if on cue the two try to take him out together. Two quick shots in rapid succession turns the front of their shells into pincushion momentarily before each needle explodes just as they should. It's then their eyes go wide even as they are forced to kneel on ground before the Thunder Warrior as he gives them two more shotgun blasts to finish them off.

As amazing as it seems, throughout all of this gunfire and dying going on, Helga is completely oblivious as she gets closer and closer to Kody's base camp. Kodyax uses his connection with nature itself to call a messenger kite and use it to deliver a message to the shaman of the Blood Shell tribe advising them that he is in the area and wants to meet with representatives of the leadership as soon as possible as he slips back into his tent without Helga knowing he was anywhere but in the tent the whole time she was approaching. The chieftain of the tribe is in mourning for the death of his youngest child and will not listen to reason; the shaman knows this and decides to visit Kodyax all by her lonesome.

She teleports through the earth to arrive at Kody's camp in the cave he is using to cure the hides of the land sharks he has already killed. The sweet smell of nature magic pervades the very air as the armor is absorbing the magic Kodyax wishes to imbue them with as they cure to ensure a more natural infusion. Kodyax has just arrived with Helga in tow when Neshaminy walks out from the back.

"My apologies, Thunder Warrior," Neshaminy says respectfully as she bows to Kodyax and Helga is besides herself she is so flabbergasted at the respect this turtle gives him, "I did not know you had company."

"It's alright, Neshaminy," Kodyax says with equal respect for the lady shaman. "She is one with I share pleasantries."

"Of course Thunder Warrior, of course," Neshaminy says with a guilty grin. "My father, the chieftain is in mourning; my youngest brother was killed by a stray bullet on a hunt."

"The hunt would not have been to capture one of the foreign hunters for supper would it?" Kodyax asks point blank which causes Neshaminy to hold her head in shame. "I thought it might have been. That being the case I cannot take issue with the other hunters, you know this, Neshaminy."

"The law of hunt is sacrosanct, Thunder Warrior, " Neshaminy admits freely, "But my father does not see it as such. They wanted me to prepare that one for sacrifice to the great devourer." She nods her head towards Helga. "So that our people might be spared the wrath of his children."

"Now wait just one damn minute!" Helga thunders.

"Not now, Helga," Kodyax growls in warning, "I took care of the hunting party they sent to fetch you."

"Four more of my brothers fell to your wrath then?" Neshaminy asks shamefully to which Kodyax just nods. "I must report this to my father. He will not be pleased but the fact that you killed them, Thunder Warrior, may finally open his eyes."

"Where does the great devourer now lair?" Kodyax inquires with a dark and angry tone.

"I can guide you if you wish to confront him," Neshaminy offers.

"I do, but I must make preparations," Kodyax says matter-of-factly without changing his tone.

"I shall return in three days," Neshaminy states and makes her way back to the cave to return the ways she came. "Unless you need more time."

"Make it five," Kodyax orders and Neshaminy just nods.

"I noticed you are making sacred suits out of devourer hide," Neshaminy prompts.

"I have need of the protection their hides provides my kind," Kodyax states, "Plus my magic is giving them special properties I know I will need soon."

"I understand," Neshaminy says and departs, "I shall return in five days to take you to the great devourer."

"What the yiff was that all about!?!" Helga demands to know as Kodyax goes through his drawer of special ingredients that he sometimes adds to the powder of a given casing to make it that much more potent against certain monsters. And what is this great devourer she keeps talking about?"

"A devourer is what the Blood Shells call land sharks obviously," Kodyax growls with some annoyance. "The Blood Shells believe they are a chosen people because of the lifestyle they live and thus all others must be subservient to them or serve as food for the clan. Those that object by fighting off their predations are met with greater force until they are driven away." Helga just stands there glaring at him. "The Great Devourer is a much, much larger creature capable eating whole trains as if they were nothing more than mobile links of sausage. And it has infernal blood coursing through its veins giving it fell eldritch power."

"Sounds like a true monster of a land shark," Helga says fearfully but doing her best to seem non-chalant about the whole affair.

"That and more, Helga, that and more," Kodyax fully admits. "I have most of what I need already, I just need to make the bullets and mix the powder."

"You were half expecting to run into this thing on this expedition weren't you?" Helga growls in an accusatory manner. "I know you too well, Professor, you don't like to carry more than you have to, even with all the enchanted containers you bring with you."

"Helga," Kodyax shoots back with a growl, "I always expect trouble. I have been on numerous expeditions and all of them ran into something unexpected in one way or another. This trip held the possibility held the possibility of running across a demonic land shark. I hoped I wouldn't but brought along material to help me kill it if I did."

"That's right, I keep forgetting," Helga concedes with a heavy sigh. "Trouble seems to follow you around like a lost puppy comp. So do the Blood Shells worship this thing?"

"More like try to keep it appeased and; if possible; sleeping," Kodyax relates. "And gathering the necessary components was some doing." Which grants him a smirk to which Helga a dark look until he continues: "Although I will admit getting the angel cum was quite the pleasurable experience." Helga's look turns into one of astonishment. "And there are still places I can't go after collecting virgin's blood." Helga starts to cross her arms. "I didn't kill them, they just weren't virgins anymore when I was done with them."

"Why am I not surprised?" Helga says with a smirk. "So which of your guns are you going to be using?"

"For sheer force and power it's going to have to be the carbine," Kodyax says in a resolute and matter of fact manner. "I have to punch through that hide."

Each casing of each bullet as well as the bullets themselves received special druid runes representing the sheer destructive power of nature itself as well as channeling the purity of the natural world. Kodyax pools all of his faith and confidence in what he stands for as a ranger and a guardian of the natural world and puts all his faith into each bullet he makes for his gun. Helga perceives his munitions take on a healthy greenish glow as they are finished indicated the fact that they are enchanted and hand crafted by the ranger who will use them.

The bullets themselves become things of deadly beauty that are almost too pretty to be actually used as intended. But Kodyax craft these bullets for a very special purpose and for that purpose he will use them. The tree of life tattoo that represents his connect to the Druid Council as an organization and to the divinity of the natural world as the focus of his spirituality glows as well, so much so that it shines through whatever he wears in a supernatural sort of way that actually kind of scares Helga.

Kodyax pays it little heed as the glowing of the tattoo is an indicator of the righteousness of his plan of action as spoken by the very forces he serves. He is doing what he doing to remove a cancer in the form of an infernally blooded creature from the surface of the planet. The purging of the monster will be a cleansing for the land and in this Kody remains resolute in what he is doing.

Helga is more or less left watching although he has enough that she can make her own bullets with his direction. Unlike Kodyax, Helga is an Arcanist by training and while the bullets she create to be fired from her rifle will do much the same as his they will come at it at a different direction in terms of how the magic is woven. Helga is determined to help Kodyax for two reasons: the bragging rights and the sex afterwards.

It only takes about four days to have all bullets they think they'll need with Helga adding a bane quality to those Kody made and Kody adding some features to hers as well. On the fourth evening into the fifth day when they were expecting Neshaminy to return, Helga and Kodyax did a little ritual to mentally prepare themselves although the fact that the ritual is performed sky clad adds its own distractions. Kody's tree of life tattoo glows like a torch and illuminates the tent as the two lupursyn sit naked before each other and utter chants to nature's power.

Helga can't help herself and paw at Kody's scrotum which causes his member to rise from its sheath. As a way of almost apologizing, Helga impales herself along his length as the two start to meditate together as she clenches and unclenches her walls around his member in a rhythmic, tantric manner. She wraps herself around him as they synchronize their breathing as he grinds his hips with hers in a ritualistic manner as to bring all this sexual energy together in such a way as to empower them for when they go up against the monster for which they have been forging bullets to slaughter.

The next morning after breakfast Neshaminy returns the way she did before and can feel the resonance of power emanating from the enchanted bullets. Before going out with her, Kodyax dons his new suit of armor with the one skull acting as a strange kind of helmet that draws a weird look from Helga but a look of approval from Neshaminy. Among other things he grabs is an enchanted satchel that Helga has as well that opens to extra-dimensional space as a special storage unit for his guns and ammo and once equipped they start off for the cavern in which the Great Devourer is lairing.

Kodyax is well aware that there are many dangers lying in wait ahead of them which prompts him to leave his favored carbine in reserve and keep out his shotgun with an eye towards blasting anything that might be a threat to him and the other two ladies in his party. His precaution proves to be fortuitous when a swarm of shadow bolls, a weird combination of bat and mollusk able to lair on the ceiling of a cavern and strike when their victims least expect it, swoops in for the attack. A few blasts of his shotgun later and the false stalactites are in full retreat.

Neshaminy nods in recognition of Kody's actions as they proceed further into the interior of the mountains. The passageways they are traveling look rather like mine shafts to Helga which makes her a little nervous. Kodyax tells her this was a mine at one point but had to be abandoned due to its current residents.

Finally they come to a ledge overlooking a large chamber from which Neshaminy dares go no further. But from their perch they can see their target, slumbering away with smaller, normal sized land sharks milling about aimlessly. The Great Devourer itself is the size of a house and before they start shooting, Kodyax climbs down to the cavern floor and takes out what can only be considered mines from his satchel and lightly buries them in the sandy gravel floor of the cavern.

Both Helga and Neshaminy give Kodyax an incredulous look as he starts taking out grenades to which just causes Helga to cross her arms across her chest and tapping her foot in an annoyed fashion. Neshaminy gives Helga an inquisitive look to which she just glares at Kodyax. Then the lady turtle turns to Kodyax and asks:

"What is going on here, Thunder Warrior?" Neshaminy asks.

"You're still fucking that skunk aren't you?" Helga growls.

"I do play with a lot of females, Helga," Kodyax says in teasing manner. "But where else do you think I've been getting my explosives."

"These go boom?" Neshaminy asks as she picks on of the glass globes in which a grey liquid can be seen swirling around and bubbling as she shakes her hand gently with seems to be agitating the fluid. "How do these work?"

"You throw them at a target, Neshaminy," Kodyax explains.

"It go boom?" Neshaminy asks with a fiendish grin.

"You're not going to let her throws them are you?" Helga asks with some trepidation to which Kody just grins. "Great, just great..."

Kodyax takes out a longer barreled rifle and lays down and mounts a scope which causes Helga to smack herself upside the head. Neshaminy gives Helga a look as she mounts a scope on her own long rifle. They turn their perch into a sniper's nest and start picking off the normal land sharks one by one as the Great Devourer just slumbers on.

Once the normal land sharks have been killed the two of them, Kody and Helga that is, take careful aim at the Great Devourer itself and fire as one. The report of their guns is almost deafening and the impact made by the bullets awakens the huge monster rather rudely. It bellows its indignation and turns around to try and figure out where the shots are coming form as the lupursyns let the next bullet of the rifles cycle into the chamber and take aim once again.

Another twin firings hits the thing square and it bellows once again in pain before again turning in place to get a glimpse and feel for where the shots came from as the beasts literally have no necks. By this time eldritch runes begin to light up the barrels of their guns as the magic etched into the weapons while they were being forged starts to kick in. Of course they have different runes with Helga having arcane runes and Kodyax have druid runes on his gun but they add up to the same thing which is let the rifles hit harder longer.

The enchanted bullets they made over the last few days start come up in the chambers of the guns as the magic combines and flows so that each subsequent strike whittles down the life force of the monster a little more with each successful hit. Eventually the Great Devourer gets a general clue as to where the shooters are and charges towards them. It's then that it runs straight into the minefield which causes both Kodyax and Helga to stop shooting and shield their eyes from the blinding light of the explosions. Neshaminy is transfixed with excitement and awe as the monster is thrown onto its back with its belly exposed.

Helga and Kodyax give each other the high five sign and then take aim again now that the softer underbelly is now exposed. The bullets pumped into its softer side spurns the monster to flip itself right side up again and start to charge again. As it gets close to the ridge, Kodyax barks and order to Neshaminy to start chucking grenades which she does quite earnestly with each explosion causing her to squeal with glee.

Eventually the explosions causes the beast to be flipped back onto its back which prompts Kodyax to take out his halberd carbine and make a leap of faith to plunge the mini sword blades into the softer armor before pulling the trigger. Neither Helga nor Neshaminy can believe their eyes as Kodyax unloads a full cylinder in to the beast before beginning to just hack and slash at it with melee portion of his favored weapon. The onslaught of Kody's final assault proves to be too much for the monster as it breathes its last beneath the fury of the ranger's attack.

Neshaminy takes out a knife and goes to try and carve out some the great devourer's meat to eat but Kodyax stops her as the flesh of this one is tainted with dark magic. The realization of what they just killed hits the lady shaman and she doubles over in revulsion but then a smile creeps onto her face as she knows they just killed a great evil in the world. Then Kodyax takes out a scroll, a well of ink and a pen and writes a note that he pins onto the corpse as well as a set of disks that he places on the thing itself.

"The taxidermist at the museum is gonna want to kill you, you know that don't you?" Helga asks with a smirk.

"Oh, yiff yeah!" Kodyax returns as motes of lights dance around the corpse as it starts to fade from view.. "But the yiffer didn't believe me when I told him about this thing. Nobody did."

"At some point those yiffers have got to figure out that you're not much into tall tales," Helga says with a giggle. Then she gives him a nuzzle, "We need to record this for a tally." Then she puts her hands on her hips and glares at him. "Better get some credit on that note you wrote!"

"You did," Kodyax admits, "But if it actually gets into one of the museums I'll be darn surprised."

"Yeah, there is that unfortunately." Helga says with a sign then gooses him. "Let's go back to your tent and get cozy."

"You want an apprentice or something?" Kodyax asks jokingly as they make their way back to this tent while Neshaminy goes back to her tribe.

"Maybe," Helga says with a coy wink and they go back to the tent arm in arm; nuzzling each other on occasion on the way.