The Guardian

This is a short tale of the Becoming Monsters Universe by AiLovesToGrow.

The idea for this one comes from a reader. He gave me a story seed and asked that I use it in three different ways. This is me daring him to read the rest of Becoming Monsters, he came to me through other tales.

--

Story 5: The Guardian

Five days after the Change

The situation was one Saul had seen many, many times in his life as a gamer. His three small Imps were standing between him and a Minotaur. One was built bulkier and armored to keep the big guy away, the other two pelting him with flying embers to try to whittle him down. It was a race whether they could manage it before the Minotaur broke through, because Saul would stand zero chance of even living for more than a few seconds.

Thankfully, they managed it. VERY thankfully, because unlike most of the times this had happened in his life, Saul was not sitting behind a computer screen or at a gaming table. The dumpy, slightly greasy, unpopular, glasses-wearing, eighteen-year-old gamer was standing in the courtyard of his high school trying to get to Senior Seminar, and the Minotaur was very real. And also in Senior year. The PING in the back of Saul's head was the second time he'd ever heard it, denoting that he had Leveled up in real life. At least he knew it meant that Jared had actually decided to back off.

"How did a little shrimp like you get this strong?" Jared snorted the words in his newly-deep voice.

"You were the fourth person to try this in the last week. Unlike you, I'm willing to learn from it. At least Jason was honest about it, he took my lunch money BEFORE the world as we knew it freaking ended." The point of Intelligence and Perception he gained two days prior also helped. And the years of gaming.

Because the world HAD ended. That's what the news said. Pretty much everywhere that wasn't this little town at the edge of the Texas desert had gone up in flames. People becoming monsters. Actual monsters showing up. Freaking MAGIC being real. Character classes. India and China and most of Europe erupting into civil war. Egypt getting overrun by ZOMBIES. The world that existed last week was dead and gone.

The bell rang. The world might have ended, and some of their teachers might be six inches tall or made of black goop, but that didn't absolve the Minotaur, the Summoner, or anyone in the crowd watching the fight from getting to class. Jared the Minotaur turned and ran, burn marks still showing on his skin and clothes. Saul cursed under his breath, the Imps would still be around for another hour unless he unsummoned them... but unsummoning them would take thirty seconds he didn't have at the moment. "Imps! Go to a secluded corner and sit peacefully unless attacked." They all made a semi-affirmative sound and gave him a thumbs-up gesture before running off. Saul just had to hope that they would succeed in their task and that his own ability would reach them from the classroom. He just didn't know yet.

At least he made it to Senior Seminar with barely enough time to put his butt in its assigned seat before the bell for the start of class sounded. Miracle of miracles, when he focused on his Unsummon Minions ability, the three meters all indicated that they were on Standby, somewhere out of existence and recovering from their fight. The teacher, this one still Human, started droning on about something Saul really did not care about. What was MUCH more fascinating was the alert on his Status screen. A Class Feature choice was available. That felt important, though what it might actually mean he had no clue. Nobody really did, as far as he could tell. Anyone fighting enough to make it to Level 3 in a week wasn't talking. Somehow, the words on the Status screen never seemed to swim and dance the way the ones on the whiteboard did. It was why he had to come back and repeat senior year for a couple of classes he hadn't gotten done. He had time, seated as he was near the back of the class with his homework on his desk.

It was time. Saul pulled up his Status menu and focused on the highlighted option. The screen was replaced by another.

***

Choose one:

Summon Swarm

Summon Guardian

Pact Tactics

Kaboom

***

Okay. Summon Swarm sounds like it'll either let me summon way more creatures or else swarms of bugs or something. Without knowing which, I'm not sure about this one. Guardian feels like the opposite, like it's something bigger. More possibilities, definitely. Pack Tactics should be a teamwork thing... wait, that says PACT tactics. Like signing contracts with people? How would that even work with my abilities? Last one... seems kind of obvious. Turn my dudes into bombs. Not sure I like that. I think the choice is clear, then. Summon Guardian it is.

As the teacher kept droning on, he mentally hit that line and confirmed his choice. Instantly, on the main screen, he saw a fourth line spawn. The word Guardian was on the name line, its Health bar full. As tempting as it was to summon his newest minion immediately to see what it was capable of, he was still in the middle of doing something. A couple of classes later during lunch, though, he had a few moments. Sandwich in hand, he made his way to a remote corner of the school's quad, one that was out of sight of where the other students tended to be.

"Okay. I have a couple of casters and a tank. I either need a healer or a really good physical striker, so here's hoping." Saul focused on his new Ability and triggered it. Instantly, his Mana dropped from 85% to 35% as a glowing blue-white circle appeared on the ground. A figure slowly rose from it, hard to make out and seeming to be undefined but about his size. That made it over twice the size of his Imps.

Things suddenly solidified. Legs and arms that were smoothly but solidly muscled, abdominals flexing in a light four-pack. The head materialized, an attractively feminine human with long blonde hair drawn back into a ponytail. She was deeply and evenly tanned, her skin smooth. Then the rest of her torso suddenly became visible, her boobs looking to be perky handfuls under a sports bra, her hips broad and butt firm under a skintight black pair of shorts. In her right hand was a rapier. A proper one, not one of those things that looked like a pokey antenna. Her eyes opened, a brilliantly glowing blue, and as she laid those eyes on Saul they were filled with a deep certainty. Flowing tattoos wrapped around her wrists and ankles in the same color. Her mouth opened, and her voice was equally certain. "Master, you have summoned me."

"Wh... what?"

"I am your Guardian, formed as you need." She suddenly and sharply looked up. In a blur she dashed forward. Past Saul.

He spun around to see where she had gone, finding her only a foot or two behind him, back towards him, the sword coming to the end of an arc. Blood hit the floor, followed by an axe. A roar of pain sounded out as Jared the Minotaur grasped his right wrist to control the bleeding.

He had been about to strike Saul down. The Guardian was the only reason Saul was alive.

***

It was one day later. School administrators had forced him to unsummon his Guardian before they would talk to him. He was suspended for the time being until they could decide what to do about it. They couldn't call it assault with a deadly weapon, it was a part of him. Self defense, too, the fire axe was kind of obvious and stories of the earlier fight (in which Jared was the obvious aggressor) emerged rapidly. Part of the debate was whether the severed tendons in the Minotaur's right wrist were sufficient punishment for what he'd attempted. Overall thinking, since it was attempted murder, was "no." The other part was what to charge Saul with... if anything.

His dad was, thankfully, perfectly cool with his son defending himself. Even if the "how" was a bit strange. Which is why he was sitting at home playing video games, some cash on the counter to order a pizza if Dad was late from work. Just as if this happened any other time, and not... now. Saul hadn't re-summoned his Guardian in the meantime, either, but since this was the first real moment of peace he'd had since then he figured it was about time to try it again. He stood in the middle of his room after clearing some of the mess from the middle. Enough to let that summoning circle he remembered manifest on the carpet. Saul focused, attempting to visualize his Guardian. The memory of her smooth power, her striking beauty, her scant clothes entered his mind.

The glowing circle manifested again, and up from it arose the same glowing figure. It felt faster this time. It might be because he was doing it more effectively, it might be because it just felt shorter now that he'd done it before, but before long she snapped into reality. He had a chance to look at her properly now, taller than him by a couple of inches, firm muscles and six-pack abs flexing, wide hips and heavy breasts held by a white bra and panties that stood out against her skin.

Wait. Something is different today...

The Guardian smiled, her teeth as brightly white as her lingerie. "I see you constructed me differently today, Master. You have a different use in mind."

"Why do you keep calling me that?"

The Guardian looked confused. "Because you are. You created and command me, you give my body form and function and purpose."

He shook his head. "Please... just don't. Call me Saul, or even sir. Not Master."

"Yes, sir. And as for the rest, I have a task. One defined by this body you gave me." She smiled, a wicked little thing, and took two steps forward to press up against him. "All you need to do is relax, sir. You did the hard part already."

Saul's brain hadn't quite caught up to what she meant by that before she lifted him off the ground, deposited him on his bed, and pulled off his shorts. Before he could object, she swallowed his now-exposed dick like it was her purpose in life. Which, given a moment's thought, it was. She took him to the hilt instantly and sealed her plush lips on his modest length, her tongue exploring every nook and cranny like she already knew where they all were and which ones would work best.

Saul really wished he could have lasted longer. The combination of him never having done this before and her exquisite skill meant that he lasted a bare sixty seconds through the most intense pleasure he'd ever felt before shooting off down her throat. Then again, being a fairly typical example of an eighteen-year-old with a sexy woman cuddling with him afterwards meant he was ready to go again before twenty more minutes passed, which she made sure to take care of in exactly the same way. He lasted longer the second time, it should be noted. Almost ninety seconds.

"H... how are you this good?"

The Guardian smiled up at him, opened her mouth to show the cum there, then closed it and swallowed. "I know everything you like, and you made my body for this purpose. Just like you do every time you Call me."

He breathed deeply. "Okay, I guess now is when I start asking more questions. What are you capable of?"

She shrugged. "I do not know. Just that I cannot use magic and know what you do when you create me. I will last until dismissed."

Saul thought heavily for a moment or two. "Okay, no magic, but you can be reconfigured. Good to know. What are your limits on your stat sheet? How far can I push you?"

"Again, I don't know. To use the idiom, I was born yesterday. Literally."

Saul sighed. "Okay, that means experimenting, and every time I do it costs half of my MP. At least for now, maybe I'll be able to get a bigger pool or something."

"That sounds reasonable, sir."

"Status." Saul's mana was back at 52%. However it worked, it was recovering at a half-decent rate. "Looks like I'll be able to experiment again tomorrow, and that means I need to unsummon you. Just one thing before then."

"Anything, sir, if it is within my ability."

Saul sighed. "Another blow job."

***

The next day was Saturday, and as soon as Saul opened his eyes he noted a few things. The first was that he was rather sore in the crotch area. Understandable, really. The second was that he had forgotten to get certain important pieces of data the previous day, things like her existing strength scores, if she had a Status screen, or her freaking name. Blame the blow jobs. And the hormones. He sat up and looked at himself in the mirror he kept in the corner. "Come on, man, at least pretend you're a real nerd and figure out what she can do."

No time for his experiment until after breakfast, but after breakfast was groceries, then chores, then lunch. Then going back to his room with firm instructions from his father to clean it up a bit, and an understanding that this meant he'd pick up between two and twenty objects then play video games. Enough to make it look like he'd given it an effort. Flip side, given what he was planning, he had a bit more incentive than usual to make sure both his floor and bed were cleared off. Opening his closet later might be hazardous, but certainly no worse than being attacked by a Minotaur at school.

"Okay. Let's do this. I know she's pretty strong, but I don't know exactly how strong. So I visualize her with as much muscle as I can, as much physical power, and see how far I can push it." To his credit, he really did try to do what he told himself to. The effectiveness of this was... debatable. When the Guardian emerged, she was much, much larger than before. Easily closer to seven feet than six. Broader, too, more so than the admittedly-chubby Saul. Her muscles absolutely bulged with clearly-visible power, standing out like mountains against her legs and arms and core. Her face was much more square, her neck thicker and corded with muscle the same as the rest of her. Two slight details were not planned.

The first was her chest. Not the huge muscles of her pectorals, no, but what now interfered with the view of them... and almost her belly button. Two ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS breasts, each looking the size of a beach ball and much more inviting, proved that the Guardian's muscles were not just for show. Each had to weigh thirty or forty pounds individually. The second detail was also her chest... kind of. This time around, the Guardian wore nothing to cover it, or any of the rest of her.

Saul could do nothing but gape as she slowly looked over her body. "Sir, you have given me several clear purposes. Allow me to perform one of them." She stepped forward to him, picked him up like he weighed almost nothing, then pulled him in. Into the enormous valley of her cleavage to where he barely had his head free, then by a combination of her free arm and flexing those pecs gave him a boob job that seemed to defy physics. His body was encased in the warm softness, and when he came it felt like his whole body joined it.

Some unknown amount of time later she pulled him out and gently set him down on the floor. When his legs wouldn't hold, she moved him to the bed with as much effort as one might imagine carrying a kitten.

Saul panted a few more times, trying to recenter himself. "Uh, wow. That was great."

"Thank you, sir. You certainly crafted this body well."

He focused as hard as he could. "How strong are you? Could you... I dunno, lift this bed with me in whoah!"

His surprise was easy enough to understand, given that she hadn't even waited for him to finish before doing so. At his expression of shock, she set him down gently, bed and all.

"Uh, okay, a lot of strength. How do you think you would do in a fight?"

"Poorly, sir. I am moving as fast as I possibly can, and the breasts you gave me are getting in the way as well. You also neglected to arm or armor me."

He facepalmed, lying on the bed. "Of course. All Strength, no Agility. I need to imagine things in balance when I'm creating you. Okay, next question. What is your name?"

"I do not have one, sir. I am your Guardian." She did not seem particularly disturbed by this fact.

He closed his eyes. "I... I see. Okay. I need to think, and having you here is going to be seriously distracting. Do you mind if I unsummon you so that I can do that?"

"I am yours to do with as you will."

There was a lot to unpack there. "Alright." It took a moment or two to remember how to do it, but before long her form glowed white once more before popping out of existence. He wasn't sure what to think about that. Except to kick himself for not keeping her around long enough to go for round two.

***

The man behind the desk looked at Saul. Since his name plate read "Richard Smithson, Principal," this meant a lot. "You cannot be serious about this request. Having an armed bodyguard in class is absurd."

Saul was ready for this reaction. Though he was seated, his Guardian was standing just behind and to the right of his chair. Her form was significantly more modest, built to be about 5'2" and much more sleek than before. Though just as attractive as the last time, with noticeable curves and beautiful features, she wore what looked like leather armor and had her rapier back by her side. Saul took a deep breath. "Principal Smithson, my request is absolutely serious. And Freya is not a bodyguard, she is my Guardian. A part of me. She was summoned by my Class Abilities to defend me from danger. Danger which, I would like to point out, she handled last week. I might be dead if not for her, and don't feel safe if I have to take the time to call her out in the event of another attack."

There was absolute silence in the room for a few moments as the Principal chewed on the information he'd just been given. Everyone knew that the Change, as it was being called, meant that all kinds of outlandish things were happening every day, everywhere on Earth. That didn't mean he had to like it, or the fact that his wife was stuck rooted in a garden he'd had to hastily construct in what used to be their bedroom, but facts were facts. He was proud of his home state's tradition of self-defense, and it wasn't like the kid had brought a firearm onto school grounds. Just a part of himself. No stranger than if he'd gone and learned karate. "Alright. Here's the deal. I can't argue with your points, and we can't have the school resource officer following you all day to make sure you're safe. She... whatever she is... she stays out of the way and does not disrupt class. If you attack anyone without clear self-defense, I will treat it as an assault with a deadly weapon. Am I perfectly clear?"

"Yes, Principal Smithson. May I get to Homeroom? I have to catch up on what I missed last week."

The Principal hid a sigh. Somehow. "Yes, you may go."

Saul stood and walked out of the office, heartbeat starting to settle. The school hallways were echoingly empty, it was smack dab in the middle of first period so everyone was in class. "Okay, Freya, you heard him. Stay at the back of the classroom and only attack if I'm in clear danger. I'll reimagine you with a proper spear when we're not going to be indoors."

"Yes, sir. Do you have any other instructions?"

Saul looked at the bathroom they were walking past with serious temptation in his heart, but a combination of being on a schedule, her being in a more normal form, and the fact that he'd called her in a very agile form yesterday in which she proceeded to blow him another four times helped. "Not right now. Also, I don't plan on unsummoning you unless I need to reconfigure you again thanks to how unpredictable things are right now. Do you need sleep? My Imps don't last long enough for me to worry about it."

"Despite appearances, I am a construct. I only need it if I'm injured or use all my stamina, not by default. Both recover better while I'm unsummoned, but sleep will do."

"Right, right. Okay, here's the classroom." Saul didn't hear anything from inside, and given how rowdy this particular classroom could get that was a bad sign. Either a pop quiz was happening, or else something had everyone's noses to the collective grindstone. He steeled himself, opened the door, and stepped in.

The room was dim, for one, and as soon as his eyes adjusted he noticed that the desks were empty. It wasn't completely unknown for the class to go to the courtyard or field for something or other. It looked like today was one of those days, which meant he was exactly where he did not need to be. A blur of motion caught his eye, and Saul flinched backwards in time for something to whiz past his nose and hit the wall before clattering to the ground.

Okay, apparently my Agility score wasn't a lie.

Saul slapped the light switch and looked to where the object came from, to see one of his classmates have his right arm extended, disappearing at the elbow as if reaching into a hole in the air. Kevin, still Human with dirty blonde hair and a skinny build, was one of Jared the Minotaur's friends. And apparently, he had Class Abilities he'd practiced with, too. "You decided to show your face, huh? Lot of balls, after what you did. Jared can't use his right hand anymore, and I'm gonna make sure you can't, either."

"Listen, if someone wants to come at me with an axe, that's on them." Saul watched as his new opponent pulled his arm out of wherever it had been hiding, this time holding a pistol. With a moment's focus, he started calling his other minions. Behind Kevin, standing on three of the desks there. "Put the gun away. Please. I just got out of the Principal's office about that fight. There is no need for another."

"You don't get to escape that with a couple days vacation! You're gonna suffer, worm." Kyle made a deadly mistake then. He raised the gun.

In a blur, Freya the Guardian leapt forward over the desks, the rapier coming down at her new target. Unlike the Minotaur before, Kevin had decent reaction speed. He saw her coming and spun to his right, towards the center of the room and out of the way of the attack.

The decision was clear. Saul yelled two words. "No quarter!"

As Kevin stopped his movement, he realized that his options were to either kill the Guardian or Saul. Without knowing how tough the Guardian was, that made the decision easy. His gun arm came up swiftly, once again looking to sight on the Summoner while staying aware of the Guardian. This time, he was wrong on all counts. The armored Imp dove across the desks, grabbed the gun, and with a sickening crunch wrenched Kevin's wrist around until it broke, scampering away with the weapon in time for the two fiery ones to douse him in jets of flame. Freya took the opportunity and charged, bowling over desks to get to him.

A flash of light reflecting off the metal was the last thing Kevin saw as she drove her rapier through his skull.

***

"Expelled. You got yourself expelled within an hour of the first day back at school. And not just that, you killed someone." Saul's father was nowhere near as calm about this latest incident as the last time around.

"He threw a knife at me from hiding and had a gun. What was I supposed to do, die? That was the only other option I had, Dad!"

"YOU COULD HAVE LEFT HIM ALIVE!" His father roared at him. "You already did this once, and you didn't kill him! I will not have a murderer under my roof!"

There was an awful silence that hung in the air. Saul's face fell, but his next words were as level as he could make them. "Then I'll move out after the trial. If I'm guilty, then I'm moving out anyway. If I'm not, I'll figure something out. Either way, I have packing to do." He turned to leave.

"Don't you dare turn your back on me young man! This talk isn't over."

"Yes, Dad, it is. You told me what you think, and it means I'm not welcome here. Congrats, the talk ended there since I don't feel like wasting more time. Not too many careers open to someone who just got expelled, I have to figure out what I'm going to do. If you have any more questions, I'll answer them once I'm done."

This time, when Saul walked away, his father did not stop him. He climbed the stairs to his room and looked at the barely-controlled mess, sighed, and collapsed onto his bed. His sobs were silent, but the tears came all the same.

Some time later he sat up. Waiting patiently in the corner was Freya. His Guardian. She was still in the leather armor from before, her rapier sheathed at her side. "Freya, at least I still have you."

"I am of you. It would be hard not to."

He sighed. "You know, I was going to ask you for sex today. That was the plan. You're in a form that would be good for it, too. It just... feels wrong, now."

Her expression didn't change. "You feel like it would be meaningless. Like you would just feel cheap afterwards."

"Pretty much." Saul stood, looked around the room, and began judging what he would absolutely need versus what he could leave behind. "You deserve better than that."

She shook her head. "You have this wrong, sir. You need to love yourself, because that is what I am. A part of you."

He paused. That was a lot to take in. "So I'm the one who came up with that line you just hit me with?"

"The part of you that is me, yes. That's the part that fights."

He sat back down, once again deeply in thought. "The part that fights. I do have a piece of me that can fight, don't I?"

"I am proof of that, sir, and you have decisively won every fight you have been in since you became a Summoner."

He looked around the room again, a different thought in mind. "There's been news reports. Monsters in the desert. They say there might be a source spawning them out there, and bounties are being put out for killing them. I guess if school isn't going to work out, maybe there's a place for a monster hunter in the new world we live in."