Corruption of Champions!

You stop Clara when she goes to hand Marble a cup and calmly ask her why she hasn’t given herself a cup too? “Oh, I uh,” she stutters uncertainly. You continue to push her and ask what the vial of extra fluid she added to the pot was just after she finished. “Uh, just some special flavoring!” comes out in a nervous exclamation.

At this point, Clara seems visibly shaken, and just keeps looking between the confused and suspicious glances she is getting. “DAMN IT!” she shrieks as she drops Marble’s cup to the ground. The recipient of the fine tea cries out in surprise as well, before trying to catch the falling cup. Clara sees this as an opportunity and decides to draw a heavy looking mace. She winds up with that blunt weapon and bashes your bovine lover over the head, hard, before Marble has a chance to respond to your warning.

There is a stunned silence as Marble falls to the ground, and for a few moments afterwards. The perpetrator turns her gaze to you with a crazed look in her eye, before yelling, “It didn’t have to be this way! No one would have had to have been hurt if you’d just drank your tea quietly and come away with me, but no, you just had to be too smart for your own damn good.”

Clara starts to advance on you with her mace out, and eyes in rage, but hesitates when she realizes that other guests to the tea party have stood up as well, and readied their weapons.

“You bitch, you’ll pay for that,” Hel growls, drawing the scimitar from her hip and leveling it right at the woman in defiant challenge.

“Little bitch!” The cowgirl snarls, standing up to her full impressive height. “I will teach you not to try something like this again.” Isabella grabs her shield and brandishes it prominently, ready to use it for defense and to bludgeon.

“I wouldn’t have done that if I were you,” Jojo says, rising off the ground and retrieving his staff. Falling into a combat pose, his face contorts into an almost uncharacteristic visage of anger directed at the woman before you.

The dragon-girl Kiha wastes no time; unceremoniously spitting flames and swinging her axe with murderously brutal intent, radiating threat even as she waits for the moment to spring into attack.

You stand up as well and ready your beautiful sword, since even with such opposition it looks like the mad cow-girl still plans on fighting you. A few minutes and bruises later, her beaten body proves this to have been a bit of a mistake on her part.

You sigh and step out of the shadows, grabbing the feminine little spider boy by the shoulder and yanking him away from Tanis. “And just what the hell do you two think you’re doing?” you yell, scowling down at your daughter . Tanis gives a shrill cry of surprise and tumbles away from you, trying to cover herself as best she can; the spider trap squirms in your unrelenting grasp, one set of arms covering his rapidly-wilting erection as the other flails around, trying to get you off of him. Not happening.

“You!” you say, pointing an accusing finger at Tanis. “What the hell, kid? Who the fuck is this?”

“That’s, uh.... Alex, meet my dad. Daddy, Alex.”

“H-hi.” the spider mumbles, his voice high and adorably girly.

“And you! You leave my girl alone, you hear me? Leave. Her. ALONE!”

“B-but I...”

“Daddy...” Tanis groans as you grab the spider boy and toss him out of camp, watching with hawk-like eyes as he slinks back to his jungle. When he’s gone, you sigh and walk over to Tanis, wiping a tear from her cheek. Putting an arm around her shoulder, you give her a long, long talk about not being a whore.

“B-but mom...”

“That’s why you shouldn’t be bringing men home. Or women. Or anything else, kiddo. You don’t want to be a whore like your mother, do you? The girl that everyone’s had a ride with. I’m not going to a raise a whore, Tanis. Your mother’s made mistakes, sure, but...” you sigh. “ You don’t have to be that person, Tanis. Don’t just give yourself out to the first person that asks, you know? Save it for someone you really care about. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.”

You spend a bit more time with the chastened, and hopefully now more chaste, salamander girl before putting her to bed. Stroking her hair, you slip back to your own bunk, hoping she’ll take what you’ve said to heart.

Spoiler:

You sit down carefully on a small mat in front of the shrine and clear your mind. Closing your eyes, you meditate on the things you’ve learned in your journey thus far, and resolve to continue fighting against the forces of corruption that permeate the land.

Nearing the end of your meditation, you are inexplicably compelled to reach into your bag and pull out the small teardrop-shaped jewel you were carrying. As you stare past the translucent surface of the bead and into the dancing fire within, the jewel begins to dissolve in your hand, the pale flames within spilling out and spreading over your body.

As the mystical flames wash over you, your mind is assaulted by a maelstrom of otherworldly knowledge and power. For a moment it feels as though your mind will be torn asunder, but you are ready. Your travels and meditations have prepared you well, and you open your mind to accept enlightenment.

Your bushy tails begin to glow with an eerie, ghostly light, and with a crackle of electrical energy, split into nine tails. You are now a nine-tails! Untold cosmic power radiates from your very being! Use it wisely...

You pause for a moment to reflect on your newfound wisdom, and with a renewed vigor for your quest, you stand and set off for camp.

Spoiler:

On a whim, Kurumi decides to have a chat with her spectral companion, who obligingly pops free of her torso to spare her the awkward sensation of conversing with one of her own body parts.

"So you want to hear more about little ol' me, huh, Champ? How flattering."Shouldra taps one finger against a spectral lip thoughtfully for a second, then nods. "Okay, okay yeah, I've got one for you. Hey, listen, you'll like this one. Promise! It's really funny, I swear." Kurumi raises an eyebrow, but motions for her to continue.

"Alright, well," she says, smiling to herself, already setting Kurumi's early warning system a clamour, "This was a while ago now, back in the village. Pretty close to where we first met, actually. So, I'm just wandering along, minding my own business-" She catches Kurumi's eye and hastily adds, "Maybe looking for a goblin or two to spook the living daylights out of, when all of a sudden, I start to hear singing. And when I say singing, I don't mean 'Oh, what is that wonderful sound, is that a mermaid' You follow? I mean, this was pretty much just verbal abuse that could carry a tune," Kurumi's spectral spirit-guide explains. "So naturally, I'm intrigued. Anybody brave or dumb enough to start singing at that volume in the middle of potentially demon-infested ruins? Might be fun to check them out. As it turns out, there were actually two of 'em, sitting there in the middle of the road, bold as brass and drunk off their butts. Two girls: Some little punk and this slab who's dad must have been part brick. And here's the weird part: both with these freaky horns coming out of their head." She reaches up and extends her index fingers on either side of her head, illustrating the idea of horns. Kurumi assures her that, yes, she is capable of comprehending the concept of horns.
Shouldra continues.

"Never seen people with horns that big before. I kinda figured, 'Hey, maybe they have other equally big appendages' you know? Maybe it's their equivalent of shoe size, or whatever." Shouldra pauses for a minute, gazing off into some private inner vision. Kurumi rolls her eyes, but decides not to interrupt. "So anyway, they're singing, they're laughing, the big one's pointing at the little one, the little one's punching the big one in the face, seems like a fun crowd. The moment I pop out into the open to make my introductions, though? Dead silence. They're staring at me, I'm staring at them, they're staring at each other...Then they both start grinning, I mean Seriously grinning. Now, this might seem silly, but I could tell just from the way they were smirking... Those two were after my chastity!"
Shouldra announces. Kurumi gives her a look. She returns it. "Hey, they weren't to know. Anyway, they both get up and start walking towards me, and I say, 'I didn't like the looks of it one bit.' So, I decide to make my excuses and leave, and that's when the big one throws the little one at me."

Kurumi can't believe it, and she tells her so. Shouldra nods earnestly.

"Seriously! The big one just snatches up the little one, screams something like uh... 'Inazuma Fastball Special!' I think it was, then just lobs her right at my face. Now I ask you, what's the polite way to respond to THAT situation?" Kurumi shrugs. "Well, in any case, she missed. Bowled that little gremlin straight through a wall, wood and shrapnel flying everywhere, the whole building collapses. I'm pretty shocked, as you can imagine, but not nearly as much as when Tiny gets back up. afterwards. So now I'm surrounded, trapped between two indestructible pointy-headed weirdoes, both of them shouting about 'INVINCIBLE OWN-Y TECHNIQUES' or something. Needless to say, it wasn't looking good, so I decided to, uh...huh," Shouldra trails off, frowning.