After a good night's sleep on a full stomach, Reina awoke to the company of two men sandwiching her on both sides. The sleeping arrangement was bad for her heart. Although there was plenty of space in the tent for them to have slept anywhere else, both of them somehow ended up right next to her.

Morning light bled past the small gap in the tent flap, the gentle and warm heat was a welcome sensation. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, stretched both arms to their limits, and yawned into her hand.

One of the men rolled over onto his back. He breathed through his mouth, chest rising and falling rhythmically. Reina couldn't resist touching him. She put a hand on his chest to feel the muscles only someone who spent their entire life in the wild could have. The ones back in the city were either too effeminate or weak, coddled by an easygoing life that provided easy shelter and food.

Centuries ago, every race that now lived peacefully together once blanketed the continent, living amongst their own kind. Some, like Rahja's people, stuck to their roots and continued to live off the land, moving from place to place as nomads or keeping to themselves in remote locations.

By the grace of the gods and passing down generations of knowledge on the lay of the land, they managed to thrive alongside nature and its harsh elements.

Too bad their dicks weren't working.

Such an ailment was the end for them if they didn't get their baby making tools up soon.

In that case, no time to waste feeling up some hunks. She could do that after resolving their erectile dysfunction problem.

Reina got up and dressed, fixing the alchemy belts to her waist and satchel to her back. Few were awake and milling about the encampment in the morning, going about daily chores like fetching water, cooking something to eat on the firepits, or keeping watch for any potential attacks from the forest.

Among them was Yuen at the edge of the camp, arms folded across her chest, gazing out into the distance with the tip of the bone spear embedded into the dirt at her feet. Kilalua lied down next to her legs.

"You're up early. Did you sleep at all?" Reina asked, coming up behind her.

"Of course, I did! But it's a bannerlord's instinct to be up first. I gotta keep folks who showed me hospitality safe, or I lose face for my banner as a whole," she said.

Despite saying that, Reina could tell by Yuen's fidgeting that she was eager to see action come their way. It took a special kind of someone to become a bannerlord. Some of the greatest ones of their time were tempered by years of battle, but also possessed qualities of leadership and the rationale not to foolishly throw themselves at ambition.

However, their ambition was mainly kept in check by the existence of witches that resided in inner Talmora. In recent years, their kind had become too entangled with the human kingdoms to risk threatening the tenuous alliance. Not to mention, bannerkin were loyal to their bannerlords in name only— their true loyalty lied in Goddess Vessyra, and by extension, her high priestesses.

"So… about what you said yesterday…" Reina began, but soon lost her power to speak any further and blushed instead.

"Huh? Oh— I getcha, I getcha!" Yuen threw an arm around her shoulder and smirked. "You're into Rahja, aren't you?"

"What?! N-No, I never— how did you even…"

"You'd have to be pretty dense not to see you got the hots for him. Once you get their cocks back up and raring to go, just throw caution to the wind and fuck him to your heart's content," she said.

"Wow. Were you always this open about these sorts of things?" Reina asked.

The bannerlord shrugged her shoulders and pulled the spear out of the dirt. "Know what ya want and take it. Anyway, my warriors' unfertilized wombs aren't getting filled themselves. Any idea what you can do about it like you did those growth serums?"

"I'm still stumped," she said, shaking her head. "I thought if I studied their habits, what they ate, drank, how they live, what they do— I might get an idea what caused their limp dick. Nothing seems out of the ordinary."

It wasn't unheard of for changes in the environment to shock one's body into acting the way they shouldn't. Rahja's people had gone to all sorts of places, so abrupt changes to diet or even drinking water might mess with their bodily functions.

Wait… abrupt changes to diet…

"Yuen, how long ago did you meet these people?"

"Uh. Maybe three weeks ago?" she answered to the best of her memory.

Reina pressed further. "What about the food you've been giving them? The excess harvests?" 

"Oh, shit. You think it might be due to the serum?" Yuen asked, quick to catch on.

"It makes sense. They were fine before coming here. Once they did and met you and your generosity, they suddenly developed the issue. You couldn't have known beforehand because your bannerkins are all women," she explained.

Yuen sat down, leaned against Kilalua, and put both hands in her face.

"Kuh… I feel terrible… To think it was my fault this whole time?" She groaned.

"Well, it's only a hypothesis. We won't know for sure unless given enough time after they stop eating your harvests. That's the long term solution. The problem we face next is how to resolve this in the short term."

The two of them gathered the clan to explain what they believed was the cause of the men's erectile dysfunction. While some were understandably upset, most were just glad progress had been made towards figuring it out. Most of all, Reina was impressed by Yuen's courage to admit her mistake. Yuen went as far as shouldering most of the blame despite Reina being the one who had given her the serums to begin with.

Everyone worked together to collect the harvests Yuen had brought and burned them into ash in the firepits. At the very least, the now charcoal bits could be used as fertilizer without fear of passing on whatever caused the issue.

"Next we deal with the lizard-creature, right?" Yuen asked Reina and Rahja.

"As long as that thing roams the surrounding forests, then no one, not even my people, are safe. But are we capable of bringing it down?" Rahja asked.

"Last time, the creature retreated as soon as it realized it was outnumbered. Even with Yuen's help, there's no guarantee we will catch it," Reina warned.

The three of them came to the same conclusion— they had to trap it.

They spent the entire morning concocting a plan. In the meantime, Kilalua left camp by herself to hunt a manticore. Since it was last seen feasting on a manticore, and there were plenty of such beasts roaming the forest, it made the most sense to use one as bait.

Women of the camp worked together to weave a large, sturdy net. Whether it would be sufficient enough to hold the monster long enough, they would have to find out when the time came.

Reina, Yuen, Rahja, and a group of seven able bodied hunters departed the camp to begin the hunt. They returned to the spot where the monster was last seen. The body of the manticore that had fallen to the ground was missing, a sign that it had returned for its food. 

They began by laying the net on the ground and obscuring it with fallen leaves, vegetation, and dirt. The body of a new manticore, courtesy of Kilalua, was placed at the center. At each corner of the net, a rope hung from the trees, each weighed down by another set of nets filled with stones. Once the stones were pushed off, the net should rise and capture the monster, allowing them to fill it full of arrows.

Now, like every hunt, the wait began and the hunters laid patiently in the shadows.

But Reina was no hunter. She spent most of her life in the city, raised and spoiled by parents as an only child. This was, suffice to say, insufferably boring.

"Is it coming yet?" Reina whispered impatiently to Yuen underneath a blanket of dried leaves.

"What? It's only been two hours. The average lie in wait could take days," she replied, keeping her eyes trained on the manticore corpse.

"Days?! I should have stayed home… Aren't we going to end up starving at this rate?"

Yuen turned her head in surprise. "We're not expending a lot of energy by just lying in wait. You should be able to get by eating the insects that pass by you if you're still enough."

The thought of eating insects made Reina want to retch. Was she actually going to be stuck like this until the lizard monster showed itself? She came out here hoping to get on Rahja's good side, but it didn't feel so worth doing anymore.

The branches above rustled and several leaves drifted to the ground. Clinging to the upper trunk of the tree, gazing down at the manticore morsel on the ground, was the lizard-creature. Its long tongue licked the air like a snake and appeared puzzled by whatever it tasted.

Instead of jumping down, the tongue extended farther than any of them expected to, coiled around the manticore, and pulled it back up to consume whole.

Yuen and the others stared in disbelief.

"Crap. What do we do now?" Reina asked.

"It might still be hungry. I'll lure it down. The rest of you stay still!" Yuen drank the elixir of strength that was given to her earlier, then jumped out from the camouflage and ran to the center of the net. "Big meal, right here! Come and get me!"

The creature fired its tongue out and wrapped itself around Yuen, but she dug her heels into the ground to resist being pulled away. Their tug of war continued after the lizard detached itself from the tree trunk and landed several meters away from the net. Yuen tried to pull it closer, but they appeared evenly matched.

"Should we help her yet?" Rahja asked Reina from her left.

"Not yet. Trust in Yuen," she said.

However, just as Reina said that, Yuen lost balance on her feet. The lizard retracted its tongue along with Yuen, swallowing the lower half of her body. She barely managed to keep herself from being completely consumed by gripping the lizard's upper and lower jaw.

"You damn… Oh— What do you think you're doing down there?" Yuen shrieked rather erotically in spite of the situation she was in. Her haggard breathing grew shallow, cheeks flushed, and eyes rolled to the back of her head. The wolf's pelt mantle had fallen to the ground, revealing her nipples had become erect.

Muffled slurping sounds could be heard from the two of them. Yuen flailed her upper body and pushed against the jaws in an attempt to escape. She had the strength to do so, which Reina thought was odd that she hasn't freed herself already.

It was hard to tell if she was getting eaten or not.

Yuen bit her lower lip. "Oh, gods… stop, don't! It's eating… it's eating me… out! Fuck, I'm cumming on its tongue— gguuuh! Yes! My pussy feels so good and stuffed. Fuck!"

The rest of them watched, red up to their ears.

"M-Maybe we should help her now," Reina suggested.

"But Bannerlord Yuen looks like she's having fun." Rahja chuckled.

Reina sighed and drank an elixir of strength herself. She rushed out of cover. Kilalua emerged to join her and together, they slammed into the lizard from behind and shoved it forward onto the net.

"Now!" she screamed.

Hunters in the trees pushed the heavy rocks off, causing the entire net to close in around the lizard, lifting both it and Yuen into the air. Reina hopped away before she was caught up in it, too.

"H-Hey! I'm— oh, mmmh, I'm going to cum again… I'm still in its damn mouth— fuck… yes… You're not… nngh… going to let me out first?" Yuen cried.

"I got potions to heal you. Don't worry!" Reina winked. "Fire at the lizard!"

"No, no, wait— I'm cumming, I'm cumming… aaahhhhhh!"