By the Horns Ch. 05 Pt. 01

"Attack pattern Gamma!" Ginny called out, gesturing toward her hated rival, the miniature army advancing, tiny steam engines hissing and sputtering as they lurched into action.

"Get her, Slimer!" Glitz ordered, the blob burbling as it rolled and surged toward the tiny machines, half-formed mouths and limbs reaching out mindlessly for its prey.

"ENOUGH!" Shouted Rhuno as he stormed down the stairs, massive hooves thundering on the wooden steps, naked but for a loincloth that seemed woefully inadequate for the tremendous bulge it struggled to contain. The battle-scarred warrior marched forward, fists clenched, eyes bloodshot, features twisted with fury, two long stride putting him directly between the advancing forces. He raised a hoof high and brought it down hard, a burst of blinding light radiating outward as it landed, the building seeming to shake with the force of the impact. The girls squeezed their eyes shut at the sudden, painful brightness, and when the opened them, their creations were destroyed, the blob little more than a faint residue on the floor, the mechanoids hissing as they laid, lifeless, venting the steam that powered them.

In unison, the two girls turned their focus on Rhuno.

"You killed him! Do you have-" Glitz scolded

"-Any idea how many part you just ruined?! It'll-" Ginny elaborated, her voice rising to drown out the goblin's.

"-Take me weeks to grow another, and a month to dehydrate it safely-" Glitz continued, half-shouting now to be heard.

"-Replacement pipes, wire, custom glass, hand-tooled crystals..."Ginny listed off, now actually yelling over her counterpart.

"I SAID-" Rhuno growled, his booming voice cutting the both of them off. Once satisfied they were silent, he continued, much softer, but with a firm, commanding tone. "-Enough." He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "I don't care. I don't care about your abomination of alchemy-" He said, looking to Glitz, then turning to Ginny. "-and I don't care about your ruined parts. I don't care why you're fighting. I do care a little that you broke out of your rooms and woke me up with your petty bullshit fight, but not enough." He explained, then sighed. "Here's what's going to happen. I am going to leave, go to the baron, and quit. Then I'm going to tell him that you two are a hopeless cause because you will never be able to put this shit aside and work together, and in the meantime, you're just going to keep spending his money to fuel your petty rivalry until the city falls apart beneath your feet. Best case scenario, he fires one of you so the other can work uninterrupted. Worst case, he fires both of you, then makes you repay all the money you spent getting nowhere."

The girls stared up at him, jaws slack.

"You- You can't just quit! You're under contract!" Glitz objected.

"Contracts break. I'll pay back my advance, maybe do some odd jobs to square my debt." Rhuno rebutted with a shrug.

"What about your 'code of honor' or whatever? Isn't quitting some kind of cardinal sin or something?" Ginny pressed.

"Sunwalkers are a little less rigid about that stuff than paladins. I just have to do what's right, even if it's bad for me, and in this case, that means keeping your feud from destroying the city." Rhuno explained.

"What about your reputation? Who's gonna hire a mercenary that quits halfway through the job?" Glitz added.

"I'll get by. People who really my need help don't usually care that much about who's offering it." He replied.

"Look, fine, you want to leave, leave, but you can't say I haven't been working! I made some real progress when this bitch wasn't getting in my way!" Ginny objected.

"In YOUR way? You're the one who's been holding up MY project!" Glitz shot back.

"Don't fucking start again!" Rhuno warned with a snarl, then shook his head. "Fine, you two say you've made progress, show me what you got, and maybe I won't tell the baron you've been COMPLETELY useless."

Ginny darted over to her workstation, gesturing Rhuno to follow, then pulled out a sheet of parchment covered in schematics and laid it out on the table. "Okay, so, this is my design for the Moletronic Barrier Construction Unit 3200. The idea is, we make bunch of these, they drill down where we want the shoreline to be, then expand and interlock, forming a waterproof barrier." the pink-haired gnome explained.

"Okay... So why haven't you turned this in?" Rhuno asked.

Ginny frowned. "Well... The problem is, the barrier will protect the earth behind it, but the material's not actually all that waterproof itself. Seawater is REALLY corrosive, and since the barrier's buried, it can't be easily cleaned or maintained. ..." She explained, then shook her head. "Look, I'm really close, I just need to figure out the right alloy! I'd be done by now if she wasn't always getting her stuff in my workspace!" She added, jabbing an accusing finger at Glitz.

Glitz looked ready to swing at the gnome, but Rhuno moved a huge, three-fingered hand between them. "Just... show me what you have, alright?"

Glitz huffed, before going back over to her side of the lab and gesturing to a test tube full of purplish goo. "Right, so, this is Resin #9. Completely seawater-proof, non-biodegradable, inedible, adheres to almost anything. Dip something in this and throw it in the sea, and it'll still be there in a thousand years. This stuff will stop the erosion in its tracks." She explained, smugly.

Rhuno arched an eyebrow. "...But?"

Glitz bit her lip. "...But I can't figure out how to disperse it deep enough. It's too thick and dries too fast to be pumped through normal pipes, and unless I can ensure solid coverage over a large area, it' s just gonna crumble apart and get washed out to sea." She confessed.

Rhuno opened his mouth to comment, but was abruptly cut off by Ginny pushing past him to step up to the table. "Wait wait wait, does this stuff actually work?"

Glitz bristled visibly at her rival's proximity, but was clearly taken off-guard by the gnome's query. "Well, uh, yeah."

"What's the viscosity?" Ginny pressed

"Um... 1.3 Thiccs. Increasing after air contact, of course." Glitz replied.

"That's, what, pudding-ish?"

"Like, a softish pudding, yeah."

"Well, I've worked with worse."

"Wait, so, are you thinking-"

"I think it might work."

"How big are your... things, again? Fully expanded."

"Two feet by a foot and a half by three inches deep, roughly rectangular."

"Hold on, that's... fucking imperial units... Do they have the torque to haul the extra weight?"

"Hmm... That might be tricky. If the resin prevents the corrosion, the barrier won't need to be nearly as thick..."

"How would they disperse the resin, anyways?"

"Oh, yeah... Delicate piping and moving parts are always a tricky combination."

"Wait, the barrier part unfolds from the main body, then interlock, right?"

"Right."

"Could you add an applicator to the main body that would apply a layer of resin to the plates as they unfold?"

"Ooh, that might do it! And we could get away with a smaller reservoir, too! It'd have to be-"

Rhuno silently, gingerly stepped back, wordlessly extracting himself from the conversation that had rapidly moved far beyond his ability to follow, leaving him behind without a second thought. He couldn't follow exactly what the girls were planning, but this was already the longest he'd seen them talk to each other without hurling insults, or objects, for that matter. He had thought all chances of these two working together had died, but the last dying ember of hope in his heart now glowed once again. It was a small and fragile hope, but still, it warmed his soul, and with care and gentle nurturing, its flame could burn brightly once more. A gentle smile spread across his lips as he stood back, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched the two discuss the technical details. It just went to show, there was always hope for peace and cooperation, even amid the most bitter of conflicts. Perhaps the impossible dream of peace in a world of war wasn't so impossible after all...

"Wait, YOUR idea? YOUR little toys would be useless without MY brilliant-"

Rhuno snapped out of his reverie, rushing forward to intervene as Glitz jabbed a finger into Ginny's chest. There was still work to be done, it seemed.

---

Rhuno gripped the metal spike in one calloused, three-fingered hand, raised it high, then swung with all his strength, bringing it sweeping down into a brutal horizontal stab, driving it deep into the tough material and giving it a sharp twist at the end. Then he let go, leaving the spike planted there, and stepped back, watching with baited breath. Finally, a trickle of amber liquid began to pour forth, and Rhuno laughed, his voice a booming rumble like distant thunder across the plains. Glitz and Ginny both wore expressions of surprise, Ginny's mixed with glee and Glitz' with dismay. The tauren wore a broad, triumphant grin as he stepped forward again, reaching out, one hand turning off the spigot he'd just driven in as the other grabbed the first pitcher of pale ale from the freshly-tapped keg.

Ginny stepped forward too, marvelling at the barrel, one small hand coming up to touch the rough oak surface. "Looks like you lost, Glitz!"

Glitz' expression turned to one of amused, begrudging acceptance as she reached into her pocket, but Rhuno simply grinned. "I warned you, I used to do it all the time! Made a lot of gold off new crusaders with that trick. Not a lot to do in northrend except fight and drink." He added, leaning against a wall as he raised the pitcher to his lips and took a swig.

When Rhuno lowered the pitcher again, the foam clung to his upper lip in a pale moustache. Glitz giggled a bit as she fished out a coin and flipped it haphazardly in Rhuno's general direction. The shining disk arced gracefully through the air, only to land with an undignified splash in his pitcher of ale. There was a half a moment of silence, then all three cracked up, giggling and laughing as the golden disk sank through the amber liquid to settle at the bottom.

Ginny shook her head as the giggle-fit wore off. "Ohh, wow... I think finding that funny means I'm officially drunk."

Glitz giggled again, shaking her head. "How can somebody with 'Gin' in their name be such a lightweight?"

"Hey!" Ginny objected as she poured herself another gnome-sized glass of ale. "First..." She began, gesturing at the two now-empty kegs that had preceded this one. "...That's a lot of alcohol! And second, Ginnfizzle is a perfectly normal name that has nothing to do with alcohol! My mom was named Ginnfizzle!" She explained, then paused, looking thoughtful, before muttering "...Though, grandpa did own a bar, and she was working there when dad met her..."

Glitz giggled uncontrollably at that revelation, tipping backward until she fell off her stool, hitting the floor with a dull thump, still laughing. "A bar wench! YOU'RE a bar wench's daughter? Fuck, the apple must've rolled a LONG way from the tree!"

"Mom was NOT a bar-wench!" Ginny pouted, then paused, the full comment percolating through the haze of alcohol. "...Hey, wait, what's that supposed to mean?"

Glitz wiped at the corners of her eyes as she pushed herself up off the floor. "Ginny. Honey." She began. "You know yer shit with machines and wires an' crap, sure... but you are SO stiff and awkward." She explained.

"I'm not stiff!" Ginny objected, planting her hands on her hips as she scowled at Glitz, looking inescapably like a child mid-tantrum.

Glitz shook her head as she sat up fully. "Yer stiff as a board right now! You talk stiff, you walk stiff, you act stiff! You'd be a terrible bar wench!" Glitz replied. "Wenches gotta be relaxed, they gotta be flexible, an' graceful, an' sexy! Like dancers, but they gotta talk to people too." She explained, sagely, giving her arms an illustrative wiggle.

"I am NOT stiff!" Ginny reiterated, scowling a little harder. "Look!" She exclaimed, lifting her mostly-full glass to her lips and chugging its contents, before slamming the empty vessel down on the table. Hands now empty, she raised them up over her head, closed her eyes and took a breath, before popping up onto her toes, arms arched up around her head in a classical ballet pose. She began to spin, slowly at first, then faster, mincing her way across the room with tiny steps, her poofy pink pigtails trailing through the air as she spun. Suddenly, she leapt forward, arms and legs stretched out forward and back as she soared through the air as gracefully as a gnome could. She landed on her toes and carried the momentum into a spin, keeping arms and legs extended as she arched her back to maintain her balance, before drawing them in as she pulled herself upright, spinning faster as she did so. Then, suddenly, she stopped, setting the other toe down, and giving a flourishing bow in Rhuno and Glitz' general direction, with only a tiny bit of a wobble.

Rhuno's eyes widened slightly as he looked at the gnome, Ginny's s loose, lightweight undershirt hanging forward, the low neckline suddenly revealing much more of the gnome's cleavage than it was probably supposed to. He'd been too busy trying to stop the girls from killing one-another to really notice their figures, but now that things had calmed down, he had to admit, Ginny had some nice curves... She had thick, juicy thighs, wide, rounded hips and squared shoulders, her silhouette pinched in the middle at her relatively slender waist. And then there were her breasts, enormous, full, pillowy-soft-looking mounds almost as big as her head that swayed and wobbled with each movement, large enough that, together, they were wider than her chest.

Glitz gave a golf clap. "Impressive... But that doesn't prove anything." the goblin commented with a wry smirk

"What!?" Ginny demanded, straightening up with a huff. She stumbled slightly, momentarily light-headed as the chugged ale caught up with her.

"Ballet is, like, the stiffest kind of dancing you can do! It's all poses and posture and 'oh, you can't do THAT'." Glitz explained, taking another drink. "Besides, you don't see people doin' ballet in a bar, do ya?." She added.

Ginny furrowed her brow, looking confused. "I... I don't go to a lot of bars. What DO they dance like?"

Glitz pushed herself up off the floor, chugging the last dregs of her glass before setting it on the stool she'd been in just recently. "Lemme show ya." She grinned, then took a step forward. As she walked out onto the impromptu dance floor, her step turned into a strut, her shoulder rolling, her hips swaying side-to-side as they got into the rhythm of the movement. Her half-dozen earrings gleamed in the light, and she turned to glance at rhuno with a soft smirk, her full, teal-painted lips matching her short-cropped hair. Then she stopped, closing her eyes, and began to dance in place, her entire body rolling in a wave from head to toe, grinding against the air, arms up at her sides as she danced to a beat only she could hear. She dipped down, hands on her thighs as she bent her knees and arched her back, popping her hips up and down and side to side, the angle of her torso thrusting her chest out proudly.

Rhuno let his eyes linger on Glitz as she danced. Where Ginny was soft and curvy, Glitz was firm and slender. She had shapely legs, with a notable gap between her slim thighs, a tight, sculpted backside mounted on modest, but still obviously feminine hips. Those hips lead smoothly into a slender waist with a hint of abs visible on her flat stomach, which in turn led smoothly into a relatively narrow ribcage. Her slender build made her bust seem all the more incredible, twin massive, perky emerald orbs, seemingly defying gravity as they stood out from her chest proudly, a mountainous bust nearly as large as Ginny's.

Ginny watched Glitz too. At first, the gnome watched with crossed arms and a subtle frown, then her expression shifted to curiosity and her arms fell to her side as she watched the goblin dance. Suddenly, her eyes narrowed with suspicion, and after a moment of consideration, she stepped forward. Glitz opened her eyes, spotting the approaching gnome a split second before a pair of small hands reached out, roughly groping the green-skinned woman's impressive tits. Glitz froze, too stunned by the gnome's bold move to react. Ginny squeezed the abundant goblin tit-flesh once, then twice, staring intently at the mountainous mounds all the while, before shifting her gaze up to lock eyes with Glitz, her own narrowed. "...These are FAKE!" the gnome accused, sounding as serious and grave as if she were declaring war.

Glitz blinked, re-stunned by the accusation for a moment before straightening up to her full height, perhaps six inches taller than her pink-haired opponent. "Hey, they're not fake! I grew them myself!" She objected. "...Maybe there was a little... chemical assistance." she admitted, reluctantly. "But they're still REAL." She insisted.

Ginny made no move retreat, or even let go of her rival's massive mammaries. "Then they're not real! That's cheating!" She condemned.

"Oh, please, like you didn't have help getting knockers like these?" Glitz countered, suddenly reaching forward to grope Ginny in return. Her expression of indignant annoyance faded as her emerald fingers sank deep into the gnome's bountiful bust, turning to surprise with a hint of awe. "Fuck, yours ARE real!"

Ginny stood up a little straighter, pushing her chest out proudly, inadvertently pushing them more strongly into the goblin's grasp. "Of course they're real! I don't cheat. Besides, nobody like boobs that are hard as rocks." She commented, smugly.

Glitz narrowed her eyes, squeezing the gnome's chest a little harder. "Oh, yeah? Well, I certainly haven't had any complaints." She shot back, smugly. "Natural is overrated. I'd rather have perfect, perky tits than floppy 'natural' ones like these!"

"Floppy!? Do these look floppy to you?!" She demanded, backing up a step to haul her top up, revealing those soft, milky-white orbs in all their glory, the pillowy mounds bouncing and jiggling for ages as they settled into place, the half-sunken, pale pink nipples crowning each pillowy peak pebbling at the kiss of cool air.

"Compared to these babies? Yes!" Glitz shot back, retaliating in kind by yanking her own top up to reveal her twin emerald globes, the perfectly perky spheres perched proudly on her narrow torso, capped in long, thick, forest green nipples that begged to be sucked, pierced through with gleaming golden barbells.

Rhuno cleared his throat as he leaned against the back wall. "Um, girls?" He called, drawing their attention to remind them they weren't alone.

Ginny's cheeks immediately flushed red, her hands shooting up to her chest to cover her nipples, her massive melons bulging out around her palms, her shirt forgotten in her moment of panic. Glitz, however, simply glanced in his direction, a wicked grin spreading across her full, turquoise-painted lips. "Hey, big guy! You like tits, don't you?" She asked, sauntering closer, a predatory look in her eyes, her huge, perfectly-shaped breasts bouncing with each step. She glanced at the crotch of his frostsilk underclothes and her grin grew a little wider. "Oooh, it looks like you do... So you can settle this for us. Would you rather have a pair of perfect, perky tits like these-" she inquired, her hands coming up to caress the slopes of her emerald globes seductively, before gesturing half-heartedly in Ginny's direction. "-or a couple of fat, saggy boobs like those?"

Ginny gasped, indignant at the unflattering description her rival offered. Apparently, her competitive spirit was enough to overcome whatever portion of her sense of shame she hadn't already drowned in alcohol, and she pushed forward, shouldering Glitz aside to present herself before the tauren judge. "I- I'm sure any REAL man would naturally prefer REAL, soft, all-natural breasts..." She commented, her hands moving off her nipples, moving to cup and heft the soft, pillowy mounds of titflesh, making them bounce and jiggle before his eyes, before shooting Glitz a glare over her shoulder. "...To a pair of fakes that are hard as rocks."