Male Inflation

The sea was a vast blue expanse broken only by wavering shafts of sunlight dappling the gleaming coral below. Through it moved a lone scuba diver, kicking steadily with long, practiced strokes, streams of bubbles curling lazily from his regulator and floating upward toward a surface he could no longer see.

He crested the edge of a reef, one gloved hand brushing lightly along the stone as he pulled himself forward. He gasped, sending out a puff of bubbles into the water. There, hovering just beyond the ridge, was a girl. Not another diver…A mermaid!

The refinery loomed in the dark, a monolith of steel and shadows, its towers belching smoke into the sky. Astrid Thorsdottir, Valkyrie and warrior, crouched behind a pile of scrap metal, her sharp eyes scanning the heavy iron doors. Clad in close-fitting leather armor that did nothing to conceal her curves, she squatted, her enchanted spear rested against her shoulder, its runes glinting faintly in the dim light. Inside, her girlfriend was held captive by Malthorax, a notorious wizard, and his coven of grotesquely bloated warlocks.