Conquest

by Felix von Falkenlust

  The archer tried to get some distance and nock an arrow, but the orc grabbed her with a huge long arm and raised his axe in the air with a menacing growl.

  I knew the orc was dangerous, easily more powerful than me, but I couldn’t just stand by and watch a hot girl get chopped in half. I cleared ten feet in a second and left the ground in a big leap, my mace high in the air.

  Powerful though my opponent might have been, he didn’t have eyes in the back of his head. My mace came down with a violet glow and landed with a sickening crunch on the orc’s skull. It fell to the ground, lifeless.

  The archer caught her breath and then smiled nervously. “Thanks. I thought I was about to be naked and weaponless.”

  “I like the sound of that first part.”

  She smiled, her nerves recovered. “Well, you’ve sure earned your chance to see th—”

  Her mouth froze and her eyes widened in panic. I turned to follow her gaze and then my eyes and mouth mirrored hers.

  The orc was rising from the ground. Not naked. Not weaponless.

  That last fact troubled me, because the next thing I knew the orc’s axe swung at me in a wide arc. I jumped back like a cat but the blade breezed against my skin, splitting it open like a razor. My armor did nothing. “Shit!”

  I stepped back, adrenaline surging. Now that I’d lost the element of surprise, I didn’t have a chance. The axe sailed at me again and I put out my mace for a block—and the axe sliced clean through the metal.

  I felt the blood drain from my face as the orc snorted, and in a monstrous voice said, “Hope you got an extra life, loser!”

  And then the axe shot out toward my head.

  I tried to jump back, but I wasn’t fast enough, and yet the big blade never landed. A white burst of light sent the blade back the way it came, and as the orc stumbled back I turned to see my savior.

  “Elise!”

  “Hi!” A ball of pure white light formed between her open hands and grew, and the intensity of the light grew with it until I could hardly look, and then she fired it at the orc.

  The ball hit with an explosion of white, and the orc fell to the ground covered in smoke. I watched slack-jawed as the orcken features and huge muscles shrank down until they became human, human and small, until a skinny guy sprawled naked on the ground.

  “Damn it,” the former orc said in a very different voice.

  Elise stepped up to look down at the hacker. “Looks like Sexbury just got a new decoration for its gate.”

  “Aw, man. . . .”

  “Why would anyone who looks like you in real life want to screw up your chance to play Conquest?” She turned to me. “The Sexbury sheriff will be here in a couple minutes, but if you want to get a few good punches in . . .”

  I smiled and lifted the hacker off the ground easily with my left hand, and with my right hand I pummeled his face. It felt kinda weird hitting a little naked dude, but I was pissed that he broke my weapon. But to impress the archer, I said, “That’s for trying to kill a beautiful lady.”

  The archer smiled and said, “No, this is for trying to kill a beautiful lady. . . .”

  She planted a boot right in his balls and the hacker squealed like a pig.

  “If you want to meet me at the Inn of Frolicking Faeries later tonight, I’ll be happy to show you my gratitude.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  The sheriff appeared with his men and as they dragged the hacker naked and screaming down the street toward the gate, I walked with Elise. “I didn’t know there were orcs in this game.”

  “There aren’t. It’s a mod.”

  “You’re a mod,” I said, pretending to insult her.

  “Shut up. You know what I mean. So many hackers just love to be orcs. They could make a hot-rodded warrior mod and score with a ton of women before they get caught, but do they do that? No, they play as orcs and kill other players for fun.”

  “They should make a game for them so they don’t have to bother us. They could call it ‘Dungeon Orcs,’ or for short, ‘Dorcs.’”

  Elise smiled at my stupid joke and then we saw Anna coming out of a tavern, her face flushed with something more than ale. She looked radiant, more exotically beautiful than ever, the curve of her hips even more pronounced, her chest even bigger.

  “Greetings,” she said, exertion audible in her breath.

  “You look great,” I said. “Did you level something up?”

  She inclined her stunning face.

  “Aye, warrior. I have reached new levels of every aspect. You now look upon a Ten.”

  Chapter Forty-one

  “ANNA’S a Ten now,” I said to myself as I walked to the Inn of Frolicking Faeries. “Bob’s a Ten, and Elise is a fricking Eleven. And I’m only a measly Nine. . . .”

  It’s ridiculous that I was complaining, when I had the face of a movie star and the body of a classic bodybuilder, not to mention the fact I had scored with more women than I ever could have imagined. But with all my companions above me I felt like I would drag the team down on our quest. I didn’t even have a weapon now, apart from the little level-six dagger on my belt. It wasn’t even magic.

  But I couldn’t complain too much, because I was en route to hook up with a Ten, in every sense of the word. Or number. Or whatever.

  I walked into the inn and the proprietress shuffled up to me with a bow.

  “How may I accommodate thee, oh honorable fighting man?”

  “I’m looking for an archer. A Ten. Auburn hair, skimpy costume, tight little body . . .” I was getting wood just thinking about her.

  The innkeeper looked disappointed. “What you need is a merchant-class woman,” she insisted, sticking her big chest out at me.

  “Oh, that would be just swell, and I’d be happy to stop by sometime if you happen to know a merchant who’s willing, but right now I need a level-ten archer, because I want to reach Level Ten too, plus she’s smoking hot.”

  “All right, all right. Up the stairs, last room on the right. But you come back, you hear? I’ve always got room for a Nine or a Ten.”

  “You got it,” I promised, and gave a pat on the rear before I headed upstairs.

  I went up the stairs and down the dark hallway. I stood in front of the door for a second, a pleasant excitement rising in my chest. The old Ace Singleton would have been virtually crippled by nervousness, but Karl savored the sweet tension a moment and then gave the door a confident knock.

  I heard the boards inside the room creak, a bolt slide, and then the door opened. Nobody stood in the open doorway, but I heard the slightest giggle behind the door. I stepped into the room, pretending to be disappointed.

  “Curses! The wench has disappeared. I guess I’ll just have to get in her bed and jack off.”

  At the sound of the laughter behind me, I turned with a smile. My smile widened when the door swung back to reveal the archer, minus clothing.

  I stared at her body, her lithe limbs toned, her waist slender, and her breasts small and firm. The muscles of her stomach showed in well-sculpted detail, and my eyes dipped down below to take in a smoothly shaved mound. She had chosen the smallest body type, and with great effect. She pulled her deep brown hair from the ponytail and let it fall loose down her back. Her eyes, also a deep brown, held mine.

  “Thanks for coming.”

  “Don’t thank me yet.” I pulled off my loincloth and stepped out of my boots, but I left my wrist guards on for effect.

  The archer stepped to me, embraced me with a kiss, and then sank down to a crouch and immediately began to show her gratitude.

  I looked down and watched her beautiful head move, her lovely lips dragging wet over me. I closed my eyes, overcome by the sensation. I didn’t want her to stop, I wanted to feel her lips until the very end.

  “I shall finish,” I warned her—not so that she could take her face away, but so she knew what to expect.

  Her head bobbed faster, eager and hungry, and her tongue ran wet and firm over my tin
gling skin and the feelings grew until the point of no return and I burst into her mouth with such intensity that I could hardly stand.

  She looked up with a grin and said, “Thanks for coming.”

  I smiled and said, “Though I have finished, I have not finished with you.”

  I pulled her up from the floor and set her on the bed and I kissed my way down one of those slender thighs until I came to the center, and then I kept kissing. With my lips and tongue I returned the climatic favor, earning myself a healthy dose of EP in the process.

  “More,” she whispered breathlessly. “Inside me.”

  I flipped her over like a steak, her tight ass sticking up and her head on the pillow, and I slid deep inside her. She felt tiny in my big hands, next to my huge arms and thighs, and I smashed into her with a barbaric passion, relishing her squeals of joy. As her voice rose, so did the speed and power of my thrusts, and just as I feared I was being too rough she cried, “Harder!” and I rammed into her like a machine as I squeezed her little breasts and then she squeezed back from inside with a wail of ecstasy and finally I gave a deep grunt and unleashed my own joy inside her with a frenzy of deep thrusts.

  I collapsed next to her tight little body, sliding my thick arm under her head, and she smiled at me with those brown eyes a second before her eyelids shut.

  * * *

  I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep until I woke up. The archer was still asleep next to me. I thought, Crap, I’m supposed to meet the others in front of our inn! They’ll be waiting for me.

  I slipped into my loincloth and boots, then noticed I had never taken my wrist guards off. I quietly closed the door and hurried down the steps and then trotted through the foyer by the light of the hearth.

  “Jeez, can’t they open a shutter or two?” I said as I sped out the door. “You’d think it was the middle of the—”

  I stopped and stared. It was totally dark outside.

  “—night.”

  I jerked back to try and catch the door, but it closed with an ominous thud. I yanked on the handle. It didn’t open.

  “Shit.”

  I pounded on the door, but nobody answered. I turned back to the street

  I was alone, outside in a high-level city at night, with no weapon other than the little dagger.

  I was fucked.

  Chapter Forty-two

  THE street appeared empty. I saw nothing, heard nothing. But seeing wasn’t so easy, because the moon was just a slim crescent, giving little light to penetrate the shadows. I stepped tentatively away from the door of the inn, drawing my dagger and feeling like a fool with the pathetically short blade.

  But then, I guess I was a fool, because I should have bought a new weapon the minute I lost my mace. Well, I thought, at least if something here kills me I won’t lose more than this knife.

  But I would lose all my armor and clothes, and all my gold to buy new gear. I should have put some of the money in the bank, but I really didn’t foresee my current situation.

  If I end up respawning in this city, I thought, how am I ever going to level up? Walking around naked won’t hurt when it comes to earning AP, but how the hell am I gonna get more EP if I don’t have a weapon to fight with and I don’t have any gold to buy a weapon?

  I scanned the shadows, my body tense and ready, but I saw nothing in the street and nothing in the side streets that I passed.

  I murmured to myself, “Is it possible there aren’t any monsters in this city?”

  I glanced at my palm. I knew I should have enough Attraction points to level up my Body or Size, but there was no point doing that now.

  Experience: 59700

  Attraction: 49900

  Stamina: 221

  Health: 450 (Max)

  Gold: 2577

  Magic: 272

  “Wait, what the . . .” I stared at the numbers glowing in the dark, confused. And then it hit me: although the hacker orc came back to life after I killed him, I must have still gotten credit for it—and he must have been a Ten.

  I didn’t waste any time leveling up Strength. I transferred the EP and my arms and chest and thighs swelled out to epic proportions. I was huge.

  I felt like I could lift a pickup truck but I still doubted I was strong enough to take out a high-level monster with my little dirk. I felt even less confident when a big form rushed out of the side street to my right.

  It was a warrior, but that fact offered little relief, because he stumbled out into the street covered in blood and then fell with a groan. I rushed to his side, my eyes on the space between the two buildings from which he emerged, but I saw nothing. I kneeled to the warrior.

  “Are you okay?”

  He looked up at me with despair and pain on his face.

  “Don’t . . . tr—ughhh. . . .” The life vanished from his eyes.

  “Well, at least I have a weapon now,” I said, reaching for the sword he had dropped. “Crap!”

  I couldn’t lift it. It was a level-ten sword. I unleashed a whispered volley of foul language, my eyes locked on the narrow street the guy had stumbled out of. What the hell had he encountered?

  I stood, and then I noticed a welcome sight. A black-robed figure in the middle of a dark street sounds like a very unwelcome sight, but with the pointed hat and long white hair coming out from under it, I recognized the robe as that of a tenth-level wizard. And I had only seen one such hat in this town so far.

  I hurried to the wizard and, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention from the dark side streets, waited until I was a few yards away to call out.

  “Bob!”

  He turned, and my heart stopped beating because a cold hand reached inside my chest and squeezed it.

  It wasn’t Bob.

  It wasn’t anyone. It was a darkness I could see right through, like a negative light under the hat, and it looked at me with eyes I couldn’t really see. The white hair and beard fell away, the strands swirling together into clumps as they glided toward the ground, and I almost screamed when I saw the clumps of hair turn into white snakes.

  I saw the black robe and hat fall away as I turned to run, and I heard the hiss of a hundred snakes slithering behind me in the dark street. I felt one bite at my ankle, a hint of a green flash in my periphery suggesting my magic armor had repelled it. Without checking my speed I glanced over my shoulder and saw the transparent black form drifting ominously toward me, seemingly slow and fast at once. The air grew colder the closer it came, and I put my new boots to the test to put more distance between me and the horrible thing that followed.

  I had outrun the snakes, but not the real threat. I didn’t for a second consider attacking with the little dagger. With my Strength and Attack at Ten, the weapon was the only weak link in my damage-dealing potential, yet somehow I sensed any weapon would be useless without magic. My only thought was to run as fast as I could until daybreak, though with the evil chill signaling the thing was right behind me I had little hope. Then I remembered:

  “The axe!”

  I’d left it strapped to the donkey in the stables. If I could just make it there, maybe I’d have the slightest chance. With the cold air at my back I tore down the street. Something hit me in the shoulder and green flashed in the corner of my eye but I didn’t turn, I just kept running and at last I saw the stables at the end of the shadowy street.

  A five-foot-high gate barred the way but I leapt over it with a grunt, landed next to the donkey, and yanked the axe free. Feeling the cold grow behind me, I whipped around and lashed out with the axe, which connected to the shadowy form with a flash of magic. I saw at once it had at least some effect. It was a poor weapon to bring to a party like this, but I wasn’t going out without a fight.

  I hopped onto the gate and jumped down and brought my axe onto the thing’s head. The dark shape offered no resistance, but it reacted as if injured. I pressed my attack hard, hacking and slashing, driving the thing back and giving it no time to work its evil magic, and I knew it weakened, I s
aw the subtle fading of the shadow that told me I almost had it and a surge of exhilaration filled me as I realized I might actually survive the night.

  And then my axe ran out of magic.

  I swung down without the faintest glow, and the blade sailed through the massless form without a hint of reaction from the shadowy fiend. Without magic, my axe did nothing.

  The thing’s transparent black hand shot out to my neck. Shadowy black fingers squeezed my throat, and though my armor gave an electric sparkle of green light, the thing’s grip was like ice and a horrible life-draining chill spread from its fingers, the cold sinking down into my chest with fatal certainty.

  My vision started to fade, my hands went numb, my breathing slowed. And then the hand at my neck slackened. I held on to my senses long enough to see the black shadow in front of me dissolve into a cloud of black smoke, which soon drifted away into nothing.

  It was all I could do to stay on my feet. My head was cold and dizzy, my arms and legs weak and numb. I stared at the spot where the evil shadow had been, completely confused. Slowly, I lifted my left hand.

  Experience: 74000

  Attraction: 49900

  Stamina: 82

  Health: 12

  Gold: 2577

  Magic: 350 (Max)

  I stared at my palm as if working on a really hard math problem. My Health was extremely low; I must have been seconds away from death. But, despite using all the axe’s magic, my Magic was full. And I had a shitload of EP.

  I had killed the thing. My axe had become useless, and the thing had locked me in a death grip, but somehow it had died. Then it hit me: my armor had killed it.

  I must have gotten the thing so close to death with the axe that the magic from my armor, triggered by the creature’s attack, had finished the job. Not a moment too soon.