by Neven Iliev
And now that it was starting to clear up, Kora looked down at the buxom succubus beneath her. All of the broken bones and bruises she’d inflicted on Xera – both prior to and during the lewd act – had healed up, leaving her in perfect physical condition. It also seemed like she’d recovered from her own sex-fuelled craze much faster than Kora, as evidenced by the staff she was pointing directly at the shocked fiend’s face.
Technically speaking, the duel hadn’t quite ended yet.
“Fireball!”
The direct point-blank hit to the face engulfed Kora’s head in flames, knocking it backwards. She yelled in rage and pain but had trouble moving her body on account of it being weakened so much by the blue-skinned pervert. A second Fireball came moments later, robbing the last vestiges of her HP and killing her while still joined with the succubus.
Xera then finally caught her breath. Even if her body had recovered its HP, her stamina was another story. She wallowed in the soggy dirt for a while before standing up and stretching her sore body while the fiend’s physical shell evaporated into thin air. She then dressed herself with a snap of her fingers – or at least as ‘dressed’ as one could be in fetish wear like hers – and walked over to where the Mimic was sitting.
“Master, the duel is over,” she said matter-of-factly.
The animate chest sprouted some weird noodle-like appendages from its underside and tipped over backwards. It seemed it had grown bored of their antics and fell asleep without realising it. After all, it had a full belly and was basking in the warm sun while sitting on the soft grass. It had even found the rhythmic slapping of flesh its familiars made while pounding each other to be oddly calming, almost hypnotic. All things considered, it was almost inevitable that it would end up dozing off under these circumstances.
Boxxy still had a ways to go before it conquered sleeping.
Still, now that it was awake and rested, it wanted to get back on the road. It righted itself and promptly summoned back Kora. Once it confirmed they were both done with their little grudge match, it ordered them to continue escorting it and went on its merry way.
“Argh!” groaned Kora once they started walking again. “I can’t believe I lost to you! This sucks!”
“W-well,” stammered Xera. “To be perfectly honest, it felt more like a draw to me.”
“Huh? What the shit are you talking about? You killed me, didn’t you?”
“That did happen, yes. However, while I may have triumphed over you as a demon, I also completely lost to you as a woman.”
Much like Xera was Kora’s first succubus, the opposite was also true. Xera had never had intercourse with a fiend before and she was surprised to find just how much she enjoyed the violent act. That blasted chest may have been the cause of her new ‘eccentricities,’ but it was this fiend that had inadvertently helped her come to terms with that new side of herself.
Therefore, she had no qualms admitting that Kora had managed to completely satisfy her in every way imaginable. Admittedly, that was only because the fiend was incredibly rough and abusive, but that was precisely what got Xera off. So much so that she decided to cast away the last vestiges of her pride and dignity and fully give in to those newfound carnal desires. After all, the main reason she came to this world was to have fun, so there was really no reason to deny herself that sort of pleasure.
Kora crossed her arms and frowned. “I don’t get it. How do you lose as a woman?”
Xera let out a sigh. For a moment she’d forgotten just how dense fiends could be. There was no way her co-contractor would be able to determine what she was trying to say if she used roundabout means. Since playing coy wasn’t going to get through Kora’s thick skull, Xera took the direct approach.
“I’m saying I really enjoyed it when you pushed me down and fucked my brains out.”
“Good for you, Slutty McSlutface. I had a good bit of fun too.”
“Then how about giving it another go sometime?”
“ … You know what, I was thinking the same thing. I’ve never cum like that before; it was pretty intense. Your head’s more rotten than a year-old tomato, but you got a juicy cunt that just won’t quit.”
“I could say the same about you and your dumb-as-rocks-brain. Plus, your breath smells like brimstone and your movements are about as graceful as a drunk hippo. In fact, your cock’s the only halfway decent thing about you. It would be best for everyone involved if you could just disappear but leave that dick behind.”
Xera’s snide attitude immediately made Kora’s already short temper flare up. If that bitch wanted to get wrecked so much, then she was certainly in the right place. Sure, she’d be giving her what she wanted, but it would still make the fiend feel better.
“Master! Requesting permission to punch the bitch in the face and then rape her in the pussy! Not necessarily in that order!”
Boxxy, who was currently contemplating whether the left or right side of a human was more delicious, simply shrugged its non-existent shoulders.
“Only if you can do that while walking.”
“Oh, that’s fine then,” said Kora. She cracked her knuckles, meeting Xera’s trademark grin with a toothy smile of her own. “I’m sure I’ll find a way.”
Part Two
“Dark Explosion ~♪!”
There was a swirling of dust, shadows, and sparkling particles. A few seconds passed and a small object materialized out of thin air. It was a twelve-sided polygonal shape, also known as a dodecahedron, which appeared to be made out of thick, clear glass. Inside the ten centimetre wide object was a small, twisting cloud of pitch-black smog that looked as if someone had bottled a tiny typhoon. The conjured item floated in place while spinning around slowly in no particular direction.
Boxxy’s imitation Xera hand reached out and grasped the newly formed Spell Crystal. Its first impression was that holding it felt odd. It was definitely gripping something solid, but there was no other sensation to it. The tender fingers relayed no change in temperature and could not make out the texture of the thing they were touching, yet they clearly felt the pressure of something within their grasp. This would probably be what it was like to grasp solid air.
Still, it wasn’t slippery and had some heft to it, which made the Mimic a bit more confident about handling these things. It had already practised a few times by using the non-lethal Mass Panic Spell. It wasn’t like the damage from a single misfired Dark Explosion would kill it, but it would still hurt. The initial hit did as much as two Shadowbolts’ worth of damage and the concussive force that followed was not to be underestimated, either.
This was the first time the Mimic had attempted to use its latest Warlock-derived Skill on a damaging Spell, so it was quite pleased it went so swimmingly.
[Crystallize Magic]
Binds magic Spells to a more permanent form, allowing it to be stored for later use
Requirements: Level 15 Caster Job, INT 90, WIS 60
Type: Active
Activation Time: Instant
Cost: 0 MP
Range: Self
[Effects]
The next Area Effect Spell will have its MP Cost increased by 25%.
The next Area Effect Spell will be stored temporarily inside a conjured Spell Crystal.
Shattering a Spell Crystal will unleash the stored Area Effect Spell.
Spell Crystals will last up to 6 minutes per Level of this Skill before disappearing.
Learning the practical applications and limits of these Spell Crystals through trial and error filled Boxxy with a distinct feeling of satisfaction that bordered on tasty. It was so proud of itself for having fulfilled this basic task that the solidified piece of magic in its grasp actually looked surprisingly shiny. Not in the literal sense, but more in the ‘I can’t eat it but it still looks useful’ sort of way. Hence the smile on the imitation Xera’s lips. It was an innocent, happy smile that seemed to say all was right with the world – a goofy grin only matched by the times when it was playing
around with its gold coins.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t allow itself to play around. It had things it wanted to do. Besides, there would be plenty of time for recreational activities once its MP had been exhausted and it had to wait for it to recover.
“Arms,” it called telepathically, “stop playing with Snack and come here.”
“Aw man,” exclaimed Kora. “I was just getting to the good part!”
The fiend yanked violently on Xera’s silky hair, pulling the succubus’s head away from her groin. It was regrettable that the face-fucking was cut short, but it was a direct order so it couldn’t be helped. Kora retracted her absurdly sized member back inside her body, pulled up her short shorts and went over to see what her master wanted.
All things considered though, only a demon that was never satisfied would complain under the current circumstances. The two familiars had managed to work out a ‘standing sex order’ whereby they were allowed to engage in promiscuous activity whenever they were idle. Kora was even allowed to physically abuse the succubus for their mutual enjoyment, but only on the condition that Xera didn’t drop below three-quarters of her HP. They still had to ask special permission for the full-blown back-breaking, ball-busting, and bone-crushing sex since that always ended with one of them dead.
Boxxy did not care what those two did in their free time, but it had no intention to waste MP because of their shenanigans.
“I’m here, Master,” said Kora with a hint of frustration in her voice.
“Here, hold this.”
It tossed the crystallized Dark Explosion at her, and the fiend caught it deftly with one of her massive hands. She lifted it up to her face and looked at it curiously.
“Another one of these things, huh? This one seems a bit different though.”
A Spell Crystal’s transparent shell looked the same no matter what, but the captured magic within took on a different appearance depending on the Spell used. The Mass Panic ones the fiend had handled earlier contained a semi-transparent purple skull rather than the swirling vortex of pure darkness she was currently holding.
“Use it on Snack,” ordered Boxxy.
Kora glanced towards Xera, who was on her back some twenty metres away, wallowing in the dirt and gasping for air and sporting a black eye and broken collarbone.
“Alright,” answered Kora with a shrug. She wasn’t sure what that box was doing, but she didn’t really care, either. She mumbled something under her breath and threw the crystal at her target with a shout of “Hey, Slutinator!”
“Huh?”
The succubus lifted her head and turned her attention towards the fiend –
*THWACK*
– just in time for the Spell Crystal to hit her in the forehead. Her noggin recoiled from the impact and slammed back into the ground while the offending projectile ricocheted off it and flew straight up into the air.
“Think fast!” yelled Kora, well after the fact.
The fiend seemed quite pleased with her little prank, if the evil smile on her face was any indication. Then again, it would be really difficult for a fiend to make a non-evil smile. They loved to bare their sharp, pointy teeth so much that 90% of the time they gave off the impression they wanted to eat someone’s baby. Of course, that wasn’t actually true, as fiends had an appetite for destruction and bloodshed, not human flesh. Besides, even if they did, stringy infants that were gone in one or two bites would hardly be worth the annoyance caused by their tiny bones getting stuck between the teeth.
The point was that this toothy grin was indicative of Kora’s purpose, as she had a feeling her co-contractor would be annoyed by her actions. And judging from how the succubus sat back up and glared daggers at her seemed to prove Kora’s guess was right. Even if she had learned to embrace and savour the pain, Xera still wasn’t a fan of surprises like those. She was also equally unamused when the Spell Crystal that had bounced off her forehead seconds ago inevitably came back down. It broke apart the instant it touched the ground next to her and released the stored Dark Explosion Spell.
*Ka-PANNNN*
A black, barely visible shockwave over six metres in diameter radiated from within the shattered crystal at a speed too fast for the eye to track. The strength of the blast was enough to turn the slightly trampled ground into a small crater. As for the succubus, she took 253 HP worth of damage, but that wasn’t the end of it. Her surprisingly light body was flung through the air at such a low angle that it was almost parallel to the grassy ground. She flew for a dozen or so metres before bouncing once, then twice, and finally slamming to a stop face-first into a giant boulder.
“Whoa! I wonder if she’s still alive,” exclaimed Kora, though her inquiry was more out of curiosity than concern. Then she heard a throaty moan coming from Xera’s direction, which promptly reminded her exactly who it was that had been sent flying.
“Yeah, she’ll be fine,” was the obvious conclusion.
As for Boxxy, it was satisfied to confirm that a Spell Crystal’s magical fail-safes behaved the same regardless of the Spell used. Under normal circumstances, the conjured item remained inert and would not release the magic stored within no matter what. Even if it expired or was smashed open, which incidentally required a good deal of effort, all that would happen was that the stored Spell would fizzle out harmlessly.
The only way to make it explode was to chant a magical command word while holding it. Three seconds after doing so, the crystal would become armed and detonate the instant it came into contact with something solid. Therefore, the Mimic was free to keep them in its Storage or have its familiars carry them around without worry of personal injury. It just wished it knew about this stuff before picking up the Skill, because it felt like it had pointlessly agonized over having to decide between Crystallize Magic and Demonology.
Still, Arms was quite instrumental in delivering the big shiny thing to the place with the walls and the humans. If it wasn’t for that, then Boxxy wouldn’t have been able to reap all the tasty benefits of the subsequent explosion.
The next thing the Mimic did was check its Crystallize Magic and Ruin Mastery Skills, but neither had gained any proficiency. That was more or less to be expected, really. In essence, attacking its own familiars was like hitting itself, which wouldn’t confer an increase to Job or Skill Levels. It had to fight viable targets if it hoped to do that, but the problem was that there were no such things around. It had been travelling along this road for quite a few hours now, so it expected to see at least something it could murder the life out of.
Ironically, even though Boxxy had no way of knowing this, the current situation was more or less its own doing. Animals, monsters, and people alike in a large area around the former city of Monotal had either run away or hidden themselves in fear. A natural reaction considering that inexplicable yet terrifying explosion. The shockwave could be felt dozens of kilometres away and the blinding flash it produced went beyond even that. The top of the ominous mushroom cloud had also reached so high in the air that it was clearly visible on the horizon. The fact that the pale green gas seemed to be steadily expanding rather than clearing up was just another reason for the forest’s inhabitants to vacate the area out of fear.
Unfortunately for Boxxy, it had no way of deducing all this. That explosion was back then and happened way over there. It therefore failed to understand how it could possibly affect the here and now.
“Master?” said Kora, interrupting the animate chest’s train of thought. “What happens if you do the glowy thing while making those boom-bottles?”
“Glowy thing?”
“Yeah! Like when you become all like ‘khrakakakoom’ and then it’s all ‘bzzt bzzt bzzt’ and your magic becomes really fucking strong!”
“Ohhh!”
The Mimic hadn’t thought of combining its Skills like that until now. The MP cost was a bit prohibitive, but since its MP was back to full and there were no dangers around, it figured it might as well give it a shot. It activated Power
Overwhelming, allowing itself to be wrapped in an aura of volatile energy. This was immediately accompanied by the same feeling of unease it got every time it did so. The shapeshifter wasn’t sure why, but the lights and noises coming off its own body made it uncomfortable and agitated. Unsettled, even.
That was why it wasted no more time and activated Crystallize Magic, then immediately chanted its Spell.
“Dark Explosion ~♪!”
A whopping 770 MP was consumed over the span of a few seconds. The sudden strain on its MP pool was both disorienting and draining to the point where Boxxy staggered and nearly fell over. It had felt a similar sensation when it used every last drop of its MP to take down the Fleshmaiden from yesterday. It would seem this phenomenon wasn’t a fluke caused by its already exhausted and weakened state at the time, but a negative side effect it needed to be wary of.
The Spell Crystal was formed without issue, though. It looked exactly like the last one, only it had a tinier version of the Power Overwhelming Skill’s crackling aura mixed in with the swirling vortex inside the crystal. The Mimic grabbed it out of the air and handed it to Kora once again.
“Hehehe … I can’t wait to see this baby blow!” said the fiend with an expectant smile. “Okay, where do we –”
“Stand there and don’t move,” commanded the Mimic. It backed off to a distance of about fifteen metres. “Okay. Now turn it on and put it at your feet.”
Kora broke out in a cold sweat. It appeared to be her turn as the test subject. She unwillingly armed the crystal and dropped it on the ground next to her. She then realised that she could get away since her master hadn’t actually told her to –
“Stand still and let it hit you,” Boxxy ordered, seeming to predict what the fiend was about to do.