by Neven Iliev
Objectively speaking though, the difference between those two professions was paper thin. They all attacked their victims for personal gain and sometimes broke into their homes with the aim of robbing them blind. Pretty much the only thing that set them apart was that one group attacked monsters while the other chose people as their targets. One might argue adventurers served and protected the general public, but if they truly wished to do that they would have signed on as guards, soldiers or knights.
In short, saying banditry and adventuring were two sides of the same coin would not be too far removed from the truth. The two walks of life seemed to blur together on more than one occasion. It wasn’t unheard of to see actual bandits who were trying to escape their criminal past by starting anew as adventurers. Of course, the guilds would do background checks to weed them out, but it was inevitable some of them would slip through the cracks. Others would start as adventurers and end up as bandits simply because the power they gained went to their heads. There were even so-called ‘dark guilds’ that were essentially organized crime syndicates.
The four bandit-like adventurers had finally finished their discussion. Their leader would be the first to taste their new prize and Grabby would assist. The other two would have to patiently wait their turn while keeping watch. They then began to roughly violate the ‘unwilling’ girl in front of them. One pulled her down onto him while the other took her from behind.
Xera continued acting her part flawlessly as she screamed and struggled weakly while sandwiched between her two assailants. She made sure to wiggle her upper body as much as possible so that her breasts could sway back and forth in a wild manner. The arousing display combined with the demonically-enhanced stench of sex that permeated the men’s makeshift campsite created an atmosphere of utter debauchery.
Under such circumstances, it didn’t take long to goad the other two into joining the party. Even if they were supposed to be on watch, they were too weak willed to resist a succubus’s seductive presence. Xera used her lower body, mouth, hands and breasts to pleasure all four of them at once. She steadily robbed them of their reason, reducing them to nothing more than puppets who had no choice but to dance to her lewd tune.
Once the succubus was certain she had them completely under her control, she decided to stop wasting time and finish things off. She didn’t particularly care for the act itself. Succubi like herself craved semen and nothing more, seeing sex merely as a means to an end. While it was possible for them to feel pleasures of the flesh, such things paled in comparison to the sheer satisfaction and joy they felt when sucking the life out of their victims.
After making her mind up, Xera suddenly raised the intensity of her actions all at once, coaxing all four of her victims to simultaneous climax. Four streams of semen loaded with life force poured into her as if on cue. Two in her lower entrances and two more down her throat. The succubus merely hummed pleasantly around the man meat lodged in her mouth as she slowly sucked the very life out of her ‘assailants.’
The four of them were gradually turned to lifeless mummies over the next fifteen minutes. She then got up and prepared to dress herself, but was rudely interrupted.
“What are you doing, Snack?”
“Ack!?”
The succubus let out a stupid voice when she heard her master’s voice. She slowly turned around when she realized the Mimic was standing right next to her. It clearly saw her standing naked over the corpses of the four men she was supposed to interrogate.
“Uhm, I was,” she stammered,” that is…”
“No information?” it asked, almost accusingly.
“No, Master. They attacked me and I had to-”
SMACK
The Mimic hit her on the side of her head with one of the adventurers’ discarded weapons - a small one-handed mace. The force of the blow caused Xera to stagger and fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The damage inflicted was enough to instantly rob her of a third of her HP.
“Stupid!” it yelled at her. “Don’t lie!”
Of course it would realize it had been deceived. Not even it was that big of a moron. It had actually come back to check on her a few minutes ago and saw the bizarre scene of the men turning to skin and bones with her in the middle of them. It didn’t quite comprehend what was going on at first and wondered if it should interfere. But since Xera did not call for help it assumed there was no trouble.
Then the humans fell to the ground like a bundle of sticks while she was smiling widely to herself. At that point it was pretty clear she had killed these people completely on purpose. And now that it had a closer look, it could confidently say ‘devoured’ was more accurate.
“Did Snack just want to eat them?!” it pressed. The familiar seemed to hesitate as to what to say. So it forced her with an order. “Answer without lies!”
The contract meant orders had to be fulfilled to the best of her ability. While broad or unspecific orders could be taken advantage of, direct and simple ones like that were impossible to worm herself out of.
“Yes, Master,” she replied. “I just wanted to eat them.”
That was the truth of the matter. She wanted to devour these men for the simple purpose of having a bit of fun. The bit about squeezing information out of them was a plausible excuse, but nothing more.
“So my Snack lied to me?”
The succubus braced herself for the next hit.
“Yes, Master.”
However, the beating did not continue. She dumbly stared at the Mimic while it stood there idly with a bloodied mace in its tongue.
“Don’t lie to me again,” it continued. “Lying to me is bad. Very not tasty. So don’t!”
Xera dropped her shoulders and averted her gaze. Succubi lie and cheat all the time, it was within her nature. Deceiving people, especially her previous masters, was something Xera had done hundreds, possibly thousands of times with a confident smile on her face. Yet hearing it put in such a puerile and nonsensical way as ‘very not tasty’ somehow made her feel ashamed.
“Stupid!” it repeated. The succubus had to admit, being called that by this retarded chest was not exactly a good feeling.
“If you wanted to eat, you should have said so!”
Xera’s eyes widened. She turned to face her master with a shocked expression.
“Then… Master isn’t angry because I killed these men?”
“No. Snack wanted to eat, so Snack ate. That instinct is very tasty. Would have done the same.”
This was… praise? The tortured familiar could scarcely believe it, but this seemed to be the case.
Now that she thought about it, why did she even try to deceive it in the first place? Her current master was not a man, but a monster. Eating and murdering people was something it did on an almost daily basis, and with great gusto. Of course it would have no issue if its subordinate did the same. Therefore, she had absolutely no reason to hide her intentions from it in the first place.
“But lies were not tasty at all! So no more lies!” it demanded in a childish tantrum.
A faint smile drifted onto her bloodied face. Lies were not tasty. In other words, Xera would likely be allowed to do as she pleased as long as she properly stated her intentions. Being soulbound to a monstrous box was shaping up to be a much better arrangement than she had initially thought.
“Understood, Master. I will be more considerate in the future.”
But she forgot about one very important aspect of this ‘arrangement.’
“Good. Now is snack time!”
She had slighted a master who knew no compassion or mercy and had yet to be punished for it.
“Eh? Huh? But I- ” she tried to plead her case, but it was too late. The red tongue was already coiled around her feet while she was still on the ground. It pulled them into its open maw, dragging the succubus’s cushiony rump across the floor. She watched in abject horror as the mismatched rows of teeth slammed shut, biting her legs off in one move.
“Aa
aaaargh!” she screamed.
[You have been dismembered. HP -83.]
[Maximum HP reduced by 75.]
“My fucking legs! Nnnngh! Why is it always with the legs?! Haaaahn!”
She wailed in half-pain half-pleasure while rolling around on the ground. It was impossible to get used to the pain and shock of having her limbs violently ripped off no matter how many times it happened. The stumps of her legs let out crimson blood all over the floor, but not as much as one would expect. A demon’s body was a construct of flesh, muscle and bone. They did not possess a large number of the internal organs one would expect from a living being, like the heart, liver, kidneys or intestines. The blood they let out when injured was more or less decorative, too. They wouldn’t just up and die from having a leg or two chopped off, but it still hurt like a bitch.
That inhuman vitality was almost a curse in Xera’s case. It meant she wouldn’t get the brief reprieve of an easy ‘death’ that easily. Even then she’d just be resummoned and re-eaten time and time again until her master was satisfied.
Of course, this initial dismemberment was simply the beginning. The Mimic spent the next several minutes slowly and meticulously chewing on her various bits until she was banished back to the Beyond. Some weird juice squirted out from her lower half a few times during the process. The oblivious chest still had no idea what that was even though it happened regularly during snack time. It just assumed it was part of her being a demon and didn’t particularly mind it.
Why would it? The slimy liquid was just as sweet as the rest of her, after all.
Part Three
Xera was brought back to ‘life’ a mere ten seconds and 260 MP later. The succubus had fully prepared herself for yet more snack time, but it seemed like that wasn’t on the Mimic’s immediate agenda.
“Wait here,” it commanded.
“Yes, Master.”
It seemed that the Mimic would be using its corpse-related Skill on those four. It sat right next to the pile of corpses and a number of transparent purple tentacles appeared from its faux-wood surface. They pierced one of the bodies and swiftly drank what little remained of its flesh, leaving behind little more than a pile of chunky ash. It was a scene the succubus had seen multiple times, so she was loosely aware of what was going on, including the hefty MP cost of that weird Skill. That would explain why it didn’t want to devour her over and over right now - it would much rather eat those corpses than eat her.
Xera felt slightly irked at this realization. This wasn’t because she was disappointed that ‘snack time’ did not continue, okay? It’s not possible to be jealous of a bunch of dried up skeletons, alright? She just felt awkward that her master was taking her sloppy seconds like that and didn’t particularly want to stare at the gruesome act, so she spun around and waited for it to finish.
The Mimic was likewise sitting patiently, waiting for its MP to recover. The first use of Cadaver Absorption failed as expected, but at least the Skill seemed to be usable on these leftovers. It seriously doubted the Skill would demonstrate its full effects, however. These corpses technically had everything attached, but they looked even less delectable than those ghouls. Still, it wouldn’t do to just pass them over.
However, the MP limitation was getting to be a problem. The INT stat was growing steadily, but WIS was falling behind, meaning the automatic recovery was lacking. This wasn’t an immediate concern since the Mimic was in no particular rush and it didn’t mind sitting idly while the MP recovery did its thing, but that didn’t mean this would always be the case. Xera, for example, became quite useless if she ran out of MP in the middle of a fight.
The animate chest had witnessed the sight of its familiar running out of MP just before she could finish off the ghoul. The undead creature had leaped on top of her and ended up seriously injuring her body. It very nearly killed her before the Mimic could slice it into ribbons. It had to stop playing with its gold to do that, which made it a bit irritable. This was not a particularly tasty situation, but it proved a point. Running out of MP in combat could mean death. And if the Mimic should need to use magic to fight, then it would run dry extremely quickly.
“Snack,” it called. “I want more magic.”
The bare-bones explanation somehow managed to get its point across, giving the demoness a good idea of what it was talking about. She hated to admit it, but she was getting better at translating from Mimicanese.
The succubus was keenly aware of the MP issues that all Warlocks faced. How could she not be? Every single one of her previous masters was a Warlock, after all.
“Have you tried using a staff?” she suggested.
If it were any other Warlock, they might think she was patronizing them. However, Xera was being dead serious. She had no doubt that the idiotic chest she called a master did not even consider something so basic.
“Is staff tasty?” it asked quizzically, confirming that Xera’s educated guess was dead on.
“It’s like a sword for magic,” she explained using her smallest words. “Holding one when using Spells can increase their damage or reduce their MP cost, depending on the quality of it.”
“So… tasty?”
“Yes, Master. Tasty,” she confirmed with a sarcastic tone. This time she was patronizing it. Not like the moron would notice the not-so-subtle meaning hidden in her voice anyway.
“Good! How do I get the tasty thing?”
“Here, one of these guys had a staff.”
She picked up the weapon in question off the floor and presented it to her master. It almost looked like a walking stick when compared to her fancy, albeit fake staff, but it was a Caster staff nonetheless. The apple-sized blue crystal ball at the top of the plain wooden shaft was evidence enough to that effect.
“This? Ah, I’ve eaten many of those. Not very tasty,” it said dismissively.
This time it was speaking literally. Wood did slightly fill up its belly, but the flavor was not at all to its liking. Not bad, but also not good would be the way to describe it.
“Master, you don’t eat this,” pointed out Xera. “You just hold it when casting magic.”
“Like Snack does?”
“Yes, Master. Just like-”
Realization hit her and she stilled her tongue, but it was too late. Words spoken out loud could not be taken back. And indeed, the Mimic accepted the staff from the succubus’s hands using its own version of her own hands. The albino mockery of Xera’s true form had appeared from inside the chest before she even realized what was going on. Seeing it curiously hold a staff the wrong way around made it even harder for her to watch.
“Fffffuuuuuuck!” screamed the real Xera while turning around as quickly as she could. However, this time she was more upset at herself rather than the Mimic. Of course it would do things exactly like her, right down to the body. She walked into that one all on her own.
Swish swish
She could hear it swinging its new toy around. But then she had a thought which brought chills down her spine. It probably wanted to try out its new weapon. And there were no suitable targets around, except for one.
“Shadowbolt ~♪!” came her own oddly cheery-sounding voice from behind. In the next instant, she was hit in the back by the Spell in question.
[You have been hit by a mass of darkness. HP -88.]
Xera screamed in pain while falling to her knees. Sticky demon blood and flesh flew around the place as the Shadowbolt took a literal piece out of her lower back. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it. Right now her lower back was missing a chunk of flesh roughly the size of a fist.
But the Mimic wasn’t done. It dropped the staff on the ground with a slight clattering sound.
“Shadowbolt ~♪!” it called out again.
[You have been hit by a mass of darkness. HP -82.]
The Mimic verified that the Spell was ever so slightly stronger with the staff equipped. It didn’t seem to reduce the MP cost, but it was still something! It picked the weapon back
up and did a little celebratory dance. Its spider legs tilted the milky-white, chest-bound woman left and right while she held the staff above her head with both hands. The massive milky-white breasts swung left and right indecently. It also started chanting “Staff is tasty ♪! Staff is tasty ♪!” over and over for no good reason.
Xera was becoming more and more mortified. She stared at the spectacle the same way one might stare at a hurricane. Her own oddly melodic voice was singing such an absolutely retarded tune while a mockery of her body was performing a fittingly childish ‘dance.’ Eventually she managed to tear her eyes away from whatever that was and turn away from it entirely.
“Please, just kill me now,” she muttered sarcastically.
“Okay!” called out the Mimic in good humor. It was in a good mood, so it decided to grant the familiar this simple request.
Xera, understandably, immediately tried to stop it. “NO! I didn’t mean-”
But it was too late. Words spoken out loud could not be taken back.
“Shadowbolt ~♪!”
[You have been hit by a mass of darkness. HP -88.]
“GUHAAAHA!” she screamed. That third spell to her back made her fall flat on her face.
“Hm? Still not dead?” asked the Mimic.
Indeed, she wasn’t. She was barely alive with only 2 HP left.
“It’s okay, I fix ~♪!” it added while walking closer to her.
Xera was too busy coughing up blood and red goop to protest. She could only turn her head just enough to see her own face looking down on her with a dumb smile. Her master let out a “See you soon ~♪!” before bringing down the wooden shaft of its new staff towards her head.
Oddly enough, the succubus found herself mirroring that goofy smile right before the staff cracked her head open. She had realized that she was her own worst enemy. In more ways than one.
[Your familiar has been banished.]
The Mimic, on the other hand, was happy. It learned a new thing and helped its Snack out with a request. But then it got a bit sad when it realized it had used every last drop of its MP on that third Spell. That would delay the absorption process, not to mention it would need to summon its familiar yet again. Well, ultimately it just had to sit still and play with its coins while the automatic MP recovery did its thing, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.