by Prax Venter
The creatures took up positions around the room and then stopped advancing- as if waiting for something. Mark was wondering what they were planning when a larger bug appeared and stood behind the others.
This one was different. Mark could see flashes of Sasha's blond, blue-eyed head temporarily replace its bug head. It was unsettling, and Mark's skin began to crawl with panic as it approached.
The eight-foot beetle emerged from the passageway and calmly entered the chamber, walking past all of the others. When it got close enough, it raised one of its six, black, insect arms and hurled a massive volley of lightning bolts directly into Mark and his enthralled cat-girl.
Pain lanced through his body, and he could hear her hissing in her own world of pain next to him as they were both sent sprawling across the floor. Random arcs of lighting struck everything around them, blasting chunks of stone from nearby support columns and sections of the floor.
Mark writhed on the ground, barely able to think. His arms and face were charred, and he could smell burning hair. He flashed back to the day he ordered a large hot sausage from the Piping Pie Pizza machine and wondered if history was repeating itself.
Substantial chunks of stone started to fall from the ceiling, and it looked like the whole place was going to come down on them any minute.
He noticed that the beetle-men were retreating and thought it was a good idea, but his muscles weren't listening. The large one was the last to go and stood in the passageway to make sure no one escaped.
Mark didn't really know what to do, so he did the one thing he could. He looked over and saw the singed cat-girl a few yards from him, curled into a ball and having the same issues he was having. All he could make out was her tail and her two triangle ears.
Mark clenched his teeth and pushed through the pain, forcing his hand with his heart-shaped ring to reach out towards her. He drew on the years worth of practice of repeatedly healing Sasha and put everything he had into using all of his abilities on the creature he had just enthralled.
He told her he was going to take care of her, and that's exactly what he was going to do.
Bright sparks began to rain down on her, and golden rings appeared around her appendages. She convulsed slightly and quickly got onto all fours, arching her back and putting her forehead down on the floor as pleasure instead of pain wracked her body.
A massive chunk of ceiling fell behind his head, almost turning him into red goo, but there was nothing Mark could do for himself.
He finished channeling the last drop of power into her, and he was spent. He knew he was going to die but at least he kept his word, and maybe with some enhanced abilities, she would be able to fight her way out of this tomb.
The cat-girl looked over at Mark, her large eyes wide in shock, but otherwise seemed to be healed up nicely. After a moment of hesitation, she bounded over to him, squatted over his stomach and put both hands on his shoulders. She put her face by his, and he could feel her soft, sleek fur on his cheek.
In a quiet voice, she whispered, "My name is Ahnix..."
And then Mark felt like he was turned inside out.
The next thing he saw was a vibrant night sky. Millions of stars and colorful nebula stretched out above him. The cat-girl, Ahnix was still straddling him, and she stood up now, looking around.
He was in agony still and could barely croak out, "What?" when she squatted back down and put her soft, furry hand over his mouth.
She leaned in close to whisper in his ear again.
"We are out of danger for the moment, but do not draw them to our position. Remain quiet."
She pulled back and looked down at him, her small mouth pulled into a frown. She appraised him, passing her eyes over his burnt body, and then carefully climbed up to the top edge of a nearby dune.
Mark tried to ignore his seared arms and face. He closed his eyes and stayed still.
Based on the available information, they were outside now, and he was laying on cold sand. He had no idea how they got to where they were. Did the helper fairy intervene? He could hear small footsteps in the sand as Ahnix came back over and squatted next to him.
"We are far enough away from the palace that they will not hear us. It is safe to heal yourself now," she said. This was the first time he heard her speak without whispering, and her voice was lower than he expected from a short cat-girl.
Mark was also slightly shocked to learn that he could heal himself. Why not? He tested his invisible pool of energy and found that it was still empty.
"Can't. All spent, need more time. How did we get out?"
She regarded him again with her half-lidded eyes and small frowning mouth. It seemed to be her default facial expression. He thought back to one of his favorite phrases, 'resting bitch-face'. She could be the poster child for that.
Eventually, she spoke. "You didn't know I could teleport?"
His eyes tried to widen in surprise, but his electrical burns made him wince in pain instead.
"No," he responded with a weak smile. She studied his face, her eyes narrow.
"Why did you heal and enhance me, then? What if I just ran?"
"Thought I was gonna die. Told you I was going to protect you. Take care of you. Did what I could."
It hurt to speak, so he stopped. She frowned down on him as he laid in the sand looking up at the colorful stars strewn across the sky. There was a massive moon above them drenching everything in cool moonlight.
Ahnix stood abruptly, walked a few steps and plopped down in the sand, her back to him. He watched her as she sat, and it looked like she was thinking.
Her tail slowly slid around in the sand like a direct link to her weaving thoughts. After enough time had passed, Mark felt like he could pop off another heal. He lifted his ring finger and tried to target himself for the first time.
Softly glowing sparks started to rain down on him, and he could feel a tingling in his groin area. It didn’t seem to be as intense as it was for his Enthralled, but maybe it was like the difference between someone touching you and touching yourself. Miraculously, he felt much better. All of his wounds and burns faded, and he sat up. The first thing that he really needed to test was if he still had feeling in his hands.
He placed them down in the sand, and relief washed over him when found could feel every grain as he grazed his fingers over the desert's cool surface.
Ahnix looked at him over her furry shoulder with her large eyes. Mark stood up. He could get a better feel for landscape now that he wasn’t on his back and saw that they were in the middle of a vast desert. Beyond the dune she had peeked over, he could see the top of the pyramid in the distance. It looked like it was about a mile away. She followed him with her eyes as he walked over to sit in front of her.
"Mark, you said. That's your name?"
"That's me," he flashed her a grin.
"Listen, Mark. I don't trust Collectors. I am not a toy to be used and discarded. I was part of the royal guard, enthralled to a young Fighter prince."
"I could tell I wasn't in the presence of commoner. Nobility radiates from you," he said.
She watched him for a hint of sarcasm. He was serious, so she didn’t find any.
"It's been a long time..." she lowered her head to study the grains of sand between them. He loved the way her straight, shiny hair moved.
He felt that he should not interrupt her again, so he remained silent and let her gather her thoughts. She looked up at him after a short while.
"I was reduced to a beast for longer than I can even conceive, roaming these dunes, hunting, surviving, killing anything that crossed my path. All I have are fragments of memories, and then you come along and wake me from an eternal nightmare and expect... expect everything to be alright. It hasn't been alright for a long time."
Again, Mark's initial thought was to reassure her everything was going to be okay. But he really couldn't make that promise. Given what they were up against he wasn't sure it was going to be okay.
From
her story, he pieced together that this fighter prince guy disavowed her. There was a lot of that going around.
"Do you expect me to be your slave and obey your every command?" she asked, keeping her eyes on him. Mark knew he was on a knife's edge here. Bonding with an Enthralled was a lot more complicated than he thought it would be.
Looking into her half-lidded eyes and her frowny little mouth he realized he honestly did want to care for her. To fix what was broken inside her. She did save his life after all.
"Nope. I want you to be you. From the way you handle yourself, I would only be holding you back by ordering you around. I intend to make you stronger and set you loose on the world to show everyone exactly what you are capable of."
She blinked and her wall of mistrust dissipated.
"Why me?" She asked.
"To be honest, I'm not sure. I'm relatively new to this broken world. My soul was guided here by a friendly spirit. She imbued me with a magic gift intended to fix things. She put me in your path and said you were important." He wasn't really lying to her, but he didn’t think she would understand if he told her the actual truth behind what was going on. "You already saved my life once. Like you said, you could have just teleported out on our own, leaving me to be crushed and buried in that tomb for all eternity." He looked her up and down and nodded his approval. "Pretty solid choice for a party member if you ask me."
"What sort of magic gift?" she asked, skeptical again.
"She said it would give me and my Enthralled the power to fix the broken parts of this world. I just woke up and got my face melted. I haven't really had a chance to test things yet. The first step is to train you up, maybe find some other party members. Get stronger. Save the world."
Her black tail started to flip wildly behind her. "Other party members- What does that mean?"
"Strength in numbers, right? My class can have the largest team out of all of them. I'm a Lover after all." He held up is ring so she could see it. Her eyes crossed slightly, and her large, round pupils contracted as she looked at the heart-shaped ring he wore. He was starting to think she was pretty cute.
Not in the overly sexual way Sasha's succubus form was, but Ahnix was a hottie in her own, tight body way.
Her large eyes focused back on his, and her tail swished around behind her as she worked everything out in her mind.
"I'll trust you, for now, Mark. But if you betray that trust, I will tear off your cock and shove it into your skull, through your eye-socket." Her voice was quiet, and she didn’t take her eyes off of his.
Despite the grotesque visual, he swallowed hard and offered his hand out to her.
"Deal."
- 5 -
They had been walking through the desert dunes all night, and just as the scorching sun was about to peak over the horizon, they came to a ruined and crumbling remains of El Zarqa Outpost. Ahnix had told Mark she was taking him to the closest, last known location of civilization so they could try and do some quests and earn some essence. They were still about half a mile out, but from the looks of the place, Mark thought they were only going to find ghosts.
They were quietly approaching the closest ruined building when two horrific creatures emerged out of the sand to ambush them.
They had smooth black faces with no features and long segmented arms that looked just like two, huge scorpion tails. They stood on black, muscular, human legs and each had a massive erect penis sticking out of their pelvises that Mark found extra unsettling.
Soundlessly, one charged Ahnix, and the other charged Mark, kicking sand up as they ran.
His cat-girl hissed and dove right for her attacker, ducking one of his stinger arms and slashing a massive gash in its chest.
Mark's attention was pulled to his own attacker, and he wished his Class had more options when it came to combat. With no weapons and his only abilities being able to heal or enhance, he was no match for this thing.
He did the only thing he could do, run. He took off at a perpendicular angle trying to stay near Ahnix, so her deadly claws could help tear it apart after shredding hers. He might have been able to outrun the disgusting creature if he had merely run straight away, but it gained on him quickly.
Mark had to duck and roll away from a venom dripping stinger as it whistled through where his head used to be.
The move set the scorpion creature off balance, and it took a moment to get back moving in the right direction. Mark scrambled to his feet and continued to run from his attacker. He risked a glance at Ahnix and saw as she dealt a fatal blow, taking half of its head off. A rush of essence entered his body when its life ended.
Ahnix looked over at Mark and vanished. He experienced a brief moment of dread, thinking he was left alone with this insect rape-monster when he heard a low growl come from behind him.
Mark looked over his shoulder at the creature that was chasing him and, he saw its head slump forward and roll to the ground.
Ahnix was behind it, and by the mess left where its neck used to be it looked like she severed his head in one attack.
Mark stopped running and turned around. A second rush of essence tickled his prostate as it entered his body. He assumed he would get used to that eventually.
Ahnix was standing over the corpse of his attacker and trying to rip off one of her bandages that were restricting the movement of her arm. Mark walked over to her, stepping around the bile-oozing head that she had just removed. The sun was above the horizon now, and Mark could see Ahnix clearly, in daylight, for the first time.
He focused on her long pointed ears coming out of the top of her head, and noticed that they seemed more canine-like when the rest of her was mostly cat-like. Now that he thought of it she kind of looked like the Egyptian god, Anubis, but female, with short, sleek golden fur and cat features. It was an interesting mix.
"You are simply amazing. You've saved my life once more. Thank you, Ahnix,"
She tore off the dangling bandage that had been annoying her and looked at him with her customary, snobbish frown.
"I've fought many such creatures during my long nightmare. We should check the rest of this place for more attackers. Stay close."
He nodded and followed behind her. Her toned legs ended in a pair of chiseled, muscular buns with a long black tail limply weaving behind her. The daylight also gave him a good look at her feet and noticed that they were mostly human, except they seemed smaller than they ought to be, with black pads on the bottom, like cat feet. He also noted that her legs were human shaped and not bent the wrong way like many other human-hybrid creatures around here. Considering the scorpion men he just saw, with their bizarre and unsettling anatomy, there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to how the creatures of this world were built.
"I'm really impressed by the way you took that thing's head off in one attack," he told her, thinking again about how useless he seemed in combat.
"Sneak attack. Does much more damage," she responded, scanning the buildings with her large eyes and her stiff, forward pointing ears.
Sneak attack- of course. He'd have to remember that. Everything felt so mind-bogglingly real he forgot this was a video game.
He was the healer, and she was the rogue of this party, the burst-damage dealer. They just needed to find a tank to attract the hits and maybe a ranged damage dealer or two.
Now that he looked at it from a standard RPG party perspective, he was actually looking forward to when he would be more useful in combat.
His musings about the future of his battle harem were cut short when she put out a sleek-furred arm to stop him. He looked to where Ahnix's attention was focused and saw why she stopped. Right in the middle of town was a large swath of digital corruption. It was like a garbled tear in reality. Or virtual reality, Mark corrected himself. He took a moment to wonder if he would ever forget that all this wasn't real. Perhaps if got stuck in here for long enough...
He shook the thought away. This was the perfect opportunity to see if the helper fairy ha
d just been pulling his cock when she said he was gifted the ability to fix tears like this.
Just then a blood-curdling scream came from behind them, and they spun around to see what must have been the scorpion creatures' mate.
A seven-foot-tall monster that looked like a nightmarish mix between a wasp and a beautiful woman stood in the sand on four insect legs. She had a wasp bottom, stinger included, but also had huge, perfect tits. Her head was that of an insect with long antennae and sharp mandibles.
Ahnix pulled Mark into the shade of a nearby abandoned building and yanked him down into a couch with her.
"Stay here, Mark. You'd be impaled by that thing instantly," she said, not taking her eyes off of it as she peeked around a corner. Something in Ahnix's voice hinted that she thought she also would have a hard time with this creature, herself.
Mark looked around him for anything useful and found a four-foot, rusty, iron pole, half-buried in the sand. A plan began to form in his mind.
"I'm not letting you fight that thing alone. How about this; I enhance you now and then go out there and distract that thing. It will chase after me. Then you do your patented teleport, sneak attack trick but with enhanced abilities. What do you think?" She looked at Mark, considering what he said.
He continued, "Once your attack has its attention, I'll run back in and beat it with this." He held up the decaying, iron bar. "I've still got an instant heal if something goes wrong."
Ahnix scrutinized him, judging his ability to carry out such a plan. Outside, the creature let out another high-pitched screech that seemed a lot closer than before. It was going to find them sooner rather than later. She sighed and gave him a nod.
Mark returned her nod and held out his ring, channeling pleasure into her. This was the first time he was only enhancing and not healing, and he hoped he could mentally separate the two. He didn't want to blow his limited abilities on a wasted heal.
His instincts told him he needed to focus his thoughts on her fearsome fighting abilities and... fuck them good. He needed to pleasure the abstract concept of her claws, in combat, with his mental penis.