by Aleron Kong
He looked at Richter again, still careful not to meet his eyes. His voice was much more calm, but heavy with scorn and condemnation, “Where were you then, my friend? Where were you as I slowly learned enough of the gnoll language from the other slaves to take the tribe over? Where were you for the months of violence and pain, when the only times I saw light meant I would be raped and cut again and again and again?”
“No,” Heman whispered to him. “I reject your kind offer of friendship. Instead, I think I’ll just take everything I need from you. Including your life.” The chaos seed stood, “But not yet.”
Throughout Heman’s entire madness-filled rant, Richter had tried to make eye contact. His only hope was to draw the other man into his mindscape and keep him there until the paralysis wore off. He did not succeed, but that didn’t mean his intense stare had no effect. Heman noticed his efforts and understood their significance. The man’s response was swift and brutal.
Drawing the very dagger Richter had given him barely an hour before, he swung the pommel down with crushing force. There was an audible crunch and Richter was knocked back down to the earth. His jaw flared with pain and his vision darkened. The pain worsened when his face hit the ground and he couldn’t be sure he didn’t lose consciousness for a few moments. The next thing he knew, a red debuff was flashing in his vision.
You have suffered a Fractured Jaw. You can no longer form words. You can no longer accomplish the verbal component of spell casting.
When Heman set him upright again, he had the same condescending smile on his face. Tears of impotent rage fell from Richter’s eyes. He desperately tried to meet Heman’s gaze again, even though he knew the consequences, if only out of spite. If only to prove to this horror of a man that he wouldn’t be cowed by pain. Pain had become, if not an old friend, something that he did not fear nearly as much as he once had. Challenge and anger blazed in his eyes.
Heman’s response was once again both definitive and brutal. The other chaos seed might have lost control for a few moments, but he was no fool. He had listened well to Richter’s tale of his battle with Nien, and would not make the same mistake as Richter’s latest vanquished foe.
Instead of meeting Richter’s eyes, he raised the dagger again, this time bringing it down with crushing force on Richter’s right eye. The orbit fractured inward from that first blow, some bone shards scraping the top of the soft orb. The force of the strike bruised the eye as well. Heman landed two more blows on that side of the helpless chaos seed’s face and three more on the left. For good measure, he then bound a strip of cloth around Richter’s eyes, but he needn’t have bothered. His brutality had already maimed his victim.
You have suffered bilateral Orbital Fractures and bilateral Ocular Lacerations. You are Blind. The left ocular nerve has been damaged. The pain you are suffering is beyond the capability of most humans to endure. Your enhanced Secondary Attribute, Resilience, has preserved your sanity for now, but continuing to endure pain at these levels may cause Madness.
“Well that gentled you down some, didn’t it?” Heman judged, sounding extremely pleased with himself. “This is your own fault. If you hadn’t been bragging for days about how you’re such a badass spellcaster I wouldn’t have had to break your jaw. And if you hadn’t told me you were a dangerous psychic, I wouldn’t have had to take out your eyes. You’re lucky you don’t have any cock magic, huh?” Heman laughed long and hard. His earlier slip into insanity was apparently forgotten.
“You have no idea how annoying it has been having to smile at you for the last few days. Seeing that self-righteous look on your smug face, Lord Richter. Look at you now. Still looking up at me even though you can’t see. Still pompous.” He huffed in irritation. “You’ll lose that cockiness before the end. I promise you that, boy!”
Richter heard Heman stand up, “I knew without you even telling me that you were from the Western Confederation back on Earth. Weren’t you?” The fact that Richter couldn’t answer anymore didn’t slow his torturer down for a second, “That’s always the problem with you people. All that holier-than-thou bullshit you’ve been spewing for the past few days simply reeks of your democratic indoctrination. Who are you to come to this new world and stick your nose in cultures that have been evolving for hundreds of thousands of years? Who are you to decide what is right and what is wrong?”
Richter could barely follow what Heman was saying. The three injuries to his face made his mind feel like it was swirling in a whirlpool of pain. He felt like if he were to go all the way down the drain, only madness waited below. It was almost all he could do to keep “afloat.”
Heman didn’t care. He just looked around the forest again before continuing, “Where was I? Ah yes, my first ability is quite useful for an introduction, and apparently for fooling truth tests, but my second ability is the one I really love. It’s called Forced Friend. When I first woke up in those goddamn tunnels... that part of what I told you was true by the way... I thought I was still playing the game. I tried to access my status screen, of course. Gaming one oh one, right? When it appeared though, it said I was a level one half-gnome, half-human. I thought I’d gotten hacked. You have no idea how pissed I was. When I was gaming, I was always an orc or a barbarian lord. I was the leader of one of the largest PK guilds on the Eastern Server!” He had puffed his chest up as he said that, but only held the pose for a moment before laughing in self-deprecation, “As if any of that ever actually mattered.” He shook his head.
“While I examined my status page, I thought that my second ability, Forced Friend, was the shittiest ability of all time. We didn’t even have a relationship system back in the game. I thought it was a glitch.” He grinned at Richter again, not caring that the other man was now blind.
“I was so wrong! Forced Friend gives me up to thousands Relationship Points a day with anyone I physically touch. Sometimes it’s more and sometimes it’s less, but every time, they like me more. That was why I had to suffer being raped by those dogs day after day. As many horrors as I had to endure, in time I overcame the natural hate they have for humans. After that, they started to like me. Then love me. They still continued to abuse me and use my body until I was able to learn their language, but I did learn it!” he finished triumphantly.
A smile of pure sick perversion bloomed on his face, “After that, after I got revenge on some of the worst rapists in the tribe, I got to start practicing my abilities on the other slaves the gnolls had. I also got to start having sex with people that I wanted to fuck. They weren’t always willing, but after catching for months you can’t blame me for pitching, can you?” The sickness in the man’s laugh penetrated even Richter’s pain-addled mind. It disgusted him, but without any means to communicate, all he could do was continue to listen to the evil man’s diatribe.
“What I found is that it worked better on some races than others. Their overall attitude and personality can make a difference too. The slaves that still had some fire in them were more resilient while those eager to please grew to like me faster. You know, I was sure that a thirsty little bitch like you would take my whole load every day!” His laugh was derisive and hateful, but he added begrudgingly, “You were able to resist my ability to a certain extent though. I only got up to two and a half thousand Relationship Points with you every day. It was still enough to make you spill your secrets like a girl on prom night, but it was slower than I would have liked. Why is that?
“Do you have some sort of mental or emotional resistance? Do you have a high Wisdom? That would give you a higher magical resistance, but would that protect you from me?” Heman seemed genuinely interested, but then he just shrugged, “You probably wouldn’t be able to tell me even if you could speak. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Needless to say, even at reduced levels having a boost to my relationship with you every day added up. Just look what I got you to do after only six days. Come all the way out here, and tell me all your little secrets. I’m pretty sure in twelve days you would have been bend
ing over and calling me daddy. What do you think?”
The pain wasn’t gone, but Richter had mastered it enough for his rage to return. It built up inside of him, just waiting for release.
“No?” Heman asked. “Maybe ‘papi,’ instead? Were you a latin lover back on earth or was your skin always the color of shit?” He sneered again. “It doesn’t matter. As I was saying, I learned more about my abilities and found that the higher my Charisma, the more Relationship Points Forced Friend could earn me. It aggravated me having to waste points in such a soft attribute, but then,” he slapped Richter’s face none too gently, “you invested quite a few points there yourself didn’t you pretty boy?” The pain from those slaps against his ruined face almost made the Enchanter vomit. The other chaos seed smiled brightly, “Let’s up your dose again, shall we? Now this might hurt a bit.”
Heman grabbed Richter’s fractured jaw in a strong grip, the man’s Strength enhanced by months of mining. Richter mewled in pain, and his consciousness devolved into pure agony once again. His tormentor poured more of the poisoned water down his throat, and clamped his nose and mouth shut for a second time. After his air ran out, his swallow reflex triggered and he swallowed more of the immobility potion. The paralysis counter increased by another four minutes.
Tears rolled down Richter’s cheeks, and shame mixed with the rage he was feeling. The fury wasn’t only focused on Heman. It was on himself as well. How could he have let this happen? He had let down his guard. Again!
*Alma!* he screamed with his mind. *Almaaaa!*
There was still no response.
“What was I saying?” Heman mused, completely unconcerned with the agony he had just caused. “I keep getting distracted when I hurt you, but it’s just so much fun! There I go, getting distracted again!” He chuckled to himself, before holding up a finger in Eureka, “I remember now. I was explaining why we can’t be buddies anymore. The only downside to my abilities is that once I take direct action against you, I lose all the Relationship Points I gained with my Forced Friend Ability and the perception filter from my False Comfort ability fades away. That’s why our relationship has gone all the way down to hatred. Well, that and the fact that I’ve drugged you and broken your jaw, huh?
“So unfortunately, I’m going to have to say no to your earlier request to ‘not do this.’ Also, your offer of friendship and help, as sweet and unmotivated by self-interest as I am sure they were, will just have to get a big fat ‘no’ from me. Instead, I think I’ll be taking all of your Chaos Points.” Seeing Richter’s eyes widen, Heman chuckled, “So you really haven’t met another chaos seed before, huh? Thought you might have been lying about that, though I suppose it’s not surprising seeing as how you live in the ass-end of nowhere. Let me give you a little education.
“As far as I have been able to tell, each and every one of us, everyone stolen from Earth, contains a certain amount of chaos. When we kill each other, the winner,” he looked pointedly at Richter, “that would be me in this case, gets all the Chaos Points the other person has. Exactly how much seems to vary, but I do know that the more times you die, the more points you come back with. The first chaos seed I killed, this pretty little elf girl, only gave me one point. She had never died before, you see.”
He waved his dagger in front of Richter’s face lasciviously. “Even though it was only one though, after I penetrated that bitch,” he winked, “in every sense of the word, that Chaotic energy flowed into me, and oooohhhh!” Heman closed his eyes and shivered in erotic memory, “It was better than freebasing devil’s breath back home!”
As he spoke, the madness of addiction danced behind his eyes. If Richter could have seen it, he would have recognized it immediately. He’d seen it back on Earth when he’d volunteered in the worst ERs. The all-consuming need that some patients had for a fix. So bad that if they didn’t have the money to score, then they might jump in front of a car just so they could get a few milligrams of dilaudid once they were brought into the hospital. Richter had seriously enjoyed the feeling of Chaos energy flowing into him, but he had never experienced the almost sexual reaction that Heman was describing.
How had he missed the fact that Heman was a junkie willing to do anything for his next fix? But of course, Richter already knew. As powerful as his own gifts and capabilities were, he was not invulnerable. Heman’s own abilities had let the man play him like a fiddle. Richter’s own trusting nature had indeed worked against him, but the fault didn’t just lay in his poor judgment; the other chaos seed had powerful gifts of his own. Would every member of his race try to kill him? Would they all be so powerful?
Heman continued his story, unaware of Richter’s internal thoughts, “I was sloppy that first time,” he admitted. He said it as if he was man enough to own up to his mistakes. “You already know I was taken captive by the gnolls, and that I got them to trust me. What I haven’t told you yet is that a few days later, my abilities let me take over the tribe completely. After that, life was a lot easier,” he added with a laugh.
“Every day I spent with the gnolls deepened my hold over them. I was safe, protected and, since the gnolls had a bunch of captives, I wasn’t short on companionship.” The joy in his voice just deepened the hate Richter felt for him. “Let me tell you, those women were willing to do anything. The gnolls had a tendency to eat captives they didn’t like. You wouldn’t believe what an aphrodisiac that was. Dick or the stew pot. Wasn’t too hard of a choice for most of them.”
He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially to Richter, “Have you ever fucked a high elf in the ass while her husband watched? I still don’t know what I found more exciting, her tears or his!” He shivered again and Richter’s hatred for him grew even deeper.
“While those diversions were fun, none of that came even close to comparing to my first chaos seed. I had already been leading the gnolls for a few weeks and the captives had pretty much wised up to the deal by that point. If they did what I wanted, I wouldn’t pick them to be the gnolls’ dinner that night. Basically, if they let me into their tummies, I’d keep them out of the gnolls’ tummies.”
He chuckled to himself before continuing, “One day though, the gnolls brought in a new herd of slaves,” he said the word casually with no inflection whatsoever, “and there was this cute little thing. Blonde, nice perky tits, and tall! Whew! I was never into tree trunks back on Earth, but since being cursed with this half-gnome DNA… let’s just say you can call me a lumberjack. I had the gnolls pull her out of her cage and told her what the deal was. Can you believe that bitch said she would rather die than give me just a little bit of pleasure? I mean,” he said, shaking his head like he had had no other choice, “I had to do it after that. I just couldn’t allow her to challenge me like that in front of the slaves, could I?”
He stopped talking for a moment and looked off into the distance. When he spoke again, it was with the measured pace of someone trying to paint a picture in his audience’s mind, “I had the gnolls crush both of her ankles. Little tip: if you ever want to get a stubborn whore into doggystyle, that does the trick. They tied her to a pole and I got to have my fun. Seeing as how she had said she wanted to die though, I decided to grant her request.”
He leaned so close that Richter felt the man’s breath on his cheek. His next horrific words were a breathy caress, “I just didn’t let her die quickly. I let all the gnolls have a turn after I was done. Believe you me, those jackal-headed monsters aren’t exactly gentle when they get all riled up. It’s just a guess mind you, because I like to get a little sleep after I bestow my love, but I think she died while the twelfth one was still inside her.”
Heman shrugged, “I told them not to use their claws too much, but like I already told you, they love the scent of fresh blood. The good news was, the rest of the tribe still got a turn. Gnolls didn’t let a little thing like life and death stand between them and a good time.” He waved a hand in the air as if none of that was important, just the buildup to his next point.
Heman smiled as he relived the experience, “Believe me, there is no better way to wake up than to have Chaos Points pouring into you. I had no idea what was happening, but I loved it! Before I could even stand up though, I got a prompt telling me I had killed my first chaos seed and that I’d been awarded the one Chaos Point she had. I had no idea what Chaos Points were for, and I didn’t care. That shit felt so good!
“I was just lucky that I still got credit for the kill even though I didn’t finish her off myself. Don’t think I would have gotten the points otherwise.” He shrugged, “It was probably because I’m the one who gave the order for her to be raped to death. My Luck stat was only ten at that point, but I guess it was working overdrive that day.
“After I came down off my high, I realized what had happened and what I had to do next. I had already lived through my own rebirths, so I knew she would probably respawn somewhere near wherever the gnolls had found her before. I immediately sent a squad of warriors to look for her.”
Heman laughed in delight, “I cannot tell you how happy I was to see her only a day later. She wasn’t nearly as happy to see me. It hurt my feelings a bit, but that’s women, right? I’m a little ashamed to say it, but I was so ready for another fix that I beat her to death right then and there. The hit was even better that time. The piddly single point she’d given me before had felt good, but oh god! The three she gave me that time was like every orgasm I’d ever had all at once!
“This time, the gnolls knew exactly where to go when I sent them out to find her. I had to wait a few days, but it was absolutely hilarious when they brought her back a third time. The begging, the crying, it really did it for me. She even had snot running down her face like a little kid! My abilities didn’t work seeing as how I’d already hurt her, but I learned something new that time.
“If you’re considered the leader of a community, you can control if someone ties their spawn point to your location. You see, when she came back that third time, all the fight had gone out of her. She was offering anything, literally begging to swallow my cum and promising that she would serve me forever. When she said that, the Universe took it as a request to make the gnolls’ village her rebirth point. I got the notification at the same time she did, but mine said that because I was the leader of the location, she could only do so if I allowed it! I don’t know which one of us was more surprised. I am sure which one of us was happiest though,” he finished with a laugh.