Inflicted 145 damage
The blade almost sliced into Anita’s face. Even if it had, it would only pass through her head like it wasn’t there, as the game lacked friendly fire… Except when some asshole takes control of your harem!
The greater goblin dropped like a sack of shit onto its back. Anita cracked open its skull with the edge of her blade, then drove her foot into its pink, soft, fleshy brain. “Thanks for the xp, fucker.”
Greater Goblin has died
+2000xp
The lesser goblins went down easily, one after the other. A few tried to run away but Amy made short work of them, laughing as their little frozen green bodies shattered apart when they fell against the rock floor of the passage.
+1200xp
She made a flourish with her wand and put it back in her belt. “Now I’m turned on.” She turned to Zack. “Want to make love to me?”
He glanced at the chinks of frozen flesh scattered over the chamber floor. “Ah, maybe later.”
Once Missy had restored their health, Zack set Amy the task of gathering any remaining unfrozen ears while Anita kept watch for more enemies. Amy set to work with a cheerful grin, bending over, pulling up the back end of her latex armor dress so he could get a good look at her ass. “I bet it turns you on watching me getting covered in blood as I chop off their ears. You sure you’re not up for some fun?”
Zack smirked. “I reckon I can think of more sexy things I’d rather see you be doing. I like you naked, wet, glistening and ready for action.” You and Betsy are so gonna get it when this stupid assassination mission is over. It had been way too long since he had held them in his arms as he made love to them.
Amy sliced off another ear and held it up and watched the blood drip out. “This would look cool hanging around my neck.”
“No, thank you,” Zack said. “That’s a big turn off.”
She shoved into his Inventory. “Says the guy wearing a dried wormgut necklace around his neck. You think that’s sexy?”
He’d forgotten about that one…
“Hey, look at this.” Betsy pointed at something on the ground not far from the edge of the blood and gore.
Zack lifted the torch and picked his way through the corpses to look. Anita and Missy went with him.
Laying on the ground was a freshly killed, human-sized rat dressed in ragged leather armor. Except it didn’t look like a proper rat. This one had a more human-like face and a short tail.
“It’s one of the Qui’irl,” Missy said, bending down to get a closer look at it.
“Doesn’t look like it’s been dead long.” Anita elbowed Zack. “I’ll let you search it for loot. Rats rank next to men on the list of things I hate.”
“Gee, thanks,” He winked at her. “I can say that women are my favorite thing. Well, women and that brown sludge they feed us through those tubes…”
She grabbed him and dragged him against her, then planted a kiss on his cheek to disguise what she said next. “We have a lot to talk about once this mission is over. But we just have to ditch the other three temporarily to do it.”
“I know. Believe me, I know.” It was just hard to have the three women leave them without upsetting them. And if they became upset… and one of them passed on that feeling to the Janitor, who knows what the black-clad nut job would think.
Zack bent down and searched the Qui’irl’s corpse. Inside a pouch it wore at its waist was a parchment. He passed Anita the torch and unfurled the parchment and found a handwritten scrawl written over it.
“Can you read this?” He asked Missy.
She took the parchment from him and frowned. “No, this is written in the Qui’irl language and only they can read it.”
“That sux.”
Her frown deepened. “Whatever it says, must be important. The Qui’irl never leave their hidden settlements as they shun contact with outsiders.”
“Stout Jon said something about them being threatened by something. This mustn’t be the first time they’ve been seen outside their home.”
“Traders go to them sometimes,” Missy said. “Likely, they heard of this threat and spread the word.”
“Maybe things are worse there now.” Anita shrugged. “But what’s it matter? We have places to be, people to kill. A bunch of two-legged rats pretending at being humans mean jack shit to us.”
Missy turned her frown on her. “If the Qui’irl are afraid enough to send their own kind out here with a letter, then whatever is threatening them, is of great concern. I come from down here in the Underworld, and last I knew, you were stuck here too. So what happens to the Qui’irl, threatens us all.”
Zack sighed. “Is there anyone who could translate this letter? Please, don’t say Malghana. It might be a longtime before we can speak to her again.”
Missy turned back to him. “She would be one person who would be able to read it. But there is another. Lord Gwynn.”
That made sense. The dragon had a vast library of books and oddities. If he didn’t know a thing or two, then no one else would. “Fine, we will take the letter to Gwynn.” He glanced at Anita. “When we get the chance.”
QUEST
Objective: Bring the parchment to Lord Gwynn and have him translate it for you. Only then, can you learn of this new threat that looms over the Underworld.
REWARDS
+3000xp
The corpse contained nothing else of interest, so they pressed on deeper into the wilds of Middle Underworld.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The Patriarchy
That night they didn’t return to Missy’s palace and instead slept out in the wilds, taking turns on watch. None of the women wanted to be reminded of what happened and Zack couldn’t blame them.
Right now, the palace didn’t feel safe. It’s sanctity had been violated.
Zack held Betsy, kissing her, whispering soothing words into her ear until she fell asleep. Once he saw Amy and Missy were asleep too, he carefully moved away from Betsy and went over to Anita. She kept watch near the entrance to the small recess in which they made camp.
They said nothing for a time, just stared out into the darkness, then she finally spoke.
“I will make this short, for I’m not one to prattle on.” She took a deep breath. “My father is an evil man. We lived in the center of the City. My parents were house servants to one of the oligarchy.”
Anita turned to him. “Don’t start thinking I’m just another woman with daddy issues. Listen before you dare try to mock me.”
“I would never mock you. Damn, stop acting like I’m out to get you all the time. I’m not.”
“Whatever. Just listen or don’t.” She closed her eyes and told him of how her father had been cheating on her mother then tried to kill them so he could break his marriage contract and be with his new mistress. Inside the City, marriage was for life, unless you were an oligarch.
Yet another one of the Oligarchies many laws and regulations. The only way out of a marriage was if one of the people in it died.
That had easily predicted consequences as some took it into their own hands to prematurely end a marriage.
“My mother, my sister and I fled into the outer city and hid in Zone 6. But my father hunted us down, using his mistress’s resources. She is from one of the lesser rich families, so had the resources to hire spies to watch out for us.”
Anita lowered her face. “When he came for us, I tried to hold him off so my mother and sister could escape. My mother was too distraught to fight back, and my sister was too young. That left me.”
She was silent for a time, so Zack took her hand. “My father beat me badly, then dragged my unconscious body to the hospital in the Center of the City. When I came too, I found out my mother had escaped with my sister and disappeared. My father of course demanded I tell him where they went, but I had no idea.”
“I’m sorry.” Zack didn’t know what else to say.
“Not long after I could walk, I escaped the hospital an
d fled. My father tried to hunt me down, so I hid out in different places for a time, then made my way to Zone 19. I never did find my mother and I lost hope.” She sobbed. “So, like a lot of people trying to escape reality, I ended up in one of the games and gave up on the real world. If my father found me, he would kill me, and if he found my mother… He would make her death slow and painful. He told me so himself.”
Zack shuddered. “He can’t get married until she is dead.”
“No. All this happened ten years ago. How much more angry do you think he is now?”
Zack could only guess.
Feeling depressed about their current situation, Zack put his arm around Anita and pulled her against him. After a moment, she removed her helmet then rested her head against his.
“Sorry you got dragged into this,” he said. “This is all because the Oligarchy wants my mother.”
“So she really is a resistance leader?”
Zack let out a bitter laugh. “Who knows? I thought she was terminally ill and bedridden. The last time I ever saw her I had to spoon feed her soup.”
“Maybe she used to be a leader or something and the Janitor has it all wrong.”
He thought on that for a time, then said, “No, he wasn’t the only one who said my mother is a resistance leader. The Glimmer Man, or the G Man, is a real person.” He told her what had happened when he first arrived in Middle Underworld.
Zack couldn’t see her, but he was sure Anita was crying. He gently made her face him, stroking her cheek and feeling wetness there.
This vulnerable side of Anita was hard to see through her tough-girl attitude. Maybe she was learning to express herself in ways other than through anger and violence or maybe she was more comfortable with him now and willing to show her human side. That could only be a good thing, for all of them.
Her confrontational attitude pissed people off and they would need allies if they were to survive the Underworld.
“I wanted to get out of here and back to the surface.” Anita sniffed, her voice taut with grief. “It all seemed so simple not so long ago. Now everything has gone to hell and my family, who I haven’t seen in years, is under threat.”
Zack continued to stroke her face. “I understand a little on how you feel. The oligarchy wants me out of this game so they can interrogate me to find out where my mother is. Not that I have a clue.”
He made a fist. “But you know what? Before I was sent down here to the Underworld, I didn’t give a shit anymore. I’d given up on life. But now. Now I want to live. I have something to fight for, something real.”
He kissed her cheek. “I have you, I have Amy, Betsy and Missy. Not only that, the longer I remain in the Underworld, the longer it will be before the Oligarchy has me in their hands. It’s not much, but in my own small way, I am giving them the middle finger.”
Anita laughed at that. “I like it.” She was silent a moment. “I guess I’m stuck down here with you, at least for now.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
She took in a breath. “I don’t know what it is. You’re the first guy I’ve let get this close to me in years.”
“Maybe it’s the harem game system breaking down your barriers.”
“Fuck no.” She grabbed his face and made him face her and put her mouth near his, her breath gently brushing his lips. “I felt no different when I joined. You were the first guy to ever stand up to me and that set you apart from all the other male soy eating spergs out there.”
She pressed her nose to his. “And that made me sit up and take notice of you. I love a guy who can look me in the eye and not be afraid.”
Now she was back to her normal self, he reckoned.
“I’ll fight with you and with the rest of your harem. Fuck the Janitor for what he did to them and fuck him for threatening us.” Her breathing was coming hard now, her lips gently pressed against his. “I’m going to rip off his head and hang it from the wall in that palace of yours and every time we are there I am going to spit on it. Then and only then, will I continue my quest to leave the Underworld.”
“Oh, yeah.” He shoved his tongue in her mouth.
After a few minutes of intense kissing, he pulled back. “When this stupid mission is over, I’m going to take you, Betsy, Amy and Missy somewhere nice and pleasure you all so hard, you won’t be able to walk for a week.”
Anita removed her gauntlets and reached inside his armor and grabbed his manhood and started stroking it. He went hard within seconds.
“I will make this thing work harder than it ever has before,” she said playfully into his ear.
He grinned. “You hold the toxic masculine patriarchy in your hands. Feels good, doesn’t it?”
She nipped at him with her teeth. “Careful or I will crush it in my hand like I will the heads of the misogynist who sent me down here.”
Zack shut his dumb male mouth, then closed his eyes, leaned back against the cave wall and let her pleasure him.
Chapter Thirty-Five
PK’ERS
After all five of them ate the +50hp bread, they moved toward the enemy.
Just like every other time they had come to kill the Janitor’s targets, Anita strode out of cover and amongst the level twelve enemies who sat among their tents talking to one another.
She walked up to a Holy Priest dressed in white robes and punched him in the face. When he went down, Anita lifted him then impaled him on a stalagmite beside the camp. “Stick around.”
Lethal Healz has been vanquished!
Their healer was down.
Then she drew her weapon and started toward the other seven players who were only now beginning to stand. Zack had already used Rapid Advance and slammed right into them before they even knew what was happening. Why these morons never had someone on watch for danger was beyond him. Maybe they never expected to be attacked by other players.
Zack hadn’t, at least not until he himself had become a player killer.
His body slam knocked two enemies off their feet, the rest staggered, still trying to get their weapons out. They were all middle aged men and two women, not the younger players they had faced the other times. Who were they?
Zack put any reservations about killing aside as two warriors, one a tank, the other a DPS, charged him. He unleashed Sweeping Arc just before they smashed into him and sent him reeling backward.
Anita and Betsy tore into the Mage behind them, the enemy woman desperately unleashing the fire spell Inferno, blasting Zack, Betsy and Anita with flames.
The fire wall ripped past Zack, inflicting some nasty damage, even with his near 50% magic damage reduction. These players had decent gear equipped and wouldn’t be the pushovers the last lot had been.
-125hp
It hit Anita and Betsy far worse. Zack heard their screams. The pain of that was far worse than the pain the spell had caused him.
Missy got onto the healing and to help her out, Betsy and Anita each drank a health potion. He noticed an enemy going for Missy, club raised overhead.
The warriors pounded their weapons against Zack’s shield, pummeling him, not even using any of their abilities. Likely, they meant to drive him back to his harem and get them all bunched up so they could take down Zack’s group with AOEs.
“Die, fucker,” The tank Warrior roared. “You’ll never win.”
Baring his teeth, Zack activated his shield’s special ability and his trinket's defensive buff. As spectral arms burst from his shield, the men fell back in surprise.
Zack took that moment to race forward, shouldering through them and racing at the club-wielding player heading for Missy.
The player was a Druid, but this one had placed his points in the Gorilla tree. That meant he was a slow but heavy hitter. Missy activated her Cry of Defense as the club came down. Nimbly, she dodged aside, so the gorilla slashed instead, this time striking her in the arm.
Companion suffered -134 damage
Enraged, Zack leapt on top of the Gorilla fro
m behind, driving the man to the ground. Zack landed on top of the player, then drove his sword right into the center of the Gorilla’s black-furred back with a massive Demon Strike.
Inflicted 178 damage
That’ll fucking teach you for hurting Missy. Zack brought his weapon down again, this time right into the rear of the enemy player’s ribcage and deep into his chest cavity.
Inflicted 186 damage
Sicko Furry has been vanquished!
Then the two warriors slammed into him from behind, one hacking down and severing Zack’s shield arm. Falling forward, Zack screamed, blood gushing from his wound, his field of view going crazy with colors.
-179 damage
The enemy weapons came down again. Zack parried one of the blows, but the second stuck him on the leg, cutting through his armor.
-142 damage
He finally had sense enough to activate Shield of Stone, then tried to roll out of the way of the next enemy attack. The two men went after him, ignoring Missy who had already started to restore Zack’s health with her instant heals.
Her healing magic slowed the blood spurting from his severed arm but it did little to help with the pain. While not as bad as it would have been in real life, it still felt fucking terrible!
Zack slashed at the men, trying to keep them back, vaguely aware of the battle raging to his right. Betsy and Anita were in a bad way, Missy clearly struggling with all the damage.
The men laughed as Zack backed up against the cave wall. He had nowhere to go.
For the first time on these stupid Janitor assassination missions, Zack thought he was going to die. Maybe that had been the Janitor’s plan all along.
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