Elusive Prey

by Cheek, Jason

  “But … but …” Fylreh blushed to her withers, “he never actually rode me there.” Her complaints immediately died away at the intense looks she received from both Helgath and Neysa. Sometimes, it was better to quit when you were already behind, Helgath unhappily thought as she let out a deep sigh. Otherwise, you just made the situation that much worse.

  “If that’s the plan you both want to go with,” Fylreh said, letting out an annoyed snort. “Then try to keep up!” With that, she cast the new Arcane Speed buff that she’d received from the Fatal Midnight guild leader and surged ahead as Neysa leaped after her, straining to match her suddenly unnatural pace.

  Chapter Nineteen

  (Second Assault Group: Star on the slope before the eastern pass)

  “Jackass, A-hole, annoying as fuck women in my life that can’t freaking follow a damn plan to save their lives …” I continuously swore under my breath like a monk chanting his daily prayers, as Tengsly chittered up an angry storm from where he hovered above my shoulder. His insistence that I should follow Neysa and Helgath’s directions were just pissing me off that much more. Seriously, who was the mother fucking player here? I was currently in this situation because none of them followed my plans in the first place!

  A series of explosions erupted behind me with a coruscating glare of bright light as Tengsly dove for cover in the hood of my cloak. Immediately, I was blasted with clods of frozen earth and debris as my Bone Shield and Enhanced Mage Armor shattered in a matter of seconds into white light and wisps of darkness from the flying shrapnel. As both spells failed completely, I was covered in the backwash of thick dust and grime. Before I could catch my breath, a hissing noise filled my slowly recovering ears as a volley of arrows began raining down around me.

  While the majority shattered uselessly against the ground, there were too many to dodge completely. Hell, I barely even tried. That would have just slowed me down. Thankfully though, my Black Coral Iron-reinforced Defender strapped across my back and my Helm of Inaxidor took the brunt of the assault. Even so, a handful bruisingly clipped my arms and legs, opening up bloody welts in my skin through the thinner Cuttle leather. To my horror, one unlucky shaft must have pierced my hood, because I felt Tengsly disappear from my consciousness as a message flashed before my eyes.

  Dickless Wonder has killed your Manifest Giant Squirrel. Tengsly will be available to summon again in twenty-one hours and forty-three minutes.

  Okay … okay, so the in-game message hadn’t actually read Dickless Wonder, I’d mentally put that in place for the asshole’s name that had killed my Flying Squirrel. Don’t ask me why, but there was something about losing a being that was mentally connected to your mind that just pissed you the fuck off. Besides, making fun of PKers just made me feel better when I was pissed off and stressed like this. With those thoughts in the back of my mind, I began recasting my Bone Shield and Enhanced Mage Armor since they were the only defensive spells I could insta-cast as I ran.

  Obviously, whoever was leading these asshats was getting smarter by the minute. While I figured it was Evil Sandra doing the majority of the heavy strategic mental lifting, it was hard to know for sure with the vanguard of Rangers hot on my heels. Crossing my fingers, I silently hoped that the plan we’d come up with would be enough to slow these fuckers down. That, and wishing that my armor would hold out long enough to get into the range of the trap my friends were setting.

  Out of those two, the armor was the greater concern. As it was, the number of shafts managing to partly pierce my Black Coral DarkCuirass Weave’s backplate were growing with every volley. Though they were quickly knocked loose from the constant running, it meant that parts of my armor were seriously starting to fail. If that happened, there was no doubt in my mind that I wouldn’t make it through the follow-up attack.

  Coming around the last bend in the trail, I began sprinting all out. Within seconds, my stride had noticeably widened and my breathing had become more rhythmic as I consciously kicked my leg forward with each running step. Both were techniques that I’d learned while training with my sensei to increase my running speed as my breath clouded before my face with each exhale. Ahead of me was a clear shot two and a half mile long straightaway to the top of the pass, I thought, as I pumped my limbs with everything that I had.

  Seeing a cluster of boulders a mile and a half up ahead, a wicked smile began to take shape on my face as I aimed my headlong flight for the center of the waist-high rocks. It looked like my friends had gotten everything in place. This was our last serious chance to tie Evil Sandra and her raid of merry asshats up so we could meet up with the rest of our raid and get the fuck out of dodge.

  I hadn’t really thought everything through though, when I’d headed back down the trail to try and help Fylreh, Neysa, and Helgath out. I’d greatly misjudged how fast the pursuit was going to be from the enemy raid. Part of the problem was that I’d gotten a little bit too cocky about my abilities. The extra Attributes and Dark magic tree that my Nightmare start had initially given me had been a major trump over the other players of The World in my region. That wasn’t the case on Domenic’s side of the map.

  While my Attributes were still much higher, it was little help against a vanguard of Advanced start enemy Rangers using their Nature’s Grace self-buff with access to their own Nightmare Magic tree. That twenty percent boost to a Ranger’s base running speed in all terrains at level 40 was no joke. When you add their slightly higher levels and focus on Agility, it basically nullified my bonuses from my Nightmare start. At least, it did in a situation like this.

  “Fuck!” I swore, as I quickly glanced back over my shoulder at the Chaos Storm Alliance’s vanguard who were hot on my ass. They couldn’t have been more than eighty yards behind me and were closing the distance fast. Turning back around to eye the cluster of boulders, I realized there wasn’t going to be any way for me to make it there before they ran me down. Already, I could hear the hissing sounds of a new volley of arrows heading my way. As tears of frustration appeared in the corner of my eyes, I gritted my teeth as another series of explosions erupted behind me and I was enveloped in frozen earth and shooting detritus. Once again, my shields failed as arrows began to rain down upon me, when I felt two presences suddenly touch my mind.

  ‘We are coming!’ Neysa’s strained thought filled my consciousness, as arrows hammered my armored back with one piercing the back of my thigh.

  Immediately, the shaft was caught between my legs and sent me sprawling across the frozen ground. I felt the shaft snap in two on impact as a large chunk of meat was unceremoniously ripped away from the back of my leg. The intense pain stole my breath away as I uncontrollably slid to a stop. Scrambling to my feet, I cast Regeneration with a thought and took off again, hoping that it would kick in quick enough to get me back up to speed as I continued to run. Grimacing at the noticeable limp in my stride, I mentally reached out to the Silver Dire Wolf.

  ‘Don’t bother coming for me, I’m done for,’ I sent back, as I hurriedly recast my shields. ‘Besides, I’m not about to ride you with Rani watching from above.’

  ‘To the Dark with that Nordic Guardian!’ Helgath’s mental snarl rang out in my mind, as I flinched involuntarily from the emotional ferocity in spite of myself.

  ‘I’d rip the smelly Human’s face off if you’d let me,’ Neysa readily agreed, ‘but you said that wouldn’t help.’

  ‘It won’t,’ I mentally gasped, as another series of explosions ripped the ground up not ten yards behind me. Instead of immediately going down from the following blast of shrapnel-like debris, I felt a Holy Shield appear around me a second before a Regeneration spell buff appeared on my HUD. Before I could ask what the fuck was going on, Helgath’s strained reply sounded in my head.

  ‘We came up with another plan instead.’

  The Half-Orc’s mental exhaustion was clear to hear across our shared link. Obviously, whatever Helgath was doing was taking everything she had. To be honest though, I was still trippin
g about her use of high-level Holy Magic as the follow-up volley of arrows came to an end. It was about then that my ears picked up the thunderous sound of approaching hooves nearing at an oblique angle from behind me.

  Another quick glance over my shoulder confirmed it was Fylreh heading towards me at a full gallop. In that split moment, I could see she was a complete mess. She’d obviously taken a major beating and was battered and bloodied. Even more surprising, she was missing her hardened-leather breastplate and instead had an odd ninja-girl leather wrap to hold her massive chest in place. That, in and of itself, required a second longer look to fully appreciate while she was at a full gallop.

  While that was an impressive sight, it didn’t hold a candle to Fylreh’s skill at running and shooting as I shockingly watched as the filly released a steady stream of Enhanced Multi-Shots at the trailing enemy players without looking where she was galloping. Behind Fylreh, I could see a similarly beaten up and exhausted Neysa with a bedraggled Helgath riding on top of her. The Half-Orc was singularly focused on casting spell after spell while clinging to Neysa’s back as the Silver Dire Wolf struggled to keep up with the unnaturally fast Centauride. Catching that stray thought over our link, Neysa’s voice angrily grumbled in my head.

  ‘She acquired some sort of special magic to boost running speed.’

  ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ I asked in consternation, automatically dismissing the Silver Dire Wolf’s jealous comment. ‘There’s no way even the four of us can hold out against these assholes!”

  ‘Just shut up and mount Fylreh,’ Helgath spat in obvious distaste, as my face went blank at her words. Thankfully, the Chaos Storm Alliance players chose that moment to inundate us with everything they had as Flame Strikes, Green Poison bolts, Tornado-like Dust Devils, Water Blades, and Lightning Bolts ripped into the ground just a few yards behind us. Though the intensity of the blasts created an explosion of shrapnel like nothing before, all that I could think of as my shields were ripped away and my health dropped was the words that had come from my soulmate’s lips. Talk about being saved by the bell!

  Maybe it was a strange thought to have in that moment, but I didn’t want to share my every pornographic thought with my mental peanut gallery. What? Don’t judge me like that. I knew my girls well. Helgath had purposely used the word “mount” to say she’d been through my previous memories of my shared intimacy with Fylreh. That was the background thought going through my head as I struggled to recast Enhanced Mage Armor and Bone Shield before the follow-up volley of arrows began raining down around us, when Fylreh’s rough hands grabbed my waist and lifted me into the air.

  Maybe I’m just dense, but the move completely caught me by surprise. Well, I don’t know if it was the fact that Fylreh was okay with having me ride her or if it was because she lifted me up, gear and all, like I was light as a feather. Definitely not a woman you’d want to piss off, I thought as an aside, as the filly rotated her entire torso around to place me on her back. Although, that sounded much smoother than it actually went as we flailed around at a full gallop. At least, until I managed to get my leg up high enough to slide over her equipment harness as the vanguard behind us began cursing up a storm at my imminent escape. Thankfully, by then Helgath had managed to recast Holy Shield on us both.

  I wished I could say that I hopped onto Fylreh’s back and rode her like a pro, no pun intended. Unfortunately, that’s not how it went down at all, when Fylreh let me go and took off like a bat out of hell. Without her strong hands holding me in place, I nearly slid right off her bouncing back as I flailed around in panic grabbing at anything I could to not fall off.

  Now, don’t get me wrong. I’d ridden several times throughout my life and even spent a summer on my cousin’s dairy and horse farm in Tennessee. I could saddle a horse, set the length of my stirrups, knew the different gaits, and had even ridden bareback on a laidback gelding a time or two. All of which offered almost no help in riding an aggressive speed enhanced filly with her torso twisted around while firing arrows over my head. Even worse, she’d never been ridden before.

  On top of that, there was no place set aside for my legs to easily wrap around her lower half. It’s not that she had a barrel chest like a regular horse. She was actually much thinner around than the actual horses I’d ridden in my youth. The problem was from all of the gear strapped to her back. Without being able to get into a proper riding position, I was forced to desperately clutch at her human waist. As I scrabbled to wrap my legs around her torso and mashed my face up against her leather-wrapped bosom, Fylreh snarled.

  “How the hell am I supposed to fight like this?”

  “How about you just focus on getting us the hell out of here!” I shouted back, as she irritably snorted and spun back around.

  “Gah!” I screamed, as she bashed me in the face with the shield that was strapped to her back. The impact sent me tumbling over her lower shoulder, heading face-first for the ground. Somehow, I managed to hook an arm around her waist to grip the strap passing over her withers while I flailed about trying to find some way to brace myself from falling as I flopped against her flank hanging parallel to the ground like some sort of trick rider at a rodeo.

  “By the Dark,” Fylreh cursed, as her bow wacked me in the face and she swayed to the side. “What is wrong with you?”

  “Just give me a second,” I shouted back, trying not to panic as I fought to pull myself back up onto her back. That plan went out the window a split-second later as the hand I had around her waist slipped free. As I began falling face-first into the ground, the filly twisted her torso around and somehow managed to catch me by the back of my leather-armored pants.

  “How do you expect me to run like this?” Fylreh demanded, while giving a hard yank. “Get back on my back, Star!”

  Her next move probably would’ve looked awesome as hell to anyone viewing us. Fylreh swung me around the front of her at waist height and then threw me up into the air while at a full gallop. Well, it would’ve if I hadn’t been letting out a wailing scream the entire time. That, and my flailing arms as I momentarily hung midair whimpering removed any style points I might have gained if that were a thing in The World. No matter how cool the filly ducking her torso underneath my body to catch me might have looked otherwise.

  I won’t even mention the whole incident of having my balls suddenly clenched in a tight leather vice by her grip on the back of my pants. Nor will I discuss the terrible ball-crushing landing I took on Fylreh’s withers. Just trust when I say that the harden-leather breastplate that was strapped to her harness was most definitely located in the wrong place for a stunt like that. The horrible crack that reverberated through my body felt like the loss of my ability to ever have children again as I lurched forward in agony to face-plant against the iron-reinforced shield strapped across her back. Through the haze of pain, I blindly reached around the shield fumbling for a handhold as I began sliding off the galloping Centauride once again, when my hands found something firm to grip.

  “Aaaiiieee!” Fylreh screamed, as I held onto her for dear life. The sound was unlike anything I’d ever heard coming from the filly before as her body suddenly went ridged beneath me. Though, what was wrong became self-evident a half-second later as she exclaimed. “Those are not handholds, Star!”

  “Head for the center of the cluster of stones,” I managed to gasp out, as Fylreh continued bitching up a storm.

  Yeah, I know I should’ve let go and tried to find a new handhold, but after everything I’d already been through, I can honestly say that wasn’t going to happen. Though, I did try to loosen up the death grip I had on her firm mounds as much as possible, while bouncing around on her backside with each hoof strike. Don’t judge my riding abilities, I hadn’t exactly had the chance to find the rhythm of her gait, and, trust me when I say, it’s a lot harder to ride when you can’t clench with your knees.

  If I’d had any doubts about how ridiculous we might have looked, the question was answered a sec
ond later. With my cheek bouncing against Fylreh’s shield, I was in the perfect position to see the faces of the enemy Rangers behind us. Their reaction said it all. While several of the enemy Rangers did bust out laughing at our antics, most grew visibly green with envy at the sight of my unusual mount. Just wait until they realized Neysa was actually my mount, I thought with a grin, as the Chaos Storm players attacked with renewed vigor.

  Not that I blamed them. No matter how much flak I caught on the forums and my Twitch Stream channel for making out with a female Centaur, Fylreh was one of a kind and awesome all around, even if she wasn’t my mount. I’d bet even money that most gamer guys and a number of gamer gals wouldn’t pass up the chance of having a female Centauride to ride, I thought with a smirk, no matter how offended they acted online. Even though Fylreh was carrying me now, in my heart of hearts, I knew this wasn’t going to be a regular occurrence. I had a sneaky suspicion something else was going on between my three ladies, I thought to myself, as Fylreh caught her balance and began pulling away from the hail of enemy fire.

  “Slow down,” I shouted into the miffed filly’s ear, before we could get to far ahead. “Try to keep them around twenty to thirty yards behind us.”

  At least, I think Fylreh was upset. The non-verbal signals she was communicating made me question her put off attitude. Normally, she’d have no problems moving my hands to somewhere else if that wasn’t where she partly wanted them to be. My suspicions were confirmed as the filly partly turned her torso around enough to look me in the eyes. An uncomfortable situation to be in with your ex-fling when you had one hand still gripping her leather-wrapped breast while the other held onto her bare shoulder. Although, in my defense, there really wasn’t anywhere else for me to hold on to.

  “Why?”

  “It’s all part of the plan,” I gulped out in spite of myself at the closeness between us. Forcing my feelings aside at the awkwardness of the situation, I quickly explained the basic outline. Seeing the self-satisfied smile that came to the filly’s face at my nervousness, I silently swore up a storm for being so easily distracted by my hormones as Fylreh turned back around and slowed back down. To make matters worse, Neysa and Helgath instantly reached out to me to understand what was going on, before I could settle my thoughts.