A woman came out of the trees.
Tall. Strong arms holding a lengthy bow, wrists wrapped in leather. Strong thighs exposed above high leather boots. Ample breasts covered by a strip of linen, stomach bare below. A strip of linen hanging between her legs in front, another behind, connected by a cord that I yearned to sever. The generous amount of exposed skin a deep golden brown, contrasting with wild blond hair flowing in loose curls over her torso. A face belonging to no race I knew, imposing and beautiful. A voice like honey poured over steel.
“Level?”
“Six. But,” I added suggestively, “I’m almost a Seven. I just need the Attraction points.”
“Mm.” She turned and started walking down the path. I followed her with caution. She didn’t even turn back to look at me.
“So, uh, what level are you?”
“Eight.” She still looked straight ahead as she walked. There seemed to be a trace of an accent in her voice, like Russian or something in that region. Too bad she didn’t talk enough for me to hear it as much as I wanted.
As I followed her I watched her fair curls brushing over her bronze back and I could see the sides of her ass moving to the left and right of the fabric that hung down the center, which swung a little as she walked to give tantalizing little glimpses of what lay beneath.
A few minutes ago I had been seized with panic, fearing a handful of stars penetrating my body, but now I had to adjust the stiffening mass under my breeches as all I could think about was penetrating her body.
“How come you to the forest?” Definitely an Eastern-European accent, and sexy as hell.
“How? Uh, well,” I said, pointing back to the path behind us. “I came down that road from Knarlsbro, and after I killed that hairy black thing I—”
“You?” She came to an abrupt halt and turned, her stare boring into me. “You killed the black beast?”
“Yeah, I—I have slain the foul creature.”
Her blond brows lifted as she looked at me as if seeing me for the first time, or at least in a new light. She didn’t smile, but she gave the slightest hint of a nod.
“Your Health. It is low?”
I was about to say that the creature fucked my ass up, but then stopped myself and replied, “Yea. I have taken much damage.”
She looked at me a moment longer and then said, “I shall give you fifty Health points.”
Then she turned and carried on down the forest path.
I thought, I’ll take those Health points now, if you don’t mind.
I didn’t know you could transfer HP, and I wanted to ask how this was done, but she was so intimidating I didn’t dare ask any questions.
The forest seemed to last forever. I never thought I would see such a place apart from pictures. I knew it wasn’t real, and yet it was real; the graphics, and whatever you call the systems that delivered the other four senses, left nothing to be desired. Despite the fact that I didn’t even have a body, for all intents and purposes I was strolling through this ancient forest with this steaming-hot babe.
Damn, I thought, if she’s an Eight, what will she look like as a Ten?
I was so focused on her that I didn’t even notice the wagon coming toward us until I heard the hoofbeats of the horses. A bearded merchant sat on one of the beasts, his eyes fearfully flitting about the trees. A warrior rode the horse next to him, probably an escort hired to see the peaceful traders through the dangerous forest. A woman rode the horse behind the merchant. His wife? I wondered further at how playing the merchant class worked, but my thoughts evaporated at the sound of galloping hooves coming from behind the wagon at a much faster, more menacing pace.
I saw the outline of the horse and rider appear on the path in the distance, and saw the lance protruding out gleaming and sharp. At first I thought it was a warrior, but when it got closer—something it did at an alarming rate—I saw that it was not a horse and rider at all.
The horse and the human-shaped form on top of it were one and the same.
As it came closer still, I could see that the white hair of the horse blended into the inhumanely white skin of the creature’s torso, and then I noticed that, more disturbing still, the false rider did not carry the lance—it was part of its body.
It was like a medieval jousting lance, except formed of bone rather than wood, projecting from where the thing’s wrist should’ve been. The tip was piercing sharp. The thing’s hair on its humanlike head was white and tied into a ponytail that mirrored the white tail on the horselike rump.
The warrior escorting the merchants leaped off his horse to face the threat, brandishing a big battle axe. He lifted it up to swing, but the axe never came down the way he intended. The lance of bone skewered him, the point shooting out with an explosion of gore and his body carried away stuck like a shish kabob.
The archer and I had to jump out of the way to avoid being trampled, and we whirled around to watch the centaurian monster jerk his weapon at the ground to shake off the impaled body.
I was ready to shit my breeches as the thing turned back toward us and began to charge, but the archer didn’t even look nervous; even in my panic I noted the gleam of excitement in her amber eyes.
As I readied my shaking lance she calmly nocked not one but two arrows and let them fly. The centaur tried to block one of the arrows, but the shaft buried itself in the human chest as the other one stuck the equine chest.
But the thing kept coming, and was on track to crash into the merchant wagon, so I stepped to the side and swung my lance with a flash of bright yellow, taking off all four of the horse’s legs with one long slice, and the joint human and horse body tumbled into the ground with a shower of dirt and blood, coming to a rest a few feet from the merchants.
The archer gave me a nod of approval. The merchant got down from his horse and bowed to us.
“My deepest thanks. If there’s some way I might show my gratitude, you have only to name it.”
The archer said, “If you have but a little food to spare, that would suffice.”
“Of course.”
“But first, let us take shelter in this wagon for a brief time.”
“As you wish.”
The archer directed me into the back of the wagon. With the canopy of the wagon over our heads, and the canopy of the forest masking the sun, I couldn’t see a thing. I felt my way past chests of goods and felt a stack of rugs under my knees.
I whispered, “What are we doing in here?”
“I bestow on you fifty degrees of my Health.” I could vaguely make out her shape in front of me, but a few seconds later my eyes adjusted enough to see that she had lifted up the linen from between her legs, and there was nothing more underneath.
Now I understood how I would get that HP. I smiled and lowered my head down, following those muscular thighs until my lips landed on a soft arrangement of female flesh.
I could feel the humid warmth rising from her body as I kissed her, gently, then I sent out my tongue to explore each nook and cranny of tender skin. I went lightly at first, listening to her breath rise in the dark wagon. Her hand rested on her bow, ready for action even now as she received my wet caress. When the first little moan came quietly to my ears, I lapped at her a little faster, a little stronger, tasting the sweet nectar of her arousal and drawing out her honey-steel voice, louder, thick with passion, and then my tongue moved like a wizard casting a spell as it danced over her magic button and she cried out and her body shook under my mouth.
I came out of the wagon with fifty more Health points and a few more EP. She came out of the wagon walking on shaky legs.
After the merchant gave me a loaf of bread and drove away, the archer was still panting.
“Not bad for a Six,” she said with an unsteady breath. I noticed she was using her bow to support herself. She quickly switched back to fantasy speech. “Perhaps when you reach the seventh level, I shall deign to grant you my body.”
“I’d like that. I’d like that a lot. I�
�m Karl, by the way.”
She had to take a few more heavy breaths before she answered.
“Anna.”
Chapter Twenty-four
I feared we would not emerge from the forest before nightfall, but at last I saw the sun peek through the trees in shimmering patches of deep gold. By the time we came out onto open land, the sun burned close to the horizon in a vivid pink.
I welcomed the sight, especially as the pink light showed us a village not far off. Thanks to Anna my Health was not bad, but even with food my Stamina would sink until I got some sleep. We hastened toward the village, and by the time we got there the long shadows of the buildings merged into the deepening darkness and firelight showed through the unglazed windows.
Anna led the way through the rustic little houses. She spied a place in which voices came boisterously from the window, and she knocked on the roughly finished wooden door. A short peasant opened it and Anna said, “Have you a room?”
“Aye, we do, though it be small. Eight gold pieces for the two of you.”
“Show us the way.”
The proprietor led us past the people drinking and eating at the hearth, bringing us to a ladder. We paid the guy and climbed up, me wisely allowing Anna to go first so I could enjoy the view as she climbed.
The ladder took us up to a little loft, about fifty square feet, with a crude mattress on the floor. We took off our boots, crawled onto the bed, and despite the fact this excessively hot woman was right next to me I fell asleep in an instant.
* * *
We woke up late the next day, well past noon. Anna was already sitting up, her feet hanging over the edge of the loft. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and asked, “So what’s the plan?”
“We stay in the village for perhaps another night. Find you some women. Some men for me. Next morning, we set out, if you wish to travel with me.”
“I do.”
“It is perhaps safer. But now, food.”
Our host served us some simple peasant fare, by which I mean bland, crappy food. After that, I paid the village blacksmith to sharpen my lance. He also sawed off the jagged end of the wood to a clean line. He directed me to the village wise man, who sold me twenty-five Magic points for my weapon and helmet; it reminded me of buying airtime for a phone.
Rising as late as we did, night crept up on me before I knew it, though not before I managed a quickie with a cute village girl. By the time I returned to meet Anna at the inn for dinner it was dark.
The two of us took our places among the travelers crowded at a well-worn table next to the blazing fire. A serving girl approached with a jug. “Some of our fine wine, oh honored guest?”
Anna scowled at her. “Ale. And plenty of it.”
I thought, I want to fuck her so bad.
Sitting there watching her gorgeous face glow in the flickering firelight, I realized that I had not once seen her smile. Even when one of the other guests said something that amused her, her lips hardly turned up as she gave a sexy semi-laugh.
The ale was warm, but full-bodied, and the food that the servant set in front of us on the rough-hewn boards of the table was hearty and well spiced; much better than our earlier meal. The plate to my right sat untouched for a few minutes, and the bench in front of it empty; the guy it was intended for, a huge warrior who had clearly chosen the largest body type and was working his way up to the gene-therapied bodybuilder look, was on top of a peasant woman in front of the fire, thrusting away eagerly in front of the whole table. He finished and took his place next to me.
“Had to work up an appetite, know what I mean?” As he tore into the joint of meat on his plate, I thought something about the way he spoke sounded vaguely familiar, though he didn’t really seem to have a pronounced accent.
His exhibitionist intimacies aside, the atmosphere was intimate, the warm glow of the fire inviting warmth to our fellow diners. We all seemed liked friends, eating and talking and drinking, and I decided the ambience in the rustic little hut was better than any restaurant I had ever eaten at in real life.
The wizard across from us, his beard suggesting he was at least a Conjurer, but probably a Sorcerer, asked “So where y’all from? I’m from Paintsville, Kentucky.”
The archer to his right said, “Zacatecas, Mexico.”
His traveling companion, also an archer, exclaimed, “Arriba Zacatecas!” I took that to mean they were from the same place.
The red-haired witch next to Anna, pretty enough to be at least a Six, said, “Ireland. Galway. But I was on vacation in Spain when I passed. Let’s just say the Running of the Bulls seemed like a good idea at the time.”
All eyes turned to Anna, who scowled.
“I know nothing of these places of which you speak. As for myself, I come from the lands south of the forest.”
Seriously? I thought. You’re not going to break character even now?
I sighed and said, “Bridgeport, Connecticut.”
The big warrior next to me turned abruptly, the meat stopping short of his mouth. “Hey, I’m from Bridgeport too!”
“Oh, cool, which part?”
“Lower East Side. You?”
“I lived right off North Ave. Across from the cemetery on Dewey Street.”
The warrior slapped the table and said, “No way! I got family there! You know Hancock Street?”
“I lived on Hancock Street!”
“You’re kidding! Well if it ain’t a small world. I wonder if you know my sister. She lived in that yellow house across from the first street.”
My mouth hung open.
“That—that’s my house. . . .”
He stared at me, the joint of meat still in his hand.
“Oh my . . . Ace?”
“Uncle Cylock?”
“Well I’ll be darned! How ya been?”
“Good. Except for being dead and all.”
“Your funeral was very nice, by the way. Closed casket, of course.” He finally took the intended bite of meat and washed it down with a big swig of ale. It was hard to wrap my mind around the concept that the huge, long-haired warrior next to me was my rather frail-looking Uncle Cylock. Even sixteen years ago he would have been at least seventy, with that old-fashioned reverse mohawk and all those tattoos, and now he was in the body of a thirty-year-old gene-freak. “Your mother asked if I talked to you, and I’ve been meaning to look for number, but to be honest I’ve spent almost every minute in this game.”
“Yeah, I know how that goes—” I froze, my tankard of ale hanging in the air. “Uncle Cylock, if you talk to my mom, for the love of God please do not tell her I play this game!”
“Are you kidding? Think I want my goody-two-shoes sister knowing I’m here banging all these hot mamas? I won’t tell if you don’t!”
I almost went for a toe-bump, but caught up to my uncle’s headbutt just in time. Crap, I thought, Uncle Cylock is hipper than I am. We toasted with our tankards and Cylock said, “Here’s to family. And smashing every last babe in the game.”
Everyone at the table stayed there long after the last plate was cleared, talking deep into the night. Finally Uncle Cylock wished me goodnight and went to his room, and soon after that the archers from Mexico also went to bed. The wizard stared at Anna.
“Y’all about the purdiest thing I ever did see.”
She looked up at him, her lips pursed. “I understand not your strange tongue.”
Well, I thought, so much for that, but then the guy stood up from his bench and put both hands forcefully on the table.
“I desire thee, and I mean to have thee right here and right now!”
Anna stared back at him. She still didn’t smile, but at least she wasn’t frowning. Suddenly she jumped up on the table and swung the loincloth off her loins.
“Very well, sorcerer. Work what magic you can.”
The wizard wrapped his emerald green cloak over his body and then flung it aside.
His clothes were gone. They had disappeared.
&nbs
p; He lay down on the table and pulled Anna’s waist until her pelvis came down onto his bearded face. His tongue worked its magic and I watched Anna’s eyes close. No smile, but it was clear she enjoyed herself. The sounds coming from those full lips drove me wild.
She slid down on the wizard’s long, thick staff, surely at least a Level Eight, and then she flung her top off. It landed on my head, and when I pulled it away I could at last see those big, full breasts in all their weighty glory. She bounced on the wizard with passionate jerks of her golden hips, her breasts dancing to the steady rhythm of her bucking waist, her blond hair moving as if alive. It drove me mad with lust and envy as I watched this woman I wanted sliding up and down over someone else.
I stared with such mesmerized awe at the display of lust right in front of me that I didn’t notice the witch by my side until I felt her fingers unfastening my breeches.
The next thing I knew her deep blue hood was over my lap, her red hair spilling out, and then I felt her wet lips wrap around my excited flesh. The sensation of the witch’s warm mouth and the sight of Anna’s amazing body in the heat of passion spurred my excitement and pleasure fast. As my feelings rose at an alarming pace, the couple in front of me, to my alarm, literally rose—the wizard, now cross-legged behind Anna, who still faced me in a taunting display of sexiness, actually levitated off the table with Anna in his lap.
My eyes popped open in shock as the pair in front of me gyrated their loins together a foot above the table. Soon the shock was overcome with excitement as I watched Anna’s face flush with ecstasy and heard her moans, and then I didn’t watch anything because my eyes closed as the witch worked her lips over my steel-hard flesh and I could take no more and I exploded with relief into her mouth.
And yet I wasn’t done.
In real life, and at the earlier levels of the game, I would’ve needed a few hours to recover. But now, much to my surprise and delight, I wanted more.
The witch lifted her head from my lap, the firelight dancing over her fair, freckled face, her lips shining. I saw her throat move with a gulp.
Conquest Page 12
