Elven Mage's Submissive Passion

by Reed James

  A shield of protective energy engulfed Kulrigiizhai. The next beak attack struck it and rebounded. The griffin screeched in frustration. It clawed at the barrier, digging at the energy to get at Kulrigiizhai. Not seeing Marcus coming.

  He slammed his ax into the back of the beast, severing its spine. It cawed in pain and then collapsed forward, half-crushing the elf. Or would have if the divine bubble didn't protect her. Relief flowed through Dëshoma as she unleashed an Arcane Healing to directly repair Marcus's wounds.

  Marcus panted. He turned and then he froze. He stared at a hill. “Fucking bastard!”

  * * / *

  Twist

  Marcus's roar drew the Thief's attention. She glanced at him. He faced towards the hill. She followed his gaze. A figure stood there in armor, a plume of blue feathers thrusting up from the helm. Twist sneered in disgust at the sight of the Pushijer fanatic.

  “You like seeing this pain?” Marcus demanded, heedless of the swarm of kobolds rushing at him. “You like seeing these innocent people hurt? Huh? Coward!”

  “Marcus!” Maria cried in warning.

  The first kobold slammed a dagger through a rent in his armor. The knife bounced back, doing nothing to him. Marcus whirled around as Twist realized he'd activated his Iron Titan's Belt. His ax cleaved through the kobold's neck.

  Éjyona fired her rifle, picking off another one. Twist rushed up, seeing the horde of kobolds lined up perfectly. She activated her leather straps. Flames blazed in her lungs. She exhaled a cone of fire that engulfed them. They shrieked, burning as she unleashed her damage.

  Then she thrust herself into their midst, slicing and stabbing, out of TP. She could do nothing else but stab them in the back as they howled for Marcus's blood. He snarled, blocking with his shield, cleaving with his ax.

  Dëshoma fell silent.

  Kulrigiizhai stood up, panting. The bubble around her vanished. She pointed a finger as she resumed chanting, her Hit Points low. Twist's were falling, too. She hadn't received any healing from Dëshoma in a while.

  They were burning out of resources, but the enemy thinned. The last of the kobolds fell to their attacks. Arcane shards cut them down. Twist's stabbing knife and Maria's thrusting rapier took down more. Gunshots and cleaving axes unleashed more death on their enemies.

  The last kobold fell.

  Marcus whirled around. The watching Warrior had vanished.

  He spat as they hit Level 15.

  Chapter Twenty: Corruption Spreads

  Level 15 refreshed our resources. We were badly mauled by that fight. I searched the cultist personally but found nothing on the bleeding body. His red robes hid the blood from numerous wounds that looked self-inflicted.

  I found the tattoo of the broken diamond, like the dead followers of Pushijer who ambushed us in the middle of the night. Dëshoma looked deeply disturbed by that. Pushijer's followers working with the God of Harm, protecting what they shouldn't be.

  Made me want to get my hands on the Warrior even more.

  Twist ransacked the village and found Maria a new pair of panties to wear. The Frosted Studded Leather Thong stood out on her. The white leather with blue rivets clashed with her brown boots and bra. But it added passive frost damage to all her attacks and let her explode in cold damage once per day. The thong had a T-back that vanished down between her toned rump. I donned my new Fortified Steel Cuisses and Greaves. The heavy plates strapped about my legs would give me more damage mitigation.

  If we were mobbed by more infected villagers, I'd need the armor.

  Twist pulled on her Copper Studded Leather Panties, the burnished, reddish rivets standing out against the light-brown leather. It cupped her ass and had exiting laces in the front showing off a bit of her scaled pudenda and promised excitement if you tugged on the knot.

  The Warrior had fled across another bridge he then severed, so we pushed on. We had to reach the center. As the day wore on, more threats assaulted us. Twisted air elementals whirled out of the sky, howling with fierce, cloudy winds.

  Even they were infected.

  Maria's frost enchanted attacks and Twist's electric/unholy enchanted strikes helped us cut through them faster. My ax had been all but useless, but Zeal kept them focused on me anyways. My new armor cut down on the damage they could inflict.

  Diseased griffins, escaped from the villages, roamed the area. We dispatched a few more of them as we pushed deeper into the plateau, searching for the source of the corruption. Kulri's nose kept twitching. She led us more often now, guiding us like a bloodhound toward the sources of corruption. We traveled in the wake of torment the Cultists of Thūgiz had carved into the plateaus.

  I came to hate them more and more. This world was my new home. Whether real or not, it offended me that they so casually unleashed such suffering. Time that would be better spent loving and enjoying pleasure, not inflicting pain and suffering on the world.

  All of us were feeling the weight of their actions, even Twist. She seemed more somber than ever. Quiet, her steps heavy as we trudged across the next plateau, leaving more pitiful, dead griffins behind in our wake.

  * * / *

  Twist

  Every step weighed at the Thief. She hissed in frustration, constantly feeling out of breath just from walking. Despite the level up a few hours ago, she felt like she'd burned through all her resources. She still had three-quarters of her TP left. 25 points. She could unleash five or six more attacks with ease.

  So why did she feel so exhausted?

  Her feet dragged across the plateau. It was late afternoon. No one showed any signs of wanting to stop, so she pushed through it. She was a Shardhunter. A dragonborn. She should be able to outlast any but Marcus. Her race was naturally hearty.

  Walking took more and more out of her. It was all she could do to trudge along. She didn't pay attention, hardly heard the flow of conversation around her. So she missed the shout of warning and took three steps before she realized the ground burst upward before her.

  More diseased kobolds spilled out, gibbering for her life.

  With a groan, she activated her Vanish. She wrapped herself up in invisibility, the light bending around her. The world grew gray to her eyes. The kobolds rushing towards her looked confused while Marcus and Maria Yelled their buff. Then Marcus's shield crashed into the horde. He threw back several before his ax laid into them.

  Éjyona burst from her own Vanish to unleash a Scattershot barrage of lead pellets that ripped into the horde of blue-skinned vermin around Marcus. Maria's shadowy rapier stabbed, frost crackling across the wounds she left behind. Dëshoma and Kulri chanted.

  Twist burst from her Vanish with an Ambush. The attack slammed deep into the kobold's back, bursting with dark unholy energy and crackling electric current, tearing through kidneys and killing him in a hit. She panted and staggered. A wave of dizziness swept over her as another kobold turned and hissed at her.

  It slashed a rusting sword at her.

  Twist had plenty of time to react. To dodge it. She should have stepped to the side and then stabbed her sinuous sacrificial dagger into the side of its neck, decimating a decent chunk of its Hit Points. Only her feet didn't move. She didn't have the energy.

  The sword rammed into her guts, sliding between two banded belly scales. She stared down at the blade in shock. The kobold cackled in mad delight and ripped its weapon free. Scarlet spilled down towards her new panties.

  The world spun around her. Twist staggered. Pain gnawed at her side. She didn't think she'd been hit there. Heat blazed across her thoughts. Someone shouted her name. The kobold's next sword strike stabbed into her chest.

  Half her Hit Points gone.

  She collapsed onto her back, the world spinning around her. Healing energy surged through her, repairing her wounds, but it did nothing for the exhaustion gripping her. Her eyes grew heavy. The pain in her side gnawed worse. She shuddered, a feverish heat spilling over her.

  The kobold stabbed down at her again.
>
  * * / *

  Maria du Marne

  “Shit!” Marcus cursed, surrounded by the kobolds. He concentrated on Twist lying prone and shivering. A bubble of divine energy engulfed her.

  Maria rushed towards the Thief's defense. The human's boots crossed the ground in three steps. She Double-Stabbed the kobold, two blurring strikes that left frost rimming the bleeding wounds, red crystals forming in the life bleeding from it. It hissed at her and swung.

  Kobolds swarmed around her. She stood over her friend and activated her panties.

  A burst of swirling frost whirled from her and slammed into the kobolds. They squealed and hissed in pain. Patches of white rime spread on arms and faces. They reeled back from the extreme cold.

  An Arcane Burst from Kulri erupted around them, dispatching the rest weakened by her attack. A swath of infected kobolds fell dead around her. She stood over Twist, looking around, fearful for her friend and confused at why Twist had collapsed.

  Marcus battled with the remaining, his ax slamming into them while their attacks glanced off his heavy armor and kite shield. Éjyona's shots picked off the ones he wounded. His ax would slash, leaving a spurting wound then her bullet would slam into head or neck to finish off the kobold.

  “Twist!” Dëshoma gasped. She fell to her knees. “What Malady inflicts thee?”

  Twist didn't answer. Only whimpered. Her body convulsed. Worry gnawed at Maria. Marcus and Éjyona dispatched the last of the kobolds as Maria turned to stare down at Twist. The bubble protecting her had vanished, leaving Dëshoma free to touch the Thief. Through the party status, Maria felt something strange from Twist.

  “What is that?” Marcus muttered. He thrust his finger forward and tapped Iris in the belly. The pixie shivered. Then it was like he was staring at something in the air before him, his eyes moving as if he read something.

  “It's a curse,” said Iris. “A permanent debuff.”

  “I can remove it from her, Lord Marcus,” said Dëshoma, “but not through any of mine miracles. The girdle I found in Holy Shuwëmeri's temple can cure her, but it has but a single activation in a day.”

  Marcus nodded while Maria's stomach roiled. She looked around at her body, staring at her exposed skin. At the same time, Marcus seemed to be flicking at the air as if he were turning unseen pages. He let out a heavy sigh. “No one else has it. How did she get it?”

  “She went after the cultist,” Éjyona said. “Back in the village.”

  “That seems likely,” Dëshoma said and placed her hands on Twist's forehead. The belt of gold coins encircling her slim waist flared with a bright light. For a moment, Maria thought the images of Shuwëmeri stamped on each coin writhed in ecstatic pleasure.

  Twist groaned. The dark fissure on her side faded away. She blinked and sat up. “What did that kobold cocksucker hit me with?”

  * * / *

  Dëshoma

  The poor beasts plagued by the sickness fell upon them with more regularity as Dëshoma's party crossed the plateau. They soon rose to Level 16. She chose to upgrade Arcane Healing a second time, increasing how much she could cure with it. She hardly used Healing Touch any longer. Her studies into the theological as a Cleric gave her a greater understanding of miracles.

  The signs of disease abounded. It worried her. She could not remove curses normally. If any of them were to fall afflicted, she could not heal them until the morrow. And if more than one of her companions grew ill...

  She tried not to think about it.

  They came across another poor village. They found none alive. The survivors had scattered in a dozen directions according to Kulrigiizhai and Maria. Wandering the plateau, attacking the infected beasts, dying.

  A chapel to Ethileri lay in the heart of the village. The Cultist of Thūgiz had desecrated it. Dëshoma gazed sadly at the blood splashed on the walls and spilled over the altar. Blasphemous symbols had been painted in suffering.

  In a hidden compartment in the altar, Twist found a holy book. After Iris's inspection, Dëshoma had taken it up. The Book of Tears reduced the cost of her healing miracles by a single point of MP. Once per day, with it, she could cast a healing spell for no cost at all. The book felt like a gift from Ethileri herself.

  Though Dëshoma served Ëshuxeri, she prayed her thanks to the Goddess of Healing.

  She left the village clutching the white-bound book with a blue tear embossed on the front with her head held high. She would use it to drive back the pain and suffering that afflicted these poor lands. The Airy Plateaus would be cleansed.

  The day cleared. The clouds lifted. From a hill, it was clear they neared the center of the Airy Plateau itself. Across the final bridge, so Kulrigiizhai believed, they would find the heart of this land. They marched to it, the sun sinking low.

  From the center, Dëshoma believed, the foul rot flowed.

  Chapter Twenty-One: Protective Desires

  “Why isn't this as blighted as it should be?” I asked as we reached the mid-point of the plateau. It wasn't a big one. A large mound with a tree growing on it seemed to mark the center of the Airy Plateaus. “I mean, there are leaves on this.”

  I smacked a branch with a hand, tearing off a few of them.

  “I could not say, Marcus Aurelius,” Kulri said. The elf looked around. “This appears to be the center or close enough. I would think that the...” Her words trailed off. She looked at the ground.

  “Fuck, more kobolds,” I growled. Since we had hit Level 16, we'd only had a minor fight with a blighted bear. I had all my TP and MP. I was ready to unleash my upgraded Holy Strike on the little blue bastards. “Get ready.”

  The ground shook harder beneath my feet. The earth bowed upward. Great rents split the turf. I stumbled back as the sod lifted up at an angle. Whatever it was, it was huge. The earth groaned. Dirt burst up in a shower.

  Something rose from the hill as we scattered. The two rogues Vanished. Dëshoma squeaked while I Yelled. It was instinctive now. The moment something went wrong, I unleashed the focusing shout of energy. My body brimmed for the fight.

  A hulking giant made of boulders pulled itself out of the hill. It rose twenty or more feet into the air. Dirt and sod spilled off of its body. Gray rocks, with stria of greens and browns, formed its body, the ones in the torso mammoth. Thicker ones held together to form the arms and legs. It had no head at all. No eyes. Nothing held the rocks together save force. They ground against each other as the thing moved.

  An earth elemental.

  “It's not blighted, Marcus Aurelius! Kulrigiizhai.”

  “Enemy?” I asked. It turned to me. It didn't make a roar or a shout. It just threw a punch at me, stones grinding on stones at the joints.

  Enemy.

  I raised my shield. The blow slammed into it and shoved me back. My feet dug furrows in the ground. The shock reverberated through my shield, dealing blunted damage to me. My arm throbbed. I growled as it drew back for another attack.

  My Holy Strike slammed into its leg. As my ax slammed in, the air thickened around it. It slowed my attack. I struck it, but not nearly as hard as I should. A small chip burst off of it. A minuscule amount of HP flowed back into me.

  “What?” I gasped.

  Maria rushed up and thrust her rapier in. Like my ax, her weapon slowed the last few inches. Her two attacks didn't land with the force they should have, hardly marring the rock. Some frost spread across the stone.

  “Iris?” I shouted as the figure drew back for another punch. “What is going on?”

  “I'm not sure!” the pixie shouted.

  CLANG!

  The fist crashed into my shield, driving me back a foot.

  CLANG!

  A second punch drove me back even farther. Damage reverberated through my shield. My left arm throbbed. My shoulder joint ached. I swung my ax back, the aura around it slowing down my attack at the last moment. Three gunshots rang out from Éjyona as she reappeared. The bullets blurred into sight, slowing and then striking the c
hest, bursting with sparks.

  “It should resist physical attacks by being an earth elemental,” Iris said. “But not slow down attacks. Something has warded it.”

  “Pushijer!” I spat. “That fucking Warrior's responsible for this.”

  Kulri's magic slammed into it. Three arcane shards struck the boulders at full burst. Deep gouges appeared on the surface. The elemental turned to face her. It took a step towards the mage. She could hurt it.

  How could I keep threat when I couldn't deal damage?

  * * / *

  Kulrigiizhai

  The earth elemental lumbered towards the elf.

  She faced it calmly, trusting Marcus to protect her. She chanted, “Let the geometries of space...” as it came closer to her. Upgraded on her level up, Arcane Shard would slice through the enemy and deal it damage.

  Marcus unleashed his Zeal. The earth elemental turned and swung at him. The blow struck his shield and knocked him back a foot. He roared and slammed his ax at the attacker with force. Only it didn't hit hard enough.

  But he had pulled its attention. Kulrigiizhai had faith in Marcus Aurelius.

  “...form into shards of slashing death!”

  Her three shards of purple energy slammed into the monster's chest. The burst of arcane power spilled over the surface of it. The elemental turned to face her again. It lumbered back at her, ignoring Twist's attack when she burst out of her Vanish. The warding around it slowed down all the physical attacks.

  Four out of six of her party members ineffective.

  The rock elemental was almost on her. A worry surged through her as it drew back a fist. It was too late for her to run now. She struggled to dodge, but she wasn't as dexterous as Maria, Twist, or Éjyona. That fist barreled at her.

  A shield of protective energy appeared around her. Faith warded her against the blows. She stood there, feeling all her attack magics ineffective. It slammed into her again as Marcus raced up and slammed his ax into the enemy.

  Chipping off a few slivers of stone.

  But it was enough to draw it back to him. A powerful blow crushed Marcus Aurelius's side. He groaned and hit the ground. His Hit Points plummeted. Already, Dëshoma chanted her Arcane Healing. Positive energy flowed into him as the earth elemental kicked him.