by ilo man
“Vinnie.”
“Brave Vinnie,” they both said together.
The twins have offered you a quest. Clear their barn of the giant rats. Quest reward 300 XP…and the promise of so much more. Do you accept Y/N?
It was a no-brainer, and No Brains accepted.
Chapter Nine
Annalisa threaded her arm through Vinnie’s, and Bryony did the same on the other side. The three of them walked the winding trail up the tapering valley. A smattering of conifer trees began to pepper the grassy slopes, and as the valley’s head lurched to the left in a vast dogleg, a thick and deep green forest stifled all under it. They soon crossed the babbling stream by way of a flint bridge. Instead of carrying on with the curve of the road, the girls led him straight into the forest, a small trail becoming apparent in the dark of the pressing trunks.
Bryony sang a gentle lullaby, and Annalisa hugged him close, shaking her thick, blonde hair back and glancing up at Vinnie with shining, contented eyes—eyes packed with possibility, and Vinnie stiffened as he exaggerated those unspoken promises in his mind.
A thick bed of pine needles covered their way, crunching underfoot, keeping the trail clear, and soon he saw sunlight up ahead, streaming into a clearing. A picture-book cottage sat in its center, a barn to one side and a quaint well between the two.
“We’re here,” said Annalisa, gaily. “Here with our big strong Vinnie,” and she slid her arm from his, and she danced around the small clearing.
Bryony led him to their little cottage. It suited its setting perfectly, a planked wood porch, front and roof. The barn was a little higgledy-piggledy but looked like it could stand the test of time.
“Would you like a drink? A mug of ale, some water, or would you like to fulfill your quest and then relax and take a load off?”
Vinnie looked at the two girls, their promise ever closer now, and he nodded grimly. His lips pressed into a tight line. “Let me deal with the rats, and then we can have some fun.” He smiled his rock star smile, his teeth glinting in the sun, and he winked a trademark wink and strode off toward the barn.
As it loomed, his courage began to wane.
He drew his sword. He wiped his brow.
Vinnie pulled the door open and crept in.
Light filtered down, motes of dancing dust caught in its angular shafts. Stalls for a horse, some chicken coups, a straw bale or two, all filed away on one side. A vicious looking rake, piles of chopped wood, three sets of glowing, yellow eyes, all led away on the other. No sign of rats thought Vinnie.
Then his eyes darted back to those devilish eyes.
The door slammed shut behind him. He assumed it had caught in the wind. The glowing, yellow eyes blinked. He heard scurrying, scratching, and a shiver ran up his spine. Then, in the shadowy light, the largest rat he’d ever seen strolled out into the barn’s middle, strutting like a boxer entering the ring, supremely confident and just missing a shuffle from its feet. Vinnie gulped and wondered where his respawn point was set.
Your respawn is currently set to be + or – ten feet in any direction from you. It will automatically seek out the dry, sure ground and avoid anything nasty like spike filled ditches or packs of mutated rats.
Handy, thought a terrified Vinnie, but he rallied his courage. The rat hissed at him and charged, leaping forward. Vinnie lifted his sword. He set his feet. He was ready for the on rushing beast. Then his courage fled him. He dropped the sword, ducking and bolting to the empty horse stall. A sickening thud rang out as the rat smashed into the barn door. Vinnie looked out from his hiding place and saw its corpse sliding down to the ground.
Just as he was about to make a bolt for the door, another rat took center stage. A tiny whimper escaped Vinnie’s lips. He was trapped, and he’d dropped his sword.
His mind raced.
The rake was closer than his sword and looked infinitely more capable of fending off a rat. He looked from door to rat, from rat to rake, then burst out of the stalls and dove for the rake.
He landed right on its upturned prongs, the handle lurching into the air. A splat noise sounded above, and the rake’s handle lurched. A brief silence was followed by a thump on his back, and warm liquid soaked his back. Vinnie shrugged of the dead rat, its brain cleaved by the rake’s handle. He scrambled around, reaching out for his sword.
He heard scuttling behind him.
Vinnie grabbed the sword’s hilt, spun around ready to face the last beast, only to see it close and jump. Hatred filled its eyes as it leaped forth, jaws poised for a strike that was sure to end Vinnie. He was buffeted backward, sliding on the hay-strewn ground, the rat looking at him in yellow-eyed shock, impaled on his sword, much to Vinnie’s surprise.
The dead rat dropped, ripping the sword from Vinnie’s hand. Vinnie sat there, trembling a little, not sure quite what had happened.
Congratulations! You have completed the quest; Clear the barn of giant rats. The land awards you 300 XP. You now have 800 XP, 200 to go until the next level. You are still level 3.
Through the shock, through the fear, Vinnie clung to that XP. He got up gingerly, his legs unsteady, and pushed the barn door open.
Bryony screamed. Annalisa gasped. Vinnie staggered out, head to toe in rat blood. “Ladies,” he said. “Your barn is clear,” and he promptly collapsed in a heap.
Vinnie came to with a good view of his boots as they carved two furrows through the thick pine needles. Both of his arms were reaching out above his head, each of his wrists grabbed tightly. Behind him, doing the dragging, Annalisa grumbled, and Bryony pacified her.
“Why?”
“Because he’s covered in rat blood, that’s why.”
“So.” Vinnie could tell Annalisa was unhappy.
“So we can’t perform the ritual if he’s filthy. Would you accept a bloody sacrifice?”
Sacrifice? Alarm bells started ringing in Vinnie’s groggy mind.
“We’ll take him to the waterfall, get him all cleaned up and then offer him up to Sivatious, see if the great and wise will devour his soul. Now shush, he’ll wake soon.”
Vinnie clamped his eyes shut and groaned a little for effect. He heard the soothing sound of falling water, the tinkling of a stream as it flowed away. Soon dumped on the floor, he kept up the pretense of being unconscious.
They tugged his boots off first.
“Just give them a buff up,” Bryony hissed, clearly in charge.
“Got it,” said Annalisa, now seemingly fully on board with the plan.
Bryony tugged at his sleeves, sliding his jacket off, then his shirt, revealing his muscle-bound chest. She let her fingers dance over his nipples, then brush lower to his abdomen. “Such a shame,” she whispered, full of melancholy.
“Shame,” said Annalisa, her voice tainted with regret too. “His boots are done. Jacket too,” she then chirped. “Pass me his shirt.”
Vinnie felt deft fingers undoing the button on his pants, and tried desperately not to get a stubby. They tugged and pulled, pulled and tugged, and he was soon naked. A smile nearly creased Vinnie’s lips as Bryony clapped and gasped and Annalisa let out a shrill whistle. “Are we sure Sivatious wouldn’t begrudge us fun-times? Just a little?” He felt her breath on his groin, softly scooting over his pubis and around his now stiffening shaft.
But Bryony hissed at Annalisa and slapped Vinnie on the cheek. “Brave knight, it’s time for you to rise and wash. Your prizes await, and we are both eager.”
Vinnie opened his eyes, locking on Bryony’s, knowing the depths of her duplicity. “Scrubbed clean for my ladies,” he said, plastering a fake smile on his face, desperately trying to buy some time to think.
He was sitting on the bank of a pool, a small waterfall cascading into it. He jumped up, noting Annalisa’s eyes never wavered from his dangling appendage. He grinned at her too. “See, it waits for you too,” and he gave it a playful slap and lent her another trademark smile.
Divide and conquer, Vinnie thought to himself. Divide and
conquer.
Vinnie edged down the bank, gasping at the coldness of the water. He slid in, his bare feet soon touching its rocky bed. The water came up to his chest, splashing over his nipples. He sank down until his nose was just above the rippling surface and looked from one devious maiden to the next. They stared back.
He ducked under, soon breaking the surface like a rising Kraken.
He shook his wet hair out, then asked Annalisa, “Are you not coming in?”
At that exact moment, he felt something grab his ankle, like ice cold steel, followed by a tug, testing at first, and then another one, much stronger. A look of shock crossed his face, his mouth frozen wide in a silent scream.
“No!” cried an angry Annalisa, and she hesitated on the edge of the pool, seemingly too scared to jump in.
Another great tug and Vinnie sank under the water.
Chapter Ten
Vinnie fought for his life. He screamed for help, but Annalisa and Bryony just watched, waved and blew him kisses. Another tug and the ice-cold claw pulled him under. He flailed around, trying to gain purchase, trying to avoid breathing, fear coursing through him. The bubbles of his desperation flowed around him as stifled sounds of his underwater struggle buffeting his ears.
Then a new pain came, the slicing, the shredding of his naked skin as a powerful force drew him into a long subterranean tunnel. The last of the air fled his lungs, and his eyeballs rolled into the back of his head.
Danger! Your health is fading fast. Try to avoid drowning in the future.
But just before he withered, the dreaded thing pulled him out of the water and laid him on a hard ledge. He smelt jasmine, or some close scent, and then two soft lips pressed on his, and sweet breath filled his lungs bringing him back to consciousness instantly. He opened his eyes to see a sapphire face looking down at him, teal lips pulling away from his own. A tingling feeling ran through him.
You have been healed.
“Thank you?” Vinnie ventured, a little bemused as he’d expected to be eaten, and not in a good way.
Her Prussian-blue hair fell over her bare chest, skinny breasts completing her lithe shape. She pulled her long legs in and sat with them crossed, her head cocked, looking down at him.
“They’d have fucked you to death. You do know that, don’t you?” she said.
“Who…what are you?”
“A water nymph,” said the water nymph, “but I don’t overly like being pigeon-holed like that. Have you any idea what it's like playing a…” She appeared to think better of her words, and Vinnie understood why. Grimacing, she carried on. “Nymph as in the spirit of nature, not nymph as in o-manic, though…”
“You were saying I was in danger?” Vinnie enquired, keen to find out why the girls were out to kill him.
“Don’t you want to know my name,” asked the nymph.
“But I know your name, it is Sivatious,” Vinnie said, all proud.
The nymph’s chuckle rang out, and Vinnie propped himself up on one crooked elbow and looked around the cave. The shelf he lay on was the largest part, flat and smooth, formed from glistening, gray rock. A luminous round pool, about ten feet in diameter, illuminated the little cave, which had a crystal encrusted ceiling that glimmered azure, emerald and amber. To Vinnie, it looked like he’d emerged in the middle of a colorful geode.
“Lavender,” she said, “that’s my name. Not Sivatious. They worship Sivatious—Bryony and Annalisa. They certainly don’t worship me.”
Vinnie scratched his wet head. “So…”
Lavender scrunched her eyes up, and a strange tingling sensation shivered through him.
“You're new, and you’ve put all your stats into your cock. No wonder they wanted you. You wouldn’t have lasted a second.”
“But,” said Vinnie, “why do they want to kill me?”
She grinned, her teal lips so sensuous. “They belong to Doom n’ Dread, the number one Player-Killer Guild—Sivatious’ guild. The only guild.”
“Player Killer? I thought we were all here to shag and have a good time.”
Lavender reached forward, her hand darting out, her finger running the length of Vinnie’s pride and joy. She licked her lips. “We are, they are, but some folk like to hurt others, it’s what gets their juices flowing.”
“So they would have just…”
“Rode you to death.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Trapped,” said Lavender, pouting. “They cornered me when a storm washed me down the hill. The stream away is too shallow for me to survive. I can’t escape, and if they get me, they’ll kill me over and over until my esteem all but vanishes and I become so weak that—”
“I know,” said Vinnie. “I was that weak once.” He looked into Lavender’s azure eyes.
She tried a trembling smile. “You could save me. You killed the rats—you can kill the girls.”
Lavender is offering you a quest: Free her from her watery prison, and send the evil twins to an early grave. Quest reward 1000 XP. Do you accept? Y/N.
Vinnie became trapped in her anxious eyes, and even if he wanted to, he couldn’t have said no. He mentally pressed yes and accepted the quest.
Your status with Lavender has altered. You have leaped from 0, indifferent, to minus 3, relatively friendly, but I’m fairly sure you’re going to get laid—just a hunch.
Lavender clapped her hands with gleeful joy and leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek, then hugged him close, squealing in delight. She pressed her little breasts against him and kissed him, her tongue flicking out, tracing the inside of his lips. Vinnie felt his pulse quicken, his breaths coming in gasps, her breaths now urgent, gasping.
“Do you know how long I’ve been trapped?” she asked, her voice now husky and so damn horny.
Vinnie whispered “No,” his lips smothered by hers. He cast his worries aside, all thoughts consigned to another time, and he pressed his lips against hers, their tongues entwining, then separating, soon probing and teasing. She pushed him back, and he tried to pull her up, to cup her with his mouth, but she pushed him away, straddling him, guiding him into her and taking her urgent pleasure.
Vinnie tried to resist, tried to pleasure her first, but she held him down while she rode him, his towering cock sliding into to her silken lips and up, as she ground her sex against his.
Vinnie felt the pressure build in his laden balls, the first flow of his pre-cum. He desperately tried to hold back as Lavender arched her back, her fast satisfaction completed as Vinnie’s flowed into her.
She grinned down. “You don’t have to eat a girl every time, Vinnie.”
Vinnie scrunched his eyes up, waiting for the inevitable esteem stripping, but no notifications came. “I don’t understand?”
“I got what I wanted, and you did too. You neither took, nor gave. Even this game recognizes that sometimes you need a quickie.”
“Oh thank fuck for that,” said Vinnie, as relief flooded through him. “It was kinda killing the fun for me.”
Lavender laughed. “So, you gonna do it? Do it now?”
“What?”
“You gonna kill the girls?”
“Do they get esteem by killing players?”
Lavender shook her head. “Nope, they get a thing called prestige, but it only works inside their guild. My guess is they are ranging a long way from home to find easy marks. I guess that they aren’t the best.”
“So, I’ve got a chance?”
She smiled a sweet, sweet smile. “Only if they’re not suspicious.”
“Can you help me?”
Lavender bit her bottom lip, and then nodded slowly, reaching around. She held up a conical crystal with a sharp end. It was about ten inches long, transparent and looked like it could pierce even the coldest heart.
“But where am I going to hide that?” Vinnie cried, and Lavender let out a filthy laugh.
Vinnie pulled himself carefully through the rocky tunnel, swimming out and forging for the surface. He
burst through like he’d just escaped a dire monster and let a great growl spill from his clenched teeth as he pulled himself gingerly from the pool. There was no sight of Annalisa or Bryony, nor his clothes, sword, or anything. He stomped down the narrow forest path and into the clearing. “Well?” he cried, “do I get a quest for this?” and he held up a lock of Lavender’s hair like a great trophy.
The cottage’s door opened, and Annalisa peered out. “Did you kill that dreadful nymph?” she asked.
“With no help from you,” Vinnie growled.
The door opened farther. “You made it out,” said Bryony with a clap. “Come in, come in, warm yourself by the fire. Your clothes are all dry. I’ve cleaned and sharpened your sword. Oh,” she swooned, hands clasped together, “I’m so glad you escaped from that terrible nymph. Did she try to shag you to death?”
“Eh?” said Vinnie, suddenly unsure. He walked awkwardly up the steps and onto the cottage’s stoop and in. “So, you’re saying she’s evil?”
“Nymphs are the worst,” they both spat. “Some kill folk for fun. Others like her hide in caves and pull unsuspecting bathers in. They feed on their pumping hearts. Bitches.”
The girls guided Vinnie over to a roaring hearth and pushed him into a comfy chair. His hands shot out, and he eased himself down, very wary of the conical crystal.
“You just sit there and rest,” said Bryony.
“Did you really kill that bitch?” asked Annalisa.
Vinnie held up the long lock of Lavender’s Prussian blue hair. “Ran a crystal shard right through her little heart,” he proclaimed. It was Annalisa’s turn to swoon. She knelt by the fire, plucked the hair from his hand and tossed it on the flames. Turning, she parted his knees and leaned in towards Mini Vinnie. “Is there anything I can do to show you my gratitude, brave knight?”
