Arena 5

by Logan Jacobs

  “Possibly,” I smiled back at her, “but I do that shit because I know that you guys will be there to catch me. As I hope you know that I’ll be there to catch you.”

  “We do know that, Marc,” Nova said and sat down next to me. “And I did literally catch you today. That was, what’s the word, freaking awesome.”

  “Yeah, it was,” I concurred and pulled her into a side hug. Surprisingly, she didn’t pull away. Nova grew up on a feudal world enmeshed in war so displays of emotion were hard for her. Recently, she’d been coming out of her knightly emotional armor more and more, and it was a really good look on her. She hugged me back and kissed me on the cheek.

  “Couldn’t have you breaking any of those sexy bones now could we?” She smiled seductively and squeezed my leg under the table.

  “No, we can’t,” Aurora drawled and squeezed my other leg.

  “Hey, hey, hey,” I said, suddenly embarrassed and aroused. “Let’s eat, okay. We all need to get a good night's rest, as much as I would love to celebrate with everyone tonight, we are not out of this mess yet.”

  “Marc is right,” Artie agreed. “Although I am very torn between what my head knows to be correct and what the tingle in my tummy wants to do. Which is rip his clothes off and do him right here on the table.”

  “Um, wow,” I stammered. “That’s… graphic. And public.”

  “I don’t care,” she smiled at me. “But I will save that for another time. I ordered food for the table. We should eat and then all get some rest.”

  “Sweet,” I said. “What did you get us?”

  “Well,” she smiled, pleased with herself, “since you are first, all the food here is Earth based…”

  “That doesn’t seem really fair,” Tempest pointed out, “since only one of us is from Earth, but I’m actually fine with it. Food on my homeworld sucks. Bad. One of the first things I won for them was an ability to actually cook.”

  “I got everyone sixteen ounce ribeye steaks, cooked medium rare, mashed potatoes au gratin, steamed broccoli, served with Cabernet Sauvignon,” she listed off as if she were our server. She was quite proud of herself.

  No sooner had she stopped speaking than a waiter-bot with a huge tray of food puttered over to our table and set steaming plates in front of each of us. I grabbed my wine glass, that was half full of dark purple, rich looking wine and held it out in front of me.

  “To Team Havak,” I said. “Let’s finish this fucker tomorrow and go home.”

  “Team Havak,” everyone said in unison, and we all drank deep. I’d never been a wine aficionado, two buck Chuck was about the extent of my knowledge of fine wine, but the Cabernet was full bodied with overtones of dark cherry and an oaky finish. Or so I thought anyway. It tasted really fucking good and sent a warm tingle through my body the second it hit my stomach.

  I turned and saw Nova upend her entire glass.

  “This is very good,” she said and poured herself another. “It is like the wine we give children on The Feast of Forefathers Day. I like it.”

  I shook my head. She never failed to surprise me with the sparse little gems of how she grew up that she sprinkled here and there when I least expected it.

  Conversation lulled as we all dug into our food. The ribeye had been coated with some kind of dark coffee and spice rub that made the outsides almost blackened while the inside was cooked perfectly medium rare. The rich marbling in the meat provided just enough fat content to provide a rush of flavor when it hit the tongue and was so tender I hardly had to chew it. The mashed potatoes were a creamy cheesy delight with the perfect amount of salt and pepper ratio, the hallmark of a true potato culinary artist in my opinion. The broccoli was just this side of undercooked which meant it still had a satisfying crunch when chewed, and its bitter notes were a perfect balance to the salty savoriness of the meat and potatoes.

  Soon we were done, and everyone’s plates were practically licked clean, and I could feel the stress of the last few days melt from everyone in one, post meal collective sigh. I got up to excuse myself to the bathroom and on the way there I grabbed the waiter-bot and ordered dessert for the table. I had a thought that they were going to love it.

  As I walked to the restroom, I finally noticed that the other teams were all here now. There were six total by my count. Or I should say, five teams, including us, and one Vex. The NecroWraith had managed to make it this far all by himself which was not an unimpressive feat in this brutal desert brawl. As usual he sat by himself at a table that backed against the wall and looked out on the rest of us behind the steely blackness of his helmet. No emotion other than the slow back and forth electronic blip where his eyes should have been. I felt that gaze, like some long gone spirit lingering in the world of the living, on me as I walked toward the bathroom which just so happened to be right next to his table. I stopped my march to relieve myself and felt my gaze pulled toward that oscillating blue line on his helmet like some siren song.

  I felt myself compelled as if by an unseen hand to sit at his table so I did. We sat there, staring at each other for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a few seconds. Then everything around me melted and spun like some Kaliedo Sketch toy in a myriad of colors, and I found myself in a dark black void.

  It was all consuming. An inky blackness that almost seemed to breathe in shaking asthmatic gasps. It was also cold. Not temperature cold but like an absence of anything resembling a soul cold. I’m sure the experience would have been terrifying to just about any creature in the galaxy. But, I wasn’t just any creature. Several months ago I’d jumped into the maw of a pure chaos being and dove into its belly that was actually a hell dimension where it consumed its victims over hundreds of years of torment. I’d gotten out of that to win my first big match and solidify my alliance. This, this was a cake walk.

  “Hey, Vex,” I said, and my voice was loud in my head and quiet outside of it, as if the blackness gobbled it up one decibel at a time. ‘

  “Are you not afraid, human?” Vex responded, except his voice was in reverse. Loud outside, quiet in my head, like an earworm.

  “Eh, not really,” I shrugged.

  “I could kill you here by driving you insane and no one would be the wiser,” he NecroWraith threatened.

  “Maybe,” I said confidently. “But I don’t think you bothered just for that. It’s not public enough, right?”

  “You are smarter than you look,” he chuckled. It sounded like babies crying.

  “What you need, Vexy-boy?” I asked. I still had to pee. “What’s this whole, I don’t know, what do you call it? Death Gaze? Soul View? Mind Meeting?”

  “It is a NecroWraith Mind Slither,” he shot back, almost defensively.

  “Mind Slither?” I asked and barely held back laughter. “Very ominous.”

  “Yes, it is!” Vex shot back. “Most go mad just being in one.”

  “Well, I’ve kind of done this before so, sorry to disappoint you,” I explained, impatiently. “But could we get on with whatever you want to get on with? I have to pee.”

  “I don’t… I…” Vex stammered. “I kind of didn’t think past this point. I wanted you terrified beyond conscious thought for the last leg of the race tomorrow.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Consider me terrified. Ooooohhhh ohhhh noooo scccarrry.”

  “I’m going to kill you and take immense pleasure in it,” Vex hissed, and it was like dead snakes squirming in my brain.

  “Sure thing,” I said and waved. “See you out there tomorrow. Have a scary night.”

  I started to concentrate on the interior of the roadhouse and felt Vex’s greasy, worm like, fingers retreat from my mind. When I opened my eyes, I was back in the roadhouse and standing in front of the bathroom door.

  I turned to throw the spooky alien a cocky thumbs up, but he was gone.

  “Typical,” I muttered and went and relieved myself finally. The wine had gone right through me and whatever pleasant buzz that it had afforded had been wiped away
by Vex’s little confab. “Jerk.”

  When I got back to the table only Nova and Artemis were left sitting there.

  “Where’d everybody go?” I asked as I sat back. “I ordered dessert.”

  “They were beat, Marc,” Artie said and yawned herself. “As am I. I need to teleport back and give Grizz an update. He is hating not being able to be here.”

  “Why can’t he?” I asked. “I actually miss the big lug yelling at me.”

  “I don’t really know,” Artie shrugged. “Something having to do with Tyche. It didn’t make sense when the computer explained it to me when the match started.”

  The waiter bot finally arrived with several white oval ramekins filled with amazing looking Crème brûlée. The tops were a perfect carmel brown.

  “Oh, what is this?” Nova asked as she tapped on the crust of crystalized sugar.

  “One of my favorite desserts,” I responded. “Crème brûlée. It’s fancy. Here, take your spoon and whack the top like this.”

  I picked up my spoon and thumped the top sugar crust. It cracked satisfyingly and then I dug out a heaping spoonful of the rich custard and popped it into my mouth. It was creamy with hints of vanilla and a slight bitter hint from the caramelized sugar. Nova and Artie did the same.

  “A dessert I have to battle,” Nova grinned. “I like this.”

  Next to the Crème brûlée the waiter-bot had set down several small glasses of dark, purple port. I picked one up, sniffed the scent of cherries and plums, and took a long sip. It was much sweeter than the wine we’d had for dinner and was a perfect digestivo. I felt very fancy.

  We spent the next two or three minutes devouring the dessert and polishing off not only our own glasses of port but the ones that had been brought for the rest of the team.

  “Oh my goodness,” Artie said and then let out a loud burp. “That was like flavors fornicating in mouth.”

  “Um… You know what? Never mind,” I said and waved off what she’d said.

  “Goodnight, you two,” Artemis said and stood up from the table. She gave Nova a big hug then turned and kissed me quickly on the mouth. “Don’t stay up too late. Big day tomorrow.”

  “We’ll be good,” I said and then winked at Nova. I had gotten the distinct impression the Paladinian knight was feeling a little randy and that we would not be going to bed soon.

  Artemis waved and then walked out the back exit of the bar room.

  “Wanna go shower, then maybe get dirty?” I whispered to Nova.

  “Yes, very much,” she replied, her voice husky and full of desire.

  “As you wish,” I said. The line from Princess Bride had become our little thing.

  We hurried up to my room and were inside with the door locked behind us in a flash. I took her hand and walked her toward the bathroom. It was crazy big for a room in what amounted to a shanty roadhouse, but I wasn’t about to argue. The tiled room had a six foot by six foot glassed-in shower. Overhead was a giant showerhead. I reached in and turned the nobs. A downpour of water, like standing in the rain, came down from the showerhead.

  While the water warmed, I brought Nova to me and kissed her on the mouth. She still tasted sweet, like Crème brûlée and port, as our tongues danced over one another’s. Nova grabbed the back of my head and pulled me closer so that our bodies melded together. We made out like that for a while, and it wasn’t until the room had begun to fill with clouds of dense steam did we break off.

  Nova pulled back and then with deft hands shirked my dust and blood covered leather jacket off my shoulders. Then she pulled my shirt up over my head so that I stood before her bare chested.

  Then it was my turn.

  My fingers flew over the buttons, snaps, and buckles of her desert armor, the articles of clothing falling away to the floor. As each one fell I could see her internal armor fall away as well. Her face softened as she let her walls down. Soon she was in front of me in just her bra top and panties. I pulled the bra top up and over her arms, and her sumptuous breasts hung full yet still tight and pert, her nipples already hard with desire. Her fingers found my belt buckle and undid it in a flash, then my pants and underwear were around my ankles. I stepped out and watched as she turned to slide her panties off the round swell of her incredible ass and bent over to guide them all the way to the floor. It was all I could not to grab her by the hips and slide my now fully erect cock into her eager pussy. But I held off. I wanted to build the anticipation more.

  I grabbed her by the hand, and we stepped into the cascading sheets of hot water. It was like walking into a massaging whirlpool, and the water felt so good on my battered and bruised body.

  There were several buttons next to the shower handles and on a whim I pressed one. Slippery soap, mixed with the water, fell across our bodies. I pulled Nova close to me again, and I rubbed the stress relieving lavender scented soap-water all over her body while she did the same for me. Her fingers massaged my scalp, and I lost myself in the pure pleasure of it for a few moments. Then Nova pressed the button again and clear, soapless water washed the slippery bubbles from our bodies.

  Using her body she moved me until my back was against the shower wall. The glass shockingly cold against my back and ass. She looked up at me, lusty intent in her brilliant green eyes, before she sank to her knees in front of me.

  I felt her hand wrap around the shaft of my rock hard cock, and I quivered at the pressure of it.

  “This is the dessert I was hungry for,” she whispered up at me and she slowly took me into her mouth. Her tongue flicked across the head of my cock, and I almost came out of my skin from the static shock of pure pleasure that ran through my body.

  She teased me like that for several minutes. Then she put a hand on each of my ass cheeks and pulled me into her until her lips were wrapped around the base of my penis. Then she slowly moved back until just the tip of my cock was on her lips before she pulled me all the way into her mouth again. All the while her eyes locked on mine. Guided by her hands she began to move faster and faster, and I felt my orgasm start to build. I motioned to move her away with my hands in her thick, auburn hair, but she shook her head slightly, and then released me completely from her mouth.

  “I said I wanted dessert,” she grinned, grabbed my cock with one hand and began to stroke while her mouth found the tip again. Her hand worked opposite of her mouth, and soon I was on the brink and could hold back no longer. She must have been able to feel my body clench, and she began to moan which sent me over the edge. I exploded, and my orgasm cascaded over me in waves as I sprayed my seed down her throat.

  Nova moaned louder as she sucked every last drop from me, and then I slumped back against the wall. She leaned her head back and let the water wash over her again before she stood. Then she took in several mouthfuls of water and let them run down her body before she kissed me gently on the lips.

  “That was delicious,” she whispered.

  “Not as delicious as you’re going to be,” I teased, grabbed her hand and led her out of the bathroom. The cold air was a shock on our bodies, and I delighted in seeing goose pimples ripple across her soft, burnt orange skin. Then, without warning, I shoved her onto the bed. “My turn.”

  I knelt down at the foot of the bed, grabbed her ass and yanked her toward me. The sheets slipped and slid under her as I pulled and began to nibble her inner thighs. Tickling her skin with the tip of my tongue. She moaned in anticipation and arched her back.

  Unlike some of my other teammates, Nova preferred to wax and was smooth and slick, her labia already moist from her excitement.

  I took my time and outlined meandering trails down each thigh, stopping just before my tongue would dance across the hard nub of her clit. She writhed before me, and I relished in the delightful torture.

  “Please, please,” she begged softly.

  “Please what?” I asked.

  “Please… lick me…” she panted.

  “As you wish,” I panted back and did. I still took my time
and traced my tongue all along her smooth, bare labia, tasting her salty anticipation. She inhaled sharply when I finally let my tongue flick across her clit, and her hips bucked wildly. I grabbed her thighs and held them close around my head as I began to devour her as promised. It only took a few moments of gently taking her clit into my mouth and pressing my tongue onto the hard nub of delicate flesh before she came, her body quivering with pleasure. But I didn’t let up, and she soon rode wave after wave as several orgasms ripped through her, one after the other.

  Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed my head in her hands and pulled me up on top of her.

  “I want you inside of me,” she groaned. “Fill me, please. Marc, I want your cock.”

  “As you wish,” I said as I reached down and wrapped her legs around my waist so that her hips were pulled slightly up off the bed before I guided myself into her warm wetness.

  We both gasped at the sensation as I slid myself all the way into her until my pubic bone rubbed against her tongue lashed sensitive clit. I pulled myself almost all the way back out, like she had done earlier with her mouth, before plunging my entire length back into her.

  “Oh, god, yes, your cock is so amazing,” she breathed. “Fuck me hard, Marc.”

  I grabbed her ass and did as I was told. My hips started slow, but I was forceful enough that her breasts rocked and bounced with every plunge. Nova pulled me in harder and deeper with her heels locked around the small of my back.

  Because of the appetizer in the shower I was nowhere near finishing, and soon our pace was as frenzied as any porn movie. Nova came two more times, and I felt the fresh wetness explode around my cock which made my thrusts all the more forceful.

  I reached back, undid her ankles, and then raised her legs so that they rested on my shoulders, as my hands grabbed hold of her firm ass.

  “Yes, deeper, oh, fuck, yes,” she cried out which brought me finally to the verge. “I want all of you to fill me, Marc. God, I want you to cum!”

  And that did it. With one final thrust another orgasm ripped through me, this one twice as powerful as the last, and my whole body shuddered as my seed poured into her tight wet tunnel.