by Reed James
* * / *
“No, no, no,” Maria du Marne groaned.
This wasn't supposed to happen. She wasn't supposed to fall into something like this.
“Please, please, I'm not into this!” she gasped, holding her copper short sword in a shaking hand. She swiped it wildly before her. “Just... be a nice slime. Okay? I'm not food.”
The slime, a type called a yellow jelly, oozed towards her with reaching pseudopodia. It was just so icky to Maria. She whimpered. She might be a Level 3 Fighter, but she didn't want to fight something this disgusting.
“Please, please be a good slime,” she said, backing up. “There's some nice cultists I fought down that other hallway. You could go eat them.”
The yellow jelly burbled. It was a mass of translucent flesh the size of a boulder. A writhing, oozing boulder. It reached closer. She moved back on her heeled, brown leather boots. They rose to the mid-thigh of her shapely legs. A loincloth of copper chainmail swung down over her crotch and her curvy rump, hanging from the heavy sword belt she wore. A bikini top of matching chainmail cupped her round breasts. Those jiggled as she quivered.
You can't be a coward. Everyone is counting on you, thought Maria as she kept retreating. “Come on, slime, they're already dead. Doesn't that sound better than me?”
Maria had thought she could explore the temple. The only Shardhunter in her village who wasn't sick. She had come here to this temple to save everyone, but she couldn't handle one slime. It was her level. She just had to attack it, but...
“Why does it have to be so disgusting!” she wailed.
Then she hit the wall.
The slime's pseudopodia lashed out and grabbed her boot-clad thigh. It wrapped around her, growing narrower as it elongated. It slithered up and up her leg. She whimpered as it touched her silky thigh. It climbed higher beneath her chainmail. It reached for her pussy.
“No, no, no!” she shouted. “I'm a virgin!”
Not a good thing to be when grabbed by a slime.
Chapter Five: Dissolving Armor
The shouts were whimpers. Feminine whimpers. I had another woman to rescue. Time to be a hero again.
I burst into a run, charging down the corridor. Iris bobbed before me, illuminating the way. She trailed pink sparkling dust. The woman shouted again. Her voice clearer as I neared a room ahead. My boots echoed through the ruined temple.
“Please, please, I'd rather you eat me, slime!” the woman moaned. “And not that sort of eating!”
I flew into the room, casting my gaze around. On the far side was a scene straight out of hentai. Tentacle hentai.
A young woman, her mane of long, red hair spilled about her face as she squirmed in the face of a yellow slime. It had its tentacles wrapped about her. One appendage had pushed up a copper, chainmail bikini to squeeze a pair of round breasts. The ends of the slime engulfed her nipples, pulsing like they worked a pump on them, sucking on them. Her legs were wrapped up and spread wide. A chainmail loincloth had been shoved to the side, revealing the slime's appendage rubbing at her red bush, massaging her.
“Please, please, I'm a virgin!” she whimpered. “I don't want to lose my cherry to something this icky!” Her green eyes fell on me. “You, you! I'm a fighter, too! You've got to help me! Please! Don't let this nasty jelly molest me! I'm too young to die like this!”
A Fighter? Her. On the ground by the slime oozing around her feet lay a copper sword, one of the other starting weapons for my class. I rolled my shoulder and rushed to defend her. She might be helpless, but there was only one creature in this dungeon that should be molesting her.
Me!
My Yell echoed as I rushed forward. Her green eyes stared at me with such hope while she shuddered in the slime's oozing embrace. The slime rippled as I came closer. Two bulges formed, then tentacles lashed out at me.
I caught the first one on my shield. A burst of yellow jelly spilled around it and splashed on my face. Acid sizzled across my shield and skin. I snarled against the pain, feeling it eating away at my flesh. The second slammed into my leather pants, dissolving through my clothing and burning across my leg.
“Holy shit!” I growled and hurtled a Hard Strike at the tentacle wrapped around my thigh. I struck the jellied appendage, my ax cutting deep, but not enough to sever it.
The pain roiled through me. The acid bled into my blood, sizzling me from the inside. My Hit Points dwindled fast. I slammed my ax's blade into the tentacle a second time and cut through it. I gasped, stumbling back as it splattered around my boots, sizzling on the leather.
“Oh, no!” gasped the Fighter. “You're going to lose!” She started sobbing, a loud wail bursting from her. “And I'm... going to be... molested... and... and... eaten...”
“I'm not dead yet!” I snarled and activated my new boots.
Flames rippled up my body. I felt them burning beneath my clothing. A heat that caressed my skin. It should be hot enough to burn me but didn't. It burst out through the gaps in the chainmail. It raced down my arms to my hands then up my ax. The copper tip burst into flames.
I roared out my triumph, cold adrenaline pumping through my body, driving back the agony of the acidic DOT dwindling my Hit Points fast. This thing hurt more than the damned cultist. It gurgled as I rushed forward.
Three tentacles rushed out at me, drawing mass from those wrapped around her perky tits. They shrunk while the jelly quivered. I swung my shield, battering two to the side, acidic droplets spilling over the room and splashing across my face and neck, each one a puckered kiss of pain.
My flaming ax crashed into the third, slicing right down the front of it, the flames burning into the jelly. It gurgled in obvious pain. All its tentacles writhed, including those wrapped about the girl's legs, tits, and arms.
“Don't like that, huh!” I snarled and delivered a flaming Hard Strike onto a tentacle.
It severed. A pile of jelly splashed sizzling onto the ground. A stench not unlike stomach bile filled my nose. I laughed and charged forward. I wouldn't be beaten. I didn't lose contests. “I am Marcus Aurelius, and I'll scrape you off the bottom of my boots!”
“Go, go, Marcus!” cheered Iris.
A thick tentacle launched out at me. I raised my shield to block. At the last moment, it bent around it and slammed right into my face. Burning acid spilled into my mouth and nose. My Hit Points burned along with my flesh. I screamed as it drove me back.
My ax hacked. Slashed. I burned the last of my TP on a final Hard Strike, dealing damage to the tentacle. I couldn't see anything but yellow. I struggled to breathe. The inside of my mouth hurt. I hurtled towards critical HP.
I slammed my ax into the tentacle. Once, twice. A frantic rhythm. The third one hacked through the thick appendage. The slime around me, firmed up for a moment then became as runny as pussy juices. It spilled down my face. I spat the foul stuff out.
“Marcus!” screamed Iris.
The DOTs still ravaged me. My Hit Points dwindled. The female Fighter wailed louder, sobbing about my impending death. I sheathed my ax with blinding speed. My hand shoved into my pouch. The healing potion filled it. I slammed back the sweetest thing I'd ever drunk.
The passion of an angel.
The pain in my mouth vanished. Across all of my body. My Hit Points rose. Twenty fresh ones. It didn't bring me back to half, but it was enough to get me in this fight. I'd hurt the slime, too. My Yell had worn off, but that didn't matter. I would kick its ass.
A fire crackled across my skin as I charged not at it, but around it. I leaped over a swiping tentacle and headed for the fighter. I slammed hard at the thinner tentacles binding about her breasts. I cut through them. The yellow jelly spilled over her tits and then foul stuff rolled down to her lean stomach.
“Get your sword and get in the game!” I roared and turned, slamming a deep blow into the body of the monster. Flames sizzled it. The jelly gurgled.
“But, but!” she gasped. “It's icky!”
“It's going to
kill you!” I roared and struck again. “You're a Fighter, aren't you! A damned Shardhunter! Well, time to nut up and fight.”
“R-right!” she said. She didn't sound convinced.
I kicked her sword to her. It slid into her boot.
The jelly lashed a tentacle that struck my stomach. Acid burst between the gaps in the chain, inflicting pain across me. The DOT devoured through the Hit Points the potion had restored. I sheathed my ax, drew my last potion, and downed it.
27 HP. Would it be enough?
Had to be. I was out of everything. No TP. The boots were enchanting me, but I wouldn't have another YELL for another minute. The fight wasn't lasting that long. It was do or die, and I wasn't about to die my first day in my new paradise.
Not when it meant this hottie would follow into the grave after me.
I hacked through a tentacle wrapped around her leg. She gasped as it spilled slim down her thigh-high boot. Then she acted. Still wailing, she bent down and picked up her sword. She held it in a trembling grip.
“You're so disgusting!” she cried and, to my shock, closed her eyes.
She swung a powerful stroke at it. Her own Hard Strike that buried deep into the jelly, hacking out a chunk of oozing slime. She opened her eyes and blinked them. She looked stunned that she had done it.
Then she flashed me the biggest smile in the world. “You're amazing, Marcus!”
I winked at her and then turned back to the slime.
It roiled back from us, diminished. Yellow slime coated the stone floor. It rippled and then a new barrage of tentacles, thin like spines, lanced out at us. I thrust myself before her and raised my shield. They struck across the surface, impacting hard.
“You meanie!” she shouted and raced around me. She hacked at the tentacles, cleaving through them. Then she gasped as one struck her thigh. Her flesh sizzled. She staggered and cried out in pain.
“Don't relent!” I shouted and charged in.
A tentacle slammed into my chest. The acid burned across my chest. The DOT chewed through my HP with my every heartbeat. But I reached the core. I slammed my flaming ax down on it once. Twice. A barrage of attacks.
Her sword lanced in. She shouted, stabbing with a wild stroke. Watery ooze burst from it. The thing gave a gurgling sigh. A mighty bubble rose from the center and burst across the top, spraying acid around that hit me, sizzling on my hands, doing a few more points of damage to me.
I was down to critical. 3 HP. Was this it? Had I saved the girl and died? I raised my ax for the next blow while watching for the attack.
It didn't come.
The bubble popping had triggered something. The cohesion keeping the jelly together was lost. It spilled out in a puddle that sloshed around our boots, filling in cracks in the stone floor. My experience bar rose and rose, climbing me towards level 4.
I didn't reach it.
“Damn,” I muttered, my chest rising and falling. “That—”
The female Fighter threw herself at me, hugging me tight. Her naked breasts pressed through the holes devoured into my armor by the acid, touching my bare skin. The girl clutched to me and let out a feverish burst of joy.
“You saved me!” she cheered. “Oh, you saved me from being eaten by that nasty slime!”
“Yes, I did,” I said, loving the feel of her nipples.
She froze in her bouncing. She glanced down at our chests pressed together. Scarlet, a hue as deep as her red hair, suffused her cheeks. Then she squeaked and spun around from me, her hands covering her breasts.
“You... you... My naked... Pressed into... I... Nooooo!” she wailed. Her hands worked, shoving down her chainmail bikini. She trembled, her embarrassment so cute. Her mane of red hair swept down her back, the metal loincloth swaying over her cute ass, almost showing off the dividing cleft of her crack.
“I'm going to melt away,” whimpered the girl. “Just melt away.”
Chapter Six: Attraction Building
I can't believe I pressed my naked tits against him, Maria du Marne thought to herself as she finished adjusting her chainmail bikini. She wanted to melt away in embarrassment. This heat rippled through her virgin body.
The contact with him sparked this strange fire inside of her. She had never felt it so intensely before. Though the slime had molested her, rubbing at her pussy lips and her nipples, the arousal it had kindled had intensified inside of her when she hugged the man.
Not even when she kissed her sweet Derrick, sharing chaste smooches beneath the village's cherry tree, had she ever felt anything like the throbbing heat of her nipples rubbing into his strong, muscular chest. Her defender stood so much taller than Derrick. Broad in the shoulders. The newcomer's black hair flowing down to his shoulders. He had a square jaw and a bold nose. Confident. Masculine. He stood powerful even in the tattered chainmail and leather pants.
Adjusted, she turned around to face him, her breasts rising and falling, and not just from the exertion of the fight. She rested her hand on the pommel of her sword as she studied him. The defined pecs glimpsed through the gaps in the acid-pitted armor. He gave her a thick grin that made her shiver.
Blushing more, she blurted out, “Hi, I'm Maria du Marne.”
“Marcus Aurelius,” he answered, his blue eyes flicking up and down her body. That stirred more naughty tingles through her.
“Oh, no, you look hurt,” she said, trying to distract herself from this hot itch between her thighs. “I wish I had a healing potion, but I doffed my last one fighting those cultists.”
“Foul things,” he said and stared around the room. “I'm out of TP, too. You?”
Maria nodded. “I almost made it to level four, but not quite. I suppose we should camp.”
“Together?” he asked, glancing at her, his eyes piercing.
She shuddered, this fire blazing hotter inside of her. It felt so naughty. So wicked. She tried to think of her shy, skinny Derrick. She licked her lips, wetting them, before saying, “Well, this is a dangerous place. Perhaps... perhaps we should party up.”
“That is a great idea,” said the pixie that darted around Marcus. Her wings fluttered, her naked body a blur.
“You have a pixie!” she gasped. “I heard only one in a thousand Shardhunters gets one.”
“Yeah, the PC's,” Marcus said.
“Peesee?” Maria cocked her head. “I don't know that word. Is that a special type of Shardhunter?”
“Very special,” Marcus said. “You must be an NPC. Probably here so you could join my party.”
“This is destiny?” gasped Maria, her body trembling more. The heat in her only quickened. “We were meant to find each other? You were meant to save me?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Doesn't this just feel scripted to you?”
“Maybe,” she said. “Ordained by the Gods of Light and Order.”
“Then, welcome to my party,” Marcus said, holding out his hand.
Maria took it and shuddered. She felt the magic of the agreement settling over her. There was something in her that just yearned to submit to him. To obey his orders, as was only proper when supporting the party leader.
Like I obeyed his orders to fight. If he hadn't shouted at me, I would have been useless. We're the same level, and he carried me through the fight.
* * / *
I could almost feel my connection to Maria, not the harem connection, but a lighter one. More ephemeral.
She was setting up the Camp, pulling out all the stuff to start a fire from her pouch. She spread out a bedroll on one side and then produced what looked like a plucked chicken and skewered it on a roast. The smell already drove away the lingering scent of bile. We were on the far side of the room from the slime. She had picked up her shield, discarded in the middle of the room, and sat down. She had damage to her thigh-high boots, but her gear wasn't in as bad a shape as mine. My shield had pits in it, my chainmail large holes in the chest and stomach.
I peeled that off. “Iris, how do I fix this?”
/> “Camping or level-ups will trigger the minute enchantments all Shardhunter gear possess to repair damage,” she said. “So long as it's not completely destroyed. Oh, and the passion of Dryads, an earth fey, can also repair the damage when it is distilled and concentrated into a paste and combined with Mossywood Bark.”
“Good to know,” I said. Then I tapped her. The menu popped up. I had the stats of a second character to look at. Maria. She was my party member. If I remembered the game correctly, you had to “seduce” party members into your harem through dialogue options and getting to know them. Their personalities would determine how to woo them.
Her screen popped up. A Level 3 Fighter, like myself. Her gear was comparable in stats, though intended only for female characters. She had no special equipment like my boots. I glanced down at her traits.
She had Sword Master, the one she gained for taking her class and choosing her starting weapon. I had Ax Master. I could use any weapon available for a Fighter, but I would do more damage with axes. She had Map Maker, which seemed to make her good at navigating dungeons. She seemed a little flighty, but it would be useful down here. Submissive was interesting to see. She seemed more than willing to set up camp and follow orders.
I could use that in seduction.
Fellatist made my dick throb and... There was a last one that was partly grayed out. It had a progress bar on it. Tentacle Lover. That wasn't a choice I remembered on the starting screen. “Iris, what's this?”
“Ooh, she's made progress on an advanced sexual trait,” she said. “A kinky one.”
“Yeah,” I said. She must have liked what the slime had been doing to her even if just a little.
“It'll be an hour on dinner,” Maria said. She glanced at me and blushed. “You took off your armor?”
“It's pretty tattered,” I said, advancing on the campfire.
She nodded. “Um, do you want me to be Vigilant?”
