Acolyte of the Pleasure Goddess Ch. 05-06

Its head was entirely unlike a lizard's, Delyssa saw with a horrible twist in her stomach. Two bulbous, globular eyes sat on either side of its face, which was dominated by a wrinkled, mottled hemisphere of flesh. A set of wide mandibles hung beneath its head, lined with fangs and dripping with dark saliva.

There was a single heartbeat-length of stillness as both the beast and the adventurer's appraised one another — it stood still like a predator, the buildup of movement visible in the tensing of its muscles, while Delyssa was frozen, staring at the beast.

It moved first. With a wet, fleshy slap, the wrinkled mass on the front of its face flicked open, revealing an enormous, single eye, almost entirely a black pupil with a thin, yellow iris around it. An invisible beam that caused the air distort and waver emanated out from the eye. Delyssa threw herself out of the way; the carving on the wall behind her melted away with a hiss, leaving nothing but a circular indentation that pressed an arm's length in.

As Delyssa lurched to her feet, Brynwa charged the monster, darting forwards without a sound. It caught her in its wide peripheral vision and snapped to face her, again opening its thick eyelid. Brynwa rolled, but the beam caught the fighter in the leg. The boot and leather trouser disintegrated from the thigh down. As Delyssa cried out, the fighter rallied and stood, and the two humans shared a quick glance down at the leg — it was entirely unharmed.

The beast reoriented itself towards Brynwa once more, moving in quick, reptilian surges as the fighter spun, rolled, and ducked closer to it. Brynwa was circling around the creature, trying to pin it between herself and Delyssa. The disintegrating beam followed on the fighters' heels. Where it managed to tag Brynwa, the warrior's clothing and armor melted away. Brynwa was half-naked by the time she reached the monster, just scraps of leather hanging loose about her waist, the leather jerkin that bound her chest reduced to tatters. She jumped high, angling her two-handed sword — somehow undamaged by the beam — down into a slash. The creature spun and whipped about with his barbed tail with blinding speed. As it did so, the eye beam arced across the room, disintegrating pillars and the carvings along the wall in a hissing swathe.

Delyssa tried to throw herself flat, but she was too late — the beam caught her square in the chest. There was a warm prickle as the cloth wrapped about her breasts melted away, along with the top of her skirt.

The beast's tail collided with Brynwa, and there was an awful slap as it connected with her bare skin. The sword, aimed directly at its center of mass, was instead knocked aside, glancing off the creature's scales, which chipped and shattered at the force of the blow. It screeched and bounded away from the adventurers back towards the tunnel it first carved out of the wall, the heavy lid once more set over its central eye. It disappeared into the hole with a flick of its tail and the receding sound of claws scratching against the stone.

Delyssa hauled herself to her feet and rushed over to Brynwa, kneeling beside her. The fighter sat up and groaned. The skin where the tail had struck her was already turning into an ugly welt.

"Are you hurt? Do you need healing?" Delyssa asked.

"I'm fine," Brynwa said through clenched teeth. She looked disgustedly down over what little was left of her clothes. "Well, that's a pain in the ass, but I guess it could be worse. It seems you got hit too." Brynwa stared directly at Delyssa's exposed breasts, and the acolyte realized that in her scramble over to the fighter, the rest of her disassembled clothes fell away, leaving her naked except for her moccasins.

"You're not hurt either?" the fighter asked. Delyssa felt her own skin, making sure there was nothing obviously wrong with her body as a result of the creature's beam. The fine, invisible hairs that used to cover her breasts and arms had been scoured away. Her skin felt even smoother than before — a surprisingly pleasant sensation, considering the cause.

"It's gaze melts stone and cloth and hair, but not skin," Delyssa mused. "But your sword is fine — did you avoid it the whole fight?"

Brynwa set the sword in her lap and looked it over, running a thumb carefully over its edge. "Huh. Not sure. It can't be cause it's metal, since there were iron strips in my leather, and those are all gone."

"And the wooden hilt and leather wrap on your sword would be gone as well, right?" she pointed out.

"That's true."

Delyssa looked over what remained of the fighter's garb. Most of Brynwa's trousers were erased, she had perhaps two thirds of one leg remaining. The rest she tore off from around her ankle and tossed away. The entire front of her chest-wrap was gone, revealing tight breasts that clung to strong pectoral muscles. The skin about her chest was far paler than that of her arms and face, closer in shade to Cenhera's. Essentially naked, the fighter was now primarily wearing only a scowl.

Delyssa retrieved the fallen strips of cloth that formerly comprised her skirt and attempted to make a new garment, folding over what remained of the upper edges to make enough material to wrap about her waist once more, losing two hands' lengths in the process. Her skirt went from falling about her knees to being tight about her upper thighs. The long flap of her loincloth had disintegrated near the top, leaving just enough material for her to fasten it about her breasts in a thin wrap that she tied in front. She could feel the cool dungeon air between her legs and over her chest and shivered.

Brynwa stood and strode over to her, making no attempt to cover herself, her two-handed sword cradled in her arms. "Do you have any more cloth for me?"

Delyssa considered the scraps she was currently wearing. "I have a cloak in my bag, and some long strips for bandages."

"Save the bandages. I have my own cloak in my pack." Brynwa strode over to where her own pack lay on the ground and stopped. The backpack and all its contents were cleanly halved, looking like a cutaway diagram that demonstrates how to pack an adventurer's kit. The fighter reached down and pulled out her cloak. It had been rolled up perpendicular to the ground, and so unfurled into just half a cape that was narrower than Brynwa's torso. A small wooden object clattered to the ground. It was Brynwa's wooden phallus, disintegrated from the hilt up. The straps hung limply from her hands.

"I'm going to kill it," Brynwa said.

"Goddess, Brynwa, I'm sorry," said Delyssa.

"I'm going to fucking kill it." The fighter's voice was low and venomous. Delyssa cautiously reached out one hand to place on Brynwa's arm. The fighter's hand that clutched the remains of the strap was shaking. Brynwa looked down at Delyssa and the acolyte was stunned to see tears glimmer in the corners of her eyes.

"When we're done here, you'll have enough treasure to get yourself a new one made out of gold if you want," Delyssa promised.

"I don't want a cock made of gold," Brynwa said. "I want mine back."

They were interrupted by the jostle of metal as Vael jogged back into the chamber, Cenhera running at his side to keep pace. Both had their weapons drawn, though the paladin's sword dipped towards the floor as he saw the two half-naked adventurers in the center of the room.

"You agreed to no ribaldry," he said coldly.

"Fuck off, Vael," said Brynwa. "We were investigating the carvings when the fucking beast burst through the wall and attacked us."

Vael looked around and seemed to take in the carved slashes in the walls and pillars for the first time. Raising his sword once more, he advanced towards the new hole in the wall and peered down it, his torch dripping oil in his other hand.

"Did you get a good look at it?" asked Cenhera, while Brynwa wrapped herself in what remained of her cloak.

"Sure did. A great big scaly lizard, four legs, two eyes on the side of its head and one great big one smack in the middle of its face."

"That's the eye that melted away the stone and our clothing," said Delyssa. "I think it's gaze eats through anything that isn't alive.

Cenhera's face visibly paled despite the orange glow of the torchlight. "Shit. I know what this is." The tunling cursed more in her native language. "It's a nalain'tla. An anti-basilisk."

"A what?" Delyssa and Brynwa said together.

"You've heard of basilisks, right?" Cenhera said impatiently. "Their gaze turns creatures into stone so they can eat them — most powerful digestive system in nature. The anti-basilisk is the opposite. It's a regular omnivore, but its eye melts stone, cloth, whatever. Like Delyssa said, anything that isn't alive. They tunnel through the ground and eat all the insects and small burrowers left in their passage. I've never heard of one getting this big before."

"So how do we fight it?" Vael asked, returning from the passageway.

"It's not invulnerable to steel or anything. The problem is that it's eye beam will disintegrate whatever you're using to fight it with. Unless you can kill it with your bare hands, you're gonna have a tough time."

"But Brynwa's sword didn't get disintegrated," Delyssa pointed out. "In fact, it's the only thing she was carrying that didn't get destroyed."

Cenhera blinked. "Well, that's probably because it's an enchanted sword. Maybe the beam doesn't work on magical objects."

Delyssa turned towards Brynwa. "That sword is magical? It looks so, er... mundane."

Brynwa held her sword out at arm's length and examined it. "It is? When did that happen?"

Cenhera rolled her eyes. "Remember, after we did that thing for that sage in Kederra?"

A mortified expression of recollection crawled across the fighter's face. "Right."

"You took your sword to that wizard and asked him to enchant it so that it glows whenever a succubus is near? You said you 'wanted to get the drop on those sexy hell-babes?'"

"No, yeah. I remember."

"Only it's never once worked, because running into fiends from the Halls of Torment just doesn't happen when you're out in the world? So, you ended up basically spending your entire payout on an enchantment that's so specific as to be functionally worthless?"

"Alright, yeah, I get it," said Brynwa. "Though it's not worthless now, though, is it? The sword's immune to the anti-basilisk. What do you got?"

Cenhera scowled and pulled one of her daggers out from its sheathe. "This one's been sharpened with magic. It'll cut through that monster's hide like paper."

Vael nodded towards his own sword. "My blade has been blessed and sanctified. I'd wager that it can also resist this creature. My shield as well."

The three campaigner's turned towards Delyssa, who shrugged. "I don't have anything like that, unfortunately. My staff is regular wood. I don't have any offensive spells, either. I'm afraid I won't be of much use in a fight."

"A healer is always useful." Vael asserted.

"I hope it doesn't come to that," she said. "But I suppose it's a greater risk since we'll have to fight naked."

There was silence from her companions.

"What do you mean," said Cenhera.

Delyssa looked at each of them, confused. "Well, just look at Brynwa. We fought it for maybe a dozen heartbeats and there's almost nothing left of our clothes."

"I do not feel inclined to go into combat without my armor," said Vael. "I shall do my best to avoid its gaze."

"It has claws and teeth," Delyssa pressed. "Neither of which it's going to use on something it isn't already looking at with its eye. If it strikes at you, that's because it's already melted your defenses. If you successfully avoid its gaze, then your armor isn't helping anyway."

"It's a moot point for me," Brynwa said, gesturing at the thin cloak wrapped tightly around her like a toga. "This ain't going to do anything for me, so I might as well be unrestricted."

Vael shook his head. "If my armor blocks even a single strike then it will have been worthwhile."

"It's up to you," said Delyssa. "But unless you all brought a full change of clothes, I would rather stow my garments here and collect them after the fight than walk back to town skyclad." She meant it, but as she spoke, Delyssa briefly imagined returning to Gra'tan, sitting naked and triumphant atop a cart laden with treasure. The thought made her want to squirm and sent a tickle up between her legs.

Her companions contemplated their own visions of this and seemed to find the idea less favorable. "I agree with the cleric of the sex goddess," said Brynwa. "I think we should get naked."

"This is ridiculous," Cenhera grumbled. "But I don't see a better solution."

"I propose we keep our underthings for at least an attempt at dignity," Vael offered.

"After that first encounter, my underthings are now just my overthings," Delyssa said.

"This is all I got," said Brynwa. "Delyssa, could you teach us that prayer you do every morning to ward yourself? We might need it."

Delyssa hesitated. "I can teach you the words, but unless you have been blessed in an initiation ritual, it won't do anything. And it must be cast with the rising sun, I'm afraid," she added.

"Damn. Buck naked all the way it is, then."

Vael sighed. "Very well. We'll disrobe and prepare ourselves here, and then pursue the creature down the new tunnel. Agreed?"

"Agreed," they all said, with various amounts of enthusiasm.

Vael and Cenhera retreated behind pillars in opposite corners of the chamber.

Delyssa and Brynwa merely stepped over to the side and undressed. Brynwa took a strip of her cloak and tied it tightly around her chest, and went otherwise naked. Delyssa stepped easily out of her skirt and chest-wrap, stuffing them into her pack, which she leaned against the wall. She figured it didn't matter where she put it, since even if the anti-basilisk returned, whatever she hid the pack behind would be evaporated just as easily as the pack itself.

While they undressed, Delyssa finally had a moment to reflect. She found that she was surprisingly calm. While the sudden appearance of the monster had terrified her, she found that her heart returned to its regular pace much sooner than after their encounter with manticore. She wasn't certain of the cause. Perhaps she simply found the anti-basilisk to be the less-frightening creature. Perhaps she was finally getting a handle on this campaigning business. Maybe it was that there was something about the ridiculousness of their current situation that, though it was wildly more dangerous than anything that ever happened at the Temple of Shevlana, felt somewhat familiar. More than exploring strange dungeons, venturing across dangerous terrain and even more than performing her duties as a healer, Delyssa felt especially qualified to lead a group of naked adventurers into the dark.

The fighter and the acolyte faced one another. Brynwa let her gaze openly fall down Delyssa's body, lingering on her breasts and the triangle of hair between her legs. The attention made Delyssa smile, though she found herself drawn more to the fighter's abdominal muscles and biceps than the traditional erogenous zones.

"Any other situation, and I'd find this tremendously exciting," Brynwa said.

Delyssa smirked and eased her stance a little wider, revealing more of her vulva. "Are you saying that you don't find it exciting now?"

Brynwa stared for a long moment, then shook her head. "Gods, you're going to be the death of me. We should focus."

Delyssa dropped her hands away from her breasts, which they were cupping. "Right. Sorry. After we're finished with this, I'll make it up to you."

"Fuck. If I still had my strap-on I'd go to town on you after this."

"You can still try without it," Delyssa offered.

"Yeah," Brynwa said. "But it wouldn't be the same." The fighter's disappointment covered every word.

"That toy meant a lot to you, didn't it?"

"This feels dumb, especially in the current context, but I feel naked without it," said Brynwa with a smile that was clearly forced.

"Did you... do you ever wish you had a real penis?" Delyssa asked.

Brynwa broke off her stare at Delyssa's nipples and finally made eye contact. "What?"

"Sorry. That's a distracting question, I think. Shall we deal with this creature first?"

The fighter nodded and hefted her sword into her hands and set off toward the anti-basilisk's tunnel. Delyssa gripped her own staff and followed.

The other two campaigners turned out to have slightly different expectations of dress than Delyssa and Brynwa. Vael had doffed his armor and stripped out of his tunic but was still wearing the plain loincloth that must have been under his trousers. It was neatly folded in and tightly wrapped, and Delyssa tried not to stare at the bulge it contained. Otherwise, he still bore his sword and the silver shield that was strapped to his left arm.

Cenhera walked out from around the pillar she was undressing behind, but appeared as fully clothed as she had earlier, though she was also now wearing a deep grimace.

"Did you chicken out?" Brynwa laughed as the tunling passed by. Seeing her next to the naked fighter, Delyssa briefly wondered about what it must be like to go through the world of humans at pelvis height. "You'll regret that when you ride to Ankreot naked as a newborn," Brynwa continued.

"It's an illusion, dumbass," Cenhera said. "Just because the sex-cleric made a good point, that doesn't mean that you all get to ogle my bits."

Vael half-turned towards Cenhera. "I do not suppose you could have provided the rest of us with such blessings."

"Not if you want me to have any magic left for the fight itself." She brushed past the rest of the party and moved to enter the anti-basilisk's tunnel. "I'm going first. I'm the only one who can see in the dark, and I don't want to stare at this parade of asses for stones know how long."

Vael shrugged and waited for the tunling to clamber up into the hole, before stepping in himself. Brynwa gestured for Delyssa to go next, cupping her ass briefly as the acolyte passed. She turned and winked at the fighter over her shoulder before venturing in after Vael. Behind her, she heard Brynwa sigh with longing as she followed.

Together, clad in only their spirits, the party ventured further into the dark.

#

Their second foray into the tunnels of the anti-basilisk was markedly different than the first. The grim atmosphere of tense exploration was strangely absent this time. Perhaps it was because they knew what awaited them. Perhaps it was because of the sheer absurdity of their arrangement. Delyssa tried not to stare at Vael's buttocks, only marginally clothed by his tight loincloth. She instead found herself biting her lip at the push and pull of his muscles across his back.

For his part, at no point did Vael cast so much as a look back over his shoulder towards her, which left her oddly disappointed. She still had a difficult time discerning between the paladin's vows of honor and his disinterest. Well, perhaps 'disinterest' was the wrong word, she thought as she watched the shadows deepen between his shoulder blades in the flickering torchlight. Of course, living in the Temple of Shevlana, she was accustomed to being naked near the men and women who were not attracted to her, and her experience was that such interactions were uniformly mundane. She had never felt the same tension between herself and a man who preferred to lay with men, say, as she felt between Vael and herself. Even those who felt no such desires at all, of which there were several in the Temple, were comfortable sharing a more natural presence with Delyssa and the other young acolytes.

It was probably because Vael did not come from the Temple, she reminded herself. She had to remember that for most of the land, the rituals and philosophies of the Cult of Shevlana were esoteric, swathed in rumor and exaggeration. The liberated life she grew into at the Temple was not practiced anywhere else.