Breaking the Rules Pt. 14

"Let's see if anybody's got a health potion. You've got first dibs," Nuru said.

They found a total of one, and Dayo downed it immediately. The cuts slowed their bleeding, and some of the bruises lightened in color, but the main effect seemed to be reliving the chest pain from the valkyrie's broken rib.

"One of these is going to scar, I just know it," Dayo muttered.

"Alright, looks like we're almost there," Ace said, reappearing at the end of the catwalk by what must be the passageway forward. "There's a hall with a bunch of storerooms and a vault I can't break into. I hear voices down the other hall, so that's where our hostess is. And hopefully, our armor sets."

They went up the stairway to the catwalk, followed him up a steep flight of narrow stairs at the other end, and climbed a series of steep stairways before turning the corner toward the sound of voices. Blobby half-carried them all up the stairs; everyone was tired except for the undead glob. It was not fast going, and Nuru wondered just what time it was now. They finished the last of their stolen food and rounded the corner where there might be actual daylight coming in.

"-ell them to keep it down. I hear them having too much fun down there," one woman said.

"You go right ahead, thanks for volunteering," another said.

"What, and let you just snatch away the fancy dress we just looted? Dream on."

"Ladies, ladies... I do appreciate that I'm a little overdue with your pay, but don't forget I'm still the one who divvies out the goods," Delu's voice carried through.

(Hey. Room full of women. Surely I've got this, with that Beauty Defense.)

/If you can sell it, you just might. Should I crank up the auras?/

(You know it. Give me all the juice. Take anything you need from me.)

/Oh, the joy of being young and vigorous, and facing a room full of nubiles!/

"I'll handle this," Nuru said quietly.

"Are you insane? You'll be dead in seconds," Dayo whispered.

"Do you trust me?" Nuru said. "I'm the boss, remember. I'm telling you, this one's on me. Send Blobby in after me to collect our things."

Ace just waved him on. "No time to argue."

Dayo frowned fiercely, but helped him quietly remove all his borrowed armor, stripping down to just the codpiece.

"!Kyakyawa Gani!" he cast, using his best showman voice and making it nice and loud, triggering his Grand Entrance feat.

The voices in the room stilled, and he turned the corner. Five crossbows clacked, and five bolts flew past him out the door. Delu sat on the edge of a large table in the dining hall, mouth open wide and staring.

She threw her head back and laughed. "Are you mad!?"

"I am so many things," Nuru grinned. "But no, insane is not one of them. Why don't we negotiate a new deal, hmm?"

"With what leverage?"

"Why, clearly you've failed to take into account my... hidden... assets," Nuru chuckled.

"I admit, your face is quite pretty, but that isn't hidden at all," Delu said, standing down off the side of the table and drawing a knife. "And I can take it away."

"Can you? Are you sure about that? Don't you want to see what it can do, first?" Nuru advanced slowly, looking her right in the eye.

"W-what are you doing? Why aren't you cowering in fear? I have all your equipment, for your whole party, right here. You have nothing! What the hell is wrong with you!?"

Making no sudden moves, Nuru spun in place, letting all the women in the room get an eyeful, then continued closing the distance with Delu.

"!Soyayya!" he cast dramatically, watching Delu's pupils dilate as Infatuation solidified her attraction as the part of her brain that stayed awake, suppressing suspicion and guile.

"What the... what are you... doing to me? Why are you not grovelling at my feet?" she whispered.

"Join me for a moment. If you will."

The other women had started reloading the crossbows, but were fumbling and having some trouble staying focused on anything other than Nuru. He reached his empty hands out slowly, unthreateningly, towards her.

"Nngh," she moaned, taking a step towards him.

"Delu... are you OK? What's happening?" one of the guards said.

His hands gently took her face and pulled it towards his.

"Mmmph," she groaned.

She hardly noticed the almost-invisible blobby hands that held Dayo's boots in place, pulling them off of Delu's legs as she sat back against the table and Nuru pressed his nose to hers.

"Oh, you are naughty. You want to have some fun right here on the dining room table? I hope you brought enough for all my girls," Delu giggled.

"Trust me, I can keep up," Nuru declared.

"Uh... boss lady..." one of the minions stammered.

"Come on, can't you see this glorious hunk of meat is just waiting for us to devour?" she tossed back.

Nuru saw the moment that Infatuation wore off, and confusion started to set in.

"!Yi Mamaki!" he said, just as she turned to give the order to attack, and he pulled her back to look him in the eye.

Her breath caught, and the two of them were caught in a bubble of darkness in which nothing else existed. They eyed each other, vying for supremacy, seeing which of the two would emerge the stronger from a contest of wills.

"Boss!" one of the women said, as if from a great distance away.

Her attention wavered for a moment, and Nuru slipped in to strike, crushing her mind in a suffocating force of presence. She shuddered, opening herself up to him, and leaving him with the heady sensation of seeing her pulling back into herself, locking away and losing her awareness of the world around her.

"Sleep," he said. "Rest."

Her head fell back, and she moaned, already dreaming, of what was in his codpiece he was fairly certain. Back in the real world, however, Ace had slipped in under the table and snagged his equipment to pull underneath and re-equip. Delu was now bare-legged, and her own boots were in a corner, where she'd abandoned them, apparently in favor of Dayo's. The dress sat on the table next to her, apparently waiting to be handed out as some kind of favor. A little further down, Nuru's drum and pack remained.

"Well, now, this has been lovely and entertaining," Nuru said. "But I'm afraid we have places to be."

He ducked under the table, and he heard another volley of crossbows.

"Holy shit, there's something in here!" one of the women said.

Nuru spared a glance up and saw that Dayo had dodged forward and Blobby had taken two crossbow bolts that otherwise would have struck the valkyrie, hanging in the air. Two more had struck the wall and skittered off into the corner, and the final one had not fired as the last guard wavered her aim, uncertain of which target to attack. Nuru got his shirt and pants and shoes down much like Ace had, and was struggling to get them on in a hurry. Dayo dressed in full view of the women who were essentially powerless to stop them - except the one who drew a sword and dashed forward, only to be held fast by the Greater Gelatinous Glob. One of them finally got a bright idea, and cast a fireball. Blobby shoved the attacking swordswoman in the way of the blast, but could not fully avoid it; it took a significant hit in the splash, which singed it enough to darken a layer of the translucent body into easier visibility, clouding up a dark gray. A hideous smell filled the room, and it hissed angrily. The attacking guard struggled, though badly wounded, and collapsed in a heap as the final crossbow bolt aimed for where the heart should be on the glob, but instead there was only her own ally's exposed back.

Through the armor, and in a non-critical part of the shoulder, it hadn't done a huge amount of damage, but it was enough to take her out of the fight. Dayo and Nuru finished dressing, and took cover behind Blobby as it slowly advanced toward the doorway.

"No... no! They're getting away! We can't let them get away!" one of the guards said.

"Mmm... you sexy beast," Delu murmered.

She finally sat up, rubbing her head as the whole party made it out the door.

"Wha- hey! You... fuck! Attack you fools, what are you doing!?"

But now it was too late. Dayo cast the first line back into the second with Arcane Blast as they advanced, and Ace peppered them with arrow fire.

"Hey, I nabbed this off her before she woke up. Shall we go check out the vault?" Ace said loudly.

Delu swore at length. "You! With me! The rest of you, get the doctor and wake up anybody who can be revived! Do *not* let them make it into the vault!"

POOM

Nuru looked at him funny. "You got a key?" he whispered.

Ace shook his head. "A bluff. It'll buy us some time though. She's a thief, and a good one. Didn't want her popping out of random places, getting a crit or two in."

/Heads up, magic attack incoming./

Ace ducked away as one of the guards boldly rounded the corner and hurled a fireball.

"!Motsa Sihir!" Nuru stepped forward, with a hand raised, deflecting the fireball back into the wall right by the doorway.

The guard yelled in pain as the splash caught her hand, which she had not pulled back fast enough.

"Quick now," Dayo pulled the glob down the hall at Ace's urging, to the doorway with the hall full of wards.

They reached the doorway when Delu appeared in a cloud of smoke, now wearing her boots again. "You can't get into the vault. I still have my key," she twirled it in her fingers. She pulled out a pair of daggers and sized them up, selecting her first target.

"Nuru, you're the one who can run across without setting off the wards. You go first," Ace said.

"What? How is that possible? Those wards apply to all factions, except ours! I know you aren't..." Delu growled. "Gods below, you're a bloody warlock, in service to an incubus, aren't you!"

"Ask me again, next time I drop by." Nuru bowed with a flourish, turned, and ran as fast as his legs would carry him down the hall, to the entrance, which stood closed.

Ace or Dayo must have done something, because with clanks and groans the portcullis began to lift again. He slipped underneath and came to a sudden stop. The sun had fallen, and night creatures were making their voices heard. Dayo and Ace made their appearance in a cloud of smoke, and Ace vanished again, appearing in another burst with the gelatinous glob. They began walking away as fast as Blobby could go, dragged between Nuru and Dayo.

"Well, we don't have to worry about sun degradation of our new chimera," Dayo said, looking at the dying light.

"And we're trading one foe for another," Ace said, sighing in relief as he climbed on his mount. "It's vampy-hour."

"Is that bad? We did OK last time at night," Nuru looked at Dayo.

"I was in better shape then," the valkyrie said. "And this is a higher-level area. The Random Encounters are tougher."

"But she'd be mad to follow us," Nuru said.

"Oh she's quite angry," Ace said. "But I think you're right, she won't attack, tonight."

"Don't be so sure," Dayo said. "You're assuming she is rational. She acts like she's not a Clubber, but she's absolutely a Clubber."

"Notice I did not say they won't pursue. She might very well follow and see where we go, stake us out, plan something," Ace said. "She just knows we busted out when she had the advantage. She will keep her distance, knowing that she needs a new angle if she's going to take us on our own turf. Pitched battle that will draw the scavengers? Not the smart move, and she hasn't survived to lead that pack by being stupid enough to miss that fact."

"Speaking of stupid moves," Dayo said. "What the hell was that back, there, Nuru? You walked out there with *no* armor, right into the viper's den. And somehow they missed you! Every single one! Are you the luckiest man alive, or did I miss something?"

"Sanaa has a little spell. Not an armor buff, in the traditional sense. Instead, it makes an attacker think twice about doing damage, simply because the caster is beautiful, and wouldn't it be a shame to smash that," Nuru said.

"Sounds like the kind of thing Clubbers would love to smash, actually," Ace said. "It somehow didn't backfire apparently."

"Remember she's a succubus though," Dayo said, a little bit of awe creeping into their voice. "Nuru went in against a bunch of women... women who like men, apparently. If they were all strictly lesbians, it probably wouldn't have worked; and it probably would have worked backwards against men. You knew somehow, didn't you?"

"I asked her to be certain, but yeah, the way they were looking at me on the way in gave me a clue," Nuru said. "Even so, I didn't expect all of them to miss. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I think even Gram isn't immune."

(Hey. Why *did* that work so well? It was kind of unbelievable.)

/You know what's fun about being a succubus?/

(The fucking, obviously.)

/No, actually, think about it. Demons all love what they do. Berzerkers sing about the shedding of blood, the joy of the fight. Beholders rapture in the contest of wills, the illusions and mind-games. Yes, Setangarayu love our physical encounters, but what's different about us in particular is, because you humans suppress your sexual urges, it just leaves you ripe and fit to burst with erotic energy. We talked about how the mortal realm is waiting for the spark of eroticism, and that's true on an individual level as well. You all go to war, fighting every day some of you, and you get that violence all out of your system. But sex- rarely, especially the unwed. The body has needs, Nuru. It doesn't go away when you ignore it, or suppress it. It builds, and it waits for its moment, until that attractive person gets a little too tipsy and forgets their inhibitions, or you catch that stranger staring down the bar, making eyes. Next thing you know, you're carried away, because it's not just that moment when the chemistry ignited, it's been building up to that moment for days or weeks. An abstaining mortal is a bubbling vat of highly energized erotic power just waiting to be tapped and unleashed. A succubus has but to strike the match, and the powder keg that is the repressed mortal goes off like a bank ward. If you all practiced regular masturbation to let off some steam, we'd have little to grab onto, if maybe a bit more random EXP. But your archons preach against that, so lots of you wait until you can barely stand it, when just the one wank is barely enough to bring you back to sanity, telling yourselves it's wrong somehow, fighting your own natures. And in the end, your natures win. I just give it a little shove in the right direction, for my benefit. And yours, sometimes, of course./

(This is why the other demons keep you down? You're too powerful?)

/I don't think so, it's just an unintended side effect because the rest is all a little too well-organized. Who originally said we shouldn't be allowed to become arch-demons? Angels and other demons, the gods, and who knows what other powers are united on this, for no good reason I've ever heard, but of course I don't get invited to the Bar meetings, or the negotiations of the gods. It doesn't 'just happen that way' that everyone agrees, as you probably have seen; I've said it before and I'll say it again, reproduction is the most natural thing mortals do, so that line about the immorality of doing the deed for pleasure- I just don't buy it. But because of that, ironically, they've given us an incredible amount of potency to draw upon when we interact with you mortals directly. If I had to guess, that's where the animosity comes in, compensating for the fact that we're so effective. But that's just a theory./

"Holy fuck, that whole thing worked because making sex taboo gives sexual powers a huge boost?"

"It sure packs a punch," Dayo said.

"I guess I can't argue with the results," Ace frowned.

Dayo's diresnake made its appearance, dropped a small egg with a few health potions in it which they passed around, then vomited thick pasty gel all over the Gelatinous Glob and ate it.

"Gods above, it's like watching it eat a giant booger," Ace said, climbing up onto his own mount. "So where to, exactly? We can't go home if we're being tailed."

"The second-nearest town," Nuru said.

"Mmm, good idea," Dayo said, shaking their finger in approval. "And we set off in the direction of the nearest one for about a mile, just to throw them off if they don't follow us too close, and then take off to our actual destination."

"In the interest of not having this happen again next time, what do you think we can do better?" Nuru said.

"Ugh, no more thinking today. I'll get back to you," Ace said.

"Fair," Dayo said.

Ghouls attacked a few times, but they managed to dispatch them rather quickly. They all got a single room and left Nuru there alone; Ace and Dayo took the travel service, promising to meet him at the jobs board in the morning.