Coromandel Ch. 02

"Here," I said, stepping forward. "Hand me a few while you get situated."

"Thanks." Razor flashed me a smile that I'm sure was meant to be charming, and between the two of us we got the half dozen potions secured to his belt by the leather straps. "Have you seen Coraline yet?"

I scanned the flow of characters moving in and out of the city, and there was Coraline coming our way. "Over there." I pointed, then held a hand up to wave. The blonde Deathknight spotted me and waved back, coming in our direction.

"By the way," Razor said in a low voice, leaning into my ear, "I really enjoyed last night. I hope you did too."

Crap. I'd know something like this would happen. What did I say? I decided to avoid the issue by stepping forward and calling out. "Coraline! Where are we going?"

Clad once again in her purple and white dress, the vampiress stepped forward and made kissing motions to each of my cheeks. "Audrey! Darling!" She stepped back and flashed a seductive grin at Razor. "And your big handsome boyfriend. Good to see you both again."

"Boyfriend?!" I think my eyes were about to bug out of my head.

"We're going back to the Akarana ruins I was raiding yesterday," she explained, walking toward the gate and expecting us to keep up. "I joined up with a bunch of idiots - I guess when you party up with strangers, you can't complain when they don't know what they're doing. But after you'd passed out last night, Razor mentioned you'd both played before, even if it wasn't in this particular game, and I'm still between groups, so I figured, what the hell."

I suddenly wondered what else the two of them had gotten up to after I logged off, but I just asked: "So what's the deal with this place?"

"Getting there isn't difficult," Razor offered helpfully. "I've asked around. Just some wild mutant animals and things like that. And the upper levels of the ruins sound pretty basic too: old security robots, that kind of thing. But everyone I talked to says no one had beaten the whole quest yet."

Coraline nodded. "That's right," she said. "The lower levels of the dungeon are controlled by a mutant warlord named Gorm the Cruel. He and his gang are supposedly searching for something called the Null Blade, and since no one's got one I figure we could sell it for ludicrous amounts of gold."

"But no one's got one because they all keep getting killed," Razor pointed out as we passed under the city gates and set out on the road.

"Not quite," Coraline explained. "People keep getting captured. And then they chose to die."

"Wait, what?" I was starting to feel like I should have done some research before logging on.

"When Gorm's mutants capture you," Coraline explained, "You can choose to have your Character be killed and respawn as normal, but you lose all the experience and treasure you've found."

"Pretty standard for dying in a dungeon," I pointed out.

"Yes and no," Razor said with a sigh. "You can also choose to keep playing through the capture. Some people have actually had the Null Blade in their inventory and kept going as a result."

"So what happens," I asked as we turned off down a side path which led south around the bay. I loosened my gun in its holster: we were passing out of the safe zone which surrounded the city.

"They get tortured," Coraline explains. "Before each session starts, you get the choice to die. I hear the most anyone has made it through before giving up is three sessions. And so no one has come back with a Null Blade yet. But we're not going to get captured," she assured us. "We're going to be cautious, and pull out if it looks like things are getting too dangerous."

Razor gave a little chuckle at the phrase 'pull out.'

From off to the left, we heard a series of howls. Coraline spun in that direction, arms out and fingers splayed, as black claws snapped out of her fingertips. Razor's cybernetic blade slid out of his arm, and I took a step behind them, hand hovering at my holster. From out of the scrub, kicking up dust as they came, a pack of mutated dogs scrambled toward us. They howled and growled and bared their teeth as they came, and their patchy fur was half overgrown with some sort of thick, gnarled, rhinoceros-like hide.

Coraline dashed forward with the kind of speed only Deathknights have, meeting two as they scrambled toward us, and ripped the throat out of one in a spray of blood. Gracefully, she spun out of the way of the fountain of gore and struck at the second mutant dog with her left hand, but her claws only skittered across the thick hide.

I twitched my hand down toward the butt of my gun, and my new skill activated. In a single motion, I drew and shot, blowing the head off the dog that Coraline had missed. But then, they were on us. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Coraline pirouette out of the way of one, but then a second leaped on her, jaws digging in around her shoulder. Razor knocked another dog away with his cybernetic arm, but then one leapt for his throat, and I didn't see anymore because even as I scrambled back, two were on me.

I kicked with my boot, but that didn't stop one from locking his jaws around my ankle, and I felt the teeth sink into my skin through the leather. Fuck, that hurt! As Lucien, my undead state had deadened the pain of any wounds I suffered, but this was... this was just like being bitten by a dog. Or what I imagined it would be like. I nearly dropped my gun, but then a second dog jumped up and nearly knocked me over as it bit at my left arm. This was not good.

With a roar, Razor stabbed the dog on his chest through, cast it aside, and then cut the second dog at his feet in half with his arm-blade. Coraline, still untouched and lightning quick, gutted one dog and sliced the spine of the other with her claws. With my right hand, I shot the dog off my left arm, but that still left one gnawing painfully on my leg. As I hopped about awkwardly trying to fend it off, Razor dashed over and skewered it with his blade. He had to pry its jaws off of me while I panted and tried not to cry.

"Ow! This really hurts," I complained.

Coraline, untouched, laughed. "It's not just the sex that feels real here. I've had party members freeze up and get killed their first time out, when they took a hit. You two did pretty well."

Razor pulled two healing potions from his belt, tossed me one, and chugged the other. I caught the glass bottle in both hands, pulled the cork, and took a long swallow. It tasted like cold, clear water, and the pain in my leg and arm began to dull as I drank. By the time I finished the bottle, it was like nothing had happened. I knew, from my experience with Lucien, that if I looked at my leg, the skin would be flawless and unblemished, as if the wound had never happened.

The programmers and designers who had created Coromandel had tried to strike a balance between two things when dealing with overland travel: on the one hand, no one wanted to actually just walk through the wilderness for days on end to get anywhere. On the other hand, there was no point in offering things that made transportation quicker and easier for money if travel didn't take time. We walked for the rest of the evening, fighting a group of mutant robbers along the way. There weren't as many of them as there had been dogs, and we didn't really have a problem with them, but it was enough to level me up again anyway. I remembered this with Lucien - you improved rapidly this early in your character's development, and then apparently things started to slow down. I'd never actually played my Deathknight long enough to get to that point.

Coraline waited for us to finish levelling up; Razor was done before me, and I could hear him asking her why it was taking to long as I pondered options. "I thought you'd just come back wounded from this place yesterday. You made it sound like it was close by."

I added a few skill points to Streetwise to improve my HUD map, hesitated, and then maxed out my three Sexual Techniques at +14%. There were extra points sitting, enough to unlock a fourth Technique, but I hadn't really tried anything else in game yet. My combat choices were easier, and I closed the level up menu in time to pay more attention to Coraline's response.

"I was in bat form," the Deathknight explained. "I flew right across the bay. We have to walk around the whole coastline, in a giant circle. But we should be there sometime tomorrow. Let's set up a safe camp to log off at."

Razor grumbled, but extracted a tent from his inventory and deployed it just off the trail under a large, blasted tree. Tents were essentially a way to save your progress before logging off: once characters went into a tent, they were untouchable by wandering monsters or even other player characters until they exited again. As Razor handled our save point, I sidled over to Coraline to quietly ask her a few questions.

"So you get experience for sex," I began, and she giggled.

"I think it's supposed to encourage us to be, umm, adventurous," she told me conspiratorially, leaning in close. "But you only get xp when you sleep with someone you've never slept with before, or when you do something you've never done before. So vanilla monogamy doesn't get you anything."

"Ok," I said with a nod. "Good to know. And why the hell did I have blood...down there when I logged back in. You don't get a period in this game, do you?"

"No," she assured me. "You must not have gone into some of the advanced settings when you made your character. The game world assumes you're physically virgin unless you specify otherwise at character creation. It matters for Iron Priests."

I blinked, processing that. Was that why it had hurt, why it had felt as if something was tearing last night when Razor put his cock in me?

"Also," she said, "most guys seem to pick the largest cock size available, and the bigger their frame the bigger that is. I got a look at what Razor was nailing you with last night, and you've got a small frame with slim hips. The game's accurate to how that would feel in real life, except that it tends to dull the pain a bit in favor of pleasure. But the pain's still there. Some people get off on it."

"Anyway," she continued, "I've got to log off, but I'll see you tomorrow." My heart sank. I'd been hoping for some alone time with Coraline, but it looked like tonight was not going to feature playtime. I watched her walk into the tent; Razor held the flap open for her on his way out and over to me.

"All set," he called, and I walked over.

The tent wasn't huge; it was maybe ten feet long on each side. Razor had laid down a series of blankets and pillows he had produced from his inventory, and Coraline was already 'asleep;' she'd logged off, and her avatar wouldn't respond to any actions we took. I sat down on the blankets as Razor tied the tent flap, but as I was preparing to lie back, he began to unbutton his pants.

"What are you doing," I hissed, glancing over at Coraline.

The big man paused, confusion on his face. "I figured we'd have some fun before logging off. I can spare another hour or so."

I'd been willing to put up with him being present for a threesome with Coraline, but I had not created a female avatar so I could go around sleeping with men. He wasn't even attractive. I shook my head. "No. No, we're not going to 'have some fun.'

"Why not?" He raised both hands, palms up. "Look, I'm sorry if I assumed something that isn't true, but we had a good time last night. We've partied up today. You're obviously interested in sex, or you'd be playing some other game instead of this one. I get it, Coral has to log off, and that's lame, but the two of us can still enjoy ourselves."

I had to set him straight now, I saw, or he'd be expecting sex on a daily basis. "Look," I said, "Just because I enjoy sex doesn't mean I automatically am up for fucking you whenever you decide you're interested. I'm not a guaranteed orgasm."

He kneeled down next to me and nodded, maintaining eye contact. "I get it. And if you really don't want to, that's fine with me. But don't tell me you don't want to get off. How about I eat you out before we log off. I didn't get to taste you yesterday, and it'll make you feel good. You don't have to get me off at all."

I hesitated. I could always close my eyes and pretend he was a woman. And the thought of an orgasm was nice... "Turn around and get out of the tent," I told him.

"What?" He looked confused again.

"I'm going to change. I'll tell you when to come in."

A slow smile spread across Razor's face, and he did as I asked. I sat there for a moment. Was I really going to let him eat me out? Yeah, yeah I was. The prospect of experiencing an orgasm in this virtual body again was just too tempting. I took off my hat, shrugged out of my coat, and began pulling off my boots. As I took off the clothing, I set it aside in a neat pile at Coraline's feet. I didn't stop when I got to my underwear, either; I took all of that off and then opened my inventory. A few hand motions later and Dark Lady, the Rare set of lingerie I'd drawn at the beginning of the evening, was laid out before me.

I started with the black lace panties, leaning back on my butt and holding my legs up, bent, in the air. I took me a second try to get my feet through the right holes, but then it was pulled up snug to my hips. Looking down at the panties, they almost seemed normal: black floral lace that let my skin peek through, with a light gray border and a little flower nub over my crotch. But when I experimentally spread my legs, I could see the slit up the gusset yawn open, revealing my vagina, and I could feel the air on the crack of my butt as well.

I took a deep breath and reached for the pvc black bra. I was starting to get better at bras, but the waist cincher was a little weird. Once I had them both on, they looked almost like a single piece of clothing. Once that was done, the stockings were easy, and I hooked the straps from the cincher to them with motions that were becoming familiar. I opened my status window and checked my stats.

Cunninlingus: +19%

Masturbation: Female: +19%

Penetration: Doggy Style: +19%

*Unlearned Techniques: +15%

I closed the window, and when I drew in a breath I found it was ragged and shaky. I wasn't turned on yet - not precisely. But I was nervous, and I could feel my heartbeat in my chest. I bit my lip, and tried to decide how to arrange myself. I leaned back and spread my legs, revealing my pussy. No, way too slutty. I closed my legs, draping one over the other, and raised my torso on both arms. The motion thrust my chest forward. Better.

"Alright," I called out. "Come in."

Razor must have been waiting right outside the door, for he was inside the tent in a heartbeat. I could hear him gasp, and I watched with amusement as his eyes roamed across my body.

"God, you're beautiful," he breathed as he knelt down and crawled over to me. He reached for my legs and gently pushed them apart as he knelt between my thighs. I turned my face away, embarrassed, as I knew he'd be seeing the crotchless panties now. "Holy shit," he swore, and then lowered his head. I felt his lips on my upper left thigh: they tickled, but in a good way, a naughty way. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. That's not a guy about to stick his tongue up inside you, I told myself. It's a girl. For a moment, I pictured Coraline, and then Natalie's face flashed before my eyes, and then his tongue touched my lips and I wasn't picturing anything at all.

I drew in a deep breath in anticipation, and then he took the left lip of my outer labia between his lips and pulled gently on it. I had to do something, so I let myself fall back to the blankets and reached my hands up to my breasts,pulling them out of the pvc bra cups so that I could caress them.

I was excited, but I wasn't wet yet, and he seemed content to tease me, because after sucking on my outer lips for a moment, he moved over and kissed my right thigh. He nuzzled there for a while, then used two fingers to spread me open and licked right up my middle. Now I could feel myself starting to get wet, and I pinched my nipples gently. "Oh," I groaned, focusing on the feelings building in my body. He continued to lick there, pausing every once in awhile to nibble on my labia as I felt myself get more and more wet, and open up. Suddenly, without any warning, his lips fastened on what must have been my clit, because all of a sudden it was like lightning was flashing up and down my spine and in my stomach, and that was my first orgasm of the night. Without any control over myself at all, I let out a high pitched moan and clamped my legs tight around Razor's head, trapping him between my spasming thighs for a long moment while I came.

Gulping deep breaths of air, I finally let him go, my legs splaying out obscenely to each side as my body trembled with the aftershocks of the orgasm. "Oh god... oh, that was just what I needed," I admitted.

Razor pulled himself upright with a smug look on his face. "You taste..." he licked his lips. "Good. Tangy."

I propped myself up on my elbows, no longer concerned that he had a perfect view between my wide open legs. My tits had half settled into the bra cups, but the nipples were poking out over the pvc material and hard. I'd gotten what I wanted: one orgasm. The problem was that in this woman's body, one wasn't the end, and I was still horny.

"Lay down," I commanded him, then swung my legs behind me and crawled over on my hands and knees. Razor obliged me, and it didn't take me long to undo his pants and pull them off. His cock sprang up in front of my face, hard, waving in the air. I hadn't really seen it last night, but now I put my hand next to it and guessed. "Christ," I exclaimed. "You put this whole thing in me? What is it, a fucking foot long?"

"Ten inches," he said, completely seriously.

Ten inches. My cock in real life was about six.

I licked my lips once to get them wet, and then put the head into my mouth. This isn't real, I told myself. I'm not really sucking a cock. This doesn't make me gay. I lowered my head, sliding his dick back along my tongue until it reached the back of my throat, then back off. A couple of quick strokes was all it took for him to be hard as a rock and ready. It didn't even really taste bad - just like skin. Then, I scooted up until I was sitting on his thighs, his penis poking up. Out of curiosity, I grabbed it and held it up against my belly to see how far it reached. The very tip touched the bottom of my belly button.

"You are so lucky I am still horny," I told him with a breathless grin, then raised myself up on my knees and scooted forward. I held myself up over him, placed my left hand on his chest to balance, and with my right aimed his cock. I closed my eyes and did this by feel, mushing the spongy head around between my lips until I found the right spot, and then I began to slowly press down.

I took it much more slowly than he had last night, but that stretching, pushing feeling was still there. For a long moment, it was just pressure, and then my body opened, all at once and easier than I had expected, and his head slid into me. I heard myself making high pitched whines, but it was like hearing someone else. I kept pressing down, slowly, bit by bit, accepting more of him into me, but there was always more to take, until finally, gloriously, I was sitting on him, that unreasonably huge cock trapped entirely inside my body.

Suddenly, I felt something wet spreading inside me. I looked down, breathing heavily.

"Did you just cum," I asked him incredulously. No, not yet, something inside me was screaming.

His face contorted, Razor's strong hands grabbed my hips, and he began to pound up into me, suddenly slapping his thighs into mine. All I could do was hold onto his chest as he pistoned his cock into my body. As he did, I felt a swelling and a wet heat spreading inside me, and that warmth spread out from my legs into my stomach again, but it wasn't enough. It was just a little orgasm. Razor stopped moving, and I shifted my hips experimentally. His wet cock fell out of me with a 'plop,' and I could smell cum.