Drip-Fed Pt. 10

"I don't think biceps are related to grip strength," a red-faced Aclysia said, her rapidly blinking gaze dashing from Reysha's face to Apexus plain body and then down to the redhead's hourglass figure. Occasionally she tried to focus on eye contact. It didn't last longer than three seconds at a time.

"What do you care about the thickness of my arms for?" Apexus wondered.

"What do you care about the thickness of my thighs for?!" Reysha responded in a shaken tone. "What kind of fucking retarded question is that?"

"The state of the thighs is a good example for balance between a healthy amount of fat and a trained body," Apexus answered factually. He had thought quite a bit about why he found what about the female physique attractive. "The size of the bicep is related to the amount a male can lift, which would likely make them a better protector of the offspring, instinctively speaking. I just answered my own question. Sorry, I should have considered the seed before the tree."

"Okay... alright, okay..." Reysha mumbled, growing more exasperated by the lack of awareness her less sexual teammates/partners displayed. "Okay, you come here," she wrapped her arms around the necks of both of them and pulled them so close she whispered into both of their ears. "I've been teased that this goo ball that saved my life and that I somehow fell in love with, despite him looking like an eldritch abomination half the time, is going to turn from a gorgeous, skinny lad into a gorgeous, muscular god."

"Not a god," Aclysia complained.

"Shhh, shhh, bouncy bottom angel, the crazy kitty is speaking," Reysha responded, her pearly teeth revealed in all their sharpness. Her lips were pulled into a wide grin and her eyes wide open. The near absolute black of her sclera dominated the blue iris. "The point is that I've been teased with that and a thorough body inspection, because, let's be clear, you're a replica of a person and I'm flesh and blood."

"Accurate," Apexus said. "Technically it would be better if I looked at another man for reference..." The stare he received made him shudder with mild fear and wild anticipation for what the redhead wanted from him. "I'm sure I'll learn all I have to from your body. It will be more pleasing than the alternative, in any case."

"Yesssssss," Reysha hissed, her red tail slowly curving and a long giggle reverberating from her throat like a threatening purr. "So what we will do, is clear this dungeon in record time, because I'm a horny, fuck-ass crazy nympho who wants her ass fucked by the man who makes me feel satisfied, wild and tamed." She kissed Apexus on the cheek, nibbled on his fake ear. She leaned up to the proper ones on top of his head. "Sorry if this is a bit sudden or unreasonable, but something just snapped and now," she went back to giggling, "now I need it!"

Apexus was distracted from answering by noticing a movement in his periphery. Before he could warn anyone or react to it, Reysha had already snapped forwards and grabbed the snake mid-strike. The serpent coiled, in an attempt to get out of the tense grip, but Reysha twisted its neck before it made any progress.

"We're going full speed with the necessary amount of security, okay?" the crazy tiger girl asked.

"The necessary amount of security," Aclysia nodding, rubbing her thighs together. She was sexually submissive and this current situation had those impulses awake despite it not really being an intercourse situation.

"As fast as we SHOULD," Apexus added emphasis to the last word, trying his best to keep his tentacles from forming. While he did find her display of sexually-driven insanity immensely appealing, he did not want it to threaten their wellbeing. Sticking his tendrils in crazy was very fun, as long as he still had the tendrils.

Reysha was the most combat savvy member of their group due to her spontaneous and instinctive nature. Both of these attributes did not lend themselves well to a thought-through, secure strategy. It was Apexus' job, as the team leader, to reign in the excesses of her desires. Even if he, as her lover, wanted to cater to them.

After a short, impatient nod by the tiger girl, they continued their advance into the depths of the dungeon. It was a good thing that Reysha, as much as she wanted, could not force them to progress any faster than Apexus deemed safe. Even if the redhead wanted to see the boss devoured and the slime to fully form his humanoid shape, she would not jump headfirst into dark water and get herself killed or injured. If she was hurt, healing her would take time and being dead was a hindrance to having sex.

Even though Apexus took his time to thoroughly munch his way through the tunnels, they did advance at a breakneck speed. Most of this was due to the slime's unique advantages. Even species that could breathe and live underwater were less well equipped for this particular dungeon. Apexus didn't have to worry about getting too cold, about his stamina, about surfacing or about wounds. All he had to protect was his core and none of the monsters had any way of threatening him.

Dangerous as the Drowned Altar would have been to regular adventurers, particularly those that usually relied on heavy gear to protect themselves, to Apexus it was a delectable buffet. Because all of the water assailants were ambush predators, he didn't have to try much to find them either. All he had to do was look helpless and then eat them.

He chased that goal with the appropriate thoroughness, given the security of his women was on the line. However, saying that the promise of pleasing Reysha and attaining these highly useful muscles permanently didn't motivate him would have been thoroughly wrong. Reclaiming a position of physical dominance in the group was a matter of pride for the slime. He was a predator and a protector. He couldn't do either reliably if he relied on idiotic enemies that couldn't handle his unique body type. All it took was one somewhat smart person with a long metal stick and Apexus was dead. The slime that could effortlessly clear a dungeon many adventurers struggled with for two months could be killed by the average farmer with a pitchfork. By raising his body heat to an extreme degree, he could have won that fight. Otherwise, he was slower and weaker than that farmer. An unacceptable circumstance.

Between their diving exercises, Reysha drove them to top speeds. She took the helm, made out the snakes and slew them quickly. Usually, Apexus would have served as the warning system for near-invisible monsters, but snakes messed with his tremor sense by virtue of gliding around. Hyped up on desire and monster meat, Reysha heard their quiet hisses and saw them slither in the dark.

When they stopped, the tiger girl always immediately passed out and they immediately went on when she was awake again. They didn't take breaks for their usual bodily indulging. Reysha was too concentrated on the reward of this journey to spend additional time on the path. Apexus and Aclysia still had their little lovemaking sessions while she slept, but that was rather tame and short compared to their usual coitus.

And deeper and deeper they went into the Drowned Altar.

"Stay close," Aclysia warned, trying her best to make the Illumni spell glow as bright as possible as they advanced through the algae-covered temple.

The changes had been subtle at first. A few cobblestone paths between the dripstones, a religious symbol here and there, structural hallmarks inside the waterways, such and similar things mingling with the largely natural look of the caves. As the trio progressed, the deeper they got inside the Drowned Altar, the more that natural look made room for structures. Every slanted waterway, every cliff or drop in the caves, brought them into darker territory. The bugs that had dispersed the shadows with their glow became rarer and rarer until they ceased to be around altogether. Now it was just Aclysia's spells and Apexus' nails that allowed them to see.

Their surroundings contained few dripstones at this point and most of them hung from the ceiling. Everything else was cobblestone or brick, both usually covered in slimy algae or wet moss. The air was thick with humidity and the smell of salt. Some of the water condensed on the naked bodies of the three. With the number of times they had to swim, putting on clothes was a waste of time. They hadn't worn any in three consecutive days, belts to hold the adventurer's bags aside.

"We need to get done with this shit quickly or this map is going to be useless," Reysha told them, currently on navigation duty. With one hand used to cast the Illumni, Aclysia could hardly do it and, for all of its inconveniences, at least the current layout of the dungeon was easier to read. Tunnels that were made to emulate a temple had a more organized structure to them than caves. "Humidity is seeping into the paper."

"We shouldn't be too far off," Aclysia said. Even if she wasn't holding the map, she had looked at it long enough to have ingrained much of it into her acute memory. "Darling, could you...?" She didn't need to finish the question. Apexus was already walking toward the green carpet in front of them.

The layer of algae parted and rippled, as Apexus's foot pushed through the surface of the water. He kept one foot on the solid stone until he felt the ground, then he slowly marched on. "They could have made markings how deep these puddles are," he complained. Originally, every pond had been the entrance or exit to a tunnel. Now there were random gatherings of water everywhere in the wavy tunnels. Thanks to the algae, their depth was concealed. As was whatever may be lurking inside them.

"It may be that the depth of these varies with time," Aclysia provided an explanation. "These tunnels have seemingly random depressions and rises that could be filled up and drained depending on the divine machinations that keep the dungeon operating. As such, drawing them would be a fool's errand."

"Could at least write that into the guide, if that's the case," Reysha chimed in and narrowed her eyes. "Maybe they did though. The letters are start'n to..." she had to quickly raise the map to save it from splattering water. "There goes our slime."

Apexus didn't struggle against the sudden pull that had yanked his leg off balance. The tendril sitting taught around his leg dragged him over the slippery floor and right to the Grapplegoo at the source. A second predator took the opportunity to deliver a bite to Apexus' arm. Venom shot out of hollow teeth into Apexus's thick membrane. Both the venom and the delivery of the Stalker Eel were rather weak, but it would have worked well enough to wear the average adventurer down.

The Grapplegoo was going nowhere, so Apexus took care of the eel first. Grabbing its elongated body was difficult, but Apexus' had gotten a vast amount of experience in it over the past seven days. Stalker Eels retained their bite until their target stopped moving or they were threatened by something. Hooking a finger into their gills trapped them in that biting position. Not advisable for most people, but the slime could use that to ensure that he had the time to engulf and devour the eel.

After that predator was dead, he turned to kill the Grapplegoo. The oddity of killing a fellow semi-liquid being had dulled, but it never vanished. It never would vanish. Out of respect for the ended life, Apexus offered the nucleus to Reysha. He himself didn't want to eat it, but he also didn't want to let it go to waste.

"It gets pretty deep," Apexus reported back.

"Can see that, moss hair," Reysha giggled, her comment squarely aimed at the green Apexus' black hair had gathered while wading through the saltwater. "If ya would take it, for a sec, Aclysia?" Reysha asked and folded the map together. While the metal fairy flew over the obstacle, Apexus carried the redhead through the water. It was an opportunity to touch her naked body. The actual reason was to keep her hands dry though. That way, she could take the map back on the other side without adding to its creeping water damage.

Past the wet obstacle was a circular hall. A stone bowl atop a pillar was at the centre of it, with five paths branching off in every direction. Reysha hastened towards the bowl and sniffed the clear water within. "Freshwater," she said in a delighted tone and lowered her head further to drink from it.

"Wait a moment," Apexus demanded and stepped up besides her.

Reysha obediently backed off. A little jab would be the least she would have done normally, but the banter would have delayed their progress. She was on her seventh day of high-degree horniness and she used every bit of that torture to spur her along the path. Her eyes darted between the arches along the curved wall. The tunnels extended into the innards of the earth, swallowing all light with their depth.

By putting his hand inside the bowl, Apexus absorbed some of the water into his membrane. When he failed to detect any magic or poison, he nodded. "It's safe," he confirmed and Reysha took a few hearty gulps. "The salt is bothersome," he said. Not even Apexus could drink water that was this filled with the mineral. "Makes the water dehydrating."

"That way," Reysha dictated after she was done. With the map, she waved at the leftmost tunnel. "One more dive and we should be there."

Her fingers jittered with excitement, claws extended to slice open anything that stood between her and the muscles of her beloved. The excitement spread to the other two and Apexus quickly took the helm. As much as Reysha may have wanted to stride ahead, now that she was carrying the map, she had to be more careful.

Apexus kept a hand raised, as if he was holding a torch, illuminating the path before them. Like always, the changes were crawling, but the slime noticed it anyway. How the walls turned less and less green. How he could walk faster on the less slippery floor. How the smell of salt grew so intense that it hurt his eyes.

Coughing, Reysha tried to repress the urge to breathe through her mouth. "What a torturous arrangement," Aclysia complained, looking at her suffering companion. "The guide ought to warn of this circumstance."

"Maybe ya should file a feedback form, or something like that," Reysha suggested with a grin, despite the unpleasant taste that left on her sensitive tongue. Wise would have been to keep her mouth shut, but the tiger girl would rather be sassy than wise. "Swing your butt, bubble butt, we're getting there. Just stick to the left wall."

"Roger," Apexus obeyed. The gaps between the bricks, and even parts of the bricks themselves, were covered in a white, crystalline crust. Stagnant air, saturated with water and salt, clung to Apexus' skin. He hastened his steps further, hearing the shallow breaths Reysha took. This was not an environment for a human to thrive in.

The tunnel soon opened into another cave. Dripstones were replaced with salt pillars. There was nothing but darkness around. Although the group stayed wary of snakes, there were none to attack them. Not even the dungeon monsters could stand the hostile air.

Eventually, something glittered in the darkness, reflecting the moving lights they carried. A body of water peeled out of the bleached surroundings, a lake whose surface was perfectly clear. An unwelcome sight, given the promise it entailed. "Welp, here we are," Reysha said and stowed away the map. "Let's hurry up and get out of here before I become another one of these salt pillars."

"You might be more correct than you think..." Aclysia said, glancing at a pile of crystals that remarkably resembled the shape of a lying human. Her intuition, in this case, was correct. The air in this room had spelled the end for several adventurers that, exhausted from the rest of the journey, managed to stumble their way there and collapsed. Ultimately, their bodies would be dissolved by the dungeon itself. Until then, they were buried under the growing white. A fate better than ending as monster food, many would claim. Trember, the God of Death and Decay, saw no difference.

"I'll see to it," Apexus announced and jumped into the water, leaving the two girls to stand there and wait.

'So close, so fucking close,' Reysha thought, feeling the excited shivers all over her body. As bland as standing there was, she still couldn't help but jump from one foot on the other. "Abs, Aclysia," she giggled. "We're getting abs."

"I am aware," the metal fairy said, sparing herself the pedantic correction. As well as she carried herself, she too was excited at the prospect. Keeping the desire bottled up until the appropriate time just seemed more beneficial to her. Instead, she gave the calm surface of the lake a worried look. "Will you be able to dive through that?"

"It's going to hurt like a bitch, but I can deal with that," Reysha stated.

"We could guide you," Aclysia offered. "If you keep your eyes closed, it shouldn't be too bad."

"Appreciated, but I'll get through it," the redhead insisted and repressed a cough by gulping heavily. 'I wish I could scratch the back of my throat,' she thought.

About thirty minutes later, Apexus resurfaced. "It should be safe now," he said. "It's a very long dive though."

"How long?" Aclysia asked.

"Too dark to tell properly... five to seven minutes of swimming?"

Reysha grimaced. She had never dived that long before in her life and doing so inside a lightless tunnel didn't tickle her fancy at all. "Seriously, where are the dungeons were we just murder things to get through?" She complained and walked towards the water.

"There is the long way around," Aclysia reminded them. They would need to backtrack a day's progress and then go for a route that would take them another three days at best, but there was a route with shorter waterways. It would also have no salt, albeit the group wasn't aware of that bit.

"No delays!" Reysha declared. "Only direct route to handsome slime!" She took as deep an inhale she could off the air, ignored the scratching and the burning of her lungs and then dove under the surface. Aclysia and Apexus followed her quickly. 'Probably shouldn't have led the charge,' it occurred to her, but she refused to waste breath or time on turning away now. There could have been a monster down there which Apexus had missed. It would have been a proper assumption. 'I'll deal with it, if it comes to it,' she thought. That was the last thought of the dive she had.

It only took a minute for dread to settle into her brave soul as she advanced away from the light of her companions and ever forwards into the pitch black. She was a faster swimmer than they were, but she couldn't afford to wait for them to catch up. Darker and darker, it got, the craggy walls of the underwater passage narrowing or widening randomly. No state of space was good. Feeling enclosed in water and stone, looking up and knowing there was no air to be had, or being surrounded on all sides by nothing but lightless water, none of it was a hopeful visual. Her eyes burned, the raw amount of salt torturing her. She could taste it, small droplets making it into her mouth when she let out some of the held air.

The pressure on her body increased. Her heart drummed in her chest with desperation. Most of her instincts screamed to rise to the surface and the rest screamed back that there was no surface in reach. Her body revolted against the position that it had been put into. It wasn't made for this. She wasn't made for this. Reysha tried to stay in control of herself, even as the panic settled in. Helpless, uncontrolled panic, a hand clutched around an infernal gem, energy searing her flesh away, melting her bones and leaving her shouting with pain and confusion at her own action.

It burned. Her lungs burned. Her eyes burned. Her skin burned. Her legs kept kicking. Her arms kept moving. Visions of hurt and panic kept rising. Reysha concentrated solely on the one instinct that was useful to her: the will to survive.