Labyrinth of Lights

Snatch moaned desperately, but a tentacle shot up to his face to gag him. He whimpered, helpless against the pleasure, as the tentacle suckers tickled and sucked at his face.

He'd just lost his ability to breathe. He was practically naked, at the bottom of a frigid ocean, unable to breathe—and somehow, he still needed to cum.

"Curious," murmured the squid mermaid, though her voice was garbled, as he no longer had any special ability to hear or speak underwater. She examined the amulet, then absently donned it. She blinked at him. "Oh. Oh, how silly of me."

He nodded desperately. He would yield, he would submit. He started to writhe as desperation for air kicked in, but the mermaids below only giggled, thinking it was still just out of lust, and held him still for their fervent lapping. He would do anything so long as Scinti gave him that back.

The squid maid reached up to undo the amulet, glancing back down at the anglermaids. "Well, then, I really don't see how you—"

Snatch had never before seen the amulet's efforts on another—when it 'kaleidoscoped', that was to say. He had never before seen the way their eyes sparkled and shone. Never seen the way they glazed over.

He watched as Scinti stared down at the anglermaids in mute wonder, her whole body going suddenly limp. "Ahhh..."

Snatch wriggled as her tentacles loosened around him. The mermaids below still gripped him fast, but he lunged for the amulet.

But at the same time, Scinti's wits seemed to return.

More or less.

Her tentacles released him completely and Snatch desperately swam upwards, struggling against the mermaids' slender fingers. Scinti's eyes had acquired a sheen as she stared in worshipful lust... at Tidae and Cera.

The anglermaids didn't even see the tentacles coming as the moaning squid maid grabbed them both. They squealed with surprise. The tentacles rapidly bound their bodies.

"Scinti!" squeaked Tidae, face already flushed as the tentacles ran over her sensitive skin. "W-what—"

"Good girl," Scinti slurred, pulling the mermaids up into an embrace. "'m a good girl..."

Snatch watched for a moment, the power of the lights filling him with arousal. He was so, so hard, in spite of the cold, and he just needed... needed...

But his survival instinct won out at last, and he frantically swam for the surface.

Snatch breached the surface with a gasp, and his teeth immediately started chattering. He could hear the mermaids squealing and screaming in erotic bliss, and knew if he looked down, he'd see a powerful orgy taking place. But he'd also probably go back to join them. And then he would die, hilariously.

So instead, he climbed out of the pit trap—a process that took him embarrassingly long, all truth be told—and made his way to the entrance to the Vaults. He paused only to take his shirt off, as it made him even colder. It wasn't so bad in the tunnels, at least. Hopefully he wouldn't freeze to death now.

Because he had finally arrived.

~~~~

Snatch wasn't exactly the sort of man who gloated over his victories. Gloating was tacky. It was rude. And much more importantly, his mentor—a person he had never met, but had heard quite a good deal about—had always said that the adventurer that paused to gloat was the adventurer that fell behind and got eaten by the landshark.

And his mentor, while having been a very poor mother, had been a very good adventurer.

All the same, Snatch was quite excited, and a little bit smug, when he came to the Vault Entrance. It was a wide hallway, walled in by dark stone. Faint glimmering lights dotted the ceiling—he was pretty sure they weren't hypnotic, but he tried to avoid looking at them, all the same.

Up ahead was a strange rocky depression that carved through the hallway, almost like a riverbed. The stones down there were smooth, and in the limited light, looked dark—perhaps a little bit green. Algae, maybe. The walls around the riverbed were gone, creating windows of water out into the deep ocean.

Snatch really had no idea how he was going to get out of here without the stupid, shitty gem. He'd cross that bridge when he came to it. Hopefully, the Vaults would contain something more useful.

At the far end of the hallway was a circular door. That would be a tough lockpicking job. Snatch was sort of looking forward to it. A chance to relax after all this... freneticness.

He did try not to touch any of the greenish stones as he walked past. But Snatch was still new to adventuring, and had not yet learned quite how agile he really was.

The answer was, 'not very'.

The second he touched the stone, he learned another answer to a question he had not yet thought to ask: What, exactly, did these stones feel like?

They were very soft. Very slimy. Because they weren't stones at all, of course.

The 'stone' opened up, revealing a hot pink anemone. An anemone with very long tentacles. The tendrils shot out before he could react, wrapping around Snatch's feet and leaving very slight, very light stings.

Snatch's eyes widened. His quivering lips parted.

"Heehee."

He blinked.

Oh. Gods. No!

With a shriek of giggly dismay, the naked adventurer stumbled, immediately bumping into another anemone. More tendrils shot out, tickling and stinging his other foot. He clutched his stomach to contain the laughter and fought to keep his balance, but he kept awakening more and more of the creatures.

He moaned, remembering too late one of the few hazards his source had warned him about: Giggle polyps.

As the tendrils reached his thighs and started tickling beneath his knee, Snatch collapsed to the ground, giggling uncontrollably. Immediately, they were all over him, burrowing beneath his shirt, tickling his inner thighs and belly and ass and neck and face.

He clawed over his body, ripping the tendrils away. They fell away easily. Nothing bound him.

But he was writhing and giggling like a man possessed. And his cock felt so bizarrely... good as they stung and tickled it. It felt like delicate fingers were running delicately over his every available inch of skin.

It was humiliating. But Snatch, who had just narrowly avoided getting licked and sucked into mindless obedience four times over, was so turned-on, so horny and needy, he couldn't help himself.

Moaning and giggling, he crawled for the other side, fighting every urge to collapse and lie there forever in delightful torment—or even start stroking himself, if he could manage the motion. He could only thank the gods that he hadn't tried to recruit an adventuring partner. He would rather starve to death here—though he dimly recalled that the polyps could feed their captives, somehow—than be witnessed like this.

"Heehee! Oh, wow."

Snatch looked up, eyes wide. Drifting through the water outside the hall was Esca, beaming ear to ear in pure, unadulterated delight. Lasi floated behind her, also grinning. He stared into Esca's golden eyes, wide-eyed and desperate.

"Look at the mess our naughty boy's turned into," Lasi purred.

Snatch clutched at his arms as the tendrils stung him over and over, giggling helplessly. All he could do was moan, and pray that Lasi would want to save him for herself.

Luckily, she did. "Well, go on, my Esca," Lasi breathed. "Save our sweet boy."

And Esca stepped through the gateway.

The tentacles attacked her soles for a few seconds, but did not, Snatch noticed, seem to affect her much, and they quickly abandoned the effort. Esca giggled at his confusion. "Oh, I don't really feel that strongly. I'm more... I guess I'm an extension of what Lasi wants." She beamed back at Lasi, who smirked. "I feel good when she feels good, and when she wants me to feel good. And when I have a lovely plaything in my clutches, of course!" She batted her eyelashes coyly.

Fragments of Snatch's old teachings came back to him. His mind raced. She's like an id construct. He looked over at Lasi, who was biting her lip as she watched the display.

"I..." He held back giggles through sheer force of will, only whines and whimpers escaping, "... I b-bet she's pretty—p-pretty bothered by all th-this!" He collapsed back into tortured giggles.

"Oh, yeah." Esca clasped her hands together, ignoring Lasi's uneasy look. "Mermaids are super-super ticklish. Giggle polyps are basically our worst nightmare! And our best one." She winked, holding out a hand.

Snatch reached up weakly, lost in Esca's eyes. "I bet."

And he grabbed her hand and yanked with all his might.

Lasi let out a startled shriek, but Esca almost sounded delighted as she tumbled into Snatch. Behind her, Lasi grabbed onto the edge of the wall, barly keeping from tumbling right into the mass. She panted, then started to pull herself out.

But, unnoticed to her, her big toe had just brushed by one of the stones.

"Hee." Her eyes widened. "Oh, n—EEHEEHEEHE!" Forgetting her escape, the mermaid lunged down to brush away the exploratory tendril—a refledxive move which only exposed her swinging breasts to the giggle polyp's depravities.

She fell with a cry into the mass of stones. Immediately, tendrils shot out to envelope her, but she was already lost. Snatch was amazed at the pitch of her squeals and giggles. They almost hurt his ears.

Esca smiled up at him as he rolled her onto her back. "Naughty boy," she mumbled, wriggling with delight as Lasi writhed. With the last shreds of his willpower, he slipped his rolled-up shirt over her eyes, blocking that dangerous glow. "She's gonna cum so hard."

The tendrils were barely even acknowledging Snatch now. They seemed to have chosen their favorite target. The mermaid was quickly gathered into the center of the mass. Snatch stared, open-mouthed, as the tendrils began tickling the mermaid to oblivion—her neck, her belly, everywhere exposed. Her breasts were a particular target, and she was rapidly turning into a teased, crying mess. Pleasured moans were slipping in, making it clear just what kind of effect the tendrils were having. She would be here a while.

Taking a deep breath, Snatch started to rise—but Esca's hand on his stopped him. She gave him a bright, adoring smile, golden lips glinting softly. "Why in such a hurry?" she whispered. "We have time. Oh, so much time."

Snatch hesitated. His cock throbbed with need.

"She wants you to," Esca murmured, reaching down and stroking his cock, guiding it towards her once more. "And... after she's been so mean to you... I think we owe you some bliss." The way she purred the word made Alrek's cock positively pulsate.

Her legs wrapped around his ass, and she grinned.

The first time he slid into her, it was like returning to heaven.

Snatch bit his lip, feeling the pleasure swelling. He knew he couldn't help himself. He needed release.

So he wrapped his arms around her. She let out a little coo of glee as he kissed her.

And then he started to pound in and out, and let the lust take him for a while. He was already cumming. Pleasure was already flooding through his body once again, and it was like a dam had burst. He could spare a day or so. Be her good boy for a short while longer. The Vault wasn't going anywhere.

It wasn't as though he was about to run out of water.

There was still far too much of it.

Snatch—known as Alrek to his scant friends—would spend the next three days in the Vault Entrance, fucking and suckling until Esca—and by extension, Lasi—made the most curious promise to help him break into the Vault and escape the ocean. He took a giggle polyp along on the return trip, just in case Lasi got frisky. After selling his winnings, Snatch made a solemn vow to never speak of the Labyrinth of Lights again.

THE END.

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