Small Sins: Vexation

The immense Lamia glowed, a red outline flaring on the digital floor to indicate the trajectory of the incoming Corruptive Ejection attack as the lamia's model grasped at her tits and made a deep moaning sound.

"Watch out, corruptive blast." Tim Darmon said, guiding his svelte Trow healer character clear of the blast and hitting Bart's heavily muscled Orc Paladin, a gleaming tower of armor, with a healing bolt.

"I got it, I Got it!" Martin Carter yelled through the mic as his Storm-mage catgirl leaped at the lamia, arms crackling with a queued up Lightning Punch, and right into the line of the blast.

The purple corruption blast shot out of the lamia's torso region, and Martin's character flashed as the corruption debuff took hold and he lost health, and his spell was interrupted.

"Fuck. Need Healing!" he called out.

"One second!" Tim called out, having turned his attention to the last member of their party, Victor, who's shortstack goblin rogue was low health thanks to another blast.

"Hurry up, it's... aw damn." Martin said as the lamia lashed out with a tail-slap, taking out the last of his health.

"Dammit, if you'd healed me I wouldn't be dead!" he complained.

Just as Victor ran in, firing off his stealth and attacking.

"Hey wait, let me cover you first!" Bart Clinton said, his Orc paladin running in to try and cover Victor's goblin as the boss began to glow again, a disk of red appearing around her.

"Shit get out of there!" Tim shouted, just as a blast of purple washed out from her, dropping Bart's health to half and Victor's nearly to zero.

"I need healing!" Victor called out, setting off his slash attack.

[]

"Oh come ON!" Tim shouted as the words "Mission Failed" popped up as his character died.

"Good grief guys, this is a novice-level boss! If we just organized..." he said.

"If you'd healed me when I needed it, we would be fine!" Martin snapped.

"If you'd let Bart actually Tank I wouldn't need to heal you so much, and you could focus on the boss!" Tim said.

"Oh come on, you didn't pocket me!" Victor snapped.

"My character can't move fast enough to pocket-heal, dumbass!" Tim snapped.

"Guys, chill. Lets just, take a break, come at this tomorrow." Bart said.

"Fine." Tim said, "God, I wish Perilous Planes was real. I bet you'd straighten the fuck up then." he muttered.

A deafening crash of thunder sounded from outside, and the lights went out, as did his computer.

A few minutes later, the lights came back on, showing an empty room.

[Two weeks later]

A massive orc woman in leather trudged ahead of a group of adventurers, parts of her armor tied to a bulky pack on her back.

Behind her, a lithe, redhaired catgirl in dark grey robes and a short, curvy goblin in dark leather walked.

Taking up the rear, was a tall, stick-thin Trow with moderately-sized breasts and ass, which looked improbable on her frame, long white hair and dark sunglasses over red eyes, in the pale pink robes of the Mender's Guild, head high, pack seated low on her back.

"All I'm saying is, if we were gonna get trans-whatevered into the game, why the heck didn't we get to change our characters?" the goblin complained.

"Hell if I know, Vee." the catgirl said. "My head still aches like a motherfucker from learning battlemagic in one go."

"Tim, you got any ideas?" Vera, the goblin, asked.

"It's Tinara, or Tina, here, Vera. Seriously. I haven't a clue, and if we want to find one, we gotta get stronger. Which means not getting perma-killed by some low-level Lamia." Tina, the Trow healer, complained.

"We're here." the Orc, Bethka, said, slinging her pack off her shoulder and opening it up, proceeding to strap on her armor.

"Alright, this time let's go in with an actual strategy, guys." Tina scolded, slinging her own pack off and unlimbering her spellwand from the holster on the side of the pack. An ivory rod with golden leaves and branches running along it and a pistol-grip, it was, aside from the bright polished armor Bethka was strapping on, the most expensive piece of kit they had.

"What's the point, fifteen gilter is a fuckin' ripoff." Vera whined.

"This is a real place, not the game." Tina said. "A single gilter is enough to feed us and pay the innkeep for two months at least." She said.

"Really?" Bethka rumbled as she checked her sword was easy to draw from her belt, and hoisted her shield. "For a novice boss?" she asked.

"Clearly not how the locals see it." Tina said.

"Whatever. We kill this thing, go back, get gold, get gone. Or drunk. Whatever." Marai, the catgirl mage, said, stomping past, her footclaws digging into the dirt path leading up to the unassuming cave entrance.

[]

The Lamia towered over the four transported adventurers, an enormous, muscular woman's torso with enormous breasts, and wide hips leading into a massive snake body, with deep violet scales.

The battle arena was a huge dome-like cave with a sandy floor, lit by glowing crystals of a deep red-orange in the ceiling and walls.

As Vera came at her with a knife, she grasped her bare, scaly breasts, and squeezed, and a blast of dark fluid splashed against Bethka's armor, driving the orc paladin back with a grunt.

Marai was charging in, arms crackling with magic when the Lamia shifted suddenly and blasted her instead, slamming her to the floor with a sharp cry of pain.

"I need healing! FUCK!" she thought through the mental link that had replaced game chat functionality when they had been transported.

Tina ran closer, flicking her spellwand, sending a bolt of healing at Marai before ducking in time to avoid Vera, as the Lamia simply grabbed her and threw her at the wall.

There was a disturbing crunch as she hit, and Tina bolted for her. "Hold on, I'm coming!" she shouted, dropping at Vera's side. The hud she still somehow had showed her health at barely three percent.

She crouched, drawing deep from the absolutely strange connection to the deity powering her gift, and a wave of golden light washed over Vera, knitting bones and closing wounds.

Marai, having stood up when she was healed, immediately ran at the beast while Bethka charged with a roar, only to be slammed back by a tail-swipe.

"Gotcha. Be careful dammit!" Tina said.

"Yeah sure. 'Scuse me, got a big snake to murderize!" Vera said, and charged back in.

Marai got a good couple of hits in before she was grabbed in turn by a huge scaled hand and thrown at Bethka, knocking them both over and taking half their health. And breaking bones.

Tina was on her way to heal them when the Lamia blasted Vera unexpectedly and she went down in a puddle of corruptive goo.

"FUCK, need healing! Help!" she shouted.

"Hang on!" Tina said as she fired off another powerful heal at Bethka. She struggled to her feet.

"Cover Vera, I need to heal Marai." Tina said.

"Fuck that, I'm getting a kill." Bethka said, the massive orc woman rushing the Lamia.

"Hey wait, if we keep trickling in, we'll get fucked over, get BACK HERE!" Tina yelled as she ran towards the fight.

Marai was staggering to her feet when Vera came flying past, whacked by a giant snake tail, catching Marai and slamming them both back.

Bethka let out a shout of pain as the lamia slammed her with her snake tail, and Tina was trying to figure out who to heal when the light was blotted out and she was slammed to the floor by a huge, heavy scaled tail.

Something dripped on her sleeve, making a sizzling noise.

Her party was scrambling to their feet, and stared at her, as the Lamia settled back, apparently content to wait for them to come at her.

"Fuckin' hell, lets get out of here!" Vera said, and all three of them bolted for the exit.

Tina felt a cold shiver down her back. They were abandoning her?

[]

"Well that's just rude." a resonant contralto said, as the weight slipped off her back.

Tina scrambled up to her feet, and winced at the ache left from the Lamia's weight having rested on her.

She stared up at the snake creature, a cascade of thoughts and reactions rattling in her mind.

One finally came to the fore.

"You could talk this whole fucking TIME?" she shouted.

"Why yes. Yes I could." the Lamia said.

"Ok, then WHY on the gods' green and fucky EARTH, were you terrorizing that TOWN?" Tina shouted.

The giant Lamia loomed over her, an enormous hand reaching towards her, and Tina belatedly considered that maybe shouting at the giant snake woman was a bad idea.

But her hand brushed her sleeve.

Tina glanced down, to see that the sleeve of her vestments was almost completely off, burnt away by the black ooze of corruption that the Lamia had used as an attack, and was still dripping from her breasts.

The grey skin underneath had gone a little purple.

The Lamia grasped the sleeve, and tugged, causing it to rip off, and tossed it aside.

Her hand came to Tina's jaw and lifted it to look her in her violet, slit-pupil eyes. They glowed, shimmering faintly, as though the purple in her irises were some kind of scintillating liquid.

Tina found herself surprised at how pretty they were.

"Because, my dear, corrupting common villagers is dull as marshwater and far less useful to me, but scaring those silly rubes into hiring tasty morsels like yourselves to beard me in my lair, now that is fun!" she said, grinning.

"Right. Look, if you're not gonna eat me, do you mind letting me go? I need to make sure those guys get healed." Tina said.

"I could..." the Lamia simpered, "but think about it. If you go back," she began to shift back and forth, causing Tina to unconsciously follow her with her head. "You and those silly little girls, will come back here, and because they wont just listen to you, the only thing that will happen is that once more, you..." she poked Tina's nose with each word, "will," poke, "be," poke, "back," poke, "here," poke, "with me." she stopped poking her.

Tina felt irritation rising as the snake-woman spoke, at the betrayal her team had inflicted on her.

The Lamia slithered around Tina, forcing her to track her eyes again. "So, how about we do something... different. Those silly, little, girls, will have to come back and mount a rescue. I know of a few new, fun powers, that you have never heard of. Power that will ensure you are listened to." the Lamia simpered.

"Powers like what, curse of blisters? Plus-two ray of cancer? Davig's ray of organ failure? Power word: Scrunch? Toothache Cantrip?" Tina snarked, her frustration rising with each word, and each sinuous shift of the Lamia's body.

The Lamia giggled. "Dear me, those sound dreadful! no, my dear, something a bit more fun!' she said, a smirk splitting her face. "Something guaranteed to teach those silly, little, girls, a lesson they will not soon forget. So, what do you say, little healer? Want some help?" the Lamia asked, extending an enormous and elegant hand to her.

Tina's resolve firmed. "You know what, yes. Yes, I think I do." she took the Lamia's hand, and an answering smirk split her face.

[Two Days Later]

Bethka stomped forwards, her shield a little etched and marked up from where corruptive goo had reacted with the divine magic imbued in the metal.

"Why are we going back here?" Vera complained, nervously gripping the handle of a knife.

"Because the Freelancer's Guild will dock the cost of a rescue mission off us one way or another if we don't." Marai said.

"It's not fair. Why are we getting dinged because she couldn't get herself out?" Vera asked.

"Because we're supposed to be a team." Bethka grumbled. "Now shaddap, we're here. Get ready, shit's going to be tough." Bethka said.

She stomped ahead into the cave.

[]

The arena looked a bit different this time, as they stepped into the warm, red-orange light.

A few mismatched, comfy-looking couches and chairs were scattered about, the sandy floor was covered over with rugs and carpets, and a big block of polished basalt sat in the middle of all of this, with a lace-trimmed cloth over the top, and a fancy tea service on that, including a steaming magic heat kettle, the fire stone in the base glowing a sullen red.

The room had a single occupant, but it wasn't the Lamia.

Instead, a slim, tall Trow sat in the couch opposite the door, casually leaning back, sipping from a delicate teacup.

Her breasts were moderately sized, her grey skin glistened in the light as if oiled, her long, white hair hung in a stream over the back of the couch, and her eyes, without the sunglasses, were glowing a bright purple.

She was completely naked, legs slightly spread, and as the three approached warily, Marai cast a nervous glance down, and saw a small penis jutting from between her legs.

A tracery of purple ran across her gleaming grey skin, outlining sigils and designs that struck Bethka suddenly as somehow inexplicably blasphemous, including a curling heart-shaped tattoo on her lower belly.

"Tina, you're ok!" Vera said. "If you were fine, why didn't you run? We had to hike all the way here to rescue you!" Vera said.

"Because, friends, you all need to be taught a lesson." Tina said.

A loud grinding, crunching noise came from behind them, and the three of them turned, to see the massive Lamia sliding a humongous boulder across the entranceway.

She glanced back at them. "Oh. OH! You're back! Well, don't mind me, dears, I'm sitting this one out!" she said, sliding the boulder into place with a final-sounding crunch.

"She's right. You're going to be fighting me today." Tina said, standing up.

"Come on, Tim!" Vera said, "If we fight you, you'll get rekt! Can't we just... leave?" Vera asked.

"Nope. You three need a lesson in tactics. Next time, the boss might not be so... friendly." Tina said.

Marai stared at the Lamia as she slithered around behind the couch Tina was sitting on.

"You did something to her, didn't you?" Marai snapped.

"I mean, you are the fools who abandoned her to me, what did you expect, that I wouldn't accept your gracious gift? If you want her back, all you must do is accept her challenge. Win, and I let you free. Lose, and... well. I get three more lovely playthings." she smiled menacingly at them.

"Shit." Bethka said.

"Well fine, if that's what you want..." Vera shouted, unsheathing a heavy stick and charging, leaping over the table, barely missing the tea service, and bringing the heavy wooden stick towards Tina's head.

Tina sidestepped with preternatural grace, the stick whipping through the air to thump into the couch as the naked dark elf circled the table with a complete lack of concern.

Bethka charged at her next, only for her to spin around the towering Orc paladin and hook her foot in her ankle.

Something that she had only recently learned was that Trow, Goblins and Dwarves all shared a few crucial capabilities, including being significantly denser than the surface folk.

Dense enough the comparatively slight Trow could cause Bethka to trip and fall in a clattering pile, face-first into a chair.

That left Tina, standing on the other side, facing Marai. Tina smirked at her. "Well? What are you waiting for?" she asked.

Marai sighed, triggered Thunderpunch, and charged in, claws crackling.

The strange purple tattoos lit up with a fell purple light, and Tina actually ducked under a crackling claw and swung, a fist glowing with sickly purple light slamming into Marai's gut, dropping her with a grunt.

Tina stood upright, completely unscathed and unconcerned, while the three women struggled to their feet.

"Aw come on, stop trying to hit me, and hit me!" she called out, then giggled. "Always wanted to say that!" she said, grinning at the three adventurers.

Vera growled and threw herself back across the table, nightstick forgotten as she drew knives, golden eyes flashing as her rogue magic kicked on and she flickered out of view.

Marai gasped as she stood up, her robes suddenly feeling a little loose. She ignored that, charging up another spell, golden light crackling along her arms as she charged at Tina again... only to trip as the footwraps she used suddenly came loose enough to foul her footing instead.

She landed with a thump, her tail fuzzing up with frustration as the spell on her arms let out a whump as it discharged into the floor.

Bethka let out an annoyed roar and charged, having reset, then Tina dodged, a small cut appearing suddenly along one arm as Vera's invisibility cut out with her slightly overextended in the cut.

Tina moved like greased lightning, fell purple light erupting along her left arm and her tattoos just before she dropped into a half-crouch and drove her glowing left fist into Vera's gut, dropping her on her ass with a grunt... right in Bethka's path, causing her to trip over the goblin in another undignified clatter.

Again, Tina stood, grinning, while her party were all laid out on the floor in various stages of uncomfortable. Apart from the cut, completely untouched.

"And here I was worried you might be somewhere north of completely incompetent." she taunted. "I could do this All Day!" she said.

Vera grunted as Bethka levered herself off of her, crawling out from under her bulk, and stood up, her feet slipping a bit in her shoes.

"Why don't you hold still?" she shouted, lunging again.

Her feet slipped in her normally close-fitting shoes, and as she went to draw another knife, she felt her ordinarily tight breeches slip down her hips a bit.

Marai was picking herself up, and felt her robes slip down her shoulders oddly, her clawed hands suddenly swimming in the sleeves of her robe.

She kicked off her footwraps, ignoring the incongruity in favor of queuing up a gleaming blue light, crackling along her arms and releasing a frigid, pale mist from her claws as she ran at Tina.

Bethka drew her sword finally, and ran, all three of them coming at her accidentally in a wall.

Tina grinned, arms and tattoos glowing purple again, this time slapping her palm against Bethka's armored belly in the moments she was slipping out from in front of them, the purple light discharging into her, leaving a corroded patch on her armor.

They staggered past, Bethka's greatsword striking sparks from the stone floor as she missed and stepped out of the sand ring, and turned around, Vera and Marai tripping over each other and going down in a pile.

Vera stood back up, and found herself swimming in her coat, her breeches hanging onto her hips by a thread. A few poorly-secured knives clattered out of her clothes.

She glanced frantically around, to see Marai absolutely swimming in her robes, struggling to hold them up, and almost eye-to-eye with her.

The both stared at Tina, who was standing tall, and smirking at the three of them, then at Bethka, who had already been the tallest of them after their transport to this world, but now absolutely dwarfed them.

"What the FUCK did you do to me!?!" Marai shrieked.

Tina grinned at them. "What indeed, little girl?" she said.

Bethka stared at the other two members of their party, then glanced back at Tina.

"Come on, keep trying!" Tina said, smirking.

"What the hell?" Bethka muttered, before turning, and feeling her armor shift strangely.

"Come on, we don't got all day!" Tina said, stamping her bare foot on the carpet, rumpled by the fight thus far.

Bethka charged at her again, and Tina sidestepped again as she ran right out of the sand circle again and skidded to a halt.

She turned around, and walked back towards Tina, this time tossing her shield aside and gripping her sword with two hands.

Her hip and leg armor clattered a bit more than normal. She took a stance in front of Tina and swung at her, trying to cut her, but Tina cooly stepped back, a smirk on her face, sidestepping Bethka's attacks without seeming the least bit concerned that the towering orc warrior was trying to cut her in half, and Beth could only wonder at what point Tina had learned to evade like that.