Cerf Grand-Veneur IV

Maddy’s heart was pounding in her chest, and her body felt like it had pins and needles all over as she made her way down the stone path. The gun weighed heavy in her hands, even after firing it twice, it still felt unnatural. Not to mention, she had used the sabotage she found on Mira; she justified it by thinking of it as part of the game, but…it still left Maddy’s heart beating hard in her chest, wracked with guilt, and she had felt uncomfortably…excited doing so.

That alone would be enough of a distraction, but she couldn’t deny that, as she tried to follow after Caleb, only in her underwear, she felt very exposed. As much as that exposure filled her with a sense of unease, there was also a subtle warmth pooling in her abdomen that made her keenly aware that sensation wasn’t all she was feeling. She had always thought of herself as shy and reserved, but ever since her date with Caleb, she couldn’t deny there was a certain…thrill to being seen like this.

She had thought that transformation path was to contrast with her nature, but was she always this way? Or had something about the Harem hotel brought it out?

The stone was smooth and even under her feet, and she tried to keep her steps light. She had been attempting to follow the path she had seen Caleb dart down, but in not finding him, was now hoping to avoid detection lest she find herself with even less to wear.

So when she heard the echo of gunfire coming from up ahead, the chef froze and clutched her own gun to her chest. If she pushed forward, it’s possible the shot came from a distracted Caleb, and she might be able to catch him unawares. It was also possible that it was a confrontation between other Harem members, and she would be exposing herself to crossfire.

She swallowed hard. She hated this. Hated that they were made to compete and fight like this. What she hated more was that it called attention to a part of herself that she wanted to pretend wasn’t there. The part that secretly wanted to win and ensure that all eyes were on her. No, not all eyes, just his, just focused entirely on her.

Standing here wouldn’t change anything, and if she wanted to help Caleb, she had to win this, and the only way to do that would be to take a chance. Her grip on her gun tightened, and she carefully and quietly made her way down the hall and turned the corner towards the sound.

There in the clearing, she saw them. Unfortunately, Caleb was nowhere to be seen, and instead, there was a manically grinning Noemi, gun still smoking, at the mouth of another exit on the ground, prone and groaning, was a naked Stella.

Maddy hesitated; she only had the one bullet. She could catch Noemi by surprise and ensure her safe passage to continue after Caleb, but then she’d be hoping for an extra bullet to use on Caleb, and until she found one would be a sitting duck for anyone else she came across, unless she could bluff them.

Her hesitation was long enough that Noemi glanced from her peripheral vision, and her gaze turned on the chef. Her smile remained steadfast, and she made no move to turn her gun on Maddy, “Maddy! There you are! I already talked with Lily, we’re teaming up to make sure the bad eggs don’t win.”

Maddy blinked, “B-bad eggs?” It didn’t seem like the Chilean was hostile, but one thing that always unnerved Maddy about the other woman was how tempestuous her emotions seemed to be. It was always 100% intensity and 100% earnestness, but the direction the wind blew seemed to change on a dime.

Noemi nodded, “Yeah, people like Stella here, or Maya, and Mira. All those people whose transformations would be against Caleb’s best interest, you know?” Noemi put her hands on her hips, “Of course I want to win, but I’m also ok as long as what Caleb ends up with in the end is good for him, so I’m gonna prioritize making sure that those bad eggs are dealt with.”

“O-oh. Ok.” Was all Maddy could muster while avoiding eye contact. She was happy that Noemi did not seem to be actively hostile, but she couldn’t get behind this enforcer-type mindset. They were all **** into this; drawing additional divisions was just asking for trouble later on. Also, it undermined any effort to acknowledge that everyone was doing their best.

Noemi might have Caleb’s best interest at heart, but it seemed to be to the exclusion of anyone else’s interests, except maybe her own.

Choosing her words carefully, Maddy began to lightly move across the room between Noemi and the imp still lying on the ground, “I u-understand what you’re saying, so you want us to leave each other a-alone in favor of making sure Caleb gets one of our transformations…I…I can do that, but I’m not going to target anyone else specifically; I’ll just avoid them if I can.”

Her face softening, Noemi kept a smile, “Oh Maddy, that’s ok, I know you’re a big softie. Let me and Lily handle the hard stuff, we’ll make sure-” Her words were cut off by gunfire as she was hit square in the stomach and sent flying back, her latex disintegrating and leaving her stunned in her red undies on the ground.

“Chucha!” Noemi exclaimed from the ground, and Maddy turned to see, bare naked but standing, Stella twirling her gun in her hand.

The imp had a smirk a mile wide, “Sorry, I don’t fit nicely into your scheme, there, Noemi, but I’m also not too keen on getting knocked up, so your transformation can suck it.” She turned her gun on Maddy and, with a big grin, tilted her chin up, “Hey Mads, how's it hanging? Since you’ve done me the courtesy of not harming me, I’ll let you go. Got to turn our master into a creature of the night after all.”

The imp turned on her heel and smirked down at Noemi, “I mean, you can try to stop me, but good luck winning if you use all your bullets on me.”

With a flick of her tail, Stella began to run down one of the opposite hallways. Noemi was groaning on the ground, trying to rise to her feet while cursing in Spanish. Maddy clutched her gun. If Stella was going after Caleb, then maybe she knew where he was. This was the direction he had been heading.

She gave one last glance at Noemi on the ground before breaking into a jog after the imp.

Lily running down the paths cursed her bad fortune. Ever since her encounter earlier, she had been shadowed by the strangeness that was Blonde Mira. Even as the plant woman darted around corners, she was followed by high-pitched giggles and exclamations of “Oh no! Where’d you go?” Despite taking every split path she came across, she couldn't seem to shake her, and for whatever reason, Mira wouldn’t let up on following her.

At this point, Lily was resolved. The next open area she got, she was going to flip the script and take a shot at Mira. If she missed, it might discourage her continued stalking; if she hit, the time she spent stunned on the ground would give Lily the space she needed to lose her. Luckily, she saw a light up ahead indicating a space where the walls opened up, and she rushed in and nearly collided with…Mira?!

Trying to stop on her heels, Lily fell forward onto the ground and at the feet of what was unmistakably Mira. This one wasn’t blonde and still had her underwear, though, so it couldn’t be the same. Could it? No, the approaching giggles made that an impossibility.

Seeing the confused expression on Lily’s face, Mira reached down to lend the plant woman ahand even as she kept her gun trained on her, “Lillian? Is everything alright?”

Lily opened her mouth to explain when, bounding out of the walkway, was blonde Mira, who stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the other Mira, whose face broke out into a scowl. Blonde Mira looked delighted, however, and broke out into a confused grin, “Like, omigosh, it’s me! How’d I even get here?”

Lily took advantage of the confusion to step to the side and stare in disbelief. There were two Miras. Obviously, one had to be the result of a sabotage or something, right? So were they both Mira? Or was one an imposter? The brunette Mira seemed less enthused by the other’s presence

Pointing her gun squarely at the blonde’s chest, she gave her a look of pure derision, “How are you already naked?”

“Um, that’s just what happens when you don’t have clothes? Duh!” The other Mira said, giving the brunette a look like she was the dumb one.

Lily tensed; regardless of the peculiarity of the situation, it didn’t change the fact that she was now outgunned. She knew the blonde Mira had already been fired twice, making it less likely that she would use her last bullet, so the logical answer was to fire at Brunette, hopefully stunning blonde and then fleeing in the confusion.

It also seemed like Brunette was ready to fire at any moment, too, so Lily aimed her gun and…footsteps rapidly approaching. Suddenly, like a flash from the neighboring alleyway, leading out with an Umbrella, the target of this mad hunt appeared. Lily saw the same confusion that filled her brain come out on Caleb’s face, but he wasted no time and took a shot at the blonde.

Lily, as if in reflex response to the shock of the scenario, also fired at the blonde, where she had found her gaze had naturally shifted to.

As the bullets collided, the blonde Mira was sent hurdling to the ground, and she began to rapidly thrust her hips against seeking friction as she let out a high-pitched whine as her entire body shuddered with pleasure.

Lily was then surprised to find her own body warming up intensely, and as it happened, she sent a cloud of pollen into the air. Caleb and the brunette Mira moved to cover their mouths but while Caleb made his way to the next path, the blonde’s voice came high-pitched and whiny from the ground as she held a silver card.

“Nooooo, it’s not fair! Hmmmm yeah, me protect me!” She called out. The silver card shimmered in her hand, and suddenly a silver aura framed the brunette who was still standing.

SABOTAGE! Wick’ed: The target becomes just as protective of the saboteur as John Wick was to his dog for the next hour. Woe be to any contestants who would target them.

“Goddammit, you dumb bitch!” The standing Mira cursed, breathing in part of the cloud and shuddering as she turned and fired once on Lily and then running after Caleb and taking a shot at him as well.

Lily couldn’t make out whether Mira hit Caleb or not, but overwhelmed by the sudden sensation from nowhere and her own pollen, the plantwoman collided with the wall, ending up collapsed in her underwear, as the other Mira continued to hump the ground a few paces away.

The sound of gunshots echoed through the arena. Amy noted that the acoustics of the building must make it so that you could hear them regardless of how far away you were from the source, keeping you constantly on edge and constantly aware of the game being played.

She had been trying to follow Mira after she had escaped with the sabotage, but had lost her and been unable to find her since. Amy suspected, though, that the labyrinth was partially to blame. Every so often, she heard sounds of movement, but then there was no source for the movement, no other players, nothing. Which made her suspect the walls themselves were shifting, making it so that the players couldn’t easily retrace each other's paths.

She kept her gun up, but not out. Honestly, she would rather not use it if she didn’t have to. The point of the game was to hit Caleb, so that was the only person she had any intent to take a shot at, unless **** by another contestant. She didn’t want to sound arrogant, but she was fairly confident in terms of athleticism; she had all the other contestants beat, which would hopefully discourage a frontal collision. And for people like Mira who scheme to get ahead, she could always bluff, and if they called her on it? She had three bullets; she only needed one for Caleb.

She heard hurried footsteps coming from the opposing direction. Bracing herself and training her gun down the path, she kept moving down the hall when, around the corner, came Maya, her own gun high and ready. As she came to face Amy, though, she lowered her gun. Her gaze met Amys and she opened her mouth

“You’re not gonna shoot me, right?” Amy recalled during the last round of the last challenge, the understanding that the two had silently come to and couldn’t help but get a sense of deja vu.

The oni cleared her throat, “Not unless you **** me to.”

Maya nodded slightly, and Amy noted that there was a coldness to her expression that was new, like the lottery winner was focused on something out of sight. She was in her underwear too, so that told Amy that, like her, she had already run into competitors that couldn't be reasoned with, or Caleb.

Maya nixed the latter option with her next question, “Have you seen Caleb yet?” She still wasn’t looking at Amy even as she directed the question at her.

Shaking her head, the Oni began to step forward, “No, I haven’t. I take it you haven’t seen him either?

“Not yet. How many bullets do you have?” Maya made no attempt to move.

Still moving forward, Amy shook her head, “Sorry, you can’t expect me to volunteer that info unless you tell me how many you have.”

Maya blinked, “ I have two bullets, I’m not going to use either on you.”

Amy didn’t like the tone with which Maya said it, but tried to stay genial, “Well seeing as how I’m not shooting you, I’d hope not.”

Maya shook her head and held up a silver card, “I’m going to use this instead.”

SABOTAGE! Ask of Amontillado: The target must answer one question within 30 seconds or be encased in stone. Don’t worry, though, the stones will collapse once the target brings themselves to orgasm.

Suddenly, the stones of the ground rose up and encased Amy’s feet. She tried to pull loose, but they locked around her ankles. Maya was now looking her square in the eye as she struggled and asked, “Do you have feelings for Caleb?”

Amy blanched and struggled as the stones rose up. The new stones didn’t encase her directly but seemed to be forming a wall just around her. She jerked her leg, and outside of scraping her ankles, she made no progress. She looked at Maya with an intense gaze, “Why are you doing this? We could have just passed each other by.”

“It’s a compliment, I think you’re some of my biggest competition. You have fifteen seconds.” Maya said plainly.

The wall was forming at Amy’s waist. She aimed straight on with her gun and fired, and Maya made no move to dodge, hitting the ground as she landed naked on the ground. There was a slight grunt as Maya strained to lift her head. “Five seconds.”

The stones were enclosing in on Amy, just leaving a small window for her head to poke through as she called out, “No! I don’t have feelings for him!” Surprisingly, she felt wetness forming in the corner of her eyes as she yelled

As the last stone sank into place, Maya rose up from the ground. “Looks like that was a lie. Don’t worry. It will let you out if you orgasm. Good thing you have two bullets left.”

Maya gathered herself up and walked past even as Amy hammered on the side of the stone wall and called out to her.