Divine Wrath

Now that Mary was flying north towards where Sam was, she realized she could sort of feel Sam as well. She could also feel that the two of them were headed straight for one another. Mary even confirmed that was the case as she diverted to the west a bit in hopes of pulling a bit more of the hoard away from the village with the idol. She noticed Sam’s direction changed when hers did. So she’s definitely tracking me, or maybe Laura, but probably me.

It took a little while before Mary saw the dot on the horizon come into view. Sam, while definitely coming directly towards Mary, seemed to be moving slowly enough as to command the horde of infected below.

Laura asked, “So what’s the plan here?”

Talia said, “Simple, this isn’t a fair fight. I heard how you dealt with the infected in the cities, Laura. Care to do it again? That shouldn’t be an issue for you, right?”

Laura nodded, “That’s right, unless, of course, they have stuff like at the fort where they can launch infected all the way up here to get me.”

Talia nodded. “Okay, then you’re in charge of the horde, Laura. Mary, plan Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon?”

Mary nodded, “Agreed.”

Talia turned to Laura, “We need you to get off and fly on your own from here. Don’t worry about Sam unless she comes after you.” As soon as Laura got off Mary’s back, she started to slim down considerably. Mary shifted a few of the spines and ridges on her back to make a sort of protective barrier for Talia as well.

Laura watched with fascination as she hovered beside Mary. “Why didn’t you make the windshield before? And why do you need it now?”

Talia adjusted the straps on the saddle so she was practically lying on her stomach and attached a strap to her staff so it couldn’t be dropped. Mary replied, “It isn’t exactly comfortable.”

Talia said, “We also don’t need it for the wind. People keep thinking of Fl… Fl-or-a’s boon as invisibility. It isn’t. If Mary uses it and completely obscures me from view with her body, people won’t be able to see me either. We tested and worked on this strategy yesterday against the orcs. Here’s a buff; that’s about all I can do for you, Laura.” Talia pointed her staff at Laura and cast a haste spell.

Laura asked, “Are you sure you two got this?”

Talia just smirked, “Oh yeah.” With that, Mary and Talia seemingly disappeared from view.

It took another two minutes before the dot on the horizon was distinguishable as Sam for Laura. Laura was fairly certain Mary wasn’t that far away, as she could catch the sound of an occasional swish of a tail nearby. Then again, that might just be the wind. Laura noticed Sam was still moving in her direction. She lowered her altitude some so she could more easily target the horde on the ground. Damn, this is bigger than the town yesterday. Where did they all come from? Oh well, time for a massive lust storm. Laura began gathering mana for her spell, empowering it to the max, creating several large zones that would deal continuous damage. She placed them in such a way as to hopefully funnel the infected towards a small gap she left between the zones. A gap she would wait at. It seemed to be working, too.

That was when she heard the combined roars of two dragons, as Mary appeared from nowhere, blasting Sam with her breath weapon, causing Sam to let out a roar of pain. Laura watched as the acidic slime breath Mary had coated Sam, and she saw what appeared to be a cow-print bikini dissolve away. Why the hell would Cassandra put a bikini on a dragon when they aren’t even humanoid? Wait, where did Mary go? Mary had already vanished from sight again. How, that ability definitely has a cooldown after attacks. Then it hit Laura. Oh… clever girl. That’s why she needed to get smaller. Talia’s putting them both in time bubbles, so from their perspective they are waiting out the cooldown.

Laura saw the horde was just about in range as Mary reappeared with her claws gripping Sam’s back as she breathed again directly at the back of Sam’s head. Mary released Sam, vanishing from sight again. Sam started careening towards the ground before righting herself and shaking off the slime, causing it to land on part of the horde below. Sam was clearly following something that she couldn’t see but knew was there. This time, Sam lunged out into thin air and grasped Mary in a foreclaw. Mary had given up her size advantage for stealth, and Laura thought it looked like that had backfired as Sam’s mouth crackled with lightning. Mary met Sam’s breath weapon with her own and was slightly faster in getting it off, and slime flew into Sam’s open jaws, causing Sam’s breath weapon to fizzle out.

Mary bit at Sam’s neck and held on as Sam’s body went limp midair. Which was a mistake, as Mary was not prepared for the weight of a suddenly limp dragon. Luckily, Talia time-bubbled them, so Mary had enough time to adjust her flight to avoid crashing into the ground.

Laura watched as Mary slowly flew back to the chokepoint Laura had made and landed a bit behind it, setting Sam down on the ground. Laura flew lower and asked loudly, “Did you really incapacitate her that quickly?”

Mary didn’t respond, as she was adjusting Sam’s body so it coiled, and then she climbed on top of Sam. Laura realized she had witnessed Sam do effectively the same thing with her own breasts. Is Mary sitting atop her hoard? She watched as Mary started to knead Sam’s body with both claws.

Talia responded mentally, “Yes, oh most beloved Laura, we have subdued the one who has strayed from your holy path. Okay, there now I’ve done the required bit. In short, yes. Mary and I found the orcs to be a joke yesterday.” Mary launched a breath weapon towards the choke point Laura had created, getting a few of the infected that were headed towards them.

Laura started blasting away with her torrent of lust bolts, letting the auto-targeting function handle things as she continued to talk with Talia. “So what’s up with Mary right now? Why isn’t she helping?”

“She’s trying to see if she can cure Sam. She copied Brooke’s boon that allows healing. I think she is also upset that her hoard is tainted and is working to fix that.”

Laura sighed and shook her head. “Have you told her it isn’t going to work until we get the idol and purify that?”

Laura saw Talia stare up at her and blink a few times. Across the connection, she could practically feel the disbelief rolling off of Talia. “Laura, look at her right now.” Mary happened to perfectly time another breath weapon coating a chunk of infected, causing them to go down. “That’s one pissed-off dragon. She was continuously growling while carrying Sam back here. I’m not telling her shit that might annoy her until she’s calmed down slightly. Also, we might want to consider having Mary stop being a dragon.”

Laura nodded as she flew to be just a few feet above Talia, as the front of the horde was now a ways back, and she wanted to wait for more to be in range. “Hey Mary, you doing okay?”

Mary let off a low growl at being disturbed while tending to her hoard, but when she looked up, she relaxed considerably. Oh, it’s more of my hoard come to comfort me. “Fine, just got to fix the problem with Sam.”

Laura said cautiously, “You know that won’t work yet, right? She’s clearly fully turned, so the curse has to be removed first.”

“I know. I’m working on that first. It seems tricky as hell, but I think I’m making progress.” Mary reached up with a claw and scratched behind a horn, almost like a dog scratching its ear. Then she resumed kneading Sam.

“Huh… I thought you wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Talia looked up at Laura, “Can you take care of the horde here faster, like fly out and deal with it? That way we can go help the other at the town?”

Mary replied first, “Not happening. I already don’t look forward to carrying Sam back as a dragon in my claws. No way am I leaving her here incapacitated, and I’m not carrying her all the way to the town with the idol. That’s in the opposite direction of the capital.”

Talia sighed, “Fine, Laura and I can go help them; you take Sam back.”

Mary seemed fine with that.

Laura said, “It will take a while to clear this horde out. I need to pace myself. Or I’ll deplete my mana too quickly.”

Talia rolled her eyes. “Go out and get down to half mana and come back. I’ll get you topped up.”

Laura did as she was told and started firing what was at this point a multibeam cannon into the horde. She mowed the infected down as if they were tall grass in her lawn. She went particularly hard on the horde since Talia wanted to be quick about this, and five minutes later, she returned to Talia. “There I’m a little below half mana.”

“How long until you would be at full from natural regeneration?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

Talia popped Laura into a bubble, and thirty seconds turned into fifteen minutes for Laura.

Laura groaned when the bubble popped. “You know that is incredibly boring from my perspective, right? I couldn’t even talk with either of you.”

Talia shrugged, “Sorry, but it’s effective.”

“Whatever.” Laura noticed a flashing notification in the periphery of her vision. She checked it, “Oh, I leveled up. I also got a new spell.” Laura read over the spell description. “Um… hey Cassandra, you sure that mana cost is right?”

Everything froze as Cassandra appeared to adjudicate the rules. Cassandra asked, “What’s wrong with it?”

Laura pointed to the mana cost and then pointed to her class mana. “You’ll notice that the mana cost for the spell is higher than my maximum class mana.”

Cassandra nodded, “Yes, that’s correct.”

“Then how was I intended to cast it? I have extra mana because of my TFs, but I can’t believe that is supposed to be the solution.”

Cassandra looked at Laura, then brought up the tooltip for the spell and pointed to a section every spell had and which Laura mostly ignored. “You see this. This is the typical time used to gather the mana and shape the spell. You have so much mana that you just throw as much mana as you need and don’t really care about losing a bit of efficiency. Now take a look at the time that is meant to cast this spell.”

Laura read and found that it had several times listed. The first one listed four hours. The next few were estimates based on how many people were feeding her mana to assist in casting the spell. There was an option if someone was doing anything erotic with her while she was casting. Finally, there was the last time, which estimated how long she would need to cast the spell due to her extra mana pool. It listed ten seconds.

Cassandra asked, “Now do you see an issue? I’m sure I could balance this further. You know, and not let you cast what is supposed to be a lengthy spell cast, even with the help of others, quickly and by yourself. Would you like that?” Cassandra asked sarcastically. “Or would you like to continue to have access to your massive mana pool?”

Laura kept her mouth closed.

Cassandra huffed, “That’s what I thought. Enjoy your new spell.” Cassandra mumbled to herself as she vanished, “At least with this, you won’t actually create massive craters.”

Time resumed, and Talia asked, “So what’s the spell?”

“I think it would be more interesting to just show you.” Laura started to gather mana and felt slightly tired as her mana pool practically emptied out entirely. Then, because she thought it would be funny, and she was already at max charges on her raiment, she activated her raiment to refill her mana completely and then used that mana to empower and twin-cast the spell.

Talia just watched as Laura held out her staff, and nothing immediately seemed to happen. Laura seemed to be taking forever to cast the spell. Laura was annoyed that Cassandra had essentially called her a sloppy spell caster that was only getting by on brute force because she had an enormous mana pool. So she was taking her time not to waste any mana. The world was slowly turning various shades of magenta. Talia looked up and saw the massive balls of pink energy hurling down from the sky. Talia couldn’t see the open sky to the north. If she looked south clear blue, but a line delineated the sky above where Laura stood.

As Laura unleashed her empowered meteor swarms. Laura turned towards Talia and Mary, “So… I’m beat. Who wants lunch?”

---

As Sadie’s group rode north, they encountered a few occasional groups of infected that seemingly had splintered off from the horde. They either avoided them or quickly dispatched them, depending on which was faster.

The fact that there was a road for them to travel on, and Brooke topping up their mounts' stamina, made them only slightly slower than they would have been if Mary had taken them. When Sadie thought they were about twenty minutes out from their destination, there was a noticeable uptick in infected. Another strange thing began as well. The horizon to the south was turning pink. The group stopped and stared at the sky as they tried to figure out what was happening, as that was the direction of the rest of their team.

Isa was the one to break the silence, “Dios mio! What the hell is that?”

Allie asked, “More importantly, does it look like it’s coming this way to anyone else?”

The other strained their eyes, and it did, in fact, seem like a pink wave covering the sky was coming towards them at an accelerating rate.

The group was so distracted by the pink glow that they didn’t notice a group of ten infected stumble out of some trees towards them. The pink wave started to break apart as pieces of it started to fall to the earth. One seemed to be coming right towards them.

Sadie yelled, “EVERYONE GET DOWN!” Sadie flung herself to the ground, and Bertha moved to protect her. The others quickly followed suit, but the pink meteor wasn’t aiming for them. It landed directly in the middle of the group of infected, incapacitating all of them.

A moment later, the ground started shaking from repeated impacts. Impacts that came from where they were supposed to be heading. Thirty whole seconds later, everything stopped shaking.

Brooke stood and looked around. “Is everyone alright?” Sadie stood and nodded. The two looked towards Sif, Allie, and Isa, and found them all in a dog pile with their tails tucked, and they were covering their ears with their hands or paws while trembling. Brooke ran over. “Hey, it’s over. Are you two okay?”

“Y-y-yeah… I-I-I-I think so.” Allie stammered out, still quite rattled. Sadie was torn between finding their reactions hilarious, as it was just like some dogs during a thunderstorm, and feeling really sorry for them.

Sadie walked over and activated one of her auras that helped calm emotions and protect against fear. Almost at once, the three stopped trembling. Isa and Allie stood. Isa said, “Thanks. I really hope that isn’t going to be what a thunderstorm is like. If it is, we might need a storm shelter built wherever we end up living.”

Allie chuckled weakly. “Oh no, we’ll just have to get used to it. No way am I getting mocked by Bruno for being a cowardly bitch.”

Isa came to Bruno’s defense, “Bruno wouldn’t… do… that… DAMNIT! Okay, fine, exposure therapy it is, if it is a problem.”

Brooke couldn’t help but laugh at Isa’s realization that her dog would definitely mock her for being cowardly if she tucked her tail and hid during a thunderstorm. After she regained her composure, Brooke asked, “Okay, so any idea what that was?

The others shook their heads. They all went to examine where the closest impact had landed to inspect what the hell had happened. They found ten infected individuals incapacitated. The ground itself seemed mostly unharmed, but it felt particularly smooth, like obsidian, but it wasn’t the right color for that. Sadie touched the ground. “This is so odd.”

Allie said, “I’m just glad we were lucky, and this didn’t land a bit differently and hit us.”

Brooke pondered the situation, looked around, and noticed that there weren’t that many impact spots actually close to them. Brooke thought of a crazy possibility and pulled out her phone to check. “Well, I know what happened.” The others turned towards her for an explanation. “I don’t know how, but Laura cast a spell. We weren’t lucky that we weren’t hit. Laura’s staff has a targeting enchantment on it. Spells are supposed to veer towards enemies and away from allies. Look around; there isn’t another impact zone anywhere close. It also looked and sounded like a bunch of these landed in the town we’re going to.”

“That’s crazy.” Sadie replied, “How is that even remotely fair? This entire challenge is rigged against the noncombat focused classes.”

Brooke saw Sadie ball her fists tight enough that she cracked her knuckles. Sadie had closed her eyes and was clearly dealing with something going through her mind. Brooke replied, “I don’t know about that.” Which earned her a glare from Sadie.

Sadie thrust her finger out towards Brooke accusingly, “OH!? And how isn’t that bullshit? She gained a shit load of experience and CP. I’m pretty sure she got credit for completing the idol recovery and cleansing quests. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO COMPETE WITH THAT!?”

Brooke calmly said, “Did you see Talia’s score?” Sadie hadn’t checked Talia’s level and noticed that it shot up considerably too. Far more than Mary’s had, but still less than Laura’s. Brooke continued, “I’m pretty sure Talia got some credit for that spell. If you had been with Laura, I bet you would have gotten some experience as well for buffing her simply by your presence there. Regardless, shall we go inspect the town? ”

Sadie grumbled, her assent as they all mounted back up and continued to the town. It started to become eerie seeing so many people lying on the ground unconscious as they neared and eventually entered the city. Sadie knew she needed to check the altar of the church for the idol. Weirdly, none of the buildings seemed to be damaged, but the cobblestone had fused around any of the impact points. When they got to the church, they saw a hole in the stained glass window that looked like something had melted it. Entering it, the walls and floors looked like particularly glossy stone. They approached the altar and found a piece of flat metal on it. It wasn’t quite round, but the idol had clearly melted and formed into a pool, then cooled. The metal was also fused to the top of the altar.

Allie turned to Brooke, “Could you try to cure some of the townsfolk? If the idol isn’t an issue anymore, you should be able to.”

Brooke walked over to a pew where a Moobrey had fallen, and jabbed it with her sword. She slowly started to revert to a guardswoman. “Looks like I can cure them.” Brooke started to go around curing those in the immediate vicinity.

Sadie sighed, “Well, at least we have time to do a temple today.”

Brooke said, “Are you sure I shouldn’t clean this place up?”

“Yes. Let the empire deal with that, or you can do it after we discuss things with the others back in the capital.”

Having made their decision, they rode back to the capital.

Arriving there, they found Mary, Talia, and Laura around a table sipping lemonade with a tiered tray with several sandwiches on each level, as finger food.

Sadie pouted as she came up to the three of them. “I see you’re all having a nice relaxing time.”

Brooke immediately asked, “Where is Sam?”

Sam sat up behind Laura and Mary, looking like she had the absolute worst hangover. “I’m here.”

“Why do you look like shit?” Brooke asked while rushing over to her friend.

Sam glared at Mary, but didn’t say anything.

Brooke glared at Mary in solidarity and asked, “Would you like to explain?”

Mary chewed her sandwich and said, “I’m pretty sure she had some bad jello and is suffering from food poisoning. Unfortunately, I’ve tried giving her butt a good smack to cure her, but it comes back rather quickly. I’m guessing because the jello is still inside her.”

Laura and Talia snickered at Mary’s choice of phrasing.

Brooke didn’t look amused. “You expect me to believe jello made her look like she’s had one of the worst hangovers I’ve ever seen on her?”

Mary stood up and walked over. “Excuse me, time for her medicine.” Mary gave Sam another swift smack on the ass. Causing her to bolt right up.

Sam scowled at Mary, “You could do that some other way, you know.”

Mary huffed in defiance as she went back to the table and picked up another sandwich. “True, but maybe you’ll think twice about running off into danger alone, this way.”

Sam turned to Brooke. “Mary isn’t exactly lying. When she fought me, well, apparently she used her breath weapon directly into my open mouth as I was trying to use mine on her. So my stomach is sort of full at the moment.”

“Her breath weapon is jello?” Brooke asked, not believing that was true at all.

“Eh… jello sounds better than acidic gelatinous aphrodisiac slime. Honestly, the waves of arousal are the worst part of it. Luckily, Mary is handling that, too.” Sam lay back down on the lounge chair they had gotten her and rested her head on the pillow. “I’ll be fine as soon as this is out of my system.”

Sadie asked, glaring at Laura, “Care to explain what the hell you did?”

Laura looked at Sadie, slightly confused. “What do you mean? I took care of the horde.”

“You likely took out every single enemy that was north of you. If you didn’t have that targeting enchantment, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had been taken out by friendly fire.”

Laura was really confused: “What are you talking about?”

Sadie was fuming, which didn’t help her emotional state when she got images of Laura tying her to a bed and fucking her with a strapon. Seeing Sadie’s frustration, Allie stepped in and said, “Laura, I assume the pink balls of energy from the sky were your doing?” Laura nodded, “One landed about twenty feet from us on a group of ten infected. I don’t know how many landed in the city we were going to, but it was a lot. They all hit something, too. When we got to where the idol was supposed to be, we found it had become a flat disc because it melted.”

“WAIT! YOU’RE SAYING IT WENT THAT FAR?” Laura exclaimed loudly as she stood, placing both hands on the table in shock.

“Yeah.” Allie nodded. I’m definitely not going to mention how terrifying the sound was.

Mary found Isa fidgeting and heard from Isa’s body. (Oh, thank god Allie didn’t mention when we were like scared puppies in a thunderstorm.) Causing Mary to cover her mouth to keep from laughing, which did not go unnoticed by almost anyone.

Allie asked, with an edge to her voice, “What’s so amusing, my dear wife?”

Mary looked like she had been caught with a hand in the cookie jar. “Allie, sweetie, please trust me when I say you don’t want me repeating what Isa’s body told me.”

Isa looked away from Allie quickly, trying her best to be evasive. (Who, me? Stop looking at Isa like that!)

Allie just sighed and turned back towards Laura. “Anyway, yes, it reached that far. Honestly, it looked like a scene out of an apocalypse movie. So what did you do exactly?”

Laura looked a little sheepish as she said, “I got a new spell and might have dumped an obscene amount of mana into it. It also apparently hits me with a temporary debuff that Mary can’t clear with your boon, Brooke. It causes decreased mana regeneration after the spell. I’m at about a quarter of my maximum mana, and it’s been a bit more than an hour or so?” Mary and Talia nodded their agreement about the time. “That’s with Mary and Talia helping with regeneration at times.”

“Uh huh.” Allie said, “AND. What. Does. That. Spell. DO?”

“Great big balls of fiery lust. Lots of them.”

Isa said, “You know you can’t use that if we’re fighting the other team right?”

Talia quirked up an eyebrow, “Why not? Pretty sure you ladies already gave a pretty good reason that she actually can use it. The spell has targeting and didn’t hit any of you.”

Isa put her hands on her hips and leaned forward over the table. “Yeah because we weren’t actually fighting the enemy if we had been engaged in melee the blasts would have hit us too.” Isa’s tail was between her legs. (Plus it scares the shit out of me and Allie.)

Talia replied, “Those are both reasons to be careful when using it. Not to refrain from doing so.” Isa shut up as she remembered that Talia could read her body. “Now, Sadie I was wondering what was your hint from Cassandra? Mary got hers this morning and it was essentially that the character fluff at the beginning of our info packet wasn’t worthless. When we act in character things are more effective.”

Sadie had been floating next to the table and put her feet on the ground at the question. “What do you mean by that?” Oh shit I got to come up with something quick. No way can I tell them my actual hint. Even if I have no intent to use it they won’t trust me not to take advantage of it.

Talia explained, “Well for example. Well our characters are somewhat based on us, but they are exaggerated in most cases. For instance my character is supposed to be a massive otaku, who always wanted to be a magical girl, while also finding herself as…” Her eyes flicked towards Laura and she shifted her tone to be as neutral as possible to make it clear she was simply repeating what was written, “The most devout servant of the resplendent Goddess Laura. At the end of the fluff it actually includes suggestions on how to act in character.”

Sadie pulled out her phone and skimmed her section of fluff as did everyone else just learning about this. Sadie internal sighed with relief. Oh thank God. This gives me a decent out.

“Well, looks like Cassandra cheaped out on the hints.” Sadie replied, “Because mine was that we need to really ham it up to be in character. Like bad acting where we announce who we are, our titles and just be super cheesy.”

Laura frowned, “That’s just like Cassandra.”

Mary swatted Sam on the ass again to remove the nausea that was coming on. Sam was just glad that it didn’t actually hurt, but the fact the current setting made it cause a bit of arousal when Mary did that was frustrating. Mary asked, “What’s the new plan for the rest of the day?”

Everyone looked at Sadie who in turned looked at Talia and nodded for her to go ahead. Talia said, “Well, we should have time to complete a temple each, but we’ve also received word that there appear to be outbreaks of infected appearing all over the empire. They aren’t large at the moment, and since you apparently destroyed the idol getting rid of the curse, the empire should be able to handle the problem. Dealing with it is an option though if we wanted to be safe about it.”

Brooke asked, “What about the horde of infected that was just taken out? That will require quite a bit of time and effort to actually fully cure. Won’t they respawn somewhere eventually? Assuming I understand the way this ‘world’ is supposed to work.”

Talia considered the question for a moment. “That is a bigger issue. Hmm… Allie, would you go break that training dummy over there? Doesn’t have to be too bad, just enough that the damage is apparent?” Allie seemed confused but shrugged and went over, and with large spectral claws forming around her hand, tore into the wooden dummy, creating large rents in it.

Allie came back and asked, “Okay, now why did I do that?”

Talia replied, “Because I needed something damaged to test Brooke’s boon with Mary’s other abilities. Mary, could you use your breath weapon on the dummy with the intent to fix it?”

Brooke furrowed her brow. “You really think that would work?”

Talia said, “Maybe. I mean, your transformation said that you can hit things until the problem is resolved. If Mary blasted one of you with her breath weapon, it wouldn’t be incorrect to say that she hit you with her breath weapon. Is there any reason to believe that the hits have to be melee hits? We know it doesn’t have to be directly with your body since you’ve used your sword, Brooke.”

Mary obliged Talia turning into a rather small dragon, about the size of a terrier, standing on the table and lined up her shot. Mary coated the dummy with her slime. Talia went over and inspected the dummy, She took out a knife and very deliberately created new damage in the dummy, then came back after several seconds. “Well, I think Mary eating anyone besides Brooke and Sam is off the table for the rest of the round because that is super useful.”

Laura asked disappointedly, “What do you mean?”

“Mary’s breath weapon not only repaired the damage, but the slime is normally slightly acidic. When I damaged the dummy and the slime recovered the damage, it slowly repaired it.”

Everyone’s eyebrows shot up at that. Allie whistled, “So it would be ongoing healing. That’s awesome.”

Isa exclaimed, “NO! NOT AWESOME!” (OH GOD ISA WOULD BE SO EMBARRASSED. Please don’t coat Isa in slime. Isa will be a good girl.) “In case you’ve all forgotten, her breath weapon is an aphrodisiac, and it dissolves clothes!”

Talia nodded, “True, but if Mary just thinks about repairing our clothes, it won’t damage them either. The aphrodisiac is a bit more relevant, though. The real reason it is so useful, though, is that the wall behind the dummy took damage where her breath weapon splashed on it. Not a lot, mind you, since her breath weapon isn’t exactly meant to dissolve stone, but it did damage the wall. Meaning she can use it even if we are engaged with foes, hurting them while healing us.”

“AT THE COST OF OUR DIGNITY!” Isa shouted and then covered her face in embarrassment. (Isa would die of shame. When Mary took off her panties yesterday in front of everyone was already too much.)

Mary cut in, “I’ll try very hard not to hit you, Isa. I promise. I’ll also remember to make sure I don’t dissolve your clothes.”

Talia said, “Well, with this knowledge, I have a suggestion. Mary, you borrow Sam’s breath weapon recharge stone and maybe the detection amulet and go clean up the infected by just coating the horde in slime. Then I’ll go with Isa and Allie, while Brooke, Laura and Sadie go as a group. Each group takes a temple.”

Laura said, “I just want to make one thing perfectly clear: under no circumstances am I doing the temple of chastity. I don’t care if I break Cassandra’s rules even. I’m not doing it.”

Isa asked, “Why? You really can refrain from sex for a little bit?”

“Because someone is going to wind up in a chastity belt from there, and Cassandra would find it hilarious for it to be me. Absolutely not.” Laure said vehemently.

Sadie said, “That’s fine. There are two temples fairly close together, and we know where all four of the remaining ones are. Our group will go to the two that are close enough that if we get chastity on our first draw, we’ll divert to the other temple. Talia, your group can go to one of the other two.”

Talia nodded, “Sounds good.”

Freya appeared seemingly from nowhere. “I brought boxed lunches for those who haven’t had the chance to eat yet. Good luck and safe travels.” As soon as everyone looked away from her to the boxed lunches on the table, Freya was gone as fast as she had arrived.

Sadie grabbed her lunch and placed it in her rucksack. “Okay, I guess everyone saddle up!”

Everyone started moving towards Bertha and Sif. Mary transformed back to her humanoid form, sitting on the edge of the table. “Eh hem!” Mary said, clearing her throat. “I believe some of you are forgetting something.” When the group turned around, they saw Mary had a look of anticipation on her face.

Isa groaned. (NO! NOT AGAIN! Isa wants to keep her panties!)

Brooke and Talia both realized their own timers had reset as well and had to give Mary something.

Most of them sighed and moved to begin removing their panties. When Laura said, “Wait a second. I have a better idea.” Laura walked over to Mary and focused on her and cast a powerful Induce Arousal on her. Then, knowing that Mary’s breasts were quite sensitive groped them quickly, bringing Mary to orgasm. Mary quivered and fell backwards onto the table. Laura then turned around, “Okay, who wants to be next? Pretty sure we can all get some victory points this way too.”

+2 VP Cause Orgasm of Mistress through Breastplay (Laura)

Talia sighed, “I can’t, but that’s because I already caused her to climax that way.”

Mary was busy riding the orgasm high, not paying attention to Laura’s words as the rest of them formed an orderly line, including Sam. Laura proceeded to recast her spell several times so each person could quickly bring Mary to orgasm. Mary lay on the table with her head lulled to the side.

+2 VP Cause Orgasm of Mistress through Breastplay (Allie&Isabella)
+2 VP Cause Orgasm of Mistress through Breastplay (Sam)
+2 VP Cause Orgasm of Mistress through Breastplay (Sadie)
+2 VP Cause Orgasm of Mistress through Breastplay (Brooke)

Laura leaned over to whisper to Mary, “Maybe next time don’t seem so eager for all of us to be forced to go commando.” She kissed Mary on the cheek.

Everyone then saddled up as they made to leave. As the two groups departed, leaving Sam and Mary in the courtyard, Sadie couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Thank God, no one questioned me about my hint further. She went over in her mind the message Cassandra had sent her this morning.

Cassandra: Sadie, here is your 1000 BP reward and hint from the Grudge Match: The last-placed person on each team will have an opportunity to betray their team for massive personal point gain. Not counting Mark/Mary.

Sadie knew she couldn’t tell the others that was the hint, since she was in last place. They would all trust her even less if she did. She just resolved to herself that no matter how tempting, she simply wouldn’t take the opportunity. She just hoped she could actually follow through on her resolve when the time came.