Reaching their destination.

William, Xal and Inoran walked slowly and watchful of their surroundings. Will noticed by looking at the incubi just how used they were to this. Their eyes never lingering in a single spot for too long, yet not falling prey to paranoia, either. They were alert to any and all threats, but thankfully the trip was uneventful.

“No intelligent creature would dare come this close to oni territory,” said Inoran. “The most we’d have to worry about are wild wolves and the oni themselves.”

“I hope you’re not calling us stupid,” Will said, looking to his left, where the hills where. Further east, towards where they were walking, were a set of bigger mountains, and down south was mostly deserted plains. If anything could surprise them, it would come from the northern hills.

“No offense, Lord William, but we ARE walking towards the home of the wasteland’s strongest creatures,” Xal said, laughing nervously.

“Strength is nice, sure, but there’s more than one way to get what you want,” Will said.

‘…’

‘Ishtar?’

‘The closer we get to those mountains, the sicker I feel.”

‘What? Are you alright?’

‘Perfectly, just with a serious bad taste in my mouth. I don’t think I’m gonna like what we’re going to find.’

‘Feeling something strange?’

‘No, and that’s what has me on edge. I feel two different things from the incubi. A **** hunger for sex and the faint hits of their weakened sexual energy. The closer we get to those mountains, where the oni’s camp should be, the more I prepare myself to feel something similar from the succubi.’

‘But there’s nothing, and you’re wondering why.’

‘Exactly. If they were being kept as sex slaves, I’d still feel sexual energy in some capacity. Will… Get ready for the worse.’

Will swallowed and steeled his mind. Or at least tried to.

They were now close to the foot of one of said mountains, rocky and dry as the rest of the land.

“Their camp is in a cave inside a ravine here. We’ll be reaching it soon,” said Inoran.

“We’ve scouted this area several times, looking for ways to make a counter-attack,” Xal said. “They usually send people out to look for food or steal it from others and they return around noon. They keep two people guarding the entrance, always.”

“That’s gonna be an issue.” Will bit his lip. “Any other entrances?”

“They actually made a hole in the ceiling to let out the smoke of the fires they make. We thought of using it, but it turns out it leads directly down to their living spaces.”

“How big is the cave?”

“Hard to say. We haven’t been inside. But if it wasn’t big enough to hold them all, they’d have moved already.”

With slow, careful steps over what looked to be a long-dried river, the three entered the ravine. The shadows of the tall mountain walls cast on them helped them sneak, and they stopped when they finally saw their objective at a safe distance. They hid behind a large rock and watched.

“There they are,” Xal said, his voice low and shaky. “Those two are the guards.”

Will finally saw them close enough to tell their appearance. They were both close to two meters tall and bulging with muscle. The one to the left of the cave entrance had blue skin, long, dirty white hair and a single straight horn on his forehead. Its face was… intimidating and rough, with two large fangs poking up from his lower jaw. The one at the right of the entrance had deep red skin, long dirty black hair and two horns on his forehead curving back. Both were dressed in little more than a loincloth and had a large, thick tree branch in their hand as weapons.

“We’re in no condition to fight them directly,” Inoran said. “But we’ll do what we can to support you in other ways. Just tell us how.”

From here on it was all up to Will. How to infiltrate, what to do when inside, how to get the succubi out unnoticed… Way too much to do considering how little they knew.

‘You’re not forgetting you have me on your side, are you, Will?’

‘Of course not. From the start, physical confrontation was my last resort. Think you can do a little snooping inside their heads?’

‘If you get us a little closer.’

Will made a shushing gesture to the incubi and left the safety of his hiding spot. He went prone and began to slowly crawl closer to the oni, keeping to the shadows and the mountain wall. Once close, Ishtar began doing her thing, and while she did, Will noticed something. Smoke. Smoke started coming out of a hole some meters up the cave entrance.

‘Any ideas?’

‘Yes. These two are pissed.’

‘Why?’

‘Apparently our little gift was well received. They’re preparing themselves for a party inside. They’ll be drinking, eating and fucking while these two are to stand guard. They reek of sexual frustration. Looks like they haven’t had a turn to the slaves inside. How many, I can’t say, but at least now we know they ARE keeping someone in there.’

‘Reeking of sexual frustration, you say?’

‘Oh? My dear William, are you thinking what I’m thinking?’

‘That an outburst on a bus might have been quite the effective practice for this?’

‘Hah, you’re growing so fast…’

‘Given by how the fire just started, they probably aren’t drunk enough yet.’

‘Nor do I sense sex happening in there yet, which seriously has me on edge.’

‘We go in in 30 minutes. How does that sound?’

‘Okay.’

Will went back to the two incubi and told them what he found out and the gist of his plan. They both looked at him with eyes wide.

“Y-You can do that? Raise a person’s lust just by looking at them?” Xal asked.

Inoran shuddered and muttered to himself. “That alone would drive us insane…”

They discussed the details of their plan in short sentences and low voices as they waited for the time to strike.

Author's Note: Happy holidays everybody! Stay safe, drink responsibly and don't drive if you drink too much!