The Hollow Vein

The desert outside Ikos shimmered under the afternoon sun, dunes rolling like molten gold. Behind them, the sandstone walls of the city faded into the heat haze, and beyond lay Dryleaf Junction a scatter of trailer-homes, patched tents, and rusted mana-pipes. Country music drifted through the air, joined by the buzz of old fans and the occasional holler of an elf working on an engine.

The portal compound sat just past the edge of the settlement, a squat metal structure joined to a weather-worn saloon whose sign read The Gilded Horn.

Alice’s boots crunched in the sand as she led the way. The heat rolled over her shoulders, but she hardly felt it she's lived in Ikos all her life and her new body ran hotter now. Stronger. Wilder. Her tail flicked, restlessly.

Jen followed close behind, clutching her pack with one arm and squinting against the glare. Ignition brought up the rear, silent and unreadable as ever, the ice blue of his eyes almost glowing in the sun.

The booth’s door creaked open, and an elf stepped out.

She was all grin and freckles, her blonde hair tucked under a trucker cap,

“Well hey there, sugar!” she called, voice warm and twangy. “Ain’t every day we get three fresh faces strollin’ out here lookin’ all serious. You folks lost, or just fixin’ to die heroic?”

Alice blinked. “…Guild access point for the Hollow Vein?”

“Sure is.” The elf her badge read Lara Mae leaned her elbows on the counter and gave them a lazy once-over. “Ain’t open to tourists, though. Y’all got a run order?”

Ignition handed over his wristband. “We’re cleared. Raven’s Howl.”

Lara Mae scanned it, the reader beeping faintly. “Well, look at that. Guild verified.” She leaned closer, chin propped in her palm

Lara Mae winked “Alrighty then. Portal’s active, mana stable, no toll since y’all are guild-licensed. Watch your step, the sand shifts funny near the threshold. Oh and if y’all see somethin’ movin’ that hums, don’t touch it. It ain’t friendly.”

The portal itself was a vertical wound of light in the air, humming low, The heat from it shimmered like mirage-fire.

Alice stared into it, her claws flexing at her side and **** herself to turn away.

They pushed through the door into The Gilded Horn, where the air was cool and heavy with smoke, and laughter. Dozens of adventurers filled the place humans, elves,a halfdozen Chimerin in worn leather, a pair of orcs arm-wrestling near the jukebox, a trio of goblins tossing dice across a table. Someone strummed a steel-string lute near the bar all of them dusty from the field, armor unbuckled, drinks in hand. Most of them looked like they lived here between dives into the Hollow Vein,

Behind the counter stood a Luminari woman, skin ashy grey, red eyes, hair up in a ponytail with her moth like antennae above. Her uniform gleamed under the warm light, white shirt crisp against a black corset, every motion graceful, deliberate. She polished a glass with one set of arms as she poured a drink with another set, she gave the newcomers a knowing smile.

“New blood,” she said, voice smooth as silk. “Welcome to the Horn. Don’t start a fight unless you plan to finish it and if you do, make it entertaining.”

“Evenin’, Vessa!” Lara called, tossing her cap onto a hook. “Three for the Hollow Vein. Make it somethin’ cold. They look like they need loosening up before they delve.”

Vessa raised an elegant brow.

Lara winked. “Just doin’ public service, ma’am.”

The drinks came tall glasses that shimmered with frost. Lara lingered, elbow on the counter, and looked Alice over again. “So what’s your story, sugar? You look like a lion dressed as a girl. You bite?”

Alice smiled slowly. “Only when asked nicely.”

Ignition took a long drink, muttering, “I’m surrounded by lunatics.”

A few nearby adventurers snickered, one of the orcs leaning toward his friend. “Careful with that one,” he said, jerking a thumb toward Lara. “She’ll suck your cock like a vacuum, and ride you till you're shooting nothing but dust.”

“Hell, even after that, the crazy nympho bitch won't stop,” the goblin added.

Laughter rippled through the bar. Lara didn’t even turn, she just raised her glass in salute. “And I’d do it again, darlin’.”

Jen’s cheeks flushed crimson. She tugged Alice’s sleeve. “Maybe we should, uh, check the portal schedule. Upstairs. Away from… this.”

Alice’s smile lingered a moment too long before she nodded. “Fine.”

As they walked toward the stairs, Vessa’s soft chuckle followed them.

The upstairs was smaller, the floorboards creaking under their boots. Noise from The Gilded Horn filtered up in bursts laughter, clinking glasses, the scrape of chairs but up here the air was cooler, still heavy with smoke and mana residue from years of delvers passing through.

They found an empty table by the window. the glass was dusty, but it offered a view of the dunes, the horizon blurring where desert met sky. The portal shimmered in the distance, its light pulsing faintly like a heartbeat.

Ignition dropped into the nearest chair with a sigh. “So,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, “why this one?”

Alice stopped halfway through sitting. “What do you mean?”

“This dungeon,” Jen said softly, setting her pack down. “The Hollow Vein. You picked it before any of us voted.”

Alice’s tail gave a faint flick. “Someone had to make a decision.”

“That’s not an answer.” Jen’s voice wasn’t sharp, but it carried weight. Alice’s new confidence had everyone a little off balance.

Alice leaned back, gaze sliding toward the window. “It’s stable. The entrance is secure. The pay’s good.”

Ignition frowned. “Stable? That place eats scavenger teams for breakfast. Even guild crews go missing down there.”

Alice’s jaw tightened. “I know what I’m doing.”

Jen folded her arms. “Alice.”

Alice finally looked at her. “You wanted a dungeon that would actually pay off, right? Hollow Vein’s the only one with Luminari tech. There’s a city buried under ithalf collapsed, but the tech still works. They made cybernetics there that respond to mana directly. If we can get to it, I can get you a new arm. No patchwork prosthetics. Something real.”

Jen blinked, taken off guard. “You… you did all this for me?”

Alice looked away again. “Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

Ignition gave a low whistle. “And here I thought you just liked ruins.”

Alice ignored him, focusing on the faint shimmer of the portal through the window. She didn’t mention the real reason the creeping dread that if she stayed too close to Ikos, too close to the Guild, Nia might show up again. That Jen might see her. Might compare them.

Her claws tapped against the table, the rhythm sharp, controlled. “It’s the best option,” she said quietly. “We go in, get what we need, and get out. Simple.”

Jen smiled faintly, rolling her eyes,“Simple. Right.”

Ignition leaned back in his chair. “Alright, If that’s your call, I’ll back it this time. Just make sure your instincts don’t get us killed.”

Alice’s gaze flicked toward him, but there was no bite this time. “They won’t.”

The conversation tapered off, leaving only the hum of the ceiling fan and the muffled twang of music below.

Alice leaned her elbows on the table, pretending to study the map, but her gaze drifted past Ignition, past Jen, toward the stairs.

Lara Mae, the elf from earlier, was sauntering toward the upstairs bathroom, humming to herself. The swing of her hips was deliberate teasing, maybe.

Alice watched her disappear behind the door and smirked to herself. “Gonna take a piss,” she muttered, pushing back from the table.

Ignition didn’t look up. “Don’t get lost.”

Jen gave her a suspicious glance, but Alice was already halfway down the hall.

The bathroom door creaked open under her hand. The air inside was cooler, faintly perfumed lavender soap, cheap cologne, the ghost of someone’s cigarette.

Empty.

The single cracked mirror reflected only her own face back at her sharp grey eyes, damp red hair clinging to her temples,

Alice frowned. “Where’d you go, cowgirl?”

She checked the stalls and found the nympho elf with her mouth lined up to a glory hole.

A wicked grin spreads across her face as she decides to give it a whirl. Her canine cock slides out of its sheath, bobbing heavily in her grip.

Alice slowly rubs the tip of her cock against the elf's outstretched tongue, making sure she gets a thorough taste. Lara moans, her eyes fluttering closed as she savors the taste of Alice's precum.

"Cute little slut, aren't you?" Alice purrs, "Lined up like a good little cocksleeve, ready to take whatever I give you."

Lara whimpers, her tongue lapping obscenely at Alice's cock through the hole. Alice chuckles, the sound dark and promising.

"Bet you taste sweeter on my cock," Alice growls, her hips snapping forward, fucking into the elf's mouth.

Lara gags, her body trembling as Alice's cock fucks her throat through the stall divider. She doesn't relent, doesn't let up, fucking into Lara's mouth with ruthless abandon.

"You like that, don't you?" Alice snarls, her claws raking the metal of the Gloryhole. "Like being fucked like a little elf slut, don't you?"

Lara moans, her body trembling, her hands coming up to grip the metal walls of the glory hole. Alice growls, her claws digging into the thin metal sheet of the bathroom stall.

"Fuck, your throat is tight," Alice hisses, her hips bucking. "Tight and hot and fucking perfect."

Lara whimpers, her throat working around Alice's cock, the angle and position of the glory hole making it so her cock fucks her throat at an awkward angle that makes Alice go deeper. Lara's nose is pressed against the wall of the other side, buried in the metal that separates them. Alice's balls slap against the stall, the sound echoing and mixing with the wet sloppy sounds of Alice's cock plundering the elf's throat.

And then, with a harsh growl, Alice comes, her cum spurting deep into Lara's throat. The elf swallows, her throat working obscenely as she takes Alice's load.

Alice's hips twitch, fucking shallowly into Lara's mouth as she rides out her orgasm. The elf whimpers, her tongue lapping at Alice's cock, cleaning her of her cum through the hole.

"Good girl," Alice purrs, "Such a good little cocksleeve."

Lara preens, her cheeks flushed, her lips slick with spit. And Alice knows she'll be back, fucking this little Nympho slut's throat again and again.

But for now, Alice pulls back, her softening cock slipping from between the elf's lips with a wet pop as the disconnection of the cock and mouth of the hole. The elf whimpers at the loss, but Alice just chuckles, tucking her cock back into her sheath.

Lara Mae lines her pussy up with the glory hole.

"oh, that you got Little Lion.," Lara purrs, her voice thick with lust. "Fuck me like you mean it, little miss."

A wicked grin spreads across Alice's face. Oh, she'll show Lara everything she's got. She'll fuck her so hard, the elf will be feeling her for days.

Alice grabs her cock, lining it up with Lara's dripping cunt. With a single, brutal thrust, she slams her cock, balls deep into the elf's loose pussy, slamming all the way to her womb in one thrust.

Lara screams, her body arching off the bathroom wall, her hands clutching at the metal walls. Alice doesn't give her a moment to adjust, fucking into her with ruthless, merciless strokes.

"Ungh, what the fuck," Lara moans, her hips rocking, meeting Alice's brutal thrusts. "Fuck Fuck dont stop."

Alice growls, her claws raking down the metal walls, the bathroom stall rattling with the **** of their fucking. She fucks into Lara like a madwoman, her cock slamming into the elf's cunt with wet squelching.

"You like that, you little elf slut?" Alice snarls, her voice guttural and deep. "Like being fucked like a little redneck cum dump, don't you?"

Lara moans in response, her pussy clenching around Alice's cock. Alice's hips snap forward, her cock fucking into Lara's cunt with brutal, ruthless efficiency not an ounce of mercy.

Alice lost track of how long they stayed like that until., with a harsh growl, Alice came, her cum spurting deep into Lara's pussy. The elf screams, her body arching, her hands scratching at the metal walls as she comes around Alice's cock.

Alice's hips twitch, fucking shallowly into Lara's cunt as she rides out her orgasm. The wet, slopping sounds of their fucking fill the bathroom, mixing with the scent of sweat and cum.

"Fuck," Alice hisses, her cock slipping out the elfs lose cunt.

Later that day Alice pushed through the saloon’s back door, the heat outside slamming into her like a wall. The portal compound hummed in the near distance a jagged column of mirrored light cutting up through the desert haze.

Lara Mae followed them out, still grinning. “Y’all sure you’re ready for this? Ain’t no pretty picnic down there. Hollow Vein’s got a mean streak.”

Alice didn’t break stride. “So do I.”

The elf whistled low. “Well, damn. Remind me to put money on you comin’ back.”

The three stopped before the portal.

Ignition rolled his shoulders. “Let’s move.”

“After you,” Alice said.

He nodded once and stepped through. The air swallowed him soundlessly, leaving only a shimmer behind.

Jen drew a deep breath and stepped forward. The portal flared then she was gone.

Alice lingered a heartbeat longer, her reflection shifting in the molten surface. For a moment she saw both halves of herself, the submissive girl she used to be, and the dominant creature she’d become then she stepped through.

The world changed.

Cold rushed in, cutting the desert’s heat away. The ground beneath her boots wasn’t sand anymore but black earth, cracked with faint veins of light that pulsed like arteries. Above, the cavern walls shimmered with bioluminescent crystals.

The Hollow Vein stretched endlessly a pitch black maze of city ruins and chasms lit by veins of glowing ore. Wind moaned through the tunnels, carrying the faint hum of mana currents, and something deeper… breathing.

Jen stumbled slightly, steadying herself on Alice’s arm. “It’s… beautiful. In a creepy, I’m going to die kind of way.”

Ignition’s eyes glowed faintly as he adjusted to the dark.

Alice murmured. Her claws scraped against the stone wall, and sparks of light followed her touch.

The faint pulse of the cavern guided them down a broken stairway glass and steel fragments jutting from the earth like the ribs of a dead giant. The deeper they went, the more the old city revealed itself half-buried skyscrapers tilted at impossible angles, streets running along the walls, trains frozen mid-derailment. Neon signage still flickered here and there, words in dead languages looping endlessly ONLY DRINK STATE APPROVED WATER, STATE APPROVED REST, REMEMBER THE SUN their glow distorted by fungal growth creeping across every surface.

Pipes hissed overhead. A hydro line ruptured somewhere in the dark, mist rolling like breath from the lungs of the buried metropolis.

Jen paused beside a broken rail line, eyes wide. “This used to be… a city.”

Ignition nodded, scanning the ruins with a faint blue glow in his eyes. “Lanternfall, before the collapse. The Luminari built a city into the dungeon trying to stop adventurers from reaching their world on the other side either the dungeon god or Dice didn't like that..”

Alice crouched beside a rusted terminal, brushing off a layer of glowing spores. “Doesn’t look abandoned to me.”

She was right. In the corners of shattered plazas and collapsed tunnels, faint lights moved soft, round shapes, hopping like curious animals.

The first of the Pufflings appeared from behind a cracked vending machine. Barely knee-high, mushroom-shaped, with plump little bodies that pulsed faintly in rhythm with the cavern’s light. Its big eyes blinked once. Then twice. It tilted its cap like a hat and let out a squeaky chirp.

Jen blinked. “That’s… adorable.”

Another three waddled out behind it, trilling to one another like a chorus of rubber toys. One picked up a soda can and started spinning it in circles.

Ignition didn’t smile. “Don’t get close. They’re harmless until they’re not.”

Alice’s tail twiched. “What do they do?”

“Spore burst.” He tapped his temple. “Hallucinogenic. Enough to make you see angels or hell.”

The first Puffling puffed its chest, let out a happy chirp, and promptly sneezed releasing a cloud of glowing dust that filled the air.

Jen coughed, backing up. “Okay. Yeah. Not adorable anymore.”

Alice drew her claws out, but Ignition waved her off. “Don’t waste mana. We’re in the low levels, these are training mobs. Most delvers stick around this depth. Easy kills. Easy loot.”

Alice frowned. “You’ve been here before.”

“Once.” He kicked aside a cracked helmet, the visor shattered. “Stayed topside in what remains of civilization here. You’ll find scavenger gangs around the Crownlight Promenade, but once you drop below that, things stop being predictable.”

He looked at her, voice lowering. “You’re still level one. Jen’s hurt. We stay in the looted zones till you get your bearings.”

Alice exhaled, letting her claws slide back into place. “Fine. But we move together.”

They followed a half-buried street lit by veins of glowing ore that ran like electric arteries beneath the dark earth. Rusted storefronts leaned together like tired old men, and graffiti from past delvers covered the walls KEEP LEFT, DEAD END, DO NOT WAKE THE VEIN. The deeper signs grew crude, the words half-melted by heat or spore rot.

They passed more Pufflings. Some bounced playfully on rusted cars; others nested in the hollow helmets of dead soldiers, glowing faintly like candles.

Alice looked up at the ceiling, the crystals above pulsing like a heartbeat, the ruins glistening with moisture and fungal bloom.

They followed the faint glow of the ore-veined path until Ignition stopped at the corner of a collapsed avenue. Half the street had caved in, but a small storefront still stood its neon sign flickering weakly behind a crust of spore dust.

“Looks intact,” Ignition said, stepping closer. “Perfect.”

Jen frowned. “Isn’t that… off the marked route?”

“It is,” he admitted, resting a hand on the door. “But it’s high ground and close enough to the mapped tunnels that nothing nests here. Stay behind me.”

The door groaned as he pushed it open. A wave of cold, damp air rolled out heavy with the smell of rust and something sweetly fungal. Shelves lay toppled, displays half-collapsed, but it wasn’t stripped bare. Racks of cracked visors and respirators still lined the walls.

Ignition grabbed three of the least corroded ones, brushing away mold with his thumb. “Half-masks. Old State make. Filters are bad, but they’ll do.”

He handed one to each of them. The fit wasn’t perfect, but it covered nose and mouth well enough. Jen tightened her straps with her remaining hand; Alice helped her adjust the seal.

When Alice slipped hers on, the filter hummed faintly, old tech sputtering to life. The world smelled cleaner, almost sterile. She exhaled slowly and glanced toward the back of the shop.

Something shifted there.

A shadow impossibly dark, like ink poured through water. For just a second, she saw it between two cracked four armed mannequins the faint outline of a tall, lean figure. No eyes. Just teeth glowing faintly white.

Then it was gone.

She froze, staring into the black.

Nothing moved. Only the hum of the respirators and the soft drip of condensation.

Jen noticed her tense. “What’s wrong?”

Alice blinked, forcing a faint smile beneath the mask. “Nothing. Justthought I saw something move.”

Ignition’s gaze lingered on her a moment before turning toward the window. “Stay focused. The deeper we go, the more this place plays tricks on you.”

They left the shop and descended into the ruins again, light from their visors cutting through the dark. The streets here were quiet, broken only by the sound of wind echoing through old subway vents.

The Pufflings returned in clusters round little shapes glowing like lanterns in the dark. They chirped curiously as the group approached, wobbling on stumpy legs.

“Alright,” Ignition said, drawing his blade. “Masks on. No breathing spores.”

Alice nodded, raising her weapon. The first Puffling turned toward her and sneezed again, releasing a burst of shimmering dust that drifted harmlessly past the filters.

She stepped forward and struck.

The creature popped like a bubble, releasing a burst of blue light and a faint jingle of dropped loot. Her interface flickered.

[You have slain: Puffling (Lv. 2)]

[Level Up: 2 → 3]

She smiled under the mask. The next few hours passed in rhythm the sharp hiss of spore clouds, the glow of loot crystals, Ignition’s steady voice calling out directions. They cleared small nests and marked paths with phosphor chalk.

By the time they reached a shattered transit line, Alice’s notifications were stacked high. Her movements lighter, more fluid.

Jen sat against a piece of broken signage, breathing through her mask. “You’re getting faster.”

Alice wiped spore dust from her claws. “It’s just leveling.”

Ignition crouched near an overturned console, checking readings. “Still. Not bad for your first few hours.”

Alice looked back down the tunnel into the dark where she thought she’d seen that shadow before. The image lingered in her mind.

She shook her head, forcing the thought away. Probably nothing.

Just her nerves.

They kept moving through the lower sectors, tracing old rail lines until the tunnel widened into an abandoned commercial block. Half-collapsed signs still glowed faintly overhead NEON BIONICS, LUX-MECH PARTS, STAY HUMAN. BUY BETTER.

Alice stopped, her eyes catching on the faint shimmer of intact glass. One of the stores still had its display window.

“This one,” she said.

Ignition immediately shook his head. “No. Zone’s marked red. Too close to the lower lines.”

She crossed her arms. “Which means it hasn’t been picked clean. Look at it that’s all high-grade Luminari tech. It’s perfect for Jen.”

“It’s perfect for getting us killed.”

Alice took a step closer to him, tail twitching. The old Alice would’ve hesitated asked him what he thought. But that instinct was gone now. The new one leaned into the tension, her voice low, steady. “You said to level. This is how we level.”

Ignition met her gaze for a long moment. His jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue. “Fine. But you stay behind me. Anything moves, you pull back. I mean it.”

“Deal.”

The shop was quiet when they entered. Dust motes floated through beams of faint blue light, drifting like plankton in the deep sea. Everything smelled faintly of coolant and mold. Rows of cracked glass cases lined the walls, filled with cybernetic limbs, ocular arrays, and neural spines sealed in transparent cylinders.

Jen exhaled softly through her mask. “Holy hell… this is all working?”

“Power grid must still be tied to the old reactor,” Ignition said. “Grab what you can. Core capsule everything.”

They moved efficiently, sweeping through aisles. Jen pried open the counters with her knife while Alice fed parts into core capsules mechanical hearts, actuator cords, alloy bones. Ignition’s scanner flickered green every few seconds.

Nothing attacked. Nothing even stirred.

When they finally stepped outside, the sacks on their belts glowed with captured tech, heavy with promise.

Jen grinned under her mask. “We actually did it.”

Alice felt it too the rush, the victory. “Told you. It was fine.”

Even Ignition gave a faint nod. “Yeah. For once.”

But the dark behind them was no longer still.

Something had begun to move faint, wet sounds against the walls. A whisper of motion that matched their steps, just half a beat behind.

Shadows rippled between collapsed signs, too fluid for wind. Beneath the faint glow of the ore veins, something blacker than black shifted Vantablack flesh sliding across concrete, smooth and silent.

From above, a vent cover rattled, then stilled.

Alice turned her head slightly, ears twitching.

Nothing.

Only the faint hum of the reactor lines and Jen’s soft laugh as she adjusted her pack.

Another movement higher now, crawling along the ceiling like liquid shadow. Long, hooked claws caught the light for an instant before vanishing again.

When the trio reached the next tunnel junction, the darkness behind them rippled, then sank back into stillness.

Alice glanced once over her shoulder.

Something was there.

Outlined against the flickering glow of a half-dead neon sign, a shape clung to the wall humanoid, but wrong. Long-limbed. Boneless in its movement. The faint blue light traced its body in wet streaks, its skin glistening like oil,

Its mouth uncurled slowly, opening far too wide.

“Run,” Alice breathed.

Ignition turned, hand already reaching for his weapon. “What”

“RUN!” she shouted.

The tunnel erupted behind them.

The first leechman dropped from the ceiling like a spider, hitting the ground hard enough to shatter tiles. It screamed a wet, metallic shriek that echoed down every corridor.

And then came the swarm.

Dozens poured from vents and crawlspaces, black silhouettes slithering through the darkness, clinging to walls and ceilings. Their claws scraped concrete, their bodies rippling in impossible motions as they surged forward a tide of glistening, chittering flesh.

“MOVE!” Ignition barked, firing a blast of flame down the tunnel. The front wave ignited, the firelight revealing hundreds more behind them, writhing in the red glow.

Jen grabbed Alice’s hand, yanking her forward as they sprinted. Their boots thundered on the old metal grates, the sound drowned by the swarm’s hissing chorus.

The neon signs blurred overhead LUX-MECH PARTS, STAY HUMAN, BUY BETTER each one flickering as the power grid strained against the chaos below. Shadows twisted across the walls as Ignition unleashed another burst, molten fire splashing across blackened faces.

“Left!” Alice shouted, her instincts screaming. They turned down a narrow side tunnel, the smell of rot and coolant burning their throats. Behind them, claws scraped metal a hundred bodies colliding, crawling, tearing at each other to reach them.

One of the creatures lunged from the side, slamming into Alice’s shoulder. She twisted, claws flashing, ripping it open as black sludge splattered across the floor. The thing didn’t die quietly it spasmed and screamed, a wet, rattling sound that summoned the others like a signal.

Jen stumbled. Alice caught her, pulling her close, half-dragging her through the wreckage of a fallen tram car. Ignition kicked open the other side, his arms glowing bright with flame.

“I can hold them!” he shouted.

“No!” Alice hissed. “We’re almost there!”

The glow of the portal flickered ahead, faint but real salvation. The hum of the gateway carried down the corridor, rhythmic, electric.

The swarm surged again, faster now, moving like a single organism. They hit the walls, the ceiling, the floor hundreds of black shapes filling every inch of the tunnel. The air vibrated with their shrieks.

Alice shoved Jen forward, claws digging into her pack. “Go! Don’t stop until you hit the light!”

Jen didn’t argue this time. She ran, stumbling but determined, hair whipping behind her.

Ignition fell back, palms raised. “On three!”

Alice didn’t wait for the count. She spun, foot slamming into the floor, her claws slicing across the nearest leechman’s chest. The creature convulsed, shrieking as Ignition’s flame burst engulfed the corridor behind them.

The shockwave hit like thunder.

For a moment the world was fire and ash and light.

Then they were through bursting from the ruins into the open desert night, the portal compound’s lights blazing ahead like a beacon.

Lara Mae was on the porch, ice tea in hand, staring wide-eyed. “What in the hells”

The sun rose slow and red over the dunes, bleeding color across the rusted trailers and patched-tin roofs of Dryleaf Junction. The air smelled of engine oil and coffee, the kind of morning that promised heat later and silence now.

Alice leaned against the porch rail outside the saloon, arms crossed as she watched the desert wake. The faint shimmer of the portal still pulsed out near the ridge, a reminder of how close last night had come.

Ignition was a few yards off, hunched over his gear in silence. He hadn’t said a word to her since they got back, not when they reported in, not when she tried to hand him his share of the haul. Just a stiff nod and that look that said don’t push it.

Fine. She didn’t need his approval. They were alive. They had great loot, and Jen was about to get a new arm. For once, everything felt like it was tilting in her favor.

“C’mon,” Alice said, nudging Jen’s shoulder. “The artificer’s this way.”

Jen adjusted her sling and followed, her mood lighter than it had been in days. “You’re in a good mood for someone who almost got eaten.”

Alice smiled. “Almost. Key word.”

They cut through the narrow streets of the Junction past sand-scoured caravans, solar panels patched with duct tape, and a few elves lounging in lawn chairs drinking iced beer before noon. A red-painted sign swung over a corrugated workshop door

“MIM’S FINE MECHANICA.”

Inside, the air was cooler, thick with ozone and the hum of mana tools. Shelves were stacked high with servo parts, alloy bones, and half-assembled prosthetics that looked like art more than machinery.

Behind the counter stood a broad-shouldered woman with silver hair and welding goggles perched on her head. Her limbs were entirely mechanical in cased in intricate designs.

“Well I’ll be,” she said with a grin. “Customers before lunch. You must be the folks Lara won’t shut up about.”

Alice smirked. “That’d be us.”

The artificer Mim looked them over. “You the one needin’ the limb, sugar?”

Jen nodded, a little shyly. “Yeah. Lost it in a dungeon run.”

Mim whistled, low and impressed. “Then you came to the right scrapyard. I got Luminari stock fresh in from the Hollow Vein salvage. Grade-A parts durable, mana-responsive, and prettier than half the elves in this town.”

Alice set her pack down on the counter, unsealing a few capsules with a click. The glow from the harvested components spilled across the room cores, actuator cords, and alloy bones, still pulsing faintly with stored energy.

Mim’s eyes went wide. “you actually pulled this from the Vein?”

“Yesterday,” Alice said casually. “Had to outrun a few leechmen, but it was worth it.”

Jen leaned closer to Alice, voice soft. “You really think this’ll work?”

“It’ll do more than work,” Alice said. “Once she syncs it to your mana, you’ll move better than before.”

Mim moved to the back wall, rummaging through a row of storage crates marked with faded tags.

Alice’s eyes wandered over the displays polished limbs suspended in mana glass, mechanical spines gleaming under low light, fingers that flexed in perfect silence. Each piece hummed faintly, alive in its own way.

Then she saw them a set of cybernetic limbs that didn’t look like anything she’d ever seen. Slender and jointed wrong for standing upright, the legs curved like a beast’s hind limbs, meant to support a person on all fours. The hands had plated pads instead of palms.

Alice paused in front of the display.

They looked feral. Beautiful. Something primal stirred behind the curiosity.

Alice's cock twitched in her pants.

Jen followed her gaze. For a second she said nothing, her face heating as she realized what she was looking at. “That’s… not for walking, is it?”

Mim’s voice carried from behind them. “Technically it is. Just not the way most folks do.”

She came around the counter with a grin, brushing dust from her gloves. “Built for performers and… enthusiasts. Converts a humanoid body to quadrupedal form. Full balance correction, nerve sync, and modular gait support.”

Jen cleared her throat. “Right. Enthusiasts.”

Mim chuckled. “Don’t look so scandalized, sweetheart. People pay top coin for novelty limbs. Some for art, some for combat, some for… whatever tickles their circuits.” She leaned on the counter and dropped her voice a little. “There’s even a hybrid version that swaps between biped and quad. Needs an external trigger, though. Can’t risk a puppy disobeying their master, after all.”

Alice tilted her head slightly, eyes still on the limbs. “External control?”

Mim nodded.

Jen shifted her weight, uncomfortable under the lingering look in Alice’s eyes. “So… uh, they’re for sale?”

Mim grinned. “That’s the spirit. Curiosity’s how half my customers end up broke and satisfied.”

Jen groaned softly, hiding her face in her remaining hand as Alice smirked beside her.