is Better

As soon as they were in the hall connecting the rooms, Aubery placed Kitty down. Merida was leaning up against the wall with both hands out in front of her. Aubrey stared at the pose Merida was making as it seemed deliberately provocative.

“What is up with Kitty? Also, why can I only think of her as Kitty?”

“I think she’s high on catnip at the meenit. As for callin' her Kitty, it’s the tags she has on the collar. It’s the only real downside o' the tags, actually. Otherwise, they are gey guid, but the collar is anither story. It’s twa different collars fused, ane is the ane causin' her tae only meow and act mair cat-like. The ither is ane o' the things Smug messed wi'. Its base effect is tae mak' her stealthier, includin' dautin' her scent. It also has the side effect o' makin' her docile and a bit mair suggestible. The only guid news I hae is we can get rid o' the side effects, gin enough time.”

“How long are we talking about?”

“I can get ane, maybe twa, done noo so we can fecht the rest o' the statues, but only if we wait in this ha' for a wee bit, and even then I’ll no' be near full mana for the fecht if we dae.”

“We should wait until Flora’s not high to continue at a minimum. Can you do anything about that?”

“Let me check.” Merida finally stood up straight and grabbed the cat toy Kitty had gotten and identified it. “Oh, this is actually a gey guid item; it was just unfortunate timin'. The dizzy spell frae the catnip shuid wear aff in a wheen mair meenits. Efterwards, Kitty wull hae a buff on her. Honestly, it is a lot like the fur brush I got earlier.” Merida shifted to balancing on one foot while thrusting out her bust towards the others.

“You should probably get rid of the curse binding your wrists together as a top priority. Followed by whatever is causing you to pose like that.”

“Hoo the… Oh, the ballet heels are likely daein' it.”

Merigold appeared next to Merida, “I had a notion that ye might no' like, but it might end up bein' better for us in this dungeon.” Merida was clearly curious for her to continue. “Dinna completely brak the curse on the items. The ballet heels bein' locked on isna the end o' the warld, though the posin' bit might be a fash. The bracelet ye shuid completely cleanse, though. I think if ye dae thae twa, ye can then also shift either the docility Kitty is feelin' or let her speak again.”

Merida nodded, “Cuid ye cleanse my bracelets? It's a bit teuch tae get at them masel.”

Merigold nodded and used the curse removal staff to remove Smug’s tampering with the bracelet. They shifted back from being shackles to two separate bracelets. Merigold quivered in pleasure as the mana flowed through her and finished removing the curse. Merida then partially removed the curses as Merigold suggested, making it so Kitty wasn’t so docile and the posing bit on the heels.

Merida turned to Aubery, “Might as weel tak' a seat, we’ll be here for a bittie waitin' for Kitty tae get back tae normal and for my mana tae recharge.” Merida pulled out a brushing kit and passed it to Meribelle, who appeared at her side. Meribelle then gently used the various brushes and tools in the kit to see to Merida’s fur and hair.

Several minutes later, Kitty seemed to come to and turned to Merida, “Meow meow meow?” Aubrey sighed and tossed the ring of sending to Kitty. Kitty used it to repeat her question, “Meow meow meow… Meow? MROOOW!” Kitty took off the ring and tossed it back to Aubery.

Aubrey asked, “Why does she look pissed?”

“Even usin' the ring, she can only meow. Once Merigold here is done brushin' me, we shuid be able tae gae on.” Kitty curled up in Merida’s lap and started to paw at Merida’s breasts, clearly upset she wasn’t as big as Merida was. Merida massaged Kitty’s breasts to placate her somewhat.

Several minutes later, the three got up and proceeded to the next room. They found mostly what they were expecting, with the next room containing statues of the harem, with two exceptions. The first was that they thought there should only be two statues active in the room, and there were five statues instead, though two weren’t of harem members. The second is that they didn’t recognize one of the harem member statues. Pointing at the unknown statue, Merida said, “Wha the bloody hell is that?” Mira resumed paying attention when she sensed the others’ confusion.

“Oh, that’s Brooke.”

Merida swapped Meribelle’s and Mira’s places. “Wha’s Brooke?”

“Fucking hell! Really, what is with these pieces of shit shoes and—” Mira took a sharp breath, “Why does it feel like my insides are getting fucking squished?”

“It’s no' that bad,” Merida retorted. “Noo, wha is Brooke?”

“Chick Mark knows from college. Bit of a slut and drunk, but decent enough. At least that’s how she is in my season. Surprised you don’t know her, Aubrey. You, Chloe, and Sadie were rather close with her on my season.”

“Baaa?” Aubrey replied skeptically.

“She was a member of your sorority or something like that.”

Kitty got out a piece of paper and started writing down a question, only to let out an annoyed “MROW!” as she threw down the paper and pen. Merida picked up the paper to find, ‘Meow meow meow,’ written on the paper.

Merida put a hand on Kitty’s shoulder, “I’ll get yer word back soon. Noo, that still doesna explain why there is a statue o' her.”

“Doesn’t it?” Aubrey looked at Merida curiously. “She’s clearly a member of the harem now for some reason. She looks like she’s some sort of fighter type. I guess she is on the other team. So what’s the plan? The moose and swarm of rats are new, but I’m assuming those are really part of Sadie’s statue.”

“That’s fair. Wonder hoo she got added. I also gree aboot the moose and rodent swarm bein' pairt o' Sadie’s statue, as I think they are related tae her class abilities. Which frichts me, since that means Talia is gaun tae be scarier, tae.”

“I wouldn’t be fuckin’ worried about that bitch. Not with these shitty helpers. They also don’t have a ranged option. The plan should just be that Aubrey wrecks the room, and we provide backup.”

“What happens when Talia time bubbles Aubrey? The lave o' us wull be defenseless.”

“Kitty should just go unseen and wait to gank her ass while Merida, you fucking fly. They don’t have ranged options here.”

Aubrey and Kitty both seemed on board with the idea. Merida sighed, then nodded. Mira and Merigold both rejoined Merida, and she activated her camo and flight as they entered the next room. Merida had been right. The second that they crossed into the room, Aubrey was placed into a time bubble. Merida and Kitty were both undetected as Bertha and Brook both charged Aubrey in the time bubble. The mice were spreading throughout the room, looking for other targets.

Kitty knocked an arrow and aimed at Talia while Merida started to cast a spell on Aubrey.

As the arrow flew, Sadie turned towards Kitty’s direction and sent several mice to intercept the arrow mid-air, and the rest to swarm Kitty as fast as they could. The arrow failed to reach Talia.

Merida’s spell, on the other hand, likely saved Aubrey. Just before Bertha and Brooke’s attacks landed on Aubrey, Merida swapped Aubrey’s and Talia’s locations. Both allowed Aubrey to land a strike on the unprepared Sadie and caused Bertha and Brooke to attack Talia.

The tactic was a good one, but not as effective as she thought it would have been, as right after Bertha’s attack dealt significant damage, Brooke’s attack seemingly repaired it.

Aubrey unleashed a milk blade slash that sliced through one of the Sadie statue’s arms and took out a bunch of the mice as well. Aubrey started using her hair to grab the small mouse statues and throw them towards the other statues.

Talia placed Flora and Aubrey in time bubbles again, but was immediately swapped into her own bubble, in place of Aubrey, as Merida kept using her new relocation staff.

The fight dragged on for quite a while as Brooke kept repairing the damage that was done to the other statues, and none of the other statues would let them get a clean shot at her. Even the missing arm on the Sadie statue was replaced by a few solid swings of Brooke’s blade.

The fight would have likely turned for the worse if Aubrey hadn’t grabbed Kitty with her hair and held her above her. Kitty kept firing arrows, but thanks to the connection with the hair, Talia had to include Kitty in the bubble to be effective, which meant neither could be easily hit. Merida was glad that no one had seemed to notice her, or if they had, they just didn’t care.

Merida realized things were going poorly in this battle of attrition, as she was nearly out of mana, and she wasn’t sure the statues even had the same problem. Merida shouted, “AUBREY AHIND YE!” As she shouted, she swapped Brooke’s and Kitty’s positions with the little mana she had left. Aubrey took advantage and went all out to destroy Brooke’s statue. Which she barely managed, but fell to one knee as Bertha charged her.

Kitty went after Talia but was isolated via a time bubble. Aubrey was rammed into a wall and hit the ground disoriented. Merida made a split-second decision and dropped Meribelle right on top of the Talia statue.

It knocked the statue over, with Meribelle trying to restrain Talia, but was failing due to the statue’s superior strength. It was enough for Kitty to get a few solid shots off at Talia’s head and eliminate that statue. As soon as the Talia statue was destroyed, Meribelle vanished, rejoining Merida.

Aubrey defended against Bertha’s next charge but was having issues moving properly due to the swarm of rodents biting at her. Damnit, why is everything so much harder now? This armor is so heavy! Her equipment no longer being pink was hurting her more than she realized.

Kitty focused on Bertha and spent the last arrow in her quiver to finish Bertha off, with it landing directly on one of the statue's eyes as Aubrey locked Bertha in place.

The battle wasn’t actually over yet, as there were still hundreds of rodent statues and Sadie’s statue in the room, chipping away at their HP. Aubrey activated her taunting bell and her none shall pass ability to let Kitty scavenge some arrows. Merida dropped her camo and launched an occasional firebolt down from above, but even with the new bracelet, she didn’t have a very high mana regeneration rate while also flying. Aubrey started singing, which helped turn things around, but it still took them thirty more minutes to finish off the fight. At the end, they all just collapsed on the ground.

Aubrey sent to Merida, “That was awful. We’re waiting to fully recover, right?”

Merida panted, “Aye, even if it taks somethin' like three oors.”

Kitty crawled over to Merida and rested her head on Merida’s breasts as she took a nap.

In all, Merida wasn’t far off on the time it would take them to recover. Though she found out something annoying as well. The curses she had only partially removed had returned in full ****. Luckily, the bracelets remained normal. She realized it, as when she woke up, her legs were both bent behind her head. “Hoo the fuck? Kitty, cuid ye explain why I’m like this, please?”

Kitty turned her head and opened one eye, “Meow?”

“Oh aye, I suppose that’s fair.”

Mira said, “It’s the fucking ballet heels. Get these pieces of shit off me! They even mentally affect us.”

“Sorry, Mira. I can’t use the staff for a while. Even with my mana recharged, the staff itself is limited in the number of times I can use it each day. I think the only other person on our team who can use it is Mary.”

Mira mentally grumbled as Merida could tell she was quite unhappy with some of the cursed equipment affecting her, even while joined with Merida. With a concerted effort, Merida lowered her legs and stood up, annoying Kitty. “Mroow.” Kitty let out with a low growl.

“Sorry, love, but I think nap time is ower.” Merida extended a hand and pulled Kitty to her feet.

The three of them mostly recovered, proceeded to the next room, and were quite happy that they had reached the room with the idol in it. As in the previous two dungeons that they had seen, there was a door behind the idol as well, which likely led to a bonus room of sorts.

Aubrey asked Merida, “So, where do we spend those coins exactly? Also… why is there a donation box here?” Aubrey pointed to a box right next to the door they stepped through. ‘Donate to: Suing tiny little thieving hobbits into keeping their promises and sharing fund.’

Kitty went to inspect the box, and not caring about the previous consequences, reached her hand into the box and scooped out the coins inside.

“KITTY!” Merida scolded, “Wha d'ye think ye're daein'? Put thae back richt noo.”

Kitty held her hand above the box for a moment, and then defiantly looked away and tilted her head up as if she wasn’t doing anything wrong as she put the coins in her bag.

Another “ROOOOOOAAAR!” Echoed down the chambers as Kitty hurriedly removed every coin from the box.

Merida just sighed as she walked over to the statue, “Let’s get the statue and then see what is in the extra room. I dinna ken that we shuid—”

As Merida was about to pick up the idol, she was looking over her shoulder and didn’t see that it and the plinth it was on split open, and several tongue-like tentacles sprang out and grabbed at her. She immediately felt a heat spread through her body as the saliva was an aphrodisiac, and her corset started to tighten considerably as she was taking continuous damage.

She was being pulled into the mimic’s mouth rather quickly. Aubrey quickly moved to cut Merida free, but found that wasn’t the only mimic in the room. The stairs up the dais, the first mimic was on, was also a mimic, and a set of tentacles lashed out at Aubrey. Kitty was about to shoot to aid Merida, but found the donation box lunging towards her as it too was a mimic.

Merida was finding it hard to think and breathe. She was having trouble controlling her arms with the tongues wrapped around them. Meribelle and Merigold appeared on either side of her, and Meribelle grabbed the relocation staff Merida had and used it to teleport Merida out of the mimic’s closing jaws and near the ceiling, where she immediately started floating. Unfortunately, Meribelle was in easy reach and suffered the fate Merida almost did as she was encased in the mimic a moment later, being **** to rejoin Merida as one of her tails.

Merigold started casting buff spells on Aubrey while dodging away from the idol mimic. Merigold was glad she didn’t need to breathe; being a living statue otherwise, the slowly tightening corset might have been a problem.

Kitty was on her knees as the donation mimic had bound her arms behind her back and was lowering itself onto her head. Merida and Merigold immediately started blasting the mimic with fire bolts, but to little effect. Merigold rejoined Merida, so their mana wasn’t split. Using a considerable amount of mana, Merida teleported Kitty across the room. It took a moment for Kitty to regain her bearings, with Merida yelling, “KITTY FOCUS ON HELPIN' AUBREY WI' THE STAIRCASE MIMIC FIRST!”

Kitty followed the command without hesitation, launching several arrows at the mimic, but they were all deflected by the tongues. This did result in Aubrey having an opening to plunge her sword deep into the mimic’s mouth, and its tongues went limp a moment later. Merida floated down towards the door they had entered from to shoot the donation box from behind as it was creeping up on Aubrey from behind, while the idol was nearly on top of her.

Kitty and Aubrey were focusing on the idol mimic, while Merida was distracting the donation box. Though the donation box only paused for a moment and proceeded to attack Aubrey from behind, when it noticed the threat Merida posed be dealt with as the door behind Merida wrapped tongues around her arms, legs, and face, pulling her into it. Merida let out a muffled scream as she lost consciousness.

Aubrey quickly realized that a direct approach with the mimics was the wrong one and rolled to one side towards Flora. The mimics weren’t overly fast on their feet, which was likely why they had waited to strike until more of them could reach someone. Shit, where is Merida? Aubrey scanned the room, even looking up, but couldn’t find her. She sent a quick mental message as well, but no reply. She saw Kitty panicking, looking for Merida as well, neither seeing what had happened to her. “Kitty, focus, if you don’t, we can’t help Merida because we will be screwed. Stay behind me and keep shooting. When they get close, I’ll charge them and push them to the side as best I can. When I do move to the other side of the room. We will kite them.”

Kitty let out a **** “Meow…” while nodding. They spent the next two minutes kiting the mimics around the room, when Kitty moved close to the door that had gotten Merida and barely leaped away in time not to get grabbed herself. “MEOW!” Kitty let out and pointed at the door.

Aubrey saw the tongues and the faint impression of a woman trapped in the door’s wood. Shit, guess we know what happened to Merida. Aubrey activated several dashing skills to charge the door at high speed while thrusting her sword deep into its wood, making sure not to strike Merida. It was enough to **** it to spit Merida out onto the floor, but not actually defeat it. Several tongue lashings hit Aubrey in the back, but Kitty managed to defeat the door mimic with a few more arrows.

With the other two mimics on their last legs, Aubrey and Kitty managed to kite them around a bit longer and finish them off. With their enemies defeated, they rushed over to Merida but found her incapacitated. Kitty leaned down and worriedly rubbed her face on Merida’s. Then Kitty turned to Aubrey questioningly.

Aubrey realized, Oh… huh, she must be looking to me for guidance because of her stuff… I wish Mary were here; she would know what to do. Aubrey smacked herself upside the head, NO! That’s the milk talking. I’m not her little lost lamb. Even if she is really smart and pretty and— Another smack upside her head. Aubrey sent to Kitty, “Okay, this was likely the actual last room. We should have been prepared for mimics, but forgot. Can you carry her?”

Kitty shook her head, “Nya.”

Aubrey sighed and hefted Merida into a fireman’s carry, finding her relatively light thanks to the extra strength from her headband. Hopefully, the other group had more luck than we did today.

Aubrey and Kitty moved towards the door they had thought was to the bonus room. They tested to make sure it wasn’t a mimic, which was fortunate since it was. They swiftly dispatched the slow moving door, then they saw a nearly identical looking room on the other side with another idol on a plinth and a donation box by the entrance. After Aubrey set down Merida to the side, Kitty shot the donation box reading, ‘Donate to: Abused dragons that need therapy because everyone else is a bully fund’. It shattered, and some more coins spilled out. After Aubrey thoroughly smashed the box repeatedly until it was pulp, Kitty picked up the coins on the ground, causing another roar to echo throughout the dungeon. Kitty shot arrows at the stairs, the door behind the idol, the plinth, the ceiling, and each tile on the floor. The two of them saw the idol, which Aubrey saw looked like Chloe, in a Playboy bunny outfit, with wads of cash in each hand and between her cleavage. Aubrey gently poked the idol with the tip of her sword, and while it wobbled, it seemed otherwise normal.

Aubrey picked up the idol, and the plinth lowered into the ground. The door read, ‘Come in for a deal of a lifetime, or visit our gift shop to the left. The exit is to your right.’

Aubrey and Kitty debated what to do, but ultimately decided to enter the bonus room, leaving Merida just outside.

It was dark, but Kitty could see that there were lights, a stage, and a wheel, like a prize wheel at a carnival. The two cautiously entered, weapons ready at the first sign of a problem.

The room suddenly lit up, blinding them for a second. “WELCOME! WELCOME! WELCOME!” shouted Slevia, wearing a mustache. She was on the stage wearing a suit with a cane in her hand. Kitty thought she looked like one of those hucksters who definitely were there to scam you out of your money at fairs or carnivals. “Well, little Kitty, and what an adorable little lamb we have here. Step right up! Step right up! Have I got a deal for you!” Kitty and Aubrey moved forward but didn’t lower their weapons, afraid it might be a trap

Aubrey tried to message Slevia with the ring but found she couldn’t, as it was only for her teammates, and Slevia wasn’t an orc right now, so the crown wouldn’t work either. “Baa baa baaaaaaaaa ba?”

“Can I understand you? Why of course, little lady! I wouldn’t be a very good salesman if I couldn’t speak lamb. I can speak kitten of course, too. Not cat, though, but no one cares to use cat. Kitten is much easier to use. Anyway! I present to you The Wonderous WHEEL OF WHIMSY!” Slevia did jazz hands towards the wheel, which lit up and made some noise. Aubrey frowned, seeing the wheel from the casino. “I also have exclusive deals for each of you.”

Slevia continued, “For you, little lamb, if you hand over all the coins in your group’s possession, I’ll give you 10 CP and your girlfriend 30 CP. For you, little Kitty, I’ll not only remove the incapacitation from your girlfriend right outside, but I’ll give you both 10 CP as well.”

Aubrey bleated at Slevia, (“What are the options on the wheel? Is there a way to buy Merida’s recovery besides accepting the deal?”)

“The wheel has too many to list. As for Merida’s recovery? No, though… it is an option on the wheel…” Slevia said with a grin.

Aubrey turned to Kitty and saw her glancing towards Merida, who had most of the coins. “Kitty, look, I’ll let you do it on one condition. You funnel an extra twenty CP worth of items to Chloe. Otherwise, you are going to let me take my deal, we take neither deal, or we are going to have a fight.”

Kitty gesticulated at Aubrey for a little bit, but Aubrey couldn’t figure out what she was getting at besides that she wasn’t particularly happy. Kitty turned to Slevia and meowed, (“You won’t translate for me, will you?”)

“No. No, I won’t.”

Kitty sighed, (“What are the odds of getting Merida back up? Also, are there any actual negative results on the wheel?”)

“I can’t tell you the odds. For your other question, that depends on what you mean by negative? If you mean curses, then no. There are some temporary TFs that you might see as negative, like breast growth, but they shouldn’t be too problematic.”

Aubrey, hearing Slevia’s responses, sent Kitty a message, “I’m taking that you want to take neither deal?” Kitty nodded. “Fine, I want to let you know now I’m not spinning that wheel at all, and I expect to receive more than a third of the coins since I opened a chest that gave me fifty coins.”

Kitty hissed at her and vigorously shook her head. Flora pointed at Aubrey, holding up one, then three fingers, clearly indicating she was getting a third.

“Kitty, I’m being—” Kitty vanished from Aubrey’s sight. It took her a moment, and she realized what happened. She rushed to try to get the coins off of Merida, but found them already missing. Then seemingly out of nowhere flew a coin pouch, smacking Aubrey in the face. Aubrey opened it and saw it contained roughly eighty coins. She frowned, but she didn’t really have a way to **** Kitty to give her more. “I’m not happy about this, Kitty, but fine. I’m headed to the gift shop.” Aubrey left the room and headed over to the shop.

Slevia smiled, “Care to spin the wheel, little Kitty?”

Kitty nodded and meowed, (“How much per spin?)”

“Five coins, little Kitty.”

Slevia’s constantly referring to her as little was getting on Kitty’s nerves, as she clearly was referring to Kitty’s meager DD-Cup breasts, at least Kitty thought so. I’m so much smaller than almost everyone else in the harem. She doesn’t need to rub it in. Kitty looked at her pouch of coins. Let’s see, I have one-hundred-sixty-five coins. I should save some of that for Merida to get items.

(“I’d like to spin five times, please.”) Kitty placed down twenty-five coins.

“OH HO! A risk taker! Well, come on up and spin the wheel!”

Kitty walked up the steps to the stage and went ahead and spun it. Come on, bigger boobs, bigger boobs, bigger boobs, or fixing Merida, bigger boobs, please, bigger boobs.

Her first spin landed on a +1 symbol, which Slevia explained randomly improved one piece of gear she had. Which ended up being her armor, and she noticed as it became more revealing, and tighter in all the right places to look lewder. Her second spin landed on a golden wheel, where she had to spin again on a new wheel. It gave her what she had been hoping for: incapacitation removal. She immediately wanted to use it on Merida, but she was told that it was only usable back at the base. Her next three spins all gave her great rewards in her opinion. The first was a massive upgrade to her quiver, which gave her actually unlimited regular ammunition as well as a dozen random specialty arrows each day that could vary in effects. The next two were both something she had been dearly hoping for. Her breasts increased a total of four cup sizes as her fourth and fifth spins had landed on the same slice.

Okay… this was great, maybe I should just stop now. Nothing bad happened, and this was a win. I can do this, just walk away… And my feet aren’t moving. Kitty took a few deep breaths. Just… one more maybe? No, that slice has breast reduction on it, which also gives a sensitivity boost. Take my wins and go. I can do that. Very slowly and through great effort, Kitty **** herself to get off the stage and leave the room. She waved to Slevia on her way out and then went to the shop to spend the remaining coins.

After spending an hour looking over their options, Kitty and Aubrey proceeded to leave with Aubrey carrying Merida. Aubrey had gotten a few items for Chloe with her coins and seeing that Kitty decided that she and Merida could help out the others as well. In total from the gift shop, Aubrey, Chloe, Kitty, and Merida would each get four items, while Mary and Hilde would each get three. As they started walking down the exit tunnel, they heard a maniacal laughter start to echo throughout the dungeon. They looked at each other, realizing that it couldn’t be a good sign, and sped up. They stopped in their tracks when they reached one last donation box reading, ‘Donate to: Not getting hit with a random transformation as you leave fund. Ten coins guarantee one person does not get hit with a random transformation.’

Aubrey and Kitty both let out groans of dread.

“BAAAAAAAAA!”

“MEOOOOOW!”

Their shoulders slumped as they realized that maybe they shouldn’t have stolen from Smug.