Smiting and Kissing

Jane, Hailey, Moira and Ehtra – one light mage, two faithful and an angel of vengeance. It was a rather holy-themed party. Leaning into that, John elected that they would do a clear of a good old Demon Dungeon.

The blackness beyond the I.D. Gate changed in accordance with the activation of the Skill. Their spawning spot was a platform located on a pillar of some kind. A dome of crystal branches around them partly obscured the view of a vast cavern, lined with crystals that clearly resembled conjoined upper bodies wailing in anguish.

“Wickedness,” Moira hissed.

“Ya remember none of this is real, yeah?” Jane poked her rival turned lover in the ribs. The gesture was considerably less effective than usual, what with the layer of mithril between the finger and said ribs. “Ya need more revealing armour.”

“I need no such thing,” Moira responded.

“If the Lady didn’t want ya to show off, she would’ve given ya less to be proud about.”

The redhead rolled her eyes at the ancient argument. “The Lady also made me more powerful than almost all others, should I indulge in dominating them with force whenever they displease me? Should I exercise the full volume of my voice whenever I do not get what I want? Temptations are-“

“-meant as trials of character not to be indulged in, I know, I know,” Jane interrupted. “Ya give me this whole speech every time I make a joke.”

“I know of your tendencies, exhibitionist, it is no joke.”

“Like ya aren’t kinky.”

John found himself quietly agreeing with his first wife and that wasn’t all because of the two toys that he could have made buzz with a flick on the app that his mind was currently connected to. Despite Moira’s protests, her armour wasn’t exactly all modest. The layered, gold-trimmed plates of silver-white Mithril were arranged in such a way to accentuate her figure and her midriff was tightly clung to by the wine-red bodysuit beneath the metal. The Order had always prioritized a degree of aesthetics. In the words of their scripture: ‘Combat is only the last fight to be won, the true war is fought in the mind of every thinking soul.’

“Gals, we gotta get goin’ or we gonna miss dinner,” Hailey interrupted the duo.

Hailey’s ice armour was considerably simpler. In its form, it was almost entirely a standard, European plate armour, though with some extra space to the chest area to accommodate her endowments. All that was unusual about it was the material, light blue, opaque, and extremely cold.

“I look forward to smiting the wicked,” Ehtra added. Her armour was easily the most suggestive of the three, mostly because of the way it formed overt ‘pockets’ for each of her breasts, a golden sword symbol parting them.

‘I am not immune to hot lady knights,’ John thought to himself. Ehtra’s helmet robbed him of an important part of viewing her, but beyond that the black and gold plate sat impossibly tight, as if poured onto her luscious curves. Which, considering it was technically her skin, was quite close to the truth.

As much as Ehtra’s armour hinted at the shape of her ass, it failed to be as alluring to look at as Jane’s bodysuit. An unfair competition, akin to matching a housecat up against a lioness. Illuminare was hugging the sexiest body in existence and the latex-like material was truly conforming to her with the eagerness of a second layer of skin. The only bit of added bulk was on her right arm – hardly an area that made her less attractive to the naked eye.

John stopped drinking in the view when he felt a sudden pinch on his ear. “Focus!” Moira demanded.

“Starer,” Hailey drawled.

“Indeed!” Unapologetic, the Gamer freed himself of the paladin’s pull. “I have mastered the art of staring lecherously while doing other things years ago.”

“Nah,” Jane drove a dagger in his back immediately, the treacherous, lovely wife that she was, “when it comes to tits, maybe, but if ya got a girl with a nice butt walking in front of ya, ya totally zone out.”

“Well, shall we test that theory?” John asked and gestured at the path that led out of the safe area. As the sole ranged participant of this party, he was not going to take point.

Ehtra led. With her high HP regeneration and Lifesteal from the Lover’s Will Mark, she was the best fit for the task. Moira could heal, but she wasn’t that great at it and it would leave her quite aroused. Not a huge problem, all things considered. A benefit of going with fairly unchallenging content was that they could do careless things like taking a sex pause.

Jane was right behind Ehtra, John behind her, Hailey and then Moira behind him. They advanced in a line at first, but changed to more of a loose cluster once they were beyond the immediate pathway.

The clanking sound of pickaxes mixed with ethereal moans of anguish. Crystals shattered. The air smelled of sulphur and… cinnamon, for some reason. The cave was being mined. Rails emerged from tunnels that resembled hollowed-out tree roots.

Two varieties of enemies filled the open space of the cave. One was an overseer, a humanoid of the ‘ugly demon’ variety. Dark, leathery skin, lipless maws with crooked teeth, eyes that burned with infernal green energy, and a hunched posture that worked hard to drag the chain whip behind them.

The other was the worker, some kind of corrupted human covered in ugly, grey growths, sprouting from a seed implanted on the side of the neck. These corrupted beings swung pickaxes, mining the crystallized souls and feeding the anguished energy to the second head made of tree bark and wood next to the original.

“HAH!” John laughed loudly as he read the Information box. “That’s a blast from the past. Apparently, the boss of this area is the Tree of Life version 3.”

Jane shared in her husband’s amusement. “For realzies?”

“What’s that about?” Hailey asked.

“Oh, it’s just the first boss I fought that ever talked,” John said, recalling the time back in Springfield. The memory was slightly soured by Victoria’s presence in it, but she wasn’t one of the people he regretted having died on his watch. “Basically, when I first got these powers, my first Instant Dungeon was stomping small seedlings.” He gestured to imply just how small they had been. “Then, a couple Dungeons later, me having killed so many Seedlings caused the boss to spawn in instantly, that was the Tree of Life. We grinded that one for a bit because it was efficient. Later on, in Germany, we ran an Angel Dungeon where it was the boss again, obviously empowered. It was still salty then.”

“Blast from the past,” Jane purred, her cat tail flopping against her thigh. “Oh, do we have Loot, by the way?”

“Yeah, I toggled it on,” John said. “Thought I’d make it a bit more interesting. Here, you can check the Settings.”

“Odds good on findin’ Secret Rooms?” Hailey asked. She had never been part of one of these Floor Dungeons before, so this was all interesting to her. “Also, what’s a Horror?”

“Even if we find a Secret Room, I don’t think we currently have a key for it…” John had briefly checked his Guild Bank for any of the old ones he had farmed. While there were plenty, none of them were usable at this Tier of Instant Dungeon. “If we want to get into it, we have to find a key in this Dungeon – which is possible. As for Horrors, they are elite monsters that are 60% stronger than the normal variant. We’ll have to take those a little more seriously.”

“Any pointers on what they look like?” the country gal continued her questioning.

Moira raised her hammer. “I reckon like that.”

So far, the party had gone ignored. The monsters in the Dungeon were operating under pretty heavy video game logic. They were in plain sight, but the packs of enemies, typically one Overseer with two to four Miners, were not making a single move towards them. Each pack was conveniently located on its own plateau along the edge of the cave, connected by semi-natural bridges or staircases.

At the end of Moira’s pointing hammer was one Overseer that stood at almost three metres. Not only was he two heads taller than his kin, he also exuded an aura of swirling black mist. “Ya can practically see the menace written all around him.”

“…is that a JoJo reference?” John asked.

“Mhmmmeowbe?”

“Meowing will not save you.” The Gamer pointed his hand at the Horror Overseer. It was conveniently right there in the first enemy pack, so why not start with it? “I’ll initiate with an Arc Lance. Ehtra, you tank the main guy. Everyone else, deal with the Miners first, then help her. I’ll support with Mana Chains and Blast Rays.”

The plan was simple enough that John did not wait for their confirmation. He simply shot the charged arcane projectile straight at the head of the unsuspecting enemy. The Horror’s programming allowed it to react at the last moment. Silver struck, drilling and slicing through one of the thick horns of the demon. It was blown off the ugly head, then disintegrated as all dungeon creatures did as it tumbled through the air.

The Horror Overseer roared and swung its chain towards the closest of the three nearby Miners. Infernal energy translated on impact into the Miner, sending it into a frenzy. Its pickaxe clattered to the ground and he charged at Ehtra with surprising speed. The second Jane was closer, its priority instantly shifted. Feline Lightbearer and Dungeon creature were immediately locked in a rapid exchange.

Ehtra had taken to the air and now dove towards the Overseer before he could swing his chain again. He blocked her heel with his forearm. While her knees bent under the impact, Ehtra aimed her bolt gun at the demon's face.

BLAM!

Recoil and backwards jump became one and the same. The demon stumbled back, his face temporarily obscured by the smoke of the explosive round. A swipe of his arm moved the black dust aside, revealing that half his face was already missing. A good start.

The remaining two Miners were swiftly engaged by Hailey and Moira. Without the buff from the Overseer, they were second-rate combatants. Hailey was slightly struggling with her enemy, focusing on dodging and blocked the lumbering swings of the pickaxe. She had done her fair share of sparring, but a Dungeon monster was different in multiple ways.

Moira’s combat experience shone through instantly. The Miner attempted, in several ways, to get past her tower shield. First, the monster tried to just punch through, which was impossible. Then, it tried to swing over the edge, using the length of the pick to deliver a blow, but the Shield Warden was wise to such tricks. Every attempt at a strike was rebuked with a shield bash or repaid with a hammer blow.

Dancing and ducking around her enemy, Jane moved with the speed and grace of her feline nature. She wasn’t at full power at the moment, Copernicus being busy taking a nap in her soul, but she hardly needed her full might for this. Every time she escaped a frenzied swipe, she repaid with three swift hits of their own, each rippling with multi-coloured light from her magic and Martial Arts.

The trio’s victory was a foregone conclusion, as was that of Ehtra and John. The grey angel was now engaged in a melee with the creature. It was much stronger and faster than the Miners, fast enough that just dodging was not an option for the First of Hatred. Her Astrotium sword stopped the chain swung at her, the whip wrapping around the weapon. Before the demon could yank it out of her hands, John launched two Mana Chains at the Overseer. The silver constructs struck, limiting the range of motion enough that Ehtra could free her sword.

Ripping himself free of one of the chains, the Horror Overseer swung his fist at Ehtra just as she closed the distance. The majority of the blow was absorbed by her Contempt Armour, but it was enough to fling her back. Midair, she grasped her magic, launching a lance of grey energy at the demon, the Smite hit the demon in the face again, blinding it once more.

A perfect opening for Moira to obliterate the demon’s left knee. “Lady, guide me!” she prayed, the gold trim on her armour flaring in its splendour. A sudden burst of speed allowed her to draw her hammer back and swing it again – this time breaking the demon’s shoulder.

The Horror Overseer readied himself to bury Moira under his entire weight, only for Jane to appear in front of him as a flash of light. She crouched down, pulling one of her fists in. The movement felt slow, but realistically it was still executed at a pace most Abyssals would not be able to react to. The confused Overseer was not among them. Alas, a Blast Ray threw the raised fist back before it could stop its imminent demise.

The uppercut carried with it the might of Jane’s martial prowess. On impact with the demon’s chin, the Ki exploded upwards, turning the entire skull of the creature into a geyser of gore. What went up usually had to come down. In this case, what went up turned into ash and dust, then nothing.

And just as the trio turned towards her, Hailey managed to drive her ice-made sword through the heart of her enemy.

“Whew,” the country gal let out a relieved sigh and made the helmet of her armour disappear. Her sun-kissed head made for an amusing contrast to the light blue of her plate. “I ain’t good at this, but I do think it’s kinda satisfyin’.”

“Right?” Jane asked. “Isn’t it so exciting!”

“Thrill-seeker,” Moira mumbled, judgementally.

“I don’t know if you are in any position to talk,” John drawled and utilized that technomantic connection with his phone. Armour rattled when Moira jumped where she stood, a deep blush creeping up her features. Though the plate did much to muffle it, the sudden and intense buzzing of the dual toys inside her would certainly not be missed by the cat-eared first of the harem.

“Takin’ advantage of how easy this is gonna be to get off, hmm?” she purred. “I ain’t judging.”

“Not that you would have any room for it,” John said and activated the vibrators inside the cat woman as well.

“E-ah-ctly,” Jane moaned and sashayed over to Moira. Lips mashed together, the Gamer’s first wife taking the lead and being met enthusiastically. “I hate this armour,” she sighed between kisses, hands running all over Moira’s covered curves. They made out, they came, John watched.

“And just like that, we’ve proven that ya ain’t a master of staring and doin’ at all.” Multitasking questioned, the Gamer looked over to Hailey. The dirty blonde had picked up some kind of paper. It was wine red with a black trim. Glowing runes on it suggested that it was a map for a corridor system. His mind connected the dots within seconds. Observe then confirmed the unlikely.

“Well, getting that from the first Overseer is statistically unlikely… but neat!” John studied the map for a bit, committing it to memory. If it was accurate to the system, he would find the fitting path to the marked spot soon enough. “Let’s go look for this Secret Room.”

“As soon as the lesbian creatures have disentangled,” Ehtra remarked.

John whistled twice. The vibrators had been off for half a minute already, so at this point the duo was just making out because they were intoxicated by each other’s presence. “You can kiss again after the next encounter.”

Jane slowly pulled back, trying to draw the string of saliva between their tongues for as long as possible. “Ya hear that, Moi-Moi? I’m in charge of cleaning the Blessing debuff today.”

“It doesn’t-“ Moira started to refute her fellow haremette, then realized that this meant she got to make out with the half-Asian bombshell repeatedly. Even her stubborn nature surrendered to that opportunity. “I will be in your care.”

They advanced to the next platform.