1-151 A little too much

Roric slammed the door after Jaina dashed in and quickly pressed his shoulder against it.

“Evalynn, see if theirs is a crossbar!” he shouted as the door rattled. “Chandice, can you summon more minions?”

“Sure, if you don't want me to be able to do anything else,” Chandice replied as she pulled at her tattered robe. “I had to replace my imps three times already, and they still got to me. I would probably be dead if Evalynn hadn't yanked me out of that pack.”

“What in the world did we get ourselves into?” Jaina panted as she leaned on Gisley. “How many zombies does that woman have?”

“We must have killed thirty of them,” Gisley said as she looked around the simple house that consisted of a large front room and a single small bedroom in the rear. “Thankfully, the windows are shuttered.”

“How long is that going to last?” Jaina asked as she ran to help Roric hold the door that was now shaking.

“Hopefully longer than we will,” Roric replied as he used his spear to brace the door. “I had no idea Idris had so many zombies, and there are unusually strong ones in that mess.”

“Some of those are zombie warriors,” Chandice said. “Quinny showed me some of them in Frank's tunnels. They are five to ten times stronger than a normal zombie and have special moves.”

“How did she get access to those?” Jaina asked as she pressed her back to the door to try and brace it.

“I have a sneaking suspicion that Frank is to blame for that,” Chandice said. “Those two are so in love it hurts to see them pretending they aren't. I bet he boosted her somehow, and she is spawning his minions.”

“I suspect Quinny is more the culprit,” Roric countered. “Frank is very careful about exposing players to hopeless situations. Quinny is a little more enthusiastic and loves to create a challenge. Plus, she has just as much access to the bigger zombies.”

“My money is on Quinny,” Jaina agreed. “But Idris should have turned down the help.”

“She said the adventure scaled with the players,” Evalynn added as she pushed a heavy table to the door. Roric helped her brace it against the door, then pried his weapon loose to step away. “I wonder if we went wrong because of those other players?”

“There were a lot of them,” Gisley said as they huddled in the center of the room. “Do you think any of them survived?”

“I am not convinced we are going to survive,” Chandice grumbled as the sound of moaning echoed from outside.

“I don’t think Idris planned for a big group of players to show up at once,” Evalynn said as she held her weapon at the ready while the door echoed with the banging of undead fists. “Being a popular challenge isn’t something she’s accustomed to.”

“Well, she needs to tone the hoards down,” Jaina insisted as a window rattled. “And we need to find a way out of this mess before they find a way in.”

“Is there a back door?” Roric asked before checking the small bedroom. “No,” he sighed and looked about the larger room. “We have no choice but to go up. The roof is thatch, and we should be able to cut through it fairly easily.”

“But where do we go from there?” Jaina asked.

“We use my new class skills to copy Jaina's shapeshift and grow wings to fly over the hoard,” Roric replied.

“Chandice can’t use that power,” Jaina argued as Evalynn began stabbing zombies through a window as the zombies tore a shutter away. “And the butterfly form isn’t strong enough to carry another person. We would be better off trying to copy Hannah’s succubus form.”

“But we only get the cosmetic appearance,” Evalynn replied as she kept stabbing. “We don't get the succubus-enhanced strength. We still won't be able to carry her.”

“Just leave me behind,” Chandice grumbled as she folded her arms.

“We are not leaving you behind,” Roric insisted as the table suddenly moved, and he raced to brace it. “We will think of another way out.”

“Too bad you didn’t marry Hannah,” Gisley said to Chandice. “I bet you could use that essence stat to summon more minions.”

“Maybe, but using that power ends in a coma, and I doubt that will help here,” Chandice countered. Another window was suddenly torn open, and a zombie leaned in, only to be quickly attacked by Jaina. She became fluid, her arms reaching like ropes as they became bladed weapons. She slashed and stabbed the beast until it stopped moving, then turned her attention to the zombies trying to climb over it.

“They are going to get in sooner or later,” Jaina cried. “We either need to fight our way out or go higher.”

“We go higher,” Roric replied. He and Chandice stacked furniture on the back wall to create a crude ladder. Evalynn then used a special spear attack to blast a hole in the roof. She went up first, then reached down for Jaina and Chandice, yanking them to the top. Roric helped Gisley climb up, then followed as the table at the door began to shift.

They scrambled to the roof peak, holding on to the tenuous footing as they looked into the street. A swarm of zombies well over a hundred strong seethed about the small village. Many looked like normal zombies, but a few were larger, hunched things with powerful arms. There were two hulking creatures that were twice the size of the others with thick, powerful arms roaring as they looked for prey,

“That’s an army,” Jaina said as they took in the sight of the shambling mass.

“Why would she make it so difficult?” Gisley asked as her wings fluttered out.

“I still don't think she meant to,” Evalynn replied. “There were easily thirty players here with us. If you divide that mass, there are probably only five zombies per player. The issue is they all came at once and swarmed us en mass.”

“I see dead players,” Gisley said as she pointed to a spot near a distant house. “There are a bunch by that house.”

Roric nodded as he studied the distant buildings, counting seven players. He was sure there were more out of sight, lying dead across the edge of the town. They had come to experience the new adventure after Quinny said Idris had finished it. They arrived to find over a dozen other players already in the town, with more arriving as the sun set. Roric expected an easy time of it, considering how it played out the first time they met Idris. However, his expectations were quickly shattered when a fog rolled in, and dark shapes came at them from all directions. In minutes, dozens of zombies were around every house, and players were frantically trying to keep up. The lesser zombies were quickly replaced by normal zombies, then greater zombies and zombie warriors. Before they knew it, players were fleeing or dying as the hoard isolated groups. They had to abandon the fight and rush into a house just to buy time, and it appeared that time was quickly running out.

“Idris needs to fix this,” Roric said as he looked to a distant house where a lone woman huddled on the roof like they were. “At least stagger this out so it doesn't all come at once.”

“Can we help that woman?” Gisley asked as she fluttered up.

“How?” Chandice asked. “We can’t even help ourselves.”

“They don't seem to be able to climb,” Jaina said as the door to the house finally gave way, and the zombies started to shamble in. “Maybe we just stay put until morning.”

“All night on a steep roof,” Chandice grumbled. “I was looking forward to seeing if my wedding gift was available.”

“Hannah would come in very handy right now,” Roric said before using a power to cause a hail of spears to fall into the mass of zombies.

“We might be able to pull this off,” Evalynn said as she studied the situation.

“How do you figure?” Jaina asked.

“Well, the zombies are focused on us and this house,” she explained, then pointed across the muddy road. “We need to keep them here while we move to the next roof.” She gestured to it with her spear and showed how they could hop from roof to roof to escape. They could even pick up the poor woman hiding on the other end of the street and escape into the forest.

“How do we get to the other roof?” Roric asked as he looked over the distance. “I am sure Evalynn can use her jump power to do it, but the rest of us would never make it.”

“Jaina gets us across,” Evalynn explained.

“You want me to get us across?” Jaina asked.

“Yes, Chandice will summon two imps to start firing on the zombies from the roof,” Evalynn continued. “This will keep them swarming the house while you mimic a narrow walkway from one roof to the other. We run across you to the other roof. Hopefully, the zombies will stay focused on this room because of the imps shooting at them.”

“I can help keep them looking here,” Gisley added. “When you guys are across, I can fly over.”

“Even better,” Evalynn agreed. “Then we repeat the process, going roof to roof until we reach the girl. Then we jump down and run for the forest. Hopefully, they don't notice, and we escape.”

“Well, it's an idea,” Chandice said as she lifted her hand. “Let me get my imps out.” With a quick chant, she summoned two imps and quickly commanded them to pelt the zombies with fire bolts. Gisley fluttered up and began a hail of moonbeams, and other ranged attacks to draw as much attention to the house as possible.

Jaina crept to the edge of the roof and looked across the gap. It was easily forty feet to the next house, whose roof was also of thatch. There was no way she could stretch to it without touching the ground at some point. She would have to make brief contact and then leap to the next roof while reshaping to form the bridge. Even if she did, she wasn't sure she could support the weight of her entire family running across. She could certainly harden her skin to near the consistency of iron, but a narrow plank over a forty-foot gap? Would that hold even one of them?

“I need a clearing in the middle of the road,” Jaina said as she decided to try. Evalynn replied with a raised spear, calling down a single red blast that created a ripple of energy. All the zombies in the radius were blasted away, creating a small hole in the pack. Jaina reacted, her body going liquid as it stretched from the roof in a large arc, splashing into the small cleared area. She stretched back to her family and the other roof, her body thinning. She grabbed hold of both ends as the zombies poured in, biting and clawing at her as she shifted her mass, supporting herself from both roofs. Now, she was a bridge of what appeared to be wood laid across the gap. She was only two feet wide, using her extra mass to try and thicken her shape. She hoped the extra thickness would make this more viable, and Roric quickly tested the bridge.

“Chandice, you go over first,” he insisted, motioning for her to advance.

“That's amazing,” Gisley said as she continued to attack the zombies. “You look like a wooden plank.”

“She certainly is useful,” Chandice replied as she was the first to step out onto the dangerous bridge. “But was it too much to ask for a handrail?”

“I don't have the mass for this,” Jaina replied. “You're lucky you have this much.”

“Wonderful,” Chandice groaned as she stepped out, carefully walking across the bridge as zombies swarmed below. Jaina used a small appendage with a single eye to watch her cross as she felt the strain. The closer Chandice got to the center, the worse it became, her weight pressing down on Jaina’s body. She began to dip, causing Chandice to cry out as she got closer to the zombies. Jaina quickly adjusted her mass, creating a thin pillar in the center to hold herself up and stop the shift. She quickly retextured herself to resemble a stone column, and amazingly, not a single zombie tried to attack her.

Chandice practically ran the rest of the way across, eager to be on more stable ground. Evalynn went next, her weight in armor straining Jaina and forcing her to withdraw part of the bridge from the house so it could thicken under her steps.

“I am sorry,” Evalynn said as she heard Jaina groan.

“It’s fine,” Jaina said in a strained cry. “Just hurry.”

Evalynn dashed and hurried across, allowing Jaina to stretch and reconnect to the roof for Roric. He was lighter, but not by much; however, Jain was able to withdraw her mass as he ran across. She flowed behind him, gathering herself up to reshape on the roof of the distant house and take stock of the situation.

“It's working,” Chandice said as they noted the vast majority of zombies were piling out to get to the imps and Gisley. They were forming an ever-growing mound of bodies, slowly creating a hill of undead flesh to reach the roof.

“We would never have been able to stay there,” Jaina said. “It was only a matter of time.”

“We can't stay here either,” Evalynn reminded. “The next house is closer, so it won't be as big of a stretch.”

Jaina nodded and bridged the gap over less than half the previous distance. This time, she provided a handrail, and her family safely raced to the next roof. From here, they worked down the muddy lane, drawing closer and closer to the trapped woman. She had a good thirty zombies around her house, which was manageable, but they were beating down the walls. The house lurched to one side, threatening to dump her into the street where they would be on her.

They reached the house across the street, and Jaina took the shape of a flight of stone steps, allowing her family to come down. Gisley was still at the distant house, flying above it as the zombies finally swarmed over the roof, reaching the two poor imps.

“Let's clear a path and get her down,” Roric said as they charged across the street. The woman on the roof was holding on for dear life as the building lurched further to one side. Evalynn opened with a shockwave that sent zombies flying, followed by Roric charging in. Chandice used simple spells as her mana was over-taxed, but Jaina could slash and cut with razor-like arms, cutting swatch to the house. Gisley joined them just as Jaina became a flight of stone steps to get the woman down.

The woman ran down with trembling steps as the group formed a pocket in the zombies. Then Evalynn cleared a path with another shockwave, and they ran.

“Quickly, to the forest and into the trees,” Roric urged while Gisley made a wall of light to delay the zombies from following them.

“Thank you!” the woman said with tears in her eyes. “I was sure they were going to get me.”

“We aren't out yet,” Roric said as a large hulking zombie burst from the edge of the trees and ran at them. Roric and Evalynn hit it head-on, each calling on powers to inflict as much damage as possible. Gisley had to hold her wall up and couldn't help, leaving Jaina to wade in and begin slashing. She was far more combat-capable since becoming a mimic and could attack with a variety of methods. She could turn her arms into tentacles and tip them with blades, hooks, or other weapons. She could even end them with a mouth, biting off chunks of her foes. If she felt particularly gruesome, she could use her limbs to entangle a foe, then seep acid to dissolve and literally eat them, dissolving their mass. She could cover her skin with a membrane that was as thick as she wanted it to be, even mimicking iron for strength,

She made her skin as hard as stone while slashing at zombies with blade-like arms. One after another was slashed and skewered, the creatures no match for her fluid speed. Roric and Evalynn were the point of the spear as they raced through the mist-shrouded farms on the edge of the town. Chandice and their new companion huddled near the center as the others escorted them out. A few stragglers got in their way, but the bulk had been delayed behind them, thanks to Gisley. They raced for the dark forest when something large emerged from the mist and growled with massive arms.

“What is that?” Chandice balked.

“Some kind of super zombie,” Evalynn sighed. “That’s proof that Quinny is lending her power to Idris. We need to talk to them both.”

“We can talk to them later,” Roric replied as the monster charged, shaking the ground as it ran. Roric was the first to reach it, using a power to charge and close the gap. He delivered a flurry of spear stabs and slashes before the beast struck him once and sent him flying. Evalynn was on him next, causing spears to fall from the sky before closing into melee. She fought with her usual skill, but the zombie was like fighting Frank, absorbing hits with little care. He managed to batter Evalynn three times before she faltered, growing weary of the blows.

Jaina ran to Roric to heal him, but their companion got their first.

“Let me,” she said and raised a hand, causing golden light to flood over him.

“You're a healer?” Jaina asked as Roric quickly got to his feet.

“All I am is a healer,” the woman replied. “I am a priestess of life and healing. I came here because Undead are usually weak to holy spells, but they came in such large numbers I couldn't keep up.”

“Tell us about it,” Jaina said as Evalynn was hit again and staggered.

“Jaina!” Chandice called as she dug out a wand to start firing bolts of fire. The strange woman pointed her hand, and a ring of light surrounded Evalynn, her wounds suddenly mending. The ring pulsed, and the zombie monstrosity recoiled as if burned by the brilliance.

“Keep that up,” Jaina insisted and ran for the fight, her body going fluid as she dashed to Evalynn's side. Roric followed, and together, the three took the beast head-on. The monster absorbed hits like a tank, but all it could do was smash with its powerful hands and not hard enough to overtax their new healer. Seconds later, the beast fell to one knee and was quickly impaled by Evalynn, who drove it to the ground.

“Let's run before something else shows up,” Roric insisted before turning to see flashes of light behind him. Gisley was fluttering through the air with what appeared to be ghosts chasing her. She was calling moon rays down on them, burning them with celestial light, but there were four of them against the lone fairy.

“Why?” Chandice groaned and shook her fists. “Why would she add ghosts? Wasn’t this hard enough? You can’t even hit them with normal weapons. I swear, when I see Idris, I am spanking the hide off her.”

“I might be able to drive them off long enough for us to get away,” the healing woman said. “But your butterfly girl has to get closer.”

Roric nodded and focused, using his slave master's power to call to the fairy. Gisley immediately looked at him and nodded, racing directly at them as the ghosts chased. She flew over them in a glittering line as the woman presented a holy symbol that looked like a wreath of ivy and flowers. It glowed with white light as she called on her god.

“Fear the light!” she shouted as the area around her suddenly blazed with daylight. The ghosts recoiled with an eerie wail and fled back into the town. They watched them go only to realize that nearly a hundred zombies were coming, no longer delayed by Gisley's wall.

“We need to run now,” Evalynn insisted, grabbing the healer by the shoulder to hurry her along. They ran into the forest where Gisley had already summoned a magical disk for them to climb onto. Once they were all on, she flew as fast as she could, tearing down the forest road to leave the death trap behind.

An hour later, they were in the safe confines of the city and invited their new friend to join them. On the trip back, they learned she was a race called a Valhalan and was some kind of half-angel. She wore a white hood over thin metal armor and carried a small sword that she wasn't very skilled at. Her hair was a soft blue with odd dark streaks that made her extremely rich blue eyes stand out. She introduced herself as Oliva and said she was still below level ten.

“That was no place for you then,” Jaina laughed as they entered the jade temple and headed for the common room.

“Oh, I heard about this place,” Oliva said as she looked around. “I heard there is a harem here full of sex slaves.”

“I heard that too,” Chandice said as Jaina started to snicker. Oliva was confused by why that was funny until Evalynn used her power to change outfits. In a flash, she was dressed in slave silks and was quickly followed by Gisley.

“Oh,” Oliva said as her eyes fixated on the collars they wore. “Are you two slave girls?”

“We three,” Jaina said as she used her shapeshift to change, putting on slave silks and her collar. “We are all part of the harem.”

“So, does that make you?” Oliva said as she looked at Roric.

“A master?” he asked with a raised bow. “Yes, it does. Are you bothered by that?”

“Me? No, I mean not really,” Olivia said as she blushed. “It’s just I never understood why a woman would want to be a, you know, sex slave.”

“It's not like we're tortured,” Jaina laughed as Gisley took her hand. “Honestly, it's a very rewarding existence, and we girls see ourselves as one big family. We do everything together and spend our days enjoying each other's company.”

“By enjoying, you mean sex?” Olivia asked as Roric took them to their private tables at the far end of the hall.

“Oliva,” Jaina laughed. “Yes, sex does happen, but most of the time we just snuggle. Sometimes in piles of a dozen girls, all bundled together just to be held and warm.”

“I love the snuggle piles,” Gisley said as Roric invited them to sit.

“Am I allowed here?” Olivia asked. “This section said it was reserved.”

“It is reserved for us,” Roric replied. “Only the masters and their slave girls can enter this area. However, you are invited in as a guest.”

“So tell us, what does this angel race of yours do?” Chandice asked. “Aside from your overly blue eyes, you look perfectly human.”

“Well, at my level, I practically am human,” Olivia admitted as she sat. “But at later levels, I will have feathered wings I can call on for short periods and a halo that I can attune to do different things. I want to attune mine to healing, so anyone friendly to me who is close enough heals slowly. I will also be able to purge negative effects and cast a few basic blessings.”

“You really do want to be a good support player,” Jaina said.

“I like to serve people,” she replied.

“Me too,” Gisley said as she bounced in her chair. “I give people good dreams at night.”

“That sounds lovely,” Olivia said. “Like dreams where they play with puppies or go to parties?”

“Umm, not exactly,” Gisley replied as Jaina burst out laughing.

“Will you stop laughing at the poor woman,” Chandice insisted and waved for a passing harem girl. She ordered a round of drinks for them all, then explained the girl's various roles in the harem. Jaina found it amusing how innocent Olivia's thinking was but a breath of fresh air. Despite her lack of desire to participate in such a life, she didn't begrudge them their choice to play. Once it was all out in the open, Oliva relaxed and shared her desire to build a holy temple where her NPCs would tend to the wounded. She wondered if the prince and princess would allow her to build roadside shrines that could be prayed at for minor healing and buffs.

“I bet they would love that,” Jaina replied.

“Hannah is all about doing things for the general well-being of the players,” Chandice agreed.

“I heard she’s very sweet,” Olivia replied. “And Prince Frank is supposed to be a great man.”

“He’s wonderful,” Gisley replied. “He cares about everyone and wants us to have a good time, but you should see how much he loves Hannah.”

“It's the stuff of storybooks,” Evalynn agreed. “Those two are inseparable.”

“Tell us more about these roadside shrines,” Roric pressed. “How do they work?”

“Well, I use points to construct a little shrine with a statue and then set it to offer healing and one buff,” Olivia explained. “Then I set the conditions players must meet to evoke the spells. Any player who does so gains the blessing temporarily.”

“Huh,” Jaina said as she looked at Chandice. “This sounds very familiar.”

“You mean like how the statues that power the forest tattoo’s work,” Chandice agreed. “He obviously didn’t invent that system. He just used it for his specific purposes.”

“What are you talking about?” Olivia asked as she looked confused.

Jaina showed the woman her back and explained how the tattoos worked. Oliva was amazed that they never faded, as her buffs couldn't last more than an hour. She asked how they were earned, then shook her head as Jaina explained some of them.

“So this land is all about sex?” Olivia stated.

“No,” Roric replied. “This land is all about hero and monster players finding a balance so they can both be happy. The only reason the sexual element is so prevalent is because we came here. Frank and Hannah graciously allowed us to build our home and enjoy it the way we wanted. They then invited like-minded players to come and experience it too, thus creating the Jade Harem.”

“But it really isn't all about that,” Jaina insisted. “Most players are here to earn experience, make some money, and have fun playing monster adventures.”

“Speaking of which,” Chandice said as she stood up and pointed at a dark-haired woman with a swath of purple at the end of her hair. She was just coming out of a back door and looked startled when Chandice shouted. “Idris!”

“Umm?” Olivia asked as Chandice stormed to the startled Idris and grabbed her wrist.

“Oh, that’s the woman who built the zombie adventure that nearly ground us all into paste,” Jaina said as Gisley giggled. They turned to watch Chandice drag the woman to a bench and, before the entire common room, bend her over a knee. Idris cried out, pleading to know what she did wrong, when the spanking began to echo across the room.

“Hmm,” Olivia said as her eyes narrowed. “I lost my entire party in that death trap. Can I spank her, too?”

“Be our guest,” Roric laughed as Jaina got up to take Olivia over. Poor Idris was given a good spanking by Chandice, then forced to endure a second from a stranger who scolded her for making her adventure insanely difficult. Idris pleaded that she would fix it and promised to remove the zombie mutants as her rear started to glow bright red.

“We should let everybody who died in that adventure spank that little rear,” Chandice said as she watched Olivia punish the woman.

Jaina nodded in agreement as she relished the look on Idris's face as she took her punishment. It had been a trying day, but they made a new friend who wanted to contribute to the kingdom and be a part of its magic. They would introduce Olivia to Frank and Hannah later, and the kingdom would improve, growing into a better place for all. It was the perfect place for people who just wanted to enjoy their new life, be it as a hero, a monster, or a simple slave girl.

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