3.62: Team up

After sifting through the various LFG notifications that were posted near the bounty board, we finally found one suitable for our reduced levels. With the 80% reduction, my level was currently sitting at 52, down from my normal 256, and Nialla’s 177 was reduced to 36. Our goal had been to locate a group looking to take on a dungeon run in a demonic area to avoid any possible confrontations with angels. Despite Gehenna saying they weren’t likely to try anything so soon, I felt erring on the side of caution was a better plan. After heading to the designated meet-up location that had been attached to the request, we approached a party of three Demonspawn. At first glance, one of them appeared to be heavily armored, but didn’t currently have any weapons equipped, another wore blackened leather armor and a long black cloak with the hood up, while the other, a woman with long red hair, was partially obscured behind the massive armored figure.

“Hey, Lexia, Catalin… thanks for accepting our request. We’ve been trying to do this dungeon for almost a full week, but keep having to retreat before we make it to the boss. Having a level 52 should make this so much easier.”

I nodded and gave him a warm smile.

“Yeah, no worries. Most groups were either looking for full teams or just single players, so I’m glad you had two openings. Should we start with introductions?”

“Absolutely! I’m Xerez. Level 38 Battlemage. I haven’t picked a branch of magic to specialize in… I’ve sorta just got a bit of everything. I am technically the team’s healer, since Shadow and Tessa don’t have any healing magic. I’m also OK fighting up close if I need to, since I opted for [Heavy Armor Proficiency].”

As a tall woman standing just over 6 feet stepped out from behind Xerez, my eyes bugged out of my skull upon seeing what she was wearing. Her curvaceous body was clad in a tight corset bodysuit made out of what looked like some sort of enchanted latex. She had what appeared to be chainmail tights that looked more like fishnet stockings, and her knee high boots ended in a spiked 5 inch metal heel. A whip was attached to a tight leather belt that hung from her narrow waist, and I couldn’t help but drool as I saw the way the corset made her already generous breasts look even more full. She wore a pair of black leather gloves, but otherwise her arms remained completely bare. As she started to speak, I had to blink my eyes several times to refocus my brain.

“My name is Tessa. As Xerez said, thank you for joining us. I’m a level 33 Hypnodomme. I use a variety of taunts to pull the enemies close to me and then various charm effects to take control of them and make them fight for me.”

I looked over at Nialla and had to resist bursting into laughter as I saw she was equally spellbound by the woman, and even more stunned by the class name.

“OK, I have to ask, what in every fuck is a Hypnodomme?”

“So, it's actually a real thing. I combine hypnosis with the dominant aspects of BDSM and do a lot of types of kink play that revolve around that. I sorta said it as a joke when the character creator asked me what type of class I wanted to play as, but to my surprise, it actually came up with something that sounded awesome.”

“Huh.”

My brain was at a complete loss for words, and I had trouble tearing my eyes away from the gorgeous redhead as the other member of their party began speaking. The man’s face was mostly shrouded by the black hood he wore, but I could make out a black face mask that covered the lower half of his face and a sort of headband with a metal plate and infernal rune carved into it. He was loaded down with knives strapped in various places, and a slightly longer sword that resembled a japanese tanto was sheathed at his hip.

“I was cursed with the powers of darkness. The void itself became my ally, and I learned to wield it to both help and harm. I am forever damned to walk on the thin line between light and darkness, day and night, happiness and misery… never to be allowed to live in either world. Before Xerez and Tessa took it upon themselves to befriend one such as I, my only friends were the illusions I was able to summon. They chose not to judge me too harshly for my previously vicious ways, instead accepting me as I am, curses and all.”

I blinked my eyes several times as I stared at the strange man and then glanced back at Xerez and Tessa. They were both shaking their heads and had resigned looks on their faces.

“Yeah… Shadow is a bit… odd. But he’s a damn good rogue-type.”

Shadow bowed his cloaked head slightly and gave me a serious look.

“Thank you for not letting my terrifying curse aura frighten you away from joining us. I only hope that I can be of assistance to one so beautiful as you, Miss Lexia.”

I smiled at him awkwardly before turning to the others. I couldn’t resist a massive grin from spreading across my face as I thought of the perfect way to describe my class.

“So… I’m Lexia. I’m a level 52 switch.”

Tessa gave me a look of amusement and cocked her head.

“No… you’re definitely a sexy bottom bitch.”

Several things happened at once.

Nialla let out a small whimper as her own submissive nature was utterly drawn to Tessa. Even with my dampened senses, I could still smell the sweet scent of her arousal. My own internal subbiness began to melt a bit at the sexually charged comment Tessa had made, but it was directly countered by a low growl emanating from my throat. I hadn’t even consciously chosen to growl, but my overly dominant demon side took great offense at being seen as subordinate to anyone. The latex-clad woman mistakenly thought my growl was some sort of confirmation of her statement, and she gave me a very seductive smile. I had to fight against every instinct that was telling me to reach out and rip this woman’s head from her shoulders. I forced myself to smile and shrugged as nonchalantly as I could manage.

“Maybe… But I am really a switch. At least as far as my class goes. I use Command spells to summon different weapons and armor, and I have a bunch of different spells that lets me fill various roles. I’m mostly close-combat oriented, but I can change it up if needed.”

Xerez nodded in approval and then turned to Nialla.

“And you, Catalin?”

Her eyes remained firmly affixed on Tessa and I elbowed her slightly in the ribs and cleared my throat. She flinched at the contact and lightning covered her entire body before she teleported backwards a few steps. She gave me a sheepish look and then blushed profusely as she realized that everyone was staring at her.

“Sorry… Yeah… Uh… I’m uh… Catalin… or you can call me Cat… I’m a lightning mage.”

Xerez chuckled softly at Nialla’s awkwardness and then looked at the other two members of his team.

“We’re an awkward bunch, but we’ve stuck together long enough to make a small clan. I’m not sure how many members are in your clan, but if we end up rocking this dungeon I’d love for you both to join us.”

I grinned at him and shrugged.

“Maybe. We’ll see how things go. So… tell me about this dungeon.”

“The first part of the dungeon is actually not too challenging… It’s just your typical random demon mobs in medium to large groups ranging in levels from 20 up to 30. They do get slightly more difficult as you get closer to the mini-boss, but they shouldn’t give us too much trouble, especially with you at level 52. But… It’s the mini-boss that’s the real problem…”

Tessa nodded and sighed.

“It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just a typical bad-ass demon who was just a beast in combat… It’s the fact that the mobs that spawn endlessly are all immune to my mind-control magic. Every time we’ve attempted this, we always end up getting overwhelmed by them and have to retreat out of the dungeon.”

I narrowed my eyes a bit and gave Tessa a curious look.

“If I may ask, why keep trying this one specific dungeon? Surely there are other ones that you guys would be able to tackle without too much difficulty? Don’t get me wrong, I’m still down to help you guys do this one, I’m just curious.”

Xerez, Tessa, and Shadow glanced at each other wordlessly for a moment before Xerez exhaled loudly and turned back towards me.

“The last party I was in managed to beat this dungeon with a larger group. We were all in the mid-20s but there were also 12 of us. Upon beating the boss, he dropped an item for one of the players that ended up turning them into a full demon. His skills stayed relatively similar to his original ones, but his stats got a huge boost. After that we tried it a few more times, but the boss never dropped that item again. Since it was a random pick-up group we all went our separate ways when we were done, but I figured that once Tessa, Shadow, and I were all high enough level we could try it a few times to see if we could get one of those items. We wouldn’t have a full clan of demons like some of the top ones do, but it’d be a good start.”

I had to resist laughing at the irony of me specifically joining a small group solely to help them become full demons. Nialla gave me a knowing glance, but I ignored it and focused my attention on Xerez and his clan.

“Becoming a full demon sounds like an awesome idea. Even if the boss doesn’t end up dropping the item, I’m sure we can find other ways to do it.”

Xerez shrugged and gave me a grin.

“Well… I haven’t heard of any that would work for us at this level… but that’d be cool. Well… regardless… we gotta get to the boss to even have a shot at it.”

I nodded and tapped my chin a few times as I considered the best way to go about beating the mini-boss in such a way that I got to see what kind of players these three were without having to use my real power. From the sound of things, Tessa could handle tanking the mini-boss as it is, it was just the mobs that were giving the party trouble.

“So… It’s your show, and I’m down to follow your lead, but do you mind if I make a suggestion?”

Xerez nodded enthusiastically.

“By all means. If you think you have an idea that might work, we’re more than game to try something.”

“I should play some sort of ‘off-tank’ to handle the mobs that spawn in so you three can focus on the boss. Cat can split focus to help me deal with taking them out quickly while helping you guys keep pressure on the boss.  I have a healing spell to keep myself alive, so you won’t have to use any MP to heal me… So as long as you can hold aggro on the boss, Tessa, I think this will work.”

The three Demonspawn nodded and shared equal looks of excitement. I looked over at Nialla, who merely gave me a sly grin and a thumbs-up. I glanced back up at Xerez and he opened his menu to send us both a party invite. As Nialla and I both accepted, we started walking towards the entrance to the dungeon, which just looked like a huge bottomless hole in the ground. As we stood around the edge of the gaping maw, Xerez stopped for a moment and gave me a questioning look.

“How we gonna do loot? Split everything five ways except for class specific drops?”

I shook my head and grinned.

“Nah, I’m doing this to help Cat level up. I won’t be getting much XP, and I don’t need any specific loot drops.”

Nialla chimed in from beside me.

“I don’t need any loot drops either. This experience is enough for me.”

The others gave us looks of surprise but didn’t otherwise comment. Xerez opened his menu to make an adjustment to the settings for party loot, and both Nialla and I confirmed the changes.

“I can’t say I fully understand, but I won’t turn down more opportunities to get better drops. Alright… we all ready?”

Everyone nodded, and we jumped in.

-

So far from what I had seen, the entire world of Holy Damnation had seemed ruined, desolate, and hellish; So, as we entered the dungeon, I was surprised to see a lush jungle surrounding us. The sounds of insects and small animals filled the air, and I looked around in amazement. Shadow noticed my surprise and gave me a smile.

“This world is dark, twisted, and cursed. Everywhere we look, war has torn this place apart. But many dungeons offer a respite from the horrors of the world around us… albeit at the cost of being attacked by hordes of demons. Still, it is a welcome change from the dreary hellscape that leaves a stain on our very souls.”

Despite the odd, overly dramatic way he said it, Shadow was right. Seeing this lush, green jungle and all the life teaming within was truly a sight to behold. Before I could continue taking in the beauty of our surroundings, the sound of crashing trees and boots clanging off of hard ground filled the air. I looked to Xerez for instruction, but realized that without a demon’s sensitive hearing, he and the other two Demonspawn hadn’t picked up on the enemy that was fast approaching. Nialla caught my eye as she started holding up her hand to cast a spell, and I shook my head ever so slightly to indicate for her to hold. As the other three started moving forward, I did my best to ignore the sounds of enemies closing in. As the first demon came into view, Xerez started shouting out orders to the rest of us.

“Tessa, draw them all out to you and do your thing. Shadow, go dark and then move to take out any enemy casters or healers hanging back. Lexia, use a bow or ranged spells to take out the enemies before they close in, but avoid fire-based attacks. The last thing we need is to set this whole place ablaze. Cat, you and I will conserve our MP for now unless another mob spawns before we finish with this one. If that happens, we’ll help take the first one out as quickly as possible so we can focus on the new one.”

We all gave murmurs of acknowledgement and moved into a T shaped formation. Tessa stood in front of me with her whip drawn and other hand extended outwards, I stood behind her with the bow I had summoned, and Nialla and Xerez were behind me. I watched as Shadow flicked his wrist and a black swirl enveloped him and then faded as he disappeared from sight. I loosed my arrow at the closest demon as Tessa raised her hand high and her entire body started to glow a faint pink.

“Come and get me boys! We’ll have lots of fun… I promise!”

The pink aura spread out from her quickly and blasted through the jungle. As the first demon I had shot dropped dead, the several behind him started rushing forward recklessly, a strange pink shimmer showing in their eyes. I nocked another arrow and fired at one of them before I saw three more bounding in from the side. Nialla began to raise her hands to attack the newcomers, but Xerez grabbed her arm gently and shook his head.

“Hold up. Tessa’s got this.”

I dispatched the last demon that was charging us from the front and turned to watch the three others as they burst from the trees beside us. Tessa took a step towards them and gestured with her hand raised above her head and closed it into a tight fist as a much brighter pink aura of magic swirled around her.

"All good boys know where they belong—right on their knees!"

The three demons stopped in mid stride and dropped to their knees in front of her. As I looked at the three enemies, I saw small pink glowing hearts in their eyes. Tessa took another step forward and gently stroked the cheek of the nearest one.

“Such good boys aren’t you… why don’t you show me how good you are and make sure that anyone else who might be coming doesn’t hurt me, yes? If you do that for me, I’ll give you a nice reward…”

The glow of the pink hearts intensified as the demons stood and started rushing back into the jungle with their weapons drawn. I let out a soft whistle and nodded at the impressive display.

“Not bad. How long will that last?”

The sounds of fighting rang out as Tessa turned back to me.

“If they hadn’t fallen fully under the effects it would have only lasted another few seconds, but since they didn’t resist the secondary effect, it will last until I either dispel it, leave the area, or the enemy is killed.”

“Ahhhh that explains why you couldn’t bring them into the mini-boss room with you. But still, that’s an awesome ability. I’ve never heard of anyone making a sort of “charm tank,” but it’s a fucking cool concept.”

Tessa gave me a warm smile as she started moving forward.

“Thanks. Like I said… I said it as sort of a joke, but it actually turns out it's pretty awesome.”

“Given that most people don’t have charm magic resistance of any kind, I feel like it would be especially potent in a PvP setting. Did you guys play in that tournament thing they had not too long ago?”

I turned to Xerez as he spoke beside me.

“No, we weren’t high enough levels to really make it worth it. I know levels didn’t matter, but I was only level 13 at the time, and the others were barely level 10, so we didn’t have enough skills to really be effective. Plus, it’s only the three of us, and we’d have needed a fourth person.”

A voice sounded besides me, and I nearly jumped before realizing it was Shadow, still completely invisible.

“Alas, I was able to see my blue-haired goddess, but I was doomed to only love her from afar, since I wasn’t even worthy enough to stand in her presence.”

“Blue-haired goddess?”

Tessa rolled her eyes and Xerez rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“During the tournament, Shadow had a case of ‘love at first sight’ with one of the competitors. She was one of the ones in the elimination tournament. Really tall, dark armor, long blue hair…”

“A maiden most fair, with hair as blue as the oceans and armor as black as my soul. And a sword that could rend the heavens and hells in twain in a single stroke.”

This time I couldn’t stop the laugh as it burst from my mouth. Not only was this small clan looking to become demons, but one of them was apparently completely in love… with Tesrif. Oh… to see the look on my demon general’s face in that moment… I started laughing even harder as I pictured it and soon had to stop walking as I was almost doubled over at this point. The others stared at me in confusion, which only served to make me laugh even more. Finally, after I managed to catch my breath, I stood up and wiped the tears from my eyes.

“You uh… you alright, Lexia?”

“Yeah… Yeah… I’m good. Inside joke that was way funnier in my head. Which made your guys’ expressions that much funnier. Sorry. Let’s keep going.”

Xerez shot me another bemused expression before shaking his head, and began moving towards the thick jungle in the direction that the demons had come from. The heavy scent of blood filled my nose as we drew further into the dense foliage. After we traveled about 20 more feet, we came across what was left of the demons Tessa had charmed. The bodies looked like they had been completely torn apart limb from limb, with deep gashes covering the largest pieces. As Xerez moved to the closest corpse, he knelt down and examined it for a moment.

“Well… that’s new.”

“New?”

Xerez nodded his head as he stood up.

“So far all of the demons we’ve encountered in this part of the dungeon have been mostly humanoid. Whatever did this has a lot of strength and some massive claws.”

Almost as if on cue, a loud roar shook the air around us. The terrifying sound that was twenty times louder than any lion I had ever heard silenced everything around us. Nialla tensed up and dropped into a defensive fighting stance. Had her feline features been visible, I have no doubt her ears would be flat and pulled back against her skull, while her tail lashed back and forth violently. Even as I stared at her I could see the pupils of her eyes contracting just slightly to resemble thin slits. I processed all of this information in the time it took for Xerez to turn towards the source of the sound, and moved closer to my girlfriend to place a hand on her arm. She flinched slightly from the contact but didn’t pull away.

“You good, Cat?”

Her nostrils flared a few times as she inhaled deeply, before she turned to me with a steely gaze.

“We’re being watched. I can’t get an exact count, but there’s more than one of them.”

“One what?”

I ignored Tessa’s question as I scanned the jungle around us. Even with my enhanced senses, the only creatures I was able to detect were the small creatures that were remaining completely silent. In fact, as I listened closely, the only sounds I was able to hear were the ones coming from our group. Just as I turned to whisper quietly to the others, a blur of jet black fur dropped down from one of the nearest trees and lunged toward Xerez. I focused on my speed to intercept the beast, but before I could even blink a massive white tiger with blue stripes tackled the creature and took it to the ground. The giant black creature that resembled a six-legged panther was easily 6 or 7 feet tall, and seemed to be around 12 feet long, but the massive creature that was pinning it to the ground was easily twice that size. Even though I had seen it quite a few times, seeing Nialla’s Stormtiger form never ceased to amaze me. As she opened her jaws wide as if to bite down on the creature, a blast of lightning erupted from her mouth and completely atomized the skull of the creature beneath her. As she stood up off the smoking remains of the panther demon, she let out a loud roar of triumph and turned to face the rest of us.

Xerez and Tessa started backing away from Nialla slowly before I reached out and gently grabbed their arms.

“Hey, it’s all good. That’s Catalin. That’s just one of the aspects of her magic.”

The two Demonspawn looked at me dumbstruck, but as Shadow reappeared next to Nialla and put a hand on her side, they both turned to him as he spoke.

“To think that like me, deep within the confines of your soul resides such a strong powerful beast, Catalin. You are fortunate to be able to unleash the monster to slake your thirst for violence.”

We all laughed loudly as Nialla’s tiger face adopted a very human looking expression as she rolled her eyes. That simple action broke the tension and Tessa and Xerez rushed forward to study Nialla closer.

After letting the three Demonspawn admire Nialla's tiger form and answering as many questions as I could without giving away our real identities, our group made our way through the jungle with Nialla leading the way. Her presence seemed to scare off the remaining panther demons, as the only enemies we encountered were several groups of humanoid demons. Once we finished dispatching all of the demons that Tessa had charmed, the outline of a glowing freestanding door appeared in front of us. Xerez took a step closer to the door before turning to face us.

“OK, once we're inside, we'll have about 20 seconds to rush forward to get as close as we can to the entrance of the huge cave where the mini-boss spawns. We need to get as close as we can manage so we don't have to fight our way through the endless number of enemies that spawn in the jungle. Once we're inside the cave, Tessa will draw the attention of the boss with her taunt and hold aggro for the rest of the fight. I will back her up with healing spells, buffing enchantments, and hex spells on the boss. Lexia will remain at the entrance keeping all the enemies that spawn from entering the cave. Catalin will position herself halfway between Lexia and me, focusing primarily on damaging the boss unless Lexia starts to get overwhelmed.”

He paused for a moment, making sure we understood everything so far. After we all gave nods or murmurs of agreement, he turned to Nialla and me.

“The mini-boss is a sort of giant man-eating plant monster that looks like a giant green anemone with tentacles and a huge mouth full of sharp teeth. It–”

“Wait… Did you say tentacles?”

We all turned around to face Nialla who had shifted back to her disguised Demonspawn form. As we stared at her for a moment, she let out an awkward chuckle and shrugged as we gave her a knowing look.

“I’m just clarifying for… scientific purposes. Obviously.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes as the others laughed softly.

“Cat, I speak for all of us when I say we’ve all seen enough hentai to know where your mind just went…”

She blushed and turned away slightly. Tessa walked over to her and put her arm around Nialla’s shoulders.

“Don’t worry, hon. I’m the last one to kinkshame. Just trust me when I say the last thing you want to do is get grabbed by these tentacles, they are coated in a potent poison that will eat away your flesh if it remains in contact with your skin for too long.”

Nialla’s eyes went wide and she visibly paled.

“Yeah… Never mind. I’ll keep my kinks in check. You can continue Xerez.”

Xerez finished describing the mini-boss to us and the various attacks it used while we discussed the best strategy to counter it. After we came up with a viable plan, we stepped through the door to begin the fight.