Chapter Thirty-Two: A Healing Embrace

[Primary Class Selection Available!]

I couldn’t help but smile when I read it. Not even when my collar heated up and compelled me to rise. Ina had turned sixteen just two days ago, and now it was my turn. I wanted to look at the options for my class, but I had a strict order that I wasn’t to do so until Karn allowed it. He couldn’t risk me taking one that didn’t fit into his experiments, after all.

“Dude, happy fucking birthday!” Ina called.

My smile widened, though I knew she couldn’t see it. She fell into step beside me, and we headed up the incline away from our base camp. Hopefully for the last time. “Thanks. Excited?”

“Excited and terrified,” she admitted. “I can’t wait to get out of this darkness, but what if what comes next is worse?”

I tapped her shoulder twice with the backs of two fingers. The signal we’d come up with for shrug since we couldn’t see one another. “As long as I can see, who cares?”

She elbowed me. “I’m serious, Zaren!”

“Thirteen,” I corrected her.

“Ah, shoot. That’s right.” Karn would punish anyone who used a name other than the numbers we were assigned. “Dang, that’s going to take some getting used to.”

“Tell me about it. You look way more like a ten than a Fourteen.”

She elbowed me again. “Thirteen! Did you just hit on me?”

I laughed. It felt good to laugh, even if we were probably heading into an all new hell. “Louis used that line on Maris. When she was done giggling about it, he admitted he didn’t actually know what it meant.”

“Neither did you, or you wouldn’t be talking about my appearance. Need I remind you that you have no idea what I look like? A lot of growing happens in three years.”

I tried not to think about the fact that I was about to find out. I was already feeling giddy enough that our three years in the dark were done. I felt her hand slip into mine. She was shaking, though from fear or anticipation I had no clue. Probably both.

I felt the need to reassure her despite the uncertainty gnawing a hole in my gut. “It’s gonna be fine. Look, whatever happens next, we stick together, alright?” I told her. “We’ll have classes now. Actual classes! We’ve watched each other’s backs for three years, I don’t plan to stop just because I’ll finally have to look at your ugly mug.”

She squeezed my hand so hard I thought it might break. “You promise? Because if I’m being honest, the idea of being alone after this is…kinda terrifying.”

“I promise.” I felt the heat coming from her body. She’d moved close enough that we were almost touching. Our orders forced us to approach the door, but there was the slightest wiggle room in those orders. As long as we followed them, we had the smallest of freedoms. “Whatever Karn throws at us, if we’ve got each other, we’ll endure.”

“I’m glad it was you, Thirteen. The one to make it to the end with me,” she said softly.

A part of me didn’t feel the same. I felt like any of the others deserved to be here more than I did, but there was no use thinking about that. Not now. “I’m glad you made it, too.” We’d almost reached the Door. “You’re gonna get to see the sun again.”

“You will, too.” Silence fell between us until we reached the Door. I knew if I reached out, I’d feel the rough wood. I regained control of my legs as our command released us for the moment. Her hand tightened around mine, and I felt her moving. I was just about to ask what she was up to when I felt lips brush against mine. It was quick and hesitant, little more than a peck, but it made my heart hammer in my chest. I’d never kissed a girl before, but I very badly wanted to do it again.

But she pulled away before I could even piece my thoughts together. “There. Now, no matter what happens, I can say I fell for your personality and not your looks.”

A wide smile split my face. I was glad she couldn’t see me grinning like an idiot, though she certainly heard it in my voice. “And just what do you plan to do when I turn out to have buck teeth and a unibrow?”

Two taps. “At least I won’t have to worry about competition,” she teased.

That pulled another laugh out of me. “You’re too kind. Too bad the same isn’t true in reverse. If I was hot and you weren’t, I’m not sure I could make such a sacrifice.” My tone made it clear that I didn’t mean a word of it. You didn’t fight for survival for three years with someone and not develop some kind of feelings for them. Especially when you spent the last six months of those three years just you and her. My feelings for her had grown deep, but not knowing if either of us would make it to the end had always stayed my hand. Hers too, I’d wager.

The lock to the Door clicked, and she quickly pulled her hand from mine. She knew about Hanna. They all did. She didn’t want to be used against me, so I knew she’d distance herself when Karn was around. If there are any gods listening, I prayed silently, please protect her. Please keep my friend safe. I missed her warmth immediately, especially when the door swung open and the anticipation hit me in full.

The room on the other side was dimly lit, but it was the most light I’d seen in three years. A tall man with a sword at his hip and a crossbow slung over his back stood on the other side. Not Karn, but one of Karn’s servants. He looked us up and down. “Just you two?”

My mouth dry, I looked at Ina. The light from the room was enough to let us see one another. She was looking back at me. She had curly brown hair and light hazel eyes, and her faint smile filled me with warmth. A small nose, round lips, and pointed chin. She was beautiful. From the way her eyes sparkled, I had to hope I looked half as good to her as she did to me.

“Yes,” I told the man. I tore my gaze from Ina and looked at him. “Just the two of us. The others all died.”He just grunted, then turned and walked into the room. The light came from under the door on the other side. A line of white that was so bright it must have been sunlight. It hurt to look at, but I couldn’t make my self stop. Not until I felt movement come from my right.

Karn was sitting in a chair, and just the sight of him made fear race through me. All I could see when I looked at him was the man who’d cut Hannah’s throat. Hatred and revulsion bubbled in my gut, but I fought them down. I didn’t want to give him any reason to hurt Ina.

We both came to a stop and he stood. His gaze raked over us with faint interest. “Listen up.” My collar heated up, waiting for his command. “Stay and be silent until spoken to.” My feet locked in place and my jaw went numb. I knew Ina was going through the same thing next to me.

Another wave of fear ran through me when he turned towards her first. “Fourteen.” Her collar would be heating up. “Without making a selection, read me your class options.”

I couldn’t move my feet, but I could look at her. Watching her lips move while she talked was mesmerizing. The same lips that had pressed against mine just a few minutes ago. “Dancer, shadow, and quartermaster, master.”

Karn’s lips pursed. “The description for Shadow. Read it to me.”

She swallowed audibly. “Move unseen in the night. Specialize in covert actions and ambush attacks.” Her voice was suddenly uncertain.

He made a disappointed sound. “Unfortunate. Another failure.” He waved a hand, and there was a sharp twang!

Ina gasped, and my head whipped around to see her stagger back with a crossbow bolt sticking from her chest. She looked down at it in confusion, then looked to me and fell back onto the ground. I watched in horror, unable to scream for her the same way I hadn’t even been able to scream for Hannah. She looked at the bolt and wrapped a hand around it, then whimpered. She reached towards the line of light under the door, then fell back.

Her eyes found me. “I’m—I’m glad,” she choked, “that it was you.”

Then she was gone.

The tears were streaming down my face. No. No. This couldn’t be happening. Not after everything we’d survived. It had to be a nightmare. A cruel trick. Another test. She was okay. She had to be. I couldn’t move, but my legs wouldn’t support me either. I fell to my knees. I dimly heard the sound of the crossbow being reloaded, but I couldn’t look away from her glassy eyes, still fixed on where I’d been standing.

“Thirteen,” Karn said.

My collar heated up, and I was forced to tear my gaze from her and meet his. He looked down without a shred of emotion, like he hadn’t just taken the person I cared about most. Again. I wanted to scream. To throw myself at him and gouge his eyes out. To hurt him like he’d hurt me over and over and over again, but I couldn’t. The collar wouldn’t let me move, much less cause him any injury.

“Without making a selection,” he said again, “read me your class options.”

It took me a moment to see through the tears in my eyes, but I managed to pull up my System interface for the very first time. This moment was one of the most exciting moments for everyone else in the world, and it was the worst day of my life. Maybe even the last one if he didn’t like what he heard. I looked at the options.

I read the titles out for Karn and he straightened. His nostrils flared. Three classes, and all of them sounded like they belonged to killers. If I got to start with Karn, then any of them were fine by me. I wanted the Reaper skill most of all. I wanted to kill him. I would kill him.

“Read the Shadowborn description to me,” he demanded with force. I did, then I closed my eyes. I waited for the crossbow bolt to hit me. Maybe Ina was waiting for me just on the other side. I decided if that was the case, then I’d rather die here and now.

But the bolt never came. When I finally opened my eyes, he was smiling. “Finally.” He looked at the man behind him. “As agreed, your family will be well taken care of. Once you’ve disposed of the girl, drink the poison.”

The man nodded once, then he walked past me and threw Ina’s thin frame over his shoulder. She looked so small compared to him. I wanted to scream at him for treating her like she was nothing more than a sack of feed, but my voice was still locked away by Karn’s command.

I glared at Karn, hoping my anger and my hatred shone through. He just smiled cruelly down at me.

“Thirteen, select Shadowborn as your class.” The collar heated up. I tried to resist, but a sharp pain exploded in my skull. The room swam, and when it finally came back into focus the Shadowborn class had been selected.

“Thirteen,” my collar heated again. “Nobody is ever to know what happened to you these last three years. You will not speak a word of it aloud, and you will never tell a soul how you obtained your class.”

I wanted to scream. It wasn’t bad enough that he’d taken Ina from me, but he’d just made it so that I could never even talk about her. Never tell anyone what had happened to the very first girl I’d fallen for. Hells, I’d never even get to tell anyone I’d fallen for Ina.

I could feel myself slipping. Retreating back into myself. Falling into that pit where I’d ended up after Hannah. My strength left me. So did my rage and my anger and my hate. My arms went limp, and all that was left in me was emptiness.

Karn’s smile only widened. “You’ll stay in this room for the next month to reacclimate your eyes to light. After that, you will begin phase three with the other successes. Well done, boy. You’ve just become one of the most valuable slaves in this world.”

With a wolfish grin, he turned and swept from the room, leaving me alone. The tears kept pouring, and once he was gone the first sob slipped out. A part of me wanted to scream and rage and destroy everything left behind in the room, but my body refused to cooperate. I didn’t have anything left.

Then pain erupted in my chest. It was as if an iron hand had suddenly clamped around my heart. I tried to scream, but no sound came out. The pain was horrendous. Like I was being ripped apart from the inside. It burned worse than any physical pain I’d ever been subjected to. Far worse. I felt like I was going to die. I wanted to die, just to make it stop.

Then I was back in the cavern. Back where I’d hallucinated Karn standing over the corpses of the ones I cared about. I knew it was a hallucination, but that didn’t stop the pain as Ina appeared before me. Her eyes were still glassy. The bolt still protruded from her chest, a thin trail of blood disappearing between her breasts.

Over and over she asked me why. Why did she have to die? How could I break my promise to her? How could I fail her so horribly? She raged and railed that I walked away from that room and she didn’t. That she died like an animal without ever even reaching the sun.

I tried to speak, but there were no words that I could possibly say to her. No answers to the questions I’d asked myself over and over for years. I reached for her, but she just recoiled from me. The pain in my chest burned worse and worse and worse until I thought It’d kill me for sure then—

Then it was gone.

It vanished, Ina along with it. In its place was a familiar warmth. Like a gentle caress, softly promising me that everything was going to be alright. I let it chase away the pain until there was only a soft golden light at the edges of my vision remaining. Serena’s skill, reaching me even through my nightmare.

“You were right, I do like your friends.” It was the voice of the kid, coming from behind me.I didn’t rise from where I knelt, but I turned. Before I looked at him, I knew what I’d find. In the light of my dream, I saw him. Thirteen years old, dark shaggy hair, pale skin, and piercing blue eyes. Gangly and uncertain with thick bags under his eyes and a collar around his neck that faintly bore the number thirteen on it.

“You’re me,” I said.

Young me crossed his arms. “No shit.”

I forced myself to stand, wobbling under the echoes of whatever pain had nearly taken me out. “How?”

He shrugged. “Hell if I know. I know I’m not fully you. Not really, at least.”

I looked at him closer. He seemed frayed at the edges. His figure was blurred slightly, and it was getting worse by the second. “You’re a fragment, then. The part of me that was first sent down into the catacombs.”

“Whatever I was, I won’t be for much longer.”

“You guided me. Helped me keep moving.”

He shrugged, seemingly unbothered that he was fading from existence. “Seemed like the thing to do.”

I tried my best to recall everything that had happened, but hallucinogens often made things like that difficult. In the end, only one thing made any real sense. “Are you the cursed blade?”

He gave me a droll look that almost made me laugh in its familiarity. “No, dumbass. I’m not a sword. I’m you, remember? We just went over this.”

I felt a little foolish, but the blade had done stranger things. “But the blade conjured you somehow. It was aiding me, wasn’t it?” That was the only explanation as to how I’d survived the spiders’ trap. Once again, I’d made it through on sheer luck.

He shrugged again, half his form gone. “Makes sense to me. Whatever happened, I wouldn’t expect it to happen again.”

No, I definitely wouldn’t. I’d gotten out by the skin of my teeth, and there would certainly be a cost. If I was lucky, then that cost would just mean the sword couldn’t pull such a trick out of its proverbial ass again. I doubted I was lucky.

“In any case, thank you,” I told him.

He inclined his head. “Don’t let it go to waste. We’ve already had more chances than we deserve.”

He finished fading away, and the room followed after him. As it disappeared, I couldn’t help but agree.

# # #

My own young face was still firmly in my mind when I woke from my nightmare of a memory. It happened in stages while my body worked through all the many sensations I was feeling. My body ached, but that was no surprise. Something warm and soft was pressed against my side, and magical warmth spread from every part of it that touched me. Serena, fully naked, using her healing skill on me, also fully naked.

Much of that warmth seeped into my aching muscles and the dull pain in my left arm, but more than a little traveled south. That wasn’t much of an issue, though, because they’d clearly taken that into consideration. A set of warm, soft lips slid up and down over my length, taking me all the way to the base with slow, deliberate motions. The tongue working the underside of my shaft send soft waves of pleasure that battled away the pain in the rest of me. I focused on the feeling for a while, letting the rest of me catch up.

I could feel a thin blanket stretched over us, though where it had come from I had no idea. I heard the faint sound of moving water nearby, but I could also tell by the way the air moved that we were still underground. My brain was still lagging behind. Where was I? How did I get here? Light seeped through my eyelids, though, so I finally lifted them and took a look around.

The room was decently sized, but a quick glance showed only a two entrances, both of which were too small for anything bigger than me to slip through. There were no webs, either, which meant no spiders. Valax weren’t fond of running water, so that was no surprise. A small underground creek ran through the center of the room, which is probably the reason I felt clean.

I held a hand up in front of me. The one on my injured arm, since my good one had been commandeered by Serena. Thicker than it had been at sixteen, and with many more calluses. It had just been a dream. I wasn’t back in the catacombs. Ina was gone, but so was Karn. So was the hallucination of my younger self. I looked down at Serena and contemplated waking her up.

“I’d let her sleep,” a voice said softly to my side. I looked over to see Elisa with her knees drawn to her chest, writing in a leather-bound booklet. Every so often her eyes flicked up to where the blanket thrown over us bobbed up and down. “She only just nodded off a little while ago. She’s been up for most of the night.”

“How long—” the mouth around my shaft—Rhallani’s, I was guessing—froze. Then I felt fingers on my sac and I felt her speed up. “How long have I been out?” I continued.

She fished a pocket watch out of her bag and checked it. “Nine hours, give or take.” She closed the watch and replaced it. “You were in bad shape, and you’d toss and turn and get feverish whenever she wasn’t healing you, so she kept it up as long as she had mana. That finally relented about an hour ago, hence her actually resting. We’re down to a single mana potion, but we all agreed keeping you alive was well worth it.”

I trailed a hand softly across her hair. She didn’t even stir. “Well, I appreciate that, at least. Is everyone alright?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Noelle’s been asleep pretty much the whole time, though. Rhallani seemed worried, but she’s fine physically.”

I lifted my head enough to see that Noelle was indeed curled up into a ball on Serena’s other side with her back pressed against the taller girl. She was also naked. I looked to Elisa with a raised brow.

She blushed furiously. “Serena’s skill evolved. She can heal multiple targets as long as she’s touching them, so while she was wrapped around you we took turns wrapping around her. Noelle has the most health, so we moved her to be pressed into Serena while she slept.”

I nodded. “A good idea.”

“Rhallani’s. She’s amazing.”

“That she is,” I agreed. The mouth on my cock was rapidly bringing me to climax. “And insatiable, apparently.”

Her blush darkened. “Well, Serena’s skill has that…side effect. You got—um, aroused, and it started…well, throbbing, so they took turns helping you out.”

A likely excuse. I’d have to thank Rhallani when she was done. “And Tiana?”

“W-well, she has her reasons. She should probably tell you those herself when she gets done, though.” Her eyes flicked towards the head that had picked up speed as my cock started twitching.

“Done with—” Oh. Oh. I slid my hands down and sunk into hair that was fluffier and longer than Rhallani’s. It wasn’t my little Arelim at all that was currently sucking me off, it was Tiana.

That knowledge was more than enough to push me over the edge and I came with a surprised grunt. Her lips went all the way to my base and I could feel her throat working to swallow every drop of my load. Only after she’d drank it all down and licked me clean did she crawl up my body. She smiled bashfully when her head emerged from under the blanket and laid down on top of me with her head resting just under mine. She was as naked as Serena and I.

Then she froze. “Ah, um, is this alright?”

I raised my brows at her. “Considering where my dick just was, I think it’s a little late to ask that.”

She paled. “Shit. You’re angry.”

Tiana tried to push herself off me, but I pulled her back down by reaching around her and grabbing a handful of ass. “Not angry, just a little surprised.”

She moaned and practically collapsed into me, rubbing her very hard nipples against my chest. “S-sorry. I have a skill, see. An active.” She slipped her leg between mine so that my thigh was between hers and started grinding against me. “I can increase my mana regeneration at the cost of getting really fucking horny, and I didn’t want to waste the mana potions.”

I took pity on her and slid two fingers into her slit from behind and she practically melted into me. I started finger fucking her and she came in seconds. “And sucking dick helps?”

“It—oh, yes—it takes the edge off while Rhallani’s on guard duty. Another skill. Giving p-pleasure to others reduces the effects other skills have on me. She’s been helping me otherwise. We still haven’t…I mean, I wasn’t going to go that far while you were asleep.”

I glanced back to Elisa who was trying very hard to hide that she was watching us over the edge of her notebook. “And you? How are you doing?”

It took her a moment to realize I’d been talking about her. “Oh! Um, I’m not dead, so as good as I can be all things considered. I’m sorry you guys got in so much trouble for me, though.”

My only response was a grunt. In all honesty, assuming we made it out alive, it was a small miracle that we’d found our way down here when we did. That was a conversation I wanted to have while everyone was awake and present, though. Tiana came on my fingers again and I slipped them out long enough to sit up, conjuring a pack behind me to sit against. Serena made a small noise and nestled deeper into my chest, but she didn’t wake.

From this perspective, I could see a little more of Noelle. She had faded wounds on her, but nothing serious. What drew my eye, since her back was to me, was her wings. They were longer than they had been before, and I could see small black feathers already growing at their bases.

I tore my gaze from her when Tiana snuggled back into me, her breasts on full display now. She rested her head on my shoulder with flushed cheeks and looked at me pleadingly, then spread one of her legs slightly. I couldn’t help but smile, then I leaned down and kissed her while my fingers went to work on her clit. She moaned into my mouth and I felt her hand wrap around my length and start delivering slow, deliberate strokes.

“It’s a useful skill,” she panted, “but it leaves me so fucking pent up and sensitive.” She arched her back into me and closed her eyes. “But you relieve tension soooo well.”

I chuckled. “Glad I could be of service.”

She opened her mouth to say something else, but clamped it shut and shuddered her way through another climax. I flicked my eyes over to Elisa who was still holding her notebook up, but her other hand had disappeared beneath the waistband of her pants. I didn’t say anything though, like with Noelle, having an audience made things different in a way I wasn’t too ready to think about just yet.

I slowed my ministrations but didn’t stop, and Tiana seemed content to just lay there against me. I slowly dragged my fingers across Serena’s back, but she kept snoring away happily. I stopped long enough to reach out and touch Noelle’s back, feeling her slow, constant heartbeat. She seemed as out of it as Serena.

Tiana’s eyes started to close, and before long she was also dozing lightly. She was smiling and her body was still very reactive, so I kept working my fingers. They’d been getting me off in my sleep, so I could at least return the favor. It was hard to think with her stilled hand still wrapped around my member, but I had notifications to deal with.

[Level Up!]

[Skill Evolution Detected!]

[Level Up!]

[Skill Evolution Detected!]

My brows shot up. Aside from the two extra levels—that meant I’d shot up six in the time we’d been down here, which was a little insane—two skills had evolved. I tried to remember what had happened before I’d passed out, but it was a jumbled mess. I’d been hallucinating my balls off, I was sure of that, which meant I’d need to wait until Rhallani or Serena could tell me what had happened from their perspective. For now, I needed to know what skills had changed.

Gone was [Control Darkness], which was what let me manually control my shadows at times. In it’s place was [Shadows of Self].

It was more or less the same skill, but with the added addition of being able to give commands. That meant I wouldn’t have to focus on my shadows directly as much, which was good. [Control Darkness] had also mentioned my shadows only being able to perform simple actions and losing power with distance, but this skill lacked those restrictions. I’d have to test it out as soon as we were aboveground. Then I looked at the other evolved skill and a hint of panic flared in my chest. [Armor of Shadows] was no more, but a quick glance at Serena revealed the strip of black still around her neck. Frowning, I checked the new skill.

Okay, not having to expend mana on the armor was a massive boon. Not only that, but if I was reading the skill correctly I had not one, but three sets I could give out with another only six Primal away. I was glad the evolution of the skill hadn’t stripped Serena of hers, and now I could protect Rhallani as well. Noelle, too, but I had a feeling she might turn it down in favor of giving it to Tiana or Elisa.

The idea of Rhallani in anything even close to what Serena was wearing made me grin. I wasn’t sure who’d be more excited, me or her. But I wasn’t done with my class just yet. Seventeen meant more attribute points, and eighteen meant a new skill. I checked the available skills first in case they might change where I put my points.

[Shadowbound Weapon] would be useful, but I wasn’t married to it. There were two new options, though, that both sounded interesting. One was [Umbral Regeneration], which would increase both my health and mana regeneration in the dark. It would be helpful at night, but the skill would still be useless for nearly half the day unless I was somewhere the sun couldn’t reach. And it was another skill that would make things more difficult for my companions in order for me to take full advantage. The other similarly named skill felt like an answer to my prayers.

One of my greatest weaknesses was that I had to close the gap between me and my enemy before I could deal any real damage. I had skills to facilitate that, but being able to strike from afar was too great a boon to pass up. Another active meant more mana usage, though, and not having to expend some to keep the armor up only mitigated so much. As badly as I wanted more Primal, [Giant Killer] was enough to bridge the gap between me and any dangerous foes. I sunk my points into my Focus and looked over my stats in full.

My agility was still pretty sad, which meant I was heavily reliant on [Horde Slayer] and [Predator’s Pursuit] to move quickly. Hopefully I got a good option for a support class as my secondary in two levels that could help with that. Mythic classes were great, but they often left a bit of a gap in stats compared to other classes. Right now my worst case scenario was a single enemy right at my level.

As if she knew I’d finished, Rhallani walked into the room. “Still quiet as a graveyard, which is creepy as—” She slammed to a stop when she saw me sitting up. Then tears built in her eyes and she ran at me. Tiana, who had woken at the sound of Rhallani’s voice, gave me a quick peck on the cheek before rolling away just in time for Rhallani to throw her arms around me and bury her face in my neck.

“You’re awake!” she cried into me.

I wrapped my free arm around her, but the sudden jostle had woken Serena. She looked around with bleary eyes until she realized where she was, then she gasped and claimed my other side with a tight embrace.

“Easy, easy!” I laughed, clutching both of them as tightly as they clutched me anyways. “Pretty sure my ribs are still not doing great.”

They both pulled back. Rhallani’s hands found my face and she planted her lips on mine while Serena’s hands frantically roamed my sides, checking for any tender areas she could work her magic on. “I’m alright, I’m alright,” I assured them.

They both looked up at me with expressions torn between worry, fear, and anger. Rhallani smacked my shoulder, though not hard enough to hurt. “You jerk! Do you have any idea how worried we were?”

I caressed both of their cheeks. “Believe it or not, I just might. I was worried about you, too.”

Serena’s hands hadn’t slowed down. “Are you in pain anywhere? Do you have any lingering injuries? Is all the venom gone?”

I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into my side, trapping her arms between us. “One question at a time. No, no, and it feels that way. I feel fine, so take a breath.”

She bit her lip, then nodded. I released her, but she grabbed my arm and tucked it under her breasts with her fingers entwined with mine and pressed her back to my side. Rhallani finally sat back, and when I felt her on the top of my thigh I realized she was wearing nothing under her skirt. My cock twitched in spite of everything, and I knew it hadn’t gone unnoticed.

Rhallani glanced at it, then back at me. “I know you probably want to get moving, but not before we talk.” She threw the blanket aside and raised up with one leg locked, then lined me up and sheathed me inside her with one fluid movement. She let out a satisfied sigh when our hips met.

I groaned at her wet heat enveloping me. “You girls are going to be the death of me.”

Rhallani leaned back and started slowly moving up and down, biting her lip. “Better us than these fucking spiders.”

Serena rested her head on my chest, and Tiana sidled back up into the spot Rhallani had vacated with her hips tilted enough to give me access. “It’d be best if we got everyone on the same page,” Tiana said. I slipped my hand down her back and started fingering her while Rhallani rode me. She lifted her hips a little more to give me a better angle, leaning on me, but her expression didn’t change. “I’m still very grateful that you’ve saved my life and you’ve made me cum more in the last day than I have in the last month, but watching you rip apart those spiders with your bare hands was still fucking terrifying and I’d feel a lot better with at least a little context.”

Damn. What the hell happened before I passed out? I looked down at Serena, whose wide eyes were fixed on my face. “I got poisoned. Altaxian Recluse venom. Not my first time, either. In some places, it’s used as an interrogation tool. It can trap its victims in memories and, with the right outside stimuli, you can lead them through those memories to get information. Unfortunately for the spiders, I got trapped in a memory where I was fighting for my life on a pretty much daily basis.”

Tiana started running her hand over my groin just above where Rhallani and I were connected. “Whatever you were seeing, I know it was bad enough that I won’t ask. What about those red shadows? The ones that ripped apart that giant spider like it was nothing.”

Oh shit. Evolved skills. Red shadows. I reached for the cursed sword in my storage and was alarmed to find it wasn’t there. Panic flared through me, but Rhallani pushed down on my chest. “It’s with the golem,” she said quickly, stopping her movement. “I know you said it wasn’t a good idea to touch it, so I had the golem carry it while we brought you here. It makes a good spider crusher and doesn’t seem to harm the golem, so we let it keep the sword for now.”

That calmed me slightly. “Tell me what happened. I can’t trust my own recollection.”

Rhallani returned to riding me while she explained their side of things. The phase spider vanished with me, and the spiders had retreated for a time. They’d gone searching for me, but then the spiders had started coming at them in waves. It was only Tiana’s magic and Elisa’s contraptions that had kept them from being overrun, but they had no idea where I’d gone. In the end, they decided that heading for the exit was their only real option. They’d hoped I’d do the same thing and we’d meet up closer to the surface.

But then the spiders had cornered them. They’d been low on mana and health and at the end of their rope when I’d shown up. Feral and unhinged. The spiders had left them alone entirely to come after me, but the crimson tinged shadows surrounding me made quick work of them. She told me how I’d fought like an animal, and I could tell from the way she jammed her eyes shut and picked up speed that it wasn’t a pleasant memory for her. Even recounting it she was trying her best to distract herself with the pleasure of me inside her. She’d been scared for me. Of me.

I reached out and pulled her to my chest, then sunk a hand into the flesh of her ass and used it as leverage to start slowly fucking her. She moaned, then nestled into my neck and continued. I hadn’t been in my right mind and attacked Serena, though she was quick to assure me I hadn’t done any actual damage to her. I still felt like complete shit knowing I’d struck out at someone I cared about, but all I could do was promise to make things up to her later.

She wrapped her arms around me, bucking her hips to meet mine as both of our climaxes raced closer. She told me I’d been talking to someone who wasn’t there, but she was reluctant to tell me exactly what I’d said. Then Noelle had managed to get the sword in its scabbard and Rhallani had closed the clasp, and I’d practically passed out on the spot.

The sword really had protected me. More than that, it had managed to slip out of my storage without me summoning it. I couldn’t be sure considering I was poisoned out of my mind, but I wasn’t entirely certain I’d been the one to undo the clasp either. I racked my brain to try and make sense of the hallucination and connected some of the dots.

The pain in my neck would have been exactly where the crimson shadows had covered my flesh, according to Rhallani. I should have been killed while I was hallucinating, but the sword had somehow taken control of my shadows and defended me. More than that, my hallucinations had led me right back to the others. A part of that could have been my subconscious, but it could have just as easily been the sword.

But my train of thought was getting harder to keep on the rails the closer I grew to climax. I leaned forward and Tiana and Serena gave me space to set Rhallani down on her back so I could fuck her for real. She cried out, her fingernails dragging across my back while I pounded her hard enough to send her into one climax, then almost immediately a second one. Her walls clenching around me was enough to push me over the edge, so I buried my length in her and let go, filling her to the brim.

I gave her a kiss, then pulled back. I shifted around to lean against the pack and Serena lowered her head to suck me clean. Tiana had a similar idea, though her tongue went straight into Rhallani to clean up the mess I’d left inside her. Judging from Rhallani’s whine, I was pretty sure her still-sensitive pussy came one last time wrapped around Tiana’s tongue.

“Gods help me, I don’t know what I’m going to do with two perverts,” I said with a laugh, very much enjoying the view I got of Tiana’s rear while she ate Rhallani out. Unable to resist, I reached out and ran a hand over it.“One pervert, one nympho,” Elisa said from the side of the room. I’d almost forgotten she was there, and when I looked at her questioningly she fixed her gaze on the floor with a heavy flush. “Rhallani thinks about sex, but Tiana’s body craves it. Rhallani’s a perv, Tiana is a nympho.” She shrugged. “We had a lot of time to talk while you recovered.”

I could only shake my head and continue to run my hand over Tiana’s plump rear. She groaned appreciatively into Rhallani, who let out a moan of her own. “Is every girl I meet secretly horny all the time?” I asked Serena.She just wiped her lip off and laid back down on my chest. “Lucky you.”

I was inclined to agree. But that wasn’t the topic that needed discussing. In fact, their story had raised another very important issue. “Serena, your skill evolved, right? Can you tell me the new text?”

“[Healing Embrace]. ‘Expend mana to restore damage to any friendly targets in direct contact with you.’ Like before, that only seems to include skin-to-skin contact.”

Rhallani finally managed to free herself from Tiana’s mouth and sat up, straightening out her skirt. Tiana sat back against me and I slid my hand around her to slowly play with her breast. “It doesn’t seem that much stronger than its predecessor other than being able to affect multiple targets.”

Oh boy. I had to phrase this carefully, otherwise Rhallani might have a meltdown. “Actually, I think there’s one other important change.” All three women looked at me. “Before it healed wounds, now it heals damage.” I trailed my hand along Serena’s spine. “Don’t freak out, but I think you just got a very important skill.”

Elisa limped over to us and sat down, unable to fully tear her gaze away from Tiana and Serena’s naked bodies. “You don’t have to talk about it in front of us if you don’t want to,” she said nervously.

I looked to Serena, and she nodded. “It’s fine. We can worry about that kind of thing later. Right now, like Tiana said, we need to understand each other if we want to survive.” I looked back to Serena. “The fact that I feel as good as I do right now means your skill doesn’t just heal physical damage.”

Her eyes went wide. “Ren, if you’re telling me I have the magical ability to heal mental trauma now, then I—”

“No, no,” I said with a laugh, “though that would certainly solve a number of problems.” If I hadn’t been sure Allura had sent Serena to me before, I was now. “My class is only one of the reasons I can wield the blade. The other is my soul. Gaining levels in your class grows your soul as well as your body, but it’s not the only way. Pain—the kind of pain that rips you apart inside, not just physical pain—tears at your soul. Over time, if you can manage to heal the damage through growth and recovery, your soul grows back stronger.”

I could tell that I had all their attention now. “My soul was ripped to shreds over and over, which left it much sturdier than your average soul. The sword is insanely powerful, but wielding it literally destroys your essence as parts of you are torn away and devoured by its magic. Not only is my soul sturdy enough to resist that to an extent, but it’s also learned to repair itself in a fraction of the time it takes other souls to. That means I can wield the blade longer and more often than just about anyone else, but it still damages me.”

Rhallani gasped, and I knew she understood. I continued. “If the sword was unlatched and its magic was coursing through me, then it was surely ripping at my essence. I would probably be comatose right now, but I’m thinking your skill sped my recovery up. It’s why I stopped thrashing while you healed me. You were literally repairing my soul.”

I grinned at her. “That night, you said you felt that your duty was to heal my body, mind, and soul. Turns out you were more right than either of us realized.”

A slow smile spread across her face and she leaned into me. “That’s a relief, though if you think for a second you can use that as an excuse to use that sword too much then you’ve got another thing coming.”

Rhallani’s shoulders sagged. “Oh thank the gods. That means Noelle is probably fine.” Then she sucked in her breath and her eyes shot to mine, as if she’d let something slip she hadn’t meant to.

Every muscle in my body went taut. “What does that mean?”

Bashfully, she told me what Noelle had done. How she’d pushed the blade back into its scabbard and it had grabbed hold of her. She’d lasted long enough to make it to this little cavern, then she’d been asleep since. My blood ran cold. If the sword had hurt her, I was never going to forgive it.

I pulled the blanket so it was at least covering my lower half and gently shook Noelle’s shoulder. “Noelle?”

She mumbled something unintelligible and curled up tighter. I shook her again, and she jerked upright. She looked around wildly until she saw me and she froze. Then her lips curved downward and tears welled in her eyes. She frantically started to crawl over Serena, who hadn’t managed to get out of the way quick enough, and I hooked an arm around her torso to pull her to my chest. To my surprise, she wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed the side of her face into mine, trembling. She sucked in air through her nose, and a shudder passed through her. I felt her naked front pressing into mine, but her lower half remained in Serena’s lap.

“Are you alright?” I asked her, gently digging the pads of my fingers into her back.

She shuddered and gripped me tighter, tucking her chin into my shoulder. “I am now,” she whispered. I started to put a little more force into my fingers, massaging the tender muscle around her wings. She gasped and her grip tightened further. “You’re okay.”

“I am. Alive and well. Noelle, I need you to tell me what happened when you grabbed the sword. In as much detail as you can.”

“Its tendrils dug into my arm, but there wasn’t any real pain. Just pressure. I felt its magic. It felt desperate,” she breathed, then her breath hitched when I moved my hand to massage the black-feathered stump. “I-it pulled me in. Wrapped my hand around its hilt and shoved.”

“It tried to make you draw it?”

I hit a sensitive spot and she whimpered. “N-no, it helped me push it down. Into the scabbard. It felt afraid. Then it shifted. Like it was curious. Um, can—can you go lower?” I did and she writhed against me. One of her hands slid upward and sunk into my hair while her other lowered to wrap around my back with her fingers gripping into me like she was afraid I might push her away. “It—it’s magic started pushing and pulling on mine, like something was squirming around inside me. It felt…angry. Upset. It—nng—then it melted away when Rhallani closed the latch.”

“But you’re okay now? You feel fine?”

She nodded vigorously. Her body was starting to rub against mine in a way that was getting very hard to ignore. Rhallani, grinning that mischievous grin that always both worried and excited me, sidled up behind her while Tiana and Serena watched from the side.

Rhallani pressed her hands into Noelle’s back, causing the smaller girl to cry out into my shoulder. Then, with a pointed look, she pushed my hand down. “Noelle was just as worried about you as the rest of us,” she said softly, taking over at massaging Noelle’s upper back.

I slid my hand to Noelle’s lower back, then as Rhallani urged me to keep going, I went lower. And lower. Noelle whimpered when I cupped her rear, her small cheek completely encompassed by my hand. I gave it a tentative squeeze and she went crazy, writhing and rubbing herself into me. Her fingers wrapped into my hair and I felt her nails digging even deeper. I brought my other hand up to cup the back of her head while I kneaded the flesh of her rear, then I slid my hand down and brushed a single finger across her lower lips with a feather light touch.

Her fingernails dug into my back hard enough to break skin and she convulsed. She bit down on my shoulder, my flesh the only thing muffling her cry while she came in my arms. Her whole body clenched, then trembled. I held her through her intense climax, only loosening my grip when I felt her teeth—two of which were sharp enough to puncture skin—release my shoulder.

Rhallani’s eyes were so wide I thought they might pop out, and Serena had a wide smile on her face. Tiana’s hand had traveled back between her legs, and if Elisa bit her lip any harder it might bleed.

Noelle breathed heavily, but she made no move to pull away. There was a hint of panic in her eyes. “I—I'm sorry, sir, I didn’t mean—I hurt you, I—”

“Shh, it’s alright,” I told her, stroking her hair. She shifted so she was sitting up a little more, though her front was still pressed into mine. Rhallani’s hands were still on Noelle’s back, but their touch was much softer. “Did it feel good?”

Her tongue lapped up a drop of blood that was on her lip. She nodded hesitantly. “I—I’ve never felt that good before. Not even when Rhallani…” she trailed off, and I raised my brows at the Arelim. She was pointedly not looking at me, though she had a smug smile on her face.

“If you felt good, then I’m happy.” I ran a hand along her side and up to her ribcage. It was already much less prominent than when we’d met. Her chest was still heaving, and I could feel her heart hammering from where our chests were pressed together. She drew back enough so that her face was below mine. Her eyes were wide, and her cheeks were as dark as I’d ever seen them. “You’d have to try very hard to actually hurt me. That was nothing.”

She finally started to relax. “O-okay.” She leaned back a little more and her hands trailed over my shoulders and down my chest.

She seemed fine, but contact with the sword still worried me. Then a new possibility popped into my head.

“Noelle, did any of your skills evolve?”

Her brow furrowed. “I don’t know. I was never allowed to check my status before without permission.”Right. I should have known. It had been the same for me. “Your classes are your own, you never have to ask permission to check your status or select the skills you want again, alright?”

She nodded once, then I saw her eyes unfocus. “I leveled up. Twice for my secondary class and—” her breath caught. “And once for my primary class.”

Oh shit. That meant she had a class evolution. Serena and Rhallani had both froze, looking at me. Noelle had gone pale, her normally expressionless face now twisted with fear. I put a hand to her cheek. “Remember what I said. Even if we have to get you to fifty.”

She nodded, then her breathing stopped. Her nails dug into my chest, and tears filled her eyes. Then, before I could ask her about the result, she threw herself at me. Scorching hot lips mashed into mine in an inexperienced but desperate kiss and I felt her legs wrap around my torso.

I had to wrap an arm around her and put my other behind me to brace myself against the ground to keep us from falling over at the intensity of the assault. When she pulled back, for the first time since I’d met her, she was smiling. A wide, flushed smile that showed off her long canines.

“I got it!” she exclaimed. “I got the class!”