theninjagoose

  They were assembled on the ground this time, close to the western door. Beck stood between the squishy backline and the door itself, while Ara activated the minotaur pilr. The crowd came back to life, the pilr slid into the ground, and the northern door opened. Beck repositioned while Ara ran back to join them. The minotaur stepped into the arena, and they noticed at once that this would be no easier than the slimes.

  Instead of the normal seven or eight feet that minotaurs usually stood, the behemoth before them had to crouch to get through the enormous doors. When he straightened back up, he must have been at least twenty feet tall. He roared his challenge to the arena before noticing the Apostles. He turned and swiped his feet across the ground before lowering his horned head and charging with the force of a freight train.

  "Now!" Ara shouted. They all dove to the sides, and an arrow ced with frost appeared from nowhere and whizzed past them. The reason they'd set up near the western door was the shadows which obscured a few feet of ground on that edge of the arena. Elnor was able to go invisible, and she got the buffs from Marksman, Unerring Shot, Double Shot, and Empowering Pool. It seemed she had called an audible, however, as her arrow flew not at the minotaur's head, but instead at his left leg.

  The arrow impacted, coating his legs in thick frost that quickly built into ice. Tangled up, the minotaur came crashing down right in front of them. Beck, Ara and Viktora immediately went to work while more ice arrows continued flying at his legs. Three arrows ter, his left leg shattered into frozen chunks of gore. With his charge disabled, the backline was safe from any sudden attacks.

  His strength began to fg, as his attempts to right himself became weaker and weaker. When he looked like he was on death's doorstep, everyone stopped attacking except for Viktora. She ferociously slice over and over across the beast's neck, jumping back whenever he made a weak swipe at her with his arms. Finally, the blood loss overtook him.

  "Excellent work!" Shiloh called out, smiling. That had gone as well as could have been expected. Clearly, this trial wasn't going to go easy on them, and Elnor had adapted beautifully to the unexpectedly rge creature. They all grinned and high-fived each other, but nobody's smile was bigger than Viktora's.

  "That gave me enough experience to level up twice, again!"

  "Congratutions!" Shiloh excimed, giving her a high-five. "Anyone else?"

  "I leveled up." Elnor responded.

  "Me too!" Beck seemed even more excited than Viktora. "That was incredibly fast for my level."

  Twil still hadn't leveled up, as her abilities had not been needed yet. She didn't seem upset, and Shiloh was certain that she would just power-level by stunning insects again when they got out.

  Beck didn't wait for anything else, she just immediately showed her options.

  Lifebond: Shiloh Sutton

  As long as you are alive, any damage that wouldreduce Shiloh Sutton to 0 HP instead reduceshim to 1 HP. All damage negated by this skillis redirected at you as True Damage.

  Bulwark of Passion

  While defending someone you have had retionswith sometime in the st week, you reflect 30%of the damage dealt back at your attacker.

  Without waiting for anyone's input, Beck immediately locked in Lifebond. Shiloh gred at her and opened his mouth to rebuff her, but was forestalled by Ara.

  "Shiloh, I will beat you until I'm hurting Beck if you try to give her shit for that. There's no way any of us were going to tell her to take the other skill, and she can pick it up ter."

  Shiloh gred at her, and she gred right back.

  "She's right." Viktora whispered. Shiloh turned to look at the little vamp as she continued. "Lifebond doubles the effectiveness of your healing on yourself while at low health. That alone makes it incredible. Combine that with the fact that all of your concubines are hopelessly in love with you, and there's no way in hell you were going to win that argument."

  "I wasn't going to argue about whether she should take that skill." Shiloh ground out between clenched teeth. "We are a team, and decisions regarding team effectiveness should be discussed with everyone, even if the discussions are short."

  Beck blushed and averted her gaze. Shiloh continued.

  "I think that Lifebond was the correct option there, but disregarding the status quo is a recipe for discontent and problems further down the line."

  "I'm sorry." Beck murmured. "I didn't mean to... I just... I can't lose you, Shy. Even the thought of it disturbs me. Gods, its only been a couple weeks and I feel more strongly for you than anyone else I've ever met."

  Shiloh's gaze softened, and he opened his arms. Beck ran to him, her shame keeping her tail still and calm as they embraced. Shiloh murmured assurances into her ears and softly massaged her back as she tried to rein in the tears spilling across her cheeks.

  "It's okay." Shiloh said when Beck had managed to get herself under control again. "Thank you for protecting me, Beck."

  She beamed up at him, her eyes still watery. Shiloh gestured for Elnor to go next, and the elf dispyed the choice before her.

  Bring it Down!

  Your arrows have an increased chance of crippling limbs.

  Volley

  Activate this skill to summon six phantom arrowson your next shot. Phantom arrows deal damageequal to 15% of the original arrow's damage.Cooldown: 1 minute

  "Volley seems like it would put out a lot of damage, but it's hard to argue against the effectiveness of crippling enemies after how that minotaur fight went." Ara said, shrugging. "I'd probably go for Bring it Down myself, but it's up to you."

  "Bring it Down." Viktora stated simply. Katerine and Twil nodded along with her.

  Elnor looked at Beck and Shiloh, who both shrugged. "Crippling is good." Shiloh offered.

  Elnor locked in Bring it Down.

  "Alright my turn!" Viktora said, practically vibrating with excitement. For someone who had been pretty hesitant to share anything, she sure had gotten into the swing of things fast.

  Shadow Hunter

  Creatures in shadows take 10% more damage from you.

  Bloody Strike

  The next attack you make deals double damage.Cost: 50 HPCooldown: 1 minute

  "I should take Blood Pool, right?" She asked the group.

  "I think both of those are pretty powerful." Shiloh responded. "Shadow Hunter in particur works really well with All is Darkness. However, I would agree that Blood Pool is more important."

  "You can always get the others ter if you don't get better options." Elnor smiled at her. Shiloh was so proud of his elven companion. She always seemed to be making sure everyone in the group was comfortable and getting along, unless she was smacking Beck or Ara for their incorrigible bawdry humor.

  The others agreed, and Viktora took Blood Pool before moving onto her next options.

  Seductress

  You gain 1 point in Strength and Finesse for every10 orgasms you bring a partner to.

  The Chosen's One

  When you directly drink the blood ofAphrodite's avatar, both of you gain20 points in your primary stats.Duration: 1 day

  "Oh..." Viktora whispered, looking absolutely mortified. Her face turned tomato red, and she buried it in her hands.

  Ara, meanwhile, was doing her gods' honest best to reign in the ughter threatening to burst out of her. Elnor was also blushing along with Katerine. Beck and Shiloh just smirked at each other, but Twil's reaction was the best.

  "Seductress would be excellent for you to pick up." She stated categorically. "It synergizes very well with Shiloh's Lust. The two of you would get many benefits from utilizing them together."

  At that, Shiloh felt his face heat up and he averted his eyes from Beck's as her smirk turned into a wide, lecherous grin. Nobody else said anything until Ara had gotten enough control over herself to choke out her agreement.

  "She's... not wrong... they do work... well together... Seductress and Lust... a perfect match!" She lost it and guffawed loudly. It was like a water balloon being popped. The tension left the air as everyone, including Shiloh and eventually Viktora, began ughing at the incredulous skill selection. When they had all calmed down, Shiloh took a deep breath and looked at Viktora. They both blushed again.

  "I would choose The Chosen's One, or maybe one of your other skills." He murmured to a chorus of boos from Ara and Beck.

  Viktora looked up at him, confused. "It would be better to start stacking the infinite scaling earlier, wouldn't it?"

  "Statistically speaking, yes." Twil offered helpfully.

  "Thank you, Twil." Shiloh nearly growled. He looked carefully into Viktora's eyes. "I don't want you to feel forced into something like that because of a skill from your css."

  "Do you not find me attractive?" She asked, affronted. "I thought I was part of the team now."

  "That's not... Being a part of the team doesn't mean we need to be together sexually." Shiloh tried to expin.

  "So you don't find me attractive?"

  "No, I... It's not... You are very attractive." Shiloh mumbled, turning a deeper shade of red and looking down. After a moment, he looked back up at her and asked seriously, "Is this something you would want, right now, if you didn't have that skill offered?"

  "Probably not, no." Viktora admitted freely. "However, it is my skill. It changed the math here, and I can't honestly say that I hadn't thought about it..." Her voice trailed off and she looked at her feet.

  Shiloh took a deep breath and exhaled. "Okay. It's your choice."

  Viktora looked up and offered him a small smile before they watched her lock in Seductress.

  "It's just not fair." Ara whined. "I wanna get stronger through fucking, too!" Elnor smacked her shoulder.

  ***

  "Alright, what is the realistic pn here?" Shiloh asked, when they had all decided they were ready for the next encounter. "The st two pilrs were significantly stronger than what we thought they'd be. If this draconic creature is worse than we think, what could we be facing? Is it possible it's actually a dragon?"

  "No way." Ara said firmly. "It doesn't have wings."

  "It could be any of the varieties of drake, a hydra, a greater wyrm, a pseudo-dragon, or any of a hundred other things." Twil stated. "There's no reasonable way to pn for it."

  "Okay, Ara, what's your suggestion?" Shiloh asked, and everyone turned to her.

  "We won't be able to defend against breath attacks, so we'll need to interrupt them. Beck, Viktora and I will need to close with it as fast as possible to provide those interruptions. Elnor will still be our primary source of damage against a single target, so we'll want Empowering Pool on her. Twil, we'll need you to attempt stunning it. Katerine, you need to stay alert for any smaller creatures that either accompany it or get summoned by it. We don't want to waste your big spells on a single target and then get overwhelmed. Other than that, be ready for any audibles I call."

  Everyone nodded, then dispyed their stat sheets. They all remained in the center, ready to engage whichever door opened. Katerine activated the pilr this time, leaving Ara free to start sprinting at the northern door as it began to open with the cheers of the crowd.

  THUD!

  A ground-shaking footstep echoed from within the door.

  THUD!

  The beast wasn't visible from within the dark hallway yet, but the doors were almost completely open.

  THUD!

  The sound of its footsteps shook the bones of Aphrodite's Apostles, and they tensed for combat.

  THUD!

  A draconic head, on a long, leathery neck, pushed its way through the doors, sniffing for its prey.

  THUD!

  Another head came forth, then another and another.

  "Hydra!" Ara shouted. "Shiloh, all auras! Elnor, hold until we know how many heads there are!"

  The frontliners backed away from the door as more and more of the beast came into view. When it had finally fully entered the arena, Shiloh saw the true immensity of it. The back of the hydra was easily as tall as the minotaur had been. It had twelve heads, each swiveling around on absurdly long necks, twisting in ways that should have tied them into knots. When Shiloh followed the necks down to where they met the body, however, he couldn't see it clearly. The junction of necks and body was blurry, as if it was a censored image on a manga.

  It lumbered forth and roared with all twelve of its heads, shaking the very stones of the walls. Shiloh activated all of his auras, and the fight was over in a split second.

  ***

  Viktora looked up at the huge monster crashing through the door and knew they were all dead. This thing was beyond a party such as theirs, but she could feel nothing but excitement at the challenge. She heard Ara shouting commands, but was only focused on what her mother had told her.

  When the great hero Sorin recovered his sword, he recognized the only way to kill the hydra was to cut off all of its heads at once. He used the gift the gods had given him, and the legendary bde shone bright as a star. Its majesty unfolded, and the bde grew until it was as long as the hydra. In one fell swoop, he severed each of the hydra's heads and felled the mighty beast.

  Suddenly, she felt enormous power flooding through her veins. She briefly recalled Shiloh had buffing auras, but these were so much more powerful than she expected. A rush of adrenaline overtook her, and she Shadow Stepped into the hydra's shadow before activating All is Darkness. She took a millisecond to check her stats before unching into action.

  Viktora MarkovCss: NightstalkerHP: 1080/1130Level: 8MP: 1010/1010 Strength: 990Arcana: 81Finesse: 1010Divine: 81Fortitude: 113Resistance: 106Endurance: 106Focus: 101 She almost had a thousand strength?! She felt like a demi-god, with all the power coursing through her veins. He had increased her health pool enough that she'd be able to maintain this ability for almost ten seconds. More than enough time. She Shadow Stepped onto the top of each of the hydra's heads and lopped them off before teleporting to the next one. Her finesse and preternatural speed allowed her to move so fast, she had to dial it back a bit just so she could tell what she was doing.

  Before the first head hit the ground, Viktora was standing next to Ara and Beck again, and she dropped All is Darkness. The heads nded, one after another, with loud, squelching sounds as the flesh impacted the hard ground. Viktora flicked the blood from her bde and turned, finding the rest of her team looking at her with open-mouthed amazement.

  "So, what's next?" She asked with a smirk.

  Only when the beast's body colpsed did the rest of them let their guard down and crowd around her.

  "That was incredible!" Shiloh excimed, hugging her tightly. He smelled delicious, like honeyed mead and savory stew. It made her head go fuzzy, and she inhaled deeply in the excitement her actions had drawn. She felt his healing aura fixing the damage she'd done to her body, and she basked in the warmth.

  Then Shiloh dropped his buffing auras. Her Fortitude became thirty-two again, and the six hundred points of HP she was missing caught up with her at once. His scent was the st thing she knew as the darkness rapidly closed in, swallowing her in its soft embrace. Her now-lifeless body sagged in the Cleric's arms, but his anguished cries couldn't reach her anymore. She drifted away, into the darkness, and towards her afterlife.