"So, you think this Kim bitch is the boss?" Ara asked, barely repressing a snarl.

  "I don't know..." Shiloh said after a minute. He felt drained, and he wasn't sure what he should do. "She might be, if the boss is supposed to be something specifie. There are some other tenders, since I lived my entire life here, but she's definitely iop five, if not at the top of the list."

  "Even if she is the boss, that doesn't tell us where she is." Beterjected. "Most of the time dungeons are somewhat linear. There's almost always an obvious path you're supposed to follow."

  Shiloh opened his mouth to tell her he knew where Kim's house was when a errupted him. Elnor, who had been looking out the window, silently shaking with remorse for Shiloh and a his tormentor, suddenly let out a gasp. All heads turo her.

  "I think I just found the path." She whispered in awe.

  All of them rushed to the window and stared in shock at the se unfolding before them. There was a thin pilr of golden light ing down from the heavens. It burned with an iy that made it hard to look at, but Shiloh was fairly fident he knew what it was tered on.

  "That looks like it's right on top of Kim's house." He whispered to the group.

  "Good enough for me." Beck responded curtly. "Let's go."

  "We need our disguises first." Twil said. "We 't have the locals trying to form a mob."

  Shiloh quickly walked back to the door and picked up the fs. He handed oo each of the girls, who immediately began stripping doulling on the modern outfits. Shiloh pointedly kept his gaze focused on the ceiling. If he got distracted, they'd get distracted, and then there would be an hours-long dey in leaving.

  "Aw, you don't want to look at us, Shy?" Ara mocked him in a pouty tone.

  "Get dressed Ara." Was his only response, his eyes fixed firmly upwards. She snickered, but obliged. After the girls had dressed, Shiloh grabbed the fifth bag he'd brought in and hahem each a backpack, keeping one for himself. They filled the bags with everything they thought they might need from their iories, except for their rger ons. The way Shiloh saw it, if they really needed Ara's battleaxe, then they had bigger problems than what someone might think if they saw it materialize out of thin air.

  Ara, Elnor, and Twil had all gotten somewhat simir outfits. Pin-ish t-shirts, baggy sants and sneakers. He'd o go baggy because there wasn't a great way to hide the heat they were all pag otherwise. Elnor's outfit was plimented with a pin bck ski cap, sans the furry ball on top.

  Beck had a much more plex outfit. She'd gotten a pair of jeans that fred out at the bottom with a hole for her tail to poke out, a tank top, a hoodie, a pair of thick-soled sneakers, and a wide, simple hairband, all in bck. Shiloh put the hairband on her head, marked where her fox ears were iion to it, then took it to the kit and used a steak ko cut twh holes in it which were plenty big to not be rubbing on her ears. heless, it gave the impression that the ears were a part of the hairband.

  "Humans oh actually wear fake ears on their head?" Ara asked with a chuckle as Beck's tail flicked in annoyance. She definitely did not care for the addition to her head.

  "Well, not a lot of them. Mainly just the weirdos." Shiloh responded as he tied all of their shoes for them. He gnced up at Beck. "Sorry."

  "It's fine." She sighed. "I've been a weirdo my whole life." She smirked, grabbed her cock through the jeans for emphasis, and Shiloh had to shake his head to refocus on the ces. "What about my tail though? It's pretty obviously ing out of my pants."

  "Yeah, about that..." Shiloh blushed. "Elnor, could you grab me my phone?"

  The elf retrieved it from the kit and held it out for him. Shiloh thanked her, took the device, and searched for "fox tail plug", then ha to Beck. She took one look at it, grimaced, and hahe phone back to Shiloh.

  "I want to see!" Ara whined, reag for the phone. Shiloh tried to keep it away from her, but iently put it within arm's reach of Elnor, who plucked it from his hands and looked at the s.

  "Oh gods." She whispered before Ara grabbed it from her. The Berserker looked at the picture and started howling with ughter. Twil took the phone from her, gave it a curshen ha back to Shiloh, who stuck it in his pocket.

  "They... they're gonna... think..." Ara could hardly breathe, and her face was going red from her mirth. "...in your ass..." She wheezed again before the ughing turned into a full-throated cough and she had to get a gss of water to calm herself down.

  "Hopefully they won't look too hard." Shiloh said. Under Beck's withering gre, he expined. "Some people have tails that have little tches, which they just clip onto the back of their pants. If nobody looks too hard at you, they might just think it's one of those."

  "You are so going to pay for this, Shy." Beck muttered darkly.

  "It was the best option I had." He said, raising his hands.

  "Why is Beck dressed all in bck?" Twil asked suddenly.

  "Most, but not all, of the people who wear those kinds of things tend to favor very dark colors in their clothing." Shiloh replied, hoping Beck wouldn't try to have her revenge before they could leave. "You all look thhly human now, though, so we should get going. Oh, and try not to get hard. Those pants won't hide a damn thing."

  ***

  Shiloh and the girls left through the backdoor of the building and piled into his car. Trying to expin to them how trolled explosions repced horses ended up being a futile endeavor, and they were left more fused than before he tried to expin how the thing worked. He eventually just said it owered by sce, which is Earth's form of magid they let the subject rest.

  The beam of light they had seen from the window of his apartment was gone, but Shiloh knew where they were going. He pulled out and began the drive towards Kim's pce, white-knug the steering wheel the whole way. Elnor, who had taken the passenger seat, reached over and pced a hand on his thigh. Her soothing presence eased the tension, but not by much.

  When Shiloh turhe er onto Kim's street, he brought the car to a screeg halt. Right where Kim's and her neighbors' houses were supposed to be stood a rge, orructure. It was like a castle, but it had no turrets or towers, and it was only three stories tall. It was dark and foreboding, and an air of malice hung over the ereet. The trees and the wn in front of it were dead, and the walkway leading up to the big wooden doors was crumbling.

  Despite the sudden appearance of this obviously malevolent structure, people oreet were behaving totally normal. A man walked his dht past the thing, and the dog even ran onto the yard to pee on one of the dead trees. The old dy door was sitting on her front por a rog chair, far more ied in the car that had turned onto their street and stopped than she was in the looming threat to her safety.

  "Why aren't they running away?" Shiloh whispered, terror clutg at his heart.

  "It's the dungeo not to ask 'why' most of the time." Ara advised from the backseat. "Now we get out? My leg has pins and needles running up and down it."

  Shiloh slowly removed his foot from the brake, and pulled the car up the street and parked it right in front of the castle. They all cmbered out and stretched. Ara actually waved to the old dy, who smiled and waved back at them.

  "What's the pn here?" Beck asked as she stretched out her arms and legs, limbering up for the challenge ahead.

  "We won't know until we get iwil stated analytically. "It's most likely to be a tiered enter, if the number of floors is anything to go by. We might have to clear a mini-boss on each floor, or the whole thing might be one big maze leading to the throne room. Standard formation until we have more to go on."

  Beodded and took up the rear guard, letting Ara take the vanguard. If anything nasty popped out, it was far easier for Beck to reposition. Staying in the rear also meant she had eyes on the whole party, to help whoever as early as possible.

  "Status sheets up once we're inside." Shiloh murmured, getting aowledgements from all of them.

  Ara led them up the stohway slowly, cheg for traps as she went. They eventually made it right up o the building, and Ara pushed one of the rge, wooden doors open with a grinding, squealing o annouheir entrance.

  The five of them slipped into the castle as they materialized their ons, and the door shut behind them. "No way baow." Beck said, rolling her shoulders aing her fa a grim, if determined, expression. After firming that there was no immediate threat, they retrieved their armor from their iories and quickly put it on. Then they all pulled up and shared their status sheets, and Ara began to lead them deeper inside.

  The room they had entered was a graibule with a sweeping staircase that led directly to the sed flht in front of them. The ceiling was vaulted to the sed story's ceiling, and an ornate golden rail guarded the edge of the baly. To their left and right were three doors ead, as they circled the staircase, they found another door behind it.

  "Seven doors, seven options." Ara muttered. "I hate mazes."

  "Take the leftmost door." Twil suggested. "Then take every left turn we , until we develop a better strategy."

  Ara grunted in aowledgement, ahe party back to the door on the left that was closest to the entrance. She carefully pushed it open, then beed the rest of them i was some kind of a kit, with a rge roasting pit in the middle. There was a fire lit and a pig rotating slowly over it, but there wasn't a cook in sight. Ara slipped around the back of the pit and pulled open a curtain that was hung in front of a closet, revealing a pantry.

  "Someone's living here." Elnor ented. "Though it looks like they've beeed to our presence."

  Beck agreed, and the party moved out of the kit and towards the room, going clockwise around the lobby. The five rooms were all sleeping quarters. The first and st only had one bed a piece, but the three in the middle were each equipped to hold about ten people. The sense of unease in Shiloh's stomach began to grow, and apparently his wasn't the only one.

  "It would appear that they have about twoscore fighters, if we don't enter anymore barracks." Twil whispered. "Depending on what they are, that could be a force beyond what we are capable of."

  "Only if they're all together." Ara tered. "Even if they were trained warriors, I'm pretty sure we could handle a dozen at a time."

  Twil hummed ahe issue drop as they exited the sed-to-st room on the first floor. Ara slowly pushed the door open o room, and Shiloh winced as he saw the se before them. There were six different Kims spread across the room, which was a faithful recreation of Shiloh's apartment. In addition to the six Kims, there were also twelve nameless, faceless men.

  A Kim on the sofa was being railed by one of the faceless men. A Kim i was wearing an apron, which was c the head of another man. She ressing him into her core and moaning as he presumably ate her out. In the dining area, another Kim was ying on her ba the table while two of the men spit-roasted her. He heard the groans of yet another Kim ing from the bathroom, though he couldn't see exactly what was going on in there. The st two Kims were in his bedroom with sevehey were both ying on his bed, though in different positions, and both of them had each of their holes filled. The st man in the room was jag off and spraying his load all over both of them.

  Not good enough. Her voice echoed in his head. You've never made me cum for real. I never loved you, Shiloh, but maybe I one day. Just a reinfort.

  Shiloh clutched his hands to his ears and shut his eyes tight, trying to block it out. Unfortunately, the deprivation of his senses only made the voi his head louder as it tio hurl insults at him. He cried and begged her to just listen to him, begged her to stop. When he did that, it was like he had opened a door. Ashleigh strolled right into his mind to join Kim, and he was soon begging both of them to stop as he relived the horrors of his past.

  ***

  When Ara opehe st door on the first floor, she alled by what she saw. She still had to approach it, at least a few steps, in order to let the rest of her party into the room with her. She heard sounds of disgust from her other party members as they entered. Floating in the middle of the room was a rge eyeball encased in scarred, shriveled flesh. Maacles sprouted from it, some with more eyes, some with mouths full of razor-sharp teeth, and some only with suckers meant frabbing.

  "What th-" Beck started, but was cut off almost immediately by Shiloh's cry. He had colpsed, his hands over his ears and his eyes screwed shut. He was g and begging, pleading for someoo listen to him. He begged them to stop, then tensed and screamed before redoubling his pleas.

  "Shiloh!" All four of them called at ourning to try and help him. Big mistake. With all of their backs to it, the eyeball monster shed out with its tentacles. It grabbed Ara and Elnor, who were the two closest, and dragged them away from Shiloh's screaming body. Barely managing to hang on to her battleaxe, Ara felt one of the mouth tentacles bite down hard on her calf, and yelled in pain as she felt it take a bite out of her.

  Ara turned and brought her axe down oentacle dragging her away, slig it ly off. She reached over and grabbed a hold of Elnor, who was also being attacked by the mouths. When she had a good grip on the elf, she hollered back at the other two.

  "A little help, here!"

  Beck was at her side in an instant. She whipped her sword arm down and cut Elnor free as well. There was a shimmer in the air around the creature, then Ara heard Twil curse.

  "It's immuo my temporal magic!" She called out. "Shiloh is still out for the t! This thing has some kind of mind trol or illusion magic. He's totally unresponsive."

  Elnor backed up, limping heavily. Beck covered her as she retreated, and Ara g both of their statuses.

  Elnor LudgerCss: ToxophiliteHP: 70/100Level: 5MP: 0/0 Strength: 14Ara: 0Finesse: 34Divine: 0Fortitude: 10Resistance: 10Endurance: 12Focus: 0 Ara LittonCss: BerserkerHP: 130/150Level: 6MP: e: 20 Strength: 37Ara: 0Finesse: 11Divine: 0Fortitude: 37Resistance: 0Endurance: 13Focus: 0 Ara saw Shiloh's prone form when she gnced back at Elnor's sheet. She growled deep in her chest, and it erupted in a furious war cry.

  "Alright motherfucker! e get some!" She charged forward and chopped aentacle off as it reached out towards Beck. It fell to the ground writhing, and she ducked as another oried to take a bite out of her neck. ing up from the duck with an underhanded swing, she mao catch two of the eyeball tentacles and severed them ly as well. She didn't notice she'd overextended herself until she felt another mouth g onto her side.

  Before it could tear her flesh free, Beck was there, cutting it from the monster's body. It released Ara and dropped to the ground, but more tentacles were oack. Beck was hard-pressed to block them all, and the Defender's grunts vinced Ara that she wasn't succeeding in her endeavor. Ara wasn't able to help with defehough, so she opted to stop the attacks the only way she knew how: hit it 'til it dies.

  She waited for the perfeent, and an arrow from the bae provided it. Ara had aimed for the ter of the giant eyeball's pupil, and the thing blinked. Its tough skin didn't bouhe arrow off, but it was kept from pierg the eye itself. The moment it blinked, Ara activated Mighty Cleave and swung directly at the eye. It opened from the blink just in time to see the sharp edge of Ara's battleaxe biting into it.

  Blood gushed from the eye, but it didn't pop the way she was expeg it to. It went absolutely mad with rage, multiple tentacles flying at each of them simultaneously. Beck abandoned Ara and used Drop Yuard to position herself in front of Twil and Elnor, tanking the hits for them. Ara khat was the right move, but it still hurt like hell when the mouths ripped two more ks of flesh from her body. Wheantrum had subsided, the eyeball turo face her, and she took a savage glee in seeing how badly she'd i.

  Ara wound up arike, and the creature shot a suckered tentacle out at each of her arms, trapping them above her head and keeping her from moving. It shed another mouth at her, taking a piece of her stomach with it before another arrow zipped by her head. The thing blinked again, but this time it was an ice spike that followed it up. Moments after seeing the spike drive itself into the eyeball, right where she'd cut it open, Ara was dropped to the ground where she felt a healing effect targeting her.

  She looked back hopefully, but saw Shiloh still on the ground. Twil was standing over him, having taken a hit that slipped past Beck, and she was holding the Staff of Ice Spikes and Minor Wand of Healing they'd purchased for him in Chattery. The wand was trained on Ara, and the staff unched another ice spike into the foul creature before it had recovered from the impact of the first. Ara checked her status sheet again.

  Ara LittonCss: BerserkerHP: 63/150Level: 6MP: e: 80 Strength: 43Ara: 0Finesse: 11Divine: 0Fortitude: 43Resistance: 0Endurance: 13Focus: 0 That was not looking great. She'd taken some serious damage, and she o end this fight quickly. Twil would only be able to do so much with that wand and staff bo, sihey didn't work with her maion from the Boon of os. She thought through the skills they'd shared that m, looking for a way to put this thing down.

  A siarget meant that Elnor was their best bet for damage output. As long as Ara held the thing's attention, the elf would have time to charge Unerring Shot. There wasn't a way ter Marksman, now that bat was engaged, and Domain of os was out as well. Shield Bash. She thought. It wasn't a magic attack, so would the stun trigger? Possibly. If it worked, it would also keep the thing from blinking when Elnor shot it.

  "Elnor! Unerring Shot! Beck, Shield Bash! Give her an opening!" Ara barked.

  "I 't right now!" Beck shouted back, grunting as aentacle smmed into her. "This thing is trying to kill Shiloh!"

  "I'll ha!" Ara growled, running back towards the rest of her party and chopping off two more tentacles on her way. She traded out with Beck, who immediately dashed forwards. Elnor had already begun charging Unerring shot so, as long as Beck's stun worked, there would be plenty of time for Elnor to shoot the damn thing. Ara only had to protect Shiloh for two seds.

  She knocked oacle away with the hilt of her axe before allowing it to rotate around her hand and drop onto aentacle, severing the mouth from the rest of it. A third o her ankle. Beck really wasn't kidding, this thing was i on hitting their Support at least once. Ara kicked aentacle off course, and sliced into a fifth as the sixth nded a bite ohigh. Despite the healing and the increased Fortitude from her rage, Ara could feel her life force ebbing.

  Ara LittonCss: BerserkerHP: 17/150Level: 6MP: e: 240 Strength: 59Ara: 0Finesse: 11Divine: 0Fortitude: 59Resistance: 0Endurance: 13Focus: 0 That's not good. Ara thought as aentacle shot towards her. She mao catch it in her bare hand, and used her boosted strength to tear it from its owner's body. She dropped the axe, finding her fists capable of moving much faster in this deadly dance. Just a moment longer... Ara heard the twang of a bow as she caught aentacle, then another. O into her ankle, and another into her neck as she ripped the two she was holding free. She pulled the other two off, dropping to one ko get the one on her ankle, and she felt a third tch itself onto her arm before a horrible, metallic screech filled the air and the tentacles went limp.

  Ara LittonCss: BerserkerHP: 3/150Level: 6MP: e: 300 Strength: 65Ara: 0Finesse: 11Divine: 0Fortitude: 65Resistance: 0Endurance: 13Focus: 0 That was close. Ara thought, then crumpled to the grouo Shiloh's weeping body.