Shiloh...

  "Stop! Leave me alone, please! You don't have to do this!" Shiloh cried, trying to curl even tighter into the ball of agony and despair he had bee.

  Shiloh!

  "No! I don't want it! Stop, please!"

  "Shiloh!" A hard voice rang in his ears. Not his mind, his ears. It shocked him so badly, he stopped g. He didn't hear anything. No Kim, no Ashleigh. He slowly uncurled, looking around. They were no longer in his apartment, but in a dingy, windowless room. There were pieces of... something... ying on the floor all around him, along with Ara's motionless, bloodied body.

  "Ara!" He shouted, crawling over to her. Her status sheet said she wasn't at 0 HP, but she wasn't moviher. He activated Cleric's Radiance, and was relieved to see her numbers start going back up.

  "Aphrodite's tits that feels so fug good." Beck groaned. Shiloh looked up for the rest of his party. Twil, the one who had shouted at him, was kneelio where he'd just been ying. His staff and wand were in her hands and she had blood running down her arms. Elnor was leaning against the wall, fav a leg that looked like it had several small pieces carved out of it.

  Beck looked by far the worst, though. She had many, many pieces of her flesh missing and she was bruised thhly. She staggered over to the rest of them, dropped her shield and sword, and sat o Shiloh, resting her arms are her knees and hanging her head. Whe down, Shiloh finally saw the thing they'd been fighting.

  It was a giant eyeball covered in what looked like scar tissue. It had hundreds of tentacles ing out of it, all limp and still like the host. Shiloh looked at all of their status sheets.

  Shiloh SuttonCss: Cleric of AphroditeHP: 150/150Level: 6MP: 150/150Lust: 1450 Strength: 8Ara: 0Finesse: 15Divine: 92Fortitude: 15Resistance: 15Endurance: 12Focus: 15 Ara LittonCss: BerserkerHP: 13/150Level: 8MP: e: 35 Strength: 39Ara: 0Finesse: 11Divine: 0Fortitude: 39Resistance: 0Endurance: 13Focus: 0 Twil ReignoverCss: Temporal MageHP: 46/100Level: 8MP: 0/150 Strength: 12Ara: 32Finesse: 10Divine: 0Fortitude: 10Resistance: 24Endurance: 8Focus: 15 Elnor LudgerCss: ToxophiliteHP: 60/100Level: 8MP: 0/0 Strength: 14Ara: 0Finesse: 34Divine: 0Fortitude: 10Resistance: 10Endurance: 12Focus: 0 Bebsp;QuickfootCss: Bul: 133/450Level: 15MP: 10/10 Strength: 20Ara: 1Finesse: 14Divine: 1Fortitude: 45Resistance: 30Endurance: 27Focus: 1 Shiloh waain. He was here, at full health, with that abomination sin and his lrievously injured in their attempts to keep him safe. He forced the tears down, reigned in trol of his emotions, and dried his eyes. He had been useless long enough, and now it was time to be the healer they needed. He couldn't actually do anything, though, besides sit there with his skill active.

  He watched Ara's HP tick up. After a minute, he did some quick math and figured that Aseko's boon must apply a 50% boost to his healing. By that point, she had enough HP that she began to stir. Her eyes fluttered open as more of her wounds closed and more of her flesh regrew. She sat up and looked around.

  "Oh good. We won." Then she looked at Shiloh, and relief flooded her features before ging to her usual pyfulness. "Seriously, Shy? You couldn't heal me the fun way?" Shiloh just choked back his tears and threw himself on her. She grunted, but melted into his embrace.

  "Thank you." He whispered into her ear. He moved to Bed hugged her as well, repeating his whisper. Then he grabbed Twil, and finally Elnor.

  "Thank you. All of you." He said, louder, when he released his elven lover. The rest of them rose to their feet as he tinued. "I don't know what that thing was, or how it did what it did, but I'm sorry I wasn't able to help. I'm sorry you were hurt proteg me."

  "You are doing what you , just as we all are." Twil stated, pg a hand on his shoulder. Shiloh waue with her, but he reized that her words were ing from a pce of love and fort, and he didn't want to dehe ability to do that.

  After a slightly awkward moment, Beck cleared her throat. "So, uh... Did you all notice your level ups?"

  They all gnced upwards except Shiloh, who had taken notice of them when he checked their health pools. Elnasped and Ara swore while Twil raised both eyebrows.

  "That is ued." The halfling mage ented pinly. "Three levels from a single creature?"

  "I don't think we were meant to survive that enter." Beck said darkly. "That thing was way strohan something ought to be on the first floor."

  "Why would it be here if it's that strong?" Shiloh wondered.

  "The dungeon is a mercurial being." Elnor responded. "It has moods, just like mortals do, and when it is angry it often expresses itself through sending abnormally strong monsters at parties."

  "What have we doo piss off the dungeon?" Ara asked. "We've only been in here one day, and we didn't even fug do anything before this."

  "It would be poio specute." Twil stated. "We o find a safe pce to recover and level up."

  The group murmured their assent. They checked the room for anything they might have missed and, finding nothing, retreated to the main hall. They spent a brief moment cheg the front doors before Ara began leading them up the stairs. None of them wao go any further into the house, but they were locked inside and the only way out was through.

  They crept silently up the staircase, finding seven more doors arranged identically to the ones on the ground floor. "Left?" Ara asked, and Twil her. As ohey moved to the leftmost door, then Ara paused, looking at their status sheets. "Should we wait for Shiloh to finish with Beck?"

  The rest of them were full HP again, thanks to Cleric's Radiance providing 69 HP a mio them. Beck, however, was still about a minute and a half away from full.

  "Yes." Shiloh said adamantly, and nobody argued. Once Beck was topped off, he celed the skill and Ara cracked the door open. She peeked inside and breathed a sigh of relief. She pushed the door the rest of the en and revealed a short hallway with only two doors; oo the right, and oraight ahead. The oraight ahead was golden.

  "A safe room." Beck whispered. "Keep an eye open for traps in the hallway, though."

  Luckily, they didn't enter any and they were sooled in the siderably more cozy safe room, setting up their bed for some rest. Ohey had all settled down, they started going over levels.

  "Me first!" Ara excimed, giddy with excitement now that the danger had passed. Nobody objected, so she dispyed her first choice of skills.

  Bloodlust

  While outnumbered, you deal 25% more damage.If outnumbered by more than 3:1, deal 50% moredamage.

  Wrathful Protector

  While directly defending an ally, gee Ragetwice as fast.

  "Those are both pretty good, but I think Bloodlust is better for our team." Shiloh said. "Wrathful Protector help you tank up faster, but only if you're fag non-magical oppos. Plus, if we're fighting ranged oppos, you 't evehe Strength bonus from ye."

  The others simply nodded.

  "Yeah, that's kind of a no-brainer." Ara agreed. "That retty uuation, which shouldn't e up very often."

  She selected Bloodlust, then opened up her choices.

  Love and War

  While ye is lower than an ally's Lust, yougain Rage twice as quickly.

  Berserker's Sacrifice

  When you are hit by an attack within one sedof nding your own attack, reflect 50% of theining damage.

  "That's kind of weird." Shiloh murmured. "Love and War seems to work specifically with my own unique resource."

  He looked at the others, and found them all stariher at him or at Ara's choices.

  "It's not just kind of weird." Twil ented. "It is totally unheard of. As far as I am aware, and I have read extensive volumes on the subject, there has never been a skill that works with, or eveions, another person's skill. This is much further than just weird. There are many people, the emperor included, who would pay a handsome price for this information. Not to mention, they would also likely keep us under armed guard for the rest of our lives to study how our csses develop."

  Shiloh gulped. "Well, let's try to avoid that. I don't know about you all, but I have no desire to be guarded for the rest of my life."

  "Agreed." Twil said. "That would be a most undesirable oute, but I only mentio to impress upon you the magnitude of our situation. There have been literally thousands of recorded avatars, and none of them have impacted the csses of those around them. For whatever reason, you are unique in this regard."

  Silence reigned as they all digested Twil's ents. Eventually, Beck cleared her throat.

  "Well, I think you ought to take Love and War. Shy might have to take one... or a few... for the team to keep it active, but I'm sure that's a sacrifice he'd be willing to make." She wi Shiloh, and he forced himself to smile back at her. Sexy times were the absolute st thing on his mind after what he'd just seen. He felt un, unworthy, unloved. He knew in his mind that these thoughts were ridiculous and brought on by his own insecurities, but he couldn't seem to recile his thoughts with his heart, where he knew he was deeply loved.

  Twil and Elnor quietly agreed with Beck, and Ara locked in her choice. Shiloh mentally shook himself, trying to clear out the emotional debris building up.

  "I suppose I'll go ." Twil said after Ara had finished. She pulled up her menu and dispyed the first choices preseo her.

  RewindSpell

  Target one creature. Time rewinds five seds for that target.Mana Cost: 200Cooldown: 1 hour

  Fht

  You gain the ability to see three seds intoyour own future.

  "Hmm... I think Fht would probably be the best under our current situation." Twil mused. "If I look into my own future, I should still be able to see whether there's something really nasty like that eyeball waiting for us behind one of these doors."

  Without waiting for anyone's opinion, Twil locked in her choice. Shiloh made a small cough, and she looked at him. Then, her EQ seemed to catch up with her IQ.

  "I'm sorry, that was rather rude of me, wasn't it?"

  "Just a smidge." Ara responded, holdihumb and forefinger an inch apart.

  "I'll wait for everyone's input ime." Twil opened up her choice.

  Future StrikeSpell

  Throw a temporal nce, which phases outof time until you recall it. When recalled, if itstrikes an enemy, it deals damage sg withyour Ara and the amount of time it spentphased out.Mana Cost: 50Cooldown: 5 seds

  Time Lord

  You are ued by eemporal magic.

  Twil looked around expetly until Elnor spoke up. "I think Time Lord is too narrow."

  "I agree." Beck added. "Future Strike seems really powerful, and we've never seen an enemy use temporal magic. I don't think Time Lord would be a good idea at the moment."

  Shiloh and Ara nodded, and Twil smiled. "I agree with all of you as well. I'm gd we see eye to eye on this." She locked her choi, and moved on to her Level 8 skills.

  My Brother's KeeperSpell

  Target any number of allies. Phase those allies outuntil you end this spell.Mana Cost: 50 maarget per sed

  Deyed Satisfa

  When you climax, you may choose to storethe climax until a ter time. When yourelease your stored climaxes, you are immuo damage until you finish.

  "What the fuck is that skill?" Beck asked, ughing with Ara at Deyed Satisfa. "Immune while you're cumming? Why?"

  Elnor blushed and chose not to ent, but Shiloh and Twil sidered the skills carefully. Eventually, they looked at each other.

  "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Shiloh asked. Twil raised an eyebrow.

  "That depends on what you're thinking."

  "I'm thinking that Deyed Satisfa could work as a backup well of Lust, and it would be a good emergency skill to save you if you , sihere's no upper limit on how many asms it store. I also think that this is the sed skill that bases itself on my resource, and it's likely that we will get more, so it will probably provide even more utility iure." Twil actually gave him a wide, genuine smile. It took Shiloh's breath away; she was absolutely stunning when she smiled like that.

  "Very well reasoned, my Shiloh." She purred, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek.

  "Wait, you're actually taking Deyed Satisfa?" Ara gasped out as she brought her ughter under trol.

  "Yes, I think so." Twil stated. "Unless one of you thinks I shouldn't."

  Ara and Beck both shook their heads emphatically, but Elnor refused to ent. She was steadily growing redder and redder as her time to share approached. Twil locked in the skill, then looked between Bed Elnor expetly.

  Beced at the cherry-red elf and sighed. "Alright, my turn. What should I put my points into?" She pulled up her status sheet.

  Bebsp;QuickfootCss: Bul: 600/600Level: 15MP: 10/10 Strength: 20Ara: 1Finesse: 14Divine: 1Fortitude: 60Resistance: 45Endurance: 42Focus: 1 "I mean, is there a reason to put them anywhere other than Fortitude?" Ara asked quizzically. "The rest of your stats seem perfectly fine for a Defender of your level."

  "Finesse might be from a few points, but your Fortitude would be of more advao you." Twil asserted. "I would put them in Fortitude."

  "Why n up Resistance?" Shiloh asked the group at rge. "Shouldn't she have good Resistaoo, if she's the front line?"

  "Well, there aren't anywhere near as many ehat use magical attacks." Elnor expined quickly. "Not to mention, forty-five Resistance is more than enough for our level. Additionally, all of her skills scale on Fortitude, and you generally want to put all of your points into whatever stat your skills scale on uhere's a very good reason not to."

  "Oh, okay. That makes sense. I would agree with Fortitude, then." Shiloh smiled.

  "Alright, sixty fortitude ining." Beck grinned. "Not gonna lie, I think I'm a bit ahead of the curve on my primary stat."

  Ara snorted. "You don't say? Let's not fet you get another fifteen Fortitude when you're between us an enemies. I 't believe you thought we were overpowered."

  Beck just blushed and pulled up her skills before letting out a sigh. "Nothing sexy for the foxgirl. Typical."

  Defender of the Meek

  While blog attacks for party memberswith lower Fortitude than you, you ignoreevery third attack.

  ter of Attention

  You activate this skill to draw the attentionof all enemies within 100 feet of you.Duration: 30 sedsCooldown: 10 minutes

  "Wow." Shiloh murmured. "That ter of Attention skill looks like it would be pretty useful."

  "Yeah. I 't wait to get wailed on by hordes of enemies." Beck responded dryly, making Shiloh wind blush.

  "I'm sorry, I-"

  "I'm just fug with you, Shy." Beck cut him off. "I'm more than happy to take the attention off of you all."

  "reciate it, Beck. Sincerely, we owe you a lot for keeping us from getting hurt." Elnor said, g Beck's hand in her own. "Thank you."

  Beck blushed again. "Don't be so serious. It's embarrassing." Elnor just smiled at her and held her hand for a moment longer.

  "It would be ter-productive to have both of these skills." Twil ented. "If you use ter of Attention, then the enemy attacks are no longer aimed at your allies. Thus, you wouldn't get the be of Defender of the Meek."

  "That's a really good point." Beck mused thoughtfully. "Maybe there's a way around it, but I think I'll just take ter of Attention for now. Aside from Twil's stuns, we really don't have a great source of crowd trol to keep the mobs off of Shy, Twil and Elnor."

  With a nod from the others, Beck firmed her choid turo Elnor. "Alright, El. Let's see what sexy skills Shy gave you."

  Elnor pointedly ignored her and just dispyed her first choice.

  Double Shot

  When you activate this skill, your shot also fires a spectral arrow, whichdeals true damage equal to 50% of theinal arrow's damage.

  Cooldown: 1 minute

  Steady Aim

  Taking damage while lining up a shot willincrease the damage of that shot by 0.5%for every point of damage taken.

  "Well that's a no-brainer." Shiloh scoffed. "Obviously you'd want Double Shot. Yet another damage multiplier for you."

  "Steady Aim also multiplies damage." Twil stated fairly. "However, it is far less useful to her, since she doesn't want to be taking damage in the first pce."

  Ara and Beck murmured their agreements, and Elnor locked in Double Shot before bringing up her seles.

  Toxophilists' Resolve

  Gain +10 Fortitude aance.

  Quickstep

  When struck by an attack, you may activatethis skill to teleport to any unoccupied spaceyou see within sixty feet.

  "It seems that your css is trying to tell you to take less damage." Ara chuckled, reading the two additional defensive skills.

  "I'll get right on that." Elnor rolled her eyes.

  "I'm holy not sure which of these is better, actually." Shiloh admitted. "Toxophilist's Resolve would double your Fortitude aance, which seems pretty good. Then again, Quickstep makes sure you are never in a bad position for more thaack."

  A brief debate broke out among Elnor's four panions before she cleared her throat and got their attention. "I think I'm actually going to take a skill that I previously passed over. What do you think about this one?" Another skill showed above her head.

  Shadow Stalker

  While pletely in shadows and ued by enemies, you may activate this skill to make yourself uable by mundane means.

  Duration: 1 minuteCooldown: 1 hour

  Elnor expined as they read. "Now that I've got all of these damage multipliers, and now that I know Twil's freeze makes eake more damage, along with Beck's stun, I think I make great use of this skill. I could get off thirty Unerring Shots during this, which would all be boosted by Marksman if they 't see me."

  "That would appear to be a very wise choice." Twil ented. "I'm surprised you didn't take it earlier."

  "Holy, I fot about it until we started looking at stag all of these bonuses." Elnor muttered, blushing.

  "I defihink Shadow Stalker is a good skill to pick up." Beck said, giving Elnor a smile.

  "Absolutely." Ara agreed. Shiloh nodded, and Elnor locked in her sed skill. Then she blushed bright red before her final options appeared.

  Arrows of Endowment

  You may endow 3 arrows by coating their tipsin a bination of your seed and the seed ofShiloh Sutton. Endowed arrows deal true damageand are ued by other skills or spells.

  Cooldown: 1 day

  Pass without Trace

  While traveling through the wilderness, yourparty ot be tracked by mundane means.

  Nobody said anything for a moment, as Beck, Ara, and even Shiloh leered at the blushing elf. She refused to look at them, squirming and staring at the grouually, Twil broke the silence.

  "Aep into the unknown. Arrows of Endowment doesn't only reference your skills, it specifically names Shiloh himself. Hypothetically speaking, if we ever found another person with Lust as a resource, Ara's Love and War and my own Deyed Satisfa would still fun. By taking Arrows of Endowment, Elnor would be permaly tying at least a portion of her effectiveo Shiloh personally."

  Twil's analysis dropped the leer from Shiloh's face. He hadn't thought about it, but she was absolutely correct. His lovers were filling their limited slots with skills that only worked with him. What if they eventually decided to part ways? If they kept getting skills tied to him, would their free will be hampered by the loss of power they would face by leaving him?

  "Maybe you shouldn't take Arrows of Endowment." Shiloh murmured, and they all turo look at him. He looked up, a pained expression in his face before expining. "You are tying yourselves to me permaly by taking all these skills. I don't want any of you to feel like you're forced to stay with me because your skills demand it."

  The four of them g each other, but Elnor was the oo give him her thoughts, by log in Arrows of Endowment. "You're never getting rid of me, Shiloh Sutton." She said with a challenge in her voice.

  "Me her." The other three responded in unison.

  Shiloh hung his head. He didn't want them to be forced to be with him. A finger looped into his colr and pulled his head upwards. He saw his Mistress standing above him, looking angry.

  "Don't presume to be in charge of our choices." She stated coldly. "We are free to tie ourselves to you if we want to, and you have nht to refuse us these skills."

  "But I-"

  "But nothing, my little Shiloh." Twil interrupted, pg a finger upon his lips. "Reize our choices for what they are. We love you, and we are itting ourselves to you in a way more binding than any marriage in the nds. Do you uand?"

  Shiloh nodded.

  "Good. Noologize."

  Shiloh blushed, but murmured an apology to her.

  "I couldn't hear that, my Shiloh."

  "I'm sorry, Mistress. I won't begrudge you your choices anymore."

  "Good job." Twil said before pulling on his colr and leading him on his ko Elnor. "Noologize to Mistress Elnor."

  Twil made him crawl around the circle, apologizing to all of them and calling them all "Mistress". By the time he had fihere were quite obvious bulges pushing out all of their respective skirts and pants. Twil lead him to the middle of the and he khere, looking up at her.

  "Now then, dies, I think our little sve here o be reminded of who's in charge." Twil annouhe other three also rose, surrounding him on all sides. Even Elnor's usually reserved face held unbridled lust. Despite the reserve he had been feeling up until that point, Twil had mao work him out of his shell again. He remembered the promise he had made to Aphrodite, and resolved to not allow his past traumas to ruin his present joys.

  They all shimmied their cocks free of their restraining clothing, and Twil allowed hers to flht out onto Shiloh's face. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply of her st, enjoying the heavy heat of her rod c nearly his entire face. The girls pressed in around him, ahought to himself, I really am a lucky bastard.