NOVEL NEXT Chapter 72: A very effective team
Calypsa eventually untangled from Mason and a nearly unconscious Becky, wading waist deep into the corrupted pool.
“How are you doing?” Mason trailed his fingers across Becky’s taut stomach, her head now laying across his lap.
“Good.” She licked her lips and swallowed. “I, um, didn’t think I’d ever…”
“Tongue fuck a nymph?”
She giggled and covered her mouth. “Be in a threesome. Or with a girl.”
“Neither did I, to be honest,” Mason shrugged, thinking of his broody, awkward, teenage self, especially next to the effortless charm of his brother. “But look at me now.”
“Yeah,” Becky opened her eyes and they both smiled as they looked at each other, stroking one another’s skin. “Look at you now.” She sighed and cuddled into his lap. “Thank you for making me do that. I, um, guess I enjoyed it.”
“I could tell.” Mason grinned as Becky flushed and tried to cover her face. “Do you prefer your new sex toy now? Is she about to put me out of the job?”
Becky giggled and turned in Mason’s lap, her skin so appealingly pink with her easy embarrassment before she squished her breasts together as she rose up on her elbows.
“Well, far as I can tell, she’s your toy, not mine. But if you want to play with her again some day, I guess I wouldn’t mind.”
Mason kissed her soft, inviting lips, and nearly groaned as his manhood still twitched.
“What?” Becky seemed to have noticed. “Are you serious?” She shook her head. “When we get back I think Haley probably deserves some kind of medal. This is ridiculous.”
Calypsa called from the pool as Rebecca seemed to be preparing to assist.
“It is done, druid, the waters are cleansed.”
They both watched as the red waters cleared, the flower around it transforming. Even the air improved.
“I love you for the effort,” Mason gave Rebecca a quick peck on the forehead, “but we should go check on Blake and Seul-ki and get moving.” He stood and looked for his clothes, and Becky rose up beside him with a little water in her eyes and a shit eating grin.
“You love me, do you?”
Mason rolled his eyes. “Women. Why do you care so much about words? I’d kill and die for you, wouldn’t I? Now shut up and get dressed. We have a tree to save.” He slapped her already red, hand-printed ass, admiring her many marks and dripping thighs.
“Can I have a quick dip in that water?” she’d apparently caught his gaze, turning to Calypsa with a shy grin.
“Of course.” The nymph gestured. “In fact you both should. It will renew you.”
Mason took Becky’s hand and soon stepped down into the warm water, both groaning at the feel. Calypsa came towards them with a business-like expression, running her hands over their bodies as if to clean them.
“Yeah,” Becky looked at Mason. “I could get used to this.”
“Threesomes?” he grinned, and she giggled.
“Being with you.”
“Same thing,” his smile widened as it was Becky's turn to roll her eyes.
“Well hello down there.”
Blake leered down at them with a complete lack of shame. Apparently cleansing the flower had also opened it.
“Looks like you three have gotten pretty comfortable,” he added. “How am I the lucky one again? We just got a bunch of acid up here. Not a damn pool.”
“You’d be dead if you did,” Mason called, shaking his head at the realization. “And you didn’t have to fight the thorn-shooting giant plant, either.”
“As you say,” Blake yawned, his eyes still moving over Becky and Calypsa without an ounce of reserve. Becky was already doing her best to cover herself, but the water was now incredibly clear, and there was nowhere to go.
Mason laughed and scooped her into his arms, squishing her breasts against him as he covered her with his hands.
“There,” he said, “problem solved. Now fuck off, Blake.”
She sunk into him and buried her face against his chest.
“Blake,” he called. “I think maybe we need more firewood, if you…”
“Absolutely not,” Blake scoffed. “We have levels to gain, bosses to kill, dungeons to clear. Right? Now let’s get a move on!”
Mason let himself feel Rebecca’s soft, wet body against him for another long moment, then sighed.
* * *
“Alright, alright. Monsters to kill. Brothers to shut up. Robot Gods to pacify.” Mason rose up and stretched, pulling a complaining Becky to her feet before throwing on his clothes.
Becky’s panties were so ruined she abandoned them entirely, sliding into her pants commando as Mason grinned.
“You’re pretty darned pleased with yourself, aren’t you?” she threw back her long hair and tied it into a ponytail as Mason admired just how beautiful she was.
“You mean for cleansing the corruption? Or for turning my girl into a threesome loving, nymph hungry…”
“Yes,” Becky interrupted, going slightly pink. “For that.”
Mason walked to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Your secret’s safe with me.”
“And me! Well, not really…” Blake called down, then tossed a vine over the edge of the flower. Apparently he was back, and also hadn’t tied the vine to anything, so it fell entirely to coil on the ground.”
Mason felt Rebecca flush with heat against him and refuse to look up towards his brother. He gave Blake a glare, then gestured at the vine as if to say ‘you idiot’.
“Not to worry!” Blake raised a hand, and the vine floated on its own accord, right out of the flower’s ‘cell’ until it tied around something up top.
“Shall we?” Mason gestured, and his women stepped up behind him. “Think you can climb it?” He turned to Becky, and she stuck out her tongue and grabbed the vine, pulling herself up and using her legs to hold like an expert climber. Mason stood at the bottom, enjoying watching her toned legs and firm ass as she clamped and struggled her way to the top.
“Your combined seed is very powerful, druid,” Calypsa said at the bottom. “You should bring her to the Grove. With my sister’s assistance, we could create very strong life.”
Mason raised a brow, picturing himself in the sexy tangle of all those beautiful female bodies, taking them all as he pleased.
“One day,” he said noncomittally. “Until then, you’ll treat Rebecca as my flesh and blood. Understand? She is your master, too, unless it contradicts me.”
The nymph’s eyes squinted, but she lowered her head in obedience. “As you say, druid.”
“Good. Now I assume you can climb that, even in your armor?”
The lithe creature scowled, then leaped at the rope and scurried up with inhuman speed.
“Right.” Mason waited until she made it out, then pulled himself up with ease, his arms now easily strong enough to do it without using his legs. He hacked off the vine at the top and brought it up to take with them. In the post-apocalypse, a man never knew when he needed a rope.
“I presume we’re all rested and ready to actually get something done?” Blake smiled as he looked between them.
Increasing Blake’s smugness was always a bad idea, so Mason walked by without a word. Several paths lay beyond the now open flower-room.
Calypsa had no memory of the place, and none of the paths seemed more obvious to any other, so they stuck with Blake’s somewhat ridiculous plan of ‘always go left’.
They walked along with no issues for quite some time, then found droppings and other signs of living creatures. Just beyond another ramp they discovered several more centaurs eating around a campfire.
There wasn’t much else for it, so Mason lay his traps, signaled to the others, then started filling the air with arrows.
Blake used his Telekinesis to throw rocks and trip the surprised and enraged chargers. Becky and Calypsa held the creatures off. And the pack was mostly dead or wounded before Mason drew his blades to finish them.
[You have slain Corrupted Centaurs x6. Group experience awarded.]
They moved on with hardly a word, next finding some kind of menagerie, with mutated beasts chained to platforms and walls. Mason tried to speak to them with Speak with Nature, but the miserable creatures were too far gone from the corruption. They fought and slew anything that wasn’t chained up with relative ease, but didn’t get any experience.
Mason and Becky were becoming far more in sync. He was beginning to trust her as a walking obstacle, a moving shield he could fight around and fall back to as a distraction. If things got overwhelming, Seul-ki and Blake blasted things away or channeled more mana into Rebecca or Mason, and they were actually a very effective team.
Calypsa’s spear helped, of course.
The nymph’s inhuman reflexes and magic weapon seemed always in the right place at the right time, protecting their casters or supporting Mason’s attack. He expected she’d be returning to her grove when it was all over, but he knew he’d be lying if he didn’t prefer it otherwise.
In their third room beyond the cleansed pool, more centaurs attacked across a long hall with bows and spears. The walls loosed thorns from some kind of murder holes, and the roof dropped the occasional stalactite.
Mason dropped his traps then tried hiding behind Becky’s shield as he shot back. But the damn centaurs were fast, and often ducked or sidestepped his arrows.
“Great. Just great.” He looked at the others. “Stay here. Try and kill a couple with Telekinesis or something. I’ll go flush them out.”
Before anyone could suggest otherwise, Mason ran out from the cover of Becky’s shields, running in a zag across the room with Aspect of the Cheetah active.
He dodged the arrows. At least most of them. He groaned as one slammed into his thigh, but he’d caught the bastard and Predator Strike’d one of the creature’s arms off.
Things got red after that. He heard the others shouting and coming forward but for him the battle became swords and hooves, blood and screaming.
Then it was over as fast as it began, and Mason stood breathing with ragged, adrenaline fueled breaths before sagging to the floor.
[You have slain Corrupted Centaurs x7. Group experience gained.]
He sighed, trying to pull the arrow from his leg, then moved to a nearby rock with a groan. He gave it a brief tug to discover the arrowhead was made with something like hooks to resist the attempt. He took a moment to build up his will to take the pain.
“Oh my God,” Becky dropped to his side and gently touched the arrow. “Are you alright?”
Mason groaned as he ripped it out. A spurt of blood hit Becky’s cheek, and she went pale as Mason tore a strip of fabric from his shirt and started making a rough tournequette.
“Have you considered…some kind of armor?” Blake looked away from the wound in mild disgust.
“I heal. And it’d slow me down. Seul-ki, you have enough mana for another Regen boost?”
The Korean nodded and knelt to touch his leg. The now familiar bolt of cold spread up his skin, freezing his wound slightly before the pain eased a little.
“Thank you.”
The quiet girl nodded and moved away, and Blake looked over Becky’s shoulder with a scrunched up face as he inspected the wound.
“I don’t much like blood. Especially not my blood. And yours is pretty close.”
Mason grinned then lay back. They sat and waited for him to heal enough to move on, Becky fretting over him until she eventually just sat and put her head on his shoulder.
He smiled, not unhappy at the attention, but the arrow was an unpleasant reminder that he was becoming increasingly vulnerable to the terrifying, dangerous creatures of this new world.
For now it was giant plants and deadly arrows, but what might it be in the future? A class like Becky or the former chief of Nassau were almost in another league of preventing harm.
Even a ‘support’ class like Alex the Bellarussian bubbler could use his shields and healing powers extremely effectively. Mason might heal fast, but he was still just a man.
“I need to be tougher.”
“Hmm?” Becky raised her head off his shoulder, and he shook his head and patted her leg.
“Just thinking out loud. We’re a good team, but I’m too vulnerable. I’ve got a power that I think helps resist a lot of magic, but physical things are increasingly a problem.”
“That’s why you’ve got me,” Becky smiled.
“Yeah,” Mason smiled back.
But he knew he couldn’t rely on that. He wouldn’t always have her around when he needed her in a fight. It was kind of ironic, he realized, that he’d come in here for the others but was starting to notice his own weaknesses. Of course, Blake’s list of weaknesses could fill a small book.
“So other than lifting plants without touching them, and throwing out the occasional blast,” Mason said, “can you do anything else useful?”
Blake frowned, and put a thoughtful hand to his chin.
“I make one hell of a cocktail. I don’t suppose anyone has any amaretto?”
Mason rolled his eyes, wondering why he bothered. After a little while he flexed his leg, which was still a little painful but seemed to have basically healed. He couldn’t be sure, but it seemed Seul-ki’s magic at least doubled his regeneration speed.
“Alright,” he took a swig from his water flask and stood. “Let’s go finish this thing.”
Oh hi there. Slightly modified to fit RR rules, you don't lose much.
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