::introtext::
C17
(June 11, 296AS, 1020)
Geno sat down on the rock, and held a hand out Aliza, the Boobisaur he had salvaged from Troopa Jr and was now the newest member of his harem. He grinned as the busty female bounced over to him, and slid onto his lap, giving her new tamer a quick kiss. She snuggled against him, enjoying his presence, having had the entire night to ride herself into unconsciousness, which is exactly what she had done. Liberal use of lust dust had left both of them exhausted after four hours of taming, and Aliza had been put through a healing cycle after she had awoken with extreme pain in her thighs, stomach, and loins. Rather than be unhappy with him, she seemed to have become even cuddlier than before, as if saying thanks for the taming of a lifetime. Too bad that was a normal for him if she decided to cheat and use lust dust again.
He kissed her cheek, and then shifted, looking at Lendysa and Asheer, both of them in charge of bringing the newest member up to speed. He raised an eyebrow, and waited for them to tell him how well Aliza had done during her morning tests. Lendysa spoke first. “My report for Aliza’s combat potential. With a bit of hard work, she will be a welcome addition to the harem, at least to the rest of the battlers. She is fast, has fairly good endurance, good at improvising, and does not give up even when clearly outclassed. However, she is not able to stay in one spot, does not follow orders very well, and is apparently incapable of only doing something. Everything has to be overdone, or it is not done at all.”
Aliza sniffed, and returned to nuzzling her tamer’s shoulder and neck. Asheer glared at the Boobisaur, before making her report. “She has potential, and as soon as she realizes she is not the only one in the harem and not alpha, she will do fine. Even if I have to regularly beat her unconscious to get it to happen.”
Geno grinned, knowing that she was not serious, and was saying it simply to get Aliza’s attention. It worked, because she meeped in fear, and buried her head in his shoulder. He patted her back, and then lifted her up off of his lap, and said, “So, lets get going. Aliza gets to break in her pokéball. You two have tamer guard. We are making better time than expected, so we might be able to camp early tonight.”
He recalled Aliza, and then continued, “Actually, we are going to press hard, so Lendysa, I will be replacing you with Razia. I want to re-tame the G-spliced into the harem, since I put her through six level 4 conditioning cycles. That should help with her excessive aggression, but I don’t know what else it might have done to her. Hopefully she is still useful.”
He sighed, as Lendysa gave him a hug and kiss before tapping the recall button on her pokéball, disappearing into her ball. He released Razia, and then gave her a moment to orient herself, before heading off northeast. It would be good to run for a while and good endurance training for Razia as well.
(June 11, 296AS, 2000)
Geno gave Razia's body one last fondle, as he returned the purring but exhausted Cheetit to her pokéball, before releasing Lendysa. She looked around, a bit surprised at being released already, until he pulled out the super heavy restrains that he had bought before leaving town for the G-spliced. She nodded in understanding as she remembered his plans, before she helped him set the restrains out on the ground, and then began checking the strength of the restrains. Once she was satisfied that she couldn’t damage them, she stepped back, and nodded to her tamer before drawing her battleaxe. He pulled Tiamet's pokéball from his belt and tossed it down beside the restraints. The powerful, beautiful, and dangerous girl materialized and then promptly fell over, mewling weakly as she tried to stand back up without success.
She looked up at the dragon blooded tamer as he placed a hand on her shoulder, allowing Lendysa to maneuver the G-spliced’s powerful arms into the restraints, binding her wrists together behind her back, preventing her from either clawing or hitting him with a flailing wing. She looked behind her groggily as the restraints snapped shut and locked with a click, before growling softly at Lendysa. Geno regained her attention by stroking the sides of her breasts, making the feral gasp in pleasure. Lendysa quickly maneuvered Tiamet into the leg and tail restrains, and placed a restraining bar between her knees. Task done, the Kishi stepped back, dismissed her scale armor and returned her axe to its sheath, before reclining nearby to enjoy the show. She stretched languorously, showing off as Geno paused to admire her, before she coyly covered her breasts with an arm and reformed scales over her sex, pretending to behave for the moment.
He grinned at his beta, before stripping down. Once nude, he lay down on top of his G-spliced, and kissed both of her nipples, making Tiamet squirm and purr in pleasure. She gave a curious half growl, half purr, as she rubbed her hips against his, trying to get him inside of her. He smiled indulgently at her eagerness, before biting one of her nipples, and then sucking slowly. He dug his fingers into the bases of both breasts, his tail tip rubbing against her inner upper thigh. She thrashed beneath him, mewling at him, desperate for release. Her body was hot beneath him, her loins already wet and sucking at his cock tip, eager for his cock and seed. He glanced at Lendysa, who was openly playing with herself, eyes locked on the thick, moist pussy of her harem sister and her master’s cock.
She gasped in pleasure as her finger’s dove deep into her nest as Geno plunged his cock into Tiamet’s soaking depths, and then blushed hotly as she realized that master was watching her. She looked away, her wet hand moving from her pussy, but looked back up as he called her. “Len, care to help?”
She met his eyes, and then blushed harder as she nodded, and crawled over to her master. His mouth eagerly met hers, as she molded her body to his back as she ground her pussy against the ridge on his tail, shivering in pleasure as she rubbed the ridge against just the right spot. He thrust slowly into Tiamet’s depths, as he worked her breasts in his hands, and continued to kiss his Kishi. The powerful female shuddered beneath him, panting in pleasure as her tongue lolled out of her mouth, only able to repeat her species name over and over. “Draco... Dracopum...Pumass...Pumass... PUMASS!”
He moaned into Lendysa’s mouth as one of her hands cupped his testicles, her thumb and forefinger squeezing the base of his shaft. Her other hand rubbed his chest, as she began to hump him harder. He came as Tiamet orgasmed hard beneath him, both girls working together easily able to bring him to orgasm. He hilted as his seed spilled into Tiamet’s depths, making her shudder in pleasure, and then started long, full thrusts. His tail tip traced the inner thigh of his Kishi, as she broke his kiss to moan, her hips dragging forcefully along his tail ridge, desperate for release. She screamed in pleasure as his tail tip brushed her clit, pushing her over her edge to orgasm, her nectar coating his tail. He grinned as both girls continued to move with him, promising a long night. Not that he minded...
(June 12, 296AS, 905)
Cursing echoed through the clearing as Geno stared down at the remains of the human male they had been asked to rescue. He looked around at his girls, and Asheer stopped swearing, and blushed at the amusement on her tamer’s face. Razia knelt beside the head and torso of the male, before looking up at Geno. “What is so funny, Master?”
“Asheer’s reaction. It was not like we were promised a bonus for rescuing him. It was nearly five days ago that the Dronza kidnapped him, and she did not leave him at the clearing where the Hunter’s thought he would be at. Wonder why she dragged him all the way out here?”
He knelt down beside Razia, letting both Asheer and Tiamet keep watch. He was pleased at how well she had recovered from the multiple conditioning cycles, and while she was a bit slow of thought and was still only able to say ‘Dracopumass’ for the moment, she seemed a bit smarter than before the multiple cycles.
Shaking his head slightly, he returned his attention to the remains in front of him. The man’s face had been burned off, his throat torn open, his guts removed, testicles torn off, cock cut off an inch from the base, and both arms and legs had been torn off as well. He carefully rolled the nude male over, and noted his ass and back were torn up, the ass so badly that he practically had no butt left. The limbs had been left near the corpse, as had his pokédex and poképack. The males legs had been torn apart at the ankles, knees and hips, and the arms at his wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Burns at the tear sights indicated that the Dronza had cauterized the wounds to avoid letting the male die before she had wanted him to.
Mayuan had thrown up upon seeing the remains, and had to have gone into her pokéball to give her a chance to recover before going into the ruins. Asheer was not looking at the body; Razia looked a bit pale, but was helping him note the damages while Tiamet was looking at the remains like they might be lunch. He made a note to talk to Tiamet about that, when Asheer finally had to ask the obvious question. “Master, why do you not seem to be affected by this... gruesome carnage? I would have expected you to be following Mayuan’s example, or at least my own. But you are handling this body like you have seen much worse, many times before.”
He was distracted by his cataloguing of the damages, and absently responded, “I’ve seen worse.”
Razia’s head snapped up, and she blurted out her question. “When?”
She blushed as Geno started to open his mouth to reply, and froze again. Asheer nodded to herself as she realized that it must be connected to his blocked off past. His words confirmed her guess. “...That is... a damn good question.”
He looked down at the body for a moment before continuing. ”I don’t know. I just know when I look at this, I don’t feel anything at all. Like this is a mannequin, not the remains of a fellow human that died in a horrible way.”
He shook his head, before announcing his conclusion. “Now, I am not an expert, but I am betting that he died from having his throat ripped open and that, most if not all, of the wounds happened before he died.”
“Why do you say that Master?”
Asheer was curious as to why he thought that, knowing he was not trained in analyzing this kind of thing. He shrugged, and said, “Partially by the fact that would allow this person to suffer the most amount of pain, and partially by what the Dronza entry in the pokédex says, ‘Vicious and malicious, and hating humans with a passion.’ It just feels... like she enjoyed this. I mean really, if he was just some poor bastard she grabbed to rape, I would not bet anything significant on her spending any more time with him than she had to. But to drag him this far out here, do this much damage to him and then leave the body here like it did not matter, it is enough to make me think he was one of the ones responsible for her becoming a Dronza, and she finally caught up with him.”
He sighed before pulling out his pokédex, and checking his communication network connection. After a moment he sighed, and the recorded an image of the carnage, before closing his pokédex. He grabbed both the dead man's pokédex and poképack, before storing them in his own poképack. Looking up, he sighed again, staring at the entrance to the ruined building, most of it buried below the hill tat it had been built into. He then released everyone out, and looked them all over, before beginning the briefing. "Alright everyone, listen up! We are at the entrance of the ruin where the Dronza we are hunting is."
He paused a moment to glare at Aliza, who was not paying attention. Lendysa thumped her on the back of her head, and pointed to Geno, who then continued. "Most of you will be in your pokéballs until we find something hostile, feral or Dronza. Initial team will be Lendysa, Asheer, Mayuan, and Tiamet. Lendysa and Asheer will be scouting ahead, with Mayuan and Tiamet protecting the squishy tamer. Stay alert in your pokéballs ladies, I might be pulling and releasing at any point."
He then returned everyone but the four he had named, and then got them to form up, before pointing to the entrance. "Let’s go ladies, I want to be out of there before nightfall. I really don't want to find out if it is called the Ghostly Mausoleum because it is really haunted."
Geno dove to the side as the Slicer ghost attempted to eviscerate him with her sword yet again. She was missing her left arm and leg, but that did not seem to slow her down in the least as her long sword flicked out, drawing another long gash on his gut. Asheer whirled from her ghost, an Amachop missing her right eye and the surrounding two inches of her head, a gory bullet wound, and tagged the Slicer with a flamethrower, dispersing that ghost for the second time in as many hours. The Amachop punched Asheer in the back, making her scream in pain, before Mayuan dispersed the Amachop with a mana bolt. Tiamet was savaging a pair of lizard-like pokégirl ghosts with dragon rage, while Lendysa used chi blast to knock back a Ka-D-Bra ghost missing her entire torso. Lendysa screamed in pain as the Ka-D-Bra used confusion, knocking her to her knees, before flashing into non-existence as Razia roared, the sonic attack finishing the ghost for the moment. Geno forced himself to his feet with Helaine’s help as Tiamet blasted the last ghosts, giving the group a moment to breath.
"You know, if that staircase had not retracted into the ceiling, this would not be so bad."
His entire harem nodded, though Tiamet's nod was more of an indifferent shrug. They had not found anything in the first level, and had descended into the second level. He had been the third of the original five to descend, and Asheer had been last. The moment Asheer had gotten away from the stairs, they had slammed up into the ceiling, and then ghosts had started to relentlessly assault them, wave after wave of fighting, psychic and dragon types, though less of the later than the first two. They had been trapped down on the second level for an hour now, and had just finished checking the last room for a way back up when the latest group had lunged out of the walls for them. The situation was fast getting intolerable and he knew his next decision was merely going to make it worse. "Well, no way up, so I guess we have to head down."
His entire harem looked at him in surprise, before Asheer and Lendysa nodded, understanding the logic, though it was Asheer that voiced the reasoning aloud. "Better to go down, looking for the way out, then stay here till the ghosts overwhelm us."
He nodded, and Mayuan gave a reluctant nod, as did Razia. Aliza was already unconscious, a lucky attack from a Demoness taking her out. The Demoness had thrust her hand into Aliza’s chest while it was glowing with black energy, making the Boobisaur whimper once before collapsing, her bulb and flesh slowly turning from green to white. He was worried about her, but would have her put through a healing cycle and then checked out by Tiria onde they got clear.
Sara was unconscious as well; the same ghost that had gotten Aliza had gotten her, though that time by using a physic attack so strong that Sara had passed out without the time to scream in pain, blood flowing from her eyes, ears and nose. He did not want to pause to get Bellezza out, the last time they had paused for a few moments to do that, they had been swarmed by nearly two dozens ghosts along with the ghost that had managed to drop Aliza and Sara. Only liberal use of area effecting spells had gotten them out of that situation, and even then it had been much closer than he had liked.
He pointed back in the direction of the stairs leading down. He let Asheer and Lendysa lead, Tiamet and Helaine beside him and Razia and Mayuan bringing up the rear. Asheer and Lendysa blasted a single ghost that stepped out of the wall ahead of them, and Asheer yelled back, “They are appearing again Master. We need to move if we want to get to the next level before another swarm appears.”
He nodded, and recalled Mayuan and Helaine to their pokéballs for the dash to the stairs. “You heard your alpha ladies! Move it or lose it! NOW!”
The urgency was because a trio of ghosts stepped out of the wall behind Razia, and looked around for the intruders. The ran for it, as the ghosts screamed in fury as they saw their prey running from them before following. Tiamet slowed to fight the ghosts, but Geno grabbed her arm, and pulled. “Come on, you can fight them once we get to the bottom. MOVE YOUR BIG BREASTED ASS NOW!”
She hissed at him in displeasure at being denied an opponent, but complied, using blur to open up her lead on the ghosts, but she still fell behind Geno and Razia. Asheer and Lendysa slid to a stop beside the stairs, as Geno and Razia arrived. They began to use flamethrower and chi blast at the massing ghosts, hitting the lead ghosts, though instead of falling and tripping up the ones behind them, they wavered for a second before vanishing. Razia slid down the rail on the stairs, and Geno paused halfway, waiting for the others. Tiamet stopped at the top of the stairs, whirling around, and roared at the approaching ghosts. Deciding to use her aggression, Geno yelled, “Tiamet, dragon torture, now! Ash and Len, come on!”
Asheer and Lendysa began scrambling down the stairs, as Tiamet used dragon torture, blasting the mass of ghosts, and then starting toward them. Geno yelled to get her attention. “Tiamet get down here now!”
She hissed in fury, and started toward the ghosts anyways, as Geno sighed in frustration, pulling her pokéball off his belt. He recalled his overly aggressive G-spliced, before sliding down the railing himself. I don’t have time for this...
He rolled as he slid off the rail and hit the ground, and skidded to a stop as the staircase rumbled, and then slammed back up into the ceiling. Shaking his head, he released Tiamet and then Helaine and Mayuan, and stepped up to glare at her, though he knew he was not imposing, his head level with her huge nipples. "I told you to get down the stairs, not go and try to get yourself killed."
She snorted and looked away, which only infuriated him more. He reached up and grabbed her ear, twisting it and pulling as hard as he could. She snarled in surprise, but did not lean down. He glared at her for a moment, before softly saying, "If you get killed up there, I won't be able to tame you after we get out of here."
That got her attention, and she nodded, thinking she understood why he had called her back. "I no die."
He snorted, and she suddenly threw him to the side, as several of his girls screamed in pain. Hitting the wall hard enough to daze him, he managed to roll over and see that more ghosts had attacked his harem, this time of higher evolutions than before, and that an Amachoke had nearly hit him. Tiamet was holding both of the ghosts arms to the sides, and then spat a dragon breath directly into the ghost's face, melting the Amachoke ghost instantly. Mayuan was fighting a sword-wielding angel, and was desperately knocking the ethereal weapon away from her, until the ghost managed to sink the blade between her breasts. Mayuan froze, and then bonelessly collapsed as the ghostly angel pulled her blade free. Geno shook his head and recalled Mayuan, as Asheer tore a ghostly Flarebra’s right arm off, and then lashed out with flamethrower, burning away the ghost. She whirled and then tried to body slam the dead angel advancing on Geno, but went through her target without doing any damage. She did distract it from her tamer, who was just starting to get his feet back under him.
He released Tiria, and handed her Mayuan's pokéball, as Helaine and Lendysa converged on a sheep looking ghost. Helaine feinted a bite, as Lendysa slammed the Lampchop in the back with another chi blast. Helaine then caught the off balance ghost with a thunder tail to the chest, the ghost evaporating from the strike. Suddenly realizing that he could not see Razia, he cast about and noted her being raped by a pair of ghostly DildoQueens, her body limp between the two ghosts, one with her dick in the Cheetit’s mouth, the other in her ass. He yelled to Asheer and pointed, but Helaine tagged the one raping Razia from behind just before Asheer did, the water spear and then flamethrower shattering the ghost into pieces. As both Asheer and Helaine turned to deal with the remaining DildoQueen, Tiria screamed and slammed head first into the far wall as a ghost kicked her clear across the small room.
Tiamet used hyperbeam on the kicking ghost, slagging both the ghost and the wall behind it, as Helaine and Asheer finished off the last DildoQueen. All of the still standing harem members and the tamer looked about, before Geno recalled Razia, Mayuan, and Tiria. He put all three balls into his poképack, and then looked around again. “Alright we need to..”
“MASTER BEHIND YOU!”
Lendysa’s warning was not fast enough, as the ghost materialized behind the tamer, and unleashed a punch into his back that felt like it started a mile or two behind him. He screamed as electricity arced through his body, muscles spasming as the electricity arced from him to his poképack, causing the converter wand to short out in a shower of sparks. Even as Geno collapsed onto the ground, and his harem whirled toward the new ghost, the dead pokégirl grinned and jumped backwards, disappearing into the wall.
He curled into a ball as he waited for the pain and electricity to subside, and after what felt like a lifetime, it finally stopped hurting so much. He weakly raised his head, and then put it back down into Asheer’s lap, the rest of the harem in a defensive circle as they waited for Geno to recover from the attack. Wondering why he was still alive, he tried to turn around, but Asheer would not let him move. “Shhh. Don’t move, master, you were hurt badly. The poképack took most of the blunt force impact, but the electricity arced into you.”
Concerned, he did however settle down. “Is the poképack still working?”
“Somewhat, but the unit is badly damaged, and the converter wand has been completely destroyed. It needs to be repaired before we can do anything with it or get anything else out of it.”
He nodded, and then began to get up, resisting Asheer’s attempts to get him to rest a bit longer. “I can rest when we have gotten out of here. This place is for the dead, and only two types stay here for any length of time, the dead and the dying. Neither of those categories fit us, and I hope it stays that way. So let’s get out of here.”
His alpha had an agonized look on her face as he painfully levered himself to his feet, but she nodded, and then helped him up. His remaining harem members spread out a bit, but stayed alert, most of them realizing that the ghosts were getting smarter. Geno leaned on Asheer, and was too busy mentally kicking himself to care about their direction at the moment. Damn it, you fucking brain dead, hormone deluded, unwanted bastard of a mismade Clonetwo pokégirl. Why the FUCK did you not wait until it was clear to get Tiria out? With her down, we are going to die down here. If any of us make it out it will be an act of the Thousand Gods, let alone more than one. Should have Tiamet try and blast through the ceiling in more spots than just the stairs...
Asheer suddenly poked him, and he started as he realized that they had stopped, and both Lendysa and Asheer were staring at him. Asheer spoke first. “Yell at yourself in your head later, master. We need to focus on getting out of here now.”
The rest of the harem looked confused, and Lendysa added her thoughts. “No one is dead yet, and we are still fighting. The first level was about half again the size of the second level. If they followed the same pattern for the rest of the levels, there might be one or two more levels beneath this one. One of those two smaller levels will be the control room, if they put it in the most defensible location possible.”
Geno flushed, ashamed that he had nearly given up, but suddenly realized that Lendysa might be right, even if he had no clue why she came to that conclusion. “How did you figure that?”
His Kishi gave an exasperated sigh, before explaining. “I paid attention, master, and I realized that if Tiamet could not blast her way through the ceiling at its potentially weakest point, near the stairs, then a human without a more powerful pokégirl probably would not be able to get through either. This base feels old master, and the some of the maps in the rooms were similar to ones from Pre-Sukebe times that I saw at a museum. That means that this base was built during the Revenge War.”
He started to ask her why she thought that, not convinced, but then decided it didn’t matter as much as getting out of this hellhole. He leaned against Asheer, and then let Lendysa and Helaine lead. Tiamet he left near him, and while that meant they might get attacked from behind, it was a risk he would have to take since he was not going to leave one of his girls back there to get slaughtered before someone could help. Lendysa used chi blast on a ghost coming out of the wall, destroying it before anyone could get a good look at it, but that was probably just as well. They traveled as quickly as Rathin could manage, but still had to deal with several ghosts before the found the staircase. He sighed in pain as they stopped at the top of them, before looking at his girls. “Alright, do we go down and hope there is some way to activate the stairs down there, or continue wandering around up here?”
Lendysa was leaning against Helaine, looking drained, before rubbing her hand across her eyes and answering. “I think we should stick to the plan of getting as far down as possible. We have not seen any of the ghosts from the previous level since getting down on this one, and maybe the next level will only have a few ghosts on it.”
Tiamet looked behind them, and then growled softly, threateningly, making Geno glance over his shoulder. Several ghosts slowly reforming near them, and he did not want to fight them if they could avoid it. He gestured to the stairs, before stepping away from Asheer. “Alright ladies, stay cautious. We are heading down.”
He limped down the stairs after Helaine and Lendysa, pulling on Tiamet’s arm to try and convince her to come with him. She did, grudgingly, and Asheer quickly followed as well. Once down on the fourth level, they moved away from the stairs, which quickly rose to merge with the ceiling. He shivered as the stairs connected, and muttered, “Did it suddenly get cold in here, or is it just me?”
The room they were in was small, more of a hallway that ended in a door about 20 yards in front of them. He shivered again as his girls indicated they felt no change of temperature, and then pointed to the door, unnerved for some reason.
Lendysa pushed open the door, and stepped slowly into the next room and then to the side as she looked around. She hissed at Tiamet as the G-spliced shoved past her, and stormed into the room, growling as she looked about for something to attack. Lendysa moved forward, covering her violent harem sister’s left side, and noted that there were dozens of computer monitors spaced around the room, with several consoles with controls, levers and knobs. Wondering what this base had been for, she suddenly whirled about, and then jumped back as a ghost formed in front of her already attack, a huge, powerfully built ghost with four arms. She desperately used cross shield out of instinct, deflecting the attack, but her counter attack went through her incorporeal opponent, leaving her wide open for the opponent to strike back. She started to yell a warning, but her harem sisters were already crying out in surprise, letting her know they were already being attacked, even as she dodged a cross chop from the Amachamp ghost. This is going to be very ugly; I am nearly out of chi…
Tiamet hissed at the ghost forming almost in front of her, and slashed out with her claws, aiming for her opponent’s throat. The claws passed through the freezing, unreal flesh, and then came out the other side, not harming the ghostly dragoness in the least. The DragonQueen sneered as she grabbed Tiamet’s arm, the cold searing her flesh, but her expression quickly changed to shock as the enraged G-spliced blasted her in the face with a dragon breath.
The ghost rolled backwards as Tiamet’s head snapped forward, some of the attack burning past her, but the ghost still hissed in pain as she finished rolling backwards. The ghostly DragonQueen retorted with a dragon rage, seeking to damage her opponent even as she blurred backwards, leaping into the air. Her wings slammed down twice, and she vanished into the ceiling, as Tiamet shrugged off the damage from the dragon rage. She cast about for her opponent, having not seen her disappear into the ceiling, and then snarled in fury as a gust attack slammed into her back. She whirled and lashed out with dragon rage, but snarled in fury as her opponent disappeared back into the ceiling. Shi hissed in fury, and then screamed in anger as another gust hit her from behind. This time she retaliated with dragon torture was again too slow to stop the ghost from vanishing into the ceiling. Tiamet hissed in unbridled fury, as she cast about for her opponent
Asheer and Helaine both suddenly flew clear across the room to slam into the far wall as a third ghost appeared. The two girls slid down the wall to land in a heap, Asheer on top of Helaine, as the newest ghost’s antennae waved for a moment, before she turned around to look at the tamer. The left half of her torso and hips were missing, but he still felt the cold dread that had become so familiar when he recognized her as an Alaka-Wham. She stared at him for a moment, before turning back to his two harem members that were pushing themselves upright.
She glanced around, noting what was where, and her gaze paused a moment on a pathetic pile of skeletons and abandoned equipment in the corner of the room. The ghost turned back to her two opponents as Asheer spat a flamethrower and Helaine a water spear, and deflected both with a shimmering barrier. She then ignored the two pokégirls as she used another barrier technique, as her first barrier turned aside the water spear but allowed the flamethrower through to slam into her remaining breast. She gasped in reflexive pain, before using a third technique which made several copies of herself appear, though one of them burst into nothingness when Helaine hit the copy with a water spear.
Geno swore loudly and creatively as the three ghosts quickly stripped him of his guards, leaving him alone, and then looked to his right as something flickered in his vision. He desperately rolled to his left as he realized he was under attack again, this time by a vicious looking bitch with coarse looking fur, and long, razor sharp claws on her hands and feet. Her mouth was filled with teeth as she lashed out at him with a bite, and he screamed in pain as the fangs torn his shoulder, though the cry was more for the unearthly cold than pain, with immediately made his right shoulder, arm, and the upper right part of his chest ache slightly and go partially numb.
He dodged away, and cursed as he realized that the ghostly feral attacking him was faster than he was. What is the freaking point of being faster than a normal human if that is all I am faster than? I swear the only thing it is useful for is leaving me alive longer to make the ferals even MORE vicious when they finally catch up with me.
He flipped away and back upright, and made the mistake of trying to block the ghost’s claws with his claw weapon. Her claws passed through his left claw weapon, and slashed his left arm all the way to the bone, the only mercy being that the icy cold of her dead form froze the blood before he lost any. Once he thawed though, he was going to be in big trouble. He screamed in pain as the claw slashed him, before stumbling and falling, saving his throat from her right claws as they passed inches above his face. He slammed onto his back, and started to roll to the side, but froze as the feral quickly straddled him, smiling evilly down at him. She hissed softly, fangs bared, as Geno desperately sent his thoughts to Asheer. Little help, love? Please?
Asheer looked up from the ghost to stare in horror at the Slutton standing over her master, and hissed in fury. She unleashed a fire blast, knowing that her lover and love was immune to fire, before dashing forward. Asheer grinned as the fire blast knocked the rodent type away from her lover, who unexpectedly screamed. She dashed around the half ghost she had been fighting, and saw that most of her master’s clothing had burned, and he was holding his left bicep, which was bleeding profusely. He gave her a weak grin, and she felt him say goodbye through their delta bond, believing his wound to be mortal. She screamed in fury, and whirled back to the ghost that had savaged her love.
She roared her fury at the Slutton, who snarled back and charged, right into a hyper beam, Asheer’s last one for the day. The Slutton exploded into nothingness, as the Flarebra whirled back to the dead Alaka-Wham as something flashed brightly in that part of the room. Just in time to see something small and white dart from the pile of bones in the corner, and into Helaine’s eye.
Helaine had been doing good, figuring out that the Light screen was not a solid surface, but a series of small circles that moved under the control of the ghost. There were only four of the circles, and Helaine had been splitting a water spear into smaller attacks, which did less damage but were harder to deflect due to sheer numbers. She ignored another powerful psychic attack that ripped through her mind, though it was getting harder to concentrate, and retaliated with another split water spear. She was running low on her inner reserves, and would soon have to close to deal with the ghost.
Three of the splits got through that time, and the ghost’s temper seemed to desert her. The ghost’s eyes flashed, and then her body flashed as bright as lightning, blinding Helaine. She hissed and backed away a pace, and shook her head to clear her eyes. She looked up, and saw something small streaking at her face from the side. She turned toward it, and felt a flash of pain and then there was only darkness, as the bone shard punctured her right eye, punched through her brain, and slammed into the back of her skull hard enough to shove almost half of the shard through her thick skull, killing her instantly.
Lendysa was being forced to play an attrition game with the Amachamp ghost, and she was not enjoying herself. She had maybe three chi blasts left, and that was the only attack she knew that would affect a ghost. Everything else relied on physically damaging the body, and the ghost was as insubstantial as fog. She rolled around her opponent’s gatling punch, and unleashed a chi blast into the ghost’s stomach, before dodging clear. She spent the next few exchanges dodging, and was unable to see why Asheer was screaming in fury, too busy trying to deal with her opponent to see what was wrong. She was knocked backwards by a lucky backhand from the ghost, but landed on her feet, and blasted the ghost with her second chi blast. She cursed as the ghost managed to evade the attack, and knew she would be in trouble if this last one did not kill it.
She gasped in shock as the Amachamp dashed forward and unleashed an incredibly powerful attack, which missed her by inches, so close she could feel the unnatural chill that surrounded the ghost. She desperately unleashed her last chi blast into the Amachamp, which slammed into the Amachamp’s face, rocking the ghost’s head back and causing it to freeze for a moment. Lendysa stepped back, gasping for air and exhausted, hoping the ghost would go down, for if not, she was as good as dead. She stared at the ghost, and then collapsed to her knees as her opponent began to dissolve, and fade away. She fell onto one side, exhaustion from the chi drain and the long hours of constant fighting catching up to her, and she closed her eyes to rest, but only for a moment…
Tiamet was beyond fury as she missed the ghostly dragon queen again. She had been battered by her ghostly opponent for too long, and while she still had some steam left, she was nearing the end of her rope. Not that she would ever admit that aloud. Perfection, like what she was, never got defeated or tired. That this ghost was proving her wrong, even if only to herself, was intolerable. She had suffered through gust attacks, shadow shots, and was now being attacked with dragon rages. She screamed in fury again as another dragon rage lashed her back, and she whirled, hissing as the dragon queen again darted into the ceiling. She knew what the ghost was doing, but she could not think of any way to close and rend her opponent into pieces, burn her to ashes and then scatter her to the winds as a warning to all those that would dare defy her. She screamed in fury at the retreating dragon queen, as the other scaled sister screamed in fury as well.
Turning, she saw the blue one drop, and her scent changed to that of death as she tested it. Hissing in contempt at the dead one, she blurred toward the strange prey, and then blasted the prey that was missing half its chest with dragon breath, working up the energy for a hyper beam. She grinned as the prey screamed in pain, as her scaled sister blasted her with a flamethrower, causing the prey to lose her control of her barriers, causing both to drop.
Geno watched the ghostly whirled toward Tiamet, and unleashed a powerful blast of barely controlled psychic energy in the general direction of Tiamet, who staggered under the psychic assault. Another dragon rage from the remaining ghost knocked her to her knees, as Asheer turned to the dragon queen who had focused on Tiamet. She hit the ghost in the chest with a fire blast, as Tiamet unleashed her hyper beam, just as the psychic unleashed a desperate last second psychic. The fire blast took apart the dragon queen, and both Tiamet and the Alaka-Wham ghost dropped to the ground, Tiamet unconscious and the ghost dissolving away.
He weakly coughed, the cold floor making him shake uncontrollably, as Asheer limped back to her lover, and cradled his head in her lap. He grinned up at her, before whispering, “Cold…”
She nodded at him, understanding what he was really saying, before looking around at her harem sisters. She looked nearly ready to cry when she saw she was the only one still conscious, and she did start crying when she remembered Helaine. She looked down at Geno, and whispered, “Master, Helaine is dead. I can do something about that wound, but I need to move away for a moment.”
He froze when he learned that Helaine was gone, and closed his eyes, suddenly tired. He nodded when he realized she was asking for permission to move away from him, and watched her move over to an area of the control room that was damaged from the fighting. The hard metal floor was warped somewhat, and a section had been torn up, which was what she knelt beside. She carefully grabbed an edge of the flooring, and then her throat and mouth worked for a moment, before she began to use flamethrower in a very condensed form. She slowly weakened a part of the damaged floor, and ripped the panel free. He nodded in sudden understanding as to her intentions as she approached him.
She knelt down beside him, and then held the glowing metal near his wound. She suddenly stopped, and looked concerned. “Master, are you sure that heat cannot harm you?”
He nodded, and removed his hand from his wound, blinking rapidly as the blood began to flow faster from the hole in his arm. She first used one of her potions on him, and watched the bleeding slow before she wrapped the hot metal around his arm. She stood up and looked down at her love, terrified that he was still going to bleed out on her, but he forced himself to his feet. He pointed to the pile of bones, and wobbled for a moment before speaking. “You check that pile for anything useful. That might be our only profit on this trip. I will collect everyone, and…”
He stopped with his gaze on Helaine, before he looked down. He had to gather himself before recalling his harem and putting their pokéballs back on his belt, which was the only clothing that had survived other than his damaged poképack. He then limped over to Helaine, and knelt beside her as Asheer started digging carefully through the pile of bones. He hugged the cooling body of his Feraligarter, and kissed her. “Goodbye, Helaine, wait for me if you can.”
He pulled his knife off his belt, which had been protected from the fireblast by him being on top of it. He cut a lock of Helaine’s short hair off, and stored it in a pouch on his belt, before limping over to a nearby console. He looked around, and then began to pull levers and push buttons, hoping one of them would drop the stair cases again. After hitting several buttons and pulling two levers, something in the far corner of the room rumbled, and then another stair case appeared, descending into the floor. He stared at the new stair case leading down with the expression of a man dying of thirst who was just handed a glass of salt. He looked at Asheer, and then sighed in exhaustion and exasperation, before asking, “Well?”
She looked up from the pile, and gave him an inventory of what she had found. “All that is here is a pokédex, several destroyed or inactive pokéballs, a pair of ruined backpacks. They have nothing that we can use master.”
He rolled his good shoulder, and then said, “Bring the pokédex, we can let the family know that the tamer is dead. Now, about the stairs?”
She gave him a helpless look, before saying, “We die if we stay, and unless one of the other consoles opens the stairs, we don’t have a choice.”
They wasted a few minutes trying all the other controls, but rarely did they do anything that they could notice happen. Several of the switches produced loud static, and one made the lights dim for a moment, but nothing else happened. After a moment of looking at each other, he gestured to the stairs, and limped toward the stairs leading down. He paused at the top, and then checked the time on his pokédex. Only about 1330? We have been down here a little longer than five hours. Feels longer for some reason, closer to years than hours.
He let Asheer descend first, but stayed close, and shivered again. The air in this section was dank and cold. He quickly noted that this level was rough stone, which explained the chill and humidity. His flashlight soon became their only source of light, and he was glad that he had given it to Helaine to hold, even though she never used it. Asheer carried the two potions and antidote from Helaine’s pack, and he hoped it would be enough healing to keep her alive. If she fell in battle, he was dead. Shaking his head, he limped after her, trying to ignore the cold that was sapping his strength.
He was not sure how long it took them to reach the bottom, five minutes or five lifetimes, but Asheer eventually announced that they had reached the bottom. He looked up, and then staggered as he missed the last step, and ended up in Asheer’s arms. He hugged her, more to hide his weakness from her concerned eyes then the need for warmth, and then flicked the flashlight around. He frowned when he spotted six long cylinders along one side of the room, and then another six along the other side of the room. Four of the cylinders were open, two were completely destroyed when part of the room collapsed leaving only a few inches exposed, and two of the remaining six were half buried. The closest four were still running, judging from the lights on the sides of the cylinders, but the other six that he could see were dark and dead.
The first one on the right was empty, but the second one had someone inside, a powerful sheep looking pokégirl. He pulled out his pokédex, and scanned her, wanting information before he did anything stupid like release her or try to kill her.
KUNG-EWE, the Champion Sheep Pokégirl
Element: Fighting
Frequency: Very Rare
Diet: Vegetarian
Role: frontline fighter
Frequency: Very Rare
Diet: Vegetarian
Role: frontline fighter
He looked up, and then back down at the pokédex, before shrugging to himself, and limping up to the dead cylinders. The first dead one on the right side held an extremely familiar looking pokégirl who had tried to fillet him upstairs, and his pokédex beeped as he scanned her, but then spat out an error message. Remembering that the pokédex could not scan dead girls, and knowing his guess would not be confirmed, he moved up along the line, and spotted the dragon type that had kept Tiamet busy for a good while. A single crack in the control panel nearby revealed the probable cause of death for both the Slutton and DragonQueen. This one was empty as well as near he could tell, before turning to the other side of the room. Heading across, he noticed Asheer staring at the form in the farthest cylinder from him, but pushed it out of his mind.
The tube that had been half crushed on the right side of the room contained an Alaka-Wham, with half of her chest completely crushed, and dried blood and a small flecking of a white substance prevented him from seeing her face, something he was immensely thankful for. Being crushed to death could not have been a pleasant way to go, even if she had been unconscious. He stared at the female in the tube for a moment, hating the waste of such a powerful pokégirl, before limping down to the next dead tube. This one was empty as well, and he wasted a minute wondering why some of the tubes were empty, before deciding it did not matter. Heading down to the last tube, he grinned in regret as he saw the Amachamp, another powerful pokégirl wasted.
He limped around the last intact and dead cylinder, and looked into the first tube on the right which was still working, Asheer still staring into the second tube, which was closest to the door. This one had a beautiful snake woman in it, but he had never seen one like her before. She had thick, bone-like plates covering her forearms, shoulders, stomach and hips, but as he watched, they shifted as she slowly breathed, indicating that they might not be as hard as they appeared. She was exotically attractive, and he stared at her, fascinated for several minutes at her breath-taking beauty, before finally forcing himself to look away. He brought his pokédex up to scan her and frowned when it beeped at him.
NAGA, the Snake Pokégirl
Element: Poison
Frequency: Uncommon
Diet: Carnivore (ferals prefer small animals, usually eaten whole and live)
Role: Stealthy infiltration
Frequency: Uncommon
Diet: Carnivore (ferals prefer small animals, usually eaten whole and live)
Role: Stealthy infiltration
He read the description, and then at the female inside the cylinder, wondering what the hell the bone plates were and why she had them. Shaking his head, he moved to the last intact and working cylinder, and froze as he looked in. Another Alaka-Wham lay inside, this one clearly alive, her massive breasts resting against her chest, slowly rising and falling. He swallowed, and took a breath, before looking again, and this time he was able to not be overwhelmed by his emotions. And the first thing he noticed was disturbing, that her arms and legs were slightly muscled, not bodybuilder’s muscles, but he could never remember seeing similarly developed muscles on another Alaka-Wham before. Her abs were about as developed as her limbs, which he thought was equally odd. He looked up at her face, and jumped back with a cry as her eyes open and met his. His mind immediately stopped, and he felt himself descend into the depths of his mind.
He desperately whirled in a circle, and cursed as he realized he was in his mind, the last room did not have natural and ambient light, nor did it have multiple exits like this room did. He stood up, and then looked around, before sending outward, {Alright, fine, you won. Where are you?}
For a moment, nothing happened, so he concentrated, and then cast out his awareness all the corners of his mind. And he was disturbed to find he could not feel anything beyond his mind. Normally he could vaguely feel his body and easily feel his bonds, but at the moment he was unable to feel anything. And that scared him. He took a moment to perform the calming exercise that Selene had taught him.
{How did you learn our exercises?}
He whirled about, toward the direction the mental question had come from, but no one was there. He wasted a few seconds looking about, before sending, {So, I don’t get to admire you more? Surely an Alaka-Wham is not afraid of what a mere…}
Sudden and excruciating pain forced him to his knees, and then down onto his side, as she sent, {Do not equate caution with fear. I will not risk myself until I know what I am expected to do. Now be silent and cease resisting, or your traitor will suffer for your resistance.}
He froze, and then relaxed as much as he possibly could. The section of his mind he equated with his body was suddenly back, but only a little bit, like he was numb all over, and was only vaguely aware of what it was doing. And it was doing something, but with all the…
Pain suddenly lanced through his mind, and from the part of his mind his delta bonds had attached to. He cursed, and then tried to relax by performing the calming and mind clearing meditations that Selene had taught him. After a few minutes, he felt a familiar surge from his body, and his mind stopped as he realized that she must be using his body to tame herself as she looked for the information she needed. He felt a flash of rage, before quickly descending back into icy calmness. He was not sure how long he lay trapped in his mind, but eventually he became aware that his body was slowly regaining feeling. And that his delta bond with Asheer was full of inconsolable loss, which he began forcing his mind towards, trying to get himself back.
Asheer was holding Geno’s limp body to her chest, her head buried in his neck, alternating between sobbing brokenly and begging for him to come back. He shifted slightly, and then reached up to caress her cheek, and coughed. “Don’t worry, little flame. I am still right here.”
She froze when his hand touched her, and then buried her face in his neck again, though their delta bond revealed that her tears were of relief rather than soul numbing terror, fear and loneliness. He tried to move, and immediately whimpered in pure agony as his entire body began to throb. He stilled himself, before trying to get closer to Asheer and asked, “What happened after the Alaka-Wham woke up? I was trapped in my mind as soon as that happened. I think.”
Asheer looked away for a moment, before finally answering. “I was aware that she was conscious the moment I looked into her cylinder; that was when she grabbed my mind, and prevented me from doing anything. I was screaming and thrashing in my own head, trying to warn you away, but she had me trapped too well to do anything that you would have known about. Once you looked into her cylinder, she released me, and slammed you down onto the ground, and tossed me against the wall.”
She paused for a moment, before continuing. “I was out for a moment from impacting the wall, and when I came too, three pokégirls were standing near you. The Alaka-Wham slammed me back against the wall when I tried to get up and defend you, and then she used her powers to hold me still and partially choke me to keep me quiet and unable to do anything. The naga looking pokégirl mounted you first, your body moving to finish the tamings as fast as possible, but there was no real passion in your movements. Once the naga finished, she pushed herself away and held her stomach for a moment, looking disgusted before slithering up the stairs. The sheep went next, and she seemed to enjoy herself, quickly climaxing and not stopping until the psychic had to force her off for her turn. The Alaka-Wham finished quickly and then the sheep got back on you.”
She suddenly frowned before she grabbed Geno’s pokédex, and opened it up. She checked the clock, before glaring at it a moment. “About two hours of very hard tamings under the sheep pokégirl. She was quite… enthusiastic. I hope we meet her again, when I am not weakened, and she is not being protected by that psychic. No one rapes my tamer in front of me and gets away with it.”
She hissed the last sentence, before closing the pokédex. She then leaned over and put the pokédex up, and then picked up Rathin with unconscious ease, ignoring his protests that he could walk fine. He glared at his alpha, and made a noise of distaste before he released Len, thinking she had slept long enough. When she materialized, though, she was still unconscious. Asheer’s gentle prod with her tail partial woke the Kishi, who grumbled. “Five more minutes master. Please?”
A slightly stronger prod succeeded in waking Lendysa all the way. She glared at Asheer, and then cried out in shock as she realized that Geno was being carried. She quickly stepped forward, and gasped as she saw the makeshift bandage, before tenderly stroking his face and taking him from Asheer’s arms. Upon seeing the look on her alpha’s face, she raised an eyebrow, before commenting. “I am out of chi blast, the only attack I know that can harm ghosts. Therefore, I should be the one to carry him so you can keep him alive.”
Asheer glared at the Kishi but nodded, both girls ignoring his weak protests that he could limp along fine. He muttered something uncomplimentary, and then snuggled closer, trying not to enjoy the coddling. He knew he failed when Lendysa looked down at him with a smile, and kissed his forehead. “I would not like being as hurt as you either love. Just bear with us.”
He did not verbally respond, but he did relax a bit. Now just let us all get out of here aliv…
His eyes closed, and he buried his face against Lendysa’s chest, remembering that he had already lost someone. Helaine…
(June 12, 296AS, 1805)
Asheer staggered out of the god forsaken hole in the ground that was the Ghostly Mausoleum, and then turned to help Lendysa and Geno out. Looking around, she noted that the light was dying, and turned to Geno, silently asking what they should do. He looked around, and then pointed southwest. “To Cherry Grove, we need to rest, resupply, and mourn. And we need to move as fast as possible, because we have NOTHING on us. Once we get back, we can gather ourselves, but I am counting this expedition as a loss as of this moment.”
His left leg had been hurt during their dash out of the ruin, using the path left open by the leaving Naga and Kung Ewe to quickly reach the surface. The ghosts had been sparse, but still a threat with only one girl to defend him. But they had survived, and now they were going to head back, and figure out what to do then. Turning to the direction he had indicated, he wrapped his left arm around Len’s shoulders, and began moving, knowing it might take as long as a week to get back.
Regardless of the weather conditions, he was in danger of exposure, but he knew that if they were careful and had any kind of good luck, they would make it back. Maybe not fine, but they would survive. He did pause for a moment after a few steps, and turned back to the ruin that had become Helaine’s tomb, and whispered a soft goodbye, before resolutely turning back to the direction of town. He would mourn with his harem when they were all safe, not before.
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