E M M A Ch 03 04

Chapter 3: Davi returns.

Qorin read and reread her list, snorting. Half a dozen sticklefruits, a quart and a half of goat milk, two-dozen 3-inch youngerberries, a yard of ying wool, and so on went the shopping list. Did Max really need to make her buy such boring stuff? And in imperial units, no less!

She crumpled the note in her fist and started looking around the marketplace. There were so many fascinating things on sale here! She wandered from stall to stall, watching as people sold and bartered strange looking weapons, supposedly magical artifacts, sparkling jewels, ancient musical instruments, armor, clothes and so much more.

While the sound was quite deafening, the most intoxicating part of it was the smells. The traders were cooking their meat in front of the buyers, baking their pastries and lighting their scented candles. Qorin breathed it all in, savoring the smells, before noticing a stand that could have been custom made for her.

It sold beautifully intricate, close fitting leather clothes for women. She hurried over to it and eyed the array. One of the outfits immediately caught her eye. It was a one-piece black leather bodysuit, lacking arms and legs but with intricate re patterns along the edge. It covered the back completely, but for a small heart shaped hole in the small of it, and included leather pauldrons, but the front was almost completely open.

The only semblance of modesty it offered was done by long sharp segments of fabric curving around from the back, almost like fingers, lightly supporting the breasts and only just covering the private parts. The bodysuit was sold along with matching mid-thigh leather boots, long gloves that reached above the elbow, and a collar. Below the wares was a small note: 'Enchanted leather. Will not wear or tear.'

"You interested in buying this, sweety?" Asked the woman operating the stand, smiling at Qorin.

The sexy demon nodded silently, and showed the saleswoman the little coin pouch Max had given her to buy provisions.

"Well..." hesitated the woman, glancing up at Qorin. "I wouldn't usually let someone barter me that low... But it is pretty obvious that this is all you have." She bit her lip for a moment, before finally nodding. "All right we'll make it a deal, but that's just because it's you sweaty."

Qorin was so over the virtual moon when she left the stand, carrying her new outfit in a rough cotton bag that she didn't even care if she'd run out of money to buy anything else. Wanting to try it on as soon as possible, she hurried into a small alleyway and continued on until she reach a small alcove, where she hid herself and undressed.

As it turned out, putting on the bodysuit wasn't as hard as she would have expected. Although it had at first appeared bit big, the moment she had gotten it in place, the 'fingers' that curved around the sides and underneath to cover her contracted slightly. Thus, the ones beneath her breasts lifted them a little, showing off their shape as the ones above the nipples pressed down just enough to be secure without squeezing the mounds.

Qorin gasped slightly as she found that the single strand coming through her legs also contracted, pressing along the length of her slit just enough to spread her lips ever so slightly. Feeling both horny and a tiny bit uncomfortable, the demon inspected it carefully to make sure her genitalia wasn't showing from any angle, with the exception of the outer pubic mound, which simply couldn't be hidden by such skimpy clothing.

She then put on the gloves, boots and, after a little hesitation, the leather collar. She was pulling at it lightly to check its snugness when she heard a small cough behind her. The surprise was such that she yelped in shock, spinning around to see the small Kimi looking up at her.

"Wha... What the hell is wrong with you? Don't you know that you shouldn't surprise people like that???" asked Qorin angrily, clutching at her heart, "You could have given me a heart attack."

Kimi lowered her eyes, the corner of her lips trembling slightly. Qorin could have sworn the cat girl was blushing beneath her fur. "I'm sorry Qorin. I just... This is what I do. I don't know how else to approach someone."

"Well then, why are you here? I seem to remember you wanted to accompany Fuzz, not me. Isn't he the one you should be creepily stalking from the shadows?"

Kimi shut her eyes tight at this, her lips trembling even more. It looked like she was stealing herself to do something impossible. "I... I wanted to ask you for advice."

Qorin blinked. "Advice...?" Kimi nodded. "What sort of advice?"

"I..." kimi took on a determined look. "I was wondering if you could tell me how you manage to be both so comfortable around men. E-enough to wear these types of clothes" Kimi gestured vaguely at Qorin, "and seduce them... Isn't it embarrassing...?"

The demonic woman started laughing hard at that. She went on and on, trying several times to catch her breath only to fall back into fits of laughter. "Well," She eventually said, wiping her eyes, "For one thing I'm not repressed about my sexuality." She winked at Kimi. "If you like him so much, how about you just tell him? Clothes and such are useless if you aren't even capable of saying what you want. Are you really that worried that your dear Fuzzball will react badly?"

The feline gasped at that, her eyes widening as she took a trembling step back.

"Oh come on!" pushed Qorin, "Don't be like that! I won't tell him or anyone else if you want, but the truth needs to come out at some point." She sighs before continuing. "Tell you what, how about we talk about it? I can tell you every tip I know of so you can feel comfortable, and-"

"I doubt you'll have time for that now." Interrupted a deep voice behind her. She started again.

"Oh for God's sake! Everyone stop sneaking up on me like tha-" She stopped dead.

Three huge figures in heavy plate mail armor were staring at her, swords and shields raised and blocking the alley. They were city guards. In front of them stood a familiar knight in light armor, carrying a much smaller sword and shield and wearing an improvised gorget around his neck. It was Davi.

"They're the ones!" He told the guards, "The red head is one of the ones who wrecked the Laughing Crown last night. And the cat was the one who threatened to kill me to protect that outlaw!"

Qorin turned to run, but immediately noticed 3 more city guards blocking the other end of the alley. Taking a deep breath, she turned back to face the huge hulking soldiers coming her way. "Fine, if you want to arrest me, come and try. I won't be going down without a fight."

One of the city guards chuckled from under his helm. "I was hoping you might say that, succubus." He told her in a deep, gravely voice.

Qorin lost it. Her red hair and eyes suddenly burst into flame and she lunged at the guards. "I... Am... Not... A... Succubus!!!" She shouted as she pounded against the guards raised shields, her bare fists making horribly loud clanging noises against the metal as Davi cowered behind his backup.

"Run!" Shouted the out of control demon as she slammed against the shields over and over. "Dammit! Run, Kimi! Go find the others!"

The cat hesitated a moment, before nodding and vanishing.

"Now you've done it!" Shouted one of the guards. He pushed Qorin back with his shield and whipped it upwards, smashing it against the side of her face and knocking her out.

[...]

Kimi was flying across the rooftops at breakneck speed, bounding from one to the next as fast as her small furry legs could carry her. How on earth were the others going to help her save Qorin? And even if they could, there was no way she'd be able to ask Fuzz for help... She'd never dare.

Throwing caution to the winds, she eventually stopped even trying to run two legged as she leaped over streets and rolled on her landings, and went on all fours, galloping faster than ever before. She'd soon arrive at Liz's house and she still didn't have a clue what they could do to help the demon.

She soon landed with a soft thud on the ground in front of the house, and turned to climb the stairs to the narrow porch.

"What's up kitty cat?" groaned Richard as he stared down at her from the rocking chair on the front porch. "Come to disturb my nap, like everybody else in this damn game?"

Kimi looked up at the man in desperation. "I... Qorin needs help. She's been taken by the city guards, sir." She hesitated. "Do... Do you know if anyone's ho-"

Richard cut her off with a wave of his hand, sighing as if this were the most exhausting day that had ever happened to anyone. "Fine, I'll come and help. God you youngsters can be annoying sometimes."

He slowly picked himself up from the chair, and Kimi wondered which of the two was the source of the loud creaking noise. The old man then leaned heavily on his cane and started making his way down the steps, one at a time. It felt like ten minutes had passed by the time he'd reached the bottom, and started walking vaguely down the road, his back turned to the cat.

"Come along then kitty... Let's save your friend."

Kimi stared at the man incredulously. At this rate, she wandered if they'd get to Qorin before she died of old age...

[...]

Fuzz lunged again, only to get kicked in the head by the giant lizard. He smashed into a tree trunk, which promptly cracked. This morning training session in the forest wasn't going as he had hoped.

"You need to be less predictable, Fuzz." Max told him for what felt like the millionth time. "Remember, you're fast, but cats don't usually have much to protect them when fighting on all fours. A head on attack is the best way to get stabbed in the eye."

Fuzz retreated, rubbing his sore noggin and growling in frustration. "It's not fair. You're too big."

"Perhaps, but as I've already told you, the game adjusts for that. Players who've had similar combat experience are scaled to be approximately equal in their potential fighting abilities. It doesn't mean those players are perfectly equal in their powers, because they're not, just that they are close enough to being so that they all have a chance of winning."

"So you mean that I am on equal footing with a player who chose a twenty story high avatar?" scoffed the incredulous tiger.

"Almost. You see, such avatars can exist, but are very rare as players who try to make them are usually warned of the consequences in the character creation mode. These drawbacks can be huge, as such an avatar would move so slowly that they'd find it practically impossible to communicate and live with other players. They'd be constantly hungry as it'd be difficult to find enough food, and their limited mobility would actually be incredibly hard to manage when fighting fast enemies.

You on the other hand inhabit a strong, fast avatar with very good reflexes. There are few drawbacks, but one of them is that you have limited defensive abilities, as it's difficult to make a functional armor for a cat that fights both standing up and on all fours. You also cannot block attacks when on all fours, which is when you are at your fastest, so you need to adjust by being more mobile, and less predictable."

Fuzz sighed and nodded. Max was right. What was most frustrating was that now that he understood the pros and cons of his avatar, he realized that Kimi had probably been craftier than him. Her avatar was very good at being agile and stealthy, which were ideal skills for attacking unpredictably. The only thing he had on his side was his speed. And he didn't seem to be very good at making the most of it.

But he knew brooding over it wouldn't help. Swallowing back his frustration, he went back down to his fighting stance, his front paws digging into the ground with his extended claws for traction, readying to pounce. He lunged sideways, bouncing off a tree trunk in an attempt to outmaneuver the large lizard. As he approached, however, Max simply turned his back to him, whipping his tail around to slam into the feline's ribs.

Fuzz was thrown off course and landed on the soft grass of the leafy glade, coughing and spluttering. Max looked down at him in concern.

"I think we've trained enough, Fuzz. We should call it for this morning and return to the city. I'm sure Qorin will have returned with the shopping by now, so I'll be able to cook lunch for you guys."

Fuzz slowly got up again, nodding as he wiped a tear from his eye.

A voice interrupted them however. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

[...]

"B-but what about capturing Fuzz?" Asked Davi, feeling a little uncomfortable at the behavior of the guards. They'd just arrived back at the barracks, and he'd noticed that the guards were eyeing the unconscious demon a little too intently as they made their way to the interrogation rooms. "Shouldn't we go after them...?"

"Later." Answered the commanding officer, a small smile of his lips, "First we'll have to teach this bitch how to behave herself."

They entered the room one by one and Qorin was laid on her back over the narrow table in the middle, her legs, head and shoulders dangling over either side. The officer nodded at the other guards, who smiled and started undressing her. One of them reached under the table and produced a few coils of rope, with which he started tying Qorin's arms and legs to the table legs.

Davi felt more and more uncomfortable as he watched the proceedings. This didn't feel right, how could they consider this to be just? Did Qorin deserve to be treated like this just for being a public nuisance?

She was starting to stir, her eyelids fluttering as her head rolled slightly from side to side.

"Hello there, succubus. Had a nice nap?" taunted the officer as he stood over her head, glaring down at her.

Her face contorted in anger again as she stared up at him. "I'm not a fucking succubus you piece of..." He slapped her hard across the face with a gauntleted hand. She seemed so shocked that she stopped moving entirely, as he started to remove his armor, piece by piece.

"You..." he panted slightly as he struggled to remove the plates of armor, "Will only... Speak when... Spoken to. Bitch." He had soon removed the armor all the way down to his gambeson beneath, which he started to remove as well, revealing his dirty breaches and rough tunic. He then started trying to extricate his hard shaft from the breaches.

"But Sir," interrupted Davi, feeling like he had to intervene, "Don't you think this is a bit..."

"Shut up!" shouted the officer, as the other guards started stripping as well, all the while eyeing Qorin hungrily.

"Now do what you do best," He told the demonic woman beneath him, "And suck on my big fat cock."

He pulled her head back and stuffed himself all the way to the hilt in her throat. She gagged and choked, her eyes wide as she stared up at his bulging underbelly and the thick rod stuck in her gob.

"And if I even feel anything that reminds me of teeth, I'll be smashing your across the room. Got it?" She just stared wildly up at him, as one of the guards walked up to her legs, spreading the knees slightly as he readied his erect shaft for her.

Davi stared in shock, unable to move as he saw the guard force his way into the demon, tearing her opening up with his huge member and making her squeal in pain. As he watched the disgusting men starting to ram into her over and over again in unison, he realized that he wouldn't be able to let this go on much longer. He stared around the room, desperate to find a way to stop these men as soon as possible.

The officer, completely unaware of this, was shoving himself over and over into the redhead's throat, grunting in pleasure as her throat tightened and sucked around his member. His eyes were bulging as he stared down at her perfect body, her heaving breasts and shifting hips. Both guards were nearly done, as they started speeding up, and the other two got ready to pick up the rear.

Soon enough, the officer pushed his way to the hilt again and stayed there, roaring loudly as he dumped his load deep down her throat. The other guard's eyes closed tight, and they were both in a paradigm of bliss. At least until Davi's sword swept across the officer's bare throat.

The flesh cleaved apart like butter and started spraying the man's arterial flow all over his naked victim. His underling, still caught up in the moment, didn't react and kept his eyes closed even as the same blade was thrust through his chest.

The other guards yelled out in horror though, as they watched their comrade and commander fall to the ground, bleeding. They started scrambling around, trying to retrieve their gear which was strewn all over the ground, as the still armored Davi advanced and swiped at the bonds holding Qorin's arms.

Her arms freed, she immediately sat up, her crimson hair and eyes instantly catching fire as she stared at the cowering men in fury. Her entire blood-soaked body, despite its nakedness, seemed to glow with the power of her wrath as she reached out to them with her bare hands. Huge jets of flame suddenly burst from them, burning the terrified, screaming men alive where they stood.

She kept burning them, as the flames licked the wood on the floors, walls and ceiling and were deflected, pushing along them and caging the room in a wall of fire, emanating from the deflagration that had once been city guards. When she eventually stopped, the walls, which were probably enchanted against fire damage, were intact. The men, on the other hand, had almost completely disintegrated.

Davi stared at the terrifying woman for a few moments, hesitating, before cutting her legs free.

"Thanks." She said simply, hopping off the table to retrieve her slightly singed outfit. "Although perhaps next time you could give me another couple minutes fun before saving me...?"

Davi stared at her in disbelief, his eyes wide, but she simply winked back at him as she wiped at the thick layer of blood that was sticking to her face.

It didn't take long for her to get dressed again, but the blood seemed to want to stay on her no matter what.

"We need to go," Davi told her as she swatted at the blood, "Someone will definitely have heard us and we're in the middle of the city guard barracks."

"Not to mention that we don't know how long it will take for the guards to spawn back and start hunting us down..." Qorin added, nodding. "OK, where to next then?"

"Up here!" answered Davi as he led her to a narrow staircase. "Be ready to fight your way out though."

Qorin smiled at that.

[...]

Kimi and Richard had just arrived in front of the barracks after an interminably long and slow walk. It was a large wooden building with the words "Our blades will shine" written in large gold filigree letters on the façade. Two guards stood at the front entrance, which looked more like a small and fortified gate than a door.

Kimi turned to the old man, her whiskers twitching in apprehension. "What now, sir?"

She didn't have to wait long to find out, however, as she heard loud shouting from within the building, followed by thunderous explosions. Soon, the front door was blasted open, making the soldiers guarding it turn around and back off from it, their swords raised.

Qorin ran out through the door, covered in blood and wearing a revealing skin-tight bodysuit, collar and long boots. She seemed wild, her eyes glowing red in anger as her hair flamed up around her face. She screeched as she raised her hands to the soldiers, who took another couple of steps back.

Kimi didn't hesitate. She pounced on one of them and started stabbing wildly through the eyeslit in his helm as he stumbled and flailed in shock. Qorin threw what appeared to be a fireball at the other one, who cooked inside his armor before the slower, older Richard had even arrived within range.