[A/N: I accidentally posted this chapter before the previous. So go back if you missed it. My apologies!]
—
"Is there any way you can fly faster!?" Lindy cried in sheer terror.
"KYYYYYAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
A fifteen-foot pterodactyl-type creature with a fifty-foot wingspan chased after Leon, Caitlyn, Lindy, and Sarah as they flew through the air at sixty mph.
It was now nighttime, and the burning fires and shoddy electric gridwork illuminated the creatures in the most horrifying way imaginable.
Whooooooosh!
"AgGhHhHhHhHhHhHhHhH!"
Whooooooosh!
"KYYYYAAA—AHH?"
BOOOOOM!
A massive explosion rocked the soundwaves.
In a mid-air maneuver, Caitlyn had baited the massive flying creature to follow her through a narrow passageway between two skyscrapers.
The sounds in the area told everyone how the event turned out.
Boom!
Whooooooosh!
"AgGhHhH—"
Boom!
Whooooooosh!
Boom!
"—hHhHhHhHhH!"
Massive chunks of debris flew toward the earth at the speed of gravity.
Whooooooosh!
Boom!
Whooooooosh!
Boom!
Like a fighter pilot, Caitlyn ducked, rolled, swooped, swan dived, and flipped her way to victory.
Is there any way you can slow down!?" Lindy cried.
Whooooooosh!
Boom!
"What!?" Caitlyn yelled.
"I said, can you please slow—"
"CAAAAAWWWW!"
"—speed the fuck up! Please, for the love of fucking god, speed the fuck up!"
A god-slaying execution raven, the size of a small Zeppelin, shot through a clearing from the south.
"Slow down or speed up?" Caitlyn asked the woman in her arms.
"I don't know! Just fucking—that—survive! I don't know!" Lindy cried.
"Please talk sense." Caitlyn requested calmly.
CAAAW?
BOOOOOOOOM!
Lindy's eyes widened in shock. She felt her soul disappear as Caitlyn slowed from 60 mph to 0 in 2.5 seconds. When she snapped two, the skyscraper in front of them was stuffed with a massive bird and toppling down!
Caitlyn casually stopped to have a conversation, and the poor bird tried to circle back around only to crash into the building it was now stuck in.
"W-Why d-did you stop?" Lindy asked.
Leon turned around to scan his rear.
"Yeah… Why did you stop? It worked out spectacularly, but we have five more behemoths catching up now. We should get—"
"Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
This time Leon barely even reacted to the extreme shift in speed as Caitlyn took off towards the sky. He was getting used to it.
Unfortunately, the person in her arms was not.
Lindy was having a horrifying experience, and Leon took genuine pity on the woman.
Everyone else was relatively fine.
As usual, Leon was choking Caitlyn from the back, in his boxers, with his legs wrapped around her waist in a [literal] real naked choke hold. While it was embarrassing, it was both stable and comfortable.
As an added perk, it was now nighttime, and no one could see the angelic, latex gimp blimp crashing through the sky. It was better than before.
And, as usual, Caitlyn was loving it and panting in sheer ecstasy.
Leon's grip strength increased, and the wild aerial maneuvers caused him to choke her harder. It was better than before.
Sarah was [having] a horrifying experience but in the past tense.
She was currently out cold. Having the lowest level, she was unprepared for the four G's of gravity she experienced once a flock of flying calamities forced Caitlyn to speed up and thus passed out.
Fortunately, she didn't need to think to stay alive because she was currently glued against Caitlyn's naked breast with thirty feet of pink and black zebra print bondage tape.
The tape was riddled with the words FREAKY, which was fitting considering the overall image.
Since she was passed out, naturally, she didn't care about the aerial gymnastics, death screeching, or mortifying embarrassing scenes. It was better than before.
NONE of these factors applied to Lindy, and nothing was [better] than before.
The woman's mid-length, dark brown hair had turned into penance whips that were flogging the woman's eyes from every angle.
She was in a princess carry position, loosely strapped onto Caitlyn's body with bondage tape in the form of a last-resort extinction swing.
So, as expected, every swoop, flip, swan dive, barrel roll, and S maneuver was a reminder of the few yet profound virtues of skipping lunch.
In short, when Leon asked Lindy to join his party, she didn't expect it to be a kinky, apocalypse-themed swinger party where people lived on the edge.
However, she was still grateful to be alive. Or she would be, later.
Whoooooooosh!
"SCREEEEECH!"
Whoooooooosh!
"KEEEEEERRR!"
Whoooooooosh!
"SKIIIIIIIIIIIIIRKK!"
Whooooooooos!
"AaGgHhHhHhHhHhHhH!!"
"Are you getting tired, Caitlyn!?" Leon yelled into her ear.
"No… I'm… fine…. Why!?" Caitlyn panted in response.
He frowned instantly, concerned by her labored breathing.
"It's just that you've slowed down considerably! I'm making sure that carrying three people isn't too much weight!" Leon explained.
"Oh! No, no, no. I'm fine!" Caitlyn yelled back, "I'm just distracted!"
"Distracted!? About what!?" He called back.
"Those… AMAZING hands of yours!" She exclaimed, "Every upswing they choke me UGH… So PERFECTLY!"
Leon's heart sank momentarily.
"Is that why you've been taking unnecessary swan dives!?" He asked.
"...."
Caitlyn fell silent and pleaded the fifth.
Contrary to her expectations, Leon didn't want to scold her.
"You deserve rewards!" Leon yelled.
Caitlyn's eyes trembled in confusion. She was perplexed by his response.
Leon was being genuine. He wasn't happy about it, but Caitlyn's crazy kept everyone alive like clockwork. She deserved rewards for holding up the team.
Moreover, trying to plead was dangerous because there were flying beasts swooping, screeching, and howling from every direction.
"We can't have you pass out, but how about I give you a different type of reward!?"
Her eyes glided to the left in perplexion.
"Like what!?" Caitlyn asked.
Leon's eyes trembled. He genuinely didn't know!
No, that was a blatant lie. Leon could think of two dozen mortifying things that he was certain she'd find rewarding, but he was pretending like he didn't.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"She does the heavy lifting, asks for nothing, will give [literally] anything, and you won't give your woman a mildly embarrassing reward!?" Leon scolded himself mercilessly.
Just saying the amazing perks out loud filled his heart with shame.
His comfort and acceptance of Caitlyn would horrify people. Moreover, he had no problem using her, and his aversion to giving her [what she wanted] was decreasing rapidly.
If he couldn't do something so simple, he didn't deserve the shameless harem perks on his horizon!
Smack!
"Ah! Ahhhhhhh~" Caitlyn moaned in surprise and satisfaction.
"No more swan dives if they aren't necessary. I'll give you one every time we need to go faster!" He announced.
"Yes, daddy—"
"NO, DADDY!" Leon ordered authoritatively, "I'll smack your ass and occasionally let you call me master, but daddy is a hard no!"
"Haaaaaah. Yes~sir!" Caitlyn shivered in ecstasy.
Leon had a theory that he had a narcoleptic episode on a bridge and plunged into a raging river.
Then he transmigrated into a parallel world ravaged by a war between the Harem God and Aphrodite. That was the only reasonable explanation for his horrifyingly amazing luck.
Yes, amazing. For a sociopath that had never felt emotions, having a system that could make him feel anything was a game-changer.
Add in the crazed psychopath with a relatable past, who loved him for being an emotionless sociopath and wanted him to stay that way, and he was having a ball.
While the world was terrified, Leon and Caitlyn were having the time of their lives.
Lindy tore her eyes away from Sarah's seemingly-lifeless duct-taped corpse for the first time in the last thirty seconds to investigate the strange sounds she was hearing.
To her unequivocal dismay, Caitlyn was flushed red and panting heavily.
Leon had only one hand around her neck, leaving the empty space as a bruise that might as well be a hand.
"What is going—"
SMACK!
"Mmhm~! Right away!"
"Wait! What's going—aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Lindy clung to Sarah's peaceful gimp-like body as if her life depended on it.
The four were now pushing past the fastest she had experienced.
"What the fuck is going on!?" She cried.
Meanwhile, Leon was checking a flurry of notifications.
Ding!
[Milestone! The user has found minor enjoyment in pleasing a member for the first time! The user has leveled up!]
Ding!
[Milestone! The user has found minor enjoyment in BDSM. The user has leveled up!]
Ding!
[The user has found minor enjoyment in BDSM with member Caitlyn Mira. The member has leveled up!]
Ding!
[Milestone! The user has experienced genuine enjoyment for the first time! The user has leveled up!]
Ding!
[Milestone! The user has expressed content emotions with a human for the first time! The user has leveled up!]
Ding!
[The user has expressed content emotions toward member Caitlyn Mira. The member has leveled up!]
[The user's feelings toward member Caitlyn Mira have met relationship requirements. The relationship status has been updated to Ah Fuck It, Let's See What Happens!]
Ding!
[The user's bond with member Caitlyn Mira has reached development requirements due to increased communication synergy. The member has leveled up.
Bond magnification has increased! (5) Bond Points have been rewarded.]
Ding!
[Milestone! The user has increased their bond beyond [accepting] with a member for the first time! The user has leveled up!]
Ding!
[The user has increased their bond beyond [accepting] for the first time with Caitlyn Mira! (5) Bond Points have been rewarded!]
Leon wasn't even reading the notifications.
He knew milestones levels didn't translate into statistical victories.
If he thought that way, he'd soon find that an individual could level up to 50 overtime killing monsters, but achieving 50 milestones was far more difficult. He'd soon fall behind.
However, they were rewarding him for enjoying life. The same was true of his relationship goals.
Leon needed to forget about the leveling system if he wanted to give the best to himself and Caitlyn.
He knew he wouldn't do that, but if the neverending dumpster fire rollercoaster of a day he was living told him anything, it was that paying attention to the interface was the wrong strategy.