For lunch, it was me again. The Cooking skill came, along with more experience in Clever, which I didn't need, and Charming, which I did. I told a few stories about driving Mack, and weird stuff about living in Michigan, like the fact that roads were hard as rock and stretched on basically forever. This earned me more Charming, until I got the last star of Normal tier.
I had to close my eyes and remind myself that I was working toward a strange but very nice end goal, and not think about all the sex I wasn't having right this moment. Although i had no idea what either of them expected, Auralla had made it very clear, and that was sitting awkwardly in my midsection like a hot stone.
The remainder of the day passed in leisure, with me showing them all the junk I had in the trailer, and all the interesting things in the cab they'd never seen before. The clothing they marveled over, because the weaving was much more technically proficient than what they were used to, along with zippers, which astonished them a little. Their frank amazement over all the plain old junk I had in the truck gave me a pure smile, and lightened the load on my shoulders. I felt a way I couldn't remember feeling in months, if not years: joyful.
Avya's bravado and jokey tone dried up when we were at the back of the truck, and vanished completely when Auralla went off to hunt up something for dinner. I began to repack the truck, trying to keep the conversation light, and sent a number of glances Avya's way. I was trying to judge how ready she might be. After all, she'd almost known me for twenty-four whole hours. That was practically a lifetime compared to how long I'd known Auralla before she had me inside her.
I glanced at her again, and this time she met my eyes. She seemed to know what I was thinking, or at least that was the paranoid part of me. Whatever magic she had, I thought it was probably some kind of telepathy. If so, I really had to be careful with my brain. I couldn't just envision furious, hot sex and keep that to myself.
Do something, my brain told me. Make her feel special. So I thought it over, and settled for what had worked on the Domi back at Sunspire.
"I can't just let you come all this way without giving you a gift," I offered.
She stiffened. "What do you mean?" The awkwardness over the future essence sharing was freaking her out, and I didn't blame her. The girl I was starting to think of as my girlfriend had brought her best friend to receive the D. And she didn't seem to mind watching, or didn't think she needed to vacate the premises for Avya and I to have some alone time.
I had to remind myself yet again that this wasn't earth and we weren't doing things by earth rules. The sooner I clued in to that and got comfortable with doing things their way, the better.
"Here, I'll show you all the wares in my shop." I led her to the back of the trailer, which was pointed toward Sunspire. She didn't go around the trailer with me, not alone.
I hopped up in and turned on my penlight. I quickly found something I thought she might like, and hopped back out.
"You're not a Beastmaster like Auralla, are you?" I asked. Several things about her led me to this conclusion: no pet, no spear… yet she could reach a hand out toward a doluss and just command it to obey her.
"N-no."
I presented a selection of hair extension things for teenage girls: they would somehow attach to your hair, and make it look like you had a thin strip of metallic, color shifting hair. I explained how to get it attached.
"It'll surely take forever to get that braid freed up and insert this, but I think it will make your hair look pretty interesting."
"A-and… this gift of yours…"
"Free. No strings attached. I'm happy you came out here, it's good to make friends with people."
I didn't have any of those anymore. Only a friend with benefits.
She accepted it, and I gained a level of the Reassurance skill, with some more experience towards Charming. Plus half a second star in my Relationship rating.
I lowered my voice. "Did she bring you out here to share essence with me?"
"W-what? How did you, I mean, I didn't—"
"If you don't want to, neither of us are going to make you." I didn't know if it would even be possible, or in the slightest bit pleasurable for her. I'd gotten lucky with Auralla, who was either human, or very human-adjacent. This young lady, by contrast, would take an enormous effort not to really hurt if my cock got involved.
"If you do want to…" I waggled an eyebrow at her and grinned.
"What?" She asked. All the bravado from earlier was gone. "What happens i-if I want to?"
"I'll make sure you enjoy it." Jesus, my face was heating up. I was also getting turned on again, looking over her slender body and exposed nipples. This time I didn't hide the fact that I was checking her out, and her face went red.
"What're you two talking about over there?" Auralla called from the fire.
"If Auralla pressured you, just tell me now and I'll keep my distance."
Score one more for Empathy and Charming.
She paused, staring at me. "I… I…"
"It's fine. No worries. No essence sharing, no prob—"
"I told her I wanted to," she blurted.
Well color me surprised, I thought.
After that the scene got even stranger: Auralla practically sat on my lap and fed me delicious chunks of meat in between pauses for deep, exploratory kisses, while Avya picked at her food and watched in a mix of complete fascination and apprehension.
Auralla kept sneaking caresses down to my jeans, where she whispered about how she needed to get me some real clothes. I agreed: leather would make me more intimidating and more damage resistant, per my Beastmaster power… but would also free up my mighty tool more easily when Auralla got into her horny phase and demanded to be not dominated.
Yeah, I know, it was a skirt, but I was
magically
more intimidating.
Finally, we were about finished with the meal, with me licking off the juices from her fingertips, followed by her straddling me for more tongue dancing.
I glanced over to Avya, and indicated to Auralla to slow down a second. I was very ready by this time, and she was pawing at my pants, but Avya's rapt gaze was bothering me.
Don't get me wrong: I'd be thrilled to have an interested party watch me do the deed. I just wanted to make sure everyone was cool with what was going on.
"How are you doing?" I asked her.
Auralla seemed to remember she'd brought along a friend, and leapt off me. "Oh! Oh by the spire, I am so sorry Avi."
Avya appeared to be a deer in headlights, small and compact and drawn into herself, but also staring with wide lavender eyes. She squeaked out: "It's fine."
"Would you like to…" I asked gently.
"Of course she wants to!" Auralla blurted.
"I-I c-can… wait… until you two…"
"This is a matter of strengthening our power," Auralla insisted. "This is vital." She got around behind Avya and took her by the shoulders, and began to push her towards me.
"Auralla," I said quietly. She froze at the slightly cold in my voice, and wonder of wonders, I earned even more Charming experience. I turned to Avya. "I think the power will be worth it for you, but you don't have to. If…" If you're into watching, I nearly said, and stopped myself from grinning like a fool. I really was incredibly lucky so far. "If you want to go first, I'm very okay with that. If you want to wait, I can take Auralla into the truck and punish her for a few minutes."
My lover blanched. "P-punish?"
"I can either give you a good spanking, tie you up, or if you're really naughty, I can just lock you in there so you can't have any."
"I'm just… I n-never…" Avya's voice was tiny.
"I'm a lucky male to have females coming to him at all for this sort of thing. We don't do it like this where I'm from, and this is… incredible.
"Plus, I find you quite attractive. You may have noticed, but the clothing doesn't limit my imagination. I know you've got an amazing body." Built for sexy fun times, in other words. Honed and toned and ready to… hunt small forest creatures if necessary. Or ready to bone.
She let out a shaky breath, and I noticed her knees were shaking. I earned more Charming experience for the 'trouble'. I also advanced our relationship with experience there. Double bonus.
"And I've never even seen a person of your… what, species? Race? Never seen one, never shared essence with one. It would be an honor."
"She's a nellwyn."
"My first time meeting a nellwyn."
"But you won't dominate her," Auralla reiterated, and strongly, not for my benefit. Avya looked half terrified out of her mind.
"No. Definitely not." I could get the Bronze level of power without even doing the deed, so why would I jump to the front of that line? "Promise."
Avya shakily agreed, but wanted her friend to be there for moral support. Awkward, honestly, but i wasn't about to let that stop me.
They held hands.
"You're the most beautiful nellwyn I've ever met," I murmured.
"Y-you've only met one."
"And she wasn't as beautiful as you." I grinned. "Totally not a lie."
"It's going to feel so good, Avi…" Auralla said, with a far-off look in her eyes.
Avya laid near the fire and I crawled down between her legs. I started slowly this time, with a series of kisses up each calf and up her thighs. She had on boots which I unlaced while licking and kissing, and removed them to find she didn't have hairy feet like I expected.
It was time to get to one of my favorite activities. I licked in closer to the ultimate target, and began working at her opening with my fingers as well as tongue. I was surprised to find her already gushing nectar, and not as clamped tight as I'd worried. I was able to drill my tongue down deep, causing her to buck and stiffen and squeal in her small voice.
Her hands gripped my hair and her thighs pinned my head in place, with her feet resting on the middle of my back. She was already close to orgasm, and I hadn't been at it for more than two minutes. I could feel her tension melt away, and here was another thing I could feel: I felt, smelled and saw the magic inside her blossom. The streamers of rainbow light flashed and coalesced into a warm, bright ball of energy where her womb would be. Her fingers tightened into my hair and she groaned out several times, and wouldn't let me go until she finished convulsing.
Then, as tense as she'd gotten, she suddenly slumped down, her legs giving up their grip on the sides of my head and her fingers relaxing.
I hadn't realized this, but Auralla was right next to us. Lust had taken control of her, and she darted in for another prolonged kiss. I reciprocated, but also freed up my dick for his second conquest in, what, three days?
"I can see her essence," Auralla mumbled in my ear, her voice thick with primal want.
I grinned. "Could you taste it?"
Some time passed before Avya spoke, and when she did, it sounded as though she was high on drugs. "It's… over?" she asked timidly.
"It's barely begun, sweet one. Here comes the hard part," I told her, but tried to reassure her with a few kisses.
Congratulations!
Your relationship with Avya Dalewind of Sunspire has progressed. Taking your time with her has indeed calmed her, and increased her trust in you.
This time I definitely wanted her to be on top. I got her slowly up, with plenty of kissing and caressing. She felt really nice, not as strong and bouncy as Auralla, but with more round softness. Her body was perfectly proportioned, just smaller, although like Dia the shape of her head made it clear she wasn't a human. She had high breasts, and with her brown skin, her nipples were almost black. It was another first I didn't mention.
She climbed on, bewildered, before staring down at my full engorged length. I smiled at her confused expression; it reached above her belly button.
"
That
goes in me?" She mouthed something else silently: maybe a curse, maybe the word 'impossible', but I couldn't catch it.
"When you're on top you control everything," Auralla said. "I really enjoy it."
"Oh, do you?" I asked, then grinned as she bent down to shut me up with a sloppy kiss.
"Yes, and I really want to enjoy it right now," she breathed in between kisses.
While she was doing that, I felt Avya begin the process that would take almost ten minutes. She grasped onto me and began dragging the head back and forth along her slit before she got it into position and began to press down.
She almost immediately stopped, and let out a pained groan. Then, after a bit more rocking back and forth, she pushed again, hissed, and pulled back out. This process was repeated with hardly the tip inside, again and again until she fell forward, hands splayed on my chest. It had been several minutes, and she wasn't yet halfway done. Her bangs fell in front of her face, and sweat dripped onto my midsection.
"Maybe—" Auralla started, but Avya just shook her head.
"I can do it," she hissed, and began gyrating even more.
I'd never played 'just the tip' and it was a strange experience. Every time on earth, or since getting here, I was up to the hilt inside my partner, and that meant my partner was pressing against me on all sides, every nerve ending firing with pleasure. Here, part of me was sheathed, crushed really, inside this tiny titan, but the rest was still out in the open air. I closed my eyes and concentrated on holding out, which was surprisingly easy considering the grip strength of her tiny body.
When I peered down, she had about half of me inside, and her eyes were fluttering with either a seizure or another orgasm. My cock's mighty helmet encountered resistance.
"I think I've reached the end of the line," I muttered.
Avya responded by slowly collapsing onto my chest. Her head only came to the bottom of the
Beastmaster's Mark
.
"Auralla, I need your help," I told her, but she'd already figured out what to do. As soon as I lifted the nellwynian slightly, she wrapped her hand around the base of my dick. This allowed Avya to bounce up and down but not to the point of pain or injury. After a minute of trembling on top of me, she got back into the rhythm. Her incredible tightness had flooded with juices, and it made the going easier, but no less tight.
"Don't hold your breath," I told her. "You can make all the noise you want."
She nodded silently, and after a few seconds, gave out a long groan that put a smile on my face. I'd never been in anything like a threesome before, so this was ticking off a whole bunch of firsts. I knew threesomes could (and hopefully would) be way better than this, but two active female participants was already a dream come true.
Now that Avya realized she could make noise and not simply tense every muscle in her body, she got into the rhythm. It sounded a bit like a workout, with her hissing out a shaky groan on every downstroke. This slapped against Auralla's closed fist, which was the strangest feeling I'd ever had, sexually speaking.
Then I felt Auralla's hand shift, and felt her beginning to lick and kiss my balls. Now it was my turn to begin groaning.
"I'm…" I groaned. "I'm ready."
Auralla paused. "Remember your promise." The danger in her tone was unmistakable.
You have joined in the flesh with Avya Dalewind of Sunspire. Will you take the power offered to you, or share in the power with her?
The two buttons reappeared,
Establish Dominance & Take of Her Power
, and the other
Remain Equals & Intertwine Your Powers
.
I mentally pushed the second button again. Auralla literally had me by the balls, so I wasn't going to risk her figuring out I'd done the thing all these women hated. At this point I didn't know if her Attuned attribute would notify her that I'd chosen option A just to see what it meant.
The rewards were not worth the risks, especially because I was about to be rewarded better than I could imagine.
"Now!" I told them, and Avya slammed herself down on her friend's closed fist, then wiggled her butt back and forth. That was the signal… or rather the point of no return. I bucked my hips up by instinct, and heard a sharp hiss of ecstatic pain come from Avya while I came.
I have no idea what Auralla saw happening, either magically or mundane, crouched down between my legs there, but it was enough to make her coo softly. Avya had collapsed onto my chest again and was breathing in ragged gasps. I stroked her hair to try to calm her down.
Several things had happened, one of which Auralla was going to tell me later, but the UI told me everything in dispassionate game terms:
First, my Relationship with Avya had gained a bit more experience toward reaching Bronze.
Second, I'd gained some experience in Tough, which was a welcome surprise. If I could screw my way to Bronze tier, I was definitely willing. I didn't know of any sex moves that would get me Fierce or Sly experience, but I'd think on it.
Third, and most likely to help me survive the coming days, I gained another ability.
Empath's Mark
*Special ability, magical*
*Normal tier, two stars*
Normal: Activate this ability to sense the mood of the crowd around you. Directed toward a single indvidual, you may read the surface thoughts. If you succeed a Sly check, the individual will not be aware of your probe.
Once active, this ability is continuous and costs moderate mana over time.
You gained this ability after joining with Avya Dalewind of Sunspire. This ability's tier is tied to your Relationship with Avya Dalewind of Sunspire.
Fourth, we found the Drifter's Mark on the inside of Avya's wrist rather than on her neck.
With her on top of me, I couldn't easily find where
Empath's Mark
now was. Auralla soon found it, and informed me that at the base of my skull, various lines darted around and up into my hair. It had magically tattooed my neck and scalp. She told me the lines were different lengths and thicknesses, some spiraling, some curved and waving, others jagged.
One other thing I noticed, with firelight flickering over the other tattoo, was that the tribal design of the Beastmaster's Mark had changed. It kind of resembled the head of a snarling beast now, and it was maybe a bit bigger?
I also noted that since my Attuned had increased from Normal to Bronze, the Drifter write up had also changed.
Drifter
*Special Ability, Inherent, Magical*
*Bronze tier, zero stars*
Normal: By pushing yourself to the point of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion, you have awakened the magical potential within yourself to travel between worlds, as well as learn magic.
This Ability also enhances your Attuned and Tough attributes to a moderate degree, permanently.
Bronze: Impermanence and flux are now the Drifter's life. For high mana, you may teleport from your present location up to thirty feet in any direction.
In addition, you may keep Relationships from decaying for significantly longer than usual if there is no Relationship activity.
This ability is tied to your Attuned attribute.
Although I hadn't hurt Avya by sheer size, she made it clear that she was not satisfied with the process of sharing essence.
I thought it couldn't have gone much better, honestly, and while I would've apologized, she quickly got the hell up and off me, and disappeared off into the distance. Auralla rushed after her, giving me an apologetic look over her shoulder. I told Jerry to keep track of them, and stop anything or anyone who attempted to attack them. If they had another brood swarm situation, at least we knew how to head that one off, but if it was a jiddara… I felt like one of those things could swallow up Avya the empath in one gulp.
"Damn," I said.
This Empathy power seemed incredibly useful for the life I would be thrust into once I got to a city, but frustratingly it wasn't enough. If I couldn't win over Avya, I couldn't advance the power.
"No wonder males do the domination thing," I muttered.
From out of nowhere, I heard a furious Auralla shout, "She's an empath, Evan!"
Oh shit. She could either hear my thoughts right now, or know what I was feeling internally, and the regret over my choice not to dominate her was probably pretty ugly in her eyes. Sure, Evan, just take a girl's virginity and damage her internal organs, then feel stupid that you didn't even make her your permanent slave girl. Genius move for the girl who could sense your thoughts and feelings.
My relationship with both women fell by half a star instantly.
I fell silent, and hoped Avya would come to her senses. The joining was always going to be painful between a human of my size and a nellwyn her size. I still had a chance at repairing the relationship, and perhaps even turning it around. I doubted I'd be bedding her several times a day like with Auralla, but there were other ways I could win her over.
And if it came to it, and she wasn't into the whole Evan Westfield vibe, I'd call it a loss and lose out on the power. I probably needed it to survive, but I could do without. I wasn't about to literally tear her in half in order to—
What the hell?
I smelled foreign magic. That sensation, and the realization were both very strange. All the magic I'd sensed out here had been ribbons of color-changey stuff with sweet or natural smells… this was like unwashed human being rubbed into my nostrils.
The stink was coming in through Jerry's sense of smell, and Jerry knew this right off the bat: It was people, multiple people. Strong in magic.
I tapped into the
Empath's Mark
and sent feelers out. Hopefully it would work like a radar, and tell me how many people there were out there. If I was real lucky, I'd be able to tell what direction they were in.
I came back with a jumble of thoughts and feelings: a lot of suffering and frustration, from a lot more minds than I expected, a burst of sorrow and anger from some of the individuals. And I noted heavy greed from one person in particular. Someone with murderous intent.
If I counted Avya and Auralla in the mix, there were at least a dozen, which meant it was five to one if I didn't get off my ass right this moment. Auralla might be able to hold her own against one or even several opponents, but not ten, and Avya was… not really in a fit state to fight. Unfortunately the power didn't tell me where they were, except roughly in the direction my two lady friends had gone.
Distract them
,
big guy,
I told Jerry mentally.
Lead them away from Auralla if you can.
I snatched up the shotgun, baseball bat, and the pistol, and headed out into the night with as much quiet as I could muster.
The sounds of combat clanged out in the night before I caught sight of any of them, and I angled toward it. The baseball bat would be the instrument of choice unless one of them had Bronze or Silver tattoo marks.
I first surprised a woman in furs barely covering her body, armed with a big round shield and a sword. I was able to blast the sword out of her hand as she whirled around to face me, and break her sword wrist with my trusty bat. She cried out at almost the same moment I heard a familiar cry from Auralla. Fuck, I needed to hurry this up.
"I'm sorry," I told the girl in the fur loincloth and bra, and cracked her a good one across the head. She was out in a single hit.
You've snuck up on an opponent! Your Sneak skill advances to level 2, and you gain experience in your Sly attribute. You've also advanced your Melee combat skill! Blunt Melee Combat advances to tier 1, and gives you experience in your Fierce attribute.
"You're goddamn right it does," I told the UI. "Now don't pop up with anything else until I get this done with, or I desperately need to know something to survive."
Fine, be that way,
the UI responded. A pouty response was… not what I was expecting.
I knew how I would end up getting this battle going in the direction I wanted. I couldn't have these assholes going after Auralla and Avya. They needed to come to me.
"Truffy!" I shouted out. "Take Giant and head back to the Mack!"
I didn't want my enemies to know their names. Names led to relationships, and on this world, that led to suffering.
Stunned silence followed this. I'd heard some motion around me, but now all of them stopped to recalibrate their path… toward me. I also hadn't used their names in case the unknown assailants knew the ladies, or knew about Sunspire.
As soon as I sighted in another assailant, I threw on the new Drifter teleport power. The result was… brand new. I had never been enveloped by bizarre green-blue-purple energy streamers, except for maybe taking Mack through to another world. But when I emerged, I was behind another woman with her ass completely thrust out at me.
She was staring into the darkness, peering about for me. It was odd that she couldn't see or hear me, when I had heard her coming from at least thirty feet off. This time I came up behind her and put her in a chokehold with the bat, keeping her quiet. This worked, and I was able to choke her unconscious, but it also didn't work, because two other mostly-naked women came out of the darkness toward the sound of the struggle.
The first woman I'd taken out was a sort of catgirl, but the one I'd just choked unconscious was a dragonite. These other two were an elf and an orc, this one with rusty colored grayish skin.
Make that four. Two more appeared, a woman with goat legs and twin horns sloping back along her head, and another elf. All were wearing the same fur bras and loincloths that showed off tons of rippling muscle and deep, incredible cleavage. Unfortunately they were all opponents. Fortunately I couldn't see any of those marks of power like Auralla and Avya had.
Last but certainly not least, the four women were joined by a nearly naked male in a loincloth, and completely covered in marks of power.