The next morning were ready to head out.

The coast was clear, as the saying goes. There was no sign of the felinoid gang. Perhaps they went off after better prey or just got bored. Either way, it was a lucky break. Especially as we hadn't been able to recruit any extra allies.

Roger's party was too terrified to face the cat-girls in battle, so had declined the offer of temporarily joining us. It hadn't helped that Mack had slept with two of their party's members, creating jealousy and a bit of resentment toward us as a whole. Even though it had been as much Sue and Barry's fault as hers.

I had hoped the mages would join us. They were by far the most powerful group besides ourselves still at the inn. But they'd come from that direction and had no desire to head back that way for the time being. I got the sense they were hiding something. Like they had a clear goal they didn't want to share. Perhaps they'd found a treasure map or something and was worried we'd hone in on it.

Even though they didn't want to join forces, it didn't stop Cali and Amber from spending another night with Cherry and Ellie.

To their credit, they did give us the location of the valley as promised. It wasn't far from the town of Thistle Creek, so that would be our next stop.

So far, I was still a member of this party. They weren't nearly as focused or professional as my old one, but it had a few good people in it. And they had managed to climb in level pretty quickly in a short time, making them by far the safest companions and my disposal. (And I had to admit my own progress had been accelerated by being with them.) That said, I don't believe I would be too disappointed if I got kicked out, but I couldn't see myself leaving voluntarily until a better option presented itself. Going alone would simply be suicidal since we were moving closer and closer to the Tier 2 border and everything was getting more challenging. 

I don't want to sound totally mercenary about it, but it wasn't like I'd been offered a permanent position in the party either.

Still, I felt a bit guilty not telling them about my Special Skill.

I stayed up a bit late the night before and hooked up with a level 3 Swashbuckler. Picking up strange men in bars was not my style, but he was pretty dashing and I was fairly drunk. Also, masturbating didn't do a great job of lowering the Arousal points. And despite what I'd told the others, I was curious about what my special skill would be. Terrified, but also curious. 

It actually didn't end up being terrible.

I'd been given After-Glow. It boosted my Attack Rating quite a bit for one day after having sex. Although it had the side effect of raising my Arousal by a point for every 40 points of damage I dealt, while it was active. So, I was hoping we'd avoid combat today.

The sun that had been with us the past few days was hidden behind a solid sheet of clouds. And the temperature had grown warm and muggy.

The innkeepers wife or daughter (I never really figured out who she was) swept the porch by the front door as she had when we arrived and wished us well with a smile.

Either this was a particularly mindless NPC, or she wasn't the one cleaning the rooms. I didn't look in our privacy room, but by all reports it needed to be burned or perhaps have a visit from an exorcist before anyone would want to use it again. It had seen almost nonstop action since we'd checked-in.

There was a path through the valley that would lead us to a mountain trail, and eventually to the road to Thistle Brook. 

It was a little after mid-day when we reached the trail. Tall rock formations about fifteen-feet high rose in rounding slopes on either side of us and the path was maybe wide enough for three people to walk abreast.

It was the perfect spot for an ambush, which is why Teresa chose to attack as there.

We were well committed to our course when four members of her party blocked our way. The blonde one with all the eye-makeup told us to halt and surrender. "If you do, I promise you won't suffer too much before we kill you," she told us. While she had our attention, Teresa and one of her minions slipped down from the rocks blocking the way behind us.

I did a quick assessment. Teresa was armed with a sword and her companion a bow. In front of us, was another cat-girl with a sword, a thief with a long dagger, and two mages preparing spells. There was simply no way to get our weapons out before being hit by the mages and the bow-woman. 

Teresa chuckled. "What no brave talk?  No witty remarks? I'm going to take pleasure in gutting you all. I mean, I take pleasure in gutting all the adventurers we come across, but you particularly."

"Oh!" Yarrow said with realization. "That's how you got to be such high level. You just hang around the inn attacking other players when they leave."

"Oooh! Such a big brain. I wonder what it will look like when it's out of your skull?"

The strange thing is we may have considered surrendering and yielding our loot instead of fighting this superior force, if she hadn't hung the threat of death over us. I think that more than anything, it committed us to fight as hard as we could. 

Before anyone could do anything else, Ellie threw her hand up and a blinding light exploded around us. It left spots in my eyes, but I pulled my bow and an arrow from the quiver. It was a practiced enough motion that I could do it by touch.

The zing of an arrow passing me and the whoosh of a couple of spells. I also felt the reassuring spirit-shield Rick cast over us.

I had my arrow ready but was still blinking the flares out of my eyes, when I was able to see Ellie charging the four felinoids in front of us. What the hell did that Pixie think she was doing? She threw herself into their little group while the warrior and thief struck out at her with their weapons. Then, I thought my eyes were really messed up, but no, I was seeing a burst of sparkles.

Ellie staggered back from them wounded. She looked down at two deep, bloody wounds, and said, "Fuck."

The two mages fired again. One was using some sort of light magic and looked as though her staff was shooting out a laser beam at Yarrow. The other launched what appeared to be a hairball that exploded on impact when it hit Crystal.

I loosed my arrow at the hairball mage, and Yarrow's electricity found the other one.

Things were moving fast. The mages were already firing again as our hits landed. Ellie was retreating back to us as Crystal charged in. I only had a chance to take a flickering glance behind me. Mack was engaging with Teresa ("She's mine!" she called) and Cherry was throwing a knife at the archer, while Trogia cast a spell at her. Rick was holding back and was practically next to me. Yarrow was in front of him and stark naked, however not invisible. But I barely had a chance to marvel at that because I far stranger sight was taking place in front of me. The felinoid swords-woman and thief were rolling on the ground together, kissing and ripping off each other's clothes. (I was too occupied at the time, but later I pieced together that Ellie had used her special skill on them and they'd field their saving-throws. Her inadvertent curse had sent them into action.)

Crystal drove like a battering ram into my target while swinging her ax. It hewed at her knee and severed her lower leg clean off. The mage dropped, rolling on the ground, while Crystal doubled-over and started making an "Oooh-oooh!" noise. Perhaps she'd gotten hit and I didn't see. 

Then, as if the two cat-girls spending the battle pawing at each other wasn't weird enough. Laser-beam mage dropped her staff and started kissing Crystal. Holy hell, this game had gotten strange. 

Luckily, with her embrace she pulled Crystal out of my way, and I was free to plug the other mage with an arrow. Yarrow had turned her attention to the same mage. While we we attacked, our target downed a potion, and her damn leg inched across the ground and reattached itself.

She fired a hairball at me before she stood up. It burst and hurt like hell, but I returned fire. We only had the one target now as the other three, as well as Crystal, were too involved with sex to be bothered with the fight. It might have made them easy targets, but attacking would likely snap them out of it, and give us more opponents to face.

I was loading the next arrow, when suddenly, the laser-beam mage pushed the seriously horny gnome away from her and bashed him with her fist. Another hairball hurled toward me as I let my arrow loose.

For trading blows with someone of such a high level, I wasn't doing too badly. I didn't even need a Life Force Potion yet. But I had to keep my eye on my level. Although my bigger concern was my steadily rising Arousal Potency that went up with each arrow that landed.

The mage gained her feet (all two of them) and focused on me. Her next wad of fur hit me square in the chest and sent me flying  backward. It must have been a critical-hit as my Life drained more than from anything that had hit me until then. I dropped my arrow and pulled out a potion. Maybe one of the healers would get to me, but I couldn't take the chance. One more hit and I was dead.

And as predicted, the second I got the potion down, another hairball slammed into me. I got up onto one knee and took aim.

The two felinoids on the ground doing naked wrestling seemed to snap out of whatever spell they were under. But they were a little stunned and didn't seem to know whether to dress or pick up their weapons and attack.

I didn't like the thought of two of them at full health joining the battle, but there was nothing I could do but keep trying to take out the mage. She downed another potion, which gave me a reprieve from her spells, but also meant she'd be that much harder to kill.

The swords-woman went after Crystal and the thief charged Yarrow, both still naked. I was running out of arrows and everyone on both sides was downing potions like crazy. This was the toughest battle I'd been in since entering Feronia, before or after Katie's regime. I could see why these felinoids had survived so long. There were only six of them but they were crushing us. Sure, we were holding our own for now, but eventually they'd run us down. It was surprising none of us had fallen already. These cat-girls wouldn't drop. Even when I got a critical-hit in, my foe just reached for another potion. They had tactics and enough potions to keep their health from bottoming out.

I barely took my eyes from the mage, but I glanced about to see what was happening. Crystal was getting clobbered, fighting laser-mage while getting attacked my the swords-woman from behind. Cherry and Ellie were attacking the archer in close combat now, while Josh zapped her with spell after spell. Teresa had lost her left hand but kept parrying Mack with ease. Rick was launching healing spells in rapid fire. Yarrow and her equally nude opponent struggled together and despite all the stabbing and electricity it was a pretty hot display. Although that was probably due to my Arousal getting maxed out. Katie congratulated me on this, but I wipe the warning away.

My opponent had just been chugging potion after potion, which saved me from damage, but also meant I was dumping truckloads of hurt on her. And with my special skill active, I was just getting hornier and hornier.

When I ran out of arrows, I charged her and pulled my dagger.

I'd gotten my first melee strike in, when a cheer went up behind me. The bow-woman was dead. Cherry changed course and helped out Yarrow, while Ellie and Trogia turned their magic on the swords-woman. Teresa was the next to fall. I didn't see it happen but afterwards was told there was no grand finishing move, just a death of a thousand cuts. Mack immediately turned and ran her blade through the thief, killing her too.

In a matter of seconds, the tide had turned.

My mage must have run out of potions because she launched one attack after another on me as I chipped away at her one stab at a time. I should have probably taken a potion myself, but I was fed up with this fight and just wanted it over. Slowly, but inevitably, I got the kill.

I'm not sure what the hell spell Trogia was using, but one of them hit the swords-woman, and I saw her visibly age by about ten years. Ellie must have gotten a spell in two because the woman was slashing at her legs instead of any of us.

I downed a potion and gratefully took one of Rick's spells, then jammed my dagger between the laser-mages ribs. To everyone's astonishment, she dropped from the blow. The others must have weakened her to her last few points.

That just left the swords-woman. I don't know why she didn't surrender. Eight on one was not good odds, but she downed a potion defiantly as she faced our attacks. But she didn't stand there long. Like a cathartic release from the long and brutal battle, Crystal's next swing cut the last cat-woman's head clean off, sending a jet of blood into the sky.

We were all exhausted and a little in shock that we were victorious. I'd gotten to level six and had never been hornier in my life. While everyone else dealt with their character sheets and checked for loot, I was trying to figure how I was going to get some release.

What a stupid game this had become!

I heard Ellie said, "Dang! Sorry guys, I was practically useless in that one. They kept making their saving-throws. Barely any of my spells landed."

Rick said, "At least you distracted a few of them and gave us a chance. All I did was heal. I didn't hit any of them even once."

"But we needed your healing," Yarrow said. "We never would have gotten through this without it."

Crystal put his hand on Rick's arm. "Yeah, man. I think the only reason we won was that we had you lending support. The cats had tons of potions, but because they were so busy drinking them, the lost a lot of attack advantage. I think that was their downfall."

"I think you're right," Cherry said, then to all of us: "Good job everyone we weren't supposed to live through that. We did it because everyone worked together."

When Mack had finished searching the bodies, she said. "Damn it! They barely have anything but there equipment."

"They must have a treasure stash somewhere," Yarrow said.

"We should look for it." Mack peered around as though she was going to spot a chest amid all the bloody bodies.

Crystal said, "There's no point. We can't even take all of this equipment. We're too loaded down."

Rick stepped up. "Okay, first step: if there's something you can use, take it. Then we store the best of the stuff left over." He managed to say this in a way that was too reasonable to be considered an order.

This invitation to take what we could use worked out pretty well for me. I got completely re-kitted. New bow, a higher capacity quiver, a decent amount of high-grade arrows, a wicked dagger, and armor. 

However, I wasn't too crazy about the armor. It was basically a chain-mail halter-top with a matching mini-skirt. Although they at least had a nice suede lining that made them more comfortable than my old tunic. The others also let me have a pair of magic stockings with a defensive bonus. There were actually two pairs of these, and I chose the black fishnet ones instead of the pink, silky ones because they were slightly more bad-ass. I got them on and they were only knee-high and made me look more slutty than bad-ass. The most unfortunate piece of new gear I received was a labia-ring with an attack bonus. No one else wanted it, and in my extremely lustful state, it seemed kind of cool.

Our party was in no shape for another fight so we ventured farther down the trail until we found a more open spot to camp. We decided to sleep for a full eight even though that would see us walking just after dusk. But we needed the recovery.

Once everyone had turned themselves off for a rest, I quickly masturbated. It didn't take long since I was so ready to burst. And the new ring did add to the experience. I didn't dare do it more than once though. Not when the noise might wake the others up. So, it was a very temporary solution. I just hoped we would reach Thistle Brook tomorrow, so I could get some more lasting attention.