"Um, so you want to fuck us?" Kerda asks, confused and slightly hopeful.

"Yes!" The leader exclaims. "It has been days since any of us were able to get relief."

Bronte says, "You said you wouldn't harm us, but now you're saying, what? That you're going to rape us? To help with some disease?"

"We will not harm you. I assure you. It will be most pleasurable for you. Participation is entirely voluntary. But we do hope you will see your way to helping us in our time of need." She flashes us a pleading smile. "Especially our friends who are suffering to the point of madness. Please help bring them back to their senses. Because we can't be sure that we're not infected, any of us might just make them worse."

"I'll help," Kerda says.

"Of course you will," Vladimir says snidely.

"I will too," says Morgan. When everyone looks at them, they add, "What? I'm a healer. It's what I do."

When no one else offers up their services, Astra takes control of the situation, "Okay. There you go. Two of us will help them." She glances at Kerda and Morgan. "And maybe they'll help some of the rest of you as well. Release the rest of us, and we'll go and take out that monster for you." When the leader seems to hesitate, she reasons, "You'll have those two as hostages until we get back. What do you say, do we have deal?"

The leader nods and the fox-people make their rounds cutting our bonds. I say to Astra, "Do you think this is a good idea? We'll be short a fighter and our only healer."

"It's only one monster. Besides, would you rather stay here and watch their orgy?" 

I take in the tight space of the lair, and agree it might be best to be gone for a while. Also the fact that Kerda is already naked and crawling onto the tied down fox-man helps motivate me to go. This really isn't something I want to see.

The leader informs us, "The lair of the beast is to the west of our tree. Not far. If you're able to kill it, bring back a fang and its venom sac and we'll be able to craft an antidote."

After they point us in the direction of the monster, the four of us set off. The night is still full around us. The monster turns out to be very close. It seems that it practically set up camp next to them. When we get near, a smoky peat smell fills the air. 

We reach a break in the trees. It's not quite a clearing, so much as a narrow strip of land surrounding a big round puddle of liquid mud.

The mud begins bubbling as though about to boil, then a head breaks the surface.

I immediately bring up Detect.

I quickly convey the more important aspects of this information.

Astra commands, "Everyone spread out. Don't group together. We don't want to provide it one big target." She fires of an arrow while it's still rising out of the muck. Vladimir shoots a dart a second later. Bronte cast a spell on her sword. It's changed since the shrine. Instead of bursting into flame, it swirls with blue electrical currents.

I debate using Wail. We don't want it to retreat, but stunning it would be a huge benefit to us. I decide to take the risk. It doesn't flee but it doesn't stop moving either. 

When its risen up to a good ten feet above the surface, it strikes out at Astra. It's fast but with the distance it has to cover, she's able to dodge the snapping jaws.

Seeing it in action, it really isn't much more than a giant snake. It's head is about three feet wide, it's body maybe two, and the whole thing must be at least thirty long, but it's hard to be sure with a good portion of it still submerged.

It's too far away for my knife, and I have no damage to replenish with my life steal, so I start to dance, even if it can't do much damage against a single foe. Miraculously, I score a critical on it right away. Less miraculously, it's tail shoots from the mud and smacks into me, making me stumble and misstep the dance.

I recover just in time to see it dig it's fangs into Bronte. She drops to the ground and writhes in what I guess is agony. And like that, the best fighter in our foursome is out of commission. She flops uncontrollably, her sword discarded to her side, the spell on it fizzling out with a last burst of sparks.

It goes for Vladimir next, and he manages to resist the poison that got Bronte. But before I can think too much on this, it's reversed course and it's fangs rip into my out raised arm. A burning agony sears through my muscles and infiltrates my blood. But the system informs me I've passed my saving-throw.

It spins back and heads for Astra again. This time she fails to dodge it. It grabs hold of her with its viscous maw and thrashes her around until she drops, shaking and flopping like the victim of a seizure. For a few moments, it's just Vladimir and me, then Bronte picks herself up. She looks like she's been through hell, but she manages to stand and cast a spell setting her sword alight again. But before she can swing it, the beast's tail bashes into her and knocks her backward.

My magic peters out, and in the time I'm trying to decide whether to drink a Mystic potion or use my knife, its head dives at me. Its massive fangs plunge into chest. One lands by my collar bone. The other busts ribs impaling me. This time, the system message congratulates me on failing my saving-throw. I brace myself for the pain of the poison. I'm already in blinding agony, I can only imagine how much worse it will get.

But then, I'm hit by the most mind-splitting orgasm I've ever had. My whole body explodes with it. My brain is regulated to some secondary organ like a spleen or an pancreas, sitting quietly by while my erogenous zones steal the show. I don't know how long I wander in the delirious fog of climax, it could be a minute or a century.

When I come to, Bronte is leaning over me. "What happened?" I ask.

"The good news is we've killed it. The bad news is that it sprayed it's venom straight into the air right before it died. I think it landed on you and Astra."

"Did it infect me?"

"You tell me. Did you pass your saving-throw?"

"I don't know." There's no message waiting for me, and the system doesn't keep logs of messages I may have missed while being too preoccupied to read. 

Astra staggers over to us with Vladimir at her side keeping her steady. "Some rush, huh? They should market that. Although, my panties are going to need a good washing."

It's then I notice how soaked my own are. They're plastered to my still excited nether regions. But then, I happen to glance at Bronte and see the mess escaping from her skimpy leather armor, and the white viscus cum dripping down her thighs. Even with all the fluid she released, her erection is still engorged.

She says, "Yeah, well I don't want to go through that again. I managed to catch that the system called it a 'paralyzing orgasm' and I like my sex to be a lot less paralyzing. And also to have fewer reptiles."

I get to my feet on wobbly legs. With my arm, I wipe the massive amount of drool that has accumulated on my cheek and chin. I ask Astra if she knows if she's infected or not.

"No idea. I must have been out of it when the message came up. I guess we will just have to take the antidote along with the fox-folks. Speaking of the antidote..."

She heads over to the Basi-lust and begins to assess how to dismember it.

With Bronte and me holding the heavy skull Astra carves both of the fangs out of its mouth. Black blood gushing from the wounds she digs into its hard flesh. I have no idea where the venom sac is, but as I think the question, the system provides me with harvesting instructions. Working together, Astra and I cut open a flap at the back of it's neck—well, not the neck because a snake is basically all neck, but the base of it's skull. My Karambit seems to be extremely effective at slicing through the thick hide and the several layers of muscle and fat. Better than her slim dagger anyway.

There turns out to be two sacs. Each are about the size of a softball only squishy like a water balloon. One is dark purple and the other is brownish-green. Astra says, "It must have one for the bite and one for the spray."

"Which is which? We want to bring back the right one?" I certainly don't want to be guzzling "paralyzing orgasm" juice.

"We can bring back both and let their healer figure it out. My main concern is that in order to get them out, we have to sever the ducts leading to the mouth. Once we do that, the venoms will start pouring out until we can tie them off."

"Fuck," Bronte says slowly. "Well, it should be the two of you who do it then."

I quickly respond with irritation, "How do you figure that?"

"Both you and Astra have already been exposed to both of the snakes poisons. No point in Vlad and I getting the disease too."

"Maybe, but I don't want to get any more of it on me either!" I say.

But Astra cuts me off, "Bronte's right. If we already have the disease, it makes sense we do it. We can't afford for everyone to get sick, in case something goes wrong with making the antidote."

We decide to take the dark purple one out first and do rock-paper-scissors to see who'll do it. I throw out rock but lose to her paper. So, I'm the one to squirm my arms into its skull and cut the sac free with my knife. 

I'm breathing hard, and it makes it challenging to keep my hands steady. All I have is my sense of touch. I run my hands over the slimy taut tube leading to the fangs, hoping I'll remember every detail when it comes time to tying it in a knot. I get my knife in as deep as it will go, and with one long deep breath, I cut the duct. 

Burning hot liquid spills over my knife hand and bubbles over the hand hanging onto the fleshy tube. Saving-throw messages pop-up one over the other in rapid fire. With my brain piratically stalling out on me, I yank the bundle out and begin twisting the tube, allowing the sac's own weight to stretch it thin. When it's twisted like twine, I fumble with it to form a knot. It's greasy in my fingers and resistant to manipulation, but I get it looped. I'm just pulling the tail through to secure it, when—

My body goes rigid with an explosive orgasm. It's as intense as the one I had when I was bitten, if not more so. Then another hits, and another. One rolling on top of the other before the earlier one can end. They keep blasting their way through my mind and body. At some point, the ecstasy becomes excruciating pain, but I move beyond it to place where I can no longer tell the difference. They're like ocean waves eroding my brain, drowning my muscles, starving me of oxygen. I sink deeper and deeper until all I know is sexual pleasure.

Eventually, my mind disappears entirely and all goes black.