== VORTEX QUEST 1-8 ==
== CHAMPION 2: THE PIT ==
With an audience numbering dozens, the pantheon stepped up to the edge.
Integrated into the railing just ahead of the Daemon, was a head-sized, cubic, deep red gem. Tadpole-like, black shades swirled within.
Champion Hrailoth touched the huge garnet and dark red energy crackled across the courtyard in the shape of a dome.
"I've turned off the force field," Hrailoth said. "What are you waiting for?"
With a nod from each demigod, Chay jumped, black fog billowing around him.
They dropped elegantly into the bone pit and the demon lord closed the force field above them with another touch to the `psychaceous rubinite', a red dome briefly sparking overhead.
Skulls and rusty chain links clanked under their naked feet.
"Oh and to make things a little more interesting..." Hrailoth said. "Open the cages."
The `exit' grates along the sides rattled.
The Wraith seemed to come to life.
"Take him out fast," Chay shouted.
The Wraith waved some of its many arms at them while grabbing skulls off the ground with others. "Hunger shall plague you," it hissed from lips within.
The curse did nothing but Chay was already focusing on the five Crocs that rushed them from all sides. The bulky animals of six to seven foot, with fangs the size of daggers, were too big for Chay to puppeteer but he could make one stumble so it tripped another.
"Xane," Chay shouted. "Hit the Wraith then that one. Goro, that one. Marcus, on the Wraith."
A butterfly zoomed into the whirling cluster of arms and exploded into a spherical rainbow. The blast launched the Wraith up. A dozen of its arms rained with smoldering or frozen stumps.
The second mote fluttered right into the biggest, most aggressive Croc's mouth. A sound like glasses clanking and the creature's head was iced. It spasmed into a wall as its frozen brain stem misfired.
The crowd above went wild with cheers and boos alike.
Marcus was upon the Wraith. They had more of a plan now. He kept pirouetting, bouncing off the ground over and over for extended floating-twirls. This made it impossible for the Wraith to get a hold of him. Meanwhile the chakram orbiting the Filipino demigod sliced anything in reach.
Goro met the second biggest Croc halfway, flying with his right arm drawn back. His fist rammed into the reptile beast's chin with frenzy-power. When the Croc's head was flung back, Goro used his momentum for a backflip and rammed his feet into the monster's chest. He landed on his hands and pushed himself right of the ground into an arc that nearly grazed the invisible ceiling. His big feet landed right on the croc's stomach and it convulsed with inner injuries.
The audience was in permanent uproar. Chay had half a mind to block their view just to make them shut up but they needed to prove themselves to Hrailoth.
Xane and Chay stood back to back. The thaum-mage could produce a fireball every few seconds, which was enough to keep the starved Crocs cornered.
One of the beasts was infected – or maybe cursed – pustules running along its scales. Another was a hybrid, strangely blue and toothless but with talons at every joint.
The umbralist's musings were interrupted by a new danger.
"Watch out, Marcus," Chay shouted.
The Wraith was down to less than half his arms but he had used the skulls to create noggins. The now floating skulls were filled with dripping clouds of acid or fire and there were already five of them.
Marcus levitated back to the group. His chakram slicing was now impeded by thick bone as two noggins bumped the weapon away from their master.
A cloud of darkness encircled the cornered Crocs, shaped into wobbling spikes. They hesitated to break through it, just like Chay had hoped.
Xane used a spare moment as the three monsters stopped trying to advance to summon a lightning bolt that dropped the infected one.
Goro leapt to the Wraith's side and grabbed two flaming noggins. His hands and forearms got burned but he was fully mad, his mark's wild designs wrapped around his left leg and glute, eyes dark, muscles rippling with raw power.
The berserker rammed the skulls together with a clap for a rain of sparks and bone shards, not reacting to his own burns. His fist came down on the Wraith's metal shell but the creature evaded.
"Then," it hissed, "be struck down by lust."
Chay had hoped to take the Wraith out before they got cursed with sexual insanity again.
"Goro, get away."
All four men's hands went to their crotches, grabbing their aegises through the fundoshi. One by one their aegises were bared as the underwear dropped and the audience cried out as the divine radiance lit the courtyard.
Goro roared and grabbed an acid filled noggin. He ran at the hybrid-Croc and rammed the noggin past the toothless mouth into its throats. A kick to the esophagus broke the noggin inside the throat and the Croc convulsed to the ground.
The last living monster jumped in and bit the demigod in the shoulder.
Chay already had a finger up his hole. He could barely focus enough to make the biting Croc open its jaw.
The Wraith was holding onto Marcus who tried to stumble away but had both hands on his hole, fingers inside. His chakram was uncoordinatedly clanking on the metal top.
"F-fuck," Chay said. He didn't even know who to direct where. None of this friends would be able to listen and he could barely focus on anything but his wish to tear the aegis off and cum cum cum for days.
The last two noggin were closing in on him.
He opened his fan and shoved all the fog he had in their direction. Did they navigate by sight? He lacked the wherewithal to figure it out.
When he ran out of fog he kept drawing on his reserves, pumping more from his hand, tugging on something nebulous – something inside the ring.
Pie burst from Chay's finger.
Chay groaned weakly. "H-hello there."
The cat-snake dashed toward the Wraith in a zigzag, underneath the approaching noggins. The crowd went wild with this development but Chay could only stumble backward over bones in retreat, both hands back at his ass.
Xane stepped in front of him and pushed Chay to his knees. "Dude," the mage said. "Lick me."
"Uhhhh, huh?"
Xane pushed his sweaty, striated, glutes into Chay's face. "Seriously," he huffed breathless. "Pleasure me or we all die."
Chay tried taking a finger out of his own hole to fuck Xane's instead but they wouldn't obey. He desperately needed two fingers from each hand hammering himself, no way around it.
The Thai college athlete laid his tongue on Xane's ass and started lapping. He was deathly horny but he was still straight and there was only so much his fantasy could do to convince him this was a girl's ass with the taste of men-sweat - though the hairlessness helped a lot.
"Hgng," Xane made. "G-get the fuck in."
It was do or die.
Chay rimmed into the hole, spasming with horror even as his mind was flooded with every sexual fantasy he'd ever had, desperate for any skin contact. He did not like it but... Rimming any cunt eased his condition by a tiny fraction.
Xane now had a free hand, the other still on his nipples, and shot an uncoordinated blast at the noggin. They clanked to the ground and rolled a bit. Chay couldn't tell more of what happened because his face had to stay in Xane's deep, smooth crack.
The Wraith hissed. "Curse you creature of smoke. Leave me, ahhh. No, aaahhh."
The sound of bones getting crushed. Lightning. Cheers from above.
Xane stepped away leaving Chay fingerfucking on his knees.
The Wraith was down. Half the arena was covered in black blood, tracing the path the enemy had floated to get away from Pie. The noggins were crushed. The last Croc had retreated into its cage.
Goro took a running start and rammed his feet with straight legs into the metal disk. Black blood and gunk squirted from underneath and their curse ended.
Yet the level of horniness stayed higher than the already extreme normal. It would have taken several cumshot to feel clear-headed again.
Chay rose on legs so weak he wasn't sure he could risk taking a step. Pie swirled around him. With a weak but triumphant smile, Chay puffed clouds from his palms to let the cat-snake play.
"Excellent work, girl. You saved the day."
Goro's skin was still healing from the fire and acid burns and the Croc bite. Marcus' was shining with slow white emanation where the Wraith's grip had torn his skin.
The force field above became visible again and opened for them.
"Impressive," the massive demon said, red reflections from the gem sparkling on his mold-mail, nipple rings and terrifying eyes.
While the crowd dispersed, the pantheon followed the champion back to his gold-pile stuffed throne room.
"You will get your information," Hrailoth said. "Everything I know about Rvebnar's defenses. Bring his key stone half and I will add mine. Now, is there a reward you desire for your pit battle?"
"Nectar," Marcus said.
Chay had been seconds from giving the same answer. They didn't even need water, despite being sweat drenched, but their addiction was back full force after the struggle.
The demonic ruler grinned. "I see. I think I can spare some of what I had slaves milk from my dicks today."
A snap of his fingers saw gnomes carrying four generous jugs, filled to the brim with golden honey. The furry critter wobbled precariously but managed not to spill a single drop.
The smell alone sent Chay into euphoria, like having a sex date lined up.
After a few greedy gulps, the demigods began savoring the experience – even Marcus. Minutes felt like mere seconds as they drank pure sex, which made the horniness both better and worse.
Chay thought of men. He wasn't trying to but he did. Mostly he thought of his companions. Also of demons, and their oozing cocks.
Chay wondered how much nectar he could drink. With his stomach not a consideration could he be gulping it down every waking moment? How many demons would it take to make enough nectar for him? For all four of them?
As the men swallowed on their knees, Hrailoth walked around them and fondled their packages, pulling down the fundoshi. He didn't squeeze or anything so Chay didn't bother to stop drinking while he was harassed.
Let the fucker have his fun gawking.
===***===
Business and pleasure were quickly concluded after the jugs were empty.
The pantheon marched down the stairs of the fortress where Gallant stepped into their way.
"A valiant battle in the pit I've heard," the Nephil said. "But it wasn't as clean a victory as I'd have hoped from four avatars of the gods." His eyes fell on their fundoshi. "Are you aware you have been signed?"
"Uh," Chay made and pulled his tight fundoshi aside. Glorious radiance nearly blinded him. "I don't see any..."
Gallant grabbed him by the balls and pulled. Chay groaned and dug his fingers into the giant's ripped, gold forearm.
"See here."
Chay shielded his aegis with one smoke-oozing hand and saw there was a line around his ball sack, a black tattoo, mere millimeters thick.
"I missed that," he admitted. "What does that mean? Is Hrailoth tracking us?"
"It's just a little... insurance on his part," Gallant lied. "Now let's go."
Gallant led them back outside to the Wyvern which would take the demigods as close to enemy territory as possible.
"Can we take a minute to piss?" Xane asked.
"And cream one out?" Goro added.
"I was going to suggest that," Marcus said. "I feel like my whole abs and thigh area is ready to squeeze itself through the aegis hole."
"Ew," Xane said. "But same. I can't stand still."
Gallant looked back at the fortress as they left it behind. He casually spread his translucent wings over the group. "Listen close. I did not dare speak ill of Hrailoth so close to him but carrying this mark is terrible news."
"I had a feeling," Chay said.
"This Hemogenic Graphoplast..."
"What?"
The ex-angel sighed. "This blood-signature is usually placed around a slave's neck to behead him with a mere thought. The signatory can pull on these lines, or even sever them. He can exert total control, rip them off, put them back on and start again. You'd be forever in his grasp."
Chay wasn't as frozen as his friends. "How does that interact with our healing? Could we... cut them off above the mark and be rid of them? Stop clutching, Marcus, I'm just speaking hypothetically."
"The curse is deeper than just what you see," Gallant said. "I've seen even angels getting beheaded this way. But! There are ways to weaken even a champion's curse. I'll have to consult an old acquaintance. I hope I'll have tracked him down once you've collected the key stone. Good luck."
Marcus kept holding on his balls. "Better use them while we got them," he said and pulled lightly while he worked a spit-lubed finger into his hole.
The four of them stepped up to the edge of the drawbridge and pissed with the fundoshi around their necks, Marcus and Goro already fingerfucking themselves as they pissed.
There was barely a point to standing at a cliff since their streams were wildly flung around by their nubs, landing mostly on their chests, abs and thighs. Only Xane had the ability to control his stream. Goro gave him a slap on the ass with a grunt and the mage let himself get splattered with a sigh.
"Solidarity has limits," Xane said with faux outrage.
They stayed as they were, broad legged and sweating, under the eyes of Hellion guards a few dozen feet behind them.
"First time we're doing this with an audience," Xane remarked. "Kinda into it."
Marcus laughed. "As long as they're not asking to join I'm fine showing hole. I mean, they've see the ass already."
"Shut up you two," Chay said, panting. "I don't want to hear guy-chatter while I jerk off."
"We've been over this," Marcus said. "It's not jerking off, it's relieving pressure from-"
"Dude, call it whatever," Chay said. "Tickle your prostate in silence."
"By the way," Marcus said, elbowing Xane. "How's the boss' rimming technique?"
Xane didn't make eye contact. "We do what it takes during battle. I'm with Chay now. Shut up."
Goro grunted. He was the first to cream. Goop ropes hung like sun-rays from his nub.
Chay felt the orgasm-less climax approach. He wasn't looking forward to the mess. And it barely helped with the pressure anyway.
"Fuck it," he said and pulled his fingers out. "I'm not cumming until I really need it – or until I get to actually cum with orgasm and sparkles."
Xane threw soundless fireworks into the air and chuckled. "Here we goooo. Ughhhh."
The shortest, but most aesthetic demigod directed his load haphazardly away, avoiding most of the splash. He was surrounded by shining sparkles.
"Looks fun," Marcus said. "Does it feel any better?"
"Not one bit," Xane said, mock-cheerful. "I'm sticky as a motherfucker and not a hair less horny."
Marcus pulled out, too. "Fine. No orgasm, no point. I can wait."
"Since fucking when?" Chay asked, because he knew Xane would have asked it with a more derisive tone if he hadn't.
Goro cracked his knuckled and walked toward the Wyvern.
"Let's steal half a key stone," Chay said and gestured for Xane to magically wipe him down. If he had to play the leader, he was going to enjoy the privileges.