Fell Champions

As soon as they both realized they were back, Rua swatted Otter on the arm. Hard. It was enough force to stagger Otter to the side, but not nearly as much force as she suspected Rua could generate.

 

“I can’t believe you made me do that,” Rua said, her face positively flaming. 

 

Otter could barely keep the amusement out of her voice. “Made you?”

 

“I’ve never done anything like that in my life before! You… you… tale-telling pelanoa!”

 

“As I recall, you spanked Sami first. And you were enjoying it.”

 

“Never you mind what I might’ve enjoyed. You’re a bad influence.” She crossed her arms and huffed. She was adorable when she pouted. “I’d heard pelanoa could… influence people around them. Talk them into… doing things they normally wouldn’t do.”

 

Otter snorted. “I don’t know about that. I’ve been able to talk people into sexy fun times for years before I got a dick. Speaking of…”

 

She’d been more focused on the time with Sami, but now that they were out of the situation, Otter’s erection was definitely giving her a hard time. It wasn’t exactly threatening to rip through her pants, but it was a bit uncomfortable. She didn’t exactly want to whip it out, and didn’t know the exact protocol for adjusting herself in a public place. How did boys manage these stupid things? She was going to have to rub one out. The amount of times she’d heart Everett complain that blue balls were in fact a thing and a terrible blight to deal with could fill a scrapbook in itself, and she didn’t particularly want to see if they were still a thing when your testes were apparently internal. 

 

“Oh no, I am not dealing with that thing, too,” Rua said.

 

“What? No, that’s… that’s not what I meant.”

 

But now the image was in her head. She could just see it. Rua, on her knees before her. Looking up at her with those pretty eyes of hers. Just so eager to please. Maybe she’d–

 

Otter had to shake it off before she got too caught up in it. Maybe her libido was cranked a little bit more than usual. 

 

“You should probably let Sami go,” Rua said.

 

“What?”

 

“Have you dismissed your Thread on her? If not, it’s probably still up, meaning she’s still tied up with her pants pulled down.”

 

“Right, yeah.”

 

Otter gave it a little bit of focus, determining which of her Threads she wanted to terminate. She’d have to leave Paul’s up, for now, just so he wouldn’t bleed to death, but she didn’t have a use for any of the others. She cut them, and it was like a tension in the back of her head that she hadn’t even known had been building was released all at once. 

 

“It’s done.”

 

“Good. I’d hate to have put all that work into her and have her die in the wilderness or wherever she ended up.”

 

“Work isn’t the only thing you put into her.”

 

Rua swatted her again, her cheeks heating up. “Quit that.”

 

“Sorry, I think I’m a little, uh, keyed up. After the thing with Sami. I should probably go outside and, uh, deal with it.”

 

Rua practically pushed her out the door in her haste to get her away. It slammed shut behind Otter, who could only smile in amusement, made her way to the back of the cabin to the woodcutting area. She didn’t exactly know why she wanted privacy so badly. Part of her would’ve loved to have Rua watch. But she’d already pushed Rua pretty far on her boundaries already for one day. 

 

Otter had to make sure the windows to the cabin were shuttered closed, because for some reason, it felt like someone was watching her. She couldn’t help but feel like she was about to do something terribly taboo and forbidden. 

 

She’d yet to actually jack herself off. That was probably it. Some distant societal guilt where a made-up sky bully would judge her for touching herself, only doubly so since now she had a cock. 

 

Except… she was in the world of Fell Champions now. This was out of the domain of any Earthly god. This was the providence of the Dreamers. And something told Otter that the Silayan Dreamer would approve.

 

Otter eased her pants down, and grabbed a hold of her cock. It still felt so weird to have one. Would she still have chosen this, if she’d known what that gender option would do?

 

As she eased herself with one long, slow stroke, Otter quickly realized, yeah, she probably would. 

 

At first, Otter worked herself in a quick rhythm, eager for release, a slave to the pleasure. It was such a different feeling than she was used to. Not as deep, not a feeling in her core, where it just kind of built on itself and reverberated. This was more like electricity, hitting all her extremities and demanding to be let out. As she pushed herself along, she could even feel a nerve in her left foot twitching, warning her of what was about to happen.

 

At the last second, she stopped herself, panting furiously. 

 

No. She couldn’t just do this for the release. She had a goal in mind. It wasn’t just about instant gratification. 

 

All told, she’d managed to build herself up to near-orgasm in about two minutes of furious pumping. Good if she wanted to be over and done with quickly. Lousy if she actually wanted to be good at sex. 

 

How embarrassing would it be if she actually managed to charm her way into Rua’s bed, only to be the most disappointing lay of all time.

 

No. Not on her watch, dammit. She was great in bed. She had a reputation to maintain. Legends were told of her skills at oral, and her finger game. She would be damned if she didn’t figure out this whole dick thing.

 

So Otter edged herself as well as she could manage. It was frustrating and a little bit agonizing, and she had to picture some pretty gruesome shit in order to bring herself down. She conjured up images she’d been sent from 4chan, memories of the comments section of ViewTube, every single time she’d been dismissed and belittled for being a woman in gaming…

 

She was really grasping for straws, trying anything that disgusted, annoyed, or angered her, discovering the latter only sent her into more of a frenzy. It was no wonder why so many ‘straight’ girls tended to become at least a little bisexual under the right attention if it were this easy to make a cock go off, even when actively trying not to. 

 

And then, while looking through her memory for something, anything, that would stop her from cumming, she hit a recent one. And it didn’t just cause her to slow her arousal down, it halted it altogether.

 

For a moment, all she could think of was Nightmare’s stupid face. She remembered him pulling the blade from his own throat. Remembered him falling. Remembered herself finishing the job.

 

What was she even doing? 

 

Her cock wilted in her hand, and she made no effort to try to get her erection back. She let it shift and move back inside of her, and readjusted her pants.

 

Was this what she was? Someone who forgot a man she had killed such a short time ago, and then immediately go off on whatever sexual escapade she could? She’d always used sex to run from her problems in the past, but this was taking it too far.

 

Otter turned back to the cabin, but stopped mid-step. She was too annoyed, too angry with herself, and she knew if she went back inside, she’d pick a fight with Rua, who had done nothing wrong. She knew herself well enough to recognize the Otter Self-Destruct Train as it was getting ready to set in motion. Step one, fuck. Step two, fight. Step three, run away.

 

She needed to blow off some steam, but she needed to do it some other way. The wood pile was tempting, but she had no particular desire to be mocked again for her wood chopping skills. Instead, she grabbed the bucket, and stomped off into the woods. If she was going to have a temper tantrum, she at least was going to be productive and get some moss or mushrooms or anything that looked like it might be able to be turned into food.

 

The entire time, Otter tried to get a feel for the air around her. Rua had previously instructed her on how to be able to tell the difference between the Ebb and the Flow. Apparently everything was supposed to feel more when you were in the Flow, but what that meant, Otter had no clue. More real, more sharp, more alive, they were all terms Rua had used, but they weren’t particularly useful. How did one thing feel more ‘real’ than something else? In theory, Otter was stuck in a computer game, and it felt just as real as it did the real world, especially the way the godamned mud clung to her as she walked through it, sucking at her feet and just making everything cold and gross and just muddy. 

 

She was normally a strong advocate of personal hygiene, but the sheer amount of times she’d had to wash because of this stupid swamp was enough to justify burning the entire biome to the ground.

 

She needed to ask Rua why she was in this stupid swamp. It seemed like the kind of discussion they should have. But she was trying to respect boundaries. But it seemed important, like the kind of thing that might bite her the second they left said swamp. Rua clearly had some kind of history. You didn’t just get the skills she had just by being a swamp hermit who was only running from presumed racism. The way she’d completely took Sami apart in that fight… that was damn terrifying. How many more people out in this world were there like Rua?

 

And if Rua were hiding from something… what the hell could be scary enough that she needed to hide from it?

 

Otter worked as she thought, scraping at moss, and getting the odd mushroom. The harvest wasn’t particularly bountiful, but something was better than nothing. She kept an eye both on her Tenacity and Will bars as she worked. Tenacity seemed to regen at a steady pace, but so far, her Will had yet to regenerate. She’d need to run tests on that at some point. Or just ask Rua how it worked. Her Will was a far too important resource for her to just not know how it worked.

 

But for now, that Tenacity bar was proving important. So long as it had something in it, she had that forcefield back, and the deeper she went into the swamp, the more insects buzzed about. The little bastards kept connecting with her shield, but took off once they realized she wasn’t vulnerable. That made sense. If insect and animal life evolved on a world where this kind of protection was available, they’d either gain countermeasures, or eventually learn to just go look for easier prey after running into a shielded target. 

 

Otter spent another hour in the swamp, not too worried about losing her way. She was a terrible outdoorsman, but the mud was so thick, and her tracks in it so obvious, that there was little hope of her not finding her way home. She tried avoiding crossing the small ponds that were strewn about, knowing she wouldn’t leave much trace through those, but took the time to try to catch some of the little crayfish-like things in them. She actually managed to get one, and when the little fucker pinched her, took great delight with the knowledge she’d be eating it later.

 

It was difficult to keep the time with the canopied tree cover, but when the light began to dim, she turned back and followed her path back. She opened her menu, and found a ton of message requests waiting for her. 

 

Apparently a lot of people wanted to talk to her. Dev Vision, Digimane, someone just named ‘Moon’ who she didn’t recognize… Apparently she was quite the popular person suddenly. Everyone probably wanted the secrets of how to make a Pact, how to use the magic of this world. 

 

Sami’s name was also on the list of people wanting a word with her. 

 

Otter sighed. Well, better to rip that bandaid off.

 

The message window popped up, and Sami’s less than amused face came on screen. Wherever she was, it was sunny and positively inhospitable. Oh right, the Salass Wastes or whatever it was called. Everett had mentioned that.

 

“Sup,” Otter said.

 

“‘Sup?’ That’s what I get? Two years, and all I get is ‘sup?’”

 

“Two years? Dunno what you’re talking about. We just met earlier today.”

 

“And now you’re insulting my intelligence. Classic Mayumi. Did you really think I wouldn’t see through your disguise? Through your name? Did you think I’d fall for that impostor Pandemona?”

 

“Hey, I had nothing to do with her. Or, uh, anything else you’re talking about. Who’s Mayumi?” She winced at that one. Even Everett would’ve been able to see through that lie. “I’m just GrandTheftOtter now. Anyone else you might think I am isn’t here.”

 

Sami stared at her in silence, her expression a stone wall. An angry stone wall. An angry stone wall that would bite people if it could.

 

Otter continued, “If it makes you feel any better… I’m sure that whoever this Mayumi person is… she’s sorry.”

 

“You already said that part. Before, when…” She trailed off, and her cheeks heated just a little. “What you didn’t say was an explanation. You never told us why you left us. Why you retired.”

 

She shrugged, finding it harder to even look at the screen. “I’m not that person. I don’t know what to tell you.”

 

“Can you please talk to me like I’m not an idiot, and pretend to be an adult for one second? Please?”

 

That brought up Otter short. Not the word itself. Sami was capable of manners. But it was the way she said it. Like she was in pain. Oh, she was hiding it well, but Otter knew Sami. Well enough to know the hurt in her eyes. Well enough to hate herself for putting it there.

 

“I’m not going to explain myself over… over a fucking voice chat,” Otter said. 

 

“That’s an excuse, and you know it. I’m in a different part of the world than you, and you think that’ll buy you time to come up with a story.”

 

“No. I want to do it in person because I’ll have Rua there.”

 

“Oh, you want a bodyguard?”

 

Otter snorted. “Since when have I ever needed someone to fight my battles for me? No, I want her there, listening in on the entire conversation, for your sake. She’s a human lie detector. I don’t think it’s possible to run a lie by her.”

 

“If this is some kind of trick…” 

 

“It’s not. Out of the old gang, I’m not the one who was the lying, manipulative one.”

 

“Hey, just because Il-Su also left doesn’t… ah, you meant me. I suppose you would see it that way.”

 

“Just… get to the Silayan Islands. Bring Everett with you, if you find him. Something tells me we’re going to need the whole clan back together if we’re gonna make it out of this game.”

 

She was going to add something to that, maybe some kind of inspirational speech about banding together and uniting against a common adversary, but something caught her eye. It was one of those crayfish-things, but bigger, the size of a lobster. Otter triggered her Thread of the Scourge, lighting up her section of the swamp with the glowing wire, and entangling the crayfish-lobster-meal in one smooth cast. She lifted up her catch for Sami to see.

 

“I’m eating well tonight,” she said proudly.

 

“Lucky. But never mind that. The whole clan?”

 

Otter left the lobster tied up and tossed it in her bucket, hoping it wouldn’t try to eat her smaller catch. But as she did, the shadows shifted in the swamp, the wire of Thread of the Scourge producing a glint off something in the swamp.

 

“Yeah,” Otter said distractedly, moving in closer to the source of the glint. “Me, you, Everett, Su, you know, the old gang.”

 

“You’re already a hard-sell for me, and you want me to include Il-Su?”

 

“Yeah, he’s here on the island somewhere. We’re supposed to meet up.” What was that? Was it metal? In the swamp? “I mean, if he ever responds again.”

 

“You haven’t told him who you are, right?”

 

“What? No. Secret identity. I mean, I have no secret identity, I’m just Otter Kaos.”

 

Sami breathed in sharply, and rubbed at the bridge of her nose with two fingers. “Just… stay away from Il-Su. And definitely don’t tell him who you are.”

 

“Sure thing, mom. Or, wait, do you still get ‘mommy’ privileges after what Rua did to you?”

 

“Can you… can you be serious for one second? Listen to me. Nothing good is going to come from you talking to Il-Su.”

 

“Yeah yeah,” Otter said, putting down the bucket and clearing away some mud from the metal object. It was bigger than she’d thought. Easily the size of her torso, and a good chunk of it was still covered in muck.

 

She got an idea. She staked her knife into the ground, leashed her lobster-thing to it – found that the lobster-thing had, in fact, eaten the smaller crayfish-thing – and emptied out her moss scrapings and mushrooms before refilling the bucket with water from a handy pool of water nearby, and rinsed away a bunch of the mud.

 

“What are you doing?” Sami asked.

 

“Dunno. Found something. Could be loot.”

 

“Guild rules, you need to share it with the clan if you can’t use it.”

 

“Well, thank goodness you don’t actually want to clan with my ass.”

 

“No, I want to clan with Rua. Unfortunately, you’re probably a package deal.”

 

“Rua does enjoy my package deal.”

 

“What?”

 

“What?” Otter replied innocently.

 

“You’re already fucking her, aren’t you?”

 

“Who, me? Honestly, no. But not for lack of trying. I’m wearing her down, and wow, how is this any of your business?”

 

“She literally spanked and fingered me. If you’re not fucking her, then it means I’ve gotten further with her than you have.”

 

Otter blinked at that. That… was true. How could that possibly be true? That didn’t seem fair at all.

 

Sami got that self-satisfied smirk on her face that she tended to get whenever she won an argument. Usually, it was hot. Now it was just really annoying. 

 

Sami did a languid stretch, looking so positively please with herself, and said, “You know, I’m going to leave you to your little piece of loot. I’m going to message and see if Rua’s doing anything.”

 

“Don’t you even–”

 

The call terminated, the window closing on Sami’s smirking face. Otter swore to herself. This was just what she needed. Her ex trying to get with the woman she was interested in. She hated love triangles. Well, Hollywood love triangles. She preferred the type where everyone was banging at least one other person in the triangle, if not both. Poly-triangles were better than ‘love corners.’ 

 

Otter poured another bucket full of water on the large piece of metal, already formulating plans for her next move on Rua. She wasn’t going to lose out to Sami. Nope. She was gonna go home and literally seduce the pants off Rua. Just as soon as she was done with whatever this was.

 

Was she seriously procrastinating sex in favour of something shiny covered in mud? Why was she…

 

Oh right. Nightmare.

 

Fuck that guy.

 

His death wasn’t her fault. His own shitty life decisions put him in that situation. No. Holt’s shitty life decisions put them both in that situation. Nightmare’s blood wasn’t on her hands, it was on his. Stupid fucking narcissist wanting to do a Kayaba Akihiko impersonation. Couldn’t even get an original idea. Honestly, they all should’ve known better than to agree to play a fully immersive game that your mind completely entered. This was bound to happen eventually. 

 

Enough mud had come off the shiny thing that Otter realized it was still even bigger. It was easily two feet wide, and three tall, and it was a helmet. Attached to a suit of armor below it.