Far below was red shrubland where car-sized, ethereal maggots slithered through each other.
Animus-power even helped with simple walking, letting Marcus dance around the fat chameleon slugs he kept nearly stepping on.
Marcus broke the silence. “Seeing people was kinda fucked up, huh? Slaves weren’t in the briefing.”
“Starting to think,” Chay said, “there was a lot missing from that little abyss 101. The demons are supposed to want to kidnap humans. That’s the whole thing we were sent to stop. So why are there already humans here?”
Nobody had an idea, but it was concerning. The slaves had looked healthy — well-trained even — but totally out of it. Marcus got trapped in his thoughts and finally stepped on a well camouflaged slug.
===***===
After maybe an hour of walking, the four mentally exhausted men rested in the eye socket of a horned skull that leaned back, looking at the world’s ceiling.
Some diffuse light fell in from a large stream of green glowing liquid across the skull that merged into a lake far down the canyon. Ectoplasm, apparently.
Farther back in the eye socket was water that Xane filtered for them. They didn’t need to drink but it helped fight the cum-craving.
When he no longer needed to filter water, Xane conjured a steady light to let them read the stolen books.
Runes, diagrams and tables, written on dark red paper. Marcus got bored instantly.
“It’s like launch codes,” Chay said, wiggling the little pamphlet. “With this we can sneak into the vortex facility and sabotage it without a fight. I’m figuring it out but I’ll need more pointers from Gallant.”
He flipped through one of his books, to a page filled with jagged lines. “These areas are mostly Kobold turf. If we move along the surface we’ll be slow but safer. There’s also those things called… ‘crawlways’…”
“Gotta piss,” Xane said and stepped out of his fundoshi.
“Sure,” Chay said with a smirk. “But keep the light on.”
“Need magic to direct the stream. Pretty sure you were done reading.”
“Nah, keep it shining, hehe.”
Xane flexed his biceps and pissed right where he stood, forcing Chay to tear the book away to avoid splashes, getting his back splattered in the process.
“Fuck off,” Chay said. “Asshole.
“More like pisshole,” Xane said and chuckled. “Fine, if you’re a baby about it…” He jiggled his balls to shake off the last drop and swiped his hand across Chay. The light flickered out but Marcus saw the droplets on Chay fly off.
Wings fluttered outside as they sometimes did. On the fresh darkness of the eye socket, the slight echo felt more threatening.
The flutter grew louder.
“Incoming,” Goro said. He stood up to see outside.
Marcus was itching for action. He pulled the fundoshi aside and pissed to go into battle unburdened, spraying himself.
The abyss had all manner of flying critter, but the most common were imps. Up to a foot tall, bat-like with no head and a maw where the neck should be — plus talons sharp enough to pluck an eye out in one swift motion.
A purple imp fluttered into the hideout and whistled like a bird. Xane flung a fireball at the creature, dripping orange flame roasting the front of the imp who spiraled out of the eye socket with a screech.
Three more dashed in, two green, one red. Marcus sent his chakram to intercept their advance. Goro lunged up and grabbed one. Before the berserker was back on the ground he had flung the crushed creature outside where it slammed into another of its flock.
One of them had made it past.
With his fundoshi hanging below his knees, he jumped up and rammed a whitefire palm into the creature, shattering a dozen bones in its body.
“Get down,” Xane shouted and lightning flashed brightly as the wave of imps just beyond the hideout entrance got fried. The remaining flock dispersed.
“Excellent work,” Chay said. The umbralist stepped up to the edge of the entrance, looking down into the canyon. “Something’s disturbed those cunts. Hm…”
Marcus recalled his ring weapon and tossed the imp he had killed out of the skull.
He casually humped the air, flexing his glutes. Being this horny shouldn’t have been possible. He should have been over the edge by now. Patting his own shoulder felt like masturbation.
“The abyss is in constant anarchic flux,” Chay continued. “I wonder if we could make more allies against the vortex.”
“Who are you thinking of?” Xane asked.
“Those guys,” Chay said and pointed to something on the ground outside.
Marcus and the other’s joined their leader to see for themselves. They rubbed shoulders and Marcus nearly whimpered at the jolt of sexual energy.
The animus-fighter was eager to get to work. Sitting still made him crave nectar — and he was getting grossed out as the reality of sucking dick sank in with the benefit of distance. Maybe he could just bare the addiction and stay away from dicks. He wasn’t a cocksucker after all. He’d find a way to cum.