A butterfly dashed into the best armored Kobolds like an arrow and burst apart as fire, bright as the sun, splattering the reptiles with something like napalm.
Goro picked up projectiles and threw them back. His strength turned them into missiles, each hit spearing a Kobold with enough force to throw the creature back.
Chay only took a split second glance over the barrier. “They’ve been recruiting. There’s Aeobolds, see. We can’t just float away. Don’t know how many there are but they’ve got at least four generals. The factions are… that’s useless right now. Just kill as many as… ouch.”
Pie had been snaking along the beach. Now the battle line was crossing her cloud tail. The cat-faced creature sank her teeth into a Kobold and Chay’s sliced calf knit itself together.
“Something big’s coming,” Chay said. “But not that big. Start killing. I’ll think of something.”
As prophesized, two Drakes in heavy Elderite armor dropped their way onto the beach. Goro raced ahead toward them and plowed through confused Kobolds in simple bone-and-leather gear.
With Xane’s directed lightning as backup, Marcus threw himself into the front line. His circle weapon had already been dashing along the ground, cutting the backs of knees and making badly armored Kobolds drop.
He twirled and kick-flipped and pirouetted with his legs out, floating in the center of a Kobold troupe. His focus was on defense, keeping clubs and serrated axes from touching him so he wouldn’t have to waste attention on healing. Inevitably, he landed offensive hits, too. Usually on Kobolds his chakram had brought down.
Xane stayed back and kept Goro safe, sending distorted beams at any Kobolds who dared to interfere. The big dude was pummeling the last standing Drake’s helmet. Claws had torn the berserker nearly everywhere but hardly more than a thin line of blood remained from the injuries.
Marcus turned his focus on his own battle again.
Shadows crept along the rocks, Chay’s smoke, letting the umbralist move unseen within.
The leader was puppeteering an enemy warrior of course but now there seemed to be more Kobolds fighting each other. Had the leader whispered something to a general to- No, Marcus had to focus on his own fight, for real.
A spiked club narrowly zoomed by Marcus’ face. He leaned back farther than physics allowed a mere mortal and let his chakram dance above him to keep claws off.
Phaser crossbow fire rained down. Aeobolds, too far to reach. A problem for a thaum-mage.
The animus-fighter kicked his last enemy in the face and flew into a new group of Kobolds.
With the last Drake’s head reduced to iron-packaged paste, Goro was free to ram through the rest of the army. That turned the tide. Kobolds fled into the ring of clouds where Chay’s current puppet cut them up and Xane’s fireballs sent them slamming into the cliff aflame.
Marcus landed, fists still raised, mind buzzing with rage and fear and horniness. “Are we safe now!? Are we fucking safe!?”
“Seems like it,” Chay said, stepping out of the dissipating fog.
Goro was naked and picked up his sliced fundoshi. He patted the sand off. “Xee, fix it for me?”
The shorter muscle man took the strip while zapping at stragglers. “Yeah, clean slice. Let me mend.”
“Man,” Marcus said. “If I could get a nectar injection after every battle I’d be a lot more okay with nearly dying once per hour.”
Chay sighed. “Yeah, let’s head home. We should… talk.”
===***===
They pissed before entering the hideout and stayed nude while the piss splatters dried off their spectacular bodies.
The demigods hung their fundoshi on golden wall adornments and dropped into a loose circle among the exuberantly ornate arches of the holy spire, their naked asses on the oddly warm crystal floor.
“Who’s ready to relax,” Xane said and raised his nectar bud bag.
Chay grunted. “Ugh, I hate what it does to me but I *crave* it.”
“Do you really hate it?” Goro asked. “Maybe acceptance is the path.”
The rest of the men were stunned silent. Goro continued. “I let it wash over me in the moment. Afterward I take a moment to file it away with… Is gratitude the wrong word? It kind of reminds me of working out.”
“How so?” Xane asked. “What’s it like for you?”
Goro shrugged his boulder shoulders. “The pleasure of muscles. Having them, training them, worshipping them. Granted, I’d rather have a bitch worship *my* biceps than, uh, worship a demon’s abs.” He absentmindedly flexed his arms.
“That’s part of it, right?” Chay asked. “A craving for demon muscle.”
“More for men in general,” Marcus said. “For masculine stuff. Muscle, sweat, dicks, cum. Nectar feels like gay sex, but, uh, good? I’m not gay. It’s not turning me gay. It can’t.”
Chay huffed. “You remember you’re *having* gay sex when you ride demon dick, right?”
“Yeah but… but I’m not.” Marcus said.
Goro moved into the center of the group, one hand ahead of him. “Let’s make a pact. What happens in the abyss, stays in the abyss.”
Xane was quick to add his hand on top. “And we’ll make it fun, okay? We’ll *enjoy* this hostile place with as much humor and hijinks and demon sex as we can.”
“No judgements anymore,” Chay said and added his hand. “We’ll take pleasure where we can. We’ll survive and fight for humanity. Share like friends, stick together like brothers, help the-”
Marcus slammed his hand onto the pile. “And let’s rename ‘pantheon’ to ‘demon suckers’.”
He was met with a chuckling “fuck off” from Xane and a firm “no” from Chay.
“Okay,” Marcus said. “Old name can stay. Now give me a shot of that muscle sex weed, right up the ass.”
Chay rolled his eyes. “I do wonder what type of dependency it is. I’ve smoked weed before and nectar is nothing like that. Anyone else done weed? No? Really?”
“Muscle sex *heroin*?” Marcus asked.
“Not funny,” Xane said as he opened the linen bag. “I’d rather stay sane and find my pleasure somewhere else but it’s not like the spire’s got Netflix and an Xbox.”
The short hunk produced a golden nugget, shaped like a football the size of a chicken egg.
“Oral or anal?” he asked.
Chay laughed. “What a choice. I mean, no idea if the dick riding is part of it but I find injections more blissful.”
“Hard same,” Marcus said. “Honestly, if I never have to suck a dick again I’ll gladly ride ten more.”
Each men took a bud. It was embarrassing as fuck to shove a massive gold nugget up your hole in front of other guys, so Marcus avoided eye contact. It slid in just fine with some prodding, huge and awkward and unlike any sensation he’d felt outside the abyss but after riding demon dick it was fairly simple.
The pantheon sat in a circle again and the effect began.
Waves of foreign thought rammed into Marcus’ mind, pushing out any worry and sorrow. Muscle, men, sex, dick, sweat and demons crowded his mind, together with an overwhelming sense of pleasure. His constant, frustrating feeling of being at the cusp of orgasm turned to blissful relief.
“Motherfucker,” Xane said, eyes rolled back, fingers on his nipples. “Like I’m… teetering back and forth, orgasm’s big brother is… dipping into me. In my ass. Ooooh, it’s traveling up my spine. Oh this is gooood.”