Jax was walking the perimeter of our electrified cage, testing it for weaknesses. Each time that she would get even remotely close, the forcefield would start to hum, and electricity would begin to visibly gather near where she was. It was rather like being on the inside of one of those novelty plasma balls that they sell in those goth gift shops that you always find in malls. Whenever she would attempt to touch it, there was a flash, and she would be pushed away. But it did not seem to hurt her.

Which I found very odd.

“Why would it behave that way?” I mused speculatively. “You would think that with all of the fanfare, it would at least give you a bit of a shock.”

She shook her head, mystified, “The bag if I know. Ye tried puttin’ yon Key back in its cradle?”

“No. Not yet. I was afraid that if I did, something unexpected might happen. And we weren’t exactly,” I made a noise in my throat, “ready for that at the time.”

Jax smirked at me.

I sighed helplessly, but I smiled back. I had not only been referring to our most recent tryst, of course. One of these days, I was going to have to address some of Jax’s… possessive tendencies. But she seemed to have calmed considerably with my assurances that she could keep my attention, and maybe that was all she needed. I hoped.

“Alright, let me get the Light Tracing going again, and we’ll see what happens,” I said.

“Why’d y’even let it drop in the first place?” she asked, turning her attention back to the forcefield.

“You know perfectly well why,” I returned dryly.

That made her laugh aloud, “Ain’t got in ye to do both at once? Mmm… have to work on that.”

“Jeez, Jax,” I shook my head, chuckling. “My knees are still knocking over here. I’ll be lucky if I’m even able to do it again tomorrow, to say nothing of holding a spell at the same time.”

“Good,” she said, nodding with satisfaction.

Good? Why good? Job well done, good? Good that I will not be horny again for a while? I gave her a speculative look, considering whether to probe that out, but she looked happy enough. Perhaps even a bit smug. So I figured it best to leave well enough alone. We needed to get out of this cage and back to Hess, after all, and I could not spend every waking moment trying to pry into the smallest nooks and corners of Jax’s increasingly alien mind.

Not that she had ever been a particularly open book. It was more like I had been in the middle of reading… I do not know… ‘Moby Dick’ or something. And then one night, as I left it on my night stand, someone had come in and replaced it with a new book, called ‘Moby’s Dick’, without telling me. And it was suddenly all about how Captain Ahab wanted to stick his ‘harpoon’ into the whale? The result of which was that I was left unsure whether that had not been the plot the whole time. I frowned, unsure where this metaphor was going.

Which was apposite.

Leaving that for some other time, I took a few moments to reassemble the spell. It was not quite as difficult the second time around to parse out the syllables I wanted, and after a few tries, the highlights were back in place, if still on the dim side. Hopefully, after some practice, that would get better, though I still had little clue as to why it would work less well when separated from its parent spell. Maybe I was doing something wrong?

I sighed. Yet another thing for a later time. Perhaps, I should invest in a journal. Then, at least, I might have a chance of remembering all of the questions I needed to ask.

“Alright,” I said in warning, “Be prepared. Anything might happen when I replace the Key.”

Jax nodded, summoning her axe and taking a stance. Glancing back, she gave me a nod.

I took a deep breath, and nervously holding the triangular gemstone over its perch, I gently replaced it. The second I did, the forcefield gave a little flicker and faded away.

We stood silently for a long time, straining our eyes and ears. But nothing moved. Nothing jumped out at us. All was quiet. Sharing a glance, Jax held a finger to her mouth and trotted out into the hallway to look around. Peering one way and then the next, she turned back and shrugged. Nodding silently, I took a deep breath as the tension drained out of me.

As she returned to my side, I turned my attention back to the Key. “Puzzling,” was all I said aloud.

Jax nodded, “Aye. How we supposed to take away yon rock? To pick it up means to be trapped within.”

“That is the trick, isn’t it?” I said. “Although, technically, I suppose that only one of us needs to be trapped at once.”

She quirked an eyebrow at me, “And what good will that do, ye’re so smart?”

“Honestly, I have no idea,” I admitted with a shrug. “But it’s the only variable I can think of at the moment.”

She made a face that, as far as I could tell, was somewhere between ‘fair enough’ and ‘fuck it’. She started to step back but quickly reconsidered, “Let me. If aught happens…”

I deliberated on it for a moment. Was something more likely to happen inside the field or out? Again, I had no clue. But, if the worst came, it should be easy enough to drop the field again and start over. Hopefully.

So nodding, I moved back and gestured that she continue.

Seeing me out of the way, she quickly snatched the Key from its perch, and the field sprang back into place. Silently, we waited, but again, nothing out of the ordinary happened. At a loss, we slowly approached each other, looking over the barrier.

From out here, it was evident that the electrical effect was simply a part of the field itself, instead of being supplied from an outside source. At least… as far as I could tell. Though, the dome of it was cut off at the floor, so perhaps there was something underneath us that was being used as a power supply. Unless magic, of course. That was always the wrench in the works around here.

“NOw whAT?” she said, breaking me out of my reverie. Her voice was oddly distorted by the barrier, springing back and forth between pitches at odd intervals.

Hearing that, I choked a bit. The temptation was far too strong. I simply could not resist. So, with a big, stupid grin spreading across my face, I belted out, “Do you believe in life after love?”

Jax frowned and shook her head, “What BE Ye saYIN’? Yer vOIce be souNDIN’ POwerfUL STRanGE.”

I shook my head, still laughing at myself, “Never mind. Just a little tune from back home.” A little autotune.

“YE werE SIngin’?” she asked, perplexed. “NOw?”

I sighed. Ah… sometimes it was tough being around all these uncultured people. Bemused, I tapped the field from the outside, but it pushed my arm away just the same as it had Jax. Not knowing what else we could do, I lightheartedly spread my hands, “What can I say? I thought maybe if it heard my beautiful singing voice, it would faint from the shock.”

Jax gave me a look that spoke volumes. Of course, I had knowingly incited the reaction, so it came as no surprise when she jokingly threw the Key at me. Dutifully, I ducked, but much to both of our surprise, it sailed right through the barrier, as if there were nothing there at all, and bounced off of the wall behind me. We both stared at it as it spun in place for a moment and gradually wobbled to a halt.

In the second of silence that followed, I heard a click from above, and tracing the sound, I saw a sharply clawed paw grip the edge of the pipe above me. The head that followed after it was, unsurprisingly, that of a rat but not like any we had seen before. This one was easily twice the size. From the other side of the room, I heard a hiss. And then another. And another.

“QUIck!” Jax shouted from the inside of her prison, “PAss it baCK! HURry!”

Nodding decisively, I grabbed up the Key and underhanded it back towards her, but it ricocheted off of the field and landed at my feet again. I stared at it, wide-eyed… it only worked in one direction?

By the time I had grabbed it up again, the first gigantic rat had fallen to the floor on the opposite side of the room. Seeing this, Jax wildly began to throw herself at the side of the forcefield. Scrabbling at it in panic, her gaze settled on me, “RUN!!! RUn, DonUM! Oh, pleaSE RUN!”

Ho boy… This was going to suck.

Gripping the Key firmly in hand, I gave her an apologetic yet firm nod. Spinning on my heel, I leapt into motion just as the weight of a titanic rat thudded to the ground behind me, and I put a little extra spring in my step. I knew it was not going to stay there long.

My footsteps were punctuated by a silent litany of internal swearing. I knew that I was not much of a runner, and I was low on Energy as it was. How that translated into stamina or speed or any of the rest was an unknown, but at my best, back home, I was good for a solid hundred yards of sprinting. After that, I would be left gasping for air for a quarter hour or more. Now? I just had to hope that all of those points I had spent in my stats would do me some good. So, I kept my gaze in front of me, putting all of my hope into staying ahead of these things just long enough to accomplish… something.

As I pelted down the hallway, my foot slapping in puddled water, the lead rat jumped for me, landing a scratch right across my left buttock. Gasping in pain, I quickly darted around the first corner, thankful that it had not managed to catch my loincloth. Though I could now feel wet blood dripping down my leg as I continued to run, I knew that the move had cost the rodent some of its momentum.

Suddenly, up ahead, the motion lines highlighted something rising from the ground. It was thin and cylindrical. Rather like another pedestal.

That made me realize two things. One, like an idiot, I had forgotten that I had left my spell running, which had cost me dear stamina. Although, in hindsight, it was probably the only reason that I had noticed the pedestal, at all. And two, much more importantly, I intuitively knew that there lay safety, and hope surged within me. Unless I was wrong, of course.

Oh… please don’t be wrong.

Galloping toward that beacon for all I was worth, my heart beginning to pound dangerously in my chest, I still heard the approaching steps of my nearest pursuer again closing on me. No! I’m so close! Like a running back, I juked to the side. It was not the most expert of attempts, but it was enough. The rat sailed right past me and skidded to a stop just as I again flew past it.

Right as I felt I would collapse, the final step to the pillar was done, and I slammed the Key into place. Instantly, a field sprang into place around me, throwing my hunters back like a pinball bumper. I laughed in relief, tears escaping the corners of my eyes as I slumped to the floor, completely spent. I did not know how far I had run, but as I sat there gulping in air, I felt as if I wanted to curl up and die.

The rats, meanwhile, seemed quite intent on accomplishing just that. They began slowly circling my new cage, hunting for weaknesses. At least for a little while.

A scant handful of seconds later, Jax skidded to a halt around the corner. It did not take her long to assess the situation. Slowly pacing forward, she held her axe low to her side and splayed her claws at her other, growling low in her throat. She was out for blood. And the four rats, each the size of mountain lions, were happy to oblige her.

As they ran for each other, I hastily dropped the partial spell and began the process of getting my full buff going. In my current condition, I doubted I could hold it for long, but she was going to need every advantage I could give her. It still was not easy to say the whole thing. It was never easy. But I got it out, only bobbling the pronunciation once.

The blow back slammed into me like a ton of bricks, and I whimpered just as Jax and the rat pack collided with one another. But I could not pay attention to them. My eyes closed, I concentrated on breathing. Just keep breathing. Keep… breathing…

The sounds of the battle outside were fierce. I think that Jax either knew or simply feared that I had been injured, and she was eager to finish this quickly. But her opponents were not the paltry things from before. These were stronger. Smarter. Faster. They worked together to keep her off-balance and off-target.

However, she was not without her own advantages. Thanks to spell and skill, the shadows were her allies, and she knew how to use them. Just as her axe clanged to the ground, missing her wily opponent, another charged from her side, but she rolled away, vanishing into the deep gloom.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

My peripheral briefly closed in from the sides, and I gasped. Keep breathing.

One of the rats screamed as her claws traced a path down its flank, and she howled in jubilation. But the rat swung around and bit down on her wrist. Cursing, she aimed her axe at its neck, but it jumped back before it could land.

She was not counting, I noticed. Not that I would have bothered either, given the situation. But peering at her through the distortions of the forcefield, she seemed far too worked up. Her face was locked into a mask, eyes flashing, her lips drawn back over her teeth, open and bared. Like a wild animal. Like the rats. And it was… wrong. Somehow.

One of the mountainous rodents scraped its spindly claws across her thigh, and snarling in pain, her swing of retaliation skipped off the top of the beast’s skull, taking a hunk of skin with it. I waited, knowing she was injured, for her to start using her clones. But she did not. She was too enraged, I realized. Angry, perhaps, at being separated from me, or maybe it was simply that I had been threatened. Either way, she was not using her skills properly. Again.

I groaned, knowing that I needed to help her. Get her head right. Closing my eyes for a moment, ignoring the riotous battle going on just a few feet from where I lay, I took several huge lungfuls of air.

“Jax!” The word came out as a whisper, the effort to speak too much for me. But I tried again, “Jax! Moan! Use your shadows!” My voice was the faint sound of wind blowing through reeds as a nearby tornado ripped a barn from its foundations. Lost entirely to the snarls and shrieks of the battle between beast and lilim.

The effort left me breathless, and the world tried to close in on me again. Slamming my fist to the ground, I fought it back. No! Not yet!

A sudden crash to the side of the barrier made me jump in startlement. The axe, thrown and apparently missing its target, had smashed against the forcefield and instead of bouncing back, it simply vaporized. Jax screamed in frustration only for one of the giant rats to leap onto her back, bearing her to the ground. She threw it off of her, but not before suffering another gouge, ripping her shirt nearly in half.

I needed to heal her. Quickly. But I could not. I knew that. If I tried, I would pass out for sure. I was barely keeping myself from doing that now. I needed Energy. We both did.

“Jax,” I choked out. But I stopped almost immediately. What could I say? Something… something to calm her down. Something to help her let go of her distractions and fight like she should. She needed to get her head right. She needed to moan.

Concentrating on her, I focused, hoping my intent would come through. In the barest of whispers, I called out to her. Almost like a man shouting advice to a favored sports team through the television. Or a prayer, perhaps. I did not expect her to hear me. But perhaps she would feel my attempt.

“Jax,” I started again. “You are not a being of rage. It does you no good. Let it go. Cast it aside.” I paused, trying to keep my breathing under control. “Feel me, Jax! Feel my aura! Feel what it does for you!” Another pause. Another breath. “Your powers work on lust, Jax. On desire. Use your desire!” My hands were starting to shake, my breath shallow. I could not keep going.

Starting to feel faint, I stared at the ground, all of my attention diverted to simply staying conscious. But I could hear. She still was not moaning. For a moment, I lost hope, but as I regained enough stamina to look again, I could see that her face had lost the edge of malice that had been there before. Perhaps some of my intent had reached her, after all. She just needed a final push.

It came to me then, in a flash. Our conversation from before. She had said something about the object of her desire. But summoning that up was going to be difficult. Especially now. And it made me sympathize with her situation. Deeply. But there was nothing else for it.

Doing my best to block out the world, I thought back. I thought of the first time I had laid eyes on her as a she. The slight jiggle of her chest. The tilt of her hip. I thought of her licking up and down my torso. Of her tenderly and gently kissing the tip of my throbbing manhood. The rapt look in her eyes when she had finally swallowed me whole.

There was a gasp. And suddenly, with a great clang, she split the skull of the first of the rodents in twain. Its Life poured into us in a torrent.

Raw Energy swelled in me, and I shivered as it raced down my back and through my limbs. My vision expanded outward in a rush, and I was dizzy for a moment from the influx of new sensation. I had known I was near, but not quite that close to oblivion.

My stamina had not been fully restored in that instant, but I felt a renewed vigor, nonetheless. Taking a few deep breaths, I decided to try and regain my feet. The spell I was maintaining still felt like a full grown mountain gorilla clinging to my back, but it was no longer a crushing weight. I could do this. And I felt that standing up might give Jax some form of encouragement.

Grunting, I pulled my feet under me and winced. I had momentarily forgotten the throbbing coming from my ass-cheek. That rat had really tagged me good. It would need healing, but first things first. Pushing up, I gradually managed to heave myself into a quivering stance. In that moment, I felt almost like some ridiculous power-lifter struggling to lift a car off the ground. This spell was nuts! Why, by the Lady, was it so damned hard to hold?

Finally able to pay attention to the battle once more, I saw that Jax had whittled them down to just the two, but she had payed a price for it. Her left leg looked like it was not supporting her weight very well, and she was bleeding profusely. The only reason she had not been overrun was that her foes looked to be in just as bad a shape as she was.

I desperately wanted to heal her, but I feared that if I did, what advantage she had would be lost. And at this point, I was unsure if I would even be able to get my buff up and running again. I needed more Energy. Or rest. Preferably both.

Jax, at least, had turned something of a corner. My brief touch of desire, and the Life infusion, had seemed to start her engine to some degree, and she was finally able to pull out a couple of shadow clones. Not well, though. They were faint. Like she had summoned them by rote instead with her actual desire.

She needed more. Mentally, I prepared myself to send another wave at her, but then it occurred to me that I was being a complete dunce. I had all the desire she could need sitting in capsule form right in my pocket. I almost laughed at myself for not thinking of it before, but I had been oxygen starved. That was my rationale, anyway.

Quickly, I brought up my inventory screen, and pulled all of the bigger Gems out, not bothering to separate them out into the stack size I would need. Immediately, nine Lesser Rank One Gems sprang from my front flap, and I snatched them out of the air. I was not sure how many to go with all at once, but I did not want to hit her too strongly. I had already discovered that these had the potential to overwhelm a person. The hard way.

So, with that in mind, I popped two into my mouth. As the Power began to infuse my Core, I took a deep breath. Momentarily, at least, the strength of it seemed to be having a huge impact on my ability to maintain the buff, and I sighed in relief. And soon enough, Jax’s portion leaked out to her, gently seeping into her Core without her even noticing. At first.

As her axe slammed into the ground, missing her target yet again, she snarled in frustration. But her face transformed midway through the emotion into a shiver of pleasure. Quickly glancing over at me, she took in my form, standing upright and smiling knowingly at her. And she smiled back.

“There you go, Jax,” I said, teasingly. “A little present for you. Now, hurry and finish these off. Your… reward awaits.” I felt ridiculous saying things like that. It made me feel like some kind of creepy Lothario. But she had to start fighting in the right frame of mind.

My promise of the coming spell of healing combined with the flow of Power to her Core was finally enough to break through, and a gleam appeared in her eyes. Seeing one of the huge rodents leap for her again, she hummed flirtatiously as she spun away, leaving a shadow in her wake. The rat slammed into it, trying to tear its throat out. And as it dissipated into smoke, leaving the rodent momentarily disoriented, Jax’s weapon struck its head from its body.

One left.

They circled each other, cautiously. The fur on the rat’s back spiked up in a display of threat, while Jax had an entirely different demeanor. Her body language had changed significantly. Now, instead of tension and anger defining her every move, she had loosened up. There was a languid flow to her steps. An indifferent, teasing manner.

Without warning, she surged forward, a moan on her lips, almost as a battle cry, but it was only a feint. Her clone continued on her telegraphed trajectory, meeting the rat in an apparent frenzy of bloodshed, only for it to disappear as soon as the vermin’s teeth sank home. The axe quickly spun out of the darkness from behind, severing its spine.

Jax casually sauntered into the light, still limping slightly yet licking her claws in anticipation. Straddling the still breathing but crippled beast, she wasted no time, and thrust them into its heart. Another surge of Life Energy flowed into us as the rat took its last breath, and Jax shuddered, glorying in her kill.

I dropped my buff immediately, unwilling to spend even an iota of precious stamina unnecessarily, and I slumped to the ground. I winced again as my butt hit the ground, and I immediately sent a burst of healing Energy into it. I had a little bit of the stuff ready to go now, and as always, I immediately needed to spend it. I looked forward to the day that little deficiency was a thing of the past.

Glancing over at Jax, still somewhat illuminated by the electrical arcs of the forcefield, I could see her staring at her bloody claws curiously. Turning her head over her shoulder to look at me, she said, “Twice. AftER SO long, twice IN the SAMe ruddy fiGHt. In the SPAn o’ FOUR HIts, no less. WhY?”

I shrugged, chuckling at the continued ridiculousness of the sound distortions. That was statistics for you. Sometimes you got lucky. “Maybe it works better when you’re in the right frame of mind,” I suggested instead. Gamers were always a superstitious lot, even when they knew better. I had my own little dice rituals and had often committed a particularly unruly twenty-sider to dice jail. And maybe this way, it would serve as a reminder for her.

Jax nodded seriously, taking my proposition to heart, “The right frame o’ mind. Aye. I’ll remember it.” Looking up at me again, her face fell, “I be sorry. I were… I were too upset ye had to face these blighters yer ownself. Got carried away. Forgot meself. I’ll not lose sight again,” she promised me.

I nodded, content enough. “You were actually pretty impressive there at the end. I think you may have discovered how to use those shadows.”

She smiled, almost shy from the compliment, but she shook her head, “Nay. Still had to moan to get ‘em to come. I ain’t figured the trick to it yet.”

“You’ll get it eventually,” I said confidently. “Now come here. I need to patch you up.”

Getting to her feet again, she limped forward, smiling in anticipation. Despite her demeanor, she was a terrible sight. Long scratches crisscrossed her legs. Most were only shallow red marks, but there were plenty that had gone deep enough to draw blood. Her arms, particularly her wrists, also sported more of the same as well as several bite marks. The only part of her that seemed relatively unscathed was her front torso. Apparently, she had been able to guard that part of her well enough.

Meanwhile, what was left of her pants had progressed well past the men’s shorts stage and was now rapidly approaching something like tattered booty shorts. Her top was also heavily damaged. One of the arms had been ripped clean off, leaving it looking like some kind of cavewoman’s bra. And all of it was liberally stained with blood.

Wasting no time, I prepared my increasingly well-practiced healing spell and pushed it into her, holding little back. I knew from experience that the spell should be able to handle the surface level wounds easily enough. That limp, though, was chancy. It spoke to deeper injuries. Perhaps I was getting better with it, but I felt that I had provided enough to do the job. If it had been too much was another story. I did not have so fine a touch as that.

Jax sank to her knees as the orgasmic fire washed over her, her hands running over her body, exulting in the pleasures of her wounds knitting together. But her eyes stayed locked on me.

That look. Maeve preserve me, but that look. It did things to me.

And as soon as Jax felt it, she tried to come for me, but predictably, the field pushed her back. Momentarily forgotten in her state of bliss, the barrier yet kept us apart, and she mewled in frustration.

“What we gonna do, Donum?” she asked, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “I be hatin’ this, powerful!”

I sighed in sympathy, “Be patient. I have an inkling as to what’s going on here, but first, I think you should collect the Gems off of those corpses. I have a feeling that they’re going to be fairly strong.”

“Aye,” she said, nodding firmly. She seemed relieved to have something to do, happy to be given even a trivial task if it brought her one step closer to removing these barriers. Gathering the five new Gems in her cupped hands, she hurriedly brought them over to me and tried to press them through the forcefield. But unlike the Key, they were repulsed just the same as she was. Frowning, she sat them on the ground next to the edge of the field and backed away. “Now what?” she asked, eagerly.

My brows knitted together as I stared at the little pile sitting on the ground. Glancing back up at her, I hazarded, “I think it might be best if you held on to them for now. Don’t you?”

She looked back at them, frowning, almost scandalized by the idea. Finally, she replied simply, “Can nay. Me pockets is ripped through.” Flapping the shreds at me for a moment, she flashed me a smug little smile.

Shaking my head for a moment, I stowed that little oddity away for later. “Alright, whatever. What grade are they, anyway?”

“Lesser. Rank one,” she replied immediately.

“Only Lesser?” I sighed. Given how much of a number they had done on her, I had hoped for more. Then again, she had not been in the right frame of mind for much of the fight, and they had been fighting with numbers. So that helped to explain it. At least they were not flying around and spitting fire at us.

“What’s yer inkening, then?” she asked, pulling me out of my head again.

“Right,” I said, taking a breath. “Well, I think this may be a leapfrog-style trap.”

“Leapfrog?” she asked, confused.

“Oh… uh… yes. That’s a children’s game from back home. They squat down and then leap over each other’s shoulders?” I explained hopefully.

“Oh, that!” she smiled. “We used to call that Hop-a-Cop.”

I grinned, bemused at the rather street-urchin-specific nomenclature, “Right. Anyway, I believe the goal is to pass each other the Gem, ‘hopping’, I guess you would put it, from pillar to pillar.” So saying, I lifted the Key from its base and held it up, “I think that the next section will start as soon as I pass you this. If everything works the same as last time, then more of those giant rats will come to stop you. From there, you’ll need to find the next pillar and put it in the slot. Then a new field will trap you inside, and I’ll be free.”

Jax slowly nodded along at my explanation. But then, she had a thought, “What happens at the end, though? To get the both of us out?”

“That I don’t know,” I admitted. Eventually, something would have to change to break the pattern, I had no doubt. But I could not see what that might be at this stage.

She started to slowly pace as she thought out our situation. Obviously, as she had to handle the fighting for both my leg and her own, she was going to be getting a little screwed over in this, but that was our lot. Although, quite frankly, I would almost be inclined to trade with her if I were able. Having to sprint to the next pylon while being chased by monsters was not my idea of a pleasant Sunday evening.

Finally, she asked, “What about Hess? Might be simpler to get her help, what?”

I almost agreed with her out of hand, and if this had been anywhere else but a semi-sentient death trap with invisible eyes all around, I certainly would have. “I have a hunch that if you do that, then the Dungeon might… adjust.”

She sucked in a breath, “Ooh… aye. And then we might be gettin’ more’n just a few overgrown warren dwellers… and with you havin’ to skip over them…”

We shared a horrified look.

Clearing my throat, I decided to put that thought behind me. “Right. Well, let’s take a few minutes to rest, and then we can get started.”

“Oh, Hand o’ Mercy,” she sighed in relief. “Thank you.”

So saying, she flopped to the ground, arms and legs splayed haphazardly, and closed her eyes.