When Maddy woke inside a cramped box, she panicked a little. Claustrophobia wasn't a huge thing for her, but she doubted anyone liked waking in strange places barely able to move. Thankfully, the lock yielded after an adrenaline-induced full-body shove upward. Wood splintered and the top crunched open. She popped up, breathing fast, but razor-focused on whatever she might find.
The room was calm. To her side, another woman had torn through the box's lock and sat up. Rosalie.
They paused as their eyes met, and Rosalie nodded at her. Maddy returned it.
They went through the usual process, ignoring how they were both naked. Or trying to. Their reddened cheeks gave away how they actually felt.
They passed through the starter room, a hallway of murals—which prompted a debate on what the images meant—and an item shop for lack of a better term. They declined buying anything; it didn't seem worth it.
The architecture of the shard seemed awfully Ketem-Ra, that ancient desert civilization that predated the Fracturing, but history was a weak subject for her, much less ancient history. Even the Sovereign had few resources on subjects that old—much of their knowledge actually came from shards, though any information found in a shard was of dubious reliability. The Fracturing had happened thousands of years ago, and society had needed to rebuild almost from scratch.
It hardly mattered for the scenario at hand, anyway.
"So, um," Maddy started when they were about to set off into the shard proper. "I think I might know who's Possessed. Assuming someone is from the start."
It might be that people were Possessed because of something that happened inside the shard, but she wasn't sure.
Rosalie turned to her. Maddy noted the way her eyes flicked down to her chest, unable to help herself. She was half flattered—there wasn't anything there!—and half flustered, having to repress the urge to cover herself with her arms.
But she had to act like a professional, and being a professional in this case meant ignoring the fact that they were talking to each other while naked. Even if her teammate was not-so-discreetly sneaking peeks.
And, okay, maybe Maddy also snuck a peek. Rosalie had a lot more to look at though, so she couldn't be blamed.
"You do?" Rosalie asked.
"I mean, thinking about it logically, I would think Zoey's with Astrid. Like how I was with her, last time." Or, two times ago, but the Shard Stabilizer run didn't count. "It just makes sense, since she's new to this. And since you're here with me …" she said leadingly.
"It's Delta."
"I think so. I'm only mentioning it in case we want to talk strategy?"
Rosalie frowned. "If it's her at normal strength, we won't have an issue."
"I don't think it'll be her at normal strength," Maddy tittered. In the mural, the Possessed had defeated her entire team. "And the fact she can make a shadow to negate the numbers difference is pretty scary."
A numbers difference was a bigger advantage than someone might first think. More five-to-one odds, or worse, than two-to-one. Likewise, a three-on-one was essentially impossible to win, assuming remotely equal footing.
Delta would have two of her selves. Meaning two-on-two, and she would be empowered.
Which meant two of her selves to enact punishment if she won. Maddy tried not to squeak as that realization hit her. Being pinned down by one fox girl was enough of an idea to distract her from her wayfaring duties. The promise—threat! She meant threat!—of two had her thoughts running wild.
Rosalie also seemed distracted, and Maddy wondered if it was for the same reason. She snapped out of it a second later, shaking her head, and said with all the confidence—whether feigned or not—of a trained inheritor of a highguild, "We can take her. Do you think your illusions will work on her shadow?"
"Um," Maddy said. "They should. They should work on anything that thinks … er, so actually, maybe not. Either way, the problem will be hitting her. My best spells have to be aimed, and she's agile." Any rogue-type would be. "If you can pin her down, though?"
Both of them paused, then blushed, even if the accidental innuendo wasn't that descriptive.
Rosalie cleared her throat and said, "Your illusions were boosted through … the artifact, right?"
Even a roundabout reference to that mind-blowing date with Zoey was enough for Maddy to freeze and go non-responsive for a shameful several seconds.
She stuttered out, "Y-Yeah. Got lucky." She said it just before she would feel obligated to walk off into the dark and let a monster eat her.
The remote vibrator was, after all, the 'broken item' they'd found in Mel's shard. The shard-eater hadn't been able to fully destabilize the shard, and therefore the items within, so the piece of loot was functional, just unstable.
But unstable in a good way, Fe's analysis had assured them. It provided a boost to a single skill when it brought someone to orgasm, and wow, what an orgasm it had been, but she was trying not to think about that.
As it happened, the boost had gone straight to her most fundamental skill. Significantly boosting most of her kit, and not by a small amount. She was excited to contribute more to this shard than normal.
Because she sometimes felt overshadowed by her teammates. Okay, constantly did. She was in a party with a god-blessed, the heiress of a highguild, the woman Enzo d'Celestin himself had chosen to complement his daughter's party, and Delta, who was one of the single most naturally skilled no-name wayfarers she'd ever met.
'Daughter of a Sovereign' was basically a third-rater!
"Then we should try to play around you," Rosalie continued, oblivious to her mental dilemmas. "If you hit her main body with Confusion, would it apply to her shadow?"
That was a great question.
"She controls it herself, doesn't she?" Maddy asked. "So if her real brain is confused, the shadow would be too?"
"The shard might be using her as a proxy, though, so we shouldn't rule out the possibility."
"I suppose not, but if we're making plans logically …?"
"Then it's a solid vector of attack." Rosalie nodded. "I doubt there's anything else to discuss; we're familiar with each other's skillsets. We'll just need to be ready. Unless you have something else to add?"
Rosalie in her professional-mode could be intimidating. Maddy tried not to blush, because there was no reason to blush at a stern, naked, regal girl speaking at her with so much self-assurance.
(Or wasn't there …?)
"Right," Maddy said. "Let's get to it, then."
Rosalie led the way, and Maddy really, really tried to ignore how great she looked from behind. Sёarch* The NovelZone.fun* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
As it turned out, their weapons were returned to them in the next hallway. Maddy picked up her wand, and Rosalie her family's heirloom spear.
They settled into a routine as they fought their way through the labyrinth. She and Rosalie made a decent team. Front-line duelist plus mage was far from an awkward composition. If Zoey and Astrid had also been paired up, the team as a whole had gotten as lucky as possible for pairings.
Things went so well, in fact, that Maddy's caution lapsed; she settled into a false sense of security. It was almost viscerally shocking when she and Rosalie turned a corner and abruptly there was a red-eyed foxgirl standing across the distance, on the far side of the hallway.
"There you two are," the invader said, shouldering off the wall with a smirk. Her long, fluffy fox-tail swished with satisfaction—or predatory intent. "Took me long enough. You two've been making good progress, haven't you?"
Her lips curled up as she raked her eyes up and down Rosalie, then Maddy's naked body. Her mannerisms were very much consistent with Delta … except not. More aggressive—and Delta was already an eager girl when it came to this stuff.
Also.
She had a cock.
So did her shadow-clone. Zoey's potion could make that happen, so it wasn't too shocking, but why did she have it now?
It was hardly the weirdest thing to happen in a shard. Still, it caught her by surprise.
In a good way.
In a bad way! Or neutral way? She guessed it didn't matter, not as far as combat encounters went. They would win this fight, obviously, so whether the foxgirl had two big cocks ready to punish them didn't matter.
Maddy swallowed as she raised her wand, and without further banter, Delta was eager to start the fight.
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