Chapter 13: Chapter 12: What was Once Pleasant

Lorelei danced, whipping and weaving her way from the crowds brazen advances. What started as a mashup of horny men, and a couple of women, soon devolved into a mad brawl between all the patrons in the Darling Blossom. The stage girls were quickly rushed out of the chamber, their bodyguards moving to protect them first, before trying to settle the crowd. 

Chairs became weapons, and pretty soon it was raining splinters. One of the customers charged at Lorelei, a brash snarl on his face, and his hands reached out for her throat. She wasn’t sure if he was simply out to settle an old score, or if he wanted to ravish her while everyone was preoccupied. Judging by the look on his face, she was pretty sure it was something of both. 

Her tail zipped forward, poking him squarely in the eye, then she jumped back, and with a flick of her fingers, Lorelei shot a bolt of flame at her assailant. His scream lit up the room, and for a brief second everyone watched the burning humanoid shape of him rushing out of the chamber. 

She glared at another would-be-assaulter and directed a spout of flame towards his feet, then whipped around, conjuring a sigil in her mind, before casting another rush of heat toward the man. 

Lorelei had to repeat this several times, just to put some distance between herself, and the unruly crowd. An inner voice in her head told her she had to be careful, she was already feeling the affects of mana withdrawal from extended magical use. Her finger tips were tingling; each time she siphoned an ounce of energy to be converted, it was physically draining her stamina, and sapping her strength.

It didn’t earn her much respite, as a blunt fist smacked her squarely in the back of the head. Lorelei yipped, collapsing hard, as another other woman stood overhead, a student by the look of her. Everything was a blur, and Lorelei struggled to focus on the new opponent. 

Her new attacker pinned her knee against Lorelei’s back, digging in deep, popping several vertebra in her spine. Lorelei cried out in pain, feeling the larger woman pressing on top of her. The pain helped her regain some focus. She turned around, and realized the new assailant had been missing an eye, and several teeth. The tattoo, a unit insignia, was proudly displayed on her cheek.

A solder? That made sense. Likely a veteran of the last war. Lorelei realized she may have even been shot at by this very same human on the battlefield not so long ago.

“Dirty Succubus!” She knelt low, so she could speak clearly into Lorelei’s ear. Her breathe smelled like spoiled alcohol. “I’ve been wanting to add another tail to my collection.” 

Lorelei caught a lump in her throat. Her heart froze, a cold bead of sweat ran down her face. There were rumors of what the humans did to their prisoners. While tasked to clean up the bodies on the front lines, sometimes under fire, she had witnessed mutilated corpses before. Lorelei had buried those memories deep down, but now that the prospect was presented to her, all those terrors returned in earnest.

Lorelei screamed!

And as she screamed, her eyes glowed violent red, and the world blurred around her. So many memories ran past her vision; so many maggot covered bodies, bloated from spending too much time under the hot sun, and all of them carved up, and missing parts. 

Lorelei lost all sense of awareness, and when she came too, it was her assailant that was beaten and bruised underneath her. The woman’s remaining eye was swollen shut, her lips split, and several teeth were cracked. 

It was then that Lorelei realized her hands were burning. She gasped, feeling her knuckles swell, throbbing with pain. 

What just happened? She wondered. She sucked in a deep breath, her lungs were practically burning from overexertion. She looked around, there was fighting still surrounding her, but no one else had come to hurt her. 

Slowly Lorelei got up, a rush of emotions flooding her. This wasn’t the first time she had to defend herself, or beaten someone up for that matter, but this was the first time she had no recollection of it. 

Before she could really think about it, she was pulled back. Lorelei elbowed the woman behind her, purely on instinct, causing the wolfing to curse out in pain.

“What the hell did you do?” The Vixen glared at Lorelei accusingly.

“I did nothing wrong!”A chair narrowly missed her, flying overhead. “Seven hells!” 

The Vixen took off both her gloves, as a pair of ruffians ran at them. 

Lorelei had a brief moment to look over, and in between the crowd she could see Marci coiling around one of the patrons, keeping him still, while she somehow got her hand on a chair leg, and smacked anyone who came near. 

A bouncer finally arrived, trying to summon back-up, calling for aid, while knocking out the worst of the abusers. 

That didn’t dissuade anyone; instead, it only seemed to make matters worse. Several bruisers turned their attention toward more vulnerable patrons, those who were weak enough to molest or taken advantage of. A couple turned their attention toward Lorelei.

And then the rush of combat took hold. 

Lorelei used all the survival tactics she had learned while in service to dip and weave, relying on her reflexes, rather than brute strength, to get by. There was no way she could take on a man twice her size, but she could use his weight against him. 

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A man would charge at her, throwing a punch, and she would narrowly dodge aside, letting his momentum carry him past her. With the back of his neck exposed, Lorelei was able to slam a punch against his nape, hard enough to make her knuckles pop. Sometimes, if she was accurate enough, she could make her assailant collapse, or even pass out. Most of the time, however, all it did was shake them up a bit. 

She only relied on Pyromancy when necessary. Already she felt her nerves fraying, her head throbbing with pain. She feared suffering the consequences of prolonged magical use. Also, with this much chaos, she sub-consciously doubted she could get away with calculated bolts of flame anymore. She was more likely to cause the entire building to erupt, than merely protect herself.

“I see you’re a caster?” The Vixen scoffed, as soon as they had a moment to breathe.

“Pyromancy,” Lorelei’s shoulders were burning, her legs wouldn’t stop shaking. 

“Good, try not to burn down the place.”

“Doing my best.” Lorelei grinned, not sure what she was feeling at that moment. It strangely felt like she had a real companion in this fight. She wasn’t used to that.

The pair stood back to back, Lorelei’s tail lashing out at those who came within reach, her claws scratching at those who came closer. The Vixen took things even closer, like a brawler. She was small, and tried to use that to her advantage. Each time they had a moment to catch their breath, they were back to back again. It wasn’t long before they were both covered in sweat, their clothing torn in several places.

Lorelei almost wanted to thank whoever had pulled her bodice loose. While the perv obviously wanted to expose her bosom, it had helped her breathe a little easier. 

Things only got crazier from there.

Each minute felt like hours, each second a painful distortion of sounds and smells. Lorelei could smell the copper metallic taste of blood in the air, she could feel its warmth against her skin. 

She could only avoid punishment for so long. Eventually a solid blow to the ribs had her tumbling to her knees. She nearly threw up, her hands clutching her stomach as another hand grasped her neck. 

The sea of mongrels then parted, revealing a large hulk of a man. His shoulders were broad, his muscles chiseled, and his skin was decorated with tattoos. The gruff of his chin was pockmarked in scars, and yet that was the least interesting thing about him. What made Lorelei tense up was the large burn mark on the entire left side of his torso. While the wound had long healed, its grotesque blemishes remained. 

Seeing the brute approach, Lorelei half expected him to claim her as his prize. She even wondered if the guy holding her down might’ve been working with him. She was already readying herself to fight back, her fingers tingled from the sudden surge of heat building. She would use all the mana she had left, burning down the entire building if necessary. Under absolutely no circumstances would she let anyone, other than Theo, touch her. 

Just as the large man came within arms reach, he suddenly grabbed one of the other ruffians nearby, and tossed them at the one holding her down. The bone crunching impact sent the man flying, his fingers releasing her. 

Lorelei looked back, seeing her former captor collide awkwardly into a table, his spine making a gut wrenching crunching sound, before falling motionless on the floor. 

Wait…is he trying to help us? Lorelei noticed the hulk putting himself between her and the crowd. He then motioned for the other women to get behind him. The Vixen had to crawl on all fours to Lorelei’s side; Marci, and a few others, quickly followed. 

Marci’s uniform was in tatters, and she was even more sweaty than herself.

“Who’s idea was it to come here?” Lorelei asked in jest.

“If you hadn’t snuck away, we wouldn’t even be here, but downstairs where it’s safe!” Marci shot back. Her eyes didn’t match her playful grin, it was clear she was distressed.

Lorelei looked over to the Vixen, who managed to sit upright. She was cradling her tail, brushing several locks from her fur. 

“Hey Brutus, you mind clearing us a path to the basement?” The Vixen called out to the hulk shielding them.

He looked back, after breaking the jaw of another ruffian. Before he could respond, a sharp ping echoed from overhead. Somehow, the chandelier above them had come loose. It fell, crashing hard against the floor, then falling through. The fractured floorboards quickly cascaded into the entire ground collapsing behind it. 

It happened so fast, Lorelei didn’t even have time to scream as weightlessness took her. She shut her eyes, the adrenaline making it seem like her world was in slow motion. 

Is this it? She wondered. Is this really how I’m going to die?

Thankfully, several bodies broke her fall. Feeling someones foot against her lower back, she groaned in frustration. Before she could get up, however, Marci landed on top of her, the wolfkin on top Marci.

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