Rebirth of the Nephilim

In the end, Jadis decided on choosing Ritual Time Reduction as her secondary class’s level seventeen skill. It seemed like the safer bet when thinking about long-term usefulness. Jadis loved her long sessions of extended kinky sex she got to do with her rituals, but two hours was a long time to try and pull off her Lascivious Empowerment ritual with four partners. Plus, who knew how long future rituals might require? Jadis could only imagine the chafing that might arise from a sex ritual that demanded four hours to complete, or even more.

With her immediate decision made, Jadis and the other girls went about cleaning up before getting dressed. There was a stream running through a section of the larger cavern their small chamber was attached to and they were able to wash up in it without interruption or issue from the local wildlife. Eir did end up sleeping for another hour or two, by Jadis’ estimation, but eventually the well-fucked priestess came to and also washed up at the water source.

To Jadis’ surprise, Eir evinced little in the way of embarrassment considering her behavior during the ritual. Whether that was because she was still just riding on cloud nine or because she genuinely didn’t see anything to be ashamed of with how she had acted in front of witnesses, she wasn’t sure. Either way, Eir spent as much time as possible glued to the side of one or another of Jadis’ bodies, staring up at her with a dreamy expression on her face.

Once everyone was bathed and back in the chamber, Aila shored up their defenses by casting several dozen of her spike trap spells to block off the tunnel to their hiding spot. She had cast a few before, but not many since she had remained low on magic power since their last fight and had wanted to save as much as possible for emergencies. With her reserves replenished from their lewd activities, the small chamber entrance tunnel had been turned into a death trap for anything that might try to crawl through uninvited.

With the group all awake and dressed to their level of comfort, which meant shirtless for Kerr but underclothes or more for the rest of them, they broke out their supply of trail rations and shared them amongst each other. In the process of pulling out rations from her pack, Aila ended up pulling the metal box containing Jadis’ pet, which did cause a bit of a stir among the rest.

“Why are you carrying around a svo-lach demon spawn in your backpack?” Kerr demanded, her lip curled in disgust as she tapped one of the glass sides of the container with the demon inside.

“I’ve been meaning to experiment with it,” Jay explained, picking up the box to make eye contact with the cyclopean neon-blue orb within. “Mostly trying to figure out just how intelligent demons are. Haven’t had much chance though, with everything that’s happened lately.”

Eir frowned at the wriggling mass of dark tentacles. “I’m sure you know just how dangerous it is to carry around a live demon like that. But still,” she advised while leaning against Dys’ side, “I would recommend killing it before it causes any trouble. If it grows into a species that can cast some form of magic, it could be a real threat.”

“Any idea when it’ll stop being a hatchling and start being an, I don’t know, adult demon?” Jay asked as she put the cube down at her side. “It hatched at least a week ago and it hasn’t really done anything.”

No one seemed to have an answer as Jadis’ question was met with general silence and helpless shrugs.

“It might already be an adult,” Aila posited, head slightly tilted as she considered the contained hatchling. “It came from a bone thief matriarch, correct? It might be a bone thief now and it just hasn’t had the opportunity to try and make a bone shell for itself since it’s been with us this whole time.”

“Definitely worth testing when we get a chance,” Syd nodded. “But that’s not a focus right now,” she dismissed the demon topic with a wave of her hand.

“Yes, for right now,” Dys continued the thought, “I wanted to go over our classes and skills. We probably should have discussed this sort of thing before diving straight into all the—”

“Amazing and mind-blowing fucking,” Kerr interjected with a fang-exposing grin.

“Yeah, that,” Jay easily agreed. “But we were all a little worked up, so whatever. Now that we aren’t all half-crazy with horniness,” Jay continued as Syd put a hand over Kerr’s mouth before she could interrupt again, making the therion huff at being blocked. “I would like to talk about what we’re all really capable of so we can better plan our escape from these damned tunnels. Even if we don’t run into any more demons, which I doubt will be the case, those cave spiders are a real threat, plus whatever else might be down here. Also, if one of you ended up putting your point boost into an attribute that maybe doesn’t suit our immediate needs, we can redo the ritual if we need to.”

“A—again? Thea said with a slight hesitation, her cheeks blushing rosy in dim light of the cave moss.

“If needed,” Jay repeated. “Also, even if we don’t need to redo Lewd Lover’s Bond with anyone, there is the second ritual, Lascivious Empowerment, that we should also perform while we’re here in a secure, easy to defend location. I’ll go over the details in a sec, but it would give me and by extension all of you another big boost in power to our attributes.”

“Since I’m the one asking,” Dys said, picking up where her other self left off, “I’m willing to go first and explain all my skills from both my classes to all of you. Is everyone else okay with sharing their information with the group?”

While there was some slight hesitation, everyone nodded and voiced their agreement.

“I just let everyone watch me get my brains fucked out a couple of hours ago,” Kerr pointed out. “And I got to watch their brains get fucked out of their skulls too. Seems silly to tip-toe around class info now.”

That eloquently put sentiment seemed to say it all for the group and, without further ado, Jadis began. She started by reading out her basic status sheet, followed by various class skills and spells, going into detail for each one.

Jadis Ahlstrom

Race: Nephilim

Primary Class: Mirror Knight (23)

Secondary Class: Perverted Ritualist of D (17)

Tertiary Class: None

Combined Level Rating: 40

Health: 700/830

Magic: 310/310

Attributes

Strength: 90

Dexterity: 28

Agility: 91

Vitality: 53

Fortitude: 38

Endurance: 40

Arcane: 0

Divine: 0

Eldritch: 91

Focus: 1

Resilience: 15

Will: 5

   Skills

Primary:

Mirrored Body

Knight’s Rest

Minor Strength Improvement II

Mirrored Strikes

Refracted Mind

Knight’s Tenacity

Knight’s Resolve

Mirror Knight’s Might

Mirrored Body’s Shifting Reflection

Improved Mirrored Body

Mirror Knight’s Capacity

Secondary:

Anatomical Adaptation

Minor Fractional Spread

Potency Alteration

Ritual Time Reduction

Tertiary:

None

Spells

Primary:

None

Secondary:

Debauched Duplication

Eldritch Overlay

Lascivious Empowerment

Dance of the D

Lewd Lover’s Bond

Tertiary:

None

There were more than a few questions asked as she read out the descriptions of her different skills and spells, all of which Jadis answered to the best of her ability. Oddly, the one that got the most debate going was her Potency Alteration skill.

“I wish you had told me about th—that skill before,” Thea said, a relieved look on her face. “I don’t think I’m fertile right now, but I was, ah, worried. I have no idea if we’re, um, compatible in that sense, but still.”

Eir, on the other hand, looked visibly disappointed.

“Oh, well, I suppose it makes sense to not want to worry about such things right now. But if you ever desire to seed your progeny, I would be honored to mother your children. It would actually be an amazing privilege.”

“You would say that, wouldn’t you,” Kerr rolled her eyes. “You know, it does come across as just a little creepy when a priestess that worships one particular goddess is all, ‘please, last known member of a species that my goddess created to be her avatar on Oros, impregnate me!’ Comes off desperate, at the least.”

“It’s not about that,” Eir denied, her scowl reproachful. At least, until she glanced up at a bemused-looking Dys and she looked away, embarrassed. “It’s not entirely about that. I’m an elf. If I give birth to a single child in the next one hundred years, I’ll be considered among the fortunate. I can’t choose when to be fertile like you and other therions.”

Jadis internally mulled over the information Eir had just dropped. She hadn’t known for sure until that point if elves were basically just long-eared humans, in the sense that they had similar lifespans, or if they lived for longer and, as she had seen in many media sources on Earth, were slow to populate to compensate. It seemed the elves of Oros were the long-lived, low fertility kind of elves. If that was the case, Jadis could understand why Eir would be interested in a skill that practically guaranteed impregnation.

That therions could choose to be fertile or not was also a strange and interesting tidbit, one that Jadis filed away to ask Kerr about later, when they had less pressing topics to discuss.

Once all of her skills had been read out and explained, the general consensus among the four others was that Jadis had two ridiculously overpowered classes. Kerr was, predictably, a petulant brat and complained about the injustice of it all, but they quickly moved past the perceived unfairness. There were a lot of classes and skills to get through between them all.

“I’ll go next,” Aila volunteered. “My primary class is utterly uninteresting, but my secondary class is… unusual.”

Aila of Red Tree

Race: Human

Primary Class: Cart Driver (20)

Secondary Class: Nephilim Powered Arcanist (10)

Tertiary Class: None

Combined Level Rating: 30

Health: 110

Magic: 250

Attributes

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 15

Agility: 20

Vitality: 11

Fortitude: 15

Endurance: 15

Arcane: 83

Divine: 0

Eldritch: 0

Focus:25

Resilience: 5

Will: 10

   Skills

Primary:

Smooth Ride

Minor Arcane Improvement V

Sharp Perception

Carter’s Endurance

Cold Comfort

Nimble Laborer

Secondary:

Arcanist’s Spike Trap Modification

Nephilim Wellspring

Arcanist’s Reservoir

Tertiary:

None

Spells

Primary:

None

Secondary:

Arcanist’s Force Bolt

Arcanist’s Force Shield

Tertiary:

None

Jadis had never heard Aila go into full detail on the skills she’d received from her Cart Driver class. She had, of course, given her an overview and told her in short terms what each one did, but hearing the actual skill descriptions was new to her. Seeing the details on what was considered a basic non-combat class was interesting and made Jadis wonder just how much regular people doing regular jobs around Oros were aided by skills that came from their classes. She could imagine having such bonuses, as mundane as they seemed to Aila and the others, would be extremely well received back on Earth.

Smooth Ride

Passive Skill. Your ability to smoothly drive a cart, wagon, or similar land vehicle is improved by increased perception of minor obstacles that get in the way, allowing you to avoid them more easily. Hand movements when attempting to direct beasts of burden with reins are also enhanced so that your intentions are better conveyed to the animals pulling your vehicle.

Minor Arcane Improvement V

Passive Skill. Increases Arcane by 15 points.

Sharp Perception

Passive Skill. Increases your chances of spotting inconspicuous movement and hearing dampened threats. Creatures with stealth skills are more easily detected.

Carter’s Endurance

Passive Skill. Increases the Endurance attribute by 5 points.

Cold Comfort

Passive Skill. Increases your resistance to cold and freezing temperatures.

Nimble Laborer

Passive Skill. Increases the Dexterity and Agility attributes by 5 points.

Aila’s Arcanist skills and spells were all familiar to Jadis, except for her newest spell that she’d apparently chosen while they were resting back at their first alcove.

Arcanist’s Force Shield

Active Spell. Create a 3-foot diameter shield that resists both physical and magical attacks. Shield appears at any unobstructed point within 5 feet of you. Any attacks or spells you cast through the shield will be nullified and break the shield. Base Cost – 30 magic. Base Duration – 10 seconds.

During her reading of her secondary class’s skills, Aila was forced to ignore the wicked and knowing grins Kerr sent her way when Nephilim Wellspring was detailed. Fortunately, Aila was good at putting on a professional face and ignoring the leering taunts the therion kept up, trying to goad a reaction out of her.

“So far, it’s been a powerful class, considering I only have ten levels in it,” Aila concluded as she summarized her skill set. “I’m better with prepared positions thanks to Spike Trap, but I can still do well in more frenetic, spontaneous engagements.”

“Sounds like you’re having a lot of fun with it,” Kerr said around a toothy smile. “Especially that Wellspring skill… Wait! Is that why you have a second canteen? An enchanted canteen? It is, isn’t it! You’re carrying around big stuff’s cum to drink on the go, aren’t you!”

“Please stop teasing Blue so much,” Jay admonished Kerr, putting an arm around Aila’s shoulder to draw her girlfriend in close to her side. Her ears were tomato-red and she looked like she was putting in a lot of effort to restrain herself. “She’s doing the best she can with the class she was given and she really doesn’t need you giving her shit about it.”

“I’m just playing,” Kerr said dismissively. “I didn’t actually find any stick up Blue’s butt when I was licking her clean earlier, so I assume she can handle a little friendly banter.”

“Don’t call me that,” Aila immediately said, her face completely placid but her tone deadly serious. “Only Jadis can call me that.”

“Sorry,” Kerr apologized with her hands raised, and to Jadis’ relief, the woman actually looked genuinely contrite. “No, really. If that’s something special just for you two, that’s fine. I can get that. My mistake.”

“Thank you,” Aila acknowledged Kerr’s apology and some of the tension between them seemed to fade.

There was a moment of awkward silence among the women, but only a short beat.

“Well,” Kerr shrugged. “Now that I’ve shoved my foot up my nose, and somehow pulled it out, I guess I’ll go next. Who wants to hear about my no-where-near-as-amazing classes?”