[Spirit of Lust] Chapter 79: Creatures of fantasy. (Patreon)

Reina’s brain tried to work as fast as it could as they quickly made their way down the stairs. Their steps were loud, and they would tell whoever was outside that they were coming. She could only think of worse case scenarios. They were awake and could move, but they still felt weak from whatever was making it hard to breathe, especially so after hours of checking on the residents. What were they even hoping to accomplish by running down there? But even as those thoughts plagued Reina’s mind, her feet didn’t stop.

They made it to the first floor, and looking along the length of the lobby and towards the main entrance, they saw them standing right outside. Red skin… No, those were scales. Small humanoid figures with the heads of some kind of reptile, long snouts and long fangs showing. They were the size of children, probably 70 to 80 cm at most, yet their bodies showed some muscle. They had four-fingered hands and three-toed feet, all of them with sharp, dirty black claws. Finally, they wore loincloths at their waist, made from some kind of animal skin. There were three of them in total.

And they were startled.

Reina saw their small, yellow eyes widen, their bodies flinching at the sight of her and Ruth running. For a moment, those three creatures, pulled out of a fantasy novel, were taken aback, perhaps even afraid.

“Close the door!” Reina shouted to Ruth.

They ran and pushed the double doors close. They were made of thick wood, so they would at least stop those things for a few moments. They did so uninterrupted, the creatures apparently choosing caution over aggression. Ruth locked the door, and the two women stepped back with racing hearts.

“D-Did they look scared to you, too?” Ruth asked, but as if to prove her wrong, the lizards outside screeched again, screeches that Reina somehow understood were like a declaration of war. They started to push the door and scratch the door as they screamed.

“Shit! Shit!” Ruth cursed.

Reina looked around, looking for anything that could be of use, but was more worried about the fact that there were windows around the lobby. If those lizards wanted to, they could simply break through the windows, but… maybe they weren’t smart enough? But even if they weren’t…

“There’s really nothing we can do, is there?” Reina said with a humorless chuckle.

Reina’s legs felt weak and they were about to give out. She was tired, scared and confused. There was nothing close enough that could be used as a weapon, and the creatures outside kept tearing up the door. She saw Ruth taken a single step back in fear, but she nearly stumbled and fell. Ruth was in no better shape than Reina was.

Then, there was a scream. An aggressive, human sounding scream followed by many others plus the screeches of the lizard creatures. Reina couldn’t see, but she loud noises painted the image of a violent struggle. She imagined there were at least five or six more people given the voices, all of which she was now sure were human.

The noise didn’t last. It couldn’t have lasted more than 20 seconds, even if they felt like an agonizing eternity. There was a heavy silence for a while before a voice was heard again.

“The kobolds are dead! Please open this door!” came the firm, warm and deep voice of a man.

Relief washed over Reina, but when she turned to share that relief with Ruth, she found the blonde grimacing. She couldn’t understand why until she spoke.

“They’re smarter AND they can kill those things.”

Oh. Yeah, it was too soon to be relieved. But at the same time… “If they’re smarter, it won’t take them much to enter anyway,” Reina argued. “I think we can at least reason with these people.”

Ruth bit her lip, but nodded her uncertain agreement. Reina was the one to step up to the door. She unlocked it and slowly opened it to see that she hadn’t been completely right in her previous deductions.

At the other side were five men, but Reina was pretty sure they weren’t human. They had the bodies of human men, extremely well built with toned, marked muscles showing due wearing nothing but tight-fitting briefs. Some of them were huge, almost like body builders, while others were on the leaner side that made Reina immediately think of William. They all had incredibly handsome faces, too, with a couple of them rocking well-trimmed beards while the others opted for more pretty-boy looks. That was as human as they got, however, as Reina had never seen men with bat-like wings at their backs, small horns protruding from their foreheads, pointy, leathery tails coming out from their lower backs and near purple skin. All five of them were holding spears made of wooden shafts and small blades on top. Said blades were stained with the red blood of the dead lizard creatures on the floor.

Reina was about to force a smile to her face and thank them for the rescue, despite being put-off by their abnormal looks. However, the looks they were giving her made her unable to crack the smallest of smiles.

“It was true…” one muttered.

“Women.”

“There really were women in here…!”

Three of them dropped their weapons, and with eyes likes those of staving animals stepped closer to Reina. They looked at her from head to toe, licking their lips as they mentally undressed her. Reina froze, fearing making a single move.

“Reina!” Ruth screamed from behind, snapping Reina out of her state of shock. She stepped back, but that only made the three men rush and throw themselves upon her.

“NOO! GET AWAY!”

“YOU DAMNNED FOOLS!”

The same voice as before echoed loudly through the building’s lobby, and just as it did, the three men were brought down by swift strikes with the butt end of a spear. Reina’s would-be assaulters fell to the ground helplessly, groaning from the pain.

“Azazel! Why are you stopping us!?” demanded one of the men on the floor.

“Your need to feed is blinding you, brothers!” The man who spoke, the one who had attacked his fellows, was one of the more pretty-looking ones. He had a lean frame, unnatural shoulder-length white hair and red eyes. He stood with a straight back as he looked at the others. “Do you not notice the smell? These two women belong to another, one strong enough that even we can tell they’re marked! To touch them would be the same as bringing a total end to what’s left of our clan! Would you risk inciting the ire of one of such power? Especially in this situation? Think, brothers. It would be of no help.”

Reina’s racing heart began to calm down. That man, Azazel, seemed to have a good head on top of his incredible body. None of the other men questioned him, even if they grimaced, grunted their annoyance and punched the floor in frustration.

Azazel also eased up when seeing his friends give up their intentions. He smiled at Reina and Ruth and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, he was struck by a violent coughing fit. He covered his mouth with his arm, and his legs started to give in. He kneeled down, and once the coughing stopped, he moved his arm away, revealing a few stains of blood.

“A-Are you okay?” Ruth asked him.

“Would that I was, miss. Yet as you may notice, my brothers and I are in a sorry state,” Azazel said. He struck a proper kneeling pose, like that of a knight in front of a queen, and lowered his head. “As such, I beg you to forgive us for this slight! We haven’t fed in weeks, our strength leaves us and we’ve become desperate. We came here upon noticing female scents, but we didn’t notice you belonged to another until we were here!”

Azazel was apologizing with incredible sincerity and even fear. Reina didn’t completely understand what he was afraid of, or what he meant by marked.

“Wait, when you say you haven’t fed… What exactly do you mean?” Reina asked, swallowing nervously.

Azazel looked up at them and explained in clear words. “We mean sex, of course. We are what’s left of a tribe of incubus.”