The Shaded Pits. A breeding ground for the lowly denizens of Bravost, named as such for existing underneath the shadow of the city. Below the high streets, walls, and buildings, it was down here that the refuse lived. Oftentimes discarded, too. Unwanted children, born from a union between a highborne man and his mistress, were cast down here to be forgotten and severed from their birthright inheritance. Some poor citizen, who wronged a noble or simply crossed paths with one having a bad day, escaped into the depths to avoid hired assassins.

For the most part, at least from what Kanae and Edina had learned from Adiya at the Commons, it was home to the many lawless organizations on this side of Savir. Many of whom had been paid off by Sultana Dudula to supplement her strength against Cerberus and the Harpy King.

Kanae and Edina knew Renya best, so the task to retrieve her fell to them. Too many outsiders heading into the Shaded Pits would draw attention and cause a commotion. Adiya, the red-headed human woman in service to Rown Company, agreed to rendezvous with them in the dead of night.

As the sun was setting, and a fiery red and orange glow stretched across the horizon, the three met underneath a long bridge. Passing carriages wagons creaked above them, and their passengers complained loudly about their lot in life. The trio stood on a ledge, overlooking a sharp drop into the Shaded Pits. Adiya led them up to a coil of rope, which Kanae quickly gathered that they were going to need to climb down with.

"Three hells. Is it so bad that there ain't a normal way to go down?" Edina asked.

"Bravost was built many many suns ago," Adiya started with a tour guide-like attitude. "The deserts around these parts used to flood every winter season. Architects constructed the city in such a way that it stood above the waters. Of course, it floods no more in the present day. The Shaded Pits was never intended to be a living space. But without the danger of floods, people gradually began to inhabit Bravost's underbelly, creating a city of its own with entirely different cultures and traditions from the surface!"

Kanae peered over the edge. Countless specks of lights flickered below, barely illuminating the going-ons of the winding maze that was the Shaded Pits. Where the three of them were going descend, there only seemed to be darkness. This must be a secret entrance. The shadows shifted below, in the little alley where they would have landed. Her natural darksight as a succubus spotted a couple of people lying in wait.

Their guide was about to toss the rope until Kanae grabbed her shoulder. She whipped around in confusion.

"Throw the rope, but we're not using it to go down. Edina and I will carry you down instead," Kanae said.

"Huh? Well… okay," Adiya replied nervously.

After hurling the rope into the darkness, they heard a heavy thud as the rest of it hit ground. Kanae picked Adiya up, and they descended into the Shaded Pits. It was a long way down, enough that someone wasn't going to survive the fall.

They landed in a spacious corridor with stacks of empty crates piled high. Each end of the street curved out of sight. A narrow path, formed from the bridge's stone column and earth, led into the alley. Hushed whispers inside snapped back and forth.

"Alrighty, boys. Payday time. No killing unless they struggle."

"We've been waiting all night! You absolutely sure whoever this is ain't some urchin like us?"

"I know they ain't. I saw the glint of pretty robes the last time they was here."

Kanae nodded to Edina to take care of the thugs. The necromancer rubbed her hands together and giggled menacingly. She summoned a single undead warrior, then ordered her minion to enter.

"Eh? Someone's coming, but not from above!" a panicked voice exclaimed.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" their partner in crime screamed.

There was no fighting, no sound of clashing steel, or a struggle. After the blood-curdling cries, everyone went quiet. The terrified Adiya clung to Kanae's back and in utter fear of Edina.

"Did you just kill them?" Kanae folded her arms.

"I didn't do shit. I just walked in there, and they shat themselves unconscious." Edina shrugged.

They entered to investigate. Two heavily cloaked men, beastmen in race judging by their furry ears, laid on the ground and foamed at the mouths.

"How shameful…" Adiya reprimanded herself. "I thought I covered all my tracks. Made sure no one followed me. To think, I could have gotten myself killed. Or worse, lead them to my Lady Renya." She picked up one of the men's knives and poised it to her chest. "A disgraceful mistake that can only be repaid in death!"

Kanae charmed Adiya before the knife plunged into her chest. "Are you crazy?! Geez… I know you guys are fiercely loyal to Renya, but I didn't think it was fanatical. You still need to lead us to her. I also don't want to explain to her that one of her crew gutted herself."

"Y-You're right! My sincerest apologies!" She dropped the knife as soon as Kanae released her control.

Their foray into the Shaded Pits was unlike anything Kanae had ever seen in a city. Pockets of communities excavated the earth to make homes. People mostly crowded around bridge columns and building foundations. Bazaars were set up wherever the moonlight was plentiful, and more shady deals took place in every dark corner. An entire economy separate from the surface counterparts flourished down here, and those in squalor made a living.

Not a single Bravost city guard could be spotted. Instead, the muscles were the different gangs and mercenary groups, who openly displayed their emblems. They mostly kept to themselves, but it was clear by their bloodthirsty glares that each faction was one shoulder-bump away from fighting. Even a few members of the Dryoak Consortium wandered about, but Kanae couldn't confront them here.

The goal was to find Renya, not pick a fight.

"If I remember right, Lady Renya said she was staying low in a pub called Racket's Pub. We should be near," Adiya explained.

They approached a small bar at a busy intersection, where wagons came and went through a large tunnel in the earth.

"Where does that go?" Edina asked.

"It is one of the Shaded Pits' many entrances. They lead out of the city. It is how vehicles enter unseen. Lady Renya actually came through one after being denied entry on the surface," Adiya said.

The ground shuddered a little. People started abandoning their carts or hiding underneath it. Others deserted the intersection as quickly as possible. Armed thugs marched down the street on a mission. Not wanting any trouble, Adiya beckoned for Kanae and Edina to hide behind a nut stand. The squirreling reached up to grab a handful and shoved them into her mouth.

They watched as the group surrounded Racket's Pub. The ribcage of a large, long-dead dire beast framed the entrance into the bar, and a serpentine skull hung from above the door. Light from the inside seemed to brighten, and silhouettes seen from the dirty windows shuffled about.

"Oh, no. Lady Renya is in there!" Adiya gasped.

"I know the dark elf bitch is in there!" A bear of human man stepped forward from the marauders and brandished a heavy club. "Come out! You cheated in our last game of Ortesia Hold 'em. You owe me a pouch of gold. Or, you can pay for it with that body of yours!"

"I-I'll pay for it in Renya's place!" Kanae rose up from cover, but Adiya and Edina yanked her back down.

When no one inside the pub answered, the leader motioned for them onward. Violent shots rang out. Arcane bolts punched through the curtain that draped over the entrance. They struck the two closest thugs, knocking them out cold. Magical burns scarred their chests.

Everyone stampeded for Racket's Pub at once. More shots fired out, more than a single person with two guns could manage. Which meant it was definitely Renya, whose clones formed a firing line inside. Before long, over 30 groaning men laid strewn on the ground, their bodies smoking from magical burns.

Renya emerged from the pub twirling a flintlock pistol. "Now, how are you going to threaten someone if you can't put some bite behind your bark? That wasn't even exciting. I had more fun watching you all keep raising when I had pocket aces! Tsk, tsk, tsk. Should've folded."

"My lady! You're alright!" Adiya rushed out to meet her.

It wasn't until Kanae and Edina came out, too, did Renya's lips twitch into a beaming grin. She threw her arms out to welcome them, then kicked the thug leader in the head to knock him unconscious.

"Hello, hello! My dear friends, it is great to see you again after we departed from The Diamond! Kanae, my loins have been lonely without you." Renya clasped each of their hands.

The Renya Rown that Kanae saw now looked a lot different. Gone were her crimson longcoat and tricorn hat. A light brown cloak wrapped around her shoulders, draping down to her waist. A turban wrapped her head, and only a few stray clusters of platinum hair poked through. She even wore something like a pair of safety goggles that looked silly on her.

"Pocket aces, huh? You definitely pulled a fast one on them." Edina smirked.

"I'm an honest gambler, I swear!" Renya threw her hands in the air and winked. "Come on, let's go inside. Racket has the nastiest swill you can drink!"

Everyone in the block returned to what they were doing as if this was a normal occurrence for them. Kanae and Edina followed Renya in, but Adiya excused herself now that her work of guiding them here was done.

Renya was right. Racket's Pub practically served poison in a bottle. After drinking Petyr's incredibly delicious wine the other night, the alcohol down here was about as rancid as a pool of stagnant water. The owner of the bar, Racket, was a former Bravost soldier-turned pub-owner. He was an elderly centaur man, whose equine lower half was more bone than muscle. Kanae, Edina, and Renya sat around a table, which cobbled together from a slab of wood laid on top of a barrel.

"Those Dervishes are finally out of the city, huh. Fuck them. What a pain in the ass!" Renya downed her shot of moonshine as if it was water and poured another.

"We should still be careful though. There's two more Dervishes we haven't met yet. For all we know, they didn't attack the palace because they were looking for you," Kanae reasoned.

"That's fine and dandy with me. Dealing with two is better than five. Still though, collecting a debt from my old man, huh? The Harpy King's got guts," she muttered, falling into thought and babying the drink in hand.

"What in three hells is the deal between your pops and the Harpy King anyway?" Edina asked.

Renya shrugged.

"When Solasta Rown passed, he took his secrets and business dealings with him to the grave. Left a lot of deals unfinished, too. My brother's deep down in Aidenhall's dungeon, and we're here in Savir. I'll find out one way or another though. But, uh… I'm in a little bit of a pickle. I can't exactly leave the Shaded Pits yet," Renya explained anxiously.

"Why…" Kanae braced for a dumb explanation.

"You see, I lost a flintlock in a game of Wild Dice." She sat her one remaining firearm on the table and sighed. "I'm leaving my baby behind."

"Hehe. What you need is Lady Luck on your side, and Edina, the luckiest gambler in the world is here just for that!" Edina proudly puffed out her chest.

Kanae slapped a hand to her face and groaned. It did turn out to be a dumb explanation.

"Who has it?" Kanae sighed.

The dark elf pirate lord lowered her voice to a whisper. "The Three Stooges. I shit you not, that's the name of their merry band. It's a trio of ogre brothers, who made a name for themselves here. If it was anyone else, I'd have blasted their heads off for trying to take my precious baby. Ogres, though? You can't exactly blow up a mountain of muscle."

"Ogres… in Bravost?" She panted heavily until Edina nudged her in the side.

"Eyes on the prize, pal! We got more important things to worry about than you getting reamed out the wazoo. So, Renya. Where are these punks? I wanna throw my paws in," Edina said.

Renya flashed a smile, hoping for exactly this. Kanae and Edina followed her to another block of the Shaded Pits. The traffic here was much lighter, and its people were even shadier than the last. Men in the clutches of a mildly attractive woman entered homes carved into the earth, fucking away their worries and troubles. This avenue of pleasure stirred Kanae's groin even though nothing was touching her.

At the very end of the road was a building in which the architecture matched Bravost's surface. Vertical grooves and indents ran the length of the height of the building. Bright light bled through the boarded up windows, pocked with arrow holes from a skirmish or siege in the past. The sound of raucous fun rose and fell like ragged breathing, a sign that a celebration must be going on inside. A long wooden plank had been nailed above the door. It read, 'Da Stoogs Den' written in poor, almost illegible writing.

Whoever etched the words probably meant, 'The Stooges' Den'. That Renya was casually strolling up to the door must mean they were at the right place then.

"I'm back, you empty-headed sacks of meat!" Renya kicked the door open, knocking a man who was on his way out back in. "I want my gun back where it belongs— in my holster!"

The brightly-lit den contained all manner of lawless thugs imaginable, and they looked every bit repulsive. A bonfire billowed with smoke at the center of the room where floorboards had been ripped out and replaced by sand. Thick cuts of slimy meat, likely from slain dire beasts in the desert, roasted beside the flames.

An ogre, much like Thume in appearance but more rotund than muscular, picked up the meat by the gun and tore into it with his yellow teeth. His left eye peered curiously at them since an eyepatch covered the other.

"Da dark elf back to lose again? Hahaha!" As if on cue, the ogre's laughter plunged the entire room into laughing, too.

Renya threw an arm to Kanae and Edina. "I brought new challengers, Cyclops! A squirreling that's going to bitch slaps you in a game of Wild Dice, and a horny succubus willing to give her body to get my gun back!"

"There were a thousand other ways to introduce me!" Kanae cried, red up to her ears as everyone in the room now stared at her with molesting eyes.

The ogre named Cyclops exhaled out his nose. He belted out a cross between a burp and guttural roar. Heavy footfalls shook the room, and two more ogres emerged from the back. One stood upright, unlike the hunched form his race usually had and gave the impression of a lumbering giant. The other was noticeably shorter than his brothers, but he was stout and built like a brick wall.

"Wurm, Renya came back with friends. Says she wants da gun back," Cyclops said to the taller of two.

"Hmm? Dis ding?" Wurm ran his finger along the many trophies attached to his belt. Weapons, skulls, pieces of armor, a large bone with bits of meat, and finally the ornate flintlock pistol. He held it pinched between two fingers and stared down the barrel of the weapon. "Damn ding no shooty-shooty like she makes it. Wurm dink it broken."

"Yeah… just keep it pointed in your eye pointed at your eye, big guy… So, what do you say? Another game?" Renya asked, gritting her teeth more tightly than usual.

All three brothers huddled up together and whispered something in a broken language. The smaller of the trio turned to them with his arms folded.

"Pink no play unless you got something to wager," the ogre referring to himself as Pink said.

"How about my friend here?" Edina suggested and patted Kanae on the back.

"Eh?" Kanae gaped in bafflement.

"This succubus has been fucked by the biggest dicks in the world. I bet you ogres haven't been able to find some nice ogre ladies or chicks to shove your cocks into. Kanae over here can take ogres. She's taken a couple before. One fuck for each of you. That's my wager," the squirreling offered.

Pink, Wurm, and Cyclops swallowed hard, and Kanae shuddered. Her pussy leaked like a running river. After a few seconds of deliberating, they agreed.

"We got a game! Clear da floor!" Cyclops boomed.

All at once, patrons lifted the furniture and brought them to the edge of the room. The tall sat on the tables, and the small stood on top. They formed a ring and blocked the door. All but a single table next to the raging bonfire remained. Only Pink stepped up to play, and Edina met him at the table.

"How is Wild Dice played?" Kanae whispered to Renya.

"Probably the simplest game of chance you can ever play," Renya began tensely. "A dice is tossed on the table. Each player rolls a single dice of their own, and whoever's dice value is closest to the first dice wins. Draws are rolled again."

Wurm gestured Kanae forward with a grunt and flick of his chin. She glanced around nervously until Renya urged her forward. The two met at the table beside both players. He deposited a grimey, six-sided die into her palm.

"Nothing fishy. Now you witnessed. Roll dice, succubus." Wurm nodded.

Kanae did just that, and tossed the dice onto the table. It rolled to a stop on four. Wurm offered her two dice again from his palm. He told her to take one and hand it to Edina. She did, and he gave the remaining die to his brother, Pink.

The tension in the tavern grew thick. Kanae was confident Edina would win. The squirreling had an unnatural luck streak, and maybe there really was a deity named Lady Luck, who frequently blessed her.

Both players shook the dice encaged in their fingers, then loosed them onto the table. Edina's rolled to a stop on three, and Pink's… on four. Cheers erupted from the spectators. Edina was flabbergasted, and Renya sucker punched a poor spectator out of fury.

"What the fuck… How?" Edina stared at her dice in disbelief.

"You lose, bitch. The succubus is Stooges fuck toy now!" Pink exclaimed.

Suddenly, large hands picked Kanae up. Wurm returned to Cyclops', and they both sputtered uncharming giggles. The two dropped their leather poorly-stitched leather pants, revealing enormous cocks with thick, bulging veins.

"Uh… Guys, do some— mmmph!" Cyclops' dick silenced Kanae as he tried to pry her mouth open with the tip.

Wurm fingered her with a fat finger that was as large as a normal human's dick. She squirmed and writhed to his violent prodding. Pleasure nipped at her body. The cheers exploded as they put on a show with her as entertainment.

Dissatisfied that Kanae couldn't fit his dick into her mouth, Cyclops grabbed the back of her head and forced her lips to run up and down the length of the shaft. Wurm, on the other hand, had enough of fingering her, and rubbed his massive member against her entrance.

"Hahh… Hahh… Give it to me! I want your big fat ogre cock inside me!" Kanae panted heavily.

"Wurm give succubus what she wants den!" Wurm bucked his hips once, forcing the enormous piece of meat into her pussy.

Kanae threw her head back and howled in pleasure.

"I'm cumming already! I'm cumming! Aaahhhh!" Kanae's eyes snapped open as an orgasm rippled through her.

"Ooough! Squirreling right… Dis succubus pussy… so tight… Wurm wants to keep her!" Wurm, holding Kanae by the waist with a single hand, repeatedly pumped into her until he blew his scalding load.

A second orgasm tortured Kanae as hot ogre cum poured into her womb. It was too much for her to contain and squirted out where they were connected, pooling on the floor.

"My turn, my turn!" Cyclops demanded.

The brothers exchanged Kanae, turning her around to be used again. She welcomed another ogre cock sliding effortlessly into her impatient cunt. While this was going on, Edina slammed a fist on the table.

"One more!" Edina growled, eyes still fixed on the dice.

"Why? Pink don't want to play again. Pink want to fuck succubus, but… Small one has nice staff. Bet it sells nice. Wager that and sweeten da pot with two more things," Pink offered.

"Deal." Renya didn't hesitate to put down her second flintlock.

Edina, however, struggled to part with the Pillar of the Damned. Even though Kanae was in the throes of depraved pleasure, she could tell how hard it must be for the necromancer. In fact, she wanted to tell her friend it was fine not to. Two ogres was fun, but a third would make it a party…

The way Cyclops and Wurm fucked her was so good, Kanae wanted to stay their toy for the remainder of the night. At least once they had passed out, she could steal Renya's flintlock back.

But Edina did the unthinkable. The necromancer opened a dark portal and pulled out the Scythe of Soul Reaping. She stabbed both the scythe and staff into the sand, fastening them upright on their own. Pink's glinting eyes widen with interest.

"Scythe of Soul Reaping and the Pillar of the Damned. A necromancer will either pay you a country's fortune or kill you for these," Edina said through a clenched jaw.

"Now we talking! Pink knows just da buyer once Pink wins!" Pink applauded.

Despite having polishing Wurm's nob and taking a ramming from Cyclops' dick, Kanae wasn't deaf to what their brother just said. Edina's demeanor darkened.

"Wurm. Dice!" Pink shouted.

"Fine." Wurm groaned and pulled away from the spitroast.

"Hehe… Have you to Cyclops self! Gonna show you a skill to make you feel good!" Cyclops dropped to the flood with Kanae beneath him in the missionary position, and she knew exactly what this entailed. "Mating Press!"

Kanae saw white. That ogre skill! 

Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap! Plap!

The floorboards creaked with every thrust. Cyclops didn't just pound Kanae's pussy. His cock repeatedly crushed her womb. The powerful pistoning threatened to make her never enjoy any other race's dick again. She instinctively switched on Masochist, and her eyes rolled back from the pain adding to the pleasure.

"Yes! More! Fuck me into a mess! I want to be an ogre pocket pussy for the rest of my life! I'll be your mate! I'll give birth to your ogre babies!" Kanae screamed deliriously.

"Cyclops like da sound of fat. How about a kiss to seal it?" The ogre pressed his lips to her, and they made out sloppily like inexperienced teenagers, but it was mostly him licking her face.

Meanwhile, Renya and Wurm did the dice exchange that Kanae had done earlier with him. The dark elf rolled the first die. Kanae couldn't see anything but the bottom of the table— but saw something she shouldn't have.

As Edina and Pink were given a dice by their respective partners, the ogre player's other hand subtly reached under the table, where a wand waited for him to take.

These bastards were cheating. Kanae reined in her sex-crazed frenzy just enough to cast a spell. Magic Hand. Cyclops was too busy pummeling her pussy to notice. Wurm had his back turned to her and watched the table. Edina and Pink were about to throw their dice.

The translucent hand appeared underneath the table and yanked the wand away from his grasp. Pink's hand grabbed empty space just as they both rolled. Panic washed over the ogre. He didn't even hide it anymore and glanced underneath the table.

"Yes!" Edina hooted.

Whatever roll they made, it sounded like the squirreling's dice rolled better. Moans interrupted Kanae's breath of relief, and Cyclops emptied his balls into her pussy. Mating Press ended. Some experience points updated in her character sheet but not enough to level.

[Skill Drain has temporarily acquired the skill Mating Press.

Mating Press: While performing intercourse in the missionary position, the recipient is unable to resist or escape until coitus. Power of the skill scales off STR. Speed of the skill scales off DEX.]

"Huh? What happened?" Cyclops, having noticed the change in his brothers' moods, got off Kanae to investigate the commotion.

"Dey cheated!" Pink threw a tantrum and stomped angrily.

"No… Nngh!" Kanae rose unsteadily to his feet and a flood of spunk gushed out of her pussy. "You were cheating. You had a wand under the table this entire time." She compelled Magic Hand to bring the wand out and flicked it at a dice on the table and, as expected, caused it to roll. "Enchanted with telekinetic magic."

All three ogre brothers were dumbstruck and speechless. They weren't even smart enough to defend themselves or lay claim that Kanae owned the wand instead. Renya clicked her boots and blinked next to Wurm, snatched her flintlock, and vanished away before he could react. Edina picked up both of her necromantic weapons and dashed away, too.

"A wand, huh?" Renya primed both guns with arcane magic. "Clever, for a bunch of ogres. I'm an honest player, but I can respect the hustle. I just hope you don't mind paying the consequences. By the way, Wurm, my guns aren't broken. They just needed a little mana."

"What was that about you knowing a necromancer to sell my shit to? I need a name, bozo. And no one's getting out until I do." Edina summoned Death Knight Cantu to block the entrance, and her eyes brimmed with foul necromantic energy.

The patrons, who had armed themselves for a fight, now trembled in fear. Some outright pissed themselves.

"As for me… you ogres flipped a switch. Hehe. I still want you to fuck my brains out. Once Renya and Edina are done with you, I'm going to have you three all to myself~" Kanae squeezed her breast and fingered jizz out of her pussy to make room for more.

They descended upon Cyclops, Pink, and Wurm, who had bunched together in a terrified clump.

"No… We sorry! Ah! Aaahhhh!" the ogre brothers screamed at the top of their lungs.