Urges 3 (1/2)

Xera was brought back to ‘life’ a mere 10 seconds and 260 MP later. The succubus had fully prepared herself for yet more snack time, but it seemed like that wasn’t on the Mimic’s immediate agenda.

“Wait here,” it commanded.

“Yes, Master.”

It seemed that the Mimic would be using its corpse-related Skill on those four. It sat right next to the pile of corpses and a number of transparent purple tentacles appeared from its faux-wood surface. They pierced one of the bodies and swiftly drank what little remained of its flesh, leaving behind little more than a pile of chunky ash. It was a scene the succubus had seen multiple times, so she was loosely aware of what was going on, including the hefty MP cost of that weird Skill. That would explain why it didn’t want to devour her over and over right now - it would much rather eat those corpses than eat her.

Xera felt slightly irked at this realization. This wasn’t because she was disappointed that ‘snack time’ did not continue, okay? It’s not possible to be jealous of a bunch of dried up skeletons, alright? She just felt awkward that her master was taking her sloppy seconds like that and didn’t want to particularly stare at the gruesome act, so she turned around on the spot and waited for it to finish.

The Mimic was likewise sitting patiently, waiting for its MP to recover. The first use of Cadaver Absorption failed as expected, but at least the Skill seemed to be usable on these leftovers. It seriously doubted the Skill would demonstrate its full effects, however. These corpses technically had everything attached, but they looked even less delectable than those ghouls. Still, it wouldn’t do to just pass them over.

However, the MP limitation was getting to be a problem. The INT stat was growing steadily, but WIS was falling behind, meaning the automatic recovery was lacking. This wasn’t an immediate concern since the Mimic was in no particular rush and it didn’t mind sitting idly while the MP recovery did its thing, but that didn’t mean this would always be the case. Xera, for example, became quite useless if she ran out of MP in the middle of a fight.

The animate chest had witnessed the sight of its familiar running out of MP just before she could finish off the ghoul. The undead creature then leaped on top of her and ended up seriously injuring her body. It very nearly killed her before the Mimic could slice it into ribbons. It had to stop playing with its gold to do that, which made it a bit irritable. This was not a particularly tasty situation, but it proved a point. Running out of MP in combat could mean death. And if the Mimic should need to use magic to fight, then it would run dry extremely quickly.

“Snack,” it called. “I want more magic.”

The bare-bones explanation somehow managed to get its point across, giving the demoness a good idea of what it was talking about. She hated to admit it, but she was getting better at translating from Mimicanese.

The succubus was keenly aware of the MP issues that all Warlocks faced. How could she not be? Every single one of her previous masters was a Warlock, after all.

“Have you tried using a staff?” she suggested. If it were any other Warlock, they might think she was patronizing them. However, Xera was being dead serious. She had no doubt that the idiotic chest she called a master did not even consider something so basic.

“Is staff tasty?” it said, quizzically. The succubus’s educated guess was dead on.

“It’s like a sword for magic,” she explained. “Holding one when using Spells can increase their damage or reduce their MP cost, depending on the quality of it.”

“So... tasty?”

“Yes, Master. Tasty,” she confirmed with a sarcastic tone. This time she was patronizing it. Not like the moron would notice the not-so-subtle meaning hidden in her voice anyway.

“Good! How do I get the tasty thing?!”

“Here, one of these guys had a staff.” She picked up the weapon in question off the floor and presented it to her master. It almost looked like a walking stick when compared to her fancy succubus staff, but it was a staff nonetheless. The apple-sized blue crystal ball at the top of the plain wooden shaft was evidence enough to that effect.

“This? Ah, I’ve eaten many of those. Not very tasty,” it said dismissively. This time it meant that literally. Wood did slightly fill up its belly, but the flavor was not at all to its liking. Not bad, but also not good would be the way to describe it.

Xera thought it would be best to point something out. “Master, you don’t eat this,” she said. ”You just hold it when casting magic.”

“Like Snack does?”

“Yes, Master. Just like-”

Realization hit her and she immediately stilled her tongue, but it was too late. Words spoken out loud could not be taken back. And indeed, the Mimic accepted the staff from the succubus’s hands. Using her own hands, that is. The albino mockery of Xera’s true form had appeared from inside the chest. Seeing it curiously hold a staff the wrong way around somehow made it worse. And how come those nipples were always erect?

“Fffffuuuuuuck!” screamed the real Xera while turning around as quickly as she could. However, this time she was more upset at herself rather than the simple Mimic. Of course it would do things exactly like her, right down to the body. She walked into that one all on her own.

*Swish swish*

She could hear it swinging its new toy around. But then she had a thought which brought chills down her spine. It probably wanted to try out its new weapon. And there were no suitable targets around, except for one.

“Shadowbolt ~♪!” came her own oddly cheery-sounding voice from behind. In the next instant, she was hit in the back by the Spell in question.

You have been hit by a mass of darkness. HP -88.

Xera screamed in pain while falling to her knees. Sticky demon blood and flesh flew around the place as the Shadowbolt took a literal piece out of her lower back. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it. Right now her lower back was missing a chunk of flesh roughly the size of a fist.

But the Mimic wasn’t done. It dropped the staff on the ground with a slight cluttering sound.

“Shadowbolt ~♪!” it called out again.

You have been hit by a mass of darkness. HP -82.

The Mimic verified that the Spell was ever so slightly stronger with the staff equipped. It didn’t seem to reduce the MP cost, but it was still something! It picked the weapon back up and did a little celebratory dance. Its spider legs tilted the milky-white, chest-bound woman left and right while she held the staff above her head with both hands. The massive milky-white breasts swung left and right indecently. It also started chanting “Staff is tasty ~♪! Staff is tasty ~♪!” over and over for no good reason.

Xera was becoming even more and more mortified. She stared at the spectacle the same way one might stare at a hurricane. Her own oddly melodic voice was singing such an absolutely retarded tune while a mockery of her body was performing a fittingly childish ‘dance.’ Eventually she managed to tear her eyes away from whatever that was and turn away from it entirely.

“Please, just kill me now,” she muttered sarcastically.

“Okay!” called out the Mimic in good humor. It was in a good mood, so it decided to grant the familiar this simple request. Xera, understandably, immediately tried to stop it.

“NO! I didn’t mean-”

But it was too late. Words spoken out loud could not be taken back.

“Shadowbolt ~♪!”

You have been hit by a mass of darkness. HP -88.

“GUHAAAHA!” she screamed. That third spell to her back made her fall flat on her face.

“Hm? Still not dead?” asked the Mimic. Indeed, she wasn’t. She was barely alive with only 2 HP left.