Everyone's a Catgirl! Ch. 340: You’ll Be On Your Knees Tonight (Patreon)

“That’s lookin’ much better, Matt.” Sam rotated my axe in her hands as she observed it. She had noted some rust in a couple of the tiny nicks and grooves of the metal, but she assured me that most of them would disappear with repeated maintenance. Even if I wasn’t swinging it, it was a good rule of thumb to give it a look over every couple of days. “Good thing we took care of it now and not later.”

“It was that bad, huh?” I asked wryly.

“Nothin’ a bit of love and care can’t fix.” She carefully handed my weapon back to me, handle first. It glinted in the sunlight, and it looked almost as beautiful as the day Espada had crafted it. I made a mental note to buy some maintenance supplies when we returned to Ronona. “Let’s get our muscles movin’ again,” she said, rising to her feet.

My excitement deflated. We’d spent the better part of the last hour sharpening and oiling the axe to perfection. “What did you have in mind?”

Sam raised her brow suggestively as she undid the belts and straps around her waist. “One of the most frustrating things to build is endurance.”

“Uh huh.” I watched, entranced with each article she stripped from her body. They plummeted to the ground softly in a pile of leather and metal. My gaze wandered, and I recounted the time we bathed together. I suffered no shortage of discomfort as soon as her breastplate came off. “I, uh, never liked cardio.”

“Really? No form of cardio at all?”

Was I imagining things, or did that sound like an invitation? I had about as much experience as a cactus when it came to flirting, but the way she spoke sounded like a proposition. As if she were trying to entice me to flirt back. She was down to nothing but form-fitting leathers and one gauntlet. They were black and gripped her generous curves like a glove. The leather squeaked slightly as she removed the last of the straps, dropping the gautnlet in the pile beside her.

“Well,” I said, unsure if this was going in the direction I thought it was, “some forms of cardio are a bit more fun than others, maybe.”

She smiled. “You’ll love this one. Promise.”

I swallowed against the lump in my throat. “What are we doing?”

“Set your axe down. You won’t need it for this part.” I did as she asked, and she chuckled as she put her arms behind her back. “Feel comfortable?”

“Yeah.” Not at all, but I wasn’t going to tell her what was going on downstairs.

“Great! Now run.”

“What?”

Sam took one menacing step toward me, her eyes alight with excitement. “Run.”

The next hour passed in a blur. Sam was a speed demon. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve assumed she was on five different drugs to run as fast as she did. Every tree I hid behind, every moat I jumped across, every wall I scaled, she was there, poised to strike. Lurking, looming over me like my own damn shadow. Scarier yet, she didn’t seem one bit winded.

“Shit,” I hissed, pressing my back against a tree. “Where the hell is she?” The leaves rustled above me, and as I looked up, her head poked out. A grin split her lips as her caramel eyes bore into me. “How did you—”

“I got ya now!” The demon swung from the branch, and I veered to my side, narrowly evading the crushing blow from her legs. Her boots struck the wood, and dozens of leaves were knocked free. She’d hit me with that once before and knocked the damn wind from my chest.

I tumbled into a roll, then staggered back to my feet just as Sam was recovering. She whipped her hair like a dog, throwing beads of sweat into the air. Licking the top row of her teeth, she lowered herself slightly with her hands extended, slowly moving toward me. As if she were an animal about to pounce. As soon as I was back on my feet, she rushed me and threw a punch.

I stepped to my side to avoid the incoming blow. Sam adjusted instantly, curving her fist inward, and collided with my ribcage. I wheezed from the blow, and as Sam pivoted to strike me from the other side, I raised my arm in futile desperation. She moved like a professional boxer, ducking and inclining her head as I tried to fight back. My fist grazed her cheek as she slipped in, slapping my arm away and driving her fist into my gut. The blow was nearly enough to knock my lunch free.

“Urgh!” I took one step back, staggering from the blow, then fell to my knees, my arms held over my stomach as I gasped for air. “S-shit, Sam.”

“Phew. You’re gettin’ better at this!” She ruffled my hair while I wheezed. It would’ve felt nice if she hadn’t been responsible for the pain.

“S-sure doesn’t feel like it,” I rasped. Oh God, it was so hard to breathe. The human body was not designed to take hits like that. Sam was a pure and brutal monster of a woman. To think that she was going easy on me and wasn’t using any of her gear was downright frightening.

I thought I would love the kind of woman who could actually just kill me.

Sam held out her hand, and I, being the fool that I was, took it. Sam grinned, pulled me to my feet, then shoved me hard. My heel caught an overgrown root, and my back struck the ground, forcing the wind out of my lungs once more.

“What the hell?” I whispered through another coughing fit. I fought to sit up on my elbows, but Sam pinned one of my arms down with her boot. “L-let me up. I can’t breathe.”

Sam furrowed her brow, and her voice took on a darker tone. “Fight for it.”

“I-I can’t.” I could barely manage words, let alone fight to sit up. My lungs felt like a pair of whoopee cushions, pittering out from the force that pressed against them. The gap in our abilities was too wide. Sam had to have at least a good decade’s worth of [Battleguard] experience, and here I was, the pathetic intern hoping to scrape an ounce of inspiration from his superior.

“Yes, you can.” She removed her boot from my arm. I leaned on my palm for support, but she kicked my hand out from under me and descended, straddling my hips.

“D-don’t,” I said, my heart hammering against my chest. “Stop. That’s…enough. I can’t.”

“They won’t stop,” Sam warned, her expression dire. “They never will. You have to fight with everything you have.” I flailed one arm, and she easily deflected my effort. “Fight harder.” I tried again, and she batted it away like a fly. “Harder.”

I coughed and shook my head. Then she leaned forward and pinned my arms above my head.

No. Not again. Fresh memories of the night Yomi snuck into my room came back. The tone of her voice, the sound of those bells, the chill on my skin. Stop it. 

“Fight, Matt,” Sam said again. “Push me away.”

Stop it!

I forced every point of [Strength] I had into shaking her off. My abs tightened, my biceps flexed, my teeth clenched. And still, Sam remained. She shook her head and tightened her grip around my wrists.

“Imagine that I’m your foe,” Sam said. “What I’ve done isn’t right. You’re moments away from death. Your agency has been taken away. You’re nothin’ but an object now. You’re nothin’ more than the stone I kicked off the path.” Her jaw visibly clenched. “Because of your inaction, your fealty to comfort, you and your Party will die.”

“No,” I growled. Spots of red tinted the world while the corners of my vision darkened. The muscles in my neck tightened, and fresh air filled my lungs. I could hear the sounds of insects squirming through the soil nearby, the talons of Encroachers scurrying upon the ground. Something crunched in the teeth of a nearby beast. “I’ll sooner die than allow that to happen.”

“Then do it. Push me away,” Sam snarled. “Fight harder!”

My brain felt hot, as if the blood inside my veins was boiling. Beads of sweat trickled down my forearms and neck, and the plates in my shoulders shifted powerfully. My suffering was numbed in an instant, and the spots of red became more saturated. And then, a bizarre mix of emotions stirred within me.

At first, I was quiet, calm, composed. It felt like a somber acceptance of my position. Then, as if someone had poured another ingredient inside, the desire for wanton destruction soon accompanied it. I could think of little more I wanted to do than throw Sam to the ground and listen to her scream, tear some unwitting Encroacher in half, or burn a village to nothing but embers. I just wanted to destroy everything in my path. But it wasn’t because I wanted to vent out my anger or exert my frustrations elsewhere.

It was because it sounded fun.

I felt a grin come on, and Sam responded with one of her own. “There you go,” she said. “Show me what you can do, Matt.”

The spots disappeared steadily, but the effects remained. I lifted my hips, and Sam rose with me. She reeled back with the motion, one of her hands losing its grip. That was all the opportunity I needed. I rotated to my side and threw her off. She tumbled across the ground but was back on her feet in an instant. Any semblance of pain or fear I’d experienced before was gone. All I could think about was how fun it would be to bring Sam to heel.

Sam beckoned me with her hand, and I obliged. I rushed her with my shoulder, stopping briefly before crashing into her. I pivoted to my side and threw a punch. Sam sidestepped and deflected the blow. I could tell from the force of the impact that she had to put more effort than before. Sam swept at my legs. I lifted one leg, then dropped it when her heel caught the shin of my back leg. Her breath hitched, and I snared her limb when I brought my leg back down.

I descended on her, reaching for her wrists. She batted my attempt away and tried to punch me. I made no attempt to stop her and snatched her free wrist as her fist struck me across the face. Taking the blow provided me the chance I needed, allowing me to snare her other wrist. Her eyes widened, and a new feeling swelled inside of me.

Euphoria. Pure as it comes, euphoria filled my veins. Each time Sam resisted, my excitement grew. All I could think about was how much fun this was, and that the challenge to best my opponent superseded anything else in my life. There was nothing here save for her and me, and I was going to do everything I could to prove that I was the better combatant.

I had her on her back, both of her arms pinned above her head. Her writhing slowed, and her grin returned. 

“There you are,” Sam murmured.

I had conquered my prey, bent it to my will.

I was the one in control.