NOVEL WEB Betting Man 3
A gale began to blow in from the shattered window, swirling around Ma, whipping her hair and clothes wildly. That golden aura she'd used against the Rain-Woman in Funikugami's memory started crackling across her arms and legs, the faint images of talons appearing and disappearing. Her fighting spirit sharpened, lacerating my own with its fury, assuring me that there would be no more non-lethal Damage from here on out. Some distant part of me noted that the lotus root and pork soup in the kitchen smelled like it was done – strange how that worked. Accenting it all was the Peach, pressing down on the fabric of reality like a neutron star, dragging and spinning Fate in its orbit. I wondered, in the history of the world, had two people ever fought to give the divine fruit to the other? The Heavens were surely laughing.
"Don't worry, Mama will make sure to nurse you back to health. Be a good boy and focus on not dying."
"Oh god, here we go…"
I ignited my soul's inner light, the same as I'd done against the Hungry Ghost, to muster my Shining Resolve against the terror before me. We were both glowing gold now, though I couldn't help but feel like second-fiddle to Ma's full-on anime aura. While invisible to the naked eye, behind her was the distinct psychic impression of two massive wings stretching across the horizon, blotting the sun and heralding doom in their shadow. I was the unsuspecting goat below, about to be divebombed off the mountain. At least it was nice that our Qi had the same color, touching even, a real mother-son connection. Too bad that she was about to try and kill me.
No, that was being dramatic. Ma had come to the same conclusion that I had earlier; she wouldn't be able to beat me if she didn't allow herself all the many murderous techniques she'd spent her life developing. I was hoping it would take her longer, ideally long enough for me to win, but I probably should have known better. Sticking to non-lethal attacks would have been the same as yielding the fight to me – not something she was known for, yielding.
I extended the Sash into a moving, silk thicket before me. It gave away the upgrades I'd made to it since she'd given it to me, but I needed to stall her from crossing the distance in any way I could. It was pointless to hope that it would actually stop her. Using the Sash like this required me to use Telekinesis in place of Martial Arts, and the only Dice Pool that even came close to Martial Arts for me was Erotic Sorcery – not that I'd be busting that out on my mom.
You would forgo granting your mother immortality because of squeamishness?
Before I could do more than acknowledge the intrusive thought, she exploded into action. Ma was a blur of movement as she wove her way through the undulating silk obstacle course, going over, under, and through the loops I was making before I could tangle her with them. She stopped about halfway to me, though, pausing a microsecond out of shock when her Eagle's Talons failed to cut the Sash. There wasn't a mundane substance on the planet that those hands, tempered through decades of deliberate abuse, couldn't tear apart. That instant of surprise nearly ended the fight, but she snapped her braid around her in a circle, emitting a moving blade of pure, cutting Qi which batted my Sash away and would have severed my throat had I not ducked.
I swirled the silk net around her again, but it was a distraction; I knew better than to test her ability to escape a grapple with anything short of my Martial Arts. My goal was above and behind her. Once the Sash was wrapped around the ceiling fan, I 'pulled' the line taut by retracting it. Ma was forced to roll through an opening I'd intentionally left for her and was caught off-guard mid-dive as I brought the entire fan and a good chunk of ceiling down on top of her for a shocking eight Damage. Non-Murderous, of course; Ma might have been willing to maim me, but I'd sooner take my life than do the same.
That was enough to hit her Injury Threshold and I used the opportunity to angle the blades of the fan to shatter the elbow of the arm holding the Peach, glad to confirm that I could still do that much while affected by the Challenge.
Ma used her uninjured arm to fling the fan off her and caught the Peach out of the air with her mouth, and not by gently holding the flesh either – no, that would have been too convenient for me. She caught it by the hairs, pinching them between her teeth with unthinkable finesse. My eyes boggled at that. Was she even human?
I had been counting on the attack to at least make her stumble or to create some sort of opening for me, but Ma only used the added momentum to kick off the ground like a bullet. Her Qi flared out behind her like two wings, rocketing her forward with a deadly headbutt and burying my back in the shattered plaster of the wall. Behind me in the kitchen, came a tremendous crash as the cabinets on the other side came loose and dumped their contents onto the floor. I splatted out with the blow, sprawling my arms and legs; it looked goofy, but it spread the force enough to keep my sternum mostly intact. Two more points of Damage and I'd be fighting with an Injury Penalty.
Her good hand caught me by the wrist, mauling it with steel-crushing force, and her left leg hooked my ankle. I squeezed my fist as hard as I could to negate the Murderous Damage to my wrist, wrapped the Sash around her broken elbow, and pulled it across her front to use as a post. Leveraging the wall at my back, I lifted my knee and dug it into her diaphragm to keep her from using a Circular Breathing charge to heal herself.
The fight appeared to come to a standstill as we both frantically monitored one another's micromovements and infinitesimal shifts in weight for any chances, however small. The Peach was the complicating factor; Ma had let it fall into the valley of her breasts and was trapping it against my chest. It kept me from using Lance Pressure to blast her away, and her from using the Ultimate Attack she'd deployed against the Rain-Woman, the one that effectively turned her into a living chainsaw blade.
"This is just like when we transitioned you to solid food," she panted out. "If you had had it your way, you'd have been sucking on my teats until you were five."
"Why is every woman in my life so goddamn crazy? Could you be normal for once in your fucking life, you psychotic bitch?!"
"Don't talk to your mother like that!"
"This is why it's impossible to shop for you!"
For as frustrated as I was, I was buoyed by the creeping exhaustion in her voice. The heat was beginning to get to her; I was burning hotter than ever, and she was now in full contact with me. Our sweat was mingling, dripping down us both in constant rivulets muddied with my blood, reminding me of what Maki had told me about my bodily fluids. But that would mean—
FUCK! I've got to do it. I had to, I told myself. If I could make Ma immortal, then no matter what else happened, I could die happy. It meant that much to me. With an achievement like that under my belt, I'd be free to live the rest of my life as bold and content as a true himbo could be. I could imagine myself one day, lying on my back while dying and thinking to myself, ‘Well, at least Ma will be alright.’
Enjoy this while it lasts, you sickos, because it's never happening again! I shouted mentally at the Audience, crossing a Rubicon within my mind.
"Hmph. Finally," said Ma. "You're done holding back. I was wondering what it would take to get you to take this seriously." How could she have possibly sensed my decision? I was positive there hadn't been a physical tell. "A mother knows her son," she said, answering my unspoken question.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to compromise and cut the Peach in half?" I hazarded in one last attempt to get out of this, though I knew her to be too proud to consider it.
"Ha! Too late for that. There's no telling what half would do. One Peach will make you immortal, that much we know for certain. I won't bet your life on the unknown."
I swallowed, rolling a Charisma check to draw her eyes to mine, putting all the pitiful sorrow I could in my tone, and said, "Then, I just want you to know, I'm very, very sorry about this."
Think of it like an embarrassing medical procedure, I told myself. You wouldn't think twice about giving her mouth-to-mouth if she was dying.
Ma turned her head slightly and glanced curiously at me from the corner of one eye. It was all I needed. I drove a spike of lust into her Qi-network with Gorgon's Lust and flipped the switch on Slut-Making Strikes, mirroring all pain I dealt with equal parts pleasure.
[Hidden Quest Complete!]
Sexually pleasure your mother.
Reward: 200XP, +2 Agility, +2 Sensuality
Bonus, It was in the midst of combat: Gain Master Feat Marital Arts
[Master Feat] Marital Arts
The difference between pleasure and pain is purely academic to a master of your capabilities. You may use your Dice Pool for Martial Arts and all relevant Feats to tease, titillate, please, and generally play sexually with your opponents, partners, and victims. When using your Arts in this manner, others automatically lose one Success on any attempt to resist you.
Ma made a sound like I'd punched her in the throat and tensed up, allowing me to spin around her, taking her mangled arm along with me, and putting her between me and the wall. I scooped the Peach with one of my telekinetic limbs as I went but crucially kept it in contact with her skin the whole time. The fruit was my only shield against her more vicious techniques.
I had expected more than one round to act; surely the surprise, the pleasure, and the pain could buy me that, I'd thought. But no, this was Lily Li, the Golden Eagle of Chinatown, outside of the momentary freeze and the tenor of the grunts she was making, you would have thought she was unaffected. Not only that, but she even managed to use the fact that I'd wrapped her arm in the Sash to her advantage.
Ma slammed her head back into my chest to create a few inches of space between us, then ran up the wall, allowing herself to fall to where she was dangling upside down. The drop dislocated her shoulder, but she was now supported at one point by the toes of one foot planted in the cratered plaster and at another by where my Sash had bound her arm. Her other leg wrapped around my neck, clamping down with calf and thigh in an attempt to choke me out. I tried very hard not to think about her face in my sweaty junk.
I should have been thinking about how to escape instead. Ma torqued her body with supernatural force, golden aura flashing as she did, and slammed us both into the ground. What followed was not flattering for either of us.
I did a crunch with her weight, aiding her choke and making the edges of my vision darken, and then slammed back down, using Lance Pressure on the floor to blast the both of us up and into the ceiling. We dislodged from each other as we landed hard onto the ruined hardwood in a shower of dust and debris. I scrambled to maintain control of the Peach, but Ma took me by surprise and focused on the Sash. She balled it up and threw it to the far wall, willingly eating a kick to the face just to get it out of my reach.
The fight became messy from there. Somehow the wall clock had survived all of the collateral damage and was still ticking away, tormenting me, urging me forward. I wrapped my leg around her neck and attempted a triangle choke, but Ma picked me up and started slamming me against the ground repeatedly. My back muscles flexed in time with the slams, keeping them from shattering my spine like they were doing the floorboards. Ma's face was getting thwacked by soft cock, an image that would haunt me for the rest of my days – not that shame could even exist in my mind at the moment. I could have, had I been capable of higher level thinking at that moment, done something with Erotic Sorcery there, but one hundred percent of my brain was devoted to seizing control of the grapple, my cunning temporarily edged out by my old Eagle School instincts.
Ma slipped free and I got to see what happened on a miss with the new Challenge rules. I lashed out with a kick, intending to put everything towards telekinetically pushing her away when she dodged, turning her body and head at the last minute. The air at my heel exploded outward with a crack, leaving my ears ringing and finally deafening that damned clock as the shockwave blew out all the surviving glass in the room.
My mother tried to launch a flurry of debilitating strikes with her Eagle's Talon, but I used the Peach to guard, interposing it between me and her hand, the other still incapacitated from earlier. She tried to fool me with a feint to go for Circular Breathing to heal it, but I saw through it. I caught her by the neck and pulled her into a brutal knee to the nose as she was inhaling. Using my Force Pythons, I pushed myself up to my feet and took the opportunity to take a step back.
I was on my back again shortly. Her Qi flashed again as she used her movement technique from earlier to do a modified wing strike to my ankles, sending me head over heels to the ground again.
'SNAKE-STRANGLING EAGLE'
Ma tried to deliver a stomp to my throat, but I slapped her ankle to the side at the last instant. Dust and splinters exploded out around us in a shower – hopefully the neighbors had had the sense to evacuate because I was pretty sure she had just kicked a hole into the basement three floors below. With my own Eagle's Talon still latched onto her ankle, I tugged her off her feet and the fight returned to the muck.
It remained too close to call, but my Dice were beginning to abandon me. Ma started eking out little wins, not doing enough Damage to make it past Punching Dummy, but enough to take a definitive command over the grapple. The one time I thought I landed a good hit, Ma reminded me that she too could adapt to an opponent. Having anticipated the telekinetic lance, she surprised me by spinning us both with the momentum and slamming me down hard enough to break two of my ribs.
She pinned my legs together at the knees with her thighs, hard enough that I was sure she'd break them if I didn't end this soon, and tried to go for a ground-and-pound. I kept moving the Peach to be in the way of her blows with my Force Pythons and used my elbows to block those that got through. While I was able to keep her from beating me into unconsciousness, she finally managed to use Circular Breathing to heal her broken elbow.
Ma brought it straight down onto my jaw, catching me with a lucky strike and accomplishing what I had been hoping to do from the start, pinning my face to the wood and using her elbow to pry my mouth open from the side.
"Give it up, James! Victory is mine!"
I still had the Peach, but my mother simply continued to grind my skull into the floor. If I brought it around to stop the slow attrition of my Health Points, it would be right on my face where she wanted it.
Too bad for her she was covered in my sweat and blood. I was out of other ideas and Ma had thoroughly beaten the pride out of me, so, with nothing left in me, I used the nuclear option.
My world became pure gold as I channeled my Erotic Sorcery into the fluid. Ma howled.
[Ally Quest Complete!]
Make Lily Li orgasm in the middle of battle.
Reward: 100XP, +2 Strength, Your unarmed attacks' Base Damage is increased by 2.
[Special Quest Complete!]
Have 6 Dice in Strength.
Reward: Gain Special Feat Full Power
[Special Feat] Full Power
You have learned to use one hundred percent of your strength, bypassing the biological limiters normally in place to protect you. You may take Damage to grant yourself additional Dice on a Strength roll. The only limit to how many Dice you can grant yourself is your Health, but you must decide to do so before rolling.
I spun us around as she was lost in the haze of pleasure, pried her mouth open, and shoved the whole Peach into her mouth. Counting on this act to be sexual enough to trigger my Porn Physics, I conjured one of my Force Pythons from my palm and pushed the fruit, pit and all, down her throat and into her stomach. Luckily, while I may have been as far from turned on as I could be, the Producers were generous enough to concede the point and allowed the fruit to bulge her throat out harmlessly as it passed.
The effects were immediate and dramatic. All signs of injury faded in an instant, and Ma's timeless beauty became very much the exaggerated beauty of a woman in the prime of her life – like she'd been in the memory I'd seen except prettier and with a preternatural healthy 'glow' to her, having visibly gained the equivalent of a few Dice in Presence and Endurance.
[Encounter Complete]
Defeated Lily Li, the Golden Eagle, in a battle without limits over the Peach of Immortality.
Reward: 85XP
[Hidden Quest Complete!]
Feed a Peach of Immortality to your mother.
Reward: 100XP, +1 Charisma, Gain Master Feat Paragon of Filial Piety
[Master Feat] Paragon of Filial Piety
You are well known to be a shining example of filial piety, a trait beloved by the Heavens and many people and cultures. Your actions towards your family, so long as they are not unquestionably cruel, are always viewed in a positive light by society as a whole, so much so that those who value filial piety will take your behavior as an example of flawless virtue. Given time, this can have broad overarching effects on the norms and mores of entire nations, but in the interim, this will mean you are largely left to your own devices regarding your actions with and towards your family. The Heavens bestow you a 1 Die Luck bonus to all rolls out of admiration.
I rolled off her with a groan and let myself just lay there. The pride of victory, of finally conquering the mountain that was my mother, could not completely erode the shame I felt over how I'd won. But nothing could cloud the joy and serenity I felt knowing that Ma had eaten a Peach of Immortality. It is a selfish sort of love, a boy's desire to not see his mother grow old – on Alan's Earth, that is; there it was impossible. Here, anything could happen. Kas had said that was usually a bad thing, but I could change that. I would change that.
A sniffle from my side caught my attention. I looked disbelieving at Ma who was wiping tears from her eyes. She was crying, I realized in shock, something I'd never in my life witnessed.
My stomach dropped. "Ah, hell, Ma, I'm sorry. I, ah—oop!"
Ma's powerful arm hooked under my neck and pulled me into her chest, hugging my head with both arms.
"Zhiqiaaaaaaang! Mmmmmmmmmmmwah!" Ma kissed me on the forehead, laugh-crying and shaking, holding me to her as tightly as she could without popping open my skull. "My baby's all grown up! I thought I'd lost you to movies and women, but you came back to me! To beat me at your age – Aaaaah! This is the happiest day of my life!"
"Ma…can't…breathe…"
"Now all I need is for your sister to attain her full potential, and then I will be able to die without a regret in the world." Ma released my head, but swung her legs over me, sitting on my chest as she stroked my face lovingly. "I'm so proud of you, my son. You've taken a style that was all flash and no silver and turned it into a strange but devastating Art. Although," she said, grinning lecherously, "you'll be beset by rivals and repeat foes if that is how you intend to incapacitate them. I might have to schedule a weekly spar myself! Hahahahaha!"
My face glowed hotter than it had during the fight. "Ma!"
She laughed bawdily and grabbed my nose between her thumb and index finger. "You're so cute when you blush, James!"
I groaned – anger and guilt would have been so much better from her than whatever this was.
Ma sensed my weakness and dug in her talons – that was just her nature. "Ahh, James, I've had a thought. You had better hurry up and make me a grandchild, or else I'll have to make one myself in my belly." She leaned down and put her lips to my ear. In a cruel whisper, she added, "You can't beat me every time, boy."
She laughed maniacally and stood up. My mouth was too dry to respond. It had been a joke, obviously; Ma was just enjoying making me uncomfortable like always. Unfortunately for me, my Social Feats meant that the gross, erotic elements of our fight became an odd but valid strategy, which meant that I was the weird one here for being so embarrassed about it. From her perspective, my Erotic Sorcery had not only ended the fight, but had done so without causing an ounce of harm – the Holy Grail of many martial arts. Not hers, granted, but she could respect it nonetheless.
It's not happening again, I told myself. It's absolutely never happening again. A one-time medical procedure, James, that's all it was. It's like when a lifeguard has to punch someone who's drowning to stop them from freaking out and hurting themselves. She was dying – of age, but still – and I'd administered the medicine in the only way that was possible. More importantly, it wasn’t happening again, so I could…stop worrying about it?
Yes, I decided. Stop worrying about it and maybe…lock it away deep in my mind to never think about again? Wow, even better, James, I thought to myself. What a great idea.
"Get dressed, James. I'll send Ami up to help treat your injuries." She sipped her teeth. "Aiyah, look at this mess. I’ll have to make some arrangements after I sort out my Qi. Oh, and I need to let everyone know that my baby beat me in a fight! At only twenty-two, too!"
"W-wait, Ma!" I said, propping myself up on my elbows. "What are we going to tell people about the…you know—"
"Immortality? Whatever we want to, boy. What are they going to do, make us talk? Ha! Don't fret, I'll be mysterious and threatening – no one will come looking for you because of what they learn from me."
"But don't you want to know more…"
Ma leaned down and pinched my cheek. "My son, I would rather wait for the truth from you than make you tell me lies. You're a young man – you'll tell me these things in time. Now cover up, unless you want to give Ami a treat when she walks in. Tell her to use everything in the medicine cabinet. Don’t skimp! That’s what it’s there for!"
I flopped back down and stared helplessly at the cracked and flaking ceiling until I heard Ma pass into the hallway. My head was ringing. Sitting up, I looked around at what remained of my childhood living room, then down at myself, naked save for socks and a single shoe; the other had fallen off in the melee.
"Yep," I said, talking half to myself and half to my ephemeral Audience. "Another job well done from your number one cast member, James Li. What's he going to get up to next time, folks? Tune in and find out." I let out a great, tired sigh. "Going to be another long fucking day…"