Tickle Trap Tower 3 (/f, fantasy)

[Jaynin]

It occurs that I'm not very good at tagging things.

I should probably try to be better at that.

---

Zylinde awoke from her slumber to the sound of something. The sound of laughter, actually. It took her sleep-fogged mind a second to register what it was she was hearing, but then she tossed back the sheets and sprang to her feet in an instant, eyes immediately fixating upon the source of the sound. Though she had slept soundly, Zyl had also kept in mind that Arishna’s little visit last night was meant to send a message: the demons could get into her room whenever they wanted, lock or no. She had been half expecting some kind of stunt like this, for Arishna to give her a ‘good morning’ tickle or some such annoying shit like she always did, but the reason the laughter sounded curious to her ears was revealed when she laid eyes on the source of it. Right there, in front of her, was her own face, expression twisted in a silly-looking howl of anguished laughter.

More specifically, she was seeing one of those odd projections the demons used to show visual information over long distances, the source of which was a tiny crystal that had been left upon her table. On one half of the image was her laughing face, and the other showed her soles being drilled into by those irritating, itchy wooden vines. Even just watching the replay made Zyl subconsciously stand on one foot and bend her knee so that she could scratch at her sole. The image changed a few seconds later, showing her brother Erialen stretching his hands desperately overhead before bringing his arms back down to his sides with a squeal of laughter, his nude form dancing to the tune of a bored, grinning female naga scritching him with a few fingernails on his side, his waist, his bellybutton, dodging his futile attempts to block the sensations, but always sparing a hand to sneak into his armpit any time he reached for the golden, rune-inscribed cube which the succubus named Seli dangled over his head. Though the screen showed both Zyl’s own hysteria and her brother’s dancing, ticklish embarrassment, the sound became muted, and Arishna’s voice spoke over it:

“After a fantastic first day, Erialen has a slight lead over his sister, earning 13,048 Succubits to Zylinde’s 11,998 Succubits, but the tally is so close that who knows which one of the siblings will come out on top? Eri has already started on his ordeal for the day, and according to our sources, Zylinde has just awakened, meaning it won’t be long before she is on her way towards attempting the second course. Technical Advisor Felin, why don’t you explain what we can expect to see today from both of them?” Zylinde furrowed her brow. Succubit? What in the world was that, and why did Eri have more of them than her? As Zylinde turned from the image, seeking to prepare some food for herself, she heard a new voice, once that she had not heard before. The image only showed the previous day's hysteria and not the identity of the speaker, but there was an odd quality to the voice that Zyl could only describe as "feline".

“The younger brother Eri has a maze setup today,” she said. “We’ve locked his hands into bondage mittens that also pull his arms up and over his head, putting just enough of his body weight off of his feet that walking around might be somewhat more difficult than usual. His first task is going to be to find the key to unlock the bondage mittens, because even if he finds the cube first, unlatching the container that it’s in will be very difficult with those on. Naturally, he’ll have to beware traps, plus a number of fake keys scattered throughout the labyrinth. As a matter of fact, it seems like he’s already gotten himself into trouble.”

As Zyl returned to her table with a light breakfast, she was greeted with the image of her brother, his arms stretched high over his head, in what looked like an endless corridor of stone blocks.Standing to the side of him was a tall, blue-skinned demon with horns, big soft breasts she pressed into his arm, and legs that bent oddly and ended in goat hooves instead of feet. Her fingernails, however, were quite normal, and she had one hand on either side of his helpless body as Eri twisted and shook his head, dancing and gasping with laughter already. It wasn’t hard for Zyl to see why - the demons had probably discovered his spots just on the back side of his ribcage, just a biiiit underneath each underarm. The satyress’ fingers were exactly locked into those spots, two fingertips apiece, and they kneaded into his ribs in just the right way to totally destroy him. Zyl had done the exact same thing to him dozens of times, so she knew how effective it was.

Tickling him like that, right there… whoever was in charge of the scrying crystal was considerate enough to zoom in on that spot for a moment, showing a little square containing his laughing and shaking head up in the corner, and making it abundantly clear how focused the satyress was on tickling that spot. Zyl could see how the tips of her fingers wiggled firmly into the flesh, going back and forth in a limited area, as if they were planted on the tickle spot and just went in random directions, but always centered on that area. Eri’s laughter was desperate, howling, and Zyl felt sympathetic twinges in her ribs. They weren’t HER worst spot, but they were sensitive, so she could imagine how it felt to have someone just digging in so mercilessly like that. “Come on now, you can’t just stay here and hang by your wrists all day. I WILL tickle you until you lose your mind if you don’t escape my territory, you silly boy~ don’t you want to try to help your sister? If you can just find that key, get the relic, and escape, you’ll save her from any more tickling~ you KNOW she haaaaaaaaates being tickled so much…”

Zyl was slightly surprised to see that the satyress’ words did seem to move Eri… a little bit, at least. He took some halting, slipping steps forward, seeming like he wasn’t quite sure how to walk forward but determined to do so anyway, and the satyress paced his slow forward movement, walking beside him, tickling his fully exposed weakness without mercy. It must have been the effect of that weird device the other announcer person talked about keeping him from walking easily, but that didn’t surprise Zyl. Of course they’d make it hard for him to get around, make it hard for him to accomplish his goal. Probably harder than hers were, even. She could get through her obstacles, and use her necklace to start over if she needed to. Eri looked like he had no escape, and yet, Zyl found herself lingering over her food, washing down the last of it, watching Eri’s ticklish struggle.

Just as she was preparing to put on her clothes, which were neatly folded and laundered as had been promised, something caught her eye. Zyl pulled on her white, tight-fitting brief bottoms and form-fitting tank top, seeing a display that read “13,098 Succubits” in the bottom-right corner of the image. As she watched Eri’s slow, ticklish steps forward, the image having changed to show a side view of him with his (of course) erect shaft leading the way, she saw that number start to change, ticking upwards a few times over the course of the next minute, landing on 13,551 as she watched it go. It was puzzling. What did that mean? Zyl shook her head. She wouldn’t figure out what anything meant by sitting in this damn room and guessing, so she quickly checked for her accessories, neck and left wrist, and opened the door, which led her out into that large, circular landing with the barrier blocking the upward staircase. Whereas yesterday only one of the symbols on the ground had been lit up, today there was a second one, and Zylinde set her feet on it and braced for the odd feeling of pseudo-momentum.

“Well, well! Look who was clever and figured out how to get to the second course all on their own!” Zylinde glanced to the right, narrowing her eyes at the floating figure of Arishna, the succubus, giving her that sickly-sweet smile. Zyl always saw Arishna smiling, or grinning, and privately fumed at the thought that the succubus was amused at her expense, but there wasn’t much she could do about it now - or ever - and that was even more frustrating. Zyl crossed her arms under her breasts, looking around the room where she’d found herself.

“Shut up, you annoying slut.” There wasn’t the heat in Zyl’s voice to match her words, as if the insulting language had just come out as a reflex while she was preoccupied with something else. The design seemed straightforward. Zyl stood on a square platform, brick and mortar being used to build the platform several feet out of the (of course) water which surrounded it. A smooth stone flooring covered the top of the platform, and a “bridge” of sorts led to a doorway in the wall immediately ahead of her. The overall feeling was of a large but square brick room, lamps burning on the walls and hanging from the ceiling for light, but the room was considerably larger than the platform, and the space between the platform and the interior wall filled with that irritating water crap. Or, well, the crap that was in the water, anyway.

The more immediate issue was that the doorway right in front of her seemed blocked by some kind of translucent blue field. Just beside the bridge, or walkway, or whatever that led to it, was what looked like a golden statue of a woman, naked of course, with long hair. Very long, actually, falling to the floor behind her, but just as Zyl approached it to take a closer look, the statue winked at her, resulting in a quick jump back and a defensive crouch, the dark elf glancing around for the trap that was surely coming. “Oh, don’t be so mean to her,” Arishna teased, floating along beside her. “The second course is called Slime Land, and in order to proceed, you’re going to need to collect the three different colors of slimes to get through these doorways. It’s pretty simple, really.” As Zyl watched, quite astonished, the statue of the golden woman turned from gold to blue, and the features became less distinct, sort of melting together, until a short, gel-like slime girl colored blue stood before her with a smile.

“Heya! Call me Blue,” the slime girl said cheerfully, as she touched Zyl innocently on the hip. To the dark elf’s astonishment, the girl’s body seemed to ‘flow’ into her hand and spread onto the dark elf’s body, starting with just her torso but eventually growing, even as Zyl started to flail and dance comically (and ineffectually), to cover every inch of her body, from her fingertips to toes and up to her neck, leaving Zyl’s face uncovered. Despite the fact that the creature no longer had a mouth, Zyl heard her voice quite clearly, just beneath the right ear: “Tada! This is how we’ll get you through, see? This gate is blue, so you need a blue slime to pass through. That’s me!”

Zyl whipped her gaze around at Arishna, jaw bunching. “What the hell is this?” she demanded, holding her arms out to her sides, and standing with her feet slightly spread, as if to keep her body from touching itself. Yet despite her initial impression, the slime didn’t actually feel goopy, or icky, or slimy, or wet. In fact, it bizarrely felt like she was wearing a piece of clothing, like a body stocking - thin, soft, cool, and somewhat pleasant to the touch. Maybe too pleasant. She was starting to tingle a bit between her legs, only slowly and reluctantly returning to a more relaxed pose. “You know what? Don’t answer that. I’m sure I would get some smartass response. Let’s get this shit over with,” Zyl growled, and then turned to face the blue, hazy barrier which stood between her and the passage to the next room over. After the first step, Zyl halted once again in shock, as Blue extended her reach to cover the dark elf’s face, making the world seem as if it had been submerged in blue. Her hands reflexively went to claw at the covering over her mouth and nose, which succeeded in clearing a space for her to breathe - but only because Blue had opened those holes herself.

“Don’t be such a baby,” Zyl heard right in her ear. Then in the other ear. “You can hold your breath for a few seconds to get through this doorway, right?”

“Don’t just cover my face like that without saying anything, then!” Zyl snapped in irritation. “Fine. I have to be fully covered to get through this damn thing? Whatever. Give me a few seconds to sort my breathing and then I can hold it for a couple of minutes if I need to.” Matching action to words, Zyl started to breathe deeper, calming from her moment of breathless panic, slowing her heart rate down. “Okay. Let’s do this.” At least Blue was willing to listen, Zyl thought, as her body became completely encased in the cool, weirdly comfortable slime once again. She pressed a hand to the hazy blue field, and it resisted slightly, but then began to yield, and slowly began to push through --

“FHAHAHHAHAHAHHACK I KNEW IT!” she howled, muffled by the slime, and trying to pull at her wrist, which seemed to be unwilling to pass back through the barrier in the other direction. The moment she’d extended her arm, she’d felt something like fingernails in her armpit, light and skittery, and slapped her other slime-covered hand into her armpit to block whatever it was, which didn’t work in the slightest. “FUCK! TOOOHEHAHHAHA STOPPIT FUCK! FHAHAHAHAH FUCKIT! STOOOOHOOOOOPPPPPP!!” Holding her breath was one thing, but doing it while being tickled was something else, and after about thirty seconds of struggling with her stuck arm, Blue opened the hole in her mouth again, letting both the laughter and her breath escape, though Zyl’s arm remained stuck in the hazy blue field as if trapped in stone. No amount of tugging would free it, and attempting to pound on the field as if it were a solid obstruction resulted in Zyl’s other hand getting stuck on its surface, meaning that the feeling of fingernails started up in her other armpit now.

“Oh geez, I didn’t think this would get you so bad,” Blue teased. It was like the slime girl’s voice was right in Zyl’s ear. “Lighten up a little. You’re going to be stuck with me for the whole course, so we might as well get along, right?” Then the sensation of nails shifted rapidly. To hips, to thighs, to feet, to back, to ass, to belly. Much faster than any person could actually move their hands, and Zyl’s ass shook for Arishna’s display quite pleasantly as she tried to dance away from the invisible fingernails that teased her. “All right, all right. Take a deep breath, get yourself settled, and then we’ll try again, alright?”

“Wouldn’t need to… hahh… get settled if you weren’t being… hahh… a bitch,” Zyl muttered, breathing quick and shallow when the tickling finally stopped, resting her forehead against the blue field - meaning that it, too, immediately got stuck. “Fucking son of a goddamn *****,” she growled, but just like her hand and arm, Zyl’s head was now stuck, even as she tried to breathe slower and deeper and -- “FUCKING BIHIHIHHEEHHEHEHAHAHAHHATCH!” she shrieked, Blue getting her with a deep dig of fingertips right around the ribcage just as she was taking a deep breath, which of course made her start all over again. “Fhhhhhuck… fuck you… fuck--!!”

A deep and sudden gasp accompanied the sensation of something featherlight gliding along both ears, the look of shock on Zyl’s face - for a wonder - obscured by both the field and the slime covering, denying the scrying crystals which she knew must be lurking around a clear shot of her expression. “Ooooho, is someone a little seeeeensitive up he-EEEK!” The moment after Zyl had felt that tease on her ears, she had quite literally put her head down and started to bull-rush the barrier, making slow but steady progress, and in the space of fifteen seconds Blue’s gentle ear tease had succeeded in spurring Zyl through the barrier, the dark elf barreling through and almost stumbling as her left foot finally cleared the obstruction and sent her moving at full speed into the second room.

“Off,” Zyl snapped, once she had caught her breath, pointing to the floor and barking the command as one might at a naughty pet. “Get off of me. I’m not carrying you a step further than I have to.” Zyl remained, pointing at the floor impassively, her jaw tight with anger once again, as the floating image of Arishna pondered the situation with amusement. Blue flowed down off of Zyl’s finger, pooling on the floor and forming herself once again into the image of a short slime girl, this time definitely wearing a noticeable pout. Though her body lacked defined features, the impression the slime gave was definitely one of a naked woman, and it took Zyl a moment to realize that, as Blue left her body, she was also naked. “Stay here,” Zyl snapped. “I’m sure this bullshit is gonna make me go through that again, but I’m definitely not giving you any more chances than I have to.”

“Are you suuuuuure?” Arishna asked before the pouty Blue could reply. “I don’t want to give anything away, but I think it’ll go better for you if you bring her along~” Zyl almost didn’t even bother checking her truth jewel to confirm that Arishna was speaking truthfully, but at the moment, her anger was such that she didn’t really consider the ramifications of ignoring Arishna’s advice.

“Very sure. Now shut up and let me figure out what the fuck to do for this damned bullshit.” Zyl was not actually all that bothered by being naked, so if they thought that was going to persuade her to keep slime bitch around, they had another thought coming to them. This room was just as square and boring as the previous room had been, and as she crossed her arms over her chest, the basic shape of the obstacle was made pretty clear. The doorway to her left was unobstructed, so she wouldn’t need to take Blue along. The doorway to the right, however, had a barrier that shimmered both red and blue in alternating fashion, and the one right in front of her varied between blue, white, and red. “So, let me guess. I have to find all three colors of slimes to pass through these doors, right?” Zyl shot a glare at the mischievously-grinning Blue, then looked at Arishna. “She will stay here without running off?”

“Yes,” Arishna replied, and this time Zyl did make sure to check. Okay. She could leave Slime Bitch here and go do whatever this left side trap was. Zyl crossed over the walkway and entered the doorway, which was considerably darker than the room behind her. Zyl could see why - there were far fewer lights on the walls, and after the first few steps, the passageway sloped downward. It wasn’t until Zyl felt a splash of water on her toes that she jerked back, looking around as she reached the apparent bottom of the ramp.

The darkness was clearly magical, because as a dark elf, Zyl would have otherwise been able to see quite well, if somewhat monochromatically, in the low light conditions. A single, low lamp burned just to the side of her, letting Zyl see that she was indeed at the bottom of a ramp that dipped into water, and formed a low-ceiling passage which was filled most of the way up with water. Wading and swimming wouldn’t be a problem, but just as Zyl was about to yell back up to Arishna asking if the water was free of tickle fish or whatever the shit they were called, she realized there was something else in the water - a float. Something inflated with air, it seemed, with a raised, curved center portion, two ‘arms’ which had handles for her to grasp onto, and then two ‘legs’ with a small patch of rubber for her toes to latch onto. After pondering it for a minute, the intent seemed obvious. Zyl was supposed to lay down on her front, the middle portion supporting her torso, her hands stretched out in front to grab the handles, and her feet behind her, resting on the rubber pads. She nudged the floating contraption with her foot, and it bobbed and swayed quite a bit just from that. It rode pretty high in the water and didn’t seem very stable.

With a sigh, Zyl got herself into position. As she’d predicted, the float did bob and sway and it was a little difficult to keep it in position, but then she hit upon the idea of dragging it a bit up onto the ramp, getting set up on it there, and then pushing off the ramp with her feet before settling them into place, and floating slowly off into the darkness, which swallowed her. She expected something to happen, something which made use of the fact that she was effectively blind, and in this, Zyl was not disappointed - well, she WAS disappointed, because she would have preferred to be wrong.

No sooner did she start down this little floating tunnel than she felt something, but it was not at all the poking tease she’d been psyching herself up for. With a brutal lack of mercy, something suddenly descended upon her left foot and scrubbed back and forth harshly. It felt like a hairbrush or something along those lines, stiff bristles, scraping and dragging across her sensitive left foot, so swift and harsh that Zyl let out a scream and kicked her foot before she could really even think, flailing her bare left foot around in an effort to blindly evade the brushing touch, which she did with minor success, kicking and flailing and trying to keep her foot from staying still for even one second! While she was preoccupied with that, however, something else, like a thin backscratcher, wiggled its way up into her right armpit. “NYHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH FUCKKKKKIT! STOOOOHHHHAHAH STOP THAT!” she howled, pulling her right arm back to close off her underarm so suddenly that the float wobbled precariously, since she was taking her weight off of it and squirming around atop it. Zyl realized that if she lost her balance and fell in the water, she might have to give up, and so she valiantly attempted to keep kicking her foot and holding her arm tight against her side to cover her ticklish spots!

To some extent, it was working. The backscratcher’s range of motion was limited, and the brush kept glancing off of her foot, still ticklish, but less so than if it was able to somehow pin her foot down and go completely to town on it. The constant kicking motion was making her float rock, and Zyl’s sense of balance was thrown off as she shook her head back and forth, trying to endure the ticklish sensations -- completely unprepared for the sudden feeling of fingers wiggling hard into her left flank, what felt like a thumb working into the muscles of her abdomen, and with a shriek of laughter Zyl flinched away from that sensation, overbalanced her float, and toppled into the water with a splash. The bottom was not too deep, thankfully. The water would be chest height on her if she stood in it, but as she had feared, the moment she went down a blaze of ticklish nibbling sensations started to consume her. “NYHEHEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH STOOOOP THAHAHAHAAAT!” she cried, trying to reach down and slap at the damned creatures clumsily, one hand on her float to keep it nearby, and with a bounce of her toes, Zyl tried to jump out of the water and put the float back underneath of her.

Wet as she was, however, the slick material of the float gave her no purchase, and after a half-second of frantic scrabbling, Zyl splashed back into the water. The ticklish nibbling was growing insanely intense - like someone was exploiting every last nerve in her soles, in between her toes, behind her knees and in her asscrack and her thighs and everywhere and nibbling on her sides so ticklishly it was hard to breathe in the water and -- “IHEHAHHAAHEHEHEHEH I GIVE UHUHUUUUUP!”

Zyl was back on dry land, dripping onto the smooth stone floor, back in the first room with the blue barrier. Both Blue and Arishna were there, grinning down at her as she caught her breath, giggling, breathing away the last of the tickles. “Motherfucking son of a goddess-damned…” she swore under her breath, coming back to her feet. Then she glared at the hazy blue barrier and sighed, glaring at Blue. “All right, come on. Let’s make this quick.” This was certainly not a good development, but it was just like the lake course - returning to the start meant redoing old obstacles. Arishna just smirked in that annoying way of hers, and Blue this time flowed across the floor, covering Zyl from the feet up.

Given how strangely comfortable the slime girl was to “wear”, Zyl felt almost certain that the intent of the demons was to have her wear this slime instead of clothing, but just as before, she had to put up with a teasing barrage of fingernail sensations skittering over her body. Zyl gritted her teeth, chuckled and snorted under her breath, and literally put her shoulder down and rammed into the barrier, as if trying to break it down. It did not break, but it did give way as it had before, like forcing her way through a sheet of thin rubber, and once she was through Zyl silently pointed at the floor, prompting Blue to empty herself off once again and turn back into a female shape. As Zyl turned to try the obstacle again, Arishna called out: “Sure you don’t want to take her along~?”

“Very sure,” the dark elf replied without turning around, descending once again into the darkness, setting herself up on the float, and pushing off into the darkness. This time, all of her muscles were bunched and tensed up, thinking to resist the inevitable tickling by virtue of being ready for it, and she bobbed along, squinting ahead of her, trying to see if she could spot the incoming trap or whatever the hell it was. Come to think of it, she hadn’t figured out exactly what was down here yet. A hairbrush, a backscratcher, a hand? What could do something like that? “OW! FUCK!” Zyl hissed aloud, turning her head instinctively as what felt like a fucking wooden paddle whapped her clean across her upraised ass! “Fucker! What the shit was that fo-hOOHOHOOOOR?!”

Somehow, something soft and bristly slipped over her muscled stomach, and delved all the way into the bottom of her bellybutton. How it did that when she was in this position was beyond her, but more importantly, she had to get it out, right the fuck now. Instantly she pressed her front down on the float to try and block the thing’s route of attack - it had to be coming from below somehow, right? - but Zyl managed to trap the thing in her bellybutton, its bristles whirring and vibrating, and it took her maybe half a second to scream.

“NOOOOHHHHOOOOHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH SHIIIIIAHAHAHH SHIT FUCKFUCK SHITFHAHAHAHAH FUUUUUCKKK FHAHHAHAH FUCK STOPPIT STOP STAHHAHHAHAHAAAAP!” Zyl bounced her hips up and down, shook them side to side, arched her back, shook her head, and then howled more. This was absolute, utter torture. Whatever the fuck was in there was this perfectly ghastly combination of soft and bristly, and it was spinning. Spinning! In her bellybutton! The bristles clashed against her insanely sensitive skin over and over and over again, reaching into that very deepest part where Zyl would usually snap fingers off if they even so much as dared thinking about going into! She couldn’t get it out. Not without her hand, but if she used her hand she’d fall into the fucking water. Again! Zyl put her head down, arched her back, gasped and shook with laughter, feeling the float starting to grow unsteady from her struggling. The trap hadn’t done anything but smack her ass and stick this whatever the fuck it was in her bellybutton, and she was losing her mind!

“Nhh-ahahha-AHHAHAHhahahahah FUCUUUUUKKKK THIHIIIISSS!” she screamed, and in desperation tried to reach into the water, waddling indignantly as she tried to paddle with her hand to go faster, but a quick prod into her sole, a smack on her ass, and a scratch of her other side in conjunction with the bellybutton torture sent Zyl careening into the water once again. The only benefit of this was that the tickling seemed to stop when she fell in, but now the damn nibble-fish all but swarmed to her bellybutton, making it light up like fucking festival lights level of ticklish. Slapping the water with frustration, Zyl flailed around at the darkness, feeling brief, soft sensations flit against her fingers and hands, but she still had no idea what the hell she was even up against, and with a final scream of hysteria and surrender she bellowed: “IIIIIEHEHEHEH GIVE UUUUUUHHUUUP!”

---

Once more, back onto the first platform, dripping wet, sprawled on the ground beneath the amused, smug gazes of Blue and Arishna. Once more, a foul-tempered barreling through the stretchy barrier, with Blue’s fingers all over her. It would have been nice if her anger somehow blocked the ticklish sensations or made them more bearable. Being angry all the time was something Zyl could most certainly manage, especially under the present circumstances. Zyl’s mind was somewhere distant as she burst through the barrier once more, stumbling into the second room, panting, and her hand moved to point to the floor again, but stopped midway through the gesture, and she turned to Arishna with a look of suspicion on her face, eyes narrowed. “You said that it would ‘help’ me get through the obstacle to have this slime hanging onto me, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Arishna chirped helpfully, a grin on her face. She’d been content to let Zyl fail continuously with no input, working the audience to all the while, as they amused themselves watching Zyl flail and fail in the dark waterway. The most popular opinion had been 4 failures at 37%, followed by 3 at 24%, according to the poll she’d been running in the meantime.

“How is it going to help me not fall off your stupid water float if I have this slime clinging to my back?” Zyl demanded. “Whatever the fuck is in there is a vicious piece of shit, and some slime isn’t gonna--”

“It’s very simple,” Arishna said, primly. “What’s tickling you down there IS a slime. It can find you so easily because you don’t have your own slime to mask your insanely ticklish flesh.” She leaned closer, grinning. “Slimes are very good at finding other living beings. Vibrations like sound or pulse, sources of heat. Things like that. As long as you’re going in there naked, you could be completely quiet and you’d still be found out. But if you have Blue, she can cover some of those things for you, make it less likely you’ll be found… or tickled less intensely if you are.”

“And in exchange,” Zyl retorted, “I have to put up with her goddamn fingernails crawling all over me as much as she pleases, huh.” She looked down at the blue sheen of slime still covering her body. It weirdly matched the pulsing blue of Zyl’s truth gem, but the dark elf was getting so used to taking Arishna’s words at face value that she made a point of checking it less and less often. “So. Can you tickle me in any place you aren’t touching?”

“Of course not, silly. What do I look like, a psychic?” came Blue’s reply, which floated out of seemingly nowhere on her shoulder. This statement, too, earned a truthy blue glow.

“All right, fine then. This is how we’ll do this. I don’t want this full-body shit you have going now. Fix yourself to be something way skimpier. Like a bikini. Or something.” Zyl folded her arms and looked down at herself expectantly. Blue, compliant as ever, started to change her shape, but what Zyl got wasn’t quite what she was expecting, in more ways than one. The body stocking quickly concentrated itself around her torso, stretching out over her shoulders and between her shoulder blades, hugging around her hips, pulling up snugly into her crotch and around her breasts, covering her ass but hugging that tightly, too. When Blue was finished, only only was Zyl dressed in what appeared to be a rather racy and tight-fitting one-piece blue swimsuit, albeit with a lot of the back missing and the material pulled up to damn near her hips on either leg, but it looked and felt like a swimsuit, too. As in, not like a blue coat of slime at all, but like actual clothing. Curiously, Zyl picked at it, and it even felt elastic and springy like a swimsuit.

“I can’t do two pieces,” came the explanation which now floated up seemingly from between her breasts. “It has to all be one piece. But I think this looks good on you! It really shows off your body. You have a really nice, athletic one, so this might even be better than a bikini. String bikinis are really good if you have huge boobs and are going to just pop out of your top with any exercise at all, but this is gonna let you show off your strong points. Hehehe. Literally.” Zyl was about to reply sarcastically when a gentle ticklish sensation took the words from her mouth. She didn’t laugh, pressing her lips together tightly, and Blue’s tickling was like… just barely enough for her to stand. A bare whisper of a set of fingernails tracing around her abs. Like she could imagine someone standing behind her and lightly dragging their fingers all over her stomach.

“I agree,” Arishna chimed in. “In fact, I think you’ll earn even more Succubits dressed in something racy than you would just flopping around naked.” The word ‘Succubits’ popped Zyl out of the vaguely trancelike state she’d been in, trying to deal with the gentle caresses wandering over her stomach, and with her guard down, the question came out as strangely not-hostile and instead genuinely curious:

“What’s these Succubit things? I saw there was some kind of count for them when I saw what you were doing to Eri this morning.”

“Succubits are, to put it simply, a means for those enjoying your display of entertainment to show your support. When someone enjoys what they’re seeing, then they offer you a Succubit, or five, or ten, you get the idea. We’re keeping track of how many demons offer how many Succubits to both you and your brother.” Arishna paused, wondering if she should explain more. She wanted Zyl to come to a certain conclusion, but Zyl was not always the most deductive person, and might need a little more leading to the point.

“Wait. And Eri has more of these than I do? Which means… that he’s more popular than me?” Zyl’s brow furrowed darkly as Arishna nodded in confirmation. “How many of these Succubit things do I have?”

Arishna supposed that in the human sport of fishing, the thrill of that moment when the bait was taken and the hook landed solidly in the target was akin to what she felt just now. It took all of her self-control not to do a dance of glee on the spot, as she set that hook. Oh, yes - now Zyl cared that her ticklish torture wasn’t as popular as her brother’s. Absolutely, positively delightful~ Even if it was just one step in the right direction, to extend her earlier metaphor, the setting of the hook was the first step, but it was still a long, slow process to actually bring the fish to land. Arishna conjured her display so that Zyl could see - coincidentally also showing her the live feed of Eri’s own ordeal, in which he was desperately trying to stay quiet and hidden in a corner while some kind of beam circled in his fully exposed armpit. “Right now, Eri has 14,113 Succubits, and you have 12,871. It’s very close~!” she said encouragingly, grinning at the sight of Zyl’s back as she disappeared back down the ramp.

---

“I wouldn’t speak or laugh as much as you can,” Blue’s voice thrummed in her mind. “This is me talking to you by actually physically vibrating your eardrums, not using any sound. “I’m making it hard for the slime to feel your heartbeat and diffusing your body temperature some, but I can’t muffle sounds.”

Zyl didn’t answer, but as she bobbed along on the unstable little float for the third time, her teeth were gritted solidly. That gentle, stroking sensation across her stomach hadn’t stopped since Blue became her swimsuit, and it was almost more maddening than the outright tickles. It was JUST barely enough to be bearable. Only just, making Zyl walk the line of endurance, wanting desperately to just surrender and start giggling, yet working up the strength to keep resisting anew. On the positive side, she had made it quite further into this dark little tunnel than she had the first two times. The slime, if that’s what it was, had still come to try and tickle her, but its motions were more definitely uncertain than before, somehow. Instead of just slaughtering her sole with a hairbrush, stroked at maximum power to drive her batshit crazy, there was a featherlight tracing that danced around the heel and sole of each foot. Nothing came to attack her sides, or breasts, or armpits, thanks to Blue’s covering.

“Just put your head down, close your eyes, and endure,” she heard Blue’s voice again. It was almost gentle, soothing. “You can do it.” Zyl tightened her grip on the handles before her, dug her toes into the rubber, clenched her jaw, and burrowed her face into the side of the stupid float she clutched onto. “Just don’t think about the tickle-ticklish sensations on your feet, or the light little stroking nails all over those super ticklish muscles of yours. Tickle, tickle, tickle… you’re doing so well, Zyl. I think we’re close to the end~ so I can proooooobably do… this.”

A sense of foreboding suddenly washed over Zyl. “D-don’t you d--HHHHHHHHHHhhhhhHHh!!” She shook her head desperately. No. Don’t do that here! Zyl yelled in her mind, but Blue wasn’t telepathic, was she? She’d said she wasn’t, and it hadn’t been a lie. Blue couldn’t hear her, aside from that soft hiss, quickly cut off. Even stopping herself so quickly, Zyl was paying the price for it, as the tickling on her feet grew stronger. Feathers became backscratchers, stroking at the center of each arch. Blue’s stroking nails, however, were the real problem, because she had grown bored of playing around Zyl’s stomach and was spiraling her nail closer and closer and closer to the bellybutton. Zyl felt like a balloon about to pop, her cheeks puffed out and face most certainly red from the effort, holding her breath in an effort not to laugh. She lifted her head, eyes wide, face captured once again in the wide-eyed, barely-restrained-laughter expression that did wonders for the audience, who reveled in every instance that Zyl was forced to drop her scowl. And when she raised her head, she saw…

Light.

“FUHUHEHEHEHEHEHHEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAHAHHA FUCK NOOOHOHOOOOO!!!” The appearance of the literal light at the end of the tunnel shattered her resolve, the promise of relief so overwhelming that the thought of enduring any more tickling silently seemed unbearable. The broken silence, of course, brought the tickling down on her in earnest, and she could see it now. Tendrils of slime, dangling from the ceiling, darting towards her body as they mimicked unbearably ticklish sensations. “SThhehehhaHAHAHAHAHAH STOPPIT! FUHUHAHAHEHEHEH FUCK I’M SOOOHOOHOOO CLOSE!” In a ticklish panic, fueled by the image of having to endure all of this for a fourth time, Zyl put her hand in the water and began to paddle frantically, getting all of three strokes in before a set of hands tickle-squeezing her ass made her tip too far forward, and plunge her into the water. A strength born of despair flooded Zyl’s muscles, and she surged forward through the water, swimming towards the light, getting in maybe three or four good, proper strokes before her form collapsed under the pressure of so much tickling on her torso and sides, which Blue unfortunately didn’t seem to be able to protect her from. Or chose not to protect her from.

Zyl flailed and kicked, pressing off the side of the wall, the floor of the channel, clawing at the water and churning up splashing and forth in a desperate attempt to pull herself forward, until finally one of those clawing strokes scraped against something hard, not water. A ramp! The end of the tunnel! Zyl burst forward in one final, flailing attempt to escape the swarming tickle fish, and managed to get her feet under her, stumbling up the ramp, and then rolled up onto the stone platform, panting, her chest heaving as the ticklish sensations slowly but surely faded away. An odd ‘plop-plop’ sound, quiet but audible, drew her attention after a few seconds, and as she turned her head in curiosity, she saw something… flying into the water? Blue was shooting every last little tickle fish or limpet or whatever back into the water, ejecting them with enough force to fly back into the tunnel, and after a minute or so, she was able to truly rest.

It occurred to Zyl that she had forgotten exactly what reason she had come here for, at least momentarily, but from her position on the floor she did a quick survey of the room and was vaguely disappointed that it was just as plain, and in the exact same design, as the previous two rooms. The only two things that stood out were a quietly swirling green design in one corner of the room, and a silver statue of a woman at the far end of the platform. “All right, you can drop the disguise,” Zyl said, not bothering to get up off the floor. “I know you’re another color of slime. Probably red, since the next barrier is red and blue.” The statue twitched slightly, and then the silver color faded from it, to reveal another slime girl who was, as Zyl had guessed, red in color, and she wore a playful pout on her lips, sinking to the floor as a puddle with a head and slithering her way over to Zyl. The dark elf could feel the flow of the red slime’s body underneath her head, and then it grew gradually firmer, until she found herself with her head in the red slime’s lap. “Let me guess, Red?” Zyl asked, closing her eyes for a minute. Just a minute. It was nice to get a little rest.

Strangely, her rest was not disturbed. There was no gentle tickling of her stomach as there had been before, just a sort of pleasant tingling that covered her body everywhere the swimsuit touched. It felt pretty good, if she had to be honest, and the cooling-off period her body was getting gave her time to process all the intense sensations it had been subjected to in such a short period of time. Zyl laid there, eyes closed, the soft plush feeling of Red’s lap beating the hell out of hard stone, while she indulged in the luxury of time to ponder the feelings tingling through her body. Then she sighed, her lips twisting into an expression of exasperation. “All right, show’s over, Blue. I’m onto you. We’re not giving these snooping bastards a show.” It had taken her a bit to realize that the ‘tingling’ sensation was emanating from between her legs, and that Blue had probably been trying to take advantage of her relaxation to catch her off guard. “I’ve got you, Red. So now what? How do I get back?”

“The green swirling thingy over there. Here, I’m coming with you. Just go ahead and step onto it, and it’ll take you back to the first room, promise.” Zyl cracked an eye to look at the bracer on her left arm, then closed it again, satisfied. Red flowed onto her body the same way Blue had, and formed a… glove. Just one long glove on her right hand, going from fingertips to bicep, and Zyl sat up, then sprang to her feet, doing a few stretches and hopping on her toes to get her body limber again, and stood on the green swirl. Like with the teleport things that brought her to the dungeons, there was the yanking feeling, and then she was back in the second room, with Arishna floating there lazily. The succubus took one look at her, wearing what looked like one red opera glove and a blue racing swimsuit, and burst into giggles.

“Shut up,” Zyl snapped, then looked at her clothing. “Okay, you two. I know that I need to have both of you on me to pass through this barrier, and I’m sure that Arishna has set things up so I can’t just get rid of you after that, so we need to talk about what you’re going to look like. First rule: neither of you is covering my belly, this time.” She ignored the chorus of ‘Awwwwww’ and continued: “Now that there’s two of you, you can manage two pieces of clothing. So we’re going to go with a different outfit --”

It was like she had spoken the magic words. Like a pair of eager children, the slimes giggled, and began to shift around on her body, appearing more like their slimy forms as they moved about, before settling on a new outfit for her: a tight-fitting (of course) red crop top that cut off just below her breasts, and a pair of shimmery blue booty shorts, tugged up into the crack of her ass probably about as far as Blue could get them. Zyl examined it. Aside from the color, it was close enough to what she wore, but… “No,” she said after a minute. “No sleeves. Fix it.”

“If you saaaaaaaaay so~” Red teased her, and the shape of the top changed slightly to bare the shoulders, leaving a wide oval exposing Zyl from armpits to neck. “That better?” Xyl tilted her head left and right, crossing her arms, and considered it. There was a very distracting tingling all around her armpits, but not actually IN them, and likewise she felt that sort of gentle, teasy stroking all along her hips and waist, yet safely away from her stomach. All things considered, it was actually a greater advantage for her to have the two slimes instead of just Blue. “Remember though, we need to give you a full covering to get through the portal, so whenever you’re ready~”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s do this. Annoying-ass portal bullshit. How the hell did you people think up all of this crap, anyway?” Zyl bounced on her toes, facing the swirling red-and-blue hazy field as she felt the slimes begin to cover her body.

“Are you sure you want to know the answer to that?” Arishna asked her, and Zyl shook her head, putting her head down, and barreling through the stretchy barrier to the other side. With a shrug, the succubus followed her, passing through the barrier quite easily, as Zyl’s two slimes reformed her clothing. “After a harrowing experience in the dark tunnel that took her two attempts to complete, our contestant comes upon the next obstacle in our Slime Land course - the Balance Beam! It’s as simple as it looks - keep your balance on the narrow walkway as you cross over the treacherous water below, and claim the prize on the other side! Will Zyl keep her momentum going and pass through the next challenge without submitting even once? Let’s find out! Also, be sure to let her know how you like the new outfit - the swimsuit was reeeeeeally popular!”

Zyl glowered at Arishna. “Oh, great. And here I thought we were done with the announcer crap.” The obstacle was pretty much as Arishna had described it, a narrow beam about forty feet long that connected the platform she was on right now with the one on the far end, on which was a plainly visible bronze statue of a woman. The trap this time was not even close to disguised, however. Long, white tendrils of what Zyl guessed were slime dangled from the ceiling, almost certain to try and tickle her as she made her way across the balance beam. More endurance bullshit. At least they were consistent. Zyl hopped up onto the beam, which was just a bit narrower than her feet, and put her arms out to the sides to help with her balance, testing the beam itself with a few bounces on the balls of her feet, and then taking a deep breath. “Okay. You know this shit is gonna come from above to tickle. Just keep going forward at a good pace, don’t rush.” Zyl prepared herself mentally, and then took a few tentative steps forward.

Almost immediately, the tendrils of slime descended… only as far as her long, pointed ears, and several tendril tips began to tease along the length of each sensitive ear. So much for mental preparation - Zyl treated the viewing demons to another one of the faces variously termed with a strange demonic word, ‘ahegao’, and clapped her hands over her ears with a squeal. “Fnnghhahhahhhckkkk!” she growled, the half-laugh and half-growl mixing in her throat, and she swayed slightly on the beam at the sudden shift in her weight. “Goddess-damned…! NO! Fu-HHHAHAHAH FUCKERS!!!” she squealed next, as by virtue of her hands covering her ears, her armpits were, as she had requested, fully exposed. Zyl’s hands then shot from her ears to her armpits, slapping at the tentacles stroking at them with the feeling of stiff, brushy tips, and then reversed course yet again, her ears coming under the assault of something wispy and fluffy, stroking from eartip to base and back again. “Nheehe-HEHEHEH! HEEEHE! FUCK FUCK FHAAHAHAHAA! SHIIHIEHEHAHAH SHIT DAHAAAMMIT!!!” This comical dance continued for only a few seconds more before Zyl had another, more immediate problem - her balance.

Windmilling her arms out to either side, her body bent at the waist as she felt her balance slipping, Zyl let out a shriek as the ticklish slime tendrils skittered fingernails along her sides, and attacked her ears, which she could no longer defend. She made the crucial mistake of shaking her head to try to avoid said sensations - and that put her balance completely out of whack. With a shriek, Zyl slipped off the beam and would have headed towards the water, but - she grabbed onto the beam with both hands, arresting her fall, and leaving her panting for a brief second as she considered her position. It might still be possible to cross like this, actually -- “NO!” she shrieked, as several tendrils appeared before her eyes, floating towards her ominously. Not like this, dangling from her hands, absolutely helpless to do anything as they came towards her. Adrenaline surged through her body, and she locked her legs together, swinging back, then forward to build momentum, and launched herself up into the air like a gymnast. Zyl felt the tendrils brush against her body briefly, but she was moving too fast, curled up in a ball, and the minor strokes against her sides and back weren’t enough to deter her from twisting around in mid-air, grabbing the bar again, and using her momentum to swing even harder… this time, going upwards, gaining enough height to put her feet back on the bar, and skipping backwards two quick steps to return to the safety of the platform. “Fucking… fuck…” she gasped, dropping to her knees as the surge left her.

“Impressive! Without submitting, Zyl gets herself out of a sticky situation and returns to safe ground! But how will she progress? It’s clear that she’s totally helpless against threats to her armpits! The ears are weak too - how can she protect both areas at once and keep her balance?” Zyl turned and spitted Arishna with an evil glare, but the grinning succubus was enjoying herself too much to be deterred. Then again, she wasn’t ever deterred by anything, anyway. “Let’s see how Zyl deals with this tricky situation!”

“Your armpits seem to be a real problem,” Blue cooed. Thankfully, she was banished to the role of booty shorts, which meant that her sum contribution had consisted of tickling all around Zyl’s hips and waist and thighs. Not that Zyl appreciated being tickled at all, but those places were at least less horrible than others. “And your ears, too. I don’t think you can protect both places at once.

“Shut up. Shut up, both of you. Let me think,” Zyl growled, having caught her breath again. Her legs felt a bit shaky from the rush, but a little bit of stretching would limber her back up, and help the dark elf think through the problem. “Okay, right. These things aren’t TOO fast. If I can keep moving it’ll make them less effective. But this damned beam is narrow, and if I fall I’m gonna have to go back to the start, and THAT will be fucking shitty.” Zyl paced back and forth, her eyes on the bar the whole time, narrowed into her trademark scowl. The tightening around the corners of her eyes made it appear as if she was wrestling with a decision she didn’t want to make, and trying to come up with some way to avoid the conclusion she’d come to. “Ffffffuckkkk… ughh. All right. Fuck. Red, go ahead and be sleeves again. I’m going to test something.”

Zyl gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and braced herself. Then, she covered her ears with her hands, and as Red formed sleeves to her top once again, she felt that horrible sensation crawl up over her sides, and into her armpits. “Fuuhuhuhuuck fuck fuck shiiiheehehhaHAHAHAhahahh shit fuck,” Zyl gasped, twisting her head left and right, stumbling about on the platform, but keeping her ears covered. “OOooooohhhh fuck fuck stop taahahah ahhahaah oh goddess fuck shit FUHUHUUUCK!” It was just as Zyl had feared. The feeling of fingernails crawling up into her exposed armpits was unbearable, and as far as she could tell, Red was only conjuring up one of them in each underarm. The nails swirled around slowly, stroking and scratching with only a light touch. How the hell was she able to so accurately copy the feeling of a hard fingernail, just barely pressing against the surface of her flesh, and dragging down in a short, slow movement?

Even just that was too much. It was way too much. It was like how her mother had tickled her armpits when she was small: never an intense, wild scratching in her sensitive pits, but always slow, always teasing, always accompanied by gentle little murmurs of affection and teasing. Zyl was the oldest sibling, and the strongest. No one else had ever, EVER been allowed to tickle her armpits, the threat of broken wrists and fingers readily springing to Zyl’s lips while she was growing up. Not even the one time she’d had a weird bout of curiosity and let Eri tickle her a little bit had she let him go there. Having to expose her armpits like this, and have Red tickle them in this teasy fashion, was hard. So, so hard, and yet Zyl knew that the alternatives were worse. She’d have to figure out how to endure this. Somehow. Some way.

Arishna was manipulating the transmission crystals with glee. It had taken a little bit of time for things to really get spicy, but the wait was proving well worth it. Besides, it felt authentic to Zyl’s character. Resistant, reluctant, haughty, prideful. That she had refused to play along - and continued to refuse, or try and wriggle sideways out of the obvious conclusions - just made it all the more satisfying when she was finally forced to submit. Right now, there was an ongoing close-up of Zyl’s underarms, capturing perfectly her eyes-slammed-shut, flat-lipped-grin struggle, the way her fingers curled and her biceps shook, the staggering little dance she was doing on the platform as she tried valiantly to endure the tickling in what must be one of her worst spots, if not THE worst. Zyl’s Succubit count was soaring thanks to this little demonstration, the payoff for the anticipation Arishna had deliberately stoked by threatening but not tickling her armpits in the shower last night. Zyl had cooperated by having the hysterically ticklish underarms that the succubus had predicted, and after just over a minute of enduring Red’s expert tickling, Zyl shrieked with laughter, howling for Red to stop, and the slime obediently retracted the sleeves to the dark elf’s outfit.

As Zyl let her arms drop from her ears, shaking her head and breathing hard, Arishna floated up behind her and cooed gently into one of those long ears she had been protecting: “You know, Zyl, letting everyone see your armpits like that was very, very popular. In fact, it was so popular that you… have completely closed the gap between you and your brother.” Zyl’s head snapped around, but Arishna had already prepared the display for her, and the snarky, obscenity-laced retort died on the dark elf’s lips: Zylinde 15,096, Erialen 15,091. The look of confusion on Zyl’s face was glorious, and Arishna reveled in it, imagining the swirl of conflicting thoughts in Zyl’s head. Her loathing of being tickled, her clear reluctance to expose her armpits, but also, that competitive little corner of her mind that was almost certainly luxuriating in having taken the lead. “Are your armpits your worst spot, Zyl~?”

“Shut up, my armpits aren’t my worst fucking spot, stop prying so much, I’m not going to tell you,” Zyl snapped back at her. The dark elf looked back over the balance beam and not at the succubus, trying to sort out her mental state almost as much as her physical state. She’d never lost to Erialen at anything, which was par for the course in a typical family of dark elves, but it was still a point of pride. Her younger sisters had learned quickly that Zyl went into a towering fury whenever she lost at anything, and had avoided it when they were all younger, although as Zyl’s height and age advantage grew smaller as the years passed - the goddess had seen fit to make Cel near as tall as a goddamn orc - that had stopped deterring them from trying their hardest to win. So, she was winning now, but not by much, and… and she shouldn’t fucking care about winning some demon perverts’ popularity contest! She had to focus. She’d been able to hold the pose for a decent amount of time, right? The beam wasn’t THAT long. If she moved quickly, she should be able to make it, right?

“Ready?” she asked, taking her stance at the start of the balance beam. The longer she sat here and let her mind spin around, the worse it was going to be. She just had to move. If she fell, she’d give up. That’s what the damn necklace was for, right? Right. Red responded by making Zyl’s top have sleeves once more, and, covering her ears, Zyl stepped onto the beam and tried to move as quickly as she could.

It was hard. Concentrating on taking one step after another on the narrow beam, keeping her focus on staying balanced, ignoring the stroking teases in her armpits, was much harder than enduring the tickling when she could dance and flop around on the platform. She couldn’t close her eyes or she’d fall for sure, and so Zyl proceeded, standing upright, teeth gritted in a wide, ticklish grin, and made her way forward. “Nyhahahah-AHAHahahahah fuhuh-hahahah-heheheheeh fuck fuckkkkkkk, nooooohohohahahahahaha shit fuckkkkkk!” But, she kept moving. The moment she’d stepped onto the beam, the tendrils had come for her, pausing at her covered ears, and then passing on her slime-shielded armpits, where Zyl could all but imagine the sight of stroking fingertips to match the sensation tormenting her forcibly exposed hollows. Zyl had been right on one count, however. Moving more quickly meant that the relatively slow-moving tendrils didn’t have much time to get into position, and the worst she dealt with for the first half of the balance beam was fleeting, ticklish touches to her sides, which made her quiver, but not enough to disrupt her focus or her balance.

She was too far in to back out now, and as if controlled by something more perceptive than mere instinct, the dangling slime tendrils changed tack. All of them at once descended in front of her, curling, and forming a sort of gauntlet she’d have to pass through, the tendril tips positioned so that her sides would brush against each one of these tendrils as she went. Red’s tickling in her armpits had been the same slow, steady fingernail tickling, and Zyl made the mistake of stopping when confronted with the tendrils in front of her. Stopping did nothing but allow Red to tickle her armpits more, and Zyl felt tendrils start to brush along her back behind her, creeping around to her front, which sent her stumbling forward with a shriek, balance now dangerously disrupted. “Nhhhhhahhaha… AHhahahahah oh fuck, oh fuck, oh shehehahahah shit fuck shihhaheheh dammit dammit shit hahhh-ahhahahahahahHAHAHAHAHA!” The first set of tendrils brushed against her sides, and a horrible explosion of ticklish tingling swept through her midsection, as if she had been brushed with a hundred stiff-bristled brushes all at once.

“NOOOOhoho! NOOHHOOHO dahhahah dammit dammit!” She was so close! She couldn’t fall. Not now, not now! If she stopped moving, those tendrils got more time to torture her sensitive stomach. If she kept moving, she might put a foot wrong and fall. “SThooohhahhahaha stoppit SHOOOOAHHAHAEEEEEEK!” Her foot slipped, and her body reacted instinctively - Zyl went down on all fours, using her knee and both hands to stabilize her balance, able to stop herself from falling, but now in a position that was even more precarious. Her armpits were still protected, but now her ears were not, and she felt the tendrils swarm to them, fluttering feather-tip sensations floating along the length of both ears, a horrid feeling that momentarily paralyzed her and kept her frozen, at the mercy of both the tendrils and Red’s tickling fingertips.

Zyl clutched onto the beam, down on one knee, her other leg pointed out at an angle and hovering over empty space. Getting back to her feet felt like it would be impossible, and so with a desperately ticklish whimper, Zyl hopped forward on her knee, using her hands, toes, and sheer willpower to propel herself forward under the swarming tickle assault. Now every part of her was exposed, around her sides and her back, her hovering foot and the one she was using to balance on the beam, her ears too. Her plan had taken her this far, but Zyl’s willpower had slowly crumbled under the ceaseless tickling, and now with a mere ten feet to go the opposite side of the beam felt so tantalizingly close and impossibly far away at the same time. “STOOohahhahaha stop stop NAHAhahahahehEHEHEHEH NOT THEHEHahahahahahah no noHAHAHAH FUCK NAHAHAHAH NOOOOO STHOOOOOOOOP!” she screeched, clutching onto the bar as if a lifeline, shaking her head frantically, trying to stay focused on the fact that she had to keep moving. Zyl alternated between short, awkward bursts of hopping forward and desperate hunkering down in place.

Zyl’s awkward crawling strategy brought her within striking distance of the far end of the platform, and when she realized this, she was able to summon her strength one final time to clear the obstacle. A noise that was some combination of a yell, a howl of laughter, and cry of triumph burst forth from her lips, and Zyl extended her strong frame in a rather dramatic leap to clear the last few feet of the balance beam, tumble to the comforting solidness of the platform, and roll onto her back, limbs spread-eagle, staring at the ceiling and panting wildly. “Clear!” Arishna exulted, floating over the gap between the two platforms, and grinning down at Zyl’s exhausted form. “With an impressive display of willpower and strength, our challenger has cleared the third trap and obtained the services of our final slime, White!” Then Arishna paused. Zyl had hardly responded to her presence or her words, or the arrival of the third slime girl, colored white, as her name implied. “It seems as if she’s rather worn herself out and needs a bit to rest,” Arishna declared. “So while we let Zyl gather herself, let’s go back and recap what we’ve seen so far.”

Arishna blinked out of Zyl’s sight, returning to the middle room, and striking a pose, a grin and a conspiratorial wink directed at her audience. “All you armpit lovers must be having a field day with Slime Land. Just like we’d guessed, Zyl has awfully, terribly, delightfully ticklish pits, and she’s really struggling with so much focus on them! That makes our last two obstacles even more fun to anticipate.” Arishna’s eyebrows wiggled. “I wonder if we’ll finish this course today or if Zyl is going to have to come back and give it a second go tomorrow - I’m sure that everyone would love a second day of armpit torture, now wouldn’t they? But let’s wait and see how she handles them. Even she should be able to realize what’s coming when she sees them, don’t you think? We’re going to start up another poll. Even though Zyl got this far with only two submissions, what do we think? How many is the home stretch going to wring out of her? As always, keep showing your support to both Zyl and Eri~! We’re having a lot of fun with this little contest!”

Zyl appeared then, already completely covered in the three slime girls, and oddly had nothing to say as she passed through the blue, red, and white field that blocked the final doorway. She barely noticed Arishna following behind her, her mind already focused ahead. Zyl did want some more time to catch her breath and collect herself, but she reasoned that staring idly at the ceiling was time wasted. She could see the next obstacle and think about what to do about it while she rested, so she had hauled herself back up to her feet, gotten the three slimes to cover her, and passed through the stretchy barrier to the sensation of her body being covered in gentle stroking fingernails from head to toe. Once through, Arishna took up her position beside Zyl, making sure to be ready to capture Zyl’s facial expression when she beheld the last two traps, for they were both visible from here, and would have to be cleared in succession in order to finish Slime Land.

There was no subtlety here. As before, white slime tendrils dangled from the ceiling. Their tips stopped just short of the set of monkey bars which had been set up as the only way to cross over the water separating the platform Zyl was on. Zyl would have to go hand-over-hand across the obstacle to get to the other side, where a tall, sheer climbing wall awaited her, with a knotted rope dangling from the top which she could use to ascend the obstacle. Here, too, the white slime tendrils awaited her, jutting out from the wall, and the expression on Zyl’s face was as priceless as Arishna had hoped for. The implication, and the challenge, was all too obvious. There would be no way to fuddle through these obstacles. No way to avoid massive armpit exposure. No way to protect her hysterically sensitive weak spot. The emphasis on forcing her armpits to be wide open, and tickling them ruthlessly, was brutally obvious.

Zyl sank down to her knees as the slimes shifted around her again, forming a bizarre riot of clothing, but she was too preoccupied to care at the moment. “Fuckkkkkkkk…” she groaned. “Shit. What the fuck am I even supposed to…?” Her eyes flitted from obstacle to obstacle, mind spinning. There had to be some way around this, right? Going quickly enough through the monkey bars and climbing like before? But she was tired, and turned to Arishna. “How much… time do I have left for today?”

“A few hours still~” the succubus replied with a giggle, not really managing to hide her glee. “You’ve got some time to think about it, to rest a little longer if you want. You’ve been through so much tickling today already, haven’t you? And we really haven’t even targeted those poor, defenseless armpits like they’re about to be targeted… poor thing, why don’t you take a little bit to figure out how to get past these last… two… obstacles before you’re home free~”

Zyl could barely even manage a scowl at Arishna’s condescending, mocking-sweet tone. Her mind was whirling, unable to even grasp the edges of a solution for these traps, and she sank to her knees, back hunched, panting. Just looking at these damn contraptions made her armpits tingle. Under her breath, however, she murmured, too softly for Arishna to hear.

“I’ll… fucking… never give up.”

She wasn’t beaten yet.