Dungeons and Dalliances

7.65 – Into the Basement III

Natalie wouldn't say she'd been lulled into a false sense of security, but after making it halfway through the vine-covered hallway, she jumped when the ground beneath her feet stirred and came to life. She froze in place, half because the footing was suddenly perilous, threatening to trip her if she kept walking, and half from surprise.

A green rope emerged from the blanket and started to slither up her leg. It wrapped around her left ankle in a single loop before venturing higher up. She pulled, an instinctive reaction to being restrained, and to her surprise, the vine stopped. Moreover, there was only a slight resistance to its grip on her ankle; despite securing her firmly, the vine didn't seem to be trying to hold her in place.

That put her at ease somewhat. When she went still again, the vine responded by continuing, as if accepting her silent permission. The dungeon, and the City, did seem to work that way. Maybe that was because it catered to their desires, and while being taken against a person's will was something some people were into—at least as a fantasy—that wasn't Natalie's preference, even in play-acting. So all of her encounters in the City and the dungeon took consent in mind.

That said, there would certainly be drawbacks to refusing to engage; it was almost guaranteed that there would be a fight if she didn't indulge the vines. But maybe she had some say in how it happened? Especially because the encounter was unavoidable.

Swallowing, she rested Valentine face-first on the mass of green as the vine slithered up her left leg. Another joined on the right, wrapping around her other ankle. Though they weren't applying much force now, Natalie couldn't help but wonder how much they would be capable of should they actually try to restrain her. They had great positioning, now, with both ankles tied up; it would be hard to fight back if they had any level of strength. And the green ropes were quickly advancing to further loop around her.

Holding her breath, and her heart rate rapidly increasing, she waited to see what would happen. She wasn't sure how far she would let this go. Back at the start of Tenet, during her first dungeon run, she'd been—well, rather fine with letting vines pleasure her how they wanted. But it felt much lewder knowing Vanetta would be standing there watching; she could hardly enjoy herself in the same way as when she was alone. Or even with Camille, who had been equally enthusiastic to the idea.

Even she could admit that letting vines ravage her was definitely a rather … perverted … activity, and so with Vanetta watching, she was much more embarrassed. Regardless of their circumstances, that they knew they would be getting into this sort of degeneracy when venturing into the Basement.

The vines climbed from her ankles to her calves then onto her thighs, their slimy touch on her skin drawing a shiver from her. The ropes were slightly wet—lubricated in exactly the way a cock might be during and after the act. A comparison Natalie doubted she made only because of the situation she was in; whatever the secretions were, she bet they were similar in purpose.

On reaching her upper thighs, both vines looped around the skin just beneath her bottom armor, securing her thighs in the same way her ankles had been. She gave a test pull of her leg and found she could still move despite the vines covering her, but their grip had grown stronger.

Was it smart to let this continue? The vines, at least, acknowledged her resistance and stopped moving. Other vines were approaching, three more that had slithered up from the ground to not secure her legs but instead other places. The ones around her legs had stopped moving, besides how they squirmed and gyrated in place. At least they weren't trying to strip off her lower armor like she had half expected them to. Though maybe that would be coming.

The first of the newcomers wrapped around her waist. Another secured her left arm, high on her bicep. The third, most adventurous one went for her breasts. It seemed agitated when it couldn't immediately find access to what was underneath. She wasn't sure how she could read that emotion so clearly, but the way it nudged against the underside of the metal plating with increasing speed didn't leave much up to interpretation.

"Want to touch?" Natalie murmured, shifting slightly in place at the many cold, slimy touches across her body. "If it's just touching, there's no problem." That was the least of what she'd expected.

The vines didn't seem to be going for her lower armor, only her top—was that all they wanted? At least they weren't intelligent enough to know how to strip her themselves. Or maybe it wasn't intelligence; to undo the strings keeping her armor on, they would need dexterity the thick green ropes simply didn't have.

So, doing them a favor, she took her top off.

Her exposed tits were, indeed, what the frustrated vine had wanted. Immediately, it circled around her left and squeezed with enough force to make her take a breath in surprise. Another vine appeared from nowhere to grab her other; in moments she was being groped excitedly by two vines.

Maybe the whole mass was a hive-mind, because the ones around her stomach and thighs seemed to grow equally excited for having access to her body. They squirmed and writhed between her legs with increasing joy as the ones groping her breasts squeezed and rubbed against her.

The brushing of her nipples was admittedly pleasurable. Their slippery secretions covered her, lubricating essentially every inch of her exposed skin and giving her an oiled-up, shiny look. Each touch and squeeze made her breath catch. Her whole body felt hot.

After a while of standing there and taking it, Natalie murmured, "Alright, alright. Could I … pass through, if I wanted?"

If their goal was just to grope her for a bit, she'd consider themselves lucky; that was nothing for a Palace Basement encounter. It was kind of nice, even—though glancing toward Vanetta made her feel pretty embarrassed by her situation. The other girl was watching, daggers in hand, with a face redder than Natalie's own.

She wanted to see how they'd react to being denied, because while she might be fine with most anything the vines were willing to throw at her, Vanetta wasn't. And gauging how accepting they were of being denied would be important, since Vanetta would have to pass through after—and if they were too eager and aggressive, trying to take things Vanetta wasn't willing to give, it would turn into a fight.

So, she grabbed at the vines groping her and tried to pull them away.@@novelbin@@

They were initially accepting, freezing up in the way they had before. When she really tried to start extracting herself from their—now very secure—grip, they grew visibly agitated. Which wasn't promising.

She managed to remove herself and take a few steps forward—with the vines attached to her legs dragging along with her, the hardest to get rid of—before they seemed to grow truly annoyed. Their grip grew stronger on her ankles, though not so much that Natalie didn't think she could pull herself out and—what then? Fight whatever encounter this became?

She stopped resisting, and the vines returned to their placidity, engulfing her in their slimy grip once more and returning to groping her breasts. A new one nuzzled against her lower piece of armor, hinting that it wanted access.

Natalie considered her options. Fighting was always a possibility, and maybe these vines would be satisfied with just her sating them, letting Vanetta pass unimpeded afterward. She had no idea whether that would be the case, but again—it was either fight, or hope for the best. Since Vanetta didn't seem to want to 'give her first time' to vines, and the City mostly catered to their desires, Natalie thought there were good odds it would work that way; that they wouldn't do more than Vanetta wanted.

So. She relaxed and waited to see how far this would go.