Orgasm system: These beastwomen must moan!

Chapter 29: By your world’s rules...

Stefan’s POV

"5, 000 AP..."

I quickly ran the math in my head like a man counting stolen cash. If I got that, the debt would be completely gone. That meant I didn’t even need to do any daily task and I would still have currency left over. Enough to buy another Life Ember, drag another frozen woman up off the ground and back into the land of the living.

And another ’magic’ would give me access to more VIP treatment.

Man, that was not a reward. That was a lottery ticket.

I accepted the quest before my brain could talk my body out of it.

[HIDDEN MISSION ACCEPTED.]

[TIME LIMIT: 3:00:00]

Three hours. Tight but fine. I’d worked faster deadlines than this scamming a woman out of her divorce settlement.

"You wouldn’t want to." Zinnia stated, answering her question and

was already turning to walk away. I could see the smugness in the way she straightened her back as she walked.

Nah, I was the owner of smugness. I should be and I would be.

Before she would be halfway gone, I grabbed her shoulder again even though my whole arm still throbbed from the last time I’d tried that exact move and eaten dirt for it.

"What if I challenged you?" I asked from behind but quickly stepped into her front before she would fling me again.

Zinnia cocked her head as she looked at me. The unbothered pride in her eyes was still dancing fiercely. As if the question amused her more than threatened her.

"What is your rank?" That was her response. Very sharp, threatening to pierce through my pride but I wouldn’t let it.

"Rank? Don’t have one." I straightened up despite everything in my back screaming otherwise.

"Wrong question anyway. Where I’m from, when you challenge a man, you ask his name. Name means more than rank ever will."

She didn’t blink but she didn’t argue either.

"What is your name." She asked firmly.

I let a beat pass. Let it land with weight, like I was handing her something sacred instead of just my own name.

"Stefan Sinclair."

The System dinged, loud about it in my ears in a way I didn’t appreciate.

[SIDE MISSION COMPLETE.]

[Zinnia’s Interest: +1%]

[Recruitment Progress: +1%]

[REWARD: +200 EXP]

"Interesting" I chuckled inwardly as I remembered I hadn’t even been trying. I was just talking my way out of another humiliation, and the System hands me a completed mission like loose change falling out of somebody’s pocket.

Anyway, my focus was on the bigger cheque. I looked at Zinnia and saw that she hadn’t tried to walk away yet. That was the tell. She was still standing there, watching me like she was waiting for the rest of whatever this was.

I stepped in closer and held her eyes.

"I challenge you to an earthly duel." I said to her.

Her brow moved, barely, but I caught it. "What manner of duel is that."

"Special kind." I kept my voice even, like I wasn’t making this up in real time. "It is the kind you will find only where I’m from. Only people with real weight to their name do it. Figured that meant you."

[Zinnia’s Curiosity: Rising.]

The system notification informed me and I had to bit the corner of my cheek to not smile.

Of course, she would be.

"Explain it," she said.

"Simple." I shrugged like it didn’t matter either way. "Both people throw punches, as in fight. Whoever manages to hold the other person with their mouth wins."

She frowned, just slightly, clearly not following, but I already knew she wasn’t the type to admit that out loud. Pride runs deep on this planet, apparently, deeper than common sense.

"We will begin," she said instead.

Exactly what I was counting on.

~~~~~~~~~

We squared up.

She looked ready to end something, which given her track record with me that morning felt about right.

She threw a jab. Some tiny, deeply stupid part of my brain still believed I could dodge a beastwoman mid-swing, and I found out real quick that I could not.

Her fist caught me square in the chest, and the air just left my body completely, like it had somewhere better to be.

I hit the ground.

"Fuck me!" I groaned. But I got back up anyway, because three hours doesn’t leave room for lying around feeling sorry for myself, no matter how much my ribs disagreed.

The real problem wasn’t the hits. It was distance. Zinnia kept perfect space between us, every movement built around keeping me exactly where a fist could reach and a mouth couldn’t. This woman was fighting like she had trained her whole life to never be kissed.

Fine. I’ll eat a few more hits if it gets me close enough.

I squared up again. Another one landed, this time across my face, and my vision actually tilted sideways, stars swimming in at the edges.

I staggered, let my body roll with the momentum instead of fighting it, spinning it into something that almost looked like a dance move if you squinted hard enough and ignored the pain.

Her guard dropped. Half a second. That was all I needed.

I closed the last bit of space and pressed my mouth to hers although her hands had already gone up in defense, grabbing my neck.

"I hope this woman wouldn’t strangle me to my second death..." However something surprising but pleasing happened.

Zinnia went rigid when she felt my lips on hers. A full-body stillness, like her mind hadn’t caught up to what her body was currently allowing to happen.

Well, I wasn’t one to waste an opportunity. I pushed her lips open with my tongue and I began to snake inside her mouth with it. Then I moved to suck on her lower lip.

My hands that I had dropped uselessly by my sides ached to roam her curves but I knew that would be pushing my luck too far. So I endured the temptation, the agony... Because what was kissing without fondling?

I kept going anyway - slow, giving it everything, because if I was betting five thousand AP on one kiss, it was going to be a damn good kiss.

She didn’t kiss back. Not once. But she didn’t pull away either, and something about that felt like its own kind of victory.

I pulled back eventually, breathing harder than I wanted to admit out loud.

"I win," I said.

Zinnia looked at me for a long, quiet moment. Then, flat, almost like it cost her something to say it:

"By your world’s rules, you win."

"For our future duels, it shall be by my world’s rule." She added then started to walk away before I could even reply her.

I knew her pride had just been wounded. And that future duels she mentioned, I knew all I had to do to avoid getting beaten black blue was to avoid anything that had to do with challenging her.

My lips curved into a smug smirk then I looked straight at the corner of my vision, waiting for the ding. Waiting for five thousand beautiful AP to drop into my balance and save my entire miserable, indebted life but...

Nothing came. For a whole five seconds. What was happening? It had never been delayed like this before.

I swallowed hard.

"You better...