The blow landed sharply across the gray woman's jaw, throwing her head to her right and knocking a small drop of yellow blood from her lips. She turned back slowly to face Susan with a grin of pure, insane glee.

"Oh, come now. Surely you can hit harder than that." The irritation in her voice was nowhere near her eyes. After a moment of pause, a shudder ran along her spine, and a pleased hiss escaped her lips. The briefest flicker of a forked tongue escaped her lips to punctuate the hiss as the pleasure of the pain slid away and past the creature. She was distracted by it, though, and still completely open as she stood there, either unprepared for another attack or hoping for one.

During all of this, the last snake coiled over Miss Steel fell down to the ground with a soft thud and settled itself off to the side of the two, as if intent on remaining an impartial judge. Its eyes glimmered, the same yellow-green as Steel's, and turned between the two.

It's tough. That blow should've affected it more than that. Have to pull out all the stops while it's distracted. Susan quickly threw another punch at the creature's head and prepared to follow it with a roundhouse kick.

Susan's fist landed with a soft, wet thud, loosing another trickle of yellow blood from Steel's lips. The kick spun the gray woman sharply around until her back was to the girl, and her knees went slack to drop her into an uneven kneel.

The moment the grass was crushed under bare skin, a low moan poured from her throat. The sound trembled with unrestrained lust, and a visible shudder of pleasure ran over her back.

"Harder," she said, her voice a soft hiss of need.

The monster's reaction caused Susan to hesitate briefly. Is this thing a masochist or something? Was it just trying to get me to attack it to get itself off? Can't take the chance it's harmless... Have to try to take it out before it tries to do something to me.

Taking a deep breath, she aimed a spin kick at Miss Steel's head. In the relatively small space of the clearing, it was the strongest blow she could manage. If you didn't plan to attack me and this does serious damage, I'm sorry.

There was a sickening crack that sent the kneeling creature sprawling onto her side. She stared up into the sky, her eyes wide and glazed with painful lust, for a long moment. Everything about her said she should have been panting hard, but no breath passed through the gray woman's lips until a hard, shuddering moan spread from her throat.

"Oh, Susan, that's wonderful. Kick me again."

The serpent rose back up above the grass, turned to stare at the girl, and hissed softly. At the edges of the clearing from where she'd come, the telltale wavering of grass foretold the creation's brethren approaching.

A sickening feeling overtook Susan as the creature went down and lay utterly motionless after her kick. Shit, did I just kill it?

She breathed a sigh of relief as Miss Steel moaned. While she sorely wanted to do in Keemari after what he'd done to her, she didn't know if this creature was like that.

"Oh, Susan, that's wonderful. Kick me again."

That's it. I've got better things to do than play along with some creature's masochistic fantasies. I'm leaving.

As she started to leave, she noticed the snake looking at her and the signs of the other snakes arriving. O--kay. Looks like I don't have any choice but to play along. Hope I can knock it out quickly. She took careful aim at the back of the creature's head and kicked it again. Not as hard as her previous kicks; she couldn't get much momentum while Miss Steel was lying on the ground, and she didn't want to risk damaging the creature's spine with a spinning kick.

Another sharp cry of lust ripped through the gray woman's throat. Her fingers clutched at the ground as if it were the sheets of a lover's bed. She held there, panting softly, and turned to look hungrily up at the girl. Her mind was slipping, and the pressure of the inhibitors was working its way back into the clearing to gently slow and weaken Susan. She didn't even catch on the mention of other creatures and the anger for them sliding quickly through the girl's mind.

"Don't worry," she gasped out between pants. "I won't break, or nod off. Just keep hitting me. Harder! It's so g- No, damn you!"

Yellow-green eyes glared at the mechanical serpent now coiled tightly in the grass and watching the young woman with could have been an angry glare, or could have been a defensive fear. Being both a snake and made of painted metal, it was rather difficult to read.

Great. If it's right, I won't be able to knock it out. Now I've got to hope it lets me go before it loses control of the snakes. Quickly looking for other snakes, she moved to put Miss Steel between herself and the snake in the clearing.

Crouching, she landed a sweep kick on the creature's head. I hope it gets what it wants out of this soon. I hate hitting an opponent who won't fight back. Through it all, she kept an eye on the snake as well as she could.

An arm snapped up to catch the kick on its side this time, and the panting creature shuddered again in bliss.

"Why didn't you just say so, girl? Here, I'll stop making it easy for you if you promise to hit harder."

The gray woman coiled and sprung back to her feet and wobbled slightly, unsteady, then caught herself by crossing her legs at the knee. A stupid grin was painted on her lips, and she giggled maniacally.

Why do I have the sinking feeling I just made things even harder on myself? She was under no illusions that the creature was going to let her go if she refused to cooperate. Best to try and get it over with as soon as possible.

With a sigh of resignation, she rushed at the creature, aiming a strike at its chest. She wasn't going to hold back, but if the thing was going to fight back, it was probably expecting a kick and could catch her off-balance if she led with one.

That grin and that dazed look vanished slowly from the creature's face as she was charged, remaining still until the last possible moment. The gray woman seemed to stumble, the block was so clumsy, but it was still stunningly fast and perfectly timed to deflect the blow aimed at her chest. Her other hand came up in a flash and slapped lightly at Susan's cheek before her legs slid unevenly away.

Susan managed to dodge at the last second, and the slap only grazed her cheek. Damn. It's fast, and it's still only toying with me. Have to pull out all the stops... make more attacks than it can counter.

She dashed after the creature, aiming a punch at its head and prepared to follow up with another punch to its chest and a knee to its stomach. She didn't stop to wonder how she'd wound up chasing the creature she'd been trying to get away from; things like that happened when her anger got the better of her.

The gray woman laughed insanely as she saw Susan come lunging back at her. This one was so much fun! The first blow slid past her head as she continued to silently taunt the poor student, but that put the second square into the soft orb of flesh. A choked-off cry of pain and pleasure ripped through Steel's lips before the knee caught her hard in the gut. Her knees started to give out again, and the monster fell, but this time she fell forward, directly at her prey, with one arm outstretched and the other clutching at her own chest.

As the creature fell at her, Susan sidestepped and grabbed its arm. So far, I've only used karate against it. It shouldn't be ready for this. She executed a judo throw, sweeping the creature's legs out from under it and using its momentum to propel it to the ground hard.

Indeed, the gray woman wasn't prepared for that strike, and she landed hard on her back. Once again, she was staring up at the pale blue sky and moaning deeply in horrible lust. The serpent watching the exchange seemed to lose its self control, and it lunged out at the girl, fangs bared at her leg.