This story contains bondage, damsel-in-distress, and other sexual themes. I recommend you turn away if that does not interest you.
*****
“This is the place, right? ...Kat?” Lux looked ahead at the vast forest encompassing her entire line of sight, trees blotting out the sun’s rays almost entirely with how thick the foliage became. The mage turned her gaze away from that, however, as her partner’s silence continued for an awkward few seconds.
“Kat-”
“Kat’s for friends.” The assassin coldly replied. Katarina twirled her twin daggers in each hand, looking ahead to the forest which distinctly avoided Lux’s eyes.
“...Katarina,” Lux corrected, before repeating her question, “this is where the Professor told us we’d begin our search, right?”
Katarina pulled out her phone, sheathing a dagger to do so. Her GPS position on it seemed to correlate with the beginning of the marked land, indicating that they were in the right place. Disturbances had been reported around this forest, and some strange activity along with various eye witness sources was enough reason for these two to be dispatched.
Though they were simply students of Durandal Academy, those who trained to become fully-fledged heroes, the abilities of the two couldn’t be understated. Katarina’s lethality with her daggers exceeded that of almost anyone else at the institute, and Lux’s raw power and flexible utility through her light-bending couldn’t be ignored either. It was what gave their professor the confidence to send them on this task, which was to investigate and assess the mysterious situation occurring in this forest. They were advised to only instigate a fight if they were certain they could win it… which in Katarina’s mind, was essentially permission to engage as she pleased.
Katarina stuffed her phone back into her coat pocket before equipping both of her daggers once more. She began walking into the forest, a sudden action that confused Lux for a few moments, before the mage finally ran and caught up to her.
“Hey! Shouldn’t we talk strategy and plans first? What if there’s actually something-”
Katarina interrupted the mage once more. “You can figure out your strategy. I have one of my own, which involves doing this alone.”
“What? I-I can be useful! It’s bound to get pretty dark in there, but I can light up a path! And my magic is more than good enough to hold my own in battle…”
“Which is precisely why we will split up. An assassin doesn’t exactly want a bright, flashing helpless little signal walking alongside them, right? We’ll cover more ground separated, and finish this job quickly.”
Lux bit her tongue, choosing not to reciprocate the insult, not intending to destroy their cooperability any further. And even though the way Katarina had put it was harsh, Lux supposed she had a few decent points.
“I’ll say again that I think it’s much better if we stick together. But at the very least, promise to contact me if you run into any trouble. And I’ll do the same, alright?” Lux waved her own phone to the assassin, showing just exactly what she meant.
Katarina turned away just as she rolled her eyes. “Fine. Heroes shouldn’t be the ones needing help, though.” The assassin began walking into the woods once more, not even giving her “partner” another word.
The mage sighed, gripping her staff as she looked ahead as well. She supposed she should take the direction opposite to the assassin, as to best fulfill her wishes. Her stare turned towards Katarina’s back for one final look, before she entered the dense forest as well.
*****
From tree branch to tree branch, Katarina traversed the forest, using her nimble body and trained agility to glide across the forest. She took occasional glances at her surroundings, scouting constantly for anything unusual. Of course, all she saw through the thin veil of darkness… was more greenery.
What a waste of time, Katarina thought to herself. Nothing, not even something as small as a scuffed footprint had caught the student’s eye. The fact that Lux hadn’t sent a spree of alerts to her phone indicated that things were just as boring for the other student… not that she particularly cared for her, or anything. At the very least, Katarina figured that so long as there wasn’t anything to fight, splitting up was the correct decision for just getting this useless mission over with as soon as possible.
Of course, something was waiting for the assassin. Out of the corner of her eye, Katarina noticed a clearing in the woods, a wooden shack, no bigger than a single room, lying in the center of the treeless area. It wasn’t entirely odd to see a run-down, abandoned settlement in a place like this, but as Katarina approached it…
It didn’t seem to be unoccupied. The windows were boarded up with fresh planks of wood, and the door barricaded from the outside as well. If you were actually using the place, it wouldn’t make much sense to trap yourself outside of it-
“...heeelp!” A voice, barely audible, snuck into Katarina’s ears. Its source was certainly inside the shack, and it made all the more sense as to why someone would put so much effort into rebuilding the cabin. The student recalled seeing various news stories about high-ranking nobles, popstars, and others being kidnapped; was one of them being stored here?
A glance at her surroundings didn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary, but Katarina didn’t think she had the time to do a thorough investigation beyond that. Her hand snuck into her pocket, finding its way to her phone… before she let it go, preparing a dagger in her hand instead. She had to act fast, before whoever was keeping the kidnapped person here returned. Calling and waiting for Lux would significantly delay that. Making sure that the hostage was safe would make dealing with the kidnappers much easier.
Jumping down from the trees, she ran towards the shack. The voice continued to call for help, again and again, and Katarina considered telling them to shut up now that she was here. It took a few well-placed kicks to knock down the barricades, the wood either surprisingly weak or the assassin surprisingly strong. She busted down the door, her knives at the ready just in case..!
Huh? There wasn’t a soul in the shack. Just a broken lightbulb, scattered chairs and-
A tape recorder, playing a woman’s voice shouting “heeelp!” over and over. But why would someone leave that here, let alone record it in the first place? The only reason she could think of would be…
She turned around, instantly bringing her knives up in a readied stance as she noticed a figure approaching her. The difference in their gear was blatantly obvious: while Katarina had her academy uniform and daggers, the man wore padded armor and seemed to be well equipped with various weapons. And it wasn’t just him: more men, equipped exactly like him approached. Too many, too spread out, for her to count before one of them shouted across the clearing:
“Katarina Du Couteau! Though you may have heroic ambitions, it is in your best interest to surrender quietly and give those up.” He held a coil of rope, a smirk forming underneath his helmet.
The assassin slowly stepped out of the cabin, walking out a few steps. Many of the men readied weapons, aimed directly at her body, though Katarina noticed that they weren’t lethal weapons. Net guns, tasers, various restraints… nothing that’d kill her. So they were intent on capturing her for… whatever reason. They must’ve set this as some sort of trap, creating disturbances in the forest and hoping to capture whatever hero they sent. None of it would matter though, since Katarina did not plan on surrendering or losing.
“My best interest? That's dealing with all of you.” Katarina suddenly broke out into a sprint, heading straight for the man in front of her with both knives ready. She entirely expected the men to respond though, and one of the men that approached her from the left instantly shot his weapon, sending a bola of iron balls and ropes straight towards the assassin at an extraordinarily fast speed. Even if Katarina had the reaction times to notice it, there was surely no way she could dodge it in time-
She suddenly disappeared, and the bolas fell to the ground, restraining not even the grass they landed on. The men looked around, confused before one of them shouted out and pointed towards the man Katarina had been initially running towards..!
Somehow, Katarina had teleported behind the man, and her dagger was already coming down on him before he even had a chance to turn around. Katarina was already flinging a dagger towards another one of the kidnappers, and the instant the first man hit the ground, she was already onto her second target. Once again she teleported behind one of them, her Shunpo talent allowing for such a feat the very instant the dagger connected in his stomach. Though he was more ready for the attack from behind, having seen Katarina in action, his heavy gear, and the sudden shock of the first dagger piercing his armor and digging into his body made it impossible for him to be ready before the second dug into his back.
Having taken down two of them so quickly, the rest of the men grouped up to face Katarina. She realized now that they’d surrounded the entire shack, coming in numbers much greater than the student initially expected. A dozen--maybe two at that, all grouped up as they faced the student, holding their weapons at the ready, prepared to unleash everything they had onto her. Katarina knew she couldn’t give them that chance.
It caught them off guard when Katarina teleported directly towards them, dropping herself in the center of the group. Before they could readjust their aims, Katarina began throwing her daggers in a circle, spinning as a seemingly infinite amount of them were flung into their bodies, digging into and sometimes piercing straight through their armor. As she continued to spin, a smirk of confidence came over the assassin’s face, certain that she’d won the day on her own-
Just as the last of the men began to fall, the sound of something swishing through the air went unheard by Katarina. The noise of her daggers and the screams of the men were enough to mask it, and with how fast she spun to unload her attack onto the men, she couldn’t make out through blurred vision that something was flying straight towards her until it connected with her body.
Ropes circled her chest, pinning her arms to her sides in the process as they suddenly tightened. The weight added by the set of iron balls attached to the end of each wire disrupted Katarina’s stance, and in combination with the momentum of the projectile, it was enough to force Katarina to the ground. The ropes had looped around the assassin’s body a few extra times, and the excruciating weight that the numerous iron balls brought made it impossible for Katarina to pull herself up or even free her arms from her sides.
“W-What the hell?!” She muttered to herself, looking around. Her eyes darted around the clearing as she desperately tried to pull herself free, but the strain of the bola and the position it’d brought her in was already seeming difficult to deal with on her own. The desperate scanning of the assassin finally halted as she came across another one of the men, this one revealing himself from behind one of the trees. He must’ve hidden like a coward, watching as Katarina decimated their forces and waited for just the perfect moment to subdue her.
The few that’d been lucky enough to not be struck by Katarina’s assault quickly jumped to the assassin. Her vigorous struggles meant nothing to the bola wrapped around her chest, but the rest of her body still had some fight in it. She kicked at the men who approached her, hoping that her heeled boots would somehow do them in, but the blows were easily absorbed by their armor.
“Get away from me, you-you assholes! I’ll kill you!” Her defensive kicks were only halted when her leg was taken hold of, the kidnappers strong arms eventually finding a grip on Katarina’s flailing legs. She resisted their controlling, forceful pull as they slowly pushed her ankles together, an action that took two of the men while a third one prepared a strand of rope.
“Don’t you da-AMMPHF!” A hand came over Katarina’s mouth from behind, serving as a temporary gag to the annoying, aggressive demands that held no water behind them. The hand gag remained long enough for them to weave the rope around her ankles, strictly pulling the loops around her ankles before tightly securing the knot in place. Then, they prepared a single piece of tape to gag the assassin, which was promptly plastered on her mouth just as the hand came off.
“MMMPH!” Katarina cried out into her gag. “N’MN HNMM NMM NFF MNN!” Though it was intelligible, the loudness to which the student screamed at was a little annoying for a few of the men. She continued moaning and grunting, making any sort of resistive sound she could until finally-
“Alright, you’ve earned yourself this!” One of the men began, as he ripped the single piece of tape off of her mouth. Almost shocked, Katarina opened her mouth, prepared to shout another threat at them, but a thick, white cloth was suddenly shoved into her mouth. The black tape was once again used to gag her, this time with the added effect of holding the cloth inside her mouth, though it was wrapped around her head over and over. It thankfully never caught onto the assassin’s long, pink hair, but Katarina was in disbelief of how many times he felt the need to wrap the roll around her head. Only once it felt truly excessive, at seven or eight wraps did he finally cut off the tape and leave the gag as it was.
And it was much more effective. All the assassin could make out now was an “...mmph..!” here and there, taking all the breath she could muster to even get such a small sound out. Satisfied with the quiet, the men finally turned back to binding the rest of her, kneeling by her legs. He pulled out another coil of rope-
Only to feel an impact on his stomach. His armor tanked most of the blow, and it wasn’t even a particularly powerful one at that, but the unexpectedness of it still startled him slightly. What interested him more, though, was the fact that Katarina was still resisting so furiously, kicking her bound legs into his stomach even if the blows were ineffective with her legs tied as they were.
“Still resisting, are you? Even when you’re just a helpless little kitty now? Well, I’m curious as to how you’ll respond to this…”
He dropped the rope, for now, leaving it to the other men. His hands instead grabbed onto her breasts, groping them roughly through her uniform. Katarina’s entire body flared up in struggles, but the gag was more than enough to suppress her screams, the bola enough to keep her arms at bay, and the ropework around her ankles that was quickly being complemented with coils above and below her knees preventing aggressive kicks or evasive escape.
Though she glared daggers at the man, they were nothing compared to what she’d been throwing before. He continued to squeeze and play with her round breasts, undeterred by any part of her resistance as his ravenous hands continued their assault. Just as he expected, her struggles and quieted sounds served only to make it all the sweeter.
One final rope was tied around her legs in the meanwhile, her thighs squishing slightly as the rope was secured around her exposed skin. By all means, she was currently secured, but they didn’t exactly plan on just leaving the assassin here. The weight of the bolas wrapped around her body would make transportation more difficult, so the kidnappers needed to prepare something a little more… permanent, for Katarina.
Carrying one of the assassin’s daggers, one of the men began to cut the iron balls free of the rope. The rest of them were careful to have a grip already on her as the bola came loose, ensuring that she wouldn’t be able to use this moment of freedom to any capacity. With the heavy iron balls cut, the rope was… just that, rope. Not tied, secured, or knotted in any manner, just a few strands that rested on her body. Katarina began to struggle, attempting to throw her arms around once more, but the men’s grip was far too stringent to give her even an inch to work with. The rope unraveled easily from Katarina’s body as they pulled it free, and their hands were quick to wrench Katarina’s own behind her back. It only took a few moments of holding her thrashing hands in a very unwholesome manner for the new coil of rope to be tied, knotted, and secured, leaving her arms trapped behind her back. Even as her gloved fingers began to search for the knot, loosening it would be the much tougher ordeal.
Her bonds didn’t end there, however. Testing the assassin’s flexibility, the kidnappers tied another rope around her arms, this one just above her elbows. Of course, she passed with flying colors, and her elbows were pushed against one another the moment that rope was secured. A harness began to form on Katarina’s body, pinning her unzipped jacket to her body as a set of ropes ran up her shoulders, and ran tightly above and below her breasts, accentuating them further. That combined with her arms behind her back, forcing her to push out her already well-sized bust…
“Mmm… I think I may… need to do a pat-down. Check for any… hidden daggers.” He began with the area he already checked most thoroughly, aggressively squeezing her chest as she shook vigorously in response, her intensity matching that of his passion. He slowly traveled downwards, bringing the assassin to her side so that he could feel the rest of the assassin’s curves, perhaps not quite as impressive as her chest, but still worthy of attention, nevertheless.
“Hey… do they still do this as punishment?” Katarina hadn’t the slightest clue as to what he was referring to until-
SMACK!
She shook reflexively, her struggles hindered by her bonds immensely, and it was the first moment when Katarina truly felt helpless. There was nothing she could do other than endure the incoming waves, punishment for her futile resistance to her subjugation. The sounds of the spankings would be so much sweeter if he could hit her on completely bare cheeks… perhaps he’d save that idea for later. He gave her three more hard spanks before running his hands back up to her chest.
But along the way, he actually did feel something. Something in her coat's pocket. The moment Katarina realized he noticed, was when she let out her most strenuous, spirited struggles yet. Of course, they could not stop him in the slightest, easily able to reach into the assassin’s jacket pocket and reveal…
A phone? And it just so happened to be unlocked? Katarina realized that she’d forgotten to lock it, leaving it on the screen of her text messages with Lux. She couldn’t see it, but two new messages had appeared on the screen.
Lux: Hello? Is everything alright?
Lux: If I don’t get a response, I’m going to assume you’re in trouble, and I’ll call for help.
The message was only sent a few minutes ago. What it revealed, though, was that they’d sent two students on this little mission. It was good he caught this little detail when he did, and a stroke of luck that he even had the chance to in the first place. They’d only expected to capture one with this piece of bait, having faked all those danger reports, but perhaps… He began to type.
Katarina: I’m fine. Send me your location so we can regroup.
It only took a couple dozen seconds for the mage to respond.
Lux: I thought you said we’d stay apart?
He thought for a moment. Out of what she’d seen of this girl, who still scowled and struggled, what would she likely respond with..?
Katarina: Just do it. We haven’t got all day.
It took a little longer, but he smiled as her precise location popped up on a map. Perfect.
“Alright, men. We’ve got another one to catch. I’ll call in reinforcements and make preparations. This phone oughta contain a few good pieces of information about this “Lux”. Anyone who can’t move… can look after her.”
He turned back to the assassin, and though she still carried that nasty glare accentuated by her scar, he could see a glimmer of fear, buried deep within her eyes.
*****
Lux wasn’t sure as to what she should be doing. The text from Katarina indicated that she should probably just wait in place for the assassin’s arrival, though surely there was something she could be doing in the meantime?
Regardless, the mission had been pretty lax so far. The mage hadn’t run into anything yet, having done nothing but push herself through the trees and shrubbery only to find more of the greenery, and continue on and on and on…
The fact that Katarina wanted to meet up indicated to Lux that something had happened on her end, though. Honestly, after the firm denial of Lux’s suggestion of sticking together, the text came as a bit of a surprise, but the optimistic side of the woman just assumed that Kat had finally come to her senses. About time, she thought with a smile.
The rustling of bushes ripped the mage from her thoughts. She immediately tightened her grip around her staff, her eyes darting around the forest as she turned in a circle. They revealed nothing, but the trees were awfully thick in this part of the forest, and light barely shone through the leaves down from the sky. She could use her staff to light the area, but Katarina’s words echoed in her head. A bright, flashing, helpless signal? Lux knew she was more than that, but the words still stung.
No, she shouldn’t get turned around by that. There was no way it was anyone other than Katarina, right? Maybe she’d just show the assassin how useful her light could be…
The tip of her staff began to glow, and the light dispersed into every direction. It gave the mage a clear view, and her eyes searched the forest for a pink-haired, angsty assassin-
Her heart dropped. That definitely wasn’t Katarina. That figure that just slid behind the cover of a tree was wearing armor, not an academy uniform, and Lux was pretty sure that it wasn’t even a woman..! Her eyes darted, seeing more and more traces of activity, dodgy figures…just how many were there? Lux took cover with a tree of her own, but looking in the other direction, she could see the light revealing more and more! Whoever they were, they’d likely surrounded her.
There was a deafening period of silence. All Lux heard was footsteps, the shifting of gear and weapons, her mind tripping over itself as she tried to figure out what to do.
Then they began to charge. One popped out, only a dozen feet ahead of her, and Lux reflexively blasted him with a bolt of energy. Two from her right side were responded with by a lucent ball of energy, slowly growing in front of them. It exploded with power a second later, knocking those two back as well. She began to flee, running over their fallen bodies while shooting more shots of energy at them while she could, trying to dodge their weapons-
That was close! An electric shock of some kind almost connected straight on with the mage’s chest, but Lux put up her prismatic barrier just in time. The metal device, brimming with electricity, dropped to the ground, sparking as it did, before it was crushed completely underneath Lux’s heel. She just had to be sure to maintain her distance, and she walked backward as quickly as she could while continuing to return fire, aware of the fact that they were closing in. She had to do something to really slow their approach.
Lux dug her feet into the ground before turning around, having chosen to face her foes head-on. Her staff began to hover in front of her, spinning in the air as a huge amount of energy began to gather up in it. The men’s approach halted, startled by the sudden show of power, and just as she was about to release the energy..!
Click!
Her attack simmered out, nothing but smoke discharged from her staff. There was a sudden tightness around her neck, a cold sensation in combination with it. Lux raised her hands, feeling not her flesh and skin when she pressed her gloved hands against her neck, but a solid, rigid metal. W-What the..?
Lux turned herself around, startled only for a moment by the man that stood behind her, simply looking down on her with a smile. She butted the back-end of her staff into him with all the force she could muster, before turning it around, ready to give him a blast of light-
Again, the staff simply sputtered out! Panic began to set in as she didn’t even fully comprehend what was happening… i-it had to be this collar, right? And why was this man just standing there, m-menacingly?
“It’s a good thing we got a sneak peek at your powers beforehand,” The man began, stepping forward as his hand barely caught Lux’s arm as she stepped to flee, “a mage like you may prove to be a bit of trouble to secure without one of these.”
He gave Lux’s arm a sharp tug, pulling the woman in quite easily. His gaze rested on the glowing collar for a moment, absorbing all of the mage’s raw mana which left her unable to cast even a single spell. With his other hand, he caught Lux’s staff as she weakly tried to use it brutally against his chest, ripping it from her grip and throwing it to the ground.
‘W-What are--Who, L-Let go!” The fear was more than palpable in the mage’s voice, and he could feel her arm shaking in his grip. Her eyes skimmed her surroundings, realizing that many more of these men were approaching, casually now that she’d been neutralized. But the rope and tape in their hands suggested that they believed simply robbing a mage of her powers wasn’t enough suppression.
Lux’s free hand began to desperately tug at the collar, hoping that by some miracle of force she’d rip the locked collar off. Of course, her efforts were entirely in vain, unable to even budge the secured device more than a millimeter with how snugly it fit around her neck. Her eyes looked up once more towards the man, this time filled with nothing but fear.
She began to kick, digging her heels into the man’s shins, but his grip held amidst the blows. Her attempt at punching only forced the man to catch her other arm, and prematurely prepared her hands for binding by forcing them behind her back.
“HEEELP! KAAAT! HEE-AMMMF!” Her cries for help reached no one but the kidnappers, and despite that, one of them still shoved a cloth into her mouth to silence them. Not making the same mistake twice, they held no reservations about gagging the mage harshly, filling her mouth with the cloth before wrapping layer after layer of tape over it to secure the cloth and silence her further.
The man who held her suddenly pushed her to the ground, and her face harshly planted against the dirt in the process. This pressure continued as the ropes were quickly tied around her arms, her wrists and elbows tightly pressed against one another thanks to the ropes that pinned them together. She was turned over onto her side from there, and the men got a good look at her body. Though her chest wasn’t quite as big as the assassin’s, her body was still very well proportioned... certainly worth a bit of attention, right?
A pair of hands descended onto her chest, wasting no time in aggressively groping the mage. Her kicks started up once again, but it was like they even didn’t care, pretending as if they didn’t even feel it! She knew she wasn’t strong physically, but for them to not even perceive it as a threat was almost an insult.
Lux subsided her kicks by her own free will, instead focusing on struggling her upper body. Her awkward pulls and strains to try and free her pinned arms bore no results either, the ropes too tightly cinched for her to even consider loosening them without dealing with the knot first. But these were no amateurs, and the knot had settled well out of the captive’s reach. Tears began to swell in her eyes, as she couldn’t even hear her own screams of resistance.
His hands began to slither downwards, running down her uniform to her thighs, which the man rubbed for a few moments as well. From another angle, another set of hands replaced the ones that’d just been on her breasts, not giving them a second of relief as another perverted pair began to grope and squeeze, whispering sounds of pleasure as he indulged in Lux’s chest. The hands on her thighs began to snake up into her skirt, pressing against her panties as they began to take deep squeezes of her ass, surprisingly round and firm, a fact that'd been hidden by her skirt. He enjoyed them for another minute, taking all the gropes he pleased before his hands finally retreated entirely from her body.
Eventually, all of the invasive hands were pulled off of Lux’s body, and she breathed a silent sigh of relief. She watched from the ground though, as they prepared something for her… a long cord, and one of them kneeled, bringing it towards her collar. It clipped onto some part of the device she couldn’t see by looking down, and as the man wrapped the other end in his hand, she realized it was a leash.
Lux was suddenly pulled up and brought to her feet. Before she could even consider running, kicking, or any other matter of resistance, a sharp tug caused her to stumble ahead, her head turning up as she barely caught herself to the man who held her leash.
“You can either obediently walk along, or you can be dragged to our destination. One of those is easier for the both of us, right?”
Another stiff tug forced her along, but Lux was more prepared for this one. Her eyes didn’t turn up as she began to walk, hoping that it’d somehow hide the tears dripping down her cheeks.
*****
“Mmm… it’s so nice to play with you, isn’t it?” The man smiled as Katarina responded with nothing but muffled grunts and more shaking. She’d been forced to rest on this man’s lap, the two of them simply sitting in the forest, as his hands explored her body. They’d taken shifts like these, each one of them getting a few minutes with their prize before handing her over to someone else, each man eagerly awaiting their turn with the assassin that’d tormented them. She was much less scary in these bindings, which had been added to since her initial subjugation. Tape covered her balled up wrists to ensure she wouldn’t make it any further than she did on untying the knot around her wrist ropes, and they’d added a devious rope that ran across her crotch, and if they’d tug on any part of it she’d get a frustrating rush of sensations bubbling in her body. It didn’t help that it was connected to her harness and that if she struggled too much herself..!
Her eyes darted up as she saw the men who’d departed hours ago finally return. For a moment she was hopeful, when the first one’s returned without a girl in hand-
But then she saw the man with the leash, and a few moments later, the mage at the end of it. Lux’s eyes rested on the captured assassin as she was led into the clearing, and Katarina couldn’t bear to meet that gaze. Maybe if she’d agreed to stick together…
Hands continued to ravage her body, squeezing and doing what they wished with the assassin’s body, but her struggles were diminished. Not nearly as vigorous or intense. as how they were to earn the larger array of restraints given to Katarina. She struggled to look at any part of Lux above the legs as she was brought next to her, dropped down into the waiting hands of another one of the men right next to Katarina. Lux wiggled and squirmed in his grip, pulling away as his hands began to snake down her body, but of course, she was held tightly in his embrace.
With the two students captured and subdued, one of the men began to speak.
“Now, we’re certain that the staff of the prestigious Durandal Academy would pay a hefty ransom to get some of their top students back… of course we need proof of your capture, first.”
He knelt in front of the two women, Katarina’s phone still in his hands. The man readied the camera, masking his face before smiling deviously under it.
“Say ‘Mmphf!” for me, girls!”
An unsatisfying click filled their ears. Katarina was thankful that her gag mostly hid the flush of red upon her face, from the utter humiliation she’d endured today.
“Now, before we send this off, we do need to get you to a much safer place. Don’t want them sending any heroes to rescue you, right? Of course…”
He knelt in front of the assassin, rubbing Katarina’s exposed thighs as his hand slowly crept inward.
“We can always have a little fun first, right?”
*****
Katarina stared at the ceiling of her cell blankly, laying down on the cold stone of the underground hideout she’d been transported to, unable to even think about getting a second of sleep. Her mind dwelled on the "could’ve"s, "should’ve"s, any actions that would have led to her not being stuck in this scenario…
And Lux. The mage had somehow found sleep, her head resting on Katarina’s shoulder. That was the only reason Katarina didn’t resist her bonds. If they hadn’t given Lux a similar treatment to Katarina: taping every inch of her hands, adding extra ropes to her arms and many to her legs, not to mention the rope that connected from both of their wrists to their respective ankles to hogtie each student, then maybe they could’ve worked together and escaped their bondage.
Despite how terrible it felt to be captured like this, it felt all the worst when she was reminded of who she got caught up in all of this. They were both utterly helpless now, and all they could do was hope they’d be saved.
A few minutes passed before Katarina heard any sound other than the gentle breathing of Lux. Footsteps, walking towards their cell. When the man stopped in front of it and began to fumble with the key to unlock it, Lux finally awoke, her eyes slowly opening, but it only served to return her to the cruel reality she’d been trapped in. The door creaked open, and the man who entered immediately kneeled, his hands taking a few squeezes of each girl before he began to talk.
“So… it appears your academy won’t be paying your ransoms.” Lux’s eyes widened at the statement, a remark about how "that couldn’t be true!" absorbed entirely by the gag she’d forgotten about in her sleep. “They think they can save you, and rambled on and on about how they don’t negotiate with villains… how hilarious. It’s a shame, as that ransom money would’ve been pretty good, but…”
He pulled out an iron collar, slowly bringing it to Katarina’s neck. She wiggled her head around, as if to try and dodge it, but with the rest of her body as it was that wasn’t nearly enough to prevent the device from being easily secured around her neck.
“We’ve also got a pretty good foothold into the business of slavery. And a pair of damsels like you… you’ll do great, that’s for sure.”
As if to confirm his assertion, his hands returned to their curves, one on each woman. He massaged Lux’s breasts, moreso rubbing than groping, but took as much of the larger pair as he wished, his hand voracious and aggressive in its enjoyment of Katarina’s chest. The best part, in his mind, was how they began to struggle simultaneously, however useless it may be. That scowl on Katarina’s face, cloaking her desperation and buried fear, while Lux struggled to hide the emotions even without the proof of her dried tears…
“I’d love to stay,” he began, as he took a few final squeezes of each girl, “but I’ll have to prepare for you two to be sold. I wonder if you’ll do better as a pair…”
He got up, and just before he closed the cell door behind him, he turned around for one final remark.
“Don’t be anxious. Anyone can become a proper slave. All you’ll need are a few good lessons… and a great teacher.”