CHAPTER TEN
"The winner is Kang. He receives a skip token for the next game. Here are the exact results. Congratulations to those who guessed the correct times for any player."
Our bodies were pushed into the waiting position – feet far apart, knees out, hands overhead, balls dragged down.
The youngest boy got his balls pulled up at the same time through the ball-to-collar-rope that forced him to arch his back – the punishment from the last game. If it wasn't for the invisible powers pressing us into position, he would have fallen over. He squirmed and whimpered, unable to find a way to reconcile the two directions his balls were pulled in.
Eventually, a single flame died down and we were released to walk to the revealed door.
"Place your bets now, the card game is about to begin."
Card game? I had to have misheard. They were going to make us play poker? If so there was probably something horrifying about it.
We marched to the gate and into the opened tunnel. The temperature cooled down a little, to an almost reasonable temperature. We came out in a chamber that looked rather similar to the waiting room from earlier – green stone all around with furniture from the same material.
The only irregularity was the high ceiling filled with stalactite screens.
In the center was a low table.
"The players will kneel at the game table and receive what they are dealt."
I looked at Igor who just shrugged. The four of us walked up to the table and slowly sank to our knees. Stone floors aren't exactly comfortable.
With bright flames, a few smart-phone-sized stone plates appeared in front of each of us. We all had four, except Sven who had five. They were black, rectangular slabs and none of us dared to touch them. A coin appeared next to Kang – his skip token.
"The cards have been dealt. No more bets can be made. We are going to play... Old Maid. There are two cards of each kind. A player who holds a pair must discard it and complete the resulting action."
Old Maid? That meant there were going to be three winners and one looser.
"When a player on his turn has discarded any pairs he has, he pulls a random card from his right neighbor. Should that lead to a pair he must discard it."
I wondered if the Russian was familiar with Old Maid. The rules were so simple, it would probably not be much of a disadvantage to hear them for the first time.
"The players how holds the one unique card in the end is the looser and will be punished. We're starting with Sven."
The blond boy grunted startled. He lifted his "cards" to see their content. He had to lift them high since his face was turned up, but I couldn't see what was on them. Meanwhile I took my own cards off the table and had a look.
Unless I was missing something vital, I had no pairs. None of the demonic runes on my four cards looked anything alike. There was narrow jagged one, an intersecting curves one, one that looked a bit like the letter A and an almost circular one – perhaps a waning moon. Nope, no pairs.
Sven sighed. The slender muscled athlete put his cards down and turned two over. They had identical symbols on them.
The pair evaporated in flame. Nipple clips popped up on the boy's chest.
"Sven must spend the rest of the game doing squats. Should he get too slow, his nipples will feel this kind of pain."
He yelled and pointlessly flinched away from the clips. His face became bright red. The boy's enlarged dick flung a steak of pre-cum onto the table.
"Should he get sloppy and not go deep enough he will feel this kind of pain instead."
The shouting and flinching looked all the same to me, but as long as Sven could tell the pains apart things should work out for him.
He got started right away, falling into a pace of about one squat per second, getting his ass as close to the floor as possible. With his back arched as it was that had to be pretty hard. In addition the movement compressed his neck which let the collar cut off his airflow every time he went down.
"The player whose turn it is must pull a card from his right neighbor."
Oh, l was Sven's right neighbor. I collected my cards and offered them to him, so he could keep doing squats while picking. He got the "A" which didn't form a pair with any of his cards, going by the relieve on his face.
"It is Nathan's turn."
With no pairs I went right for Kang's cards and pulled a random one. It was... the other "A". There was a 25 percent chance Sven would get that one next time.
"Kang's turn."
The Chinese boy discarded a pair as well, leaving him with only one card.
"Will the player use his skip?"
Kang's eyes dashed back and forth between the exercising Sven and his own cards. He nodded, picked up the token and raised it. The thing vanished soundlessly.
Next the teen bodybuilder pulled a card from Igor and groaned. He discarded the resulting pair.
"Kang has no more cards and will not participate in the rest of the game. Until it ends he must do pull ups."
Nipple clips appeared on him and a horizontal bar flared into existence behind him. He got up and got ready to grab the bar.
"This pain reminds the player to be speedy."
Kang exhaled strongly with eyes wide.
"This pain instead indicates he's getting sloppy."
The boy jumped up to cling to the bar and began doing pull ups about as fast as Sven did squats.
"Igor's turn."
The massive Russian had a pair to discard. He, too, got nipple clips.
"The player must do high knee. If the speed is insufficient or the knees don't hit the chest the pain will be this and this respectively."
Igor whined and shivered, but rose to his feet right away. He did high knees at jogging speed. Cardio was probably a bodybuilder's least favorite type of exercise. By now, Sven was grunting pathetically with ever dip and raise. Kang had begun to breathe so loud he was almost yelling his exhales.
Igor's dick slapped wildly around hitting his chest and legs, flinging pre-cum everywhere. I was glad to be all the way on the other side of the table so I didn't get any on me. I was pretty sure I saw a few streaks hit Sven's sides which the boy noticed because he screamed in the direction of the bodybuilder as if there was any way he could threaten the man.
The Russian pulled one card from Sven's deck and looked at it. Not a pair, apparently.
Then Sven pulled one of my cards and ended his turn. He had taken my curvy rune. With Kang out of the game I had to take a card from Igor.
My first pair – the moon-circle-thing. I shoved them in the middle of the table where they went up on flames. I squealed as nipple clips appeared on me.
"The player Nathan must do push-ups. These are the pains for unsatisfying speed and form respectively."
Maybe it was because my nipples are already oversensitive from earlier torment, maybe it was actually stronger than before. The clips bit my flesh vertically and horizontally in quick succession. As I got up, they bit down harder and harder from both directions.
I dropped on my hands and began to do my push-ups. The clips required me to go so deep down I was touching the ground with most of my body. I had to be as fast as the others did their exercises. My arms weren't weak – I wasn't a fitness model for nothing, but depending on how long I'd have to keep it up, things could get tough.
Already, Sven was way too slow. His clips had to be punishing him nonstop.
I stopped for a second and quickly slid Igor's one remaining card to me. It was the second curvy one, which I didn't have anymore. No pair.
Sven was next and I couldn't hold up my cards anymore. The boy struggled to bend down far enough. Standing, he was unable to see the table in front of him since the collar-ball-rope combo forced him to look up.
Eventually he got to grab one and looked at it. A pair of narrow zig-zaggy runes. As the cards vanished, weights appeared on the boy's wrists. A belt wrapped itself around the slender waist and more weights appeared on it.
I turned to Igor. Oh, right. The big guy had no cards left. It was just me and the boy. Two cards of mine versus three of his. I had the "A" and the "curves", both of which I knew were part of a pair. Sven had to have the unique card.
It was a matter of luck not to draw it.
As quickly as possible I shot up, pulled a slab of stone and got back down. My nipples hated me for it, but I had to keep going. My arms were getting a bit exhausted. I got the other "A". It was a pair but it was not the looser card, so my heart slowed down a little. As they vanished, I got a belt of weights. With my speed I almost lifted off every time I pushed up, and almost slammed into the floor every time I dropped down.
I realized I had won.
Sven grabbed my remaining card. Of course he had the other curvy rune, which left him with the unique card.
Kang fell on his ass when the bar vanished. The gear on our bodies including the nipple clips faded away and we were left naked. The blond model had even been ridded of his punishment from the previous race and was as naked as us.
That had gone pretty well for me. Sven collapsed and Kang wasn't getting up either. While Igor was breathing like he was dying, he grinned at me. We were all happy it was over.
I hoped there would be no more racing or exercise challenges, because they drained me a lot more than the pain games. Of course I'd happily do more races if I'd get to miss out on all the dildo action in return.
The game master's voice said nothing and so we rested a bit. After a few minutes, I dozed off. Pretty sure the others did, too. I hoped this didn't mean the game makers were preparing something especially nasty.