NOVEL NEXT Vol 3, Ch 25. Training Patrol
Hours later Bonny and Zeal left the huge boulder and flew northeast, to try and catch their friends. They had missed the patrol time and hoped to meet up with them near the forest.
The last few mornings, Freja and Eloisss had been training with some of the guards, then taking a few of them on patrol. Eloisss had even improved her reputation by being patient when working with them.
Their goal was to advance the guards to what they had started calling tier two, which they hoped would make fighting with demonspawn easier. The invasion of spider wolves prompted the interest in training and advancement.
Tier one was what Eloisss had called Mortal power and Tier two was Spiritual power. System stats were locked to Tier one until a challenge was passed, usually a monster with power above the mortal limits.
Bonny and Miu had passed their challenge when fighting Matt the first time. Eloisss, Kanae, and Willowbelle had already been Tier two. Adelina had been capped at Tier one until their second fight with Matt, outside Beaverton.
Iolana was Tier one and both Lupa and Violet were two, Lupa having just advanced the day before.
Zeal was much older than the system and much more powerful than any measured tier. They suspected Bonny had surpassed tier two when fighting her, but there was no way to verify until she maxed out her spiritual growth.
Very few of the people in the city had advanced beyond Tier one, since they were sheltered and prized safety over growth. Freja and the centaur patrol leader, Kiros, were both exceptions.
A few of the most promising guards and centaurs, those either Freja or Eloisss thought were probably stat capped and ready to advance, were taken.
This was the second training patrol. During the day prior, when Bonny had been investigating the water shine, all five of the guards had advanced when fighting demon marked trolls. Lupa had participated as well, but she wasn’t stat capped yet.
“I see them, Bonny.” Zeal turned slightly west as she rumbled the announcement.
Bonny stared into the distance and spotted several specks running from something tall. They closed quickly and soon she could tell that Freja and Eloisss were protecting the rest of the party from a disturbing giraffe like monster.
The monster was huge, with long legs and a longer neck. It was reticulated, like giraffes of Earth, but this one had blood red spots and black lines. It had two tall knobbed horns that sparked with electricity.
A bolt of lightning lanced down from a dark cloud overhead, gathered around the demon’s horns, then speared through Freja.
The centaur screamed in agony as her muscles locked up and she froze in place.
The demon giraffe bent its head down, hooked its horns under Freja’s shield and flipped it up and away, leaving her defenseless. A moment later, it spun and caught the centaur with kick to the head. Freja went down.
“Oh, fuck! Can you kill it?”
“Yes.” Zeal didn’t pause to think about it.
“Do it. I’m going to check on Freja!” Bonny let go of the dragon and kicked herself away, immediately dropping into free fall.
Eloisss had pulled the demon’s attention away from Freja by striking at it, so the centaur wasn’t attacked again, but both of them were obviously in trouble. The demon was faster than Eloisss, who was barely dodging each kick and head butt.
Bonny called on her succubus form and felt the wings and tail push out of her skin. She hadn’t shifted since Lust had been imprisoned and wasn’t entirely sure it would work. If it hadn’t, she would have tried to protect her head and heal herself after the fall, but she was relieved it did.
She kept her wings in tight until she was too low, too close, then popped them out to slow herself as much as possible in the thirty feet or so she had left. Her wings strained at the sudden pressure and one gave way, causing her to spin and land on her back. She lay there for a minute, catching her breath and letting her regeneration aura fix her bruises and torn wing.
She wasn’t far from Freja, so her aura overlapped the centaur. After a moment, there was a groan.
Bonny climbed to her feet and ran over to the fallen centaur. Casting “[Analysis!]” as she ran.
A concussion, a broken jaw, and several burns. A few of the burns were serious, but nothing Bonny couldn’t fix.
“Freja!”
Bonny slid to a stop and leaned down to kiss her. She mumbled the spell into Freja’s mouth. “[Mending!]”
Eloisss arrived a moment later. “How iss sshe?”
Bonny kissed her way down Freja’s body, touching each exposed injury and [Mending] each of them in turn. Between kisses, she answered the lamia. “She’ll be fine. What happened? What was that thing?”
A glance over her shoulder showed the monster was down. Its head and a long length of neck lay on the ground some distance from the body. Zeal was back in human form and walking toward them, black blood splattered across her naked body.
“I don’t know. I’ve never sseen one of thosse before.”
Freja answered. “They’re rare, but stay on the edges of the forest. They’re not supposed to be red and black though.”
Bonny paused her mending for a moment, “We call them giraffes on Earth. They’re yellow and brown and eat leaves. They don’t shoot lightning either.”
“This one was eating the corrupted trolls we killed yesterday.”
“We should check it for scales. It seemed too strong, maybe it’s eaten a lot of Wrath’s power.”
“Are you hurt, Elss?” Bonny asked as she went back to kissing Freja, working her way back up to the centaur’s lips.
“Jusst minor injuriess.”
“Don’t do that. I’m here. Tell me what's wrong. I can fix you.” Bonny planted one last kiss on Freja’s lips, then stood and helped pull the centaur upright. She turned to Eloisss. “Where?”
The lamia held out her arms. There were several bruises and burns.
“[Analysis!]” Bonny cast as she leaned in and started kissing her way along Eloisss’ injuries. “[Mending!], [Mending!], …”
The rest of the group gathered while Bonny was busy, most collapsing on the ground in exhaustion.
Freja trotted over to check on the demon giraffe.
When Bonny finished and turned around, she found Zeal kneeling on hands and knees behind her. Miu knelt next to Zeal, hands on her knees and eyes down.
Bonny flashed her purification aura on the group, cleaning up the dirt and blood. She pulled Miu’s chin up to look in her eyes.
“Are you okay? [Analysis!]”
There were no major injuries, but she had gotten a couple of scrapes during the run.
“Yes, mistress. Nya.”
Bonny smiled and knelt to kiss Miu’s lips and cheek, where one of the scratches traced a red lines across her face.
“I’m glad. I love you, kitty. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you.”
Miu purred.
Bonny let Miu’s chin fall as she stood and checked over the rest of the party. Two guards were human and were obviously not used to running so far or so fast. The other three were animal kin and had fared better.
She stepped over and nudged the two humans with her foot. “[Sacrifice Stamina!] [Invigorate!]” She sacrificed her own stamina and tried to concentrate on restoring energy to their bodies, not cocks, with the second skill.
When their pants bulged out despite her attempt, she just smiled and turned away. She could feel their eyes tracking her naked body and she wiggled her hips slightly. She didn’t mind the staring or teasing them, as long as they didn’t ask for anything more.
“Everyone seems fine. Keep resting and eat something if you can.”
Once everyone was seen to, she sat on one of Eloisss' coils and slipped a hand around the lamia’s waist. “Let’s go join Freja.”
The other companions joined them in the short walk over to the body, leaving just the five guards sitting where Freja had fallen.
The body seemed even larger as they walked up to it. The head was disproportionately oversized and big enough to swallow Bonny whole.
“How did that thing lift this stupid fucking head? It should be too heavy.” Bonny kicked it, then hurriedly pulled her foot back as the head snapped its teeth at her. “What the fuck? How is it still alive?”
Lightning flickered around its horns.
Eloisss drew her two falcata and stabbed down. Purple arcane energy lined the edges of the twin blades. The gathering lightning reacted, arcing to the metal swords and flowing up, throwing Eloisss back with a loud crack.
Bonny summoned Wrath’s spear and stabbed it into the thing’s head. The flickering lightning died.
“Hopefully that takes care of it.” She hopped to Eloisss' side and checked her for injuries. "Are you okay?"
The lamia groaned as she sat up and hissed her answer. "Yessss."
Bonny's skill showed just a minor burn that quickly healed under Bonny's aura. She helped Eloisss up and the two went back to investigate the monster.
Bonny's aura didn't react near the head, but when they approached the body, there was a center of demonic energy in its lower abdomen. Bonny carefully sliced it open with the spear and raked two scales out of the body.
Most of the scales she had gathered had been applied externally, usually to a wrist. When the monster or person died, the scales dropped free and were easy to pick up. This one had the scales inside and Bonny wondered what the difference was.
“Two scales. This thing was stronger than both of you. Peak tier two or higher?”
“Two.” Eloisss answered. “If it wass three, we would have died.”
“It looked like you were about to. It didn’t look like you were hurting it at all.”
“We had planss.”
Bonny gave her a skeptical look. “Are you saying I shouldn’t have asked Zeal to kill it?”
“We are unlikely to get credit for killing it.” Freja spoke up. “Zeal is too strong.”
“Oh. Does that mean we should keep her out of the fights if we can?”
Both nodded and Freja answered again. “You need to contribute meaningfully to gain system recognition for fighting.”
“Okay. Do you hear that, Zeal? Stay out of the fights unless we really need help.”
“Yes, mistress.” The dragon girl knelt a few feet away in case Bonny wanted to sit.
“Should we try to save any of this thing? It has a lot of magical potential, right? Some of Nestor’s books talk about using materials harvested from monsters.”
“Not thiss one. We sshould desstroy it.”
“Because of the corruption?”
Eloisss nodded.
“Okay. Zeal please burn it, then we’ll head back. Should we bring this group back out tomorrow or give them some recovery time?”
Freja looked at the five still lying in the grass. “Another group would be best, I think.”
*****
Mercer docked his small merchantman boat at a small village to the east of Beaverton, his thoughts full of a beautiful deer kin that had caught his eye. She worked at the local tavern and he liked to stop in when he had time. He hadn't spoken to her yet, other than ordering food or drinks, but he felt lucky today.
A fancy diplomatic vessel was docked at the main pier, forcing Mercer to find somewhere else to tie up.
He frowned at unusual smell of death and decay emanating from the village, then smiled when he spotted Derin running out to meet him. As long as she was alive and well, he was happy.
"Mercer, come with me. Hurry."
Of course he would follow her. He briefly fantasized that she was going to take him somewhere private, but then noticed that her eyes were an odd yellow color and panic set in. Was there some sort of sickness?
"Derin? Are you okay?"
He reached out to her, but she avoided his hand and turned away without answering. Instead of a private residence, she took him to the tavern without speaking. Once inside, she presented him to a lion kin dressed in a loose, white and gold outfit.
Mercer traded in textiles and knew clothes, but this outfit was strange and unfamilar. He assumed it was the diplomat.
"What can you tell me of the lands downriver?" The lion kin's voice was a low rumble.
Mercer relayed the story of the two demons and the dragon attacking Beaverton.
He had arrived a couple of days after the conflict and had missed most of the excitement, but everyone he spoke with had been happy to tell their own version of it.
He had gotten a glimpse of the surviving demon. There had been some emergency and the demon bunny was flying north on her tame dragon, along with her cat kin and some sort of half snake race from the forest.
He had planned to tell the story to Derin. To use it as an icebreaker, but when he glanced over, she wasn't even listening. Instead she was kneeling and gazing up at the strange lion, almost worshiping him.