Ren dragged himself out of class with a sigh.
"Meditation" had gone as roughly as he had expected. He normally enjoyed mage classes simply because it gave him a brief rest when compared to things like chemistry and martial arts, but he was beginning to consider whether it was even worth the constant bruises.
Homework didn't help. This time, it was to study a particular area of magic; specifically how Exin interacted with solutes.
Boring, he grumbled internally. He would much have preferred something that involved mass energy transfer or combustion, but no such luck.
Turns out, Val's short nap was not just a nap. She actually slept halfway through the next day, and missed a class and a half. She knew she'd just make it up, but it still made her groan and panic for a moment.
After the classes were finally finished, she really, really wanted a snack. She hoped something yummy was left over from lunch, and ran to the kitchen, finding her dragon and bat already there. Bat was asleep. Like always. Dragon was raiding the food supplies. Like always. Val was sighing. Like always.
Ren just about made it to the kitchen himself before collapsing himself down on a chair and laying down, arms on the table, in a posture that looked to be a mixture of a sloth and a ragdoll.
"Muuu."
Napping, ironically, made him more tired when he was woken up by force.
As such, he was basically all but oblivious to all short of the room he was in, and tried to go back to sleep.
This small interruption in Sam's (and Val's) food raiding did not go unnoticed by the small dragon, who quickly alerted his "mommy" that Friend was in the room. He did so by jumping onto the poor, drowsy boy's head.
Ren's immediate reaction was to yelp and almost fall out of his chair.
"Eep!" he spluttered, grabbing at the small dragon and holding it in front of his face. "Ah, you were here, Sammy? Sorry, you were busy, weren't you?"
He gently set the fletchling down on the table in front of him, rubbing his eyes to try to wake himself up more.
"You wouldn't happen to have any ideas about what to do for my project, would you?" he asked.
Normally, he wouldn't let it get to him so much, but the chemistry assignment to figure out how energy from a potion flows through a circulatory something something… Even thinking about that bored him. Why did he have to do two massive projects at the same time?
Sammy had no clue, but really wanted to show Friend something! He ran in circles on the table trying to get his full and undivided attention.
Val had walked over by this point, a carrot in her hand that she was eating. Sam's weird behavior made her want to sit and watch as well.
Ren offered a big smile. If Sammy was around, of course Val was.
"Hi," he beamed. "Sammy seems to have a lot of energy today."
Just to draw another difference between us.
Honestly, when he thought about it, he and the dragon were quite different. For a start, he didn't walk around on four legs, and he couldn't fly either. He didn't know if Sammy could breath fire, but he did know that it wasn't all that likely that he could shoot giant laser beams, so Ren was comfortable with that much.
Sam was making a very strange sound, opening and closing his mouth and seeming frustrated by a (supposed) failure. It was almost like he was trying to talk.
"Holy shit. Sam, Sammy, Saaaaam!" Val said picking the young dragon up. Of course she was excited about her "baby" speaking, but there was a small worry in the back of her mind about it. The sound didn't particularly sound like anything from any dragon dialect she'd ever heard of.
"Oh, are you…?" Ren asked Sammy. "Val, Val, is he…?"
"Saaaaaaam!!" Val squeaked petting Sammy's face. Sam quickly replied.
"Saaaaaa!!"
A rollercoaster of emotions passed over Ren's face at once.
"Sammy, um…" he weighed up his options, trying to figure out the best way to break unfortunate news to a baby dragon who neither properly spoke nor could understand English. "You might have a teeny, tiny problem. With. Speaking like that."
Sam must've understood some part of that, because his excitement died a little and he looked from Val's arms to Ren. He squeaked.
"W-well… You see… The thing about English is that you… kind of need lips to speak in it properly… So it might be a bit hard… But, but! I heard something about beasts with different physiologies being able to make up for it! Something like that! So!" Ren reached out and placed a finger on Sammy's snout. "There's no need for a long face!"
Of course, Sam didn't understand this horrendous pun, but he did understand his "mommy's" frustration, so he opened his mouth a little and lightly nipped at Ren with a tiny "growl" (read: squeak).
"Uueeeeeh!" Ren squeaked just as loudly. "Why? That was funny!"
Sam squeaked back, but louder.
Pouting and mildly bitter, Ren immediately squeaked back at him, and the "conversation" quickly devolved into a complete mess of small things yelling at each other.
Miki was the last to come out of his final class after receiving an earful of the Marksman instructor's less than encouraging words. He replayed the moment when he had pulled a bowstring a bit too tight causing it to audibly snap and causing his nocked arrow to narrowly miss the man's face in his mind while slumped over a table in the dining hall just short of sulking because ghiests don't sulk.
Kheire was casually fueling up in the kitchen, devouring a few times his own body weight in food. Walker had warned him of a prophecy his crafting had shown him. Danger was apparently in the future of he and his friends. He was quite worried. "So, how was everyone's classes?" He attempted to lighten the mood for both their benefit and his.
Miki sunk further into his seat at Kheire's inquiry and he let out a few muffled words in retaliation.
The question distracted Ren for just long enough for Sammy to win the yelling contest before he delved into complaining.
"Kheire! I have two projects due and I have no idea where to start on either of them!" he said. "What do I do?"
Kheire tapped against the counter in thought. "Explain what these projects are for."
"One's for chemistry. I have to investigate why potions work in the bloodstream as well as the digestive tract. Something like that, anyway. It's boring. I wasn't listening," he said. "The next is to find out how mana interacts with solutes. That's boring too."
"Ah, I know what you need. Go to the library and ask the librarian for this book." Kheire wrote down the title of a book on some paper made by a spirit, specifically one about the different ways potions can be processed by the body, and handed the paper scrap to Ren.
Val looked at them like, "You fucking nerds, you can ask me, I'm amazing at chem, ask me."
"Really Miss Val? I haven't seen you do much in the Chemist classes…" Miki cut in abruptly with his head still in his arms as he spoke.
Val simply raised an eyebrow and picked a stray feather off of her hand. Sam, however, felt Valentina's frustration and leaped to attack Miki.
"Sammy, no! He wasn't even telling a joke!" Ren protested.
Sam squeaked a battle cry as he spit mild poison onto Miki's face.
Miki moved out of the way before the liquid touched him, moving out of his seat and closer to the group. "I'm just being honest."
"Ah, I see. I'd comment on your own accomplishments in chemistry, but I must've not noticed any. My apologies." Val said, holding Sam once more.
"That's understandable, but Master Ren is holding one of my potions on him so I have proof of actually doing something productive with my time."
"Yep, yep, that's definitely enough of that," Ren protested anxiously. "M-more to the point, um… What should I do about my mana assignment? Hm… There might be some books about that somewhere close to this one, right? Do they let you bring snacks in there?"
"If I recall, Miss Neeakomi was eating in there when we first met."
"If it's good enough for Vivi, it's good enough for me!" declared Ren. "Let's set out, team!"
Val nodded and picked up Zeph from the cabinet they were hanging on. Zeph seemed angry and roughly climbed into Val's hair.
"I found it!" squealed an excited Ren a little while later, lifting the open book as if it were the Holy Grail.
By "it", of course, he meant yet another method to squander efforts.
Val looked up from the large dictionary of draconian words. She had an incredibly hard time pronouncing most of them, and honestly Sam nor Val would be learning much from this. She'd have to find another way to learn. Speaking of Sam, he had fallen asleep on the bookshelf the large book had come from.
"Oh really? What's that one say?"
Ren laid the book down on the table, pointing out diagrams.
"This! It says that the oldest people of the Tlalticpac region, the huetlaca, had a particular kind of magic that used the same principles as potions, running Exinessence through their bodily solutes in order to exert control over every last cell! I can kill two birds with one stone here!" he declared excitedly.
"That's actually really cool! I'm glad you had some luck finding answers, I sure didn't." Val sighed.
"Take the book out with you!" Ren said. "Let's all go to Tlalticpac! Tlalticpac! Tlaltictac! Talalicpac! Talalilacala… Uh… That place!"
The librarian's head peered around the shelves and shot a glare at Ren's volume, putting a finger to their lips and shushing him loudly before returning to their desk.
Ren's frozen grin indicated he was only mostly mortified.
"I'll go if Master Ren wants to, but will Headmistress let us go?"
"I-I'm sure she'll be okay with it," said Ren. "It's for education, right?"
"I don't believe that is exactly what the requirements are, but we'll be fine… Probably, I guess." Val sort of mumbled.
"It's a cultural exchange!" he tried. "We're going to learn a lot about how things are in Tlalticpac. For homework. You know?"
"I suppose," Val sighed, taking the large book to the checkout area so she could take it out of the library.
"I hear they have bird-dragons," he said. "You could ask them how to pronounce the words, right?"
Val doubted that their dialects were the same as what Sam's would've been with his dragon family, but it was better than nothing, "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"That's the spirit," he grinned. "Let's go adventuring!"
Sam was genuinely in the spirit, and jumped up from his napping place onto Ren's head, and squeaked, as if to say, "Onward!"
"Yeah!" Ren cheered.
The librarian came around again when the group (more just Ren and Sammy) began yelling, and began to reprimand them on being loud in a place of learning, kicking them out of the building after finishing.
Kheire had been sitting in an empty corner, reading quietly before noting everyone had left. "Huh? I should probably go find the others before they get themselves in any trouble…" He followed after them, wondering how much he missed. At least he found an interesting way to grow stronger… After finding all of them, he slipped into their group quietly.
Val noticed Kheire's quiet merging, and just kind of ignored it. She was a little worried (a lot worried) about this expedition, but she obviously was going to go along with it.
"Master got in trouble...he'll end up a delinquent... I didn't think he had it in him...sniff." Miki let his word fall monotonously while he waved his hands in exaggerated movements.
"I-it's not that bad, Miki," Ren insisted. "It was just talking in the library. I've done worse."
He paused, slowly realising that that really was not the thing to be saying in this situation.
"A-anyway, um, let's see if we can get permission to head out! Um. How. Do we do that?"
The group collectively turned their heads to look at their Dorm Advisor, who should have the answer. Kheire took it in stride and explained that he sent a pet of his with a message to set up a portal for a field trip to study ancient magic while they were talking, this being their only field trip of the year. By the time they reached the portal room the custom portal was already set up and waiting for them.
The portal the group stepped out of was, naturally, not in the middle of the wilderness.
As a matter of fact, it seemed to be the centre of a village. It was admittedly mildly primitive, constituted of mud huts and straw houses, but the fact that its residents were playing ball, writing journals, and putting together actual crossbows around them the moment the four stepped out proved that it was only the residence that was a few hundred years out of date.
Ren tugged at his sari a little.
"It's hot," he commented. He kind of wanted to take something off, but his thirteen-year-old self was nowhere near confident enough to do something like that in public.
The gheist gathered exin and began creating a cold breeze, letting it spread through the air. "Is that better, Master Ren?"
The small boy basked in the refreshingly cool air, sighing happily. "Yep, yep," he said, sing-song. "Trust Miki to have a card like this up his sleeve the whole time~!"
He looked around curiously at the people moving up and down the streets. "Now… Where on earth would we find out the first thing about tonacayo magic…?"
"The locals might know? Let's go see."
Val was not paying attention. You see, she was a bit busy with the fact she had a very, very curious dragon baby, and the fact that she was mildly annoyed with said baby. This was fully realized by Valentina when he interrupted a conversation between two locals on the side of a path.
Ren immediately stumbled forwards, trying to grab the baby dragon and stop him before something went as horribly wrong as his vividly scarring glimpse of the future had been.
"Sammy, no!" he squeaked, grabbing at the fletchling and lifting him up in his arms. "Ah! Um! Sorry about the baby…?"
The two old women gave the dragon a bemused look as if they hadn't seen one before (which, Ren reasoned, was likely the case), before simply smiling, shaking their heads.
"It's fine, boy. If I've learned anything from parenting, you can't control a baby," one told him, much to his relief.
He offered a sheepish smile back. "W-well, I'd prefer if that weren't true, but…"
"Sam! Dammit!" Val cursed, running to the scene of his crime, taking him from Ren, "I'm so sorry."
"Don't you worry," the second woman told her. "More importantly, a girl your age shouldn't be using that kind of language in our time of peace, little miss."
"What would you children be doing way out here, anyway?" the first woman asked. "You're students, aren't you?"
Miki walked up to the group, "Well yes. We're researching some magic. Would you two happen to know where we can find out about... tonacayo magic..?"
The first woman raised an eyebrow, but the second nodded.
"Ah, yes, the anci--"
She was interrupted.
The sound of a clanging bell echoed through the air, shouting and rushing ensuing all around them as numerous men and women ran from their houses, moving into the streets. The children and elderly stood aside, letting them pass, as they rushed out seemingly towards the same destination.
"What's going on…?!" Ren murmured.
"Nothing to worry about," the first woman muttered. "Just another forest fire."
"It's those cursed trolls, I tell you," the second grumbled. "Ever since they started migrating through here we've had three a week! It's absurd. Someone ought to do something about them."
It doesn't have to do with us so I shouldn't offer... "If you would help us with our research we could cull some of the trolls for you."
The second woman's eyes lit up. "I wouldn't go so far as to cull them, but to give them a bit of a scare would be much appreciated. They're moving through the jungle to the east at the moment, and if you head through there you should be able to find the old tonacayo temple in a clearing. It would only be a quick stop on the way."
｢Miki…?｣ Ren opened the contract link, ｢Are we actually going to scare off an entire horde of trolls now?｣
「No. Fellow monsters should be able to negotiate though. What people don't know won't hurt them. Even if they come again they can't come complain to us.」
Ren turned and gave Val and Kheire a look that seemed to call for help more than anything, really unsure of whether or not it was okay to blatantly lie about something they didn't even need to bring up.
"Uh, uhm," Val stuttered, "Yes, of course…"
She supposed this is what they were being trained to do, protect people? Might as well.
Kheire shrugged, thinking it would be a learning experience for them.
"Okay. We'll get the trolls to steer clear of your town as payment. Thanks for the information…" Miki gave a slight bow turning to the others for confirmation.
"I… guess we're going to the jungle," nodded Ren, visibly anxious. He wasn't entirely sure he was comfortable heading into the woods with a bunch of trolls rampaging through it, but it didn't seem like they had much other choice at this point.
Why can't I just do my homework properly like everyone else?
Kheire began to release his different pets and set about giving them the task of searching for trolls, giving a brief description of what they look like. Big. Ugly. Hairy. Loud. It was not long before they each discovered the trolls through their own methods and returned to the group. "They are east of here, in an encampment that seems to have been hastily set up, not intended for extended use, but has been forced to make do."
"Thanks Dorm Advisor. Now, does anyone here know how to reason with trolls?"
"Not really," Ren admitted. "I only ever met one tribe… I guess if we just ask nicely…?"
Miki's face deadpanned even further at Ren's suggestion. "Of course. Any other ideas?"
Kheire raised a vine, tapping Miki's shoulder. "I could do some reconnaissance and brew some potions to prepare."
"Sounds good. Find out as much as you can. Customs, clothing, gestures, anything. Miss Val and I can take care of potions."
Valentina nodded, she was fine with that job. This was a real life situation and people could actually get hurt if this went south, so it'd be best if they would be able to heal themselves and others. Maybe some buffing potions as well.
Ren, on the other hand, seemed a little less confident. "Are you sure you two can work together on a delicate task like that?" he asked. "It sounds like a recipe for disaster."
Miki looked up from their work, half tempted to see if the current brew would explode if thrown hard enough.
"We can, don't worry about that. Professionalism, yes?" Val looked up at Ren, raising her eyebrow.
"We'd have better synergy if our personalities weren't so incompatible." Miki held a reagent up to the fire, preparing it for later.
Ren kept his smile up in the spirit of the aforementioned professionalism, but it didn't look encouraging so far.
"Well, uh… You guys have all the ingredients you need, right?" he asked. "Can I help any?"
Miki stopped fanning the fire and clicked his tongue, "I would prefer to have some ash wood chips, but the chances of getting that here is low so I'd say we're fine. Just sit and watch, Master Ren."
The jungle was denser than Ren had expected. He silently longed for a machete to spontaneously appear in his satchel, but naturally, no such luck came his way, as per the usual.
He was tempted for a brief moment to just mow down the entire forest with Light Blasts, but quickly realised that that was pretty counterintuitive given the little sidequest they'd ended up taking on.
Regardless, there was one root cause of his dissatisfaction with the current situation being as severe as it was.
"Could… someone lift me up…?" he requested timidly. "I can't see anything down here…"
"You can sit on my shoulders if that's your problem," Miki bent down as if to demonstrate his willingness, "of course Miss Val could probably also fly with you."
"I would, but it's a little too dense. I wouldn't be able to open my wings enough to take off," Val said, looking at the foliage. That made her feel a bit trapped. No bird likes not being able to fly away if need be.
Ren nodded thoughtfully as he clambered onto Miki's shoulders with a little difficulty, almost slipping off. "I agree that it's pretty claustrophobic in here… To think we could have just flown over this whole place if it weren't for that errand we picked up. Or didn't pick up. Or. Something."
Miki gripped the smaller boy's legs while standing up, "Don't hit your head on anything Master."
Val laughed a little to herself, "That'd just be Ren's luck."
All of a sudden, a certain long-haired boy felt rather oppressed, though by what he couldn't say.
"Anyway," he mumbled, "I'll just keep my head down, so tell me if I get heavy…"
While they were doing that, Val perked her head up. She had heard something coming south from where they were.
"Hey, guys, I know you're a little busy, but I think we might need to prepare."
"Eh…?" Ren blinked. "Oh, right… I hear it too, now you mention it…"
"I can feel them getting closer. There's quite a few of them…"
"Should we try to--" the smaller boy tried, before immediately proceeding to almost fall straight to the ground. "Uwaaaaah!"
Miki made a wild grab for Ren, managing to get a hold of his sari before he could hit the ground, "Let's hide and see what they do."
A rustling sound parted the foliage besides him.
"'Ide from 'ooz?" a voice interrogated.
"...Hello?" Miki mentally kicked himself, what does a person do in this situation?!
"Oi-oi." An uneven, gappy, toothy grin spread through the leaves as a hulking figure of a bare minimum of nine feet slowly straightened out, raising an enormous blade that dwarfed the four children. "Dere yoo iz."
Val closed her bag with her sleeping pets in it tightly and backed up a little, stumbling into Miki and Ren.
"He-hello."
"'Ey, lookie. Dem's tree uv 'em. We'z gun be eatin' gud now."
Vines crept around the neck of the behemoth from the shadows, lifting it into the air swiftly, sending a resounding snap through the air. "Well. Thought I would have been rusty after so long, but that was easier than I remember." Kheire stepped out of the shadowy foliage.
"That was a loud sound. You might have attracted more of them…" Miki readied his weapons and scanned their surroundings, paling at the sight.
Fortunately, that was the least of their worries.
A sniff resounded through the air.
"...Wos bigga dan tree aggen…?" the troll muttered. "Ah, zog it."
The enormous neck bent forwards, lifting the giant a little higher as it looked down and took a peculiar contraption off its back.
As it pointed at them, Ren realised, it looked suspiciously like dozens of musket barrels precariously taped toge--
"Oh dear."
Val became feathery.
The small white-haired boy screamed as dozens of shots were let loose in quick succession all around the group. It certainly wasn't accurate, but the miniature craters left in the wake of the bullets suggested that didn't matter much.
"The troll has huge guns!" yelled Ren. "Why does the troll have huge guns?!"
"I don't know!" Val yelled, dodging behind a tree.
Kheire twisted the troll's body with the vines and dove out of the line of fire, grabbing Ren.
The brief moment was enough for the troll to hack the vines clean off with its oversized sword, landing on the ground with a monumental crash.
"Oof. Das gun hurt pritty bad later."
Miki leapt out of the way, moving closer to the giant monster, "We do not want to fight you." Your pea-sized brain should be able to understand that, right?
The troll gave the most confused look Miki had ever seen in his life. "Wot yoo meen yoo dun wanna fite?" he demanded angrily, levelling the inelegant gun right in his face.
Val walked up and scowled at the troll, very unhappy with the threatening, and more gutsy because of the avian form adrenaline running through her body, "He means he doesn't want to fight you, as in, no hitting, got it?"
"'Oo cares wot yoo wont? I'm 'ungree!" he growled. "WAAARRGH!!"
For just a moment, the beast's entire body pulsed red, and Ren blinked.
"Did he just say--" he started, before being interrupted by a lightning-fast swing of the sword that sent him flying several yards. "Waaaaah!"
"Waargh? Now where have I heard tha- Ren!?" Val sputtered, trying to run to the (probably) injured boy.
"Master!" Miki turned, kicking the troll in its gut, sending it flying backwards.
The monster barely reacted, as if it felt no pain at all from the attacks. Instead, it turned its gaze to Kheire.
"Yoo izn' a flower."
Kheire nodded, agreeing that he is indeed not a flower.
Ren, meanwhile, was struggling to get up when the two got to him, coughing up what looked like white cinders. "Ow."
"Ren are you okay?" Val asked, despite knowing the answer, "Also I have a very important question."
"I-I'm okay. I think," he coughed. "What is it…?"
Val handed him a health potion, "When did you tell me about 'waarrgh' and what does it mean again?"
"Uh… We talked about it… in that dungeon, I think. It means… well… uh… um… It's… hard to explain. It doesn't really matter what it means," he concluded.
"It'll help right now, correct? Like, something about having it and being family?"
"Yeah, that's about the size of it," he nodded, opening the potion.
Miki sliced at the thick-skinned troll's back while it was staring Kheire down, trying to find some way of immobilizing it.
The monster roared in response, spinning around and slashing at the gheist rapidly. Somehow, it was indisputably a lot faster than it was a mere moment ago.
"Yoo'z a rite grot, yoo iz!" it snarled.
Miki swung back and hit with every blow he was dealt, "If I knew what that meant I might be offended." The gheist created a second blade, hastening his blows on the giant mass of flesh.
"Ech, 's a fancy-talkin' snack!" sneered the giant.
Miki jumped on top of the troll's shoulders, bringing his swords down to dislocate its arms.
Meanwhile, Kheire had been throwing lava projectiles at the troll, slashing with his bones and wires when the opportunity arose. "This guy is tough, are the others going to be this difficult?"
The troll roared as a single "crack" resounded through the undergrowth. Its right arm seemed to only just go thanks to the weight of its sword, allowing Kheire's projectiles to strike home.
On the other hand… Despite the sheer number of attacks hitting from different directions, the troll seemed little more than angry.
Ren watched the fight from under his tree, gritting his teeth at the sound. If they hadn't been noticed by the rest already, they certainly had now.
"Just die already." Miki brought his swords down over and over, channeling electricity through the metal cutting the resilient hide that couldn't even be called skin at this point.
The lightning sparked violently through the beast's back, but to negligible effect.
With a forceful lurch, the behemoth threw the ghiest off its back and into Kheire, raising its crude sword to split the pair in half before Ren rushed between them.
"WAAARRGH!" he screeched.
The attack stopped in mid-motion.
The troll's face shifted into the most confused frown of anyone ever, and it took a step back.
"Wot d'yoo jus' say?"
It was around then that more foliage was parted, a handful of trolls coming to join the apparently interluding battle.
The one at the front, a relatively short, blue thing, assessed the situation as if trying to work out why nobody was dead yet, and then decided it had better things to worry about.
"Fluffy?" it grunted.
Ren's eyes sparkled with sheer joy. "Little Blue!"
Miki untangled himself from Kheire, turning his eyes to meet the newcomers, "Master...Why do you know the trolls?"
Ren turned to Miki, grinning brightly. "This is Little Blue! She looked after me last time I was with the Deff Eads!"
The gheist's face was no different than usual, but anyone could tell he was fully prepared to scream, "Master… when people say you need to get better jokes, this is not what they mean."
Ren's smile was that of someone trying to hide immense pain. "M-my jokes are fine…" he stuttered. "More to the point, that's-- Wait, no! Listen, Little Blue is my friend. Everyone in the tribe is!"
The 'Little Blue' in question frowned. "Oi, Fluffy. Who are these all lot 'ere?"
"These are my classmates," he said.
"Classmates?"
"People who go to school with me?"
"School?" the creature spat. "I though' I tol' ya notta go to any school."
"Well, you know… Stuff happened?" Ren attempted.
The short troll grunted. "Wha's done's did. Youse lot," she addressed the party. "I's Littul Bloo. Dunno wot youse all thinkin' abou' me, but I's 'alf-gremlin, so I'd 'ppreciate it if youse'd know I's a damn sight smarta than these all."
Val during this was just kind of standing there dumbfounded. She had known about Ren staying with them, and he said they were violent, but it's another thing seeing the trolls in person.
"At least we were right and at least we aren't dead," she mumbled to herself, right as her damn pets awoke and worked their heads out of her bag to watch.
Also, "Fluffy"? She supposed the name definitely fit, but it was still a little funny.
"Well met." It would've been better had you not tried to kill us, "Just classmates, Master Ren? That hurts."
"Well, everyone's my friend, so just saying that seemed a bit generic," Ren said sheepishly. "If there was anyone here who wasn't a friend of mine, then maybe I'd say it, but…"
Deciding to fix his mistake regardless, he turned and began individual introductions.
"This is Miki. He's a ghiest, and we kind of have a contract? Sort of? This is Kheire. He's my dorm advisor and my mentor when it comes to crafting. And this is Val. She's my nerd friend. We nerd."
Kheire waved, not sure what to make of the situation.
Val walks up closer slowly, "Is that what it's called?"
"I guess so?" Ren shrugged. "I'm not really sure what else to call you but you're definitely not just any old friends."
"You flatter me." Val deadpanned.
"Ehe." Ren opted to say nothing to that. "Anyway, this is Little Blue."
"It's Littul Bloo."
"That's what I said."
"Nah 't ain't."
"Uh. She's my… caretaker, I guess? She was when I was with the Deff Eads. She stopped the others punching my teeth out a couple times."
"Tha' counts fo' somethin'," Littul Bloo shrugged.
"She builds all the stuff like the guns and trucks for the tribe."
Kheire's eyes took on a strange sparkle at the mention of guns.
"The shootas an' th' trukks," she corrected.
"I said trucks."
"Nah y' didn'. An' there's a big difference 'tween guns and shootas. Look 'ere," she said, snatching the bundle of muskets from the troll they had been fighting. "This's not a shoota. This's a gun. 'S different."
Kheire nodded, completely understanding.
"I thought it was just dialect, not a different word," Val said, "Kheire please elaborate."
"Shootas are obviously fully automatic, while their guns have multiple barrels stuck together. 'Shootas' for their ability to shoot more and shoot faster." Kheire elaborated, as requested.
"Eh. 'S close enough," shrugged Littul Bloo.
"Anyone that protects Master is good in my book Miss… Little Bloo?"
"Youse keepin' callin' Fluffy 'Master'," observed the troll. "'E doin' weird things to yah?"
If only. "Not at all, Master is just Master." giving the woman a cyanide sweet smile.
"Keheh. I see," smirked the blue giant, revealing a long row of sharp teeth. "Well, guess we's gonna 'aff t' be takin' you with us if youse lots gonna be walkin' 'round 'ere."
"Why?" Val said quietly, very nervous. She just wants to get out of here.
"C'mon through 'ere. I'll tell youse," she gestured, turning to walk.
The brunette moved to be in step with Ren, snaking an arm around his waist, "How are your injuries Master?"
"He's fine, I made sure of that. Of course, another checkup is always in order." Valentina said through her teeth.
Kheire chuckled quietly as he saw the rivalry between his two children. He had no clue why they were rivals, but it was amusing to watch.
The trolls, on the other hand, were content to quietly stare at the trio, watching the interactions between them with interest. Around two or three seconds past before the grins began to spread across their faces.
"Kheheheheheheheh!"
A knowing laugh erupted through the clearing as they each followed after Littul Bloo, clearly in on exactly what was going on and extremely entertained.
"W-what?" Ren asked. "What?"
"'Oo can say, Fluffy?" the troll that had attacked them grinned, cracking his arm back into place as he passed.
Val's face was red underneath the feathers, because although she wasn't sure why, she was fairly certain they were laughing at them.
Miki laughed with the trolls, moving closer to Ren slightly as they made their way.
Like usual, Val noticed but did nothing. However, also not straying from their usual behavior, Sam jumped out onto Ren's shoulder in between him and Miki. He licked Miki's face.
Miki felt something akin to a papercut appear on his face, "If you were hungry you should've just bothered Miss Val…" feigning ignorance, he rummaged through his pockets producing something that looked like a moon cake wrapped in paper. "Here."
Sam ate it in two bites, and crawled onto Miki's shoulder instead, nuzzling him and wrapping his tail around his arm.
"Aww, Miki! He likes you!" Val laughed, albeit maliciously.
"Oi, youse lot comin' or wot?" a voice called from a little ahead.
"We better speed up. This thing is rather heavy, can you take it?" Miki gestured at the winged lizard attached to his arm.
"Oh, I wouldn't dare! That would be awfully rude of me." Val smiled sweetly.
"I was talking to Master, but thanks for the consideration Miss Val."
"I-it's okay!" Ren stuttered, delicately lifting Sammy and stroking his scales. "We just need to catch up, right? Nothing to worry about!"
Meanwhile, Kheire was inspecting the equipment of the trolls. They had some interesting new alloys and homemade guns in their possession.
"Eh? Lookin' at me handiwork, littul flower boy?" Bloo grunted inquisitively.
"Yes, it is quite interesting. Would you like to compare notes? I could teach you a thing or two about making your shots have a bit more power behind them in return." Kheire offered, interested in how they are able to use so many barrels and have such a high fire rate and ammo capacity.
"Notes?" she echoed, humoured. "Wot d'ya take me for, Petals? I'm 'alf gremlin. All tha' buildin' an' fixin' comes natural t' me."
"Hmm. Could I watch while you work?" Kheire requested, wanting to glean what knowledge he could.
"Don' see nuffin' wrong wiff tha'," nodded Bloo. "If ya wan', could talk ya through summa tha' stuff these here boys is carryin'."
"Thank you, that would be greatly appreciated." Kheire smiled in gratitude, happy to have struck an accord with the fellow arms dealer.
"These is basically the same as muskets. The chambas is jus' goin' off one by one when ya shoot 'em, so the main problem's keepin' it steady. These grots can't point for b'nanas, so's youse better be stablisin' it. The thing's gotta push back the 'arder you push it, so it was tuff enuff gettin' it all together, but we got there with somethin' I 'ad to make from th' ground up."
"What was that? How did you do it?" Kheire was curious, interested by the new designs.
Littul Bloo thrust a fist out, a faint light coming from the inside of it, before she held out what seemed at first to be a metal cylinder to Kheire.
"This 'ere's called a 'koil'. 'S basically a better version of a spring," she explained, offering it to him. "Do wot you want wiff it."
The young inventor accepted the part gratefully, resolving to use it well.
"Youse never gonna need t' be oilin' tha', but be careful. Ya stretch it too far and it ain't goin' back t' normal."
It was around that time that the trio made their way to the front of the back, and Ren immediately posited a question.
"Little Blue… If the Deff Eads are the ones passing through here, who's lighting the fires?" he asked.
Val leaned over to whisper to Ren, "Uh, what if they are? I know they're your friends, but even you said that they were violent."
Littul Bloo narrowed her glare. "I 'erd that, missy," she said. "We lot are dumb as bricks, 'specially these. But if we's wanna eat, we's gotta hunt, an' animals live near trees. Even we knows tha'. And if we's goin' 'round burnin' down trees, where's all the animals gonna be then, hm?"
"A-ah, I see, that does make sense. My apologies." Val stuttered.
"Don' youse worry 'bout that. Lotsa bad word goin' 'round 'bout trolls. You isn't the first. The fires is bein' lit t' drive us lot out, see."
"Wait, what?" Ren blinked. "Who? Why?"
"Dunno. There's lotsa huntin' t' be done, and now we's the ones bein' 'unted. All we knows is i's a girl wiff two burnin' choppas. She's zoggin' fast, an' we can't e'en see 'er when she's movin' proper."
"Is she now?" Miki hummed while feeding the small dragon, wanting to see if she was going to be a big threat.
"We's basically passin' through 'ere so she won't find us," Littul Bloo explained. "When she moves proper, she's always usin' tha' fire o' 'ers like some sorta magic carpet or somethin'. She's fast on 'er own, but tha' power's cheatin' if I ever sees cheatin' in my life."
"Dorm Advisor, you have something like that too, right?"
"Eh. Kinda. Sorta. In a certain way." Kheire responded, revealing practically nothing.
"You could keep up with her then, right?" Ren inquired. He himself could boost his speed at any time, but he wasn't convinced that he was capable of going as fast as something even Littul Bloo, whose senses were far sharper than any troll's, couldn't see if she tried.
"Honestly, I am not sure. Miki may have a better chance. We will have to see." Kheire shrugged, unsure.
"Is that the place?" Miki asked with uncertainty.
Ren nodded, despite it being a temporary settlement. "It does still look a bit familiar," he said.
The settlement itself was a little crude, consisting mostly of roofed metal carts and tepees, but it was certainly a settlement rather than a mere campsite. Most of its residents were plodding lazily up and down the gaps between the tents which could be likened to roads or even streets. The group passed by the occasional fistfight or cheap and obvious attempts at unfair bartering between the residents, but it didn't seem to detract from the overall (largely pungent) atmosphere in the least.
For a primitive tribal race, it was clear to see that these "Deff Eads" were probably one of the most successfully thriving communities in the entire Region, and they weren't even from here.
"What material is this?" Miki took to chatting with their previous assailant, taking a deep interest in the large sword strapped to his side.
"I dunno," grunted the troll. "Ask Bloo or wun da Mekboiz. I'z just choppin' wiff it."
The ghiest's attention instantly shifted to the blue skinned female with his words and he stared at her inquisitively.
"Tha' choppa ther'?" Bloo blinked. "Think tha's one o' them magic ones I made wiff mah power."
She outstretched a hand, clenching and unclenching her fist as if to demonstrate.
Miki deflated slightly at the vague response, nodding as if understanding. "Of course...what magic can it use?"
"It ain't magic. I is," Littul Bloo "clarified". "I 'as a spare or two if youse wantin' it."
"That would be nice… do you have any tales of Master when he was with you?"
She grinned. "I 'as plenty."
"Please don't tell them anything embarrassing," Ren flushed, to which the half-troll chuckled.
"Yoo meen not 'bout th' time ya shut 'cherself in yer room f'r tree daez 'cause ya killed a lion?" smirked Bloo, much to Ren's mortification.
"Stop, stop, stop!" begged the small boy, flailing anxiously.
"Wot 'bout when ya fell in th' pond?"
"Not that one!"
"And ya decided best way t' dry off was t' strip off an' sit in th' bonfire?"
"Stop it stop it stop it stop it--!"
"An' ya didn' realise dat ev'ryone was already up 'n 'bout and da boiz saw all yer stuff?"
"Muuuuuuuuu!" Ren hid his glowing face in his sari, horrified.
Miki smiled benignly with closed eyes, "Don't worry Master, just point them out and I'll make sure they can never see again." After I get the details from them that is…
"I' glows," Bloo informed him, and Ren made an extremely loud squeak.
"A truly glorious sight then?" Miki teased, grabbing Ren's hands to keep him from hiding his face.
Instead, the embarrassed-to-death child pressed his face against Miki's arm to hide the spotlight-level glow.
The gheist was stunned for a split second before beginning to slowly pat Ren's head, turning to Littul Bloo with a strange look.
Val hid behind her wings to hide her giggles. She also was a little pissed off, although for reasons she hadn't quite figured out.
"Wot 'bout when 'e blew 'is face up?" Bloo suggested vivaciously. "Fluffy thought 'twas a good idea t' stick 'is face near a shoota an' th' powder go' all o'er i'!"
"Was the glow still visible?" Val asked, peeking through her feathers.
"From a mile 'way! 'E got so embarrassed 'is face sparked an' i' all 'xploded! Ahahahahahaha!"
"That's not my fault!" insisted Ren. "I didn't know it did that!"
"You didn't know it did… how did you not know gu- shootas did that Master Ren?"
"It was my first time seeing gunpowder!"
Valentina looked at him bewilderedly, "You literally blew yourself up with the sheer force of your blushing."
"It was an accident!"
"Was exposing yourself to some trolls also an accident?" Miki questioned, while prodding his glowing cheek.
"Yeah!"
"I'm beginning to believe you're a little accident prone, Ren." Val said with the tone of someone who was describing a terminal illness to their patient.
"That's what makes Master, Master. Though, you're a bit late on the uptake Miss Val."
Val, who had a little too much of Miki's shenanigans today, just barely glanced at him and said something in a language he didn't know. It sounded like it probably had the same intent as the phrase "Bite me."
"I would probably be offended if I knew what you said."
"You catch on quick, good job!"
"Obviously quicker than you."
Val had a feeling he wasn't just talking about intellectual speed. She said nothing.
Kheire has been playing with his new part, using his soul tool to tinker with it. He had already found the temple and made potions for everyone, so he is now simply observing in the background. After witnessing the spiteful interaction between his children/underclassmen, he walked up to the two, pulling them over to the side and whispering. "Behave, you two."
"So, Little Blue?" Ren said.
"Wha' 'cha wan', Fluffy?" the half-troll responded.
"I was just wondering… What were you all actually doing?"
"Us lot?" she grinned. "We was goin' ge' food."
"Hunting?" he said.
"'Sactly. We 'a'ent found nothin' ye' though. Wanna come shootin'?"
"I-I'll pass, thank you."
"I' ya say so. None yer friends wanna do i'?"
Kheire raised his hand, "I would like to go."
"I'll stay with Master."
"Oh, I'll go." Val said, a little uneasily.
Bloo smirked. "Then pack yerselfs up. If we's goin' lookin' with guests, I'd better get one of mah shootas."
With that, she plodded off.
The spoils of the hunt weren't inconsiderable, but Bloo's manner suggested that the entire lounge of eight-foot-long geckos was nothing particularly out of the ordinary.
Darkness had fallen at least half an hour ago, and most of the trolls in the tribe were sat around a roaring flame, with yells and hoots of laughter veiling the ambient sounds of the night.
No wonder it had been so difficult to find anything.
Miki stood by the tepee the trolls had lent them like a guard, holding a skewer of charred meat as if it was a weapon, watching the others as they slept.
Kheire had politely refused the tepee and instead chose to create a large, room-sized, cocoon-like structure to sleep in, all of his spoils of the hunt sitting behind him inside.
At the beginning of the night, Val had tried to put as much distance between herself and Ren as possible, not wanting to make any awkward moments, but she couldn't control what she did when she was sleeping. It was nothing too severe, but she did move closer and curled into a ball where her back was touching his, which is more contact than she would normally have.
It was a shattering blast of noise that woke them.
All around, snarling and roaring, yelling, screeching, outside the tepee.
Ren leapt to his feet as fast as he could. "W-what's happening?!" he spluttered.
"Get up. I don't know what it is but it's fast…" Miki squinted his eyes, blinking away the blinding flash.
Val was up and shoving her pets into her bag, and they weren't making this easy on her.
"Are we getting attacked…?" whispered Ren.
In the distance, several cries of "WAAARRGH" could be heard.
Kheire emerged from his cocoon and put up his defenses, getting prepared for battle by charging a lava projectile attack. "We should probably go after them and help." He ran in the direction of the WAAARRGH cries.
"Miss Val, take Master and I'll go with Dorm Advisor. Get out of danger please."
Val nodded and grabbed Ren's hand and ran as fast as possible, knives ready in case they ran into any trouble.
Littul Bloo was yelling orders left and right, and it was a wonder how they weren't drowned out by the warcries, but her still-deep voice seemed to resound through even the soil as she coordinated her allies surprisingly well for a troll.
"Yoo lot?!" she spluttered. "Wot's youse doin' 'ere?! Git'aht!"
The air was already filled with the sharp scent of gunsmoke, and it was difficult to see through the hazes left by the firing muskets combined with the pitch-darkness of the jungle.
Miki scanned the area, finding the silhouette of the attacker with little difficulty. "They're over there!"
"Gotta git mah shoota," grumbled Bloo, rushing back towards the centre of the settlement.
Kheire followed where Miki was directing him, trusting the sword gheist. "Think we should get in close or try ranged attacks?"
"How would I know? Stay away until we know we can beat them." He summoned some crystals, letting them orbit around him as they approached.
The silhouette was getting closer with every passing second, never in an entirely straight line, but very surely approaching the line of trolls that were unleashing hundreds if not thousands of bullets every second, apparently having very little trouble avoiding every single one of them.
Kheire threw his charged lava projectile like a grenade towards the silhouette, hoping they get caught in the explosion.
The explosion was effortlessly avoided, and the silhouette kept moving.
The gheist saw how easily the opponent evaded Kheire's attack and activated his runes, launching his crystal projectiles at the figure.
The first four shots missed, but the fifth was in exactly the right place, causing the mystery assailant to pause a little.
The trolls let up a little, as if in surprise.
The air was filled with an aura of rage.
Instantly, the hunter was upon the frontlines, green-blue blood not even having time to become red before it splattered across the ground and the attacker moving on.
Miki emptied a vial of potion in the time it took for him to close the distance between him and the horde, practically flying into the fray and slicing at the figure.
They had already evaded and moved on before Miki's attack had even begun, and his reflexes were his downfall. The strike went straight into the jugular of the troll that the attacker had just been on the shoulders of, killing them instantly.
Kheire activated his spirit ability he prefers to call "Stealth Mode" and did his best to creep into a good position for an attack.
The gheist tapped into his spirit's power, feeling the sudden shift in his speed. Miki ran after the figure, using her method of stepping on the trolls to even their height and launching magical swords at their figure.
Every single sword was evaded with ease, but as she rushed past him, Miki did see who he was fighting.
A girl, a kitsune… No, not quite. She was clad in black, wielding twin curved swords.
Their eyes met for the slightest moment, and then she leapt up from another troll and slashed at the ghiest, slashing right across his chest before he could even react and leaving a blazing wound behind.
Miki gritted his teeth, taking the woman's close range to his advantage and aiming a few shaky stabs at her while she was still in reach.
With the sword in her left hand, the fox-girl blocked each thrust quite simply, before launching a thrust of her own with the other.
Meanwhile, Kheire had snuck up behind her and made an attempt to pierce her torso from behind with a spear made of intertwined vines.
The girl span around, slicing the vines apart and leaving them smouldering as she rushed towards him.
Miki slipped away from the woman, seeing how much she overpowered the both of them planning to regroup with the others and hoping Kheire would follow.
The girl slashed at Kheire, a burning blade severing his entire leg in a flash, reducing the leg itself to ash and the stump to a bleeding, flaming mess.
Kheire screamed in agony and fell to the ground, scrambling to get away as he used every power, ability, and buff at his disposal to escape from the powerful assassin girl.
The gheist heaved as he ran from the battle, twitching at every sound in the forest. He had used his only healing potion to stop the burning of his wounds and was now rushing to Ren's general location. Knowing that he could've been killed by someone that easily was something else entirely. His throat felt tight and he could barely breathe. It felt like he had betrayed something fundamentally important. That sort of overwhelming powerlessness...it was terrifying.
Kheire was using his wings to support him along with a vine crutch to hobble and hover as fast as he could in Miki's wake, biting a strip of his bandages as he uses the set from his other arm to bring out his pet, Everless, to pull him along.
The girl did not follow. She was occupied with the last of the trolls.
"WAAARRGH!!"
Ren was stumbling over the foliage beneath his feet, holding onto Val's hand with all his might.
He made a short gasp. "Slow down! Miki's trying to catch up!" he cried abruptly.
Val almost tripped over her feet in stopping, "Is he hurt? Can you tell?"
"I… I don't know. Just in case. He's scared," Ren said, one thing overlapping with another, panicking.
"Is he coming from that way?" she asked, pointing the direction they came from.
He nodded shakily.
Val sighed and ran back, "Miki-" she whisper-yelled.
Miki forced his way out of the foliage, losing his footing and tumbling into the dirt, opening his wounds again. 「Just a bit further…」
Kheire came up from behind him, using what is left of his bandages and vines to carry Miki the rest of the way to their friends.
The gheist let out an animalistic sound as he felt the various bindings reaching for him and panicked, struggling out of reach and getting back to his feet in one jarring movement, falling a second time just out of the others' view.
Val burst into view, tripping over Miki's sprawled body on the ground.
"Ah- Shit, I'm sorry, are you okay?" Val asked, brushing dirt out of her hair and off of her side where she had fallen.
Miki groaned, scrambling to his feet and pulled on Val's jacket while fervently repeating, "Potions. Give me some potions. I just need some potions."
"Okay, okay." Val mumbled breathily, more to herself than to Miki.
She reached into her bag, pushing her panicked pets out of the way to grab two potions, "Here, I only have one or two left."
The gheist grabbed both vials, swiftly downing one of its contents. "Dorm...Dorm Advisor. Hey. Use this. A-and where is Master Ren?"
"He- I think he stayed back when I went to come find you," Val said, a sudden feeling of "Something is about to go terribly wrong" coming over her. "I thought he would've come with me..."
"You were supposed to stay together and protect each other!"
"I-I'm sorry! I thought he'd follow."
"...Which way did you come from?" Miki slung an arm around Kheire, supporting some of his weight and egging him to move forward.
Valentina was already moving in the correct direction, "This way."
Whilst Val was running, Ren was clinging to the trunk of a tree in abject terror, watching the forest and gritting his teeth in anxiety.
"Paramatman."
A voice spoke behind him, and Ren span, his back to the tree, looking a fox-girl dead in the eye.
"Calm yourself. It will make this a great deal easier," she said.
"Wh-who are…?!"
"My name is Zhihao. I am a jiuweihu and a Pitrs," she introduced herself.
"Wh-wha...t…?"
"I'm here in service to the Great Black One. Though the last thing I was expecting to find here was you," she said simply.
"What do you…?"
"Honestly, my task was simply to dispatch of the trolls. To think our objective was among them. Stay where you are. I'll make this quick."
Miki came out of the brush, aiming a kick straight for the back of Zhihao's head with his spiked boots.
She didn't see him coming. She didn't even realise he was there, so there was no way to avoid him.
Miki's foot struck her directly, causing her to stumble forward a single step, before roundhousing him right in the gut.
"I credit your resilience," she glared, "but I would have thought you'd have learned from our last encounter what your chances are on my battlefield."
He wheezed and glared holes through her head, "My chances… My chances can shove a rusty sword up its ass. Don't touch what's mine."
"If you actively want to die, then take that rusted blade you speak of and stab yourself with it. Trying to use me to that end is a waste of my time, flaking wisp."
"Let's waste some time then, shall we?"
"Don't test my patience. I still have to clean up and deal with the last of my prey," she said. "I won't be so merciful to you this time."
Val sneaked around the underbrush to try to get to Ren, who was a little bit behind Zhihao. When she stretched her arm out from her hiding spot in the dense small trees, she could almost reach him, but not quite.
She didn't dare make a sound to try to get his attention, fearing that Zhihao would turn around and see her. She figured it a miracle she had gotten this far, when something dastardly occurred to her.
She could just run away. She wasn't noticeable, she didn't even know if the scary girl knew she was alive. She wasn't even certain her friends would notice.
She couldn't leave them behind though, even if she was kicking herself on some level for not leaving, she couldn't lose everyone again. Valentina's thoughts were not selfless at all here, alright? She had accepted this about herself.
There might be something she could do, actually… Val prepared her gun to shoot. Now, if she could just find an opportunity.
The brunette tapped into Ren's power and activated his runes as leverage to create spikes at Zhihao's feet.
The jiuweihu was, of course, extraordinarily fast, even without her flames, and so easily avoided the attack and opted the throw a triad of fireballs at Miki in retaliation.
「Master! Support me.」The gheist ducked under the flaming orbs, summoning several swords behind her to impale her back.
「R-right!」
Ren began funnelling his power to Miki, granting him a boost.
A single sword struck home, slicing directly across the girl's side. It only seemed to irritate her more.
"Of all the people I have killed tonight, your death will satisfy me most," she snarled, rushing Miki and slashing another wound across him, which burned only for a brief moment.
"Nice to know you've enjoyed my company." That was the chance Miki needed, he hardened his skin and large crystals jutted from the ground, forcing both of them to be encased in a transparent cage.
"Son of a--!" Zhihao hissed, but didn't finish.
Ren took the hint, and fired alongside Val.
The lightning and the lasers flooded through the crystal cage, firing blasts of Exin in all directions throughout it.
It was like a nuclear blast had gone off inside it, with no chance of any life within to not be eradicated entirely.
Ren breathed out.
"Did… we do it…?" he asked Val. "Miki's still in there…"
Val walked out of her hiding spot, "I don-"
The crystal prism cracked.
It was an earsplitting sound that could deafen someone listening close enough.
And then, with no warning, it shattered.
An enormous man was stood between Zhihao and Miki, who were both entirely unharmed.
"Zhihao. You were careless," he reprimanded.
Zhihao hissed something through her teeth. "I apologise, Lord Namacuix. I'll be sure to finish him quicker next time."
"There is no need. Just remember that you were never fighting just one opponent," Namacuix said firmly. He turned to look at Miki, then Ren and Valentina.
"You impress me, young ones. To think that such teamwork could overwhelm even a student of mine is an idea that is unheard of, it would prove your potential. However," he said, his tone quickly changing, "I cannot forgive that you would sacrifice an ally to achieve a victory."
Miki turned to Namacuix with his mouth open in retaliation, only to be instantly cowed into silence just by seeing the amount of exin flooding his sight from a single glance.
"Who… are you...?" whispered Ren.
"My name is Namacuix. I suppose I am the person you were looking for. I am the only living master of the school of tonacayo magic."
"How do you--?!"
"My senses are far sharpened compared to your own," he explained. "My magic only enhances them. My disciple would have succeeded tonight alone if it were not for you four. I will recognise this. I will give you thirty seconds. In that time, I will neither dodge nor block any attack you target me with. I want you to do everything you can to me."
Ren frowned, taking a single step back. "...Why?"
"Because now that I have challenged you, one way or another, you will admit defeat," he said. "That is enough for the curse to take effect."
Ren froze. "What curse?"
Zhihao raised a hand, displaying a black ring, shaped like two intertwined snakes.
"Viper Wedding," she said. "If you admit defeat in the presence of one who wears this ring, then in 2,222 hours, you will die so long as you do not defeat the wearer in that time. You would have a mere three months to defeat me."
Miki froze whispering quietly, "Then that time...with the trolls…"
"Precisely. Are you afraid, gheist? You don't get a second chance at undeath, you know," she sneered.
"I am…" Val whimpered.
"Do you understand?" Namacuix asked. "If you deny the challenge, you admit you are defeated. If you do not kill me within thirty seconds of accepting it, then you admit you are defeated. Your only chance is to do the impossible."
Miki looked between the others, seeing the hesitation in their faces. He swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling the older wounds throb in protest, "I accept your challenge… Master, you still need to finish your paper, correct?"
"M-Miki… Now isn't the time to think about homework…!" Ren protested shakily. "I'm not going to let you die!"
"Yoo dun' 'ave to."
A hail of bullets sliced through the foliage, splintering everything in their path as they flew at Zhihao, who leapt aside to avoid in shock.
"Blue?!" Ren cried.
The half-troll, brandishing an enormous, dozen-barrelled cannon so large even she needed two hands to even hold it, grinned a toothy smile.
"Waaarrgh," she smirked, and pulled the trigger again.
Zhihao drew her twin swords, every motion a flash as one shot was blocked after another, a series of consecutive impossible movements as she rushed closer and closer to Bloo, cutting the weapon in two.
"I am done with your kind," spat the jiuweihu.
Her right arm caught ablaze, seeming to extend backwards. Her fingers became claws, her arm becoming a twisted mass of flame and flesh, before the hand like a fairy-tale witch dug deep into Bloo's chest, and ripped something out.
With a swift clench, the monstrous fist crushed her heart.
Bloo fell to the ground, silent.
Ren stared. "B… B…"
He didn't finish what he was going to say.
He only screamed.
A vortex of stars tore the ground around him to shreds, a pillar of light towering up to the sky.
Zhihao gritted her teeth, leaping back.
Namacuix nodded slowly. "So it has begun."
A pair of glowing eyes settled on Zhihao.
"You."
Zhihao brandished her blades.
Ren roared. What with was impossible to say.
Besides his arm formed an arrow of starlight.
With a single motion, he launched it directly at her.
Zhihao leapt upwards, evading it entirely.
And the arrow changed paths.
It was not a curving or smooth motion.
It was a jagged corner, a razor, a spear.
There would be death. That arrow of light would settle for nothing less.
There was nowhere to dodge.
It speared Zhihao, straight through the heart, and she fell to the ground.
And then she got up.
"Is that it?" she frowned, dusting herself down. "Let me show you an arrow."
She slammed the hilts of her swords together and turned it.
No, they weren't swords. They never had been.
Zhihao aimed her bow, an arrow of flame forming.
She let it loose instantly.
Even in the time it was in flight, it was obvious from the trail it blazed.
That arrow was powerful enough to annihilate not just its target, but quite possibly the entire forest with the blast.
That was why it took a moment to shatter.
It was as if four invisible swords had sliced it to pieces simultaneously, annihilating it entirely.
There was no direction nor force to the counterattack. It was simply incarnated destruction.
Zhihao took a step backwards. "What in the--?! Agneyastra is a godly weapon!"
"Don't bother," Namacuix told her calmly. "It is because it is a godly weapon that you cannot harm him with it now. That is the power of Vishnu that the Great Black One spoke of. You cannot fight him any way now but fairly."
Ren screamed in fury, releasing five bolts of light at his opponent simultaneously.
Zhihao managed to deflect two, but the other three struck home, explosions ringing out through the jungle.
The smoke didn't even clear before she rushed out at him, retaliating with dozens of rapid slashes so fast they were almost simultaneous.
Of course, Ren had no chance to dodge at all, but he didn't even seem to try.
His wounds were set alight, white mingling with orange.
A snarl escaped gritted teeth, and five enormous blasts of light erupted from thin air from numerous directions, each striking directly. She leapt back, struggling and stumbling.
Her movements were a little weaker than usual.
She took a moment to process her physical state, identifying the cause quickly.
The blasts had seared the left side of her body, skin and muscles literally melting away. The pain had yet to set in, but she knew it was coming.
Ren gave her no time to recover, taking advantage of her reduced mobility to rush her.
But Namacuix had lost patience.
A vortex of wind struck him firmly in the gut, knocking him across the ground, where the giant was waiting for him, slamming a foot down on his torso to push all the air from Ren's lungs in a single violent choke.
And then, of all people, he looked directly at Valentina.
"So, Veela. Do you admit defeat yet?" he asked.
Sweat beaded on her forehead, and she considered it a miracle she hadn't feathered yet. There was no good way this could go, but at least if she accepted her defeat she could leave injury-free and figure this all out later. She bowed her head forward and simply said yes. Her pride meant nothing here, and seemed silly in front of this powerful man and terrifying girl.
Namacuix nodded, a neutral motion without the slightest hint of judgement. Finally, he looked down at the boy under his heel.
For a moment, he was silent. He simply reached into a pouch by his side.
From it, he produced a black ring of intertwined snakes and slid it onto his finger.
Oh crap. Zhihao's curse was bad enough. But Ren knew for a fact that there was no chance in the world he would be able to defeat this demigod of a man as well.
"And you, boy," said Namacuix. "Do you accept def--"
"W-wait!"
The man stopped. "What is it?"
"Well. Uh. You see. I'm, uh," Ren spluttered, "quite new to fighting. We all are, to be honest. And, well, I know I can't beat you in a month, but our teamwork was enough to beat Zhihao, right? I bet that if you gave us a year, we'd be able to become worthy opponents for you."
Namacuix had frowned upon the party for letting Miki put himself in a self-sacrificing position. That told Ren he was proud.
Which meant that he could at least try to do what he did best.
Cheat.
"...Continue."
"A-actually, you know what, you're right. Never mind. In fact, there's no way I can do it so just kill me now. Please make it quick, Mr Namacuix," he said.
"I told you," Namacuix said, "to continue."
"Um. Well, I mean, if you insist. I was just thinking, a full year would be enough. Right? You'd have to not curse me though."
"There's no need for that. I can extend the curse at will," explained the man. "I will give you 8,888 hours."
Oh, crap.
It was better than nothing. He was taking it.
"This is a bad idea. You'll regret it later."
"Not at all. My kind age slowly, and tonacayo renders us near eternally young. A worthy opponent is something I can strive for. If you think you can provide a challenge, so be it."
"Lord Namacuix, surely this is farcical," Zhihao protested.
"Nonsense. Life would have no meaning if it weren't for challenge. Once you gain eternal youth, you too will understand. 8,888 hours, Paramatman. 370 days. I will allow you this long. Use your time well," instructed Namacuix. "If that is all, Zhihao…"
"It is, my lord."
"Then we depart."
And so, the two turned and began to leave. Zhihao took a single step and fell to her knees.
Namacuix handed her a vial of liquid. "Drink this. It'll ease pain. I shall carry you."
She downed the potion wordlessly and wrapped her good arm around Namacuix's neck, and with a single leap, the pair were gone.
"Blue…" Ren whispered, trying to get to his feet.
He failed.
He didn't even see her body again before he lost consciousness.
