Rupegia 28 Wisps Of The Proud

I feel warm, very warm and wet. I feel Ciel moving.

I cup her breast harder and she moans. My member is between her legs, touching the gate to heaven, she's wet and using me to get herself off. I move my hand that was on her thigh and use it to angle my d.i.c.k, I thrust forward and enter her. She gasps and wakes Lina, who was smothered by her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Alissa kisses my neck and gets up. I start thrusting harder and soon Hana and Roxanne are also awoken by us. I play with Ciel's c.l.i.t and pinch her nipples, I make a hickey on her neck and suck on her earlobes.

"Wolfyy~...," her voice is very high pitched, "I love you~..."

"I love you too, you are my delicious piece of chocolate."

She chuckles amid moans and soon she o.r.g.a.s.ms. I slow down and take it off from her. She turns around and kisses me while Roxanne comes to finish me off.

"I'm getting the hang of this," Roxanne says after swallowing.

I pull my tongue off Ciel's mouth and kiss Roxanne on the forehead.

"That you are, my love."

­

We go outside to have a quick breakfast. When we are finis.h.i.+ng, Lyle and the others come out. The s.p.a.ce mages barely retain their professionalism, Tankar glares at us with even more intensity, the n.o.bles maintain their dignity.

I feel like I'm getting kinkier by the day, I barely made efforts to make the sound of our beds creaking less obvious. I'm starting to have some exhibitionism fantasies, I have to contain those, they are starting to go too far. I do have a dream of having s.e.x while using [Fly], though.

While they have their breakfast Alissa goes out scouting ahead while we stay behind stretching and warming up. I decide to focus on casting [Swift Foot] for everybody on the camp.

Stretching the effect of the spell so much makes it start to go unstable, this could be dangerous. Molding spells away from their standard use is the mark of a proper mage and it is something that I lack since I learned everything by cheating.

I take my time, chanting and re-chanting, slowly inching forward the area of effect. I have experience with it since it's the same thing as my soul "expansion" but it feels like holding multiple b.a.l.l.s with your hands and I haven't properly learned how to juggle yet.

It took me 10 minutes of lowly chanting but I did it.

"Boy, you knew this spell from the beginning?" Tarkan asks with irritation, his voice has a strong low ba.s.s that makes the earth tremble.

First time I hear him talk, this shocks me for a second. The entire camp goes silent to hear us.

"Yes, I knew it."

"Then why did you make master Gartania suffer by not giving him the spell?"

"I wanted to gauge the physical conditions of everyone. I don't know how much strength you or the s.p.a.ce mages have but at least now I know the strength of our employers," I graciously gesture to the young n.o.bles.

"That was highly unnecessary," he growls at me.

"You would do well not to coddle them, this isn't a vacation, this is a dangerous expedition."

"Unnecessary hards.h.i.+p to fulfill your fantasies of taking your anger of impotence on your betters," he quickly retorts.

"That was oddly specific, but no, I do not have such fantasies."

I didn't lie, I just didn't tell I was being a bit petty.

Lyle comes forward.

"Please. This argument is unnecessary," he shows us the palm of his hand, gesturing us to stop, " Wolf's method is valid and now we are not going to suffer the same thing again

Tarkan turns around in a huff and goes back to his tent.

"Boo... baad," Aoi mumbles her displeasure.

Gify pops into my shoulder.

"Gih!"

Yep, that duo means trouble.

­

Alissa comes back, the hall is completely empty. We tear down our tents and start to move. It's a rather long walk, around 30 minutes just to reach the end of the hall, at the end a much larger, but broken, double door can be seen.

When our light reaches beyond the door we see the ruins of a town. Rubble upon piles of rubble, the few buildings still standing are partially swallowed by the low ceiling. It's like this town was transported inside a small cave. We smell dust and the air is stuffy. Just by staring at these ruins I'm starting to feel gloomy, the name of this dungeon is rather fitting.

The dragonoids create their buildings by using their own version of [Transformation Magic], they raise the earth and transform it into pure stone. You can see little "veins" from where the ground was "sucked up", they almost look like roots, making the buildings look like they grew from the ground like a tree.

Lina's Trivia: [Transformation Magic] exists on the system, but it's extremely dangerous to use. It's similar to raw mana manipulation but it's based on the will of the user. It's the only magic that can cure birth defects, it can even change the soul and mind of people. But you must have the mind of a monk to use it safely, a single stray thought while using it is enough to transform a person into a pile of shredded meat and broken bones.

The remaining buildings all have odd shapes, they might have come from a workshop of abstract sculpting than something an architect would ever dream of creating. Many of these do not even have walls, telling of the dragonoids complete lack of shame and their collectivist society.

Lyle and Delwyn look around, hungry for details. But this place is completely explored, there's no new detail here for them, only refreshers for their memories.

"Make sure they don't stumble into something, we do not want to make much noise here," I whisper to Lina.

She nods and slows down until she's behind our careless employers, keeping an eye on them while occasionally looking around, herself. Soon enough she guides Lyle from tripping on a ruined round s.h.i.+eld on the ground.

"You can see how the marks on the ground are made by their claws, they are digitigrade and leave small punctures on the stone wherever they step on," Lyle says.

"Please speak lower, Mr. Rizek," Lina says.

Lyle winces and makes an apologetic expression.

"Lyle is fine," he responds in a lower tone.

­

Our peaceful trek through the ruin is cut short as Alissa detect something.

"You can't see in the dark, right?" I ask her.

"No. There must be a Unique Spell that does it, though."

"Then we have to go after it all together, it's impossible to sneak up on them since we can't see in the dark.

"It's likely a guard. They are not particularly strong but remember that all dragonoids know magic," Lina says.

"It's time for the emellanat, then," Hana says.

She is very fond of that ominous looking b.a.s.t.a.r.d sword. As we bring out our swords Gwinevere's eyes open wide.

"Where did you get these swords? Emellanat is very rare around here," she asks.

"Secret," Hana answers with a grin.

She looks at me but I just shrug. Gwinevere frowns but lets it go.

"You all stay here with the elementals while we fight, if any problem appears then come to us and we will handle it," I say.

Gify suddenly pops into my shoulder.

"Gih, gih."

"So it really is a guard then. How do you know? Can you go invisible?" Iask.

"Guh, gah, gih."

"From what I understood he has something similar to Alissa's [Sense Presence]. Though it seems it's not instantaneous like the skill."

"Gih!"

And with a pop he disappears again, he does not like dungeons.

"I wish he would stay longer," Ciel says with slumped shoulders and a hint of sadness on her voice.

"Yeah, he could cuddle with us when we sleep," Alissa says, mirroring her demeanor.

Both of them pout for a few seconds.

"Back to the fight, you two," Hana says and rolls her eyes.

Alissa blushes at her own distraction.

"Anyway, the guard is over the corner?" Iask.

Alissa closes her eyes and focus a bit.

"Yes, he's kneeling and looking down, apparently," she says.

"Weird."

"They use some sort of spell that preserves themselves, they don't move or eat for a long time," Lina says.

Weird.

We go forward until the end of the block, we turn right and move forward. Before we our light even reaches the monster we hear the characteristic tinkling of chain mail. I feel mana gathering in front of us.

The town turns bright as a thunder roars and hits Hana's sword. For a split second we see our target, grey scales, golden lines wave wildy all over its body and s.h.i.+ne lightly, long neck, dragonic face, short black hair spiking backwards, claws on hands and feet, and compact folded wings. Two thick and long whiskers coming out of the top of it's snout like a chinese dragon and a very long and thin tail stands straight upwards, those are the signs of a male. He has a round metal s.h.i.+eld, a spear, chain mail on the chest, and a thick cloth covering both the chest and the legs.

Alissa lets out a bodkin arrow and it pierces the s.h.i.+eld of the dragonoid, getting stuck on it.

"Just our luck, the first one is attuned to thunder," I say.

"[Fire Arrow]! More experience, then," Roxanne says.

The magical arrow pierces the s.h.i.+eld, lighting the position of the dragonoid. He charges forward.

"I'll keep an eye on our flanks," Alissa says.

"[Wind Hammer]!"

The dragonoid charge gets stopped when the spell hits him square on the s.h.i.+eld. Hana takes the opportunity and charges using her wings.

A clang echoes as Hana hits the dragonoid's s.h.i.+eld, I feel mana gathering on the dragonoid. Her sword slides off downwards and she swings again, making a cut on the leg armor of the dragonoid. Suddenly the dragonoid glows very bright and lightning crackles.

Hana covers her eyes and jumps backwards, just barely deflecting a spear thrust with her s.h.i.+eld. A thin tail wraps up on her left leg and pulls her forward. She tumbles and uses her wings to move backwards.

Ciel and Lina arrive at the same time and strike towards the dragonoid. His lizard eyes don't even look at them. He deflects Ciel's thrust with the s.h.i.+eld and gets his right foot crushed by Lina.

He jumps backwards and Ciel's hook on her glaive snags a scale on his throat, ripping it off. The dragonoid spreads his wings and hovers over the ground, completely motionless. His foot and the place missing a scale bleeds.

The dragonoid defends against another arrow. A chantless [Fire Whip] snags his right leg. He gets pulled forward and the girls take their chance. Lina misses, Hana pierces the abdomen slightly and Ciel creates a large wound on his neck.

The dragonoid pulls back immediately. Roxanne learned her lesson and lets the whip go, she doesn't have the strength to hold him in place.

"Move back, you are too far!" Iyell.

The girls cautiously retreat. The monster starts regenerating. His mana is not endless, he's not a transformation type so he won't be able to regenerate for long.

The dragonoid flies higher and points his spear towards me. Another thunder cracks and nothing happens, I only feel that my sword gets hot. This is why I'm besides the back line, I don't have much mana with 3 summons out so I'm taking it easy, Lina would do better in the front than me.

An arrow, a fireball from Aoi, a [Fire Arrow] and a [Wind Hammer] hit his s.h.i.+eld. It's starting to get bent and ruined, soon enough he will be an easy target for us.

He lowers down. His wings don't flap, only slightly move, telling us of his fine control over flight.

The dragonoid charges again, this time towards Lina. She steels herself and deflects the spear, a thin tail moves towards her face like a whip. With incredible speed she moves her upper body sideways and the tail leaves a scratch in her helmet, that tail is sharp.

Hana counters with a savage downwards strike, the s.h.i.+eld of the dragonoid gets bent in half.

"[Wind Blade]!"

The cut on his neck opens again. He flies backwards as a [Torrent] hits his chest immediately afterwards. Another arrow pierces his s.h.i.+eld, this time blood drips from his arm as the arrow hit exactly where his arm is strapped on.

It immediately charges again towards Lina but gets stopped by [Wind Hammer].

"Stubborn like an a.s.sfolk," Hana says.

"Don't say that, it's offensive," Ciel chastises.

Donkey beastfolk are known to be loud and foulmouthed, though they are unlikely to really take offense on that.

"Hit me, you limp d.i.c.ked goblin!" Hana taunts.

I'm not sure the taunt worked on him.

The dragonoid receives another normal arrow and a [Fire Arrow] where his arm should be holding the s.h.i.+eld. He grabs the [Fire Arrow] and pulls it out. The advantage of that spell is that it continually burns for quite some time, requiring immediate attention.

Hana charges the occupied dragonoid, forcing him to hurriedly defend with his spear. Hana was expecting that, she supports the spear with her s.h.i.+eld and strikes the shaft with her sword, cutting it in two. The dragonoid immediately abandons the spear and counters with his claws and a tail whip.

The claws chip a scale from Hana's s.h.i.+eld but the tail does nothing as it hits Hana's ta.s.sets that protects her thighs.

"Behind!" Alissa yells.

Ah, s.h.i.+te. I turn around and stand in front of the girls, waiting for the charge of whatever is coming.

"I will help!" Ciel yells.

A fireball lights the town far away from where I am. I raise my s.h.i.+eld and point my sword forwards. When the fireball nears all I feel is a light hot breeze as the fireball dissipates, my sword gets slightly hotter. These are heavy spells if they can make such noticeable changes in my sword.

Immediately after the fireball dissipates a white dragonoid with glowing red lines thrusts his spear towards me, another male. I struggle to push the spear away but I manage to deflect the blow, the dragonoids put their entire weight on their charges. Truly fearsome lancers.

With my s.h.i.+eld hand I cast [Lighting Bolt] and make sure the path goes towards his heart. Unfortunately emellanat impedes me from casting with my right hand.

The bolt hits him on the s.h.i.+eld and I feel it going past it, hitting the target just as I wanted. The white dragonoid loses much of his strength and almost collapses on top of me.

A [Water Blade], a fireball, and an arrow hits him straight in the chest. He fails to dodge Ciel, she gives him a cut on his right flank, metal rings fly about as his flimsy chain mail gets shredded. Ciel flips her glaive again and rips flesh as the hook gets stuck on his wound.

Over all this pain the dragonoids are eerily quiet.

"We will finish the first one!" Alissa yells.

She and Roxanne turn around and I feel their happiness as the other dragonoid gets wounded again.

The white dragonoid looks towards Ciel and charges her. Both thrust their polearms and both attacks get deflected at the same time.

I cast [Rush] and I nearly instantly appear besides the dragonoid. He flies upwards, limiting my reach but I manage to slice his tail and right foot off with a single slash.

I hear Hana's wings beat as she flies upwards.

The white dragonoid immediately flies away from me, for the first time he shows some emotion as he looks at me in surprise. Even monsters have a cast time on their spells.

I hear the sound of something hitting the ground.

The monster decides I'm a mortal threat and charges me. Ciel slashes at him and makes him veer off course a small amount.

He thrusts at my s.h.i.+eld with all his strength, the spear breaks and I nearly fall backwards. I cast a desperate [Earth Bullet] and the dragonoid is caught unaware again, the spell hits the corner of his s.h.i.+eld and bends it, the stone ends up hitting his right shoulder. He spins and crashes on the ground to my side.

I hear the fleshy sound of meat and bones getting crushed behind us.
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As I regain my balance Ciel dashes past me, I can't chase since I have to stay near the girls in case a spell gets thrown towards them.

Ciel plunges her glaive in the back of the white dragonoid. He thrashes about, trying to take flight only to get wounded deeper. Ciel removes her glaive and nearly cuts off one of the wings as a bonus.

"RAAH!" Hana yells.

"Another!" Alissa yells.

Bunch of nibbling Skritters. This is about to get out of hand. Through Holly I can see where the next one is coming from.

"Ciel, you are on your own!" Iyell.

"Yes!" She answers.

I stand in front of where Alissa is looking, a sky blue dragonoid with long flowing white hair appears from atop the ruins to our left. It has very small and thin whiskers, its tail waves about as it flies, the signs of a female. This one has horns, she is old and more powerful. She has a more red lines than the others, they wave wildly over her body and glow with more intensity.

A fireball is hurled towards us and I dissipate it again, my sword gets quite hot. This one doesn't charge immediately and observes the battlefield. The red lines on her body calm and lose its glow, those lines are a visual representation of her mana.

Hana twists her sword in the chest of the struggling dragonoid, she seems to like to stand on top of her enemies... And lovers.

Lina strikes the base of the neck of the dragonoid, his lower body goes limp but his head still flails about. He tries to bite Hana but she's too far away, he then bites her sword and tries to pull it out of him, but Hana is stronger.

His eyes turn gold as he tries to cast a bolt towards Lina, but nothing happens as her s.h.i.+eld absorbs it. Hana takes the opportunity finishes him off by decapitating him. All of the equipment of the dragonoid turns to mush and dissolves.

I feel a storm of mana right on top of me, me and Roxanne effortlessly interrupt the attempt of the female dragonoid of casting a spell on top of us. It's a bit frightening the dragonoid is capable of that.

The white dragonoid is struggling to take flight, he decides to fight Ciel on the ground even though he's limping due to the lack of a foot. His claws extend to the size of a long dagger. He suffers against her range advantage.

The blue dragonoid charges towards me, I steel myself and concentrate. She dodges a [Torrent] with incredible agility, she receives an arrow that pierces her s.h.i.+eld arm but doesn't slow down.

It's difficult but I can do it for a single moment and a moment is all I need, I cast [Telekinesis] on the tip her spear. Her spear tips downwards and with a bit of help of my s.h.i.+eld it gets stuck on the ground and snaps.

I thrust my sword at the same time but I get parried by her s.h.i.+eld. I feel the immense strength on her s.h.i.+eld arm and I'm glad I didn't take the spear directly.

Before she has the opportunity to continue her charge towards the back line, a chantless [Earth Bullet] from Lina hits her on the flank sending her far away from us.

Ciel jumps back to catch her breath, one"on"one a dragonoid is a tough fight. The white dragonoid stops for regeneration but gets interrupted as Hana charges him, forcing him to defend himself with his claws.

I can see with the vision from the elementals that the blue dragonoid fell backwards so far that she appeared on the corner of the road. Thankfully she didn't notice the group of wary humans staring at her and charged back towards us.

"Fire at the same time as me!" Itell the girls and they nod towards me.

I charge my mana to the maximum.

"[Lighting Bolt]!"

"[Torrent]!"

An arrow and a fireball flies.

The blue dragonoid gets. .h.i.t by the bolt, with her muscles stiffened for a second she couldn't dodge the attacks. She receives the spell square on the s.h.i.+eld and starts spinning, the arrow hits her right shoulder and the fireball hits the back. She crashes on the ground and rolls, kicking up dust.

Lina arrives besides Hana, who breaks away and rushes towards the blue dragonoid that's getting up. An arrow towards the white dragonoid forces him to defend himself with the s.h.i.+eld, allowing Ciel to make a quick move and snag the rest of the dragonoids mail with her hook. She pulls her glaive and the hole on the frail hauberk opens wider.

Hana attacks the raising blue dragonoid, forcing her to defend with her s.h.i.+eld. Then Hana bashes her s.h.i.+eld, forcing her into an awkward angle. Hana follows with a savage slash on the now exposed legs, cutting deep into the left thigh through the armor.

Lina manages to smash the remaining foot of the dragonoid. He tumbles and falls on his a.s.s, the lack of a good part of his tail does not help with his balance. Ciel stabs the groin, angling it towards his right leg, she twists the blade and pulls it out. This dragonoid is nearly completely disabled.

The blue dragonoid does not let Hana regain the advantage, she swipes savagely at Hana. Even with a range advantage Hana is not keen on exposing herself yet to this enemy, she can just wait for backup. She blocks, deflects and feints to keep the dragonoid from pressing her too hard.

The white dragonoid has to use two hands to defend itself from Lina's pounding with her war hammer. His s.h.i.+eld bends more and more with each attack. Ciel circles around him and slashes half his throat off. The dragonoid tries to lash and bite at Ciel, he even tries to bite at the blade, to try and pry it off of her.

Hana steps sideways, giving a small opening for us to attack the berserking blue dragonoid.

"[Water Blade]!" Me and Roxanne cast at the same time.

Both our spells aimed for the head and the blue dragonoid defended from both with her right arm. Roxanne's spell clearly made a much deeper cut. Now the dragonoid's attacking arm is completely disabled, allowing Hana to push back with ease.

The white dragonoid arms break and his s.h.i.+eld presses on his own body. He tries to move with hiss regenerating right leg but he has no power to stand up. Ciel slashes again at the throat and creates another deep wound, the dragonoid is bleeding profusely.

The white dragonoid opens his mouth and looks at Lina, the depths of his throat start glowing. On the moment his head stops moving an arrow pierces his right eye and buries itself deep, the tip appears on the back of the skull. His body goes limp, he's dead.

The blue dragonoid senses her impending doom and throws her s.h.i.+eld at Hana. She uses her only good arm to try to at least kill her. She swings wildly at spits fireb.a.l.l.s at Hana, the dragonkin answers with a smile on her face as she deflects the attacks and slashes the fireb.a.l.l.s into nothing with her sword.

Suddenly Hana stops and bashes the dragonoid followed by a thrust. The bash leaves the dragonoid exposed, allowing the sword to pierce the throat with ease. Hana twists her sword, opening a large wound on the dragonoid and immediately pulls back, allowing the dragonoid to restart her rampage.

Ciel appears on the right side of Hana and with a swing her glaive slashes off the left hand of the dragonoid. That was the strong hand the dragonoid was using to attack. Lina appears on the left side of Hana and strikes the right knee of the dragonoid, making the leg bend backwards, forcing the dragonoid to use her wings to stay upright.

The dragonoid swings weakly with her slowly regenerating arm but it does not even scratch the s.h.i.+elds of the girls. She loses a part of her tail when she tries to whip it at Ciel. Her claws on her feet get destroyed by Lina. Her chain mail gets snagged and ripped by the hooks. The cloth armor slowly falls apart with slash upon slash.

Hana takes flight again and sends an [Earth Bullet] downwards, hitting the dragonoid on the chest and forcing her to kneel. Lina smashes at the right knee, breaking the entire leg. Ciel slashes at the exposed chest, creating a deep gash that bleeds profusely.

The entire chest of the dragonoid turns red. She tries to take flight and charge Hana but gets sent down again with a savage overhead slash that carries the entire weight of Hana. The dragonoid falls on the ground and Ciel thrusts at her, forcing her to the ground.

Lina smashes the left shoulder, rendering the remaining arm useless. Hana slashes the neck of the pinned dragonoid and her head falls on the ground.

Everyone breathes a sigh of relief. Roxanne holds her head in pain.

"Too many spells in too little time. It's hard not to overuse when you don't have to chant anymore," she says.

"Now you understand how I feel," I say.

She chuckles.

We spend a few minutes still tense, waiting for any other dragonoid guard to appear. Meanwhile we recover the blue dragonoid parts and I store it in my "Items", we collect the pair of whiskers from the other 2, that's the proof of subjugation.

Aoi hops down from Roxanne's shoulder, she rips the scales easily and starts eating the white dragonoid's flesh.

"Don't you want us to roast it first, little one?" Hana asks.

"No~!" Aoi responds and continues eating.

"Dragonoids have lots of mana, perhaps roasting would reduce the amount of mana on the meat," Lina says.

"Yeesh~" Aoi mumbles with her mouth full.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, you are a monster but you are still a woman," Alissa scolds.

Look who's talking.

Roxanne chugs a small MP potion and sits down with her back on a small wall. She doesn't have [Mana Recovery] so she uses her own potions to recover mana. She has specialized small potions that heal mana slowly and have a low toxicity. In this world the old adage "the dose makes the poison" is still true.

I push her so I can sit behind her and pull her into my arms. [Breeze] is doing its work, she doesn't smell of sweat, only of the sweet fragrance of lavender.

She leans her staff on the wall and scootches closer to me to get more comfortable.

"If we stay like this I'm going to fall asleep," she says.

"Then do, I will protect you and wake you up when it's time," I answer.

She gives me a long kiss on the lips and takes off her pointy hat, coif, and gla.s.ses. No need to go so far and untie her hair so she just drops her head into my chest and closes her eyes. She looks s.e.xy even while sleeping.

Ciel brings Lyle and the others towards us. They look a bit wary at the amount of blood around, except Gwinevere, she seems indifferent. Hana and Ciel then spend some time cleaning their clothes of the stray drops of blood that splashed on them.

"You guys okay?" Lyle asks with furrowed eyebrows.

The amount of blood around and Roxanne sleeping in my arms does make a slightly worrying scene.

"Yes, just tired, she overused her mana a bit so we are going to rest," Alissa says in a lower voice.

"We saw a blue one, where is the body?" Lyle asks, nearly whispering.

"Wolf stored it in his [Item Box]. It was bigger so it could be valuable."

"I see... Well, you are all quite powerful, the size of these monsters is frightening."

"Hopefully it will be enough to impress Mr. Garanae."

I can't see her face but I can tell Alissa is smirking.

"Perhaps. I a.s.sume it was you who influenced Hatara, both of them changed in impressive ways."

"It was, I believe my blessing from the G.o.ddess of Love wasn't wasted on me."

Oh yeah, I can feel the smugness on her voice.

"Well, nothing bad came out of their relations.h.i.+p, it's actually rather refres.h.i.+ng how soft Gara has become. To think all he needed was a girlfriend…"

"Everyone needs some love, n.o.body is perfect. We all need people who complete us, after all. But what about you, Mr. Lyle, you said you are focusing on power but is it truly so? Can't you spare a bit of your time so you can spend it with a loved one?"

The smugness levels are off the charts.

"T-that's not... I don't have, I don't have time, really," Lyle turns his face away and cleans his throat.

"Reeeaally...?"

Now she's sa.s.sy.

"Y-yes... Ah, Gwin, h-how are the dragonoids?"

He waves to Gwinevere and moves away from Alissa. It seems Lyle can still be teased when the heat is on him.

"Dead...?" She looks at him confused.

"That's not…" He shakes his head, "Did you identify anything from their clothes and armor?"

I play with Roxanne's hair while she sleeps. The quartet of scholars examine the grey dragonoid, they seem to be avoiding Aoi, who's still eating the white dragonoid. The s.p.a.ce mages lowly discuss how to cook dragonoid meat, apparently it's very hard to prepare properly, it's very tough and tastes very gamey. The diet of animals and monsters define how strong the meat tastes, monsters that use lots of mana are known to taste slightly better. The dragonoids guards don't seem to eat a lot because of their self-preservation mode, but such spells are known to ruin meat. In the end they decided to take the body.

After 30 minutes I wake Roxanne up. She yawns and gives me a peck on the lips. Then she frowns as she puts the coif back on.

"Feeling better?" Iask.

"Yep, time to move."

"It's impressive how easily you fell asleep in this uncomfortable stone."

"That's because I felt safe in your arms," she winks at me.

Awn, my heart...

­

We continue moving through town. The sound of thunder traveled far as we don't meet another guard.

We reach a main road, it's larger and has details on the sidewalk, simple tribal geometric carvings. We manage to get glimpses of our target, a large tower, the scholars believe it is a primeval temple.

"Even though they could fly they still required proper roads and sidewalks for they had servants of some kind. Not much is known about who these servants were," Lyle says.

"Could it be another extinct race?" Lina asks.

"Could be."

As we near the tower Alissa stops us.

"Another guard. Big like the blue one."

There's a building near us that's still standing, it surprisingly has some walls in the first floor.

"Hide there," I point to the building, "We will deal with the guard like last time"

We might need to have them always hide when we fight, those are not easy fights, we have to go all out. Having them see so many chantless spells would attract too much attention, I specifically don't want Ankara to see us fight.

We move towards the guard and suddenly the ground starts to get muddy, there was no cast time and a spell instantly started having effect. Me, Ciel, and Roxanne interrupt the spell immediately, a few seconds more and our feet would have sank on the ground.

"Transformation!" Lina yells.

He's gonna be annoying.

Alissa lets out an arrow, I hear it clang on metal. A second later a black dragonoid appears, the white lines on its scales glow. It's a male with two long and forward"facing straight horns, they look dangerously sharp. He charges towards Hana.

She takes the charge and immediately counters. The dragonoid fails to defend itself from the attack, his belly gets pierced by Hana, his neck is wounded by Ciel and his leg is. .h.i.t by Lina. He spins from Lina's attack and flies backwards. His wounds instantly close, not a single drop of blood hits the ground.

Transformation types have extra regeneration capabilities.

The dragonoid receives a [Torrent] on his s.h.i.+eld followed by a fireball and an arrow. Already his s.h.i.+eld is bending. He charges Lina.

She steels herself and stands like a statue. When the tip of the spear approaches Lina moves with incredible speed, her s.h.i.+eld hits the spear perfectly on the middle. The tip of the spear gets stuck on the s.h.i.+eld and the shaft breaks.

"Come at me you squishy gecko!" Hana taunts.

She slashes at the thigh of the dragonoid, it cuts through the cloth armor and inflicts a light wound that closes immediately. When the dragonoid retreats Ciel unleashes a [Wind Blade] that gets blocked by his s.h.i.+eld.

"I will cut your wings and turn you into my slave!" She taunts again.

The dragonoid spares her no mind and charges Ciel. Without his spear her reach prevents him from hurting her. He impales himself on her glaive and swipes at her s.h.i.+eld, his claws get stuck midway on her wooden s.h.i.+eld.

With his claws stuck and his belly pierced, he takes an extra second to retreat. Hana slashes down with her sword and cuts his right hand off while he retreats.

He blocks an arrow and dodges a [Fire Arrow]. He lowers himself and touch the ground, limiting the aim of Alissa and Roxanne. I see something is coming out of his stump, his bones are already regrowing. Stupid transformation types.

He charges towards Hana, Alissa is on a line behind her. She takes the opportunity, she casts [Ghost Lights] and releases an arrow at the same time. The dragonoid blocks his face with his s.h.i.+eld and the arrow hits exactly where his eyes would be. Hana takes the chance and slashes at his exposed thighs again, this time the wound is much deeper and blood seeps from the wound.

This is why a kite s.h.i.+eld is better, his legs would be less exposed this way.

He retreats again, meat and bones grow out of his stump in real time in a disgusting manner. Suddenly the ground becomes wet and slippery, his body glows brightly.

He charges towards Lina again. Hana flies to intercept, her sword hits his s.h.i.+eld and bends it in half. He veers off course but manages to spin and kick Lina, she remains like a statue and slides through the floor.

I use [Telekinesis] on her, she slows down and slides until she nearly touches me. Roxanne casts a chantless [Ice Lance], it pierces through the s.h.i.+eld and nearly wounds his chest lightly.

"[Wind Blade]!"

The spell flies towards his flank, his tail is sliced off cleanly at the base. Hana strikes him again with all her power and he crashes on the ground. I cast [Entangling Vines], his arms and legs get pulled to the ground. He tries to liquefy my vines but I keep casting the spell continuously.

Hana hacks at him wildly, he lifts his arms to defend himself and they get chopped off. Bones and scales grow wildly out of his stumps only to get hacked again.

"[Wind Blade]!"

"[Water Blade]!"

The two spells are cast with a lot of mana and with a completely vulnerable target both legs get sliced off. Hana continues to hack, more and more blood and gore spills from the butchering.

Eventually his regeneration slows down and Hana sinks her blade on his head, splitting his skull in two. He flails for a few seconds and finally stops. Hana steps away from him, she's drenched in blood and pieces of meat and bone. I'm starting to feel sick so I wobble away from that scene.

Roxanne spends nearly a minute manipulating water to clean the floor of the oil.

"Hana, you are having a bath," I say.

"Eh, it's only blood," she answers with a shrug.

"I agree with Wolfy, it's worth spending some time to clean you," Alissa says.

"I agree," Ciel says.

"I also agree. You gotta take better care of yourself, my love," Roxanne says, tapping Hana's back, one of the few places untainted by blood.

Lina simply avoids eye contact with Hana.

"Fine…" She shrugs again.

"I will wash you," I say.

Now Hana smiles.

"Wolfy, no s.e.x," Alissa says with a serious tone.

"Shouldn't you be saying that to Hana?"

"Yes, but she has Roxanne, tonight you are mine," she looks like a predator about to pounce on her prey.

Wow, where is that possessiveness coming from?

We go behind a still standing wall and I pull out the bath requirements, Roxanne comes to help wash Hana's clothes while I carefully wash her body and scales. I take my time feeling up her abs, her biceps, her thighs, her calves, her very cute feet, and her two beautiful and perfect b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"If you continue we will have to apologize to Alissa," she says.

"Wha...?"

"I'm about to pounce on you."

Alright then. I change to her scales, impressive how the blood seeped so deep in her, I carefully look below each to find any drop of blood that I could have missed.

"You know I'm not made of gla.s.s, you can be rougher with me," she says, one eyebrow raised.

"Sometimes I just feel like pampering you, why be rough when I can be delicate?"

"Please stop talking, I'm seriously about to pounce on you," her face shows some anxiety.

I just smile and finish up.

We store everything and bring Lyle.

"Dwarven beard, you did this?" Delwyn asks, he looks away sickly.

Idioms are starting to turn into their localized versions instead of being translated into their Earth equivalent. "Dwarven beard" means something impressive. Earlier I thought "nibbling Skritters", it means "annoying little s.h.i.+ts".

"Well, yes," I answer, "Actually no, that was Hana."

"There's no way around it, transformation types have ridiculous regeneration," Lina says.

Delwyn groans and shudders.

"It's not that bad little brother, it's just some blood and meat. The real dragonoids would do much worse if they caught one of us," Gwinevere rubs his shoulder.

"You are not helping," he answers flatly.

"As a n.o.ble you should have a stronger spirit, Delwyn," Ankara says, he shakes his head in disapprovement, "How are we supposed to lead the commoners if you get sick at looking at the mere results of a fight?"

"I'm not a fighter and I will never be, there's no need for me to have to stomach this."

"Then you shouldn't..." Ankara stops himself.

Him and Delwyn glare at each other. I'm sure Ankara would have said that he "shouldn't be a n.o.ble then". Tankar seems to be looking at Delwyn with pity.

"Keep moving, we don't have time for this," Lyle says in a commanding voice.

­

We reach the entrance to the temple, a row of steps flanked by 14 pedestals. Only one of the pedestals has a statue on it, the others are all partially destroyed without any hint of what their statues might be. The only statue is of a naked dragonoid, not that they regularly wear clothes.

"Some say these status represent the other humanoid races," Lyle says.

We enter the temple. It's completely hollow, not even the floor remains, it turns into the jagged floor of the cave. The middle of the tower has an out of control enchantment, a chaotic wind runs through the entire height, it's almost a visible tornado.

We take a quick lunch break. "Items"-ready meal for us and the remains of yesterday's meal for the others.

"So, I will summon another earth elemental and me and Hana will climb to the top. In there we will fix a pulley so the rest can be brought up by a suspended scaffold, then I will use a wind elemental to secure the scaffold for you guys."

Alissa seems anxious, she will be the first to come up, though.

I unsummon Holly and I fake a chant, I summon an earth elemental and a wind elemental. Then I bring out the small scaffold and leather harnesses we prepared.

We have a 4 pulleys system for raising the scaffold, 2 pulleys bellow, two on top. I grab the top pulley and hook it to the elemental. Good for us that someone measured the height of his tower, 164 meters, because of this we can bring the proper amount of rope. In this world "meters" is called "metris".

"Your [Item Box] is quite big, Wolf," Lyle says.

It's not funny when a man says it. I force a smile.

"You know I'm good with [s.p.a.ce Magic]."

"So it seems," he looks at me with curiosity.

Me and Hana put on our harnesses and tie ourselves to each earth elemental. We climb on their backs and the elementals move towards the walls. They touch the wall and their hands fuse with the stone, then they pull themselves upwards and do the same for their feet. They unfuse their hands and fuse again higher up. This cycle repeats and we slowly climb up the tower.

The wind blows hard and we have to cling to the elementals or we would flap about wildly. It's difficult to breathe and the dust is irritating my nose. The wind is cold and soon I'm chilled to the bone, even with the fur padding of my armor.

After an eternity that lasted 20 minutes we reach the top. The tower suddenly opens into the cave environment again. This time it's full of stalagmites and stalact.i.tes, water drips constantly and rills flow towards a large crack in the ground about 100 meters from us. The wind is strong here too.

I have one of the elementals fuse with the ground and hold the pulley for us, the other will pull the rope while we secure the area. I turn my Emergency Ring red then green then off. The signal that we are ready.

A few seconds later my ring turns red then green then off. I signal the elemental and it starts pulling. 5 minutes later the scaffold appears with Alissa, Lyle and the fire elemental. The wind elemental floats above the scaffold. The fire elemental lights up our surroundings and we see a dance of small lights reflected on the wet ground of the cave.

We lower the scaffold and the wind elemental floats down.

"How was it?" Iask.

"A bit cold, barely any swaying, though I don't recommend looking down," Lyle says.

"Better than our trip up. Heat me up," I tell the fire elemental.

The flames of the elemental spring to life and she blows a kiss to me.

"They are getting personalities now," Alissa mutters.

Hana looks very satisfied.

Next comes Tankar, Ankara, and one of the s.p.a.ce mages. Ankara seems to heavily dislike the wet environment, he maintains close to the elemental but keep his eyes away from her two large traps.

Next comes the twins and the other s.p.a.ce mage.

"Ooh~..." Gwinevere looks around in wonder.

"Yeah, kinda nice," Delwyn talks absentmindedly.

"Nicer than just those ruins you and Lyle love so much. Do either of you play with yourselves while thinking about those ruins?"

If one were to ignore the context you would only hear an innocent maiden talking.

"I'm gonna tell mom" -Delwyn narrows his eyes and glares at his sister- "she's gonna have you pa.s.s those etiquette cla.s.ses all over again."

"Ahahahah..."She laughs awkwardly and looks away, "What are you talking about, little brother, it was just a joke, a mere joke. N-no need to get so offended. Ahahah…"

"Something is coming!" Alissa yells.

This jolts us back to reality.

"Stay with the elemental and move to the back of the cave!" Iyell and wave them to move away.

The earth elemental is pulling Roxanne, Ciel, and Lina. They will be here soon, we only have to hold on if whatever is coming is too much for us.

We hear the clanking of metal before we see what it is. It s.h.i.+nes in the reflected lights of the cave with such intensity I thought Haaran was coming towards us. It is an old male dragonoid, he has one horn, long silver hair and a few spikes on his spine. Once he got close we realized his s.h.i.+ne is waving by itself, it is the visible mana of the dragonoid, it is silver.

"Metal type! Cook him alive! Fire elemental, come to us!" Iyell

I hear the sound of air being inhaled. *FOOOOM* Hana spews out fire.

"[Fireball]!"

"[Fireball]!"

Me and Alissa fire our spells. The silver-surfer-looking dragonoid gets swallowed by flames. I see Alissa draw an arrow and fire it into the flames but more to our right. Hana follows the arrow and I fire another [Fireball] too.

The fire elemental arrives and just as Hana's fire runs out the elemental starts her own fire-breath. Alissa fires another arrow towards the right and me and Hana throw a [Fireball] there, the elemental turns her flamethrower to follow.

Eventually the fire elemental runs out of gas too and stops the fire breath. We see a red-hot dragonoid, his silver light is running wildly through his body, it's keeping the metal armor from burning him or melting off. I see two burned arrow stumps on his chest.

Hana inhales again and lets out more fire-breath along with a [Fireball]. We let out more spells and arrows. Hot blasts of wind make the cave become even more windy. I smell burnt meat.

"It's charging!"

Hana stops her fire and lifts her s.h.i.+eld just in time to receive a claw from a half burned dragonoid. His metal armor melted off nearly completely.

He jumps back and turns the remaining metal on his body into a red-hot spear and a round s.h.i.+eld. Now he's completely naked, fortunately a dragonoid's p.e.n.i.s is retracted inside his body. He charges again at Hana, but this time she's even more ready. She trades blows with him as I charge towards her left side.

I strike down with my sword and he lowers his spear, letting Hana get into his guard and lightly pierce his right shoulder. His spear doesn't rise again, allowing us to keep the pressure on.

Alissa doesn't dare leave the side of the elemental, they are too nimble and would overpower her easily.

I strike again and open a wound on his right leg. He counters by using his tail to pierce me, I dodge backwards and he only weakly hits my belly. It didn't penetrate the leather and the impact got softened by the fur padding.

Hana bashes his s.h.i.+eld and strikes down at the same time. The dragonoid's posture doesn't crumble but his s.h.i.+eld gets nearly cut in half as Hana's sword gets stuck midway into the s.h.i.+eld.

He's not powerful enough to pull Hana back. His s.h.i.+eld turns into liquid, allowing Hana's sword to slide out, she forces the sword down again and slices his arm to the bone. At this moment the rest of the girls arrive.

"Lina! With me!" Alissa orders.

With this they run sideways to the flanks, Alissa fires an arrow that pierces the right shoulder of the dragonoid.

He lifts his spear, his shoulder healed and he charges Alissa. Hana goes flying behind him. Lina gets into position.

"[Wind Blade]!"

The spell goes off and it hits his spear arm, blood flies but the wound is not deep. Alissa casts a silent [Ghost Lights]. He strikes at Lina, he is blinded so she deflects it easily and counters with her hammer. I hear bones crunching as he defends with his s.h.i.+eld, it bent backwards, his forearm is broken.

He flies backwards for a second and receives Hana's strike with his spear. The spear s.h.i.+nes lightly and doesn't break. But Hana feinted, she uses her momentum to spin and kicks the dragonoid away.

He flies back a few meters and immediately charges again. An arrow pierces his throat.

"[Fire Wall]!"

The smell of burnt meat grows stronger, he is trapped inside for a few seconds. Then the wall recedes.

"[Wind Blade]!"

His s.h.i.+eld is dripping away, his spear is thin, one of his eyes is cooked. He charges again and it gets stopped by the spell that hits his chest, followed Hana's sword that cuts down his shoulder down to his heart.

He struggles for a second then goes limp. Hana lands on the ground and kicks him to dislodge him off her sword.

"Ah, a tooth broke off," she says with sadness, she pa.s.ses her fingers on a spot of metal where a very sharp teeth should be.

"Bound to happen, these swords aren't that resistant," Lina says.

The wary escort NPC's come to us.

"Oh, it seems you are all competent mages," Lyle says.

"Eh," Hana shrugs, "Only a thing or two that helps us in situations like these."

We rest for a few minutes here.

"Aside from the smell of burnt meat this is a really nice place," Ciel says.

"The sound of the dropping water is relaxing," I say.

"Exactly. I would love to spend a night here."

"I will put a [Gate] 'coordinate' here then," I whisper.

She gives me a peck on the lips.

­

The crack near us is the only way forward, there's a way down but our target is not there so we are going over it.

We put our harnesses on again. This time I unsummon the fire elemental and summon another earth elemental. One elemental will stay here and hold the bottom pulley, two will ferry me and Hana across the crack through the wall. Then we will have an elemental hold the top pulley and the other will pull the scaffold.

The trip through the crack is short, it's barely more than 50 meters wide, the out of control wind enchantment is also much more subdued here. At the bottom we see faint glowing spots, there are more dragonoid guards down there, tough those are active.

We ferry everyone and cross safely without any other fights. Our path narrows and small ruined steps appear embedded in the rock once in a while. Fortunately this part isn't wet otherwise the risk of falling would be high.

The tunnel slowly opens up, weak mana crystals appear embedded in the walls, giving us the first natural light of the dungeon that we have seen.

Long minutes pa.s.s and we finally approach the limits of explored territory as we reach a cobble wall with only a small arch as an opening. Below the arch the skeleton of a halfling on the ground is the evidence of the result of the last expedition here, one of them died and the rest ran away. This place is a pain to get to, add that to the dragonoid family of 5 members that guards this place and n.o.body else felt like bothering coming here.

The sloths stay behind as we approach the arch.

"Last report said there should be a family of dragonoids guarding this place," I whisper.

"I sense nothing, dragonoids shouldn't have skills that hide their presence, right?" Alissa whispers.

"Correct," Lina whispers.

"Curious how the skeleton is still here, I guess these dragonoids do not eat their victims?" Roxanne asks.

"They are different from the normal ones anyway," Lina says.

"Let's gather the bones and give it a proper cremation," Ciel says.

n.o.body buries their dead, graveyards attract monsters and necromancers.

"First let's make sure the area is safe, eyes peeled in all directions," I say.

We approach the arch we see it has a raised metal gate, it's a gatehouse not a simple stone arch. Past it we see buildings raised by the dragonoids, but instead of being attempts at abstract architecture they are much more similar to the engraved buildings of the temple. They are all engraved with tribal or flowery patterns.

There's only one road and the buildings end into the cave wall halfway, there's not much to explore and no way to miss any monster that could be hiding. Either they have some sort of [Hide Presence] or [Invisibility], or there's simply nothing here.

After a long hour of cautiously walking we find another gatehouse.

"Let's just get Lyle and we see how far he wants to explore," I say.

We double back and reach the first gatehouse. We pile the bones of dead halfling on a corner and Roxanne casts a small [Firestorm]. He had some ruined textile and chain armor that burned and melted, only a small lump of ashes and metal remains.

"G.o.ds, let his connection to this world end and the cycle of his soul be allowed to continue," Ciel prays.

We quietly repeat her prayer and move on. We bring Lyle through the small remains of the town.

"What is this architecture!" Lyle exclaims as he sees the engraved buildings.

"Please keep your voice down," Lina pleads.

Lyle winces again.

"Sorry, sorry," he whispers.

Delwyn has to be herded by Lina as he lost his voice and part of his capability of walking. Ankara is very fidgety and only Gwinevere retains her composure as she only occasionally look around with curiosity.

We reach the second gatehouse and cross it. We enter what seems to be a large garden, except it's dead and smell like it's rotting. It's actually a bit unpleasant, I fear a trap as I can sense something wrong with this place.

"This must be the entrance to a castle. But why is everything so dead?" Lyle questions.

"There's something wrong here," Roxanne says.

"I agree," Ciel says.

I nod.

The other 3 look at us puzzled.

"Doesn't make much sense for it to be rotting like this," Gwinevere says, she holds her chin in thought. "This dungeon is a solidification of mana, it can recreate any sort of matter it want, it could easily recreate perfectly healthy green gra.s.s even if it were in complete darkness."

"Maybe it rotted on the original castle this was based on," Lyle says.

Delwyn snaps from his trance. "a.s.suming this dungeon was based on a real location. It could simply be a thematic s.h.i.+ft, there could be something bad inside this castle," he says.

We continue forward with renewed alertness. The rotting gra.s.s reminds me of a swamp, the claustrophobic environment and the stuffy air does not help stave off our disgust.

Eventually the tunnel splits into two, one goes to our right and deeper into the garden, the other way goes into the entrance of what could be a castle. The imponent stairs up into the building certainly signal this to be an important building.

"Castle," Lyle says the moment we stop.

We enter the castle into a large hall similar to the first room of the dungeon, except the low ceiling of the cave is visible. We reach the end and Lyle gets disappointed as the stairs to the second floor get cut halfway.

To the sides of the hall there's doors leading to corridors. One side has skeletons, ruined armor suits, rusted weapons, some rotting clothes, and broken furniture. The quartet of scholars seem ecstatic, there are remains of heraldry and designs never seen before. The skeletons are clearly dragonoid and their weapons are similar to ancient Greece of Earth, this means they are from a time period far from current days.

We nearly had to drag them away from there as we still have the right side to explore. When we got there they nearly shat themselves, there's a small library with readable books.