/monster/ - The Last Bastion of Romance★

>Story continue

The Anubis thrusts the staff forward and the men charge at you. Where the others were confused, uncoordinated, these men are fresh to this fight at least. They move with a speed meant to throw you off guard and make it hard to hit them with ranged attacks. Of course, the problem with this is that they missed the part where you controlled the very earth beneath their feet.

Slamming your staff onto the ground, you channel your magic into it again and shout as you cast [tremor], but change the spell, charging it with instability. While the earth does rumble and shake, the pressure you quickly thrust into the earth makes your magic to wild, and the ground fractures and splits, creating holes, juts of earth, and crevices.

None of them are very deep, and nor is the zone very large but the effect is undeniable. The men trip and fall into the holes, stumble over the juts, and cry out as their limbs get caught in the crevices. Because of their charging, their momentum carries them forward, yet the unyielding earth causes one man's tibia to snap as it gets caught, another to fall and impale his leg on jut of rock, and a third to fall facefirst onto an outcropping. The other two manage to keep from being severely injured, but they do fall to a knee and look shaken by the sudden spell.

>You lean <Inhospitable Ground>

>A derivation of tremor, you can fracture the earth in a small area, causing dangerous terrain to those within the area.

"Sylphie." You say and she nods, thrusting out her hand and creating a blast of flame that cosumes the two remaining men. They scream and run away, tripping over the rocks and falling to join their friends, rolling to put out the flames.

The fire spills past them, but when it reaches the Anubis, it just sort of… vanishes. Like a wall is standing before her and the flames, it fades into nothing, and she merely sighs, partially in annoyance and partially in pleasure.

"Well that was anti-climatic." She says, shaking her head. "Fine, I guess I'll take care of it."

"Go ahead bi-" Sophie calls, but as she does the Anubis leaps over the fractured earth, appearing in front of you and Sylphie. You curse and hurriedly throw up a wall, but she smashes through it, and you feel your hold on the earth just… vanish. The wall crumbles, but it gives you enough time to back away.

"Tch." The Anubis says, twirling her staff about to block attacks by Sophie, who dashes in and attacks with a flurry of stabs from her tails.

"She really is magic resistant!" Sylphie says, eyes wide. "W-what do we do?"

You look between her and the Anubis, cursing softly to yourself before reaching out to Erwin. {Where are you?}

{Watching the fight, what are you going to do?}

{Get the kid out of here, she's too frazzled for this.}

{She won't leave her sister.}

{Then take her to free the captives or something!}

{Fine, fine.}

You turn to Sylphie and grab her arm, which causes her to jump. Staring into her eyes with intensity, you say, "There's trouble with the captives. I need you to go with Erwin and save them."

"What? No! I can't leave-"

"Damnit girl, would you just listen to me?"

Her eyes go wide, and you see something there that you can't quite describe. A fear? Yes, yes it's fear but not of you. Still, she quickly nods her head and ducks back, running towards Erwin who has appeared from the bushes. The fox stares at her for a moment, but she blows past and he shakes his head before following her quickly.

"Wonder where she's going?" The Anubis says, cocking her head. She blocks another series of blows by Sophie and then kicks out with her foot, hitting Sophie in her chest, causing her to cry out and fly backward. Her tails dig into the ground and keep her from falling, but she still breathes a little heavy.

"Those are pretty interesting tails, but you haven't really been in a fight, have you?" The Anubis says, shaking her head.

"So what?"

"Ha! Oh my, you Deleorians are so CUTE! You're going to make a great slave!"

"I don't think so." You say, casting [Rock Throw].

The Anubis's ears twitch and once more, she dodges out of the way, even batting one rock from the air with contemptuous ease. She whirls on you and gives a canine grin before shifting her legs and jumping toward you, ignoring Sophie. Again, you throw up a wall, and again she destroys it, closing in on you before you can cast anything else.

"You smell nice. Are all Deleorian wizards like this?"

You spit in her face and say, "Anubutt."

>>284248

This was clearly the wrong move as she snarls and twirls the staff around, clipping your legs and throwing you to the ground before the other end whirls about and crashes into your back. You cry out in pain, but he presses the staff into the small of your back until you think you're about to pass out. Fortunately, before you do Sophie comes back in, her tails flashing.

"Oh come on…" The Anubis says, hurriedly blocking the blows and then twirling the staff behind her back. "I was having fun!"

"You're going to have fun in the Hells you bitch." Sophie snarls, pulling her tails back and latching the bladed ends onto the staff. The Anubis blinks, looks down at the tails, and then drops her staff when Sophie yanks it back. The Cat o'Nintetails looks surprised at the turn of events, which allows the Anubis to leap back and grab something from one of the fallen men.

It's clear that the lack of experience on your team is a disadvantage. If Sylphie was here, you're certain the Anubis would have captured her and used her as bait. Thankfully it's just the two of you, but because of that, it's JUST THE TWO OF YOU. Sophie might be able to pull it off, but you doubt it. She's far better than you expected her to be, but this Anubis is something else.

Speed, you need speed. She dodges the projectiles instead of just ignoring them, like with the fire, so clearly she isn't resistant to the rocks themselves, just the magic animating them. Right? So if that's the case, then you need to find a way to increase the speed, so that she can't avoid it. But how? If you push more magic into your projectiles, you can push them faster, but not that much faster.

So that means you need to think outside the box. Come on, come on, what could you do to make this work? Pushing them farther? With what? If only you could control the… wind.

Of course! [Gust]! You can't make a razor wind yet, but if you accelerate the rocks with this behind it as well, you can make the speeds faster! Of course, so simple.

Not bothering to pick yourself up from the ground, you take in a deep breath and concentrate on a nearby, fist-sized stone. Your geomancy takes hold of it and lifts the rock. Now, the winds. You push your mind into this new form of magic, remembering what Sylphie said before. Free flowing, with the tides of battle…

Winds begin to gather around the rock, gathering behind it, twisting the rock over and over as your fine control is lacking. But you can feel it gathering, the power behind your gust forming like a spring. Once it hits it's critical mass, you turn to the Anubis to find her holding something in her hands. Is that… a net?

No matter! You hurriedly cast [Gust] and propel the rock forward toward the Anubis. It cracks forward faster than anything else you've cast before, but it's incoordinated, unable to stay fully on course. It sails past the Anubis, blowing a hole into the tree behind her, showering her in splinters. She blinks, her ears twitching too slow to follow it, and she turns to stare at the tree, then to you before cursing and dodging out of the way as Sophie lashes out at her again.

She rolls, holding the net close to her chest before throwing it at Sophie, who shouts in surprise at the sudden move. The net, weighted down as it was by iron balls at the end, covers the Cat o'Ninetails and causes her to flail in panic as she's pinned to the ground. The Anubis chuckles at her and searches around for something else, her paw closing around a club.

No! Damnit your idea would work, but you need it to be more controlled! A large object has too much mass, too hard to control with your limited skill. But would a smaller rock do the job? You think back to what that rock did to that tree and nod your head, finding a pebble about the size of your thumb and quickly casting the same magicks. As the Anubis stands, you throw more and more wind magic behind the spell, causing the smooth pebble to turn upon itself, faster and faster until it's a blur.

She laughs and brings down the club when you fire the projectile. The club stops halfway from reaching Sophie before dropping from her fingers. The Anubis's laugh cuts off abruptly and she stumbles backward, looking at her arm in surprise.

>>284249

There, in the meat of her bicep, is a hole which bleeds red blood around an ungainly looking pebble embedded into it. She blinks a few times at it before sinking down to a knee, clearly in shock. As she does so, you stand up and shout, "Cut the net you idiot!"

Sophie blinks and stops struggling, looking about her before her eyes go wide. She looks at her tails and, with surgical precision, slices apart the net with little effort. It doesn't take her much time to free herself from the entangled mass, and she growls out at the Anubis, who looks at Sophie with confusion that quickly turns to a lucidity.

"Fuck me." She says, falling back to dodge Sophie's attack. Even though she's clearly in pain and not nearly as fast as before, she's got plenty of skill, as evidenced by how she leans back and springs with one arm forward into Sophie's chest with her feet. The blow forces Sophie back, and she hits a tree with jarring force.

"You fucking bitch, I'm going to- Hey what the fuck?!" Sophie shouts as the Anubis gets to her feet and starts running.

"We have to get her!" Sophie shouts, dashing forward. You hold up a hand, a rock spinning near you. She looks at it with some surprise, but you just snap your fingers and the projectile hurtles forward.

>You learn [Pebble gun]

>Directional rotation via wind, stabilization with geomancy. On a small rock, you can create an accelerated projectile to fire at your foes.

>Until you improve your aeromancy, will not work on large objects

The Anubis gets maybe forty feet away before the pebble flies into her leg and causes her to fall, face first onto the dirt with a cry of agony. You nod to Sophie and the two of you run to her, finding the damn Anubis already picking herself up. Twirling your staff, you slam the butt onto the ground and cast [Trench], creating a hole that opens up into the earth. She gasps and falls in, managing to keep herself from fully falling by holding the edge with her one, good hand.

"What the fuck is this…" She growls, looking at the two of you as you arrive. "I come for some easy prey and I get this. Bah, I should have listened to Mother and been an architect."

Stopping at the edge of the hole, you both look down at her and she snarls. "I don't need your pity."

"Good." You say, stepping on her paw and forcing her to cry out. "You're not getting any." You press hard enough that she falls into the hole and screams as her bad leg hits the hard earth. Squatting down, you suddenly feel overwhelmingly tired, and you have to take a deep breath before saying, "Why are you out here?"

"Slaving, of course." She says while holding her leg. "Isn't that obvious?"

"Why here though? Why not in your own lands?"

"Please, slavers are a dime a dozen in the Desolation, and with the current things we hear about Deleor, moving out west has been easy, and profitable."

You frown and say, "You're awfully free with your answers."

"It's not uncommon knowledge." She says, shrugging.

Sophie grimaces. "How did you bring slaves out of Deleor?"

"Easy. The King doesn't have much control around here and the people who control the Mountain Pass care only for money. Honestly these are questions an idiot could answer."

"Fine, a harder one." The Cat o'Ninetails says. "What do you know about another Cat o'Ninetails that your Pharoah wants?"

The Anubis's expression changes to wariness. She frowns and then looks over to the side, clearly not wanting to talk about it now that she's not in control of the situation. Sophie looks at you and then over to the Anubis before asking again. She gets the same reply.

"I'm going to go down there and rough her up." She says, getting ready to leap into the hole, but you hold up a hand and say,

"No. I'll get her to talk." Slowing down your breathing, you wave your staff and cast [Ice] in the hole, coating it with a thick layer of cold. It doesn't affect the Anubis beyond a mild frosting, but the hole itself has now become a fridge, one she's trapped in.

It doesn't take long for her to begin chattering her teeth, her loose garments doing nothing to keep her warm. She shivers, which makes the pain worse, and she glares daggers at you, to which you merely shrug, saying nothing. As things get colder and colder for her, she finally shouts, "ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT, TWINS DAMNIT!"

>>284250

You and Sophie share smug expressions before you melt away the ice, casting a [Fireball] at the Anubis, which makes her shudder, though it doesn't hurt her. It's kind of fun actually! She grunts and thinks it over before sighing and saying, "Look. I just know that a few months ago something exciting was happening in the Capital. The black markets said that the Pharoah had found something and that her prophecies were coming true. Soon enough we got suggestions that being bold and that now was the time to go to Deleor. After the first caravan of slaves arrived, more of us decided we could go and get rich."

She shrugs, "I don't know what the Pharoah particularly wants with you, but the name and description of your race was whispered to everyone. Rumor has it, the Pharoah has another, older one of your species, but I've never seen any."

You turn to Sophie to see her boiling with rage. You think about extending a hand, but stop, deciding against that and watching as the Cat o'Ninetails shakes and growls out, "Where?"

"Where what?"

"Where is she? Where is my Mother?"

The Anubis blinks a few times before her eyes go wide in comprehension. "Ohhhh. I see." She closes her eyes and chuckles. "Of course it would matter to you then. Where is she? I don't know, probably in the Kingdom of Setet if I had to guess, in the Pharaoh's palace."

You look at Sophie, seeing her shake with fear and anger at the words. It would make sense that their Mother would be gone as well, wouldn't it? Why not just ask her for help, she'd go anywhere for her husband. The only answer then is that she's been captured too.

Suddenly the enormity of the situation your in weighs down on you. The Grand Wizard could go missing for long periods of time, and no one would care. The Monster Lady though? Proxies could only work for so long, and if it was public knowledge that she was gone, let alone a hostage of a foreign nation…

There would be war. Whether civil or against Ectria, there would be war, and the Galmathorians will reap all the benefits. You take in a shuddering breath at the implications and place both of your hands on your staff before asking in a low voice, "Do you know if a Wizard was seen with her?"

The Anubis, who seems tired now, closes her eyes and says, "I don't know."

"I thought not." You sigh out, and then hold your hand up, magic gathering. She looks at you in confusion as the earth begins to shudder about her and start filling in. Panic fills her eyes and she struggles to rise, but the dirt is filling too quickly.

"Nooo… NOOOOO!" She cries before her screams are cut off, and she's buried under the ground.

You shake your head and stand up to see Sophie staring at you with wide eyes. She looks back to the fresh earth, then back to you and says, "Was… was that necessary?"

"Slavers aren't people. They are lowers than insects." You say, rising from your crouch and stretching. Damn does your back hurt. "She probably deserved worse than what she got. At least she got a burial."

"I…" Sophie bites her lip, looking nothing so much like a child right there. She takes a shuddering breath and says, "We're going to have to get used to this, aren't we?"

You shrug. "Killing is in the blood of your family. And yes, if you understood what she said at all, then you know that this will not end peacefully." You shake your head and say, "My only regret is that your sister wasn't here to-"

"NO!" Sophie shouts, looking up at you with horrified eyes. She blinks in surprise at her reaction before holding her hands in front of her and looking to the side, her ears flat. "No… she doesn't need her first time to… to be like this."

You look into her eyes before shaking your head. "You can't shelter her forever." She doesn't respond, and you turn your weary bones toward where you feel Erwin, trudging along as the exertion of the day wears down upon you.

By the time you reach the encampment with the wagons, Erwin had already sent you messages about how the area was clear beyond a few wounded men sitting around a campfire. Sylphie managed to take them down with a little geomancy and she smiles proudly as you arrive, pointing at her work.

"Aww yeah, secured the wagons!" She jingles some keys in her hands. "Unlocked the prisoners too, though I think they're all still unconscious from whatever drug they were forced to take." Turning to the two of you she beams and says,

"We did it!"

You and Sophie trade looks with each other before she puts on a weary smile and says, "Yes, we did."

"What happened to the Anubis?"

"Killed. It was the only way."

"Oh." Sylphie says, looking a little uncomfortable before nodding her head. "I guess we do what we have to, right?"

>>284251

Would she have the strength to do what she must if it was her in our position? You wonder as you walk over to Erwin, who is sniffing one of the unconscious Wolverinegirls. He nods as you walk up and squat down next to him, looking her over.

{Looks like this wasn't their first catch. Seems they had a few Kitsune, a , and even a man, though he seems dressed like some woodsman.}

{They stole a human? Why?}

{Maybe the slut wanted some different semen, I don't know.} He shakes his head and looks to you.

{How did you do it?}

{Shot her with rocks and then buried her in a pit}

{Brutal}

{You're telling me}

Erwin pads around and sits down on his haunches next to you, mimicking your posture. You both trade looks before he sends, {You going to be okay?}

{It was just killing a Monster. I'm supposed to do that.}

{The Monster was also a slaver. Did that have something to do with it?}

You grit your teeth and clench your staff. {Yeah. Yeah it might have.} You both go quiet for awhile before you shake your head and send, {I'll be fine. I'm just tired, alright?}

{Sure. Though these captives aren't waking up any time soon. We might want to make camp here.}

{Maybe.} You send as Sophie walks up, hand on her hip. She looks as tired as you feel.

{Right.} Erwin sends, getting up and padding away. He stops and turns to you, sending, {Oh, and Sylphie. She did good. Didn't hesitate as I thought she might.}

You close your eyes and nod your head, turning and opening them to look at Sophie when Erwin sends in a final message, {Oh yeah, she can also talk to animals}.

"WHAT?" You say in surprise, turning to see your familiar scamper off. You make to go after him when you hear Sophie chuckle, putting a small, furred hand to her mouth. Scowling, you look back at her to see a soft smile on her face.

"What." You say flatly, but she merely waves a hand.

"Nothing, nothing." She says, controlling herself. "You and Erwin were having an interesting conversation, yes?" When you don't answer, she continues. "It might be best for us to tie up the men before they awaken and keep watch over the captives. I know none of us are in a good position to sleep, but…"

"But that won't be a concern." A new voice says.

The two of you whirl to see a group of strong figures emerge from the brush, and you recognize them as the Wolverinegirls from yesterday. Amongst them is the last Wolverinegirl that the Anubis knocked out, a large knot on her head forming, though she still stands with unsteady feet.

"These slavers have been keeping us from our territory, making us live in fear for months. They stole many of our number last time they came through, but when we tried to fight back, we lost more. We had no choice but to be wary of them."

She shakes her head, and you see a tiredness in her eyes as well. "However our cousin here told us of the battle, and when she saw the aftermath, she fled to find us, to which we came as fast as we could."

>>284252

"Oh." You say, looking at the Wolverinegirl. "Sorry for not checking if you were dead or anything."

She shrugs, "No hard feelings."

The leader smirks. "But with their leader gone, we can handle the men. Use them for breeding stock or such, make them see the errors of their ways." She looks to Sophie, whose tails are splayed out, not caring anymore, and she raises an eyebrow. "Is that acceptable, my Lady?"

Sophie looks down at her tails and sighs before putting a hand to her head. "Gods above, I am not my Mother."

"No, but you've shown that you care more for us than she has." The leader says before extending a paw to you. You look up and take it, her firm grip almost crushing your hand. "My name is Erma. On behalf of my people, we thank you for your help."

"Think you can return those potions then?"

She blinks in surprise for a moment before blushing. "We ah… we drank them all."

"I figured." You say, shaking your head.

"At least allow us to round these men up and protect the captives until they awaken. We can guard your group as you sleep tonight as well." She thumps her chest twice. "No funny business."

You're about to decline when Sophie grabs your shoulder. You look back to her, but she says with all seriousness, "That would be most acceptable, thank you."

"We'll fetch your stuff, we saw your encampment back along the road, although…" She pauses, and you know she's about to bring up the wards when Sylphie says,

"It's okay! Mr. Ed will deactivate them!"

You and Sophie trade a look and then shrug, knowing that the horse won't tolerate any shit from these Wolverinegirls. Feeling utterly exhausted as the Monsters start to get things moving, you lean back onto the grass and look up at the branches of the dark trees about you, thinking over if there's anything left to do before sleeping, and whether or not what you've learned will change what you do tomorrow. There's a long road ahead of you until you reach Borne.

Idly you think, Is this what that damn Father of theirs had to deal with?

>What do you do?

>>284253

OKIE DOKIE

NEW THREAD MADE, PASTEBIN UP.

HERE WE GO.

Oh and I might (probably) will be out tomorrow but I should be fine the rest of the weekend because I have no life and have to work.

But I give it back to you… the people.

>>284253

seems like the girls don't know too much about what's going on with their parents

Let's check our port'o'glass and see if we can find any news or rumors about whats going on with them, and when that ends up failing, just start shitposting on our favorite eastern theatre photo board

>>284253

The wizard still missin, and and Seline was caught, we only started and the plot thickens. Anyway rest up a little after that pratcise some Aeromancy, while at this use geomancy to make some projectiles and praticise the spin.

>>284253

>{Looks like this wasn't their first catch. Seems they had a few Kitsune, a , and even a man, though he seems dressed like some woodsman.}

That blank space is probably not too important, since one of the twins would have piped up if they knew any of the victims, but it would be nice to know who else was a victim of the slaver. That said, the man in particular seems like he might be relevant since the slaver would have no obvious reason to capture men outside of for her own personal usage and was more than happy to attempt to kill instead of capture us, a theoretically more desirable specimen as a result of our Wizardry, so personal usage is likely not the case; it might be worth talking with him to see why he was targetted. In any case, we should question the victims whenever they awaken to see what they know about the surrounding landscape since they were kidnapped in the general area and we could use the insight and potentially what they know about our destination in the desert if rumours have spread over the border between the two lands.

>You close your eyes and nod your head, turning and opening them to look at Sophie when Erwin sends in a final message, {Oh yeah, she can also talk to animals}.

We probably should have expected something like this, as Sylphie mentioned "animal empathethics" when first questioned about the magic she knows. Assuming this extends to being able to communicate with familiars, as they are still animals despite their magical enhancements, we should make it very clear to Erwin that he isn't to mention much of anything about us unless it's already obvious or he think it would benefit us in the future, because he is supposed to be our greatest confidant and we don't need Sylphie being privy to all of our secrets and beliefs when she inevitably tries to bribe them out of him with belly scratches and cuddles due to her curiousity rising as is customary with feline monsters.

Other than that, we should save both our own and Sylphie's energy for now and avoid practicing magic to avoid any disasters in potential encounters before reaching the next settlement. This leaves us the choices of either going to sleep immediately, chatting with Sophie, Sylphie or Erwin the latter has already pissed off elsewhere though, doing what >>284259 suggested and using our [Port-O-Glass] which is missing from the pastebin to waste time as per Wizard tradition or reading from either our [Geomancy and You! A Beginner's Guide to Geomancy] or [Clay in a Sculptor's Hand: Golem Creation and Theory] books without actually casting any of the spells preferably the former, because the Grand Wizard was known to use constructs of his own and we ideally don't want to follow in his footsteps, both from a character perspective and a meta perspective of not wanting us to do the same stuff we did last time golems are inherently danuki and are liable to turn on us as is tradition too.

>>284309

Pebble mg42 soon

>>284327

But we should keep in mind that in a world were we own the only working tank a anti tank gun has limited usage. Be sure to slap some heavy machine guns on that thing before we roll into the Pharaohs pyramid.

>inb4 we create V weapons

>inb4 we go to war and Rommel manages to create the V3

>>284395

>go from a shitty renault ft, to a Mk. 8, to a T95, to a Leopard 2A6

really strange tank development progression if you ask me

>>284282

sooooo. blank space was me getting distracted while writing and forgetting. It really is nothing important. She can be a beargirl, whatever.

I was going to fix the port of glass thing but my computer went bsod and i didnt have time to change it before going back to work. Thank you for keeping me on track.

>everyone else.

Ill be honest, youre going to have to do this incrementally. So we can dream about tanks but it isnt just going to suddenly happen. Keep the theory crafting going just be mindful of your posts and where we are in the story. Concrete goals help more toward something like this!

>>284442

>maybe ask sylphie to ride mr. ed

i ment ask her if rommel can ride mr ed for a while

I think we need to start learning how to manipulate metals and minerals. While molding tanks is our end goal, It will be useful immediately with things like unlocking doors and disarming opponents using metal weapons. Once we develop finer control we could even start hoarding weapons that Rommel can manipulate in mid air. Like swords and axes that swing themselves, and spears we can turn into big and super deadly bullets. We could even talk it up like we are the leader of a ghost armyPanzer Division.

Like for instance, If we had this ability while dealing with the Glutton earlier we could have just dropped out 16 swords and probably could have won that fight since the girls would have been to preoccupied to overwhelm us. Or even stupider shit like forcing a bit of metal to act as a liquid and be able to harden it to create a completely mold able shield and turning rocks into precious gems. Shit could have a lot of uses

>>284463

>Forcing metal to act like a liquid

>Not just getting some mercury off an alchemist

Going to be interesting learning how to manipulate metal. We'd start with unrefined iron ore to get the feel of it along with the earth. Enough practice leads to regular iron, then steel, then mercury.

>>284443

>i ment ask her if rommel can ride mr ed for a while

I think we would have to ask Mr Ed himself for that. I'm not sure if he could give a shit about weather or not Sylvie allowed it.

>and about mana potions, well if the next town has no for sale then we are kind of fucked, can we maybe pay some burly farmer dudes to jerk off in a bottle or something?

Fucking hell this sounds like a good meme. I want to read that.

Well goddamn, I wasn't expecting us to execute the Anubis when we had her helpless not sure how that sits with me. But, given our reaction, I have to ask. Is Rommel a former slave? It would explain his general distaste for monsters, hatred of slavers, and bad reaction when awakened unexpectedly.

As for what to do. We have a weapon that can hypothetically reach out and touch someone from a very long range. Let's work on something to manipulate air, and with a little heat, create a mirage effect, a sort of magical telescope.

>>284464

Can mercury be hardened enough to make a shield? I'd think something that melts on the human hand would make a pretty shit barrier

>>284469

Slavers have something to do with his backstory. It would be gay if Ace flat out told us, So Im sure we'll see it get talked about later on in the story.

Okay, so since we can accelerate a large rock pretty fast just not accurately, we could try flinging a rock into the sky like our failed cannonball attack then steering it towards a target on its return. This way we can get extremely high kinetic energy while still having at least twice as much time to steer the stone, meaning much more accuracy. We should try to do this.

Yeah and also we should grab a piece of metal and see if we can manipulate it.

>>284327

Nah they didn't invent AI. They just locked their fallen battle-brothers into constructs and laughed at how they now look like sexy women.

>>284469

Slavers aren't people, Hero.

>>284491

Fuck.

>>284469

>Is Rommel a former slave? It would explain his general distaste for monsters, hatred of slavers, and bad reaction when awakened unexpectedly.

Nah, he was seriously bullied by a monster when he was a lad.

A way it could have happened:

>She was probably an aggressive monster type.

>She probably had a crush on him.

>She didn't know how to express herself or her feelings very well.

>When they both got older, she might of tried to rape him, in a mess up way to show him she liked him.

>He may have hit her with a rock to defend himself and to get away.

>After that he never saw her again (she was heartbroken from his rejection).

>Rommel became traumtized from this experience, which set him on the path to Wizardhood and his love of the MIGHTY ROCK!

>>284492

>Fuck

Indeed.

>>284468

>and about mana potions, well if the next town has no for sale then we are kind of fucked, can we maybe pay some burly farmer dudes to jerk off in a bottle or something?

Just get Rommel to jizz in a bottle! It saves money and the girls won't know --but they do know–.

>>284496

>Just get Rommel to jizz in a bottle! It saves money and the girls won't know --but they do know–.

on the one hand, I don't want to risk railroading us with slypie, on the other I want to bully slypie with this

I say we wait and see

>>284496

Wizards don't casually give away their semen to a monster. We are above that, and we will not jizz for her due to her failings.

>>284327

Shitty photoshops are my job Cheshire :^).

>>284520

Unless he escaped, or was freed, before getting old enough to be raped.

Wait wait wait.

That was a golden staff. A golden staff!

We need to go back and take it.

>>284546

It's probably just gilded but I agree, let's loot it anyway.

say is their something wrong with the thread?

i cant see any of the posts that have been done since yesterday.

>>284594

correction, after posting everything is back again, wierd

>>284594

>>284595

Yeah that's been happening everywhere since the hack. Welcome to the new 8chan, friend!

>Story continue

Cold wind rushes by, and you close your eyes, taking it all in. Your bones ache, your head aches, everything aches. But if you sit around and just think on all your hurts, you'll never get anything done. Besides, if you're not careful, one of the Wolverines might find you a little more than appealing. That does NOT appeal to you.

Sitting up, you look around for Erwin, and find that he's fucked off somewhere… east. Not that it really matters, but you're kind of annoyed he would just leave after that heart to heart. Of course, he just had to leave right after letting you know that Sylphie could talk to animals. Thinking back on it, there were plenty of clues, but it's just not something you really think about until it's in your face. You wonder if she's been able to listen in on your conversations with Erwin, and if so, what has she heard?

You notice Sophie speaking amicably with some of the Wolverinegirls while Sylphie sits on one of the wagons, dangling her feet, staff across her lap. She hums softly as she does so, seeming contented. For some reason that makes you a little… annoyed. Stretching, you stand and walk over to her, and she waves as you approach.

"Hey there Rommel. Looks like things here are going to be okay, huh?"

"Eventually." You say, nodding to her. She smirks and fiddles with her staff for a moment before asking,

"Did… I do okay?"

"How's your mana reserve?"

She blinks, surprised by this question. She frowns in concentration before saying, "Uhm… I think I used half my reserves?"

"Then bad. We're not in a good position if we get attacked."

"Oh." She says, looking crestfallen.

"But…" You sigh. "You managed to hold your own and followed orders successfully. Your magic was fairly on point, but it requires control, which is clearly your greatest failing." You cross your arms and shake your head. "I guess what I'm saying is that you could have done a lot worse."

Sylphie looks at you with another surprised expression, but you see her tails start wiggling behind her as her ears go up straight. A sparkle appears in her eyes and she starts to crack a smile before she coughs quickly into her hand. "Of course, of course. I'll do better next time."

Gods that was embarassing. You sigh and say, "Alright, alright, I'm too tired for being coy for this next part, but have you been talking with Erwin?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I have and…" She trails off before clacking her tongue. "Ah."

"Ah." You repeat, shaking your head. "You aren't listening in on us or asking him inappropriate things, are you?"

She furiously shakes her head in the negative. "Nononono! I haven't! Well, I mean, not like intentionally or anything but-" She bites her lip and then hangs her head. "I mean… yeah, I guess when he looked like he was talking with you I might have eavesdropped, but I didn't really hear anything you said, just his responses."

"Uh huh." You say pinching the bridge of your nose. "And how would you feel if I went around asking about your little secrets with your familiar?"

She blushes with such intensity her face goes scarlet. "T…that would be most inconvenient!"

"Yes. It would." You say, giving her a disappointed look. "I'm not that angry, and I can't stop you from speaking to him, but do not eavesdrop again, alright?"

"I… yes sir." She says, hanging her head.

You grit your teeth, feeling a little pang of something for being so hard on her, but she had to learn this is unacceptable. The most annoying part is that you actually feel something for being this way, and you really can't understand why. You know you don't particularly like the girl, but is it because she's also a practioner? Like your some kind of mentor and she's your student, even though she probably knows more than you?

"Great…" You mutter, running your hand through your hair. She cocks her head and gives a questioning look, to which you shake your head. "Don't worry about it."

"'Kay?" She says, looking a little confused. "Uhm… so what now?"

>>284682

"Now?" You put a hand to your mouth and yawn. "You go to bed and get some rest. Your sister is intent on trusting these Monsters who think they're your Mother or something and there isn't much I can do about it."

"Our Mother?" Sylphie asks, perking up. "Oh, what did that Anubis have to say about her?"

Your expression darkens. "She… might be a captive."

The Cat o'Ninetails' eyes drift down. "Oh… I had sort of assumed, but…"

"Assumed?"

She nods. "Yeah, I mean, we received a letter from him about a week ago, saying they were doing fine and were crossing into Ectria. It was dated two months ago though…"

"Kind of a long distance to travel, can't have been that bad." She gives you a flat stare and you nod your head slowly. "Alright so maybe it is. Still, if that Anubis was out here with a rumor like that, it must have happened very recently after that letter was sent."

Her hands tighten on the staff in her lap. "I just… I hope they're alright."

"He will be." You say, nodding to her. "He can't go dying until I settle my business with him."

Sylphie wipes at her eye and chuckles, "Yeah, sure." She shakes her head and sighs before watching Mr. Ed walk into camp, a trio of laden Wolverinegirls behind him. Standing up, she dusts herself up and hops down from the cart to walk toward her familiar. Her feet stop after maybe five steps and she turns to you before giving you a soft smile.

"You're an odd one, Mr. Rommel."

"That sounds a little too personal."

"Yeah, okay." She says, giving a genuine laughter as she walks away.

The camp is set up and Sylphie retires to bed while Sophie talks more with the Wolverinegirl leader, the other Wolverinegirls either restraining the guards, guarding the campsite, or taking their spoils. You wonder what exactly is different about these Monsters forcefully having their way with these men, but you remember that they're the slavers here. They gave away their humanity awhile ago, and if they ended up in a relationship with their former captives, then tough luck.

Still, it sits a little uneasy with you and you find it hard to sleep. In that case, you do what you normally do when you have issues focusing. You pull out your [Port-o-Glass] and fire it up, the aetheric attunement weak where you are. Still, it's enough to connect to the communion matrix, and you're able to shift through some posts as the night grows still.

"Havenforth absent! Where is the Grand Wizard?"

"The Monster Lady is actually a DANUKI and this proves it!"

"Hellhounds kill the Monster Lady and blame it on good Kikimoras!"

You read through various weaves, frowning at the rumors. The Grand Wizard hadn't been gone that long, and he often vanished in his work, you knew that much about him, so there were already rumors. However there recently had been an excessive amount, making you wonder if people had noticed something is amiss. The added rumors about the Monster Lady going missing also make your suspicious.

Yes, there are typically conspiracy nuts who think everything is run by the Danuki (A lot of things are, to be honest), but most of it is just shitweaving. Problem is, in every shitweave, there is a grain of truth, and the more of these stories about the Monster Lady gone missing or the representatives of hers being a front for something, the more things start to get real. Which is a problem.

If people start to actually believe the Monster Lady is missing, someone will figure out that she actually IS missing. Rubbing your eyes, you sigh and figure that it's still too early for anything major to occur. Besides, things were settling down after that incident in Cair anyway and people had something else to occupy their time.

Not finding much joy in the communion matrix at the moment, you power it off and pull out Geomancy and You! A Beginner's Guide to Geomancy], flipping to where you stopped before pausing as you remembered what you'd done earlier this evening.

You managed to hyperaccelerate a rock, a pebble in truth, far faster than she'd been able to dodge. Thinking about it, you managed to turn your spells into a clumsy, if effective, magitek rifle. Of course, you doubt a magitek rifle would have harmed her that much because of the magic resistance, so in essence, this became far, far more useful.

What if you had fired a metallic object? Or if you could control a larger one? What happened with the tree was brutal, but if you could harness that power, perhaps infuse fire into the projectile and…

>>284683

No, no, have to start small. Making shit up without planning and jumping around causes errors and you do NOT need errors right now. Still, it is tempting to jump around to various ideas on how to use this. First things first though, you need to harness your control over the wind, and make the projectile better aimed.

You turn to go and get the elemental magic book from Sylphie, but remember she's asleep. Well shit. Frowning, you tap the book in front of you and sigh. You can think this over tomorrow, maybe talk with Sylphie about wind magic more. You suspect she's probably good at it being that she's a very… free spirit.

Rolling your shoulders, you look down at the book and read the chapter on "Fine particle control."

"Fine particle control, a difficult, but very rewarding part of geomancy. Imagine moving the sands, dirt, grit, all sorts of particles? Use them as a defensive barrier? Get them in someone's eyes for self defense? Perhaps polish some metal? All is possible!

Previously, we had spoken about using our magic to spread out into the dirt and using it as a "net" to gather and stabilze the earth. This won't work very well to control the particles, however! In this method, we need to do the opposite, and focus the magic in a central nexus, and spread it out through the particles, forming a 'bubble' if you will. This bubble will entrap and connect the particles to the central point, allowing the ability to move them in a semi-coherent fashion. Further manipulation of the intensity of the core will push or pull the particles closer together based on how much mana is poured into it. In this way, the particles can be directed as a living force.

Adding a spin to the core can creating a vortex of sand, blow dirt away, or be used for many other applications. The one thing to keep in mind about this is the core of magic. Should concentration slip, it can go out of control and explode outward, sending your particles in a random cloud that can hurt you! Please wear goggles when working this kind of magic to protect your eyes!

For further information on the theory behind this magic as well as practical applications read…"

Interesting. You never considered that the magic would work in that fashion. You think about trying out the spell but find you're just too exhausted. If you attempt this, it might really push you into unconsciousness, and you really don't need that right now. You'd rather be in control of when you go unconscious, thank yourself very much.

A Wolverinegirl sets up your bedroll and waves to you, to which you frown. She blushes and backs away, but a look from her leader sends her skulking backward, and you get into your bedroll, making sure you're in good vision. You give one last glance to Sophie, who nods her head, before you sigh and go to sleep.

>>284684

"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!"

You blink your eyes open, holding your breath as you expect to see someone standing over you. All you see however, is a few bladed tails being pulled away and you roll over to see Sophie dragging Sylphie back, the former giving the latter a scolding look.

"Awww what was that for sis? I was just telling him breakfast is ready!"

"How would you feel if someone was standing over you when you awoke?"

"Uhhhh, Saya used to do it all the time, except her face would be melting, so… Not so good, I guess."

Both of the young women shudder at something, and you groan, rising from bed. Ugh, your back still hurts from yesterday, but at least it's a dull ache now. Still, not fun at all. Looking about the camp, you see the Wolverinegirls walking about, some with triumphant smiles, others looking bone weary.

The smell of cooking meat pervades the camp, and you feel your mouth water. There really is eggs and bacon, isn't there? You look to Sylphie and she waves to a Wolverinegirl, who walks up with a tin plate and hands it to you, which you take graciously. You give the girls a look and Sophie shrugs.

"Supplies the slavers had. Figure we might as well have a good breakfast."

"Beats hard tack and jerky." You say, nodding but not eating yet.

"I'll say. Sis cooked them up really good too."

Sophie waves a dismissive tail before putting a hand on her hip. "Well, it's not THAT good." She chuckles and then gives you a look as if she's insisting on you eating. You do, and your eyes go wide. Damn, it actually is good!

She smirks and gives you a smug expression before turning over to the wagons where the group of captives were sitting, eating as well. Nodding over to them, she says, "Seems the drug wore off. Simple thing to keep them sedate. Using it every so often will keep them out of it, and seems like the slavers had a rather large stash of the stuff."

In one of her tails is a bottle filled with thick, white substance. You frown at it and she blinks before looking at the bottle and then chuckling. "Oh! No, it's not semen… anymore. This is an alchemical drug, I'd guess it's given orally since it's so thick."

>You gain [Sleeping Drug]

>An alchemical agent which induces sleep when given orally. Refined well, it barely tastes like stale silver coins anymore.

"Think Sylphie could drink it to recover her mana?"

"Sure, if she wants to pass out for a day."

Sylphie shakes her head violently at this, and you shrug. "Fair enough. Learn anything from the captives?"

"No, they're mostly just in the wrong place at the wrong time." She nods to the man who is being fawned on by one of the Kitsune, who clearly is wasting no time. "Seems he's a ranger for the military, investigating odd rumors when he managed to get captured. I figure they didn't kill him because they didn't want anyone finding a corpse."

"Probably could sell him to some Monster out in the desert and no one would be the wiser." You say, incredible disgust filling your voice. Both of the twins look at you with surprise but you merely put more eggs into your mouth. Damn these are good.

"Perhaps." Sophie says, nodding her head. "Well, I also spoke with Erma last night. She says that this was the last group seen in the area, but she'll do her best to keep everyone else alert. I suspect that with this solider about, he'll contact his higher ups and something will happen here, though who knows how long it will take."

"Any of the men talking?"

"The guards? No, they're just hired muscle from Deleor, only a few are from Ectria, and they don't know much else. They just were hired to capture some Monsters and bring them back, something these men did with relish."

"Not surprising, there's still a lot of people who don't care for Monsters."

"And yet, they followed an Anubis?"

"They care for coin more."

Sophie's lip curls in a smirk and she tips one of her tails in acknowledgement. "Well, I feel they're going to find they like Wolverine pussy very soon."

You shudder. "It sounds so dirty when you say it."

"What, Wolverine pussy?" Sylphie says, and you frown deeper.

"Now it just sounds like a child is saying it."

They look at each other and then both adopt shit-eating grins before saying in unison, "Cat pussy."

You point your free hand at the two of them and make a sigil of Solos. "Begone, ye thots."

Sophie chuckles with refined mirth while Sylphie cocks her head and asks, "What's a thot?"

"Nothing, my dear sister." Sophie says, patting her twin's head. "Come then, I think it's time to go soon, yes?"

>>284685

Looking at the sun overhead, you see it's later in the day than you expect. "Yeah, I guess we should be on the move if we want to avoid Chaika."

"About that…" Sophie says, still smirking. "Seems Erma might be able to send some word and run interference for us if she sees Chaika."

"How?"

"I didn't feel it was wise to ask questions."

Fair enough. You go back to eating and in short order, your group is ready to go. You take a few more rations from the wagons, and make to leave. You ask around for the staff the Anubis had, but it got broken in the fight, turning out just to be gilded instead of actually golden. Still, it has a cool motif of a serpent, so you take it anyway.

>You obtain [Broken Staff]

>A collapsible, gilded staff with a snake motif at the top. Broken in half during battle, it's useless but looks cool

You wish you could take one of the wagons, but they're just too big and frankly Mr. Ed did not want to team up with any of the other horses. Sylphie says he is adamant that they're all assholes and that he "has more balls than all of them combined, and he's a gelding."

Mr. Ed is seriously hardcore.

Nothing else of value is on the wagon beyond some coins, which Sophie adds to her treasury, and a locket with the picture of an older Anubis inside it. You think it belonged to the Anubis slaver, and you wonder if this is her Mother, since the likeness is uncanny. Feeling a pang of something for the slaver, despite her profession, you take it with you. To remind yourself, if nothing else.

>You obtain [Locket]

>A locket of an older Anubis, made of silver. It's a lovely keepsake, and you can even remove the picture you want.

With that, you're on the road again, traveling easily through the quiet countryside, running into no trouble the whole day. You camp and have a restful evening, where you read up more on wind magic, feeling like you understand a little bit more than before, but honestly it's a hard book to read and you're still sore and tired. Sleep comes quickly after your watch, and the next day begins as the others do.

It's late morning by the time you see a signpost in the dirt, a rough-hewn sign pointing to the north-east toward Borne, and another pointing to a little bit to the north toward a place known as "Mordun." Figuring it's the village, you continue to head North-east as Erwin scouts toward the place, confirming that it is, indeed, the small village.

{No one's around though.} He sends, his voice a little weak in your mind. {I haven't gone into the town proper, but it's weird here.}

{Weird how?}

{I dunno, I just feel like maybe we just keep going. There has to be another town up ahead.}

You consider this and tell the two about it, who both seem concerned and want to check it out. Doing so would lose you time in which Chaika could catch up, however, and you might get caught up in something again. But they all look to you, wondering about

>What do you do?

>You learn [Flurry]

>Create a orb of sand, dirt, or other particles up to 10 feet in radius. Can be made to spin quickly, or disperse on command.

>Further use can increase the radius and power

lets head there, while we're walking have erwin walk around the outside of the whole village and tell him to keep an eye out for any fires, damaged building or any signs of a previous attack

when we get there have sophie go in and stealthy check out the area to see if anyone is in the village, if it's empty take anything left of value and continue on

>>284686

So, more of a set up chapter and such. I didn't want to go much into what you do the next day, but basically you have finer control of the [Gust]. If there was anything specific you wanted to ask Sylphie, let me know.

Fucking discord, artists streaming, and my cat, this took way longer than it should have

>>284557

Do you feel in charge? Bane memes aren't on this flight log, so maybe you need to stop being a hot head and get out of here and…

I mean bane memes arenice, but they're soooo blase. I would never dream of using bane memes in my stories these days, I have a refined taste now.

I'll just use Shia le Beef memes.

>>284546

You didn't think you'd get such a nice treat so easily, did you?

>>284520

>>284527

Oh, I didn't see that mention of gathering empty bottles. Eh, we'll say you have three scavenged from places.

We'll find an opportunity for this backstory to come up more. But now is not the time for exposition,that comes later

>>284557

are you fucking happy?

>>284511

Checked, but hahahaha nooooo

You can't keep that in your pocket, you don't have that kind of control, it would explode. But you can probably overheat a rock with fireball or something and…make a flaming rock?

That's going to take a lot of fire I think. Might need to see if Sylphie knows anything about enchanting, or look up runes.

>>284508

I'll just tell you that no, he is not a former slave.

>>284469

Well, some of the responses were bury her in a pit. And frankly, I didn't see a reason why Rommel WOULD let her live. But it clearly didn't sit well with him or Sophie…

>>284693

>I mean bane memes arenice, but they're soooo blase. I would never dream of using bane memes in my stories these days, I have a refined taste now.

i mean, we'll probably want something to cover our mouths such as a mask of some sort when we're in the desert so we don't choke on sand, and taking said mouth covering off would be rather discomforting to us, even with our large masculinity

>>284686

Have Erwin continue to investigate the town but do so in a cautious manner. We bought ourselves some time with the wolverines help so we can do one more side quest before returning to the road.

>>284717

This lad has the right idea.

>>284686

>Nothing else of value is on the wagon beyond some coins, which Sophie adds to her treasury, and a locket with the picture of an older Anubis inside it. You think it belonged to the Anubis slaver, and you wonder if this is her Mother, since the likeness is uncanny. Feeling a pang of something for the slaver, despite her profession, you take it with you. To remind yourself, if nothing else.

Something tells me killing the slaver may have consequences, especially if we carry around her belongings like trophies. If we are going to keep her/someone else's stuff, we best store it in the [Trenchcoat]'s larger pockets where it will be hidden from view and not easily found should we need to pass an inspection at a later point in the story. It might also be worth tossing the picture just to be safe, since we should be able to pass the locket off as ours should it be discovered and avoid any difficult situations involving kin seeking blood.

As for the village, I'd suggest we explore for a bit. The whole reason we came to the settlement in the first place was to gather supplies, and Erwin hasn't necessarily said anything about the place other than what a hunch tells him to do, so we would lose out on a chance to restock because of a slight concern from our familiar were we to ignore it, which potentially leads to a later encounter being more difficult due to Sylphie's lacking mana unless we were to get her to down the [Sleeping Drug], but we would need to do that preemptively. Should we discover something within the village that halts our progress, the worst case scenario is us wasting time deaths can easily be avoided by skedaddling when everything goes sour which we supposedly have a lot of, even if Chaika were to figure out our location, and as such isn't too big of a deal. One could argue that time we waste now is time we could have spent preventing some horrible fate for the Grand Wizard and Selene and time to yell at the former, but I'm of the belief that any combat we encounter is time well spent because it gives us a chance to practice our magic and train up before we encounter very strong opponents rather than getting to the destined boss fights at the end and getting crushed due to a lack of power and skill.

>Story continue

{Erwin.} You send, stopping your walking to communicate with him. {You're on the outskirts of the village?}

{Yeah, the outlying farms. I mean there's cattle and it smells like people have been here, but the village itself is out of sight.}

{Any signs of damage or a struggle?}

{No, if people left they did so voluntarily.}

You rub your chin and look toward Sylphie, who cocks her head at you. The whole point of stopping was to get more mana potions or maybe some virile farm boy to jizz in a bottle and then be on your way. If there's no one around, it's not really worth your time to stick around and see what's happening, is it? You're not some kind of Order Hero or anything. And the slaver stopping thing doesn't count.

{Look into the village proper, we'll head farther down the path in case there's no one around.}

{It's going to take longer if you do that you know.}

{It'll take longer if there's nothing there.}

Erwin doesn't reply and you feel him move away farther from you. Shaking your head, you relay this information to the girls, who both nod their heads in understanding, though Sylphie asks,

"I could just ride out there, get a good look and come back."

"And what if there's some kind of actual cannibal there, dear Sister?" Sophie asks, raising an eyebrow. "What if there's another group of slavers and you run out of magic? Do you like seeing your twin go gray with worry over you?"

"Sis, Mom is like, a millenia old and her tits are perkier than ours. I think you'll be fine."

"I think it's time to drop this subject, because we're going to wait for Erwin." You say, giving the two a stern look. Sylphie pouts while Sophie rolls her eyes before walking down the path again. Out of the corner of your eye, you do notice Sophie playing with her breasts and frowning. Women…

You travel for maybe another fifteen minutes before Erwin sends, {WOAH YOU HAVE GOT TO GET OVER HERE!}

The sending makes you pause sharply and you turn towards his sending, though he's way too far to see. A worried expression comes over your face as you send, {Erwin! Are you alright? What's happening?!}

{I can't describe this, but you HAVE to hear… see… gah I can't word this properly, but you have got to get here.}

{Are there people there? Slavers? Is anyone hurt?}

{There's some guy passed over next to a barrel, but that's the extent of any hurting that's occurring here. And if anyone is a slave, it's that they're slaves to the music!}

{Music?….} You send in response to his over enthusiasm. All that you get back in a series of mental humming in time with something and you frown, thinking about just leaving him. Seriously, you have like, 17% of your mind saying you should just leave well enough alone.

But… the other 83% says that you can get what you need from the village and it's not TOO far away. You sigh and look about for a rock and find a decent sized boulder that you pull to you with <Rock Slide>. The two Cat o'Ninetails give you confused looks as you hop onto the rock and judge it's balance before saying, "Looks like we're going to the village afterall."

"Is it under attack?"

"I think…" You say, scratching your chin. "I think they're having a party."

>>284919

"WOOOOOOOO!" Sophie shouts in your ear, her hair slapping your face.

You just keep on looking ahead, powering the boulder forward as it blazes across the landscape, forming a trail in the grassy plains. Originally, you have planned on traveling on the rock by yourself, but Sophie wasn't comfortable riding Mr. Ed. Apparently she was bucked off a horse once, and even though Mr. Ed has done his best to build her trust, she still gets jitters in the saddle.

Which is why she's currently pressed up against your back with her arms around your waist, screaming with delight in your ear, and having her now unruly hair fly all over your face.

It's fine though. It's… fine.

The ride is short, but quick, with Mr. Ed not letting you outpace him. As you ride, he keeps looking at you out of the corner of his eye, nostrils flaring, a competitive spirit burning in his vision. Honestly, you're kind of a little afraid of this horse, but damn if you don't admire his tenacity. It seems this plays in well with his familiar bond, because he's able to keep pace, and when you arrive at the first outlying farm and find that no one is coming to see the ruckus, he stops, taking little time to catch his breath before he's good to go.

Wind dying down around you as the rock comes to a halt, you stagger some, feeling a little drained from the effort. You feel something press against your back and you turn to see a mop of hair with a smile coming from under it. With a frown, you take Sophie's hands off your waist, and she goes about pushing her unruly locks out of her face.

"Hahaha! That was fun! Why don't we travel like this all the time?"

"Because it's tiring, and I'm pretty sure Mr. Ed would die of exhaustion trying t keep pace."

The gelding snorts, and Sylphie pats his neck, whispering gentle words in his ears to calm him down. He turns his head to side and she gives you an exasperated look. Shaking your head, you hop down off the rock and start walking when you hear Sophie clear her throat. Sighing, you turn around to see her raising an eyebrow at you.

"What?"

"A gentleman would help a lady down from a carriage."

"It's a rock and you're not a lady."

"Actually, she kind of is." Sylphie says, holding up a finger. "I guess technically I am too, huh?"

"Regardless." Sophie says, sniffing. "It would do you good to learn a little courtesy."

"Please, Monsters were stealing and raping men without courtesy for centuries, and now you expect to see some?"

"Things are different these days." She puts on a sweet face and says, "Please… for me?"

You look at her with utter exhaustion on your face before submitting. Walking back over to her, you hold out your hand, which she takes and then daintily steps off the boulder, down to the grass. She gives you a pleasant smile and says, "There, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Oh, dear Rommel." Sylphie says from behind you, and you see her put on a face similar to her sister's, though in her case it looks more like a hurt puppy. She bats her eyelashes at you and you respond with a scowl. She clacks her tongue and then giggles to herself as you walk down the path toward the town.

More and more farms dot the outlying parts of the village, as is fitting out here. People in Sanctifrond need food, and even with magitek innovations, most people still live off the land with simple lives. Considering this area, beyond the occasional Monster raids, you doubt they really have anything to fear. Even then, with the odds balanced in regards to Monster strength, people could defend themselves better, so it was more profitable to live in harmony with the people instead of raiding them.

Thinking on that, you wonder if the Wolverinegirls raided because they liked being bandits, or because they were forced to be that way from the slavers. From their conversations, you think that it is the more likely reason. Pondering this, you don't notice when the two Cat o'Ninetails stop, their ears twitching atop their heads.

"Is that…?" Sylphie asks, cocking her head.

"I think it is." Sophie says, nodding.

You turn back to them to see smiles on their faces. "What?"

"Oh, right, HUMAN ears." Sylphie says, giggling. "You'll hear it soon enough though. Oh, I'm excited to get moving now!"

>>284920

They both move at a more brisk pace and you blink in confusion as they seem eagerly drawn toward the source. As always, you hear the sound a little after they do and it comes to you as a thrumming beat. As you approach, it gets louder, and louder, and louder until you hear a rhythm going and you feel your heart start beating faster.

It's pleasant, and it actually makes you want to move faster toward the source for some reason. You're not really all that into music, but you don't dislike it either, it's just you haven't found a kind that you enjoy yet. This however… this seems to resonate within your very soul.

"Who… is making this music?" You ask without thinking.

"We're about to find out!" Sylphie says, pointing to the growing sight of the village.

You arrive to the sound of drums beating, cymbals tapping, and a type of guitar playing. People are laughing and creating a great din, but it's not until you reach the village square that you see what Erwin was talking about.

All about the small village were people dressed in their everyday clothing, dancing about, laughing, and having what seems to be a great time. Interspersed here and there are a few Monsters, some obviously married by the way they dance with their husbands, others seeming a little friskier. The scene all around you has the signs of a feast day, but none of the preparations are there, making you think it's impromptu.

Looking about, you spot Erwin standing on a barrel, dancing in time to the beat. Walking away from the dismounting Sylphie, you walk up to your familiar, feeling a certain level of energy in your steps as you reach him.

{Erwin.}

{Heeeeey! You made it!} He sends, giving you a grin. {I didn't know you could dance.}

{Dance, I can't…} You say before pausing and noticing that you're shifting up and down in time with the music. Frowning deeply and try to control yourself, but feel your body wanting to resist and get back to dancing to these beats. Your struggles have cause to cease as the music dies down and everyone in the square starts clapping and shouting for an encore.

Feeling a little relieved, you look over at the center of the square and find a few villagers with various instruments before them. They seem eager to continue playing, and they look to the leader in the center, a Monster who clearly does not hail from this land.

She steps lightly on her taloned feet, cymbals attached to the loose cloth around her red-gold feathers shaking with delicious melodies as if she is unable to keep herself from dancing. While not a tall Monster, her bronzed skin shines with sweat as it slides down the trim, yet sensous body which is barely covered by undergarments trimmed with nearly transparent cloth. A guitar of foreign make hangs over a strap around her neck, which makes sense as she would have difficulty holding it with her large, feathered wing-hands.

The Harpy pushes aside her long, golden hair from her brilliant green eyes and she chuckles, a sound so rich and full of harmony that you feel your bones quake. Smiling, she turns about the crowd before spotting you and the twins. Her grin grows wider and she says, "My my, it seems we have some guests at our little party!"

Everyone turns to you in unison and feel a little uneasiness until they all start clapping and welcoming you. The strange Harpy dances upon her feet, the cymbals at her hips and legs shaking and she stops to pluck a string on her guitar before saying, "I think this calls for another song, don't you? We've been dancing all day, but let's keep dancing until we can't feel our feet any longer! Dance until we all pass out, smiles on our face!"

Her grin turns lecherous then and she says in a lower voice, "Or maybe just until we're tired enough to start another kind of rhythm going?"

Nodding to the other musicians, who seem to instinctively know what to play, she strums on the guitar and says, "Listen to my music, and let your hearts guide you. Ebe will never betray you, on that, you have my word." With that, she starts to play again.

The people, some of them seeming a little tired, start to dance again, reinvigorated. Erwin starts shaking his little foxy-tail and you notice your charges joining in, quickly being approached by young men. Something strikes you as odd about how easily Sylphie starts dancing with a tall farmhand though, but you can't quite place what it is. You should also be perturbed by the fact that Sophie's tails are unraveled too. Gosh you just don't know why though.

You feel yourself starting to dance, such as it is, and you barely notice the sounds of the guitar getting closer until you realize that the strange Harpy is right before you, her sun-kissed skin slick and hot, the heat washing over you. With a minor amount of panic and interest, you notice she smells good. Like, really good.

>>284921

Somehow keeping up the music and dancing, she manages to keep her eyes locked on you as she says, "My, aren't you interesting. Do you like the music?"

"I…" You say, feeling a little sluggish.

"Or perhaps…" She says with a coy expression. "You're a little distracted by something else?" She waggles her hips, the shaking of which makes the cymbals clatter in a way that fit the song perfectly, as if it was part of the choreography.

Your mind feeling hazy, you distantly feel that this is wrong, and you turn your head away with effort to see Mr. Ed, standing on the outskirts of the square, his eyes staring into yours. He seems to want something, but what could it be? A deep intensity stirs in there and you vaguely think that he's the only one not dancing. How weird, it's so enjoyable too.

"You know…" Ebe says, her feathers stroking your face and turning your attention back to her. "When the party is over, if you'd like a little "private show," I would gladly perform for you." She steps back from you, still dancing and playing the music in time.

"Don't worry about the two you came with, they'll be quite taken care of as well." She blows you a kiss and then turns about, her shapely backside filling your vision. You feel a glaze come over you as you start to let go, dancing in time with the music.

As you turn about, you once again see Mr. Ed, his eyes looking into yours and you stop, feeling something wrenching within you. But it would be so much easier just to dance, and her offer seems really tempting though you can't say why. Still, the unease builds in your chest now that she's further away and you start sweating, as if in a visceral response to the whole scene.

You can just let it go and enjoy yourself or, ech, heed this weird warning in your head. Not like it's really that much of a choice, but whatever,

>What do you do?

>>284922

Haha, you thought it would be some kind of Ghoul or something eating people. Instead, it's a party. Have a good time! If you're lucky, you won't have to worry about getting mana potions!

Oh wait that's a bad thing. Or is it? You can afford to spend the night here, right? Maybe longer, it's all good.

I sort of miss these fun/still shady little diversions.

>>284743

Majority of things wanted people to investigate with Erwin, unfortunately since he's caught up in this and he didn't really find anything "amiss."

>>284922

Turn on mage sight and study the magic. This is definitely enchanted music, But I don't know if we should put a stop to it. It would be kind of dull for everything we come across to end up being malevolent. They could just be a bunch of enthusiasts who do this for a living.

I think Ace is trying to screw with us. See if we can magically attune ourselves and the girls to become resistant to the music. From there we can all enjoy while still keeping a careful eye out for shady things.

Also Ace, Just for curiosity, What is our general travel speed and top possible speed when we bolder surf?

>>284931

Ehhhhhhhhhh.

30-40mph?

I really haven't put terribly much thought into it, but it seems as fast as a galloping horse.

Plz no bully

>>284932

This. Fun is verboten.

I doubt this is another Derrick, rather just an irresponsible music enthusiast, but I'll be damned if somebody has fun on our watch!

>>284937

We are having no part in this it's not wizard kosher,

We shouldn't be complete assholes and crash a completely normal party but forced fun isn't real fun

>>284922

>Getting hit on by a monster girl

>Twins being hit on

>You're dancing

>There's clearly magical music fucking with everyone

NEIN

Crash the party with cryomancy.

>>284922

>>284937

>>284942

I agree with Cheshire, trusting Mr Ed's judgement is a good idea but lets not ruin the fun for everyone else, just magesight it up and stop ourselves from hearing the music.

I wish we were allowed to have fun

Reminds me of jack and the rave

Focus sounds is compressions feel it in you the radiate out is complementary wave canceling it out

Look to her and say

"Please you call this music"

I hope to the gods we get to invent "rock" music

Video related

If not we clearly have a bard we are being enchanted idk lets see what other people have to say

(Im hoping for a rock off personally)

>>284974

But crashing parties is funny!

>>284937

I like this plan.

Is Rommel proficient enough in geomancy to turn some rocks into smooth shapely ear buds that won't completely fuck up our eardrums?

If so do that we need to have a clear head for this. We know that this festival was not planned by the village since nobody made any preparations for it. So she probably just showed up at the town square and started playing. Which seems really shady. And now she is forcing us to have fun and trying to manipulate us into engage in unruly promiscuous activities. Fuck that shit. Parties over. Let's see if that guitar is rock proof.

we have to stop the party soon before the sisters get knocked up by the farm boys so I'd go with crashing the party

>no one else wants to have a pun laiden "rock" off after we [silence] the spell being cast on us

>feels bad man

>>284994

because it dosent fit with rommels abilitys and mindset, like at all.

>>284994

also what i think might be being played at the party right now if its not some kind of rock

ace whats the music sound like so we can know what kind of party this is

>>284995

idk man you don't want him leading people into battle to the sound of >metal<

proper music is extramural mathematical, and requires large amounts of discipline to preform properly, as well the, someone its the perfect chance to mix air and Geo magic to make like amps and shit have rock disks vibrate at a set rate to amply the sound of music our sound over hers maybe even try and learn how to control the metal of her instrument ( the stings if they are made of metal strands )

you guys are making a plan of how to not be affected by the beat but not what happens after, follow though boyuim what happens after we use white noise to down out the magic music?

we need to either flat out say we don't party, fake it and look really stupid

or something else what are the options? whats the plan!

>>284922

>Other anons have already made the Bane memes

It's crashing this party with survivors lads; we don't want to murder a ton of innocent people because they were dancing likely against their will, no matter how disgusting or degenerate it is if we do ruin everything, which we likely will.

Chesire anon >>284937 >>284942 has the best plan of protecting ourselves into careful investigation into intervention if necessary. For my own input on the investigation, Erwin seemed to be able to speak well enough to us, which probably means the villagers are capable of speech as well. As such, talking to the villagers about the details of this event, such as when the dancing started if they can't answer this properly, then massive red flags are raised, if they've ever stopped dancing to take a break and if anyone knows who the hell the Ebe is may be in our best interests. Also, while unlikely to be present, any lizardgirls around the area are nigh guaranteed to be immune to the effects of any enchantments, illusions and mind control if previous examples are anything to go by Tabitha and that one really good clothes saleswoman, so see if we can find any of them and watch how they react - a negative or a lack of a reaction from them points towards the merriment being forced.

As for dealing with the music should it truly prove to be malicious, it would help to understand what part of it is enchanting. Ebe strikes me as a classical Greek Siren, with the physical appearance, the bronze skin implying Mediterranean or whatever the Deleor equivalent is origins and the strange-looking guitar representing a harp of some description as was common among later depictions, so the enchantment is either a result of her voice or her instrument. A shame then that we can't play any instruments ourselves, nor sing the song of our people, the [Irate Frog Song], because drowning out a Siren's songs was one way to prevent her control. Thankfully for us, Ebe has offered an invitation to a 'private showing', which we can use as an excuse to get her alone to drug her as suggested earlier and cut the strings on her instrument/claim it for ourselves to have another tool to use on our opponents later in that order, thus killing two birds with one stone. We could also perform a more literal form of that saying by using a stone or boulder to execute her and destroy her instrument, but fucking up would likely lead to her calling her enchanted slaves to dog-pile us, so it's best to be cautious and who knows, maybe she just wanted to have fun without any horrible fate in store for anyone, thus making killing her a bad thing. As for how to avoid being enchanted at such close proximity to Ebe, I'd recommend replacing what ever method we use to dampen her music with something like beeswax which is bound to be around here somewhere, both to make certain that it won't falter when our concentration drops as with magic, as well as to be subtle with our protection due to how it moulds easily inside our ear and hides under our long hair, thus allowing us the excuse of "Sorry, I'm deaf" should Ebe get suspicious about our immunity.

>>284994

>>284996

>>284997

For starters, like >>284995 stated, metal concerts are definitely not our scene, if they even exist at all in this setting. We are a wizard for fucks sake, social excursions are normally the bane of our existence, to the extent that half of us want to burn/chill/blow/rock it down simply for existing. If Rommel was going to listen to music, it would probably be something like the embedded song, or the soundtrack to one of our [Eastern Theater Spectacles]

Also this is a rural village with folk musicians, they almost certainly don't have mixing tables and electronic beats. I was thinking their party music would be more along the lines of this myself, but really only Ace can decide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaRNvJLKP1E

As for your instrument idea, as you stated yourself, it requires large about of discipline to perform properly. We've been a proper wizard for under a year, and barely even looked at wind magic, let alone influencing metal. There is no way in hell we're going to out perform a fully fledged bard at her own game just with scrub magic.

Finally, the idea suggested as stated prior is after we figure out how to negate the music, to regroup our party while pretending to still be under the influence of the beat. Then we lure the Harpy into an isolated room after the performance has finished, roofie her, tie her up and then interrogate her.

This has the added ironic bonus of having a girl being pissed about being roofied, tied up and then NOT being raped.

Alternatively we could do as the other half of the anons are suggesting and let out autism reign free, ruining the village's more than likely innocent festivities all due to a whim and crippling autism.

This of course would earn the hatred of the entire town which we wanted to restock at mind you, all because we had to sperg out and ruin everything because we don't like social gatherings or touching fluffy wings.

>>285002

lets hope the vioce of reason can overtone autism for once, so far rommel sa been rather professional ion how he acts, so we have an actual reasone not to be a compleate sperg for once.

rommel has already leaned fine grain manipulation so he should be able to improvise some earplugs, and then do what every faggot does at social gatherings, support the nearest wall and watch to what this leads while hitting the booze.

No sperging out. We free ourselves from the effects, make sure the kittens don't do anything dumb, and keep watch. There's a good chance it's not even something malicious, it's a farming town, we may have just stumbled into a fertility festival or something. Hell, for all we know, it's a local tradition. Everyone in the area might know that on the third Tuesday of every

Month, there's a music induced festival that turns into an orgy at the end of the night.

We need to lessen the influence on ourself and the kittens, and ask questions. Make sure that people know when this started, the circumstances around it, and that they've been taking breaks when tired, and aren't dancing to the point of exhaustion, puppeteered. If there isn't anything malicious going on, we also really shouldn't drug the birb. That's just asking for trouble.

>>285005

>Hell, for all we know, it's a local tradition.

>people dressed in their everyday clothing

>The scene all around you has the signs of a feast day, but none of the preparations are there, making you think it's impromptu.

I don't really think the villagers knew about that orgy in advance.

>>285005

>taking breaks when tired

>"lets party till you all pass out"

She was being literal i think

Also we should say

"The slaver is dead" then show her the pendant

>>285010

Randomly announcing that we killed someone is a horrible idea.

We can always go full speech if playing it cool doesn't work, but we can't go back to playing it cool after going full sperg.

>>285010

Also, there's a difference between partying until you sit down and drop asleep, what would colloquially be called passing out, and literally partying until you drop from exhaustion like a puppet with its strings cut.

>>285016

Im just sain

The slaver layed some pretty heavy forshadow on us earlier, why aren't the gaurds a problem maybe bevayse they're parting it up and are preoccupied by other things

But fine ill leave it to use is guys

But i reserve the right to call that this is shanagins and it would of been better to act then to be acted on,

Plug thein ears as well as thein charges then act cool and turn on magic sight as well as decline the birdy for now

>never trust a monster

Wew, lots of replies. Uhm, so the biggest thing is the music. Its not at all rock and roll, but more like what youd expect to find in a middle eastern flair. Id go and find a video of what im thinking off but on mobile at work, so I cant.

Imagine ur favorite vidya's desert songs for now. I guess.

I love the variety of thinking into it tho. Eve seems like such a nice Gandharva… i mean strange Harpy.

>>285024

Ace, no more dead waifus plz

>>285045

Sometimes the Monster is also on the inside.

This is a goddamn Gandharva. Against that demonic energy infused singing, music, and dance….Autism and Sperging might be our only chance. Go full Edge Lord on her.

This is a goddamn Gandharva. Against that demonic energy infused singing, music, and dance….Autism and Sperging might be our only chance. Go full Edge Lord on her.>>285114

I'm a piece of shit. Oops.

>>285114

>>285116

How did you manage to fuck these two posts up so badly? Are you alright man?

>>285123

>>285123

Nah. Not really. Sorry

>>285125

>285123

FUCK. I'm out.

I'm just looking forward to bullying the girls about their embarrassing actions while inebriated.

Let them go on long enough to create such situations before we reel them back in.

Might as well try to get on Jackor's good side if the chances present themselves

>>285024

>Its not at all rock and roll, but more like what youd expect to find in a middle eastern flair.

This tweety bird twat thinks her dinky little music is music? Naw, we gotta show this finch wench REAL music , we gotta show this bird bard bitch why wizards are the undisputed masters of Rock n' Roll! Grab one of the band member's guitar teach this birdbrain what it means to ==Rawk!==

>>285133

it just be funny to see him try at this point

>>285002

Autism is not something to be constrained. You cannot lock it away or bind it in chains, as this will only lead to suffering for yourself, as though it is you who is locked away or bound in chains. You must let it roam free and unfettered like a bird or the winds. Unleash your autism and you will know both greatness in your life and harmony in your heart.

Autism is the greatest gift of all, for it gives you the power and will to shape this world to your own design. Indeed, we owe our very existence to unbridled autism for is it not true that Solos Himself is but a waifufag that has devoted His life to this wonderful combination of art and science we call "Reality"? Can we really call ourself His agent if we deny our autism?

No autism. Let's be sensible about this.

>>285133

This holy shit this!

For the love of solos Ace give us rock off please.

>Story continue

No. No, you just… should probably listen to this weird voice in your head. Sure, you KNOW this feels wrong, but it also feels RIGHT. With some effort, you pull yourself away from Erwin and start moving toward Mr. Ed, your feet tapping in time. You feel like some kind of madman doing so, but at least you're not absolutely mad, right?

As you walk to him, you pass by Sophie and a young farmhand, his skin tanned from long days out in the sun. She shakes her hips, tails swinging about with dexterous ease as she raises her arms over her head, forming some kind of peacock of blades. One of her tails wraps around the farmhand's waist, and she pulls him in close, a fire in her eyes. His eyes are fixated on her breasts though, and you only just now realize how scandalous her clothing is.

Oh well, they're just enjoying themselves. Like you should be. But… no, you need to go forward toward the horse. His eyes bore into you, but you see an uneasiness in them, and he paws the ground, looking over to Sylphie who is dancing with a little less grace than her sister, but better than the muscular farmhand she's dancing with. He keeps trying to cop a feel, but she coyly steps aside, a smile on her face. Every time he reaches for her Mr. Ed snorts.

"Don't like the music?" You ask as you stand before the gelding, tapping your foot. He looks at you with a neutral expression before rolling his eyes and stamping the ground. You cock your head. "No?"

Exasperation crosses his expression and he flicks his head toward the Harpy, and you notice the way she can shake her hips at sixty shakes per second. A goofy smile comes over your face until he presses his muzzle into your ear and you frown, backing away from the near wet willy.

"Hey, hey, what gives?" He merely nods back to the dancing Harpy and you ask, "Ebe? What about her?"

He snorts and then nuzzles your staff, which you're still holding… huh you forgot it was there. Frowning, you look over the staff and ask, "What? My staff? What does that have to do with… ohhhhh no, no, no." You shake your head with vigor. "I am not giving her my STAFF."

He shakes his head and then casts a glance over to Sylphie, who is now dancing far more scandalous than before. Growing agitated, the horse nudges your staff again and you really wish you could speak horse.

{Hey Erwin, do you speak Horse?} You send to your familiar.

{Yeah, why?}

{I… wait what, you do?}

{Uh, yeah. I'm a fox, we speak with horses.}

{That doesn't make… look can you talk to Mr. Ed}

{Nah.}

You pause. {Nah?}

{He's over there and I'm dancing over here!}

"Oh for the love of…" You growl and tell Mr. Ed the problem. He snorts and then trots over to Erwin, picking the little fox up with his teeth and tossing him onto his back. The little fox squirms from the effort but then finds that he can dance on the back of the horse and continues to do that as they return. While doing so, Mr. "accidently" knocks over a barrel which opens up, splashing the farmhand dancing next Sylphie with water. He gasps and Sylphie puts her hands to her mouth in shock until the man removes his shirt, revealing bulging muscles in a farmer's tan. They both smile and continue to the dance.

Erwin chuckles in the way only a fox can chuckle and then yips something. Mr. Ed looks like he wants to buck Erwin off his back, but holds his temper as they walk back to you, to which you give a questioning look.

{Yeah, yeah. So what do you want and why aren't you daaaaancing?}

{I just… feel like something is wrong about all this.}

{But it's fun!}

{Yeah but, when have I ever danced}

Erwin pauses for a moment, concentration coming onto his face as his tail swishes. {Huh, guess your right. Well, no time like the present, right?}

{Mr. Ed has something he needs to tell me, but I don't speak horse.}

{You should learn.} Erwin says, as if it was easy as that. He yips at Mr. Ed, who neighs out a few sounds, to which Erwin frowns as fox can frown. Turning his head back to you, he sends, {He says that all of you are being controlled and that the music is turning you into nothing more than puppets.} He yips something to the gelding, who stamps his hoof.

{He also says he'll crush that man's skull if he tries to soil his delicate little flower.}

{What about Sophie?}

{He has a quota on skull crushing.}

>>285189

So, Ebe must be doing something with her villainous Monster powers to make all these people have fun. What a cold hearted bitch! Clearly she wants them to break from the monotony of their lives and have a good time in order to do something terrible to them! Like… like have them have an orgy or something and then… she's going to… she's going to ah…

Scratching your head, you look to Mr. Ed and ask, "I'm sorry, I don't see how this is a bad thing. Beyond the mind controlling music."

The horse snorts. Erwin nods and translates. {She wants to fuck you into oblivion}

You snap on your heels and face the Harpy, fire in your eyes. OH HELLS NO. This bootylicious bird-brained busty-bodied bitch is NOT going to have any illicit relationships with you! Planting your staff in the ground you focus your will and then open your eyes with your [Mage Sight], seeing the world for what it truly is.

Thankfully you have planted your staff, because you almost fall backward at the sight. A multitude of colors drifts about, a rainbow miasma that coats the square. It all draws from a single source, the dancing Ebe, whose guitar shimmers with ever pluck of the strings, sending out waves of music. The drums, cymbals, and other instruments also add to the effect, as if resonating in time with her guitar.

And yet… you can see an inner light resonating within her, something that looks and feels pure. It makes you shudder a little looking at it, and you sweep your gaze to the villagers, who radiate in the throes of pleasure, even if their cores are black as night. This isn't… what you thought you'd see at all.

Closing your eyes, you let go of your sight, feeling reality rush back in, and you once again are awash in the beautiful music. You almost take a step forward, but limit yourself to just swaying side to side. Damnit, you can't get rid of the way this music makes you dance, it's infusing your soul! Besides, you can't unsee the radiance of it all, burned into your memory. Why fight it?

Because, you tell yourself. It is not natural.

Still… it's not right to ruin things for everyone else. Biting your lip, you look about and spot a lithe woman swaying her hips in time with the music. She seems to notice your gaze and you feel a sort of magnetism between the two of you, forcing both of you toward each other. As you approach, she begins to dance about, biting her lip as she looks you up and down.

"Haven't seen you around these parts."

"Not from here."

"I could tell. Men around these parts don't look half as good as you do."

You recall the rippling muscles of the farm hand who wants to plow Sylphie and figure she's just trying to flirt with you. So she can get into your pants. Which is bad. You don't want this and-

Fuck you need to find a way to stop listening to this music, but you need to get some answers first.

"So, when did all this dancing start?"

"Hmm?" She asks, dancing rather close to you. "Oh, this morning. It's been a few hours now I guess, but I'm still full of vigor." She raises her eyebrows at you in a lewd manner and you feel your eye twitching.

"Have you ever seen her before?"

"Hmph, talking about her when I'm right here…" She sniffs and then actually contacts you, sliding her body against yours. You feel the power of one thousand frogs screaming in your veins, but you keep your cool as she pouts and says, "She came into town this morning and started playing music, drawing more and more people in. We've been dancing ever since."

The woman grinds herself against you and you shudder, not in disgust but because it actually feels nice. Gods this is a dangerous situation. She bites her lip and you blurt out, "I'm already having a private performance with Ebe."

The woman pauses and then sighs. "All the handsome ones are already taken…" Still, she continues to dance, her hips swaying as she goes away. You watch her for a second before shaking your head and slapping your cheeks.

"I need something to plug my damn ears…" You mutter to yourself before pausing. Oh yeeaaaaah, that could work! Looking about the square, you notice a candle maker's shop built into a cooper's workshop, and you boogie oogie your way over there, avoiding the predations of a Holstaur with breasts built like a brick shithouse. She manages to find the attention of a bearded man though, and they start to dance as if they were made for each other. Good for them…

Heading inside, you find little relief from the music and search about until you find some raw beeswax. You dig into your [Trenchcoat] and pull out an empty vial, using it to scoop up some of the substance before taking some yourself and twisting it into plugs to put into your ears. As soon as you do, the music lessens to a dull thrumming and… and…

What the fuck, you hate dancing again!

>>285190

A wave of exhaustion comes over you and you stagger to the side, feeling almost sick as you catch your breath. What the hells? Did her song make you ignore fatigue as you danced? By Solos, you've only been dancing for less than an hour! True, you did expend a lot of magic beforehand so that might contribute, but these people are going to be in no shape to do much of anything when the music stops. This must be her plan, damnit all to the hells.

And yet, the brilliance about her…

Gritting your teeth, you look at the vial of beeswax in your hand and then remember your companions ears. Frowning, you place the beeswax into your coat and take a handful of the material from a jar, digging into your pocket and throwing down a few coppers before walking back into the square with a noticeable lack of pep in your step.

From across the way, you see Ebe falter in a step as she stares at you, to which everyone around you shudders as if struck across the face before recovering quickly as she does herself. Biting your lip, you start to dance again, this time unaided by the music. Uhm… how did you do this before? Foot here… then there?

The look of concern on her face starts to fade as attention shifts off you and back to her music, and you can't help but feel that was close. Boogieing on over to Sophie, you find her basically rubbing herself all over her chosen farmboy, a furious lust in her eyes as her bosom drips with sweat. Yeah, that's really indecent, you should talk to her about wearing something more lady-like and…

Buh, you're not her father. Shaking your head, you get close to her and say, "Sophie, I need you stop dancing for a moment."

She doesn't hear you, or perhaps just ignores you, and you groan before raising your voice, "Sophie! Listen to me! I need you to pay attention to me!"

She keeps dancing, though the boy clearly notices and he shudders some before saying something you can't hear. Sophie's eyes go wide at what he says and she points at you, laughing as if she heard the funniest thing in the world. Feeling your anger rise, you set your staff aside, take two pieces of wax into your hands, and clap them into her ears.

She goes rigid and pushes you away, a look of utter outrage on her face as her ears twitch with furious motion. Reaching up to her ears she pauses, the feline appendages moving back and forth and her eyes go wide as she slowly reaches up and then looks to you, then the boy with horror. A furious blush appears on her face as the boy moves closer and she backs up, unable to look at him as she covers herself up.

You sigh and take her hand, dancing with soft motions as you do so, nodding to everyone else in the area. She looks about with a beet red face and then nods her head before shaking her hips with far less enthusiasm than before. The boy shouts something and then dances a sad dance as the two of you move away.

Sophie says something to you, but you merely shout back, "What? I can't fucking hear you, my ears aren't working!" She stares at you, also unable to hear you before she clacks her tongue and looks to her sister, eyes going wide as she seeds what Sylphie is doing.

Her sister has her robe-top off, exposing a chest just as well endowed as her sister's. Her white small clothes preserve her modesty, but the way she's pressed up against the slick chest of the man she's dancing with ruins that. Worse, she has her staff in one hand, a wave of dancing lights shining from the tip. What a waste of mana!

The other Cat o'Ninetail's eyes flash with anger, and she tries to dash forward, but you restrain her, making your movements flow with what you vaguely remember the beat to be. As you approach Sylphie, the man puffs up his chest but Sophie's eyes almost seem to glow at she glares at him, and he falters in his steps, allowing Sophie to shove beeswax into her sister's ears.

Sylphie has almost the same reaction as her sister does, looking down in horror at her almost exposed chest, the pale flesh of her bosom shining in the noonday sun. You turn your head and she covers up her chest hurriedly, dashing over to Mr. Ed to cry into his side.

Looking back to Ebe, who doesn't seem to notice you, you back away to the group where Mr. Ed is comforting his Mistress. Erwin looks at all of you with suspicion, and you shut him up with a sending before shoving the wax into his ears too. He blinks and looks around with surprise before frowning.

>>285191

{Aww come on, it was a good beat!}

{It was MIND CONTROL}

{Well, more like sex control.}

{How do you figure?}

{Gee, I wonder why the balless wonder I'm standing on wasn't affected by the music.} He taps on Mr. Ed, though the gelding doesn't notice. Ah, right, right.

"What now?!" You shout, but they both look at you with confusion. Mr. Ed shakes his head and then Sylphie seems to understand. She taps Erwin, who sends to you,

{So this is annoying, but yeah. Sylphie thinks we should leave. She's super embarrassed.}

Syphie's face goes even more red and she bonks Erwin on the head to which he squeaks and says,{Yeah, she wants to go, right now.}

{I don't think we can.} You send back. {That Harpy is watching us.}

{Harpy? Oh, the Gandharva. That's what Sylphie calls her anyway.} He listens to something for a moment before rolling his eyes. {Well, if we can't leave, then what should we do?}

{I think… we wait until this is over. I have a feeling as soon as the party is done, everyone will be dead tired, hopefully not literally.}

{And then what, we kill her? We could do that now.}

{No, no, I don't think she has any ill intentions but…} You shake your head. {I think the only way to find out what's going on is to ask her}

{And how are you going to… oh. OHHHHHHH.}

Erwin runs around on Mr. Ed's back, seeming super excited. {Someone's getting a PRIVATE performance!}

You ignore him, but feel a little worry inside. Damn, you're going be trapped in this but if you don't figure out what's going on then all these people could-

Wait, wait. All these people? You look over the crowd and frown. Do you really need to spend your time on this? It would be easier to just leave it all and get back on the road. They're having fun dancing, and you don't want to ruin that, despite the consequences. It could all be a misunderstanding, right? Hells, it probably is.

But… You feel your gut twist and you shake your head. These are mostly humans, people that have no idea what's coming, if it is. To leave them here, potentially with more slavers… No, no you can't do it. Though it pains you, you keep fake dancing all until Ebe finally finishes her songs hours later, to the collapsing bodies of the villagers.

>>285192

She scans the square, a smile on her face until she finds you. Her expression changes some, but the smile returns, and she leaps into the air, her wings propelling her into the jump, and she clacks onto the ground before you, standing up and shaking her head, throwing sweat all about.

"Hey there."

"Hello." You say, having taken the wax out of your ears as she stopped playing.

"Did you like the show?"

"Oh it was uh… mesmerizing."

She giggles and looks around the square in the afternoon sky. "Well…It seems everyone had such a good time, they can't dance anymore!" her feathers shake and she says, "But you seem full of energy…"

"Y…yes. I sure am." You say, feeling that familiar screaming in your veins. "Ready for that private… performance."

Her eyes glitter and she blushes as her breath rate increases. "Y-you are? W-well, then how about we head over there?" She nods her head toward a larger structure in the village, the sole inn.

You lick your lips nervously but crack a fake smile. "Suuuuurrreee."

She giggles again and snuggles up to the side of you, taking your arm with your wing. "My voice can hit some very… high notes."

"S-sounds nice."

"Mhm… I expect once everyone here gets a little rest, they'll be making their own music soon." Her eyes glitter and her chest heaves. "But my show is just for you." Before you can say anything else, she drags you forward into the inn.

The place is empty, though considering the time of day it would be empty anyway. As you pass by the bar, you snag an open bottle of wine and Ebe's eyes shine. She chuckles in a slight, "Ufufufufu," and leads you up the stairs.

You enter the first room, the door unlocked, and she sits you on the bed, which creaks from your weight. The Gandharva, her copper skin shining with her sweat, takes her guitar off and sets it down against the wall before turning to you. You lift an eyebrow at her and she raises her wings in the air before shaking her hips, the cymbals there clinking slowly, forming a slow rhythm.

A fuzziness fills your head as she does, and her body, which was appealing before, suddenly becomes irresistible. You feel your heart start to pound and you begin to forget why you came here. For the show… this show which is just for you. A goofy smile comes to your face as her delicious scent fills your nostrils, and you let it sink in as she dances.

Her wing arms slide down her body, accentuating her curves, and she looks at you with sensuous eyes as she slams her hips to one side, then the other. You lean forward, and pause, looking at the bottle in your hands. What are you doing with th-

Right! RIGHT! You wrench your focus back and look up at her for a chance to enact your plan.

Her eyes on you, she licks her lips and turns about, showing her backside to you. She winks and pulls her wings behind her, beginning to undo the clothing that keeps her breasts covered.

As her wings make slow, delicate motions, you quickly grab the [Sleeping potion] from your [Trenchcoat] and pour it into the bottle before hiding the empty vial back into your coat. The covering slips down and she turns about, folding her wings over her breasts yet somehow exposing more flesh than before. She sidles up to you and licks her lips, showing more and more of her copper skin. Before her nipples can slip, she reaches out with one wing-arm and takes the bottle from you, taking a big drink. Some of the liquid falls from her mouth and between her breasts, making them twinkle with the red liquid.

Licking her lips, she pushes the bottle back to you and she raises an eyebrow. Your hand shakes on the bottle and you "accidently" drop it to the floor. Both of you stare at the bottle that rolls on the floorboards, spilling its contents. You both look back into each other's eyes and she shrugs, then pushes herself atop you and forcing your back onto the bed.

Trying to pull away, she unleashes her breasts, which hand down before you like ripe fruits, and she pins you down, breath coming in ragged gasps, her eyes unfocused. "I hope you liked the first act… the second is far better and… and…" She wobbles, eyelids heavy.

With a sigh, her topless form topples onto you and passes out. Groaning with the stress of the event and the strain in your pants, you say, "I think it's time for an intermission."

>>285193

Ebe wakes up maybe an hour later, a little groggy. Thankfully she didn't get much of the potion or she'd have been out for quite some time. That being said, her earlier grace is gone as her hair, a disheveled mess, lays down over her face. She looks about the inn room with bleary eyes and then down to her body to find her clothing back on and her wings bound with rope.

"H…huh?"

"Sorry, turns out I don't like to be part of shows with audience partcipation."

Ebe turns her eyes to you and they widen as she finds you sitting on the bed with Sophie and Sylphie flanking you, Erwin standing on the floor, and Mr. Ed in the corner. She stares particularly long at Mr. Ed before finally saying, "How did that horse get in here?"

"He walked in." Sylphie says, shrugging.

The Gandharva looks a little distraught before asking, "W…what happened? Why am I tied up?"

"I drugged you." You say, tired.

"No wonder that wine tasted like semen. I should have known you didn't have time to jizz in the bottle. Actually if you had then it wouldn't have been as fun as that would have been one hells of a quick shot…"

"Yeah okay, whatever." You say, rubbing your eyes. "Look, what are you doing here?"

She looks down at the ropes, then back to you. "Uhm. Is this a trick question?"

"You know what I mean. Why are you here in this little village? You're clearly from Ectria."

"Oh!" She says, blushing. "Nothing bad, I promise! I'd always wanted to see Deleor, but I could never travel on my own, I'm too embarrassed." Her cheeks go redder. "I kind of always found Deleorian men attractive, you know?"

"I saw."

"You smell nice, you know? Are you some kind of sorcerer?"

"Wizard, but that's not important." You sigh and continue, "So if you were too embarrassed to travel on your own, how did you get here?"

"Well, a group of merchants approached me because of my music, said they wanted to show people our culture. They promised me I could find a nice man out here and all I had to do was play for people!" She smiles. "The people here looked to dreadfully dreary, and then I started playing, they looked so happy!"

"It's true." Sophie says, looking out a small window. You distantly hear sounds outside, low moans and the like. "People are reaaaalllyyyy happy out there."

"See? It's fine! The people I came with said they'll catch up tonight, so I'll ah… just…" She trails off and looks down at her bonds. "Uhm. What happens now?"

"Ebe… did the people you came with have large, metal containers?"

"Uhm… yes, they did. They said it was for their merchandise, so I didn't question it."

Sophie makes a tsking sound and says, "Out in the distance, I see some torches coming from the east."

"Oh, it must be the people I came with. I should go and meet them, so could you untie me? If I don't speak with Bahiti, she's going to be super mad and you don't want to see a mad Monitor Lizardman, especially since it's a little cold out here."

Great. All the people out there are having an orgy, and a group of slavers are coming into down while you have a tied up singer who tried to rape you.

You really should have just kept going on the road. But since you're here…

>What do you do?

Uh oh, guess she really is a nice girl with nice thoughts. This Lizardman on the other hand… probably not so much. But hey, Ebe thinks they're cool, so it's fine. She's a good judge of character.

>>285133

>>285185

I was uhm. I was writing when this was posted and chesire-man's thing got a lot of support, and here we are. Maybe you can rock out later.

>>285190

>avoiding the predations of a Holstaur with breasts built like a brick shithouse. She manages to find the attention of a bearded man though, and they start to dance as if they were made for each other

oh look, yet another reference to me Beardlington riperoni in pepperoni Beardicus, what a surprise Ace

>>285195

>Lizardman

we have nothing to worry about, because it's just a fucking bonnet-tipper

in any case, we could probably make up some story about how Ebe found a different friend and is currently with him doing things and after we deal with scaletits, maybe actually find a man for Ebe to travel the world with or something, so she asked us to talk to Bahiti and then bullshit our way through to making Bahiti go and stay go

>>285199

I wub you beardy-chan

Maybe you… I mean, this other guy, won't die this time.

>>285202

*use diplomacy to point out to ebe that she is a slaver

>>285194

>The people I came with said they'll catch up tonight

Sweet fuck. If her little production wears people out that much, I wonder if this is the first town they've come at like this? All they need to do is let her go ahead and then drop into town later that night, after people are exhausted and passed out, picking up whoever they want.

>>285192

>Harpy? Oh, the Gandharva.

Yes, my fav harpy girl. Can we bring her along? We need a cute bard. She'll be good at distracting other monsters like wurms and such from Rommel's STAFF of POWER!

>>285211

>her little production wears people out that much, I wonder if this is the first town

Unless she was in on it (which I find doubtful). They probably move her on before they start kiddnap people and steal their stuff.

>>285206

If the raiding party is made up of Lizardmen, Ebe's abilities will not effect them. If there is humans and/or other monsters then they probably have plugs in their ears.

>>285216

>If we could convert potions into gas form

Nice idea. Trouble is the healing effect would be reduced and your CQC enemies would also be healed.

>>285220

We can control where it goes with our wind powers?

>>285222

In the middle of combat? When people are quickly moving around? That would force Rommel to conentrate only on the [Healing Gas]. This would make him a sitting duck! Taking away from the group a powerful spellcaster and making him a liability. All for a very weak healing factor? Doesn't [Healing Potions] need to be orally taken?

As I said before, it's good your thinking outside the box. Sometimes tho, not all ideas are very practical. But, keep thinking!

>>285220

>Can we bring her along? We need a cute bard.

Rommel and the group need a guide!

>>285231

also its kind of obvious but we also need sylphie to teach us hydromancy.

by the way does hyromancy just controll water or can it even create water?

eather way it will be very usefull.

>>285232

one last thing when we are done.

the town was just under thread of slavers, that should wake the people up to the shitskin manace.

have the local townspeople link up with the wolverines and start that militia that i was talking about before.

one or more tribes of monsters plus the human population makes a nice little force.

so lets waste a day to rally the people in charge and have them ally with the wolverines and give them the idea of local people comming together to defend themselfes.

this time they were lucky with us being here but next time they need to sort shit out themselfes.

make them understand that if they dont work together their home will be destroyed by the foregn invaders.

nationalism brings people together especially when they all are under foregn thret.

>>285194

Lizard may be best girl in my heart, but slavers are always worst girl, no matter the race.

First the Anubis, now this. At least the Harpy isn't evil I hope.

Considering how the previous encounter with the Anubis went, I'm fairly certain the party will be composed of leader Lizard and a bunch of hired mercenaries, so following the same strategy of last time, that being focusing the leader while the twins take the easier-to-deal-with mercenaries, should suffice. >>285220 probably has the right of it in that Ebe's abilities won't be useful here since the slaver group may expect Ebe to turn on them given she doesn't really know what's going on and is likely being taken advantage of, and adding in the possibility of betrayal ending with Ebe in a box shipped to the markets and how her abilities would actually be detrimental to us unless we continue to use the beeswax, it would be best we keep her out of this unless abso-lute-ly heh necessary.

I doubt the group will contain many monsters, especially not many Lizards why the hell would greedy merchants want to split profits kikes always try to fuck over each other after all, and since when do lone warrior vagabonds work together outside of within the now fallen Blackfire Reach?, but it's always a possibility we should prepare for. Asking Ebe about the group make-up to confirm any suspicions and to plan around it would be in our best interests, though we need to act before they reach the settlement. As for what to cast when we do confirm the approaching group are indeed slavers, which they almost certainly are, using a powerful [Gust] should put out their torches and leave them momentarily disorientated even if members of the group have night vision, which we can follow up by embracing our inner GM and using the good old "Rocks fall, everyone dies" while they stand around confused, killing off the majority and allowing us to combat the leader unopposed while the twins clean up the rest - hopefully any captives should be safe inside their steel prisons and unharmed from our onslaught. Should they reach the settlement, prevent entry via [Build the Wall] and [Trench]s, because we don't need civilians getting caught in the crossfire as collateral. If our defences somehow fail, continue to try and limit the opponent's advance via [Build the Wall] while avoiding the usage of the likes of [Tremor] and [Fireball] as to minimise the destruction caused.

Dealing with the leader directly should involve a lot of [Ice], because we need practice and scaletits + cold = great suffering we have plenty of prior examples of this should we wish to meta game heavily, and a lot of ice puns, because it is traditional for Wizards to invoke the spirit of Mr Freeze whenever Cryomancy is involved and we didn't get nearly enough of that back with the Grand Wizard. [Pebble Gun] may be ineffective dependent on how Lizard scales work in this setting, since our aim hasn't exactly been stellar and we're likely to hit the scaled limbs of our mark, but the leader is hopefully slower than the Anubis and thus easier to hit in vitals where any armour she may be wearing will not stop a projectile going at such high speeds, so try it any way. Other than that, we could attempt to evolve our [Ice] into a more powerful spell capable of completely encasing a target in ice, or try this anon's >>285231 idea of a pseudo-blizzard, as to increase our spell pool and not rely solely on Geomancy for later encounters.

A final note, the aftermath. Whatever happens happens, but assuming we don't bad end here we can bother the locals for supplies and [Mana Potion]s for the journey ahead, which they should be happy to part with when they realise we just saved their arses from a short life of misery and servitude before untimely death. We might be able to get information about the nearby deserts from the locals, so ask around about that too. Also, Ebe should be given a chance to escape if she is indeed as innocent as she appears since the locals will probably be pissed at her for putting them in such a helpless position and nearly ruining their lives, possibly to regroup with us later on.

>>285220

>We need a cute bard.

Agreed, under the assumption Ebe isn't pulling a master ruse on us and can learn to control her innate abilities to not affect us. That said, it might be hard to convince her to go back the way she came to do something overly dangerous when she is probably not combat ready in the slightest and has no real reason to do so, but who knows.

>>285241

>Also we need to give Mr. Ed some damn apples.

the bullying of the twins goes to far for my taste but you are compleatly right about mr. ed.

he definatly diserves prais and reward for his diligence.

>>285242

Its not bullying, Its teasing. And we are only returning the favor. They don't mind, It builds character.

And I forgot, Before we leave this town, Find some obsidian. My razorstorm will come to fruition. I think we should stealthily learn to speak to animals as well. Find a book or just try to figure it out with Erwin's help. Keep it a secret though. If our private conversations with the fox can be heard then we should make it a point to become a horse whisperer.

>>285233

This. 2 birds one stone. Scary invaders help make friends quick. The town gets more secure and the gluttons get resources and security. Safety in numbers and whatnot.

>tease kittens

Yes

>dispense headpats

Yes

We should also, afterwards work on an arsenal of non lethal weapons, since evidently killing leaves us unsettled. How about a reinforced pouch containing a sedative solution, and a handful of magically marked stone needles. We can use magic to withdraw them and fling them, knocking out whatever we strike, using the magical signature to keep track of them and guide them. We could also have a pouch of larger spikes, a readily available storm of flechettes.

>>285216

>If we could convert potions into gas form. For example we could spread healing gas around our group with our wind powers

Or just knock out all our enemies with our date rape drugs.

I say we definitely recruit the bard and tease the cats about this day whenever they decide to get cocky with us. But first we need to deal with the lizard slaver. I hope Rommel paid attention when he read that cryomancy book. Or if killing slavers is our modus operandi know we could try to find a good spot on a rooftop or one of the windows from where we kill the lizard off with a well placed high velocity sniper pebble before she even realizes what's happening to her.

What's the reach on our pebble gun anyway?

>>285262

Tease kittens by giving Mr.Ed a headpat and not them?

>>285269

>What's the reach on our pebble gun anyway?

we gave it a spin wich is good but the bullet isent aerodynamic wich is bad, so im guessing pistol range of around 50 meters.

>Tease kittens by giving Mr.Ed a headpat and not them?

nice idea thats good teasing, maybe look them in the eyes and preis ed while you do it.

>>285220

>Unless she was in on it (which I find doubtful)

Oh yeah, I don't think she's in on it either. They're just using her, if they are doing anything.

So, I think I might take today off of writing so I can nap and play vidya. I might write, but please don't stay up until 2am waiting.

>>285206

-chan

That's sensei to you! I'm a Doctor now!

And yes. This was totally my plan from the start. A bard. For the party…

You guys got me again. So smart.

>>285216

Sorry, it had the most support when I started writing. I was also quite tired last night.

Converting potions to a gaseous form would be difficult and probably very hot. Remember, all potions have a base of semen and are thus rather viscous. What happens if a stray wind blows cum gas into your face?

I shudder to imagine.

>>285231

I'm going to be real with you man, your typing skills make my head hurt sometimes. I'll sit down and read this later.

Oh and hydromancy can make form water from water molecules in the air, but it takes a little bit of effort.

>>285235

Who knows? I might be a master of rusing :^)

>>285241

>>285262

>>285249

Headpats? Y'all are treading some super dangerous waters here. Are you REALLY sure you want to be doing that? Why don't you just hold their hands while your at it?

>>285271

>>285273

What are y'all, gay? But yeah, we should praise the guy. He's a cool dude.

>>285269

The reach is currently about the same as a pistol. You have better wind control for it, but haven't yet shaped the rocks, seeing as ballistic aerodynamics are not exactly anyone's real forte.

Cause magitek.

>>285273

>>285310

…..

I had wondered where that last link went. God damnit.

>>285310

> your typing skills make my head hurt

yea i know, but it isent just the typing but the grammer as well, if you dont understand something just ask, i have the thread tapet pretty much all the time anyway.

in short the 3 spells were

start manipulating the earth, rocks and other minerals in the area around your enemys.

have the stuff vibrate and grind against each other, turning it into fine dust.

do that like 10 centimeters deep so our enemys should sink in to their ankles.

then start manipulating the dust into a wavey pattern of constant movement to make it act like water.

this "heavy water" as i call it would in its base form make it extremly hard to cross.

we also could create things from it with our fine particle manipulation.

further if someone is stupid enough to try crossing an area of heavy water we can cast an ice spell on the dust, creating thin sharp ice crystals that move with the dust to seriously shred peoples feet.

the next one was a symple mainteined gust of wind that we cast a ice spell into to both cool the wind down and maybe also but snowrain into it, making it into a blizzard to both fuck with peoples visability and to cool them down for possible hypothermia.

the last one was to gather dust or other fine particles and compress them into a shaped object, for this instance one or several small darts wich we then fire as peppel bullets.

sorry again for the shit grammer.

2 possibilities: A, Ebe is being exploited by the slavers and when she reports back, they will restrain her or send her to another town or B, she is a slaver and she wants to report back so they can fight us. Either way, don't let her go.

I think she's innocent. Tell her that the "merchants" are slavers who are using her performances to capture deleorian slaves. Ask how many there are and if she performed at any other towns.

For the slavers, our circumstances could not be better. We have a chance to set up traps, block their retreat and pre-emptively strike. I say we send Sophie and Erwin to flank them (as they are the most stealthy) and wait at the retreat paths. Erwin will spy and if need be we could cast <Inhospitable Ground> through him or is that spell above Erwin's power rating? to slow their retreat. We and Sylphie will fight them head-on. As they are a group and far away, this would be a good opportunity to try the [Meteor Strike].

>>285310

>Headpats? Y'all are treading some super dangerous waters here. Are you REALLY sure you want to be doing that? Why don't you just hold their hands while your at it?

Harpy's and horses don't have hands. Don't worry Ace, You might keep your innocence yet.

>>285310

>Converting potions to a gaseous form would be difficult and probably very hot. Remember, all potions have a base of semen and are thus rather viscous. What happens if a stray wind blows cum gas into your face?

dont forget that there'd be a very real possibility of denaturing the proteins in the cum to give people an idea of what that's like, a similar thing happens when you cook an egg

>>285024

Here's my guess of what Ebe's music would be similar too.

And Yes, I know it's not perfect. But the general jist is there.

>Story continue

"Ebe." You say, going to look out the window. The scene of carnal pleasure out in the square is a little too graphic for your tastes, so you decide instead to look further out the field at the oncoming group. There is little cause to doubt that this Bahiti is anything other than a slaver from her description, and if there's one thing you hate, it's slavers and rhubarb pie. Both leave a bad taste in your mouth.

"Huh? What?" The bound Ghandharva asks. She struggles against the ropes and then frowns before asking, "Sure you can't untie me?"

"No. Now listen and tell me true, what did this Bahiti say she was selling exactly?"

"Uhm…" She cocks her head and thinks for a moment. "I think she said she was selling livestock, but those boxes were empty." Looking confused, she adds, "Maybe she's buying from the people here? Ohhhh exotic Deleorian livestock! That's what's going on!"

You and Sophie trade flat stares. "She can't be this stupid." The Cat o'Ninetails says, glancing her way.

"I think she's just gullible and naive." You say, rubbing the bridge of your nose.

"Hey, I'm not naive!" Ebe shouts. She pouts and slumps down. "I know lots of things, like how to sing, dance, seduce men, fish, knit head scarves, and talk to people!"

Sylphie raises a hand. "How do you knit?"

"With my wings."

The poor Cat o'Ninetail's expression turns positively stupefied as she puts a hand to her head to try and figure out the implications of that statement. Shaking your head, you turn back to the window and say, "They're slavers, Ebe. And you just delivered all these people into their hands."

Ebe's eyes go wide at this and she stutters, "W…what? I didn't! You have to believe me, I had no idea about… tha…" She groans, "Metal crates and livestock! Ugh that's what all the nets were for!"

Her cries turn pitiful as she pleads, "I'm sorry! I didn't know! I just wanted to make people happy with my music! I didn't know it would lead to this!" She begins to cry and you see Sophie bite her lip, but you're made of sterner stuff.

"Well, just be glad we decided to stop by or else these people would be at their mercy." She sniffles more and then outright bawls. Sophie and Sylphie both give you dirty looks and you feel a mix of annoyance and shame. Damnit all to hells, why did they have to make looks like that?

Feeling a little embarrassed, you rub the back of your head and then walk over to the Gandharva before undoing the ropes. When they clatter to the floor, she looks up at you with an confused expression, her eyes full of tears. She sniffs and looks down, still down. You fidget and then reach out your hand to touch her shoulder in some kind of… reassurance.

She flinches back and your hand, which was intended to touch her shoulder, instead lands on her head. Your eyes go wide, but it's too late to stop your fingers from gently spreading into her warm hair, smoothing out along her scalp. Her eyes go wide and she turns to you, shocked at what you've done. Staring at her in horror, you make to retract your hand, but the tears on her cheeks make you pause and your eye twitches abominably as you force yourself to slide your hand back and forth, in some kind of… petting motion.

Ebe's tail feathers swish behind her and she turns her eyes down, cheeks growing hot. Her mouth works soundlessly as she sniffs, a look of pure embarrassment on her expression. You continue the patting until a silly smile appears on her face and you quickly retract your hand, feeling dirty for some reason. She kneels back, placing her wing hands over her face as she makes a happy little noise, and you shudder before looking up.

Sophie and Sylphie both stare at you, their eyes wide. Sylphie's cheeks are burning hot while Sophie holds her skirts in her hands, biting her lip. When they notice you're looking at them, they both divert their gazes, cheeks growing red. You narrow your eyes between them and then look down at your hands. Their eyes flick to you before flicking back and you sigh, holding your hands up to them. Ecstatic looks come over their faces and they lean their heads in toward you. Moving your hands toward them, you hover your hands over their heads and then…

Turn to the right and start patting Mr. Ed.

>>285641

The horse snorts in some kind of chuckle, rubbing his head into your hands. You continue to pat him before turning to the two young women who stand there in a frozen tableau, smiles on their faces. Slowly, they stand up straight and then turn away from you. You vaguely notice their tails and ears flicking in furious motions before they turn about in a sudden motion with false smiles on their faces.

"Well then!" Sophie says, her smile positively venomous. "We have to slavers to stop, yes?"

"Indeed my dear sister, indeed!" Sylphie replies, nodding her head. They walk past you and outside, slamming the door shut behind them. You trade expressions with Mr. Ed who does his best horse shrug before pushing further into your hands. Guess he likes it.

"So… I guess we should go stop them, huh?" You say to no one in particular.

"Uwawawa…" Ebe says, still blushing.

"Yeah…" You sigh and turn to Ebe. "Are you lucid."

"Your hand is so very strong, yet gentle…" She says before making a small, "eeeee" sound.

"Okay, great, glad you like it, but can you let me know the make-up of those traveling with you?"

"H-huh? Oh-oh. Just Bahiti and this Vulture named Je'lu. Everyone else is human mercenaries." She titters and then asks, "W…would you mind doing it again?"

"No." You say, stepping to the door. Nodding to Erwin and Mr. Ed, you grab hold of the door and open it when she cries out,

"Wait!"

You turn your head to her and she bites her lip before asking, "W…what's going to happen to me?"

"We'll figure that out later." You say, walking out the door. "Just stay here and try not to dance at anything."

The group of animals and yourself find the two Cat o'Ninetails near the door. Sophie has her hand over her face while Sylphie watches a couple nearby fucking like animals, a bright blush on her face. You notice that the man in the couple is the one she was dancing with while the female is the one who was hitting on you. You cough into your hand as you walk up to her and say, "You can do better than him."

Her blush becomes more pronounced and she hugs her staff, turning away from you. Shrugging, you turn to Sophie who's hand has slipped to her mouth. You smirk and say, "You can be your Mother's daughter later, we have work to do."

"Rude." She says, shaking her head. "So very, very rude."

The smirk at the corner of her lips says she doesn't really mean it. Reaching over and grabbing her sister, your party heads over to the square. Amidst the moans, shouts, and squelching sounds, you head toward the group that can't be terribly far away by now. You see their wagons, illuminated dimly by the torches as boxy structures trundling towards the village and pause at the edge of the square.

"So, what's the plan?" Sophie asks, helping Sylphie regain her composure.

"Erwin?" You ask, and the little fox nods his head.

{Fortifications. We need to bottle them in. Their strength is probably not great, but we don't need to be caught in those nets.} He nods to the edges of the square. {Put walls up there to force them in from this angle. We can bottleneck them. Trenches can be used to stop the wagons and make the men cautious.}

{And then?}

{When they're in range, douse their flames with some wind magic and then rain hell on them!}

A wave of exhaustion courses through you and you sigh, feeling weak. "That dancing took a lot out of me, not to mention the trip beforehand. I don't know if I have that much power in me."

"W-we'll be fine." Sylphie says, gathering her composure. "I don't have much magic left, but I'll use it to support you!"

You nod and turn to Sophie who shrugs. "I feel fine. I'll take melee support against the ringleader. Magic works just fine on them, but I've never known one who doesn't know how to use a sword."

"Right then." You say, tapping your staff against the ground. Two walls appear at the far sides of the square, creating one avenue of attack. Pushing again with some effort, you dig a [Trench] into the ground right before the square. The work is slow, which is fine since you don't want anyone noticing. By the time it's finished, the wagons are close by, and your group scatters to hide in range, but out of sight.

The wagons reach the trench you make and stop as confused men walk up and observe the hole. You hear some shouting about and they point toward the walls you've made. Some of the men angrily get down into the trench while the others which torches stay nearby the wagons, looking nervous. Observing the time to be right, you whisper to Sylphie, "Now."

>>285642

She takes in a deep breath and flicks her wrist, casting out a force of [Gust]. The wind picks up the area in a sharp burst as gravel and dust fly by, making the men shield their eyes as their torchs gutter out. A general panic arises from the group and you ready the pebbles you prepared while hiding. Using your geomancy, you apply the aeromancy you practiced to the rocks, and fire one forward.

A sharp cry is your response, followed quickly by panicked shouts. You close your eyes and activate your [Mage Sight] to get a better view of your targets. One man is slumped against a wagon, his arm a bleeding mess while the others look about in confusion. Powering up your magic again, you watch the way the two magicks interplay before firing another shot. With interest, you watch as it flies not at your intended target, one of the torchbearers, but far to the left, clipping a man's leg. Good thing it's a target rich environment…

It's fast but the aim is awful. How can you compensate for that? Increase the speed? No, that's stupid, you're already firing quickly. But what else can you do, but make the wind rotate…

You pause and then nod your head, making the next pebble rotate faster and faster. With an expression of determination on your face, you aim for the torchbearer and fire the stone! It shoots forward and nails the guy next to him, right in the center of the chest. He cries out and drops dead, and the force of watching him die makes your head recoil from the sight, forcing you to turn off your [Mage Sight] or else have something awful burned into your mind.

>Your [Pebble Gun] has improved with <Rifling>

"That's three down." Sylphie says, nodding her head. "But there's a lot left. What should we do?"

"Fire." You mutter, rubbing at your eyes. "Throw a fireball."

"Right!" She gathers up flames in her hands and the man cry out in panic, realizing where the threat is coming from. She throws the ball of flame into the trench and it explodes, causing men to run about screaming. Pursing her lips, she says, "Crap, I thought I had more mana than this."

"You were showing your little boyfriend a light show earlier."

"He's not-! I mean! Gah look, that guy is plowing some cow right now!"

"No, that's the guy with the beard."

{FOCUS} Erwin sends, and you shake your head from the strong sending. Grumbling, you raise your hand again and make to fire more rocks when you hear something from about you, looking up, you let out a cry as something large slams into both you and Sylphie, scattering the boxes you were using for cover.

The thing drags you along the ground of the square for a good ten feet before throwing you across the square, tumbling head over heels before stopping in a world of pain and disorientation. Groaning, you roll over to find a large, black winged harpy with short, red hair hovering before you, her wing-arms generating a lot of lift. She spits to the side and cries out, "SORCEROR!"

Disoriented, you can't get out of the way as she flies toward you, talons outstretched. Unable to react appropriately, you hold up your hand but instead of being caught in her massive feet, you feel yourself dragged bodily out of the way but something sharp and fluffy.

The Harpy, Vulturegirl, you guess, flies by and makes an annoyed sound before coming back around. Shaking your head, you look over to see Sylphie, her tails holding onto you for dear life, a look of panic on her face. "Oh Gods, are you alright?" She asks.

"Yeah I'm- oh fuck, get down!" You shout and throw her down as the Vulturegirl makes another pass. Picking up your staff, you think of a spell to cast, but your mind feels sluggish and all you can think to do is [Build the Wall] as she flies toward you.

Oddly enough, this works very well, and you hear her shout in alarm before colliding with the structure, then cursing as she flaps away from it. You let go of your hold on it and turn back to the Vulturegirl, who shouts and you with very, very angry sounds.

Looking about, you pick up a rock, small and easily fired, before rubbing it and putting your magic into the stone. You stand up slowly as the Vulturegirl realigns herself and then cries out, swooping before you. Not taking a single step out of the way, solid as a stone wall, you fire the rock in your hand at the swooping Vulture.

A spurt of blood, a tiny cry, and the Vulture veers off course, hitting the dirt with bone-jarring force nigh feet away from you. A cloud of dust billows through the air as she slides, and you merely pull up your coat before walking away from her.

>>285644

"By the Gods, is she dead?" Sylphie asks, running up to you. Flicking your eyes back to the Vulturegirl, you see her twitching some and you shake your head. Sylphie lets out a breath and then says, "Right! We need to go finish off the others!"

"Couldn't agree more." You say, picking up your weary body before staggering and falling to a knee. Sylphie puts a hand on your shoulder and you wave her away, feeling a momentary pain. Gods damnit, you do NOT have the back for this hero shit.

"Are you alright?"

"No." You say, being honest. "But I will be."

{You might want to see this!} Erwin shouts, and the two of you snap your attention to the main battle line, where the remaining men, maybe ten of them, have crossed over the trench and into the square. They stand about in a circle, watching something, and with a start, you realize it's Sophie fighting furiously with another opponent, a very tall and muscular looking woman.

No, you think. Not a woman, but a MONSTER.

Moving closer, you're unable to interfere as Sophie dodges a large, broad-bladed sword as the collides into the ground, throwing up a shower of dirt. She throws her tails at the creature, but the merely graze the cuirass she wears, the other blows striking infectually against the tough scales of her skin. With a shout, the Monster brings the weapon around and strikes Sophie with the flat of the blade, sending her screaming into the clutches of the men on the edge of the circle.

They cheer and throw her back into the circle, where she stumbles about, dazed, until the Monster reaches out with a powerful hand and grabs the Cat o'Ninetails by the neck, holding her up as Sophie struggles for breath. Her tails lash out at her opponent, but the damage inflicted is either ignored, or superficial.

You reach the crowd in time for a man to light a torch and illuminate the scene, showering everyone in blazing light. Some of the mercenaries there are actually women, you notice with a start, but the main thing you see is the full form of the creature holding Sophie.

The Monster is tall, perhaps 6'6" with a strong, muscular frame that somehow preserves her femininity as all Monsters seem to do. Her arms and legs are covered in rough, scaly skin of mixed black and beige scales while ending in talons. Her torso is covered with a tattered cloth that seems well suited for the desert while her head is bare, showing glowing yellow eyes and a stern face with a scar running down the cheek.

She hisses, her forked tongue coming out as she turns to regard you, long, black hair in the traditional Lizardman ponytail drifting lazily in the night. Narrowing her eyes, she says, "Where is Ebe?"

"She's not here." You say, watching Sophie, who has passed out. At least she seems to have taken a few men out with her, judging by the few unconscious men nearby.

"No, that coward has to be around here somewhere." The Lizardman says, looking about. "She did a nice job with these people though. Would have been quite easy to round up if not for your feeble little defense here."

She sighs and drops Sophie to the ground, the Cat o'Ninetails collapsing into a little heap. "Well, it's going to be a pain paying benefits for these thugs and fixing up the bird-brain, but I guess you two will pay the bills nicely." Frowning, she looks at you and says, "You though… eh sorcerers are a dime a dozen. I think I'll just kill you."

You raise your staff into the air and channel some magic, readying a strike right at the Lizardman, but she snaps her sword, one-handed, toward Sophie and says, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Grunting, you put down your staff and narrow your eyes as men pick up Sophie's unconscious form. The hold her to the side as the Lizardman walks up to you, towering a full head over your height while resting her massive sword on her shoulder. She cracks her neck and smiles. "Actually… I think another duel would be quite nice, don't you think? Beat me and this all goes away, fail, and well…" She chuckles, "I guess it won't matter, will it?"

>What do you do?

>>285645

Goshes, if only things were as easy as they appeared on paper. Fucking vultures, am I right? Well shit, I guess you're in a pickle here, huh?

But Ace, you could have written out this whole fight and finished this arc

But my dear friends, you have to earn your Bard-brain if you want her so bad. I'm also getting tired tonight

Tune in tomorrow the exciting conclusion!

>>285592

I mean. I was thinking more like, belly dancing music, just minus the arabian flutes cause we ain't got those fancy things in Deleor.

>>285429

Oh god. W-well, it's not the proteins that are important, but the life force inherent. Still… ugh.

Are lizardmen bulletproof? I imagine since she likely didn't see how exactly we dealt with her compatriot she may not be expecting. "Never bring a knife to a pebblegun fight"

>>285649

She is not bulletproof, but just remember that Lizardmen in duels very scary.

>>285650

That's if we let her get close. But since it seems like most of them are all foreigners that it's a custom for duels to begin 20-30 paces apart. That'll be more than enough time to get a round ready. In fact we may not even have to use <rifling> to do this.

>>285649

We learned rifling, that should be enough to pierce her armor.

We should hold her off by shackling her legs with geomancy whenever she moves to swing at us along with a small tremor to trip her up completely. We should also freeze her armor to make it more brittle for when we decide to pewpew

remember we actually pretty fit for a wizard her plan is to get into our melee range. she thinks that will win her the battle so, when she dose we punch her with a dirt fist with rocks on the knuckles. that's our opening to point blank her with the rocks using the pebble gun move

If we fight her our best bet is ice, freeze the ground and use wind to keep her from approaching, this will make her even colder, she also won't expect it, maybe combine ice and particle control to make snow

>Rommel hates rhubarb pie

Shit quest.

Mention Ebe in the hopes that Bahti will mention something about her loyalties. I don't like the fact that she called her a coward, and being a skilled actress comes with being a performer.

Seconding using [Ice] here.

The problem is how do we save Sophie? I doubt these mercs will keep their part of the deal if we kill Bahti and we are NOT marrying a monster slaver.

>>285646

>>285429

What about if instead we use a modified form of hydromancy to make a mist rather than a true vapor? Thing about it: We would invent spermomancy and become the first ever jizzard!

No time like the present to learn metal bending

Line of thought

>what is metal

>refined ore

>what is ore

>earth

We should be able to extend our power into the sword if we try hard enough

Bloody maintenance.

>>285645

>Feeling a little embarrassed, you rub the back of your head and then walk over to the Gandharva before undoing the ropes.

Freeing Ebe will either be our undoing or one of the best ideas we have ever had, dependant on whether she works against or with us when she almost certainly comes over to see us fighting. That head pat should secure her loyalty to us at the very least, so any issues caused by her would be accidental as opposed to malicious if they do crop up. Be ready to plug our ears just in case any music starts playing, and hope it's for our benefit - don't rely on her to save us, though.

>"Actually… I think another duel would be quite nice, don't you think? Beat me and this all goes away, fail, and well…" She chuckles, "I guess it won't matter, will it?"

Accept her challenge as to prevent anything from happening to Sophie for the time being and to keep the mercenaries out of the picture while we combat the Lizard, making sure that Sylphie does not intervene unless absolutely necessary. Should we win the duel, assuming the Lizard is still alive she seems sturdy enough to survive an onslaught of spells from us and Ebe hasn't done anything which would disable the mercenaries and let us easily rescue Sophie, we can use her as a hostage, because the mercenaries are loyal to gold and will not be getting any gold unless the mission is successful and the Lizard actually pays them. Since the mercenaries are also likely unwilling to kill someone as valuable as Sophie their leader seems to realise how important she is while we are more than happy to execute their leader, we have the advantage in terms of conditions; use this to get Sophie back into our hands safely first under the promise of freeing the Lizard afterwards, then happily kill them all without mercy or I guess have Sylphie do the deed if we're too weak, she could use some experience as they would clearly do the same to us and slavers do not deserve fair deals. If the Lizard wants to find a husband, then she can do so from within the deepest pits of Nerg's hells.

As for how to combat the Lizard:

>"You though… eh sorcerers are a dime a dozen. I think I'll just kill you."

Unfortunately for her, Wizards aren't. She probably thinks we're a simple Geomancer based on how we've only used earth-based magic against the group thus far Sylphie was the one to cast the [Fireball] and I'd like to think they're aware of that, so we still have the element of surprise on our side. As previously mentioned by many, [Ice] works wonders here, both as a weakness of the Lizard and as a way of making footwork nigh impossible unless the ice is broken by her, which would waste her time - we, on the other hand, are more than comfortable to stand back and pelt her with spells while she sluggishly closes the distance, which we should try to maintain if she gets too close, because one swing from that sword would probably take us down given our current physical condition. We should examine her weapon to see if it has any enchantments or protective runes on it; if not, doing what >>285662 suggested and attempting the long-anticipated metal manipulation unless the sword isn't made of metal, which is highly unlikely could be beneficial, both for weakening the Lizard though not disabling, because a big girl UUUU like her probably knows good old fisticuffs, so removing her sword from the equation doesn't make her entirely useless, just less effective and for getting any practice in we can. A large weapon like that would also work great as a lightning rod, so [Lightning Bolt] would also be rather effective as a powerful-enough spell should stun her long enough for us to hit her with a stronger spell she cannot prevent nor block. Finally, we can experiment with [Ice] some more when things really get desperate, because desperation is the perfect time for innovation; be it the previously mentioned blizzard effect with [Gust], turning the opposition into a nigh-inescapable block of ice or treading old ground by using <Cold Blooded>, all of which will be very effective both now and in the trials to come.

>>285645

We have an important advantage here. She thinks we're just a sorcerer, Limited to one form of magic. Seeing as she saw the trench, walls, and high speed rocks, She thinks we are a Geomancer, And saw the kitty throwing the fireballs. How about we just taze the ever living shit out of her? If we put up such a meager defense then she'll get cocky and try to grapple with us like she did with Sophie. At that point we become Mike "100 amps to the nipple clamps" Pence. Bonus points if we can do it with a full body hug.

>>285649

Not bulletproof but Ace is hintng she can deflect or dodge it. Is it time for shotgun? No one, Not even Selene and her nine eight fluffy tails could manage to deflect a fist full of pebbles flying near the speed of sound, Without using magic in advance.

>>285657

>spermomancy

I never thought I'd see the day someone would top using feces as a weapon. Only issue is I think the monsters would just drink it all. Possibly our teammates included

>>285662 Remove her sword and make it a physical contest? This plays into my plan so I can dig it.

That bit with the headpats was done perfectly Ace. Good show chap

>>285657

This is actually a very good idea, it correlates directly with our character goals. Rommel wishes to undo the effects that the Grand Wizard has caused on the world, and if the Grand Wizard refuses he will have to take matters into his own hands. In order to do that the main thing is to first ensure the wizards must still be virgins. The very core of this lies within the sperm of a wizard and their wizardhood. It only makes sense that Rommel will have studied in this particular field.

>>285657

>>285658

>>285672

>>285673

When I suggested looking into converting potions to gas form, this is not what I expected.

Such is the way of science.

We can manipulate loose particles now right? how about making some quicksand and while she struggles in it shoot pebbles at her or drop a fucking boulder on her.

Can't we send an order to Erwin and have him relay it to Sylphie? She understands what he says, right? Give the order for her to rain down fireballs. On the guys holding Sophie.

>>285682

Forget what I said, lets go with this.

>>285645

Ask Bahiti if Ebe's part of her gang.

I just thought of someting guys. I hate slavery as much as the next Anon. However, different culture have different moral values and taboos. Meaning not all slavers will be be evil. There's a possabilty that slavery maybe a perfectly acceptable in Ectria. We need to do a case by case study on whom is redeemable and who needs to be buried!

>>285682

>>285672

>>285664

What if Rommel is forced to fight her with a sword?

If so; charge the sword with lightning.

>>285657

I doubt these mercs will keep their part of the deal if we kill Bahti and we are NOT marrying a monster slaver.

Then hire her and her gang.

Rommel and the group don't want stragglers running back to Ectria to warn of their coming!

>jizzard

Never ever mention this smetting idea again!!

Rommel is a traditional Wizard! Not one of those new age pervert faggs!!

>>285689

P.S

If we do decide to spare the lizardman for what ever reason. Have her teach Rommel in swordmanship for when a foe gets to close to him. Like how Tabitha taught the Grand Wizard the art of the spear. I was thinking of a shortsword like a gladius.

>>285689

>making moral excuses for slavers

Kill them all. I do agree we should make sure Ebe is not properly involved though.

>>285693

Agree'd. Leading a hounds life means getting a hounds death. Culture be damned.

>>285664

Yes. Just Indiana Jones her ass and be done with it.

If that doesn't work just remember that lizardfolk are weak to the cold and this particular one is dressed for a hot desert climate

>>285693

>>285696

>>285697

While I agree that slavery is unforgivable, we also have the more sensitive kitten watching us, and killing the Anubis didn't really sit right with us. We might consider turning them over to the tender mercies of the local authorities. To be more specific though, that's if it works out that they're alive, I don't think we should go out of our way to be nonlethal.

>>285701

We are not here as a babysitter and either she or her sister will grow up to be monster lord one day, she should not be babied or shielded from the harsh realities of the world.

So I had a thought. Vid related…

>>285666 (hailed)

Actually, yeah lets taze the bitch.

>>285671

Water would be slow and if Bahiti is a single braincell above retarded, she has already oiled the blade. Better method would be to use a combination of aeromancy and pyromancy to make a crude oxy cutter.

>>285701

>>285689

SUFFER NOT THE SLAVER TO LIVE

To you folks saying not to kill Bahiti: She is a lizardman!

She will want our dick!

Remember Tabitha? She followed Blake to the ends of the earth and even 20 years later she's still a virgin. Sure we're a grumpy bastard that will just straight up tell her "No." while Blake was an indecisive pussy, but we will still have a badass monstergirl stalker. A stalker is a big responsibility. Are you sure you're ready to look after one?

>>285709

>A stalker is a big responsibility. Are you sure you're ready to look after one?

In the end Tabitha respected Blakes choice. And even when his choice wasn't clear she still "just" stalked him and didn't try to force herself on him.

Are you sure that lizard would do the same? The slavemaster who almost off handedly ordered our death? I'm not sure if there will be much stalking if we beat her and let her live. She doesn't seem like the type who just enjoys the things she wants from a distance.

I say we create <pebbleshotgun> and shoot her in the face with it. And we should kill her. This creature isn't tabitha. Tabitha didn't go around enslaving our countrymen. This one needs to die. If any of the mercenaries get uppitty we can ask them if they want to share her fate.

>>285701

The kittens will have to get used to death. They my see a lot of it what shit hits the fan. Also, killing the Anubis slaver didn't sit well with Rommel not because of the death but by how she died (buried alive).

Drop the lizard into a frozen pit, then shoot her until she dies. Get Slyphie to back you up in reaching her sister.

We should harden ourselves and the kittens. If we fuck up this adventure, we may have a war to deal with on the horizon.

>>285645

>>285701

This. Whoever doesn't die, we can turn over to the folks in town. They can call in the law or whatever after that.

>>285728

>Whoever doesn't die, we can turn over to the folks in town.

Seconded. Kill when necessary, but don't go overboard.

>>285720

Yeah, Anubutt had an admittingly deserving but still terrible death. 2 gunshot wounds that didn't cauterize, Stuck in the bottom of deep freezing hole and then buried alive. Her final minutes would be extremely painful and freezing cold. After enduring for an extended period of time she would eventually meet her end by suffocation. Rommel knew this on top of it being his first kill. Its understandable as to why it may have shaken him a bit.

Such is the fate of all slavers who cross our paths and choose to fight.

We should think of a way of making Sophie stronger. She does good against multiple goons, but lacks the proper Boss fighting skills. Maybe it's a lack of real combat experience or poor strategy, I don't know, but she is our only melee and has already been completely defeated by two slavers. We must make her git gud until she can hold her ground properly.

>>285812

>If she tries to do the whole 'You beat me so you have to marry me!' routine, we can simply say we don't marry slavers

This, If she survives that is.

>>285812

>If we execute her, we have almost no guarantee the rest of the the mercenaries will fuck off and leave us and the town alone.

That really depends on who these guys are exactly. I'm not sure if a mediocre merc would be willing to throw his live away to revenge his former employer who wouldn't be able to pay them anyway. Because the emplyer is well dead. If we make the fight one sided enough I don't think the hired muscle will fuck with us. They are most likely in for the money if there's no money why bother?

>>285812

>That way she either gives up us or stops being a slaver, it's win-win.

Or puts us in a metal crate and we wake up in some oriental town house with our legs and arms tied to a chair.

>>285810

All the kills in Illusionist Quest were awful. Except maybe Beradington.

First was that alraune who Saya technically killed.

>>285830

The issue with that idea is that they mercenaries have more than avenging their boss as an incentive to kill us if we execute their leader. Do remember there is a whole town full of plunder and vulnerable, intoxicated potential slaves behind us. A single mercenary may not be willing to duel us to avenge his dead boss, but a whole horde of mercenaries with only a battered wizard and a worn out, super valuable cat in their way of a massive payday might be more inclined to fight. We want to avoid that if possible because I doubt we can beat a whole army of mercenaries in a head on fight at the moment. Which leads back to the original point that the only thing that would hold those mercenary backs is their leader, which will not be possible if we execute her.

Of course there is always the possibility that she throws a fit and gets her goons to try murder us anyway after losing, but if that happens all bets are off and we need to rethink our strategy to simply survive, let alone save the town.

>>285831

How is she going to cage us after we just beat her down? We theoretically just won the fight and even then if she's not going to keep her end of the bargain after losing which included letting us free, her honour as a duelist, and the marriage clause on defeat is irrelevant anyway.

>>285848

>How is she going to cage us after we just beat her down?

Well you made an convincing argument with the mercs so I'm going to go with them. They'd probably attempt to do that.

I just have a hard time imagining the slaver / murderer / psycho lizard will suddenly turn into a coy little girl after we defeat her in combat. I know manamo magic and lizardmen traditions are a thing but I'm pretty sure this particular lizard will twist those feelings into something fucked up.

Whats going on, We just lost a lot of content. Did the site just revert to an old save?

>>285875

Disregard. For whatever reason the thread was only showing me up to before Ace's last update. Posting seemed to fix it for whatever reason.

>>285812

>>285848

Fams, She only has like 10 more mooks. You're making it sound like she has a small army when in reality we've already taken out most of them, Including her likely second in command. You don't go slaving in a neighboring country with a band of hundreds. For such a small operation you would only find like 10-30. We only got the men remaining around the duel area and then we're home free. Even with the town in its drunken state, 10 able bodied dudes won't be enough to take it. Hell, Beardington himself could probably take on the rest by himself if they touch his cow.

>Story continue

You're tired, your back hurts, and you're all sweaty. Fighting a duel at the moment would just be awful, but what choice do you have? To a Lizardman, duels are absolute, the alpha and the omega. No Lizardman of any variety would DARE defy the sanctity of a duel, so if she says this will all go away, then she means it will all go away.

But Gods damnit, do you hate this.

Glancing over to Sophie, you stand up straight and crack your back. Sylphie holds up a hand and you shake your head before walking forward into the circle of armed men. They part quickly before you, not willing to incur the wrath the Monitor Lizardman, who snorts and takes a place at the far end of the circle which forms up around you again.

"At least you have the honor to duel." Bahiti says, sliding a finger along the flat of her blade. Oiled and still ready to fight.

"Funny thing to say from a slaver. I doubt taking people when they are unawares is quite honorable." You retort, holding up your staff. Forcing some of your will into the earth, dirt rises and attaches to it, forming a sort of hardened club, rather than a sword. Perhaps if you could manipulate metals, which are really just refined ore… But no, now is not the time.

"Phah, slaving is one thing, duels are another. Ectria requires slaves to build its cities and for its populace. Some people aren't cut out to be citizens, and would be better off as slaves."

You wave a hand to the village around you. "Is that so?"

"It is." She says, readying her blade. "Now then, are we starting this?"

"Last question." She sighs and stays her blade as you nod your head and ask. "Ebe. What is she to you and yours?"

"Continent." Bahiti says. "The girl has talent in the ways of the Gandharvan magicks, though I doubt she knows it. Thinks it's just singing and dancing." She shakes her head. "We send her out ahead of time, get everyone tired, then scoop them out without issue, easy money. It was going rather well until you arrived."

"So, she didn't know you were slavers?"

"Does it matter?"

You cock your head, thinking about it for a moment before shrugging. "Humor me."

"No, she didn't." Bahiti says before stomping the ground. "Time for words is over! We duel!"

With that, she races toward you, covering ground with blinding speed. Your staff slams into the ground and the earth shudders as you [Build the Wall] under you, pushing you into the air and giving you the [High Ground]. From there, you stare down at the Lizardman who pauses in her running to look up at you. You shrug and prepare a [Pebble Gun] shot.

She narrows her eyes and flicks out her sword before shouting, "Coward!"

"It's over before it began, scaletits" You say, leveling the shot at her. "I have the [High Ground]." She grits her teeth and then charges at you, straight up your wall. In a momentary panic, you fire your [Pebble Gun], but she deflects the shot with her large blade, sending it into the chest of one of her men standing around.

You back up atop your wall in surprise, and she lets out a cry of triumph until she realizes the hand you directed the shot with is now pointed directly at her face. With little more than a smirk, you cast [Ice]. It smashes into her face and she cries out in panic before falling backward from your wall and hitting the ground with a dull thud, shuddering and shivering.

Shaking your head, you lower the wall and walk over to her before taking your staff-sword-club-whatever and placing it before her. You say, "Well, that was easy enough-" Your words are cut off as she smashes the staff out of your hand to fly into the face of one of the men watching the fight.

You stagger backward as she rises, heaving in anger while shuddering. Her teeth chatter yet the rage in her eyes is almost feverish and she lets out a loud roar of anger. Slashing out with her sword, you barely make it out of the way before she comes again, slashing downward and shattering the ground next to you. The force of the blow shatters the earth about you and you snap cast [Flurry], sending the earth into her eyes.

>>285904

"What the fuck!" You shout, dodging her blows. "I thought you were weak to the cold!"

"GRAAAAAAHHH!" She shouts in reply. Well fuck you for all those weaves you've read about reptilian Monsters, guess it's all just a lie, huh? Shit, there goes you plan, but at least she's blind now, or was as she starts to rub her eyes.

Drawing up your power, you feel yourself waver from the energy draw, but pull up another [Pebble Gun] And fire it, the rock burying deep into the arm she's holding the sword in. She cries out and falls to a knee and then groans. You flick your wrist, using a wall to toss her sword away from her before using a similar wall to hit her in the chin and make her fly backward onto the ground. She groans and rolls to her side amidst the worried chattering of her goons.

Not wasting any time, you use all the adrenaline in your system to run up to her and kick her in the chest, planting your boot on her throat. Panting, you point your staff at her face, which is crusted in dirt, and you see her eyes flicker through the haze and look at you with rage. She struggles and you press upon her windpipe before growling, "You have lost this fight, stop now and I might be convinced to spare your life."

Another rage fires in her eyes but it quickly fades as a spark of reason flashes and the energy in her body seems to vanish. She lets out a choked gasp and slumps down, shivering from the blast of cold. You watch her for a moment longer before looking up at the men all around you, seeing if they would avenge their leader. They make no move, but they also don't take their hands off their weapons. Instead, they watch their leader as she shudders, waiting for her order.

"Tell them to release the girl."

"Y-you… you're n-not a Sorcerer."

"No, I'm a Wizard."

"Y-you t-tricked me."

"And I thought Ice would put you down, but here we are." You frown and repeat, "Tell them to LET HER GO."

She croaks out the order and the goons look between each other before laying Sophie's unconcious form down next to you. Sighing, you pull away from the prone Lizardman and check on Sophie to find her healthy, if asleep. You breath out in relief before turning to the slaver and saying, "I should kill you."

"It is your right, I suppose."

"You're a slaver, the worst kind of scum."

"A life I fell into."

"Don't give me that shit." You say, venom in your voice. "You could have done anything with that skill of yours, been anything, and you decided to take away people's lives, displace them from everything they know and make them pawns of others. Do you know what that's that like? What it's like to those who've had the ones they love taken from them?!"

She chuckles, "I'm a Lizardman, one of the desert, true, but I once lived in Blackfire Reach."

You grit your teeth at her words. Of course she'd have to bring up Blackfire Reach, why wouldn't she? The ancestral home of the Lizardman tribes, stolen within recent memory by the Danuki and their pawn, the Wurm Queen. Clearly, Bahiti is older than you thought.

"Your silence means you know the truth. Hah, of course you would." She coughs and then groans.

"You're not that hurt." You say, standing up and look down at her with a frown. "I have no sympathy for you. You should have gone and found yourself a husband instead of taking this life."

"Rules are rules." She says, shaking her head. "Slavery isn't a sin in Ectria, it's a way of life. Just as a Lizardman must find a husband from the one who defeats them in a duel."

"I'm not marrying you." You say with finality. "Now get up, call off your goons, and get out of here."

She chuckles and rolls over before picking herself up onto her knees. "Doesn't work that way. You know, there are few Spellblades within the Lizardmen tribes anymore, I bet having a child from a Wizard would give one."

The goons around her ready their weapons, anticipating the order to seize you and you sigh, building a [Pebble Gun] into your hand. You level the rock at her head, right between her eyes and say, "Don't you dare. Even if I could find it to love anyone, it would never, EVER, be a slaver. You'll have to change your ways to even think about having a chance with me."

She closes her eyes and shakes her head."No, there's no going back for me. Besides, killing me won't bring them back."

>>285905

You pause, body going rigid. She chuckles before throwing her head back into laughter which subsides after a long while into a grin upon her face. Her eyes twinkle as she says, "I know that look in your eye, the tone of your voice. When did it happen?"

"Shut up." You growl, spinning the rock faster. "Shut up and leave this place now."

"Young I bet. Was it your Father? No… your Mother?"

"I said, SHUT UP."

"Ha, what are you going to do? Kill me in front of my men? That innocent looking girl over there?"

You hear Sylphie gasp from behind the goons having made way for her to see. Moving your head to see her out of your peripheral vision before turning back to Bahiti and hissing, "Try me."

"You won't do it." She staggers to one knee, holding a hand out toward you, "Now then, let's talk about our future-"

The rock pierces her skull with enough force that it penetrates out the other side.

Her smiling face stares at you, frozen in time as blood dribbled down from the ruined hole in her head. With a sigh of air releasing from her lungs, she slumps and then collapses onto the ground, dead.

The goons and Sylphie stand next to you in shock as you breathe heavily, the strains of the events you just went through finally getting to you. You sink to a knee as the weight of your magic pushes down upon you and you hear the men and women talk between themselves in shocked tones which quickly turn angry. You hear weapons drawn and angered cries, to which you turn your head to Sylphie, your tired eyes locking onto hers.

She backs away, eyes wide, furred hand over her mouth with a look of horror. Well… if you managed anything today, it was ridding the world of a slaver and breaking a young girl out of her naiveté. At least you did something before you die. Summoning the last of your magic, you prepare to create a tremor when a voice pierces the night like a sword through butter.

"Stop!"

The goons look about in confusion as, in a rush of wings, Ebe lands in the circle. Before you can say anything, she wraps a wing about you and looks at the men with a determined look on her face. Blinking in confusion, you notice the way she bites her lip as she surveys the situation. Her eyes flick to you and she asks, "Are you alright?"

"Better than Bahiti." She looks over at the dead Lizardman and pales before gulping.

"Y…you did what you had to, right?"

"I did what I personally had to."

"I… see." She looks troubled for a moment before taking in a deep breath and looking at the assembled goons. They look royally pissed at the whole scene and with their compsure regained, they press in. Ebe takes a deep breath and says, "Cover your ears."

You fumble to do so as she stamps a foot to the ground next you and thrusts her hip to the side, cymbals clacking. A dull sound of singing fills your ears and you feel a warmth build within you at, dulled somehow. The men all around you stagger, their movements unsure as Ebe's movements become rhytmic, sensous. You make the mistake of looking at her and become transfixed by the way she moves her hips and sings, radiating in the night like a beacon of beauty.

Weapons slip from the hands of the goons as tears fill their eyes. Their breathing becomes shallow and they look to each other, men's eyes finding those of women, and they press into each other as the music and her motions fill them with lust. Tearing each other's clothes off, they fall into their lusts, clearly not expecting Ebe to use her dancing upon them.

Dimly, you notice Sylphie crouching, back turned to the scene, hands over her ears while Mr. Ed stands before her, blocking her from the scene. The dance lasts for maybe a minute, but that's all the time it needs. When she finishes the final thrust of her hips and closes her mouth, the attackers are too busy making love to fight. Except one guy who couldn't find a partner and is furiously masturbating in the corner, but he can be ignored.

With trembling hands, you uncover your ears and look over to Ebe who surveys the scene, a sad smile on her face. She turns to you and helps you to your feet, saying, "They'll be out of it for awhile I think. Probably be too exhausted to chase after anyone. I think we can rest for now."

"Why…" You mumble.

"Hmm?"

"Why are you helping us?"

She cocks her head and then blushes. "Because I could tell by your hand that you're not a bad guy. Just a little rough around the edges."

As she lets you go and stoops to help up Sophie, you look at the scene around you with a dull expression and then chuckle. Not the bad guy, huh?

>>285906

You have no choice but to spend the night in the inn. The sounds of people fornicating outside barely phase you, as you're able to fall asleep with little trouble after you make sure Sophie is fine. She has little external injuries, so you save the health potions and look after Sylphie, who chooses to stay in a different room from the rest of you. When you try to protest, she just grabs Erwin and stalks off, slamming a door down the hallway.

Despite knowing there's a Monster there who seemed perfectly willing to jump your junk beforehand, you pass out on the bed, too tired to formulate anything coherent beyond a slurred, "No."

When you wake up, you do so with sluggishness and look about the room to see the morning sun hitting your face. Grunting, you push out of bed to see Sophie sitting on the bed next to you, hands in her lap. She looks up as you rise and she gives a weak smile.

"Hey."

"Hey."

The two of you look away, both feeling embarrassed for some reason. Eventually, she sighs and says, "Sorry, I thought I could take her but… She was too strong for me."

"It's fine." You say, stretching. Damn back STILL hurts, fuck. "I took care of it."

"Did you?"

"Between the eyes."

Sophie grits her teeth and then nods her head. "I understand. Did…?"

"She saw everything."

The Cat o'Ninetails goes quiet for a moment, pressing her palms firmly with her thumbs. She takes a deep breath, but you cut her off to say, "She needed to see it sooner or later. We're not dealing with a pacifists here, and I think things are going to get far, far more dangerous as time goes on."

"If your sister isn't prepared to kill, if YOU aren't prepared to kill, then things could end up a lot worse than they did last night."

Sophie nods her head slowly and says, "How did it end up?"

You shrug and point toward Ebe, who is sleeping with her guitar on the other side of the room. "Guess I give good headpats."

Sophie blinks a few times before furrowing her brow and looking down, contemplating what that means. Sighing, you stand up and walk over to her before placing your hand on her head. She tenses up at the touch but as you stroke her head, you can feel her tensions melt away. She lets out a contented sigh and you hear something else, something akin to a purr before you pull away your hand, the lingering feeling of her oily hair clinging to your fingers.

Her eyes flutter open and she blinks a few times before blushing and saying, "O-oh. I… I see." She fidgets on the bed and then looks outside before standing up quickly and saying, "I should go get Sylphie. Where-?"

"Down the hall." She dashes out, and in doing so, awakens Ebe, who jumps up with a start.

"Huh? What?" She cradles the guitar in the arms and then notices you, exhaling deep before saying, "Twins, I thought you were them again."

"No, not quite." You say, gathering your things. "Thanks for the help last night."

"Oh, it's no trouble, I think things would have gone south soon anyway, haha…" Her laugher sounds hollow though, and you frown at her as she plays with her guitar before sighing. "What am I going to do now?"

"You came out here with them, right? What was your plan?"

"I told you, find a Husband, settle down here where it's cooler, I don't know." She rubs at her head. "But now that's all ruined…"

"You could stay here you know, or fly to one of the nearby cities. I'm sure with a body like yours, someone will want you."

You expect her to blush, but she merely waves a wing. "No, no. I don't think the people here will be too happy when they find out I traveled with slavers and traveling alone is…is scary." She sniffs, "I should just go home."

Awww geez. Rubbing at the back of your head, you look at your staff and then the sun outside. You really can't afford to spend much more time on these diversions, or Chaika is going to find you. But you kind of feel bad for the lust devil, and she DID help you. She's a Monster, but with Sophie and Sylphie nearby, you're pretty sure you can keep her from doing anything naughty. Besides, her talents might be useful later on…

"Well… we happen to be traveling to Borne and then into Ectria." You say, coughing into your hand. "If you wanted to come along… that probably wouldn't be the worst thing."

She blinks a few times before her eyes go wide. "REALLY?" She says, making to hug you, but you step aside and dodge her.

"I have some rules you have to follow though."

"Oh." She says, laying down on the floor. "Poo."

>>285907

An hour later, your group heads outside. Sophie accepts Ebe into the group though Sylphie seems quiet and mounts Mr. Ed as soon as you reach the outside. She trots him away and Sophie advises you to give her some space. Having eaten from the Inn's stores, you find outside that some of the townsfolk have awoken in a stupor.

Some have goofy grins on their faces, someone are in afterglow after the events of the evening. All of them look exhausted though, too exhausted to fight you in any capacity, but the ones who seem lucid enough are embassed as all hells, though they don't stray from their partners too far. Asking about any mana potions, the villagers seem confused as to what that might be until you reach a Monster, a young Kobold, who says she has some due to her "latent magical powers."

"Of course, you could just use some of the fresh material around here, it's got to be far more potent than those potions." She says, not at all embarrassed at her nudity. "Can't have any from between my legs though, that's mine now."

You don't even grace that with a response, and instead find the vials in her discarded dress. Why she had them in her dress, you have no idea, but it saves you a lot of time and annoyance. Staring at the little vials, you sigh and tuck them away to give to Sylphie, annoyed that you even had to take this little venture. With a little warning to a few more lucid men about the slaver guards, who seem equally as exhausted, you depart, not wanting any part of what comes after. At least you told them to be vigilant in the face of any further… incursions.

Sophie fills Ebe in on your journey, especially after the Gandharva questions about their tails and gushes about how pretty the twins are. The Cat o'Ninetails makes her swear not to tell anyone, and she promises on her Mother's life that she won't. You wonder how well that will stick.

Heading back to the main road, you make decent time in an uneventful day before settling down for camp near a small stream. After setting up the wards and making a standard meal, your group rests before deciding on watches. With a fourth person present, you can have a better rotation schedule, so figuring that out needs to be addressed.

As Sophie thinks about it in her head, you glance over to Sylphie, who has been uncharacteristically quiet the whole day. She barely made a sound at lunch or dinner and took the mana potions from you without looking at you. Erwin doesn't know or won't say anything to you about her situation, but advises that you give her some space.

Feeling tired, you rub at your head and wonder, with the evening on you,

>What do you do?

Sorry for the timing of the update, I got distracted by a lovely discord discussion with donut steel Lilims.

Hehe.

Anyway, so yeah, looks like the majority of the people went for execution along with the whole high ground thing, so we did that, though apparently Monitor Lizards get angry with cold weather? Thanks wikipedia!

Good thing you befriended Ebe, otherwise this would have ended worse for you. Of course, executing the enemy in front of Sylphie is p. bad.

Anyway, you guys have earned a night of respite and studying whatever magic or exposition or whatever you want.

I'll return… maybe on saturday. I have work all fucking weekend and a surprise dinner with family right after work saturday so I don't know if I'll possibly have the time for it tbh. Sorry!

But I do love all y'all's comments!

Oh and that Vulturegirl isn't dead, but she wasn't exactly moving much that next morning either.

>>285810

I. Hmm. Well, it does have to be impactful, but damn I guess so. I mean this time I worked with what I was given to do but damn.

I guess I'm a mean person.

>>285908

Welp, we gave her a chance and she blew it. Talk shit get hit.

Still, it all worked out in the end, mostly.

The first thing we should do is improve our camp security. So far the wards haven't been exactly the most effective security measure so it might be a good idea to erect some stone fences with a trench in front of them around our camp so we have some more physical defense rather than just relying on the wards.

For deciding watches, we should offer to split up Sylphie's watch between the rest of the party as I don't think it's a good idea to leave her alone on watch duty in the state she's in. We're already used to a three man watch anyway.

As for off time, I suggest we spend our watch working on some less lethal magic, in part to try show to the party that we aren't just a murderous lunatic who's obsessed with murdering people more efficiently, but also because focusing on how to kill people every day does not lead to a stable mindset.

Perhaps metallurgy would be a good topic to focus on, as we need to start somewhere in that field and we can use the progress made to improve other areas of study later on.

I suppose the first step would be to figuring out how to manipulate metal into small orbs which we can use for a variety of purposes, such as playing marbles, or to shoot into people, who am I kidding here?

It also has the added bonus that we could basically disarm anyone who uses metal weapons against us by turning their swords into marbles.

Well first off we need to set up that watch schedule. And perhaps see what we can find on our matrix about that gandharvin for our bard to learn. Perhaps she can find a way to Selectively affect people with her music. Having to close/cover our ears every time we need to find us not going to end well I think.

We also should give sylphie some space. She needs to think about it on her own. Talk to her tomorrow or wait for her to inevitably come out to talk to us on our watch

>>285908

We should start playing with metal. It'll be helpful later on with disarming enemies, making bullets, building the tank

>>285908

I second >>285919 this notion. Our Bard should start grinding levels. She only knows [Inspire Arousal] right now. We need her to get at least an [Inspire competence] and [Inspire Courage]. So look up some relevant songs on the matrix and have the bird brain study it. Vid related.

When she performs, it will also have the upside of breaking Sylphie out of her depressed stupor.

>>285908

Well, let's give Slyphie some space as recommended. What we should do is talk to our bard. From what lizard lady said, she may not even be aware that her music is affecting people. She needs to get that shit straightened out so that she can turn it on and off or something. Otherwise, it looks like people are going to want to bone every time she starts up a tune, which might might complicate our situation, what with her traveling with us and all.

>>285908

>Lizard is dead

It was bound to happen, since Rommel is a no-nonsense Wizard and she did the really dumb thing of mocking an opponent who clearly had the upper hand and had given a myriad of warnings to shut up. At least her execution was more clean than being buried alive.

But I digress. Sylphie is clearly in no condition to talk to us, let alone practice her magic, so do what pretty much everyone here says and avoid talking to her for now - if she wants to talk, she'll come to us. That said, make sure she consumes at least one of those [Mana Potion]s, because she was weak earlier and we don't want to be caught with our pants down so to speak. Sophie and Ebe seem more amiable, so we could strike up conversation with them before we decide on any watch scheduling, in particular the latter because it would be in our best interests to get to know any companions we will be travelling presumably a long time with and understanding how Ebe views her abilities might help us improve them, such as by expanding the number of effects she can inflict with different songs or removing the downside of us being affected alongside an intended target by getting her to focus on a target or something. If all else fails or if we find ourselves alone on watch, talk with Erwin about today's events; he is our greatest confidant after all, and we could use the excuse to discuss the emotional baggage that was brought up by the Lizard with the added bonus? of Sylphie gaining some insight into and possible respect for our actions today, were she to eavesdrop. A final thing to do, which is unlikely given how tired we are, is crack open the [Geomancy and You! A Beginner's Guide to Geomancy] and read through the rest of it, or pick up Sylphie's [Elemental Magic] she gave us permission a while back, so she can't complain and go through more of that as to expand our spell pool a tad more, preferably in the form of defensive or utility magic as >>285917 says - metal manipulation would cover this and will probably be the most beneficial skill we can acquire for the journey ahead given how often we've run into metal-wielding armoured units, but I'm still partial to improving our non-Fulgromancy elemental spells such as Aeromancy, Cryomancy or Hydromancy.

As for watches, Sylphie should be exempt from watch duty because she's currently broken but if she wants to stay on watch with either us, Sophie or Ebe then she is free to do so. We should take the first watch, because there's more of a chance of Sylphie bothering us and it's generally the safest as things tend to go wrong during the night rather than at the start of it and having the others in good condition for if shit hits the fan would be ideal. Second and third watches should either be taken by Sophie and Ebe respectively or simultaneously, dependant on whether the two feel they need more rest. Separating the watches would lead to each of them getting more rest, while combining them would increase security and give them a chance to talk in private as to increase party bonding. Personally, I'd prefer the latter, but it's up to what everyone thinks is the best plan of action.

Finally, I'm not entirely comfortable with that Vulture still being alive and it strikes me as something which is going to bite us in the arse at a later point. Talk with Ebe about it to figure out if she will actually be a threat for us later on, be it in the form of combatting us again or providing a warning of our arrival to Ectria, and act accordingly. It's probably a non-issue, but we cannot take any risks, especially since we have no idea about the strength of our opponents.

>>285955

This seems like the most reasonable course of action. We should also practice our geomancy the next chance we get so we can get some metal manipulation going on.

Sorry for the bump, I forgot to sage

>>285957

I actually meant to reply to >>285947 but fucked up posting twice, jesus christ.

>>285944

Ground spikes is simple enough to learn in battle since its such a small change on [The Wall]. Lets use our time to improve things that require a bit of thought and practice.

>>285917

Agree with everything. Metal is our next step

>>285922

>>285919

We can probably fit of bit of this in as well. We can atleast teach her how to sever her connection to her innate magic while she plays. As is we might end up balls deep inside the kittens or bird if she just wants to practice.

>>285956

>Vulture still being alive

She will be dead soon. She can't move and is in an enemy town, She will not receive medical attention. Also that wound has been steadily bleeding the entire night. She is going to die, No doubts. Whether that be by the villagers wanting revenge for almost becoming slaves or by bleeding out. Even if Ace does decide to let her live, She won't be able to fly.

>>285908

I would talk to Ebe about all she knows about Ectria, it's people. Also ask her about the path she and slavers took.

For non lethal, let's make a pouch full of a sleeping poison, toss some stone flechettes in there, and practice on drawing and firing them with our magic.

>>285940

>we're a geomancer

time to make sand get everywhere because it's coarse and irritating

>>285969

Also ask Ebe what she meant by: >>285907

>"Twins, I thought you were them again."

>>285940

>final confrontation between Rommel and the wizard

>molten sand everywhere

>"Rommel, my alliegience is to the union! To the kingdom!

This could be fun. Or really really bad. Personally I dont think we'll be able to tell the difference.

>>286104

Hit sage, captcha messed me me

How is Ebe getting into peoples' heads anyway? I thought that aside from plagomancy/healsluttery and illusions, magic has great difficulty penetrating living beings due to shielding.

Maybe we should also stay up with Ebe and try to study her magic not only so we can help her control it better, but also so that we can emulate it to some degree.

Are these Twins mentioned anywhere in deleorian scriptures? Ace will no doubt reveal it in good time, but we do have our +Lore stat.