Dragon Goddess’s chosen

Despite the pain it caused, I was feeling great, energized even, after the last of the pain faded away. Either there was some secondary effect of the potion or it was just the convenience of not feeling like I had a spike still driven into my shoulder or sleeping most of the day before was catching up to me finally, but I was in a much better mood. Once I met up with Max again, we went to the general store for more clothes, followed by the tanner/cobbler to replace my boots and armor. Between the two stores, I was left with just enough money for a few more days rent but got what I needed.

"Ok, fairly set back now but more reason to work hard to get money and find Kat," I told myself as I latched the three buckles on the front of the flexible leather girdle armor that now protected most of my abdomen. When I picked it out, it reminded me of the stomach armor of a gladiator, but, unfortunately, it also looked like an underbust corset as well when I got it on. At least I also got armor that covered all of my left shoulder with a single strap going to my right armpit that helped lean more towards gladiatorial armor. The more important part, I would or should be able to drop both pieces fairly quickly if I had to use the rage skill again and not ruin them like the chainshirt that fell apart when my wings tore through it.

"This friend seems really important to you..." Max said softly, trying to look away from me as he had been since I put the girdle armor on.

"We knew each other since we were kids... we're really close..." I sighed as I got the shoulder armor on and cinched the strap tighter so that it fit. "As far as I know, she's still doing quests around Rookport. Ok, think I'm ready. Let's go check the job board. "

"Didn't my mom tell you to rest for a bit?" He glanced back at me with a concerned look.

"Yes, but some simple jobs shouldn't hurt us... and I feel great anyways." I smiled at him. "What about you, how's your leg?"

"...definitely better than yesterday..."

"See, we're fine, and I want to see your spells in action so I can try to figure out ways we can work together." He looked away from me again and sighed a bit.

"F-fine... just easy jobs, ok?" He mumbled. I playfully tapped his shoulder with my knuckles before I started to lead the way back to the guild.

"Easy jobs'll probably just be in town chores or herb gathering for Mr. Iarhorn. I still want to see more of your spells, though."

"We can just go to a field or something... I'll just throw some at a rock if you want to see them so bad..."

"Works for me." I smiled at him again and took note that my better mood was affecting him, his nervousness around me seemed to be going away, and he was finally looking at me again. 'Might try to get him to spar or something, nothing too much... think I remember him having at least one fire or lightning spell, so we should be fine if I just grab a stick to use. Shouldn't panic him with that idea yet...'

"Um, so... about your friend... are you planning to leave soon to find her...?" Max asked after a minute of silence between us as we walked.

"Hmm? No, not really... don't know how much rent in the city is, and now I'm a little short on money to try that. I also want to figure out what guild hall she goes to so I can send a letter... or stay here so she can send me one. " I shrugged "why?"

"Not sure if I'm ready to leave town yet,"

"We just met, I don't expect you to follow me to another city right away, we can break the party anytime, right? I'll tell you when I'm going to leave for the city and we can figure that out then, ok?"

"Ok..."

'I get it, he's worried about losing a potential friend he just met. I'd be the same way, didn't have too many friends beyond Kat anyways, the few I have... had...' I thought to myself in the silence that followed, dredging back up more of the sadness I had been pushing away since I got here. 

We soon arrived back at the job board at the guild and I quickly noticed that quite a bit of the C and D rank quests that were up before were fairly picked over already by other parties, not that we could or should grab a C. Like normal, most of the Es were basically chores and temp labor work that weren't too appealing to me: more herb gathering, blacksmith assistance, helping the general store with unloading a shipment. I also came across the first B rank one I had seen, a bounty on a bandit chief last seen at an abandoned fort several miles away. While I was distracted with the quest way above our skill level, Max gently prodded my side to get my attention again.

"How about this one...its just checking out a path and trying to re-find a cart someone lost," he suggested, tapping a D rank with his staff. I immediately noticed that it had a much bigger reward than others of that level, even with half it would give me another week's stay. It also worried me, though, it was still up and had a high reward for a lower quest, so it was either just put up or other people were also sketched out by it.

"Seems easy enough, you recognize the name of the quest giver? I haven't been here long enough to know for sure all of the common ones here." I looked back at him as I spoke, and he just shrugged.

"Don't know, probably a traveling merchant," he suggested with more shrugging.

"We can try it, but let's be careful with this one."

"What's wrong with it? Its easy, just looking for a cart and coming back to report where it is, they even give the general area where they think it is," I glanced at the quest again, seeing that it'll probably be a few hours to get there and back without accounting for the time we'll spend looking, luckily it pointed us in the direction opposite of that B rank bounty.

"Seems too easy for that payment, but ok, let's do it. I'm going to get the rest of my stuff and eating first before we head out, it'll be an all-day thing with how far that is."

"... probably a good idea... meet back up in a bit?"

"Sure, unless you want to eat with me," he cocked his head a bit and glanced back in the direction of his home. I cursed his adorableness silently to myself during his moment of thinking .

"U-um sure, I can just get the rest of my stuff later..." he smiled shyly at me.

"Come on then, I'm hungry." 

I led the way, once again, back into the guild hall. We placed our orders basically together. I went simple with just toast and scrambled eggs, but I overheard Max's as Metrian toast. I was immediately envious and impressed of what he got when the food came out. Turned out, what he ordered is what they call French toast here, the whole week I had been there, I had only ordered simple food, never sure of what had been invented yet. We chatted a bit over the meal, both of us prodding for more info on the other. I chose to be selective with what I shared and had to make sure to translate some things to something equivalent that I figured he'd recognize more than  the modern equivalents. Part of me disliked being like this, but another part knew it's probably best to be secretive about being chosen of a god for now.

---

 

 

Maximillian Tytus Wells

E rank Half-inugami (M) Sorcerer

Stats:

????

________

 

Abilities:

Radiant damage resistance

?????

 

Spells known:

Ice shatter: The user projects a shard of ice from their spell focus that shatters on impact and damages a small area around the target

Magic Missile:????

Sacred flame:????

Scorching Ray:????

Create water :????

Prestidigation:????

Shocking Grasp:????

 

I checked over the popup that was summoned when I used inspect on my party member to remind myself of the spells he told me as we walked towards the quest destination. It still failed to describe most of what I was asking for, but my own abilities mentioned evolving, so I could only assume that I just had to wait for inspect to get trained up for more info. For the most part, the names of his spells were very much like the Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder that I had experience with, so I could guess what they could do. 

"You ok? You're kinda spacing out there." Max's voice suddenly broke my concentration, and I dismissed his info panel.

"I'm fine, just thinking," I replied with a small smile at him. 

"About?" He did his cute head tilt again, making me curse myself, and my previous like for the animal ears, over it. His androgynous face and voice didn't help me either.

"The spells you told me you had, and ways they can be used."

"And here I thought you martials don't use your heads much," he teased, seeming like he was trying to test the waters with my tolerance of it.

"Told you I did go to a university for a bit, not a complete blockhead," I replied with a smile. Kat teased me a lot, I was somewhat used to it, but being thought of as a jock or musclehead was new. I hadn't noticed how lonely I was all week with how focused I was on getting back to her, but finally having casual conversation with someone again was really nice.

"Mhmm, you said that but never said which one you went to."

"You'll have to guess," I laughed. It was a convenient excuse, being playful here, but I hadn't read enough of Rissaeth's cheat book to know what cities had a university.

"You only know two spells, you definitely weren't accepted into a magic school."

"Never said it was for magic." I smiled at him, then slowed my pace a bit as we reached a familiar clearing. "Hmm... you know, I think I'm starting to regret trying to go that far out already..."

"So we're going to actually listen to my mom and take it easy today?" He crossed his arms as he looked at me.

"Didn't say that. Let's try sparring a bit, get a feel for how we both fight a little. And the quest never said it was urgent." I smiled at him, and he paled a bit as his ears go back.

"I-i don't know about that. I saw you fight the wolves yesterday... that was good enough for me."

"Could be fun, though," I teased as I walked out into the field, checking for the slimes that were here the first time I came around. "I won't use my sword, I'll go find a stick somewhere"

"I would hope you wouldn't use your sword!" He whined, but I heard him follow me out into the field. "What about you? I can't hold back much with spells..."

"Stick with fire or lightning ones, and I'll be fine." I smiled at him then went to search along the treeline for a stick about the same length as my sword. "That wolf's lightning wasn't too bad, hitting the tree hurt worse than that"

"If you say so..." he sighed "Let's just... not push ourselves that hard... my leg still hurts..."

"Fine," I laughed as I tested the weight of a stick I found. Satisfied with my find, I walked back towards him with the practice weapon resting on my shoulder.

"N-no, no, if we're doing this, we aren't starting up close," He said quickly. "How are we doing this...?"

"Go until one of us tap out, take a break, and restart a few times?" I shrugged as I bounced a bit in place to warm up. Max, meanwhile, nervously shifted his weight off his hurt leg, then he took a deep breath and lowered the head of his staff towards me.

"Ok... that's fine... um, on three?" I nodded in response and brought my weapon to both of my hands in front of me.

"Together then," I said before we counted at the same time to three. The small half-inugami surprised me the next second by shouting his next words as soon as we reached the number.

"Radius flammae!" A spinning ring of orange runes appeared at the end of his staff before a beam of energy of the same color shot out at me. I was barely able to stumble out of the way for the most part, but the beam still grazed my right arm, a searing heat radiating from it.

 

Maximillian Wells' Scorching Ray has been updated.

 

I dismissed the popup and refocused on the mage in front of me just as another runic ring started spinning up. I quickly took off to circle around him, not wanting to be standing still again for another beam. I felt the heat of the next one pass behind me as I ran a couple seconds later, and I then turned to run directly at him. At the moment, I was hoping the time between the first two is what he needed every time between shots of this spell. I didn't take into account what making him panic would do, however. The next shot went off sooner than the previous one but luckily went low and slightly to the side, unluckily, it still hit my right leg at the right timing and with enough force to make me fall face-first into the grass.

"Alex?!" Max called out immediately, and I heard him start running to me. I couldn't help but laugh into the ground about what just happened, not really in much pain, my thigh where it hit was definitely warm, but falling hurt more than the spell. "Y-you ok?"

"Yep, I'm fine." I laughed and propped myself up just as he reached me. "I didn't tap out, though,"

"What?" He had a moment to cock his head before I swept his legs out from under him with the stick I was still holding. He let out a cute little yelp as he was brought to the ground. I quickly moved to straddle his stomach in a position familiar to me from martial arts I had done years beforehand and brought the end of the stick up to under his chin as if it was my sword.

"Didn't. Tap. Out," I laughed again, watching as he became panicked and a blush spread across his face. "You probably should, though."

"I-u-uh..." he stammered. 

"Seriously, don't think there's a way out of this for you. If this," I playfully lifted his chin a bit with the stick. "Was a sword, you'd be done for." He whined softly, and his eyes quickly looked away from mine, then a moment later, I felt a soft tap on my leg. I smiled at him and pulled the stick away. "Well, that was fun, want to try again?"

"Um..." he whined more and squirmed under me. I frowned a bit.

"You didn't hit your h-," I started to ask then I started to become very aware of something pressing against my backside. I immediately scrambled off of him, my cheeks growing warm with embarrassment. 

"S-sorry..." he mumbled as shyly sat up and covered himself with his hands.

"I-its fine," I also mumbled, waving it off "n-natural reaction, I guess... sorry for sitting so far back... D-didnt realize..." My nerves drove me to look away from him and scratch the back of my head. "Let's just take a small break... calm down and try again, and I won't do any grappling like that again..."

"O-ok." he kept looking away from me, his ears folded back. I sighed and resigned myself to wait for him and myself to calm down a bit. It definitely made me flustered, but I put it more to suprise than anything. 

'Need to remember I have a girl's body now... really don't blame him for that reaction... I'd probably react the same... it was really hard to not show it when Kat and I did kempo together...'  I thought with a sigh as I took a short stroll around the field to clear my head.

---

"Those scorching rays are getting close to hitting me again!" I called to Max from behind a tree I took shelter behind to catch my breath. We had been going through bouts of sparring for a couple hours, and at that point and both of us had our 'wins'. He learned his lesson about tapping out with his first loss and as much as he definitely hated it, he held me at staff-point whenever he got me to the ground before he let his guard down to ask if I'm ok. 

"...Quaerens sagittas!" He yelled back. That was a new one that he hadn't used yet. I peeked out from behind the tree in time to see a set of four purple bolts sail out from the tree that I could only guess he hiding behind and curve towards my direction. Each dart weaved between the trees on its own as they flew, completely negating the reason I retreated to this cover through our sparring. A short yelp escaped me on its own as one turned and slammed into the tree right by my face, and I jumped back. The next one struck the armor on my stomach.

 

Maximillian Wells' Magic Missile has been updated 

 

I dismissed the popup just as the last two slammed into my shoulder and back, the blunt pain radiating out where they struck. I did notice throughout this that with every spell that hit me, none hurt as much as I expected, even these, they hurt but didn't feel like they could be fatal but the wolf I saw that he got was shredded. He could definitely pull his punches with the magic more than what he originally let on.

"You little shit, that wasn't fire or lightning!" I yelled again, trying to keep my tone playful as I dashed to the next tree to get closer to him. 

"You kept hiding!" 

"You think I'm just gonna stay out in the open?" I laughed then ran to the next spot, only thirty or so feet from the mage. 

"T-That's how we started!" I could hear him pant behind his tree and smiled to myself a bit.

'Ok, he's tired too, might call it after this,' I thought to myself, adjusting the stick in my hand. 'Gonna win this time.' I took that chance to run to his tree and around it to bring my weapon towards his throat for another forfeit. He yelped cutely when his eyes focused on me coming around the tree and tried to get another spell off at me.

"Fulgur tact -" he started say, his hand reaching toward me and arcs of electricity crackling along it. I cut him off by putting my hand over his mouth and 'threatening' his stomach with the stick.

"Yield?" I suggest with a smile and a blush spread across his face as he nodded. I smiled more and tossed the stick off deeper in the woods then removed my hand from his mouth. "Good, cuz I think I'm done for today." He gave a relieved, tired sigh.

"S-same," he mumbled. 

"Thanks for tolerating me in trying this, it definitely helped me understand how a few of your spells work and what I can expect from them. That Magic Missile was dirty, though "

"You kept hiding" he sighed as he leaned on his staff more, definitely tired from this. I smiled at him and shrugged. 

"Did what I had to but I'll definitely be bruised with those" I teased as I started walking back to the clearing we started in. "Maybe sometime I can try teaching you what I know so you can defend yourself up close."

"N-not today... I'm tired..."

"Of course, I want to go back to town and take a bath, get all this dirt and grass stains off me anyways. And we have that quest to do tomorrow, anyways."

"Ok. Good... s-so we're not going to do anything else today...? Mom's not going to be thrilled if she finds out we ignored her about resting..."

"We'll rest for the rest of the day. It'll be fine." I gave him the best comforting smile I could manage. "Come on, lets head back, get washed up at our own places and if you want we can eat lunch together and plan out tomorrow." A small smile appeared on his face.

"That sounds good..." he happily followed along, seeming to find some energy again, as I led the way back towards town.