System Break

The smell was awful, the ground dingy and if it wasn't dark already, we would've camped elsewhere.

I rolled over and whinged to Gisael again. "Worst camp ever." She wiggled her perfect ass and turned over to face me. She didn't answer she just pressed her lips against mine.

I put my arm around her and grabbed it. With an ass like that I had to forgive her.

"Thank you," she said.

"For what?"

"We could have avoided the ferals."

"Oh, well, we learned a lot from the land core. So, it was worth the time. But that doesn't mean I won't complain about camping in this stinking place."

"It only stinks because we killed them all, harvested their qi cores and burned them."

My hand brushed her nipples on its own accord, it had nothing to do with me. "They're not worth skinning and no one would eat them. Except demon bird, and we let him have the shaman's guts."

She bit my lower lip. "We will make good ground tomorrow."

"I'm going to run the cores back; we're only thirty miles and I can catch you before the end of the day."

"You can run that far? No, that is too far." Her hand found its way down my stomach and hovered very close to my dragon.

"I can run four times what we did today, 120 miles." It sounded ridiculous when I said it out loud, but the combination of my natural stamina and the qi body techniques I could average ten miles an hour easily and keep it up all day. With demon birds help I could dodge all the monsters where Gisael would have to fight them.

Her hand retreated and cupped the back of my head instead. "You will need all your stamina," she said.

"No, I'm good."

She shook her head. "It is decided. You will run all day and test yourself, but tonight you will rest."

I felt like waking and banging Reyas just to teach Gisael a lesson. But I'd had sex every night for a couple of weeks and was tired, so I could skip one. I turned and spooned Reyas while Gisael spooned me. The last thing I remember was her stroking my chest before I fell asleep.

An urging from Demon bird woke me. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Then I heard crashing as something knocked down a fence, or hut or some shabby structure on the hill.

Demon bird showed me what he could see, it was a lizard, one of the horned ones and the smell of burned feral probably attracted it. There was no land core to dissuade random visits let alone intentional ones.

I woke the fit women in my bed with light taps on the cheek. "We have a visitor a horned lizard."

We heard another crash.

"Why is it breaking in when all the corpses are outside?" I shrugged in answer to my own question. "Doesn't matter let's go kill it - another core to take home."

It wasn't far and we had it encircled in less than a minute. Reyas was in leathers, but Gisael and I were in our traditional Svartalfar dress. I danced around its head while Gisael aimed for its eyes.

Reyas ran to its side and its head turned towards her. She dodged away from its tail which swiped at her. It was dark, but her axe heads shone in the flickering torches. The light twinkled off the axe heads silver sheen.

I wanted its attention on me, not on her. I leaped forward with my fist pulled back and filled with qi. Then I punched it as hard as I could releasing my qi with the blow. 

The impact made it buckle and skid back. It forgot about Reyas and took a snap at me with its long snout. I jumped back a step and loaded my legs with qi, I was in close range and needed to move quickly to avoid becoming breakfast. A small sidestep would be useless because this thing had reach. 

It dipped its head and tried to gouge me. I stepped back again and let its horn pass. Then I aimed an upper cut underneath its snout. In the meantime, Reyas hacked its side with her axes. They were so hard and sharp they penetrated its thick hide like a hot knife through butter.

"Hey, careful," I yelled.

She grinned at me and did it again.

An arrow penetrated its eye and I grabbed it by the horn. Reyas was damaging its beautiful chitin hide so I needed to kill it quickly. I used her qi-strength technique but instead of applying it to my arms, I used my experience and applied it to all the muscles I was going to use.

My stomach, chest, legs, shoulders and arms were primed with qi-strength and when I had its horn in a strong grasp, I twisted it with all my might. The lizard's head came with me and its neck snapped.

It went limp in my hands and I shouted, "Stop Reyas, it's done."

She stopped mid blow and stepped back. She peered at me, "Did you just snap its neck?"

I grinned at her. "You were about to ruin its hide, I had to do something,"

The first rays from the sun peaked over the horizon. I patted the dead lizards head, "At least it didn't ruin our nights sleep. It waited until morning."

I went back to our bed and grabbed my helmet, leathers, and gear. 

"Gisael, gather everyone and take them due south. Demon bird will find you. I'll skin this and retrieve its core."

She patted me on the ass and then got everyone moving. They followed the same routine but would lack Demon bird's guidance during the day. They would move slower as a result which would help me. I didn't see the point in carrying this haul all the way south and then back north when we were so close to home.

They left before I did, and I ran north with the lizard skin and qi cores. I flew like the wind and kept a few feral cores aside to replenish myself.

When I reached the forest's edge, I connected to Darkbear and showed him that I put a package under the outpost tree. Even if he wasn't able to communicate it, the guardians would find it soon enough.

"Come on Demon bird, time to catch the others." 

I took a deep breath and smiled as Demon bird soared. My pack was empty, the sun shone bright and I ran like the wind. My long strides ate away at the miles. My bare feet were tough as nails and my toes tore up the earth. Not even Reyas could match this pace. 

I'd decided that I would train Reyas and Gisael how to use their qi like I did. 

I had taken Reyas' qi-speed and improved its power. It was something she could improve with my guidance. 

I was eating through my qi, so I scoffed down a dead ferals qi core. I had to work on my efficiency.

Demon bird helped me avoid any unnecessary entanglements and I was fast enough to outrun an angry pack of hellhounds. As the sun set, I strolled into their camp. They had found a gentle stream running through a small grove. 

I laughed. "This is a big improvement."

Ailen gawked at me. "I can't believe you made it. We ran hard all day."

A wry smile appeared on Sakaala's face. "Did you cheat?"

"Of course," I said and sat down on Reyas' furs. "I used every trick in the book."

Sakaala glanced at Ailen. "It's only three more sleeps until you're disconnected. How are we going to get you to Dawnharbour if you're out of it?"

"How we will find Dawnharbour?" Ailen said.

"The Dokkalfar will take you. And I can easily catch up."

Gisael popped some dried fruit in my mouth. I loved letting her feed me and she was very disciplined with what she gave me. I caressed her fine leg and buttocks while she put fresh berries into my mouth.

"Did you just find these?"

She bared her teeth at me. "Yes, look around you. It is not hard.'

"Not yet," I said and pulled her on top of me. She chirped but did not resist. She lay there for a time and then sniffed.

"You smell," she said and leapt to her feet. She went down to the stream, wet a cloth, and brought it back to wipe me down.

I was tired and fell asleep before she finished.

She ran her hands over me, then turned to Reyas. "He has drained himself. Again." 

Reyas had arrived back at camp with small game and began to skin and cook it. "Did you expect different?"

Gisael stared at me. "No, I did not. I will tell him no next time." She fetched some goo from her herb pouch and rubbed it into my legs. Then she lay down beside me to rest.

"Ailen, take first watch," she said. "Reyas, then Sakaala and I will take last."

"Okay," Ailen said and propped himself up in a nearby tree.

Reyas finished her plump rodent and took her place on my other side. 

This camp was a vast improvement and something I could appreciate if I wasn't absolutely stuffed. But its good to push yourself, it's the only way to improve. And when running alone I did a lot of thinking. I was clear on what I would do next.