NOVEL NEXT Chapter 13 - Just a Stress Response
I was genuinely curious about the formation the undead took. Was the revenant capable of leading them, or was this the work of the man behind the man?
At any rate, we made short work of these with Aki.
'Cover me!’ I told her and charged the undead paratrooper. I dove under his swing and cut off his extended arm. That put me in range of the female zombie. Aki was already there, however, and cut one of the undead's legs from under it, toppling it face-first to the floor. As I moved on to circle the dead Russian, Aki leapt and impaled the other zombie through its chest. The girl pushed the man off her blades with her leg, while I slashed the Revenant across the back of its knees forcing it into a kneeling position. Aki used that opportunity to lunge in his direction and ran the Russian through his head with one of her swords.
Level 4 Lesser Revenant has been slain.
You have earned 200 experience points (1000/2000 total experience points progress to level 4)
The legless zombie was slowly dragging herself in our direction so I put the woman out of her misery.
Level 1 Lesser Zombie has been slain.
You have earned 50 experience points (1050/2000 total experience points progress to level 4)
Aki used that time to finish the man. I was surprised I didn't get any experience for that one, but ended up shrugging it off as the “EVE Online killmail rules” - no offensive actions, no XP fucko, which meant it must have really sucked to level as a cleric here, but then again - that was not my problem.
We stood over the site of carnage panting. Aki suddenly whooped.
'Level three!’
‘Nice!’ I responded and tried to high-five her but she just stared at me confused.
I explained the purpose of the gesture to her. She laughed but returned the high-five this time around.
'What level are you, Lilyth?’
'I’m also level three. Halfway to level four, which I think is a pretty decent result for uh.’
How long have I been here exactly?
I’ve tried to do mental maths, but my interface hurried to the rescue.
Current Time: 13:42 CET (14:12 local)
Wait. There is a clock functionality on this thing? Oh right. I never did go through those utilities. And holy shit… Is it not even 1400 hours? I knew I wasn’t here for too long, but I had hoped this was my perception of time being fucked.
'Pretty decent result for less than six hours,’ I finished, desperately trying not to think about how many times I have almost died in less than a work shift.
Aki looked at me wide-eyed.
‘You told me you haven’t been here for too long, but I assumed… oh gods. How are you handling this?’
‘Still half hoping I’m in a coma and this is just a dream,’ I said. ‘Probably will take me a while to take it all in.’
Aki came over to me and hugged me.
'I'm here for you if you need me. It's the least I could do for you.
'Thanks,’ I hugged her back. 'And I am here for you, Aki.’
As we embraced our eyes locked, I became suddenly very aware of how warm and soft Aki felt, not to mention quite happy I was lacking a certain part of the anatomy that would reveal this realization to her, the girl leaned forward and our lips locked. The kiss was short and awkward and Aki quickly jumped back embarrassed.
‘Sorry, sorry!’ she explained blushing fierce red. ‘It kinda… kinda…’
I couldn’t help but notice that her tail was forming a question mark, which was a cat for “in a playful mood”, but decided to ignore it.
‘Don’t worry,’ I quickly responded, hoping to defuse the situation. ‘I understand. We’re under a lot of stress. Some things… just… happen…’
We continued back to the crossroads in utter silence. While I was casting furtive glances towards Aki, I noticed she was also desperately pretending not to be looking towards me from time to time, her tail wagging from side to side.
Just a stress response. Just a stress response. Just a stress response. Just a stress response.
‘Was it really?’ the Huntress chimed in, amused.
Oh, fuck you.
‘I don’t think it’s me you want to fuck,’ the Huntress laughed and went silent.
Just a stress response.
Eventually, we saw a door to our left. It must have been just some room, as the corridor stretched on, way past that.
‘Should we?’ I asked.
Aki said yes, so I tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. It wasn’t locked, none of the doors had a visible locking mechanism, just stuck. I frowned.
‘Any ideas?’
As part of her level-up Aki picked up a new ability, she was itching to try out.
Ability: Lesser Abyssal Bolt
Type: Racial - Infernal - Fire - Damage
Level: 1 (0% total progress to level 2)
Radius: 30 metres
Description: Sends out a hellfire projectile at a chosen target. Consumes mana.
Synergies: Knowledge of Flame Arcana may improve the effects of this spell
Casting Time: 1 Second
She did notice her Flame Arcana skill was slowly rising thanks to the Abyssal Spark she was using to light their way. She would need to be careful about using the Lesser Bolt though. Aki knew her friend… yes… definitely just her friend and nothing more was afraid of fire. Her tail had other ideas about Aki’s feelings towards Lilyth because it just wouldn’t stay still these past few minutes, no matter how much she willed it to behave normally. What did Lilyth say it was? Just a reaction to stress? Yes. That was just stress. She just wanted to have someone to keep her company, make her feel safe and warm and…
Focus! Aki chided herself as she once again felt warmth spreading across her body and blood flowing to her cheeks. FOCUS!
‘Umm… Aki, you okay?’ Lilyth looked at her quizzically.
She felt her tail do unspeakable things again so to take her mind off things she just pointed her hand at the door and launched her new spell at it.
Her emotions must have had some effect on the spell as, instead of a small fire bolt, a massive fireball flew out of her hand. It impacted the door with a loud boom and set it ablaze. Lilyth scrambled back and fell on her shapely behind.
Aki ran over to her.
‘Are you all right?’ she asked.
‘Y-yeah.’ Lilyth stammered out. ‘Just warn me the next time you do something like this, okay?’
‘Sure. Didn’t expect it to be… this much. My first time to use this ability.’
‘Yeah. First times can be… difficult.’
Aki helped Lilyth back on her feet. It was then that their eyes locked one more time. Almost in sync, they quickly averted their gazes and backed away.
‘Yup,’ Lilyth said her cheeks becoming slightly blue. ‘Thank you.’
As they waited for the door to burn down, they stood side-by-side, their fingers brushing against each other from time to time.