Omnimage

by Simon Archer

  “I could not have imagined a better wedding,” Hikki sighed as she wiggled her way underneath my arm. “Thank you, Jeremiah. Even though you were forced into this marriage, I am still eternally grateful that you have done this for me.”

  “Sure, this wasn’t my idea or my decision at first.” I pulled her in closer. “But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t want it. After meeting you, I’m more convinced than ever that I would have found a way to get to you somehow.”

  “I love you, Jeremiah.” Hikki hugged me, using the motion to make her way onto my lap. “No one has ever treated me like you do.”

  “You know, that’s a damn shame.” I gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Honestly, if you were nearly anywhere else, you’d have to beat the suitors off with a stick. You’re adorable, fierce, beautiful, and absolutely sweet. I mean, just your touch alone is soothing.” I touched my face, realizing that there weren’t any burns on it. “Where did my burns go?”

  “I…” Hikki looked away from me. “I healed them. I’m sorry.”

  “For what?” I scoffed. “This is amazing! It’s like they were never there. I never knew you had magic. How did you learn to do that?”

  “I taught myself,” Hikki nearly whispered. “I discovered that I had magic powers when I was very young, but women having magic is seen as a bad omen. With my strange looks along with this, I knew that everyone would have seen me as a curse, so I kept them a secret. But I practiced how to use magic with all of my time alone, learning about new abilities over time.”

  “Damn.” I was amazed.

  Why hadn’t I checked on her before when I met her? That was just a deliberate oversight. Maybe I should have gotten something tattooed on my arm so that I’d never forget. I usually only bother with people I’m about to fight. Seemed like that needed to change.

  I looked up above her, bringing out the status screen for her. What I found was very strange, indeed, and only proved that I had been neglecting my screens like before:

  Hikki, Takatak Princess, goblin druid Lv 25

  Health: 500 Magic: 6250

  Armor: 30 Aegis: 60

  Abilities: Tiny Hider, Mighty Feral Forms, Nature’s Delight,

  Healing Touch

  Holy mother of--! She was just as powerful as Gojobo was! And she’d been hiding it from everyone this whole time. Damn, why the hell was this whole successor debacle even a thing? This tribe didn’t even need me to take over that raging bull’s spot on the totem pole with a secret powerhouse hiding in the chief’s tent. Hikki could have just led the tribe herself and whooped anybody who got in her way.

  She wasn’t kidding about practicing her magic. That magic reserve was astounding. I’d stolen some magic to boost my own, and my reserve still paled in comparison. She also had a big host of abilities, one of which piqued my curiosity specifically. Hers might have shown me a bit about what I had to look forward to in my own growth as a mage.

  I tried to take a closer look at them but found myself at a familiar set of screens, though many things had changed about it than when I last saw them. I gave them a look through, taking in the new information I was now privy to:

  Magic School: Druid

  Spell Strength: +250 Magic Salvage: +250

  Strike: +30 Resolve: +50

  Specialization: Beast Shaman

  Spell Level Maximum: 25

  Spell Augment Maximum: 5

  I was crunching the numbers, and I realized that I’d been outputting spells at levels way beyond my level if I was only supposed to be making spells matching my own. Combining all the levels I’d put together, I pushed the forties and fifties with some of the combos. Maybe that was part of why I kept burning through all of my magic so quickly. I was just throwing things together with no regard for imitations, but their capacity was defined. Another drawback of the Omnimage, if I wasn’t careful. My rate of growth for my skills and spells and the amount of magic I was getting was not quite equal yet. I could have easily burnt through all of my magic if I pushed myself too hard. Until I got to a certain point, I needed to calm down.

  Well, now it was time to see what else she had:

  Mage Attributes

  Strength: 30 Intellect: 100

  Endurance: 50 Cunning: 175

  Charm: 200 Sense: 250

  Spell Augmentations

  Elements: Nature Lv 25, Poison Lv 20, Earth Lv 18, Water Lv 16, Wind Lv 17

  Types: Aura Lv 15, Control Lv 17, Hex Lv 25, Self Lv 15, Creation Lv 25,

  Job Skills

  Mundane: Beastmaster Lv 25, Covert Lv 13, Generalist Lv 14, Doctor Lv 25, Hunter Lv 25,

  Magic: Alchemist Lv 15, Priest Lv 12, Mythozoologist Lv 20, Spellweaver Lv 15

  Note to self: I had to do all of this with Delilah at some point, too. Always nice to know what my team was good and bad at for the future.

  On another note, my previous assessment of my advantage was a bit premature. From what I could tell, my stats and the stats of other mages were being calculated differently, not just in how I was getting stats, which was plainly obvious, but in how they affected everything else as well. In a general sense, based on my progression and these benchmarks I’d seen, I was sure that my stats were going to be lagging behind others at my same level for a while. Eventually, I’d surpass them all, and then some. It just wasn’t now, or even relatively soon. If I was a smarter man, I probably could have mathed and graphed that or something.

  So, then, I had a few advantages in the meantime to make up for it, like stealing magic and having stupidly high skills for my level. Exciting.

  Anyhow, now for the main event:

  Tiny Hider: Due to their size, they can utilize more things for cover and escape than their often larger foes.

  +25 Covert

  +25 Dodge

  Classic goblin ability. Strange how Hikki didn’t have the Pack Figher ability as well. Maybe that was simply a warrior goblin thing.

  Mighty Feral Forms: Ability to change into animal forms. Limited to creatures of their level or lower, with no flying capabilities.

  Here was the exciting one. She knew how to use that power. She knew how to pick out the animals. She knew how to make that ability stronger. She could have trained me. She was going to train me. I was going to be a shapeshifter.

  Nature’s Delight: A powerful connection to nature allows this mage to channel the living energy around them to further boost their own powers

  +12 magic salvage for every living entity within 5 meters

  +Activate: Increase spell strength by 12 for every living entity within 15 meters. Recharges upon daily rest.

  Oh, that sounded awesome. I bet that also meant that her healing magic would have been stronger, too. Did plants count as living entities for those ability conditions? If so, forests were our friends. Volcanoes, maybe not so much.

  Healing Touch: Theirs is the healer’s gift of regeneration, rejuvenation, revitalization, and otherwise getting others back on their feet when they have no strength left. Allies cling to this mage and their necessary efforts for survival.

  +250 to all healing spells

  +condition recovery upon touch

  Look at that, there it was. She could heal conditions when she touched people. That gave me a lot more leeway for abuse. Yeah, I told her I was going to hold back on that, but only the naïve would have believed that things weren’t going to get harder from here on out. The danger was only going to increase with every level I gained and every foe we faced.

  “What is wrong?” Hikki interrupted my train of thought. “Is there something above us? What are you looking at?”

  “I’m learning about you,” I said, “and about all of your gifts. For example, you can shapeshift into animals, by the looks of it.”

  “How did you know that?” Her face turned a pale green. “I’ve never shown that to anyone. Are you some kind of diviner?”

  “Probably,” I joked. “I’m a lot of different things, including an animal shapeshifter, like you. But I’m not good at
any of those things I am yet, including the animal forms. Haven’t even done it once. Can you teach me sometime?”

  “Of course! But, first…” Hikki’s puppy-dog eyes melted whatever cynical parts of my heart were left, and I wasn’t even feeling cynical at the moment, all the while one of her thick legs swung around to hug my waist on both sides. “First, you promise to do something for me.”

  “Sure, anything.” I nodded. I was excited to learn some sweet nature magic. “Your wish is my command.”

  “Alright, then act natural.” The goblin girl fiddled around with the belt on my torn tunic, undoing it as she dug her way through the other layers between the open air and the family jewels. “Pretend like we are just hugging and do not tell Delilah about this.”

  I hadn’t a moment to affirm or reject the promise before Hikki’s untrained hands went to work with unprecedented agility and skill. With a shimmy, a shake, and a delicate set of green fingers in full control, I was exposed, manhandled, deftly transitioned, covered again, and enveloped, all underneath Hikki’s big dress. To the casual observer, it was a very intimate hug. To Hikki and me, it was a very intimate hug.

  “How am I supposed to act natural?” I gasped as I stiffened beneath the warmth of her palm.

  She grinned at me and continued to work her hand up and down my length, and I groaned in her ear as I wrapped one arm around her. I nibbled at her ear, eliciting a giggle from her, and then decided she shouldn’t have all the fun.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped as my free hand slipped beneath her dress. She made no move to stop me as I gently danced my fingers up her inner thigh. I heard her breath hitch in my ear as I found her center, and I was unsurprised to find her already wet.

  “Mmm,” I groaned as I slipped two fingers inside her. She gasped again, this time more sharply, but her hands did not let up. By this time, I was rock hard, and I wasn’t sure how we would keep this all under wraps.

  My fingers continued to move within her as she grew wetter, and her breathing became more uneven. All I wanted was to bury myself inside her, but there was a limit to how much we could manage here. Nevertheless, the hitched breathing in my ear and the liquid running down my palm were enough to have me pulsing with my own need for release.

  Hikki felt it too, and her thumb traced over the underside of my cock, coaxing me closer to a release. I groaned quietly in her ear, and then I heard the faintest whimper escape her lips as her walls tightened around my fingers. She quivered in my lap as she hit her almost-silent release, but her hands never let up, and I quickly joined her, grunting a bit too loudly as the underside of her dress took the brunt of my release.

  Hikki pulled back slightly to look at me. Her eyes widened slightly in alarm, and I also wondered what to do next. She did her best to clean up beneath her dress, even adjusting my clothes to cover me up again. By the time she stood and her dress fell back into position, the only evidence of our so-called hug were my still-damp fingers and my rapidly beating heart.

  23

  “This way!” Hikki guided Delilah, Bodo, and I through the maze of scaffolding, weaving us through the jungle gym of beams and poles as we snuck out of the wedding feast. “Just a little further, and we will be on the path to the surface.”

  Instead of waiting for another goblin tradition to change our quest and our lives forever, the group of us decided it best to leave the feast early in favor of trying to get to the surface as soon as possible. With a quick trip to the armory of stolen goods from soldiers and armed travelers, we suited up, patched our gear, and headed out along one of the secret passageways Hikki used to escape her room in secret.

  Delilah found a suit of armor that fit her well enough, removing the plates that impeded her movement too much. Eh, some protection is better than none, I guessed. Hikki had some worn leather and furs to layer up with, giving her some much-needed protection, along with a wooden staff she had tied a couple of feathers from her wedding dress to, giving it a shamanistic feel. I had replaced my wrecked chainmail with a spare and found a steel cuirass to wear around my chest for just that extra touch of protection I knew I was going to need. With the party in full swing still, even as the princess bride and the alien groom, no one would have noticed that we were missing.

  “Oh, my head.” Delilah rubbed the cranium in question, looking even more dead than usual. “How much did I drink? Why did you let me do that to myself?”

  “That was all you wanted to do at the party,” I said, ducking underneath a wooden beam, “You specifically said that you were looking for ale. And weren’t you the one who suggested the drinking contest?”

  “Well, I didn’t know that I could drink so much now.” Delilah repeatedly blinked, attempting to regain her focus as she rolled over a beam in front of us. “I wasn’t a lightweight before I died, but now I’m an ale fish. It barely felt like anything at all at first, and then suddenly, after more than a dozen pints, I lost all the feeling in my toes. I’m never drinking again. I’m glad I’m still alive.

  “Um--” I sarcastically began to correct her.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Well, retiring early, huh?” I commented after a giggle to myself, “of course you would, smart move. Always end on a high note and walk away a champion forever. Your legacy will never be forgotten.”

  “Hey, I saved your ass with that contest.” the undead monk glared at me. “You think that you could have fought half the tribe in one bout? Don’t you know that goblins get stronger with every goblin near them?”

  “I did, actually,” I answered, “that’s why I talked our way out of the tribe, instead of fighting our way out. Gak’Nak was far too strong for me to fight even without all of the powers and boosts he got from being surrounded by his tribe. With those, I doubt I’d be able to fight him anytime short of when I start fighting gods.”

  “You’re so sure about that?” Delilah laughed. “You barely beat me in a fight, and that was purely because I forfeited the fight after what you did for me. With my body back, you’d be flattened in a second.”

  “Do you want to go a few rounds and find out?” I asked, cracking my knuckles as I pulled out the maul I’d kept from Gojobo. “I learned a lot from those goblin fights. You’d be surprised what I could do now.”

  “Settle down, big guy.” She placed a gauntleted hand over the side of my maul to put it down. “I’ve got to get my kicks in now before you outgrow my skill level in a month. Besides, that’s not the hammer I’d like you to spar against me with, anyway.”

  “Still on about wanting another go?” I stepped over a piece of tomb rubble as the scaffolding became sparse, and the tomb’s stones littered the floor. “As soon as we find a resting spot, we’ll get some alone time.”

  “Can we stop for a rest now?” the revenant girl argued. “It’s not like we’re on a clock or anything. We have enough rations to get us where we want to go, and I’m getting irritable without it. I need to get my time in before Hikki can have her second shot.”

  Hikki, ever the naïve, honest, and sheltered goblin princess, couldn’t quite keep her guilt bottled up inside like she desperately wanted to. She must have been thankful that she was standing so far ahead of us, or otherwise, we might have heard her sweat. There was no soundproofing that nervous, minor hyperventilation.

  “Oh, right, of course!” Hikki’s fake-casual tone was horrendous. “Wouldn’t want things to be unfair, so I will gladly wait for my turn.”

  “You did wait your turn, right?” Delilah asked with a glance like a secret policeman looking for a political refugee. “We’re both one and one, right? Hikki? Right?”

  “Hey, look!” Hikki awkwardly changed the subject. “We are here!”

  “Where is here, Hikki?” Delilah didn’t take her eyes off of Hikki or let her off the hook so easily. “Where are we? What is the significance of this place?”

  “Well, um,” the princess couldn’t bear to look at her accuser, “it’s quite simple, really. We are at the, u
h… Jeremiah, you know where we are, right?”

  “He doesn’t,” Delilah answered before I could even get a sound out of my mouth. “So far, no one seems to know. So, where are we, Hikki? Is it Cheater-Town? Where little goblin princesses take advantage of their wedding to sneak in a little action when it’s not their turn? Is that where we are, Hikki?”

  “No!” Hikki met Delilah’s sarcasm with a genuine answer. “Obviously, we are at the, um, the place where we go to, um, keep going to the surface.”

  “Does ‘The Place Where We Go To, Um, Keep Going To The Surface’ have a rest stop, by chance?” Delilah looked at me with a heated glance, still talking to the goblin. “It better be a rest stop. I’ve made a recent discovery that I need to take care of something now.”

  “It was her wedding feast.” I defended Hikki’s indiscretion. “She was more than in her right to enjoy it how she wanted to.”

  “But that puts her at one above me!” Fuming, the warrior woman pointed a furious finger at me. “She’s winning, Jeremiah! Winning! That means I’m losing! Losing, Jeremiah!”

  “It does not have to be like that!” Hikki, ever-wishing for peace to return to our little group, stepped back into the back to mediate. “You can be winning if you want to. I will not touch him ever again if it makes you happy.”

  “I don’t need your pity.” Delilah sighed, releasing her half-hearted anger at the sight of Hikki’s growing and authentic stress. “You don’t have to do that, Hikki. I’m not mad at you. I mean, it’s not like I can blame you for wanting more time with him. And Jeremiah’s right. It was your wedding. I was busy getting drunk, and I have no excuse for being angry. I’m just a little pent up, probably a little jealous and insecure, and I shouldn’t have made you worry.”