“I understand,” Iris said as she saw the stats that I sent to her. “He doesn't have any special abilities now, but the unbreakable body ability is awesome, and I looked at this Qing Fish Demon spell; I think it would be something that could be killer in a brawl or tournament.”
“What does it do?” I asked as we exited the parking lot.
Aya was behind us, Iris to my right and Lady C. to my left. It was full-on night now, and the moon was hidden by a dark cloud. I could see a few stars in the sky, but not many, their sparkle cancelled out by the glaring lights of the city.
“The Qing Fish Demon spell traps someone in their desires,” she said.
“That sounds interesting,” said Lady C.
“It's a total psychological effect that causes confusion for the enemy, and could potentially cause them to rage as well,” Iris said. “It's definitely worth using, but I think you should maybe try them out in a brawl before you put them on the main fighting party.”
“Good idea.”
On my Monster Hunt app open on my viewing pane, I noticed that there was a small circle of activity not too far away from where we currently stood. It was moving rather rapidly, and changing locations in a way that would make it hard to track.
I really like the Brawl add-on and its Monster Locator, but the only problem with it was that I had no color grade model, and I wasn't able to see if, for example, a mythcrea was stronger than us or if it was worth our time to catch it.
“We’ve got something moving rapidly not too far from here,” I told the three. “Since we're keeping Sun Wukong, whatever we get next we will probably have to trade, so hopefully it isn't a really powerful one.”
“If it is really powerful, then we can trade Rose and Gobi,” Aya said. “Or the camel, because I'm not a big fan of that camel.”
“Joe Camel is worth four tokens and we need to reach Level Three,” I reminded her. “Rose and Gobi…”
“He likes them,” Lady C. said, “and I like them too.”
“I think you like anything he likes just because he likes it,” Aya said under her breath.
Iris, who couldn’t hear any of this, had no idea where to jump into the conversation. All she could add was not to trade Rose or Joe Camel.
“Not planning on it,” I said as we walked along the streets. We passed a few people out on their stoops, enjoying the cold weather.
It wasn’t cold enough that one wanted to be indoors, and after New York’s scorching hot summer, the last month and a half had been a blessing.
A guy in a Yankees hat and a Mets jersey nodded at us as we walked past. I didn’t say anything, not because I was trying to be unfriendly, but because I was focusing on the flashing blue light letting me know where the mythcrea had since moved.
It was an odd way to travel, with the gridlines of a city painted across your field of vision, but I’d used features like this before when trying to travel to some of the outer boroughs, or find a few of the clubs we’d played at that were well tucked away.
Suddenly, the blue indicator flashed above us.
“Holy shit…” I glance up to see a large being with bleeding red eyes soaring above us, his wings spread wide.
Before I could point, Lady C. and Aya were already tracking it.
Lady C. took a running leap, bounced off a door canopy, landed on a windowsill and leapt to a fire escape.
Aya did a similar move, although hers was smoother given her ghost limbs.
“We’ve got to move,” I said, grabbing Iris’ hand. We hauled ass to the nearest fire escape and took the steps two at a time.
“To the rooftop?” she asked as we climbed the fire escape.
“That’s where it’s going down!”
I could hear the clink and clank of weapons on the rooftop. Mothman’s shrieks had my nerves firing by the time we reached the last platform. We still needed to get to the roof, which was about seven feet up.
“You go first,” Iris said, making a cup with her hands.
“But you’re lighter…”
“You can pull me up. Chase, hurry!”
Iris helped boost me to the rooftop; I tried to ignore the tingling sensation caused by our current height. Looking down at her, and fully aware that a serious battle was being waged behind me, I bent over, dropped my hands, and Iris jumped.
She grabbed my hands and I started to pull back.
It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but it also wasn’t easy. I was especially aware of our grip, and the fact that letting go or loosening in any way would spell certain death for her.
Luckily, Iris cleared the rooftop.
“That was crazy,” she said, slightly out of breath.
“I didn’t expect us to get into parkour through Monster Hunt. But seriously, let’s never do that again,” I said with a grin. I was out of breath too, and my arm muscles screamed. Iris was incredibly light, but pulling her up still strained my muscles in a way I wasn’t used to.
I turned to the melee.
Aya was on one side, swinging her oversized sword at the mothman; Lady C. was on the other, offering smaller thrusts to cause him to lose focus. He looked terrible from below, absolutely frightening close up.
The mothman was a hulking, top heavy beast with small black legs. His wingspan was massive; his glowing red eyes were perfectly round, making it look like he was wearing a pair of steampunk goggles.
Mothman fought Lady C. with his claws and Aya with the talon-like tips of his wings. Her torso twisting as she came in for her light strikes, Lady C. moved like a whirling dervish, everything concentric and planned out.
Aya was the exact opposite. She’d try to drive her blade in one way, use her ghost limbs to bail, slip back in for another attack, backflip away, and try again from a different angle.
“What’s happening?” Iris asked, fear on her face as she tracked basic movements over iNet. “It’s just a whirl of color.”
“They… they can’t get a hit in,” I said hurriedly.
“Then do something, take charge, Chase!”
“Okay,” I said quickly. “Sure, let’s, um…”
I watched their movements for a second longer.
If Mothman had a chance to spread his wings, this would be over ...
So throw him off balance, I thought.
“Lady C., Chain Lightning; Aya, partial Body Splitter. Do not kill him!”
Lady Cassandra ducked away, sheathed a blade, and made an arcane gesture which caused a bolt of lightning to strike Mothman. He cried out, and as he did, Aya drove her sword into his trapezius, stopping at about his clavicle.
He shrieked as he fell to his knees.
“Got him!” My net of light took shape in my hands, I took one step back, and forced the web in his direction. It hit, compressed on his body, and he disappeared.
The door to the rooftop kicked open and a super with a flashlight stepped out. He was overweight, his hair long and his legs short and stubby.
“What in the hell is going on out here?” he asked, the beam of his flashlight hitting us.
Suddenly, Iris was in my arms, kissing me.
“What the…?”
“Play along,” she whispered, our lips still pressed together.
“Hey! What in the hell? This isn’t a place for smooching,” the building’s supervisor said. “You two… you two better get outta here or I’m calling the damn cops.”
“So sorry,” Iris said letting go of me. “Um, we won't let this happen again. Just needed some privacy.”
“Some privacy?” He coughed long and hard, his alert level waning.
She approached him cautiously, but with a soft smile on her face. “You won't call the cops, will you? Please don't! We were just out having a little fun and got a little out of hand.”
“A little out of hand?” He grumbled and pointed his finger at us. “That’s some serious smooching!”
I looked over to see Aya with her hand over her mouth, and Lady C. with her arms crossed ov
er her chest.
“Well.” The building supervisor scratched the back of his head. “What can I say? I was young once, ha, that was a long time ago. Anyway, you two better get the hell out of here, and if I ever see anyone that looks like you again near this building or on this rooftop, I'm calling the cops. Are we clear here?”
“I can’t believe that worked,” I said as soon as we left the building. Lady C. walked next to me, as did Iris. Aya was behind us, no doubt with a mischievous grin on her face.
“I would rate that kiss seven on a scale of one to ten,” she said, teasing me.
Of course, Iris couldn’t hear, which kept turning out to be a good thing.
“The good thing is that it worked,” Iris said to me, not yet making eye contact. A smile was on her face as she faced forward, the lights from a landing aeros flashing across her glasses. Her backpack was turned around now so it hung from the front of her body, and she’d used a hair tie to pull her blond hair into a short side ponytail.
“Did you enjoy the kiss, Chase?” Lady C. asked me.
I cleared my throat. “I think it’s time to send you two back to the Dojo.”
Something touched down on my shoulder. Aya’s ghost limb, I thought, as I tried to get out of its grip.
“Don't send us back,” the Thulean said in a sweet voice.
“Then stop bothering me about it.”
Iris turned to me. “Are they giving you shit or something?”
“If you only knew.”
We stopped at the bodega so Iris could pick up some bananas.
I waited outside with the two Huntresses, monitoring the Brawl add-on. I had received several invitations for Brawls the following day, and realized very quickly that most of the day would be spent going around the city, finding these Brawlers, and hopefully, winning.
I could test out Sun Wukong in a brawl; I could also try to level some of the others in my fighting party. The only thing about Brawls that sucked was that they didn't add to my personal level, which I needed tokens to do. That said, I could net some Proxima dollars through a brawl if I made wagers and won.
So I'd have to pepper my Brawls in with some captures, and hope that we also ran into some transferable tokens.
“Did you like the kiss, Chase?” Lady C. asked, finally breaking a long stretch of silence.
“It was just a kiss.”
“There is no such thing as just a kiss.”
“Don’t worry, Lady Cassandra, his heart still beats for you, and his you-know-what still throbs for your butt!” She slapped the Metican warrior on the ass.
Lady C. drew her two swords. “You’d be careful to mind your words, Lady Aya.”
“Is that a challenge? I already killed you once, if you recall.”
“No fighting, no killing. What the hell is wrong with you two?”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Once we got back to Iris' home, we lay on her futon and immediately went to the Dojo.
Everything was in its right place, from the large field to the flowers to the meadow to the pond beyond. The sky above us was streaked with deep hues of purple and blue; a very small twinkling of stars let me know that there were others out there, other small personalized worlds like our Dojo.
I turned to the rooftop of the mythcrea quarters and saw Mothman perched on a corner, glaring down at us.
“That’s what you caught on the rooftop?” Iris asked.
“Yep, freaky as shit, right? That’s one thing I’d like to avoid with our fighting party. I mean, we have Magnus and Ophelia, and I’m fine with them. But no more. No zombies, or mothmen, or devils.”
Iris laughed.
“I agree,” Lady C. said, stepping forward. “I don’t want to fight alongside creepy or scary things.”
“Those creepy things can be powerful,” Aya reminded her.
From the settings menu, I selected the “Mythcrea” tab and found several options. “Fuse” and “Sacrifice” were grayed out, but “Trade” wasn’t. I clicked trade and it pulled up a list of my current captures.
I selected Mothman, who was worth two tokens, and two buttons appeared, TRADE and SELL. I selected sell and was informed by a quick prompt that a Level Three Mothman was worth 4,500 Proxima dollars.
The transaction finished; the red eyed creature fizzled out of existence.
Proxima Dollars: $4,500
Spent: $17,500
Loan: 0
“So, you have 4,500 Proxima dollars, correct?” Iris asked.
“That's it. I mean, it's not a lot, but it should give us some to wager and we will be able to get clothing for this tournament,” I said with some irony to my voice.
The fact that I was required to dress up to go to a tournament seemed stupid to me. Furthermore, the Huntresses also had to dress up, and I had an itching feeling that they were going to be quite particular about what they wore.
“I can't wait to go shopping for the tournament,” said Lady C.
I chuckled at this. “Yeah, I’m sure you’re excited.”
She grabbed my arm. “I want to wear something sexy but fierce, I mean, this is a once a year tournament. I have to look good.”
Aya shook her head. “You are a ridiculous creature.”
“Hey!”
“But that’s fine, you can be, ha, sexy and fierce, and I’ll just be fierce.”
“We’ll get it all sorted out tomorrow, after we have some more funds,” I told the three of them. “Let’s get back to New York.”
“Can we come?” Lady C. asked, her hand still on my arm.
“Not just yet. I’ll call you two there in a moment.”
“Fine, fine,” she said, her face awash with disappointment. “But can we at least sleep there? Remember, no cabin. Don’t make us sleep here again, please, Chase.”
“There are plenty of rooms in the mythcrea quarters.”
“We aren’t mythcrea,” Aya said, her hand lifting to her sword.
“Relax, Aya, and fine, we’ll get your cabins taken care of. Building the cabins will be our next big Dojo expenditure, I promise.”
Iris cleared her throat. I turned to her to see that she was trying to contain laughter.
“Well, if you promise, then I believe you. And as long as you let us sleep in New York, then we won't give you trouble about it,” said Lady C. “Right, Aya?”
“I guess,” the Thulean said, lowering her hand from her blade. “But don’t make us wait too much longer.”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Iris and I respawned in her bedroom. It was cold now, and the place still smelled slightly of the ramen we ate earlier.
“Didn’t feel like sticking around?” Iris asked.
“You know those gigs that you’ve just played that make you feel exhausted but you also don’t want to be a spoilsport, so you force yourself to stay?” I asked her, my visor still over my head.
“I’ve had plenty of those.”
“That’s how I’m feeling. I just want to go home and sleep in my bed.”
I could hear Iris turn to me. “You aren’t staying here?” she asked softly.
I was glad Aya and Lady C. hadn’t spawned back in New York with us. They would have had a field day with the way Iris asked this, at least Aya would have.
“I want to take a shower and change clothes.”
“I think we have some of our old band shirts here you could wear, and I have an extra towel.”
I shrugged. I had no idea how I should feel about Iris’ suggestion, and I didn't take it in a sexual way, although weaker men might have. Truth was, I was actually tired.
And I wanted to sleep in my own bed.
“What if you came to my place?”
“Your place?” she asked.
“Yeah, you spent the night there before, I mean, it's not that bad.”
Iris bit her lip for a moment. “Yeah, it wasn't too bad, let's go there. I have a morning class tomorrow, but that's it for the week, and I can go to school from your area. Let me get my b
ackpack, and some other things. Do you want me to bring these instruments? I know that you will be hunting alone tomorrow, so maybe you'll at least want to use the keyboard. When I meet up with you then I can have some of the instruments to use as well.”
“For sure.”
“Let's just order a shared UberLyft; by the time it arrives I'll be packed up and ready to go.”
Our vehicle came about twenty minutes later. Sitting in the front seat was a young girl, no older than 16, with a bag of Chinese food over her lap. She didn't say anything to us as our vehicle quickly took us to Bushwick.
Once we got into my apartment, we found Alex asleep on the couch. Sitting on the coffee table before him was a discarded burrito wrapper.
“Is he always like this?” Iris asked as we entered my bedroom.
“Watch out for the pipe,” I reminded her as I ducked under it. “To answer your question, yes, he is always asleep on the couch. I swear a month goes by and I barely talk to him.”
I took off my glasses and set them on my nightstand.
Iris placed the bag of instruments on the floor, and took her other bag into the bathroom to begin her nightly ritual of cleaning her face and putting cream on and whatever else women do before they go to bed.
The Monster Hunt app flashed on my viewing pane and I decided it was time to allow the Huntresses to return to New York.
I knew it wasn't the greatest idea, and I knew that they would give me hell in some way, shape, or form, but I was happy to see them when they spawned.
Aya wore a pair of boy shorts and a loose top. Lady C. was in her striped pajamas, too many buttons opened in the front.
“We’re not sleeping on the floor tonight,” Aya informed me.
“I thought you guys had a sleeping bag…”
“We’re sleeping with you.” Lady C. plopped down onto the bed and yawned. “Besides, you have a bigger bed than Iris has.”
“How did you know we’d be at my place tonight?”
“She’s here too?” Aya asked, looking suspiciously at the bathroom.
“We didn’t know,” Lady C. said, answering my former question. “We just figured we’d all cuddle up on the futon if you were still at her place.”
“I don’t know about…”
Monster Hunt NYC: A Fantasy Harem Adventure Page 18
