I got only beard, which is how I planned it, but he still jumped back and pulled out his axe while he yelled, "Light and Shadow! That's it! That. Is. It!"
I cheered and sang, “Yay! Now is, fighty time! Fighty Time! Blood blood blood!”
He responded with a “Rraaaaaahhhhrrrrr!” as he charged at me, axe swinging.
“This is the amazing idea you came up with?" Aeria yelled, apparently not seeing the greatness that was my plan. “Really, Ruin!”
“To be completely honest!” I called back while ducking under a chop aimed at my neck. "I stole the idea from a comic book!”
David turned to Aeria and asked, “Should we… I don't know, do something?”
Her voice was resigned as she said, “No. Just let them go at it. Maybe they'll tire themselves out. If they get hurt I'll just heal them.”
Then she started walking again. David hesitated then followed after.
The Dwarf and I kept pace with them. Me bouncing around and avoiding Taren's swings as he tried to turn me into chopped Ruin.
“Stop running like a coward!” Taren roared at me. "Fight! Come on! Fight me!”
“I call insult!”
“Like! Like a coward! Not insult!”
“Debatable!” I sang out in my best Frank Sinatra voice. "That's debatable… and yet... quite possibly truuuue…"
“Stop singing and fight back! Or else!”
“Or else what? You'll try to kill me? Hey! Why are you stopping? Oh, right. I need to keep aggro,” I darted forward and slapped him lightly on the face.
“Krrrriiillaaghhhhh rip you! Kill yoooouuuaaaahhgg!”
Aggro achieved.
“What is aggro?” David asked over the Dwarfs howls of rage and my possibly, okay definitely, inappropriate laughter.
“Its a term that means aggression,” Aeria replied over the Dwarfs mangled murdery threats. “It means drawing attention of a mob. A mob is a non person enemy and its short for mobile unit.”
“Then shouldn't it be pronounced ‘mowb’ and not ‘mob’?”
“Probably,” she replied. "But it isn't. I don’t know why. Maybe it made sense at the time. What Ruin is doing to Taren, drawing him forward but not out running him is called kiteing.”
I immediately started singing, "Let's go flyyyy a kite! Up! To! The highest height! Let's go fly a kite! And send it soooooaarring…”
This went on for an hour, not me singing of course. I stopped singing that song over and over again after the tenth iteration. I had to because Aeria had started throwing rocks at me by that point.
Eventually though, Taren was the one who ended up face down in the grass. He, of course, did not get a kick in the ribs from Aeria but rather support and terms of endearment.
That must be nice. I never get terms of endearment from anybody. At most, I get are terms of endurement.
When he got back to his feet he took a deep, steadying breath and said, "Okay. Let's do this."
We spent an hour sparing, with Taren having to stop several times to rest.
We never actually stopped moving, fighting around David and Aeria's steady pace. Like spaceships dog fighting around the steadily flying Death Star on its way to destroy some planet.
Or something.
Whenever Taren ran out of steam we walked along until he recovered enough to go again.
After Taren collapsed on the ground for the third time David took pity on him, passing him a green vial.
“Don't drink it all at once.” The Centaur warned. "It is a stamina recovery potion. Not a potion invested with stamina. You sip on it sparingly. In battle you can keep one between your teeth and suck out a little at a time. Just don't bite down too hard on it.”
When the Dwarf asked how much he owed him for it, David just waved it away and said, "I just want to see you hit him.”
“Works for me.” Taren took a cautious sip then froze. “Light and Shadow. Is… is this… Is this..."
“What!” Aeria looked alarmed then glared at the Centaur. “What did you give him?”
David put his hands up defensively and said, “It's just a - “
“Mountain Dew!” Taren interrupted him. “It… it tastes like Mountain Dew!"
I stared at him. “Really?”
He took another sip and nodded.
“Ew.”
He gave me a look and took another determined sip.
After that things started getting interesting. The Dwarf started improving quickly and soon I was having to rely on my magic more and more until it was the one needing a break.
Once that happened I had to call a timeout, which Taren agreed to with a smirk. After that, I started taking him seriously.
I mean, I didn't stop talking, singing and joking of course, but there was no more twelve foot high jumps, unnecessary flips, walking on my hands, attempts at break dancing or other wasteful moments.
I had to work hard at integrating physical acrobatic moves with the magicly assisted ones. I focused on making my moves like my magic, controlled and energy efficient.
From experimentation I learned what types of movements worked best with my Bounce spell. Shoving people and things away from me or shoving myself away from people and things worked best. Using it to bolster my punches wasn't very efficient and neither was running.
I tried putting a little Bounce my step when I ran and it only sorta kinda worked.
Using the Bounce spell as a haste spell didn’t really work. I tried running as close to the ground as possible while casting the spell through the heels and it was like I was trying to run across the bottom of a pool by kicking off the bottom.
After a few bounds I had to compensate by digging my claws into the ground to keep from bouncing too high.
As a way to rush someone, to move quickly over a short distance, it was effective.
Anything longer than that, and it not only became ineffectual, it also looked ridiculous.
"Hmm," I muttered. "There's an inappropriate joke in there somewhere…"
Meanwhile, the Dwarf had gotten better, much better. He not only blocked all my attempts to hit him but he actually started hitting me.
My blood misted towards him through the air with every fresh cut. If the wound was minor, we continued sparing and I brought the fight close enough for Aeria to slap a quick healing on me before I danced away.
Literally, she slapped the wound with a handful of magic, which did little more than stop the bleeding. It was like she was annoyed with me or something.
When he started being able to damage me I had started to fight back. Not with Force Spike though. I really wanted to level up my Bounce spell so I saved all my magic for that.
Instead I used my claws and while they did hurt him, causing some real damage, they didn't do too much damage unless I got him somewhere vulnerable.
Whenever we received a serious injury we both stopped long enough for Aeria give us a real heal.
By then the road we had been traveling on merged with a larger, wider road. A road that other guards and other Fallen were traveling on.
Taren and I were in the middle of a fight, too focused on each other to notice at first.
Then there was an unholy squealing shriek of, “Tahaniria!” and Aeria launching herself at an Aegis Shadow Elf who simultaneously squealed, “Aeria!” and ran right at the Light Elf.
After that we saw a large group of people trudging up the road behind us.
The Dwarf and I stopped fighting and watched the two girls collide in a flurry of girl on girl hugging, jumping and supersonic conversation.
Taren grinned, the surly Dwarf he had been just a second ago all but disappeared as he watched the two girls. Then the Shadow Elf saw him and rushed over.
Taren laughed aloud as she ran into his arms and he picked her up, spinning her around. When he put her down there was quite a bit of hugging as well as cheek and forehead kissing.
Aeria joined the group hug and there was another round of hugs and kisses between the three
of them.
After a few minutes of this, Aeria introduced the Shadow Elf as, “24112-02. Tahaniria.”
She pronounced it like " Tah han near ah."
She smelled and looked a lot like Aeria but instead of smelling like sunshine, it was the scent of night and darkness. She was physical perfection with a purple completion. With more curves than the Light Elf and eyes a dark shade of blue that seemed to radiate shadows.
Aegis Shadow Elves were pretty much the same as Light Elves. It was as if the company who created World Of Ages just copied, pasted, flipped the color scheme then reversed their special skills.
For example:
Shadow Elf:
Inner Darkness: (Buff) (Passive) All Shadow Elves are naturally gifted in, and resistant to, Shadow Magic. This includes Frost Magic, as well as curses (debuffs) and bindings. For them, these magics are are easier to learn, easier to cast and cost less energy.
See? They only way Shadow Elves can diversify is with professions and different classes. The same goes for Light Elves.
Okay, I will admit that having six different types of Buff and Debuff classes does help bring a bit of variety.
They also have a deep and detailed lore history that explained how Light and Shadow Elves came to be.
Four said it not only offsets the apparent lack of creativity but ties everything together in a way that actually makes sense.
I didn't know any of the history but I learn more later if I get interested enough.
Right now though I was more focused on the other Fallen and the two new Centaurs leading them.
One of the Centaurs seemed to have dark skin under her smooth black coat, the lazily waving tail and yellow eyes made me think “cat”. Her scent reinforced that idea. She had a black wrap around her modest chest as well as a belt and sash just like David.
The second was more like the traditional mythical centaur. He was horse like but like the others, his body wasn't an exact analog to anything on earth. His coat was a medium brown, his skin a dark tan and his black hair long and tied back into a tail.
He had an undercurrent of that almost, but not really, horse smell right along with the base Centaur smell.
I felt a disturbing unease when I saw the group. They were a mix of Elves, Dwarves and Everkin. No Beast Kin from Rath, no Orcs or Goblins or Gargoyles or anything else.
My Chain was all Everkin except Two and Four, they were Elsekin.
I felt a twinge of panic over the idea of any of us being separated and then I pushed that feeling deep down.
I tried to think rationally but it wasn't easy. I hadn't thought that I was that codependent, but then again, how would I know until we were separated?
Some Chains ended up being incredibly codependent on each other, even the ones who didn't get along. They may not like one another but when you're going through Hell, you need others to keep you going.
To distract myself I looked the newcomers over. Two male Elves from Neon and four Everkin from Midian.
The rest were from Aegis, two female Shadow Elves, two male Light Elves and a female Aegis Dwarf.
As I looked, I noticed a few differences between those from Aegis and those from the other worlds. I hadn't really paid attention when it was just me Aeria and Taren together. But looking at them side by side, with others from Midian and Neon, it was noticeable.
Those from Aegis seemed to have an aura of power about them. Not just the obvious, slightly glowing eyes of the Elves. There was more to it than that.
The Dwarves eyes didn't glow but they did have that same sense of power. I couldn't really put a name to it.
Okay, I could. They were "magical". Like the way lions were powerful or puppies were adorable. The people of Aegis were just… magical.
My thoughts were interrupted when three of the newcomers walked towards me, all from Midian.
Something in the way they moved together made me think they were in the same Chain.
The one in the lead raised a hand in greeting as he approached and said, "Hello! I am 24002-02. Vicious. I'm a Fire Mage."
He was aristocratically handsome. With pale skin and a face carved into harsh planes and sharp angles. His body was chiseled with elegant muscles that I was sure he got from character creation.
His eyes were the color of old blood. His long loose hair was a deep red so dark it was almost black.
So basically the same as every other Blood Kin I had ever seen, only the details differing. The race attracted a certain type.
He smiled, showing his fangs in a, "I'm too handsome for my own good" expression.
He smelled sort of like a Shadow Elf but not really, with a coppery overtone.
I smiled back, his fangs were longer but he only had the upper ones while had tops and bottoms. I was sure that if it came to a biting contest I could do the most damage.
Not that I was comparing sizes or anything.
He introduced the Savage Kin standing to his right.
"This is 24002-04. Savage. She's a Hunter."
She had the usual Forest Elf features. The slightly too pointed, feral face mixed with her obvious Asain heritage perfectly, as opposed to my boyish baby face, which did not.
Her body was all tanned skin and lean muscle that held a sense of restrained violence even while seemingly relaxed.
Her black, fly away hair almost camouflaged the smooth, dark chocolate horns that curled up from her forehead.
Large brown eyes flicked around and she looked like she knew how to use the crossbow she held over her shoulder.
Her scent was hard to pin down at first, until I realized that she smelled like the forest. Of plants and earth with an undercurrent of musk, like something with fur.
I noticed her sniffing as well and found myself wanting to move closer. To investigate her scent more fully. She took a hesitant step forward and I did as well, both of us sniffing.
Then, when we were a single pace away from each other I tilted my head to the side. Still sniffing as I moved towards her.
Eyes half closed, I drew in a breath from the base of her neck to her jawline. Then. I knew her.
I knew from her scent that she was Everkin, Forest Elf, female, young, with not much magic, not weak but not yet strong. I knew her scent, her personal scent that was all her own. She did the same to me and before we knew it, we were circling each other like dogs, inches away from each others necks.
I jerked away, suddenly realizing what I’d been doing. She blinked, looking startled as she realized the same.
I was glad I wasn’t the only one whose instincts took over. The fact that it was a mutual, instinctive interaction was probably the only thing that kept me from being labeled as a super creep.
"Um. Hi?" I said a little awkwardly.
"Ah, hi," she said back, just as awkwardly.
Then, as if by mutual consent, we ignored the crowd of people who watched us with varying degrees of confusion and amusement.
"I'm going to refrain from commenting on your name," I commented.
"And in return, I'll refrain from shooting your eyes out," she commented back.
Her eyes were sharp and almost seemed to gleem with a, there and gone, red spark.
I grinned at her. She grinned back.
Vicious looked between us and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, 'savages'. Then at a louder volume. "And this is 24002-05. Dash. He's an Assassin."
Dash was pale skinned with short, light brown hair and green, slit pupiled irises that edged out the white. At a thin five foot two, he was a handy size to be an assassin.
He was was also pretty. And he couldn't help it. Succubi can't help but to be attractive, even the males. They all varied along the spectrum of pleasing aesthetics. Whether it was being pretty, lovely, cute, adorable, hot, sexy, or beautiful.
Usually it's rather distracting, or irritating, depending on the individuals involved.
As an Incubus, he had a long, prehensile tail, the same as a Succubus.
&
nbsp; The end of which had a thickly rounded spade like shape that produced venom and excreted it from the pointed tip. They usually wear something called an injector strapped around it.
Basicly a leather and metal strappy thing with a long sturdy needle at the end they used to, well, inject stuff.
Succubi are immune to poisons, various toxins and many are assassins or work as an apothecary.
He smelled like something that was too sweet, something that would make my teeth ache just to look at.
Unlike mine his silver horns curled forward from around his temples. He currently held his tail in one hand, right under the base of the poison producing bit.
As I watched, I saw the thin, inch and a half long tip twitch as he gave it a disquieted look.
Vicious smacked the Incubus on the shoulder and said, "Stop playing with it!”
"But it's so weird," Dash said. "Dude. You have no idea how weird it is to suddenly have an extra appendage."
"Fine. Just… stop playing with it in public.”
“Dude, do you have to say it like that?”
“Like what? I… Oh…”
Savage giggled and Vicious cleared his throat before turning back to me.
Putting on a professionally smile he said, "It's good to meet another Midianite. We need to stick together, you know. Work together. By the way, I’m sorry if this is rude but, what class did you take?"
I just knew this guy had been a guild leader back in Midian. He had that "I got a can do attitude and you can too. Stick with me you'll be going places" kind of vibe.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing. It's not. I knew people in Midian and on the Outside who were raid leaders or guild leaders and they took care of their people.
Of course, I've met people in the same position who were terrible to their people.
Either way, I wasn't looking to be recruited. My priority was to find the rest of my Chain but that didn't mean I couldn't group up with a few others along the way.
"My Class? I'm a Force Mage. I only have Force Spike, a channelled Force Spike and one other I developed so far. I'm close to unlocking my second racial skill and then I'll have four spells."
Dubstep Succubus Page 13
