Chapter 28 : Late Afternoon

Anton hummed quietly to himself as he ran the metal bristles of the cleaning brush across the barbecue's grates.

After their second excursion in the dungeon, he and the dark elves had all taken a bit of a long breather before getting themselves cleaned up and finally coming back upstairs.

Refreshed and hungry now, Anton was busy with preparing to grill up another batch of chicken to go with the pasta and green bean casserole he had baking in the oven. All of which had been requested by the dark elves.

This trait of theirs with wanting to eat the same things over and over again was a habit he did plan to break them of, but he would worry about that later. For now, chicken sounded fine to him as well.

Just off to the side of him, Kianna was sitting with a happy, satisfied look on her face, even as her bottom was conspicuously resting on a large, soft pillow.

Dressed in short shorts and a low cut tank top, she was gleefully showcasing the risque markings that encircled not only her arms and legs, but the base each of her breasts as well. These titillating imprints were the undeniable evidence that had been left behind by the tight, rope bindings that had only just recently been wrapped around her limbs and bosom.

The brazen dark elf had positioned one of the long, lounge style pool chairs in such a way that she could easily watch Anton as he cooked their dinner while also absently beginning to read one of the books on Infernals she had picked up from a bookstore at the mall they had just visited.

Fiona, who was feeling far more energetic than her sister was at the moment, was out in the grass with Mica and was trying her best to mimic the poses of the stretching exercises that the kiochi was attempting to teach her.

As for her part, Mica had been enjoying the light buzz she had developed from the energy she had been gathering secondhand off of her housemates activities, but not wanting her judgement to be overtaken by them, or to end up in a full blown drunken stupor, she had retreated outside when the tantric energies had started to become too thick and intoxicating for her to handle.

“Stop trying to twist so far back.” said Mica as she shifted from one pose to another and ended up standing on one foot with her other leg pointed straight up into the air “You're just starting out, so you're not going to be that bendable yet.”

“...Yeah.” mumbled Fiona as she raised herself back upright and gazed at Mica's perfectly straight form “...I don't know if I'll ever be that bendable, honestly. At least not bendable enough to do flips.”

“You will. It just takes practice.” said Mica as she looped her tail around herself in a stylish manner.

Letting her leg fall forward, the kiochi used its momentum to throw herself into a curled up form and preformed a midair frontal somersault before landing back on her feet again, just in front of Fiona.

“Flips are easy once you get the hang of them.” she said as she grinned “Like I said, just takes practice. Which to get started, first you need to loosen yourself up more. Then you gotta learn how to maintain your balance properly.”

“Oh yeah, great advice. Just loosen my body up more...” grumbled Fiona as she gave the showboating kiochi an annoyed look “Easy for you to say...”

“Hey, if you wanna be doing flips, then that's what it's gonna take.” said Mica with a shrug “Be loose, and find your balance. Though really, balance is the most important thing. Being loose is as easy as just letting yourself go.”

To illustrate her point, Mica went limp, planted her coiled tail against the ground and used said tail to toss herself up into the air where she closed her eyes and sailed backwards into a graceful, effortless looking back-flip. Landing on her feet now nearly ten feet away but still facing Fiona, she smiled smugly as she opened her eyes.

“See, all you really need is balance, and then it's easy.” she said as she put her hands on her hips.

“...Well yeah, and I bet it's super easy to find your balance when you've got a tail like yours that you can use to throw yourself around like that!” exclaimed Fiona as she planted her hands on her own hips and began to sway them from side to side “In case you haven't noticed though, I'm sort of lacking in one of those particular appendages!”

“Excuses, excuses...” said Mica as she waved both her hand and tail dismissively “I've known plenty of people without tails who could still do flips just fine. It's really not that big a deal.”

“It still helps.” mumbled Fiona as she crossed her arms over her chest “There's no way it doesn't.”

“Sure, but knowing that doesn't do you any good.” said Mica with another shrug “Not unless you plan on growing a tail of your own.”

“...Hm, I guess I could do that. Just get a body mod charm or something.” mused Fiona as her expression became thoughtful “...Nah, I'm not going to do that. I don't think I would look right with a tail.”

“Then you'll just have to learn to work without one.” said Mica “Which means loosen up and find your balance!”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I heard you before, I gotta dig deep and “Find my balance” I get it, I get it...” grumbled Fiona as she fell back into doing the yoga-like stretches that Mica had shown her before “Stupid, lucky, long tailed little shit...”

“I heard that.” said Mica.

“Good!” said Fiona.

Chuckling, Anton shook his head as he began to lay out pieces of chicken across the grill. Once he had them all laid out and seasoned, he gave them a last look over before nodding his head in approval.

Giving them a minute to stop sizzling against the new heat, he pulled out his phone to check his messages. As he did this he again noticed Leopold's email and this got him thinking about their upcoming meeting.

Taking up a pair of tongs, he began to absently reposition a few of the pieces as he let his thoughts percolate a bit.

“...Mica.” he called suddenly as looked over at her “Can you come over here for a second. I need to ask you some questions real quick.”

Turning to him, Mica creased her brow in suspicion before making her way closer to the grill.

“What's up?” she asked as her eyes landed on the cooking chicken.

“I was just wondering...” said Anton as he turned to her “Does Nokko still live with your parents as well?”

“Yeah, she does.” answered Mica as both Fiona and Kianna began to blatantly listen in on their conversation.

“I see...” nodded Anton “Do you know if she has a job, or maybe classes, or anything that might be keeping her away from the house during the day?”

“Uh... Yeah, she has both, actually.” answered Mica “She's almost never at home during the day. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I was just thinking about the meeting I'm going to have with your parents, and it occurred to me that this might be a good opportunity for us...” grinned Anton as he began to flip over each piece of chicken “We'll know exactly where two out of the three of your family members are, which isn't bad. And we'll get a pretty good window of time too...”

“Uh oh! What are you planning over there!?” smiled Fiona as she dropped out of her pose and came over to stand next to Mica.

“Well, possibly... A heist.” said Anton as he turned to them and playfully raised his eyebrows in a dramatic manner.

“What!? Are you planning to rob Mica's family!?” exclaimed Fiona as she pointed her ears straight upwards in intrigue.

“Something like that. Though, more accurately, this could be called a repossession mission.” chuckled Anton “Basically, this could be a chance for us to sneak in and collect Mica's clothes as well as all of her other things.”

“Oh? Oh, okay, yeah!” cried Mica as her expression filled with excitement “We can steal all my stuff!”

“Exactly. We need to plan this out thoroughly first though.” said Anton as he turned back to the cooking chicken “Do you know what kinds of security measures your parents have around your home? Any wards or barriers of any kind?”

“...No? I don't think so? I know there's a few cameras. But they're only in certain rooms. Like in my parents office.” explained Mica “We live in an apartment building. So most of the security is handled by the complex itself.”

“Ah, I see... Okay, so hopefully you'll still have clearance through the complex and can still get in without any problems...” said Anton “I'd like to give that a try beforehand and make sure you can, but at the same time I don't want to alert them that we're up to something... Might be best just to wait and do this live...”

“Yeah, probably... Really don't want them to know we're coming... Or, I guess that I'm coming...” mused Mica as her expression became thoughtful “You guys are planning to have lunch, right? So I should have at least an hour or so, right?”

“Probably at least that.” nodded Anton “Do you think that's enough time for you to get all of your things together?”

“...I think so. It should be. If I'm just grabbing everything and running. ...I won't be able to get any of my big stuff though. Like my desk.” reasoned Mica “That'll just have to stay behind. Which sucks. I like my desk. But it'll be too hard to move it on my own. And since you guys will have to stay with my parents the whole time, there's no one to really help me move it.”

“I mean, there's no reason I can't help you.” offered Fiona “If we work together we'll be able to get all of your shit out of there faster too.”

“That's a good idea. The two of you will be able to watch each others backs as well.” agreed Anton “And Kianna can come with me to act as our communicator. It'll be easier for her to get messages back and forth without seeming suspicious... I think this will be or plan then, or at least the basics of it.”

“Sounds good to me!” nodded Kianna in excitement as she playfully flopped her book up and down against her thighs “This is so cool! It's like our first mission as a team!”

“...Yeah, I guess it is!” chuckled Anton.

“What are you reading over there, Kianna?” asked Mica.

Looking up at her, Kianna folded her book closed and held it up so Mica could see the cover.

“...The Beginners Guide to Keeping Cubi for Fun and Profit. Vol 1...” read Mica before her expression soured and she glared at the dark elf “Really!? Are you serious!?”

“...What? What's wrong?” questioned Kianna in genuine surprise.

“What's wrong is that book!” exclaimed Mica “Why are you even reading that!?”

“It, it was the highest rated book on cubi I could find... A lot of people said it was a good one?” explained Kianna “Why are you so mad? What's wrong with it?”

“For starters it shouldn't even exist!” cried Mica as her tail whipped itself angrily back and forth behind her “It's just offensive!”

“What? What do you mean? How is it offensive?” asked Kianna as she looked at her book “It's just trying to help people learn how to take care of their cubi's?”

“You don't need a book for that! Especially not one that makes it sound like cubi are, are... Fucking livestock!” exclaimed Mica “Cubi aren't animals! They're people! We're people! And we can take care of ourselves!”

“Oh yeah, sure you can. I mean just look at you, you've been doing such a great job of that so far!” quipped Fiona around a smug looking smile.

“Shut, up!” seethed Mica.

“Make, me.” grinned Fiona.

“There's really no reason for you to get so upset, Mica.” said Kianna “This book doesn't even talk about shinoccubi, so it's not like it's about you specifically.”

“That doesn't matter! It's still a cubi... pet guide! Or whatever! It's still talking about how to make profit off of my people!” ranted Mica “Which there is no way that you're going to make money off of cubi without it being fucked up in some way!”

“Actually, you'd be surprised.” said Anton “There are a lot of government grants and stipends out there that people can claim for harboring refugees from demon realms. Which this can include cubi. And there are people out there that do make extra money doing this. So that's probably what this book is talking about.”

“No, I don't think so.” said Kianna as she shook her head “It might talk about that, but it looks like the main money making thing here is with breeding and selling cubi.”

“Seriously?” questioned Anton “Wait, who wrote this book?”

“Uh... Salphothrasta Sinclair, is the author's name.” said Kianna.

“Ah. Yeah. That's definitely a demonic sounding name.” nodded Anton “Okay then, that book is going to be exactly what it sounds like. Sorry, Mica.”

“Fucking gross!” exclaimed Mica.

“So what does it say about breeding?” asked Fiona “Anything good?”

“I don't know yet. I haven't gotten that far.” said Kianna “It looks like there's a different chapter for each different species though. Or at least the ones it talks about. Which is pretty cool.”

“There's seriously no shinoccubi chapter though? Like it doesn't even mention them?” asked Fiona.

“Nope, nothing. Sadly.” said Kianna “Apparently shinoccubi are covered in a different book, a volume 2, that they didn't have at the store. So I guess I'll need to order it.”

“Damn. That really sucks...” said Fiona as she slumped her shoulders “It's super important for us to know all the secrets about breeding shinoccubi too...”

“I know, right.” mumbled Kianna “All those books and they didn't have the one we needed the most...”

“Fuck, both of you!” snarled Mica.

“There's still a lot going on in this book though... Like I don't even know what some of these cubi even are?” mused Kianna as she looked over the book's table of contents “Like what is an... “Elluccubus”? I've never even heard of that one before?”

“Oh, those are the little ones.” said Anton “And it's pronounced Ee-luke-cu-bus. They're the main ones that are kept as pets.”

“Oh! They're so cute!” cried Kianna as she turned to a page that featured a picture of three sleeping elluccubi that had squeezed themselves into a large basket and had curled up together into a mass of tangled limbs, wings and tails “...Wait, I don't think these ones are even babies? How small are these guys?”

“They're pretty small. Even as adults.” said Anton “If you saw one next to a normal sized cubi and didn't know any better, you might think it was the normal cubi's child.”

“What!? Why the Hell would demons want cubi that looked like kids!? That's creepy as fuck!” cried Mica.

“It's not what you think.” said Anton as he shook his head “Elluccubi are child-like because they were bred to be cute, not for sexual reasons. Demons have conccubi for that. Elluccubi are essentially the equivalent of a lapdog or a toy breed. They're basically a cubi version of a dog that looks like a puppy. Kind of like a Pomeranian.”

Mica's and Fiona's eyes followed Anton's hand as he pointed to Molly, who was currently snoozing beneath Kianna's lounge chair.

“That, right there, is literally what an elluccubi is.” said Anton before turning back to the chicken.

“Heh, look, another doggie comparison...” said Fiona as she grinned at a now fuming Mica.

“'Unlike some other types of cubi, Elluccubi are not prone to jealousy, and are almost never aggressive towards each other. They will often become anxious when kept alone, and do best when kept together in groups of 3 or more.'” said Kianna as she read the caption beneath the picture “Aw! They like to have lots of friends! That's so cute!”

“Will you please! Stop reading that book out loud...” grumbled Mica as she rubbed at her temples just beneath her horns “I really don't like hearing about how oppressed my people are...”

“These aren't your people, these are a totally different kind of cubi.” said Kianna as she kept her eyes on her book “Honestly these guys sound like the complete opposite of your kind.”

“They really are.” chuckled Anton as he flipped over several pieces of chicken “That's almost a perfect description of them.”

“How do you even know about these guys?” asked Fiona “Have you seen them before?”

“Oh yeah. They're all over Tantarra.” explained Anton “Dark elves love them.”

“I can see why.” nodded Kianna as she flipped to the next page in her book before crying out “Oh! Look at the baby! He's so teeny tiny! And he's hiding under his Mommy's wing... Aw, that's so adorable! Look!”

Holding her book up, Anton, Fiona and Mica all leaned forward to gaze at a picture of a mother elluccubus who was holding her little baby in her arms. The happy looking elluccubus had her wings wrapped around both herself as well as the clinging baby whose face could just barely be seen peeking timidly out at the camera from around the crook of his mother's bat-like wing.

“...Okay, yeah. That's super cute.” mumbled Mica “It's still fucked up that people treat them like pets though!”

“Wow, sounds like somebodies jealous.” said Fiona as she shook her head “You're sounding very petty right now, Mica.”

“...How the Hell do I sound petty!?” cried Mica “No! You know what! Don't answer that, just shut up!”

“Mica...” drawled Kianna with an air of seriousness as she looked up and met the kiochi's eyes “If we decide to get a little elluccubus someday, you better not be mean to it!”

“...I, wait, what!? I'm not going to be mean to it! Why would I ever be mean to it!?” exclaimed Mica.

“Because if it's getting lots of attention you might get jealous, and decide to be mean to it.” explained Kianna “Which you better not do!”

“...I can't tell if you're being serious or if you're just messing with me. And I don't know which one is gonna piss me off more!” growled Mica.

“Just consider it both then.” said Fiona “That way all the bases are covered.”

Kianna said nothing but was smiling as she pointed at Fiona and nodded her head in agreement.

Seething, Mica closed her eyes and took a deep breath before suddenly becoming smug.

“You know what. I know how to handle this.” she said as she grinned cattily at the dark elves “Don't think I haven't been paying attention. I know exactly how things work around here.”

“...What the Hell are you talking about?” questioned Fiona.

“I'm talking about dealing with you two, and how I know exactly what to do.” said Mica.

“...Oh do you now?” mocked Fiona as she and her sister grinned at each other “Well don't keep us waiting then. Let's see how you're going to deal with us!”

“Okay. If you insist.” said Mica.

Turning away from them, Mica stepped right up to Anton and let an overly sorrowful expression take form across her face as she hunched down, drooped her tail and tried to appear as pitiful looking as she possibly could.

“Anton... Fiona and Kianna are picking on me again...” she whimpered before pouting her lips and dropping her fake tear filled eyes to the floor “And they're being really mean today!”

Without missing a beat, Anton turned to the dark elves and narrowed his eyes at them.

“Are they now...” he said in a hard, stern tone “Girls! Is this true? Are you picking on Mica again?”

“Oh! You spineless little shit!” exclaimed Fiona “Tattle-telling! Seriously!? This is your tactic!?”

Mica kept her face lowered as she gave Fiona a sly grin.

“Can't really argue with something that gets results.” chuckled Anton as he turned back to the grill “Now quit picking on her.”

“Hmph! Well 2 can play that game.” mumbled Fiona as she pointed her finger accusingly at Mica “Hey! She didn't call you Master! She's being disrespectful and you should punish her! ...Or you could let me punish her! I'd be glad to help you out with that!”

“I! Wait! No, he never said I had to call him that!” exclaimed Mica “He never said I had to call him anything!”

“Hm. That's true, actually... That never did come up.” said Anton as he glanced at Mica “And now that I think about it... I don't know if the label “Master” really suits the relationship I have with you... That title may be more suited for Mokai than me, since he's the one in charge of teaching you... For fairness sake though, I think you'll still need to address me the same way they do. To avoid conflict if nothing else.”

“Well hold on! Just hold on!” cried Mica as she held up her hands “You're right though! Mokai is my Master, so calling you both that is just going to be confusing! ...And also, it'll take away from what he's doing for me if I don't call him that...”

Anton went still for a moment before he nodded in agreement and turned to fully face her.

“Fair enough, I can accept that.” he said as he crossed his arms “But there's still the matter of keeping things fair here as well.”

“...Okay. Then... How about I just call you boss or something?” offered Mica “That's basically what you are anyway. My boss, right?”

“Hm...” hummed Anton as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully “Yeah, alright, I suppose that works. Boss it is then.”

“What!? Seriously!?” cried Fiona “But that's not fair! Why do I have to call you Master if she doesn't!”

“Because you are a guilty creature and calling me Master is part of your punishment.” said Anton “And while she is guilty as well, working for me is her punishment. And calling me boss still fits within that framework.”

“...Well, if it's just working for you, then I can do that too!” exclaimed Fiona “Seriously! I don't mind working for you if I can call you boss too. I will do anything you want if it means not having to call you Master anymore! Anything at all!”

“...You really hate having to call me Master, don't you?” asked Anton with a grin.

“More than anything...” whined Fiona as she wrapped her arms around her middle “You have no idea how embarrassing it is for me...”

Going quiet, Anton merely gazed at her as he contemplated the situation.

“...Please!” begged Fiona as she laid her ears down submissively “Pretty please!”

“Oh, alright fine...” he sighed “You can call me boss too if it's so much easier for you.”

“Yes!” breathed Fiona as she balled her fists in triumph “Gods alive! You have no idea how much easier this is gonna be for me! This is a huge load off my mind...”

Chuckling, Anton shook his head and turned back to the cooking chicken.

“And what about you, Kianna?” he said as he began to flip each piece “Do you need to call me boss now too?”

“Nope.” said Kianna as she crossed her arms and shook her head “I am perfectly fine with Master, thank you very much.”

“Well alright then.” smiled Anton as he nodded in acknowledgment “Good to hear.”

“Glad we got that settled.” said Mica as her eyes followed the flipping chicken pieces “So how much longer before dinners ready?”

“It'll be a little while still. Chicken takes a bit longer to cook than other meats do.” said Anton “You've got enough time to go back to your exercises if you want.”

“...Alright. Might as well get a few more reps in.” said Mica as she stretched her arms up over her head “Call me when the foods ready, I guess.”

“Sure thing.” nodded Anton.

Coiling her tail against the ground, Mica used it as a natural spring to toss herself backwards through the air.

“...That is a seriously useful tail.” mumbled Fiona as she watched Mica sail through the air and land on her feet on the other side of the yard “Wish I could just throw myself around like that...”

“...Actually, you can. Launching themselves into the air is something a dark elf like you can definitely do.” chuckled Anton “Not quite as easily as Mica can, of course. But still close enough to compete with her at least.”

“They can!? I mean, I can!?” questioned Fiona as she pointed her ears straight upwards “How!?”

“Give me a second to finish flipping these and I'll show you.” said Anton as he expertly maneuvered the chicken around the grill.

Once satisfied that he could leave the pieces to cook on their own for a bit, he turned the heat down to a simmer and glanced at Fiona before nodding towards the yard.

“Would you like to join us, Kianna? Or would you rather sit this one out?” he called as he led the way out onto the grass.

“Nah, I'm good.” said Kianna as she shifted back and forth on her pillow “I'll just watch from here.”

“Alright, sounds good.” said Anton as he shifted his head to the side to crack his neck “This will be mostly just explanation anyway. So you'll still be able to get the gist of it from there.”

Twisting back and forth at the waist, Anton began to limber up with a bit of stretching before turning back to Fiona.

“Okay. Now, this is one of the more tricky things you can do with aura manipulation. I wouldn't call this a full on ability or anything, as there's no trigger behind it.” he explained “Which that is also why it's so difficult to learn. As there's really no step by step instructions I can give you for this. All I can do is show you that this is possible for you to do, and you'll have to figure out how to actually do it on your own.”

“...Okay?” said Fiona as she took a step back and looked him up and down “...So what are you doing?”

“Nothing yet.” chuckled Anton as he himself took a step back as well “Take a few more steps back, and then I'll begin.”

Completing his request, Fiona instinctively focused her aura around herself as she felt Anton flare his out widely into the space around them.

Blinking, the dark elf pointed her ears straight upwards in surprise as a thin, glowing orange-colored disc suddenly began to expand out from beneath Anton's feet and spread out into a three meter wide circle all around him.

“Pretty neat. Isn't it?” grinned Anton as he glanced around and found that both Mica and Kianna were now gawking at his disc as well “Can you tell what I'm doing, Fiona?”

“...Uh, yeah? I think so?” mumbled Fiona “You're igniting your aura with mana, and then focusing it into a big disc shape. ...Right?”

“You're halfway right.” nodded Anton “What you're seeing is ignited mana... But it's not in a disc shape. In fact, it doesn't even have a shape at all.”

“...Okay? Well it looks like a disc?” said Fiona as she creased her brow in contemplation “...But if it's not a disc, then what the Hell is it?”

“Let me show you.” said Anton as he turned to Mica “Mica, can you come over here and give me a hand real quick, please.”

“...Do I have to?” questioned Mica.

Anton gave her a lop sided grin as he cocked an eyebrow.

With a sigh, the kiochi tentatively walked up to the edge of the glowing circle before grimacing up at Anton.

“If you would, can you try to strike me with your tail, please.” said Anton in a calm, nonchalant tone.

“...Seriously!? This again!?” cried Mica as her tail coiled nervously about behind her back.

Anton began to chuckle as he shook his head.

“You won't get in trouble for failing this time, I promise.” he said around a smile “Just do your best to strike me, that's all I ask.”

Hesitating for a moment, Mica sighed again before leveling her spade at Anton and striking out right at the center of his chest.

Mica, Fiona and Kianna all went wide eyed in surprise as Mica's spade was stopped by a thin pillar of orange glowing aura that had instantly risen up from out of the disc below and blocked her attack.

Pulling her spade back to herself, Mica watched the pillar quickly sink back down into the disc before looking up at Anton. Finding him staring back at her with a smug looking smile across his face, she narrowed her eyes and struck at him again but was immediately blocked this time as well by another pillar. Irritated now, the kiochi began to strike again and again in quick succession but was blocked each time by the never ending pillars as they instantaneously rose and fell.

“...How the Hell are you doing that?” asked Fiona as she watched Mica's attacks keep failing “...How did you ignite the aura, without making it solid?”

“That's the tricky part.” said Anton “It technically is solid, I just haven't given it a shape to fully form into. So in a way, what you're seeing is the aura as if it was water that's trying to become ice. Any little slip in my focus and it'll freeze into whatever shape it's currently in. By manipulating it though, I can control its shape and even force it to switch back and forth between a fluid state, and a frozen one.”

“...Okay, that's awesome!” exclaimed Fiona as her eyes stayed locked to the shifting aura “...But how are you doing that!?”

“Again, that's the tricky part.” smiled Anton “I can't really explain it beyond saying I'm manipulating my aura by igniting it and not letting it solidify. You're going to have to figure out what I mean by doing it yourself. Which now that you know that this is something you can do, I'm sure you'll eventually get the hang of it. And with enough practice, you'll be able to do things like this...”

Mica and the dark elves all craned their necks upward as Anton suddenly rose up into the air atop a giant pillar. Once he was up high enough, his aura at the base of his pillar began to break apart, and as it did this Anton allowed it all to dissipate away into nothing. Hanging in midair now, he did several lazy back-flips as he fell, and before hitting the ground he re-formed his aura pillar and landed gently atop its pliable surface.

“I probably made that look a lot easier than it really is.” he said as he stepped back onto the ground proper and dispelled his aura “Acing a landing like that isn't always so simple.”

“Holy shit!” smiled Fiona “So you can just pop up into the air whenever you want then? Or do all kinds of crazy shit? It's that easy?”

“Well I really wouldn't call it easy. But sure, I suppose.” said Anton as he made to move back to the grill “And yeah, you can do all kinds of things with that technique. Like for instance, if I wanted to, I could also launch myself, or even one of you, over the yard and into the pool from here.”

“...Do it! Do it to Mica!” cried Fiona as she frantically pointed at the kiochi “Throw her in the pool! Hurry before she teleports away!”

“Fuck you, Fiona!” exclaimed Mica as she flipped the dark elf off.

Chuckling, Anton grabbed his tongs and began to flip the chicken pieces.

“Tell you what, Fiona. Since it'll be good exercise for her, and good practice for you...” he said as he glanced back over his shoulder “Learn how to do it yourself. And you have my permission to throw Mica around whenever you want to.”

“What!? No! Don't tell her that!” cried Mica as Fiona immediately closed her eyes in focus and began to flare her aura as she then attempted to concentrate it below herself “Dammit! Now look! She's not gonna stop until she figures it out now!”

“Yes. And that's called “motivation”, Mica.” grinned Anton “Don't worry though, she'll have her chance to help you with some practice as well.”

“...What do you mean?” questioned Mica and Fiona in unison.

“Well, Mica needs to get faster with her tail strikes.” explained Anton “And I think having Fiona try to block them with her aura, like I was doing earlier, will be good practice for both of you.”

“What the fuck!” cried Fiona as she pointed her ears straight upwards “You're gonna let her stab me!?”

“I'm going to let her try to, yes.” said Anton “Whether or not she does is up to you of course.”

“...Oh, I am so going to put so many holes in you!” breathed Mica as she smiled wickedly at Fiona and flicked her tail back and forth in an excited manner.

“Like Hell you are!” exclaimed Fiona “Your ass is getting thrown in the pool, sister!”

“...Master, I know you're trying to get results here.” said Kianna as she watched both of her sisters begin to vigorously start practicing the very skills they were planning to use on each other “But sometimes I think you're also just a cruel, evil person...”

“Really? Only sometimes?” chuckled Anton as he continued to cook the chicken “Well, I guess I'll need to work on that then.”