“What the fuck is this bullshit, nyaa?!” Peri returns from helping Zutiria, and she isn’t happy.

Before I can even enjoy my taste of Snow’s lips for a moment more, the embarrassed head maid pulls away. Staring at me, and then Peri, and then me again, her yellow eyes open wide from a mix of shock and denial. “...T-This is, um, a mistake. Yes. A mistake!”

“A mistake?”  I stare at Snow, hoping I misheard. My face is perhaps angrier than it should be. When Snow sees how they change the mood between us, the maid instantly regrets her choice of words.

“CHERRYYYY, SNOW KISSED MYASTER!” Peri hisses angrily from the door, calling out to her lover.

Off in the kitchen, I can hear the pink-haired Catfolk shout her response. “ARE YOU FUCKING JOKING, NYAA?! WE HAVEN’T EVEN KISSED HIM YET!”

“Please, just calm down for a moment, Peri. I can explain-”

“Ok, explain why we can’t touch him for a week, but you can just stroll in and shove your tongue down his throat?!” Peri’s fur stands on end. The blue-haired kitten looks like she’s on the verge of attacking this female who entered her territory and encroached upon her mate.

She doesn’t give Snow a chance to explain herself. After a short pause, Peri simply sighs, crosses her arms, and looks away with a frown. “...Whatever. At least I’m gonna fuck him tomorrow, and you’re not, nyaa. I guess I can’t be too mad, either, nyaa. After all, it was just a mistake, right?”

Snow looks horrified at the thought and then stares at the ground between her feet. “...Yes, that’s right.”

I feel a twitch of annoyance, and I turn away from Snow to watch the battle. Nothing new. Sam and Meri are running circles around the pimp. I should remain focused, but I can’t help letting out a snide remark of my own. “If what just happened was a ‘mistake’, Snow, then there’s no helping you. I’ve had enough of the back and forth flirting for tonight.”

“...Myaster, I didn’t-”

“I’m not your Master, Snow. Now let’s leave it at that. There’s a battle to win.”

Peri territorially jumps up in my lap, sticking a tongue out at Snow once settled in. Snow looks like she’s about to go and take another smoke break, but she takes in a harsh lungful of air and focuses on the ongoing battle. Cherry joins us with a fresh cup of tea she just brewed for me. I thank her by scratching under her chin, and she purrs with pleasure.

Drama with Snow aside, it’s nice being able to actually touch Peri and Cherry without having to worry about their libidos activating. I proceed to pet the two of them together once Cherry sits down on the pet bed below. I fully admit I’m doing this knowing full well Snow is watching, and I don’t care. I hope she watches.

Back to more important matters, it seems I really didn’t miss much on the battlefield. “You girls didn’t hear any of that, did you?” I ask.

“Hear what?” Sam dodges a vine attack and hacks it off.

I sigh a sigh of relief. “Cat drama, not important. Sorry I was gone.” Peri lifts the glass of warm tea to my lips, and I take a sip. She continues to glare at Snow while doing so.

“We’re doing good!” Meri says. “We’re not gaining any major ground on him, but, um, w-we’re not losing any, either!”

“Y’all just gonna strategize while I’m right fuckin’ here?!” Pimpington charges like a bull towards Sam, but in his anger, he’s very easy for the Princess to avoid.

“Don’t be rude. We’re talking!” Sam says, slashing him in the side right when she sees a chance. It doesn’t do any significant damage, but it’s something. 

“We’re having a problem here. Neither of you has any huge, explosive Art that could deal a ton of damage all at once, either...”

“I have Reflect!” Meri offers, dodging a volley of vine strikes.

“That’s situational, and he’s looking out for when you use it...”

Sam speaks up. “I got Biding Blade, but... I haven’t mastered it yet. Couldn’t get the hang of it when Niki showed me.”

I take another sip as Peri brings tea to my lips, knowing it’d help me think. Biding Blade would take a while to store enough power to be of any use. We need to deal more damage- we’re only inflicting little potshots at the moment.

But if Sam isn’t able to use the Art properly, is it really worth risking? I really hate having to be the one to make these decisions, but the girls need someone to offer their perspective here.

I go with my gut.

“You’ve been using Steel Soul and Blunt Edge on and off all night. There’s a chance it could come easier to you now after all the impromptu Arts practice. Might as well, Sam.”

Sam eagerly nods her head and avoids an oncoming swipe of Pimpington’s claws. He falls even further to his anger as the young swordswoman closes her eyes and starts pumping her energy inside her sword.

“Meri, cover her. I want you close by- if you can reflect and amplify Sam’s Biding Blade, then the power would truly be immense.”

Meri nods, but I get a doubtful look from Snow. “You already used that tactic near earlier in the battle, Mya... Guild Myaster. Aren’t you worried he’ll see it coming, nyaa?”

“No. If the impact is as big as I’m expecting it to be, I don’t rightly think he’ll be able to avoid the attack at all.”

Snow considers that and then shrinks away. The tension between us isn’t going to get any better, but that’s the last thing on my mind right now.

Meri rushes in to do what she does best. The Shield Maiden begins to annoy Pimpington as hard as she can, draw in all his aggro away from Sam. She sticks close to him, giving him no chance to use his vines, and swipes at his ankles and his legs whenever she can.

In this primal rage that he’s entered, it’s simple enough to lead him around like a bull. Meri has no problem buying the time Sam so desperately needs.

The problem is on Sam’s end. Every time she starts to build up strength with Biding Blade, it ends up petering out and resetting to zero. This angers the Princess, which goes on to make her next attempt fail even faster. “Come on, you stupid piece of shit!” She grits her teeth and shakes her sword.

“Sam, just relax. Meri can buy you a few more minutes at this rate- that’s plenty enough time for you to do this right.”

“But I can’t do it right! I’ll just fuck it up, and...”

“You can do this. Picture all the people who will get hurt if you fail. They need you, Princess. Your sword is the only thing that can protect them.”

Frustration melts away, replaced by a growing sense of duty and mild anger. Playing to Sam’s fixation on saving and protecting others has its uses, but she’ll lose herself in her rage if I push too far.

I feel uncomfortable flirting with the idea of pushing the Princess on to try and ‘harness’ her condition so soon after what happened, but... damn it, I don’t know what else can be done.

“Don’t let it overtake you. Focus more on the protecting people bit and less on the making them pay for it bit. I’m... not going to be upset if you end up killing him, but he’s worth far, far more to us alive. Do what needs to be done. I trust you, Sam.”

After a long delay, Sam takes a deep breath. Her cheeks redden, but as cute as it makes her look, she’s visibly distraught. Endless thoughts must be swimming around in her mind as she places more and more pressure on herself. “...Got it.” She nods her head, once more pumping her stamina into the weighty steel blade clenched between her hands.

Turning my attention towards Meri, I find the young brunette struggling to keep up with Pimpington. She’s been distracting him for minutes on end. Even though she hasn’t used any Arts, her heavy armor and shield start to take their toll on her stamina. She’s already down to half her meter, mostly from how much running and dodging she’s doing.

While it’s her job to draw in aggro, I can’t imagine that this is how she’s supposed to be doing it. My adventurer class reference guide that I’ve been using doesn’t have a section on Shield Maidens, but they have to have Arts or additional forms to deal with these problems.

It’s a long-shot, but I figure I might as well ask her. “Meri, is there... anything else you can do to buy some time?”

“W-what?” She asks between heavy breaths, narrowly sidestepping the angered pimp’s latest attack.

“You figured out how to use Reflect and two of your mother’s Arts entirely by yourself without anyone helping you. Maybe you could just...”

“You want her to pull some kind of new attack out of her ass, nyaa?” Cherry tilts her head.

“That’s a risky idea. It would be very convenient if Mistress Merille could just spontaneously develop a new attack mid-combat, but that’s just wishful thinking...” Snow frowns.

Peri offers no feedback, simply purring as I pet her. I’ve gotten into the habit of doing so while strategizing- it helps me think.

“I-I’ve only... seen Mom fight a few... times...” Meri continues dodging, but the sadness on her face is evident. One of those was the time Meri’s mother died before her eyes. I guess it’s asking a lot to try and get her to think back to painful memories during a brutal boss battle.

“B-But... there’s another thing I was working on with Nikita...!” The sadness in her gaze is overtaken by a glimmer of determination. “I can try it...!”

“Do it,” I respond without hesitation.

I hope this pans out. My adrenaline is the only thing keeping me fired up. If I weren’t so high from it, then I’d likely concede that this battle was lost the moment Zutiria lost consciousness.

Pimpington is running his stamina into the ground, sure. But he’s a giant, inhuman monster. Meri and Sam’s energy will give out before his does, even if they just focus on evading. The situation looks really, really bad. I’m relying on both girls using techniques that we have no idea will even work or not, not to mention I don’t even know what one of them does.

There’s nothing else for me to do at this point. If this doesn’t work, I don’t see any more options...