Chapter 96

 

While separated from the dwarves on patrol surrounded by darkness...

Asakura and I had been up for about two hours and already I could feel Rina plastered against me from behind still sleeping. It still felt like the air was cold from the night air receding. We’d huddled together to sleep for warmth and the narrowness of the rock cavity we used had ended up forcing us to do a group hug while sleeping in part to avoid the hardness of the ground.

But it also made me think that the level of the pheromones must be different when I’m awake and asleep. Otherwise Rina would have been all over me, at least if what Asakura had told me was true.

Or maybe it was that the pheromones were amplified by feelings of love? So there hadn’t been any night accidents and that was good.

This was really getting bothersome…because it felt really good and I was having a hard time fighting it. Rina wouldn’t wear her shirt either since it was completely white and had gone to bed topless the same as Asakura under the pretense that we were right that white would be seen quite easily when it was the bleach white that is so bright like this. I was in heaven because I didn’t have my shirt on too, but it wasn’t such a big deal for me. This was getting hard to resist though. If Asakura weren’t here…I don’t know what would have happened.

Rina was starting to look delicious since the demon genes were affecting my brain.

I won’t be able to resist forever...

No, must think happy thoughts and count or do math in my head. I shook off the temptation of feeding off Rina; then concentrated back on Asakura.

Asakura saved me from giving in!

I’d woken up to Asakura feeding on me again with a blow job or…three, before Rina got up while I was trying to keep her from making any noise or shifting movement. I guess she couldn’t help it anymore. She kept going for a couple of those actually while Rina was nestled against my back until she got up an hour later. It’s amazing that Asakura can feed quietly actually. She learned the hard way I suppose, that if she made noise she would get no meal. But I wish I’d realized sooner that her boobs were big enough that even while giving me a blow job I could still suck on them to get nourishment since I was on my side.

Wow, I just noticed Asakura’s hair turning white has progressed even more during the night. At this rate within a week it will be all white. Right now it’s still more dominantly black, and it looks interesting and exotic in that there are no gray hairs, but just white and a mix of black splashes hitting each other.

Since her skin isn’t white, but is sort of an Asian tan, it mixes well with her silky changed to white hair.

Still, this kind of breakfast is better than the traditional bacon and eggs, I admitted to myself. I did feel somewhat refreshed and invigorated after that, but its weird how I still felt sleepy up until after our morning feedings were done. It’s weird that I don’t feel like I want bacon and eggs after Asakura has fed with me. I’m still trying to wrap my head around how that works, since it’s such a different concept than before.

Asakura, of course was totally obedient, and hand pumped all of her extra milk into canteens, which took quite a bit of time. Each time she does there’s the sound of a minor spray hitting the inside of the metal canteen which we try to keep quiet. She has to use her hands to express the milk from her breasts and makes a big show of making sure she does it facing me and trying to get me to watch.

That’s hot to watch, especially with her hot, tight figure.

Who cares about dungeoning…this is fun to watch and so fascinating. I should just watch this all day!

Oh wait, that’s the other me talking…

Rina got up sometime around then but Asakura didn’t seem to care but just kept pumping the milk into the canteens and not bothering to hide the huge udders. Sometimes she misses because the canteens are built more like coffee thermos’s and still have narrow openings at the top. It’s easy to miss while milking herself because she needs one hand to do the milking.

“That is soo hot!” Rina said while transfixed by what Asakura is doing.

I almost said something vocal to agree with her and stopped myself since I don’t want to corrupt her.

“Can I have some?” she asked, opening her mouth.

Before Asakura can say anything I rejected it.

“That’s the only food I can eat Rina. Don’t.”

“Are you sure?”

“I think so...”

But inwardly I’m thinking; would the demon milk be harmful to Rina?

I’m sure it can’t be good on someone like Rina with a sensitive and fragile immune system, even if humans can handle demon milk. Or would it make her immune system stronger?

“Oh come on Shun! I want to try some too,” she protested. “I know that’s special milk, you can’t hide it from me.” I’d already been trying to get her not to watch but it’s no good. Because both of them are still topless I can’t really argue at her to not look at her after she pointed that out. Neither of them want me to avoid looking at them though, and seem to like it.

“You don’t understand Rina. This is demon milk, do you understand? Demon milk can be harmful to humans and probably is. There’s no telling what it’d do. It could put you to sleep, act like a neurotoxin, make you crazy or insane, or even…,” I tried to explain. There was no point in hiding the truth from her. I’d learned a long time ago that lies and hiding the truth just make things harder in the end.

“Get me drunk? Or…if I drink this will I become a mage?” she asked curiously. She tried to get closer but Asakura started growling and looking like she’d hurt her.

Why would she think it would let her become a mage?

That makes no sense.

“Uh, Asakura’s been a little off. If she’s not a mage yet, and she’s making that stuff with such solid production then it wouldn’t make you one from drinking it. I wouldn’t push it,” I said.

“Yeah, I can see that. How did she end up with so much in there,” she said in awe.

“Demon breast milk will not make you a mage. It might make you enslaved by one though,” I said.

“Really?” she looked back again at it, but with a bit too much enthusiasm. I almost wanted to kick myself or her.

“Forget it! It’s just not good for humans. Don’t even try it. You don’t know what will happen,” I said.

“What? What do you mean by that? Won’t it at least let me evolve?” Rina asked. She frowned, pouting.

That took some explaining. But at the end of a roughly 30 minute explanation she finally got it.

I also try to steer her away from wanting to change herself, which worries me.

“Now I get it! I totally couldn’t understand why Asakura would be like so addicted to sex with you Shun. It was also weird how she didn’t care that she was being seen and still doesn’t know. This is like, so cool though! It means if my bro is a sex demon I’m unaccountable! If we,” she puts her fingers in the air for quote signs, “accidentally get together then it won’t be a sin and neither of us will have done wrong because of the demon milk! I so have an excuse now. And the fact that you have demon genes means we won’t have the problems associated with this … sort of thing! I knew there was a reason I was totally infatuated with you Shun! Woohoo!” Rina was obviously too excited. She raised her fist to the air and was going to holler out but I stopped her, putting my hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.

“We don’t know if any goblins are close by,” I said.

“Shit! Sorry Shun! I’m so sorry!” Rina apologized. But now she’s licking my hand.

Oh shit! The demon pheromone is really strong now.

I tried to yank my hand away from her as she’s sucking on it, but she ended up biting me and clamping her teeth down on my finger.

“OWEE!!!!” I almost yelled.

It takes a full two minutes to push her off and get my finger back.

“Get control of yourself!” I hissed.

She is shaken out of it.

“Oh man. I don’t know what came over me. I’m so sorry!” she looks more surprised at her own actions, rather than sorry.

“What the hell just happened,” I asked myself. I blocked her from trying to snatch the demon milk just in time. It seems my reflexes have improved.

“Well one of these nights if you accidentally ‘lose control like a vampire going for blood’, I’ll try to sleep naked,” Rina said.

“No, please don’t. I won’t be able to face mom,” I groaned.

“Ah come on. Oh when did you get such good muscle definition in your chest area Shun?” she is suddenly noticing some subtle things.

Asakura looked at Rina intently with a dark angry looking face. I managed to restrain her from swatting her clawed fingers at Rina.

But then again I noticed Asakura’s fingernails have gotten longer and sharper too. They now have inch long really tough almost iron like strong black fingernails. They could be used with a sharp edge I supposed. Will they be noticeable by others if they are around long enough? How had I missed that before?

“No, that’s not what it means! Good hell!” I found myself more frustrated than before. She wasn’t getting this at all.

“Shun this means we can be together! It means we no longer have the same DNA since your becoming a demon!” Rina squealed in happy bliss. She kept like trying to be playful and was acting like she’d won the lottery.

“No, not a chance. I won’t betray mom and dad,” I sighed. This wasn’t working. Yeah, I would have to kick Rina out on her own. It was a shame really. Soon it would only be me and Asakura left out of everyone? It was so hard to keep willpower right now too. I could so easily give in…

Of course I didn’t realize the demon DNA had totally altered my perceptions. Like, I kept catching myself from reaching out to try to start drinking straight from Asakura’s tap right in front of Rina even. It was really hard not too and the compulsion to go there was like pinging in my head almost like sonar. What’s even weirder is that it was happening right after I’d sworn in my head that I wouldn’t do that in front of her. I disliked naming it feeding or mentioning it openly too.

But the next thing I know there I am slurping away from Asakura with milk running down my chin. Self control as a sex demon has to be relearned as if I’m a baby it seems. I was bound to make mistakes, and this was one.

Oops. I think I lost control.

Crap. I can’t believe I’ve been caught out in the open, too.

I’ll have to remain more guarded.

Wait…

That means…

I have to manage this in terms of managing ‘hunter’, if I want to stay in control.

Rina is watching as I discover I’m latched onto Asakura’s nipples, tugging at both of them with my tongue at once.

Rina has wide eyes staring at us. “Wow, that’s awesome.”

In fact that was how I found myself when I woke up actually. Somehow during the night I’d latched on and had been sucking up the milk even in…was I asleep or was it like how werewolves find themselves waking up in a forest? Now with Rina here I had to stop it, and somehow my hands kept acting on their own.

I’d have to tighten down on my discipline. I hate myself right now for this, but it can’t be helped. I feel like so self hateful now too, and scared what I’ll do.

It was scary. I was now afraid I’d be caught and labeled as some kind of enemy of women because my hands wanted to just act on impulse and sometimes did. I had to change my way of thinking and do mental checks often, which meant keeping my arms folded over my chest for no reason when I wasn’t actively doing things.

What if whoever I latched onto resisted and started screaming for help? Being labeled as a sex offender would definitely be way scarier than the public thinking I’m some kind of vampire.

“We need to find the dwarves first, before anything. Let’s get up so we can get moving,” I said after getting control of myself.

“Ah man,” Rina muttered under her breath.

Asakura nodded, “…find dwarves…” she echoed after me. She didn’t look stupid or act like a retard or anything but she just seemed quiet at least.

“Oh come on! I want to be immortal too, and be with you Shun! I want to be a mistress too! Please!” Rina begged me.

“Like I said, mom and dad in the afterlife would be really mad at me. I don’t want to take advantage of you,” I frowned back at her.

“But Shun! It’s like vampirism without having to be a murderer or steal people for blood like cannibals! There’s no cons or disadvantages here!” Rina hissed over excitedly.

“Yes there is,” I protested.

“Like what? Name it?” she demanded.

I better not tell her too much, I think to myself. I can’t talk about it even if I wanted to. Something about being less human worries me deep inside.

Dang, if she keeps this up she’d even convince me this sex demon thing was a good stock to buy into. I try to shake it off. I feel my self control weakening.

“Actually I don’t know if we’re immortal or not. There are a lot of cons here and I don’t know what they all are yet,” I reminded her. While doing so I pulled myself out from under Asakura’s attempt to hug me again while she’s leaning into me. I hadn’t even realized my hands were going up her shirt again.

This was the second time in an hour my body was like moving on its own…not good. My heart was beating like crazy too for fear of what I’d discover myself doing.

My forehead wrinkled up, “you are wrong there. There are tons of disadvantages to this. You know how last night I couldn’t eat human food and barfed it up? This is why. Now what do you think will happen if we go into an inn or something or are around dwarves and they see none of us can eat food? Also there’s the fact that this is the only person that can feed me in the whole world right now. It makes me really vulnerable. What if something happens to Asakura? I don’t know how to make another person be my…” I almost said ghoul but realized that might be too much information.

She stopped dead in her tracks, “oh crap. Wait you can’t eat solid food…that means…hmm won’t they catch us? Wouldn’t they notice if you go into towns and they see none of us can eat? That’s bad.” She looked down for a few minutes, as she started to pace around thinking about it. “But we can solve that. We just have to have a clever ruse and trick in place.”

“Rina…” I protested tiredly. “Listen, this is awful OK. It’s not something good. This world is fighting demons; which means I will be hunted my whole life and probably spend a lot of time on the run. They have people that look for and search out identifying demons in towns according…according to my sources. Do you really want to live like that?” I asked.

She nodded slowly as it started to sink in. “I’m sorry bro,” she hugged me. But I only permitted it because she was crying or at least putting up a good show. She felt a lot of anguish and pity right now but I had to push her away. Even just hugging her like this it was taking all my willpower to not want to latch onto her topless boobs and start biting and initiate sex. I have to break away fast. But even pushing her away it’s the most natural to push at the upper chest, and I almost grabbed them. I stopped myself in time, making her giggle. So she shakes them to tempt me.

Oh my hell. I can’t be by her anymore. I’ll go crazy.

I managed to somehow push her away by the shoulders without touching them.

“How’s your wound that I healed last night? Is it still sore?” I asked.

Rina turned her side towards me. Her skin is flawless and beautiful. I clamp my hands down on each other and try to force myself to be disciplined. “You can see for yourself,” she said.

I risk another treatment for her condition and the now healed up wound just in case. There’s been a strange psychological lingering pain effect after a wound is already healed up with a lot of my patients. I think it’s the brain’s way of feeling an echo of a wound that is gone but was real before. It makes it sometimes hard to know if I’ve really gotten a patient totally healed.

In this case I’m glad I made sure, just in case.

I wasn’t sure to laugh or cry at having night vision. I was seeing in the dark a little bit better than last night too. But it was still weaker than Asakura’s it seemed because she could look over a long stretch of land while I could only see about five feet from me. But it was also confirmation white clothes are no good here. She’s still shaking her head about it not being safe yet as she is trying to get us to follow her.

“Where’s your other shirt?” I asked Rina.

She hesitated a bit. “I sort of left it at camp. I didn’t think we’d be hiding in the dark.” She looked down. Sometimes she’d reach out and touch me and Asakura just because it was like she was totally blind reaching out but that’s bad for me when we touch too long. There’s no other option, if she were to touch Asakura that would make me really super jealous, even if she was a girl.

“Here take mine. You can’t be running around without a shirt. But be ready if we have to hide from more goblin scouts or platoons,” I said.

“See this is exactly what I mean Shun. You should be mine. Where am I going to find another person as good as you. No other boys would have wanted me to be protected. They’d have wanted me to be like cavement loincloths and topless. But you really care. Why do you have to be taken by Asakura already? Why not me also? And why aren’t you making Asakura wear a shirt?” Rina protested with a tear running down her face.

Damn.

I would have to steel up my willpower. She was good at pulling heart strings.

“Let’s rest a bit before we move again,” I said to buy time.

I still didn’t like going without a shirt though. I made her wear it, but it was way too big and hung loosely on her. Technically the threat of goblins seeing white is still very high, but I’m afraid I’ll attack Rina right now.

Of course after that I couldn’t help but sneak some more milk directly from the tap while we waited for Rina to use the bathroom behind some rocks. Asakura enjoys it as much as I do, and moans just a little bit while holding her crotch when I feed.

“Feels…good,” she said right before Rina comes back.

We finally moved out after I used a light spell that’s covered entirely to make a makeshift flashlight for Rina. To do it I used the normal light spell and wrapped a sort of a homemade lampshade around it, which consists of leather pelts harvested from animals that we’d inherited from goblins earlier. We had so much of the light blocked out that only a small sliver of glow can barely be seen. There also wasn’t enough of the leather scraps to cover up a worn white shirt, which was a bit disappointing.

But to get it this way we literally had to fight with the animal skins for about a half hour until we’re sure it’ll somehow function. If there’s too much light the goblins will see us, but if there isn’t enough then Rina can’t help us. I also had to work to get the light pitch so dark and faint that if goblins are even thirty feet away they won’t see it, and then show Rina how to cover it quickly to drown the light if she needs to. Then securing the pelts so that they won’t unravel was also part of the final fix before heading out.

It was easier now that I wouldn’t trip all over myself. But it was hard in that I had to make sure when I led Rina by the hand that I had some kind of cloth barrier between where we were touching each other.

We began moving through the hills trying to stay under cover. I’m actually starting to appreciate the darkness now that I’ve figured out how to turn it into an advantage. I like this way of it being peaceful outside and being easily able to hide from living things.

But it’s not perfect as I soon found out.

That’s when we met the first goblin scout. I almost missed him, since he was hiding under some type of cave cedar bushes. (I didn’t know until yesterday that there were such things but this world seems to have them.)

Fuck...

Asakura discovered him first, and I caught onto her signal by her nodding towards something when her posture had turned immediately hostile aggressive and it was like she was coming awake in a way.

Wordlessly I hit my stun spell and hit him right before he could sound his horn to call for reinforcements. It hit him, just as his lips were about to hit the ox horn device, which has my heart pumping like crazy in adrenaline from fear. I also realized if he has a signal horn then that means there are other goblins nearby too, or he wouldn’t have had it ready. We’ll need to get far from this spot after we dispatch him.

Any number of them could be sneaking around out here, or come out of the bushes while we’re trying to contain this fellow.

Asakura pounced on him as soon as I reacted before he could attack me. Hell, she’s wicked fast now. Her eyes are almost glowing in hatred it seems as she kicks out and knocks the air out of his stomach while I rip the horn from his weak and stunned fingers. As I wrench the horn out of his grasp I can feel he has a strong grip and normally I wouldn’t have been able to rip it out of his hands. He’s much stronger than his small stature suggests and easily would have overpowered an adult human.

It means this guy is a veteran and has probably fought more battles than either I or Asakura put together. It feels like my hair is standing up on end as we engage him, showering blows on him left and right making the air whir from the terrific force. I also take this opportunity to be right at the front with Asakura.

We have to act fast. The stun will surely wear off any second. I’m sure we can beat him, but beating him before he makes a noise or sounds an alarm is the big question.

Both Asakura and I pound blow after blow of dwarven warhammer steel into his chest and body before the ten seconds of stun are up. Somehow it also seems like having our connection helps her coordinate being able to fight well with me.

We still have to be careful though and we’re still adding every possible hit even after the stun should be worn off. Sometime after the eleventh and twelfth seconds he started to like gasp out a moan with his bleeding lungs popped but his air pressure from his chest is completely wrecked and only a strangled barly audible cry comes out. Of course during all that time, there’d been heavy impact compression sounds from the dwarven warhammers hitting his bones and body with sick sounding shmuck like vibrations.

But still the bugger won’t die even after we’d totally plastered his body with some terrible hits that would have been at least a double or triple in baseball. This guy must have been really good and really though, because if he keeps struggling even while being crippled from a surprise attack I can’t imagine how tough he would have been without the stun messing up his only chance to live.

We almost made a mistake then when he pretended to be dead and we were about to walk away. Then Asakura saw signs of him moving and ran over and began beating him again. It’s an awful scene to see a dying creature even if its goblins but we’re in the middle of a war.

Why won’t he die?!

Next time in this position I realize we have to always check and make sure they are dead. Goblins are so sneaky and clever they are really good at playing dead. Even his eyes had looked totally cold and lifeless. It’s like how a lizard has a built in biological fake death with their tail separation. I can’t believe I’m seeing a duplication of a similar but different thing in a humanoid creature.

This time he gets a second wind and tries to fight back. Even though he’s disarmed he had some extra knives hidden away in his back belt which he tries to stab at us with. We both dodge in time and then finally a full two minutes of fighting later we put him out of his misery.

Wow.

I’ll need to be extra careful for that ‘fake death’ skill in the future. And how it works, it seems like even if you are aware of such a skill existing, you can still fall for it.

“We did it!” Rina exclaimed.

I don’t mind that she wants to be part of the team and so I don’t bother correcting her from saying you guys instead of saying we.

Then after that we take extra precautions to make sure he’s dead and slit his throat and pop his heart with his own daggers.

Its disgusting work but necessary, and then afterwards we’re wiping up the slimy blood of our equipment which will take some time.

“Do we want to keep the goblin knives?” Rina asked trying to be helpful.

“What do you think Asakura?” I asked.

Of course I know Asakura is still in totally submissive mode and won’t say anything. But I have to still try to rehabilitate her. She looks back at me questioningly. I will try to talk to her more and more until she regains her former self.

“Um, she’s OK right?” Rina asked referring to Asakura.

“It will wear off eventually. Right now her body is still adjusting to the new…stats, and possibly adrenaline from the goblin fight,” I was searching for the right word.

“Adjusting to almost being fucked to death?” Rina said smiling.

I frowned. “It’s not…it’s not like that…” I protested. >.>

“Yeah whatever. It sounds fun though,” Rina stated.

“Um, yeah let’s salvage anything we can. Especially money, weapons, and metals, but don’t take anything that is goblin food,” I said.

“Why not?” Rina wondered.

“Because goblins are cannibals and many carry disease.”

She makes a wretching sound just hearing it. “Ewh yuck! And we’re surrounded by those filthy animals?!” Rina acted like she’d just put her hand in a den of spiders, jumping back from the goblin’s body. It can’t be helped. I’d probably have reacted that way too.

I actually like this part of her that’s learning responsibility and trying to do all she can instead of let others do things for her. She’s picking through the goblin’s belongings while Asakura and I check the area.

After a good minute of prowling around in the dark we found some other signs of goblins in the area.

Strangely enough, there isn’t any sign of dwarves even after we’re moving with pretty good speed.

“You remember the map right?” I asked Rina.

“Yeah why?” she asked.

“Because you have to lead us to where the dwarves had marked that stronghold or settlement on their map,” I said.

“OK.”

She looked really worried when I said that. But she accepts the responsibility. We try to keep going forward and always only use whispering voices since we never can tell how close the enemy is.

But sometimes she has to ask me to ask Asakura what she sees at the edges of her vision in the dark to get bearings on our position. It goes like that at least once every fifteen minutes.

We encountered goblins again right after that. An hour after that we killed two more that were moving solo, one right after another less than about two hundred feet apart.

But another hour after that we had to stop and get a break by an underground stream.

I realized the danger too late. Of course an underground stream would draw the enemies out. It’s one of the few places that they can use for relief. It’s also how crocodiles draw gazelle and antelope to be killed at the water’s edge.

This time there are two of them, also both scouts. They must have prepared this position on purpose as an ambush point. But did they team up like that because of knowing some of their other scouts were killed? I’m unsure how much they know of what’s really going on.

I hear them bark commands to each other as they charge us. This time they’ve got the upper hand.

I hit the first one with the stun spell to stop their momentum. He trips and hits the ground face first. A trip like that on rocky ground had to hurt like a son of a bitch. I’m sure he’s crooked nose is broken.

But it didn’t stop the second one and apparently these two are pretty hungry.

They don’t stop at all.

Asakura’s war hammer arcs up parrying the second goblin just in time. But now they are engaged in a snarling dog fight, almost as it were. They are trying to bury wounds on each other while I reinforced Asakura’s runic shield spell buff. I can’t help but do so for my own mind wanting closure to know that I’ve done everything I could, even though I had shields up on all of us already.

Then I hit a starry missile burst which hits the second goblin. The fireworks show and the goblin’s battle crying will surely draw other predators from nearby I’m afraid. But I can’t use all my other moves while they are snarling and dog fighting like they are. I can’t close to close combat because they are shaking each other up and moving around so much that I will hit Asakura if I try to use my warhammer.

My three missile burst hits him in the guts hard, but doesn’t kill him though I can see burns on his skin.

So spell use is best.

Then I hit the debuff spell for movement and debuff of -10% combat attribute stats on the goblin while activating +10% on Asakura. These spells unfortunately didn’t last all day, so I wasn’t able to keep them up while we travelled.

“What do I do Shun?” Rina asked behind me.

“Just stay alive, and out of reach of the goblins. Also stay near me to protect you,” I hurriedly said while releasing another starry missiles burst. This second burst of three missiles hits the second goblin that Asakura is fighting again, making him cry out in terrible pain while he and Asakura are hitting each other.

I’m surprised that she can keep up with him. These goblins are the veteran type like that previous scout we ran into. It’s bad in that it also means whichever goblin army these fellows belong to highly prizes intelligence and spy operations if they are putting their veteran tough fighters into scouting roles.

Even though I’m getting pretty good with this mage stuff, it doesn’t mean that I’m automatically invincible and can slay goblins easily. Particularly since these guys are tougher than the others.

The first goblin is coming too, and I hit the second one with a third starry missile burst, just as the first one is getting up.

This is hard work!

Asakura has become a really powerful defender I noticed. This is completely different from her wishy washy skills from before. She’s now holding her own on the second one while I turn to the first.

Unfortunately its not as easy for me.

The first one slams into my runic shielding with a powerful body slam, which rips a huge crack into it. Then he follows up with barely any time difference with trying to sweep me to the floor with a kick to the knees and swinging his club to hook behind my knee right with it.

He’s a clever fighter.

But that hits my shield too. A whole new series of cracks hits the shield on the side area of the shielding.

So I hit him with a -10% combat attribute spell debuff.

He starts screaming some jibberish. It’s louder than I like. Because we fear being discovered by other nearby goblins it’s almost like the sound is more intense to our ears.

“Shit they are loud huh?” Rina asked. “Shouldn’t I help?”

“NO! Stay back, or just throw rocks or something. I don’t want you near them. These are veterans, not like the wimpy trash you met before. Don’t let their pathetic appearances fool you. Even I’m having trouble handling them,” I yelled out ducking under the next series of blows from the first goblin.

I parry his next blows and then rip into bashing his arms but instead he blocks them and tries the same moves on me that I’d just tried on him. It shows a type of evil basic reasoning ability in his skull.

“Asakura needs a new glowy shield brother!” Rina screams out, alerting me to the other dangers with her shrill panicky voice. She’s trying to throw rocks but her aim is way off and I’m lucky even I wasn’t hit.

I managed to dodge this goblin scout’s blows just in time while retreating as I renew the runic shielding buff on Asakura.

Her shield had been eaten completely in less than a minute. Had I not recast it just now she’d be impaled on the other goblin’s short spear, which he is dual wielding with a spiked club.

Crap.

This one has now adopted the same strategy.

Are they combat specialists then? This is like a whole new rank up of strength to fight back against.

My shield gets torn up again, but manages to hold while I rip out a starry missile burst but instead of using it on my goblin I sent it to streak and hit the other already wounded goblin. This is now nine full direct hit missiles that have eaten up the goblin’s health and he’s still fighting like mad against Asakura.

Strangely the goblin fighting me is laughing, thinking I’m being foolish. Or they think they’ve got the perfect females to try to steal.

Rina hits him in the head with a rock, and then hits my shield with her next two rocks. “Oops. Sorry,” she cries out.

I then have to renew my shielding again, just as the next series of blows cuts a huge gaping hole in the front section of my shielding.

“Wow. They’re strong,” I said.

Asakura is barely keeping up with hers. She manages to parry most of the next series of blows but some get through cutting up her shield.

Again like before I release more offensive magic and this time we’re lucky in that the second goblin drops his spiked club and his arm is hanging bloody and useless. It gives Asakura a huge upper hand. She’s now able to start finishing him off, now that he’s been severely impaired and in a lot of intense pain. When I read his eyes, I can see the fear in them from him being aware as a smart reasoning creature but also aware that he has very little chance to survive now. But rather than giving in, he’s using that fear to try to channel a last ditch effort to survive.

I keep blocking and parrying on the fellow running against me while he cuts up my shield some more.

These two are actually better at combat than probably both Asakura and I put together, finally sinks deeply into my brain. I’m lucky I have the runic shielding to balance things out.

The only thing keeping us alive is magic.

After a few more minutes of fighting I have to renew my runic shielding again, while Asakura barely manages to cut off the other goblin in time before he tries to run away to escape.

“Stop him! He’ll bring back friends!” I cried out.

He almost gets away, but at the last second Asakura trips him into the dirt preventing him from entering an area new to us, and finally slits its throat from behind with a secondary knife hanging from her belt. Then she bashes its skull in three times to make sure it’s dead. It remains unmoving. She does a few more taps to be sure.

Yuck.

I hate that sound.

But on my front, I’m not even keeping up anymore. Somehow this goblin has frenzied and is getting wilder than before because of the death of one of his brethren. His wild swings are tearing up my shield quickly.

I renew the shield in time, and then hit him with another set of offensive magic missiles. They all hit but he’s tough and wiry, acting like he’s not even hit or wounded. Asakura sneaks up on him from behind and together we manage to force his defense to almost nothing since he can’t keep up with both of us attacking from opposite sides.

Funny, I just remembered this is how Fox and Sunghee beat that strong doppelganger. Did it happen subconsciously? I wonder if there’s a tie to my memories from the magic connection of Asakura and I briefly. It’s too hard to know at this time if there is or isn’t.

Finally my stun hits its renewed cool time end and I’m able to stun this fellow again too. I hate the stun cool times.

I can’t believe that all happened in like a minute or two? It feels much longer than that.

This goblin is standing there almost like he’s asleep as both Asakura and I are swinging as hard and as fast as we can. He finally crashes to the ground but we pour out the blows even more desperately from before.

A full five minutes later it’s a slag of jelly slime flesh in goblin form because we’ve hit it so many times and his bones are broken up so badly. Goblins also have thick skin compared to other creatures, which is something I wouldn’t have noticed without having to kill one.

“Yuck, that is so gross,” Rina said after we finished.

“It can’t be helped. Its hard work Rina, those guys were actually stronger than we were,” I said flatly.

I hear her gulp*.

“What? What do you mean they were stronger than you are?” her voice is quivering in fear. She refuses to wear her white shirt now, making me stow it away. She’s totally OK, with stealth mode now that her fear of goblins has increased a lot.

“What does that mean? I thought you were strong?” her voice said right after that when I wouldn’t answer her right away.

I can’t blame her for being scared. We all are.

“Let’s walk in the stream bed for a bit. The other goblins headed this way will have heard the sounds of battle and be looking for tracks to follow. They will be here soon, and we can use the stream itself to cover our tracks while we move,” I said.

“…water is cold…,” Asakura said, sleepy like.

“Yeah, it’s the best chance to sneak away though. You can’t leave footprints in running water,” I said.

But new questions come up. Next time I’m able to upgrade my skills, and if I have the choice should I focus my training on trying to extend the stun’s time keeping the enemy impaired, or instead focus on lowering the cool time between usages?

What other skills do the goblins have? Are they tribal or do they have a full blown country or city states?

I’m also scared of how long I’ll be able to resist feeding from Rina…I seemed so sure about not doing it before but it’s so hard even with Asakura here to help with the hunger.

Our goal is to keep moving and find the dwarves again. But it will be a slim shot in the dark. We’re not familiar with this area or how to live her, nor do we know where we’re going. We’re only aiming towards where we think they went.