My dragon waifu’s scaled hand snapped the arrow sticking out of my shin before she batted the next arrow away. She quickly opened my backpack and took out my rifle before handing it to me. I stopped what I was doing and stared at her.

 

“I’ll hold them off; all you have to do is kill the hobgoblin,” Alice said.

 

That, to me, proved once and for all that she was my ally through and through. She could have run away and left me for dead. The goblins didn’t know she was still alive, and I wouldn’t have let the detonation seal kill her. Our link should have made that clear to her. Most of all I could feel her determination from our link.

 

I remembered every shot from the hobgoblin’s arrows and from those memories I was able to predict his location and spotted him through the scope on one of the unburnt watch towers. I pulled the trigger twice just before Alice unleashed another breath attack.

 

Black flames had taken up residence in the city killing more goblins than these skirmishes had. With so much qi flowing in my system from goblins and the hobgoblin my body healed rapidly. The hole in my stomach healed along with the gap in my tibia closed enough to walk on it.

 

We made our way towards the largest building in the village where the waifus were kept by the ogre. I didn’t know what we would find but I was curious who was guarding it. They let their village burn and didn’t bother coming out to fight. The waifus were probably more important. Without them they couldn’t replace their numbers. Adding dinofu genetics to the next generation of goblins would have made them even more dangerous. Goblins were versatile but low on the forest’s food chain. A single rank 2 Griffon could wipe out the village on their own. Flight and the electric attribute were a devastating combination.

 

I drew both handguns and kicked in a wall in the ogre’s mansion. I shot a hobgoblin twice before he could pick up a brutal looking knife with red markings on it. Alice grabbed it and chunked it in my backpack before we moved on. I targeted each hobgoblin while they were separate and waited to take on the larger group. For some reason they didn’t come and attack us.

 

“Hey Alice, why isn’t the main group attacking us.”

 

Alice gave me an odd look. “They probably don’t know we’re already in the mansion or they’re guarding the waifus in the pleasure chambers.”

 

That sounded bizarre to me. How could they not sense us we were uncontrollably oozing qi? Even some blind men can see the light of the sun. I moved that question to the later stack and used my silenced handgun to finish off the last hobgoblin outside the group. I would really miss these weapons when I had to take on rank 3s and on. 

 

I found a wall nearest the group of hobgoblins, punched a hole in the wall, and tossed in a grenade. After it went off, I burst through the wall guns blazing. The remaining hobgoblins went down quickly, and I didn’t bother with the silencers at this point.

 

I threw myself out of the way of a wooden spike as I turned my gaze at one angry waifu. She was a beautiful red skinned rank 2 onifu with a staff in one hand and a curved scimitar in the other.

 

“Why have you done this to us? My children, you’ve killed so many of my sons.” The onifu yelled before wood spikes grew along the walls before shooting at us.

 

I dodged around the first three and shot a hole in her knee. Wood from the floor rose up and filled the hole. It was an interesting skill but not something I was interested in. Adding Yggdrasil power to dragon power was asking for trouble, I needed some buffer skills first.

 

When I shot her other knee and blasted her in the shoulder her wood patch skill became less effective. It was more to keep her going than to heal her completely. Alice his her in the side with a night slash and I grabbed the arm holding the scimitar.

 

I punched her hard in the gut before kicking her leg out from under her. Stakes appeared around her, but it was everything she could do to keep on her feet. Onifu could be powerful in the right circumstances and with the right skills. I used unorthodox tactics, and she didn’t appear to have extra sensory, wood sense, listen through the vine, or so many other skills that wood attribute users were known for.

 

Another blow knocked her against a wall, but it barely phased her. This waifu was tough I used more of my qi amp dragon power even further. It was like throwing wood on a fire, so it took a while to get going but when it did watch out. My blows continued to rain down on her while Alice attacked her with night slash imbued fists. Yggdrasil power flashed and she fought against us. Even if we had the attribute advantage, she was still a rank above us.

 

I drew my gun and fired two in her gut and her power dropped like a stone as blood poured out over her stomach. The second she fell Alice and I ripped the weapons out of her hands. I didn’t know what her scimitar could do, and I didn’t want to find out the hard way.

 

When I was good and ready, I grabbed her face. “Be subdued,” I said, and seals spread from my arm to her body. When she tried to resist, I put my boot on her wounded stomach. She screamed and the seals completed themselves. Her body morphed into light and appeared as a tiny ball of green around my wrist.

 

She was the first waifu I ever subdued and a rank 2 at that. I looked the scimitar in my hand over for a second and felt a poisonous qi running through it. Even for someone with a healing factor like me getting cut by it wasn’t a good idea. If we hadn’t surprised her this could have had a very different outcome.

 

“I think this is what gave her such fine control for a price.” Alice said and tossed me the staff.

 

The second my hand touched the staff I felt cut off from the greater world and threw it on the ground. Wood was notoriously hard to use quickly before rank 3. The staff must have helped her increase her skill speed in exchange for cutting off her senses. That was like blinding herself for a rock against an enemy. Yea the rock might hurt us, but she never saw us coming.

 

I thought about it and couldn’t make up my mind if this was natural or not. To be sure I pinched myself and amped dragon power rapidly to see if I was in an illusion. Normally only night or psionic attributes like mind flayers could cast good illusions. When nothing happened, I felt a little better. When I returned to town, I could sell the oni for around 25,000 credits. Oni are highly prized waifus even if an ogre has stretched them out.

 

To be sure I wasn’t being tricked I checked my skills. An illusion couldn’t replicate something the illusionist didn’t know about or couldn’t fathom.

 

Zoran

Earth Qi 4859

Regeneration III: Beginner 10.24%

Dragon Power: Intermediate 12%

 

At least that explained why the dragon power skill came easier than before. The Earth Qi continued to drop as it fed my dragon power and regeneration skills. They ate away at my stored qi quickly and there wasn’t much I could do to stop them. It was the price of fast growth and better the loss of qi than my health.

 

When I opened the door to the waifu chamber I expected a lot of things but not the goblin village equivalent to a hotel suite. There were rooms with names assigned to them in goblin speak, the room was cooler than outside, and I couldn’t feel a single bug in the room. To be honest I understood the ogre took care of his stolen women like a tamer would. So, it was time to rob him.

 

A brave day gobifu with a knife in her hand charged me. I batted the knife away, punched her in the gut, and grabbed her head. She fought for a second before my will overtook her and she was subdued. A little golden light appeared hovering around my arm. There were so many others I could try too. A day gobifu was worth 80,000 credits as a virgin and I was pretty sure she was one. I also planned to add her to my team if we could come to an understanding. If not, I would sell her off.

 

“Alice, get that guy’s Dinofu and collect any waifu that catches your interest I’ll search for anything that feels interesting. We leave in 10 minutes with the dinofu.” I said and headed to the right.