Zoran was the best partner; Alice was sure of it. Not only did he have enough willpower to find his line against her, but he was a competent killer. She heard stories of tamers dying in droves on their first outing in the forest. She had been a little worried when they first set out, and the boulder was a wake-up call. Then they killed their first hobgoblin.

They even managed to get an onifu. Admittedly she was used goods, and after the ogre bred her wider than a hallway but still. He subdued her and told her to grab any waifus she could while he covered the other side of the maiden vault. She was a dragon stealing maidens, a cliche, and loving every minute of it. She ripped open a door and found a Tsufu grabbed the girl’s mucus-covered hand and jerked her along.

“Wait, what are you doing?” The waifu asked.

“We’re getting out of here. My partner and I have already cleared out all the goblins. So, why don’t you join the team.”

Alice tried to spread her qi sense around, but it wasn’t that great. Her partner was really a freak of nature, but she wasn’t going to be the one who told him that. She’s heard of machines tamers use less accurate than him. Only wood-type monsters or waifus could match his senses, and that was through a medium like the mansion. Only the onifu had been too dumb to use her greatest advantage. Fast attacking would have been great if her partner had chosen to go down the hallway. Zoran didn’t and rarely chose a frontal assault against anyone. The last tamer to challenge him received a punch to the throat and his card stolen.

She found the orange flame of dragon power and ripped open the door to one of her sisters. The orange dinofu looked surprised to see her. Alice guessed she wasn’t trying to sense anything. “I’m busting you out of here. My partner took on a job to rescue you, so let’s get out while the getting is good.” Alice said.

Six Dinofu stared back at her, and she realized her qi sense wasn’t very good at all. All six of Alice’s potential nestmates stared at her in awe and trepidation. Her blade scales always set her apart, and despite the good news, they probably didn’t trust her. At this point, a few might even look forward to being fucked by an ogre’s monster cock.

Her expectations were shattered when they dove in and hugged her. “Thank you so much I miss my Chuck.” The other waifus called out the names of their partners, and suddenly this situation became more complicated.

…

I moved quickly, checking through the rooms and subduing every waifu I saw. One blow and a quick subduing later, they appeared as tiny glowing balls on my arm. A rank 2 mystical beast chimerafu with a wind attribute was a problem, but bullets to the gut solved that issue. She rested on my arm with several rank ones who went down with a single blow for the most part. A sex doll type metal attribute Dollifu took a couple blows before she would be subdued. It would be easier if I talked to them, but time was of the essence. Sometimes, I burst through the walls instead of bothering with doors as I collected everyone until I caught up with Alice.

She led six dinofus and clung to a tsufu in her left hand. The Tsufu stood out to the senses, and I needed a strong water type to help with my training in the first sect. She also carried leviathan power, a strong counter to dragon power. Whether she would make a good addition to my team, I couldn’t guess.

Tsufu had a lot of different rank-up paths and some dead ends. The mods mostly fixed that, and there were some really powerful tsufu line builds. Whether she was best as a status debuffer, buffer, tank, or DPS was up to debate, but she had many paths forward. On the other hand, Alice was going straight for a tank DPS fusion build.

As of rank 3, she would be able to heal herself from damaging enemies and negate half the damage from the 5 primary attributes. Add some armor designed to shore up her day attribute weakness and some medallions for psionic protection, and there was very little that could take her down until rank 7. That’s when piercing came into play, and dodge tanks were the name of the game. I would prepare Alice for that when the time came in a couple of decades.

While I was lost in my plans, something touched the edge of my senses. I grabbed the tsufu and subdued her on the spot. She didn’t fight back. I sucked in a breath and let it out.

“Set fire to the mansion we’re leaving through the back,” I said. My eyes widened as all seven dinofu gathered their breath attacks together.

I rolled with the punches and shoulder-checked the back wall. Timbers cracked before exploding as I forced my way through them, followed by the waifus. Black and orange flames quickly spread through the room, catching fire to books, beds, and clothes. Smoke flooded the room, and the second I opened a path, the fresh air the fire followed us.

An explosion launched me through a wall and out of the mansion, followed by Alice and the six dinofus. We rolled to a stop as I sensed over a hundred hobgoblins, oni, trolls, and one ogre enter the burning remnants of their village. Unspeakable rage filled them as some broke off to look for survivors and others made a mad dash for the mansion’s maiden vault.

The waifus quickly got to their feet, and we concentrated dragon power to our legs. A column of smoke towered behind us as we jumped.

My second attempt at leaping over a wall was more controlled, so I didn’t go flying. We took off towards Jackson city when our feet touched the ground. The sun was still high in the sky, and it wouldn’t be long before I heard a harpy call quickly carried by another.

A hobgoblin rushed in, riding a black man-eater by the horse monster’s fangs, black coat, and red eyes. I pulled out my knife. I didn’t have time to screw on a silencer. We didn’t have much time before the whole raiding party would be chasing us.

The hobgoblin pulled out a man catcher of all things and tried to loop the ring around my neck. Red light blasted around my body as I revved up the dragon power even more. The air burned around me as I punched the horse. I watched the creature go from arrogant assurance, to shock, and then rage. The horse reared up, showing its belling and cycling its hooves.

Normally I wouldn’t have anything to worry about from someone of my strength. However, I haven’t even reached my first sect yet. A rank 2 monster’s hide should be impenetrable. Fortunately, I had a knife that was good at cutting into the monster hide, and my dragon power had already reached the intermediate realm.

My knife cut through the monster’s hide, and I sliced the monster from breastbone to groin and rolled to the side. The monster’s guts stayed inside it until its hooves touched the ground. I watched them fall out in a big splattering mess. The monster lunged, stepped on its own intestines, and slipped, throwing its rider.

I slammed my knife through the hobgoblin’s eye, took out my gun, and screwed on a silencer. Then I raised the weapon and shot twice, dropping two goblins. One had already managed to escape, but we could still get a lead. After I shot the man-eater, I let Alice collect the monster’s night qi.

That’s when I felt a chill run down my spine. “Run I yelled, grabbed Alice’s hand, and pushed her forward. The other dinofu followed suit before the village wall exploded into timbers. I unscrewed my silencers and pulled out both handguns. After I ensured they had fresh clips and both weapons were cocked back, I prepared to buy time. I still had grenades on my belt, and my dragon power continued to climb at the cost of qi. I revved my dragon power until even my regeneration had trouble keeping up. The qi I’ve gained dropped like a stone as I used it to put myself on a level I wasn’t ready for.

All of this was to help people who would probably take advantage of me later. I knew it, but I couldn’t help but want to do something different. Even if I was still an asshole and evil, I wanted to do some good, no matter how small.

“My wife, my sons, and my friends; you did this to us.” The ogre roared and raised a flail of bone, leather, and dragon teeth. One hit from it, and I would be paste, no matter how much I revved up my dragon power.