Xii looked over at Aeric with a smile, “How many games you got left in you before it’s lunchtime?”
“At least one or two more, can’t deny I’m getting hungry but it’s better to properly earn that lunch. How many more games does this place have anyway, it’s huge.”
“Well, we’ve done four games now. They have fourteen I think. Not all of them are things we’d enjoy though. Some of them are things like chess, or other board games. I’m not that big a fan.”
“Same, I always get impatient. Unless it’s something like flash chess.”
“Flash chess?”
“You get three seconds to make your moves. So it makes games really fast.”
“Well I’m still not much of a thinker.”
“You did quite well in that strategy game we did though.”
She turned to him and flashed a grin then shrugged. “That's not really thinking so much as experience. Even a dumb soldier can be a decent sergeant and battle-field leader if he has the tactics stamped into him.”
“Fair enough, so.” He looked around the hall, seeing what would catch his attention. His eyes honed in on something that looked familiar. “Is that a shooting arcade? Those look like guns.”
Xii glanced over to what he was looking at and they walked over. She grabbed one of the wooden pieces and inspected the rune work. She showed it to him and smiled, “They’re not like the guns you told us about. These have magical rune work and the only thing they really do is shoot small beams of light. They wouldn’t do any damage but the room you see behind me is enchanted with various forms of illusion. It’s based on the books one of the more futuristic world walkers wrote. It’s pretty popular.”
“So we grab these and then we shoot things inside the room? So we work together or in a small team?”
“It works best when you’re with four people, it’s what it’s set for. This one is all about defending a room or a ship from intruders. It has two modes, one where you’re on a futuristic ship and there are these monsters trying to kill you. The other is that you’re holding a castle from waves of undead.”
“So we need another couple?”
Xii grinned, “That or just two other people. Here they come right on time.” She raised a hand and Aeric turned to look, two other Aermineans who looked identical raised a hand in turn and walked up to them. The two of them were obviously twins, with the exact same bone structure and white paint. Their hair drawn back in buns, Aeric blinked slightly in surprise when they spoke up, not having expected their deep gravelly voice. “Hey boss, so is this the one you wanted to introduce us to?” The one on the left asked with a cocked head, the other smiled. “It looks like you're on a date, you didn’t tell us about that.”
Xii smiled and folded her hands, “Aeric, this is my cohort Jai and Bai. Both are only a few levels lower than I am. They’re basically sworn as my sword brethren.”
Aeric raised a hand in turn, “Nice to meet you, so what does it mean they are sworn?”
The left twin smiled, “We basically do whatever Xii says. Aermineans have a custom where they find their own cohorts, some fight it out. Some grow up together or have been life-long friends. Then when you form a cohort you designate a leader. It’s a bit more involved than that but you get the picture. We follow her till death, either hers or ours.”
The right twin grinned, “Not that either is that likely to happen, we became a good bit stronger than expected. We’ve been together and going strong for over two decades now. Cohorts of our strength don’t reform, our skills are too embedded with each other.”
Xii turned to Aeric, “Which means that if one of us dies we won’t find a replacement or be joining another group. What we have, it’s permanent now. Our lives and fates are entwined. As the poets would say.”
“That sounds rather complicated. But you were going to ask them to join our game?”
Xii grinned, “Well since they are here, we might as well break the high score.”
The twins chuckled, “I doubt anyone has a team that could beat our bond.”
Aeric smirked, “Guess I’ll just watch your six.”
“Six?”
“The back, you guys can go murder-happy and I’ll try to fill in the gaps.”
The twins chuckled and slapped Aeric on the shoulder, “That sounds like a perfect arrangement. Well then, let's get shooting!”
The four of them stepped into the room, Aeric grabbed the wooden rifle and put the stock against his shoulder. The others eyed his posture with a questioning eyebrow, the twins turning to Xii. She shrugged, “World-walker, he’s probably the only one holding the thing right.”
Aeric coughed, “Well to be fair this is to deal with the recoil, these won’t have any. I visited firing ranges back home though. Anything else just feels like I’m holding it wrong.”
The twins eyed his posture then mirrored it, “So… You press the rifle into your shoulder for stability.”
“Right, then you aim with the left hand and with simple body movement. Generally while moving you’d be a bit crouched, most of the combat like this back home was done with stealth in mind.”
“Cool, well. Let’s do this thing!”
He slotted the rifle into his shoulder and walked forward, eyes focusing on the details around him as the illusion slid into place. He kept to the back of the formation as the room previously made of padded wood turned into the stone walls of a small outpost. He heard groaning and saw various zombies moving towards their position from the left. He turned and his finger squeezed the trigger. His shot went wide, and he smirked to himself. Yup, his aim still sucked.
Beams soon lit up the undead as Xii and her team opened fire, each of them focusing on a different area with practiced ease. Bolts of light flew through the air and zombies dissipated in black puffs of smoke. He smiled as he witnessed their skill, they made the coördination seem easy, instinctual. He looked around and focused on the opposite side the Aermineans were clearing, he saw a few of them coming and obliged their presence with a few beams of light. This time taking his time to aim and shoot, it still took two shots each since he didn’t hit the head.
He took his time and shot the ones that came into his vision, he let the other three take care of the majority. It was kind of relaxing really, the tension seeped out of him as he realised even if he just stood in the middle he’d probably be fine. Xii and the twins were cleaning up the dozens of rotten corpses with ease. Their synchronicity was something to behold, they moved with clear purpose. Aware where the others were at all times and moving along with them as if they were merely limbs on the same body. It was hypnotising to watch, their movements so smooth and graceful.
He smiled over at Xii, who was whipping the hair out of her face and showcasing her trademark predatory grin. He felt his heart pound in his chest as he enjoyed watching her in her element, he noticed the slight twitches in her shoulder that somehow seemed to tell the twins exactly what they had to do. He was pretty sure they were using minor adjustments in body language to communicate with each other somehow, perhaps it was all subconsciously done.
The waves and the number of targets increased in number and slowly but surely they reached the end of their game. Xii looked up when the ping sounded and rushed outside with a happy grin, she looked over at the board next to the door to the room and smiled as she watched their names appear at the top of the scoreboard, magical letters noting down their score. She turned to Aeric with a pleased grin and laughed, putting her hands on her hips. “Witness Aerminean superiority!”
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Aeric stepped forward and kissed her, grabbing the back of her neck and going in for a proper kiss. She froze for a brief moment before returning the kiss. The twins were cheering them on from the sideline. Smug grins on their faces when the two separated, Xii blinked up at him, “What was that for.”
“Just a pleased boy admiring his date in her preferred environment. I may not like violence much, but I do love seeing you in your element.”
She smiled softly and grabbed a hand, “Well I do say that we deserve a proper lunch now no?”
The twins perked up, “You cooking?”
She laughed, “No, but I do know a place I think you’ll enjoy.”
The twins looked over at each other, shrugged and then moved to follow her as she grabbed Aeric’s hand and headed out of the gamehall. She waved to the gamehall owner as they left the building. Aeric blinked and looked over at her, “Don’t we need to pay?”
“Nah it’s fine, I have a running tab at this place. I come here regularly, I helped him set up some of the games and also with some contacts so he could set up some of the really fun stuff. Most gamehalls aren’t this good you know, and I enjoyed helping him. That illusion game we did last? It’s pretty costly and it takes connections to set up something like that.”
“And you helped with the contacts?”
“Yup, I’m pretty well connected and most people make time for me.”
“I suppose being the second strongest person in the city helps.”
She laughed and turned to him, “It really does open doors. I try not to abuse it too much though. But if you’re famous you might as well use it, right?”
“True. So.” He turned to the twins, “I know Xii pretty well by now, but tell me about yourselves.”
They turned to each other and shrugged, one of them motioned for the other to answer. The other one shrugged, “Not that much to tell, we grew up in the same Clan as Xii, I think our parents are second-cousins or something. Even when we were young Xii had been reckless yet extraordinarily driven. So when she needed people for her cohort, we were the ones who stepped up and asked to join.”
The other nodded and elbowed Xii playfully, “She has a knack for moving people around during combat. Then she decided that doing so with words was inefficient so she started using gestures. Eventually even that took too long for her so she tried to get us far enough that we could read her body language with enough ease that we could move on instinct in the way she wanted us to.”
“That would have been twenty levels and years ago when we reached that point. Add in all the time we spent training and working together after that and this is the result.”
Aeric turned to Xii, “Which reminds me I don’t see you train that much, I hear you practising maybe an hour each day but..”
Before he could finish the sentence he saw the twins smirk and turn to Xii, she avoided looking at them and looked to the side. Pretending to be innocent, Aeric furrowed his brows, “What’d I say?”
The twins laughed, “She wasn’t supposed to be using the blade or practising at all during this break. She kind of promised to focus on other things.”
“Well I can’t entirely not practice! I need to stay in shape, I kept it to an hour a day! That’s nothing!”
“It really is nothing compared to what she normally does, I’ll give her that. But yeah on a normal day when she does her training she usually swings her sword around for an hour or six. Sometimes she forgets the time and forgets to stop, too caught up in a new sword dance or a new countermovement or something.”
The other twin nodded, “It’s one of the reasons we follow her, she practices almost nonstop. A slight imperfection in how she moved to that one monster’s shooting quills? Review it in her head and then practice it till she can react to an attack like that with perfect economical movement.”
Xii shrugged, “I have a skill that lets me simulate a battle against a monster or person I’ve slain. Very useful for practice.”
“I can imagine.”
Xii perked up as they approached something that looked like a cafe, she took a seat at one of the tables. The other customers looked up and started whispering, a few pointed at their table and he saw a few of the more armed customers eying the members of his table with something that was both respect and trepidation. He saw a pair of kids staring at Xii and the twins with wide eyes. The younger one, a small wolven beastgirl jumped down from her chair and rushed over before her parents could stop her. Their parent’s jumped out of their chairs after her but arrived too late to stop the girl from walking up to Xii.
She looked up at them with her ears down and her large amber eyes twinkled, “Are you Xii?! The sword dancer! I saw your puppet show! You’re really pretty.”
Xii grinned down at the kid, showcasing her full dentistry. Instead of cowering, the girl’s gaze shot to the sharp fangs and her eyes widened. She opened her mouth and poked at her own fangs and Aeric could tell she was comparing them. “I am indeed Xii, little one. What was the puppet show about!”
“How you fought a group of wyverns! Protected a village and jumped off a building on a Wyverns back and SHHHIIIING cut its head off.” The girl made a pretend swing with a sword and then raised her arms in a cheer. “It was so cool!”
The girl's parents stood behind her and looked both nervous and thankful in equal measures. Xii looked up at them and smiled before turning back to the girl, “Well, wyverns are very fun to fight. Wouldn’t recommend it to kids though. You’d probably be used as a toothpick.”
The girl frowned and folded her arms, “I bet I could take a wyvern. I’d jump in its mouth and beat it from the inside.”
Xii raised a hand and put it on the kids head, the parents blinked but didn’t stop her. The Aerminean leaned down and looked the girl in the eyes. “You want to know the secret to my success, little one?”
The girl nodded excitedly and leaned closer to hear her next words. “Practice, take your time to reach a proper age. Twenty at the least, and practice every day. Practice a lot! I do it at least six hours each day usually. If you want to be strong that’s the best way, building your foundation is important!”
Aeric saw the parents almost sag in relief when the girl nodded excitedly. They smiled and the husband, a greying wolf man, bowed slightly to her in thanks. Xii looked up and winked at the man as he took his little girl away again, who was chattering excitedly at her parents about becoming a future hero like Xii.
Aeric chuckled, “So you’re actually pretty good with kids, I’ll be honest. I thought you were gonna be kinda awkward about it.”
She gazed at him and rolled her eyes, flagging down a waitress as she turned to him. “It’s not just about whether I’m good with kids or not. It’s experience as well, the first time a kid came up to me like that? Didn’t go nearly as well.”
“There’s the fact that a lot of people look up to Xii, so she has to be carefull with her words because some people take them super seriously. Giving some offhand advice to a kid who wants to be a frontline shielder, then telling him he should always stand before his team no matter what they face? Could get him killed.”
Xii’s brow furrowed, “Nowadays I give them the advice that practice makes perfect. Strengthen your foundations. Work hard and remember to listen to advice, no one makes it on their own.”
One of the twins grinned, “Even though the truth is Xii took little lessons and advice was ignored for a large chunk of her life. But you can’t tell kids to do what you now know to be some stupid ass shit. Wisdom comes with age and all that.”
A waitress walked up to their table and after a quick look at the menu they ordered some more juice shakes and some kind of bread-fruit-cake hybrid. That looked pretty tasty. They thanked the waitress who hung around just a little longer than necessary as she kept glancing at Xii with wide eyes.
Once the waitress left to give their orders to the chef, Xii turned back to Aeric. “You’ll probably be just as famous as me by the end of the year. Your advice wont directly have a child’s life depend on it.” She paused for a moment, “Well hopefully.” She shook her head, “But you have to realise that people who admire you will take whatever you say very seriously. You need to make sure that it’s good advice, you might ruin lives otherwise.”
“A lot of this sounds like advice you heard from someone else.”
“Yup, Ursmir taught me most of this. It’s good advice.”
The waitress reappeared with their drinks and the desserts. Hanging at their table a little longer again, she seemed to hesitate about something. Aeric grinned at her, “Feel free to ask her anything, she doesn’t bite. Not in that way anyway.”
The waitress, a young dwarven girl, jumped and glanced at Aeric before turning to Xii. “I just… Didn’t know what to say!”
Xii laughed and patted the girl on the shoulder, “You don’t have to force yourself to say anything. In the end I’m just a person, like everyone else.”
Aeric snorted and the twins eyed each other, Aeric looked up at the waitress and grinned, “Except she really isn’t much like everyone else is she.”
The girl nodded in agreement, her thick braided hair bouncing and shifting over her shoulders, she bowed slightly to them and escaped back to the safety of the kitchen. Aeric shook his head, “By the way, I expected the red-light-district to be more… scandalous. But it’s more like the entertainment areas back home.”
“Why’d you expect that?”
“Well red-light usually refers to the area the prostitutes hang out, at least back home.”
“Ah, it’s different here. Mostly all the fun and relaxation stuff is in this district. Up next is to check out some bars and places I guess.”
One of the twins raised a hand, “Not for us though, we have stuff to do. You two enjoy the date though.”
Xii smiled, “Thanks guys, I’ll probably see you guys around.”
“Yup, otherwise see you at the expedition. Nice to meetcha Aeric, take care of our little blood princess will you?” The twins smirked as they waved and left the cafe.
Xii waved them off before she frowned and slapped the table, “Son of a bitch! They left me with the bill!”