Corvayne waited as the naked woman under him stopped squirming, then eased up the hold he had on her as to not break her arm, and to stop driving her face into his bedroll.
“This is the second night in a row, Tutu. Please stop trying to sneak into my tent when I'm asleep.”
Bell stuck her head and shoulders from her tent, fury evident where her own clothes were not. “I knew I should have left her at camp!”
The woman under him rolled over, exposing her chest to Corvayne as she looked across the camp to glare at Bell. “You WOULD do that, wouldn't you SISTER?!”
Bell pointed a finger, briefly forgetting that hand was keeping her decent with a tent flap. “What happened to the dutiful girl who followed me to sword practice? You've become a vile whore!”
“Tch! That girl realized what a useless rotten bitch her sister was!”
Lady Blood Claw, who was on watch, had bright banded colors which meant she was amused, even if the look on her face was indifference. “I can't watch for threats coming at us and keep an eye on camp.” she said a little too evenly, which made Corvayne give her the stink-eye, causing her to practically glow with amusement. He looked between the two princesses.
“You both share something as sisters.”
Tutu stopped hissing at her sister and looked up at Corvayne, who was keeping her hands from grabbing at his clothes. She tried to give him a sultry look and push her chest up further. “Our bodies made for love?”
“No. That when I untied you, I regretted it.”
Insulting her had the opposite effect, so Corvayne instead used [Cross Skill: Juxtapose] to get her onto his shoulder, then marched her over to her own pink tent while trying not to think about how physically hot her skin was.
“Tutu, I do not want to tie you up again. I don't want to have sex with...” He was about to say anyone but that wasn't true. He could say 'you' but honestly, he had been half tempted to just roll with it. Go with honesty, Corvayne.
“... Someone who sees me as a walking sperm bank.”
Tutu wiggled as he placed her in her tent, trying to show herself off to him as he shut the flap. “Go to sleep. PLEASE.” He shouted at the pink canvas, then stomped back to his tent and flopped down into his own sleeping bag to find that Spears was settling in next to him. It was different, he told himself. She had clothes on.
“... That wake you up?”
Spears looked sheepish, but Corvayne pulled a hand out so she could hold it. Her warm liquid hand slipped into his. “Corvayne, sorry. I know you want to be alone but it helps offset the curse.”
“You're fine Spears. You are not trying to get me to 'pump other-world babies' into you.”
There was a moment of long silence, then a single laugh and sigh. “Go to sleep Corvayne.”
He closed his eyes and let the sound of crickets and the wind lull him to sleep.
He awoke rested and gently untangled himself from Spears, who had escalated to wrapping her arms around his, to go out to the dark camp and perform watch. Lady Blood Claw waved at him and offered up her camp chair, which he took as it was warmer than the stones and lush grasses that made up this Tower floor. It was still warmer than out on the High plains, so he couldn't complain. He watched Bearer-of-Burdens drag a large branch away from a small grove of trees near camp, snap it into a few parts, then toss it into the fire. Looking away, Corvayne kept his eyes trained for the signs of any other movement. He pulled out a stone as he looked at the surroundings, intending to do a little sharpening of his weapons aside from his spear, which was still as keen as ever.
Bearer stepped up next to him and looked around. “You know, generally if you want to sun bathe you set your chair up in the daytime.”
Corvayne had not yet asked her about the black shard she had produced. Should he take the bait?
“Bearer, you should be watching our back.”
She shrugged. “We got a minute before the monster trying to sneak up to camp gets close enough.”
Something about how she made it sound like a joke compared to how level she was when saying wholesale lies made him think she was serious, and he stood up. She jerked her thumb back towards the back of the rise they were camped atop. Corvayne stood and stalked over, and spotted what she meant immediately: It looked like a wolf with rabbit ears creeping through the grass.
Corvayne had done enough runs to know what he was looking at. A large monster that didn't fit the floors normal types meant it was one of the outliers. On a low floor like this, that put it at a challenge for him alone, maybe, depending on what sort of abilities it had. He was about to spring down to the grass it was stalking through when Bearer put a hand on his shoulder.
“You're looking to diversify, right? You need more moves. Fight it with a weapon you need to practice with.”
Corvayne paused before responding. The wolf had stopped too, freezing after apparently noticing him for the first time even though he was only about thirty feet away. He felt calm as he put his spear back on his back and pulled out his fire-breathing dagger. “Bearer, after this we need to talk.”
“Wolf first. If you use your spear, or I have to help, or you die, that's a loss.”
She said some very obvious things, but Corvayne had been thinking about it. He squared his feet, and jumped at the wolf, activating [Cross-Skill: Leap Attack]. The rabbit wolf was ready, leaping out of the way and leaving a cloud behind. Corvayne forced the skill to cancel and used his gravity power to drift past the point, then turned as the long eared monster leaped at him, blood stained incisors. He used [Cross-Skill: Juxtapose] and swapped places with the wolf, only to throw himself into a patch of sticky goop it left behind it.
The monster turned and Corvayne swore it looked amused as it pounced again. Corvayne willed it to become lighter, and the monster flew over him, nearly clipping him with an oversized paw. In the mean time, pulling at the slime stretched it into threads, so he used [Cross-Skill: Flows-Like-Water] and managed to break away, trailing a few clumps of soil. At the same time, the wolf charged again, and Corvayne brought the dagger up and let loose a stream of fire.
He heard Bearer calling out, “Boo! BOO!” as the monster itself backed off from the gout of fire. He turned the still glowing dagger back on the threads and they dissolved into acrid smoke. He sized up the wolf and started circling, as the wolf did as well. He was trying to get to the essence of the dagger. His essence of it. For him, it wasn't an assassin's tool, was it? No. It was his fang right now, as an animal fighting another animal.
The wolf charged again, and Corvayne rolled to the side then slammed the dagger into the monster's massive chest as it passed, slashing but not getting very deep as its ribs blocked it. The monster however howled in rage, the noise being met with sounds of confusion from camp as the girls woke.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The monster turned and lunged with its claws, the blades flashing in the fake moonlight before Corvayne felt searing pain on the side of his face as one of the monster's limbs seemed to grow longer than he had expected. Hot blood followed the slash, but Corvayne forced himself into [Vitality]. Once again he watched his enemy, and the next time it hurled itself at him he rolled forward, getting kneed by the monster as it brought its huge legs back under itself to land. Still reeling, Corvayne managed to scramble back to his feet before the monster did and pivoted into [Backstab], clipping it in the leg as it kicked out at Corvayne. The blow sent him fumbling through the tall grass. He saw the wolf leaping again and rolled through the grass, pushing himself to his feet and rushed at the animal, switching to [Agility].
As everything seemed to slow he saw an opening and grabbed the rabbit-wolf's fluffy hide and pulled and twisted with his legs even as it was turning to snap its jaws on him, and they spun for a moment as Corvayne's other hand grabbed his knife and he somehow activated [Cross-Skill: Juxtapose] and [Bleeder] at the same time, ripping into the wolf as he switched places, almost too stunned to pull himself out of the sticky slime.
He HAD to try it again. Forget anything else. He waited for the wolf to lunge, pushing [Agility] so hard that a knife sized black shard started growing out of his elbow. He grabbed it with a free hand to get two daggers, and did nearly the same move, even with the wolf knowing what he was about to do, dancing through goop with [Cross-Skill: Juxtapose] but finding his [Bleeder] follow up was late. Two times. Three.
Eventually the wounds he had already inflicted caused the monster to just drop dead before he could try to repeat it a forth time. He didn't care that he was tired, or covered in goop, or been slashed on his arms and legs. He turned to Bearer and saw he had a crowd of observers at various stages of waking up and dressed.
“Did you see it? What did you see?” He called out to Bearer, or anyone.
“I see you are covered in blood and staring at Tutu's tits.” Lady Blood Claw called down.
Nyx laughed. “He'd rather see yours.”
She elbowed him, and Corvayne searched the other observers. Tutu was clearly not interested in combat, Bell was covering her chest up with one hand and holding a sword with another, in the process of realizing there was no threat and giving into embarrassment.
Brines of all people held a hand up to speak. “You had three legs for a moment. Two spinning the dog, the other pivoting you to strike.”
“Legs? Shadow legs?”
Bearer laughed. “No shadows. But see? You can only break your limits when you challenge yourself. Good eyes too Brines.”
Corvayne had a prickling feeling again meeting her gaze as the others started walking back to their tents. Lady Blood Claw turned to Spears and said something, then gave her a pat on the back. His contest of wills with Bearer-of-Burdens was broken by watching Spears down the steep hill near him. The watery woman had her own spear ready but looked relaxed. He appreciated her confidence in him.
“You alright Corvayne?” She asked anyway, then dug into a bag and offered him a potion. Right as he was about to reject it the rabbit kicks and claw wounds caught up to him. He was sore all over, even if he wasn't injured. he took a deep breath and switched to [Vitality], then accepted a red potion either Mosh or Mister I had bottled into a former salad dressing container. He was pretty sure there was a hint of thousand island with the liquid, but it took care of his wounds fine.
“I'm okay. Tough monster.”
She put her spear away and moved next to him. “Lift your arm, I'll help you up.”
He thought about protesting, but another part of him kept urging him to get over himself, and he took her offer to lean on her. As always, he was sort of surprised how firm the slime-woman could be.
“... makes me miss hunting with you, a little. I like the new Corvayne even more though.” She laughed.
Maybe it was experience, or acting like a spear and stepping forward over and over the last few months, or super natural [[Understanding]] pushing away everything else... but he asked himself: What the hell was he waiting for with her?
“Spears, you've been patient with me for a few months.” He started.
“Try fifty thousand years, but I wasn't awake all of it, so yes. I'm patient.”
“You were always a solid team mate. Sometimes I thought about how I'd wish for someone like you but... who liked me.”
She stopped and Corvayne had to instead turn and pull her up the last few steps to the flat hilltop. He could see her watery cheeks darken. He forced himself to keep talking, saying “I don't know if I'm ready to marry anyone but I was alone for a lot of the last month, except that you and everyone who tried to pull me from just fighting and moping all day. I'm not interesting...”
She laughed aloud at that.
“Outside of my weird life that's growing around me, but you've been a good friend and good fighter, and...”
“Oh, what about Lady Blood Claw?” She teased.
He stopped and looked for her. He did care about what LBC felt. Doubts were threatening to creep back in. He took a deep breath.
“I think we got something close to what you and I used to have and... I also think she's not interested in romance. Not right now.” The idea of trying to go in for a kiss on Lady Blood Claw brought him back to the one time she had asked him to try to pull her curse out. Even with that, the idea of trying to kiss her in his mind ended with a punch him in the face.
“Corvayne, Corvayne, Corvayne.” She held a finger up. “I have her blessing, and if anything changes, we can deal with it. I mean, for starters, I doubt I can keep up with you alone. In bed, I mean. I talked with Hari.”
Instantly Corvayne felt himself losing control of the conversation. Which was okay given as they were headed to his tent. “I mean, I should admit even under the curse I always admired how high you could attack from, and once more... wait. I had a thought when I was alone, that... I was thinking of starting slow though. All my other relationships went sex first then everything else.”
“We are adults though, and...” Spears said, still smiling and obviously trying not to laugh. “You've taken a peek at my slime puppies more than few times.”
“Fine. I do think about how warm you were when I had to pull that thorn thing out of your heart.”
She wiggled her fingers and then used them to clean some of the blood and enemy slime off his arm, using the opportunity to whisper into his ear, “And I kept thinking about it too. Those hard hands of yours. I remember it, sometimes when I slept near you.”
Corvayne looked at her, and the expression she had finally sold him on the idea that she had also been holding herself back. He squared his shoulders up and tried to sound totally calm as he said, “I suppose we are already sleeping with each other in the literal sense.”
“Was that so hard?” She laughed. “And if you and Lady come around, well, everyone assumed you'd have at least three wives. Me, Diamonds, and... you know... huh.”
She stopped and starting thinking. “I know I remembered three of us.”
A spear moves forward. He turned and put his hands on Spear's shoulders rather than let her get distracted, and she smiled then closed her eyes, little features of her liquid face catching the moonlight and shimmering a little under the surface. He pressed his lips against her, and yes, they were wet, yet firm. He felt an arm wrap around him, and she let her lips part a little bit, and he risked opening his and found out that her mouth tasted like berries, which shocked him out of the moment for a second but made her laugh and she held up a finger.
“Try this one.”
He opened his mouth and she let a drop fall in, tasting strongly sweet and sour. Then she went back to kissing. Corvayne wrapped his arms around her and when they came up for air asked.
“How?”
“I'm liquid. Of liquids. How do you think I color everything? Well, I can use food dye too, but I pack lemons and blueberries to get that nice teal color. Of course, if you like, I've been eating fish too, as I've heard there are many out there who enjoy that taste.” She winked at him.
“I'll stick to sweet.” Corvayne said, feeling a weird sort of fatalistic joy as he brought Spears into his tent.
Corvayne woke with a naked slime woman wrapped in his arms, and for the first time in months felt good, loved, and pretty well ready to handle whatever the hell life was going to throw at him next. He might regret that thought, given he was in The Tower, but Spears seemed happy, he was happy, and he felt like he was clear headed for the first time in a long while.
Nyx waved from his spot as he left the tent. It was still night on the floor, but Corvayne was sure he got a full nights sleep even after watch.
The noble grinned. “Well well well, look who rebounded!”
“I thought you'd be devastated.” Corvayne said. He was pretty sure Nyx had a thing for Spears.
Nyx waved a hand. “There's always the Bar of Infinite Whores.”
Corvayne saw Bearer-of-Burdens sauntering up, swinging what looked like a long thin cylinder tied to a loop. “Did you have a good sex break?”
He looked to Nyx, then Bearer. “Do you actually care or are you trying to get a rise out of me?”
“No and yes, but mainly I wanted to make sure you were finished.” Her smile was a warning. What was the metal rod she was twirling around her finger now?
“Is that a dog whistle?”
She blew hard, and Corvayne heard howling in the distant hills. First one wolf. Then three. Then dozens. Nyx bolted to his feet and uncoiled his serpent whip, turning to Bearer and looming before her, face turning red as he shouted, “What the HELL did you do that for?”
“More practice. Duh.”