Corvayne saw the darkness that had enveloped him disperse as he moved by Bell, who was crouched over her sister. Tutu was alive and slowly knitting herself back together, literally with a needle and string. The sex cultist princess seemed to be breathing evenly as she pushed organs back inside herself after sewing them. A weird sort of smile was on her face. Perhaps she was one of those people who enjoyed being hurt?
Corvayne saw her smile fade and heard her voice go shrill after she sat up. “Ah! What did you do to my TENT?!”
Corvayne gave her a pat on the shoulder. “Good enough to complain? You'll probably live. Bell, keep her safe. There's more wolves to kill.”
Indeed, Nyx and Spears had nearly twenty of the monsters trying to attack them, necks extending to try to nip at Nyx as he floated over the lake. The water and his energy shield snarled any effort of the rabbit-wolves, letting him just focus on blasted them with the serpent whip and waves of dark energy that caused them to flee for a few seconds, throwing off other monsters trying to get close enough to jump. Every so often, he'd see a tidal wave form as Spears used the water she had summoned to slam, crush, and drown the monsters. It also seemed that she was barely harmed even if a wolf lunged through her, simply reforming and stabbing the offending monster. She looked beautiful, and lethal, and her clothes had been taking some damage.
Corvayne shook his head, and took a moment to move near Brines, the effects the man was circling through melting some of his exhaustion, mending wounds, and even helping his wandering mind focus as the man swapped auras. The last suggested Corvayne might have been dipping into mana for some of the things he was doing too. Either way, Brines had gotten better at control over items, using a fire dagger and lightning dagger together to cook the few wolves near him. Brines noticed Corvayne and lifted his chin towards the lake. “I need to get closer to the other three... can you cover me?”
Corvayne nodded and drew his dagger and cleaver. He gestured for Brines to see the rabbit-wolves now filtering out from the woods. “I'm going to harvest shadows, follow me.”
Brines nodded like he understood what Corvayne was saying, even though he had just thought of the phrase a moment ago. He kept an eye out and saw that Bearer had about ten wolves trying to hit her and failing as she kept doing strange teleporting dashes over and over, leaving trails of green afterimages as she slammed into enemies like a comet over and over.
Before they stepped into range of the next wolves, Corvayne turned to Brines. “We'll need to have a talk with her when this is over.”
The man nodded, then readied his daggers again and followed as Corvayne jogged to get closer to the lake and Bearer. Monsters noticed and he saw a dozen running around the edge of water logged grass, no doubt thinking he was easier prey. Sadly, their shadows were on the far side of them, so instead Corvayne drew a line with his knife, using [Cross Skill: Reap] to make a huge patch of darkness. He left the cleaver for a moment in his shadow hand, and drew a trio of throwing knives.
“Keep stamina on. I'm going to tire myself out.” Corvayne said, and then felt Brines lock in the energy aura. He lined the knives up, and used [Cross-Skill: Shadow Stealer] as he aimed under the first three wolves. The thin blades flew and like magic the first three wolves were lit up as Corvayne felt darkness flow into him. He also felt like for a moment he was going to fall over, the combination expensive, but Brine's aura worked like magic, letting him catch his breath by the time he switched to his spear.
Normally it was extremely bad form to announce your moves, but these were wolves, and maybe Spears was watching him.
“Flows Like Shadows!” he called out, then moved forward like black smoke, rolling past enemies as his spear became a dark claw, reaching out to greedily pluck flesh from his enemies as he passed by them, then he pivoted and activated it again, black lines skewering the pack as he slid back to Brines. He felt a little light headed and waved at Brines.
“Mana?” He huffed, trying to blink his eyes to stay focused on the rabbit wolves still rushing into the battle. A moment later the fog lifted, and he charged into the few wolves that had survived his previous attack, spear and his shadow limbs ripping into the monsters and quickly dispatching them. One the last he pulled his knife and finished it off with [Shadow Stealer] before dashing back to Brines and pushing to where he could touch both Bearer and Nyx with his auras.
That still meant there was a flank back to camp he had to keep an eye out, but Lady Blood Claw had rallied after his help, and finally it seemed they were starting to run out of wolves. Like most monsters, aside from flinching at damage they relentlessly attacked, the only exception being monsters near Nyx who seemed to flee as the noble directed his gaze at them. The man's shields had barely been scratched as the last wolf died.
Bearer meanwhile finally dashed into the last of her wolves and then plopped on the ground, sweating like crazy and drinking a huge bottle of water before springing back to her feet then kicking the frozen body of one of her enemies, flinging frozen wolf shards everywhere. “Wow, maybe you guys should be a little more wolf and a little less rabbit.”
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Then she turned and looked very smug, tapping her cheek.
“Hey, Corvayne, did you always start yourself on shadow fire?”
A moment later, Lady Blood Claw came from the side and slammed her fist into Bearer's face, sending the woman flying for a half beat before she recovered into a backflip and landed on her feet, rubbing her chin. “Wow. You training unarmed? Want some tips?”
Lady Blood Claw shook her fist, wincing and hissing. “What were you thinking when you DID that?”
“Oh, I can Adapt [[Grace]] which is why I can dodge like Corvayne, and [Efficency]] which is why I can do [Springwind] over and over.”
Corvayne mentally reviewed the fight. She looked like she was doing pretty good even with dozens of wolves on her, and the repeated attack seemed like a more focused [Flow-like-Water] perhaps. Either way, Corvayne was pretty sure he didn't want to have to strike down a potential ally, so he pointed at Bearer. “From now on, if you spring a monster on us, you're on their team.”
Corvayne held his hand out, and Bearer shook it. Corvayne narrowed his eyes. “I mean, give me that whistle.”
Bearer laughed and tossed it to Corvayne, then pulled another one out and idly spun it. “That one is spent. I got a bunch of Lures.”
“Please give them to someone who knows better than to test them when we have newbies.”
Bearer shrugged. “See, but we don't have newbies now because that was a boatload of wolves, more than enough to push them to the mid teens.”
Corvayne heard Lady Blood Claw crack something, possibly her fists or a tooth given she was speaking through them. “Are you on our side or not?”
“Of course, you got stronger just now because you felt pressure, and adapted. That's the only way to get better. It's better to learn that with monsters than when actual people come around trying to kill you.”
Corvayne felt like there was a little something he could peel there, something that Bearer might open up to. “And have you had people trying to kill you before, that you would know about gaining power?”
She looked back at him, expression content. “Here and there, now and then. Not for a while.”
Corvayne couldn't trust her, but even as he was thinking about how to part ways without coming to blows, Spears stepped forward.
“Corvayne, she should stay with us. I'll explain it to you and Lady Blood Claw.” She gestured to Corvayne's tent.
Corvayne ignored Bearer making catcalls as he followed Spears. She and Lady Blood Claw sat on the carpet Corvayne had put down and he took his own bedding as Spears pulled a new shirt from somewhere to cover her shredded clothes up. Slightly less exposed she began.
“So, Corvayne, the way to defeat the curse is to experience new things, as Book-Binder told you?”
He nodded. He was pretty sure a few of the know-it-alls he had run into had told him that, and it made sense how the woman under Cascadia had explained it, expanding his mind would eventually tear the curse apart.
“Then, one thing that might challenge you is to keep Bearer close, someone you don't know is friend or foe and who you have to watch.” Spears said. “It will tax me too, and no doubt is stress you don't want... but... I think she's a burden we can bear.”
Corvayne said. “Ha.” flatly at the joke. He was sure Spears eyes glittered a little bit more than usual.
Lady Blood Claw looked daggers at her, but Spears kept talking. “The other thing is... weird... but you need lots of different relationships and experiences. So, if you want to simply be with me and no one else, I won't complain, but if roaming helps your curse, I don't mind.”
At this LBC stood up. “Did you really need me here for that?” A moment later Spears pulled her back to sitting.
“There will be times, I'm sure, when one of us isn't around, and you are the person I trust more than anyone else to keep him on the right path, safe, and working to figure out the curses. We three are ALL trying to sort out how to fix ourselves, get our memories back, and maybe even our names.”
Corvayne raised an eyebrow. “I thought Watchers named themselves in that three word tempo?”
Spears shook her head. “I remember a little of the world before, and I know I had a different name. More the reason that Kayla out there irks me.”
Lady Blood Claw nodded. “I had forgotten her normal name.”
“I had hoped that the three of them might help us recover our own lost names by teaching us something as to the mechanics of it. As of now, she's using us for something, so we use her back.”
Corvayne held up a hand. “I'm not sure I like being so... transactional with my potential allies.”
Lady Blood Claw snorted. “Do it to your potential enemies, then. Whatever she wants, she isn't being forward with us, either. Everything she says is a tease that she knows something we don't.”
Spears narrowed her eyes. “Do you think she's connected to the Magus?”
Lady shook her head. “I don't get the same feeling from here, but there's something creepy about her. Watch her like a hawk.”
Spears nodded and held up a glistening slime finger. “Don't sleep with her!”
Corvayne felt himself frowning. “Is that what you think of my go-to response?”
She smiled. “I know how easy you are, is all.” With that she gave him a peck on the forehead and pulled her own bedroll out of nowhere.
Lady sighed and stood up. “Of course...” She paused as she was leaving the tent, a faint hint of amusement playing over her skin contrasted with her poker face. “Better hurry.”
A moment after she had left, the two princesses barged in. Spears shot up from where she had been resting. “What do you two want?”
Bell put a grass covered bedroll down next to Corvayne. “The fight destroyed my tent. Kick my sister out so we can go to sleep.”
Tutu, instead of talking, tried to straddle him, which made Corvayne once more use [Juxtapose] to get her into his bedroll, then summoned a length of rope and tied her up. Taking a moment to admire his handiwork, he noticed her eyes half lidded and that she was panting, so he picked her up and put her in the corner, then looked over at Bell. “If you want to stake her down, I'd appreciate it.”
That all done, he crawled into Spear's bedroll, wrapped his arms around his new slime girlfriend, then fell fast asleep.