The Ulterior Motive

The next day, their plan was essentially the same as the previous one, except they felt more confident in their ability to tackle the wood elementals. They had to walk a little farther to find the first group this time, and they readied themselves once there.

You ready? Damien Message'd.

'Master, let me try Fire Enhancement first to rouse them. Then you can be bait.'

Damien chuckled, “Okay.”

Aurora ran out, then used her Fire Enhancement. Her entire body became engulfed in a bright-orange aura, wisps of flame coming from her ears, back, and tail. She jumped onto the nearest tree, burning her paw-prints into the roots.

She ran around doing this for a minute, before one of the trees started to move when she stomped on it.

Here we go Damien jumped out of his hiding spot, getting near it as Aurora retreated. “Come on! Where are your buddies at?” he shouted.

This seemed to have the desired effect, as several other trees started inching towards him, using their roots to crawl through the ground.

Damien jumped back as the first one had started to wind up. The wood elementals stopped moving when they started their wind up attack, so he used that time to get out of range. He started making a circle around the area, careful to not let any get too close, same as he had done the day before.

After five minutes of this, he had a group of ten following behind him, tripping over each other as their vines entangled while trying to get close.

Go Aurora! he Message'd to her.

Aurora bounded out from the side. She started spamming Flame Wall underneath the wood elementals, causing them to easily catch on fire. It even seemed like they were more susceptible then the previous day.

Is Aurora just that much stronger at level 9? Or...maybe their just drier?

The wood elementals started breaking apart in the fire, and Aurora finished off the last couple with Fire Breath until they were all ash and embers in a pile.

Damien leaned over to pet her. Nice job! he sent through Message.

'Master is doing all the hard work. I am just casting my spells.'

Damien chuckled, No, we're a team.

Aurora didn't smell any remaining wood elementals in this area, so they started walking to the next one. Damien was still feeling a bit winded, but didn't want to stop with Aurora determined as she was.

After thirty minutes, they reached the next territory. Unlike previously, at this area the wood elementals were already milling about. They didn't seem to have noticed them, yet, but they were crawling around as if patrolling the area.

He Message'd to Aurora, This seems weird. Why are they already moving?

'Maybe they heard about what happened to their kindred?'

How though, they can't even talk...can they?

'They might have some sort of telepathic communication, like your Message.'

Damien's eyes went wide. He Message'd I hadn't even considered that.

Aurora was ready to go, 'Since we don't need to draw them out, let's get started right away.'

Damien nodded. He took a deep breath, then ran out, “Hey, I'm...” he trailed off, as he noticed something behind the wood elementals. A taller, thicker one, lighter colored, although even slower. It was probably twice or more the height of the other elementals.

“Piyu! Piyyyyu!” Aurora cried.

Damien came back to his senses, realizing the nearest wood elemental was winding up. He started dodging around again. There was more elementals this time, probably twenty, plus the huge one.

After a couple of minutes, half of them were in a group behind him, and he was slowly getting the others close, when he heard the loud creaking of a wind-up. What? I can't see any preparing to attack though. The sound kept going for a while, until it stopped.

Despite not seeing which one was winding up, Damien instinctively dropped to the ground.

He felt a blast of air rush over him from above at the same time as he heard a loud 'thwack!' Looking up, he realized what had happened. The large wood elemental had finally gotten into attack range, and done a wind-up attack, but only hit the other, smaller elementals (and cleared out a bunch of trees) since Damien had dropped to the ground.

Thank the Goddess my instincts took over. He started trying to put as much distance as possible between him and the large one.

Despite not all of them being in a group, Aurora had decided it was time to jump in. She started casting Flame Wall on the group that had been hit by the large wood elemental. Two of them that had been hit seemed bent and immobile now, while the ones behind them were stuck, entangled with them.

Damien decided not to worry about them and keep putting distance between him and the large one. While doing so, though, he tripped and fell on his butt.

Looking in front, he realized he hadn't actually tripped, but that the root of a nearby wood elemental had wrapped around his ankle, squeezing it tight.

Dammit! He pulled on it, trying to unwrap it, but he could barely even get his fingers underneath, let alone pull it off.

The wood elemental that had grabbed him leaned over him.

Damien was briefly frozen as the creature seemed to be staring down at him (despite not having a head or eyes) and started to wind up.

After it finished cranking Damien rolled out of the way, causing it to slam into the ground next to him. It's branch bent slightly, but it didn't seem phased, and started winding up again. Damien could feel his ankle straining. It didn't feel broken, but it was starting to hurt.

Damien prepared to roll again, hoping his ankle wouldn't break, when he saw an orange ball of flame slam into the trunk of the elemental. Aurora had activated Fire Enhancement and combined it with Speed Boost to tackle its side, burning it and knocking it back.

While it was recovering, Damien took the opportunity to slide his foot out, taking his shoe with it. He barrel-rolled sideways, and Aurora sprang a Fire Wall underneath it.

Damien picked up Aurora, who was low on MP, and started to run, as they were about to get crowded with elementals.

Aurora was squirming a bit in his arms, but Damien held her tightly. His stomach dropped, though, as he started hearing the particular loud cranking of the tall wood elemental again. When it stopped, he jumped onto the ground.

He felt a whoosh as the branch went over him, seeming a bit closer this time. Aurora took the chance to jump away.

“Aurora!” he yelled, as she ran towards the large one. Damien watched as she activated Speed Boost again, before running up it and jumping up onto one of its branches.

The tall elemental started slowly spinning, as if trying to get it off, while Aurora started casting Fire Breath onto the main trunk continuously.

The tall elemental started spinning faster and faster, before stopping.

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At this point, the whole trunk was on fire, and Aurora was getting low on MP again.

It then started leaning over, as if trying to have Aurora slide off.

Aurora dug her claws in, using Fire Enhancment to burn it and walking closer to the trunk.

It then started to rotate, winding up an attack.

Damien realized what it was going to do. Get off! It's trying to fling you! he Message'd.

'Catch me.' was all Aurora replied.

Dammit! Damien replied. He took off his remaining shoe, throwing it at one of the nearing wood elementals in frustration, then started sprinting towards the large one in his bare feet.

As it stopped cranking, Aurora dove off.

The tall elemental attacked, but because of the damage it took to the trunk, the attack went sideways, it's branch jamming into the ground. The force of this reverberated and caused it to splinter off close to the trunk.

Damien caught Aurora, or more accurately Aurora jumped into his chest as he was running, causing him to fall over. He clutched her tight to his chest, and watched the tall elemental.

Due to losing a branch, and the trunk having lost it's structural integrity from the fire, it was starting to split in half where the fire was. After a few moments, it fell onto the forest floor, even taking a few of the other elementals with it.

“Piyu! Piyu!” Aurora said, squirming in his arms.

“Hold on, stop for a sec!” Damien said, holding onto her.

He Message'd Don't scare me like that.

'What do you mean Master? Did we not need to defeat it?'

Damien sighed, but didn't have time to reply as the few remaining wood elementals were nearing.

Aurora seemed to have had enough, burning through the small amount she'd restored in MP to cast two Flame Wall's on them.

Damien watched as they cracked and slowed to a halt, before eventually crumbling to embers and ash.

Aurora finally seemed to calm down, Damien taking this as a sign there was no more elementals near them.

You have to be more careful! What if you got hurt!? Damien Message'd her now that he had a chance.

'You can Heal me, right?'

Damien sighed, Yes, but you shouldn't...I don't want...

Aurora hung her head a bit, 'I am sorry...I just wanted to defeat them before Master got hurt.'

Damien hugged her close, And I appreciate that. I mean, I know it's inevitable you'll get hurt sometimes, but don't be so reckless in the future.

Aurora licked his cheek.

After they had rested a bit, Damien went to find his shoes. The one he threw he couldn't even find, and the one that had been grabbed off had been caught in the fire and burned to a crisp.

Oh well...they were old shoes anyway. Hopefully the shoes of this world are as comfortable as my sneakers.

Damien checked their levels. He was about two-thirds the way to level 8 now, and Aurora was three-quarters the way to level 10. Wow, we got a lot from those two groups. Especially that large one probably gave a good amount. He Message'd Aurora What do you think?

'What do you mean? I am getting close to level 10. Nothing can stop me now.'

While Damien was tired, he couldn't help but be carried onward by her confidence. “Alright, let's get going.”

They started walking to the next wood elemental area, and reached it within thirty minutes.

As they go close, Aurora jumped in front of him.

“What's wrong?”

“Piyu! Piyu!”

“Ah,” he Message'd What's wrong?

'I can handle this Master. I know you are tired.'

I can help. Besides I don't want you getting hurt.

'I will save enough MP to Speed Boost away in an emergency.'

Damien sighed, then looked down at his bare feet. “I guess I won't be much help anyway,” he replied and sat down.

Aurora ran away, casting Flame Wall's at approaching elementals.

Damien watched in awe as Aurora effortlessly danced around. She masterfully baited them into groups, and cast Flame Wall as soon as they were entangled. She combined Speed Boost with her Fire Enhancement to jump against and off their trunks to both damage and stay out of attack range. She even jumped onto their branches again and caused them to attack each other several times.

After a mere five minutes, the dozen or so wood elementals were all defeated.

As Aurora trotted over, Damien Message'd Aurora, you're bloody brilliant! You didn't even need me the whole time.

Aurora shook her head, and replied with a slightly embarrassed tone, 'Nonsense. I was using all of our tactics and what we learned from the previous fights.'

Still...

Aurora jumped into his lap, nuzzling against him. “Piyu...”

Damien pulled up the status screen, and sure enough, the level up notification was there.

Aurora leveled up

Fire-Fox – Level 10

STR – 75

VIT – 89

MAG – 175

DEX – 106

Fire Breath

Speed Boost

MAG +20

All Abilities +5

Flame Wall

Fire Mastery

Fire Attunement 2

New Ability Available

Of course, the ability was only 'Summon Customization'.

Damien's heart started beating quickly. You ready? he asked through Message.

'Of course. Do you want me to look a certain way?'

Damien shook his head. Just look however you envision yourself. You don't have to copy anyone. You'll be beautiful regardless.

Aurora gave no response this time, merely nudging her status screen.

Damien leaned against a log, assuming this would take a bit.

“Master?” Damien heard.

Damien started blinking his eyes.

“Master? Are you okay?”

Damien nodded, “Yeah, sorry I fell asleep, I...” he stopped, realizing the voice was Aurora's.

In front of him was the face of a beautiful girl. Reddish-orange hair that went past her shoulders, and curling up at the ends. And on her head was two fox ears.

“It's okay, Master, I assumed you were resting in preparation for mating.”

“Mating!? Wait, you're Aurora, right?”

Aurora giggled. “Who else could I be?”

Damien blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry...”

Aurora stood up. She was fairly tall, probably taller than him if you included ears. She was wearing what looked like a white and red shrine-maiden outfit, except the top was very tight against her perky breasts (maybe only one size smaller than Bluey's, in Damien's expert opinion) and her skirt barely covered half her thighs. Below them was white socks that went up past her knees.

“Since I used to live at a shrine before you summoned me, I thought the 'shrine' outfit in the options was appropriate. I made the skirt a bit shorter though, to make it easier to run, and just covered my legs with these long socks so they wouldn't get too cold.”

Since she seemed to be expecting a response, Damien smiled, “You're absolutely gorgeous.”

Aurora blushed and smiled, jumping against Damien.

Damien hugged her tightly, causing Aurora to be surprised. “I can hug you back now!” and wrapped her arms around him, too.

After hugging for a few moments, she said. “Does my voice sound funny?”

Damien shook his head. “No, it sounds just like it did through Message.”

Aurora nodded, then took a step back. “Well, let's get to mating then.”

Damien chuckled at the sudden shift. “We were having a nice moment though.”

Aurora nodded. “Yes, but it's getting late.”

“You don't want to go back to the room instead?”

Aurora shook her head. “Bluey said your first time with her was in the woods, so mine should be as well.”

Damien just blinked once, then decided it wasn't worth protesting. “Alright, let's get started then.”

Aurora blushed, then came over and stuck her face right next to his. “I don't understand this part.”

Damien leaned forward to kiss her, pressing her body against his. “I'll just take the lead.”

“Mmhhh...o...kay...” she got out between kisses.

After a minute of making out, Damien spun her around, grabbing her breasts over her outfit.

“Sorry, I forgot we need to unclothe to mate,” she said, undoing the top of her outfit. She had a white bra underneath.

“That's cute,” Damien said, grabbing it.

Aurora blushed, “I based it off of Betty's and Bluey's. It was hard to learn about human clothing as a fox.”

After slipping off her bra, Damien turned her sideways in his lap and grabbed her perky breasts, sucking on them delicately, causing Aurora to blush deeper.

“Master, do you like breasts? Bluey said you enjoyed licking hers, too...”

Damien rolled his eyes. “Bluey should mind what she says...”

Aurora seemed confused. “Is it not fine to talk with your other partners to strategize mating methods?”

Damien blinked a couple times. “Uh...I guess it's fine...”

Aurora nodded, then started moaning as Damien went back and sucked harder. “Master, I can smell you are ready...” she said, flipping out his member, fully erect.

“Smell?” Damien asked, a bit embarrassed.

“Yes, I can smell your arousal. It makes me aroused as well,” she blushed.

Well, I guess that's fine then. Damien pulled down her skirt, putting a hand into her equally white panties to rub her nethers, carefully sticking a finger into her.

“I have never had a mate before, but I know the position,” she said, getting on all fours and pulling her panties off. She then shook her tail in his face.

Damien blushed. “Humans don't have to mate like foxes.”

Aurora turned her head. “Is this not acceptable?”

Damien shook his head. “No, it's perfectly acceptable.”

After lining himself up, he slowly slid himself in.

“Master...you can go faster...” Aurora panted, her breathing heavy, and repeatedly brushing her tail against his chest.

Damien obliged, grabbing her side, and jamming all the way in.

Aurora let out a slight 'piyu!', before falling onto her elbows and blushing heavily. “Master, please...keep going...”

Damien was overcome with lust for his foxy companion, and started pistoning in and out repeatedly. He moved from her hips to grabbing her breasts, pulling her up against him.

“Master, it's so deep!” she shouted, spasming every time he hit inside her.

Damien was at his limit. He wrapped his arms around her midsection, pulling her tighter as he released inside her, spurting multiple times, until he was completely empty.

After letting go, he fell back into the grass. Aurora was on her hands and knees, before turning around and crawling over to him, laying her cheek against his chest. “That was so amazing Master...” she said, looking up at him with a smile, her face still burning brightly.

Damien wrapped an arm around her, holding her warm body against his. “You're amazing, Aurora.”

Aurora blushed, reaching up and licking his cheek. “Oh, sorry...” she said, before planting a kiss on his lips.

They laid there for a while, until Damien realized dusk was fast approaching. Shoot! I better Message Bluey. He activated Message and sent Aurora reached level 10. About to head back to town.

'Did you mate!? Is Aurora pretty!? Does she look more like me or Betty!?'

Damien decided to just not reply.

Aurora, who had been dozing, asked, “Should we get back, Master?”

Damien nodded. “By the way, you don't have to call me Master. Just Damien is fine.”

“But Bluey calls you Master...and you are our Master...right?”

Damien sighed. “Well, yes...but Betty only calls me Damien,” he offered as a counter.

Aurora nodded. “But Betty is your girlfriend, not your summon.”

Damien sighed, again. “Okay, okay, it's fine...”

They got dressed and walked back to town. Aurora seemed especially happy, holding onto his arm and squishing the side of her breasts into his, a huge smile on her face.

Damien smiled, too. This was definitely worth it.