Maxine woke up with a smile on her lips since she had woken up on a comfortable bed. She had forgotten how good it felts. It didn't matter how big of a pile of leaves was, nothing could beat an actual bed, but she felt kind of bad that Decaan had given it up so that she could sleep on it. He had slept on a couch in the other room.
She spread out her spiritual sense to check on him and found that he was still sleeping. Good, this gives me an opportunity to look around for those snake fruit trees, but I better not take too long. It's already light out and he could wake up any minute. With a thought, she spread her spiritual sense out in every direction to see if they grew the snake fruit locally.
After searching ten miles in every direction, she only found buildings and various a long line of vehicles, both ground and air, heading for what looked like a large underground bunker. She remembered that there was a large force amassing and figured that was why these people were moving to the bunke. Thus she continued looking for the snake fruit orchards, but even after her spiritual sense encompassed the whole city, she didn't find a single snake fruit tree. Or rather, she didn't find any trees that had snake fruit growing on them. Damn it. I guess I will have to put up with them for awhile longer. At least, Decaan is a gentleman.
Maxine popped her neck and pulled herself out of bed. She slowly stretched and noticed her hide tank top on the floor. Oh, that's right. I took it off last night because it was chaffing me. I better put that back on before Decaan wakes up. I really prefer it if he didn't get an eyeful.
As Maxine reached down for her hide tank top, she heard the door knob starting to turn and began to panic as she quickly slipped her hide tank top on as quickly as she could. Decaan opened the door just as she pushed her head through the top of it.
Maxine felt a light blush on her cheeks, but Decaan wasn't looking at her chest or face. His eyes were glued to her fully regenerated tail. "I heal fast when I eat snake fruit," Maxine said reflexively. God, I can't wait to drop this charade, but it's better for me if they think I'm stupid. Hell, from their perspective, I'm already capable of fighting Cassandra equally at the very least and the only thing that keeps them from going apeshit is the fact that they think I'm easily controlled with food due my lack of intelligence.
"I can see that," Decaan said as he shook his head, "I'm just surprised you can heal that fast. It would definitely be a boon if we could stimulate a similar regenerative effect for the wounded." Maxine nodded her head in understanding. She wanted to help him with that since she was grateful to him for helping her learn his language by using him as a translator. Unfortunately, any help she gave couldn't continue once she left. Not just anyone could learn how to be an alchemist.
"Why people running away?" Maxine asked and Decaan was momentarily surprised before he relaxed.
"I told you yesterday. There is a large army of the four armed invaders amassing to attack a city. This city," Decaan explained, "General Detar ordered the civilians to evacuate to the bunker, even though he knows it won't save them if the invaders defeat us."
"Cassandra fight too?" Maxine asked.
"Yes, she will be fighting against them," Decaan replied, "I would as well, but I'm far too weak. There are times that I wish my body wasn't too weak to withstand the draconic bloodline infusion."
"You not need bloodline to be stronge," Maxine said confidently.
"How do you know that?" Decaan asked.
"The four-arms no need bloodline to be stronge," Maxine pointed out.
"I see. That makes sense," Decaan said to himself before his eyes sparkled, "You're far more intelligent than my uncle could ever realize. He just thinks you are at best a primitive with the mind of a child, but I know better. You've shown signs of an extremely sharp mind just from how quickly you are learning our language. You see my people are very militaristic, and many have cultivated a sense of superiority over everything else due to our many victories. But that belief has been proven wrong on several occasions. Take the invaders for example. They vastly superior bodies compared to ours and have proven themselves to be our equal, if not superior, in intellect. Yet my people still see them as inferior in every way. They just don't see the kind of threat the invaders present this time. Even if we win this time, our forces will greatly diminshed and in the next invasion, we will most certainly loose. That's why we desperately need an ally, or another means to strengthen ourselfs. I'm hoping that you could be a mediator for an alliance between our races." So that's why he is different from everyone else, but he's in for a bad surprise. The only other person like me is Orianna and she is technically using my clone.
Maxine stared at him while thinking. I want to help him, but not the rest of his people. And I can't act as an ambassador to another species for him. I guess I only have once real choice. I will have to check his essence pathways to see if he can use any of the cultivation techniques that I can share.
She quickly grabbed his wrist and scanned his body with her spiritual sense. This was the simplest way she knew of that could narrow down the possible techniques that he could use, but it wouldn't guarantee that the techniques wouldn't have some kind of side-effect. She hoped that if it wasn't a perfect match to his physiology that it would only have a minor side-effect like hair, eye or skin color changing.
"Uhh, I don't mean to pry, but what are you doing?" Decaan asked after a few moments, but by that time, Maxine had already completely mapped his essence pathways. The best match for him was a cultivation technique from the Kavros Clan's library. However, now wasn't the time to teach him it yet. There were dozens of cameras and listening devices just in this room. She needed a more isolated location to bestow it to him.
"Decaan's skin feel soft," Maxine said innocently and released his wrist, "Mine scaly."
"That's because I'm a human. We don't have scales at all," Decaan said with a slight chuckle, "Are you up for breakfast?"
"Yes, I hungry," Maxine said happily, "We have more fruit?"
"I'm afraid not. I only have frozen meals here," Decaan said calmly and he turned around to leave the bedroom, "After we eat, I need to get you something besides animal pelts to wear." She followed him out a moment later.
Their breakfast consisted off a strange steak covered in gravy with an assortment of vegetables. It didn't taste that good, but it wasn't bad either. After they were done, Decaan took her to a clothing store and to her dismay, everything looked extremely plan. There were only a few long dresses that were barely passable by Earth's standards. The fashion on this world is terrible and I havn't seen anything that resembled entertainment aside from a few board games similar to chess since I've been here. These people really do have a miliataristic mindset. Unfortunately, none of it would fit Maxine due to her tail and they had to modify a pair of pants for her to wear. Decaan wanted to get her a set of shoes too, but one look at clawed toes was all it took to ruin that idea.
Next, Decaan escorted her to a training ground of some kind with a large number of cultivators and soldiers doing drills and sparring. Decaan lead her to a very sturdy looking training dummy. It looked like it was made of metal.
"They want me to teach you how to attack on command, but as I said before, I believe you're smarter than they think. So I only want to guage how quick and strong you are," Decaan whispered to her before he spoke louder, "Can you attack this metal man's head?" Maxine looked at him for half a second before slapping the head of the training dummy with her tail. The metallic head caved inward slightly from the force of Maxine's strike.
"My, my. That was fast. I only saw a blurr when she struck," Cassandra said in amusement as she descended from the sky and she directed her gaze at Decaan after she landed, "I see you've gotten her into some real clothes and that you've made some progress in her training, lover boy. But will she follow anyone else's commands?"
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"I don't think so," Decaan said, "She only listens to those she respects and I don't think that includes you just yet."
"That just means you get to keep her to yourself for a longer period, lover boy," Cassandra said, but Maxine saw a jealous look flash over Cassandra's face for half an instant. Huh? She likes Decaan? No wonder she doesn't like me.
"Can you keep the 'lover boy' remarks to yourself?" Decaan asked.
"Now where's the fun in that?" Cassandra teased.
"Why are you here, Cassandra?" Decaan asked in annoyance instead of responding to Cassandra's teasing.
"I thought you might like to know about a transmission we recieved last night while you were 'entertaining' Maxine," Cassandra said with a smile that wasn't a smile, "We only managed to translate part of it with the quantum computer, but from what we can tell, they are offering to help us against the invaders." Who the hell is coming here? The closest members of the Alliance are the Divine Marks clan and the Marktell Academy. The Divine Marks clan doesn't have any wealth to spare to offer in aid. I don't see any reason for them to. Unless of course, they are going to insist on 'protection' fees or they are being forced to help by the Alliance. On the other hand, the Marktell Academy might send some iron and silver stage cultivators to give them some battle experience. I think the only thing they would ask is for some food and some housing.
"That's amazing," Decaan said excitedly, "When are they due to arrive?"
"Not soon enough to help us with the army that's forming up to attack this city," Cassandra lamented, "So speed up her education. We need her help."
"If you want her help, treat her with some respect by asking her directly," Decaan said sternly, "And you don't have to be worried that she won't understand you. She learned to speak our tongue over night."
"Fine," Cassandra said in a huff and her gaze locked on Maxine, "You heard us talking clearly enough. Will you help us fight the four armed invaders?"
"I fight four-arms. I no like them," Maxine answered honestly.
"That's probably about as good of an answer as I'm likely to get," Cassandra commented to herself, "What should I expect from a dumb beast?"
"I not dumb," Maxine asserted.
"And you couldn't talk right yesterday, dummy," Cassandra retorted.
"You mad Decaan talk to me more and I sleep his den night before," Maxine pointed out.
"What do I care if you talk two talk or spent the night with him doing heaven knows what. I sure as hell don't," Cassandra said angrily before storming off.
"Cassandra like you, Decaan," Maxine said while smiling.
"No, she doesn't," Decaan answered reflexively, "She's a rude and violent woman, who torments me at every opportunity. I don't see how you came up with that conclusion."
"She only want attention from you," Maxine said more firmly.
Decaan sighed, "It doesn't matter if she wants attention from me or not. Draconic warriors are nearly infertile and become even more infertile the stronger they become. There are laws against marriage between normal people and draconic warriors because of that. We need as many people as we can get and a fruitless marriage would hinder that." What?! Infertility wouldn't happen even if they used the crudest method to infuse that bloodline, at least not by that much. I guess this is another thing I need to talk to Decaan about. This problem certainly explains why they don't have any natural born bloodline holders.
"So sad," Maxine commented.
"Indeed," Decaan said sadly and Maxine felt it would be better to distract him. So she clawed the metal training dummy viciously creating inch deep claw marks on it from groin to neck. Decaan stepped back in surprise.
"That good?" Maxine asked.
"That training dummy was made of kachin, one of the hardest metals we have. I had it made specifically so you wouldn't destroy it by accident, but you still damaged it easily. I can't imagine how sharp and durable your claws are," Decaan said in a shaken tone, but after he recovered, he leaned into examine the damaged training dummy as he talked to himself, "That's odd. Why is there traces of a fluid in there? Could her claws be envenomed?" He quickly grabbed Maxine's wrist and examined her claws. "I was right. There are venom tracts," Decaan said to himself and he looked into Maxine's eyes, "Can I take a sample of your venom?"
"Umm, okay," Maxine said in an uncertain tone as she held out her hand. It's not like you can find an antidote for it. You need herbs containing shadow essence to bind with my venom first before you can neutralize it and shadow essence doesn't exist in many herbs. Those that have it are almost exclusively controlled by the Kavros clan and the Shadow Lords. That doesn't even include the difficulty finding a compatible herb with a potent enough life essence to counter the killing effects of my venom. To top it off, the number of alchemists that could concoct an anti-venom could be counted with one hand and they would need a large supply of my venom to test it on to make sure it works. The cost of it all would just be too extortionate for a singular being like myself. Unless, of course, the group funding it is out to kill me.
Decaan retrieved a chemestry vial from his pocket and held it under one of her claws. She obliged him by consciously causing a few drops of her venom to drip off the end of her claw, but he wasn't satisfied with such a small ammount. He collected a few drops from each of her claws giving him a little more than a third of a vial of her venom. "Thank you, Maxine. I just want to know how lethal your venom is on the off chance you scratch someone by accident," Decaan said. Yeah, right. You want to give someone an antidote if I get pissed off and claw them. I just hope those idiots don't get too excited once they realize just how nasty it is. The amount in that vial could probably kill a few million people if it gets into their water supply. Now there's a chilling thought.
"You're welcome," Maxine said with a childish smile, but less than three seconds later, she heard a siren to the southwest start howling, "What that sound?" She turned her head towards it.
"This soon? I thought they would ... It doesn't matter. You need to go help them," Decaan said to Maxine and he started shouting at her, "Go! The four-armed bastards that tried to rape you are in the direction of that siren!"
Maxine whipped around to face that direction and gently pushed Decaan away from her with her tail before launching towards the southwest like a rocket. Thankfully the city wasn't that large and after flying two minutes at full speed, she arrived to the outer walls of the city.
She saw literately thousands of draconic bloodline warriors floating in the air and Maxine spotted Cassandra's distinct red hair near the front of it. Down below, the walls were covered with weaponry of various sizes and it looked like they were about to start firing. In front of those walls were thousands of draconic warriors standing firm in their defensive positions. Finally, Maxine looked into the distance and saw what could only be called a red sea of warriors on the ground.
But when she sent out her spiritual sense, furious tears flowed freely from her cheeks. They were eating children alive. Some were barely more than infants. She could see red on the edges of her vision as her rage threatened to take over. NO! Don't loose control! That's what they want! I can't help them anyways. Even if I charged over there, those bastards would kill the children to incite me further. After taking a few calming breaths, she managed to restrain her rage. She would use it later when killing the four-horned kanzils.
Maxine flew up beside Cassandra, whom looked just as angry as Maxine, and she wasn't the only one. Most of the silver stage warriors floating around them looked like they were about to charge forward regardless of orders. "Brothers! Sisters! Hold fast! Do not break formation!" Cassandra roared as tears streamed down her cheeks, "I know you're feeling pain and rage right now! I feel it myself! But you cannot charge forward in an attempt to save those kids. It's what those fuckers want! We must protect those that we still can! But that doesn't mean we arn't going to make those fuckers pay. I say we show them who the cruel ones really are! Whose with me?!" It wasn't the most stirring speech, but it worked. The silver stage cultivators floating in the air roared out their fury, but none of them broke formation. It was at that point that the remaining children had breathed their last and the four-horned kanzil horde start its charge.
As she watched them charged forward, Maxine felt something waking up within her mind, and whatever it was it was hungry. She shook her head to banish this odd feeling and tried to regain her focus for the battle.
The weaponry on the walls activated shooting beams of light into the charging four-horned kanzils. Anything caught in the path of those beams was disintegrated. Particle cannons? Or are they some kind of high powered pulse weapons. Either way, that's some nasty weaponry. Only immortal stage cultivators can shield themselves from particle cannons and if it's a high powered pulse laser, only the strongest gold stage cultivators can take a hit from those and live. In response to this, the silver stage four horned kanzils took flight to avoid the attacks. Good move. It's what I would have done. But where are their gold stage warriors? Wait, are they going to pull the 'wear them down with numbers' tactic before showing themselves?
She no longer had any more time to watch the charging enemy as the weaponry on the walls shredded the four-horned kanzil ground troops. The amassed silver stage attackers were less than four miles away from her.
Maxine knew she couldn't rely on her claws this time. Having a reduced striking range would put her at too much of a disadvantage against gold stage opponents. Thus she created a small portal under her shirt before reaching into it and withdrawing both of her Twilight Iron Blades from her dimensional ring to make it look like she stored her blades under her shirt. Cassandra spared Maxine a quick 'what the fuck' look, but she quickly focused on the charging aerial enemies.
Maxine smiled to herself in anticipation of the coming battle. Now that I think on it, this would be the first time I actually participated in an army versus army battle. It should be a great place to hone my skill and I will be able to feast to my heart's content on flesh of those child murdering bastards. A mental image of herself tearing off the flesh of a four-horned kanzil and swallowing it caused her to instantly pale. She shook her head violently to banish that thought. Where the hell did that thought come from?! I can't think about it now. Those fuckers are almost in striking range.