The sound Brivaria heard immediately halted her flight and she looked around to locate it. She heard the whimpering again and changed directions. It sounded like an animal was hurt. That meant there were still animals in the forest. This knowledge combined with the dungeon monsters she’d seen so far painted the picture of a new, emerging dungeon.

The sounds grew closer until Brivaria saw the origin. An injured dog was backed up against a tree by three of the plant beetles. Brivaria fell upon them.

As soon as she’d selected Lesser Shapeshifting as a skill, Brivaria had immediately set it to gradually increase her musculature. It wouldn’t tremendously increase her strength or speed but it would provide a small advantage. Mostly it made her feel that taking the skill wasn’t quite as wasteful as it likely was.

The first beetle died immediately upon being skewered from behind. Brivaria’s blade was out and she was lunging at the second as it turned. It was just fast enough catch the strike in between the bark-like plates of armor. Unable to land a decisive, killing blow, the angel was forced to yank her blade back.

Two vines rose into the air from the third beetle and sped toward the warrior girl. She blocked them with her shield and sliced them with her sword. They were part of the beast’s body. Cutting them would lower its health to make an eventual killing blow that much easier.

The second beetle jumped at her intending to use its pincers. Brivaria once more replied with her shield but this time she didn’t just block. She swung the shield at the beetle and activated Holy Bulwark. There was a wonderfully satisfying crunch as the beetle met the metal shield.

Holy Bulwark was meant to be a defensive skill but that was absolutely not how Brivaria used it. Yes, it could deflect powerful blows but it functioned so much better as a shield bash. Bodies, limbs, and faces faces had all broken themselves upon the angel’s shield in times past. The beetle faired no better than they had. One horn broke off completely while the plant beetle’s faceplate had cracked in half. Brivaria drove her sword through the gap its armor without hesitation, ending the creature instantly.

She danced around the constant vine attacks from the remaining beetle. It was not inclined to move in before snaring her after what she’d done to its two friends. That was a wholly reasonable decision and Brivaria gave credit to the monster for it. Meanwhile, the angel was content to dodge or block the vines then cut them. All the while she was circling the creature until she was between it and the wounded dog. While it had forgotten about its previous prey, she had not and didn’t want its focus on anything but her.

The angel would have liked to have said her battle with the beetle ended dramatically but it really didn’t. Eventually it stopped regenerating vines, likely because it ran out of health to do so. When that happened Brivaria simply battered it with her sword. The wood plates of armor were strong but they were hardly impenetrable. The wood splintered open after only a few swings and the fight ended. She had System notifications to look at but pushed those away to check the dog.

The wounded dog was large and had pretty, golden fur. Sad, brown eyes looked up at her as she walked closer. It let out a sad whine that hurt the angel to hear. Blood stained the golden fur on the dog’s side and it scrabbled to move as Brivaria reached an arm out.

“There, there.” Her words were soft and soothing. The dog was panicked but too injured to get away or even move. It continued making pleading whines while the angel drew closer. “I’m going to heal you. You’ll be okay.”

Brivaria’s gloved hand touched the fur and she activated Healing Touch. The dog looked away at first but then toward her and at the golden glow. The wound began knitting itself back together. When the glow faded, it was entirely gone.

“See? All better.” The angel smiled at the now uninjured animal and slid a couple steps back. The golden-furred dog seemed to look at itself then at her. Brivaria was ready for it to run off. She was not ready for it to tackle her.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The angel was knocked out of her crouch and onto her butt as the dog went for her. For a moment she thought she’d misread the situation but then the licks came. Happiness in the dog’s eyes, it licked and nuzzled her. She giggled and then laughed.

“Stop, stop,” she protested while the dog nuzzled her. Her one free hand ran through its golden coat. The fur was soft and Brivaria deeply regretted the glove preventing her from fully enjoying it. She pet the dog until it abruptly halted. She stopped as well, watching as it looked away as though hearing something.

“What is it?” The dog got off her and barked. It swung its head between her and the forest then barked again. “More of those things?” It was a rhetorical question. Brivaria grabbed her sword and started following the dog.

They didn’t have far to go. The trail of bug corpses was hard to miss and the distant shouting told Brivaria that whoever was battling the bugs was still at it. She started moving more carefully, cautious of plant beetles that were only mostly dead rather than all dead. Thankfully the caution was misplaced and didn’t cost much time.

The pair broke through the brush and gained sight of the people fighting the bugs. Two men and a woman were fighting off a small horde of the bugs with their backs up against a wide, fast-moving stream. All three people were well-armed. Most of what Brivaria had learned about life on Zlithia came from information transfers relevant to intervention training. With only those to go off of, the angel assumed she was looking at an adventuring party or part of one.

The two men each had shields. One had a mace that he was using to bludgeon the hardened shells of the plant bugs while the other had a sword and was doing a much better and more effective rendition of what Brivaria had done against the last beetle menacing the dog. He was having better luck at it than she had, likely to due to levels and attributes if not also skills. The woman had a pair of swords and positioned herself between and slightly behind the two men. All three of them looked battered but the woman looked to be in the worst shape with wounds actively and visibly bleeding. Not having a shield had done her no favors today.

That was all Brivaria allowed herself to observe before using her wings to catapult herself forward. Her sword drove through the vulnerable backside of one plant beetle. Two turned toward her but she ignored them, darting to the side and then striking down another plant beetle. They were incredibly vulnerable from behind and she wanted to kill as many of them as she could.

The dog intercepted the two that began to move toward her. It couldn’t fight them but it could bark and that’s exactly what it did. Brivaria kept dancing further to the side creating a triangular formation with her at one point, the three adventurers at another, and the dog at the final point. Three daggers flashed in the sunlight before embedding themselves in the backs of the two plant beetles moving toward the dog. One beetle died while the other clacked its mandibles in obvious pain. The injured woman had sheathed her swords and now held throwing knives.

Brivaria was able to pick off four enemies by flanking the monsters. Her entrance plus the dog’s own clever maneuver was enough to tilt the battle in favor of the adventurers. It was looking like the rout would soon be complete when one of the beetles jumped at the man with the mace. He didn’t have a shield skill to activate or, more likely, he didn’t have the mana left to activate one. It slammed into him and knocked him off balance. He bumped into the woman and she lost her balance on the slippery rocks near the rapids then fell into the water.

Brivaria didn’t hesitate to launch herself into the air. She stored her shield and sword in her inventory and flew after the woman. The stream was deep enough and moving fast enough to carry the adventurer away. While the angel didn’t know much about rivers or streams, she didn’t need to in order to recognize the danger it posed to someone already wounded and likely low on stamina. More to the point, she didn’t need to think twice about helping someone. It was what angels did.

The adventurer was being pulled through the center of the steam and fighting to keep her head above water. She bounced hard against one stone outcropping and tried to grab onto it but the slick rock combined with the momentum of the current proved too much.

“Raise your hands!” Brivaria shouted. She wasn’t sure the woman even heard her. It didn’t matter as it didn’t change what the angel intended to do. It would take a lot of force to go from the middle of the stream to the shore. Brivaria’s Lesser Flight skill and minuscule physique wasn’t going to cut it. She needed good, old-fashioned gravity and momentum to give her the strength she lacked.

Flying up into the air and away from the river, the angel circled back and swooped down toward the water. Two arms shot up as she got close and Brivaria grabbed on. The momentum of the dive carried both girls toward the stream bank while Brivaria frantically beat her wings, pouring stamina into her low level flight skill to keep from being pulled into the water herself. They hit the muddy ground at the edge of the water together and Brivaria tumbled head over heel along the shore landing in a heap.

The winged girl ended up on her back staring at sky. She was already tired again. At least this time she wasn’t at zero health.