I forgot to mention that I will be on a week's hiatus for this and my main fiction here. Therefore, I'm releasing a chapter as an apology for not announcing earlier. Without further ado, here's the chapter...

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Four female figures sped through a mountainous area. They moved with purpose and did their utmost to remain unnoticed. Each of their bodies had clad their bodies in a layer of Energy and glowed softly with four different colors. The foremost figure was wrapped in a mysterious black layer of Energy. The second figure was cloaked in a gentle white layer of Energy. The third was enveloped in a beautiful royal purple layer of Energy. Lastly, the fourth was encased in a pleasant yellow layer of Energy.

These figures were Kiara, Yuri, Lunete and Aanjay in the order of first to fourth. It has been six months since the four had arrived in this new world. At the one-month mark of their transfer, they had their first kill. Under the tutelage of Tabansi Hou, the four were made to kill birds with their own hands to cook and eat.

The experience made the girls squeamish and their skin crawled when they saw Tabansi firmly ending the poor bird’s life. However, this was a crucial period in the foursome’s training. They understood the importance of survival in this world. Therefore, they could only rein their feelings in and do the deed.

The four were then made to kill and cook the animals on a weekly basis for that month. In the second month of their stay in this world, they were made to kill and cook animals every alternate day. Finally, in their third month, the girls were made to repeat the task daily. They had become numb to the act by then.

When the fourth month hit, the quartet was finally deemed to have sufficient fighting capability in their martial arts. However, they were sent hunting during their combat classes and survival classes. They were to learn to apply their combat to beasts as well because not all Oni, Youkai or Akuma were humanoid shaped. This continued until their sixth month.

Presently, the four women were hunting a devil beast for the first time. According to what they had learned from Tabansi, devil beasts were animals that were captured by the Akuma race, which the Dragon Clan, Snake Clan and Monkey Clan fought against. The Akuma race was the craftiest among the three enemy races. They often resorted to various ploys to break the Human race from the inside.

Devil beasts were one such method of attack. The captured animals were injected with an Akuma’s heart which had been scavenged from their losses in the war. The heart served as a core to corrupt the animal and supply inner energy to it. The more the animal ate, the more the corruption spread. After having been snuck into Human territory, the mutated beast would then rampage throughout the area it was placed and forces the three opposing Clans to divert some of their forces into subjugating the beasts.

Devil beasts became craftier as they consumed more living beings. They possessed a small amount of intelligence regarding that aspect only. While the initial rampage is uncontrollable, consuming sufficient amount of flesh and blood gives birth to that intelligence. The three Clans never let that intelligence blossom and strived to stamp out the lives of these monstrosities as soon as they could. They had learnt an extremely painful lesson in the past to never let any devil beast grow in power in their own lands.

The devil beast that the four protectors was chasing had rampaged for two days before disappearing. War efforts had been directed into giving as much time for the girls to gain enough power, so there was little manpower to send for this subjugation. Therefore, as the time was ripe, the four women were tasked to take care of this matter.

Kiara led the group quickly as she tracked the devil beast. Kiara’s cultivation of <> took a strange turn. Instead of the high power and speed that the martial art boasted, Kiara developed it in such a way that her perception rose a phenomenal level, almost equal to Lunete’s, at the cost of the extreme offensive might. She became exceedingly sensitive to the small electrical pulses of movement around her, allowing her to be an excellent scout on top of her new found love and talent for tracking when the four learnt it from Tabansi. Therefore, she was serving as vanguard for this part of the mission.

Yuri followed behind closely and kept a wide view of the surrounding area in front of Kiara. She had the furthest sight of the four due to her unique way of cultivating <>, Yuri sacrificed distance maneuverability to focus on improving her sight and dexterity. In this manner, Yuri became quite deadly with a bow, and can even extend spears of light from the yawara to attack from a distance as an extension of <>. Yuri served as a secondary scout and a spotter in the tracking part of the mission.

Aanjay’s cultivation of <> was more orthodox. However, due to her perfectionist tendencies for detail, Aanjay made overall improvements to all aspects of fighting. Base strength, stamina, distance coverage, arm and foot movement, sight. All of these were from her understanding of a fort. That it was both strategic and strong. Therefore, her cultivation leaned in making her status more balanced when Lunete had checked. In the tracking portion of the mission, she was serving as the rearguard.

Lunete’s cultivation of <> was slower than the other three. However, the cumulative masteries of the other three martial arts together with it allowed her to stand on equal footing with the others in a fight. Despite having low strength, Lunete had high power from her use of <>. Being able to bypass external defenses and wreck an enemy’s internal organs had an extremely devastating effect. Lunete’s movements were also very unique. Development of <> and <> had enabled her regular movements to gain a certain grace and ease. This allowed Lunete to speed up, slow down, stop and change directions on the fly, dazzling even Alleyah and Naja.

The four girls advanced at a steady pace. The tracks became fresher and fresher, indicating that the group was getting close. Eventually, Yuri spotted the devil beast from afar. She paled slightly at the monstrosity but sped up until she got to the front of the group. She quickly signaled for the group to stop.

The foursome cautiously approached the devil beast and began to observe it and try to spot any weak points. The devil beast was absolutely hideous. It was totally naked of any scales, fur or skin. It looked like a mass of flesh and blood on four limbs. The face of the beast had a rough resemblance to some sort of feline creature. The devil beast was currently ravaging the broken body of a bear that was twice its size. Judging from the smears and splatters of blood in the surroundings, along with the half-eaten twitching bear, the devil beast must have tortured the poor animal before eating it alive.

The four girls grimaced inwardly. However, they quashed their feelings and got into position to ambush the bear. Yuri retreated slightly to an area where she was slightly against the wind and in one of the devil beast’s blind spots.

As Yuri drew the bow to its full-length, Aanjay prepared to burst out from the undergrowth in the direction of Yuri’s attack. Lunete and Kiara circled around to flank the devil beast.

With a soft hiss, an arrow surrounded in white line that cut through the wind and speared the feasting devil beast. The monstrosity roared loudly. It turned to face the direction of the arrow, only to see Aanjay burst out of the bushes, maduvu at the ready to absorb the initial charge. In its blind rage, the devil beast assumed that Aanjay was the one who attacked and charged menacingly at her.

Aanjay parried the charge by crouching and bashing the beast from below while borrowing strength from the earth. This shocked the beast’s brain and caused it to be stunned for several moments. Aanjay drew back to let Yuri fire at the devil beast. As she did so, Lunete and Kiara started to draw close to finish off the abomination before it could even strike.

With a front paw pinned by Yuri’s surprisingly sturdy arrow, the devil beast quickly regained its movements. Noticing Lunete and Kiara drawing closer, the sense of danger caused the beast’s senses to heighten. In a fit of desperation, the beast used its pinned paw as a pivot. It lashed out at Kiara’s shorter weapons with teeth bared while it whipped Lunete’s longer weapon with its tail.

Kiara and Lunete were forced to retreat. However, Lunete had caught the tail with her sword. As she did so, she sent reverberations through the tail, down the devil beast’s spine. This caused the beast to tremble violently as it lost power in its limbs and collapsed on the spot. Yuri took this chance to shoot an arrow at the beast’s shoulder, effectively sealing the movements of its unpinned forefoot.

As the beast’s front was no longer such a threat, Aanjay stepped forward and blinded the devil beast with a swipe of her katar. Lunete and Kiara approached the beast to finish it off again.

However, the vitality of a devil beast is not to be underestimated. It rose up from its prone position and tried to lash at the two incoming presences as best it could.

Unfortunately, this endeavor proved to be utterly useless. Without any precise aim, Kiara, who had arrived first, slashed into the devil beast’s body with her sword. She quickly followed through with a stab of her short spear. Lightning passed into the devil beast and the electricity once again caused the beast to lose control over its limbs.

Lunete arrived at this point and quickly crushed the head with a single strike, aided with reverberations from the <> martial art’s attacking skill to cause devastating external damage.

With the beast dead, the flesh that was held intact by the Akuma’s heart and the beast’s will gave way. This revealed the still beating Akuma heart to the four girls who looked at it in disgust. Aanjay approached the heart and smashed it into a pulp. This was the most certain way to destroy the heart completely. If it was sliced or pierced, the heart may still retain its vitality and regenerate. However, crushing it into paste definitely deprived it of the opportunity.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The subjugation was completed, and the quartet headed back to the nearest Dragon Clan village to report to Alleyah who was staying there. As they did so, the four reflected on how many times the fight could have gone wrong. They had to get stronger.

***

“Good work, ladies,” Alleyah said as soon as the four protectors approached within earshot.

Seeing the unsatisfied expressions on all four faces, Alleyah smiled inwardly. The four had been slightly complacent of late. It was good that the mission served as a wake-up call.

“I see that all of you have reflected on deficiencies during this mission. Remember that feeling and never cease to move forward. It is rare that the Akuma are able to slip a devil beast into our territories, but with the Snake Clan recently reformed under the Emperor’s banner, we lack quite a bit of manpower on the front lines,” Alleyah continued.

‘These girls did well coming this far. It’s not easy getting accustomed to killing and the likes after coming from a peaceful world after all,” Alleyah thought as she ordered the girls to pack up and get ready to head for the Dragon Palace.

The Keeper shared certain hidden parts of history concerning possible setbacks that the protectors might have. As it was a matter of survival of the Human race, he was given authorization from the Emperor to share these issues. One of it was the difficulty in adapting to this world’s killing.

There have been cases where protectors hesitated with killing, and lost their lives instead in the past. Summoning another protector was no issue, but this placed a larger burden on the current batch of protectors while the new one gets trained to replace the one who died. Furthermore, the team in which the death belonged to could have a chain reaction in mindsets. Fear may set in, forcing the team apart and causing even more deaths.

It was fortunate that these four women were mentally strong and flexible. They quickly adapted to this world, set goals to get stronger and improved as a whole unit. Alleyah had caught bits of their conversation during short breaks in the middle of training sessions before. The four women had bad experiences with men. Therefore, they turned to women for comfort. However, that was not the only result. The foursome took it in stride and had grown independent, self-assured and strong.

***

It took four days to reach the Dragon Palace. The girls were given the next five days off for relaxation and self-practice.

Relaxing in the bath together, the four let go of the tension that had built up throughout the entire trip. Yuri and Aanjay cuddled together in the corner, leisurely pleasing each other. Lunete and Kiara just sat together and observed the two while they relaxed despite the growing heat within them. They had a knowing look on their faces. They could tell that the two were slowly growing attached to each other beyond a platonic friendship.

This did not keep the two from sharing themselves with Lunete and Kiara, however. In fact, they relished the sight of seeing each other writhe under another woman.

Lunete and Kiara also felt some feelings blossom between them. However, Kiara had approached Lunete, describing a selfish lover that she used to have. That lover slept around, but never liked Kiara doing the same despite having an agreement to let each other keep that freedom. Kept from her desires, Kiara decided to end the relationship off, and it ended quite badly. Despite knowing that Lunete was different, Kiara could not help but have slight reservations of getting back into another steady relationship.

At that point of time, Lunete merely smiled gently at Kiara and said she understood. She hugged Kiara in a light embrace and the two shared in the feeling of companionship. The two of them had unanimously and tacitly decided to take it slow deep in their hearts.

At present, Kiara and Lunete had a reminiscent expression on their faces and realized the same expression on each other’s faces. They laughed, knowing that they were remembering the events that occurred where Kiara voiced out her concerns.

With the two Asian ladies getting raunchier by the second, the two could not suppress their desires and took each other into a loving but aggressive embrace. The echoes of seductive moans and slick sounds of flesh colliding soon filled the whole bathroom.

***

The next five days were a blur for the four. They had dedicated a lot of time into studying their general skills.

Yuri, being the almost dedicated support, chose to study acupuncture and pharmacology. With her book-smarts, she quickly consumed material after material and had become rather accomplished in her six months of study. She was currently considered a second rank acupuncture practitioner and could also finally make basic pills.

Aanjay surprisingly took to apothecary studies. Unlike a pharmacologist, an apothecary focused on making potions. These potions could be a boon or a bane. Aanjay focused on making utility-based potions to aid her in combat due to the desire to add more utility to her team participation. She also studied how to make destructive potions in case of emergencies. Aanjay’s perfectionist streak allowed her to quickly ascend to a first rank apothecary during her six months of study.

Kiara picked up trapping. However, she went beyond being a mere trapper that targeted animals. Kiara studied the characteristics of the three enemy races in great detail. She found out poisons that worked and did not work. As she did so, she learned how to concoct deadly poisons and hidden mechanisms. Kiara had inadvertently become a user of hidden weapons on top of her sword and spear. It was something that Kiara had resonated with, but she did not mention it because she had no clue of how to operate such intricate devices. Now, however, Kiara secretly trained in integrating the use of various hidden devices into her regular fighting style. The three other girls new about her training. It was just a secret from the instructors.

Lunete had told and proved to Kiara of the existence of her game system. She did not share all the details, and only mentioned that she could engrave special benefits into the hidden weapons that Kiara created along with providing additional materials to her. Kiara was shocked, but being the loyal friend cum lover that she was, kept Lunete’s secret close to heart. Lunete secretly provided Kiara with various unique materials and helped Kiara advance by leaps and bounds.

With regards to formations, the quartet seemed to improve at the same pace. However, Kiara, Yuri and Aanjay knew that if it were not for Lunete creating art work for them to gain insights, they would not have improved as fast as they did. The Keeper was pleasantly surprised by their similar progression speeds. However, he just mentioned that they should keep up the good work. Inwardly, he was crying over how hard and long he had to study formations to get to their level of the basics.

Lunete’s study of the jade tablet she received at the repository proved to be fruitless even now. The formations that were present in the jade tablet were useless without any information given to her. As she progressed in basic formations, she started to roughly understand the formations but whenever she felt like she was about to know something, it slipped away. This frustrated her greatly, but she could not help but have the vague feeling that understanding will come when she learned more of the basic formations.

On top of trying to progress through general skills, the four diligently cultivated. They focused on quality improvement of cultivation instead of quantity this time. They learned that focusing on the quality rather than quantity of cultivating would help them immensely throughout the six months of guidance from Naja. Therefore, they had only practiced their strengthening when they were focused on cultivating or when they needed to refresh themselves.

The four also sparred intensely, making full use of their time to get some fighting experience. They made it a point to use every single dirty trick in the book when they sparred, knowing that their first opponents would very well be the Akuma.

These activities of the four were peppered with intense lovemaking for relaxation due having repressed themselves for more than a week to hunt down the devil beast. The four wanted to improve quickly and sexy times just made their day all the brighter.

***

As the five relaxing but productive days went pass, the four met up with Alleyah who had another mission for them.

“We’re going on another hunt, this time,” Alleyah began with a serious tone.

However, what was said next shocked the four girls to their core.

“We’re going to hunt bandits.”

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Author’s notes:

Surprisingly it’s easier to churn out chapters without a plan in mind. However, I need to be very careful in case I make the story too out of whack. Next chapter, the girls will be killing their first actual intelligent being. How will their mental states cope?

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed this chapter!

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Lunete’s Status and Skills:

NameLunete ArgallStatusStrength35Endurance74Agility72Dexterity82Perception90Energy7Additonal InformationLevel 11>34Age: 20FemaleStatus Points Remaining: 165

SkillsSkill NameMastery<>34%<>37%<>35%<>36%Formations23%