Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! IT’S TIME TO BRING BACK THE BIG(almost) FOX!
ANYWAY, about the break, you guys chose for me to write a Re:-ISH (notice the ish) story, so that is what I have been started to "prepare". It will probably be as wacky as Insania, so don’t say that I didn’t warn you if you expect a serious story. And I can’t say I’m an expert on Re: stories, since I only read a few of them, but I’ll try to keep it similar. No promises, though. I may post the first chapter a bit before the break officially begins, even if only to link here.
ALSO, we are now one or two chapter away from finishing the arc, afterwards, I still plan on doing a .5 chapter and finish the Cross-over before my break officially begins. And when I come back, if you guys want, I could take one day a week to update the other story, or simply leave it for when I have a creativity overflow after finishing an Insania chapter.
ALSO(2), I plan on doing a small time-skip for the next arc. Nothing major, mostly him training with Aura and the new weapon.
ALSO(3), today’s release delay was brought to you by E3!
ALSO(4), SHE IS WARGON'S PET, SHE GETS BADASS ARMOR! THAT IS WHY!
Have a good read!
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Even the cathedral was surprisingly quiet during the dead of the night. But that didn’t stop us from finding a large hooded figure who was holding a broom and patiently sweeping the large ground area of the temple.
The figure heard us as we approached and turned towards us, revealing a large black-furred bullhead. The Minotaur seemed surprised for a moment, before gently leaning the broom against a nearby wall and walking towards us.
“Good morning, friends. What may I help you with so early in the…” He stopped once he recognized me and my smile. “Well, once again we meet at an odd hour, don’t we?” Preet said with a small smile.
“Well, I’m a busy golem.” I said while shrugging, which earned a chuckle from the minotaur. “Still, I’m a bit surprised in seeing a bishop sweeping his own temple.” I said while looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you usually leave it to a janitor or something?” I asked him confused.
“This is my home. It would be unkind to leave others to clean my own mess.” He said with a smile, and as if on cue, a door open, and from there comes a few young boys and girls, around fifteen or so years, all of them wearing a similar cloak and broom as the bishop’s. “Well… This is still a fairly large temple, and I might need some help if I want it clean before it opens…” He said with a slightly awkward smile.
I chuckled at the scene for a moment as I watched the young apprentices give a slight bow towards the bishop, before turning back to said minotaur.
“So… Did you come here to remove your blessing, as many other chosen?” He asked me with a slight grief in his voice. I smiled a bit awkwardly before answering.
“Not yet… I’ll do it soon, but for now my plan is something else.” I said while looking towards the small fox besides me. “This little girl here is… I don’t know the right term, soul contract? Soul bound?” I tried remembering what I had heard other people speaking about the kind of relation we had, but couldn’t remember. “Anyway, I wanted to change the type of pet she is.” I said after giving up.
“I understand.” He said with a nod. “You do know that she will lose any skill she might have earned, right?” He asked me seriously for a moment, and I nodded. “Okay then. If you would.” He made a motion towards the altar. Aura nodded slightly before walking towards the place he indicated. The bull seemed slightly surprised at this, as he turned towards me and said. “She seems very intelligent.”
“More than myself. That much I can guarantee.” Another chuckle and a lightly pouting Yuu.
The minotaur guided the fox towards the front of the altar, where Aura looked at him waiting for the next instruction. The bishop, for the first time since I’ve come to this cathedral, went towards the back of the altar, where he took a small basin filled with water and a small phial. He started to murmur some words while slowly dripping the contents of the phial into the basin.
When he finished, I saw as the water in the basin started to shine slightly, and he smiled, satisfied, before taking the basing to Aura. He kneeled besides the freezing tail and presented her the container, signaling her to drink as he left it on the ground for her.
Aura obediently nodded before starting to drink the liquid, albeit a bit hesitantly in the beginning, but soon picking up her pace. In less than thirty seconds the basin was completely empty, and Aura suddenly let out a loud yawn. I raised my eyebrows, as I saw her groggily walking towards me, and curling herself on my feet and falling asleep immediately.
I turned towards Preet, raising an eyebrow and he simply smiled and said.
“She will fall asleep for now while the elixir takes effect. It should be done in a few minutes.” He said before motioning towards one of the benches. “If you wish, you can wait here for the moment.”
I took on the offer, picked up the small fox and sat with her on the bench. Yuu immediately sat besides me while watching Aura with slightly worried eyes, meanwhile, Preet took the broom once again and started sweeping the floor together with the apprentices.
After less than one minute, I was almost bored out of my mind, as well as feeling extremely worried, but since there was nothing I could do, I simply sat there while gently patting the small fox. At least she seemed to be calm with all this.
As I started to accept that all I could do was to wait even more, the bishop suddenly spoke with his rough voice.
“I… Heard that the Chosen meet with the Grand goddess before descending towards Insania.” He spoke with a slightly worried tone. “Is that true?”
“Well… Yes?” I said a bit confused. There were some more seconds of an awkward silence before he spoke again.
“How… How is she?” He asked me afterwards. I raised an eyebrow, but since he had his back towards me he didn’t notice. “I mean… As a… Not to… I don’t…” He seemed lost at his words for a moment, but stopped when a sudden light began on the cathedral.
He stopped and looked towards Aura, whose body began to shine strongly as she floated slightly. Once she got around my eye-level, her body started to compact itself, slowly taking on the shape of a small ball surrounded by a thin layer of mist, leaving only the costume she had earlier intact. Just like how she was when I first summoned her. The sphere slowly floated down, landing on my open palm.
I smiled a bit at the scene, before a small window popped up, asking what kind of pet I would like Aura to be. I quickly picked up the one saying battle pet and let the small sphere float down towards the ground.
It started to expand into a larger sphere, this one being almost a full three meters in diameter, Much bigger than when I first summoned her. As it finally stabilized itself on the appropriate size, some shatters appeared on the sphere, before it finally broke down.
Aura landed softly on the ground and quickly shook her head to wake herself up before looking towards me. She blinked surprised a couple of times and looked around, then back at herself. I smiled a bit at this because I could understand what was passing on her head.
As a battle pet, she had taken a form bigger than the previous one. If previously she was small enough that you could pick her up and carry her around, this new form of hers was much bigger, being around the size of a Siberian Husky. It still was smaller than her original form, but at least it was enough to be battle-capable.
Thanks to the bigger body, she didn’t look as cute as before, but all the points she lost in cuteness, she earned in coolness. Having taken the slightly sleeker and more aggressive look of her original form, she now looked a miniature Freezing tail, instead of a chibified one.
Well, I must say that I will probably miss the more cuddly Aura, but she also look very nice this way.
I crouched down so I could get on eye level with her and smiled.
“So, feeling better already?” I asked her, and she nodded fiercely. I smiled once more and put my hand on her head. “Then, we’ll go out there and trai…” I stopped as soon as my hand landed on her fur.
This… How… How is something like this even possible. This… This must have some kind of law being broken at this exact moment. That is the only possible reason. Such… Such a thing… It shouldn’t exist!
I noticed as Yuu and Preet looked at me worried at my sudden change in attitude. But they would never understand this, not unless the feel the same thing as I am feeling in this moment.
Such a thing… Such a feeling. So… Much…
“SO… MUCH… FLUFFY!” I said while hugging Aura and diving my face into her fluffy fur. I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but her fur is even fluffier than before. This is the fluffiest thing I’ve ever felt in my entire life! This is even better than when she was a boss!
She squirmed surprised for a moment when I held her, but after some time she calmed down and I think I might have heard a sigh, but may be just my imagination.
After some time I finally satisfied my need for fluffiness, so I let go of her with a silly smile in my face. Trying to get myself back into the right track of mind, I decided that it would be a good idea to check on Aura’s status, so I quickly brought up the window.
NAME:
AuraTITLE:
The SaneOwner:WargonRelationship:Soul petSpecies:Freezing TailGender:FemaleElement affinity:IceDiet:OmnivoreLevel:1Experience:0%
STATUS:Health Points:110/110HP regen (out of combat):1/secSTR:10TGH:10AGI:10VIT:10INT:10MND:10DEF25M. Res.:15ATTK:8-10Extra:1 IceEquipped inventory0Satiety:100/100Trust:MaxAssigned role:(none)
SKILLS:
Claw Mastery [lvl 3]
Claw Mastery [lvl 1]
-Rip (Active)
Ice mastery [lvl 1]
-Ice emission
Racial [Max]
-Cool body
-Mana-Vulpine senses
-Freezing charge
Hmm? Her stats are just like the ones when a player starts. This is interesting. And it seems that she doesn’t have many skills from when we fought, but she did carry over that scary charge skill of hers.
She also lost the ice manipulation racial in exchange, but it was more of a non-offensive version of Ice emission when I stop to think about it.
Leaving that aside, it seems that I’ll have to train her from the beginning. Well, I had prepared myself for that anyway, so no problem there.
At least she kept the title.
I raised myself once again and turned to the others, who were still looking at me slightly worried and lost.
“Sorry… I got a bit carried away there.” I said with a wry smile, and they smiled awkwardly at this. “Anyway, you were saying something earlier?” I asked while looking at Preet, and he startled a bit before suddenly shaking his head.
“No. It was nothing.” He said with a wry smile. “Just a moment of weakness of mine.” He said with a wry smile. “Please, forget that.”
I sighed while nodding before turning towards the statues behind the altar, giving them a long look. You know, just because I wasn’t paying much attention, doesn’t mean I haven’t heard anything.
“Well… If I were to speak of Cygnas.” I stopped to think for a moment, my words suddenly making the minotaur widen his eyes surprised. “Let’s just say that yes, she is as almighty, powerful and responsible as you guys think.” His eyes widened at this. “But she isn’t as perfect as you may believe.” I said while giving a smirk and looking back to him.
“What… What do you mean?” He asked me shocked.
“Let’s just say that she is much more like a normal girl than she makes herself be.” I said mysteriously before turning my back to the statue that had discretely opened its eyes the moment he had made the question. “Now, if you allow me, I have a sword to test, and a fox to train.” I said cheerfully while giving him a last nod.
As me and the girls walked away from the church, I heard some light words coming from the bishop, in but a whisper.
“Thank you.”
He said with sincere gratitude in his voice, and I simply waved my hand, saying that it wasn’t much.
I have no idea what brought him to make that question, but it is not going to be me to question him.
I guided my two companions towards the main elevator, and I could see as Aura kept wagging her tails cheerfully from one side to the other as I softly put my hand on her neck. The best part of her new size is that she was at the exact height to pat without needing to crouch!
This is wonderful!
We quickly arrived at the correct floor and left the city, reaching the large field filled with bunnies and other low level animals. Aura looked towards me and I nodded, letting her run ahead and start going for the rabbits.
But since she was level one, the rabbits actually put up a good fight with her, going for scratches and bites, which made a funny scene of a hound the sized fox fighting toe-to-toe against the rabbits.
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Still, let’s not leave her all the fun, shall we? I took out my sword, holding it to the right of my body. The reason for this pose is mostly because it’s also the same stance you have when using long-swords on Monster hunter.
I looked towards a nearby rabbit and ran to his direction, and as I was about to reach him, I swung the blade over my head, bringing it downwards, hitting him.
…
Seeing this situation, I couldn’t help but remind myself of the words from a very famous demon hunter, and probably one of the most iconic words from any game in existence. I still remember the scene even to this day, as he open up his wings, soar into the sky, draws he weapons, looking down to us, and then shout.
YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!
Yup, that is the perfect description of my actual situation.
No, it’s not because the weapon sucks, it’s awesome, actually. This thing deals a LOT of damage every single hit, so it feels very good when it lands.
The problem lies elsewhere.
I completely forgot the fact that: As a two handed sword, it’s a lot heavier than the weapons I’m used to wield. And this also means that it’s a lot slower.
And I have absolutely no idea on how to use this thing!
The moment it starts ta movement, it takes a lot of strength to move it towards the other direction, so after the first strike, it becomes night impossible to aim the next strike. And the problem only seems to get worse by the fact that the sword slices the ground like butter, so I can’t even use it to stop the sword!
I even made a test by letting go of it. It literally sunk into the ground until only the handle was aboveground!
If that was everything, it would still be an useable weapon, where I could deliver an attack, get away and come back for another. But this took too long, and by then there is the chance that the weapon skill would already have expired, and that is not an option, as this sword relies on continuous attacks to rack up the damage.
And it seems that Aura also had her share of problems. It seems that she was used to using her old spells to attack, so from time to time I would see her becoming frustrated as she tried to use the ice arc but fail since she didn’t have the skill. She also seemed a bit downhearted that her damage was low, but that is a level problem, and she isn’t a boss anymore, so there isn’t much we can do about it.
Well, it seemed that we both were a bit frustrated with our lack of skills with the new techniques. Aura with her lack of capacity to attack decently and me with my lack of skill to move the sword in the way I like.
Stop. Focus Wargon. Think back at monster hunter. How did they use this weapon back there? It really wasn’t the fastest weapon around, and up until there we have a similarity. But then how do you play with a Long-sword?
Instead of speed, we get fluidity. You can link your attacks seamlessly into each one, making a never-ending combo, even when dodging. If I were to think better, from all the weapons in the game, it was the most martial-artsy one when it comes to the move-set.
Martial-artsy?
I immediately looked back at Yuu, who had sit down to watch as me and Aura started to train, and she had a slightly awkward smile, probably because of how badly we were fumbling with our training.
“Yuu~” I said in a singy voice which made the kitsune blink surprised. “I may need some help from my favorite disciple~” I said. She immediately beamed a smile while lifting herself up, ready to be of help for her Shishou. I took out the sword from my back and passed it to her. “Could you teach me how to use a weapon like this one?” I asked.
She blinked surprised, but immediately nodded as she unequipped her weapons and put on the sword. Immediately after, she gave a good look at the sword before taking a stance with it. She made some slight movements with it, nothing too much, only moving it to one side to the other, then lifting above her head and slowly bringing it down.
“Shishou’s sword is strange…” She said suddenly with a slight frown. Before suddenly jerking back up and looking at me worriedly. “I mean, it is not bad! It is strange, but good!”
“I do know that I am a novice blacksmith, you know?” I said with a wry smile, but she shook her head.
“That is not what I meant!” She said hurriedly. “It is just that Shishou’s sword feels different from what I am used.”
“…You use swords like that in real life?” I asked surprised.
“No…” She said with a wry smile as she made a swing with the weapon. “I trained more on hand-to-hand and with spears at our dojo.” I raised an eyebrow curious. “Grandfather is the one who used swords like this. Although a bit smaller.” She said doing another swing with the weapon, and I could notice that this one looked a bit… better? Cleaner? “But I think I can try something if I use spear as a base.” She said with a nod.
I smiled a bit awkwardly. I kind of expected her to already know how to use this as a weapon, and not that she would need to think of something on the spot. And yet she come and says that she can think of something with a bit of time?
I really don’t know if I should consider her a bit more normal for not knowing something, or even more of a genius for saying that she can come up with something in a few minutes….
Sighing in defeat, I sat down on the ground as I watched her move around, testing a few movements here and there. With the corner of my eyes, I watched as Aura also looked interested at her, then at her own paws, then towards me, and at her own body.
Raising an eyebrow, I saw as she suddenly seemed to have an idea, before closing her eyes and starting to focus on something. Having nothing to do as both of them were doing their own things, I decided to write something as I waited the time to pass.
After around one hour, Yuu finally seemed satisfied with herself, nodding satisfied and taking a deep breath before breaking her stance and giving me back the sword with a determined look into her eyes.
I quickly equipped the sword and saw as she summoned a two-handed ice sword, with a shape similar to mine.
“Shishou, try to follow my movements. It may not be perfect, but it should work for now!” She said as she gripped the sword in her hand and took a stance similar to the one I had previously.
I watched as she made a movement with the sword and I quickly followed it. First, I took a step forward with my left leg while leaving my right leg as it was, and this made the sword stand behind me. Then I lifted the sword over and brought it down in front of me.
It actually looked similar to the attack from the game when I stopped to analyze it. But…
“Not like that, Shishou.” Yuu said while shaking her head. “Here, let me show you.” She quickly approached me from my right side and started to move my arm in a forward circular movement. I couldn’t quite put my finger into it, but I felt a small difference from the one I did earlier, even when it looked similar. “Try to repeat that feeling.” She said, noticing my reaction.
I nodded as I repeated the movement over and over while Yuu kept giving me some pointers.
And whenever Yuu felt that I had gotten the movement right, she would start teaching me something else. I noticed that, instead of trying to teach me how to actually wield the sword, she was teaching me a few attacks. I couldn’t quite know what was her plan behind this, but I was actually thankful, since this way I could put it into practice almost immediately.
Hours went by as I trained over and over, sometimes even suddenly being request to repeat some older attacks so that I wouldn’t forget them. As time went by, I already had a whole arsenal of attacks to use during the battles. Nothing professional, mind you. I would barely call them a beginners technique to tell the truth, but at least it was useable.
When it was almost dawn, Yuu suddenly stopped for a moment and stared at a window that popped up, then grimaced slightly.
“I… Have to go, Shihsou. Or else I will not have enough time to go to school.” She said suddenly, and I nodded. “I will try to see with my grandfather if he can teach me a bit about those longer swords.” She told me with a determined tone.
“Okay… Let me guess, I should keep training these moves for a little longer?” I said with a smirk, and she nodded.
“Hmm! Until later, Shishou.” She said with a smile, and I nodded while petting her.
“Until later.” I said as I watched her log out.
I turned back to the bunnies and smiled wickedly as I gripped better the sword in my hand. I mean, training is good and all, but some real-live experience is even better, right?
Let’s bully some bunnies!
I immediately started to test the attacks that Yuu taught me on the bunnies. If on one side, learning only attacks limited greatly my movements, it was also much faster to put into practice than if I were to learn how to wield it. But that is also something I can kind of develop as I fight more and more with the sword, right?
And one thing I noticed from what Yuu taught me, is that to swing my blade, I should use my body as a lever, instead of going straight to trying to swing the blade with only my arms, like I was doing it back at my first swing. This way I could make upwards movement easier than if I were to simply lift the sword with my arms.
And what I also noticed, is that she also made sure that I would make the stopping motion correctly, even more than the actual swing. At first I didn’t quite get the reason, but putting it into practice, I finally understood. If I manage to stop the swing on the right spot, it becomes much easier to link it to a following attack than if I were to simply let it go all the way.
So now, I could deliver TWO attacks at a time, instead of one! Hooray!
What? I did say that I was just a beginner!
Anyway. As I landed attacks on the bunnies, and was bitten back furiously in revenge because I couldn’t quite kill them on time, Aura suddenly opened her eyes, having stood motionless all this time.
I turned back to her, looking at her slightly confused as she kept an extremely focused gaze on the ground, and after some time, I saw as mist started to gather around her.
The mist became extremely dense, almost to the point that I couldn’t see her right in it’s middle, slowly circling her. And suddenly, it stopped for a moment, before suddenly compacting itself around her body, immediately changing from a gaseous mist to a packed ice that covered her entire body.
I blinked surprise at the change, as the ice slowly started to reshape and reform itself around her, forming layered plates that covered her entire back, then it became even more segmented as it layered as it got to the tail, so that it could still move freely. A helmet-like piece of ice formed around the upper part of her head, leaving only the slots for the eyes open, and some triangular shapes that she could fit her ears into. The ice finally went down her legs and gathered around her paw, where it covered her claws into an icy armor, making them even longer and sharper than before.
When she finished, before me was a three tailed fox, covered into an icy armor with the look that left even the best armor to shame.
Inspired by her owner’s use of armors and weapons, as well as for having previous necessary skills, your pet have earned the Skill: Full-body elemental armorSkill: Full-body elemental armor [lvl1]
0%Your pet gathers the elements it finds itself most familiar with and cover its body with it, granting bonus according to the type of armor it wears.
Cast-time: 5 minutes
Lasts until cancelledCost: 0
For having unlocked Full-body elemental armor, your pet have also earned the following related Sub-Skill: Ice platingSub-Skill: Ice plating [lvl1]
(level increases with Full-body elemental armor)Covering itself with an armor made of packed and unmeltable ice, your pets gives up its capacity of using spells in exchange for greater strength of attack and Physical resistance.
Spells are unusable while Ice-plating is cast.
Physical skills deal 25% more damage
Removes 50% of Intellect and transfers to Strength
Removes 50% of Mind and tranfers to Toughness
I looked at the windows that popped up and started laughing crazily. So, if she isn’t satisfied with her own status, she just goes and creates her own armor? Geeze!
She really is a crafter’s pet, isn’t she?
But… her armor looks way cooler than anything I came up with… This is depressing.
Bah! She is still my pet, so it counts as mine!
She looked a bit tired from having created the armor, so she fell to the ground to rest a bit. I sheathed the sword on my back before going towards her and petting her through the armor, which wasn’t as fluffy as its owner.
“Geez, you really like to surprise me, don’t you?” I asked her playfully, and she simply smiled back. Almost as if on cue, I heard her stomach grumbling loudly, which surprised both of us. I laughed at her, for a bit, making her a little sullen, before my own stomach went and grumbled too. I gave a quick look at my satiety bar and saw how empty it was. “Well, seems like it’s time for us to have some breakfast.” I said standing up, and she nodded in accordance, until she suddenly stopped and looked shocked for a moment.
I raised an eyebrow confused as she looked at me with a mix of shock and confusion, and it took me some seconds to understand what she wanted to pass to me.
Now that she was a battle pet, she lost her cooking skill.
So, who is going to cook for us now?
I widened my eyes as I understood it, before suddenly looking back to the city.
“I wanted to leave it for later, but…” I said as I considered my options “We need to get Cyg a new body ASAP. It’s a matter of life and death!”
And Aura nodded with me.