Cold water soaked into every inch of David’s fur and chilled him to the bone while Claire stared daggers into his back and Betty lit up the shoreline not far away, the huge anemone on her back shedding cheerful bioluminescence as it waved about languidly. He sighed and ducked his head into the water again before shaking himself hard as the motion slowly cleaned the gore from his body. He scampered away from the shoreline and snarled silently as the suddenly chill wind sucked the heat right out of him through his wings, their large surface area not doing him any favors while he was soaking wet. Claire stomped closer, sniffing him again before snorting approvingly and motioning with her head.
“What the fuck were you thinking? You leave for, like, five hours to get food and come back with zero food and soaked head to toe in…” Claire let out a deep and raspy hiss as she reconsidered, “You know what, don’t even tell me. Do you just enjoy scaring the absolute shit out of everyone, David?”
Betty burst into hysterical giggles, claws waving in the air while her anemone pulsed in time with her laughter, “I thought it was kinda funny, Sebastian literally pissed himself when David flew through the door and landed in front of him.”
“I was trying to get inside faster! I can’t see any colors in the dark anymore, and my fur is dark grey anyway, how was I supposed to know–” David chattered grumpily in the cold as they made their way back to the warehouse on foot.
“Know what, that you were soaked in blood and…whatever the rest of that was?” Claire rumbled in disgust.
David flattened his ears in chagrin, fully aware that both of them could still smell the scent of blood that still clung to his mane and fur. Claire’s nose was vastly more sensitive than his, and she’d almost managed to wrinkle her lips in distaste when she first smelled him. Which was an extreme achievement for a lipless reptile, so David had to assume he must have smelled pretty rank. It vaguely concerned him that some part of his brain filed that information away under ‘too much blood will give away your position’, but he ignored it. The predatory side of his brain had been immensely helpful during his leveling spree, and he intended to listen to it more often when it came to slinking about unseen.
“Well…I found out I can’t carry shit like you or Kai can. I literally couldn’t get a hundred-pound bird off the ground, and I know I’ve seen Kai lift stuff heavier than him.” David complained, “I’m not built for it. I figured since I was already out there I’d just keep going to level my Abilities.”
“I’m guessing you leveled them a lot?” Betty asked sweetly as she scuttled along with her sideways gait.
David smiled victoriously, “Oh yeah. You have no idea. Hey, Claire, check this out. Share Status.”
Claire didn’t even slow her stride as the Warehouse came back into view through the trees, her eyes flicking through invisible lines of text as David watched. He knew that she was simply reading the screen he’d sent her, and he was greatly amused when he saw her nostrils flare in surprise at the rapid increase in his Ability levels. She turned, pointing her armored snout at him curiously, clearly unsure how he had managed to produce such a drastic result in such a short amount of time. Betty’s eyestalks shot Claire a confused look of her own, failing to understand her interaction with David but declining to make a fuss about it.
“Damn.” Claire’s voice was appreciative and a bit startled.
“Yeah, that's why I wanted to get inside so fast. I figured out a way better way to get xp than just…running around all stupid looking for quests or smacking each other in the face.” David barked happily as they crossed the training field together, “You gotta chain Combo’s, I’m not a hundred percent on it, but I’m pretty sure that’s where we’re supposed to be getting most of our xp from. The Abilities will level up by themselves just by getting the Combos off. There’s no point doing them individually.”
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“What’s a Combo?” Claire and Betty spoke in unison before they shot each other a surprised glance.
David attempted to raise an eyebrow but all that happened was his right ear swiveled oddly and began to cramp up, forcing him to rub his head against the top of his wing to save himself. Claire continued to stare at him curiously as he did, but Betty simply continued forward into the warehouse a few dozen feet away with a happy wave. Bright greenish-yellow light poured from the warehouse door, and David saw the enormous firefly that must have been Wendy wave at him briefly before his scaly friend marched him outside for a bath.
“You know, a Combo? When you hit someone with three or more of the same category of ability?” David said finally as he stared up into her jaws, “I’m using Control Combos, so I’m not sure if it works for everything, but I know they all have to hit back to back for it to work. Can’t be a regular bite or anything like that, it has to be different abilities. I tested it out a lot.”
“How does that give you xp though?” Claire rumbled questioningly.
“It gives you bonus xp? Nine per combo, mine caps at 25, doesn't really make sense but I bet it's tied to rank like everything else. It doesn't work more than once on the same target though, or at least I couldn’t ever get it to work. Might not work for Control stuff.” David mused with a shrug of his leathery wings. He tried not to shiver in the cold as the wind picked up again, but Claire spotted it immediately and leaned down to bump him towards the door with her snout.
David allowed himself to be directed indoors enthusiastically, scampering inside and sliding a bit on the concrete as his claws found purchase with difficulty. Several people turned to look at him, various expressions of amusement or disgust plain on their assorted features at his reappearance. David waved awkwardly at the sudden attention, twiddling his claws in an attempt at a wave, but failing to realize it made him look like a beckoning nightmare. Thankfully, he was rescued by Claire cramming herself through the loading doors and carefully stepping into the room. Multiple people gestured happily as they saw her, and she craned her neck up into the air in reply while she straightened her posture from the crouch she used to fit through the door.
“I admit, I’m interested. It’d be just our luck to completely miss something like that. You want off the floor? I’m sure you’re freezing.” Claire said finally after greeting everyone. She nodded to the spot on her back where he had slept the night before and David gratefully flapped up to settle into the groove behind her neck.
She was oddly warm for a reptile, and even if the thick bony plates covering her back were always cool to the touch, they were much warmer than the concrete floor and David was indeed freezing. He settled in without a hint of awkwardness this time, far too happy to be off the cold ground and out of the weather to care.
Plus, she said she didn’t care. She’s gotta be a couple of tons, I’m an afterthought. Still really nice of her though…Oh shit, yeah I almost forgot.
“Hey Claire?” He chattered quietly as she made her way to what had quickly become ‘her’ spot.
She yawned and directed a single eye at him, “Yeah, what’s up? You okay?”
“Thanks for earlier. I was a shit to not take you seriously, you had the right idea. I’ve been trying to force getting stronger, and I missed the forest for the trees. I was using everything wrong.” David began slowly, “Fighting wrong, thinking wrong, just being stupid. I wanted to apologize, you’re good people.”
Claire stopped just before crouching down into her ‘seat’ and stared at him like he had lobsters crawling out of his ears for several seconds in total silence. Then she leaned down despite the awkward angle and booped him on the head with her snout before turning back around.
“You’re welcome.” She said in an odd tone of voice before continuing normally, “Now tell me about whatever these Combo thingies are.”
“So I’m not sure if it’s different for all the Ability categories or if it’s only for Control, but I'd bet that…”
David carefully explained everything he knew about the Combo System, in great detail, along with everything he suspected about how it might work while Claire listened intently. He didn't even notice when she fell asleep, her head still in the air, eyes open but covered with a heavy nictating membrane. In fact, David barely noticed resting his head against her scaly back before he too, fell into a deep sleep.