Estelletoria barked out commands to several of her daughters; once their bee empress gave them the order, they kneeled and placed a hand over their chest. Estelletoria crossed her arms over her large breasts. The bee-girls flew out of several holes in the ceiling, grabbing pieces of wood with them for another purpose “Per Arslan orders, we are being separated into two groups!” Mandilyn said, pacing in front of the two cow-girls, drake, and bee-girl. She kept her hands behind her back and started walking back and forth, occasionally stopping to point at a board with names written in descending order. “Lalana, Estelletoria, you two are one group, and you will be known as group ‘B.’ You will be in charge of the supporting group ‘A,’ which consists of myself, Avelyn, and Miela, which will be known as the expeditionary squad.” Mandilyn turned around from the board and clapped her hands together. “Any questions!?”
Lalana, the brown-haired cow-girl, raised her hand. “Miss Mandi! “she said while bouncing, trying to get the rabbit-girl’s attention, which was surprisingly effective considering her massive breasts bounced with almost every movement.
“Yes, Lalana?” Mandilyn said with an irritated eye twitch while acknowledging her.
Lalana asked, “Why-come there are only two of us in group B? My sister is just as good as I am at lifting heavy objects.” Lalana instantly hugged her minotaur sister, Meira, who, in return, did not return the kindness. Meira stood in the same spot, arms crossed.
“Hun, that’s because your sister is a brute,” Estelletoria chimed in before Mandilyn could even get a single word in. “No offense, Meira-Dear.”
“Yah, I don’t care,” Meira said after exhaling loudly from her nose.
“The roles were decided with this,” Arslan said, appearing almost from nowhere. It wasn’t a large artifact; at the top and the bottom were two black gems connected by a metal band that had a sharp needle at the center at a forty-five-degree angle. “Avelyn, will you?”
Avelyn shot a dirty look at the minotaur who gave one in return. Ever since the fight, the two females had been at each other’s throats. “As you wish, leader.” Avelyn came across the device.
“Just touch your finger to the needle,” Arslan instructed.
Without any hesitation, Avelyn pressed against the point with her index finger. And almost instantly, a bead of blood was drawn, and just as quickly, it was sucked up. Avelyn took as step back as the black gems shot two beams of red light a meter in the air; when the two combined, they formed an alchemic circle. Instead of the usual creationism symbolism, the ring contained the capabilities of one’s potentials. Several dots appeared and connected.
“As you can see here,” Arslan said, producing a stick and began pointing at Avelyn’s abilities. “Avelyn’s talents are more geared towards magic and physical attributes.”
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“Me next!” Lalana shouted as she crashed into Avelyn. The drake-girl slid several feet and was knocked off balance, causing her to grab onto the nearest thing she could, which just so happened to be the rabbit-girl Mandilyn. Avelyn grabbed her arm as she fell backward, crashing into a pile of stacked books and debris.
Lalana’s face was alight with joy as she awaited the results. Arslan scratched the back of his head when the skill map appeared.
“What am I? What am I? Lalana incessantly repeated while bouncing up and down. Her sister, the minotaur, grabbed her by the shoulders to keep her in one place.
“Fuckin’ stop,” her sister ordered. Lalana stopped bouncing around but continued to have the same ear to ear smile on her face. When she was still for more than a few seconds, she was released.
“Well,” Arslan started to say as he looked at the circle, “You’re good at defense and…” Arslan squinted closer to the projected gauge and then continued, “...and you have a high potential for magic.”
The cow-girl took a deep breath and then, seconds later, cheered the hardest she could have ever cheer. She sprung over to Arslan, grabbing him by the shoulders and lifting him. “Master! Is that so!?” she excitedly yelled. “Could you teach me some spells!?”
Avelyn produced a very low growl from the back of her throat, a feat only drakes can do because of their adapted throats. She ran up, stuck her arms underneath Lalana’s arms, and locked her fingers together behind her head. “Nobody pushes me...ever,” she hissed.
Lalana surprised by the action, dropped Arslan, then characteristically began twisting her body violently. Avelyn was instantly picked up and thrown around like a ragdoll.
Somewhere between the random thrashing, Avelyn was able to bend backward and grab the back of Lalana’s legs and pull.
The cow-girl slammed into a wooden table, crushing it with a massive amount of force and sending splinters everywhere. Arslan sighed quietly and pinched the bridge of his nose; wood chips flew and bounced off the surface of his cloak.
The minotaur-girl walked over and picked both of the girls up by the back of their necks. “Did I not tell you to fuckin’ stop?” she rhetorically asked.
Arslan stepped up to the giant women, “We have a lot of work to do...are you two finished?”
Avelyn snorted out a bellow of smoke. “Finished,” she repeated.
“Done, master!” Lalana cheerfully shouted, giving a non-serious salute to Arslan. Dropping her hand, she smiled widely.
“Good,” Arslan said, turning around towards a massive hole in a wall. He put his hands on the sides and looked out.
Estelletoria’s bee-girls were hard at work, re-building the establishment. Buildings of random sizes were in the process of reconstruction, many just being built randomly without much thought other than to refill empty spaces. Since the research facility did not technically exist, there weren’t any building plans, and houses were re-built in hexagonal sections and evenly spaced out, the organization of a hive-based instinct.
Arslan turned back around to the girls. “Lalana, you and your sister will go to the southern gates. Some essential persons are coming in, and I want you two to make sure it goes smoothly.”
“Understood.”
“You got it, master!”
The cow sisters spoke simultaneously; however, Meira wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic as her sister. She had an underlying tone of boredom and laziness within her voice.