Chapter 12:
Schmetterling
“I'm a beautiful butterfly.”
– Heimlich, A Bug’s Life
* * * * *
*BAAAAM*
“♪ There's a calm surrender… ♩ to the rush of day…” <1>
*RUMBLE*
“When the heat ♫ of a rolling wind can be turned away… ♩”
*ZWEEEEEEE*
“♩ An enchanted moment, ♪ and it sees me through. ♫”
“HOLLY SHIT!?! THAT’S A BEAM!!”
“WHAT?!”
“♪ It's enough for this restless warrior ♪ just to be with youuuuuu~”
“Where’s Captain Lobe?! Doug?”
“Fueee…”
“OTHER DOUG!!”
“In the fucking kennel, Sir!”
“I’m a WOMAN!! And WHO PUT HIM THERE?!”
“Well…”
“Aaaand ♫ CAAAAAAAAN yoooooou FEEEEEEEEEL ♩ the LOOOOOOVE tooo-”
“ADMIRAL BONKERS!!!”
“-night… What? A problem Little Hypo?”
“YE- *cough* With… all due respect, …Sir, what the fuck are you doing? We’re kind of in a crisis here.”
“Aren’t we always?”
“… Yeah… Well… That’s not wrong… But…”
“Never mind the lasers. It’s a game anyway. Try to keep the difference in mind! We’re the mind, so we better do it… We don’t actually risk anything in here. Just chill out and DUUUCK!! HAHAHAHA!!”
*keyboard sounds*
“And Enter. HAHAHAHA!! That was close. See? Easy. More importantly, who the hell let Thyroid temper with Mnemo so much while I was away? The database is all corrupted. I was trying to cross-reference past useless girlfriends with that cute Lady Eva SLASH Athena, to see if the feeling we were experiencing was actually love or just psychotic obsession… or both… Nice cocktail by the way. And how can anyone take seriously a word that’s written ‘cock’ plus ‘tail’? Seriously! *sigh* Where was I? Ah. Yes, the database! I searched, but all I can get are blurry faces! Not even the names remained. Even Jenny’s data – for all uninteresting it was – is starting to fade away. Thanks Coke, Yasmin was hardcoded in the childhood section. ”
“It was Lob- I mean, Captain Lobe’s orders. To avoid getting depressed.”
“Well, conflatulations! It worked! But now the memory is beyond fucked up!”
“I don’t believe it’s that bad…”
“MNEMO!! Come here girl.”
“Wohohohohoooo!! Ye-e-e-eees~ Jii-san?”
“How do you feel lately?”
“THANKS FOR ASKING!! In fact, I feel EX-EX-EX-CEL-LENT!! HAHAHAHAHA!! Donald finally completed the new cookie launcher. Today we finally get rid of those heathen penguin-mongooses!”
“…”
“See? She got the wrong duck. That’s what happens when you do half-assed crazy. You break down. For Mary Poppins’ sake. You kids are morons. *sigh* At least she’s happy.”
“Whoohoohoohoohoohoooo!! Nice birdy.”
“No sweetbrain. That’s a butterfly… I think… Damn, it’s a big one. I’ll need to get to the central control for this one.”
*taptaptaptap*
“Cereb, you fat geek! Get the hell out of that sofa and give me the gamepad. We’re in for a rodeo. You’re usual half-assed psychomotricity won’t cut it.”
“No prob Old Man… Though I’ll protest that I’m way better in-game! It’s just the parameters of reality that are all wrong and- Ah! There’s another beam coming.”
“Oh… No time to evade, is it?”
“Nope.”
“One-shot?”
“Most likely.”
“Well, I’m unanimous… We’re fucked. Hypo, you may panic now.”
“Thank you, Admiral. Would you join me?”
“With pleasure. Dougs!”
““SIR?””
“Do it right!”
““YES SIR!!””
*everybody runs around arms flapping in the air*
““““HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…”””””
* * *
…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!! Who the hell is screaming in my head? And… eeeeeeeew… That thing’s gross.
A second horizontal pillar of wailing greenish white light bolted towards Victoria, who was laying prone on the ground after evading the first. In between the two aggressive flashes, she had caught glimpse of the creature which was dragging itself out of the opened [Putrid Cocoon of the Soul-Eater].
It vaguely looked like a brown-grey decaying butterfly. Its body was fat, hairy and sluggish. Its wings were a dull dirty grey, twitching uselessly on the ground. A thick viscous sap-like substance was covering the monster. Where its proboscis – the trunk thingy – should have been, a large lipless mouth opened, drooling puke and filled with fangs which gruesomely removed the “ta” from “nectarophagous”. Although said mouth wasn’t about to eat any corpse, occupied it was by spitting lasers like a hyperactive stormtrooper’s raygun.
Helpful as always, the log readily mentioned the thing was called [Stillborn Corrupted Moth “Monarch”]. Another lovely name.
Unable to act in time to save her own life, Victoria could only stare blankly at the incoming laser.
Why did I refuse to learn the voiceless incantation skill? “Chanting is far too epic” probably was not a valid reason. And A MONARCH IS NOT A MOTH!! Go home World, you’re drunk.
She believed this indignant retort was going to be her last thought. However right before the attack made contact, a strong husky voice echoed in the cave.
“[Castling]!”
Shadows briefly filled Victoria’s vision and she was overcome by the weird sensation of falling upwards. Suddenly, she was next to a broken stalagmite – indented with the shape of a human silhouette – and staring at the place where she was laying an instant before. Except there now stood a tall armoured woman receiving a laser beam twice her size with her raised shield.
Victoria recognised the name of the skill as a chess move she had practise over and over again while dying from boredom in her tower. <2>
So I’m the king and she’s the rook? Of course I know that. Don’t underestimate the power of an intermediate [Chess Mastery] skill!! Wuuhahahahahahaha!! Wait… Since when does she have that skill?
[Castling] enabled the Soulbound to switch place with the Progenitor in short range. Athena had tried to explain it to Victoria, but failed miserably. Not because she wasn’t good at explaining, but the recipient of the teaching had been slightly inattentive.
The thundering bright laser parted on both sides of Athena like a wave on a breakwater. With her black armour oozing darkness, she looked pretty awesome, like a demon knight fighting the overwhelming power of the Holy Hero of Slightly Green Light.
http%3a%2f%2fi.imgur.com%2fUNdHfcm.jpg [http://i.imgur.com/UNdHfcm.jpg]
Wait… Does that make me the Demon King? Or Queen? And wasn’t she supposed to be a rook? I’m lost.
While the fallen mage pondered on the ground, the Shielbearer herself was slowly pushed backwards, her feet leaving trails in the stone floor. However this time she was prepared and was not sent flying. Athena was in fact extremely pissed of having been tossed like a clueless idiot – though admittedly it would be shorter to make a list of things that did not piss her off – and she drew in her anger to anchor herself in place.
A mane of copper hair was flowing wildly behind the tall woman. Her muscles were tensed and her face fierce and concentrated. Aside from decupling her anger, being tossed through the cave and smashing into rock upon landing hadn’t manage to dissipate her state of calm-mindedness. She was used to taking blows and only death would break her concentration – her opponent’s preferably.
Seeing Athena’s air of cold calculating anger sent shivers down Victoria’s spine. She also wiped some drool on the side of her mouth.
Yet, it’s strange that light can have such a physical impact. Is it about concentration? Heat and gaseous displacement of the atmosphere into a physical force? Photons are stupid that way. What kind of particles sometimes act like… well… particles and sometimes like immaterial waves?! Stop confusing people, Light! Are you material? Are you not? Decide!! Magic fucks up my guesses anyway… And why am I attempting to scientifically theorise a laser beam shot by an elephant-sized undead moth?!
Still, that girl looks freaking cool like that. Ah! Screenshot. Screenshot… And into the
Although why do I care exactly? Mmmmh… Pertinent interrogation. Do I love Eva? What’s love anyway? I can’t remember ever taking the initiative… except that one time I was drunk off my ass… It’s confusing how alcohol shuts down my filters. Eh? Actually, it’s even more confusing to notice that I still have filters…
Anyway, let’s be objective here. Can I be objective? Let’s pretend I do. So… One, I don’t want her to leave me. Two, I feel compelled to deal with her issues although it has nothing to do with me. Three, every single one of her expressions are just so cute and fun to watch, from creepy smile to crying despair. Although my favourite is her serious face. I can’t do that. I just look annoyed when I try. Eeeeh… Four, she likes music. That’s a thing. Five, I think I’m kind of into muscular women.
True, Eva’s not Athena when it comes to physical features, but I had enough first-punch experiences to know she must still pack quite the fit body under that turtleneck of hers. Oh god, I soooo must dress her in Mikasa cosplay… But let’s not get ahead of oursel-
Wait… If none of my previous girlfriends felt right and I’m suddenly developing a taste for manly girls… Does that mean I was gay all along and am trying to lie to myself?
“…”
Hahaha… Ha… Haha… Huhuhuhuhuhuhu…
In her own little mental world, a laughing Victoria tied up a pleading thought to an execution post, then kage bunshined herself, each of her clone holding a different gun / flamethrower / tank / A-bomb / Death Star, and meticulously annihilated, with the utmost mercilessness, the ridiculous idea that had just popped up in her head. Years of deliberate madness had taught her that her mind was an extremely fertile land for all kinds of passing thoughts. If kept unchecked, the weirdest things would take root and blossom into even absurder concepts.
She rarely took action against such weeds, but some needed to be nipped in the bud. “She” already had enough problems dealing with the sensations of her virtual body – some designer had apparently be very thorough in rendering the hormonal responses of avatars – and her newfound possible feelings, and her usual issues, without beginning to question her sexuality right now.
Although since I am a girl here… Would being gay be the normal course of action? … Huhuhuhu… Burn heretic.
Chibi Vicky-tan was still in the process of scattering the ashes of her aborted homosexuality in the grand ocean of forgetfulness, while riding a black jet ski with horns and shooting lasers from her nostrils for added manliness, when a hand grabbed her by the collar and yanked her up from the ground. Her left shoulder grumpily protested. She looked up and saw a slightly charred Athena dragging her away.
The tall Shielbearer, carrying her conjecturing burden, jumped behind a particularly large stalagmite, just in time for another laser to blast through the space they had been a heartbeat before. The attack pulverised smaller rocks on its way, only stopping when it hit the wall of the cave.
With a sigh of relief, Athena took a look at her Health bar. She still had forty-two percent of her HP. She slightly shivered at the level of strength of this boss. The reason why even hardcore tank players avoided the Shieldbearer class was that almost all its skills were passives. The avatar would be as indestructible as possible, but there were barely no special moves or techniques that could be automatically executed. Everything came down to the player’s own ability to handle themselves. And understandably most modern humans were either not able to or not willing to go down the extra-hard way inside a game.
For those lasers to damage Athena to this extend without breaking through her armour, their potency had to be tremendous. Honestly, the Soulbound wasn’t sure how to deal with that level of power. Remembering Victoria was supposed to be an experienced explorer, she turned around towards the mighty Progenitor, and felt a ripple of annoyance in her ocean of calmness at the sight of the pale girl idly contemplating the stalactites above, back resting against their natural rocky shield and hands folded behind her head like a paragon of leisure.
“Vicky, snap out of whatever you're thinking and focus for two seconds!”
“Ah?” The mage jerked up. “But I'm focused.”
“Don't lie. You've been staring blankly at the ceiling since a while ago.”
“Oh. Haha. What? Me? Nooooooo…”
“Vicky...”
“Alright alright. I'm focused.”
“Okay. What do we do? That rock won't hold for long.”
As if to highlight Athena’s statement, another laser collided with the stalagmite shielding them and a loud cracking sound echoed through the cave.
“Ohoh. Indeed… Eeeeh… I don't know? Didn't we agree you'd be the one coming up with plans?”
“I need data to come up with plans. Normally you'd gather intel before challenging a dungeon. Or at least get a feel of the type of mob before you get to the boss. But we just... *sigh* I...” She looked away with a shameful frown. “I'm bad at improvising.”
Victoria nodded mercilessly.
“Yeah. I noticed. For someone that smart, you cruelly lack imagination. No biggy. That's my forte. Trying to put it to good use is another issue.” Like right now, my mind is stuck with imagining you in underwear slaying titans. Both Athena and Eva. Ah. Shit, now I got them mix up... God. That doesn't even look human anymore. Ah! Focus. “As for planning and type of mob, in this kingdom, one word: undead.”
Another loud blast shook their hiding spot.
“Undead with lasers...” she added with an ironic smile.
“That doesn't help. We don't have any light mage.” Athena shook her head.
“Yeah... I technically still have the affinity, but I fried myself every time I tried to relearn a spell. Nor do we have any physical damage dealer... or a healer. This party thing is really complicated. Dividing the roles like that. I somehow miss my old avatar now.”
“You were some kind of all-rounder?”
Athena was trying her hardest not to get swept in Victoria’s zero-fuck-given pace, but that skill was a working progress and she couldn’t resist asking.
“Maybe? People used to say I was just overcheat.”
“...”
“HEY! I worked hard to get there! Aaaah... All those skills...”
“Vicky. Focus.”
“Ah. Right. So...”
Victoria leaned to the side and peeked at the disgusting giant moth slowly making its way towards them. Very slowly. Well, speed wasn’t exactly a known undead feature. And this one looked particularly unhealthy, even by corpses’ standards. Another laser forced the dhampir to duck back into hiding. Based on her baseless estimations, their improvised shelter could still endure at least four attacks.
There was a short silence while Victoria pondered about a workable strategy. Athena though, not at all trusting her friend’s mind to stay on track, begun asking questions to fill her own lacking database.
“Why is that guy so strong anyway? The level of the mobs outside doesn’t match the difficulty of the boss.”
Victoria tried to give a short answer for once, as she was vaguely conscious of the urgency of the situation – which was not ideal for a detailed lesson on monster behavioural pattern and evolution.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Ah? Well the level of the area doesn’t always match the level of the dungeon. But I guess here’s just the usual DP.”
However, the former Deep Explorer had forgotten a little detail.
“The what?”
“Development Process… Oh, right. You’re a safy.”
“A what?”
“Categories: safies, borderers and deep-exp’s.”
“Oh. I didn’t know about that.”
“Well, only we call you ‘safies’. That’s almost the whole player base, so giving them name besides adventurer would be weird from your perspective. Like muggles don’t call themselves that.”
“Who?”
“… I’ll email you a list of films and anime. Watch it.”
“I don’t see why I should.”
Her sister had often tried to trick Eva into watching all sorts of shows. She had better things to do, so she always refused.
“Because it pisses me off when you don’t get my references. I consider myself fairly intelligent and I don’t like feeling stupid, which I do whenever my jokes fall flat. That’s irritating. I can’t correct your handicapped sense of humour just yet, but I can at least do something about your pitiable basics.”
“Hey!!”
“What? Do you feel good not getting half of what I say? Well I can still stop talking to you…”
Athena frowned.
That’s blackmailing.
“Thank you,” Victoria said with a wide grin. “I take pride in my underhandedness.”
“Ha? How did you know what I was thinking?”
“Huhuhuhuhu… I’m used to noticing when people think bad of me.”
“… I’ll elect not to comment.”
“Please do.”
“Alright, sen-”
*BAAAAAAM*
Victoria shoot a glance from behind their slowly breaking shield.
“Ah. Butterfreak is getting closer.”
“… Is that a reference too?”
“Yeah. Anyway. So, long story short, DP refers to the way monsters naturally behave. Respawning actually only occurs when the number of monsters in a designated area drops under a programmed minimum. I suppose it’s for smooth working of the game. It’s one of the small breaches in realism the designers had to implement, like the inventory. Anyway, aside from overhunted zones, monsters that can do so will reproduce naturally. And as long as nobody kills them, they will grow stronger by a natural process of fighting for survival amongst themselves or against other monsters.
That also explains the difficulty level of the Wild. In the Safe Zone, every area and dungeon is more or less well-documented and are regularly swept clean. That keeps the monsters close to their respawn level and limits their numbers. In the Wild, however, you can easily come across a [Common Rat] that somehow licked the blood of a dragon and gained enough power to kill a wyvern on its own.”
Athena nodded in understanding.
“So you mean that boss has been accumulating power for hundreds of years and, if we kill it, the next ones to clear the dungeon will have an easier time with the respawned version?”
“Yep. That’s the principle of what guilds like [Horizon] have been doing to clean the Front Line. But the next ones would get less EXP too, I guess. Ah. And I feel like this slimy insect is a one-time event. Probably the purified Guardian will replaced it after respawning. Or nothing. Or something else entirely. I can’t be sure.”
“You’re surprisingly well informed.”
“Hey. Who do you think I am? I might act silly – correction, I live to act silly – but my kicks come from gathering new interesting thingies and infos. Hahaha. It’s not for nothing I am called the Kno- *cough* I mean. Yeah. I like interesting things.”
Another loud blast crashed behind them, half-covering Victoria’s slip up. Both tensed, ready to bolt, however the stalagmite held despite losing a good chunk at its top. Athena glanced at the approaching boss, deduced accurately that they still had some leeway for strategizing, but a thought she couldn’t repress took precedence.
“Vicky?”
“Mmmh?”
“Does that mean you’ll go back to treasure hunting after that?”
“If you want.”
“…Eh?”
“Told you. You decide what we do. You’ve got the strength for Wild trekking anyway, so you’d be okay. You lack a bit in terms of adaptability to unknown situations, but what am I there for? I’m not leaving you.”
“Vicky…” Athena felt moistures on the corner of her eyes.
“Oh, please, don’t get all emotional on me. It’s for my own entertainment too. Again, like I told you, I dig interesting things. And you, you’re the most interesting guinea pig I found in years!”
The Shielbearer’s heart was crushed by bewilderment. “WHA-”
“…aside from myself of course. Hahaha. I am my own greatest experiment! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”
A loud resigned sigh escaped Athena’s lips as she massaged her forehead.
Right. She’s that kind of girl. I bet she didn’t even thought of “guinea pig” as insulting. From someone with so little human empathy, I suppose being called the most interesting thing she encountered in years is probably the greatest compliment someone like me can hope for.
Years of therapy had somehow given Eva a general grasp on psychology. Although she rarely had the occasion to use it, given she preferred to avoid new encounters. The dhampir had massively thrown her off at first, but after travelling together for some time, she had come to accept that Victoria was paradoxically very constant in her randomness. This knowledge did not help predicting her actions, but at least it helped understanding the twisted logic that commended them.
If she had to describe the Princess in a few words, she would have called her a carefree sociopath with obsessive tendencies and a strong desire to be acknowledged. It actually justified why Victoria always acted so exuberantly while disregarding both her safety and that of others.
“…”
Eh? Now that I think of it… Isn’t she a very dangerous person to be around?
The thought puzzled Athena for a moment – enough that she barely registered their shelter splitting in half – then she shook it off. Yes, Victoria was probably dangerous, she concluded, but in the same way a pit-bull could be. The pale girl functioned on a different set of values than normal humans, but if she was regularly praised and given treats, she would behave. Besides, Athena found pit-bulls sort of cute. She had thought of getting one, but their neighbour’s cousin had been giving a baby Rottweiler away back then, so her plan had changed.
Yeah. She’s a bit like an unstable pet… Uh?
The tall woman with self-esteem issues felt something stir inside her, as if she was about to reach some kind of world-shaking truth.
Unfortunately, the actual world shook at that moment, snapping her back to the present and aborting her epiphany.
She wanted to slap herself for getting so distracted in the middle of a fight, but she had no time for this, as their improvised rock shield suddenly crumbled under another violent beam. She grabbed the dhampir who was reaching out to her like a child beckoning her mother to pick her up. In fact, Athena guessed that was probably the impression Victoria was going for, judging by her usual shifty half-grin that was on the brink of exploding into a full-blown laughter.
Athena looked around, searching for shelter, but found nothing in their close vicinity that would be able to hold for more than a single hit. She ducked under a rocky edge, still carrying her friend, then continued running even as the stone shattered a few steps behind her.
“Vicky, if you’re feeling like having one of your crazy ideas, now would be a good time,” she growled between her teeth, trying not to let slip how much she hated fleeing, and not really succeeding.
“Well, it’s actually not that complicated. You know how I said safies were used to textbook monsters?”
“Yeees?” she replied impatiently while raising her shield to block a flying debris.
Thankfully, Monarch was slow, so there was no risk of the creature catching up to them, but what good did that do while they were trapped in a cave with a monster shooting lasers all over the place? The only exit available was the dungeon itself. However, first, the boss stood between them and the entrance, and second, running away wasn’t an option Athena wanted to consider. As for Victoria, the thought didn’t even exist in her mind.
“Well, Thena dearest, it’s the same for everything. Everyone plays UT too much like a classic game. Player’s abilities versus monster abilities in pre-set environments offering a definite number of ways to victory. But this is reality too, though a virtual one. There are no ‘definite numbers of way’. There-”
“Can’t you be a tad more concise?!”
“Spoilsport…”
“VICKY!!”
“Alright. Do you think those stalagmites shattered because some battle scenario dictates that you have a limited amount of time they can be used? It’s not. It’s just a stone being hit by a beam. Look. I suck at explaining. But shift your perspective for an instant and forget this is a game. And also jump.”
“Wha- OH!!”
Athena launched herself in the air, avoiding by a hairsbreadth to fall into a narrow pit, and then continued her zig-zagging race amongst the shattering stones. Unconcerned, Victoria continued to hang form her left arm, Koala style, and lecture her on the mystical ways of the Deep Explorers.
“This is not just a game, but a reality. Everything you see is at your disposal, not only what seems obviously there to be used. And certainly not only your skills and spells. You get it?”
“NO!!”
“Damn. Just look at the freaking ceiling!”
“What’s with the ceiling?! There are only stalactites ther… Oh.”
“Yep. See. Told you. Smart girl.”
Above them, mirroring what the ground level used to be before turning into a field of ruins, a forest of sharp stone spears hung, like a deadly petrified rain.
“Now turn slightly to the left. Yes there. See that big bad pointy thing a couple steps away from our trigger-happy friend? Got the idea?”
“Did you plan that from the start?”
Athena looked bewildered at the dhampir who pretended to sleep while clutching her arm. Did she actually predict their initial approach would fail and only went along to teach the less experienced Shieldbearer how to deal with unexpected situations? As Athena was entertaining such thoughts, Victoria cheerfully shot down her delusions.
“Nope. Just got the idea. Told you I’d leave everything to you. I’ve been barely paying attention since the beginning. But since you asked me, I gave it some thoughts. Impaling your foe with a stalactite slash mite is a staple move in cave battles.”
So she compensates her lack of structural thinking by innovation and battle experience. I see. As I thought, I can’t compare, admired Athena.
I still remember the pain of that stupid spike tearing through my anu… Aaaah… I don’t even want to think about it… despaired Victoria.
“So. How do we do then?”
“Can you do that [Castling] thing again?”
“No. It consumed all my mana.”
“But there’s no cool-down time?”
“No.”
“Okay. Drink… Ah wait, unequip the shield first. You’ll need your hand. I don’t want you to drop me. Good. Now drink this.”
Reaching into her inventory, and wincing at the pain that shot through her broken shoulder, Victoria retrieved a round flask containing a golden shimmering liquid, and handed it over to Athena.
“That… That’s an [Ichor Potion]!”
The [Ichor Potion], named after the blood of the Greek gods, was a potion that could restore both health and mana to their maximum values in an instant whatever those values were.
“Yeah. I forgot I had it,” lied Victoria. She had gotten it a week ago from the [Nether Bag]. “Stupid how they named a recovery potion after a substance that is theologically poisonous to any mortal. Get your mythology straight, dammit!”
“I can’t accept that! That’s-”
“A few thousand golds? Yep. Who cares? Money’s meant to be used.”
“Don’t waste money!!”
Victoria blinked.
A sore spot? Eva never struck me as poor though…
“Anyway. That’s technically my quest and I’m ready to put the price to finish it. I have an idea but I’ll need the [Castling] skill. So just accept it and get your mana back. I only have that one anyway.”
That was also a lie, she had plenty of mana recovery potions which would have suited the situation just well too. But those took at least a minute for the effect to complete and she didn’t feel like waiting.
Seeing that Athena still hesitated, the dhampir added: “Don’t worry. I’m loaded. And I didn’t even spent a copper for that one. It was… a gift.”
…that annoying alchemist had it coming. How could I know the archbishop would behead him for “losing” the flask? Those Templars are such excessive people.
That got rid of the remnants of the Shieldbearer’s reluctance. While the tall woman gulped down the potion with a scowl – that thing tasted horrible – Victoria took a peek at the insectoid heavy-weight sniper in the room. The monster was now perfectly positioned. As expected of her Soulbound, as soon as she had understood the Progenitor’s idea, Athena had corrected her trajectory so that the slowly pursuing Monarch walked right under the absurdly gargantuan stalactite she had spotted earlier.
A predatory smile crept up the dhampir’s face.
Fully healed and mana-refilled, Athena dropped the empty flask in her own inventory and glanced at her clinging passenger.
“Okay. Now what?”
“Now, throw me.”
“…”
“…”
“…Eh?”
* * * * *
<1> Everybody knows it, but it’s always good to listen to:
Spoiler :
<2> Castling is a move in the game of chess involving a player's king and either of the player's original rooks. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces in the same move, and it is the only move aside from the knight's move where a piece can be said to "jump over" another.
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Yep, this one took some time. I wasn’t satisfied by the pace and had to rewrite it three times. I hope the end result is acceptable.
To ask for forgiveness, here are some chibis:
Spoiler :
http%3a%2f%2fi.imgur.com%2fXFYPLIm.jpg [http://i.imgur.com/XFYPLIm.jpg]http%3a%2f%2fi.imgur.com%2fNfnkU4s.jpg [http://i.imgur.com/NfnkU4s.jpg]http%3a%2f%2fi.imgur.com%2fjXCvNtE.jpg [http://i.imgur.com/jXCvNtE.jpg]http%3a%2f%2fi.imgur.com%2fxEL0Unm.jpg [http://i.imgur.com/xEL0Unm.jpg]
Oh, and here’s a picture I took of an ice-cream shop in Florence near the Ponte Vecchio. I had completely forgotten I had it. Actually it did not sell only ice-creams, but above 35°C I only care about ice-creams.
Spoiler :
https%3a%2f%2fscontent-ams2-1.xx.fbcdn.net%2fhph...e%3d55C69EBB [https://scontent-ams2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t34.0-12/11823679_10206808195385632_2051790721_n.jpg?oh=d6f5b763c5b16542bf497200a399eeea&oe=55C69EBB]
As for the reason behind the title, I thought it sounded a little like swearing and thought it would be funny. That’s it. Ah. And also that:
Spoiler :
Anyway, thank you for reading and see you next chapter.