Nathan woke up to feel a soft sensation on his back. He already had a guess on what it was, but he decided to check and see to make sure. Yep, he was right. Catia had turned around in the middle of the night snuggled up to Nathan's back. Whether this was by accident or on purpose, well your guess is as good as his. He turned around to see Catia, sound asleep and smiling like she was having a peaceful dream. Her ears were kinda droopy and then Nathan realized something. He had never touched a demi-humans ears. Before he could even think about the consequences, he started to rub Catia's ears between his fingers. Soft and fluffy, just as expected. While Nathan was rubbing her ears, Catia let out a soft moan.
"Nope, fuck that. Not dealing with that today."
Nathan instantly got up and out of the bed before some cliche appears and he ends up getting slapped. As he got up he heard a voice behind him.
"A disgusting demon and a womanizer huh, you truly are horrendous."
He turns around to see Niki. Well, no matter how hard he tried, there would be a cliche around every corner. Well, there wasn't enough time to think about that, he hadn't talked to Niki since he almost slit her throat so this was an awkward encounter. He could feel a slight rage start to boil inside of him, as he could never forgive her for what she had done.
"What do you want?"
"It's simple, one of the commanders sensed danger ahead, and I'm going to send you out to check what it is."
"And why should I do that?"
"Because you are my guard, and if a sacrifice is necessary, then don't hesitate to risk your life for me."
Nathan's one eye narrowed Niki, so this is why she was sending him. She wants Nathan to be killed, well since he doesn't have a choice, he gets ready to go ahead. As he puts on his swords, Catia gets up behind him.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going ahead to see if there is any danger, I'll meet back with you guys later."
Catia looked surprised at first, but Nathan explained that is was Niki who ordered him to do this, so he had to.
"Make sure to come back safe ok?"
Catia had a worried expression because she wanted Nathan to come back safely.
"Alright, I promise. Also, by the way, your ears are extremely soft and fluffy, you should let me pet them more."
With that being said Nathan winked and Catia's face went red and she started stuttering. Before she could get any words out Nathan was gone. She thought about when he petted her, but she couldn't think of any time when she felt it. She got a huge smile on her face as she had the thought of being petted and something started welling up inside of her. Was this what they called love?
*In Niki's tent*
"I'm going ahead as commanded, I will report back anything I see and will eliminate the target if it is needed."
Nathan was reporting what he was doing not to Niki, but to Joey, who Nathan saw as the leader of this operation. Joey nodded and Nathan vanished without a trace. Joey was looking at the map and somehow he was able to calculate how far away they were from The Empire. He figured that even if they were attacked, they would arrive at 6:00 p.m. now because everyone slept in. He closed up the map and started unpacking the tent. The reason everyone slept in this morning was was that Niki had tried to sneak into bed with Tanner and he used "Divine Light" to punish her. He also slapped her really hard and put her in the corner. Since he used "Divine Light", Tanner had woke up everyone in the tent and no one could fall back asleep. They all had the dots in their vision, like when you stare at the sun too long. Joey was absolutely furious but decided not to say anything. Once everything was packed, they were off on the road again.
About 30 minutes down the road, Joey started getting worried about when Nathan would show up again, but he knew Nathan was capable of handling himself. They were in a dense forest when they heard someone scream.
"AMBUSH-!"
Commander Zel had tried to warn everyone about the ambush ahead, but he was met with a terrible demise as an arrow pierced him through his eye and into his skull. A small chunk of his brain was still on the tip of the arrow. Once everyone realized what was going on, 20 bandits came out of the woods and surrounded the group. Tanner was inside the carriage with Niki, and Bree and Joey were in the driver and passenger seats. Joey knew his objective, which was to protect the princess, so he got off the carriage to help out the guards. While the guards were trained soldiers, it seems the bandits have the upper hand when it comes to experience fighting. The guards were getting cut down at a rapid pace and finally, Joey was able to make it to the front line. He saw the morale of the guards was rapidly decreasing so he decided to try out one of his new abilities, "Lion's Roar". A loud roar was heard from Joey and everyone within its range that Joey recognized as a comrade got a bright blue aura. "Lion's Roar" removes all fear from the caster's comrades and makes them a better fighter. With Joey using this, the guards were able to push the bandits back and the numbers were even at 10 fighters each excluding Niki and her elite guard. Joey saw that his ability was working and joined the fight. He rushed at the biggest bandit he could find and he was a big one for sure. This bandit was about 6'9 and it seemed that he was the one calling the shots. He carried an axe that looked like it could chop someone in two with one strike. Joey rushed towards the bandit and the bandit started laughing.
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"Hahahaha, a puny knight thinks he can kill me so easily huh, I'll have to show yo-."
Joey didn't let the bandit finish before he punched him in the face. The impact of the punch caused the bandit's head to evaporate instantly and cause his whole upper chest to have a massive hole in it. You could see the bandit's heart still beating after the hole appeared, and as the bandit fell over the heart fell out of the chest cavity. Joey didn't expect to punch so hard and cause such a disturbing scene, but this was due to his constant training.
"Your leader is now dead, either give up now or perish!"
Joey wanted to spare some lives if he could, but he heard laughing behind him. He turned around to see a skinny looking man with a killing intent in his eye and is his grasp was Bree in one arm and Catia in the other. In both hands, he had a knife pointed at their throats.
"Back away slowly and give us the princess or both of these cute young ones die!"
As he said this, he licked Catia's face and made her scream. Joey could feel the anger inside of him swelling up and he clenched his fists. Tanner and Niki had left their carriage to see how the fight was going and saw this scene before them. The bandit noticed Niki and started smiling. He gripped the knives closer to the girls and caused a small cut in the throat of Bree.
"Come now princess, come with us for a while."
Niki stood there in shock as thinking of what to do. The bandit didn't know that Catia was a member of the guild staff, and if she was to die then there would be troubles with the guild and Niki's kingdom. It would make them look weak and Niki would surely be punished. She started to head towards the bandit with her looking at the ground in shame, but then she heard both Catia and Bree scream. Niki looks up to see them both covered in blood and the bandit was like a geyser of blood. His head was completely gone and flying throughout the air, and behind him was none other than Nathan.
"First you leave 20 of your men to fight me and then you hold women hostage, you're a disgrace."
Nathan had said these words after beheading this bandit. They look to see how the guards are doing and they already have all the other bandits killed without losing anyone else. The guards loot and dispose of the bodies while Nathan gives his report to Joey.
"About 10 minutes ago, I came upon this bandit group, but I was found. They had someone that could use "Heightened sense" like me and they surrounded me. As I was preparing to fight them, their leader split them up so they could torture me and still be able to kidnap the princess. When they left I had to fight 20 of them and I managed to kill them all and loot their bodies. Once I looted them I came here as fast as possible and managed to save both Bree and Catia. End report."
"You don't have to be so formal to me man, come on."
Joey was once again laughing at Nathan's formalities when addressing him, but Nathan wouldn't stop. In the end, the group had exterminated 40 bandits and got 5 gold from loot. They all got into their carriages and before they started back down the road, Catia approached Nathan.
"Oh hey Catia, are you ok? That must've been MMPH~?!"
Before Nathan could finish asking Catia how she was, she had grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him down into a kiss. Nathan didn't have a surprised face nor was he was blushing, he looked more confused. "When had Catia caught feelings for me" is all he thought about during the kiss, and after about 10 seconds Catia pulled away. She looked up at Nathan with her golden eyes and she was blushing really bad, but she wouldn't look away from his eye. She was pretty close to crying. She had been scared for her life and scared that she would be the reason that the princess was kidnapped, but as always, Nathan came to save her.
"I love you.... Thank you for saving me a second time now."
Nathan didn't say anything, he just simply hugged Catia and held her tight. This was truly a touching moment, but Tanner saw his chance to say something. A little bit of backstory, In middle school, Tanner called Nathan Kathan since it was his ship name with a girl Nathan liked, but Nathan absolutely hated that name, back to the present.
"Well looks like I'll have to start calling you Cathan now, or is it Natia?"
Nathan slowly looked up at Tanner and just blankly stared at him and then the ground started to crack. Catia had noticed and started to freak out. She was curious about what this name Tanner was giving Nathan.
"What is Cathan?"
The ground started cracking even more from the pressure Nathan was exerting, he just continued to blankly stare at Tanner while Tanner just laughed at him. Without a second more to spare, Nathan punched Tanner in the face and sent him flying. In the distance, Tanner could still be heard laughing.
"You hit like a bitch!"
Now Nathan was pushed off the point of no return and a vein popped out of his head. Catia jumped in front of Nathan to stop him and looked at his eyes "why is it a slit now" is what she thought about while she looked at him.
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BITCH?!"
"You, you are a little demon bitch!"
Tanner could still be heard in the distance and with that being said, Nathan drew his sword. He went to rush towards Tanner's location and he was met by a force to his head. Joey had chopped Nathan in the head to stop him.
"Again?!"
"I don't know what you said, but you need to calm down before I make you."
As Joey said that, Tanner started laughing even harder, but another chop was heard in the distance that stopped Tanner's laughter. Within seconds, Nathan could hear Bree start yelling at Tanner. At least Nathan got off easier than Tanner. They might be an Angel and a Demon, but Bree was just terrifying when she was mad.