Lineage

After being allowed by “Her Grace” to sleep in the bed, I was rested and ready for another day of traversal and fighting, desperate to find the next guardian of a key fragment and get one step closer to getting the treasure Svea was after. I strapped on my armour and belted on my sword, Svea choosing the remain in the comfort of the bed while I headed out.

“Aren’t you worried that I’m gonna die?” I asked as I fastened my bracers to my preferred tightness.

“Not really,” Svea shrugged, twirling her light blue hair around her finger.

“Why?” I asked. “Do you believe in me?”

“No,” she answered bluntly. “You’re expendable.”

“... Thanks, Svea,” I sighed, cracking my knuckles and rolling my neck.

“You’re welcome,” she said, turning back over with a yawn. “Now go, my replaceable little minion. Find me my treasure.”

I chuckled quietly, giving her a gentle pat on the ass before heading down the stairs and towards the exit. There was another one of the undead standing outside the door with a sword clutched in his shattered arm, but he was quickly taken care of with a swift punch to the jaw before I firmly closed the door to the house and made a sprint to a nearby wall, running it up for as long as I could and gripping onto a lower section of the roof. I hefted myself up, resting my waist on the ledge before clambering the rest of the way up, making sure to get to a high point to see if I could find anymore arenas.

Sadly, the city itself lacked the towers of the cities back home, and most of the roofing was at the same level, meaning that I’d have to skip and bounce over the city until I came to anything that resembled an arena. The exercise was good for me and I had a lot of time on my hands while I traversed the area, so I figured I’d think a little bit ahead on where I was going after my little fetch-quest.

I was definitely going to fuck Svea again, that was my guaranteed reward. I was looking forward to it without a doubt, myself always being up for nailing exotic beauties such as herself whenever they were willing. But the question of what next came up after getting my reward for all this hard work. I figured maybe I’d go back to Celestia and ask her about trying to get access to the pool of magic I had locked away. We’d tried before, a long time ago, and it had failed miserably. The basics of the attempt involved me sitting with my legs crossed, my eyes closed, and my hands in a weird position. I was supposed to place the tips of my finger and thumb together while extending my remaining fingers out before placing the backs of my thumb nails together in an eight-like figure, as this was supposed to represent the “infinite flow of energy our planet has as well as show the different lines and directions that power flows to” or whatever the hell mystic shite Celestia had come up with.

She’d explained that while the gesture itself was purely symbolic, the process of relaxation and mental tranquility was supposed to allow me to reach through to the magic pool of energy I had like a “hand reaching for a rock in the ocean. To gently take what I desired without shattering the calm surface of the water itself.”

If it wasn’t obvious, Celestia was full of stuff like this.

She had a quote, inspirational phrase, or metaphor for every scenario ready and willing to use. Ranging from saddling a horse in a short amount of time to skinning a cow and draining it for blood, she had some proverb of wise words to impart on those around her. So, that became the first thing on the checklist: go back for magic lessons.

Up next came the reason for the magic unlock: the Nightmare Forms.

I knew that nailing Svea wasn’t going to be nearly enough, no matter how strong she was. There was too much of a gap between myself and even my mother’s Nightmare Form, nevermind Luna and Celestia’s. So then came the issue of more power-ups. I knew the most likely way to get stronger was training. Lots and lots of training. Luna often described the magical pool our bodies possess like another muscle: the more you train and hone it, the larger it becomes. I would be able to increase my magical reservoir and attack strength by throwing myself into training with it…

Though I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to train to increase my magic. I knew that regular training involved a lot of strenuous activities to increase muscle size and strength as well as cardiovascular respiration, but how does one train their magic? Surely it couldn’t be something as simple as repeatedly using their magic over and over again, right? I imagine that spamming plasma endlessly into a wall wouldn’t increase the amount of magical energy you had access to. I think Luna mentioned something about it a long time ago, but I wasn’t really paying that much attention to her. Something I regret deeply now that I had time to reflect on it.

There was also the second option: fucking. Lots and lots of fucking. Tracking down monster girls and convincing them to let me bed them would provide more immediate results, but unless I was able to stick my dick into legendary creatures like a Herrian Sea Serpent or a nine-tailed Kitsune, I wasn’t gonna be getting much power out of the common rabble of monster girls.

From what I knew about the monster girls (which was next to nothing bar power classifications), they had their beef jerky and filet mignon-type monsters, each grade being much more powerful than the last. So I figured the fastest way to do this was to avoid monster girls that didn’t use magic in the same way a caster did, which immediately ruled out most of the reptile family (bar the dragons) bug monsters like the spider and centipede creatures (thank fuck), most of the beastman family (barring hellhounds), and a lot of the fucking weird ones.

Now, off the top of my head, I could think of the more powerful ones that could use magic like Celestia could and decided to narrow it down from there. We obviously had the succubi, but since my mother was a prime cut of demon whore that I essentially had on tap, I needn’t look for another one of those. There were the mermaids, who were extremely gifted with healing magic, so I’d have to keep my eyes open for them, especially a Sea Bishop, if the option arose. There were the regular demons up for grabs in the Hollow Realm, so I’m sure Grandpappy wouldn’t mind me taking a few of them for a few hours if I asked nice enough. And there were also the creatures that lived in Resheph… most importantly, the Pharaohs. They were apparently all-female rulers descended from a pantheon of gods and that they possessed great strength… and also were known throughout the world as very… liberal when it came to their sexual habits, often hosting parties and orgies at the same table in their palaces.

I wasn’t aware of who was on the throne in Resheph at the moment, but I’m sure if I made my way over there, she’d be more than happy to let me stay and partake in their wonderful culture, right? Hopefully. So, we’ll go mark that down as what I’ve gotta do when I get home.

1. Figure out how to unlock my magic.

2. Figure out how to train my magic.

3. Fuck things.

Y’know… that third one shouldn’t really be on there when you think about it. It doesn’t belong on a “To-do list” and instead a “Keep doing what you’ve been doing for the past five years” list… but I guess that note would be a bit too long to stick on a notice board. Oh, and speaking of fucking things: Twilight. I’d yet to keep my promise of getting freaky with her yet, so that was the fourth thing… third… first on another list, maybe? And Karra. Karra lived at the castle now, or was on her way there at least, and that means she’ll be able to...

“Wow, this rooftop is really, really big. I hope that doesn’t mean-”

And then a magical barrier appeared around the entire area, preventing me from escaping.

“Oh, fuck,” I said, reaching for my sword just as I spotted the “statue” of the next guardian at the edge of the barrier. He was nowhere near as big or as bulky as Rinvae was, but this son of a bitch was still definitely bigger than I am. His armour was much sleeker, with far more openings, presumably for joint movements. His armour looked like it was modelled after a tiger, the helmet having the same thick features as the jungle cat, with sleek-yet-strong muscle carvings all along the rapidly-cracking stone.

He lacked the big-ass sword and impenetrable shield that Rinvae had. He had no shield at all, in fact, but what he clutched in his right hand made me even more terrified than the Blade of Obvious Compensat… no, I really shouldn’t be a dick about Rinvae. Brother was a’ight. This new guardian was clutching the single thing that any swordsman despised fighting against: a big spear. As a matter of fact: a big winged spear that prevented me from running the blade down the shaft (kek) and slicing through his fingers.

He stood up in an extremely fast manner, shattering the stone off his body and revealing the spear itself was made of the same material as his armour, meaning there wasn’t a cat in hell’s chance of slicing through the shaft (kek x2) and rendering the weapon useless.

“So…” I sighed, drawing my sword from its sheath and cracking my neck. “A spear, huh? This’ll be fun.”

Right. Remember Luna’s advice about spears, Rick. “They’re used to keep swordsmen at long distances and mostly resort to thrusting attacks, so blocking them is quite difficult. Their biggest downside is their length, as they become hard to manoeuvre when you’re directly in front of them. The problem is getting that close, as your opponent can easily keep poking at you to keep you at a distance and circle around you to prevent being flanked. That’s not even mentioning metal spears that can be swung like a club to do damage without worrying about shattering the shaft (not kek, she’d hit me). Though they can easily be countered by-”. Nah, I don’t think I’ll need that technique. I’ll go for the first one instead.

Okay. So this guy will be a hell of a pushover if I get close, but the problem with getting close is… well, getting close…

1. Become more articulate.

I took a deep breath before performing the same gesture Rinvae had taught me and waiting for my opponent to do the same. I wondered if he was going to do the same thing to me that Rinvae had done. It turns out he didn’t grab me, but I could feel a presence touching my mind before imparting their name:

Vilthrette, the Dragonslayer.

Wait… Vilthrette… ette? Was it a woman? There was no reason to believe that the Highmoore would have masculine and feminine assignments to their names as we did… but it couldn’t just be a coincidence, could it? Looking the figure over it wasn’t overtly female. There was no defining features either way, as it could either be a narrow-bodied man or a slightly muscular female, and the amount of unmolded armour left the body type ambiguous, showing no room for breasts… though it, she?, could be flattening them down.

I was thrown for several moments, staring intently at my opponent, wondering if I was thinking too hard about this before I got my definitive answer.

The spear knight was a woman.

It was given away the second she began to walk towards me, the swaying hip movements that no man naturally had being the tell-tell sign of her gender.

“So, the Highmoore were progressive,” I said with a chuckle. “Good to see women being allowed to show their capability in combat. Though… I hope she isn’t capable of kicking my ass.”

That question was answered when she made a dash for me, charging at full speed and plunging her spear towards me, forcing me to duck out of the way. I raised up my sword and prepared to slash down at her back, only for her to lean back slightly, change the position of her grip and end up slamming the shaft (kek x3) into my chest, causing me to stagger back slightly. She then altered her hold again, gripping the shaft with both hands and bringing it over her head, cleaving down through the air towards me. I decided to test my strength, squaring my stance, raising the flat of my sword above my head, and supporting the upper half with my palm as the strike came down, the pure strength behind the impact almost causing my knees to buckle.

A loud grunt escaped my lungs as I blocked the attack, only for her to to twist her spear around and yank it forward, the spike on the side of it catching on my sword and pulling it out of its defensive position. She acted fast, launching herself forward again and slamming her elbow into my face, sending me staggering back with a yelp of pain, before she traded her spear into her other hand and stepped forward with another powerful punch, this one knocking me flat on my ass and causing my nose to crack loudly, the metal cutting of her gauntlet into my flesh and drawing blood. Pain screamed through my face, my eyes instinctively watering as I tried to make sense of where the hell I was, just as she gripped her spear with both hands and lunged at me again. I rolled to the side, barely dodging the attack… or so I thought. She quickly slid the spear out to the side as one would when sweeping with a broom, and the polished blade sliced up my back, carving through the leather armour and drawing yet more blood.

I hissed in both pain and anger, rolling even further before getting to my feet, feeling the sting of cut flesh and the warm flow of blood on both my face and my back, now getting my ass thoroughly handed to me by Vilthrette.

“So… essentially completely outmatched and already bleeding before I’ve managed to get close to her, nevermind land a hit on her,” I panted under my breath, standing up straight and speaking directly to Vilthrette. “Would you be interested in meeting my Aunt Luna? I think you two have a lot in common and would get along great.”

Vilthrette gripped her spear shaft (no kek, about to die) tightly, distancing her hands for optimal control of the weapon, and advancing towards me slowly, the snarling tiger helmet giving her a very ominous appearance without needing to do much. I took a deep breath, looking for any sort of opening she may have had in her stance or guard, yet finding none. She was as skilled as a fighter could be with the weapon she’d mastered and wasn’t going down without a fight.

Or going down at all.

I gripped my sword’s hilt tightly, waiting for her to make the next move and preparing to dodge out of the way. She then proceeded to do the worst thing a fighter could:

She feigned an attack. And I fell for it.

I threw myself to the side on instinct and she took complete advantage of my amateur mistake, lunging forward the second I landed in my new position with her spear extended outwards, aimed directly for my chest. I didn’t have any chance to dodge or deflect the attack, so I did the only other thing I could: I dropped to the floor. I threw myself to the ground, using the momentum of my pathetic dodge to hit the ground faster, my back seizing in pain as I did so, as the spear stabbed over me… and the wielder kept moving forwards. Her armoured boot slammed into my stomach, causing her to stumble and fall, crashing hard into the ground and skidding for several feet, this allowing me to get up without fear of impalement. She rolled over her shoulder and got back onto her feet, shaking her head and gripping her spear tighter than ever.

And I think all I did was piss her off.

Deciding that playing this entire thing defensively had been a bad idea, as I’d never make ground on her if I kept letting her push me back further and further, I decided to get closer to her, to try and make her unable to attack. I knew that her stabbing attack couldn’t be used at close range and that she’d have to keep stumbling back to try and get the distance she need for a killing blow, so as long as I was practically on her ass the entire time, I figured I’d be fine.

It turned out “fine” wasn’t a good word to use and I realized that while she wasn’t able to to use her spear very well, she was more than capable of punching and kneeing me. I charged at her, barely ducking past one of her stabs before slamming my shoulder into her chest, knocking her back several feet before repeatedly slamming my knuckles into the stomach of her armour, hoping to dent or weaken it enough to open her up for a stab to the abdomen. Instead, I received a brutal knee to my own abdomen, followed by her slamming the tiger helmet into my forehead, causing me to stagger for a moment before I forced myself closer to her again, gripping the spear and making her unable to use it, while slamming my own knee into her stomach again and again, my knuckles screaming in agony after the punches and my knee starting to kick up the same fuss after a few seconds of impact trauma, wishing now that I’d put on some heavier armour.

Vilthrette tried to, and successfully did, counter my proximity by wrapping an arm around my head and throwing me down to the ground, my shoulder cracking loudly and my back lighting up in agony again as the impact rocked my form, then receiving the shaft (getting sick of kek) to the side of my head. Bright lights exploded into my vision as I then received a boot to the chest hard enough to send me rolling several feet away. With my shoulder, backs, stomach, and head roaring in agony, I surprised myself with my ability to scramble to my feet, looking across the rooftop arena at the very pissed-off dragonslayer with nothing even resembling a dent in her armour..

“If it makes you feel any better…” I panted, looking at her with a grin as I felt the blood trickle down from my forehead. “I think you put a few good dents in on me this round. So… whaddaya say? Shall we call it a truce?”

The response of her tightening her grip on her spear was an obvious indication of her opinion on the aforementioned truce.

“Okay then,” I said, shaking my head. “You do you.”

Right. Her armour was not even closed to damaged

I gripped my sword hard enough to turn my knuckles white underneath my gloves, forcing myself to stand up straight and square my stance. I ignored the pain streaking up my back as I cracked my neck once more.

“Right, you’ve got one more trick up your sleeve, Richter,” I said, firmly grasping the halfway point on my sword and moving closer to Vilthrette. “Let’s make it matter, shall we?”

Vilthrette seemed a little more apprehensive this time around, knowing that half-swording was extremely dangerous to those wearing plate armour and I aimed to exploit the hell out of that fact. I made a move towards her, Vilthrette reacting with a large lunge forward only for me to slam the tip of the spear away from me, opening her up for me to dash towards her. I then rammed the tip of my sword into the gap in her left shoulder blade, the tip of the sword cutting through the Elven warrior’s under armour, muscle, and sinew. A large roar of pain tore from her mouth as the sword pierced her flesh, cutting through nerves and muscle, thus rendering her arm useless.

She leapt away from me, swinging the spear like a pole as she jumped, only to get the same result as before: me being able to use my sword as an instant deflection for her spear. Her new lack of support for the weapon meant that while it wasn’t cumbersome, it wasn’t as dangerous as it was before due to her lack of steadying and thrusting power (now we have more kek), this reducing her overall danger level exponentially.

It was clear that Vilthrette was on the ropes and that Luna was right about me:

I’m a fucking moron.

I started this fight with the knowledge and technique to quickly dispatch the extremely dangerous enemy in front of me and I’d chosen not to use it… why exactly? Because I wanted a good fight? Because I wanted to be proud of myself for beating a superior opponent using a stupid plan? Because I wanted to be “fair”? This was an opponent that could have, and almost did, skewer me within seconds of starting this fight, and has had me on the ropes because I refused to use a technique that would counter them. I shook my head with a sigh, drumming fingers on my blade as Vilthrette charged at me, having abandoned all of her defensive strategies in an attempt to finish me off.

Once again ignoring my injuries, I managed to deflect the sloppy attacks with even sloppier blocking, waiting for the chance to knock her guard completely out of the way and finish this fight the way it should’ve been finished within a minute of starting. She gave one last powerful swing that I was able to bat away with great force, opening her completely up. I then proceeded to duck forward and stab the point of my sword into the gap in her leg plates, taking her to one knee the same way I did to Rinvae, before bringing the tip of my sword up to the gap between her chest plate and helmet and then proceeding to tear my blade across her throat, slitting through her jugular and ending the fight with the Old Dragonslayer in the way it should’ve been done. She clutched at her throat for several seconds, unable to stop the torrent of white fog that poured from in between her armour before finally dropping to the floor. She faded away as Rinvae had done, leaving behind her piece of the key, and bringing myself and Svea one step closer to finding our treasure.