Chapter 43

Johann let out a long sigh as he sat down next to his old friend, hand rubbing at his neck. He thought back to that night, some days. The bitch that went into the bedroom with Ted - he didn't normally call women that kind of thing, but the rumors swirled around her, and they said she actually liked it, so he did - hadn't really ruined his life, if he was being honest. Sometimes, sure, he missed the steady work for Ted, but the way it had played out... well, he wasn't rotting in a Guild cell, so he could be thankful for that.

"Find any work?" Oliver asked. He could only shake his head at the catman. "Me neither."

At this rate, they'd both have to go back to their own familias, with nothing much to show for the past six months. Johann was from a simple fishing familia far from Orario, and he only trekked back every year or so to update his Status and help out his familia and the village he came from with the money he made from his work. Oliver was from the opposite direction, a trade familia, and he'd offered him the chance to come with, maybe make some steady pay, if things in Orario really went south.

Johann wasn't a fan of the road. Sometimes he considered leaving the Aruna familia and just living in Orario full time. There were familias that handled that kind of thing. But his familia deserved the money he could provide, and he couldn't provide them if he just gave up on helping them. He sighed. "It's just so..." He sighed again. "Terry was so stupid. We'd still have a cushy job if he could've kept his dick in his pants."

"Ted. His name was Ted. We never met the real Terry," Oliver corrected. Then he shrugged. "Men have been ruining their lives for the sake of a rut since before the gods descended, and they'll be doing it long after the Dungeon is gone and every monster scoured from Gekai."

"I suppose that's true enough. I just wish it hadn't ruined the steady work." Johann rolled his shoulders. "We can't even go to the Dungeon and make money off magic stones, not without going through the Guild bureaucracy. Which we can't."

"More than aware," was Oliver's curt reply. "We could find a sympathetic ear, somewhere, maybe. It's not hard to get into the Dungeon, just to sell the stones. Guild has a monopoly, but for a ten percent cut, and all you've got to do is sell the stones? Maybe."

"It risks Guild sanctions. We don't know any other adventurers who mi-" He was cut off as a dark figure simply appeared in front of him, automatically jerking to his feet, Oliver moving in perfect synchronicity, his knives out already. Johann's gauntlets were hanging around his waist, but he couldn't spare the moment to grab them. Not with an opponent that fast - and that big. The man towered over the two of them, seven feet tall and looming, an image of pure muscle who simply stared down at them quietly.

It took only a fraction of a second for Johann to realize who it was. That was Ottar. "King" was his title. The only Level Seven in Orario - and almost certainly in the whole world. Oliver and he didn't have a single chance, and they both froze as they reached the same conclusion. If Ottar wanted a fight, their best move would be to separate, that way one of them might - might - live. If they took the risk of waiting for him to make his intentions known... no, he could have killed them without even revealing himself, if he wanted to. Johann stilled himself, straightening up, and Oliver did much the same, at much the same time.

"Ottar," he said, giving a small bow. "May I ask what the Freya familia wants with us?" He was the Captain of the strongest familia. It was only natural to assume that he was here in an official capacity.

"No." Ottar removed a bag from his waist, tossing it to the ground in front of them. It rung and jingled like it was full of coins, and by the size, Johann would estimate around one million valis. "Have you heard of Batgirl?" Johann shook his head. "They sometimes call her the Black Bat, or the Bat of Daedalus."

"I've heard a little. Only rumors, though. Never met her," Oliver offered in a respectful tone.

Ottar just nodded. "For each of her limbs that you break, you'll get another million valis." He paused. High Level adventurers think faster, so it was just a fractional pause, but Johann could recognize the signs of serious thought. "She works with another person - Spectre. If you kill Spectre, you'll get ten million. If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you."

Johann nodded. He knew about the importance of silence in their business. It was part of why he and Oliver weren't currently serving life sentences in a Guild cell. "What Level is she? Do you know?"

"Three, but Spectre is only Two," Oliver said. Johann let out a small sigh of relief. He and Oliver were both Level Three, and with their unique shared Skill, Janus Dyad, they always knew the other's intentions in battle, making them almost impossible to beat. "If you kill the Black Bat, I will kill you. Painfully," he added.

It was a weird job, but the price tag was worth it. "If she's higher than Level Three, we probably won't be able to finish the job," he warned. Maybe an early Level Four could fall to the pair of them - maybe. Numbers counted for a lot, but he'd heard stories of even mortal swordsmen who could take on two or three enemies. Anything past that, and he didn't like his chances.

"She isn't," Ottar said, dismissively.

"Then we're in," Johann said, Oliver nodding his agreement. A moment later, Ottar was gone, and Johann and Oliver were left to figure things out on their own.

* * *

I do have some interest in biology, and animals, and all that kind of thing - and the sorts of creatures native to Orario, including the monsters, were definitely a subject of my interest. Once they were divorced from the Dungeon, monsters tended to become weaker, but they also tended to propagate sexually - to develop into a bisexual species, where previously there was no sign of sexuality, for example. I also knew the name of a variety of monsters, both in the Dungeon and outside, and how they acted both in the Dungeon and outside.

Ogres were found somewhere on the lower floors that I can't remember offhand - they're quite strong. They're also found, with surprising frequency, on Gekai. They're social animals, living in family units dominated by a single adult male and his mates, and they have the size and strength to pop a man's head off like a human from my world would open a soda can. They're capable of basic tool use, though not really meaningful technology - mostly, they just grab heavy objects and throw them around, or use them as improvised clubs.

In terms of appearance, they were around twenty feet (6m) tall, with the females having no obvious physical differences except when they were pregnant or nursing. (Like other great apes, part of me had noted back when I read that; though the reduced sexual dimorphism was strange.) Their skin was a mottled gray, like an elephant's, and they had fat tusks growing from their lower jaw, also like an elephant's. They had tiny, beady little eyes, and a decent amount of animal cunning. When dealing with the intelligent races, they'd mostly throw rocks at them, to scatter the group in fear, then grab what they could easily get for a quick, clean meal. Whether that was the fleeing people or their pack animals and hard tack, it didn't really matter.

This was exactly how they introduced themselves to our little group: rocks two or three feet across (50-100cm) were hurled in a barrage of around ten at our group. Erza cried out in surprise as she saw them incoming, aimed right at her luggage, and quickly adopted her heaviest armor before interposing herself between the projectiles and her things. The pair of Reis flew up into the air, and Ryu dashed forward towards where the weapons had come, without hesitation.

I hesitated. Ogres were the kinds of monsters that were... well, a lot stronger than me. Erza and Ryu could handle them, and I didn't know what I could really offer. Some kind of clever trick? I did have Duck Fate, and three different March of Spiders techniques... none of my disguise abilities were very good for this situation. I decided to try to get a good vantage point in the air, clambering up on invisible strings of fate. I saw as Ryu swept into the tree line and just slammed, full force, into an ogre, knocking it off balance, her sword pointed at its neck and then sliding to the right in a swift movement, a corkscrew movement of her body seeing her fly backwards having successfully decapitated the creature despite its very quick attempts to stop her.

Given their sheer size, the ogres couldn't hope to hide themselves from above, and I could see all nine of them. Erza sped forward herself, once she saw there were no more rocks coming towards her stuff. She had less of an idea than Ryu of how best to fight the creatures, squaring off with one for a moment, and when it lunged for her, she dodged to one side and cut off its hand in the process, making it scream in agony, bringing down another balled fist. The Reis fluttered down on my shoulders, landing and just watching from our vantage point up here. The pair exchanged glances, and I'd guess even wiggled their eyebrows, before one of them turned back to normal on my shoulder. "Fuck, this is awesome, dude," she said, grabbing my head tightly as I quickly maneuvered to balance her. "Look at them, just killing those fucking losers! What monsters are they, anyway?"

"They're ogres, they're seen on the lower floors, past Rivira. Not super common."

"Cool," the other Rei said, having transformed back into a human too, watching as Erza got in a duel with a pair of them. "I'm gonna get a new form," she declared, turning into a bird.

The other Rei just grunted, watching the rapid descent of Rei downward. "I don't want to do that, since they taste like crap. She probably just realized that, but it's too late now. I'm gonna watch."

The other Rei turned into a Goliath, bursting into existence behind an ogre. The creature was completely unaware of her for just long enough for her to give it a bear hug from behind, pinning it. She was about as tall as it, in the Goliath form - a meter taller or so - and she just leaned in, opening her maw wide and biting into its neck as it screamed and kicked, ripping out the soft flesh and sending a splatter of blood spraying all over the place as it died. She let it collapse in her arms, slumping down, dead, before letting it go.

Then she turned into a bird and flew back up to me, landing on my other shoulder. She spat and hacked as she turned back to human form, fingers running along her tongue in annoyance. "Tastes so awful, goddammit. I should've had you do it."

"Nah, nah," the other Rei countered with a smug grin. "It's better that you do it."

Below us, the battle continued, Ryu and Erza slicing and dicing their way through the ogres with skill and precision, cutting them to pieces. They were missing one, though, which had managed to hide a ways back, currently hefting up a huge boulder to hurl at them. I quickly dived, making the Reis jerk in surprise as I made my way to one side, grabbing the boulder mid-flight as it flew towards Ryu, a quick yank sending it far enough off course that it slammed into the ground at her side. If she noticed my assistance, she didn't comment, instead hurtling forward to chop off one last ogre's head.

I walked on down at that point, helping to cut out the magic stones inside the ten ogres - they were valuable, after all. The Reis didn't help - instead, they followed me around like a pair of lemmings. "You need to seduce Ryu, for real, Drake," one of them said in a hushed voice.

"She's so... hnng! She doesn't even have big boobs and she's still that hot! It's insane!"

"We could give her big boobs," the other Rei noted, and the pair then turned their gaze to me, as if I had some kind of magical woman-seducing powers.

I mean. I guess I did, in multiple different senses. I just sighed, gently reaching out to brush my fingers through their hair. "She can probably hear you," I told them.

"It's a compliment!" The one who had suggested Ryu was flat said hurriedly, glancing over at a Ryu who gave no sign of any emotion or response.

"Let us proceed onto our next destination," Ryu said, carrying her bag containing the magic stones she'd recovered back to the pile of luggage.

"Aren't we supposed to sell those through the Guild, anyway?" Rei asked, as Ryu put her own baggage into the pile of luggage. I followed her lead.

"Only if it's from Orario itself," Ryu replied, helping Erza put back on the straps that would let her drag the luggage behind her - the Reis both turned into birds and flew up to the top of the pile of luggage. Ryu gave them a dull look; they just stared challengingly back at her, as Erza started to move, the sled beneath the luggage digging long lines through the dirt as it moved. We all followed alongside her - Erza managed a good pace, despite the insane weight she was dragging behind her. After a minute or so, Ryu spoke again, to me this time. "You are only as strong as a Level Two, correct?"

"I'm probably a bit stronger than normal," I replied, "but I am a Level Two. I don't have a trick like Rei or Erza to punch way out of my weight class."

"Then if we meet a powerful monster, stay back. I will keep you safe."

The pair of Reis exchanged a look, and Erza let out a girlish noise, hands going to her lips. "Is- is this the beginning of a new romance?"

Ryu's cheeks heated up at the comment. "No. He would only get in my way, making us all less safe."

"That's a classic line of somebody who is definitely about to enter a new romance," one of the Reis chimed in, very (un)helpfully.

"Yeah. If a girl says that, it's pretty much game over for her." "She might as well say that she'll never lose."

"The nonsense you read in books is not how the real world works," Ryu sharply replied. The Reis shared a look, laughing in a very annoyingly smug way. Ryu's stare grew more annoyed, and the pair turned into birds again, shutting them up in the process.

* * *

We made camp - I hadn't done it since I was eight, and not since coming to the world, so I wasn't particularly useful, but I offered a pair of hands to the much more experienced Ryu and Erza. The Reis tried to laze out, saying they didn't know what they were doing, but unfortunately for them, that triggered Erza's disciplinarian streak. "In that case, I'll teach you!" She proclaimed, and proceeded to micromanage the pair through pitching a tent, despite their grumbling and slowness, occasionally threatening, smacking, or grabbing them to keep them in line.

That resulted in me working with Ryu - though that was mostly her ordering me what to do. "Hold this." "Put this here." "Hold this stake here, so I can strike it into the ground." "Collect some wood." "Collect some stones, the bigger the better, but no bigger than my torso." And so on. I did all of it, just wanting to get it done with and pick up a new - and now, quite valuable - skill.

If my assistance helped Ryu work that little bit faster, the Reis' "assistance" clearly resulted in Erza spending all her time micromanaging them and barely finishing half of what she could have done on her own.

"I can assist in getting the rest of the tents set up," Ryu offered. The Reis both looked up like slaves, plaintively begging to be freed from a lifetime of service. It had been maybe half an hour.

"No, do not help," Erza said, shaking her head. "It's important that Rei learn the value of hard work!"

"Noooo, I hate hard work," the Reis grumbled in complete unison. "Hey, I'll suck your dick if you do it for me, Drake!" One said.

"I'll do it too! I'll blow you so good!"

My dick did twitch a bit at the offer - it was definitely sexy, the way they were pleading with me and offering their bodies up as bargaining chips. "You'd do that anyway," I told them, making their mouths open and close for a moment as they realized I was right. They were too horny to do anything else.

"I won't even ask-" One Rei started.

"Get back to work!" Erza interrupted, threateningly raising her hand. They both dutifully got back to work, leaving me to sit down with Ryu as she quietly lit the campfire, which soon roared to life.

Ryu was silent for several long seconds. Then she spoke up. "They seem to be quite the handful."

"Normally, it's not this bad," I told Ryu, who simply nodded in reply. "I'm kind of surprised that Rei's mom didn't teach her this kind of stuff," I admitted, sparing a glance at the girl in question, who was still bellyaching and lollygagging rather than just getting her work done. Back in her original world, Alex was born in a rural community of werewolves and kinfolk, then joined the military, so presumably she had good survival skills. Maybe it was a small rebellion against that upbringing, that she didn't want to make Brighton learn it? Or maybe she just didn't think it was a valuable life skill.

"Mm." Ryu let silence reign for a long few seconds. "It reminds me of the Hostess of Fertility." I saw the tiniest trace of a smile. "I did not previously think of Erza as being so similar to Mia," she added.

I figured Mia was a disciplinarian type, based on that. "She can be, sometimes. Mostly when she thinks it's for the other person's good." Ryu let out a small laugh, nodding along with the statement. Her gaze went in the direction of Orario, even though we definitely couldn't see it at this point. "We'll be back soon enough," I told her.

"Yes." She paused again, turning her head to me. "You never camped?"

"Only when I was very little. Otherwise, I've lived in cities my whole life." Ryu nodded.

"I grew up in the forest," was her succinct reply. She paused again, and an amiable silence fell over us both.

I got the vibe that she might have liked to keep talking, but she didn't really have anything she was comfortable talking about. The only thing I could think of, for myself, was to talk about my past. It wasn't the most interesting, all in all - actually, it was actively uninteresting, other than the things I couldn't tell her about, like coming from another universe - but at least it was something personal. "Back home, I had my own house, and I was making a decent living as a writer." She let out a small noise of interest. "I wrote a bunch of stories - I wasn't exactly highly paid, but I made up for quality with quantity." She nodded. "I lived near my family, about ten minute's-" drive "-walk from their own house. Then a goddess decided to send me to Orario."

"Ah." Ryu looked unsure what to say to that, exactly. Eventually, she settled on a question. "Why?"

"Because she was in love with me, and thought it would make me stronger," I explained. She looked at me pensively, unsure whether to probe my feelings or not, so I decided to just say it. "I can't really complain. It's thanks to her that I met my wives, after all, and I love them all. Even if I'd rather that I didn't have to deal with all the monsters and the violent adventurers and the like," I said.

Ryu let out a small laugh at that. "I can certainly understand that," she said, placing one hand on my shoulder - then the Reis interrupted us, hopping on my lap, fighting with each other for a moment for position. Ryu let out another small laugh at the show, and then turned to face the fire.

Erza sat down next to Ryu, and the two busily chatted for a while, as the Reis just complained and moaned and bitched and begged for me to make Erza eat them out and stop bullying them and a whole lot more nonsense that obviously wasn't going to happen.

* * *

"Although I am grateful that you want to begin with me," Erza said, one hand clasped close to her chest. "Rei has a much higher libido, and I can be patient."

"Saying she has a much higher libido is selling yourself too short, Erza. You have needs too," I told her, making her blush. "Besides, doesn't what I want matter?" Yes, I was fucking ten women, so I couldn't complain that much, but I did generally choose who and how to fuck a girl based on what she wanted, rather than my own preferences. "I want you first, tonight."

"A-ah! You are correct, obviously! I am so selfish, forgetting your needs matter too!" She bowed her head low. Then she grabbed me by the wrist, quickly dragging me to her tent, and Requipped into skimpy black lingerie the moment that we were inside. "I am sorry! I deserve punishment!"

Erza wasn't like Julia - she wasn't some crazy masosub - but she did like a bit of physical masochism, so I groped her ass cheek for a moment, then just smacked it sharply. She let out a single soft breath in response to the contact, a flush running along her cheeks. My hand slid around, stroking up and down her thigh, teasing her, and I enjoyed the way she trembled softly at the touch. "There's no need to worry about Rei, anyway," I whispered, leaning in close enough to nibble on her ear as I kept stroking. "I'm pretty sure that she's riding your senses right now. So having sex with you, also pleasures her."

"A-ah, of course, yes," Erza agreed, nodding along with my words. I gave both her butt cheeks a loving grope as we halfway pressed into one another, and Erza just trembled at the contact. "I-I want to ask about something," she said, stammering in a way that was more nervous than aroused, so I paused my stroking, looking into her brown eyes expectantly. "I love you. We have been married for nearly nine months, and I want our family to get even larger and happier!" I halfway wondered if she wanted it to be bigger than the Fairy Tail Guild, as she spoke. "So please, Drake, this time - give me a child!"

"You've been thinking about this for a while?" I asked her, my hands softly stroking her thighs. She nodded rapidly. "If you're sure you want one." My initial concerns about impregnating women who were getting in constant life-or-death situations had gone down a good deal, thanks to Lena being fine, and Erza was by far the least likely to get seriously hurt of all my wives. (Well, other than Setsuko or Loki, who were homebodies.)

"I am certain," she said, with a nod.

"Alright, then," I said. She smiled, bright and eager. "Get on your hands and knees." She quickly moved to obey, dropping into position expectantly, Requipping into total nudity, her pink sex clearly already wet and waiting for me. I got up behind her, quickly stripping off my own clothes, teasing my cock at her entrance for a moment, just relishing the feeling of her wet sex as it teased the tip of my dick. My hands reached down and around to her breasts, gently groping one in either hand as I pushed inside her a moment later.

She felt great around my cock, as I pushed all the way inside her, until I was balls deep inside her pussy. My fingers started to dig into the supple flesh of her breasts, and she let out a hot pant of pleasure at the touch. I paused for a moment, grinding just an inch or so back and forth, and she spoke up. "Please, make love to me properly, Drake! Be rough! I love it when you spank me, when you grope me, when you pound away with relentless force!"

I leaned over her, kissing my way up her neck to her cheek, enjoying the flush to her cheeks as I kept teasing her like that. "I'll do that, if you do something for me," I whispered in her ear. She nodded rapidly. "Requip to be wearing nothing but an apron, and beg me to knock you up." I had kinks of my own, after all.

She didn't hesitate a moment - her body briefly glowed golden, and then the apron appeared, above the hands that were mashing her tits, my cock twitching inside her at the sight of the thin string of pink. "Please, impregnate me, Drake! Make me a mother, just as you did for Setsuko and Lena! I want to start a family together with you!"

I couldn't resist. I started to pump away at her hips nice and hard, my balls slapping at her clit as I rutted inside her as hard as I could. The force I brought to bear was intense - overwhelming, even, just ramming balls deep inside her before pulling back and repeating the process, again and again, my hard cock twitching at the ecstatic feeling of her cunt around my cock. She started to milk and squeeze my cock as my fingers dug all the more roughly around her tits, clearly growing closer and closer to orgasm. "I'm going to knock up my sexy redheaded wife," I breathed in her ear, as I rammed her again and again. "I'm going to have a child together with you. Fuck, you're so hot, Erza," I continued - and she bit her lip and let out a low moan.

There was an incredible temptation at that point to amp up the pleasure for her. To drive her over the edge of ecstasy. I let go of her breast with one hand, bringing that hand up to her nice, firm bubble butt, giving it a couple quick squeezes before I just slammed my palm down against her pale buttocks. She let out a squeak of pleasure, jerking in place, her tits threatening to bounce free of the apron, which was slowly but surely sinking into the valley of her tits. I gave her a few more sharp spankings, and she orgasmed in short order from the stimulation, moaning loudly beneath me in raw pleasure, eyes rolling up, her hips bucking backwards, slamming into my hips with a furious force, her inner walls squeezing and milking my dick like crazy.

I grabbed her around the hips, spinning her around on my cock as she came. The corkscrew motion was ecstatic, and she (fortunately) didn't resist the movement, letting me put her on her back on the blanket beneath us, letting my get a great look at her in her sexy new outfit as I pumped inside her. Her breasts by this point had swallowed up the apron, leaving her perky nipples bouncing with every thrust on my part, as I slammed myself deep inside her again and again. She jerked in pleasure beneath me, her inner walls squeezing around my cock, her hands coming up to start pulling up and off my own shirt, her eyes wild with naked lust.

"I'm going to impregnate you," I breathed out, my fingers groping her tits again, digging into the flesh - then one of them slid into the valley, collecting that little strand of fate that was like a pleasure button, twining my finger around it. She panted and nodded in response to my words, agreeing totally. "Say it. Say that you, Erza Scarlet, are my wife, and soon to become the mother of one of my children."

"I'm, your wife, and soon will be, the mother, of your child," she said, her voice hoarse with lust. Fuck, it was so hot hearing her say that, seeing the flushed color to her cheeks, the way her eyes stared up at me with naked desire, her hands groping my own pecs as I thrust inside her. It only got better, as that strand of pleasure took full effect, and she immediately started to come her brains out on my cock, her head casting back as she writhed in ecstasy beneath me, legs snapping tight around my hips, her body spasming, her pussy going wild on my cock, gripping and squeezing and milking at it, trying to wring an orgasm out of me as fast as she could.

It felt amazing, and I kept that strand wrapped around my finger, groping her breasts in either hand as I relished the feeling of being dragged deep inside her and wrung out. She had an amazing pussy, full of powerful muscles which were currently squeezing my dick tighter and tighter with each passing second. I let out a few gasps of my own as pleasure overtook me, my own hands digging into the soft flesh of Erza's breasts, and in turn intensifying her pleasure, which pushed my own up higher and higher. I felt my balls surge, and I ejaculated deep inside Erza at that point, orgasming hard, and I knew in the moment that I had just made her pregnant. "Get pregnant," I groaned out. "Have my child, wife," I breathed as I half-sagged atop her, enjoying the sensation of her still-quivering body, pleasure still coursing through her.

Naturally, one orgasm on my part wasn't enough that I felt like I'd properly satisfied Erza, even if my new trick made it a lot easier to make my wives feel good. So I kept going for a good long while, enjoying as my newly-knocked up wife, wearing nothing but a pink apron, got fucked silly on my cock, occasionally saying something very sexy, like, "I'm your wife," or "I'm the mother of your children."

* * *

Ryu rolled over again, her ears twitching. Drake and Erza were still going at it. She had hoped she would be able to get to sleep once they finished, but it was becoming increasingly likely that would never happen, so she got up.

She did like Erza, and Drake seemed nice, and she was glad that they were clearly happy together, enthusiastically engaged in the sorts of things men and women who love one another do. It was simply that Ryu had wanted to sleep, but she was unable to do so, with all the noise the pair were making. She peered at the tent for a long moment, the faint hints of movement visible through the fabric, then sighed and shook her head. They were still going, and the curse of an adventurer's ears meant that she would be unable to just ignore their lovemaking noises and sweet nothings.

She might as well do something useful, since she clearly wasn't going to get any sleep any time soon, so she collected a bow and moved out of the camp, hopping from tree to tree with superhuman grace, eyes peering across the forest floor as she looked for a good kill.

She eventually came back to camp with a few freshly slain rabbits, starting to field dress them. She took the first one, cutting a notch into the fur just behind the neck, then quietly peeling it out. She was much stronger now, than she had been when she had last done this sort of thing, so she had to be careful not to do too much and just tear the rabbit to shreds in her hands. She managed, and snipped off the rabbit's tail and extremities where fur still clung. Then she cut it open, removing the organs for inspection. There was no sign of disease on any of them, which meant it would probably be safe to eat - she started to cook it, as a consequence.

Some time into the process of cooking, the noises of sex finally ceased inside of Erza's tent. After a minute or so of hushed lovey-dovey whispers that made Ryu's ears burn, Drake emerged, fully dressed, if perhaps a bit sweaty, from the tent. "Hello," Ryu said.

"Ah. Hi. Hope I didn't wake you."

"No. I never got to sleep." He winced at that. It was the truth, though. She stared at him for a second, before speaking again. "Treasure the people you have. They remind me...." She trailed off for a long moment. The wild excitability of Rei and the sharp disciplinarian streak reminded her far too much of her time with the Astraea familia. But instead she said, "...of the Hostess of Fertility." That was true too, in a way. "They won't be with you forever, so appreciate them while you have them."

"I do appreciate them, every day," Drake told her, and she simply nodded in agreement. "I gave up a lot in order to be with them."

She gave a melancholic smile. "I know what you mean," she said. "Would you like some?" She asked, as she removed the freshly cooked rabbit from the fire.

"Oh, sure," he said, sitting down to join her for the meal.

* * *

Cass hurtled through the air at an impossible speed, as she leapt from one roof to another. Her eyes peered down over the entirety of Daedalus Street, as she flitted from roof to roof like a cat or a bird. She enjoyed the free feeling of movement, the mask still firmly affixed to her face, no one looking up at her. It was becoming increasingly difficult to spot those with ill-intent - she had gotten rid of so many of them, by this point.

Her speed cut out suddenly, her feet skidding along the surface of the ground, and she spun around. Was it the nameless girl? No. She didn't appear as Cass found her footing, and her Agility didn't increase as it would have, if the nameless girl had caught only by accident for a moment. She settled into a combat crouch, focusing her senses - and she spotted them, a few moments later, perched inside a nearby tower. It may have been used by the local guards, before Daedalus Street had effectively been abandoned by law and order. She caught only their silhouettes, making them hard to read, but they certainly didn't seem to have good or even neutral intentions, by the way they stood.

She rushed forward towards them, leaping up with superhuman alacrity when she briefly fell into their blind spot. The enhanced force still carried her forward for a moment, before her hands could clasp onto the edge of the guard tower, and she soon flipped herself up, legs fired first to attack anyone in close range, if they tried to get her.

They didn't. The pair were clearly both ready for a fight, the two moving in an eerily coordinated way. One was a muscular human male with thick black gauntlets; the other was a lithe catfolk male with a knife in either hand. She watched them both closely, waiting for an opening, as the pair circled her, clearly aiming to surround her.

She saw one - the catfolk left open an area he couldn't readily defend, and she lunged in on cue, her clawed gauntlet aimed for his shoulder. He tried to fall to the side, but that only made her follow through with a sweeping kick - before she could intercept, though, the other one lunged at her from her blind spot, forcing her to take a few steps back and forget the attack. She frowned behind her mask. They were very good. They were at about her same Status as her, given their reaction times, but few people could match her in melee combat, even two on one. Why were they attacking her, though? There didn't seem to be any malice to them. Just professional precision.

A knife struck out for her neck, at the same moment as a leg from the other man swept out for her knee. The knife was never meant to reach her throat, but it was still fully committed, in terms of force - if she didn't move, she would have her throat cut and her leg knocked out from under her - she managed to dodge backwards, though the leg slammed into her ankle nonetheless, with a copious amount of force, nearly sweeping her off her feet, leaving what would surely be a bruise. She dropped into a combat crouch, reducing her profile against the pair - and then a powerful thunderclap noise erupted. The knife-wielding man stumbled a couple steps, and for a moment Cass feared he was going to die, but she saw he reacted more like he'd been struck by a paintball or a beanbag round than anything else. Painful, even seriously so, but not enough to actually injure him. He spun his head around, looking for the attacker.

Cass tried to take advantage of the momentary lull in his defenses, but he brought up his knives a moment before she could close properly, interposing them dangerously close to her chest. Again, he wasn't actually trying to stab her, but either way, she was forced to step back, and then the man behind her slammed a gauntleted fist into the back of her head. It hit, hard, impacting her head and making her ears ring as she stumbled for a moment, barely dodging the next strike from the catfolk, in turn being left open for the other man behind her to hit her in the back, just pounding two quick punches towards her back. She rolled with them, but the bruising pain seared her anyway, as she tried to roll out of position where they had her flanked.

The two moved to follow her perfectly, sliding along with her movements, keeping on either side of her. The knife-wielder would try to stab her, and the gauntleted man would take the opportunity to give her a quick slam. She decided to try pushing the knife wielder, rushing him without hesitation, planning to take advantage of his lack of desire to attack her - and then something in his eyes changed, a panic and cold calculation as his knife pointed right towards her stomach. He was willing to stab her, and she was forced to dodge to one side - unfortunately, leaving her up to another follow-up attack by the human male, a gauntleted fist slamming into her thigh and making her cry out in agony as she collapsed to the ground, the leg no longer able to take her strength.

Another thunderclap strike rang out, slamming into the side of the catfolk's head, and he just turned for its source and rushed off towards it. Cass tried to pull herself up, balancing on three limbs, but the human male punched at her, and her weak roll wasn't fast enough to avoid his follow-up kick, which slammed into her other knee and knocked the wind out of her as she silently screamed on her back on the rooftop.

"Don't worry. Not going to kill you," he said, and he was sincere, though his intentions definitely weren't kind. "It's nothing personal, just work." He pinned her beneath him, knees pressing down against her shoulders, and she remained perfectly silent as he broke both her arms, staring up at him as he worked. "Creepy how quiet you are," he said, letting her arms fall back down to her sides. "Good luck-" There was an explosive noise from the nameless girl's direction.

* * *

Oliver had stabbed his knife right into the Spectre's gut, cut her right open across the ribcage into the skull, and poked it deep enough it should have gotten her brain. Apparently the bitch was tougher than most, though, because she produced a bunch of little brown balls, each of which were the size of a man's fist. By the way she looked at him, eerie blue eyes staring into his soul in that moment, he had a fair guess that they were weapons, and leapt backwards, abandoning his knife.

It wasn't a moment too soon - they were explosives, creating a viciously loud and dangerous impact zone, countless bits of shrapnel peppering him even where he stood, digging into his flesh unpleasantly. He had brought up his arms to protect his face, and as he brought them back down, he was treated to the smell of cooked flesh and a body that had large amounts of flesh seared off, red turning black as it curdled at the edges, bone white visible where it hadn't been smashed in. It was hard to even recognize the figure as human, as it collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Fuck. One of his knives had been in that bitch's skull. It was completely gone, as far as he could tell - maybe it had even been part of the shrapnel that broke her skull and mask into nothing but shrapnel. Whatever had happened, they'd won their fight - he could tell that Johann was rushing to reinforce him, thanks to Janus Dyad.

Fourteen million valis. It was a hell of a payday. His hand opened and closed, and he started picking out bits of shrapnel, popping the cork on a healing potion and pouring it over the countless small wounds. When Johann got there, the pair had a brief discussion, then left the pair behind. It wasn't like the corpse would be any good for identifying as Spectre, at this point.

* * *

The girl without a name quietly creaked herself back to her feet. Blood and bits of flesh and bone tumbled out of her body as she shifted, her hair seeming to have been blasted away. The two men - were they the fake Black Fist and Black Claw, from Episode Ryu? - had left. As far as she could feel, she wasn't injured at all. Her fingers still flexed at the air, she could still see, still hear, still smell, just as good as she had earlier. Her stripped-raw body walked towards Cass without much concern to the bits and pieces that were being lost. She had only needed two activations of Essence to keep herself together through all that.

She did wonder what those men had wanted. She didn't have anything better than an anti-material rifle for a weapon to use when the opponent was in fisticuffs range with Cass... and apparently that wasn't strong enough to deal with a Level Three. She assumed they were Level Threes. That, or very weak Level Fours.

She let out a small noise as she saw Cass's broken body on the guard tower, all four limbs clearly having been broken, and knelt down by her co-wife's side immediately. How did you deal with this? You needed to set the bone, right? Ahh! She had no idea how to heal something like this properly! No, she could take her to someone else? Find someone who could? Yes. Finding someone who could sounded reasonable. Miach? Where did he live?

"Don't... leave me... you can... carry... me..." Cass whispered out, her quiet voice even weaker than usual. "I can... keep my limbs... steady..."

The girl without a name dutifully lifted Cass up, carrying her gently bridal style away from Daedalus Street. They needed to get her medical attention! She didn't want Cass to be permanently injured, since she was so nice, and also goshujinsama's favorite!