7 Training for Naught

The Salis Inn was a nice place, judging by the exterior, and the walk there was rather pleasant, compared to anything that Hina had come to expect. People completely ignored them... Aerendyl explained that traders occasionally came from over the border, mostly non-humans, so the people here knew better than to hate anything that didn't look like them.

"Ugh... I can't believe I slept so long..." Emily had woken before Aurelia, and was now walking on her own. Aurelia was being carried bridal-style by Hina, to give Aerendyl a break... the bastard Elf stopped beside the door to a well built, expensive-looking place. He passed a coin purse to Emily, bulging just as much as her own.

"Well, lovely ladies," the half Elf smiled, offering a small bow. "It had been very much a pleasure, to make a small difference, and to save a couple of lives. This is where we part ways, and maybe we'll meet again, down the line! For now... well, I've got more things to do, and places to see."

"Are you sure you can afford to give us so much coin?" Emily eyed the purse in her right hand suspiciously. "I mean, I appreciate it, but after all that you've already done for us, I don't think that we can really accept this..."

"I suggest that you get over the border as quickly as possible, and the idea is for you to be able to hire a carriage to aid that goal. This town is only a six hour walk from the Abbey, maybe two days for humans who want to avoid the Fae Forest. It wouldn't do you any good to stick around too long... my father and I are still on good terms, and he supplies me with coin. He works for the king, so yes, I can afford it. Now, truly, I wish you luck." Smiling, Aerendyl turned and began to walk off. As he went, Hina realized that he carried no weapon... just how powerful was his magic?

Sighing, Emily took the lead into the inn. "Follow me, love, I'll pay since you've got a girl in your arms~" Hina followed... the inside of the lobby was so silent that at first, Hina thought she, Emily and the girl behind the counter were the only waking people in the lobby. However, as she looked to her right and saw a diner half full of people, all eyes on her and her companions, she froze embarrassedly. Most of them were human, but Hina could see a few who weren't, with horns, or tails, fur or discolored skin. They were eating among the humans, as well, without any cruel looks shot their way. To be certain, it wasn't making Hina any clearer on the prejudices in Starria.

"Do you all have some sort of problem?" Emily raised her eyebrows at the staring crowd, speaking in a polite tone. They all looked down, and slowly began to chatter among themselves again. Hina half wondered what that was about... but, Emily was adorable to the point of stunning, and Emily seemed to think that the same could be said for Hina... and Aurelia was gorgeous, half succubus and, in spite of her nearly flat chest, had a very sexy figure. In truth, it was probably that the predominantly male crowd in the eatery was drawn by the sight.

"How can I help you girls?" The girl behind the counter couldn't have been older than thirteen, but Hina could see a pair of adults who might have been her parents lounging in some sort of break room through a door behind the counter. The thirteen-year-old continued. "You're so dirty, you probably want time in the bath, right? It's four gold per room, per night, and an extra for a half hour in the bath to go with that."

"What size are your beds?" Emily asked pleasantly. The teen girl blanched, then began to blush for some reason.

"Um, big?"

"Then one room for all of us, please!" Emily smiled brightly. "Also, we'd like a full hour in the bath, in an hour, if that's possible. How much is breakfast, if we wish to set out in the morning?"

"For three? It's a coin per person, but I'll cut you a deal, and give you everything you want for six?" She didn't seem too sure of herself, but Emily just smiled and reached across, patting the tiny girl's head.

"Thank you very much, squirt~ now, where can we find our room~?" She was counting out six gold, and dropping them on the counter, now. Whatever her name was, the kid handed over a key.

"Um, up the stairs at the back of the diner, and, second to last door on the right. The maid will knock at bath, dinner and breakfast time." She smiled awkwardly, and Emily thanked the girl before leading Hina, and by extension Aurelia, through the diner. Hina, Emily... really, all three of them got a lot of appreciative looks from the men as they went, and a mixture of admiration and irritation or dislike from the women.

"People are... amazingly friendly here," Emily commented as the three of them climbed the aforementioned staircase, entering a long, L shaped hallway. Around the corner and almost to the end, Emily let them into their room...

It was a relatively plain room, but the bed was indeed almost comically large, with more quilts and blankets thrown across it in an organized chaos sort of way than Hina could count. Walking forward, she laid the dirty Aurelia down on one of those quilts and started to work the Succupixie's shorts off. The arrow hole was just at the hem of them... but the skin of her upper thigh was whole and unmarked. Was Aerendyl a mage, or a Demi God, Hina wondered with a quiet laugh.

"What's on your mind, Hina?" Emily smiled and stepped closer, sitting on the edge of the bed. She had a faint smell to her, not that Hina would say so, but she seemed to know as much, and kept herself seated a good meter along the bed from Hina. Aurelia did too, but Hina was only thinking that she was glad to see her companions unharmed, safe and well.

Just that it seems like there was more to that Aerendyl guy than he let on. I can't be sure, though... he spilled so much, and it sounded like a legitimate story... it just seems like most people, even elves, wouldn't be able to take on soldiers like that, heal two girls, walk for six hours while carrying those girls, and even spare a bag of money, you know?"

"I don't know what elves are like where you're from, or what your stories say... but the elves here are able to pick apart an entire platoon of soldiers with barely a flick of their wrist. A half elf like him, against six soldiers... and, they have a special body strengthening magic that allows them to temporarily give themselves the strength and stamina of beast men, so the carrying thing is no big surprise... but it is odd, that he did something so kind without asking anything in return. Part of me wonders if he's going to show up later and ask for some terrible favor from us."

"Well," Hina said like a playful airhead. "He did promise not to try and shove us down on our knees anything, so maybe he's really a good guy~"

"Oh, no," Emily grimaced. "Tell me you aren't into him?"

"God no!" Hina almost gagged, and sincerely so. "I was a guy before, and I wasn't into guys. No matter what my body looks like, I'd fall on my own knife before I touched someone else's cock, nothing has changed that."

"Hm, what if I made you do it~? I could-"

"Emily, I love you, but shut the Hell up. That isn't going to happen." All traces of submissiveness vanished from her tone, replaced by a cold anger.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry- what the hell?" Emily burst out laughing and Hina jerked backward in surprise as the heart-shaped bulb on the tip of Aurelia's tail suddenly pressed into her, Hina's lips. When the badger girl moved away, the tail fell limply to the bed... what was that, leaking from the tip? It was some sort of shimmery pink liquid.

"I'm awake!" Aurelia suddenly yelped, sitting bolt upright. She was red in the face, slightly sweaty, and breathing hard; was the girl... aroused? It certainly seemed like it, just looking at her. "The arrow? What happened, I just-? Ah, we're safe, how...? There was an explosion, and then..."

"A half Elf came and helped us out," Hina explained. "We're in some town six hours off the border, and we need to get out of here tomorrow morning. Right now, it's just after sunrise."

"Half Elf?" Aurelia seemed perplexed... and she was unconsciously grinding her thighs together. "It's good that we got out, but why would a half elf be around the area to help?"

"Chance? Luck? Hell if I know," Hina answered with a shrug, glancing back to Aurelia's tail. That pink fluid was forming a small puddle on the topmost quilt around the head. "Aurelia, what's going on with your tail? It's... leaking."

"It's ah... Succupixie tails can put out a lot of things, from acid to..." Aurelia glanced away, shifting in place.

"To?" Hina smiled warily, not sure what to expect.

"Aphrodisiacs... the stuff is filling me right now, I must have had some kind of lewd dream..." Aurelia panted softly. "It's a Succubus tool, to forcefully turn someone on, make them m-more pliant..." Her tail twitched back and forth a bit on the bed, and Emily giggled, speaking.

"You see, Hina, Succubus tails are super sensitive. That's why a Succupixie messing with me did... what it did, to my tail. Watch this!" Suddenly pinning Aurelia- who groaned sharply- on her stomach, she took the burgundy-colored tail in her small hands.

"E-Emily~!" Aurelia moaned loudly, whorishly, and the Devil giggled softly, using her hands to work and stroke the tail like she would an extra, extra long cock. Aurelia shuddered, and her tail began to spit something thick, and much more white than the pink aphrodisiac. "Emily, s-slow down!!!" She moaned again as her tail-tip burst, spraying a huge load of thick, white spunk that got all over Emily's hands, chest and chin... but the explosion was so big, some of it fell to coat even Hina's cleavage, chin and left cheek. More than that graced the quilt.

"What the hell, Aurelia?" Hina laughed, shaking her head. She wasn't really turned on by what she'd just seen, but it was definitely funny. The Succupixie just lay there for a moment, turning her head on the blanket to meet Hina's eyes. Aurelia's own face was red, and her breaths came in harsh pants.

"U-Usually... tail's a weapon... but getting filled with a-aph... makes..."

"I get it, Aurelia," Hina said with a smile. "Just rest, alright? We're going to go to the bath soon," she said, but Aurelia shook her head.

"Come here, Hina..."

"What-?" Aurelia was pulling at Hina's arm, and the badger girl let herself be guided up onto the bed. The Succupixie shifted her weight so that she was half on top of Hina, starting to push the white-haired girl's shirt up, leaving only her bra on her upper half within a few moments.

"Au-Aurelia? What are you-?" Aurelia gave the top of Hina's breast a long, slow lick, taking off some of her tail's cum.

"This is cute!" Emily laughed, watching Aurelia slowly lick Hina's chest clean. The summoned hero herself groaned in a decidedly non-feminine way as Aurelia licked up her neck like some sort of perverted, wannabe human puppy. Before Hina could supply Emily with an answer, her lips were snagged for a kiss by the Succupixie on top of her, and then it was nothing but slow, hot kisses. Hina didn't bother trying to pull away- she was pinned down tightly- but her breath hitched and the thought did cross her mind as Aurelia began to trail kisses down Aurelia's chest... stomach... waist, and then she was pulling Hina's waistband down... still kissing.

"Ah, fuck..."

~~~

Emily and Aurelia were taking care of shopping and stocking up on supplies as Hina bounded through the forests outside the town, dressed in tight pants and a fitted, dark top. Her tail was coming in handy for balancing, and her ears were slowly becoming more useful as Hina learned how to spend all of her time tapped into her beast senses, when out and about like this.

A wolf leapt for Hina, and she reacted with panic, hacking with one of her knives. The large canine yelped and leapt backward, more of its pack surrounding Hina... she didn't know much magic yet, in spite of the books that the other two had brought back, but for now, what she wanted to work on was her actual reflexes. When a wolf tried to lunge, take a bite out of her arm, she whipped her knife around, cracking the thing's skull with the pommel of her knife, and side stepped another wolf. One of them scratched her thigh, opening a wound, but before it could close its jaws around her, the beast found a blade through the top of its skull. She kicked the body away, as well, and when it hit the trunk of a tree, the wolf body folded around it, spine broken.

'Damnit...' The thought filled Hina's head again and again, running back and forth behind her eyes as she side stepped a wolf and scissored its head off with her knives. Even though she hadn't seen Aurelia's arrow wound, or the bolts in Emily's chest, she should have picked up the soldiers with her beast senses! If she were more skilled, she could have gone in with them; and if Aerendyl hadn't been there, both Emily and Aurelia would be dead.

Another wolf, and Hina frowned, jabbing her knife up and gouging it's throat out. With a yelp, the wolf fell aside, choking and gagging and gargling on its own blood as Hina met the rest of the wolves head on.

Hours later, the sun was making its way across the sky but not yet setting as Hina continued to train herself against the monsters. Her stamina was quite literally inhuman, but even so, she was beginning to get tired, panting softly, a thin layer of sweat on her body. There was some sort of freakishly large spider-type monster that kept appearing, in this area- she wasn't lost, just far from the town- and Hina took great care to dance around, severing each of their legs before going in for the kill. She was, at the very least, becoming better at dodging, and given that she was going against different types of monsters, she was being forced to pick up a number of new moves.

These were completely different than Yukino had been, though. These demons, monsters, beasts, whatever... they were stronger, clearly high above a level one, and Hina wasn't much faster than them. She'd taken a number of forceful blows, and while her skin rarely broke, and she only had a few small cuts or scratches, she was well-spotted with bruises.

"Hina?!" The badger girl whirled after piercing the body of a spider, holding her knives in a defensive position... then sighed and slowly dropped the blades to her sides. It was Aurelia, landing on the dirt nearby, looking quite worried. Now she wore a plain top with the back cut out and dark pants much like Hina's. "Hina, we were getting worried that you aren't back yet. What are you doing, so far out here and all by yourself?!" She ran toward Hina, confusion and concern across her face.

"I just..." Hina sighed, realizing her folly without needing to be told. "I'm sorry. I was training just outside the town, but I got carried away, and walked further and further... I'm a level four, now! I... I was in the wrong, here, I'm sorry. I mean it." Aurelia might have asked why Hina did this, but evidently, she didn't need to.

"Hina, you don't need to blame yourself for anythi-"

"Don't give me that, Aurelia. I chose to stop at the college, and it's my fault you went in for those damn books-"

"Hina, stop," Aurelia said, frowning seriously. "We are being tracked by Imperial Knights, who have taken down dragons, giants, and so much worse. They're like a plague, and if they hadn't caught up to us at the Abbey, they would have caught up to us HERE. Then we'd all die, along with half the village!" She sighed, stretching her arms. "I'm just glad you're alright, Hina. Again, we were worried. Do you feel like this was worth it?"

"Are you really asking?" Hina raised an eyebrow.

"I am," Aurelia nodded.

"Hit me, then," Hina insisted, sheathing her knives and dropping her bag. "If I can avoid your hits, then I'd say it was more than worth i-" She yelped and twisted aside as Aurelia's foot jabbed through the air where Hina's head had been a moment ago.

"Is something wrong?" Aurelia smiled and pivoted, going for a vicious headbutt. Thinking on instinct rather than common sense, Hina met the blow head on, quite literally, and then backed away. Aurelia reeled, laughing and groaning at once.

"Wait, wait. Are you dodging, or are we sparring? I don't mind a playful fight, here, if that's what you want." When Hina didn't answer, Aurelia rolled her shoulders, stepped forward, then lunged to the side and aimed another kick at Hina's shoulder. Badger girl tried to dodge, but she was too slow, and in a second she staggered off balance. Aurelia took advantage of the moment and tried for a roundhouse kick... but Hina grabbed Aurelia's leg. Using the Succupixie's momentum, she steadied herself and then flung Aurelia- or tried to, but the Demon's wings steadied her, and she ripped her leg free.

"Try harder, Hina!" Aurelia laughed and threw a vicious punch that did not, in any way, match her adorable appearance. Hina threw her fist up and shoved the blow aside, then grabbed the wrist and dragged Aurelia back to earth. For a time, they danced about like this, one with a natural advantage by class, one with an advantage by wings and tail. Neither of them was able to take on the other, both of them locked in a cycle of almost gaining the upper hand only to be crushed back down.

"You're good," Aurelia laughed as the girls headed back into town. "Emily's got to be worried sick, you know? Don't go running off like that or again, or I'll ram my tail so far up your ass it'll cum in your mouth." She gave Hina a rough smack upside the head... and Hina couldn't tell whether she was kidding or not.

"Yeah, I'm sorry."