NT veRse - Bad End Guide 11 - Explore (Patreon)

“Hey! Idiot!”

You blinked. Synra knocked on your forehead as you finally came to. “Yes?” It was uncomfortable seeing her upset and her tone gave you the feeling that you were being dressed down by a parent.

“You can't 'leave.' She can't send you away... She's supposed to hold you close in the temple and never ever let you go like I planned!” Synra criticized.
“This is why Jhia's such a shitty character. I should've accounted for her lack of personality.”

It did not seem like that to you, but you did not interrupt her rant to argue. That felt like it would be bad.
“I'm sorry. Can you send me back like before with the Minotaurs.”

“No...” She sighed.
“Seems like no matter what I do she will find a reason to send you away.” Her expression turned to wide smiles, pulling you close to cuddle you affectionately.
“Don't worry, though, Evie. I'll never ever let you go like she just did.” Soon as she said that she let you go and shrugged.

“At least now you'll have time to write that guide, or whatever..”

You cocked your head to one side curiously. “Wasn't I supposed to do that from the start? How would I if I was also supposed to be stuck in the temple the whole time?”

Synra frowned deeply. “Did you just point out a plot hole?”

You raised your hands in front of you. “W-what? No I was just... Asking if there was some reason.”

Synra held her head, grabbing at her Raven hair. Red eyes widened with anger. “I can't think of one... You BITCH! How dare you point out a flaw in something I thought up!” She turned and began walking forward very purposefully, pointing at you.
“You're also something I thought up. Why don't I poke holes full of you..?”

You felt dread, closed your eyes and stepped back. “Th... The library!” When you opened them again she had stopped. She was looking at you.

“Go on?” It felt important to finish your thought, gravely so.

“There's tons of creatures trapped in the Library. Maybe... Maybe you intended that I would write about them there by releasing them and having them 'accidentally' cause havoc.” You were fully ready to be 'poked full of holes.' You braced.

She turned back in an instant and wagged her finger. “Now that's good thinking. A very good Idea, Eve. “ She paused and gave a satisfied nod.
“I'm glad I thought of  that ahead of time. You're right. That's what it was.” She smirked and pinched your cheeks.
“My girl's SO smart for figuring it out in time!”

“And...” You gulped.
“You created me, which means you're smart.”

She almost wiped a tear. “Oh darling... I knew I created you for a reason. Such a sweet daughter you are.” She hugged you again quite warmly in contrast to how she was aggressively approaching a few moments earlier. This time as she embraced you, you woke up in camp,

You inhaled sharply and lifted your head but your body couldn't move. You tried to get your bearings. It was dark. The fire was barely a smolder. You tried to move your arm and found what the problem was. Milk had curled up next to you with half her body over yours. Her leg was draped across your body and she was squeezing your arms together like a bear. You felt like you could force her off if you put your strength into it, so you did and sat up. The woman rolled off of you. She snorted and shot up.

“I got it! Oh.” She looked at you, then looked up to confirm it was still dark while squinting.
“What is it? Trouble sleeping, Meekling?”

“Dunno what it is.” You rubbed your eyes with the heel of your palm. You glanced over at the Minotaur as she stood up and dusted herself off. From her hooves, to her ears and and horns she was very obviously a beast.
“What are we going to do about the way you look to others while we travel.”

She exhaled through her nose and turned it up at the question. “They'll just have to deal with the fact that they can look but not touch.”

“N... o. Not that. The fact that you're a Minotaur.”

She squat down in front of you. “Most normal people will never see a female Minotaur, let alone know the exist.”

You thought about it and had to consider that to be a possibility. “What they see are the males taking women captive and other than some rare situations they'll never see the women transform.”

“When I traveled before, a lot of folk just thought me some strange incarnate that they're unfamiliar with. Most of them'll never see a Wolf, either. But-”

“Would they still be afraid if they saw you, or that?”

“Well, yeah-”

You stared at her blankly. “That's what I was getting at, Milk... Also-”

“What?”

“Do you want to be called something else?”

She shrugged. “Doesn't matter what else you call me if it also isn't my original name. I may as well just be Milk until I find out.”

You gave her a worried stare. She did not seem affected one way or another, but Milk was fairly hard to decipher in general.
“Okay. Let me know if you change your-” You felt a pulling of your senses before anything could actually be seen or heard and looked up instinctively. After a few seconds you saw three individuals in robes sailing overhead through the trees.

“Martial Artists... I think they're just disciples but be careful regardless.” Milk warned.

One of the figures noticed you and doubled back, landing in your camp. The man nodded to you, his hand resting on the pommel of his sword. He was light-skinned and had his long, dark hair tied back in a ponytail that was bound by rings. He looked you over, then Milk. His eye twitched and you could tell he was trying not to stare at her breasts.
“Ladies... There is a Beast threat in the area. You should run in the other direction in case our sect's battle spills over to your camp.” He lifted his brows.
“Honestly, I'm surprised you haven't been attacked already.” Milk winked at you as he said that.

“What's the threat?”

“Centaur.”

“Woah...” Milk intoned.
“This far south?”

“Yes.” He nodded.
“Now that you know, you'll know that it's better to get started running sooner rather than later if things turn.”

“Are you all going to be alright?” You asked.

“We are three Senior Disciples of the Soft-Step Sect.” He offered while grinning proudly. It was as if he expected you to know what that was an be impressed. You smiled politely and began to clap lightly in front of you.

“Wow!” As you continued, you jabbed milk with your elbow, bringing her to begin fake-clapping.

“Our Sect has unique mobility that should allow us to deal with Centaurs adequately.” You gauged Milk's reaction as he spoke. She shook her head at you subtly.  
“Anyway, you ladies have been warned!” With that he jumped off in the direction of the other disciples.
“What's a soft-step sect?” You asked as he left.

“I don't know, but I know that here in the many states of Aoia Martial Artists organize themselves into Sects. They call themselves fancy names after the ways in which they teach their disciples to utilize their Soma.” She sounded bored by the concept.

“You were strong before you got turned. Were you part of a sect.” You asked, interested to know if she knew.

Milk closed her eyes and crossed her arms. “Hm. I think I lead a Sect.”

“You LEAD one?”

“Why're you surprised?” She grinned in a way that bared her canines.
“I already told you I'm strong.”

You looked to her skeptically. “You said that, but then you also tucked your tail between your legs the moment Jhiana showed herself.”

Milk's whole face flushed red. “That was because I'm not at full strength!” She sounded quite flustered as she added.
“If I was at full strength Jhiana would have to bow to me.”

“If you say so... Should we help them?”

Milk cocked her head to one side. “Centaurs are no joke, Meekling.”

“But you're a Minotaur.”

“You think we all get along? We actually clash quite a bit since we're after similar things. Centaurs takes stock from your Species to bolster their own numbers same as my people.”

“H-hold on! Let me write this down. Anything else?”

Milk chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. “From what I understand, Centaurs are rare in that the base Stock changes what the end result is a bit. So actually you'll see that a Bunch of Centaur tribes are different and don't even get along.” She shrugged.
“They choose who they hunt based on that. Human-based ones only look for human stock and such to add to their tribes.”

“What do they do with non-humans?” You questioned.

Milk thought for a moment, her tail whipping back and forth. “Sometimes... They just kill them. Other times they hold captives to trade with other tribes, or to ransom. They're different from us like that because the only thing we care about is if the captive is a girl and so long as they are they're added to the Herd.”

“Got it. They seem like they might be a bit more advanced than Minotaurs if they take part in Diplomacy.”

“Ch... Watch it, Meekling.” Milk warned softly. It did not seem like she would do anything. It felt more like she was just letting you know that she was offended.

“Sorry.”

“Sounds like those disciples engaged the Centaurs.” Milk grinned.
“Should we take a look?”

“I think we should.” You nodded eagerly.
“Ah!” You yelped as Milk picked you up and threw you over her shoulders. Your cheeks flushed as she gave your ass a pat.

“Comfy?”

“F-fine!” As you said that she began running and jumping through the trees at an incredible speed. You could see the forest retreating behind you both, and difficult terrain fading away like it was nothing to her. After a few seconds of that she put you down and crouched, pointing down into a clearing. You squinted to see the three human figures facing off against two male Centaurs and.
“Wait... Isn't that other one just a horse?”

“A what? No, it's a neonate Centaur.” Milk corrected.

You watched the dance unfold as the Soft-Step Students danced around the Centaur's attacks while the thing you saw to be a horse stood by in the background. Though the Martial Artists were doing quite impressively, to your surprise the Centaurs did not fall to them similarly to how the Minotaurs fell to Lyla. They were holding their ground. You were not sure if it was a testament to their strength and strategy or the disciples weakness. You noticed that the Centaur pair were quite in sync and covered each-other well enough. Something you also noticed was, also in contrast to Minotaurs the Centaurs wore armor that was designed to fit their upper and lower half. They wielded heavy weapons and they utilized the space around their sides to carry an impressive number of other equipment and weapons. It did not look like enough to weigh them down.

As you were thinking about one of the long poles on one of the Centaur's back that looked to be a Dog-Catchers pole, you saw him reach for it as one of the disciples passed by to make an attack. The partner parried and deflected them while the first swiftly dropped the loop around the man's neck and lifted him off the ground. He kicked his legs in vein.
“Oh... Soft-Step neutralized. He can't touch any surface. This might be a turning point.” Milk observed.
You watched with wide eyes as the actual 'horse' came into the fray. As the two other disciples screamed, the Centaur holding him more than a reach away turned him.
“What's going to happen?”

“Just watch.”

You nodded and covered your mouth as the horses head opened into several strips, almost blooming like a flower with pink flesh and a deep hole on the inside like a gaping maw of some alien organism like a 'Sarlac' or a 'Sand Worm' or something like that. You gasped as tendrils shot out and pulled the disciple in feet first as the other two were held at bay by the second Centaur playing pure defense. The disciple looked like he was being eaten for a moment as the 'mouth' of the Horse closed. He was only swallowed up to his waist. Then you saw his back arch and bis body convulse. The Human's eyes went white, or possibly just rolled back so far that you could not see pupils. You had no idea what was happening in the Neonate Centaur's mouth but gradually the drooling disciple awoke in a daze. He held his head and looked to have more and more convulsions as he fought something that you could not see. Then... Nothing. He panted. The Centaur let him go.

“Should we help, Meekling?” Milk asked.
“Feels like they're a bit outmatched at this point.”