DD 202 Ch 5 (Patreon)

Chapter 5

I rushed up the winding path to the castle, already hearing the sounds of combat ahead of us.

Skidding to a stop, I saw three parties of Haylon students up against a mass of vampires.

The students had managed to hold against the melee vamps, but the casters in back had amassed into an unsightly group and several of the students had been taken out of the fight. There weren’t enough heals going around to get them back up and into the fight again.

Instead, they’d fallen back, bleeding badly behind the healers that were barely keeping the tanks on their feet.

“Heal them.” I started organizing our group. “Fayeth, Felin, do what you can to reduce the casters’ damage.” To stem the tide we needed to give them some relief.

Fayeth moved to block or absorb the raining blood thorns falling on the harried healers. A shell of ice floated in the air, soaking up more of them.

Candice and Selene started healing. The Arcane Weaver had been a good choice, Candice’s class was incredibly flexible, able to mimic any spell in the form of a rune that would pulse it several times.

Unfortunately, it took her longer to create a rune and have it cast the spell than another class would take to simply cast the spell.

Selene on the other hand was a mix of damage dealing and healing. She started draining vampires with an eerie thread of magic and then redirected the health to the wounded.

While watching them work was exciting in its own way, I needed to get started. I’d need enough stacks to finish this.

My blades cut into the melee vampires as purple lightning began to build on my arms.

The senior Haylon students were getting overwhelmed, and I quickly pulled aggro off their tanks, having to dodge as two of the vampires with rapiers separated to come at me.

Two on one wasn’t a problem.

I jumped back to avoid their initial attacks before using [Dodge] offensively and slipping inside their guard. [Earth Stomp] stunned them and [Shadow Arm] grabbed both rapiers in a single large claw.

While I disarmed them for a moment, my blades danced along their sides, opening up vents in their suits before blood gushed out. Vampires bled like the leeches that they were.

[Triple Breach] tore through one just as the other wrestled his weapon free.

The vampire came at me again, its rapier chasing my chest.

I knocked it to the side, taking a cut on my shoulder and quickly dispatched the second with a series of stabs.

Pale blue light wrapped around my shoulder, healing the cut instantly.

“Thanks Selene.” I called out as I dove into the mass that the seniors were fighting.

[Liminal Speed] made my arms glow brighter as purple lightning continued to race around me and down to my chest as I sped up even more.

I stepped in and used [Elemental Shield] as well as [Absorb] to catch more of the ranged vampire attacks.

My current goal was to get the seniors back on their feet while I built up stacks.

Once I had enough, I’d be able to mow through the ranged vampires.

Ren wiped blood from her face, passing me in the crowd of vampires. She held a spiked mace in her hand stunning and bloodying vampires with every swing. “Thanks for the assist.” She was short before going back to damaging vampires.

I didn’t have time to chat either, rushing through and killing as many as I could.

The crowd of melee vampires actually thinned enough that the seniors pushed them back into the ranged vampires, beginning to launch area of effect attacks over the whole group.

In short order, the weaker ranged vampires crumbled under the heavy waves of multi target attacks.

Another group of ranged vampires began to form in the distance, but I rushed in and was able to cleave through them before they became a nuisance.

We continued on until we stopped at the gate of the castle and the vampires stopped spawning.

Several seniors leaned against the cool stone wiping their foreheads.

“What was that?” Selene snapped at them. “You all almost died.”

Ren put away her mace and grunted. “Our choice is to push ourselves or get passed up.” The Japanese woman crossed her arms and faced Selene. “We all know what we are doing in the dungeon. Don’t take their choice to push themselves away just because it’s dangerous.”

I sighed, the lightning around me dwindling. “The College made the decision to push them and the rest of us harder. Some deaths are inevitable.”

Ren gave me a sharp nod. It seemed she had accepted that her path had some losses.

“However, given that we’d be back here tomorrow with a good force, I don’t understand your need to do this alone.” I said, my brows pressing down as I stared at the leader of the Seniors.

“We’re already behind.” Ren glanced at the other students in her class. “Meaning, if we only train with the second years, we’ll never catch up.” She twisted her sleeve around her arm. “We have to do this.”

“How about the boss then?” Another senior asked.

Fayeth smacked her over the head with the flat of her glaive. “We just came to rescue you and you want to dive back in? That boss is tricky. It’s true we overwhelmed it with everyone earlier, but I wouldn’t go at it with a small group like this. Besides, your healers look dead on their feet.”

The mentioned healers ground their shoes into the stone walkway.

Ren still held firm.

I let out a sigh. “Your issue is understood. We’ll figure out a way to fix it. You could farm the actual dungeon floor outside the time we are working on the event.”

“We both know that’s slow.” Ren was quick to argue.

“Slow or not, it’s your best option not to die.” I growled. “Crimson is going to be having the rest of us doing exercises to raise our stats between runs of the event, which means you have time to make progress. Perhaps by the time we leave for the raid, which we won’t be earning much experience during, you’ll be able to solo this event.”

“Then you can all pass us in level.” Selene rolled her eyes and leaned on my shoulder for effect.

“We should be gone by the end of this semester and spend the other one in the raid.” Candice piled on. “If you can’t close the gap then and pass us, perhaps you shouldn’t be qualified to graduate.”

Ren and the rest of the seniors glared at us.

I didn’t blame them. Most of them had worked hard, albeit not Crimson level hard, and were considered the top in Haylon. But then they had a new class come, driven by a sadistic training regiment to encroach and pass them.

Then the entire world decided they weren’t trying hard enough.

All four dungeon colleges had begun pushing their students to new expectations after the naga attacked and almost won.

After a long tense moment, Ren huffed and pushed past me.

Felin sighed. “At least she didn’t try to fight us. You owe me for helping these pathetic humans.” She poked me.

“What do you want?” I asked her.

Her tail flitted back and forth as she smiled.

I was starting to realize just how honest that tail was; she was going to be mischievous. I thought about the cream she so loved, preparing myself to horde it just to deal with her.

“Since you took me somewhere, then I get to take you somewhere.” She grinned at me.

“Where would that be?” I asked.

“Secret.” She grinned those predatory teeth at me. Though, I was half sure that she didn’t even know where we were going yet.

Felin likely just wanted some time alone. Which was fine, I should spend more time with her to improve our group cohesion.

The mood was broken by a round of applause as Crimson made herself known. “Well done. Return to camp. I’m going to kill the boss to reset the raid.”

I glanced up at her. Despite her rather casual dismissal of their plight earlier, she’d shown up to make sure everyone survived. “They passed?” I asked her.

“Barely. If they went for the boss, I’d have sent them all back.” Crimson answered me loud enough for the retreating seniors to hear it. “Ah. Sadly, I don’t get to punt them through portals. I was really looking forward to seeing if I could be a kicker.”

The idea of Crimson using the seniors like footballs and the portal like a goal made me wince. Poor ladies.

A few of the seniors ducked their heads and hurried away.

Crimson hopped down off the castle wall. “You guys too. Head back.” She pecked me on the cheek. “Good job saving them. Can’t let a bunch of students die in this affair or I’ll get a bad reputation. Some rumors already swirl like I’m a demonic trainer. You were pretty badass, cutting those vampires down like they were nothing.” She paused. “We’ll have to increase your training.”

With that statement, Crimson swaggered into the castle, her red leather clad rear swinging beneath her long dark braid.

“It is fun to watch that.” Felin said and started swaying her hips like she was practicing Crimson’s walk.

“You have a more feline grace.” Candice said.

“Yeah, but sometimes I want to be badass.” Felin started walking back to the camp, popping her hips back and forth. It looked much more awkward on her.

I shook my head and held Fayeth’s arm as we started walking back too.

***

The next several days turned into a farming fest that was fairly mundane. We’d push into the vampire castle several times a day and then exercise outside of it.

But today was a little different.

I had sandbags over my shoulders and my arms out in front of me as I let out heavy breaths doing another squat and my [Shadow Arm] was trying to juggle two rocks in front of me.

“Good. Good.” Crimson checked her CID before opening a portal for someone. “You can stop juggling.”

Bellaire walked out with a roller suitcase behind her. “Thank you for the lift.” Her two assistants came out behind her and took the suitcase before quickly opening it. A tiered tray came out as one began to assist the social media queen with a touch up of her makeup.

She was quite pretty, with long straight black hair and a faint tan. Her lips were plump and pillowy, yet shone with a muted red. Her simple tan dress cinched at her waist.

“Not a problem. We talked about this before. Ken needs more preparation.” Crimson said.

I didn’t stop my squats, watching Bellaire as she pulled out a folding chair and sat next to me. If my training bothered her at all, she didn’t show it.

“Am I getting an interview now?”

“No,” She pursed her lips. “Just a talk right now. We’ve talked about working on your image before. I wanted to prepare you for another round of interviews. With the Nekorian and the Elves circling around you now, I wanted to do more foundation work.”

I nodded, having come to grips that managing the media was its own kind of battle. “Anything bad out there about me?”

“Of course.” Bellaire said. “We’ve done a little so that there was a foundation and some asshole couldn’t paint you however they wanted.”

“But you need more?” I hazarded.

She crossed her legs and put her hands on her knee. “Yes, we do. Preferably with Felin.” She glanced around for the Nekorian.

I huffed and stood up from my workout and wiped my brow. “Felin?!” I shouted.

There were people working out in all manners around us. That included people throwing around fireballs and explosive gusts of wind.

A gust of wind carried Felin over as she landed, her ears perked up as she smiled at me and then Bellaire. Her jacket was a little singed in singular points in what I recognized as lightning damage. “Yes?”

Bellaire looked her up and down before nodding. “She’s cute.”

“Cute?” Felin growled. “You call kittens cute. I am not a kitten.” She showed off her sharp teeth.

“Less cute.” Bellaire smiled. “Cute is good; it’s marketable. Sexy works too, but the optics are a little worse. We just need to figure out what angle works best for you.” She laced her fingers together.

Felin pinned her ears back. “What is this, marketability? Optics?”

“Uh.” I scratched my cheek and drank some water. “She’s going to film you with some cameras and then display those all over our world to try and change people’s perception.”

Felin blinked. “Why do I need my perception altered? I am awesome.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “It’s a human thing? Do your shamans ever try to change how other Nekorian’s view them?”

“Yes. It’s called being a decent Nekorian.” Felin huffed. “This seems odd.”

“You’ll be on TV.” Crimson added.

Felin perked up. “Like Neighbors?” She referenced the sitcom that had become a regular in our tent at night.

“Sort of, except that is fake. This would be real.” Bellaire added.

“Of course Neighbors is fake. How can Ross be such an idiot? Joey is a thousand times better because he is true to himself.” Felin declared and crossed her arms. “Fine. You can film me saving the seniors every time they mess up.”

I sighed and covered my face. “That’s not going to help. You can’t look down on other people.”

Bellaire nodded. “A Nekorian being superior would be bad press.”

“I am superior. At least to them.” Her tail batted my thigh as she spoke. “Ken however is on my level as a shaman. I can respect those who’ve gone through The Great One’s trials.”

Bellaire smiled. “How about we do a little practice?” She pulled a small camera out and placed it on her thigh, pointing it at Felin. “What’s being a Nekorian like?”

“What’s being a human like? What a stupid question.” She huffed. The catgirl had little patience when it came to what seemed like boring questions.

I pat her shoulder. “It’s different, right? You guys have lived in the dungeon from a young age.”

“Yes. We live in safe zones because that’s where resources are.” Felin said and smiled, showing off her fangs. “We aren’t as soft as humans. Nekorians are a proud race that have grown used to living in the dungeon.” She held her chin aloft.

“Wonderful.” Bellaire smiled. “What does that mean about your home world?”

Felin froze all the way down to her tail. “Uhem.” She cleared her throat. “It’s a world.”

“Do you not know? Are you like the monsters in the dungeon, spawned in?” Bellaire pushed her.

“It’s not the dungeon.” Felin snapped. She normally understood that’s what humans called it, but it seemed that Bellaire had gotten on her bad side. “It's The Great One and Nekorian’s worship it. We shamans provide a link between our people and The Great One.”

I rubbed at her back trying to calm the Nekorian down. “What she said. They have a ritual with special ink.”

“Yeah. I marked Ken here.” Felin said quickly.

“Marked him?” Bellaire noted that down. “So, the growing star of humanity has been marked by a Nekorian? What does that mean? Is he in danger?”

“I’m–”

“Bah!” Felin looked like she wanted to knock the camera off Bellair’s lap. “Why do you ask stupid questions? No, he’s not in danger. I want to join his pride. Supposedly he has no barbs.”

I smacked my face into my palm while Bellaire blinked in confusion. “Don’t talk about barbs”

“What? You and Des are loud about enjoying your barbless staff.” Felin said, her agitation shifting towards me instead of Bellaire.

“You can’t say that in front of the camera.” I tried to calm her down. “It’s just not what we do. For the interview you have to be measured in how you talk about things as well as calm. Concepts like barbs and being overly proud won’t work well.”

Bellaire watched the two of us closely. “I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done before she can go in front of a camera for real.”

“This one is fake?” Felin glanced at the one on her leg.

“It’s not on.” Bellaire clarified.

I was thankful that everything that had just been said wasn’t being preserved. “What do you suggest?” I asked Bellaire, knowing that she likely already had some thoughts on the next step.

“You two are good, and she wants to join your pride apparently. I think you need to work on your chemistry together. Spend some more time together.” Bellaire smiled.

“Chemistry?” Felin frowned thinking through the word. “Mixing chemicals?” Her eyes lit up. “Oh like that!”

“I don’t know what just entered your mind, but erase it. It’s a way to say that two people work well together. That they mix well.” I clarified. English never seemed complicated until watching someone learning it for the first time.

“That’s stupid. Almost as stupid as needing to be polite and proper for people who you don’t even know.” Felin crossed her arms under her chest.

For a woman that was tight and fit everywhere else, she had plenty of curves there.

“How about we train together for a little while?” I tried to appeal to Felin and ease her away from Bellaire before she had another outburst.

If they wanted to put Felin on camera, it was going to take some serious work.