ROUGH DRAFT Coye Vol 2 CH15 (Patreon)

‘Hey, something wrong down there? Helloooo?’ Shayla knocked on her partner’s noggin with her tiny fist as he stared at the door to Dorothy’s office only a few feet away from the quest board.

“No, nothing...” Coye whispered and dismissed his thoughts.

For a moment, he thought that he heard the sound of a pack of RealMonster cards being opened in Dorothy’s office, but since there was a bard singing verses over in the dining room, he couldn’t be entirely sure.

It wouldn’t surprise Coye if Dorothy was a fellow collector of cards, too, now that he thought about it. She loves monsters to an obsessive degree, so she had to have heard about them, right?

Coye smiled and thought that he might try and ask her about it sometime, and maybe he could use that as an excuse to try and get closer to Dorothy...

Then he thought of Shayla, Suzette, and Byng, for some reason. He became confused as to how many ways his affection was torn and whether this was normal or not.

He’d have to ask the Pixie for advice later, seeing as how convincing she was towards getting him to give Byng a chance.

For now, he focused on the large corkscrew board in front of him and scanned through all the papers that had a silver border around them, the sign of his rank. There were around twenty to thirty options he could choose, the most dangerous of all being to hunt down and track a Ravenous Boarman that’d been sighted recently.

Seeing as how Boarmen are the even stronger cousins of Pigmen and were the Demon Lord Thalrad’s private guard back in the day, Coye didn’t like the sound of that, not even for 6,000G. Maybe after Coye was back into the swing of things, it would tempt him, but for today, he wanted something that was of medium difficulty and paid decently.

He settled on a contract to kill an Owlbear that had been seen north of Cransmere, which was predicted to have wandered out of the forest and gotten lost. It would pay 2,000G, and he could skin it for its pelt and sell that for another 100G or so, too. Maybe more.

Owlbears were strong, but that was all they had going for them. There wouldn’t be any magic trickery like his battle with Jack, and there was no risk of poison like with the Vine Vipers. It’d be a simple encounter to get him back in the mindframe of fighting tougher monsters, so he took the quest to the front desk.

Tammy was there now, painting her nails green and doing her best to pretend Coye wasn’t there with something for her to do. After pestering her for long enough, the lazy redhead acknowledged his presence and registered the Quest for him.

“Good luck out there, or whatev,” she gave the obligatory send-off and went straight back to ignoring her surroundings.

Coye left the town taking the northern road that if followed for a few days would take one to the Labyrinthe of Light. Once they got far enough away from Cransmere, Shayla popped out of his hat and stretched out, happy to feel the sun on her skin.

“Fucking finally,” she groaned. “I was getting sore from sitting around all day.”

Coye apologized but was happy to have her company in a more official form. They began the search for the target of today’s quest, which if all went well, they might be able to complete today without having to set up camp.

Their luck turned up positive, as within an hour of searching the plains for any signs of Owlbears he came across a feather that ultimately lead him to some tracks. Down the way, this led to fresh dung, which Coye was oddly happy to see.

‘Are you always this happy to find monster poop, or what?’ Shayla teased.

“It means we’re close,” he rolled his eyes.

They were closer than Coye estimated. He followed the trail up over a hill and saw the monster in question making a snack out of the corpse of a freshly slain Direwolf. It hadn’t noticed him, so he ducked and laid prone against the grass to think over his options.

“How you wanna do this, big guy?” Shayla cracked her knuckles and grinned, eager to stretch her magic muscles and support her boy in battle.

“I don’t think I can get downwind without it noticing me,” He commented. They were situated on a hill to the southeast of the Owlbear, while the wind was coming down from the northwest. “Not that it’d even help much. Owlbears are hyper-aware of the area around them, and I don’t excel in sneak attacks, anyway.”

“Can you handle just rushing in, then?”

“Might be our best option,” He mumbled and began to rifle through his pouches. He brought along a few gadgets he’d ordered from the Association’s catalog, but there wasn’t much that could help him strike from a distance. Even if there was, he doubted anything short of his sword could even pierce the beast’s hide.

He wondered how Byng would tackle a monster like this. She was only a Bronze-rank adventurer, but he had a feeling that was more due to how few formal quests she took on. Coye didn’t know much about her, but he knew she emigrated here from Grurguhrohk, the harshest and most violent of all the Realms he’d heard about.

Knowing Byng, she probably had a bag of tricks that could deal with a threat her normal arrows couldn’t penetrate.

Coye also had his own tricks, of course, and he’d take this chance to prepare one. He pulled out a glass bottle containing one of his alchemical coatings, unsheathed his blade, and applied it.

“What’s this one do?” Having stalked him for months on end, Shayla was no stranger to Coye’s toolset. That said, she didn’t remember seeing a yellow bottle before.

“A fast-acting paralytic oil. I don’t use it much, since it's really expensive... it’s best used on big monsters like this that are fast and can kill you in a few hits. It’ll ruin the meat, but I can’t carry it back, anyway.”

“Sounds useful. Looks like you’re running a bit low there, though.”

“Yeah... I’m not looking forward to getting more.”

“Think Suzette might be able to use her connections to score some on the cheap?”

“I doubt it, it’s a regulated substance.”

“The fuck does that mean?” Shayla tilted her head, ready to soak up a new facet of human culture.

“It means that the Crown or whoever’s in charge of this kinda thing makes it hard to get, so people can’t go around paralyzing or poisoning each other.”

“Huh. Ok, I guess that makes sense.”

“I’ll just have to pay a local alchemist and wait a few months for them to get permission to sell it to me...” He hated how he needed new permission each time. Gold-ranked adventurers didn’t have to jump through as many hoops when buying things like this as long as it’s feasible that they’re using it for adventuring, but as a Silver-rank he didn’t have that privilege.

It’s not like he could make any of the stuff himself, either. Coye’s father actually taught him how to make this and most of the other oils he used in battle, but he never had any talent in the art.

“Man, that sucks. Know any alchemists who would be willing to bend the rules?”

“No, not really... the only one I know is-” Coye paused as he remembered Tiphanie, one of the Baddest Bitches. One of his bullies.

She was an alchemist, albeit a very unconventional one. Coye thought for a moment that since he was going to be trying to get to know his bullies then maybe she might be able to help him out, but then shook his head and dismissed the thought. Half the time, he wasn’t sure if Tiph was even aware of the world around her... out of the four of them, she was fairly nice, though.

“Ahhh,” Shayla caught on fast and smirked. “One of those girls is an alchemist, huh? Nice. We’ll see how that goes, then.”

“...Yeah, guess we will.” He shrugged at the thought of adding another girl into the mix.

Shayla could sense his unease, and made a note to ask him about it later. They didn’t have much longer until the Owlbear finished with its food and they had to strike sooner or later.

Coye gripped his blade and Shayla prepared to zip along after him.

He stood atop the hill, gathered energy in his feet, and took off with a tremendous use of Quick Step. It helped him cross the distance in one movement, but the speed made it hard to use another Art alongside it. Coye settled for a standard attack, slashing his sword across the Owlbear as he crossed it.

It roared in pain and dropped the chunks of meat from its jowls. Coye turned in time to block an attack from its claws with his shield, and saw that his attack only inflicted a simple scratch across the owlbear’s forearm.

The impact pushed him away several feet, and he landed rough enough that he figured his finicky sword wouldn’t let him use its magical power any longer.

As Coye rolled away, Shayla used her magic to create a strong draft of wind behind his back. This made him zip away farther than he planned, allowing him to rush back in faster than the Owlbear could see coming.

He was tempted to use a big Art, but knew that getting cocky here would not end well. Owlbears were twitchy, faster than they looked, and one wrong move could leave him armless if he wasn’t careful with his Steel Soul usage.

It was better to take potshots at the beast and let his paralytic oil build up its effect over time. He utilized Double Strike as he ran past the monster a second time, this time running a much deeper cut along its hide and sending bloody feathers blowing off into the wind.

Coye felt his blade sink deeper that time, but penetrating the hide with slicing attacks wasn’t easy. Stabbing would work better, but it would also risk him entering dangerous territory if he couldn’t back step in time.

He had plenty of opportunities to attack, at least. Shayla provided setups every so often, drawing the Owlbear’s attention by throwing a rock in its direction or putting something for it to trip on in its path. Whenever she did, Coye didn’t waste the chance and he was on it.

By the time twenty minutes passed, Shayla was starting to become skeptical. Coye had slashed the thing to pieces time and again, and it was bleeding in multiple spots, but it just kept coming at him.

“I thought you said your oil was fast acting!”

“It is,” Coye ducked beneath a series of rabid pecks from the Owlbear’s beaks, countering by slashing across its chest and pivoting away out of danger. “Trust me- it’s getting slower.”

Shayla looked at the monster closer and concluded that Coye was right. It was growing more sluggish, all while Coye paced himself and kept the pressure on without pushing himself too far.

Then, the Owlbear overstepped and whiffed a swipe of its claw by a good three feet or so. It was losing the feeling in its arm, a tingling feeling spreading through its body.

This was his chance, Coye realized. If he pushed forward now and struck, he could topple it for sure.

But when he attempted to do just that, Coye was surprised to see the Owlbear back away and perform a scream other than that of a death rattle. It raised its beak toward the sky and made a sound that was half shriek and half growl as loud as it could, and before Coye knew it, a second Owlbear rushed out from a hill over the north.

“Oh, shit...” Shayla balled her fists together and grouped up close to Coye as he put some distance between him and the new threat. “Did that quest say there might be two of them?”

“Nope, but this kind of thing happens. Got to be prepared for anything.”

“You’re not worried?” Shayla looked at him and then at the two Owlbears. This was the first time she helped out in a fight where Coye was in actual danger, and the pressure was starting to weigh on her.

What if she failed him? What if she made a mistake in her support and he got hurt because of her? It scared her to think about.

As for Coye, he wasn’t scared in the slightest. “Why should I be? One of them is almost down, and I barely used any of my stamina getting it there. We can do this.”

Shayla was quiet for a moment, but his calmness ended up influencing her and it wasn’t long before she had a big grin on her face. “...Yeah, of course, we can. What was I thinking?”

“No time for thinking,” Coye gripped his blade tight and stared at the oncoming threat as it started to run toward him. “Just do what you’ve been doing and I’ll do the same.”

“You got it, big guy.” Shayla was filled with something she had never felt before- fighting spirit. It ran through her veins like blood, pumping her up and encouraging her to do her best.

Even though she was only contributing in a support role, this battle gave Shayla a glimpse of what she dreamed for out of life. She was side by side with a hero, just like the Fairy Knights of old, helping him succeed on his adventures and fighting alongside him.

Her motivation sparked her magic, Shayla’s blue glow crackling with energy as the second Owlbear drew near.