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As usual, all characters are fictional and 18+ years of age.
The story, like the others in the series, contain violence, monsters, magic, and most certainly also steaming hot sex scenes, including anal sex, which might discourage some.
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Chapter 5
My mixed martial arts instructor would have been proud of me.
He had never specifically trained us to go up against man sized badgers, but I found that the Wing Chun I had picked up served me rather well.
One hairy front paw lunged at me, and I stepped into it, parrying from the outside, guiding its paw in front of it, blocking it from using the other paw to attack me.
As my forearm pushed against its bicep, it was forced into an awkward angle, and I could take a diagonal half step past, giving me the opening I was hoping for.
My foot snaked onto its calf, hooking it slightly forward, then pushing down.
Its knee hit the ground with its full weight behind, the audible smack of the impact almost made me wince, but wasting no time, I shoved forward on its arm and shoulder, causing the badger to fold backwards like a cheap lawn chair, making it land flat on its back.
Before it could react or move, I did my best imitation of iaijutsu, drawing my faithful arming sword and in the same movement, let the tip of the sword fall on the chest of the badger, adjusting it slightly to rest against the bottom of the throat.
“I think I win this one too!” I said.
“Rawrrr” the badger replied, somewhat frustrated.
“I know you want to keep going, but we have other stuff we need to do, and it would be smart to save some of THAT in case of emergency.” I insisted, and sheathed my blade again.
“GrawwwRRARRrghfuckinghell.” Amber snapped, as she dropped the badger shape, and returned to my much preferred Amber shape.
“Yeah, that does look rather disconcerting. I don’t know if I should be happy or disappointed that it morphs all your gear with you. I mean, the change looks a bit gross, but if I at least got to see you naked at the end of it…” I said, letting it trailed off, as Amber nailed me with a stare that told me she was NOT in the mood.
“It hurts! And it is no fair you could beat me five out of five times, the badger form was supposed to be awesome at kicking your ass!”
“To be fair, only the alpha really kicked my ass, and I am sure it had a lot more practice being a badger than you. You have what, practiced for fifteen minutes now?”
“I would do fifteen more, if you did not insist I should save the rest for an emergency.”
“Well, we do have a busy day today, and even if you can’t fight in your badger form yet, I know from personal experience that they sure can pile on speed, in case we need to get away. Just try to avoid fences and sharp corners, and you can outrun most things we have seen so far.”
“Yeah, I guess that could come in handy. But what was that karate shit you did, it was like no matter what I tried, I just ended up getting in the way of myself, before ending on the ground.” Amber asked, as she did a few deep stretches to get used to her real body once more.
“Heh, I know normies think RPG nerds like me just sit around and drink Mountain Dew all day, but when you spend so much time pretending to be a hero, you end wanting to do something that is at least a little bit similar. So I did HEMA and MMA, even tried to learn how to ride a horse, but those are some skittish beasts…” I started, then noticing Amber giving me a look.
“What?” I asked.
“So you got so nerdy, you had to find a way to make sports nerdy too. Good work John.” Amber said, sticking her tongue out.
“You are just a sore loser.” I sighed.
“Whatever. Nerd.”
Her words did not sting, as her tone was playful and she hip checked me as she moved up next to me on the way back inside.
I grabbed her and pulled her close, kissing the top of her head.
“Stop it John, or we won’t be going anywhere for another hour, other than back to bed!”
It was nice to know I was not the only one feeling extra horny today.
You would think that having had sex with Amber so much the last couple of days, I would be feeling somewhat satisfied by now.
But I had craved her for so many years, and being able to have her, except in that one way, made me want that even more.
Amber was right, though. We had to get a move on.
“Are we going to the highschool today?” Amber asked, trying to act like she didn’t care. I knew her too well, and could tell she was feeling nervous about having to face them again.
“Probably not. While I would really like to, we need to take care of ourselves first, before we can start to babysit the townies.” I replied.
“We NEED to get to the System Kiosk, even if I WANT to fındıkzade escort go and check on the townies, they have to wait!” I sighed, exasperated by how difficult it was to balance all the things we needed to do. It felt like we had to do everything first.
“I thought you wanted to recruit more people?” Amber asked.
“I do. But I tried talking sense into them before. I figure we have to show them it pays to get out from under the bed. The key to that is us getting to the System kiosk. So many things hinge on that, I don’t think we can postpone that any further.”
As we talked, we checked our equipment and loaded our backpacks with the stuff I figured we were going to need today. With plenty of goblin daggers to choose from, Amber made sure to load up on the best of the bunch, as well as a couple of short swords.
“Why are you packing so much first aid gear, when you have that healing spell of yours?” Amber asked me, as I was trying to find a way to stuff a few more bandages down next to the snacks and high value loot I had already crammed in there.
“Well, two reasons. I don’t have mana potions to waste, so better to fix what we can the old fashioned way, at least until I can rest up and afford to spend the mana. Plus it keeps the other stuff in the backpack from shifting around too much, and it doesn’t weigh much, so no reason not to.”
The way she put on her armor caught my attention. She was starting to look very professional doing it, making sure all the straps were just right. It was a bit odd to see her wearing the goblin leathers, but with her new badger bracers and cloak, she made it look good.
Of course, she would be able to look good in anything, so it was no big surprise.
She had gone for kind of a warrior braid kinda thing, with several braids of her golden hair leading into one going down the back of her neck, and some rather dramatic eyeliner, making her look particularly fierce.
And lip gloss. I hardly ever saw her without it.
“What’s you looking at?” Amber asked, as she caught me staring.
“You, obviously. Looking good! When did you sneak off to apply makeup?”
“We may be in the middle of the apocalypse, but that is no reason to let yourself go!” Amber quipped, flashing me a grin.
I guess some mysteries of the fairer sex would remain unexplained, so I shrugged it off, and picked up my backpack.
“Time’s up, let’s do this!” I exclaimed.
“I did not realize there was a time limit?” Amber asked.
“Uh, just a stupid quote. Come on, let’s go.”
“Another goblin patrol?” I asked, as Amber paused and crouched low for the umpteenth time in the last hour.
With her stealth skill it only made sense to have her on point, even if it was against my masculine instincts. Instincts formed in a world that was no longer the meta.
“Yeah, and they are being real cautious too. What do you think have them all so spooked?” Amber confirmed.
“Don’t know, and while it certainly makes our lives easier for now, I have a feeling it will come back to bite us in the ass later. Well, same procedure as every time. We duck low and double back, try to find another way.”
“What if they are watching all the possible ways to the town hall?”
“If that is the case, we have no choice but to go through one of the patrols. But that would mean having you spend experience points on leveling up, and I would rather not have to do that, until we are done shopping.”
She grumbled a bit, but backed up slowly with me, until we were both back around the corner. Then we started the arduous task of climbing more fences and cutting through more backyards, to make it around the town hall without having to use the main streets.
At a brisk walk, we could be there in minutes, but if we did that, we would be fighting a lot of monsters. The goblin patrols watching the various routes there would likely all come to investigate the noise, if we got jumped by one of them.
So instead we had been sneaking around the few blocks surrounding it, a task made difficult by the numerous shops that had put up fences meant to keep people out.
Watching Amber effortlessly flow over them, reminded me how much stronger she had already become. With the boosts to strength and constitution from her badger set, made her even more graceful than before. Taking a breath, I followed her as quietly as I could. With my greater weight and lower dexterity, I made a bit more noise, but nothing that would be heard by anyone in the street. Even if someone did hear, we would be long gone, before they could come and investigate.
Especially with the way all the patrols we had encountered so far, seemed far more focused on hiding, and far less on doing any actual patrolling.
It took us a while to get there, but finally we made it all the way to the town square.
Crouched low inside a passage between storefronts, leading to a parking lot, hiding behind the usual assortment of trash containers, aksaray escort courtesy of the town’s draconian garbage sorting initiative, we had our eyes on the prize.
The town hall, beckoning us from maybe a hundred yards away.
All we had to do was cross the town square, a task that should be simple enough.
Should.
But with the number of patrols we had had to dodge so far, it was obvious the monsters of Springfield had decided that they needed to keep a close eye on the town hall.
A smart move that made me uneasy. If the goblins were starting to come together under some sort of leadership, we HAD to disrupt that real soon, or they would overrun us.
THEY could respawn, we humans most certainly could not.
Amber was getting impatient, and I could not blame her. We had been here for at least ten minutes, watching for signs of life.
“That has to be all of them, there can’t be more hiding, or they would have poked out already!” Amber groused in a low volume.
“Perhaps. We have three groups hiding around the square, and we are fairly certain there are two more groups close enough nearby that they might become a problem too, if a fight breaks out. But there is one more thing.”
“What? What do you see?”
“Nothing. Why are the goblins hiding? Surely there must be a reason? What is it we are not seeing?”
Amber seemed a bit more worried now that I had brought it up, and settled down a bit, no longer seeming so eager to rush ahead.
“Could it be the…” Amber began.
“Don’t you…” I tried, before she could finish.
“Minotaur?” Amber persevered in spite of my interruption.
“Jinx us!” I finished, uselessly.
Sure enough, whatever cruel fate the System had put in charge of our town, had heard her.
A loud and sadly familiar roar shredded the silence, and every goblin currently peeking out from their hiding spots vanished from sight.
A car suddenly got shoved a few yards into the street, as the minotaur we had seen yesterday came charging into the town square.
It was as if this guy had no chill at all, always rushing places as if he wanted to catch someone doing something they shouldn’t. Like existing anywhere within his sight.
“You just HAD to say it out loud…” I sighed, and pulled Amber a bit lower.
I did NOT want us to attract his attention.
He might _only_ be level 9, but from the way he manhandled abandoned cars, I did not want to learn what it felt like when he swung that large bronze warhammer of his with malicious intent.
At eight feet tall, and the legs to match, there was no way to simply kite or outrun him like we could the goblins.
Add to the equation that the goblins would probably gleefully kill us, if we managed to survive a fight against him, it was clear that violence was not an option at this time.
Sure, I might have enough experience to bring me to level 7, but I would rather not spend it on leveling, when the System kiosk might offer so many more tempting and useful options.
The whole idea was to get into the town hall and access the System kiosk there, without having to spend all our capital to get there.
The minotaur arriving here was so frustrating!
I knew from my visit here earlier in the week, before goblins and minotaurs had decided to blockade it, that the town hall was locked, so we needed to have a moment to let Amber work the lock, before we could slip inside.
“Shit, that guy! What do we do, John?” Amber hissed.
“Yes, the minotaur you just had to mention. We definitely can’t fight him, but if something distracts him, maybe we can slip inside.” I mused.
“What good will that do, he will just ram right through the walls like he was the Kool-Aid man?”
“The System Safe Zone. The town hall is a safe zone. Kinda. If we are not mid combat with something, it should not follow us inside.”
“How far does that extend? Could we rush to the town hall steps and snipe him from there?”
“Nope. If you attack something from inside the zone, it stops working for you, until your next visit. Also no setting up base there, the zone stops working for you after a few hours, if you stay there.”
“Dang, I was hoping we could abuse it somehow.” Amber said, pouting to underscore her displeasure in the matter.
“Yeah, if we had better bows, and got up on a roof, like that one of the bank over there, perhaps we could snipe it from there. But not from the safe zone, sadly.”
“But we don’t have anything other than this stupid goblin bow, I am still not comfortable with, and I doubt there is an easy way up to that roof anyway… hold on, is there someone up there?” Amber suddenly interrupted herself, pointing to the roof of the bank.
I squinted in an attempt to spot what she was talking about, and with her pointing it out, I saw it too.
Someone was clearly peeking over the edge of the concrete roof of the bank. I could not get a clear look at who or even eyüp escort what it was, as they were trying to not be too obvious about it, and if they had not been shifting slightly from time to time, we might never have noticed them at all.
“Yeah, well done spotting them. I sure hope they are not goblins waiting in ambush to snipe us, but better that we know they are there. Now if only we could get them to start some trouble, perhaps it would give us a chance. My spells are not that accurate at long range, and they would be a bit too obvious, so I don’t see how.”
While we were considering our options, one of the figures on the roof moved. Suddenly head and shoulders were clearly visible. It was no goblin. It was a guy. I could not see the details so clearly at the distance we were at, but there was no mistaking it. A guy in a dark hoodie, hood up, a tattered jacket on top. Reaching over the lip of the roof, he pointed a stick down at one of the places I knew goblins were hiding.
It was a surprise, but a welcome one, to see another human out and about in town. I had hoped the townies would wise up, but had seen no sign of it, until now.
Whoever this was, I wanted him to join our party!
Before I could finish that thought, blue light swirled into existence at the end of his stick, and shot down in a sudden flash towards where I knew a group of goblins were hiding.
Next, I heard the goblins shrieking something in their language, and they burst out from cover, like the devil was on their heels.
Apparently oblivious to the minotaur, they darted into the square, shrieking and flailing their arms, as if they were covered in bees.
Another zap of whatever that spell was, and the five goblins changed course slightly, and instead of heading straight for the minotaur, they were now going to pull away from him in a slight diagonal.
Unfortunately, their course change meant they were now heading more or less towards our position. With the passage we were hiding in being the only way out of the square in this general area, they would almost certainly have to come here, if they did not run blindly into the walls of the buildings instead.
Even in their panic, they seemed to navigate around cars and other obstacles just fine, so I held no hope they would not make a beeline straight to our position.
Worse, the minotaur was clearly taking offense at the goblin’s antics, so he was starting to give chase. Coming up behind them like a freight train, it was obvious he was much faster.
Not fast enough that he would not be on top of Amber and I, before he turned the last goblin into emerald paste.
Already he had caught up to the slowest goblin, and without pausing, swiped his large fist at the goblin, sending it reeling in front of him, then managed to gore him with his horns, flinging him into the air, before trampling him under his hoofs, leaving the goblin a bloody wreck, leaking his emerald blood on the ground.
“Shit! Amber, we have to move! I will try to draw him away. See if you can get inside the safe zone, and if not, meet up back at our hiding spot at the deli. Or back home, if the deli is not safe anymore!”
Already I was starting to move.
They would be on us in seconds, so there was no time to waste. Dragging Amber behind me with one hand, I started to push one of the large wheeled garbage containers to turn it, to better block the passage in front of us.
Kicking it, to get it into the path of the fleeing goblins, they tried to change direction and get around it.
I did not care about them.
One of them managed to scramble past me, the other one collided with the container. As it did, I focused my will, spoke the word, and cast my Magic Barrier spell.
The shimmering plane of energy coming into being just a fraction of an inch behind the container.
The goblin colliding with the container pushed it against my barrier, that then started to rob it of momentum.
The next second, there was what could almost be described as an explosion.
The minotaur had come up from behind, ramming into the goblin from behind, and rightfully expecting to smash right through it and the trash container, and anyone stupid enough to stand behind either.
With my barrier robbing the container of its momentum, what happened instead was that the container, unable to absorb the energy of the impact by moving with the blow, instead disintegrated into a cloud of plastic debris and whatever garbage it had contained.
The boom was deafening, and the garbage being flung everywhere obscured the vision of everyone there.
More importantly, the minotaur had been momentarily perplexed, and with a bit of luck I could use that to my advantage, and get away before he even knew I was there.
Dismissing the barrier, I turned and ran.
Amber was already out of sight, so I only had to make good my own escape.
Before I managed to get more than a few yards, almost enough to clear the passage between the buildings, I heard the stomps of the minotaurs’ cloven hoofs coming up from behind me.
His bowine roar made no secret of his displeasure, and I abandoned all stealth along with any hope I had that he would not give chase.
He would, and he was.
Not for the first time, I wished there was a stat for luck that I could pour some points into.
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