TDH Vol. 1 pt. 37

The boss swung her fangs at Elanah. Despite those daggers Elanah made being made out of void magic, Cheese’s fangs somehow resisted being erased from existence as they clashed against the daggers. She even managed to push Elanah back.

More importantly, that bought me the time I needed to go and pick up the sword again.

That bastard sounded like he wasn’t done talking. Like “awake” was only part of what he was going to say. Was he going to say another word after it? If he was, I have no way of guessing what it might have been. But unless he had experience or some extra knowledge about the sword… I doubt that he would have known what came after that, either. But that’s assuming what he was saying was somehow tied to the sword. What if he had magic? What if he was saying something that would trigger magic to enhance the sword? If that’s the case then I won’t be able to do whatever he was going to do. So, going with the only possible logic that would let me still potentially do whatever he was going to do, he was only going to say one word. Awake. Or maybe… awaken? Swinging a sword while telling it to awaken sounds better than swinging a sword and telling it to awake. Plus he did say awake and nothing happened. So, “awaken” is my best option… assuming that talking in beast works. Barking in beast.

I reached the sword and picked it up between my fangs just in time to look over and see Cheese swipe her head against the side of Elanah’s left leg. The blow knocked her over which gave Cheese the opportunity to climb on top of her, thrusting her fangs down toward Elanah.

Elanah had no option other than to desperately try and avoid the attacks. All she could do was twist and move her torso from right to left to avoid Cheese’s fangs.

But she wasn’t going to last forever doing that. Especially since Cheese was smart and realized she would have better luck pressing her fangs down against the ground and then sliding them toward Elanah’s neck. There was no way for Elanah to dodge that. All she could do was hold up a single dagger, since her other arm was pinned, and press it against the side of the nearest fang to try and stop its approach.

Those fangs were sharp enough that they’d be able to cut into her neck even without much force. They probably wouldn’t be able to go through the bone, but they wouldn’t need to.

I didn’t have much time.

But there was a problem. Given my small size and the weight of the sword, swinging it to attack was going to be awkward. Using it for defense worked fine, but I wouldn’t be able to swing my head hard enough while holding it to do any serious damage to her. If I could have held it in such a way that the handle of the sword was going into my throat and I was holding the sword sticking out in front of me, I could try thrusting the blade into her side, but I would probably do more damage to my throat and neck than her by doing that. Though, I could always try turning my head and stabbing the sword into her that way, but I felt like that still wouldn’t be enough.

To really make use of the sword would be to swing it from above to make use of all that extra weight it had.

Then I spotted one of those cracks in the floor and had an idea.

There was another crack near where Cheese and Elanah were that was just close enough for my idea to work. I ran toward it at full speed despite how much pain I was in from that broken rib, turned my head to stab the sword’s tip into the crack, and catapulted myself upward and toward Cheese while bringing the sword with me.

I needed to twist my body around in the air to bring the sword above me. I felt like my neck was going to snap at any second from how much I was relying on it to carry the sword and rotate my body while holding it.

But my plan worked.

I was above Cheese, in the air, rapidly being pulled back down by gravity with the sword in a swinging motion toward her back.

I had no idea what I was doing, but I figured it was a worth a shot and barked, “Awaken!”

I also needed to hope that the sword could understand me given how muffled my bark was due to holding it in my mouth.

Fortunately, it did.

And I was proven right with my theory as a brownish glow surrounded the sword’s blade.

That was when the sword suddenly felt about ten times heavier than before. Me and the sword dropped to the ground in an instant with enough force for the blade to shatter the ground. All that force traveled through the blade into my body like a shockwave of vibrating pain that made my entire body hurt, and it even managed to break a couple of my teeth.

But then I felt something wash all over me.

And that something was blood from the side of Cheese’s body being cut wide open over the blade.

I missed her spine, which was unfortunate, but I managed to cut such a massive gash into her side that there was no way she’d be alive for much longer. It was even large enough for some of her organs to spill out through it, which made me seriously feel bad for her. Sure, we were fighting to the death, but she was a living being and basically just doing her job.

At least the adrenaline helped stop me from throwing up since I probably would have from the sight without it.

As Cheese cried out in pain, she swung her body around to swing her fangs at me only to lose balance and fall down. That gave Elanah the chance to get up, summon two new daggers, and thrust them into Cheese’s back. The boss’s body may have been extra resistant to magic, but Elanah’s daggers still erased around that they thrust through. From what I could tell, that included part of Cheese’s spine.

Elanah made sure that Cheese wasn’t going to suffer for long by going for her head next. While blood from the previous wound squirted out from Cheese and onto Elanah, Elanah stabbed her daggers right through Cheese’s skull to finish her off and spare her from any unnecessary suffering.

And just like that, the battle was won. We were safe, Cheese was temporarily dead, and the victory chest appeared in the center of the room.

Both me and Elanah fell onto our backs to rest for a moment after that.

This sword… is awesome. Seriously awesome. I mean, the kick from using that “awaken” thing hurts and makes me feel like my body wants to slide off of its bones, but maybe it won’t be too bad if I let go of it right after saying it next time. Ah… shit. This hurts.

I was expecting to get to rest for a few more moments at least, but then I heard Elanah get up and walk my way.

“Woofen… I’m ready for my licks,” Elanah said, approaching me with eyes full of lust and a face covered in blood. Well, the rest of her was covered in blood, too, but it was the face covered in blood that really made her look just that extra bit of insane.

That aside, I knew I mentally promised her that I would lick her once the fight was over, but how did she know that? Well, I did nod before the battle that I would lick her if she did good. Yeah, that was probably what she was referencing.

Right?

“I had this feeling while fighting that you were thinking about licking me, and it was true, wasn’t it?” Elanah asked as she approached me like some sort of predator, one hand beginning to lift her shirt up while her other hand grabbed the top of her pants to slightly push them down.

Did you read my mind or something?! Since when do you have that power?! How does that make any sense?! You can’t just get a feeling that I was thinking about licking you! What other thoughts can you read?! Can you read what I’m thinking right now?! Also, can’t you give me a chance to rest?! I’m in pain here!

“Neither of us really care if anybody is watching, right?”

That’s not what I’m thinking at all! And I do care! My parents could be watching! And there are children watching! I’ll lick you as much as you want, but when we’ve got some privacy! I mean, I can give you normal licks, but not the kind of licks that require you taking your clothes off!

“You were just thinking of licking me again, weren’t you?”

Why is that the only time you can ever guess what I’m thinking?!

“Ah… I’m so lucky that my fated loves me so much…”

I had to distract her before we tainted the minds of children everywhere. She was getting way too excited. If her words and expression weren’t clear enough signs of that, then the way she rubbed her thighs together and twitched every now and then made it beyond obvious.

That was why I ran up to the chest and placed my paw on it despite how much pain I was in, causing it to fall over and open up for me. A single ring rolled out of it and stopped right in front of me. And when I looked at the ring… I had to pause for a moment from just how incredibly beautiful it was. A brilliant diamond sat atop a golden band that was decorated with smaller diamonds spiraling around the main one.

I remembered my mom telling me to never give a woman a diamond. That was all I ever knew about them since one of our neighbors got his wife a diamond ring for their marriage ceremony. As my mom explained, diamonds were a waste of money that only looked pretty and didn’t do anything else. The money the neighbor spent on the ring could have been spent expanding their house to nearly twice the size that it was. Or it could have been spent on better tools to help with their farm, some technology from the city to improve their general quality of life, or even just some fun things to entertain themselves with from the city.

Instead, the neighbor’s money was spent on a ring. It was a ring that made his wife extremely happy, which my father argued was more important than those other things while citing the “a happy wife is a happy life” line. That was, of course, retorted by my mom saying that a bigger house and new tools would make her happy, at which point she got my dad to agree with her that diamond rings were stupid after all. Pretty but stupid, thus pointless.

But it was remembering all of that which made me worried.

I couldn’t wear rings. Well, it was probably possible to draw and wiggle it onto one of my toes, maybe, but the obvious thing to do was to let Elanah use it instead.

The obvious thing to do… was to give Elanah a beautiful ring that was usually only ever used in marriage ceremonies.

Was I jumping to conclusions about how Elanah was going to react to the act of me letting her have a ring?

No.

No I was not.

Because anybody who even barely knew Elanah should have been able to predict exactly how she was going to react.

Hey… dungeon master. That wasn’t just some random reward, was it? You know what she’s like. You know how she’s going to react. You set me up for your own entertainment, didn’t you? You seriously did, didn’t you?!

I looked up at Elanah, afraid of what I was going to see. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what sort of thoughts must have been racing through her mind when she saw what was basically a wedding ring on the floor between us.

Surely enough, she was crying.

Yet she looked anything but happy.

Elanah wiped her arm over her face to get rid of the tears before closing her eyes and sighing. “Sorry, Woofen, but… that killed the mood. We can… save the licking for later, alright?”

Wait. Seriously? I’ve never heard her sound so… depressed? This is Elanah we’re talking about. Shouldn’t she be crying from happiness and stripping all her clothes off?

“What a cruel reward… but I’m not stupid enough to turn down an item in the dungeon, and you can’t wear rings.” Elanah reached down to pick the ring up but hesitated, her hand shaking just above it.

I desperately wanted to ask her what was wrong, but I couldn’t.

She forced herself to pick up the ring and slipped it onto her right ring finger. The moment it was secure on her finger, a barrier of light surrounded her for a moment before disappearing.

“If the ring’s effect wasn’t any good then I might have been able to justify throwing it away… but giving a barrier is too good to pass up.” Elanah sighed. “Sorry, Woofen. I don’t want you to see me all mopey… but we have to stay together. Um, if it’s not too much to ask for… do you think you can forget seeing me like this later? I don’t want you to think I’m a bother or anything. You deserve to only see me when I’m happy, so it would—”

No amount of pain I was in could stop me from doing what I was about to do. The overwhelming urge to act was far too powerful to stop me.

I jumped up at her and pressed my paws against her chest, knocking her over onto her back. I then stood on top of her and barked down at her, “What kind of stupid bullshit are you saying?! You love me, don’t you? That means you should feel comfortable enough around me to say whatever you want! And we’re talking about you here! Since when do you hold anything back?! It doesn’t matter whether you’re happy or horny, you always make sure I know exactly how you feel, so I’m going to expect you to do that even when you feel sad! You understand that? I’m serious here! My dad’s friend killed himself after never sharing how he felt with anybody because he thought he’d just be a bother to them, so if you ever think for a single second that you’re a bother, I’m going to… damn it, I don’t know what I’ll do, but I’ll force you to be honest somehow!”

Her words brought back the memories of my dad’s friend so vividly that it was as if they just happened. I remembered everybody crying and wishing that they could have been there for him. All the feelings that he left on his note were never shared with anybody. And maybe if they were, he never would have killed himself in the first place.

I didn’t think that Elanah was on the verge of killing herself or anything. I honestly doubted that she would ever do that as long as she had me, as arrogant as it might have been to think that. I was probably overreacting.

But I knew what path repressing such feelings led people down. I didn’t want her to ever feel the need to hide anything from me. Heck, I didn’t care if it was some random person on the street. If they needed somebody to talk to about their feelings, I wanted to be there for them. I didn’t want anybody to go through what my dad’s friend went through. I didn’t want anybody who cared about them to go through the aftermath of that, either.

“Woofen, you’re… scolding me, aren’t you?” Elanah asked, starting to tear up again.

I nodded and got closer to lick her cheek. “Even if I wasn’t your fated, I still wouldn’t want you to hide anything from me. And especially because I’m your fated, you’re not allowed to hide anything from me.”

I jumped off of her and walked over to the finger she put the ring on. We didn’t need it if it was going to cause her grief. I would rather be stupid and get rid of a useful item then force her to wear something that made her sad. So, I reached forward to bite the ring and—

Elanah pulled her hand away, shaking her head. “It’s okay. I… I appreciate it, but… I’ll keep it. If we want to get through the dungeon together then we need to use everything we can, no matter how it makes us feel. Then we can be happy together for the rest of our lives once we’re out. So… no matter how many painful memories this brings back, I’m going to keep it.” She secured the ring on her finger again since I loosened it a little. “And… I have to guess here, but… are you mad about what I said?”

I nodded.

“Is it because I’m sad?”

I shook my head as hard as I could.

“Ehe… sorry, I—I knew you wouldn’t say it was. Um… are you mad that I… wanted to hide it from you?”

I nodded my head as hard as I could that time.

“He-hey… be careful. I don’t want you hurting your neck.”

Too late.

“So… is—is it okay if I don’t always act happy around you? Is it okay if I feel sad sometimes? You won’t think I’m annoying or anything? Will you… still want to be with me?”

What kind of stupid questions are these, woman? Seriously, I swear…

I nodded, albeit a bit slower than before due to making my neck sore.

“Then… is it okay if I talk to you about what happened? Not… not right now. We have to keep going, and… I don’t want to talk about it in front of everybody. But when it’s just the two of us… I’ll talk about it. Is that okay?”

Obviously.

And also obviously, I nodded.

“Even if it makes me depressed again… it’ll be alright?”

And for the last time, I nodded. Then I walked up to her and licked her thigh since it was the closest part of her to lick. I couldn’t even get excited about licking her thigh since I just wanted to make her feel better.

“I don’t deserve you, Woofen. I’m so happy you’re my fated…”

“I’m just doing what anybody should be willing to do,” I barked. “We’ve all got to look out for each other. I’ll bite anybody who gets mad at you for being sad. Understand?”

“Yeah… I do.”

“Wait. You do? You understood me?”

“You’re right… if I let all of the tears out, I’ll get to be happy again sooner, and then we can go back to licking each other and joining our bodies together.”

“That’s not what I—! Screw it. Yeah. Alright. Let all your tears out so that you can be happy again and then we can ruin everybody’s innocence.”

Elanah lifted me up and held me in front of her face so that she could kiss my nose. “Ehehe… your nose is always so wet. And thanks, Woofen. I already feel better. Ready to keep going?”

I leaned forward to lick her cheek before nodding.

Elanah showed me the kindest, softest smile I had ever seen from her yet before setting me down and standing up. “Alright. I feel motivated. Plus… killing the dungeon’s beasts is like taking revenge out on the core for giving us that ring, right?”

“Sounds like good enough logic to me,” I barked and nodded.

“Then that motivates me even more to tear through them all. Let’s go, Woofen.”

I spared my neck any more pain by not nodding again and instead just following after her.

Then I remembered that I broke a rib during that fight. Or well, something inside my chest broke, and it hurt. It seriously hurt. Not to mention that my entire body still felt sore from the sword. And my neck hurt. And some of my teeth broke.

But I did my best to keep up with her despite that. After all, the sooner we made it through the dungeon, the sooner I could get out and get healed.

Or the sooner we died, the sooner I could be revived and get healed.

Either option sounded preferrable to taking our time and dealing with all that pain.

Then I remembered the sword. Elanah was already going down the stairs to the next floor, so I had to run back and pick up the sword again.

Between the pain in my chest and my neck, carrying around a heavy sword wasn’t fun. It seriously wasn’t fun.

But if Elanah had to deal with her own pain from that ring, then I could deal with the pain of carrying the sword around.

I was just going to mentally complain about how much pain I was in. A lot.