TDH Vol. 1 pt. 36

Elanah let me lead the charge against the beasts so that I could properly test out my new weapon. She didn’t want me to head into the boss fight while I had no idea how to use the sword.

And surely enough, the sword destroyed the first goblo I swung it into. The goblo tried raising its wooden shield to block my attack, but the sword completely shattered the shield, audibly broke its arm behind the shield, and still had enough momentum to hit its side and send it flying to the ground.

The downside was how absolutely exhausting it was to use the sword like that. I had jumped up and swung it, and I already felt like I was out of energy after doing that.

Fortunately, Elanah was there to back me up. She dealt with the two rats about to jump me by taking each out with her void spikes to their heads. By the time they were dealt with, I had managed to lift the sword back up and used it to block the sword from the next goblo.

The goblo’s sword broke against my own. A shard of metal from its sword cut me right behind my nose. I got lucky since just a little bit of a directional change could have allowed that shard to fly right into my eye.

I was about to swing at the goblo… when a spike of void magic flew straight into its chest and then collapsed, bringing its surrounding chest with it.

“How dare you hurt my Woofen?!” Elanah shouted at it.

Yeah, I should have expected that.

There was still one goblo left at least. Well, one goblo that wasn’t already basically dead and having more and more of those spikes shot into its body despite already being out of action.

I swept the sword into the goblo’s legs to knock it over with ease. The next part was kind of awkward because of how I had to position my head, but I turned my head to the left to lift the sword and then turned it to the right as quickly as I could to swing it down into the goblo’s body.

Needless to say, the goblo died.

All that was left was putting the first goblo out of its misery at that point. Once I was done with that, our first battle against five enemies at once was over… and it was far easier than I thought it would be thanks to the sword.

This sword… is impressive. Seriously impressive.

Going up against them without the sword would have been difficult. The only reason I felt confident enough to charge into them was because of the sword. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to break through that one goblo’s shield or the other’s sword. I probably would have died in no time without it, even with Elanah backing me up.

And while on the topic of Elanah, she ran up to me as soon as the battle was over and picked me up to cradle me against her chest. “That—that bastard! He cut you!”

It wasn’t really his fault. I don’t think he intentionally made that sword fragment cut me.

“I wish he wasn’t just a beast so that I could make him suffer. It’s not fair that he couldn’t even feel any pain after what he did to you.”

Why do I feel relieved for something that was trying to kill me?

“I’m sorry, Woofen. I should have been more careful. Wait! I have an idea.”

What?

Elanah lifted me up closer to her face…

And licked me.

She didn’t just lick me, but she licked my cut.

All I could do was hang there as she held me, staring blanky ahead at her, as she licked my wound.

I felt so… violated.

Out of everything she ever did to me, despite everything else she used her mouth for on my body, she never made me feel more violated than when she licked my cut.

“There, I cleaned it!” Elanah said, pulling her face away from my own. She had a bit of my blood next to her lips. “I’ve heard that licking cuts can help them heal faster!”

I’ve heard people say that beasts do it for that reason… but I’ve never heard of anybody saying anything about a Chosen doing it. Then again, you’re not just a Chosen, so maybe it could actually do something? But at the same time… please never lick my bloody wound in front of everybody ever again.

“Ehe… even… even my fated’s blood tastes good. B-but don’t worry! It’s not like I’ll ever hurt you so I can taste it again or anything! And I never want you to bleed! I promise! It’s just… if you ever do bleed… I’ll make sure to lick it so that nothing goes to waste… okay?”

You’re insane! Seriously insane! But at the same time, I have to admit I love how willing you are to use your mouth on me no matter what the circumstances are. But still, you’re insane!

After the bleeding incident, we continued along until we finally came to the boss’s room on the fifth floor. Thankfully, she calmed down by then and was able to focus on the upcoming battle.

“Alright,” Elanah said, taking a deep breath as we stood before the door to Cheese’s chamber. “Are you ready, Woofen?” She actually sounded a little nervous for the first time. Maybe it was because we were going up against an actual being with a soul that was going to be enhanced not only because it was no longer our first time fighting her, but because we were together, too.

From my understanding, bosses got stronger each time they were fought. They wouldn’t use experiences gathered from fighting others when fighting somebody else. If Person A fought Cheese twice, Cheese would use the knowledge from the first fight against Person A in the second fight. But when fighting Person B for the first time, Cheese wouldn’t have any knowledge whatsoever of any other fights.

Elanah fought Cheese multiple times before. I fought Cheese once. Since we were together, I was pretty sure that meant Cheese would be fighting with all the knowledge gained from fighting both of us before. Then when including the fact that we were together, she’d get boosted to make sure that things are even more challenging than usual.

Well, I guess it wasn’t like she’d really be boosted. It was more like she’d be held back less. It was my understanding that she could probably easily kill everybody who tries going through the dungeon if she were allowed to fight at her full strength. She didn’t need any boosts.

“All you have to do is survive. Don’t worry about attacking her or anything. I’ll handle all of the offense while you focus on the defense and surviving. Okay?” Elanah said.

I wasn’t a big fan of that since it sounded like she’d be doing most of the work but, when I remembered that I’d be in a situation where I could easily die at any moment if I made even a tiny mistake, I realized it wasn’t like Elanah would be doing more work or anything like that.

Different types of work, but equal amounts of work.

I had to survive and she had to kill Cheese before I died.

I also needed to try and keep Cheese’s attention or else she’d just go after Elanah. Even if I only had some simple armor, it was still better than the plain clothes Elanah had on.

But what if she ignored me and went after Elanah? I was barely able to keep up with Cheese before and that was when I was faster. Now, Cheese was probably going to be faster than before and I was significantly slower than before. It wouldn’t be a problem for Cheese to just ignore me and focus on Elanah first.

I’m not sure this is going to work. I might need Elanah to try and stay behind me to use me as a shield… but I’m not sure if she’d do that, and I have no way of telling her to do that. But if she doesn’t stay behind me, Cheese can ignore me and go after her. Even if she does stay behind me, Cheese can probably just jump over me or go around me.

I understood why Elanah actually sounded nervous. Though, I had to remind myself that she was smart and capable all on her own. She probably had all the same concerns that I did. More importantly, I felt her scratch between my ears. “Your tail and ears look worried,” she said. “It’s okay, Woofen. We’ve got this.”

Thanks. It doesn’t convince me that we’ve got this, but I appreciate the try.

“Let’s go. Oh, wait! If—if I do good, you’ll spoil me, won’t you? You’ll give me lots of licks and kisses and let me pet you and cuddle you and sniff your paws, right?”

I stared straight up at her.

“Ehehe… just thinking about it is getting me excited.” She rubbed her thighs together. “Maybe if I do extra good… you’ll lick me all over. Ehehe, Woofen’s tongue all over my body… you can lick me all over before marking me all over, okay? Maybe you’ll even get something from the chest that gives you more energy, or makes you faster or stronger, so you can be even more amazing when you put it in me… I’ll accept all of you no matter how you treat me, Woofen. You can use my body as hard as you want. You can break my mind, body, and soul.” She brought her hands up to her cheeks, smiling as she looked down at me with lustful eyes. “I want you to break me to the point where it’s impossible for my body to live without you. My soul already feels that way, but you have to break the rest of me now.” Her heavy breathing was honestly more creepy than arousing. “Okay?”

As tempted as part of me was to run away and hide, the other, more horny part of me couldn’t say no to any of that. Plus I figured that she would do even better in the fight if I gave her something to look forward to. So, I nodded.

Elanah moaned as her entire body twitched a little. “A-ah… I… I got so excited that I—”

That you what?! Don’t tell me you just—seriously, woman?! Seriously?! How?!

“If I think about it any more then I’m going to… even more… o-okay!” Elanah slapped her hands against her cheeks to refocus. “I’m okay. I feel fine.”

There’s nothing fine about you. I like you. I appreciate you. Your body is great. But there is nothing fine about any of this. That being said, please keep on being not fine.

Elanah sighed after calming down and looked at me with a much softer, less creepy smile.

I had to admit that I felt better about the whole thing, too. There was something about Elanah still being—well, Elanah, that relaxed me.

Not to mention that it gave me something to look forward to. It wasn’t like Elanah was alone in wanting post-battle, celebratory fun. I wanted to do everything to her that she wanted me to do to her. Just, I wouldn’t word it in such an obsessive way while breathing that creepily.

Probably.

Actually, I wasn’t sure. It was possible that I would and that I wouldn’t even realize it. After all, Elanah probably didn’t think she came off as a creepy, obsessed pervert. She probably thought she was fine and normal.

What if I was actually some creepy, obsessed pervert and I didn’t even realize it?

I shook the thought out of my head before I could make myself potentially face any uncomfortable truths.

It was time to fight Cheese.

So, I placed my paw on the door which prompted them to open on their own, revealing the same room as before with Cheese in the center of it.

All it took was a single look at her to know that something was different—to know that she was stronger than before. The increase in power had to be significant to actually feel it just from looking at her.

“This… is the first time I’ve felt this presence from her,” Elanah said. “I’ve felt it from the bosses after her, but never her.”

Great, so doesn’t that mean she’s even stronger than the later bosses right now? And if that’s the case, doesn’t that also mean those other bosses are also going to be even stronger?

We stepped into the room together. As soon as we were clear of the door, it shut behind us and Cheese was ready to begin.

She didn’t waste any time getting the fight started.

It also looked like Cheese already knew Elanah was the higher value target since she charged straight at her.

You’ll have to get through me first!

I met Cheese head on, placing myself between them while swinging the sword I held between my fangs. It crashed into her fangs with all of its enhanced force… and didn’t even crack them.

Seriously?! Just how much stronger are her fangs?! How is this even fair?! Her entire body is stronger!

The good news was that, even though I failed to damage her teeth at all, there was enough force in my attack to cancel out her momentum. She was stopped in her tracks, and I bought Elanah a chance to shoot one of her void spikes right into Cheese’s neck.

That kind of thing would normally mean the battle was already over.

Except, apparently, Cheese had some sort of resistance against magic now. The void spike failed to penetrate past a couple of inches into her neck and barely did anything when it collapsed into itself. That kind of attack would normally go right through somebody’s neck.

This is going to be even harder than I thought. Seriously harder.

Even so, it was damage. We hurt her before she could hurt either of us. That was something at least.

Unfortunately, Cheese was smart.

She kept her focus on me, but she didn’t just wildly swing her teeth at me like I was kind of hoping she would. Instead, she lifted her head up and then swung it downward to slam her teeth against the blade of my sword… knocking it out of my mouth. She then immediately followed up by turning her head and swinging it back toward me, tossing me away by crashing her teeth into the side of my body.

“Woofen!” Elanah shouted as I was sent flying across the room.

Seriously unfair!

Tanking just wasn’t going to work. I wasn’t able to keep a strong enough grip on the sword to handle that kind of combat. If I tried holding it any tighter than I was, she probably would have broken every tooth in my mouth when she knocked the sword out of it. Not to mention that given how small my body was, I couldn’t handle making any mistakes. I was pretty sure that she broke one of my ribs just from slamming into my side with her teeth.

Thankfully, the leather armor protected me when I landed on my side and slid across the rough ground. It wasn’t completely useless against her like I thought it would be. Not to mention that she probably would have cut me, even if slightly, if I didn’t have it.

But it still hurts, damn it.

With me knocked out of the way, Cheese was able to focus on Elanah. All Elanah could do was try to keep distance between them, repeatedly creating daggers with her magic to throw at Cheese to distract her with. Cheese slowed down every single time she had to dodge, but I noticed a problem. The more rapidly Elanah produced those daggers, the weaker and smaller they were.

I needed to get in there and try to distract Cheese again to give Elanah a chance to recover her energy.

Honestly, as great as the sword was, it just wasn’t a smart choice. Too heavy, too awkward to swing, too…

I think I have an idea.

Cheese was faster and stronger. I wouldn’t be able to effectively use the sword against her. It would have been good for defending myself… if I could keep a grip on it, but I couldn’t.

Even so, I doubted that Cheese wanted me to get my fangs back on it. It was still a weapon that could be used against her. So, in that case, all I had to do was trick her into thinking that I wanted it.

As much as my chest hurt, I ran back to the sword as fast as I could. Surely enough, as soon as Cheese noticed me going for it, she swapped her attention from Elanah to me to try and cut me off.

Cheese might have been more powerful due to there being two of us, but we still had an advantage over her. She couldn’t deal with each of us at the same time.

Originally, I thought that we’d do best if Elanah stayed behind me so that I could protect her from Cheese, but that was wrong. It was better to split up. Whoever wasn’t being focused on could find a way to deal with Cheese or get a chance to rest.

She’s fought against Elanah. She’s fought against me. She’s never fought against us at the same time. That means she shouldn’t have any experience fighting multiple opponents at the same time, right? So she won’t know how to deal with both of us. She’s definitely got experience fighting multiple enemies, but that’s locked away right now, so she’s never done this before as far as she’s concerned.

Realizing that helped me calm down a little. Sure, she was more powerful, but she was also clueless about how to fight us at the same time.

She was also a beast—well, a soul beast. That meant she still had the instincts of a beast in her even if she had intelligence now.

And exploiting those instincts was something I learned how to do fighting the other beasts in the dungeon.

Wait. That asshole from before shouted something at me. He swung the sword and was trying to say something during it… and I remember the blade starting to glow while he did it. What was he even trying to say? Awake something? He didn’t sound like he was done saying it, so maybe… awaken? What would have happened if he finished saying it? Would it even count if I try barking it? Maybe there’s more to that sword than I realized. But getting my fangs back on it is going to be hard. Seriously hard. But I need to—

“Don’t you think you’ve spent too long looking at my fated?” Elanah asked, wielding two daggers made from her magic. They looked more curved than usual, like they were made for actual wielding rather than throwing. “I’m the only one allowed to admire him for that long.”

I don’t think she’s admiring me. Also, what happened to sharing me?

“Are you just going to stand there all day or fight us?”

Cheese looked down at the sword, up at me, and then back at Elanah. She might have had the instincts of a beast still, but she also had the ego of—well, any living being. And that ego was just attacked. So, she must have determined that I wasn’t a threat worth worrying about even if I had the sword and turned around to go after Elanah again.

Elanah looked straight at me and gave me a slight nod.

She was trying to get the sword back to me.

You’re seriously great. I promise to lick you as much as you want after this. Just… not anywhere private while we’re being watched, alright?