Chapter Twenty-Nine Crossing Paths

It was hard to say how long they had been walking since leaving the temple, but Hikari didn’t think it had been too long. She could sense the divine mana she needed for her new skills hadn’t recovered that much, but she’d yet to sleep either. Having had more time to think about this, she found herself brimming with curiosity, it wasn’t often that a man got to explore being a girl without consequences. A voice echoed in her mind, the voice of the goddess telling her that she’d be stuck if she became pregnant. Something that made her wonder, was she fully functional? Even in that sense? But if so why would that interfere with her transformation?

“Easy, your power comes from the Goddess of the Cycle, creation is part of her domain, which means fertility is part of her domain, fertility gods love babies and don’t take kindly to them being harmed. She’ll lock you in female form to protect the baby, once it’s born you should be able to flip back and forth again.”

Hikari blinked, “I asked that out loud didn’t I?”

Polca nodded, “You did.”

Eren interjected, “Um? Girls? We have company.”

Hikari shifted into a combat stance, just moments before the mentioned company arrived. They were hideous gnarled things, standing almost a meter tall, limbs too long, skin as grey as stone, glowing orange eyes and bat wings a size too small. “What the fuck are those things?”

“Trouble, that’s what. Watch their claws, those things are toxic.”

“Uh, right,” said Hikari. Unsure of how she would fight. She didn’t know any spells, and her experience using a staff wasn’t the greatest. Hikari didn’t have a sword, but she might try form switching. Only if she did that she wouldn’t be able to use her healing spell, but if she had to use it, she’d be stuck as a girl for a while. The thought of spending the night as a girl made her pause. 

She took a breath and steadied herself as Eren intercepted the first monster. She danced out of the way of its clumsy strike before stepping inside its guard. Two quick stabs with her daggers to the chest and the monster fell. The others shrieked and ran forward. Polca unleashed her first spell, numerous bolts of ice rained out, catching six of the things.

The shards of ice tore through flesh and bone, sending dark blood flying as forms crumpled. Eren intercepted two more in a lovely dance of blades that sent her skirt fluttering as her tail swished elegantly behind her. One of them came at Hikari and she reacted, her staff moved in a flash and slammed the creature over the head, there was a sickening crunch and the foul form crumpled.

As suddenly as the battle had started it was over, leaving a fair number of mangled corpses behind. “What were these things?”

“Vakori,” said Polca as she started arranging the corpses, “They are pack monsters native to the Underdark. Nasty predators, but not very strong. Aside from their toxic claws and tendency to move in packs, they wouldn’t be that dangerous.”

Eren commented, “Good hunting, terrible eating but alchemists love their blood, claws and eyes.”

“Huh, interesting,” said Hikari, “Does that mean you’ve hunted a few before?”

“A few,” said Eren.

They spent the next few minutes cleaning up before moving on. It wasn’t much longer before they saw daylight. Hikari picked up the pace and soon emerged right in the middle of a camp.

The first person to catch her eye was a familiar female mage barely a hundred and thirty-five centimeters tall which made them about the same height. The girl was cleaning up something when she looked up. “Polca?”

Polca stepped around him. “Um, hey Arlie, fancy meeting you like this.” She frowned, “Why are you camped here?”

Arlie sighed, “I don’t really know, a damn dragon dragged me all the way out here. Never told me why, what about you? What took you into the Underdark?”

________________

Sometime later the group was settled around the campfire, not that it was lit. With the sun up they didn’t need heat or light, and no one was preparing a meal. There was nothing but smoldering embers in the pit. Arlie shifted a little, a frown on her cute face, “A Soul Snatcher? Here?”

Polca sighed, “Unfortunately, and the Goddess said we would need you to kill it.”

Hikari nodded, “Which makes this so strange that you would be here.”

Arlie sighed, “So that’s why the dragon dragged us out here.” Then she shifted subjects, “On a different note, I must say you make a very cute girl. Hard to believe the lanky guy I met the other day turned into you.”

Hikari didn’t know what to say. Polca interjected, “That aside, we need to locate Kuon and make a plan to deal..”

A voice suddenly interjected, “No, no you don’t.”

Hikari looked over to see a large female figure emerge from one of the tents. She was pretty with red skin, and horns. Her rack was huge though, easily the largest pair she’d ever seen. Hikari had decently sized ones, Arlie was fairly blessed, maybe a D if barely, but this girl? Hikari didn’t know what letter would describe boobs that big. They were bigger than her head. She was distinctive enough that Hikari would have remembered her, but she’d never seen this girl.

“You know where he is?”

The girl burst into laughter, “Sure do, you’re looking at her.”

Polca spoke up, “Finally out of your armor are we? How’d you get here?”

Kuon sighed, “Long story short? Well the river pulled me down deep before I could activate my enchantments. Then, just as I was about to surface again, a damn River Kraken found me. I managed to escape by cutting a tentacle, but not before it hurt me. Next thing I knew I washed up here and Lady Contrey’s party patched me up. My armor could use some repairs though.”

Horon cut in from the side, “Give me a couple of days and I can do that. Shouldn’t be too hard, mostly just dents. I did manage to fix up your shield already, that was easier.”

Kuon smiled, “Thank you, it’s not easy to get repairs in the field.”

Horon came over, shield in hand, “Well I am a blacksmith, technically an Apprentice, but if I wanted to I could open my own shop. I won’t of course, I’m slated to inherit my father’s shop when he retires in a few years. My father put some paperwork in with the guild, but it hadn’t come through. In the meantime, I figured I’d travel with Arlie and get some experience as an unofficial Journeyman in the trade.”

“Lucky me, then.”

Kuon settled into a chair, and Polca drove things back, “Right the Goddess of the Cycle said we’d need your firepower to kill it. I’m guessing you’re the only mage in the area with a siege spell strong enough to pierce the bark.”

Arlie blushed deeply and started scratching her head, “About that...”

“What’s a siege spell?” inquired Hikari?

Arlie and Polca both tried answering at once, stopped, shared looks, then Arlie spoke first. “Pretty much what they sound like. They are spells intended for use in a siege. They prioritize firepower over anything else, and are typically ranked as Advanced magic. As a High Mage I know and can use one, it was the spell I studied to get my ranking as a High Mage.”

Polca interjected, “I studied and mastered Frost Storm for my promotion to High Mage. Unfortunately, it’s not exactly the kind of spell that would do much to a Soul Snatcher, it’s better suited against an army.”

“The spell I studied was Solar Burst,” said Arlie blushing again, “But I don’t think the goddess was talking about that one.”

“No, she was talking about the skill I just taught you to use,” said a new voice.

Hikari looked over and blushed. A lovely and entirely naked lady was standing right there. Her figure was incredible, and she had the bearing of a divine monarch, the silky black hair cascading down her back, the regal face and the silver crown upon her head only helped that impression. The sapphires dotting her silver crown only seemed to bring out the color in her piercing azure eyes. A dusting of scales dotted her cheeks, giving her face just a touch of the exotic.

Lovely feather-scaled wings spread from her back, and a long sinuous tail swayed slowly behind her, armored in silvery scales imbued with hues that reminded him of the famed Northern Lights. More scales ran up her arms and legs, forming the impression of gloves and long socks. A dusting of scales dotted her large fleshy pussy. Her belly was coated in a dusting of scales that formed a pattern that could only be described as alluring while the scales across her chest formed the impression of a bra trying to support her large gravity defying bust, yet did nothing to cover her fat nipples or the inviting pink areolas that surrounded them. Hikari just stared at her for a moment, no words coming to mind as her brain just crashed.

Arlie slumped, “You’re still here?”

“Only for a moment. I’ll be on my way soon.”

Polca cocked her head, “You learned something from a dragon? Why aren’t you thrilled?”

Arlie gave her a look, “You want to be her student? Good luck, I’ll go ahead and get your tombstone made.”

Polca blanched, “It can’t be that bad?”

Arlie, and the twins exclaimed at once, “It’s worse!”

Aurora giggled, “Glad I made an impression.”

Polca shifted, “Right, speaking of teaching, Hikari here is in need of some lessons. The Goddess said she’d be able to use magic, but right now she doesn’t know even the basics.”

Arlie frowned, “Well, I’ll keep that in mind. I don’t think we can teach her any spells before we challenge the Soul Snatcher.”

Polca nodded, “I figured it would be tough. I started learning around five years old, and my mother didn’t let me cast a spell till I was eight.”

“My aunties started teaching me around the same time as well, didn’t get to cast a spell till I was seven.”

Hikari, catching that, slumped a little. “Two to three years!? Just to learn one spell?”

Aurora sat down next to her, “I doubt it would take you that long. They had to spend years studying and not just basic magic theory. You have your knowledge from Earth, that gives you something to build on, now you just need to learn the basic theory, then you’d be able to build a spell.”

Arlie blinked, “Just theory? Hmm that’s easy enough.”

Polca shifted, “We might have enough time for a lesson.”

Horon stood up, “You two can start teaching her, I’ll get started on striking camp.”

Thron interjected, “I’ll help.”

The twins inquired, “Um, first does anyone know where the Soul Snatcher is from here?”

Aurora dropped a map into Arlie’s hand, “I did you a favor.”

Arlie frowned, “So what are you going to do?”

“While you’re dealing with the Soul Snatcher. I’ll be hunting a Lesser Abyssal, it slipped out of the Abyss a week ago and I’ve finally got a bead on it. Speaking of, bye!”

The dragon girl flew off, shifting back into a dragon moments later. Arlie was just glad she didn’t have to deal with the Abyssal, those things were nasty. Instead she turned to Hikari, “Alright, why don’t we get started on your first lesson?”

Hikari nodded and Polca interjected, “Then let’s get started on the very first lesson a mage must know, what is mana?”