Champion of the Goddess Pt. 02

He headed back quietly and he escaped into the woods with Jewels. They left the horses. They scouted ahead and found the nest. He dismissed the raven. They snuck away to their horses. "I will be right back and you have your bow ready."

She nodded, "We are going to fight a dragon?"

He looked at her, "Do you think our Paladin will succeed at working diplomacy on it?"

She shook her head. He rode back to the group, "Blossom this encounter is over the top. Do you have a strategy to deal with a dragon?"

She shook her head, He sighed, "Unhook the first two horse from your team and clear all gear out of this wagon. All horses and melee only people into the woods.

We have a green dragon! Who is the beefiest fucker for taking a hit from a breath weapon? Never mind we have an extra rogue."

He stepped forward. "I have evasion right?"

He nodded, "You are driving this wagon. In 30 minutes. You are going to drive it down the road on the left side. Remove the top of the smoker on this wagon. When it hits the air I want the dragon to be targeting this wagon.

We hit it from the woods. Once the horses are secured, start moving forward on foot. I will ride back and go to the left side. Divide them Blossom. Half on each side. I will put my horse into the woods."

The rogue nodded, "Will wait half an hour and then drive."

Raven continued, "When it attacks, kick those horses into a higher speed before you get off the ride."

He nodded, "I can do that. I will want off of this ride."

Everyone chuckled. Raven rode forward and went into the woods on the left. He found a tree across from the nest. It was missing all of its branches on one side. His guess was the dragon stripped them to make his nest. He climbed the tree. He peeked from his hole and saw the Dragon raised its head up. Then it took to the air.

He fired an arrow into the side of the wagon to let him know it was coming.

He saw it turning off in the distance and it was flying fast. He saw the rogue jump early. He thought, "Good for him he saw it. I should not be surprised, he knows how to run from a fight."

He got gravity bow going and the dragon breathed on the wagon. Raven put 2 in the side of the dragon and so did several others. He saw magic missiles bounce off of the creature. The last fireball exploding just behind him. One of the horses was dead and the other was badly hurt.

Raven tied himself off to the tree with the 100 feet of silk rope he had. He put his foot into a slip knot as he was 90-100 feet up. He saw Jewels moving up toward the horses. The one tried to pull away. He aimed about 30 feet from the dead horse and a hundred feet up. It circled back in from the same direction and went for the horses and landed on top of the living, and now deceased horse. It grabbed the horses.

It eyeballed Jewels from an arrow. Raven shot it in the tail with a ray of enfeeblement. Jewels took cover. He tried to take off with the horses and could barely get off the ground and it struggled to pull the two dead horses and wagon into the air. Raven popped another arrow into it. It released the horses and circled toward its nest. The dead horses were right under his tree but out and in the center of the road. It landed in the nest.

He figured if it had any healing it was using it. He got into positions as it took off and nailed it with another arrow as it took off again. Raven moved further back on the large branch and away from the road.

He had his sword in hand as he secured his bow. He timed the approach.

He put a scorching ray into the sword.

He heard in his head, "What are you doing?"

He swung out slightly and then straight at the road as he swung down holding the rope with one hand and his foot in the slip knot.

The dragon landed on the horses and Raven slammed into the side of the dragon sword first. It was a swinging charge attack. It howled in pain. He heard arrows hit from the other side. It tries to take to the air again and Raven stabbed it again with another scorching ray channeled into it. It hit and it went sliding down the road dead. He cut the rope and unhooked his foot. He sheathed his sword. Jewels came over first, "That was fucking stupid."

He looked at her, "It was heroic. If I died it would have been stupid."

She laughed. He heard laughter in his head, "I do not believe you just did that! You shocked the hell out of me and the dragon. The dragon personas are set to react to a number of circumstances. Swinging in on a rope and slamming into it was not one of them. I do not direct them in combat so I never pull any punches. You are right. That was heroically stupid!"

She laughed in his head. He looked as the others came down the road.

He put a couple more arrows into it. He looked at Blossom who was wide-eyed, "That was insane!"

He looked at them, "Sometimes you have to think outside of the box. I just got an earful from the Goddess on this encounter. She does not control them during combat. No punches are pulled. They have their personas, way of doing things, and tactics they are ready for. Swinging in from the top of a tree on a rope was not one of those scenarios."

The halfling rogue laughed. The ladies shook their heads. Rhonda came up and healed him up, "Thanks, that was damage I did by slamming into it. Even more damage to it besides the two sword strikes and multiple arrows."

Mary looked at him, "That is the closest I have ever seen you come to killing yourself."

He looked at her, "I was barely hurt and I channeled a spell into the sword, then again when it tried to flee. They both were evocation and gave me some additional hitpoints before and after. I hit it with the equivalent of 4-24 points of fire damage, on top of weapon damage, the two elemental damages from the sword fire and ice, the weapon damage including bonuses, and the strength modifier damage. Twice. It went to its nest to heal up and it knew I was in the tree. This does not count the 5 arrows I hit it with or any damage the rest of you put into it.

I shot it as it took off. It was not expecting me to be on the ground to hit it. Get the horses and the other wagon. Rogues, you have work to do. Take the ropes. If you have a grappling hook, great. Search the hell out of it for traps. It will have treasure embedded in its nest.

Fighter types, you need to pull all of the wheels off of this dead wagon. The axles are broken. Arcanes, get to the bottom of the nest and see if there is anything magical on the ground that fell from the nest. Clerics and ranger with me."

He looked at them, "Jewels, I need you to start gutting it. Save the heart, blood, feet, liver, and the sack for the breath weapon gland. Whatever you can save. Get it in a bag of holding or portable hole. Then skin it. Clerics, When Jewels guts this anything metallic coming out of it is magical. If it is not metallic and intact it is magical. You can find it.

Start cutting feet off until Jewels is ready for you. He went up and cut the head off the dragon. He extracted the tongue, brain, and eyes and wrapped them up in animal skins. He put them into his backpack. He took the head and wrapped it up in some of the skins from the dead horse. Jewels went up to him, "Why are we doing all of this? I get gutting it but why all the body parts."

He looked at her, "The head we can collect a bounty on, the skin we can sell to an enchanter for making a cloak or armor. The other items are for an alchemist who would be interested in those things. Everything I told you to pull is worth money. This is the second dragon I helped to kill, the last one was smaller, younger, and less of a threat.

It was 5,000 for the bounty alone. The skin was the same but the money came from an enchanter. That was a smaller forest dragon. We did not have a bag of holding at the time; we encountered it on the way to the first inn on my first life in this world. We are talking somewhere in the range of 40,000-50,000 in gold. Probably a lot more."

Jewels looked at Raven wide-eyed, "That was never in any of our training."

He nodded, "Not everything I teach you will find a straight answer in a book."

30 minutes later and Rose came up, "We collect six jars, the stuff we used for fruit wash out, full of blood now. That gland is in a separate jar."

He nodded, "Store those in the hole with the feet."

She nodded, "I will set a corner aside for this stuff. What are you doing with the skin?

He looked at the wagon. "The wagon will have a new roof for the next ten days." She nodded, "Plus a new smell."

He smiled, "Smoker needs to be rebuilt, Blossom. More meat and the smell will go away."

She laughed, "It will be a merger of smells."

He thought, "Surely love, I am not the first to do these things."

She laughed, "No, but your estimate is off. A couple of those items are worth that much alone. The brain and gland. The rest of the stuff will net you close to sixty thousand."

He looked at Jewels, "I just spoke with the goddess, she told me my estimate is off. I pulled the brain and you pulled the gland. Those two are worth that much each."

Jewels looked at Raven, "Fuck dragons are worth serious money!"

About two hours later and everyone was gathered around eating as they finished tying the skin on as the new roof. Raven ran the canvas over the top of it. They looked at him, "Won't that trap smoke inside."

He nodded. "Which is why we are going to tie the flaps back in the front and the back when we have the smoker going. It will dry the skin faster. I ensured it was salted to help preserve it."

He looked at the group as they finished up. He sighed, "I know today seems like we lost a wagon and two horses. Also a lot of time. The 10 of us are still alive. The rough estimate I have is we are looking at 140,000-160,000 gold pieces for what we extracted from the dragon.

That will be divided evenly among those that live to the next inn. That does not count what was pulled from the nest. There is a reason I do not go through that stuff. There are those in my group who knows if something pops that I will be interested. They will let me know.

I give the other arcane casters a chance at that stuff first; like a ring of wizardry. Things like wands sure I would want to know about. Staves not so much. Rings of resistance and protection items interest me just as they do you. Now is the time to ask questions about today's events."

The halfling rogue looked at Raven, "I thought I was a crazy bastard but that shit you just did on the rope was over the top."

He looked around, "I think the question is what possessed me to do such a thing? The answer is old Tarzan movies. Which makes no sense to anyone, not from Earth. There are things we had called rope swings where we would swing out and then drop into the water of a lake.

Then there were things like bungee jumping. That is some crazy shit. Think of a rope stretched and then return to its normal form. Now drop from a tree with that around your ankles and it stretches out to a few inches above the ground and then pulls you back and then down but not as far.

This goes on for some time. People did that kind of thing off of really high bridges. For the fun of it! The thing is I have all of these memories I can pull from that you do not have. When I do something like that, I am showing you things to create those memories here.

They may not work for Rose in this life but what if she is a ranger in the next life? I would have had a hard time explaining to anyone how to do it. But now that you have seen it you know what I mean by swinging on a rope. Next question and let us get past swinging on a rope."

Vain looked at him, "How did you know what would sell and what would not on a dragon?"

He nodded, "That is a good question. The answer is if you could preserve the whole body somebody would want something from it. Being a ranger in my last life and the years of playing the game.

You kill a pest; especially a dangerous one! Someone will pay you for taking care of it. Usually a ruler or military commander over the area. You look at things like dragon scale armor. What is that made from? Alchemists use acids and all kinds of crazy shit to make a potion. How do you think they make potions of dragon's breath or acid resistance?

If you never find the dragon's lair you can still make a fortune off of the dragon parts if you can preserve them or in the case of the hide treat it right, getting all the flesh off salting it and drying it out. Smoking it can aid in that.

The thing you do not want to do with dragonhide is stripping the scales from the outside. Not until the person who is going to work with it decides what he wishes to make. I selected things. How many people have heard of a flame tongue longsword?"

A lot of hands went up. "That is an odd name for a sword but it used to be in earlier versions of the game if you want a dragon slayer sword it would be quenched in dragon's blood while being forged. A flame tongue sword required a tongue from a fire breathing creature.

Dragons being best for obtaining the best chance of success. Weapon enchantment like displacement cloaks required killing a displacer beast and the cloak was made from the hide. A lot of my views on what was pulled assume someone will pay for the heart, blood, skin, and brains of a rare creature. It will sell based on older versions of the game. Brains; potions of intelligence. Some believe eating dragon brains will increase your intelligence. Don't even think about that.

Dragons, the gland for the breath weapon is highly prized! Dangerous if you remove it wrong as you could get a breath weapon in a face so someone skilled at gutting is best. If you have a portable hole and can fit it, take it all. Let the alchemist sort it out."

They laughed. Mary looked at Raven, "How did you know another attack was coming?"

He smiled, "As a Game Master when I ran a game, I would put something like a pack of wolves and a few giants upfront to get everyone to burn through resources. Then hit them with the real challenge. I saw two mistakes with spells in that last battle. The last fireball and magic missile. Trying to target something moving that fast is difficult to time. If it is hovering. On the apex of a turn.

Or on the ground ripping at dead horses. That is the time to hit it. A horse at full speed, not running can go 50-60 feet. Running you can double that. Double it again and you get how fast a dragon can fly. Rookie mistake. No harm, no foul. You did not throw it into a group of party members that would have been a catastrophe. Dragons have magic resistance.

Each missile was negated by magic resistance. Most first-level spells rarely work on a dragon. Everyone makes mistakes I have been at this longer so I do not make very many big ones. Jewels called me stupid for swinging in on a rope. I told her it was not stupid but heroic.

If I had failed, fell, or swung into its open and awaiting mouth. Then it would have been stupid. The goddess called me heroically stupid for doing it. Yes, I talk to her a lot. BUT she has never spoken to me in combat until she saw me doing that!"

They all laughed at that. He looked at them, "I did not answer her until the fight was over. Because I did not know if it would end up being stupid or heroic until it was done."

They laughed. He smiled, "Next question."

The rouge again, "Why did you have us take parts from the other wagon?"

He nodded, "Another good question. The answer is because we are going to run the one we have at one and half times speed for the next couple of days. We will run with six horses pulling a light load. A wheel might get damaged so pulling extras made sense. You understand why I am suggesting this course of action Blossom?"

She nodded, "It will take a month to get to the next inn at the pace we are going."

He thought, "We jumping straight to level seven now?"

He heard her laugh, "Asking me to break one of my own rules?"

He thought back, "We have it and then some. We could wait here for another day instead."

He heard her sigh, "Fine as I have you on this nightmare ride."

He looked at them, "Level seven tonight, she does not normally do two levels in a night but the quests on this road were set for two full parties. We are killing it with just one party and an extra 1 right now. 9 is normally the maximum party size. I told her if she does not do something, we will be level twelve or thirteen at the next inn."

They nodded. He let the silence sit there, as no more questions came his way. He rolled out his bedroll, "See you in the morning, do not forget trip lines."

He found himself in her inner sanctum but she was not alone. She was standing there with Mother and Ravanna. They watched his strategy with the giants on one side and his strategy with the dragon on the other side.

Ravanna looked at him and she shook her head, "Sound strategy to...what the fuck?!"

Mother laughed. Raven looked at Mother, "Throw up a clip from Earth Tarzan movie, rope swing in mountain dew commercial. Show them."

Mother threw up the images. He looked at her, "Show them images of bungee jumping and zip-lining." She threw those up for them.

Ravanna looked at Raven, "So people from Earth are fucking crazy!"

The ladies laughed.

Raven smiled, "There is some truth to that but remember some of that craziness is in you! HALF of IT from me!"

The ladies giggled at that. He smiled, "You are early for picking up babies or I am late getting here."

They laughed.

Mother smiled, "We had to get together and talk about your activities today."

He shook his head, "You could do that mentally. Something else is up."

Mother looked at Raven, "There was a request I wanted to make."

He nodded, "You want me to impregnate the two of you yet again."

She nodded, "We need to know what is going on with your power level before we can decide if that last upgrade will be repeated on another champion.

We want you to do it in the pool and leave the pool when you are done with both of us. He walked over to the pool, "We getting started ladies?"

He entered the pool and swam out to the middle. Myssara came in first. He waited until she was in the water and she moved to the side. He kissed her hard and slid up into her quickly. He held her mouth to his. He pounded her like a jackhammer.

She moaned into his mouth. He kept it going for fifteen minutes before she clamped down on him.

He slammed up into her and gave her fourteen. He backed away. "Do not leave the water." Mother came in and he began fucking her on the ramp on the way down. He got her moaning. He grabbed her head and kissed her hard. Fifteen minutes later and he slammed up into her.

She climaxed and sprayed all over him as he shot ten inside of her. He backed away and Mother sat there with Myssara was behind him. He turned picked Myssara up and impaled her on his cock and kissed her passionately. He rubbed her back softly and tenderly. He slowly made love to her. He started sucking on her neck and massaging her breasts. He slid his middle finger into her ass.

She hugged him tightly. He sped up on her and she was panting. He sawed that finger in and out of her ass and she clamps down on him. He fought it but could not hold back and shot 20 straight into her as she climaxed. He let her go. He walked over to Mother, "My energy levels?" She looked at him, "Holding steady." He went and picked her up and slid back into her.

He slowly stroked in and out of Mother. He sped up and slid two fingers into her ass and she held onto him and came hard and he shot 9 into her. He went back over to Myssara and repeated the same thing. Two fingers deep and she locked down on him and he gave her 8 ropes.