Drip-Fed Pt. 06

Laughing insanely as she always did, Reysha was having way too much fun with the situation. In a move that was as bold as it was reckless, the tiger girl turned on her heels and delivered a perfectly aimed, straight kick to the hilt of her weapon. It didn't do anything, the skull of the beast much thicker than she had bargained for and keeping the thorn-like blade from penetrating any further.

What it did succeed in though, was making the already furious creature focus in on her specifically. Thrashing its enormous neck around, it tried to swipe at Reysha, its blind nature becoming an immense disadvantage when the Rogue used her magically charged wrist and ankle joints to catch her bounce back without as much as a single sound.

"That's right, you dumb, giant, long danger noodle," Reysha whispered, depleting her internal mana by using the Aimed Whisper technique. For what it did, it sure was straining, as were most things that used the neck joint, but the effect was clear, as the words reverberated in the snakes ears not from Reysha's position, but after bouncing back from a pillar. Attacking the stone in vain, the boss monster was utterly confused when it suddenly heard the redhead giggle from the opposite direction.

Fortunate for all of them that the fight had begun with the snake searing off its tongue and smelling capabilities with it. All because Apexus was the first target that had made a sound when he had landed the way he did.

The slime had, in the meanwhile, found his target. So long that its lower body moved only rarely, while its head tried desperately to track Reysha, the toothed serpent was fighting an opponent that was teleporting from its perception. Although it depleted her mana every time, Rogues had the advantage of quickly regenerating their internal reserves. Furthermore, she was supported by Aclysia, still illuminating the area and making her movements easier.

Under these circumstances, wrapping around the creature's tail was pretty easy. The snake didn't even notice, too enraged at the tiger girl, not until Apexus was past the disgusting scales, tasting bland and yet salty, and began tasting blood, a much more pleasant flavour of salt.

At that point, the snake began just thrashing in its entirety, but it was too late and the slime let himself be catapulted by the first, comparatively soft, movement. Apexus had no qualms about how this fight would go. They lacked the proper numbers or size of knife to create any mortal wounds, so it would be a fight for exhaustion. By creating a large wound, the slime aimed to simply bleed out the large creature as it kept desperately thrashing.

"Stay defensive!" he thus cried out, after making his way over the light in the darkness. The trio engaged in the rather honourless but deeply effective tactic of triggering the snakes aggressive reflexes over and over again. It didn't take long for it to slow down, eventually to the point that Reysha handled it with cruel ridicule.

"Aww, your gums are looking pretty bad, you know?" she asked, poking the bloody, toothless maw. After having been tricked into biting stone several times, they were in absolutely terrible shape. The jaws snapped closed a second after she had pulled her hand out of reach. The creature's neck was hanging down and it was clear that it was done when its thrashing became too weak to throw Apexus off its head.

It had lost too much blood and been fooled into too many wasted movements. Doing it the favour of finishing it off as quick as he could, Apexus dissolved the target's head.

"You know, this thing tastes pretty good," Reysha stated as she happily put the monster's meat into her stomach, confirming the obvious that this was, indeed, some sort of dungeon spawn. "This leaf has existed for thousands of years, yet nobody ever found this place," she continued on as she ripped some more of the scales off to access more of the meat underneath. "Guess that goes to show that gods are crafty bastards."

"In absence of reason, discoveries are seldom made," Aclysia stated, gaining herself questioning gazes from both Apexus and Reysha. "People don't need to try and find things such as this chamber if there is an ample amount of easily accessible dungeons on the surface already." After simplifying the concept like that, the other two nodded to the metal fairy's statement.

"No need to find new hunting grounds if you are fed just fine where you are," Apexus still felt the need to utter a metaphor more comprehensive to himself, if only to show the metal fairy he was intelligent enough to get the concept.

Reysha giggled, her senses going into overdrive again as she got a refreshment on them. That was the last thing she had to add to the conversation.

A constant tingle was dominating the mind of Apexus as he ate. Two tingles, actually, one was his regrowing wing, not entirely unpleasant but definitely itchy, the other was the awareness of a new permanent Growth being available. Originally, Apexus had wanted to get this thing's sense of smell, but it was too good. How that was a problem was bound to the fact that it was the snake's tongue. Apexus didn't have a mouth to retract that thing into. Having it would be like being permanently blasted in the face with the marking scents of cats until he acquired a maw.

So, rather than put the knee before the foot and be blasted with all the stink in the world until he got a mouth cavity, Apexus considered his other options. The snakes skeleton was useless to the slime, it didn't have arms and legs and without the musculature surrounding it, the way it crawled on its belly couldn't be emulated. Even if Apexus could, he was actually looking forward to some permanent legs that meant he no longer had to drag himself through the dirt by default.

What else was there? This snake didn't have a poison gland, was blind, and the only other thing remarkable about it was its sense of movement, which the slime already possessed naturally and the two didn't play of one another. It would just be like have a second set of eyes that looked in the same direction as the first. That left Apexus with the teeth, but teeth were... complicated.

To deliver a bite, he wouldn't need just teeth. He would also need something those teeth were fixed on, traditionally a jawbone, a way to quickly 'unsheathe' the teeth and to have force behind the entire motion. The last two he could simulate by opening his membrane and manipulating his internal slime. Weaker, in all regards, but at least it would work.

This was why the slime favoured mandibles normally. Way easier to grow and way less complicated. Those also could only sheer, which was way less versatile.

As it stood, the slime really wanted nothing the snake had. However, wasting a permanent Growth was not an option and it wasn't like the slime didn't want teeth one day. These thing's teeth were pretty good, their serrated sides let them cut through harder materials and they were pretty sturdy, acid damage notwithstanding.

Yes, Apexus decided to go with the teeth. They wouldn't be terribly useful immediately, but they also wouldn't hinder him. After being permanently acquired, they changed very little. The frontal teeth stayed largely the same, as did the curved canines, both of them clearly predatory teeth. Even the ones further to the back stayed large the same. Located just beneath the surface, they formed two parallel rows under his eyes.

An attempt at biting yielded the expected result. It was weak and the moment they hit something harder than fat, they began to shift in their position like Reysha's breasts when he poked at them with his tentacles. He could extend them outside at least, but that was a pretty slow process that no prey that wasn't already immobilized would ever fall to. Basically, they were useless, for now.

He explained this in a few short words to his female companions, "Teeth without jaws, currently all sharp and no bite."

"No prize for me either," Reysha announced, having looked around for loot or anything like that for the past minutes. "I guess we got what we came for though," she gestured at the sphere.

"Yes," Aclysia had waited for the complete recovery of her awakener before approaching the next part of herself. Now that Apexus had chosen his new Growth and his second wing seemed to be successfully restored, she was sufficiently calmed that she decided to land next the sphere. Still coiled around it, her feet landed on the corpse of the snake and carefully extended herself towards it.

Golden light filled the cave, blinding Reysha and Apexus, the sound of their displeasure became distorted and vanished completely as Aclysia felt her consciousness pulled away to her creator's domain.

He hadn't cleaned up his room since last time or, if he did, the chaos had immediately taken lead once again. Sheer endless amounts of costumes were hanging from the walls of the black and white world, if they were treated with enough respect, that was. Not a few of them, religious garbs more often than not, were scattered between the towers of books that grew all the way under the ceiling.

"And there you are yet again," Hashahin sat in a chair, his gold masked face one of two sources of colour in this space. "I am afraid, I come with a warning for you this time, little Aclysia."

The metal fairy's green eyes widened, what could be important enough for him to warn her about? "I listen, creator, what is it that what you wish to inform me about?"

"There is... disagreement between some of us gods about how to handle your awakener. Never enough for us to get hostile over... the ascension's curse ensures this... but Jersoja has sent his followers his verdict, so it is only fair that I do the same." That was the limit of divine intervention, messages and information, seldomly when unasked for. Gods were allowed to aide the mortals in their convictions, but they were not to manipulate their minds. Every decision made in the leafs of the omniverse was that of a mortal for himself, such the Progenitor God had decreed. "You should know that an Inquisition has been called to hunt Apexus. That's as much as I am allowed to say."

Aclysia felt a tinge of panic in her stomach but she quickly relaxed when she thought about it more calmly. "This information... I value it, but it changes nothing about our plans. We were..." the metal fairy stopped herself, realizing that she wouldn't be part of that 'we' anymore, "My awakener planned to leave the leaf when we got my last part anyway."

"Indeed," Hashahin reached out and pulled a book out of a nearby stack. It fell over, away from the chair, but the god didn't care, simply opening his new reading material. "You should go back and go about this, then."

Despite having had her eyes open, Aclysia opened them. It caused a dizzy feeling for a moment, seeing only blurred shapes that were duplicated and tumbling through her field of view. There was a soft poking of her side, Apexus' creating a tentacle no doubt. Blinking a few times, she managed to get her sight back under control. She raised her hands and looked at them, same as always, then she got up. That wasn't the same as always.

Reysha let out an overacted sniff, "They grow up so fast." Putting her hand on the metal fairy's head, her cries pretty quickly became giggles as she dropped that act.

"I certainly seem to have grown a bit," Aclysia agreed, standing on her own two feet, her eyes at the height of Reysha's stomach.

As she continued being pat by the redhead, a thought crossed her mind, 'I really hope I get taller than her... this feels demeaning.' She looked to Apexus, whose face was now below her own. "This will take some getting used to," she mumbled, hesitating for a second she uttered the words, "It seems an Inquisition was called on us, so my creator has warned me."

"I FUCKING knew it would bite us in the ass," Reysha laughed triumphantly. "I told you so! I'll leave it at this one time, but I did!" A moment of silence ensued, then the tiger girl added, "Is that even bad?"

"On this leaf? I don't suppose so," Aclysia stated, unable to contend with the earlier parts of her companion's words. "In effect, it means that the faithful are under order by the church to help in the search of our whereabouts. It is not unlike the price already on your core, awakener."

"So, we are being chased by church and Adventurer's Guild?" Apexus asked.

"That is the current situation."

"Same plan as before then?"

That was the agreed procedure.

This last piece of Aclysia was all that kept the trio interested in this leaf. Reysha had wanted to go somewhere else from the start, Apexus just wanted to be somewhere safe and the metal fairy was to follow him. Well, there was actually a slight difficulty in that plan, one that the white-haired woman was not aware off.

To the best of Aclysia's knowledge, once they got the last piece, she would return to the realm of her creator. Her purposes on this leaf fulfilled, she would have to await further orders back at the place where she was created. This was her nature. Pride in her work and fear for Apexus' life had kept her from speaking it out loud but she actually hoped they would hit some more roadblocks. Just so she could stay with her awakener and Reysha a little while longer.

Her personal feelings on the matter had to take a backseat. If their time was limited, then the metal fairy had to accept this. It was also best she already found out what her awakener desired, so the whole process would go over smoothly.

"What is your wish, awakener?" Aclysia asked in a hesitant tone, flying with him. Her increased size had, conversely, helped her flying ability. She still wasn't as fast as him, but they weren't going at maximum speed anyway, as they didn't want to pull too far ahead of the earthbound Reysha. Just that she could follow him to that height was improvement.

Travelling would become a whole lot easier once Apexus got big enough to comfortably carry Reysha around. That would mean he would have to take a more horse-esque shape though. The slime still favoured eventually going on two legs. It just seemed more manoeuvrable and as long as he had wings, running really quickly to bridge long distances wasn't a problem.

"Wish...? Ah, right," Apexus had to think for a second, since he had made up his mind way back when he wasn't able to communicate properly, he hadn't thought of this topic in a while. Once Aclysia was completely put together, Hashahin would grant her awakener one wish of reasonable reward for such a low-level quest. Even if that quest happened to a divine one, asking for something like agelessness was a bit too much. "I am going to ask for you."

"For me?" Aclysia stopped in the middle of that air for a moment, then remembered that Apexus couldn't do that and hastily followed him as the confused slime was about to turn. This revelation put all of her doubts from the last few days into a new light. She had almost gotten the impression that the slime wanted to get rid of her as quick as possible. "You are going to waste your minor wish on... me?"

"How is waste... how is THAT a waste?" Apexus vibrated out his answer. "I love you, want you to stay with me. I don't even know what else I could ask for..."

Aclysia felt a warmth deep inside her that she only ever felt when she was with him. A smile bloomed on her face, wider and more genuine than she had ever made. Speeding up as much as she could, she landed on Apexus back. The sudden motion caused the slime to struggle a bit in keeping his flight balanced.

"Thank you, Apexus," the metal fairy whispered into his ear as she hugged him as much as her smaller body allowed her too. She had no idea if Hashahin would grant this wish, permanently binding one of his angels to someone perhaps extended outside the 'minor' boundaries. Alone the intention for this made her deeply happy, however.

"Hold on tight," Apexus warned as he went into a sudden descent. They were too close to their target to approach further without being easily seen when they landed. Instead, they had decided to hide in the shadow of a particularly large tree they had spied the day before.

Although Apexus had realized that what he had said greatly pleased Aclysia by the hug she had given him, he didn't expect to be showered in kisses the moment they were settled on the ground. It was one of the gestures of affection he didn't really get, probably because he didn't have lips yet, humanoid ones seemed particularly sensitive, but he couldn't deny that feeling the pillowy pieces of her face pressed on his membrane felt pretty nice. Particularly so because he knew that it was gesture of affection.

"Thank you, Apexus," she repeated, now hugging his front with her entire upper body. "I thought we were going to be separated. Thank you for trying to make me stay."

Apexus was almost about to tell her that she could have just assumed that, but decided that interrupting the moment wouldn't have been worth the conversation. What else would he have wished for after all? Something very nice to eat? Tempting, but not nearly as valuable as those moments he shared with her. Not that he would have minded being alone with Reysha, it just wouldn't have been the same without Aclysia around.

Said tiger girl made her appearance from in between the bushes not five minutes later, with Aclysia still lovingly stroking Apexus side in a way that was more relaxing than sexual. "Should I come back in ten minutes or strip and join in?" she asked nevertheless. Her mood was pretty good, since the flesh of the toothed serpent had offset the numbing pretty well. It had already started affecting her again but it only made her senses a bit less sharp right now. Nothing to worry about, since they were generally above the average humanoid anyway.

"We are just having a sensual moment," Aclysia retorted, staying her hand with a sigh. "However, we should discuss how we deal with this. I hoped it would be somewhere outside the village, but the closer we get, the more accurate is my perception that my last part is hidden somewhere inside its structures."

"Well, that makes this entire thing tricky..." Reysha agreed.

Currently in the south-east of the leaf, their target was a notable village. Used regularly as a training camp for upcoming adventures as well as the a best place from where to launch expeditions into another nearby dungeon, the village was under heavy Guild influence. There was simply no way there weren't people there that knew of Apexus, whether they actively hunted him or not.

Which put waltzing in there out of the list of available options. At least until they knew where Aclysia's last part was located. Which meant they had to scout, something made much harder by Reysha being basically a known 'criminal' and Aclysia having reached an easily noticed size. What would have been the easiest find for any humanoid to have found her became immensely difficult for this group of monster and outcast.

"Ah, whatever, not like we have any other choice," the redhead just shrugged it off. "I'll do my best sneaking about the place."

Mehily glanced nervously over the table. Certainly, being put in a leading position of this Inquisition, as small is it might be, had bolstered her resolve in the divine, but that didn't mean she was comfortable with the actual Inquisitor sitting at the table with her. A woman of slender curves wearing an armour that smelled of burning coal, painted metal reinforcing leather that looked like it had been ripped from scorched animals, decorated with the icy blue of Jersoja. A strip of cloth hid her eyes, or the empty holes that would have been in her otherwise attractive face.

In return for their eyes, Inquisitors learned to better read the invisible guidance of the divine. It wasn't as reliable as the Tracking spell of a medium level Hunter, but it gave the rough direction without needing to prior seeing the target. It had guided them here. As the gods preached, it was the mortals that had to make the actual decisions and find the truth of it all.