Drip-Fed Pt. 06

There had also been some middle-aged man, but that guy had stopped after two days. Reysha had followed each of those parties in the shadows for a little bit to get a picture on their abilities. Her evaluation had been that they all sucked, especially the old man, who had just turned some leaves and then left to get drunk.

Not threatening whatsoever. That was what the Rogue felt at the sight of that tricorne wearing drunkard.

Anyway, all of these parties meant that Aclysia and Apexus were staying put, the latter only going out to hunt when he was hungry. Since he wasn't moving a lot and not growing anything, that only happened every two days. The rest of the time, they could only talk and cuddle. After a few days, even that got boring.

"I can't exactly climb down the well and check for you," Reysha followed up. "So you'll have to check yourself."

Aclysia nodded and thoughtfully mumbled, "And since I can't get down there unseen, given the location... I will need a distraction...." She tapped against her upper thigh, the tips of her shoes (or her feet, technically) wrestling with each other. "It would be too much of a risk if I were to reveal myself before an entire inn full of adventurers. That one of them has a spell to restrict me is guaranteed."

Humming, Apexus gave his own thoughts on the matter. "I can do the distracting bit, just need to show myself."

"I could set a house on fire," Reysha suggested, "That would be pretty distracting."

"No!" Aclysia fervently denied the idea. "We are not Involving bystanders."

"Sure, your loss then, make it harder on us," the tiger girl yawned sarcastically. "Well, as long as Apexi here stays in the air, shouldn't be too bad," she stated and looked serious for a moment. "Once we reveal ourselves, every last adventurer there will start searching for us, you know that, right? Doesn't matter that the Inquisition already knows we're here, with confirmation, they will chase us until they lose sight, success or not."

"Yes," Aclysia thought about that for a moment, "...success or not... we will need a plan."

"Success or not, you will also need to eat, Reysha?" Apexus switched topics a little bit. "As I said, you don't look well, we should visit a dungeon soon."

The tiger girl nodded and went back to her disgusting meal. "Been getting worse steadily, I don't even know if I should sneak around anymore with how bluargh I'm feeling. It's slower and not as bad as last time, but it's definitely still there. If we wait long enough, the Noir side effects will make me about as useful as a normal person."

"I suggest the following plan," Aclysia chimed back in. "First, we will let Reysha look for another two days," she counted with her fingers as she presented the steps. "Second, Reysha will leave and travel north towards the Clearwater dungeon on her own. Third, five days after that, Apexus and I will attempt to find my last piece wherever we suspect it at the time, should that change. Fourth, me and Apexus will, whether or not the operation was successful, split up, flying west and east respectively, until we are certain we are not being followed or have at least left them out of sight. Then we turn north. Fifth, we all meet again inside Clearwater. I will monitor the entrance, waiting for you. You two can find each other using Apexus' pheromones."

Reysha and Apexus both agreed to the plan. With that amount of a head start, the tiger girl didn't need to worry about becoming slower through the effects of her condition. By the time people were looking for her actively, just by proxy of chasing Apexus, she would already be far away. Clearwater would function as a remote landmark and they could even hide inside if necessary. Unlike normal adventurer's, they would never run out of rations there.

"We will proceed as such, then," the metal fairy concluded the meeting.

Gabrame was nodding off in his chair and waiting. Waiting for several things. For a start, for that perverted little wench of a barmaid to have her shift end. He had absolutely no idea how much money or sperm he had dumped inside that cunt, but he absolutely knew that the number didn't matter as long as her tits hadn't started sagging.

As long as her shift wasn't ending, he was waiting for his next beer. They had a mean dark ale in these parts, pretty bitter and pretty high in percentage. Exactly what Gabrame loved to keep his liver working on. Retirement was treating him well, although he could use the extra money for all the bastards he had sired. All those whores he had slept with that had either forgotten or purposefully skipped on taking their precautions sure had left him with a bit of a mess. Smart sluts had smelled his money and known who to have their kids with.

Not that he was unhappy with that, at least not overall. The first time had been a bit of a shock, but Gabrame just taught the little runts some knife tricks when he was around. He had the time. He was more than three times as old as most people in this bar. He had tasted a fruit of the Omniverse. Now, he was quite happy to just grow old and die. Preferably in a drunken slumber. The fact that he would leave behind a pack of kids wasn't the worst legacy to leave behind. Although he doubted most of them would remember him as a good father.

'Really been drinking too much today,' the old hunter thought and adjusted his hat to block out more of the candlelight that kept the room lit despite the late hour. While he was at it, he also scratched his scruffy beard, then his belly, finally his balls. If anybody saw that and was offended by it, he would just laugh at them. Not his fault that he was born with a package that regularly needed readjusting, envious pricks. 'Really shouldn't do that...' he continued to think as he was slowly slipping away into sleep.

What brought a level 55 Sharpshooter to hunt some random monster in a safe leaf? Favours and money, that was the easy part. Also, immense boredom. Haralry was nice and all but it wasn't particularly big, so he knew just about every willing young thing around. Since he didn't polish his skills anymore, some level 40 adventurer probably could have beaten him. That still made Gabrame strong enough to beat everyone in this inn.

Including that cute little Inquisition. Seriously, that word carried so much weight, but on a leaf like this, three people were all they got together. Gabrame had seen an entire fleet be built on behest of that word, sent out to find a pirate king and bring him to justice. Compared to that, what was this, really? A slime was somewhat unordinary and they were all up in arms about this. How stupid.

Gabrame's mission had a much more understandable reason. Greed, pure greed, that was a nice and understandable motive.

Finally deciding that his current sitting position was too uncomfortable, the hunter slumped forwards onto the table and hit his forehead on his mug. To his surprise, the sound that produced had the sloshing of liquid accompanying it. He had been sure he had emptied the entire thing. "Heerrrr we goo," he sheepishly mumbled to himself and messily poured the remaining contents into his throat.

Afterwards, his face was stained with alcohol, but he also a bit awake again. Sluggishly, he looked around. That Inquisition was still here and that was all Gabrame needed to know. Well, that and that there was somebody, probably that tiger girl that was aligned with the slime, stalking around the village at night. Two pieces of info that made it completely useless to move out of the area. No idea what his target wanted around here, no idea what a slime wanted aside from eat and split once it was big enough period, but Gabrame knew that there was something here it needed.

In other words, there was absolutely no reason to go through all of the pains of tracking and scouring the forest. Sooner or later, his prey would come to him. Unless Gabrame got tired with the local assortment of whores and alcohol before then, the Sharpshooter would stay put. Not likely to happen.

He was about to knack off again, when the loud, wooden rumble of a door being violently pushed open rung in his ears. "There is... some slime creature circling over the village!" the voice of the barging adventurer echoed out and silenced the drunken mellowness that took hold of every inn at such an hour.

It was immediately replaced by busy movements, none of which were more immediate than Gabrame's. Combat Trigger was a perfect skill to have in situations like this, a burst of awareness and energy rushed through his entire body as he grabbed his bow and quiver and ran out before anyone else. He allowed himself a smirk over the shoulder, the Inquisition group barely having risen from their seats by the time he was out the door.

The warm summer night was exactly the reason as to why he was spending the rest of his life on this leaf. However, right now, he would have given quite a bit for it to be winter. The cold would have ripped him completely out of the drunken state he was in. Even Combat Trigger could only do so much for him, he wasn't a Berserker.

In full sprint, he jumped, one foot landing on the lid of a rain barrel. He didn't stop moving, the momentum carrying him further up, allowing him to grab onto the edge of the roof and swing himself on the slanted surface. He looked up to the sky as he climbed onto the highest point and readied his bow.

One thing Gabrame had to admit, the thing was pretty clever. It was diving into range of the torches mockingly every now and again, only to then immediately fly up high, only the silhouette visible against the night sky. The moon was only a slim sickle and it wouldn't get much darker. Only those waiting for news or quite drunk were awake on this hour.

'Why is it even showing itself... a distraction?' Gabrame wondered as he reached for an arrow. His fingers were still sensitive and they had to be to feel the correct kind of feather marking the shafts. For this mission, he had some special arrows made. This wasn't his first slime hunt. 'Well, not that I have to care.'

He drew out the arrow and nocked it against the metal frame of his bow. With visible strain, he drew back the drake hair string and slowly followed the circling movements of the flying creature. The tip of his arrow was unusual, forked into three parting spikes rather than one penetrating tip. It swayed a bit in its position from his unsteady hand.

'Seriously thought that thing would be more intimidating,' Gabrame thought as he kept watching and trying to keep his drunkenness under control. Sure, that monster looked odd, with the teeth under the surface, the wings, the wooden plates and all of these things, but the Sharpshooter had fired an explosive arrow down the maw of a Living Graveyard. By comparison, that thing was nothing.

All he needed was a moment of clarity. Just a split second. It came when the monster passed a torch far behind it. Gabrame could look through the unprotected underside, just a little bit, but the black dot that must have been the core stood out to his keen eyes. His fingers were relaxing. Somewhere, a certain Priestess shouted in protest.

A sudden golden light turned the night into day and distracted the hunter. The blinding pillar burned itself into his alcoholically sensitive retina. Just a tiny bit, he pulled his aim off to the side as the sinew propelled the arrow to insane speeds.

Gabrame blinked several times, unable to see anything in detail. 'Where did that... the inn?' he tried to stitch together where that light had come from. Not the most important question. It probably had something to do with that Aclysia thing, but he didn't give a flying fuck about that metal fairy. His only prey was the slime.

The Sharpshooter tried to find the creature. Initially, his eyes failed to find the shadow, but a new, or old sense, rather, quickly helped him. It was like a compass needle was inside his head and it pointed into the right direction. The Hunter's Mark.

Gabrame smiled and jumped off the rooftop as he felt the slime soar away at much higher speeds than he felt like running right now. It didn't matter if the monster had gotten what it wanted. Gabrame was a level 55 Sharpshooter. The generic Art he had gotten access to was called Stalker Sniper. Whatever he hit last with an attack was applied with the Hunter's Mark and no matter the distance, he wouldn't lose it until he applied it to something else or dismissed it.

In other words, he was now in a position to more accurately locate his prey than the Inquisition was.

Apexus was recovering from the shock of his life as he fluttered away as quickly as he could. 'Hope Aclysia got away,' he thought, but didn't dare go against the plan. Mainly not because of the nagging he would have to deal with if he did so, no, but because he wasn't sure if he would even get away with flying over that village again.

Of course, he had noticed that hunter cowering on the rooftop, how couldn't he have? With his good night vision and the heightened position of that man, the slime would have turned blind to not see him. That didn't explain what had happened though.

Throughout the entire distraction, Apexus had been shot at by numerous arrows, several spears and swords had been jabbed in his direction and a few spells had soared past him. As long as he kept moving and didn't fly too close the ground, he had been basically unhittable. That was the logic. The veil of darkness and his own speed should have guaranteed as much.

Yet, there had suddenly been a hole inside him. Apexus hadn't even been able to see the arrow, just felt its forked tip ravage through his body and exit again on the other side. It had hurt, immensely so, one of the sharp tips even scraping over his core. That arrow could have ripped his most important, in many ways the only important organ, right out of him.

The accuracy, the speed, the experience with which the hunter had taken aim, it hadn't been a lucky shot, not in the slightest. 'Someone strong is there,' Apexus thought and continued his path through the darkness of the sky. At least he was certain enough that he was quicker on the move than the hunter, thanks to the difference between walking and flying.

Soon enough, there would be a large body of water between Apexus and the hunter. That would put Apexus at ease. Then, the only question would be if his metal fairy had survived, gotten away rather, and if the wish had been granted.

___________________________________________________________________________

Aclysia sat across from Hashahin who was rolling his head from one side to the other. "Hmmmm," the god hummed, his masked face pointing towards the left. "That is a bit much to ask but..." He went onto the right. "...not like this is an ordinary circumstance..." Back to the left. "Making an exception seems a bit much though..." the white and black mask emanated a soft emerald glow. "And you are certain that's what you want, yes?"

Aclysia nodded firmly, raising one hand to her chest. Now about as big as Reysha was, perhaps a bit taller, she was finally feeling like a real woman. The idea that she could now serve her awakener in all walks of life just as well as any other humanoid could was only deepening her feelings for him. Behind the soft curve of her chest, she felt the beating of magic stronger than ever. "I wish to serve him -- forever if I can."

"Mhm, young love, young love," her divine creator leaned back, the lips of his mask, white with black lines on the one, the inverse on the other side, parting in asynchrony with his voice, like always. "Giving someone command over an angel permanently is a gift way beyond your quest, you see, Aclysia? Especially since I made you with the gift of growth. Getting messengers with free will is an arduous creation process, my good girl."

Aclysia bowed her head, "I do beg of you, father." A little breeze carried loose pages throughout the monochrome room. There was no open window. There were no windows at all.

"...That is one unfair word to address me with," the god stated in a deeper voice than usual. "Yet, you seem to fail to realize the reality of your situation." Without any movement, Hashahin suddenly stood in front of Aclysia and bowed down. "One of my angels can't serve a mortal forever," the mask contorted into a sinister smile. "The wish is denied."

Looking at her creator's face with wide eyes, spelling out her devastation, she sat there with slightly parted lips. For a felt eternity, they were just looking at each other. She drew breath to speak, only to stop herself at the sight of Hashahin's mischievously laughing face.

Had he guided her along, encouraged her, just to take from her what she wanted at the end? Had all of this talk of self-determination been just for nothing?

"Well, is that all?" the god wanted to know. "Is that all you have to say? Your wish to serve not me but another person? Did your precious awakener not leave you with another wish in case he didn't get his way?"

Was he jealous of Apexus? Was that the reason why the god loomed so menacingly over her, his aura almost oppressing her thoughts? It was like she was back to how she had been before she met the slime, a tool with a will, but nevertheless a tool. However, at the very surface of her existence, one question still lingered.

"Why did you give me a womb?" her lips formed that single question and some of her thoughts became unshackled. "If you truly wish for me to just be an autonomous tool... why would you give me the possibility to bear his child without even asking me?"

"Yes, why would I do that?" Hashahin asked in a neutral tone that betrayed a level of pride. "Why would I give a love-drunk woman that has barely known life the capability to make the most beautiful mistake given to the living?"

"Because you approve of him... of us... but why then won't you grant his wish?" Aclysia saw the smile no longer as menacing but as a challenge. The god wanted her to realize something, one last lesson before they had no more reason to see each other again. What was it?

What did she really know about her creator?

He had been a man.

He wanted to be a father again.

That made her his daughter.

A daughter that finally found her own way in life.

What was it that he took issue with in her choices?

Then, she realized.

"May I ask to freely wander the Omniverse until the love for my awakener fades?" Aclysia presented her new wish. It was so obvious now that she knew it. Her father wanted not for his daughter to be defined only by her serving another person than him. To switch one master for another, despite having learned to think and act for herself, such would have been an unworthy life.

If she was to keep serving Apexus, then not because of some continued contract, but because it was her choice. A bond of feelings, not oaths of magic made by another party. What proud father would bind his daughter into a contract of slavery?

"Hmmm, we are getting there," with the blink of an eye, the actor god was back in his seat. "Yes, I will allow this, you may be with him for as long as your love is still aflame like the summer sun," Aclysia was taking a breath of relief, "however," she froze again, "I will have to take things from you until you serve me again. Conveniences taken from you and powers that an angel gets to have naturally, but you will have to work to learn. Most importantly, I am removing all divine authority from you, no Priest anywhere will have to listen to you, do you understand?"

"I hear and agree, divine creator," Aclysia bowed her head and the room around her began to blur into grey.

Hashahin raised a hand to his mask and lifted it just enough for a pair of oddly sultry lips to appear, painted in a bright emerald colour. "Please, call me father."