Whatever spell the druid used, it burned our clothes to shreds everywhere skin touched them. As annoying as that is, it's inevitable when you have more hitpoints than your clothes do. After flying around long enough to lose the pursuit, there's not much left of them in any case. And that's why I'm now stark naked with Celica in a fir forest, at dawn. It's nippy. The air I mean.

"Uwaaah~, that could have gone better~!"

"Indeed."

"I didn't get to do more than one match~..."

That was your problem? After all that even we are feeling tired. I brush off fir needles and collapse on the soft moss covered ground, and Celica follows suit.

***

When I awaken into the evening light I'm greeted by an indescribable sight, right next to my face. Whatever it is, it's far too close, so I push it away.

"Umuu~~"

... Celica, don't place your dirty snatch on my face. I knee her on stomach.

I note that we haven't been preyed upon by any insects you'd expect in a forest like this. In the blooming light filtered through many branches I can see mosquitoes flying around, but they give us a wide berth. Are we demons formed of pure evil too spicy even for critters? Not so for all of them though. I realize that I awoke because I heard something approaching. A faint voice of steps on forest floor gets nearer.

From between young fir trees a huge silvery-furred canine beast appears. This world does have creatures best classified as 'monsters', though I haven't seen any before since I've always been in either a city, or travelling with an army of even worse monsters straight from hell. Which is why I don't care if you are a dire wolf or poodle with attitude, don't mess with me.

We give each other death glares for few silent moments. Then the beast starts moving again, despite obviously having sensed the danger. I wonder if this specimen is old, lonely and hungry. Thinking a demon would make a good meal would seem like a bad evolutionary trait after all. This is when the wolf executes a professional level flanking maneuver and pounces me...

"IIAAGH! Mother fucker...!"

...And bites into a really sensitive place. I repeatedly punch the wolf's huge head, since the swordstaff is not so good this up, close and personal, but it just serves to rip my tender spot some more. I'm unsure if I count as a virgin anymore... Celica looks like she should be holding popcorn. I think she is intentionally misunderstanding this.

That damned wolf just won't let go of my crotch, so I try something that I didn't want to: the succubus drain ability. That was, of course, a life force drain transmitted by kiss. Or - as I theorized - via any mucous membrane. And it does work. It works great. The wolf, who can be forgiven for never seeing this coming, gets quickly weaker and dies. My wound even healed due to the life-force gained.

"Wooo~! Me too~! I wanna kill something with my va--"

"Not. A. Word."

After taking this hit to my mental health I begin skin the stupid wolf's carcass with dark determination. I got the idea to turn it into clothing materials - I'm getting really fed up with all the fan service, and the idea of a dire wolf fur armor is just too good to pass. I give its head to Celica (who is delighted), and manage to create... a slab of blood-dripping fur. Right, creating wearable fur requires various steps, more detailed contents of which I have no idea of. With this I have a dirty and gradually decomposing blanket instead of anything resembling clothes.

No, I won't stop here. I'm wearing this wolf if I have to walk into hell and back for it. Not that that is much of an achievement for a demon though. Celica somehow fashioned the wolf's head into a hat. She doesn't care that it looks ghastly and drips blood all over her. I think she took the title 'savage wild girl' given by the tournament announcer bit too seriously.

I leave her to her devices and fly up above. There's bound to be a village nearby. And villages have tanners. The whole area is covered in old fir forest, with occasional birches conspicuous among sea of dark green. As I survey each direction, a cluster of smoke pillars is spotted reasonably far away. I fly straight at it with Celica in tow as the sun sets between the hills.

As we get closer to the village, I can see it consists of several log cabins on either side of a path that could generously be described as a road. Many different kinds of pelts hang from several houses. As expected, this is a village for hunter and tanners. I pick on neater looking house flanked by many pieces of equipment which I vaguely guess to be for tanning process.

***

I have to admire the tanner's guts. A pair of blood covered naked demons land in front of his house in the twilight, one carrying a dire wolf pelt and another wearing its head as gory trophy, and he's acts like its business as usual.

"'Tis a big one. It'll take a tenday to tan."

"Fine."

"As for the payment... How about one fifth of the fur for me?"

Gutsy. I could charm you into a mindless slave you know. But that's sort of unpleasant, and it's a big pelt so I can spare that much. Besides, I think he offered a reasonable deal like this since both of us are obviously penniless. Unless Celica is keeping a cache somewhere in her, I wouldn't put that past her. Money doesn't smell after all.

"Give us some clothes too. Then it's a deal."

"Hmmh... Deal."

He shakes my hand while trying hard to not look anywhere specific. I guess he's not immune to our glamour then. Celica tosses the wolf head, already bored. I'll count that as an extra for him to put all his skills into the job. He brings us some very basic clothes and shoes before going to ready the tanning process.

Before I can put on the rough but clean men's tunic he gave me, a light appears underneath me. Oh for the... Why it had to be right now? As the summoning pulls me in, I see Celica making a motion towards me.