Chapter 47

~ A New Meat Shield? ~

SW/SW/SW

“…make it stop… please make it stop…” Hathor’s painful and breathless whisper made him all the more nervous. She was doubling over in pain on the bed, hands on her stomach.

Everything was fine the night before, where she happily cleaned her oversized greataxe. From the look on her face, she couldn’t wait to fight. She was a fighter, so it made sense if fights gave her an immense thrill.

Yes, everything was fine… until she collapsed in the hall this morning.

And she kept moaning ever since.

Kail did not know that stomachache could be so serious. He wanted to take her to the doctor, but he remembered where he was.

With teary whimpers, Hathor moved towards him and rested her head on his lap, still with her hands on her stomach. She shed tears on his clothes, murmuring how painful it was over and over.

Her unidentified illness struck him dumb.

Her handmaidens helped her drink some kind of potion, but so far the effect remained to be seen. Since then, she told them to leave, saying that his presence alone was enough to lessen the pain.

Kail didn’t think so.

“…how do you feel?” he stopped caressing her hair.

She let out a weak whimper.

Her condition worsened, it seemed. He had to do something fast.

“Want me to heal you? I’m quite confident in my magic.”

She shook her head weakly, “…you can’t heal it… you can’t… it’ll go away… eventually…”

“When?” Kail unintentionally raised his voice. Seeing her writhing like this rubbed his patience. It totally defeated the purpose of her being his meat shield if he was the one taking care of her. “You are in pain! Stop being so stubborn and let me heal you! At least, let me try.”

The sooner the better. He didn’t want to miss how Etherios fought those stupid players.

“…I told you; you can’t…!” she sobbed. “Just let me lie down like this… just a little longer…”

“Your stomachache is serious, Hathor. If we don’t treat it soon—”

“…not stomachache…”

“…what?”

Hathor gathered her power and spoke, “…menstrual cramps…”

Kail blinked for several seconds and continued caressing her hair in silence. Slowly he asked, “…want me to lend you a hand?”

She nodded and gripped his left hand so tightly it hurt.

0000

Hathor finally had fallen asleep. It was quite funny to see her sleeping. Being a succubus, a demoness that preyed on sleeping men, he thought that she didn’t need sleep. It seemed that he was wrong.

Talking about sleeping, if only he could create sleeping powder imbued with strong, magical blood, he might be able to defeat fellow players easily. Just scattering the powder, concentrating while muttering the incantation, and voila; the enemies were sound asleep.

Well, it was just a wild imagination. There was nothing like ‘sleeping powder’ in this game. It sounded more like cheat.

Aside of that, he didn’t watch how Etherios fought those empty brained players. He was going to, but that insane succubus confined him in the bedroom. Curse her! He wanted to strangle her to death, but it was useless. She’d respawn, anyway, and would definitely retaliate.

He jumped in shock when a fireball exploded nearby. The room was shaking violently for a moment until it returned to its quiet atmosphere.

He heard weak whimper and his eyes darted to the red-hair on the bed. Being awoken forcefully, she was crying miserably, her expression radiated ‘feisty’ no more. Now she looked like a recently divorced widow, stressed and depressed.

“…make it stop…! Just… just told them to stop…!” she hiccupped, “the sounds… the sounds are making me crazy…! It’s like… it’s like hundred nails are pressed into my head!”

“It will over soon.”

She pulled the blanket over her head weakly, hands shaking and panting, “…please…”

God…

Violent shakings, deafening booms, warcries, whimpers, curses, and shouts all rushed into Kail’s mind at the same time. His left brow twitched as the sounds getting louder and crazier.

Snap!

It broke.

His patience had just broken into tiny pieces.

Goddammit!!

With a rough bang, he opened the French window leading to the veranda and stepped outside.

Turning his head to the source of sounds, Kail’s vision was met with violent, ongoing battle scene. To be honest, it was his first time seeing this scene before him—a scene like that inside of a cathedral. It was mesmerizing. Players riding their pets—symbolizing justice and a group of black-armored soldiers riding wyverns—symbolizing the dark side.

Kail wished that he still had his cell phone with him so that he could capture this picturesque scene and treasure it for eternity.

Snapping out of his thought, Kail summoned his spells window and changed the filter into Necromancy. There were tons of spells in it, all of which involved the summoning of the deceased, ghosts, and other otherworldly beings.

Kail chose one of the most safest-looking spell…

Bloodthirsty Beloved [lv.65] Offer your blood and MP to summon a skeletal pet 60 HP, 100 MP

Summon? This spell was not Necromancy! It was a summoning spell, for a Summoner!

Not that it mattered, as long as this pet killed those pesky, meatheads. There was no need to fear or hesitate. Why, his pet might be just a dog or maybe a cat!

Kail would like it to be a cat, but the thought of seeing a skeleton cat was kind of disturbing…

To his surprise, a rune materialized even before he began chanting. Then he felt something unknown pricking his index finger and he grimaced at the sudden pain.

The space in front of him… on the air, a big circle materialized before him. The inside was so pitch black he could not see anything. It appeared from within the circle. It was nothing but a formless, black mist and huge.

Kail felt scared already. He had just summoned a demon, which was a very, very dangerous thing to do in real world. Looking at the size of it, he had just summoned a skeletal dragon that was too powerful for him to handle…

The black mist dissipated and Kail’s jaw dropped at the figure before him.

It was… it was a doll! A tiny, skeletal doll with 30 cm height!

It has the head of a skeleton, but unbelievably had hair and it was blonde. It was tied in a twintails, even. The body was just a simplified version of human skeleton, just a small, upright bone. The arms and legs were also small bones with four smaller ones serving as their fingers and toes.

It was kind of cute, but Kail felt like he was a total failure. His level 65 pet was tiny, feeble doll. He felt like he wanted to cry…

“Ay, it’s Master Azariel!”

It talks! Kail shouted his response inwardly.

The doll, which magically floated in the air, jumped happily towards him, its small jaw moved as it spoke, “What did Master Azariel want Shapon to do?”

Kail stared skeptically at the doll, thinking if sending such a tiny doll into a frenzy battlefield was the right thing to do.

Holy slut… were those eyelashes on its eye sockets?

He was not seeing things. It had eyelashes! The skeletal doll was a girl, no doubt about it.

“Hey, hey, Master Azariel! What we are going to do today? What will it be? What will it be? Hide and seek? Counting to 100?”

Oh, gods...

Kail contemplated for a while. Sixty HP and 100 MP sacrifices to summon this untrustworthy midget, she had to be powerful. She had to... well, that what was Kail wanted her to be. She looked so... weak she could die by just a mere touch.

If she perished, he could summon her again as he wished. However, Kail felt his dignity disappearing for making his brittle pet a meat shield candidate.

He stopped thinking once the doll spoke again,

“Let’s play, Master Azariel! Shapon wants to kill humans! Shapon looves blood!”

Kail gulped…

...he understood why it was named 'Bloodthirsty Beloved'...