“Faster, Harder!”

Constitution save : Partial Success!

+1 XP gained.

I gave it my all and thrust one last time forward with all my might.

A groan appeared. I must have hit a weak spot, finally. I’ve not managed to hit any this entire time we had been going at it. I panted with effort, feeling sweat beads on my forehead as I desperately pushed forward. I felt resistance push me back and my legs could not support me any longer and I slumped down.

I had been overwhelmed by two relentless, starving beasts. How did they still have so much energy left? We had been going at it for hours. I was drained to the last drop.

Someone rolled me over and I felt two thighs straddle my hips. Short after, a stream of rich, succulent drops pelted my lips and I greedily sucked up every last one of them.

A fingernail tapped my forehead, “Aaand you're dead. But well done on that last hit.”

I felt the pressure lift off my hips and a strong hand grabbed mine to drag me back onto my feet.

“Did we really need the blind fold?” I asked.

“We need to test your mighty sword skills in the dark, you never know when it could be useful,” Lin purred behind me.

I turned and reached for Lin, but came up short. I heard the sound of something moving behind me and my arms were pinned behind me leaving me open.

“Ha, ha…girls, we don’t have to do this. Teaming up on me is a bit mean,” I said nervously.

I heard someone crack their knuckles and I gulped. I felt someone punch me in the chest with the force of a sledgehammer, knocking the wind out of me. My toughness talent was working overtime and I was left with my ribs intact, but sides bruised.

“T-this isn’t what I expected when you two said you wanted to have a good time,” I coughed.

The blind fold was removed and Yara stood in front of me in her gym wear. Lin let go and I was left heaving with my hands on my knees. The sand below us in the sparring ring still had chunks of rock in it and my many broken practice swords.

“Merp!” Carter said, holding up another wooden sword.

“No, I think he's had enough,” Lin said, stopping the minion.

“Did your constitution, perception or melee go up?” Yara asked. “Or did you get a talent about blind fighting to pop up?”

I checked my notifications and found nothing of interest. “Nothing. I think you two are pulling a fast one on me so you can take turns punching me.”

“Who, us?” Lin asked, sounding shocked. “Never.”

I shuffled to the broken bench and took a seat, looking over the training room. The place was still a mess and full of debris. It had been one of the dungeon rooms that suffered the worst during the siege. I saw someone had taken a lot of time replacing some of the work out stations and had put all the broken shards of tiles in a corner.

“Bent Plate has done pretty well, when I was last down here this place was a ruin,” Lin said.

“He’s efficient and knows that physical health is a priority,” Yara said, poking me in the head. “You should follow his example.”

“I’ve been doing push ups and stuff in the morning and before bed,” I said, swatting away her hand. I earned myself a smack in the back of the head for that. “Ow.”

Lin walked up to the wall and held out a clay cup. The new faucet filled up her cup with fresh cold water and she drank deeply. Yara and I joined her a moment later and we stood in a loose circle taking turns to drink.

“Can I put my armour back on?” I asked.

“Feeling nervous?” Yara grinned, baring her fangs.

“We wouldn’t hurt you. That is unless we wanted to,” Lin said, showing off her fangs too.

I held a hand onto my abused side and felt how wet my shirt was with sweat. I definitely needed a bath. I downed another cup of water and looked at the two powerful warriors flanking me on either side feeling overwhelmed. I saw they were in a similar state. While they had the advantage on me it seemed I had paid them back a few good licks. Small welts covered their arms from where I managed to hit them despite being blindfolded and outnumbered.

“Is Rolada going to be okay?” I asked Lin.

“Yeah, it's just a beast-kin thing, don’t worry about it,” Lin said.

“What’s a beast-kin thing?” I asked.

Yara shrugged and looked to Lin expecting an answer. It took Lin a moment to realize we were waiting and she smacked herself on the forehead.

“I keep forgetting Josh is from another world,” Lin said.

“A place called dirt,” Yara scoffed. “Imagine.”

They laughed together and butted shoulders trying to push each other off balance. Lin of course paled in comparison in strength and was knocked onto her ass. I held out a hand and helped her back up, dusting off the cat girl.

Lin wrinkled up her nose and stepped back from me. “Yeah we need to bathe you, we can talk in the bath.”

Yara choked on her water and coughed harshly. “Well you two-”

“You're coming with us,” Lin said, not taking no for an answer.

We made our way to the bathing room, finding the place back to pristine condition. The damage from the siege had allowed the minions to revamp the entire place and now it was bigger and better than ever. We had public baths for men and women, my private suite and a few more small private ones for people wanting to soak alone.

“The murals are looking great,” I said, when we passed Mason.

Mason had Dan and Mike with him and they were building more tiles and using some of Burn’s paint to colour them. They were assembling coloured chips of tile to assemble mosaics to show off. I had to admit they were quite pretty, scenes of the river and valley, prancing stag hares and even a walled settlement at the back.

“Is that…me?” Lin asked, pointing to a huge oak tree with a tiny white haired cat girl lazing in it. “They certainly got my style down.”

“Yosh,” Mason said, nodding quickly. His tail wagged wildly behind him and he showed us the pile of chips they had. “G-good?”

We crouched down to see they were assembling the chips onto a plaster sheet to then put up on the wall. It showed a banquet hall with representations of us all sharing a meal. I smiled and ruffled the fur on Mason’s head.

“Looks amazing, I’m pretty surprised how great you guys are at this now. Upgrading the crystal was a good idea, I got no art skill to speak of,” I laughed.

“I don't think my hips or tits are that big,” Yara said, looking at her block of tiles.

Dan shuffled away while putting down a few red tiles. He whistled and looked at the nearby wall that had a still pond with the stars above it.

“Artistic representation,” Lin said, winking.

We let the minions keep working and headed to my private bathing suite. It was even more built up now with mosaics inside, a metal bar to assist someone going into the water so they didn’t slip and water jets. All it took was a flick of a switch and the water bubbled in from the bottom part of the bath and it felt amazing.

I heard the muffled sounds of conversation as the door closed behind us and I looked to Lin. She pointed at the wall and mouthed the word foxes. I nodded my head and turned on the water jets, making noise to drown out their conversation so we didn’t overhear.

Lin and I stripped down, tossing our stuff beside the wash bin and rinsed off under the shower. Once we got the worst of the grim off us we hopped into the bath, sending water everywhere. I let Lin pick out the scent and she chose a nice sweet scented soap that would bubble up. Yara stood inside the shower space clutching the curtain, hesitantly looking at us in the water.

“Come on, the water's fine,” Lin said, leaning against the edge of the bath. “Or are you scared to get wet around me?”

“You dare call me a coward?” Yara shot back. She seemed to have some internal struggle before walking out of the shower dripping wet and covering herself with her arms. Her tail coiled around her hips and the heart tip covered her sex from view. She lowered herself down and kept her arms over her chest while glaring at Lin as if to challenge her back.

Yara then tried to make herself small, keeping her body below the lip of the water as much as she could to hide herself. When I looked her way she dipped even further down until she could only breathe through her nose.

“Aw, she’s shy,” Lin teased.

I felt Yara’s tail move under my legs and slap Lin. The cat girl let out a howl and shot up out of the water in a panic. She looked around herself and I couldn’t help but snicker as I saw the bubbles had clung to her body making her look like a bubbly white berry with cat ears and a tail.

“Now how about filling us in. I hate to admit it, but I’m not exactly in the know either,” Yara said.

“Oh right. Well, beast-kin culture is a bit different than human culture and beast-kin tend to fall into two tribes. Everything revolves around the matriarch of the home or clan, they get to make all the calls and if they are above you, then you have to do what they say. Or beast-kin form a loose group where no one is above anyone, everyone just loves who they want and everyone helps each other,” Lin said, settling back down and wiping the bubbles off her bosom to reveal her perky breasts.

“What about what we have going on?” I asked.

“I’m a bit more of the free kind myself. I see us as a group of friends who…like each other very much,” Lin said with a purr. “Rolada I can tell is a bit more trim and proper, so I think her family is the other way. Basically if Sliva wanted to take you for herself Rolada can’t say a thing.”

“I see…” I said.

The water rippled beside me as Yara sat up with her arms still covering her chest. “Don’t beast-kin tribes have something to do with your gods?”

Knowledge Religion : Failure!

Lin blew on the bubbles and scooped them up to form a bubble heart. “Heinekia is called the grand matriarch sometimes, being the first mother of all beast-kin. Her younger brother Kallio is the lord of the hunt, his big thing is all beast-kin should be able to fend for themselves and only hunt in a pack if everyone is equally as strong. There are exceptions, like if you are mentoring a young pack member.”

The last bit was aimed at me and I smiled back at her. Lin stuck out her tongue and I flicked the soapy water at her making her shiver as soap touched her tongue. The water jets churred the water and I put my back to one feeling it massage my shoulders.

“Who’s washing the clothes?” Yara asked.

“That would be Josh’s job,” Lin said, pushing me with her foot.

I grunted and got out of the hot bath, my soak already too short. I washed off with the shower head and moved towards the wash bin. Yara and Lin were tallying up the points during the spar, counting who had hit me the most. Lin ended up winning by a slim margin, much to Yara’s displeasure.

I used Arcane Trick to clean off the last of the soap and to dry the clothes. I smiled ear to ear seeing my magic was back to normal thanks to Sliva. I folded up their outfits and put them on top of a cabinet and got dressed back up.

The two of them got out, dried off and did the same. I could see between them there was a spark of some kind, and I felt like this could be the calm before a storm. As we left the bathing room I heard Rolada giggle and Sliva laugh in the women's bath.

“See, they're fine. Now let’s head to the library, we got a date to plan,” Lin said.

“Allow me,” Yara said, opening the door and shoving her way through first. “I shall lead us there and show you what we have found.”

“Not if I beat you there,” Lin said, slipping past Yara like an oiled snake.

The two of them took long strides and tried to overtake the other, shouldering each other out of the way to get through the library door first. While Yara was far stronger and could push Lin back, Lin had the agility to glide around her and dip out of reach when the demoness tried to hip check her. When the study table in the library came into view with the map stretched out on it, they each sprinted to be the first one there.

I had to push myself to catch up, feeling sluggish. Sliva’s magic had worked out most of my worries and I felt almost back to full strength, but I still paled in comparison to the athletic prowess the two of them had.

“Terrible map to be honest, doesn’t even have the small outposts you can get illegal goods at,” Lin said, crossing her arms.

“It’s what I had, sorry it's a decade out of date,” Yara growled.

“Ladies, let's be friends here,” I said, separating the two of them. It felt odd that I was being a mediator while both of them were taller than me, and stronger. It was like I was separating two lionesses about to fight.

The two of them eased up and we turned our attention to the map. It was fairly small and sparsely detailed. It was still a good indication of what we had around us. I had lucked into arriving on Ewyernar in a relatively peaceful valley out of the way of the plains, the big urban cities and trade routes.

The only things of note around us were small abandoned villages, Wyrmbreath and a few trade posts. Dastow, which was at the far end of the map, was connected to a larger empire, which meant way more headaches that way. The river we were on coasted down until it met up with a larger river coming off the mountains and there was a place of note. Ancient ruins with an observatory.

“What can you tell me about the observatory?” I asked.

“Not much,” Yara said. “Just that it belongs to a cult of star gazing mages that worshipped Icharn.”

“Fits a quest he would hand out to you. Should be pretty easy, a few traps by the door, we go in and look for the thing you need,” Lin said. “Yara found the stuff about the cult by looking in some of the books Rolada bought.”

“Are you certain it was supposed to be just you two?” Yara asked, biting into one of her white sticks.

I scratched my head remembering exactly what Icharn said. “He said we just needed to get him a book from a nearby ruin. He also said Lin would carry me through it, and that it would be a fun date night for us.”

Yara huffed and sat down, tapping her sharp nails onto the table. I could tell something was eating at her, and I wanted to alleviate that stress if I could. I just didn’t know how to get the tough warrior to open up.

“Yara, when I was in danger you knew right away, right?” I asked.

Yara waved her hand and the black ring made of smoke coiled around her finger and mine appeared as well. My ring tugged my hand towards Yara, pointing me in her direction.

“I knew you were in trouble, and the direction you were in,” Yara said. “Just like when you fell in the bathing room.”

I felt my face heat up as I remembered that morning. I had just tried to get into the bath while I was still stiff and fell onto the ground. Yara thinking there was some kind of last ditch attack on us brought nearly everyone in the dungeon down there to see me sprawled out completely naked. It wasn’t my finest moment.

I nodded and we dismissed the rings. I still needed to have a sit down with her to learn more about it, they could have even more powers to help us out during a fight. Yet that detail could be enough to calm her woes.

“We wouldn’t even be terribly far, and with Lin’s powers she can take on just about anything. It’s why I need one of you two to kick around the dungeon, you're our best warriors,” I said. “When we start getting those towers up and running then I think we can travel together a bit more freely.”

After hearing my little bit of praise I could see both of them perk up and regard the other more fondly. There was a hint of competition in their gazes, but a friendly one and one I could live with.

“I’ll bring this dumbass back to you in one piece, then you can take a turn sparring him all on your own,” Lin said, slapping me on the rump.

Yara kicked back, and blew out a cloud of bloody smoke into the air. It twisted and turned until it looked like two vague humanoid forms duelling. One was clearly a demon, the other a human, and the demon was throwing the human around like a rag doll.

“He won’t even last five minutes,” Yara said.