Chapter 144 - A Day in Vel’khan IV

After posting a relatively vague job description and buying some fresh fish from the market, the pair snuck out of town and made their way back home. The return trip was just as uneventful as its morning counterpart and somehow even more devoid of company. There were no other parties headed westward. The select few they saw were moving towards the city, and all of them regarded the halfbreeds with pity or suspicion. Some spoke of banditry, but the claim was dismissed each time it was made. All of the bandits had been scyphs, and sentient jellyfish they clearly were not.

“Why’s everyone being so weird?” asked Sylvia, as they passed the third group.

“I don’t know,” said Claire. “There aren’t any strong monsters nearby.”

The map they bought had confirmed Claire’s prior assumption. It came with a list of the different monsters and their territories, none of which were worth noting. Vel’rulm’s forests were home to nothing but goblins and imps. The animals, the wolves and tigers, were far more threatening than the plague demons that were Glarchst’s half-sentient believers. And that was why the pair was so confused. There was no reason for any of the passersby to be on guard.

“You think it might be because they’ve never seen a lyrkress before?”

“I doubt it,” said Claire. She hadn’t been the only oddball in town, or even on the road. The pair had spotted a number of bizarre halfbreeds wandering the streets. There were fish-headed creatures with dog-like limbs, rock golems with fins growing from their heads, and even a red-skinned orc with feathered wings and a halo. “And it isn’t my fault they’re suspicious.”

“Huh?” Sylvia blinked.

“You’re a talking fox.”

The lyrkress reached for her companion, but she was unable to catch her. The indignant puppy ducked out of the way with a bark and smacked her tail against the ground. “So!? That’s normal!”

“No it isn’t.” A second attempt was made, but her hands were blocked by a bubble. “Foxes aren’t people. They can’t talk.”

“What the heck! I’m talking to you right now! And it’s not even like I’m the only fox you’ve talked to! Remember Grant?”

“No.”

“Oh shush! I know you know that I know you remember him!”

Claire’s ears fluttered as she raised a hand to her mouth and hid a giggle. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The fox, however, was not as entertained. She puffed up her cheeks, stood up on her hind legs, and crossed her front paws. “I’m going to bite you.”

“I’d like to see you try.” Sticking out her tongue, the rogue pulled her ears back into her hood and changed her magical cloak into a suit of less-than-shiny metal armour.

“Oh, come on! That’s just cheating,” complained the furball.

“No it isn’t. You’d have no trouble biting right through it.”

“Yeah, but rust tastes awful and I hate the way it grates against my gums.”

“Because you’re half elf. And not a real fox.”

The lyrkress raised her head and looked towards the setting sun. The building was difficult to make out, with all the trees in the way. It was only two stories tall, and the rampart was hardly any higher. Compared to the two hundred meters at which the average plant stood, it was but a tiny invisible speck. The largest kapoks had trunks as wide as twenty meters, and their canopies were so lush and thick that it was impossible to see above or below them.

“Uhmmm… Claire?” Sylvia tilted her head and scrunched up her brows. “You do know that normal foxes can’t bite through metal, right?”

“The ones with nine tails can. I hear they eat swords.”

“Those aren’t normal foxes!” shouted the fairy, indignantly. “Normal foxes can only get up to three tails!”

“They’re normal. In the Langgbjerns.”

“You mean the mountains up north?”

Claire nodded. “You remembered this time.”

“Well, yeah! You’ve been bringing them up a lot lately.”

“I know.” The lyrkress looked in the direction of the distant range. It was invisible, from where she stood, but she knew where it was. “I want to explore them. When I’m strong enough.” Few knew what lay beyond or even within the continent-spanning sierra, and those that did were unwilling to share. In a way, it was almost like the forbidden library, from which the pair had escaped.

“You know… I’m almost surprised you’re not going right now, with how reckless you are.”

“I’m not reckless.” Claire twisted her lips into a pout.

“You fought a level 700 artificer!”

“That wasn’t reckless. It was a calculated gamble. And it worked out.”

The fox floated up to Claire’s head and plopped herself down on top of it. “Yeah, but you were barely level 200! Level 200 people don’t fight level 700 people unless they have to!”

“Exactly. I didn’t have a choice.”

“Yes you did!”

The half moose tilted her head. “Alfred gave me a quest.”

“That doesn’t mean you had to do it!”

“Yes it does.”

Her limbs dangling and her deflated tail flopping behind her, she shook her head and breathed a tired sigh. “Ugh… you’re so stubborn. I swear, sometimes I think you might be a mule, and not a weird deer moose thingy.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

With another giggle, Claire pinched the tip of her pet’s nose and stepped off the beaten path. Sylvia laughed along at first, but she stopped and snapped to attention. Her favourite chair followed suit shortly after, coming to a halt with her eyes on the fox’s twitching snout.

“Something feels kinda off…” The vixen’s ears moved around as her eyes darted around the scene. “We should probably sneak in. There’s someone inside the building.” She hummed a bubble large enough to envelop them both before raising her nose and continuing her investigation.

Claire nodded, turned her metal suit back into a set of casual clothes, and stepped inside the magical sphere. Her ears were raised overhead, strained to the best of her ability, but she heard nothing unusual. The only sounds that came to her were the ones always present within the forest, like the scurrying of critters and the dripping of dew. Whatever the intruder was, it was at least careful enough not to be heard from half a kilometer away.

Together, they took the entirely unnecessary precaution of slowly sneaking towards the building. Sylvia’s spell cut them off from the outside world; they were neither visible nor audible, even to the best of fighters. It would take another world-bending aspect to see through the fox’s illusion.

“It feels… strange. For you to help like this.”

Claire spoke in a half-whisper as she stepped through the open front door. Whoever entered their home had done so with their boots still caked in mud. The trails left by their feet were not only visible, but obviously fresh; the prints were still wet, and obnoxiously so.

“I know, but I swear it’s not my fault!” cried Sylvia. “I’m so used to sitting around and watching that I keep forgetting to step in. But it’s okay! I’ll help lots, from now on. That’s a promise.”

“Okay. I’ll hold you to it,” said the other halfbreed.

“Please don’t!”

“Too bad. You’re the one that promised.” Claire paused for a moment to craft a long, icy polearm sporting a hook and a hammer. It was a familiar design, and the last thing Frederick had left behind. “Why do you think they’re here?”

“Uhmmm… I dunno,” said Sylvia. “Revenge maybe? I’m pretty sure the really ugly one said that we were gonna pay or something before you started stabbing him over and over.”

“Maybe. But they wouldn’t have sent just one.”

She was only half focused on their conversation. Her ears were trained instead on the footsteps coming from the floor above. The attacker remained silent, but she could hear their heart accelerating as they sprung into action and burst through the wooden door at the end of the hall.

Claire was calm until she was struck by a realization. The room the invader had broken into was the fort’s master bedroom. Her bedroom.

She kicked off the ground with the fury of a freshly neutered bull. Her hooves thundered as she stormed up the stairs and practically flew towards her quarters. She had no intention of allowing her privacy to be invaded, especially not by an uncultured bandit.

“They’re not here.”

It was only as she stampeded through the halls that the trespasser finally began to speak.

“The job said they’d be here. Where did they go?”

The bandit was talking about something or other, but Claire ignored her words. She raised her halberd over her shoulder and got ready to swing, her bloodlust growing with every step.

Her target would be caught unawares. A single strike to the neck would put an immediate end to her. Before she could cause any harm.

Claire was confident in her success. Until the intruder raised her hood. Sitting atop the woman’s head were a pair of fuzzy triangular ears, twitching pyramids the same shade of caramel as her short, messy hair. Within her bright emerald green eyes were a pair of beautiful slit pupils, their edges just rounded enough that they didn’t belong to a snake.

It was only as her breath left her throat that Claire realised there was an extra appendage sticking out from between her legs. A thin, curved tail. Covered in the same fur that adorned her ears.

The strength drained from the lyrkress’ limbs as a small box appeared to confirm her greatest fear.

Log Entry 5361

Catgirl Detector V. 0.47 has reached level 25, its maximum level.

Log Entry 5362

Catgirl Detector V. 0.47 can now evolve into Catgirl Detector V. 1.00, but the process has failed to initiate. Manual intervention is required.

The intruder was a catgirl. A bonafide, pureblooded, 100% catgirl.

Claire fell to her knees. Her breath was stuck in her throat, refusing to budge, even as she grasped and clawed at her neck. All the thoughts she didn’t want coursed through her mind with vigour anew.

She couldn’t stop her eyes from dancing across the other girl’s frame, from tracing their way down the lines of her thin, delicate body. Every detail was burned into the back of her mind. The beads of sweat that dripped down her breathtakingly beautiful face. The book strapped to her dainty, irresistible hips. The matted hair in her otherwise silky tail. The calluses on her hands. The pores in her skin. Everything.

A voice called out to her, but she couldn’t make it out. Her ears were focused entirely on the catgirl. She could tell that her heart was beating a hundred and thirty nine times a second. Every pulse was followed with such precision that she could practically see the way her blood flowed through her veins.

The world began to spin as a strange but familiar sensation came over her. Pain struck the lower half of her body as her serpentine stomach screamed for flesh. A line of drool escaped her lips. Her tongue flicked with anticipation. Flames lit within her chest, threatening to engulf her in an all consuming blaze of desire.

She wanted, needed, to pounce. To consume.

Just as she needed to resist.

Blood streamed from her lips as she desperately tried to suppress the foreign urges. She knew they were Alfred’s. His raw lust was bubbling up from within her, threatening to consume her mind. He wanted her to ravage the catgirl and claim her for her own. But she refused. His desire was one she never wanted to internalize. No matter what the circumstances.

Claire wanted nothing but to be rid of his curse.

She wanted to grab her head and crawl into a corner.

She wanted to jab her halberd into her brain to make the voices stop, to gouge out her heart so that it would stop thumping, stop urging her to do something she didn’t want.

But all she could manage was ripping her ears to shreds. The pain helped her fight the loss of her sanity, just enough for her to eke out a quiet plea. “Sylvia. Help. Please.”

She realised, as she spoke, that there were already a pair of arms around her, that there was already a soothing tune, drowning out the cat-calls echoing through the back of her mind. She realised that a set of fingers was gently combing its way through her hair, that her body was covered in a gentle, magical light.

And that her fingers were buried in flesh.

Sylvia had grown to her full humanoid size. She was cradling her, even as the digits were pressed against her bones.

With a gasp, Claire slowly loosened her grip and pulled her hands out of her friend’s back. “Sorry. Sylvia. I’m… so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” The response came with a calm, warm smile. The wounds closed immediately, but the evidence, a trail of blood, remained.

She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. She was tempted to bury her face in the fox’s chest, to breathe in her scent and hope that it would cleanse her memory, but she couldn’t. Setting her self-loathing aside, she clenched her teeth and got to her feet. She had things to do. Catgirls to kill.

A light squeeze prompted her to open her eyes anew, to see the worried gaze returned from almost point blank.

“Thanks.” Her fists still clenched, she slowly backed away. “I needed that.”

“Uhm… are you sure you’re okay?” asked Sylvia. “I’ve already bubbled her up, so you can just sit around and deal with her later, when you feel better.”

Her arms and legs stopped shaking as she took another deep breath. “I’m fine.” She needed to stay calm, just as her father had always instructed.

“Do you need another hug?”

Claire shook her head as she directed her gaze back towards the room. She couldn’t see inside anymore, courtesy of the deep blue bubble in her way, but she knew that the abomination was right there in front of her. Her catgirl detector was screaming at her, informing her that her prey was still present and waiting, like a lamb to the slaughter.

“This is the best way. To get over it.”

That was what her father had always told her. She needed to face her fears. Running would only make them haunt her.

Knowing that she was relying on his words filled her with a whole new blend of self-loathing, but she pushed it aside and pressed on. Her reasons weren’t important. All that mattered was the ability to fight the curse.

A halberd in each hand, she assumed her lyrkrian form and stepped forward. She didn’t know if it would rid her of the urges plaguing her mother’s bloodline, but she kept moving either way and entered the barrier, with a hesitant, worried fox following soon after.

___

Claire

Health: 17160/17160

Mana: 29760/29760

Divinity: 5/5

Health Regen: 6444/hour (12888/hour)

Mana Regen: 24228/hour

Divinity Regen: 5/hour

Ability Scores - 3060 Points Available

- Agility: 2100

- Dexterity: 1685

- Spirit: 866

- Strength: 2273

- Vitality: 1432

- Wisdom: 2692

Racial Class: Frostblight Lyrkress - Level 209.13

- Frostblight Lyrkrian Martial Arts - Level 41.62

- Frostblight Lyrkrian Shapeshifting - Level 33.97

- Paralyzing Gaze - Level 24.26

- Thermodynamic Regulation - Level 13.10

- True Ice Manipulation - Level 37.04

Primary Class: Llystletein Essencethief - Level 192.05

- Catgirl Detector V. 0.47 - Level 25

- Charm Catgirl - Level 1.00

- Death’s Dance - Level 23.41

- Essencethief - level 16.38

- Envenom - Level 29.55

- Phantom Blade - Level 27.83

Secondary Class: Cloudburst Sorceress - Level 157.92

- Force Resistance - Level 7.97

- Detect Force Magic - Level 22.94

- Spirit Sorcery - Level 41.59

- Vector Manipulation II - Level 9.73

Unclassed Skills

- Artifact Manipulation - Level 5.00

- Digging - Level 18.80

- English - Level 25

- Llystletein Authority++ - Level 12.25

- Marish - Level 19.11

- Sewing - Level 1.43

- Sneaking - Level 22.82

- Weapon Mastery - Level 17.64