Cheep!?

Cheep!? 

Chapter 51

Niko ducked under the wooden pole-arm with a playful jilting trill. The muscular man who wielded said pole-arm transitioned his swipe into a spin, using the momentum with the intent of hitting the large bird with the butt of his weapon. Halfway into the spin, Niko stepped into the strike and headbutted him with the top of his head, sending his adversary into a face-first dive to the sand covered ground. 

Ronald spat sand from his mouth as he rose, “Again with the sand…” he muttered under his breath. Niko stood triumphantly, feathers fluffed up as he did so. Thus far, Niko had battled Ronald ten times, and six of them he’d eaten sand. The other four he’d barely even gotten his weapon up in time to deflect Niko’s starting strike.

“Take a break, Ronald,” Camille shouted out, “You’re getting sloppy from fatigue and making dumb choices. Sit out a few rounds.”

The man flushed from embarrassment and looked like he wanted to argue with her. Smartly, though, he clamped his lips shut after giving Niko a short nod. The man didn’t like getting the snot kicked out of him, but he’d held together remarkably well. Niko had expected him to be much more upset with how flippantly he’d been taken to task, but the man seemed to have taken his punches and flaps and then some, with an endurance that impressed Niko. Ronald was mad, but Niko realized that it wasn’t at him.

Nor was it at his instructor, quite in fact, Ronald looked upset with himself. Niko couldn’t really guess as to why, perhaps he realized his own problems and the bad habits he’d formed. He was far too flashy, made too many large moves. On the other hand, Niko had been interested to find that he was falling easily into sparring, learning rapidly and leaning hard into his gut reactions. It wasn’t a fighting style by any means, but as far as reactionary combat went, he was exemplary.

“Mithel, you’re up. You’re allowed low-grade potions and concoctions. Niko can take it,” Camille turned her eyes to the bird, “Isn’t that right, birdy?”

Camille had been told everything that her brother knew; Crowe left no detail out in their exchange, in spite of Niko’s vague concerns. What surprised him was that Camille had only appeared giddy at the prospect, and promised that ‘he’d be a capable fighter by the time she was through with him.’ So far, that hadn’t been hard, but with that recent statement, he was beginning to wonder…

Still, Niko nodded his head to the both of them.

“Uhhh… are you sure? I don’t really have much in the way of regenerative potions.” Mithel gestured to her pack, “In fact, most everything I use is acid…”

She stopped when Camille turned a flat look at her, “Here, hand me one.”

“S-” Mithel was about to pull one out when Niko saw Camille pluck it off of her and-

He saw the motion of her hand, but he didn’t detect the lobbed projectile before it burst across his chest. Immediately, he felt an uncomfortable sting and an awful smell of something burning and melting. Niko squawked in surprise as he looked down to see the fragmented glass and acid that had splattered across his feathers. On reflex he began to push essence through his feathers, fighting back against the material eating through them. Immediately, he realized that his feathers weren’t very effective against this, and he desperately began to try to salvage his beautiful feathers by rolling in the sand to dislodge the sand and acid.

“See, he’s fine.” Camille gestured to the rolling bird with a wide grin, to which Niko only shot her a savagely violent glare.

“I… I don’t think I can survive him being that mad at me?” Mithel squeaked, swallowing hard, clearly intimidated, but Niko didn’t care about that right now.

“My beautiful feathers! How could you do this? Why!? Aaaaahhhhhh!” He screeched, stood up and bolted towards Camille before he could rethink his actions.

Was it a poor idea to run at someone clearly far above you in power? Could she casually rip him to pieces? Was there any condition in which he would be able to win a fight like this?

When she casually backhanded him back across the sand with a shunt of essence to soften the blow, Niko decided that he was clearly overreacting and that feathers can grow back…

‘Nope… I can’t even lie, this sucks tremendously right now.’ Niko chirruped sadly, looking down at the few feathers that now were marred with acid burns and sand.

“You’ll be fine. Those feathers are supposed to be your armor, anyways.” Camille spoke, and Niko only angled his head to her in vague questioning.

She paused briefly at seeing the depressed expression on his face, “...Wow, you’re pitiful. One acid splash and you’re done?” Niko only flopped his head back down, ignoring her entirely now. 

“Alright, duly noted, not gonna get a rise out of you with that, huh?” She chuckled with Mithel still standing worriedly to the side, “Well, what if I told you that with enough essence control you could better shield them and maybe even regenerate them at will?” Niko’s head snapped up fast at that. Camille snorted, “Right then, vanity route it is then.”

Niko pointedly ignored that comment, before letting out a trilling noise of insistent questioning. With this one, he also sought out his elf with an essence strand. He connected with her, blasting her with his need to know that surprised her so much that she yelped and failed to parry Dachna’s dagger swipe.

“What was that about?” Niko heard Dachna ask. He turned to their sandy ring, not far at all from their own, only to see Skye pressing a hand to her ribs from where Dachna had just landed a very solid dagger strike. 

“Niko! Really? I was in the middle of something.” Skye glowered at him.

He shrugged unapologetically, “You’ll have to get better at doing this at the same time as fighting, eventually.”

Her expression turned focused as she tried to parse apart what he was saying, before shaking her head, “That’s too muddled.”

“How about this, then?” Niko clucked at her with annoyance, shoving all of the drive to know about protecting himself and, most importantly, his beautiful feathers from acid.

She reeled at the imagery before her gaze snapped to his chest with a frown, clearly seeing the travesty that had become some of the feathers there.

“Like… you have nice feathers, but why are you crying over a little marring?” Skye, perplexed, stared at him.

Camille laughed heartily at the betrayed expression on Niko’s face. Stonily, he turned his gaze back to Camille expectantly as he stood up.

“What you need to do is to push a layer of essence to be just over your feathers. You want to focus on them being a membrane. The higher tier you are, the more essence you can mobilize, so it’s just wasteful not to put it to work. Most of you probably can’t… maybe Skye can with her full-body pattern, but that’s besides the point,” she patted Mithel on the shoulder, “You’re not allowed to attack her, but you’re allowed to dodge. If you get hit, you’ll have to try to keep the acid from seeping deeper while still dodging.”

Mithel spoke up, “I don’t actually have that many of these offensive solutions, it’s been a long time since I’ve had access to a proper lab. And…” she looked up to Niko then, “I would really rather not use acid on a comrade.”

Niko felt a bit of the edge he’d felt towards the alchemist softened at that. Camille was very clearly more powerful than everyone in the room put together, but Mithel was still willing to refuse her to not hurt a teammate. For a few seconds, the large woman only stared at Mithel with a flat expression, but the gnomish woman didn’t shift away from her.

“Hmm… Alright, I can respect that to some extent. But you’ll still be using something damaging.” She spoke and waved her hand over to some crates stacked against the wall, “You can use those after I sort through them a bit. They’re all training potions that I had brought in for you, though you’ll be making your own concoctions again starting tonight.” She then spoke up, addressing the team as a whole, “Honestly, you guys are lucky to have a battle-alchemist on your team. If you support her right, that’ll be a massive help later on when you’d otherwise have to wait months for a decent alchemist to help process goods into potions. If Mithel here ever gets to that level of expertise, and you all treat each other right, you won’t be wanting for cash.” 

She then handed Mithel a corked flask with a dull gray liquid in it. Niko didn’t notice where it had come from. “Help rub this on the bird's damaged feathers while I set up your potions. You two can get back to it,” Camille said the last part to Skye and Dachna, “I’m almost done with checking all of you over, but I want to see what else you’ve got first.”

Mithel still looked uncomfortable with what Camille had said earlier, though Niko could tell that it was a complicated issue. She looked at Dachna, who gave her a small, comforting smile and nodded to her. Niko idly wondered how the two had met and become a thing, but before he could think any more on it, Mithel came up closer to him. 

She cleared her throat, “W-well, I guess I’ll just… May I?” She gestured awkwardly to the potion she held and to his chest. Niko warbled and nodded before sitting down in the sand. It occurred to him that, as Mithel knelt down in front of him, that she had avoided directly addressing him much at all ever since they’d started traversing together. Niko, Staring down at her as she applied the poultice, couldn’t help but notice that she was still awkward around him. It had only really been two days since he’d nearly overdosed on a concoction of her own making, and they still hadn’t personally sorted that out as of yet. 

Niko didn’t really hold it against her anymore, and with the closer mastery of his own instincts that had come with his adulthood, he hoped that he would never experience such a thing again. But she didn’t know what, and as she gingerly applied the liquid that rapidly thickened to a paste in the open air, he wondered what he could do about that.

‘Well, first things first,’ he leaned down slowly, and Mithel’s movements became even slower. Niko could smell the anxiety on her, a scent that he found he didn’t enjoy at all in anything he wasn’t hunting. ‘That’s a thought,’ he cringed, ‘Doesn’t make me sound pecking creepy at all, nope.’ Still, he angled his head low and slowly opened his mouth just a bit before holding onto the edge of her sleeve.

She stopped entirely, now seeming to be very confused. That lasted until he pulled her hand to his damaged feathers and pressed it there, showing that he wasn’t bothered by the motion. Mithel blinked several times, and Niko let go of her arm then, angling his head awkwardly on his muscular but long neck to meet her gaze. With a bit more force, she thoroughly applied a bit more of the liquid-paste, before corking it. 

Niko then leaned over and pressed the top of his head against her, big enough that his skull was almost as large as her torso. Mithel, warily at first, gave him some short pets before emulating the scritches that Skye had given him the day before.

“Ohhhhh that’s the spot!” He warbled and melted down a bit more as he leaned into the scritches. 

Mithel chuckled quietly, “You’re just like my old cats, they loved ear scritches too.” 

It was then that Camille came back over, but Mithel didn’t see the flabbergasted expression on her face. Niko imagined what might be going through her head, something along the lines of ‘She’s actively petting and giving scritches to a Chosen and he likes it.’ 

To which Niko could only respond, ‘You’re clucking right!’ 

“Ah, here, they’re all set up.” Camille cleared her throat to get Mithel’s attention, who for her part didn’t look or act like anything was amiss at all. “The crates are a mix of different concoctions. Some of them are still acids, Niko, but they’re all things that you’d be better suited to not have on your skin in the long term. Or the eyes, really, but nothing permanently damaging.” She gestured to the crates as a whole, “Mithel, you’ll have to refill what you use, but we’ll provide the facilities and ingredients.”

“Free?” Mithel’s eyes shined hopefully, and all of a sudden Niko felt like he was seeing an entirely different person, “I can make more for free?”

Camille chuckled at the sudden intensity, “Yeah, and we can give you access to more stuff if you prove competent. We can’t help you too much with exotic ingredients, otherwise your pilgrimage will bring down pandemonium levels of carnage, but we’ve got the basic stuff covered for you.”

“Yes!” Mithel cheered, before darting over to the crates on the far side of the small sand arena, “Alright, Niko, are you ready!?”

Niko looked at Camille with concern, while the woman only smirked back with a broad, shit-eating grin. “Looks like you'd better get good at your essence control, eh?”

‘I hate you so pecking much right now.’ Niko clacked his beak at her once before rising and coming to attention on the other side of the sand arena. 

“Here are the rules, then.” Camille got into position against the wall near a large collection of training implements, including weapons, and weight training devices. “Niko can’t come close to attack you, isn’t allowed to use an essence pattern to aid in mobility, and will be subjected to progressively harder conditions as the training goes on.” She then gestured to Mithel, “Whereas you, Mithel, must infuse essence into each of these potions as you throw, using only enough to activate the ingredients fully, aim them, and throw them at Niko at whatever speed you desire. If you don’t want to use acid,” she said this all with a perpetual grin, “then you’ll need to feel the difference as you push essence into the potions, because they all look the same.” 

Niko and Mithel did a double take then, looking at the crate of potions and realizing that, yes, they all looked gray. “Why in Samut’s name would they all be made to look the same?” Mithel asked, now regarding them all warily.

Camille shrugged, “Eventually you’ll want to know what a foreign made potion does, personally, without imbibing it. Not every potion you’ll find on the market does what it says on the label, and in the worst cases it’ll be straight up poisonous.” Camille lost her smile then, “Some of the worst possible things you can imagine will happen because someone gave your team something with side effects. Speaking from experience, if you learn this now, you’ll all save on hardship and pain later.”

Mithel nodded seriously at that, looking at all of the potions, lost in thought. “I guess… I guess that would be a concern, wouldn’t it? A bad batch, especially at the worst time…”

With a satisfied nod, Camille turned her open hand down and parallel to the sand arena floor. The arena was one of two, both of which were ten meters in diameter and encircled with sigils. She activated several of them, the sigils flashing on and off as she went, before a minute later she nodded at her work. 

“Alright, now, here’s what’s going to happen. Both of you will start under pressure, Niko more than Mithel because he’s tier two, and a bully–” she gave him a quick glare there “–who doesn’t know how to hold back enough while sparring.”

Niko felt briefly offended before he realized, with shame, that he really hadn’t even thought about trying to meet Ronalds level before. He wasn’t really sure how to do that effectively, where it would still be useful for Ronald’s growth. He had taken deep pleasure in abusing him after all of the terrible nicknames he’d given him, though.

“So, Mithel, for every thirty seconds that you don’t throw a flask, the pressure increases. For every one that you throw and miss, the pressure increases; however, for every one you throw at all, the pressure relieves. That’s a net neutral, by the way. For every one you hit Niko with, the pressure alleviates greatly. On Niko’s side, you’ll start off fairly heavy, but it’ll lessen up every thirty seconds, or anytime you narrowly dodge. It’ll grow much heavier if you get hit, though, and every five dodges–or if Mithel misses, that counts, too– the pressure will get heavier for fifteen seconds before alleviating.” 

Niko and Mithel did not like Camille’s rules, “That sounds like I won’t be able to check the potions almost at all if I’m not already familiar with them… and that I’ll be lucky to hit with them.”

Niko sharply retorted, “What about that bird-shit rule about five successful dodges getting me penalized for the next throw? That’s going to suck!” 

Nobody knew what he actually said, but Camille could guesstimate based on how angry his chittering sounded, “It’s not meant to be easy, and all of you are earning points as you train. At the end of this training we’ll be letting you select a few things to trade for your accumulated points.”

Ronald perked up at that, “Like what?”

“Weapons, armor, essence stones, element crystals, trade tools,” she shrugged, “There’s a lot, and most of it is stuff that I would have sweat blood for the opportunity to get when I was starting out. A good weapon that won’t break for years is a treat by the time you rise past tier three. Basic materials just don’t do it after that,” she then gestured once more to the two in the ring, “You’ll earn points regardless, but you’ll get more points for winning, especially in harder conditions. We’re rolling with this point-to-reward system so that we aren’t helping you for free as far as your pilgrimage is concerned. You aren’t initiated yet, but it’ll look at what you’ve been given in recent times and… adjust accordingly.” She briefly set her gaze on Niko with that, a flicker of grave concern in her eyes that vanished just as quickly as it had come.

Niko didn’t need a reminder as to how hard this was all going to be, but he still had to do it. He only hoped that the Greenhorns would be up for the task.

‘Note to self… tell Skye we really need a new damn name. That was funny when I wasn’t on the team, but now...’ He thought to himself before settling into a dodging stance across from Mithel.

She breathed deep, getting ready to pick up her first potion to throw.

And then Niko felt like someone had dropped a meter thick lead blanket over his body.

‘Pluck me sideways! Are you insane? How is anyone supposed to move under this!?’ Niko gaped in shock as he looked at Camille, who only took in the scene as a whole dispassionately. His knees were bent from the force, and it felt like the sand under his feet was more like quicksand. Experimentally, he shifted from one foot to the other, noting that it was almost like the air itself was jello. 

Niko was about to send a surge of essence through his leg pattern when he remembered he wasn’t allowed to use them. ‘Wow, I really hope it’s bad for Mithel.’, he thought, as the confidence he had in this practice session went completely out the window.

He glanced up, seeing that Mithel was straining too, but not nearly as bad as he felt he was. Niko could somewhat see the essence fluctuating in the air and the potion she was working with, but on reflex he activated his eye-pattern to get a better look at what was happening.

Then immediately regretted it when Camille increased the strength of the gravity effect with a chiding tone, “Not even that one, Niko. No patterns at all.”

“Ugh, I hate you sooooo much right now,” Niko complained with much squawking.

“Yeah, yeah, squawk squawk you, too!” Camille laughed at him before looking back up to Mithel. 

  Just before the thirty second mark passed, her face contorted to a grimace as she set the potion to the side, “Acid.” She shook her head, partway to reaching for another when suddenly the pressure increased. “Bant’s arse! It’s so much worse!” She shot a glare at Camille who gave her a saccharine smile in return.

She quickly held up one of the flasks, while Niko felt his weighted down body lift up a touch as one of the layers of gravity faded away. Thirty seconds had passed, after all, in spite of his slip up with his eye pattern. Mithel nodded to herself at the twenty-five second mark, “This is fine.”

With a shockingly good arm, she wound up and pitched the round flask at Niko, who, as he saw the throw coming, dodged with plenty of space to spare. Potential feather-disaster averted, Niko noted he didn't feel any lighter despite not getting hit. Then the timer for thirty seconds went off again and he got some relief, as before. “Oi! What the peck? I dodged, so… ah.” His complaints tapered off as he remembered the wording. ‘Near miss, right. I have to dodge with as little movement as possible, eh? Conserve strength? That’s got to be the key.’ 

Mithel on the other hand, huffed and picked up a new potion, “Net neutral, indeed. That’s annoying.” She then muttered something under her breath that Niko couldn’t catch, but he watched her go through the potion once more.

He dodged three more before Mithel began looking more strained. The fourth in her hand took her nearly the full thirty seconds to discover the nature of, and she nearly spat when she said, “Acid! Pox on it–” then the weight of her body increased, and she sagged with a groan. Wordlessly, she picked up another potion, the sixth in total that she’d touched. 

This time she threw it at the twenty eight second mark, just enough time to know that it wasn’t acid. She was flagging, though, and Niko didn’t even have to dodge, Mithel just straight up missed him entirely. So far, he hadn’t been overly challenged, but he’d only been straining against his own weight in one single spot. Mithel, on the other hand, was being put through the gauntlet.

Then he felt his own weight increase dramatically, and remembered that every five misses or dodges, he’d be penalized.‘Ah, this must be for her to catch up. But she only has fifteen seconds.’ He clucked at that, feeling like he was trying to move through liquid concrete. Mithel must have realized what was happening, because she swiped up a potion and activated it in a second with her essence. She was very fast at that stage, at least, but he couldn’t tell how wasteful she was with it. A complex expression appeared on her face as she tried to discern the nature of the potion, but when eleven seconds had passed, she only shook her head. “It’s not acidic!” Was her declaration as she whipped it straight at Niko’s chest. The bird squawked in surprise at the sudden throw, desperation feeding into the attack.

Niko moved to the side, but he’d misjudged its speed. It struck his side and blew open with the unstable bead of essence that Mithel had injected it with. In that moment, Charles knew that he would have preferred acid as the concoction covered his entire right flank with a sticky and foul smelling goop that he instantly was reduced to tears in smelling.

“I got him! Whoo–” Then Mithel paled and clamped a hand over her nose, her eyes tearing up, “Sweet gods, what is that!?” 

Camille laughed, “That is what a contained sticky-stink potion is! In a contained arena, no less.”

The others looked to the commotion with confusion, and Niko realized partway through his almost-retching posture that they didn’t seem to detect it at all. “You’re really lucky! There’s only like three in all of those containers.” Camille all-too-happily informed them..

Niko and Mithel both looked at each other, askance clear on their faces, both shocked, “Th-Three, you said?”

“Oh, sweet pecking Alterra, no,” Evident horror dawned on his face, and Dachna couldn’t help but fall flat on his arse laughing hysterically at Niko. That lasted only until he realized that Mithel, subjected to the same smell, was glaring daggers at him. His self-control failed him as he looked to Skye for support, who had turned herself around, covering her face as she laughed as silently as she could. It didn’t help much, considering her shoulders were heaving violently with the effort.

“How, why–how long does it last!?” Mithel snatched another potion out and began to activate it, and Niko realized the timer wouldn’t have stopped. He had lightened up considerably after the fifteen seconds was up, though he was markedly heavier than he was before, he was only slightly heavier than he’d been after they had just started. 

“Hours! Days!” Camille called happily, “But you’re in luck! Acid gets rid of it right quick!” 

Both balked at that, and Niko realized the dastardly depths of their instructor’s plan.

“Better get to it, ten more seconds and you get heavier!” the devil of a woman cheerily informed Mithel, as she instantly chucked one of the acids she’d confirmed from earlier at Niko. On sheer instinct and remembering the pain, he dodged, only to realize in horror what he’d just done. 

“No! My salvation! Peck!” 

Mithel, for her part, only screamed, “It’s fine! We have another!” 

“It’s starting to smell worse! I’m sorry! Throw another!” Niko begged aloud, knowing that she couldn’t really understand him, but by how hard Skye was laughing, someone had a pretty good idea of what he was saying.

Mithel picked up the flask and chucked it, more essence in it than was strictly necessary. He angled his body such that it would hit straight on. It did so, explosively, the extra essence exciting the acid more than expected. Niko refrained from panicking as much as he could, and instead relished as the horrific scent was replaced with the still-awful but manageable scent of burning acid. 

Niko struggled to churn essence through his feathers the entire time, but it was very difficult to use it to affect something sitting on them. He might have shed away a few droplets of any given material, but not nearly enough. He did realize, however, that taking this hit had resulted in less of a weight gain than when he’d been hit after the big fifteen second long slowdown. If he hadn’t been as focused on his body as he had been just then, he’d have missed it. Still, he was definitely heavier, and he realized he was going to have a much harder time now because Mithel looked greatly relieved of her burden. On multiple levels.

“Oh, that’s so much better.” She took a deep breath and started on the next potion, “I work with acids all the time, but that concoction was awful.”

“It works great on beasts, and it gets worse over time,” explained Camille, “Usually you only use it on things that are hit-and-run specialists, but sometimes you run across something with a strong enough sense of smell that it actively hurts them.” She clapped, “Anyways, you two keep doing this for… another thirty minutes. That should be fine. You three, come over here into the ring together. You’re going to play another game…”

And thus, Niko came to realize that they were all going to have a very long week, especially when he realized that a wooden, man-sized golem was placed in the ring with his three companions. They didn’t notice, but Niko had seen the moment when it activated and felt an essence density comparable to what the poachers' leader had. ‘Tier three? Pluck, this thing is going to wipe the floor with us later, isn’t it?’ 

Niko dragged his attention back to Mithel as she cursed and set aside another potion, this time just after the thirty second mark, “Acid,” she called, “Niko, I… I’m gonna have to start throwing early. Some of these are really complex.”

He grimaced, but nodded, ‘Ugh, this is such a painful exercise. I think it’ll work, though.’ 

Still, when she threw the next potion, uncertain as to its identity, he hadn’t expected her to detonate it just beside him. It showered him in a bright fluid that… didn’t feel like it did anything at all.

“Hah! Woo! Nothing happened!” He trilled happily, ignoring the fact that he had gotten heavier. 

Then Mithel started cackling hilariously, “Oh my gods, you’re a–” she snorted, cutting herself off.

 

—--------------------------

 

Mithel had been worried when she chucked the latest potion, she’d also felt bad about having to push extra essence into it to force it to explode and hit him when he tried to dodge it. She couldn’t take much more weight on her, though, that was a fact. Throwing was going to be hard enough as it was, but with every other stage included? It wasn’t sustainable. She had to trade hits, otherwise Niko wasn’t going to get off easy, either. 

But that potion was amazing! He was still looking at her in confusion after he had looked down at his feathers on the entire right side of his body. A low, dramatically mournful moan came out of the bird, but Mithel couldn’t find it in her to feel bad. 

“Oh my gods, you’re a–” she cut herself off automatically, years of odd looks curbing her enthusiasm for referencing things that didn’t exist in this world. Still, mentally, she added, ‘You look like a Chocobo! You big, yellow chicken!!!’ 

Niko, for his part, looked like he’d been shot. His beautiful gem-colored plumage now plastered a matte yellow. It almost looked like an artist had taken a ‘what-if’ color swap and applied it to reality.

“S-Sorry! I just–bhahahaha!” She belted out laughter that her Gnomish mother would have jokingly called very unladylike, and her Dwarven father would have smiled warmly at.

Niko snorted at her contemptuously as she rose once more, grabbing blindly for another concoction, knowing that she could afford the slight weight increase to make sure she wasn’t throwing something like aqua regia at her companion. That’d be tragic, but she knew better than that to trust anything she didn’t brew herself. “This one is… I have no idea! But not acid!”

 

*If you'd like to read ahead, Patreon has up to ten available! Check it out!