Cheep!?

Cheep!?

Chapter 53

As Niko’s face was laying in the sand, he began to question certain recent life choices. Was there a reason why he was really putting himself through this suffering? Did he truly have to deal with something like this?
“Get up, Niko! I know you’ve got more juice in you.” Camille shouted, “You have ten seconds before your golem charges one of your companions!”

“Camille, I really, really clucking hate you right now!” Niko half screeched as he forced himself to his knees, then up to his feet.

“Squawk, squawk! You got energy! Take another golem!” Shouted the trainer to the large bird.

At the words, another golem walked forward from a line of identical wooden humanoid-shaped constructs. If Niko could have paled, he would have. “I just got rid of one! Camille!” 

“You want two? Alright, hey, let's give the industrious bird two!” She waved another over, and this time Niko restrained himself from screeching in wordless rage and another unnamed emotion. That other emotion certainly wasn’t fear, no, not at all. 

Five golems walking forward towards him in aggressive stances immediately made Niko face the music. He’d gone from a healthy respect for these things to an unhealthy amount of dread. Moving forward with as much grace as he could manage, Niko began his newest assault pattern. It took a great deal of focus to allow his instincts to temper his motions without drawing him into predictable behaviors, but he was getting better at it quickly. One of the golems' wild swings cleaved out into the open air while a second sought to strike down at him. Previously, he’d dodged the first only to get a ringing noggin for his efforts.

The tier two dolls, or golems, or whatever they were, were something that Niko had struck full on and not managed to destroy. Unlike before, these golems were something he was allowed to pull out all the stops on. Also unlike before, these golems seemingly had no trouble in adjusting to him.

“They will learn in the space of this exercise, but they’ll forget by tomorrow.” Camille shouted, “And so, you will get to make the most of a foe that will neither tire nor perish during your training. How fun!” 

“Aaaaaargh!” Ronald’s wordless roar echoed out amidst the sounds of clashing wood. Niko forced himself not to look over at how everyone else was fairing. As much as he wanted to, he knew that focus was the key to this battle. Their golems were, of course, only at mid to high tier one levels of power, but no less formidable in skill. 

Niko pulled his attention back to his own battle with a caw of annoyance as the other three golems fell into a lockstep behind him. He briefly entertained trying to overpower the two in front of him, but pushing that idea out of his mind was beyond easy. They weren’t something he could move with casual brute force, but instead required a major action that would–and had previously– left him open to the other combatants. With the rush of blood in his ears, Niko feinted falling back, successfully baiting the three golems behind him into trying to strike him to pressure him. Fast attacks instead rang out from the front as Niko’s dancing footwork carried him between two enemies. 

His instincts told him to strike one and bring them down with superior force, but Niko knew that for the trap it was. They were a unit working in tandem with one another, whereas he needed to rapidly reduce the fight to manageable partitions. React, force, route an enemy, threaten another. For hours he’d been at this, and his essence would have been depleted if it wasn’t for the rich meal he’d eaten earlier. With a high swipe, Niko forced one of the golems to respond with an overextended block. Its companion came in, not realizing that Niko’s slash wasn’t for offense. 

With a twist of his talons, Niko locked the quarter staff in the golems grip with his own and pulled it forward, leveraging his far more powerful legs and bigger frame. It crashed into its companion, and as he had expected, the other three surged forward together. With a shrill cry, he blasted a wave of sand up with his legs, surging with essence, pattern flickering to full for just a second. Pacing himself and using only just enough essence was hard, but he had to start doing it now to get into the practice of it. Even now, he had used far too much for the maneuver. But, in this case, the wave of sand obscuring vision was helpful to keep his movements shrouded.

The golems could communicate with one another, but it wasn’t instantaneous, so the vision-blocked constructs were still on a direct interception course with him in going after the still tangled pair of their companions. They didn’t expect him to blast through the sand with his claws lifted high for lethal throat strikes. 

With remarkable reaction speed, they lifted their quarterstaffs high for Niko’s claws, but were utterly out of position when Niko’s body surged with essence and gave him the speed and flexibility to shift low. His wing feathers hardened with a direct application of more essence, and the now dagger sharp feathers cut straight through where hamstrings would have been on the legs of two of the golems. Rather than keep in range, though, Niko darted through the gap, the double clack of wooden quarterstaffs smacking each other the only indication of what would have happened if he hadn’t moved in time.

He would most certainly bruise from how many times he’d been hit today, but Niko was determined to do better.

The pair of now wounded golems maneuvered to be side by side, protecting each other's injured sides from Niko who only clicked his tongue in derision. ‘Annoying bastards. Too feathering, good at that.’ 

Regrettably, try as he might, Niko hadn't been able to capitalize on going after an injured target for the entire duration of the training. The group of golems was able to protect their own too well. But as a bonus, he could use it against them.

Niko could see his previous pair of uninjured opponents rush into position on either side of the injured pair, and the third moved closer to him at the tip of their formation, putting the wounded behind him. They couldn’t go on the offensive as recklessly now, but this was just a return to the status quo from before he’d flopped onto the sand. He needed some kind of game changer.

Niko risked glancing over to the other arenas, of which there was now one for each of them. When they’d first come in here, Niko had realized that he could smell clear evidence of his siblings, Dane, Eustace, and someone else that he didn’t quite recognize. This room was larger than the last that they had trained in, and he suspected that their teams would rotate between training grounds. Which meant they were probably going through the exercises the Greenhorns had gone through this morning.

That wasn’t what he was trying to find at the moment, though. Niko forced his attention on Skye, Mithel, Ronald, and Dachna’s rings, his own arena being at the very end. Skye was the closest this time, and she’d finally dismantled a third golem, but was breathing hard, limbs shaking as she did everything she could to minimize motion while still dodging or parrying her remaining two enemies with a shortsword and buckler. 

Dachna was next, and the man was still dealing with four, and looked to be in an even worse state than Skye. The man's daggers simply didn’t have the reach to easily deal with his enemies, but they couldn’t touch him even with the numerical advantage. It was a wonder what the threat of electrification and bruises could accomplish.

Ronald had, miraculously, dismantled all but one golem, although it looked like said golem was pressuring him now. The big man just didn’t have anything left in the tank but fumes, barely even able to lift his quarterstaff to block the strikes. 

Mithel had been allowed to use her concoctions as well as a quarterstaff of her own, and contrary to what Niko had expected, the woman was dealing with her five quite well. Which was to say that her opposing golems were all gunked up, melting, or in the case of the last one, being out dueled by a woman shorter than it was. She was clearly flagging and it looked like several containers were half obscured in sand around her, but she’d dealt with her threat in the way only she could.

‘Personal power, resources, skill,’ Niko thought to himself as he dragged his attention back to his own battle, where the golems encroached only a meter or so closer. ‘What can I leverage, what can I bring to bear in combat?’ A sense of epiphany lingered at his feathertips, like he was almost at a state where he could figure out how to fight them better. While listening to his gut, Niko stepped forward, conscious of the way he moved, the slight bend in his knees and the angle of his head as he prowled. He was larger than the golems, a predator that in the wild was capable of storming prey down with violence and aggression. Yet the golems had punished mindless aggression, and that had put him off of listening to his instincts as much.  

But there was something there, something that hadn’t been tapped into yet, like he was only touching on old habits from when his instincts were more separated. He just needed a little more of a push to strip those old habits away, like a coat of rust on otherwise good quality metal. Niko prepared himself, feeling his heart beat in concert with his aggression and–

“Time’s up!” Camille clapped and the golems all collapsed like puppets with their strings cut. “Line up! Double time!” She clapped twice more and the Greenhorns all turned to her with a myriad of emotions. Niko couldn’t help but have a furious expression on his face.

“I was almost there! Your timing is so plucking bad!” He complained at her loudly before taking a few more steps and–

–Then realized he was looking up at the ceiling from an awkward angle.

“Yup. That’s what I was afraid of.” Camille sighed loudly, “You’re not the only one.”

“The cluck you mean?” Niko squawked plaintively, before realizing that Ronald likewise was staring wide eyed from a kneeling position.

“I… err… I can’t move?” Ronald frowned, visibly straining to even lift an arm, “What?... What is this?”

“Essence exhaustion,” Camille answered, “It’s a big problem as you go higher in the tiers. You can use essence from the environment, from your food, but your body just can’t keep fighting too far past its limits forever. What you’re experiencing right now is known as ‘the crash’ that happens when you can’t go further.” She then added after a moment, “Well, you can, but, that’s generally speaking a very bad idea.”

“Are they going to be okay?” Skye asked as she sat down beside Niko, a hand rustling his head feathers comfortingly. Niko blinked at her, managing to lift his head a bit and letting out an annoyed huff at being able to do little else.

“Yeah, they’ll be fine in about… oh, thirty minutes? Maybe an hour,” Camille shrugged, “Long enough to go through some of what we’ve seen.”

“We?” Dachna, still struggling to catch his breath, was frowning and looking around, “I don’t see anyone else around?”

“I’m here,” The familiar voice of Crowe sounded out as he stepped into view. “Someone had to operate the golem core.”

Niko balked at that, wondering if the man had somehow managed to control all of the golems at the same time. Judging by the others’ expressions, he wasn’t the only one wondering that. Crowe noted their bewilderment, though, and said, “I only guided them and provided a basis for their skills. I’m certainly no golemmancer.”

Camille then added, “Which is a good thing, because a true golemmancer at our tier would have some mean toys. We can talk about that later, though.” She pulled up a chair, seemingly out of nowhere, and sat on it, making Niko do a double take.

‘What? Where the hell?’ He started, looking around Camille in blatant confusion.

Skye snorted in laughter as Niko did so, “I think he’s confused about where the chair came from.”

“Hm? Oh! Right, he wouldn’t know… I guess?” Camille, looking at Niko thoughtfully, gestured to a necklace on her person, “I have a spatial item. It’s not the biggest, but it does just fine for my purposes.”

“What tier is it?” Mithel’s eyes shined, “I wasn’t sure if it was polite to ask about that kind of thing, gnomes and dwarves don’t talk about personal artifacts much.”

The larger woman shrugged, “It’s kind of a non-topic for everyone, but I don’t mind since it’s you guys. This one’s only tier four, but I’ve had it for so long that it’s like moving a third arm when I want to take stuff out, so that’s even more valuable.”

They nodded at that, interested but not so much as to ask more about it. Niko was burning to ask questions, though, but luckily Camille noticed the look. She bemusedly stated, “It’s basically a spatial storage item, lets you put things in and take them out. They’re expensive on your essence, though, so most people only go for items at or below their tiers. You might see especially rich merchants use them for transporting goods, but those are even rarer. It’s just cheaper for mundane goods to go through regular carts.”

That did nothing to diminish his excitement at seeing it. That was practically the most rpg-game-like item he’d seen yet. How did he not notice that before? It sounded like they weren’t terribly common, or perhaps it was that they weren’t as popular. Depending on how much essence they took to use, perhaps that was the big limiter. 

“Anyways, we’ll start with Mithel,” Camille nodded to Crowe, “What did you think?”

“Excellent use of your flasks; hardly any of the golems were able to play the field the moment they stepped onto it. You adapted on the fly and you seemed to be more than able to handle yourself in close quarters.” With every compliment, Mithel seemed to smile brighter. “On that same note, you are very reliant on your potions; a surprise attack would completely take you off the board before you could bring your greatest strength to bear. Your adaptability could use some tempering, perhaps utilizing more focused reagents will give you specific potions to use against hardier targets and their ilk. As for your close combat skill, though, I’d only suggest that you become competent enough that you can duel a single golem to a standstill, or even win, without a haste potion.” 

Mithel’s expression turned serious, “I was thinking the same thing. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do about a surprise attack though, since I can’t spend most of my life under the effects of a sonic-sense potion. Side effects aside, it’s prohibitively expensive.” She frowned, then tapped her fingers to her lips, “Actually, maybe that won’t be as much of an issue… Ah, but aside from that, I’ve got plenty of ideas for some really good stuff, like gutrot, or maybe some kind of eyebite potion, oh oh! No, wait, maybe smother-smoke!”

Crowe vaguely looked unsettled by how happy she seemed rattling off those names, leaving Niko wondering if she had just said the equivalent of unleashing mustard gas on a population.

“As for close combat… uhh… I think I can beat one unpotioned?” She spoke unsteadily, “I wasn’t allowed to leave the clan hold until I could at least fight for myself.”

“Ah, you’ve had classical training, perhaps?” Crowe finally stirred from his thoughts, “I wondered why you seemed to be above average with the quarterstaff.”

She shrugged, “I don’t know about classical training, but the yardmaster was more than happy that someone in the younger generation was taking the training seriously.”

Camille grunted then, “We’ll check you out tomorrow,” she gave Mithel a nod, “You might be fine on the basics, in which case you can help everyone else out, since giving you too much training would just be detrimental for the purposes of the pilgrimage.”

Niko was really starting to think the pilgrimage would be going out of its way to screw him over, since that’s what everyone seemed to be worried about whenever they referred to it.

“Now, Ronald,” Camille spoke, her smile bright and toothy, “You grew the most out of the lot of you so far! I’m impressed!”

Ronald had been looking like he was ready to be chastised, and now looked stunned and confused at the praise, “Uh… But I got my arse kicked?”

“Nonsense. You barely even have a functioning pattern right now and you fought them all to a standstill and beat four of them with essence control and superior skill alone. I don’t know where you learned, or if you’re a natural, but you did remarkably well in an unbalanced situation. I think the only person who did better was Mithel.” She praised him wholeheartedly, and Ronald looked dismayed by the genuine approval. 

“I’m pretty sure Niko’s control is just straight up better, though,” The man waved the praise off embarrassedly, “And my Dad’s been training me for worst case scenarios ever since I told him I wanted to be an adventurer. He’s even more brutal than this.” The Greenhorns paused and looked at their friend with concern clear on their faces at that statement, Ronald then shifted around even more under their attention, who only shifted even more attention, “W-Well, I mean, he’s obviously looking out for me, but… he isn’t exactly a gentle instructor.”

“Well… that somewhat disturbing thought aside, Niko doesn’t count for control. It comes to him instinctively, and if we had him come in before his adulthood, he’d have wiped the floor with the five tier one golems. But, we’ll get to him.” She pointed at Ronald decisively, “Accept the praise, I don’t give it lightly. You are a damn fine area controller, but you do have problems with burning the candle at both ends. You put yourself on a timer the moment you started moving your essence through your body manually. I heard you were planning on reforging your patterns to get into tier two?” She waited for him to nod, “Good. If you don’t have someone specific in mind, I’ll help you do it. This… may count against you all a bit in the pilgrimage, but it’s just too damned big to ignore. Were you going to go for a full body pattern?”

“Uh… I wasn’t, because I was going to have dad help, and while he’s good he’s not… that good.” He licked his lips, the first flicker of something hungry in his gaze that Niko had ever seen becoming apparent, “I… I could definitely try to go for one, though, if you’d be willing to help. I swear on my name, I can get the pattern and then some if you help.”

Camille took one look at the man's gaze and her grin turned downright predatory, sending a shiver down Niko’s back. “Good, it’ll hurt like hell, but if you were going to do anything like this, it would have been awful anyways.”

“Then, I’ll take you up on that offer… After I tell my Dad. I doubt he’ll have any problem with it though when I tell him who offered.” He grinned, and then saw the raised eyebrow from Camille. “Oh, he’s a big fan of yours, he has a signed wooden stick from you, apparently.”

Her frown deepened, before something clicked in her mind, “No way, are you Gram’s kid!?” 

Ronald managed to kneel a little straighter in surprise, “Uh, yeah, you remember him?”

“Hah! I remember that little bastard alright!” Camille laughed, “He helped us on that Dire Wolf hunt waaaay back. Crowe, you remember?”

The man cringed, “That mission? The one I almost lost an ear on?”

“Yeah, that’s it. Your old man pulled our asses out of the fire, we were already getting pretty famous, but this Greater Dire Wolf came hunting people in the Eldergreen. Pack of about a hundred, biggest one to date. Just so happened that Gram and some ten wet nosed recruits jammed themselves into the fray just long enough for us to kill the Greater, and then clean up. That was a mess. He didn’t take payment, just had us sign some of the recruit’s stuff. Had one of ‘em give me two spears, guess one was for him.” She guffawed loudly, “Man, I’ll have to go find out how he’s been.”

Ronald smiled, “Well, he’s the Guard Captain, so he’s around.”

Crowe cleared his throat, giving Camille a pointed look. “Pfft, fine.” She stood, mouthing a quick ‘we’ll talk later’ to Ronald before setting her gaze on Dachna. “From a personal standpoint, I’d say you… didn’t really do great, but Crowe tells me you’ve a gift?”

Dachna didn’t seem surprised when he’d gotten the negative, but was visibly confused at what she finished with. “Gift?”
“After you fell into the fighting mindset, you stopped taking hits.” Crowe smiled, “I watched the entire time.”

Dachna looked annoyed, “Sure, I didn’t get hit. But I could only take one out before they wised up to my tricks. After that, it was everything I could do to just stay ahead of them.”

“Yes, you had only one set of tricks. That was the problem, a good knife-fighter needs a large arsenal and the willingness to go in for the brutal kill. You aren’t lacking the latter, only the former, which can be fixed,” Crowe looked positively pleased as he added, “What can’t be taught well is moving like that in a battle. Just so you’re aware, you were fighting four peak tier one combatants. I was directly testing you against something you should have been utterly demolished by, and near the end there you were fighting tier two golems. You still didn’t get hit.”

Dachna listened with what had begun as anger at perhaps being toyed with, that then completely evaporated into flat-footed shock when Crowe finished. Niko, too, was looking at Dachna with something resembling respect– and dismay.

‘No way, him!? ‘He’ was fighting tier two!? What the peck! This isn’t fair! I better get a good review, too!’ Niko complained loudly in his head, before mentally slapping himself, ‘Ugh… you sound like such a whiner. Stop. Dachna did damn good if that’s what he was dealing with, no wonder why he still had four golems left. Good for him.’ He took a breath and nodded at Dachna who seemingly seemed adrift with that new-found knowledge.

Dachna stirred at the gesture, “So… what does that… mean, exactly?”

“It means that I strongly recommend you go with a mobility pattern for when you go into tier two. Any would be fine, but bursts of speed will do wonders with how I saw you move. A basis in water or lightning, perhaps both, would do you great favors as well. Maybe even transition that into your foundation if you can manage it, it won’t be nearly as hard as what Ronald is doing. But, besides that,” Crowe gestured with a hand in thin air, and a wrapped up bundle of cloth appeared and dropped into the sand in front of him. 

“That is…?” Dachna frowned while looking at the bundle on the ground.

“An advance, assuming that you gain enough points from our training before I’d have to take it back. Ordinarily I’d do no such thing, but there are things in that kit that you’ll want to be trained in sooner rather than later.” Crowe nodded to him as Dachna picked it up, before turning a sharp gaze to Skye.

After everything that the group heard, they didn’t expect what came out of Crowe’s mouth next, “Skye, I… don’t know how to say this, but based on everything I’ve observed… Are you sure you want to try to transition into being a ranger type?”

“I… what?” Skye’s face portrayed her visible confusion, “Yes, that is… what I’m going for.”

Crowe and Camille exchanged pensive glances, and Niko realized he’d seen that look before. When someone knew what they were going to say was about to piss off a friend, but it had to be said anyways.

“If I told you that after observing you for quite some time that your talent was only passable as a ranger, but would be at a premium as a druid, what would you say?” Camille began carefully.

Skye’s eyes went wide and she shifted on her back foot. “I… uhh… I would ask why you think that?”

“Your essence control exceeds Ronald’s. In close quarters, your elven heritage seems to allow you a great deal of proprioception in both mobility and in handling multiple attackers. But, your method of fighting…” Camille paused, struggling with the words.

Crowe picked up where she left off, “It’s like watching a newborn bird trying to walk. You are terrible with those weapons, Skye. And before you think this is a personal attack, I want to know if you’ve yet found any weapon you like.”

Skye, for her part, went red in the face with embarrassment. Niko looked up at the woman, concern in his eyes. He’d thought that she had done plenty fine, so where was this coming from?

“Hey, wait, she’s been doing fine, what are you talking about?” Mithel broke in, “And she’s been attuned to becoming a ranger for… months now,” she nodded as she recalled how long it had been since Skye had said she’d diverged from the path of a druid, “It’d delay her massively to switch back.”

Crowe’s stare only honed in on Skye the whole while, who shifted on her feet. No one said anything as Skye’s eyes burned holes in the ground. 

“Then, we will undergo some… specific training,” Crowe finally relented his stare, “We’ll talk about this privately, for a moment. If you would, Skye?” He gestured that she follow him, and Skye gave a deep sigh before she trailed along after him.

The rest of the group watched after them awkwardly, and Mithel was the first one to break the silence, “What is that about?”

Camille shook her head, “That’s someone having an awkward conversation. But we’re not a part of that. We are, however, a part of picking apart this bird's fighting style. Before I do though, did any of you see him fighting?”

The three all pushed past the remaining awkwardness even as they cast glances over their shoulders to their team mate on the other side of the room. “Good, what do you think?”

“Right, damn shock-trooper,” Dachna shook his head, “I felt him hit those golems from where I was.”

“Fast, but chaotic,” Ronald added, “Though, early on it felt like he was really, really clumsy with the motions when the golems started learning them. It was a lot better later, though.”

Mithel cheerily added, “I saw when you resupplied him with golems.”

The other two frowned at that, “How many?” Asked Dachna.

“I saw, maybe, three?” Mithel shrugged, “I only noticed the one time.”

“I resupplied him with five more golems,” Camille grinned, “He brute forced the first two down, got sneaky on the third, and took another two down with genuine skill, but he’s still not quite there with his style yet. He should be flowing into each attack, but he keeps having to outthink himself. Pretty sure his instincts are trying to fight him on some of the moves, but I’ve honestly never seen a beast, tame or otherwise, unlearn bad habits so quickly. Later, Ronald and Niko are going to make a mean frontline for your team.” 

One of them was about to ask something when Camille held a hand up, “Hold on, looks like someone has something they want to say.”

The group turned to see that Crowe and Skye were approaching the group. Skye winced at the attention, looking far more uncomfortable than Niko had ever seen her, save for the fiasco of when they’d met.

“I… have something I need to tell you guys.” Skye began, “I… never successfully transitioned off of being a druid. I know that you guys accepted me at first for being a ranger when I said I had transitioned, but I’ve just been using druid tricks and knowledge the entire time.”

The others were silent, and Skye couldn’t seem to lift her eyes the ground. Niko sat warily on the side while thinking, ‘She seems fairly tore up about this? Is… this a big deal? What does that even mean about transitioning on or off of something? Wait… are Classes a thing? Like, RPG stuff? No… no, I don’t think so. Maybe? Then again, I’m a beast, do I even get access to anything like that? There’s nothing like a status page or some information box only humans can see, right? Literally no one has said anything about that, though, so… maybe not?’ 

It was while Niko’s mind was racing that Mithel just asked, “So… you never were a Ranger?” 

Skye shook her head silently, and Dachna and Mithel just looked at Ronald whose brow was furrowed.

“I gotta be honest here, Skye…” The man spoke slowly, and Niko could see Skye’s body tension skyrocket, “...I really don’t care? It’s always been your choice, and we all got together because we worked well together. Plus, if you’ve been doing a ranger's job while being a druid, I really, really fail to see how this is a problem.”

The others nodded, and now Skye was just looking up at them with a complex expression. “You guys… aren’t mad that I couldn’t get the swap? Or that I lied about it?”

Dachna shrugged, “Look, I haven’t ever directly stated it, but I still have ‘Street Urchin’ as my Dream. I still haven’t had a new Dream take over yet. That might change with all this,” he patted the roll of implements that Crowe gave him, “But I’m still me, regardless of whatever that Dream stuff says. Does it change who you are, Skye?”

“No… I guess not?” Skye blinked at that, then added, “Street Urchin? I didn’t even know that was a thing.”

He shrugged, “This is why nobody puts that much stock in the Dream. If you’ve got one, great, but if you don’t like it and want to change it, you gotta figure out why it's there. Usually that means either you want it, or that’s how the world still sees you until you truly declare otherwise. Prolly that second one for me, but what’s it for you, Skye?”

She paused, looking at the sword at her hip. She did think she was quite good with it, but… She admitted that she had trained until her hands were bloody with the thing to get to that point.

“I… honestly do still see myself as a ‘Druid’, but druids aren’t like what my mentor was like. He was an… awful person, really. That man was ready to let some adventurers be eaten when he could have helped easily.” She lost herself to contemplation, “But… I don’t know. Let me sleep on it.”

Crowe nodded his head, “Let us know how you’d like to proceed in the morning. But, thus far, I’d say today was quite productive. You have each shown that you all have strong points, and we’ve discovered where we can polish you up. Adaptability for Mithel, longevity for Ronald, offense for Dachna, and soul-searching for Skye,” Crowe said the last with a little smile at Skye, who for her part only gave a half-hearted glare to the man.

“And Niko needs to figure out how to get out of his own way,” Camille finished, flashing the bird a broad grin who responded with a machine-gun sounding retort of annoyance that made the entire group jump.

He snickered at them for that, but he knew that she wasn’t wrong. ‘Tomorrow will be better.’ Niko thought to himself as he forced himself up on his shaky legs. 

Then his stomach gurgled loudly.

Ronald’s stomach followed suit, and he laughed heavily at that, “Someone help me up, we gotta clean up and eat. Or eat and clean up, I feel like I could really eat right now.”

Niko agreed wholeheartedly. He could look pretty after eating for once. Tomorrow he’d have to be careful to not push his boundaries too far.

‘Alterra help me, my body aches like crazy. Dang, I wonder how Ronald’s feeling right now?’ Niko glanced at the man and his half-grimace, half-smile as Dachna and Skye helped him move. Mithel, for her part, only walked alongside Niko and kept him from toppling too far to one side or the other. Leaving the arena’s behind was the highlight of his day, all the way up until they got to dinner, sharing it with his siblings, and three others. There was a woman with Dane and Eustace, who introduced herself as Tanya, but conversation dimmed quickly as everyone voraciously tore into their meals. After shoveling food down their gullets, everyone cleaned up and was let loose across the shared space, though a corner had been outfitted with what looked like a chemical hood and several implements that Mithel tore into with more voracity than she had the meals of the day. 

‘Alchemists are crazy,’ Niko shook his head as he watched her work like she was possessed. 

“Best leave her to it,” Skye cautioned, “Come on, your siblings want to play a game.”

Niko happily trilled at that, eager to see how their day had been. His day had been a struggle, but otherwise good, and he was glad to have finally managed to get through it all. 

Then one of his siblings dive bombed him in a tackle hug, and he started to feel all the soreness surge back. 

“Ugggghhh… My poor everything!”

 

 

*Advance chapters available on Patreon! Come support me if you like the work and/or just want to binge more!