In their haste to barrage Giselle with questions on what she was able to do, no one had fully explained to the deer girl what being an adventurer entailed. Broadly speaking it was helping people for fame and fortune. On a more fundamental level, it was any work required combat classes or skills focused primarily on defending against monsters.
The world was big and scary. Even put together, the civilized races of the planet occupied less than one percent of the total land. Zlithia was enormous and new threats to its people were appearing every year. While there were some kingdoms with more organized responses to such threats, adventurers were the foremost answer to problems both large and small.
Giselle knew some of this. She was gaining knowledge from the land itself at an impressive speed. Likewise she now better understood that hiding her true nature was important to her survival. Becoming an adventurer, at least in name, was one avenue of survival and one she liked more and more as Brivaria spoke. The only aspect of things she wasn’t looking forward to was the guild examination.
“Right this way,” Pam said. The guild receptionist wore a thin smile and gestured for Giselle to head down the hallway. Brivaria missed the receptionist from Keaton. Tamara had been nice, friendly, and approachable. Pam and her severe hair bun looked put upon every time the angel saw the woman and even more so the moment Brivaria approached her to speak. It was as though the very existence of adventurers displeased the woman. At least Pam wouldn’t be the one conducting the interview.
“Good luck, Giselle. It’ll be fine,” the angel encouraged the nervous deer girl. Giselle’s smile was slight but she nodded.
“I’ll do my best,” was all she could say before being led away. Brivaria hoped Giselle’s questioning was more pleasant than her own had been at Keaton. While Tamara had been great, Gretta was less so. The woman had asked questions that Brivaria still had yet to understand the purpose of and the winged woman had been happy when it was all over.
“New member?” Alden asked; the warrior was flanked by Tobias, Isolde, and Edison Kor. Isolde was in good spirits but Tobias frowned at the Brivaria. The bald, water mage wasn’t the angel’s biggest fan. Kor was perhaps the most excited to be in attendance. Alden seemed to be treating him like a temporary team member as he was constantly with the Seasoned Steel.
“Yes. We were here looking for an extra member the other day. We found someone pretty quickly,” Brivaria took a seat as she spoke and everyone settled down at the table.
“Cities are the place to find new members for certain. Your team has had a rough time of it and a fourth member will help a lot. I trust that she’s caught up on recent events?” Alden saw Brivaria nod and went on. “Good. Isolde said you were checking up on some things dropped by your attackers. Any news?”
“Yes. The appraiser said the weapons we have were taken from Baron Decrune’s armory. Both the monsters you helped us fight off and a separate assassin had Decrune blades. Either the baron is involved or his armory is. I was thinking about visiting the estate. It would be nice to finally be the one on the offensive.” The last part was a small admission on Brivaria’s part. It bothered her not to be the one kicking in the doors and charging the enemy. All of this reactionary stuff and forever being on the back foot gnawed at her.
“I’m sure it would but try to hold onto those feelings for a little longer. Baron Dancarlo should be arriving tomorrow. Baron Felio is with him so that will mean three of the five baronies are present along with the Count. Everyone would be better served if there was a contingent of the city watch alongside you with official orders to search the Decrune premises. The easiest way to get that from the head of the city watch is having your word vouched for by the Count or another noble of high standing.” There was a direct correlation between Alden speaking and Brivaria’s shoulders slumping. Nyx put a supportive hand on the winged girl’s shoulder before speaking.
“I want to go beat them up too but a day or two isn’t the end of the world. Besides, I’d like some time to relax. We’ve been on our feet or tails almost nonstop. Assuming Giselle’s application to the guild is accepted, we should take some time to work with her.” Nyx wasn’t exactly pleading but Brivaria knew the cat girl was a bit ragged. Spending time with Giselle was a good idea as well.
“I would be inclined to go straight to the estate and get answers today but we should avoid attracting unwanted attention,” Kseniya admitted. The angel was outvoted. She looked down at Trixie. Trixie’s gentle, chocolate eyes looked up and her tail wagged. Very outvoted, Brivaria thought.
“Okay, we’ll stand down then. I’ll focus on training and working with Giselle,” the winged girl said with a sigh.
“A good choice. And how about a question to sate my own curiosity? Your team is copper rank, is it not?” Alden asked.
“Yes,” Brivaria answered while nodding.
“I thought so. You’ll be bronze soon with that kind of work ethic. Just don’t work so hard you burn yourselves out,” the older adventurer replied. Brivaria wanted to laugh. This was practically a vacation with so much downtime between moments of action. She supposed that wasn’t the case for everyone on Zlithia.
“We’ll do our best,” the winged girl answered while looking to Nyx and Kseniya. The two nodded and that was it for the important business. They were all still chatting when Giselle returned. The guild was rather full by this point so they rose from their table to go to her.
“Well, how did it go?” Nyx asked. The cat girl’s tail began to rise when she saw Giselle’s smile. This was good news!
“I’m now a copper rank adventurer registered with the guild,” Giselle said and squeaked in surprise as Nyx threw her hands up and cheered.
“Congratulations Giselle, did they give you any instructions?” the angel asked. Giselle obliged and held up the adventurers handbook. It looked very similar to the one Brivaria had in her inventory.
“They gave me this to read and said not to throw it away or burn it or feed it to monsters. I was also told that you need to approve my addition to the team before it can be finalized.”
Brivaria had also been given similar instructions about her handbook. While she had hers, the angel was fairly certain both Kseniya and Nyx had already misplaced their own. Brivaria was also certain that had been intentional for at least one of them. The angel was perhaps the only adventurer out there who liked the rules. Of course, she’d spent many nights reading it as it had been her only book for a long while. Maybe there was some Stockholm syndrome involved.
“Let’s do that now and then… what would you three say to using one of the guild training grounds?” The angel’s question received a chorus of mostly affirmative answers so she went to the reception desk to make Giselle an official member of the team and see about some training.
With all the adventurers in the city and only some of them working, the training grounds were popular places to spend time. There were wards to ensure no stray fireballs left the vicinity as well as healing and mana potions available at a discounted rate if they were consumed within the guild. There were also a few healers on standby in case of serious injuries.
All in all, it was a nice place to train if an adventurer had the time, inclination, and was able to get in. The latter part was challenging in the morning as many adventurers came, trained until they ran out of mana or stamina, then went off to lunch. Since most races only recovered mana while sleeping or upon consuming potions, very few trained multiple times a day. Early to mid-afternoon was a good time to be asking for a spot and the guild receptionist directed them to one of the guild courtyards.
Their team didn’t have the training ground all to themselves. There were two other teams practicing. One team was practicing against a set of person-sized combat dummies. These were magically reinforced so they didn’t disintegrate upon being struck by the first skill or spell thrown at them. The other team was hurling spells at a much larger combat dummy, likely designed to mimic a giant or other large creature. Adventurers often were called upon to fight foes large and small so the guild tried to provide a little variety in training equipment.
At the corner of the training yard, there was a small dirt and grass sparring area with a few of the magically reinforced practice dummies. It was nothing impressive but it was good enough for them. The real value in the training ground today was the enchantment upon it. Despite the rectangular courtyard being open to the sky, the ward that kept magic in also kept rain out so it was dry. The off and on rains the area was having were more on than off so it was nice to have a dry area to practice in.
Once they were at their designated training area, they went over levels and classes. Brivaria was a level 37 Apprentice Shaper of Flesh but she very much preferred the guild’s listing of her as a paladin and chose to go by that. Nyx was level 31 and listed by the guild as a claw fighter. Giselle surprised everyone but Brivaria when she revealed that she was level 42 although the guild very uncharitably titled her as a warrior. Kseniya perpetually refused to reveal her level. The guild classified her as a poison mage which didn’t feel like it encompassed the reality of what the sorceress could do. It didn’t really matter, for the most part, but it made the angel darned curious every time it came up.
The next two hours were training. Everyone took turns practicing on the combat dummies with Brivaria filling the role as instructor. She had a full three and a half cycles under her belt, whatever that translated to in Zlithian years, and was more than happy to give instruction. Giselle was using Rory’s old magical mace and Kseniya, more often than not, wielded her magic in the form of weapons so both benefited from the angel’s advice.
Of course, Brivaria’s biggest piece of advice was getting everyone shields at some point. There were pros and cons to any fighting style but having a big slab of metal between one’s body and the thing that was trying to stab, cut, or smash that body was the gift that kept on giving. Unfortunately that required money which they weren’t exactly rolling in at the moment.
Brivaria didn’t have anything to teach Nyx but, as a claw fighter, Nyx had a few things to teach the winged girl instead. The claws in Brivaria’s alternate form were deadly weapons but the angel was only experienced with classical weapons such as spears, swords, maces, and polearms. Claws were shorter than daggers and vastly shorter than swords. Even the low level cat girl was more proficient in their use than Brivaria. If she wanted to get the most out of her Natural Weapons skill then she’d need Nyx’s help doing that.
Finally, they moved on to simple dodging. Edison Kor’s firebolts wouldn’t be the last projectiles that were thrown at them. Brivaria enchanted some rocks with light magic and everyone took turns running or slithering at her as she threw the rocks at them. By the end of the training session, Brivaria had gotten very good at throwing rocks and the other girls had bruises to show for it.
Trixie had gotten in on the rock training seeing it as a fun game which ended with her tackling Brivaria and licking the angel into submission. The winged girl was hesitant to throw rocks and potentially hurt her dog but that hesitation disappeared when Trixie won the first round before Brivaria could even wind her arm to throw. If the holy magic from the other day hadn’t been a sufficient giveaway then the speed at which Trixie dodged the rocks would have cemented the fact that the dog had skills.
Ironically it was Trixie rather than Brivaria that got the most curious glances. The golden sunchaser was performing feats of speed and agility that would have been impressive for a bonded animal companion of a ranger or animal tamer. If the adventurers watching knew Trixie was an ordinary dog then it would have really raised some eyebrows. Only Kseniya fully understood just how anomalous Trixie’s abilities were and the lamia wore a thoughtful gaze as her slitted, orange eyes followed the hound on each attempt.
The team trained for a couple hours but avoided using most of their spells and flashier skills. Brivaria ended her workout with 110 out of 146 mana. It was important that they all remember they were still in danger. It was vital to be relatively high on mana and stamina just in case they ran into trouble on the way back to the inn where they would eat dinner. Candice served good food and it was cheaper than most of the city restaurants. Even if their stomachs yearned for another trip to the Fleece and Flagon, their purses desired the safety of the Siren’s Alcove.
The adventurers checked out of the guild, letting another team take their spot, and headed off. Unlike the first night in the city where they were helplessly lost while looking for an inn, they were now far more acclimated to the cityscape. They also knew to take the main roads as much as possible. Everyone was enjoying the walk (or slither) back to the inn when Trixie stopped. The golden sunchaser sniffed, sniffed again, and barked.
“Trixie? Do you smell something?” Brivaria asked and received another bark of pure, canine joy. Before the angel could ask a question, Trixie spun and casually zoomed off. “Trixie!”
The golden wasn’t trying to lose her friends and Brivaria realized that almost immediately. Trixie was fast enough to disappear if she wanted to. No, the dog was leading them somewhere. The hound stopped at the end of a line in front of a food stall selling some kind of local delicacy. She began barking again.
Brivaria was about to scold Trixie when the man at the end of the line turned around. Brivaria didn’t recognize him. The angel was going to apologize for Trixie’s behavior but the sheer surprise and fear on the man’s face gave her pause. There was a long and awkward moment before Nyx’s voice rang out from behind.
“Hey, is that the guy from the other night?” Nyx shouted as the others caught up. The man bolted and the chase began.
This was chase number three and the angel was getting pretty good at these. Barton had a severe lacking in covered walkways and tunnels so even if the man could somehow outrun Trixie, Brivaria would be casually soaring overhead watching him the whole time. He could run but he definitely could not hide. What he could do was scale a three story building and that left both the dog and angel at a loss. At least, the winged girl was confused right up until he started throwing things at her.
Brivaria saw the man’s hand whip forward and instinctively veered to the side, using Current Control to bank harder and faster than she would have otherwise done. While she didn’t see what he threw, the detonation nearby and resulting explosion made it clear getting hit would be a bad idea.
He threw again and she gracefully avoided a second explosion. This time she saw he was throwing small marble-sized objects. The angel had fought individuals with this kind of power prior to her level loss. It was a skill rather than a spell. That meant it had all kinds of rules to adhere to such as the nature of the thrown projectile, the amount of power that could go into it, and how long until it exploded. The upside for the finicky nature of the skill was it came with a cheaper mana cost. The downside was that it was predictable for someone who understood it.
Once she recognized the skill, Brivaria began moving faster. Just as she expected the first two throws were a ruse to get her to think the detonation range was small. The third throw produced a much larger explosion which would have caught her if not for prior experience. If they weren’t getting attention before, they were now. No one was going to mistake these explosions for anything but combat skills used within the city limits. The city watch would arrive shortly.
Brivaria dodged a few more of the explosive missiles. At range she could easily soar out of the way and every single projectile he threw used up more of his mana pool. Without knowing what other skills he had, she wanted as much of his mana gone as possible when she closed into melee. Trading a little of her mana to waste a lot of his was a good deal and the angel would take it every time.
When it seemed like he was done throwing his missiles and wasting his own mana, Brivaria dove for the building roof. It was an incredibly risky maneuver because it, in turn, made her predictable. He suddenly knew where she wanted to be. The angel smiled as he made the split-second decision to throw one last marble. Brivaria activated Wind Formation and suddenly there was a tiny, invisible barrier of wind in front of his hand when he released the sphere.
Brivaria watched the man get blown clear off the roof by his own skill and land painfully on the street below. The angel alighted on the ground nearby and Trixie was at her side in an instant. Brivaria’s enormous, white wings extended and then contracted as she walked toward her downed opponent. He had to have used up half his mana pool on those attacks and lost a good chunk of health from the explosion and subsequent fall. Meanwhile she’d only used 8 mana leaving her with 102 remaining.
He rose, drew his sword, and rushed at her. Brivaria held up a hand with her fingers outstretched. A blinding flash snapped out causing him to see stars and not dodge the Bolt of Decay that followed up the flash. Partially blind, the man still swung his sword at her. Brivaria summoned her shield then proceeded to activate Defensive Bulwark upon contact. The shield batted the blade aside and only a stamina-powered dodge prevented the angel’s sword from skewering him. He pulled back, avoiding the thrust, but couldn’t avoid the golden sunchaser. Two large, canine paws slammed into his chest and sent the man crashing backward along the ground.
“Surrender,” Brivaria ordered. Her blade glowed with black radiance as it was infused with decay. Trixie wuffed her agreement. The angel expected him to go down fighting. He didn’t look like the surrendering type. What she didn’t expect was for him to groan and then begin to swell in size. Her eyes went wide as he mutated. Buttons on clothes tore and popped as the man beneath them grew ever larger. Most eerily, his eyes were enlarging into black ovals unlike anything the angel had ever seen.
She would never get to see the results of his transformation as two crossbow bolts sunk into his chest discharging waves of power into the man-turned-monster’s bloated body. Members of the Barton city watch ran past the winged girl where she stood. The half-transformed abomination let out a gurgling cry before hurling itself at them. As soon as the first watchman’s spear touched its flesh, it exploded. Brivaria dove onto Trixie and used Wind Formation to throw up a barrier of wind, hoping it would be enough to shield the two of them.
