[Bound to the Fallen] Class Skills available:
Resonance Castling
Paradoxical Mending
Aspect Manifestation
The class skill selection window stared at us just as hard as we were staring at it. We were out of the cave system, none of us wanting to have another fight while out of mana and with Vespera unable to use a healing potion for the rest of the day. Not to mention the fact that we were pretty tired.
Even though we were clean now, we felt dirty inside and a quick dip in the river was just the thing we needed. Upstream from Perseverance's End, though. That was important—who knew what sort of stuff got dumped in it.
"Do we have any idea what the skills do?" Vespera asked, somewhat rhetorically.
"Nope," I said.
The demon girl looked at me, cocking her head to the side. "Think this is funny? What are we supposed to do, choose based on how the words make us feel?"
"We might as well," I said, very much on purpose. "Resonance Castling sounds quite interesting, for instance."
"What even is castling?" she asked.
Elyra hummed. "I think it comes from an old game."
"How old?"
"It reminds me of the times before my imprisonment. I think."
"Sorry angel, can't help you there. Doesn't ring a bell."
I, however, knew very well what castling was. "It's a chess move."
"Yes!" the angel's eyes lit up in sudden recognition. "Exactly!"
"Wait a minute," Vespera stopped her before she could get too excited. "How can the both of you be familiar with the same game even though you come from different universes?"
That was exactly what I was also thinking. Something didn't quite add up. The language, units of measure and things like that could be explained by saying that whatever god summoned me here also taught me the local customs or added an automatic translation feature to my brain. Worrying, but I had had implants in my brain all my life, and the idea was pretty much the same as the universal translator implant.
The game, though?
"There are two possibilities here. The System mentioned that our bond is deepening, right?" I began. "Elyra might be picking things up from my memories. Or…"
"…she is remembering," Vespera finished for me. "Why now of all times?"
"Well, what is the one thing that just changed?" I asked.
"We leveled up," she replied.
"It is no use speculating. I do not remember anything else from before being imprisoned. It could be just a fluke."
"Yeah." The demon nudged her in the side. "Maybe you just like spacer boy so much you want to become one with him, body and mind."
She wiggled her eyebrows, and the angel blushed.
I coughed to get their attention. Vespera was pushing all of Elyra's buttons today, I needed to rescue her before she turned into a puddle. Oh, she just stared at me. She must have heard my thoughts. This deeper bond might turn out to be dangerous.
"Right," the demon said. "Well, since I'm the only one who doesn't know what castling is, how about you explain it to me?"
I blinked. "Sure," I said with more conviction than I actually felt. "It's a move, in chess, where… the king…"
I trailed off, suddenly realizing that I had no clue what the move even did. I might have played chess ten times in my last twenty years of biological life, and even that might be a stretch.
"Castling is a special chess move involving the King and one Rook, designed to improve king safety and activate a rook simultaneously," Elyra said. "It is the only time two pieces move at once, where the king moves two squares toward a rook, and the rook jumps over the king to the adjacent square."
We both stared at her. Yeah, that did not come from me or my memories at all. In any case, what followed was a quick explanation of the whole game, enough to make Vespera understand the basics.
"I see," she said. "It's a sort of defensive move. Skill-wise, it's probably something you can only do once to defend a precious piece and activate a backliner." She eyed me. "You would be the backliner."
Elyra nodded in agreement. "And we would be the precious pieces. It makes sense."
"Good!" I said. "That's one, assuming our speculations aren't completely off the mark. Any ideas what [Paradoxical Mending] could be?"
"Healing," Vespera stated as a matter of fact. "Next?"
We did not argue. "[Aspect Manifestation]," I said.
"Sounds interesting. Take it," she said.
Elyra sighed. "They are all interesting, little troublemaker."
Vespera shot her a look. "Who you calling little?"
But her heart wasn't into it and, for once, the force of the angel's glare won over her desire to cause trouble. It lasted for less than five seconds before her red eyes took on a dangerous glint.
"You choose, Sol," the demon said in a syrupy voice. "We trust you completely, spacer boy. You're our savior and we literally owe our lives to you."
With each word she said, she walked one step closer to me until she was finally touching me all over, moaning and panting in my ear. She licked my neck, leaving a trail of wet stickiness behind, before moving to my earlobe. I felt the hot breath tickle me and raise goosebumps on my skin.
"Besides," she whispered, kissing my neck. Her sensual voice was dangerous. She kissed me again, moaning. "Letting you choose means that we can punish you if you end up choosing a useless skill."
With that, she moved away. The sudden lack of her body heat made me shiver, the wind cooling the slowly drying trail of saliva she left on my neck. I shuddered, realizing once again just how dangerous this woman was. Truly a demon.
"Aw, you're thinking naughty things Sol," she cooed. "Be a good boy and choose a skill, will you?"
Elyra was strangely mute. As I looked at her, I realized why. She was panting, cheeks slightly flushed.
"Alright," I said. "I choose [Resonant Castling]."
"But—"
"Ah," I shushed the little troublemaker demon with a finger on her lips. "You said you'd let me choose. Now you must live with that."
The skill appeared in my status and, like usual, there was no instruction manual. I looked at the girls, noticing their waiting expression. They wanted to see the skill in action and, truth be told, so did I. It was hard, but I managed to resist.
"Now that that's over," I said. I immensely enjoyed the way their faces morphed into disbelief as I denied them the pleasure of testing the skill right now. "What?" I asked, pretending to be clueless even though I could feel everything through the bond. "Don't tell me you wanted me to use the skill now. What if we need it in a fight?"
"That's a load of crap!" roared Vespera, unable to contain herself any longer. "You don't use untested skills in a fight! You test them before!"
I met her piercing eyes. She met mine. Then I laughed.
"Alright, you win," I declared.
In the distance, I could see the river and its icy cold waters. I broke down into a sprint that was actually more of a bunny-hop, making use of my massive strength to reach the river before they had any idea what I was about to do. Then, I used that same strength to jump in the air. I must have cleared five meters, it was crazy.
At the apex of my trajectory, I finally activated the skill.
The world warped, and I was back to standing beside Elyra. A shout reached our ears, then a splash. A few moments of silence, then two deep black horns broke the surface of the waters, followed by a pair of enraged red eyes and a shivering demon.
More curses followed.
"Fucking heavens, you got me spacer boy," Vespera said after she was done. "I gotta give it to you, you got me—"
With a sudden motion, she dashed and pushed me into the waters. I had not noticed her repositioning, but even if she caught me by surprise, let it be known that I did not go down without a fight. Using my massive strength, I stabilized myself, nullifying her push. She used her speed to reposition herself, tripping me up while I turned around to grab her.
We both achieved our goals. As I began to fall, I reached out with my hands and grabbed her by the shoulders. Now with a demon in my grasp, I let myself fall head first into the waters, holding Vespera tight.
She screamed in my ear as we fell. "Sol!"
◈◈◈
"Well, now you're all clean," I said.
She glared at me, and no doubt at the amused grin on my face. We were sitting by the fire, which Elyra had graciously prepared while Vespera and I tried to drown each other in the river.
"I can't believe you got me twice," the demon grumbled. Her hair was all over the place, and she was trying to dry it with the last rays of the setting sun before being forced to use the fire. "It's gonna smell of smoke…" she whined.
Beside us, Elyra was squeaky clean and tidy. She, unlike us, had used magic. Something Vespera could have done as well, had she not chosen to provoke me. Totally her fault.
"Ah, is that how it is?" she said, sensing my thoughts.
"I said nothing."
"You were thinking so hard I heard it," she argued.
I opened my mouth but wasn't fast enough. With a snap of her fingers, she dismissed her armor and moved closer to the fire.
"Mm, that's better," she moaned as she let the warmth of the flames dry her naked body. "Much better."
Night fell slowly. We chatted, I checked the guild token every so often, and Elyra went to scatter the alarm runes all around our camp. When she returned, Vespera was running a finger over her own arms and legs.
"Do you think these scars will fade?" she asked.
I moved closer, as did the angel. Our favorite demon had flawless skin, what scars was she talking about?
Then we noticed them. Little white lines where the Skitterpedes had scratched her.
"It must be because the healing potion was cheap," I said.
Vespera looked up at me. Her eyes were pools of red suspended in utter black darkness. She blinked back tears.
"Am I… ruined?" she asked. For a moment, I got to see the real her. She was so weak and fragile.
I hugged her tight. No, we hugged her tight.
"No you are not," Elyra said softly, running her fingers through her hair. "You are perfect, Vespera."
"You are," I said.
She looked at us like we were her two anchors in the whole world. "What if…" she began, sniffling. "What if the healing isn't quite right, Sol? What if the damage accumulates over time? Right now it's my skin that's scarred, but what if I had internal injuries? Do the internal organs scar? What about chronic inflammation and cancer?"
"How do you know about inflammation and cancer?" I asked her.
The demon shrugged. Like Elyra, she had a flash of memory. This one might have been mine for all we knew, or maybe from her past.
"Don't worry," I told her, setting aside the matter of where the knowledge came from. "No more cheap potions from now on, I swear."
"We can't afford the expensive ones, Sol," she said in a low voice.
Elyra gently grabbed her face and made her look at her. "It is not negotiable, Vespera. For either of us. We do not have Sol's Vitality. We need good potions. And, we will find a way to fix your skin if you do not like the sight of your scars."
"Truly?"
"Truly," the angel replied. "Although… I personally find them rather enticing."
"Do you now~" the demon said. A fire burned in her eyes, her vulnerability turning into desire and passion.
She pulled Elyra closer, and kissed her. Then, she turned to me. Her eyes found mine, and she licked her lips seductively. "And now, you're going to make it up to me for pushing me into the river. Twice."
I gulped.
Chapter 31.5 NSFW preview:
"Look at you, spacer boy," Vespera said, licking her lips as she ogled my naked chest. "Doubling your Strength really did miracles."
Worried I was turning into a mountain of muscles and little else, I took a good look at myself and sighed in relief. True, the increased stats filled up what little was missing from my already rather massive physique, but they didn't propel me all the way into the uncanny territory.
Running a finger down my pecs, the demon quietly got closer to me until I felt her body heat. Because she had used the fire to dry herself up, she was scalding and smelled faintly of smoke.
"How about we continue from where we left off?" she purred.
Our eyes met, and for a moment I lost myself in the mesmerizing sight of her. I could never get enough of staring at those blood red orbs suspended in space, framed by her perfect face. I touched her cheek, feeling her soft and supple skin, and slowly leaned in.
Her lips were hot and soft. She parted them a little as our kiss deepened, and I felt the tips of her sharp fangs against me. Then her tongue, shy and quick at first. It touched mine, a little wet tap and then our kiss broke apart so that we could breathe.
Elyra watched us through the dancing flames of the fire, face flushed with the excitement that flowed through the bond. Vespera saw her, winked and then refocused on me. I felt her need grow as she pulled my face to hers with sudden strength.
This time the kiss was deep, wet and sloppy...
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