A ghoul that has lived long enough and feed enough can become a ghast. Ghasts are also known to be created artificialy by necromances. They are stronger, faster and more inteligent than a ghoul. They also tend to lead packs of ghouls to grow and expand their numbers. - Common Monsters

Adrian

I am not sure how long I have been fighting these creatures. Too long, I should have swapped with someone else for the watch by now. The floor is covered in charred bits of flesh, my armor is ruined and I’ve spent most of the bullets on these monsters. I am injured but they haven’t managed to cut at a vital area yet. I think they are harpies, they look like a harpy at least.

One of the harpies rushes me and breaks the rifle I use to block. Those talons are the only part of their body that seems to be durable. This isn’t the first rifle broken by them. There can’t be too many of them left. There are only four in the room and no more have entered for at least a minute.

I don’t have another rifle, but there are only four of these harpies left. Perfect for the shotgun that just so happens to hold four rounds. I fail to dodge a slash from one of the creatures, the leather was already destroyed on my right arm. It goes limp, a tendon must have been cut. I can see my blood pouring out of the injury.

Shit, I need to finish this quickly. I sear the wound with fire, a grunt of pain comes from me. The door to the room bursts open, another player in the fight just arrived. No time to play it safe. I amplify the fire in my left hand and throw it at one of the monsters. It panics, they have seen their kin burn this way before.

The spear of fire explodes on hit, washing the room in a wave of fire. It won’t kill any except for who it hit, but it will still hurt. I make sure the fire parts around me, whoever entered the room charges one of the harpies and skewers it through the back. I recognize who it is, K. Damn, I did this because she needed to rest.

I could not have hid this anyways. The harpy she skewered falls to the ground, K looks upset. Should I have told them what I was going to do? No, they would have wanted to help, I couldn’t have gone alone after letting them know.

My distraction costs me another cut, this one on my left leg. It can still hold my weight but I won’t be moving to dodge any more. I pull a pistol from my belt only to find that it wasn’t there; that’s right the belt was cut earlier. I pull one from the Void Cache instead.

The pistol is just about my only weapon I can use one handed. K is chanting something, and a burst of blackened red light comes from one of the harpies. Negative Energy Burst? It did not kill the harpy, but it is certainly hurt. The harpy that just cut me is behind me so I shoot this one.

After the second shot the monster falls. K launches a burst of dark lights at me, no behind me. I drop to the ground and a harpy passes over me. Some of my wounds just split. I aim at the harpy but it gets cut down by K before I have time to fire.

The fight is over, I begin to focus on healing myself. I am healing faster than before, but it takes more concentration than just accelerating the normal process. K sheaths her sword and walks towards me; her tone is not pleased.

“Why didn’t you invite me on this hunt?”

Hunt? How can this be considered a hunt?

“You needed to rest. . .”

K growls at that answer, defiantly not what she wanted to hear. What should I say then? Or does it not matter what I say? One of those you are always in the wrong situations. I sit up slowly to buy myself a bit of time to think.

“I didn’t want to risk the twins or Abagail getting hurt” I say with a little bit of uncertainty. She didn’t growl at me in response; so, I think that was an ‘acceptable’ answer. It is also true though she was on that list as well.

I smile at her and she moves up next to me.

“Don’t go hunting without me.”

I nod and then she kisses me. Her hands start wandering into my tattered clothing. I push her off me and she gives me a pouting look. I want sex too, but not like this. How is she horny from me running off and killing a bunch of stuff?

“Not in the gore of the dead.”

She keeps her pouty face on until I grab her hand and pull her out of the room. I pull out a water bottle and use it to rinse most of the blood off me. Once we are in the hall I hear her say something.

"We aren't in the gore anymore."

And she starts to kiss me again.

SC

She immediately picks up where she left off. I hear a tearing sound and find my tattered shirt is now tattered rags. I frown for a moment, I don’t have too many of those. And why is K acting like this?

Then I am distracted my being pulled down into a pair of boobs. These are bigger and better than the twins. Not sure when her shirt came off but I start to kiss them and run my hands over K. She responds much faster to my touch than her first time.

She starts to rub her hips against one of my legs, she really wants me. But I want to know why, but my curiosity is overridden by the growing desire in my pants. Ask later fuck now, and I will just have to follow through on that.

I separate from her and unbutton her pants. She grins at that and I can see her temperature rising. She mirrors my action and loosens my pants. They drop to the floor and I step out of them as I pick K up. She pulls off her underwear as I move her back to a wall.

She begins to part my underwear but I press up against her. I want to have more fun with her tits first, and once I’m inside her I’ll forget about them. She is fully aroused and I nibble at her bosom.

She is sensitive there, and her’s are better than the twins. Firmer and more to play with. I lose myself playing with them until I hear K give a shout and my crotch feels her twitch. She muttering something about my cock but I’ve stopped listening to what exactly she is saying.

Her hands are pulling at the cloth keeping me from slipping inside though. I smile, I had my fun with her chest. I can move onto the main course. I let up on the pressure I am putting on her hip and she manages to open up the underwear; my rod slaps against her watery garden.

K shifts herself until my tip is lined up and then impales herself upon me. We both release sounds of pleasure, and I find myself thrusting into her. I don’t speak whatever language she is cheering me on in, but I understand the intention.

My desire to flood her insides builds as she tightens around me. I feel her move a bit differently as she releases a louder shout. Her cheering becomes quieter as all the tension leaves her body. My own release follows, and I let her down to the ground.

We lie down and I start catching my breath. I exit her and smile, if I get this every time I take her hunting I’m going to do it a lot. She catches her breath first and smiles at me before straddling me.

She starts rubbing her entrance against me. She wants more. . .

Once we manage to leave the building I turn to her, “why all this about hunting?”

I don't think she would respond well to the question I actually want to ask. Normal question first then work it in later.

“Mates always go hunting together. It’s for bonding.”

I don’t really get it. It’s probably from wolves being pack hunters. A family hunts together to stay together sort of thing? Whatever, I’ll just remember to ask K if she wants to follow along on the next time I do this.

“Is mating always part of a hunts end too?”

The temperature of her face rises, she is embarrassed about it. My question may have been to blunt, but it seems more like flirting than 'how come you were excited by me killing stuff'.

“No, but you seemed so strong. I just . . .”

I cut her off with a kiss. It had to do with her animal side. Her wolf got her all riled up at seeing me beat my foes. Not sure what to think about that. I like the K that is nice and helpful not one that likes me killing stuff. I don’t want us to devolve into murder hobos. Less hunts with K then. How much influence does her wolf have on her daily actions?

We arrive back at the courthouse, no creature making a peep in the night after the harpies were either destroyed or decimated. I open the door to the room Bryan was in to find him hugging Abagail in their sleep. They are not in the position I saw when I checked before fighting the harpies. I don't see anything but they were hugging under a blanket.

I am not going to bother them, Lysan will have to take the last watch. She gives us a weird look when it is both K and me who woke her up.

“I thought Bryan had third watch?”

“We didn’t want to embarrass Abagail” answers K.

Lysan smiles in understanding. I guess Abagail will just be embarrassed by her when we travel or during the scavenging of the stores. I yawn and climb into the bed Lysan just vacated. It’s still warm and I fall asleep swiftly.

The Grey Dream greets me. Time to see what I got for dealing with the harpies.

Gain: Fighter 20 (+10 SP, +1 Attribute), Class Update Fighter -> Marksman 0, Marksman 5 (+25 SP), Dragon Knight: Void 17 (+10 SP), Magus 11 (+40 SP), Perception 3 (+3 SP), Battle Sense 2 (+2 SP), Stealth 2 (+2 SP), Ranged 4 (+4 SP), Darkness 3 (+15 SP), Anatomy 2 (+3 SP), Tainted Creature Kills: + 30 SP, Near Genocide: +30EP.

Name: Adrian Ravnos

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Skills

Attributes+

Class

SP: 218

Traits

Magic

Languages

EP: 40

That certainly is a lot. Well, not enough EP to do anything and I do want to strengthen the me that is not dragon-me anyways. I’ll deal with Attributes first.

Attribute Points: 1

STR 26

DEX 25

CON 28

INT 28

WIS 28

CHA 28

APR 28

HP: 695

Mana: 272

“Why did HP go down?”

[You no longer are receiving anything from Fighter, as you are no longer a fighter.]

That sounds like total bullshit, but I highly doubt the HP value has a true meaning. I shouldn’t become weaker just because the Grey Dream no longer sees me as a fighter, right? I put the point in intelligence and the screen closes.

Now for the SP. There is a lot of it and I have magic to upgrade.

320 Arcane Power 4

320Space 2

320 Planar 0

80 Fate 2

320 Life 3

320 Death 3

40 Mind 1

40 Soul 1

80 Primal 1

160 Time 2

20 Transmutation 1

10 Telekinesis 0

40 Fire 3

20 Lightning 2

20 Light 2

40 Darkness 3

I take Time 3 as planned and notice a change, the choices of upgrading something to a 4 became available. Hmm, can’t buy any of them now but that is good to know. The cost for Time 4 however changed more than I thought it would.

Me-but-not-me said I need to learn to manipulate souls and spirits to deal with the issues of my exposures to lycanthropy. My dragon self is going to be pissed tonight. I probably should restrain myself more, and not just with K. It there a way I could twist reality to deal with the possible complications? All the more reason to keep learning more.

Anyways, I take an increase in the Sphere of Soul, which suffers a similar greater than normal increase. Why would it do that?

The Grey Dream starts to fade before I can ask it. It wants to hide something. I already know it is lying to me, these Spheres must be a potential threat to its schemes.

I open my eyes, it should be around dawn. I stretch and get out of the bed and find Lysan in the hall, talking to her sister. They are gossiping, not sure about who. I don’t want to get involved in women’s gossip, that sounds like a trap to upset them.

Soon enough everyone is gathered together, now I am doomed to suffer scrutiny for my actions yesterday. The first to act was Abagail, who almost threw up at the gore in the street. Neither K or me cleaned anything up aside from ourselves last night.

Talia is the first to speak, “What happened?”

She is looking straight at me. I smile, “Kythia helped take them out last night.”

She does not look happy about it. Is that worry for my wellbeing that that I see in her face? Well she did ask to be lovers so I should have expected it. Lysan is pouting a bit, maybe I should have told them.

“I thought we were supposed to fight them in the morning” yeah even Bryan is a little upset.

“Sorry, the opportunity presented itself and you are all safer now.”

“We are supposed to vote over non-emergencies. You shouldn’t just run off and do this.”

I sigh, I’ll probably make this same decision again at some point. Note to self: conceal secretive actions for the group’s safety. K will probably help me if I call them hunts. I make my face shows regret, it may not be for what I did and I do regret that my friends are upset about it.

They sigh, except for K, she didn’t have a problem with it to start with. I speak up to both get us on track and away from my most recent mishap in leadership.

“We should start scavenging.”

They nod, no point in talking further as it won't change what I already did. As we start to divide up, the twins drag Abagail off together. They start talking to each other in Elven but I don’t catch enough to know the subject of the sentences. Bryan turns to me and asks a question.

“What is that about?”

“I think they want to gossip.”

K looks at me for a second I don’t think I ever taught her that word.

“They never did anything like that before.”

Bryan does have a point. I don’t remember them ever talking to each other outside of the group discussions.

“They haven’t really shared a language for until a few days ago though. Maybe they just did that while we weren’t around?”

I turn to look at K, hoping she will answer the question.

“They talk, that is how she already learned Althaen.”

Abagail already learned Althaen? I thought she was just working on Elven. I turn to Bryan he didn’t seem to know either.

“Guess they talked while we were injured or elsewise busy?”

K nods at Bryan’s guess. And with that we walk to the nearest store. A bar, to begin our search for supplies. We will end up needing a lot for the traveling we have planned.