A wish come true part 5

Vina jumped to the side to avoid the huge rock slime, Luke didn't do it in time and was knocked aside while trying to dodge

"Luke! Are you ok?!"

"I'm fine! Ow my organs..." Came the reply

She looked back to the direction the slime had gone to only to find it coming back at her, she jumped out of the way, she can feel the hard rock shell scraping her footwear as she jumped.

The slime hits a wall and shook the cave causing rocks to start falling, she Saw a rock start dislodging itself from the ceiling above luke "Luke! Look above you!"

He looked up and jumped to avoid it all the while holding his side, several rocks fell and hit the slime but she knew that won't stop it but atleast now they have some breathing room "Luke let's get out of here before it gets up!"

"I don't think we can run, it's too fast, we have to kill it"

"Luke don't be stupid! The only spot my bow can hit is it's bottom and you are wounded!"

"I'm not, i just took some concussion that's all"

"Don't try to be a Hero! Let's get out!"

Luke was about to say something when the slime jumped out and started rolling again, she jumped out of the way again with Luke doing the same

"Oh that's it! Come at me you soft bastard!"

Luke lifted his Axe and hit it on the wall of the cave which caught the attention of the slime, it rolled at him again and Luke got out of the way but not before hitting it with a side swing as he dodged, taking several rocks out of the slime and leaving a deep gash on it that quickly closed itself

"There! A new weakness! Shoot it!"

"It's too thin! Try again!"

Luke hit his Axe on the wall again to bait the slime, Vina who was on the sidelines climbed a rock and take aim with her bow waiting for a big enough gap or opportunity to shoot at.

The slime, which has turned red out of agitation charged at Luke and again he dodged, it hits a wall and it was luke's turn to charge at it, with a battle cry he closed in on the slime and started hacking and chopping away at the slime, taking pieces of rock and slime with each swing, the slime unable to roll due to how close luke is started jumping and Luke almost got caught under it's weight, Vina concentrated and Saw a big gap from where Luke had attacked it, she sees the dimly glowing red core inside and took the shot.

And to her surprise it penetrated enough and hit the core, but it didn't die, the core was visibly cracked but not shattered, it glows bright red, the slime consumed a big rock and threw it at her, she barely managed to get out of the way "hey! You oversized boob implant! Take someone your size!"

Vina was confused at his insult at the slime but welcomed the distraction as it rolled at Luke again this time much faster and glowing red hot, he too barely managed to dodge, it hits a wall gaun he tried the same thing and charged at the slime, but only getting one hit as the slime jumped in place throwing pieces of rocks in every direction.

Luke took one to the chest and got flung several meters to the backwards, but that was a bad move on the slimes part as it exposed more of it's body, Vina took the aim again and fired, it goes through the slime and hit the core finnaly shattering it.

----~----

Luke watched as the slime dissolved and turned into a puddle of dark red liquid and a pile of rocks 'hah! Not that tough! *Ow*'

"Luke are you good!?"

He Saw Vina rushing to where he is laying on the ground "i'm good, just... Some broken bones i think" he clutched his side and grimaced in pain

"Let's go, take my hand and learn on my shoulder"

"No need i'll get up myself"

She growled and forcibly took his arm and put it around her shoulders, carrying him

"Hey, i don.."

"Shut up! Do you know how dangerous that was? You could've died!"

"....."

"What!?"

"You cared" he said with a tired smile

"Of course i care you... Ah! Whatever!"Luke wouldn't be able to see it because of the fur, but she was blushing,They walked out of the cave together and into the forest, it got dark and vina set up a camp for Them to spend the night in.

----~----

"Only one tent?" Luke questioned as she was building it, she looked at him harshly

"So what?"

"Uhh... I.. like to move in my sleep Soo it might be.. you know.. uncomfortable?"

"I can deal with that"

"Wait what?"

"Oh please, if you think you're first men i've slept with then you're stupid"

"Wha.."

"Get your mind out of that hole! I'm a Huntress! Do you think i just go out alone without a companion?"

He wanted to point out that she was alone the first time they met each other but decided not to anger her further 'seems like no matter the world or species, when the female is mad you just sit and listen"

They ate a dinner of dried meat and berries again like last time and went to sleep, Luke hesitated to enter the tent, meanwhile Vina just looked at him from the inside "you're not sleeping?"

He reluctantly entered and lay next to her, she immediately fell asleep, Luke just lay there holding the slight pain on his side and thinking how awkward his current situation is, he waved it off and went to sleep.

----~----

Luke woke up to the sound of birds and feeling of something warm and fuzzy on his face, he opened his eyes to the find vina's tail on his face, he had somehow turned his sleeping orientation 180 degrees and is now facing vina's.... Behind... After a bit of staring and a sudden memory of a crusade speech he got up carefully as to not wake her up, he get's out of the tent to find it overrun by slimes.

Remembering what these little buggers did to him picked up his Axe and chased Them around the camp, he was cornering one of them and contrary to vina's words, these things can show fear and tell the difference between what's food and what's not, well if you're scary enough that is, and he founds that an angry human holding a battle Axe while grinning maniacally was scary enough for them "Luke? What are you doing?"

Luke looked behind him to find a Vina with a stare of concern at the slime quaking or in this case jiggling with fear

"Oh hey good morning, i was just clearing out the camp from slimes!"

"Then why are you... Nevermind, help me de-construct the tent"

"Coming! I have to deal with this one first"

After a minute or two of additional revenge against the slimes, Luke went to help Vina to pack up the tent without any slime getting in their way and they continued their long walk back to the town "hey, do you think we get an extra reward for killing the slime alpha?"

"I don't know for sure, although if killing the alpha means no more slime in the mine then maybe"

"Hope there is, dealing with that thing is a pain on the ass"

"Hey can i continue my questions from yesterday?"

"Sure, i'm all ears"

"What?"

"Oh that's a phrase 'i'm all ears' means i'm willing to listen"

"That's a weird way of saying it, anyway what is an RPG? You mentioned when you showed your phone, what does it Mean?"

"Uhh... RPG is like... You know games right? Like something you play?

"Of course i do! What does it have to with RPG?"

"Well RPG is a kind of game you can find on a phone, it's a short for 'role-playing game' where you play as other people on "fake" world"

"Are these people 'thinking machines' as well?"

"Well no, you control Them so they are effectively you, it's like playing an alternate life basically"

"What's the point of it?"

"I don't know for sure, but i think it's for something like filling up a hole in your life? Like a substitute and doing things, real or not can entertain people"

"Then why don't you just achieve it on real life then?"

"Limits, like some people dream they can be all powerful or all-knowing and these games can make it feel true for them, make Them feel they did something, despite it not being real"

"So it's used to Cope with failures?"

"That....." Luke grow quiet as a revelation hits him in the face and he screamed internally 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'

"Luke? Are you okay? Why is your face like that?"

Luke snapped out of his trance-like state and looked at her with an expression of agony "can we... Just... Change Topic, PLEASE?"

"uhhh okay, no need to yell about it, hmm what do you think of me?"

Luke who had a thousand yard stare snapped out of it again "oh, you? Well... I think you're nice, you cared for me the whole time, you could've left me on that forest but you didn't which i appreciate"

"No not that! I Mean how do i look?"

"scary at first but now you just looked Fluffy" came the near instant and honest reply

"Fluffy?"

"As in cute and a lot of fur"

"You found Things with a lot of fur is cute? Don't get me wrong, young pups are adorable but your species is not beastmen"

"Oh not just me, my ENTIRE race finds Them cute, there are some people that are so obssesed with it they make an entire group with a sole purpose of looking and praising at animals with a lof fur and there are ones that took it further and wea..." He stopped on that last one as he realized what particular group of people he's talking about

"So you find me cute?"her tone was of someone that is offended but under all that Luke can recognize a hopeful tone

"Well yes" he replied bluntly

She looked away as if thinking about something or embarrased, and the trip fell into an awkward silence.

----~----

They arrived at the town gate at around noon and there was a commotion in the town square, curious Luke and Vina came to hear what was happening "ATTENTION CITIZENS!" Said an elven in battle armor

"i am here to inform you about the ongoing war against the army of the Undead to the east, there have been some from news the beastmen village that was turned into a fortress has fallen yesterday and the Undead army had reached deeper, the town of fortaare is under siege"

Worried murmurs can be heard from the crowd, Luke can hear someone saying that fortaree is only 17 days of travel from this town

"As for this town, evacuation is not yet neccesary, and to ensure safety the nivarian alliance have sent soldiers to this town to check for anyone coming from the east to ensure no plague carrier went through and wreck havoc, that is all we have to say, thank you for the attention citizen, have a good day"

"Undead army?" Asked Luke

"Yes, to the east, the fortress turned village you hear was my village"

"The alliance can just do that?"

"Legally they can't because it's not approved by beastmen leaders but wartimes requires extreme measure sometimes"

"Beastmen leaders? Is this town on beastmen territory or something i've seen a lot beastmen here"

"This town is a neutral town, it's in beastmen territory but we can't claim it because we're not the ones who build it, and the builders can't claim it because it's within beastmen Borders"

"So you just label it neutral and let any species settle in freely?"

"Pretty much"

"This Undead army, does it have a leader or something? Undead people doesn't sound smart enough to make an army"

"There is a leader, i'm not sure but i heard it was some kind of powerful necromancer?"

Luke expected that reply, because he just remembers a quote from along time ago 'remember son, any RPG like world is sure to have necromancy'

"Let's go report what we did and go back to the inn"

"Ok"

----~----

After reporting their findings and informing that the source of the infestation is killed Luke and vina did get an extra reward although it's only about a quarter of the original reward, as they are walking back the small road leading to the inn Luke stopped and asked a question "hey, what does your life looked like before the alliance took your village?"

"Hard, most beastmen still lives in tribes and villages just like the orcs, not a lot of towns other than neutral ones like this town accepts us, so trading is hard, most beastmen are poor aswell, we live just fine for the time being but one day change is going to come"

"So the alliance, how many species are there?"

"Six species, elven, dwarfen, beastmen, orc-kin, draconian, and faeys"

"Are draconians the big dragon people or the lizard people?"

"I don't know what a dragon is, but they are the same species and the big ones are called true draconians"

"The faeys, what are they?"

"I don't know a lot about Them, what i know is they are solitary, they are a part of the alliance but they keep mostly to themselves"

"You said most beastmen are poor, since we have gold does that Mean you are one of the richest beastmen so far?"

"Maybe"