Lovi was feeling spent. Sleep was one of the few basic needs leveling did not help rid you of. If anything, all the changes to your body meant that it could always use an extra hour or two to cope.

It did help with… The more private needs, at least to withstand a bit of neglecting them. But that also meant this; when you had to go you really had to go.

Lovi had been withholding all night. But if it was one thing she would not give up, even for a brewing family feud, it was a moment of some damn privacy as she did her business.

Worst case she would clench up and go sprinting back anyway. Getting soiled be damned. André may not have a Class yet, but he was not so far behind as to fail to even shout out if Sten made a move.

She needn’t have worried.

She finished with nature’s transaction and got back up to return, finally able to relax after what felt like half a day of gradually heightening tension. At least the physical was dealt with. Nothing worse than worrying on an already worried stomach.

As she was walking back she heard a branch breaking behind her. The creature who stood there was grander than any she had seen, since early childhood, and those memories could hardly be trusted.

It was a stag. Clearly magical.

Lovi immediately wanted to fight it. She even took two steps before recalling herself. Sten was still the primary factor she needed to consider. Maybe I can call them both over. Oh, but I bet it will bolt if I do.

Frozen in indecision, with the great beast staring right at her, the moment was stolen.

A loud whining voice was swiftly shuffling closer from Blackenberg. It was André.

“Aaaaaaah. Sorry Lovi I got the shits all of a sudden, Sten is just at the tree where we trained you don’t have to worry but I could not wait a second longer, I’m about to spray!”

Ew.

When Lovi turned back around she saw the stag was missing. She tsked in annoyance and did not even bother with addressing the dolt. She immediately went running to check on Sten.

Sten was standing up in a tree, watching André go running off in a hurry, only to slow down after a few steps when he risked squirting.

Told you they weren’t ready. Not that those particular roots would have ever been, there was no part of that tasty root that was not a laxative, but roasting it longer did help make the effects less violent. You could roast it for hours though. Just one of his many tasks at the healing house.

Now if only Roldy could show up, the timing would actually be perfect. He knew Lovi would come running any second now, but it seemed the [Druid] was late. They were meant to meet right around dawn so Sten had woken up an hour before it. Now it was a bit more than an hour past.

“Pssst, hey, hey Sten,” Speak of the promised Speed Demon. Roldy finally showed up. “I got us a distraction, you ready to go?”

Sten wasted no time jumping down and landing in a three-point stance by Harold.

“How did you even get up there?”

“I’ll teach you later, let’s go! What’s the plan, do you have a Spell? Horses?” He was pulling Harold along.

“Uh, no, I got us a ride, but he’s causing the distraction.” That made Sten pause.

“You used our get-away for the distraction?”

The realisation of how that sounded actually made the [Druid] turn pink.

“I got this, don’t worry! He’ll be along any second,” But Roldy was looking around with worried eyes too.

That was when Lovi crested the hill and spotted the two moving away. She did not even shout anything, just screamed incoherently. Sten actually panicked like when he was little and Harold felt the same instinctive urgency. They started sprinting.

That was when the prince showed up, landing in front of the two like a jumping goliath spider, halting their steps.

Sten, the cerebral Sten, actually dropped his jaw at the sight of its sudden appearance from way above.

He almost went to strike it instinctively but Roldy’s jump to grab a hold of its horns let him know what was up. He clambered on with uncharacteristic clumsiness. Athletic he may be, but a rider he was not. And the minimal experience he did have had certainly not been bareback, nor on such a huge specimen as this. And that was not even mentioning the very distinct gait.

The result was him almost getting flung off in the first few seconds as the prince accelerated like only a magical stag in the forest knew how.

The forced adjustment slowed them down so much that Lovi had enough time to arrive. And she arrived in a striking fury, barely getting deflected by Sten spinning around to lay back to back on the creature while holding on to Harold with both arms and kicking for dear life, the unfamiliar position and violent jostling making his usual grace appear gone with the wind.

The huge tree that Lovi struck instead, which had probably been growing out here in the wild for 50 years, toppled like it was made of papier-mâché.

Harold flung his warrior wasps at her, but the amount he had been able to bring on his body was limited and it seemed she had some Skill to enhance her skin.

She took three more steps and made another leap. The stag was able to dodge, but the motion almost flung Sten off again.

“How the hell did you plan to get us away like this!?” Sten was sounding panicked.

“We just have to get a bit further, we can ma,” He was interrupted by Lovi screeching and suddenly spinning around in a complex footwork pattern that seemed to build an energy of its own.

When she dashed and then launched herself this time it was into a hurricane kick that made the force around her grow visible to the naked eye. She struck the stag with perfect timing, catching him between her attack and a passing boulder.

The proud beast’s leg broke, but Sten caught her with a kick of his own, breaking her nose and stunning her momentarily. It allowed the stag to kick her ribs in with its other leg and make a hobbled escape.

Harold was already busy at work healing him with [Regenerating Form] and their shared affinity allowed the leg to knit together with visible speed, even if the bone inside remained broken.

If the proud beast could deal with the pain they were not yet doomed.

They went hurtling past a family of boars who looked up in alarm. Lovi remained hot on their tail, but she was slowing down. It was just that they were too.

“She’s going to catch us,”

Harold had his eyes closed to focus on the healing despite their breakneck speed. The intensity of the run made the injury flare up nearly as fast as he could mend it.

When he opened them again at Sten’s urgent words he could finally spot their target. The glade they had arrived at. “There, if we can make it to that glade we will be scot-free, as long as she doesn’t have a [Domain] Skill,” Harold emphasised the words with an assuring nod, but Sten looked back at him with panic remaining in his eyes.

“Don’t tell me she does,”

They were fifty metres away. Thirty.

“I don’t know, my older brother did, but for martial artists it’s very rare,” The rushing wind was forcing them to shout.

Lovi heard the words and gave a final scream of frustration as she vaulted into one last attack.

The prince made a final desperate leap and was gone in a magic flash of green that left a mix of brown soil and leaves stirring up in a temporary whirlwind with Lovi at its centre.

She was left there alone, screaming scathing insults for hours until André finally caught up.

“What happened?” She nearly knocked him out on the spot.