End of volume 1: A New Companion?

“Yeesh, this place looks like shit and that's before the fires started, ha-ha.” 

Raze let out a dramatic chuckle as he took in the scenery. It wasn't pretty, but I'm sure it used to be.

I surveyed the carnage with my own two eyes. There were fires as far as one could see. The villagers lived in rather primitive houses compared to where I was from, but that just had to do with where we were located.

These homes comprised of large red huts and were made of some brick-like material that I had never heard of. Luckily, they seemed to be rather fire resistant, but their farmland wasn't as lucky. 

The cattle were running around like chickens with their heads cut off while the wolf folk attempted to capture them, while large flames crept up from the meadow in and around their settlement. 

That wasn't the worst part though. The possessed creatures that had invaded were attacking the homes as well as the people who tried to retrieve their livestock. I could see kobolds with blue fur, a few humans, and one very strange creature. It was big and had many legs and arms at the front like a crab. With a long tail that possessed such a sharp edge, it seemed it could pierce through any armor. Speaking of armor, its body seemed entirely composed of a shell-like skin.

"Oh shit, giant scorpion!" Raze howled. "That's sick as fuck!"

So it's called a scorpion, huh? I thought.

“I'm gonna go fight that scorpion, brb!” Raze shouted before running off to where the large creature was bashing a well near the center of town with its large claws.

These are all beast-kin….right?

The kobolds were a special case because they looked closer to monsters than humans due to being heavily covered in fur. They also spoke an archaic language that I could never comprehend whenever I encountered one. They always hunted in packs, but this many seemed excessive. Like ants following their queen. But who could that be? 

Our Goddess made that pretty clear.

“Please stop those humans and kobolds from taking down the village elders' home!” The wolf girl, whose name I found out was Kirika, pleaded to me with her hands clasped together.

“I'll try my best, but I'm not as strong as you think.”

With that said, I ran towards a hut that was twice the size of the others. I heard there were many wolf people that had taken shelter there and barred the doors to hopefully wait it out. The lightly armored humans and kobolds were currently banging on the door with clubs and mallets as if the juiciest of delicacies were on the other side. Only growls and gargled sounds came from their mouths. It was a truly bizarre sight from my perspective.

Each of the assaulters had one thing in common and that was the red circle with a star on their foreheads.

“That's gotta be the source of the spell, so….”

I fired off three [Fireball] spells in rapid succession, but I made their sizes a lot smaller to be more precise about where I aimed. My attacks hit one human and two kobolds right in the head, instantly melting the red circle into oblivion as well as a few of their hairs. 

Sorry!

The three of them abruptly collapsed on the ground, leaving only two more kobolds and a human assaulting the door with their weapons.

I can do this. They seem so fixated on bringing down the door that they haven't even noticed their comrades have been taken out. Or perhaps they just don't care.

The door was surprisingly stronger than I expected, but it wouldn't last much longer. I could tell.

I launched another three [FireBalls]. Two of them knocked the other kobolds out of commission, but my last shot missed the human’s head, only brushing off his chest like it was made of something a lot stronger and reflective. To make matters worse, he decided to stop attacking the door and lock his eyes with mine. His eyes were entirely white, devoid of sanity. I could feel the pressure from his bloodlust bearing down on me with tremendous force. I tried to step back, but my legs were completely frozen.

“Shiiiiiit.” I started to panic, my breathing getting heavier and heavier.

Then the possessed man ran at me with inhuman speed. I was fifteen feet away, or so but he closed the distance in seconds. In no time at all, he was upon me and leaped into the air with his massive club. 

I still couldn't move a muscle. The only thing I could do was rack my mind for a solution and quick!

Well, I can use [Wrath] to strengthen my defense and hope to survive that way, but that was a big gamble. Maybe I could shapeshift into a puddle or something with [Envy]? No, that wouldn't do. As long as he hit me, the result would be the same. If I could move, I could just use [The Rabbit] to leap away or even fly with my wings. 

It all wouldn't matter in just a few seconds, but then it happened.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Get fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:

A familiar voice screamed at the top of his lungs as he zoomed through the air with bunny ears sticking out of his hair. His feet crashed into the jumping man with enough force to knock him ten feet away. Raze, himself landed only a few feet away from me on his feet like a cat. He wiped off the first from his clothes before turning to greet me.

“Glad I found ya. This scorpion is a little hard to break through with my fists and legs so I was wondering if you could give it a lil' roast?”

I tilted my head with a smile. Am I hearing this right?

Did Raze, who always ridiculed me and forced me into positions that I would never dream of, actually ask me to help him out? It was truly a sight to behold, but I didn’t have time to mull it over because of the situation at hand.

“Y-yea, sure! Uh, thanks for, like...helping me and all.”

He looked away almost immediately at my embarrassing response. “Just follow me.”

“R-Right, yeah…”

As I ran with him I noticed the downed bodies of many of the foreign invaders. Did Raze do all of this or was it the work of the villagers? I guess it doesn't really matter at this point as long as they are alive…

The scorpion was bashing its large pincers against a rectangular building that stood out like a sore compared to the rest. Even for its large frame and massive pincers, it was dealing little damage, though it started to slightly pick up by the time we reached it. It must have been some sort of town hall or something. Either way, we had to stop this monster.

“Use your fire shit or whatever. I'll take it from there. You better not mess up or I'm gonna use your ass as bait to kill it myself.”

His scary words sent shivers down my spine. There was no way I was going to let him down.

I looked at the scorpion’s large head. Right in the middle was the circle with a red star. I could just burn it away with my fire magic, but Raze plans to kill it because it's a monster anyway. It made sense. I could have killed those kobolds, yet I just released them from the spell. This scorpion on the other hand was a lot more dangerous because of its hulking figure and that long stinger. Still….Something didn't sit right with me.

Maybe I should just give it a scan? Yea, that way I can see how tough it really is.

I tapped my ear and from nowhere came my purple holographic scanning device. I focused it right on the beast….and the results were very interesting….

[Name: Lyra, the Soft]—[Class: Monk/Warrior Beast-kin]—[Level: 101]

[Skills: Infinite blows (Max), Hardened body (Max), Transformation (Max), Improved Armored Skin (Max)]

[Status: Mind Controlled]—[Attack: 150]—[Defense: 65,000]—[Magic: 0]

SSSSSSSSSSSSSIXTY FIVE THOUSAND DEFENSE! It's over level 100 too, just how strong is this scorpion? The weird thing was for its abnormally high defense and level, its attack was equivalent to a level five or lower and it doesn't even have a drop of magic. So many questions were drifting around in my head but now was not the time.

“Raze…”

“What is it? Are you ready to attack?” he asked, clearly losing patience.

“Yea.h..about that. Did you take a look at its defense?” I asked while pointing at my scanner.

He crossed his arms in defiance, “What the hell do you think?”

“Well I suggest you look, because I can’t damage something like that before I run out of mana.”

He surprisingly followed my advice and scanned its stats. He turned around to face me, holding his mouth closed as if he was trying to suppress his laughter. Then it all came tumbling out.

“AH-HA-HA HA HA. THAT ATTACK. AH-HA-HA-HA!” He clearly ignored its massive defense and looked straight at its attack power. He was rolling on the ground now, absorbed in his own reverie. 

Meanwhile the scorpion continued to wail on the large building, completely ignoring Raze’s barrel of laughs right behind it. I had to do something about this, and I knew exactly what it was. I walked past the Raze who was suppressed with laughter until I could see a part of the mind control crest. That was more than enough to take it down. I poured my mana into my Skill and cast it like I had done a thousand times in the past. By compressing my mana, my [Fireball] was half the size it should have been; a perfect size for hitting the head of a large scorpion. It reeled back in pain before falling over,completely unconscious.

“Got it.” I smirked with satisfaction. Even Raze pulled himself together once he noticed the scorpion had ceased its movements. He pulled himself up and looked around with absolute bliss on his face.

“Ah, so it was one of those demi-humans.”

“Beast-kin,” I said to correct him.

“I don’t care, but it looks like I'll be getting my food soon!”

He sported a big old grin and gazed back behind us. I followed it to see that it had been a success. The fires had been put out by the locals who could use water magic Skills. I didn’t see many wolf beast-kin when we had entered the village, but it looked like some of them had come out of hiding to help minimize the damage. 

Stacked at the center of town towered a pile of kobolds and humans stacked on top of each other, right next to the well. The cattle grounds were totaled but at least their homes were fine! Kirika dashes over to me even though she looked rather tired from assisting with preserving the town. She somehow had enough energy to come to greet us.

“Thank you so much for saving the Town Hall and the home of the village elder. We don’t have a lot in our settlement, but we can at least feed you guys as thanks.

I waved my hand up and down as if to say ‘"t was nothing". Raze, on the other hand, got right down to business.

“Give me as much food as you can. Don’t skimp out on me, alright!?”

I had nothing to say to him and instead followed the two of them into the Town Hall.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The food was simply splendid. They even gave us a toast. Raze went to town on their cow meat and chicken which caused a minor uproar from the twenty-five other individuals present at this feast. 

I enjoyed a small salad with some fresh milk. It had been a little while since I had had a normal meal like this. I would have liked to stay longer, but they forcibly kicked us out after Raze drank a little too much wine and started cursing at people on top of the table like a mad man. Kirika gave me a send-off wave as we left even though Raze had taken 90 percent of their food reserves into his belly and I was afraid for how they would recover.

Awaiting us outside of the building was a blue-haired beauty with a long ponytail and strange metal gauntlets covering her hands. There was also something long snaking out from behind her, but it was hard to tell ecstasy what it was. She pointed at Raze who had just started to sober up (which was rather quick if you ask me).

“You! I noticed you laughed at me because of my small attack value.”

“Yes, and?” Raze sneered, clearly wanting to get away from this girl.

That's when I noticed that her hair was the same color as the carapace of that scorpion. It all clicked together now.

“Your Lyra….the Soft, right? I asked innocently.

She turned her stern gaze over to me when my voice reached her ears.“You have heard of me? Well I guess most must have heard of the Azurespine tribe, but I have business with the young boy who looked down on me due to something I was born with. This is unacceptable.”

She put her fists into a fighting stance with her long tail sticking out over her head.

“What the fuck are you doing? Are you retarded?” Raze said without a care in the world. He seemed rather annoyed that Lyra could not take a hint.

“We will fight, right here, right now. As we Azurespines have done for generations when others look down on us. That won’t be enough though, even if you lose here I want to show you my true value and therefore I will be joining you in….. What exactly are you two doing?”

“Saving this continent from the six remaining Lords of Tyranny.” My voice sounded weak and out of energy. I guess dealing with a drunk Raze had taken a toll.

“Right. Well, on my pride as an Azurespine, it would be my pleasure as a warrior and a woman to assist you with that endeavor and prove my worth to this child.”

Raze snorted, “Yeah... No. I already got one useless load around. There is no way I’m taking another.” He tried to walk past her but her long tale blocked his path. Whenever he tried to move to the left, she would move over to match him.

“Stupid bitch….” Raze muttered.

Lyra crossed her arms and spoke with true conviction. ”If you can best me in a fight then we shall never speak again, but if I win you will take me into your party.”

Raze punched his metal-covered arm in the palm of his other hand. "Fine, you might be a tanky-ass bitch, but that weak-ass attack stat will make sure I will beat you into the ground, no matter how long it takes.”

So he did see her defense.

Lyra backed up, allowing Raze to follow so they could fight more in the open. I stood behind Raze, uncaring of the outcome of what was to come next. While I was excited at the possibility of having a tank join our group even with her impossibly low attack stat, there was no way Raze would let her in even if he somehow lost. He was just that type of guy. Still, he readied himself for combat like a tiger eyeing its next meal.

“Oh, one more thing. Since you are so confident in your Skills there should be no problem if our fight stays on the ground. I don’t want to jump around as I witnessed earlier when I was under that spell. I am grateful for that by the way.”

She bowed to the two of us before retaking her combat stance.

Raze spat on the dark rich soil. “Makes no difference to me, I would never lose to a fucking girl in hand-to-hand combat no less. This shit will be ‘GGEZ’.”

GGEZ? Perhaps a phrase from his old world?

“Then let us begin, boy.” She stood where she was, waiting for Raze to make his move. And if I knew Raze…. Yup

He sported his usual shit-stained grin and then he charged.

Now, who would be the winner?

End of Volume 1. Volume 2 will begin soon!