Whoosh
Ray’s railgun slug whizzes by just next to my shoulder, hitting the minor bisoclo’s forehead dead on. Just as it was about to ram into me from behind.
“Thanks for the save, darling!”
“Of course, I can't have my dear Ko getting defeated by a little beast, now can we?”
“Just give me a few moments, I'll have its big friend down, then we can settle down and cook ourselves a nice meal.”
“That sounds wonderful! I can't wait to see what you cook up, it's sure to be tasty. Though, there are certain things you make that are probably far tastier than what we have the time to prepare.”
“Yeah, this exploration stuff’s hard work. Gotta make sure to get our protein in especially, it's hard for the kits to fully synthesize it from scratch.”
I turn my attention back to my current quarry. According to the info screen, it's a Major Bisoclo. As one would expect, it's rated at a high-high-level. It's perhaps 25% larger than the normal one.
It's quite intimidating.
But, I had a truly demonic and evil being as my drill sergeant. It doesn't even exist on the same scale as she does.
I ready my spear and add enhancement. It's crazy, I am just a space wizard nowadays.
I'm living every NEET’s dream: cute girlfriend, crazy adventure, im a freaking reality-bending space magician, cool friends. It's almost like I've been isekaied into a completely different world from where I was.
I stand firmly rooted in the ground, staring the Bisoclo straight in the eyes.
It's just watching me, almost as though it's waiting for me to act.
Perhaps higher level beasts have more intelligence? Perhaps the Majors in specific have super smarts. I'll have to keep that in mind for the future.
The Bisoclo bows its head, its massive horns pointing directly at my chest.
I think it's trying to say ‘come at me bro, do your worst.’
I oblige the beast.
I leap forward and into the air, kicking off the ground with a carefully planned burst of inae.
I quickly cross the few meters of distance and am oriented poised directly for a strike at its flank.
I thrust in with maximum speed.
I manage to graze its hide, but the moment I make contact, it suddenly moves.
In the blink of an eye, the beast has turned around and rams one of its horns into my side, hard.
I go flying back several dozen meters and land in the grass. Thankfully, several meters tall grass acts as a good cushion.
“Darling, you okay? Does your sweet lover need to save you?”
With a bit of effort, I managed to groan out, "I'll be fine, it's a lot faster than I expected. You don't expect a beast that's several tonnes to move as fast as you.” I think I might've fractured a rib, but the augmentation kit should stick it back together quite quickly. Thankfully, the armor managed to absorb some of the impact, though the repulsor didn't quite catch the full blow.
“Alright, if you say so, Mr. Foolish Hero.”
“Ugh, can we forget that title was ever coined?”
“I don't wanna. You were so cool and heroic, rushing off to save me the instant I was in danger. You're super cute and cool.” I feel a slight blush creep onto my face at such a compliment.
I quickly turn back to the battlefield, the Bisoclo has moved a bit closer, but it still seems hesitant to initiate an attack against me.
Perhaps its strategy is to lure me in and then counter with those terrifying horns?
The thing is around high-high-level. So it's actually a pretty fair matchup if we were going one on one with pure melee skill.
But, unfortunately for it, I've got magic and technology on my side.
I stand up and brush myself off, wincing a little bit at the pain in my side.
I picked up my spear that landed a few meters away and ready myself again.
This time, I massively amp up the enhancement on my spear. It's shining with the purple glow of the shifter inae, tinting the landscape faintly purple. It goes quite well with my hair, if I do say so myself.
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I take a single step forward, and the Bisoclo does as well.
I take several more steps, and it matches me. We dance a little circle around each other, perhaps 15 meters away.
Even from this distance, those nasty horns do look quite frightening, I should best avoid them at all costs.
After a few minutes of circling, I make my move.
I charge straight in, on foot. Right at the horns that await me.
Mere nanoseconds before the horns gore me and likely do a lot more than a rib fracture, I sidestep around the beast.
It tries to react, but it can't turn at such a sharp angle and I manage to bury my spear just behind its right horn.
The enhancement does its work, and the small force is multiplied several dozen times over and nearly removes its entire head.
The beast falls to the floor, dead as soon as my spear contacted it.
It's almost sad in a way, to fell such a great beast, one that clearly was far smarter than it let on.
Nope, stop those thoughts. This is a game, an MMO, hunting is what it's all about. I pack the trophy away in my inventory. I bet it'll fetch a pretty nice price.
Well, this trial is also about conquest and stuff I suppose. But I have a feeling it's going to be a moment before we get too much actual player-versus-player content.
“Good work, darling. You showed that thing who 's the boss ‘round these parts.”
“Arent you the boss?”
“Well, I'm your boss. Which means that you showed it why I am.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
“The beast detector isn't detecting anything nearby, whaddya say we set up a small camp and have some lunch?”
“That sounds great. Headrubs would be nice too!”
“Of course, the headrubs for my poor, injured little Ko were implied.”
I open my inventory screen and pull out a basic camping kit that we bought. It's basically just a tent and supplies to set up a fire/cooking area.
By pull out, I mean I clicked it and it appeared out of the ground. Quickly set up by a bunch of drones.
Ultra-hyper-modern technology sure is convenient.
By the way, we also bought this fairly expensive device called a beast detector. It alerts us if there are any beasts within the area, and their type if we have fought them before.
It's a fairly small range, only a kilometer or two. But it's actually quite useful. We've managed to hunt quite a few bisoclo. I even managed to stealthily take out a risp with it.
I start the campfire, which is somehow fueled from below or something. I'm not quite sure.
I take one of our pots and fill it with water from our canteens to boil some water. Then I go and sit down next to Ray, who has taken a seat leaninging against some of the nearby grass.
The moment I sit down, she takes off a panel of my armor to inspect my side. Low and behold, it's got a pretty gnarly bruise on it.
“Poor little Ko, that looks like it hurts quite a bit.”
“A bit, but Initae has given us far, far worse. Plus, according to the kit, the fractured rib is already healed. So it looks a lot worse than it is.”
“You're right about that. She is a monster.”
Ray tries to touch my side and I flinch away in pain. She looks a bit sad at my pulling away but resolves to drag me into her lap for some nice headrubs.
14:00 AT, Day Two | Grasslands North East of Arce Lunae
“Gotcha!” Ray shouts across the endless swathes of grass. Her railgun barks as it fires the projectile that cleanly hits the juvenile risp in front of us.
“You know, darling. It's not very stealthy if you shout right before you shoot your quarry. Kinda gives you away.”
She turns over and places one of her fingers on my lip. “Shh, you. Get outta here with your logic and stuff.”
I comply with her demands, I open my mouth and give her finger a slight nibble.
“Ah, what was that!”
“Well, you said to be less logical, so I just did whatever I felt would be cute.” I reach over to where she is laying down and give her a few pats on the head.
I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but my girlfriend is super duper cute.
“Hmm, well, if you're gonna become even cuter, some warning would be appreciated beforehand.”
“But that's no fun! You never get flustered when you're expecting it, only when I do it suddenly.”
“Precisely, you should warn me beforehand.”
“Hmm, I don't think I will.”
“Oh you, little mischievous hero.”
“You say that, but I think you actually like it.”
“Nope, nada, definitely not.” She says, though from her tone of voice, I don't believe her in the slightest.
“Oh alright then, I guess I'll stick to my hyper-logical ways. No more doting on my super cute girlfriend.”
“Wait, that's not.” She says, but before she can finish her though, I lean over and occupy her with a pretty long kiss.
I successfully flustered her once again. That's twice in a pretty short period, I'm getting good at this. Perhaps this means I've earned some boyfriend points. It's probably around 72:1.06e24 (in Ray’s Favor) at this point.
We stood up from our perch atop some grass where we were stalking a risp. While Ray goes to collect the trophy, I get back on the ATV and start it up again.
The past day we've just been doing some more exploring and hunting some beasts. We've collected quite a few trophies at this point.
Of course, lots of headrubs, general affection and cozy times have been had today. It's like a little road trip, just for the two of us.
It's really nice, just to go out on an adventure with the one you love. Reminds me of our time back in the first trial in a way. Just traversing the landscapes, mulling about and having fun.
“Hey Ko, what is that over there?” Ray says, we are cruising along, searching for important stuff.
She is pointing to what appears to be a massive dust cloud on the horizon. It looks like a tiny dust storm, but that's not possible, this environment shouldn't produce such storms.
“Well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there?”
“Lets head right for it!”
With that, we alter course to go check it out. I'm sure that if it is anything interesting, Ray and I can overcome it. Though, I have a feeling we might need our friends’ help for this one. After all, we are the moonlight duo. So, bring it on.
End of Chapter 86
Next: Chapter 87 | Thundering Hooves
A/N: Hiya dear reader. Author here once again, maybe you'll let me ramble a bit.
Just a reminder, now that writathon is coming to a close, updates will be moving to only weekdays.
I do hope that the whole arena thing is entertaining, and you aren't getting too confused or bored with it. I am trying to incorporate more action, but don't worry, the cute fluffy moments and witty banter aren't going anywhere!
Do be sure to stay tuned, you definitely won't want to miss a lot of big stuff that is soon to be revealed.
I'm surprised anyone is still reading this far in, I didn't expect to get any traction. let alone so much support nearly 250k words in. If your enjoying, itd be greatly appreciated if you could drop a rating, follow, comment or even a review. It is always much appreciated!
Until next time, dear reader.
- Cathrix, unquestionably the best worst author in the world.
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