Seven humans and a tied up neko sat around a small, barely lit fire at night in the middle of the Felaryan forest. The leader of the humans, Cobalt Hollister, looked rather pleased as he sketched on a pad and looked up at the neko from time to time. It had been a rather productive two days so far, although they did have some loss. They had radioed in to the home world and asked for some reinforcements. Four more Supernatural Hunters came through and they “acquired” a human guide before heading into the forest. Cobalt looked at their guide and smiled. The collar they placed on his neck with the explosive was all they needed to convince him to enter the forest. He was amazed at how skittish the humans were in this world-between-worlds. Felarya wasn’t as bad as most of the natives put it. One just had to get use to the eating and dieing. Being a Supernatural Hunter for so long, you got use to it fast.
People die all the time and the past few days were no exception. Two he lost when something hit their boat and two men fell off. It looked like a giant mermaid, but none on the boat could tell for sure. It was far too deep. They bobbed to the surface for a matter of seconds before they were dragged under by what ever it was and not seen again. They reached the shore before it could attack again but only to be met by a wolf-looking beast several hours later. The guide called it a kensha beast and it was able to capture another man, dragging him into the forest.
But this trip so far wasn’t a total loss. He wanted to capture a neko ever since seeing them around Negav city, but knew it would cause an uproar and they would have to leave without their main target, Guar. He counted himself lucky to find this one wondering in the woods alone. He studied her once again, having done so already about fifty times since capturing her. She had long, dark purple hair with light purple fur on her ears and tail. It fascinated him on how much like humans they looked and yet how unlike humans. From the look of her build and clothing, she was a mechanic of sorts. She wore a lightly padded, long sleeved shirt that stopped just under her bust and some sort of slinder mechanic’s work gloves that came to her elbows, a tool belt, and a small tool pouch strapped to her left leg. By her pants and boots, he also guessed this was a military girl. She was found carrying a bow and some explosive arrows that were obviously military issued. They probably wouldn’t do her any good out here in the forest though. He had seen several of the monsters out here and could tell that they were rather impervious to such devices.
Had Neleh, the neko, known what Cobalt was thinking, she would be surprised at his accuracy, though most of what he thought was a given. She was a mechanic for her home world and a military brat. Her unit was sent to fix a device that was placed in Felarya to monitor the world. It had been damaged by a slug-girl who slid over it and slimed the whole device, causing massive damage to the circuit board. But once they reached it and she fixed it, the party was attacked by a couple harpies and she was the only one to escape. Now to be captured by humans and tied up like some wild animal? It was absolutely humiliating! She only sat there staring at Cobalt as he stared right back. What she wouldn’t give to have her equipment back. She would turn this guy’s guts inside out if she could. She looked at him in defiance thinking dark thoughts.
Cobalt, on the other hand, had bigger fish to fry… literally. The guide had told them of a fairy that lived nearby. A fairy identified by a single glove she wore on her left hand. He said rumor had it that she loved to collect magical artifacts and would do almost anything to get them. He called Stephens over and showed him his plan to capture her. It would be easy as pie, he thought. And Stephens agreed. He wanted at least this fairy to go with Guar’s head before returning to the home world. He smiled to himself and laid down on his bedroll, studying the neko one more time. The sentry would allow them some sleep in this inhospitable world and the shift would be rotated so that the men got enough of it for the night. He closed his eyes and began to dream of the awarding victory welcome he would get for bringing back the werewolf’s head, the benefits paid to him when the fairy was made to power some city somewhere, and the pleasures the neko would give him after she was utterly studied from the inside and out.
Guar, on the other hand, was not dreaming of glory and riches. He wasn’t dreaming at all, in fact. He crouched before Alvar, panting hard. The blind fairy swordsman was defiantly a match to deal with. He was only glad that Alvar wasn’t trying to kill him. He met the fairy two days ago when Subeta took him to meet him. He was surprised to find that Alvar was blind as well. The situation was explained and Alvar was rather reluctant to help at first. What was it he said again? It was something on the lines of “I spar with no one but the trees and my shadow. Besides, I don’t need to baby sit some strange, lost, kensha pup.” But Subeta made a deal with him that Guar didn’t understand. It was something about not bugging him about his sword for a while, whatever that meant. Either way, it got him to agree and she left him in Alvar’s hands.
That first day nearly killed Guar. Alvar didn’t let up at all and just to defend himself against the mighty swordsman ate up much of Guar’s aura. But there seemed to be a little leeway in Alvar’s respect for him, because yesterday, Alvar seemed more eager to help him. And boy, did these sparing sessions help.
Guar could feel that he was gaining more and more control of his aura. He was learning to tap into it to get just what he needed to produce the bare minimum affect needed to accomplish the task. Why leap fifty feet over your opponent’s head when only fifteen would do? Why shield himself constantly when shielding only the blows would do? It was all coming clear to him. The trick wasn’t to be the fastest, strongest, or most agile. It was to be just slightly faster, stronger and more agile that the one you are fighting… and smarter too. Guar had to come up with whole new strategies while sparing with Alvar and Alvar was a VERY good fighter.
Like yesterday, when Alvar decided to leap over Guar’s head and shrink him from behind. Guar saw the leap and knew what he was doing so he sidestepped to the right and swung with his tonfa at Alvar when he landed. But it was all for nothing because Alvar wasn’t really there. Guar’s tonfa phased right through him. He had found some sort of fairy spell to trick Guar’s senses to think what Alvar had done when in reality, he only stepped back two feet and cast the shrink spell from there. It took Guar four hours to grow back to his original height before they could continue.
Alvar tried that trick again earlier today and this time, Guar was ready for him, ducking the spell and slamming his fists upward, colliding with Alvar’s sword and nearly knocking him down in surprise. But the aura control was still a problem with him. He couldn’t fight for more than an hour at a time without becoming seriously winded. And he was running out of time. He could sense that Cobalt was in the forest and for some reason felt that there was already someone in trouble. He wasn’t really sure why he could tell that, but decided to blame it on the artifacts. It was said that the Knight Protector could smell if someone was in need of help anywhere in his domain. Like a GPR, only not for earthquakes, but for trouble. He took a deep breath and stood. He had to get control of this thing if he was ever expected to win against Cobalt. “Alright Alvar, lets go again.”
Giantess World
