Chapter 39: Blood Blights and Pissing in the Wind

My heart hammered against my chest as my vision narrowed. For a second, I couldn’t hear anything but my own heartbeat. I tried to stay as still as I could before saying fuck that.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I cried, shaking my dick furiously before tucking it away and running.

SHINK.

Afterward, the sound of gore spreading across the ground rang out. The sound nearly made me sick. My gut really twisted when I turned around and inspected the scene.

Vera stood next to her kill, wiping the blade she used to cut it in two. My head spun as I tried to figure out how something so small contained so much blood.

A sharp hiss echoed from the brush just beyond the tree line. Two more crimson blurs shot out from the dark undergrowth.

They were grotesque little monsters, completely hairless with overly large jaws snapping wildly.

"Katrina!" Damara shouted, bursting through the foliage with her dagger drawn.

Before the closest creature could even lunge at my exposed legs, a flash of orange tore across my vision. Katrina slammed into the beast on all fours, pinning it to the dirt.

With a wide swipe of her long claws, she separated its oversized head from its body. A thick fountain of red sprayed across the grass.

The third monster leaped high into the air, aiming straight for Vera. Damara practically teleported into its path. She caught the creature mid-flight with the point of her dagger, driving it straight down into the dirt with a sickening crunch. The chaotic flurry of violence ended as fast as it began.

"What the fuck are those things?" I asked, trying to catch my breath. "Tried to bite my dick off."

A few moments later, everyone was surrounding me. The world continued to spin around me. I grabbed Katrina’s shoulder for stability but missed entirely. My ears began to ring as a wave of nausea struck.

I puked, heaving long past any meaningful sustenance. My muscles began to ache shortly after. The girls helped me to a chair by the fire. Katrina handed me a full water horn. I took it thankfully and chugged water until the taste of vomit faded. My throat still felt dry afterward.

"First time seeing something get killed?" Vera asked, her voice more timid than usual.

"It was... but the blood. There was just so much," I said, using my hands to gesture around. "What the hell was it, anyways?"

"Blood Blights. Little, freakishly quick blood monsters," she explained, grabbing at her sack and fishing around inside before pulling out a large book and handing it to me. "Beast Compendium. It doesn’t have everything, but for our area, it’ll have what you’re looking for."

"Little fucker had some big-ass teeth," I teased, trying to trick my brain into reverting back to normal. "Thank you, by the way, Vera. If you hadn’t come... well, let’s just say my future kids probably owe you a thanks."

"Don’t worry about it. There is a reason the guild master assigned your group to me. Mainly because they could really use the artifact we’re tracking down. It’s a restorative apparatus. Old medical devices designed to repair severe injuries. Most of them are useless now, but the ones hidden inside are supposedly still functional," she explained. "At least that’s what the old coot who posted the ad thinks."

"If it was posted by someone other than the guild, why would Calvin want it done?" I asked, taking my boots off and sliding my socks off after, placing my feet firmly on the ground.

"You see, healing is a bit tricky. A cut or broken bone is child’s play," she cleared her throat before taking a swig of water. "These apparatuses can surpass normal healing."

"That still doesn’t explain it," Damara chimed in, furrowing her brow. "Why does Calvin want this device?" Her voice sounded sharp as she spoke.

"Getting to that," she said, shooting Damara a glance. "Demon-kin, always so impatient. Okay, back to the topic. It’s simple really. His youngest daughter was cursed. No one in the village can even touch her."

We finished the conversation over some fire-roasted meat. Micro-Sarah took her own little nugget, zooming to Damara’s shoulder before devouring it.

Katrina asked for seconds, grabbing a second skewer and eating it before anyone had a chance to answer. She laughed playfully after giving a fake pout. After a short scolding from Damara, we all laughed loudly.

"So what is your story? I’ve sensed a weird mana signature from you since we met," Vera explained, pointing to her nose. "Smells... off."

I quickly decided to give her a short version of our group’s story, purposely leaving out the System and Market from the conversation. I also had to think of an excuse for the floating miniature goddess. She didn’t question anything further, allowing me to finally relax my jaw.

I fed a few logs to the fire as the girls disappeared into our tent. Now, I had camped before, but this was more akin to glamping. The tent stood seven feet tall and easily stretched another ten feet in each direction.

Climbing in, I found they had all moved their sleeping bags next to mine. Each sat inside their sleeping bags, their eyes peering out.

"You guys have got to get used to the warmth in those things. It’s not that cool."

"Lies!" Micro-Sarah blurted out.

Damara unzipped the top of her sleeping bag just enough to let a sliver of her dark skin show in the dim lantern light.

"Sarah is completely right, Sam," Damara whispered, her voice dripping with thick, theatrical sarcasm. "It is absolutely freezing in here. The coastal air is practically biting right through these heavily insulated canvas walls."

Katrina caught on immediately. She wiggled entirely out of her own sleeping bag, her tail swishing eagerly as she crawled across the thick padded floor of the tent. She stopped right beside my bedroll and rested her chin on my chest, looking up with undeniable intent.

"I read in a guild survival guide that the absolute best way to prevent hypothermia is sharing body heat," Katrina murmured, flashing a very wicked grin. "It would be incredibly dangerous for us to sleep separately tonight."

Damara slid out of her bag completely, crawling over to box me in on the other side. The air in the massive tent suddenly felt entirely too thick and incredibly warm.

"I think," Damara whispered, letting her hand trace a slow path down my chest, "we need to take wilderness survival very seriously tonight."