Chapter 18: A Small Victory

Things were about to get heated, but not in a way I might have preferred, I thought as I shielded myself and Aviada from a burst of fire, courtesy of the pack of elemental hyenas surrounding us.

[-20 Mana]

Taken alone, elemental hyenas weren't exactly a challenge for my level. Compared to other class six creatures, they neither had the strength or the endurance to justify their rather high experience gain. As their name indicated, they had the ability to use elemental magic, but not in a level that would be truly staggering, even for someone around level five or six unless they had really terrible stats.

The problem was their unique ability to link their casting power to create much stronger effects. So, larger the pack, more devastating their attacks became. The only thing that kept them from becoming a threat against the towns and cities was the fact that only very rarely a pack had more than a dozen members.

Luckily, it wasn't one of those rare times, as I doubted that I would have been able to resist a fireball from a full pack, especially with the relative combat-weakness of arcana magic. Seven hyenas weren't trivial by any stretch of the word, but it wasn't too hard to handle as well for a level ten tag team, especially when one of them was equipped with a spectacular enchanted sword, while the other had an average stat score over ten.

And the earlier arcana bolt I had sent worked in my benefit as well, distracting three of the hyenas enough to prevent them from joining the spell, hence the ease I could block their assault. But I could sense they are gathering their magical power for another spell.

While they were doing that, I leveraged the proximity ward in place to get an instant sense of their formation. The three I had assaulted with the arcana bolt had pulled back towards the leader of the pack, which was easy to detect because the gathering mana was centering on it. Luckily for us, their pulling back had left their formation unbalanced, with two of them far enough from the rest.

"Attack left, I'll distract the others," I ordered Aviada, as sharp and commanding as I could manage. We had the advantage, and I wanted to keep it. She said nothing as she charged forward, while I sent a wave of concussive force towards the main pack of the hyenas, forcing most of them to jump away.

[-50 Mana]

Their spell fizzled. Without the contribution from the rest, the leader's assault only managed to create a weak bolt of fire, which I pushed away negligently. Under normal circumstances, my strategy would be a horrible one for a level ten mage, wasting a huge chunk of mana for a temporary benefit. But I had two advantages that changed the situation. First was my mana poll, which was significantly higher than any other level ten thanks to my high stats.

The second was Aviada, who already managed to slay two hyenas caught flatfooted by her assault. I watched her from the corner of my eyes, my attention split between the supernatural grace she displayed while destroying those monsters, and the way her sexy body coiled in the process.

[+75 Experience] 25% Penalty!

The leader of the hyenas noticed the threat our approach represented as well, and responded with a bolt of lightning. Aviada charged the larger pack, ignoring the threat it posed, trusting me to handle it. I had no problems creating another shield, dispersing it.

[-25 Mana]

The rest of the battle collapsed rather easily. Hyenas, even the elemental variety was rather cowardly, and seeing half of them dying without inflicting the slightest damage was enough to destroy their resolve. They tried to rush away, but I chose to cast another spell, binding them in place. Another wasteful spell, as it only held them in place for a moment, but it was enough for Aviada to finish them all but one.

[-50 Mana]

The last one, realizing the danger Aviada was posing, decided to attack the seemingly weaker target, and dashed for me with great speed. Not fast enough that I couldn't nail it with an arcana bolt, but I was aware the disdain Aviada had for magic, or more acutely, mages that did nothing but staying behind while raining spells, so I used telekinesis to grab my discarded sword instead. With my strength and its momentum, the last hyena hadn't had a chance of survival, cleaved into two with a calculated swing. Unnecessarily brutal, but I had a feeling Aviada would appreciate it.

[+1 Melee]

"That was fun," Aviada murmured as she pressed the tip of her bloodied sword on the ground, noting the cleaved presence of the last hyena. She stood like that for a moment, giving me the full view of her breasts, the view enhanced further by her breathing, then she brought her arm over her chest, a smirk on her face.

"Watching you dispatch them was a true pleasure," I said, letting my eyes dip down her chest pointedly. I had a good enough handle on her personality to know that trying to hide my gaze would earn no respect from her. And letting her take the experience of seven moderately-high class creatures without a word didn't hurt either.

She said nothing, but her seductive smile was answer enough. She walked towards her clothes, dispatched on the ground, and passed them to me. "Could you fix them for me," she said. I did so without complaint, considering I was the one responsible for it. Of course, if I had the choice, I would have preferred her to stay like that, but it was the second assault, and it added some urgency to our situation.

While I fixed it, she once again stabbed her sword to the ground and turned her back to me. But, rather than asking the bindings back, she raised her arms. As a gentleman, I had to help her, of course, so I started to wrap the bindings around her chest once more. If my hands touched the soft skin of her breasts, it was completely accidental!

[+150 Experience] 25% Penalty!

She turned back to me, and after the slight delay while she put her shirt back on, we were ready to talk. I could see that she had a serious expression on her face. "It confirms that yesterday's assault was not an accident," she said.

"Yes," I answered, but my tone wasn't as somber as her, which made her look confused. "It's not as bad as I feared," I continued. "It proves that whoever was involved, they don't have the ability to pick the exact creature they let in. The likeliest possibility is that they weakened the wards on the outer walls, and bribed a few guards to look the other way."

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"Would you have sent a pack of hyenas to fulfill a task which a shadow wolf failed?" I asked, and she just nodded. "I think the best thing to do for me to disappear, while you find a teacher or guard captain you trust, and tell them that you met with some extra-strong creatures in the training forest. That would force them to update the wards, which would make a repeat of the situation impossible."

"And the conspiracy?"

"It's best if we don't mention it," I explained. "We still don't have any evidence, and it's for the best if you don't make an enemy of the guards. Them looking away is bad, but we don't want them to get directly involved in the conspiracy as well."

It was a testament of the trust I had managed to generate in such a short amount of time that she just nodded in acceptance. Clearly, she had a distaste towards more concealed forms of doing business, and was more than happy to leave me on control. For a few minutes, I carefully went over all the things she needed to mention and avoid, handling the conspiracy far too important to prioritize flirting at that point.

"So," she murmured, sounding no less disappointed than I was. "That's it for tonight, I presume," she said.

"Unfortunately," I answered. "And it's best if we don't meet here tomorrow, as there is no doubt that there will be a lot of guards around tomorrow." She looked downcast, but I was quick to console. "But don't worry, I'll make sure that you'll get a note about our next meeting. Until then, goodbye," I added.

I leaned close, and put a gentle kiss on her cheek. The unexpected closeness made her blush. "See you around, milady," I said before walking away, feeling her gaze over me as I disappeared amongst the shadowy foliage.

—

The next day, I was wandering around aimlessly in the library, trying to penetrate the mystery around the mysterious assaults against my newest possible paramour, but I managed to hit a barrier.

I had been hoping that the servant from the last night who worked as the lookout would give me a clue on the identity of the instigators. Unfortunately, when I went in the morning, I learned that he had been found murdered at the spot of the breach, and the official statement claimed that he was a hidden mage that was responsible for opening the breach, who died when the first wave of creature had passed.

I didn't believe a word of it, of course. It was clear that the instigators and the guards in their employ -either bribed or a part of the scheme- covered the situation by sacrificing him. It was a masterful stroke, I decided, successfully shifting the blame while plugging a potential information leak. Too bad that it made my investigation significantly harder.

Luckily, I saw a familiar face entering the library, promising to alleviate the mindless drudgery I had been experiencing. I saw Marianne browsing between the shelves, moving deeper as her face was scrunched with focus as she looked for a particular topic. And to make it even more fun, she was in the deeper parts of the library, not exactly as obscure as the location of her adventures with Cornelia, but hidden enough for a little chat.

I sneaked close until I was sufficiently close. "May I help you?" I asked, making no attempt to hide my voice.

She flinched as she rapidly turned, the way she stumbled suggesting that agility was not one of the stats she managed to increase. "You!" she said with a sharp tone, but luckily, she had enough presence of mind not to shout.

"Long time no see," I said with a cheerful manner even as I let the full impact of my charisma to the surface. "Is there anything I can do to help, like assisting you to find the book you're looking for."

"Not likely," she said but when I looked at with an amusing questioning.

"Really," I said. "Honey, I'm sorting those shelves for the last several years. Don't you think there is a slight possibility that I might know where to find a few obscure books?"

"Maybe you do," she murmured, avoiding my gaze. I listened to her calmly as she rattled the names of several books in rapid succession.

"I'll be back in a minute, wait for me here," I said, and jumped back to the library. The books she asked for were quite obscure, but luckily, she was looking at them at the correct section, so it didn't take long for me to assemble them. When I walked in front of the same shelf a few minutes more, I had several books in my hands, and she was sitting a chair, looking uncomfortable. I was glad to see she hadn't used the opportunity to get away. Misguided pride was always useful. "Everything you asked for, honey," I said as I placed the books in front of her.

I could see that she wasn't entirely happy about her pet name, but also, she wasn't in a position to antagonize me over it. She chose silence as she opened the first book, and started browsing, a not-so-subtle message, tying to indicate her busyness, likely hoping that I would just go away.

I had no intention of letting the opportunity slip away. Instead, I turned back, making a show of reorganizing the shelves. My back was turned, but it wasn't hard to conjure a small mirror in an obscure place, angled correctly, allowing me to watch her while keeping her obvious.

The way her eyes darted between me and the small corridor between the shelves that led towards the more crowded areas of the library, assessing the merits of staying versus beating a hasty retreat. Her desire lay on the latter, but her pride didn't allow her to take the former. Though the role of her underdeveloped sense of danger couldn't be overstated, not knowing even in a relatively open location, things I could do.

But first, I needed a way to ensure my ploy wouldn't be destroyed by someone dropping by. It took all of my concentration to establish a weak proximity ward, barely more than a tripwire. I could have established something stronger, but it might have alerted Marianne. Or even worse, the head librarian might have noticed it despite the distance between us. Discovering the existence of her hidden femininity didn't mean that she suddenly became any less threatening.

With that complete, I turned away from the shelves, and towards Marianne, who was looking the books in front of her with a deep concentration, so obviously fake that I would have known she had been watching me regardless. I didn't call her on that, as her ploy forced her to stay silent as I walked towards her.

The fact that she didn't flinch when I put my hands on her shoulder was yet another evidence of her awareness. She tried to stand up, but with the strength difference between us so great, I was able to prevent that instantly. She could have used the magic of course, which I couldn't have prevented without escalating into a battle, but it seemed that she was equally reluctant to take that step as well.

"What are you doing," she asked even as I started to squeeze her shoulders in a complex pattern.

"Giving you a massage," I said in such a natural, matter-of-fact tone that it surprised her into inactivity. "Without Selena, you're looking really tense, so I decided to help you a bit." It wasn't even a lie. She was much tenser than the last time, likely the combined effect of a sudden lack of massages, her inability to get some quality time with Cornelia, all compounded by my knowledge of her secrets.

I leveraged the full effect of my increased stats and everything I had learned during the sessions I was disguised as Selena to the maximum effect. Subjected to that, I wasn't surprised when the first thing that left her mouth was a helpless whimper. "That's enough," she said, but that would have been more effective if it wasn't interrupted by a moan when I destroyed a particularly tense knot on her shoulders.

"Are you sure," I asked even as I continued the systemic destruction of the knots on her back, each earning another moan.

She stayed silent for a moment as she mulled on the answer. Well, not exactly silent, as occasional gasps and moans still escaped her lips. More accurately, no answer left her mouth while she considered her answer, each passing second swaying her decision a bit more. "A bit more wouldn't hurt," she whispered in a defeat, one easy to digest if her quickening gasps was any indicator.

[+100 Experience]

After her explicit approval, I decided to move onto the next stage. I gently pushed her forward, my hands wandering along her spine, a journey ending on the small of her back. I was tempted to dip deeper, treating myself for another dose of her spectacular bottom, but I kept myself back. No need to push her too much in our first encounter -from her perspective.

But being restricted to her back and shoulders didn't mean that I was helpless. As her tenseness slowly decreased, the nature of my touches changed from clinical to sensual, something that she elected not to comment, too distracted by her pleasure.

[+200 Experience]

The speed of her change was over my expectations, making me consider the relative merits of pushing for more, but a warning from my proximity ward invalidated that option without reaching the decision. Luckily, our uninvited visitor wasn't walking towards us, meaning, I was able to take my tame pulling back, waiting until she was just at the edge of another loud moan before pulling back.

"Much better, right?" I said with a proud look on my face.

She opened her mouth, but stopped just as the first word was forming on her lips. I was willing to bet my ability to gain experience that she was about to order me to continue before realizing the position such a request would put her under. Instead, she nodded wordlessly, and turned back to the book that was still open in front of her.

My attention was already on the shelves when another student walked into the same part we were in, and I walked away, distant enough to hide from Marianne while still keeping tabs on her. I watched as she sent a message through magic, an expensive spell, which cost quite a bit of mana even in short distances, therefore used only in emergencies. They were almost impossible to track. Luckily, I had a good idea about the identity of the recipient.

—

[Level: 10 Experience: 45725 / 55000

Strength: 11 Charisma: 14

Precision: 10 Perception: 11

Agility: 12 Manipulation: 14

Speed: 7 Intelligence: 12

Endurance: 10 Wisdom: 17

HP: 500 / 500 Mana: 670 / 680 ]

SKILLS

Advanced Subterfuge [50/50]

Advanced Arcana [50/50]

Advanced Biomancy [37/50]

Advanced Melee [26/50]

Basic Speech [25/25]