Chapter 81

"Shall we," I said after we rested for about ten minutes, which allowed Titania to reasonably recover from the after-effects of her orgasm, while my mana had regenerated completely. She was leaning against the wall, with her delicious body still on display, wearing only the ruins of her skirt and her shoes.

"Are you recovered?" she asked. "Already?"

"Of course, sweet cheeks," I answered. "You know that I recover quickly."

"But this quickly?" she said, her expression split between shock and fascination.

"What can I say, tonight, I'm feeling rather ... virile," I answered, which earned another blush. "So, shall we?"

"Pass me my robe," she said, once again trying to act in her commanding usual self, but that didn't work as well with the thick blush that covered her face.

I looked at her body on display, which made her arms twitch like she wanted to cover it, no matter how unnecessary such an action would have been after our earlier mana transfer actions. I grabbed the robe from my pack and raised it, only to pull back when she reached. "Do you really need this?" I asked.

"Of course I do," she answered. "It's an enchanted robe, perfect for defense. I can't assault a base without it."

"Even if I defend you?" I asked, and she looked at me questioningly. "Your Light magic is clearly a better option against the undead, the only disadvantage is your limited mana."

"My mana is not limited!" she answered heatedly.

"Compared to me, it is," I countered. "What if we replicate the same trick with the air elemental, and I handle the mobility and the defense, as well as trapping the corridors in our wake, while you handle the offensive side." A smirk popped on my face. "And don't worry, I'm going to make sure to use an earth spell to keep a spell to keep your body hidden from the others. I am a jealous bastard, after all."

[+2 Speech]

She blushed as I explained, but in the end, there was no other option but to accept. Which was good, because I preferred to use that approach for multiple reasons. It was tactically advantageous, but even more importantly, it would allow me to camouflage the second milestone of the Companion Process. The fact that I would be enjoying her delicious body in the process was an excellent bonus, as always.

I presented my arm to her with an exaggerated move, like we were about to walk into a ball hosted by the Royal family, blushing spectacularly as she did so. "You have an excellent poise," I complimented her as she put her arm.

"It's a habit of my youth," she answered, trying to look impervious, even doing a half-decent job of it. Her adaptability was impressive. Though I chuckled, as talking about her youth while she was barely thirty —and definitely not showing it— was rather hilarious.

We walked in silence, though she examined the walls as we did so. "Impressive work, considering the environmental limitations," she said. "Though I would be surprised if they could stand at the end of the month."

"Two weeks is a more reasonable estimation," I corrected her, even as I occasionally reinforced a rune or added another trap. It wasn't a structure built to last, after all. "What do you think about the balancing structure of this part?" I asked, launching an intellectual discussion as we moved deeper underground, each step bringing us closer to the undead base.

[+3 Arcana]

As much as I enjoyed the discussion, when we stood in front of the entrance, it was the time for action. "Ready?" I asked as we stood. She nodded. "We need to be quick," I explained. "I'm going to move us without stopping, just focus on killing the greatest number of undead possible, I'll handle sniping the necromancers," I said. I expected her light magic to work much better in dealing area-effect damage, even with my temporary Fire Magic skill, acquired from Cornelia.

Of course, that didn't change the fact that at this point, I was stronger than Titania with a significant margin. Not only I could overwhelm her in terms of burst damage —fifty points of Charisma was definitely no joke— but also I was miles ahead of her in terms of utility and other abilities. That also didn't mean she was useless, as with me properly supplying her with mana, she was a veritable weapon of area denial, especially against undead and other creatures vulnerable to her Light Magic.

"Wouldn't it better to focus on the necromancers and the bigger creatures?" she asked.

"Not entirely," I answered. "I can handle taking the necromancers while you focus on the mass creatures, but trying to take down the bigger creatures would require too much effort."

"I can take them in seconds," she argued.

"Yes, you can," I said even as I bobbed her nose, enjoying her blush. Teasing her was fun! "However, that would drain your magic too quickly, and while my regeneration is not slow, it's also not instantaneous. Pausing to recover would ruin our strategy. They have no reason to bring out their weaker zombies for their daily operations, and if we could cleanse the majority of them, it would help us."

"But they wouldn't be a threat against the school. There's no chance they could penetrate the wards, and even if they did, our mages could easily cleanse them."

"You're missing something," I reminded her. "What if they use those zombies to attack the other settlements. They could use the horde to siege every town simultaneously, forcing us to disperse our forces to defend them, or risk isolating the school forever logistically. Even worse, they could use the weaker monsters to conceal their real assault forces, and we would have no idea the true danger until we could face them properly."

She ducked her head, blushing in shame. "I didn't think of that," she said, which didn't surprise me. She might be a spectacular mage, but when it came to strategy, she lacked nuance, preferring to burn forward like her own magic.

"Ready?" I asked again, and when she nodded, I created another pseudo-elemental, however, this time it wasn't air but earth. It would be slower, but with the added benefit of bypassing the walls and taking shortcuts at impossible locations. However, it was surrounded by a subtle air spell, to prevent the smell of the undead to reach our nose. It even had a throne-like chair on the top, which I sat on immediately before patting my lap.

[-1374 Mana]

She blushed, but followed my invitation, slowly lowering herself to my erection, gasping as her wetness wrapped my girth. "Ready," she approved, looking ahead. Once we took a seat, walls appeared around us, sufficiently hiding us from the view while allowing us to attack with our magic. Essentially, it was an unholy mixture of a mobile fort and a love nest.

[+500 Experience]

Her high level was definitely convenient for development, I surmised, even as my arms tightened around her. "Hold on, it's going to be a wild ride," I whispered.

Our first destination was the huge army gathering spot I had discovered at the entrance, filled with thousands upon thousands of zombies and skeletons, hundreds of bone dragons, a variety of other creatures, and a veritable necromancer sea to control them. It wasn't the safest place to hit, but the later we hit there, the harder our job would be. In terms of benefits, it was the most important area.

If we were hitting this place during the day, the necromancer's central meeting spot might have been a better location, but unlike the zombies, they had the ability to counter my spells, so I wasn't really willing to risk it.

I used my biomancy to check our surroundings, and the elemental mount moved slowly toward the meeting location, using a deserted path. "In five seconds," I warned her. "Start casting."

Since we were connected, I could feel her mana draining with an alarming speed as a rotating glow appeared in her hand, drawing complicated patterns. I could feel that it consumed about the same mana as the spell she used against the Darkness Wyvern, but the spell itself was several times more complicated.

The impact of it justified it. When we burst into the huge opening, we came across a necromancer, who looked at us with empty eyes, trying to process. He was still trying to understand it, when I lobbed his head with a ranged air spell before he could even react, the blood spraying. He was clearly a novice, as his transformation had barely started.

[-63 Mana]

I managed to take down two other necromancers the next second before they could react, one of them failed to react, and the other managed to raise a shield, but it might as well be a piece of glass against my attack.

The third one was able to raise an alarm, but it was too late. Titania's spell was complete. She sent a hand-sized orb toward the center of the room, reminding me of an overgrown firefly, beautiful yet ultimately useless. That was the impression for my eyes, of course.

For my magical senses, it was burning like a secondary sun, fascinatingly-complicated even if it was unraveling as it moved. It was one advantage of specialization, I guessed. I doubted I could cast a spell that complicated without years of training.

Luckily, I had many options to cheat.

It finally triggered, several yards before its ultimate location, when one of the larger bone dragons tried to bat it away like it was a simple toy. A bright explosion covered the area, accompanied by the cacophony of cries so loud that it forced to cast a spell to block the disgusting sound.

Titania was gasping in exhaustion. "Excellent work," I whispered to Titania as I grabbed her breasts and started pumping, also casting a healing spell to take the edge. Rest until I gave the signal, then repeat it," I asked even as I pumped her with a fresh flood of mana.

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 48%]

[+1000 Experience]

[-974 Mana]

I led the earth elemental through the middle of the zombies, which was attacking us mindlessly, unaware of the significance of the explosions. The bone dragons, and the other undead with rudimentary intelligence and self-preservation, however, were pulling back in what could be termed as panic if it was shown by a living creature.

Necromancers, on the other hand, were in a full-blown rout. Protecting the great collection area was nothing more than grunt work, therefore, assigned to the lowest ones in the totem pole of hierarchy. Some tried to attack, their necrotic bolts splashing helplessly against the walls of my construct, while others run away.

"Let's add some heat to their panic," I whispered, earning a glare from Titania even as I pounded her furiously, no doubt thinking that a deadly combat was no place for one-liners.

I disagreed. "What was the point of being strong if I'm not going to posture for a sexy woman," I said to her, making her stammer. She was cute, feeling shy being called sexy when she was being impaled repeatedly. And while teasing her was fun, I had more immediate concerns to focus, such as necromancers, finally deploying a half-decent defense.

A lich stood in the middle of a circle, leading a ritual using the energy of the seven other necromancers spread around. I felt Titania stiffen, no doubt flashing back to the fateful day of our meeting, where she had almost died in a similar combination assault.

However, there was one huge difference. That day, they were the ambushers, and their ward was already charged, circumventing the biggest disadvantage. This time, they were playing catch-up.

Pity that they had no chance of succeeding. A fire dragon, mixed with a generous dash of life energy to prevent them from standing up saw to that.

[-531 Mana]

Before they could even raise a shield, the dragon slammed against them, breaking the node. The failure of their own spell was likely to destroy their bodies, and with my inferno, it was a done deal. "It's time for a second spell," I reminded her, and after ten seconds, another explosion of light occurred, this time spreading even larger, destroying another chunk of low-level zombies.

This time, I pushed her down until she crouched on all fours, slamming repeatedly to refill her mana, while also enjoying the way she gripped my shaft while she climbed toward her orgasm, clearly enjoying the new way of battle as much as I was enjoying, confirmed by the notification I had just received.

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 50% - Second Stage Completed +10000 Exp]

[Mana regeneration perk activated. Count 4. Duration, 8 hours]

[+1500 Experience]

[-1374 Mana]

Through my connection, I could feel her getting a new achievement, giving her a major bonus to her Charisma —four or five points— and a minor yet noticeable one to her Agility.

"Unbelievable," she murmured as she started casting the same spell without even asking me, ignoring her own exhaustion, and soon, another explosion, this time even bigger, covered the area.

Shooting the helpless undead was fun, but I could feel the wards of the main hall slowly activating, and if we chose to stay here for another minute, we would be locked. So, we burst out of the main hall, and entered one of the main corridors that led toward the surface.

"That's it?" Titania murmured, her eyes shining with excitement despite her exhausted state.

"That's for you to chose," I offered, even as I stalled for a moment, drawing a biomancy rune that would explode with life energy, hidden enough to be hard to detect unless they were looking for it intentionally. "We can't return to the main hall with the wards, but there are several other fun things we can do. What do you think?"

Looking at her excited eyes, I didn't need her to answer to turn back, prepared for a fresh battle.

[Level: 29 Experience: 434500 / 435000

Strength: 36 Charisma: 51

Precision: 33 Perception: 35

Agility: 33 Manipulation: 38

Speed: 32 Intelligence: 42

Endurance: 30 Wisdom: 41

HP: 4756 / 4756 Mana: 4215 / 6003 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [95/100]

Master Arcana [86/100]

Expert Speech [62/75]

Basic Craft [0/25]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 17/25]

[Helga - Level 13/17]