36 – Spar

The section of the Golden Lake Ari and her Menagerie had set up at was a bit out of the way, but intentionally so. Better they kept as much secrecy as possible. While her teammates bumping into adventurers here and there was an inevitability with how popular the Forest was—and sure to fuel some rumors—the fewer instances something like that happened, the better.

Ari had fair enough navigation skills, but it took her a second to track down the landmarks she’d memorized.

I wonder how far along things are.

Not far, of course. It’d been a single night, and monster girls still needed to sleep—though less than humans, by what Lori had told her. Or maybe it changed by race.

Either way, Silvana might have a class built for construction of various sorts—specifically burrowing—but she was still only level four, and had only had a single night to work.

Three quarters to her destination, recognizing she was on the right track by the boulder with a black scorch mark on it, she was interrupted from making it to the burrow. By … something of a spectacle.

Lori and Claire, sparring.

Or, at least, Ari hoped it was sparring. Lori could get a bit prickly, and while not hostile to Claire and Silvana, clearly preferred her solitude. She had teamed with Claire primarily because Ari had asked her to, wanting them to be safe in numbers. Friction popped up some time between the two girls—mostly on Lori’s part. But Ari didn’t think that friction would ever turn into a fight.

Even if this ‘spar’ was convincing. Then again, a spar that wasn’t …. wouldn’t make very good practice.

Lori was dressed in mostly the same armor as before. Notably, the pants had been replaced by something a shade darker, and of slightly better make.

Ari would inspect the armor piece, but she didn’t want to distract Lori. Worn armor belonged to the wielder, and required a manual ‘permission’ to be inspected. While any adventurer worth their salt wouldn’t be surprised by an appraisal, especially enough to lose their focus in a fight, it still felt rude to drop it on Lori halfway through a spar.

And it was some random piece of low-level armor. Hardly something that would be worth inspecting in the first place.

Claire had also received a few upgrades. She’d been wearing spares from Lori’s adventures—leather and cloth armor—but she’d found a few pieces of mail and plate, apparently. As the defense-focused class in their burgeoning party, she was best suited—and most needing—of heavy armor. While Ari didn’t know her class in any depth, pretty much every tank received a [Taunt] skill of some sort. And with a lack of dexterity, holding attention meant taking hits. Plate did a lot to mitigate not getting cut up, and not just because of the stat bonuses more often found on heavy armor.

Claire had also found a new weapon. Before, she’d been wielding a short sword, another item Lori had collected from her hunts of local monsters. Now, she wielded a two-handed stone hammer with a long wooden shaft.

It was a bit amazing, if Ari were honest, watching the tiny girl swing the massive weapon around like it were a tree branch. It was taller than her, and the stone block affixed to its end twice the size of her head.

It was an interesting match-up, Lori’s fluid grace against Claire’s slow, deliberate defense. The two girls were an equal match in levels, but Lori had the upper hand by the nature of the fight. Claire couldn’t move fast enough to catch the girl.

Though, Lori’s glancing strikes had little effect, too. Claire might be slower—significantly—than her, but Claire kept a tight guard, and Lori found little opportunity for meaningful blows. And even when she did, Claire’s skills mitigated the attacks.

Ari watched the two dance with each other for a while, feeling, inappropriately, disappointed. She’d grown up looking forward to adventuring, and while the past several days were definitely something she wasn’t unhappy with, that didn’t mean she was elated with her lack of combat ability. Because she had liked sparring—she hardly would’ve dreamed of becoming an adventurer if not. And sure, she wasn’t some prodigy, or a person who lived for the thrill of a fight, but she’d liked the way it got her blood pumping.

Ari leaned against a nearby tree, watching her friends spar.

Would her class eventually provide a ‘combat mode’, like her Menagerie members received? Seeing how they didn’t get … for a lack of a better term … ‘sex skills’, like Ari herself did, she didn’t think it likely. Ari’s class allowed her to be better than her opponents—and friends—at that particular style of fighting, but it meant she didn’t get skills related to traditional combat, or—in the case of Silvy—building or other craft-skills.

So what about other entities? Non-monsters? Ari could transform a powerful monster and take them down her style, but what if Ari was attacked—unlikely as it was—by a person?

She supposed instead of receiving combat skills, she might instead receive something that allowed her to fight other people in her style. Which would be, erm, weird. And concerning?

Would it be a seduction skill, forcing them to fight that way? Ari didn’t like what that would mean for consent. Being magically forced into an encounter like that was dubious at the best. The [Transformed] monster girls were always willing, but with other people … Ari didn’t know.

Though, Ari’d have a pretty good excuse of ‘I was being attacked’. Or something similarly urgent. It wasn’t like she would ever go out and get in a fight—the deadly kind—with someone without good reason.

She also might receive nothing at all. Maybe her class would always be weak to other people, and only be strong against monsters.

She had her Menagerie members, if nothing else. Even if Ari couldn’t fight herself—though she hoped that wasn’t how things turned out, even if it ended up being a ‘sex fight’ rather than normal combat—she had friends she could bring along and fight for her. Though that wouldn’t matter if Ari was caught alone.

She’d already mused over this once before, and like then, there was still little to do besides wait and find out. As her class evolved, and she received more skills, she would discover the answers to her questions. At only level four, there was still so many skills she’d receive. Forty-six more, in fact.

Assuming max level really was fifty. It seemed likely, but then again, how could Ari know for sure? The people who allegedly hit max level were legends—and numbered on one hand. Legends weren’t the most trustworthy thing to rely on, unless that information was given on a first-hand basis. Ari hadn’t chatted up any legendary adventurers recently, so she maintained an open mind.

Lori must have gotten impatient, because her cautious approach became more and more reckless. She took riskier maneuvers in an attempt to exploit Claire’s weak points—to dig her dagger into the softer-defended portions of her armor.

It was a mistake. Claire might have a hard time keeping up with Lori, but, seizing an opening from Lori’s impatience, one of her blows landed.

Ari winced as the leopard-girl took a greathammer to the hip, and she went skidding across the forest floor in a tumble of limbs.

She’s fine, Ari reminded herself. Healthpoints ate the worst of physical damage; that was their whole purpose. Though that direct of a hit … she’d definitely be left with a bruise. HP didn’t make a person invulnerable.

Ari pushed off the tree. After a shot like that, the spar had definitely ended, so it was time to say hi.