The Chimera Summoner – Ch 47 (Part 1/3) – Sleepover

Ch 47 –

Violette had to yank her feet out of the way of the falling sword with a yip.

I hurriedly snatched it back up, looking guiltily at Lorna. She had a hand covering her lips and amusement crinkling the corners of her eyes.

I glared at the sword.

Fucker was HEAVY!

“You almost smooshed me!” Violette yelped indignantly.

She puppy eyed up at me and I showered her in kisses and ear ruffles until she settled back against my knees.

“Wish I'd almost gotten smooshed…!” Lucy muttered.

I grinned at her and she winked back.

“Let me see.” Nyke said, striding over.

I'd never seen her in anything but her Wayfinding gear.

In sweats and a tank top she was… sexy. Her arms looked amazing with no sleeves and it baffled me that she ever wore them.

Oh. For armor.

Lame.

She held out her hand for the sword, and I shrugged and passed it to her.

With the hilt, it was as tall as I was. Violette had to give me a hand lifting it over her.

“Careful, it’s–” I started.

Then Nyke lifted the lengthy sword with one hand and started examining the multifaceted blade critically.

“Two edges, straight, three…three and a half fingers wide, wire wrap of some kind for the hilt? Should get a softer wrap, at least until your hands get stronger. Devilishly sharp, wow the balance. Exquisite. Quite a long hilt – probably accounts for a lot of the balance, cross guard nearly a quarter of the way down the weapon, a bit unusual. Exotic styling.” Nyke muttered as she twisted the blade to and fro, tapping and hefting experimentally. She had the air of a museum curator analysing a piece of art from antiquity. All she was missing was gloves.

Hera watched, biting her lip hard.

When she caught me looking, she winked.

“Isnt it so hot when she talks like that?!” She whispered.

I nodded fervently.

Behind me, I felt Serenity doing the same.

I shot her a glance, and found my angelic knight running her gaze up and down Nyke’s powerful frame with something between admiration and thirst.

I stroked one of her long legs all the way down to her ankles, before giving her arched foot a little tickle.

“My lady!” Serenity blushed, hiking her knees up indignantly.

I kissed her thigh, and she rested her legs back over my shoulder.

“Behave.” I chided.

“I am conducting myself with my customary dignity and decorum!” Serenity protested.

“You're basically eye-fucking Nyke. I'm surprised she can't literally feel you raking your eyes over her.” I muttered.

“I can feel.” Nyke said, absently. “It is fine.”

The corners of her serious mouth twitched juuuust a hair.

I smirked.

“My mistake.” I murmured, stroking Serenity’s bare legs under her wispy white dress. “Stare away, my knight.”

Serenity’s legs shivered slightly under my touch and she surreptitiously pressed a foot up the inside of my own leg.

Nyke finished her examination and settled into a fighting stance. She made a slow test cut with the blade in the air.

But Melody's Nightwish evaporated into moonlight.

Nyke turned to me.

I frowned and re-conjured the weapon. It materialized and I handed it back to Nyke.

She tried again, and once again it evaporated the moment she tried to do anything but hold and examine it.

“The sword is Soulbound.” Lorna explained. “She will only cut for Eir, now.”

Nyke nodded slowly. “I do not know of this enchantment. But it is good. Be right back.”

She handed the sword back to me and strode away into her own room, slamming the door behind her, rattling the walls.

“She's not mad.” Hera headed off my question. “That's just how she closes doors.”

Ravale asked, “It's totally ok if you don't want to say, but you said you managed to pick up some Levels?”

I brightened. “Yeah. We’re Level Nineteen now! I haven't had a chance to manage it yet. But really, I'm looking to rest and do it with a clear head tomorrow.”

“Haven't we sort of learned our lesson about leaving power on the table, and assuming we’ll be safe?” Lucy asked softly.

I winced. “Maybe you're right. Nine skill points total now… I was saving up to upgrade Chimera Assimilation to grab a Skill from Serenity, if that's cool?”

My angel nodded, her halo bobbing a second behind her head. “I would be honored. If it goes as I expect, you will have much swordcraft in your future!”

Huuuuh, I sure did need to learn how to actually wield this thing.

I hefted Melody's Nightwish. It was too fine for me, in a lot of ways. Now that I wasn't brimming with borrowed power, not only was the sword heavier to me, it felt…wild. Not obstructive or disobedient… more like…handling an over-ethusiastic working animal.

I’d met herding dogs like this sword. Well trained, and given lots of challenging work – they would be a joy to be around. Slack on that even a little, and they’d ruin your house.

“You’ll never need another blade.” Nyke announced, bursting back into the room and stomping toward me, holding a dark ribbon? Or something. “That kind of weapon will grow with you. And how you use it will change how it grows, so it will fit you better over time, no matter what direction you go with your Class.”

She held her hand out, and I passed Nightwish back to her. She immediately started inspecting the hilt in minute detail, making her eyes go slightly crossed.

“Indeed.” Lorna nodded approvingly.

“I thought you were a mace girl?” I asked.

“All weapons are the same.” Nyke shrugged.

“Insane opinion.” Hera snorted fondly.

“Literal LUNACY.” Jennie agreed.

“I don't know.” Ravale tilted her head back and forth, like she was weighing the idea on a scale in her head. “I think I see what she means.”

“I agree.” Serenity said, surprising me.

I gave her a slightly suspicious look, to see if she was just agreeing cause she was into Nyke. But she seemed totally sincere.

“Wrong. Two kinds of weapons.” Violette countered.

Nyke took my sword again, and started winding the dark ribbon around the hilt in a complex, repeating pattern, starting at the crossguard and working her way downward toward the pummel. The tip of the blade came perilously close to the ceiling, but Nyke seemed aware.

“I can remove it, if it does not suit you.” She said, focusing on getting the spacing exactly even. “What are the two kinds?”

Violette smirked. “Ranged.”

“Ohhhh and melee.” Jennie nodded. “That actually makes a lot of sense.”

“I dunno. My javelin is kind of both.” Hera argued.

“Lady Dynamite, would you count what I do as ranged or melee?” Serenity asked Violette curiously.

“Dynamite?!” Asked Hera eagerly.

The growing smugness I felt from Violette was making me deeply suspicious.

“I want to hear what the fox thinks the two kinds of weapons are.” Nyke said, eying her work and then my hands critically, and setting about undoing a section of the binding that was, evidently, deficient.

Violette swished her long tail over the floor before winding it back around our feet and laying her head back on my lap with a luxurious sigh.

“There’s ranged weapons, and there’s idiots with bonking sticks.”

General outrage.

Absolute pandemonium.