Chapter 78: The Hunt – Part 1

Chapter 78: The Hunt – Part 1

We wait for a few minutes while the situation calms down. There's zero damage on our side, and only a few Cloud Snakes and a single Kite Dragon killed on their side. The Fay Leviathan only suffered a few minor wounds from the Floater.

Paraaone stops the glow of his white armor and shrinks his wings down again. "That was annoying. Too much teasing for me," he comments and knits his non-existent eyebrows.

"Why didn't those Trinity Cannons fire on the Kite Dragons?" Yunia asks him, and Lina translates.

"They have the range to fire that far, but it isn't worth the mana. Better to just wait for the Wasps or the Horns to deal with them," he responds.

"The Carrier doesn't have anything like the Floater's [Beam]?"

He shakes his head gently. "Nah. It's a defensive ship, and the Trinity Cannons are used for point-defense."

Her eyes narrow, making her expression look severe. "The monster leader definitely has many more monsters than what he has shown so far. Are you sure that the Floater will be enough to deal with them?"

He nods and smiles a bit awkwardly. "Yeah. With just ten Celestial Horns we could easily get you guys to Ozymandias. The only difficult part of this expedition is protecting the Winch from all these monsters."

"I see..." She holds her chin in thought and looks away.

After about half an hour, lunchtime arrives, but we're called to the bridge before we can eat. I take Yunia and Lina with me while the other girls remain on our ship.

The two of them ride Aoi down to the Carrier while I use [Telekinesis] to launch myself over. Jumping or calmly floating down with this spell is quite simple, so actually flying is much more exciting, and the strong winds slightly increase the difficulty.

I fly faster than Aoi and land first, but I almost go splat on the runway. I still don't have a good sense of my speed while flying.

Aoi lands, and the girls dismount from her, then I give her a kiss, and she flies away with a smile.

A soldier takes us to the bridge, and we take a moment to look around to hide the fact that we've already seen it.

The crew silently looks down their scopes, tirelessly scanning the skies for monsters while the comms officers stoically wait for communications. As we enter, I hear an officer turn around and report that Kaatohe has lost the last Cloud Snake inside a huge, cloud-shrouded island.

Kaata, Hihiriwa's gecko wife, is using her summoned bird to relay a message to the Floater. Kaiia, the panda XO, motions for us to sit on three chairs prepared for us in front of Hihiriwa's.

Oritiki sends us a nod and a gentle smile that we return as we pass, then we take our seats and face Hihiriwa.

His gray dragon scales twitch nervously. "Ryders, we've called you here because there's something that we must discuss," Hihiriwa starts, then Kaiia takes his seat.

I nod and signal for them to continue.

Hihiriwa's tone is completely devoid of any mirth. I have a feeling that he's actually seething internally, but hiding it very well. "If we don't deal with that Fay Leviathan and their Kite Dragons, we'll have to endure a lot of harassment. We even suspect that a breeder-type is leading them instead of just a leader-type, which would explain its infuriating tactics. We believe that their plan is to wage an attrition war, and while we're certain that we'll survive, it would be costly. "

He pauses there so that Lina can finish translating.

"That's certainly very worrying," Yunia calmly comments, then leans back and relaxes, showing calmness and confidence.

For you, is what she's implying. They don't react openly to it, but subtle body language like this is important in delicate negotiations.

Kaiia continues, his tone even more tense than Hihiriwa's, "The Floater can keep the Leviathans away, but it's unable to deal a decisive blow against them, so we want you to take a more aggressive role in this fight."

We take a moment to think, and Yunia gives me a subtle look. Her advice before we came here was to keep in mind the relationship we currently have with Hihiriwa. He has displayed a friendly attitude towards us, but he also hasn't given us any real favors like Oritiki has. Our relationship is that of equals, where each and every favor is traded. We're merely guests accompanying them, and we don't need them as much as they need us, so we need a good reason to get ourselves more deeply involved with them.

I gather my courage as I puff up my chest and say, "Our ship is completely vulnerable. We'd receive far too much damage if we were to engage an enemy like a group of Kite Dragons, who could just fire their orbs further than the Carrier's defenses."

Kaiia nods and says, "We have a few spare [Wind Shield]s. We can install one on your ship, and that should allow you to even engage a Leviathan."

Now, that is an interesting proposal.

"What are the specifics of these enchantments?" Yunia asks with a business smile. She has personally inspected the enchantments on Escanso's Shell many times, so she knows her [Wind Shield].

They don't even try to give us cheap ones, going straight for the best, not that Oritiki would allow them to put us at risk. They'll install two crystals: one will create a half-sphere at the front, and the other will form one at the back, protecting us from all directions. They consume a lot of mana to keep them active, so they'll give us ones with increased mana reserves.

Also, our handler will be transferred to the bridge so that we'll have a direct channel with Hihiriwa. We'll have to closely follow his orders, and he'll definitely be putting us at the front line. Even though we're going to be forced to fight, having this defensive enchantment will make us much, much safer in general.

Negotiations are finished quite quickly. They'll begin the installation after lunch while we continue along the Looping Winds.

We return to our ship and enter formation again. While we let the golems pilot, the girls organize lunch. I can't help with cooking since it's more important that at least I remain ready for an attack.

I drop down to our deck and walk to the bow, then look ahead alongside Paraaone.

He glances back towards the girls and comments, "You guys have a lot of ingredients that I've never seen before."

"They come from the lands down below. We've primarily eaten the monsters we've killed along the way, so we still have a lot of supplies left," I calmly tell a lie.

He grunts and returns to observing the way ahead.

The fleet makes a short stop so that we can eat. Paraaone returns to the Carrier for his meal, allowing us to have some private time. Right before we dig in, a Spirit pulse sweeps through the ships. The birds on the bridge suffer a bit, but it's not enough to damage them significantly since it's aimed at monsters and not magical beings in general.

We make some pasta with not-tomato sauce, leafy greens with orc bacon, and some smoked fatty minotaur rump. Not the healthiest meal, so we'll compensate for it at dinner.

"So, aren't you going to say anything about what you did this morning?" Alissa asks with a subtle smirk.

"Uh... I did Hukarere..." I reply absentmindedly.

"Yes..." She nods slowly. "But you also learned to share her with Aihopu."

"Oh, that's interesting," Yunia says and leans forward.

I shrug. "Well, not every woman that I sleep with will be exclusive to me," I say.

Alissa nods and smiles proudly. "It's good progress. Not everyone will want to be like Osaria, and you need to learn how to share Klein," she says.

Hana frowns and pouts. "I didn't see that; I was too busy staying on watch."

"Oh, it was really hot. Maybe Gify can show you those memories," Roxanne says and smirks.

"So you were daydreaming while we were supposed to be on watch?" Ciel asks her with a reproachful look.

"I can do two things at the same time quite easily, just like Wolfy did," Roxanne immediately answers since she was just waiting for the opportunity to make that joke.

Ciel turns her eyes to me, making me feel a little guilty. "You're a bad influence on them," she says and pouts.

Hana's eyes suddenly lose focus, and she shows a ferocious grin. I look at Gify and see that she's staring at Hana while eating her steak. A wave of horniness starts to seep through Hana's [Bind], which gives me a hard-on.

"Oi, you little imp! Now we're both getting horny!" I complain to Gify.

"Gih," she chirps dismissively.

I sigh. "We don't have time for that. Our mealtime is about to end."

"Giih," she chirps, annoyed.

"Hey, I want to have some fun, too. You've had Hukarere all to yourself for all this time, so share her a bit," Hana says, her eyes still out of focus.

"Well, she isn't bi," I reply with a shrug.

Her hand drifts down, and she starts touching herself while eating. "I know, but I want to taste a new woman. I should've met with that slut Kai you had a date with."

I smile wryly. "Alright. When we have some time, we'll ask around for someone interested in you."

She doesn't answer, just giggling like a lady instead, then she smiles smugly at Aoi, as if she's daring me.

I guess she's in need of a good dicking.

I summon a spirit elemental to widen our coverage area because it seems that we'll be encountering a few spirit monsters on the way. Gify doesn't say anything, so I know that they're just small fry, which leads me to believe that they're just spies.

Ririmu identifies the new monster for us, it's an Ethereal Snatcher. It's a slime monster that switches between spiritual and physical forms at will. It moves in its spiritual form, which allows it to be unaffected by gravity and just float in any direction it wants. It only switches to its physical form to attack by enveloping its prey with its body, then it turns back into a spirit again, dragging its victim along with it, spiriting them away. Heh.

Yunia and Ciel kill a few of them, then a Crystalline Moth, after which, the spirits suddenly stop appearing. It seems like they've realized that they can't penetrate the defenses of our ship.

The Spirit mages in the other ships of the fleet also go on high alert due to the number of spirit monsters coming our way, so, even without the Spirit pulse, they're managing to flush out any spies trying to infiltrate.

The Moth is a nice addition to my monster collection. Perhaps I could replace Holly with the now-named Monthy depending on the situation. I'm not a bug dude, but its wings have a psychedelic pattern that's pretty nice to look at. It's a much more interesting insect than the annoying and fuzzy little shit who loves entering my room at night and hiding, then suddenly scaring the shit out of me by flapping around and making a lot of noise.

The rest of the day is free of excitement, and soon after the sun falls, we reach another anchor. Ahead of us, there's a faint white mist that gradually becomes thicker farther away. We saw that on the scanner and knew that something like this was coming. It's the "mist" area, the perfect place for an ambush.

During our bath, I get Hana and Yunia to climb on top of each other, lining up their slits for me. I use my double dick to punish them while they kiss each other and my tentacles choke them. Sometimes it takes a lot of work to satisfy so many women, but it's hard, honest, and ful-filling work.

Once I'm satisfied with the amount of cum gushing from their pussies, I switch my focus to Alissa.

She's happy with the progress I've made in decreasing my possessiveness and asks Gify to share the memories of me fucking Klein and Osaria. Knowing that I'm fucking her while thinking about someone else is seemingly enough to fulfill her NTR fetish.

For her, fulfilling this fetish may be a high priority, but making sure that my harem is healthy and well-cared for is her highest priority.

Tomorrow is Ciel's turn, so I stroke her jealousy a little by having her clean up Alissa while preventing them from doing anything else afterwards.

Hihiriwa invites us for a meal, but he says that it must be a quick one this time since the crew is still on alert for more attacks.

Without much time for idle conversation, we mostly just listen to Nohopu retelling his short bout with the Fay Leviathan. It's quite the slippery enemy, but curiously, it doesn't have much in the way of strong magical attacks, so the [Wind Shield]s will be enough to keep it at bay.

Mahi, the captain of the Winch, doesn't seem to be persuaded by Alissa's pimping, so I guess she might be a bust, but not Kaatohe. I let my eyes thirst for a bit over her naked, tight body, and notice that her eyes are also wandering, lingering on my scars, the cute vertical one on my left cheek, specifically. Our eyes meet, and she exhales loudly, giving me a snobbish look, then she turns to Nohopu.

Soon, our meal is over, and we return to our ship.

Jarn continues to mold her face into Yunia's. Her aptitude with [Manipulate Metal] is rapidly increasing; she seems to have a good affinity with this spell, which is expected since she's technically an earth elemental herself.

Aoi conjures a ball of water and holds it up in the air with her "Willpower."

"What are you doing, Aoi?" Roxanne asks.

"I don't know. I just felt like doing it," Aoi responds and shrugs.

"Shouldn't Azurite dragons have some affinity with water?" Hana asks.

Roxanne adjusts her oval glasses in thought. "Hm... see if you can change the temperature of the water with only your will. If that doesn't work, try increasing the power of your [Torrent], or work on [Water Wall]."

"O-kaay..." Aoi responds absentmindedly, deeply focused on her ball of water.

We're not in the mood for any training right now, so we just cheer on the as the [Water Spirit] fights the [Holy Spirit]. The two cute little familiars beat each other senseless, but it feels oddly non-violent without the grunts of pain and sprays of blood that usually come with real combat.

We go to sleep soon after that, but I'm awoken at midnight by Gify, the summons, and an alarm siren. A monster attack is incoming.

Announcement

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