CH22

When I awoke, the whole world seemed like heaven; I wanted it to be. Birds of neither monster descent nor human mutation sang in the window while mere animals prowled close to the cabin. The sweet aroma of cinnamon filled the air from the still burning candles in the room, and from what I could tell from that morning's wood, my dick was an inch longer than the night before. My line was pristine, and my body felt stronger than ever. Arturia slept soundly behind me with her human half laid fully on my chest. Her soft breasts pushed against me as her calm breaths soothed my ears, and I thought about closing my eyes to get a few more hours of sleep. Instead, I ran a hand through Arturia's golden locks and rubbed gently at her fluffy ears as they twitched at first before leaning into my touch. Her warm body snuggled against me, promising warmth to combat the chilly morning on the floor. Everything was as it was supposed to be that morning.

Then the call of nature demanded my attention, and I had a half-ton of centaurifu in my lap and breasts to die for on my chest. Arturia drooled right in my ear, and I felt her teeth gnaw on it in her sleep and couldn't imagine what she dreamed of eating. I tried to wiggle at first, but she only bit my ear harder and scooted further on top of me like an overly playful house cat.

I had to come up with a solution and saw my backpack. Arturia only hugged me tighter like a simp does a love pillow as I stretched out my hand to grab the strap to the pack. My toes pushed against the floor as I shifted and stretched my body to give myself a few more inches of reach. I brushed the edge of my backpack and pushed with all my might to get a little more reach.

A shout of triumph nearly escaped my throat when I grabbed the strap and pulled the backpack closer. "What are you doing?" Arturia asked.

"Just trying to get something from my beg," I said.

The waifu glared. "I'm not stupid; you were trying to run away. After I let you tame me last night, you tried to get away."

"Alright, I had to pee," I said.

"That's obviously not the point. So why didn't you wake me up, and how do you think I would feel if I woke up with you replaced with a backpack?"

"Like I would be right back for my pack," I said.

I didn't know why she was angry; I hadn't done anything wrong, and none of the others freaked out like she had. None of them were as angry as Arturia either. Killing her father and subduing her mother was par for the course it was expected in these lands. If another herd had attacked instead, she would have already been fucked by every stallion of the tribe. But, honestly, I was being kind, and she was being unreasonable.

"What's wrong with you? I can't believe my tamer is such a spineless weakling." Arturia said.

I felt hot, like a volcano blowing its top or a bullet flying down the barrel of a gun. My mind tried to take over. I needed to find the problem and solve it before I ruined our relationship. There had to be something I missed, a piece to the puzzle that could make Arturia's anger make sense. She couldn't be this angry over something petty like trying to let her sleep while I took a piss. My mind whirled over the morning and the night before to even my extra inch over and over. I analyzed every minute detail and came up with nothing. Apologizing about killing her father wouldn't do me any good, so I decided to change tactics.

"Your hair looks nice this morning; it's very soft. I gave Alice a massage, and I think you could use one too; I bet you're a little sore after sleeping on the ground." I said.

"Do you think I'm a weakling that can be flattered and appeased with grooming?" Arturia said.

I heard a knock at the door and yanked open my backpack to get some pants and strap a gun around my waist, then thought better of it. The Wheeler mob was a thing, and if they saw my filed down gun, I was dead. Filed-down guns could only be used by gangs under the patronage of high-ranking tamers. Wielding that kind of status symbol without a patron or a gang to back me up was suicide. It's why they were rarely guarded; no one would be stupid enough to steal them because of the penalty if caught.

So, I shoved my gun back into my backpack and withdrew an enchanted knife. It made things bleed longer than necessary. Such a weapon might not sound powerful, but it was dangerous against anyone under rank 3. I doubted anyone but the hero of Geass or me had a rank III regeneration skill at this time.

I strapped the blade to the side of my pants and sensed the three at the door. They were rank 1 tamers with qi that leaned heavily to the day attribute. Of course, it was also morning, so their day skills would be even more powerful than normal.

"Answer the door, but we aren't done talking." I felt my eye twitch at her dismissal and order like she was the one in charge. My heart raced, and my blood pressure spiked as a dark purple glow surrounded my body from the mixture of dragon, giant, and leviathan power radiated from my body.

She eyed me imperiously with a strange glint in her eyes. Arturia didn't seem scared at all by my anger as I turned my back on her and approached the door. Unfortunately, she was right; our conversation wasn't over. Another heavy knock pounded on the door echoing through the cabin.

Alice in her armor was in the kitchen, metal claws bared, ready to rend the tamers outside into bloody chunks. A savage smile spread across my face, and she grinned at me. "A good morning for a fight, isn't it, partner."

I didn't say anything letting my bond with Arturia calm me down a bit. Her night attribute felt like a balm to my anger, and the purple light of qi glowing around me dimmed. Unfortunately, my anger didn't cool; instead smoldering, ready to be coaxed into a roaring inferno at the slightest provocation.

Another knock at my door nearly reignited it on the spot. Could I have a moment with my best girl, please? But the same beating thuggish knock persisted, driving me to the front door. For all I knew, they could be armed and ready to blow me away if I wasn't sure I knew what they were.

I yanked the door open to see three rank 1 tamers in white robes stained with blood and filth on my front porch. They had armed with tomes bookmarked for favored passages undoubtedly bent to bring other people to their way of thinking.

"Are you tired of the inequality of the world?"

"No fuck off," I said automatically.

"Wait, we can offer you white waifus in exchange for any black ones you may have. Many of us have heard that you were the poor tamer cursed with a black starter." The speaker of the three said.

My hands shook, but my anger hadn't broken free at that point. There was still hope that this mess could be salvaged, and I wouldn't make any more enemies. Then the three men saw Alice in her armor peeking through a window. One of the men pulled free a Mud double barrel shotgun, pointed it at Alice, and pulled the trigger. I saw red, and my knife was already out and buried to the hilt in the speaker's throat before my thoughts caught up.

Purple light suffused my body and exploded, driving the rank 1 tamers back. The one I stabbed gripped his throat as a day skill glowed from his finger even as blood gushed between them. He fell to his knees, clutching his throat, desperately trying to heal himself as I turned on the other three. "By Jehova, he's possessed by the black goddess herself. Run Joab and radio Captain Caine; we have a possessed on our hands." The tamer with the mud double barrel pump yelled before he fired on me.

Time had stopped to a standstill as I moved my body out of the way before he pulled the trigger. Buckshot flew past me, often either grazing me as I closed the distance. The sounds of nature turned into a static haze after the explosion from the shotgun. Golden light surrounded the man as his speed caught up quickly to my own as I moved into knife rang.

He was rank 1, which made him 10 to 60 times stronger than a rank 0 tamer. If he was rank 2, I would be dead, and if he had used his Sephiroth Power from the beginning, he might have stood a chance. But by the time I was on him, he had only started up his power while I had three firing hard enough to turn an average tamer into a crumbling charred corpse. Only by balancing power skills was I able to keep myself going. Which was how I slipped between his ribs and punctured his heart before he could match my speed.

Alice shot out the window in a flash like a black comet. Her armor boosted her dragon and night skills to a ludicrous degree and only seemed to get stronger as she wore it. Helen called it the cursed seeped steel of Woodall, the cratered mountain of the black dragon legendary. Ancient qi from a powerful entity had mixed with the iron used to forge her armor, making it perfect for her.

I felt the runner die on her claws and felt their qi fill her reserves, and a little even went to me. Purple light radiated off my body as I grabbed the original speaker's left hand and claimed his waifus. I repeated the process for the other two members. When we reached the next village, I planned to sell them on the open market. I didn't want to keep any of them; they felt tainted.

Alice took off her armor as I tossed the three Jehova Syndicate grunts into a ditch where we tossed guts and shit. Still, even seeing giant fly waifus settle on them to lay eggs didn't soothe my anger.

"Zoran, I know you feel a little angry, so let's have a spar; I promise not to wear my armor," Alice said.

"I don't want to spar," I said, and Alice frowned.

"What are you scared you'll lose," Arturia said.

My hands shook as visions of violence filled my mind's eye. What was her deal? Couldn't she see I wasn't in the mood to play her games? Or was this a ploy to drive a wedge between Alice and me? Was my anger at her keeping me from giving Alice the attention she deserved? I looked over at my best girl, who seemed on the verge of tears. A great sigh escaped me, and I knew I would regret it. Alice, even without her armor, was much stronger than me. She could rank up at any time but held back because of me. Honestly, I was hurting her growth.

I glared at Arturia, who only smiled at me like she had won something. "Alright, Alice, we can spar."

"Yay, I get to show off my new skills." I threw myself to the side as two concentrated rays of black flame blasted through a dirt mound and felled a tree.

Alice closed the distance in an instant with a kick that drove me to my knee, followed up with a glowing black slap from her tail that knocked me against another dirt mound.

Alice jumps up and down while dashing from side-to-side blurring with afterimages even to my enhanced perception. I shot forward, keeping my hands up as she giggled and matched me. I could feel my limbs fracture and heal as she punched and kicked with each blow hitting like a truck.

Even when I ground my teeth and unleashed all my anger, she slapped me around like a toy. There was no comparison; she was much stronger than me, and no amount of anger or qi without cultivation could bridge the gap between us. It didn't matter if she was only rank 1 or 2; stronger was stronger. Alice had taken the lives of hundreds of goblins and turned their qi into power. Then there was her extra passive skill that I didn't know a rank 1 waifu could even get.

To be specific, Alice had a core skill, dragon core, and it turned her dragon power from a campfire into a smelting furnace. Then there were her rite skills, Night and dragon rite, that helped her actively add to her dragon and night qi reserves. In addition, she was specializing and gaining new skills to add to what she already had. Her build was a close-to-mid-range fighter that could deal high DPS.

To match her, I needed to complete the 5 primary power element skills and then go after their individual core skills. When I managed that, she would have more advanced specialized skills to improve her build even further. Not to mention the weapons she could get to further boost her skills.

We continued to fight for what felt like hours as I grew used to the higher use of my power skills. Finally, the purple light winked out as I stabilized the power skills in my body. From there, I focused on the fight and let go of my worries, plans, and needless thoughts, and focused on winning.

Alice was outgoing, optimistic, and thoughtful and didn't go far into strategy beyond the tactics she found the most fun. Learning her flow and finding the points where she faltered wasn't hard. There was a pause before she used her laser eyes when she was vulnerable. I moved in and tackled her to the ground before rolling off her before her talons or teeth could get me. Her kicks had a ridiculous wind-up, and I moved in close, grabbed her leg, and threw her. She tried to adapt, and I had fun picking out her weaknesses and baiting her into making mistakes. Alice was so much stronger than me, and despite that, I turned the tables.

"You're smiling," Alice said and thrust her hands in the air like she had won the waifu world championship. "We're having fun together." That's when it hit me.

"Were you trying to find something we could do together?" I asked, feeling like the biggest fool in the world.

"Tamers and waifus don't always get along, but I heard it helps if we can find something fun to do together. And what's more fun than sparing and showing each other what we can do." Alice said with a big grin.

"Yea, that was a lot of fun, and I would like to do it more often with you," I said.

Arturia snorted. "She was going easy on you. You would have died ten times over if she went all out."

"Enough! What do you want? Do you want to be free? I have other centaurifu, so I don't need you. Go if you want to or stay, but I won't stand for this attitude of yours." I said.

She broke out into tears and looked ready to bolt. I grabbed her before she could get away, and she fought me, struggling to move before falling to the ground boneless. I kissed her tears and rubbed her blonde hair making a mental note to myself to buy a brush for her. She wrapped her arms around me and sucked in a deep breath.

"Don't leave me your all I have," Arturia said as I rubbed her back and Alice began petting her. "I want to hate you, but you won't let me. All I wanted was to cuddle, but you were too busy for me, and you've given Alice all your time."

"We can cuddle; we have a while before Matt is ok to leave. So let's go inside and relax." I said.