“Can we please just calm down and talk about this?!” Sammy called as she sensed the way things were about to go. But the cat had their tongues for any sapient response, and they launched themselves like flying bullets at Ralli and Tanjhere.

  The pair split, dodging different directions. Two went for Tanjhere and one for Ralli. The latter was quick with her staff power, dodging deftly with the space between them. To assist her lover, she directed a curve of wires out at one of the other winged tigers, forming it into something like a big flyswatter, aiming to knock it.

  The tiger changed course on a dime, avoiding the flyswatter and going for Ralli, instead. At first, Sammy thought it would be easy from the trajectory to entangle the beast in the wires exposed between, so she flared them out. But the feline flashed talons the size of swords and slashed entirely through them with ease. A second bundle of talons was quite quickly brought to bear in Ralli’s face.

  Crap. Time crunch. Wound negations had apparently not been invented yet, but Ralli had even better magical failsafes — a network of contingencies. Part of the simulation’s allowance was making up reasonable assumptions about things she might be able to do, sometimes right, sometimes wrong, or even in between. That was the gamble of the game.

  She could unleash an offensive spell, that she knew. Not knowing the capabilities of the felines, but determining them to be exceptionally formidable, Sammy decided to pour all the power of the effect into simply knocking, throwing, or diverting the beast. So she conjured a high-level, raw telekinetic punch.

  The beast was hit by an invisible train slamming into it, full speed versus full speed — the ‘beast-side’ was a train, it seemed. The sound of impact was a powerful explosion, thankfully diverted away from Ralli. The feline went spinning and tumbling in the opposite direction, screaming inhumanly.

  Tanjhere managed to narrowly fend off and block her primary attacker with her aura formed into a grappling hand, though keeping hold was impossible and the feline broke free. She followed up with something flicked from her hand like powder, and the sparkling grains suddenly grew in size and sped up, forming into sharp little shards to sweep over the creature aiming to slice and dice it.

  But it was like glass hitting an anvil. The little blades made fantastic sparks as they ground on, shattered, or even bounced right off of the silvery hide. It appeared ineffective.

  Okay, raw physical force is a no-go, probably — except for knocking. Let’s try magical energy, then!

  Sammy targeted the beast most likely to attack, as opposed to the one still knocked and tumbling. Rallindin could double-cast with ease, so she tried a light-based burning laser first and prepped to try something else if it failed.

  The winged feline did not dodge and took a blast of light in the middle of its body, facing the side due to the wheeling maneuver it took after failing its charge. The blast dispersed in a great ripple over its silver fur and turned to vapor, apparently causing no injury.

  Shit! Come on, man, they have to have some kind of weakness!

  The follow-up became a go-to element for the resistant: acid. She gestured and made a sign in the air, and a man-sized sphere of acid rocketed at the beast, which had now turned fully and was charging for her anew.

  The acid exploded in its face head-on in a gout of steaming fumes. And through it the feline charged through unimpeded, its form smoking but unscorched, unmelted — unharmed.

  Holy fucking shitballs, what the hell?!

  She focused on dodging out of the way, judging herself to have the spacial leverage. But the feline did a complex feint by suddenly changing direction, creating a desperate, scrambling struggle that was a blur of narrow counter maneuvers. One taloned hand missed, but the other would’ve had her, so Sammy moved the copious wires of Jammer in the way to block at the last split moment.

  They were shredded but slowed the strike. Talons came through near Rallindin’s face, and pivoting backward was all that saved her. The edge of two claws slashed her neck, drawing blood.

  The feminine voice of the intra-Hall System spoke into her mind. “Simulated major wound downgraded to Minor. You are at -1 Effective Levels for 5 seconds.”

  A sound of dismay from Azure let Sammy know she was also having trouble, though she could spare not even a glance.

  Sammy had little choice but to try and blunt the advance of the juggernaut kitties with quick and decisive action. She dropped two spells in rapid succession, both of them the powerful telekinetic hammers, one for each winged furred problem. She relied on the Simple, Stupid method for once, hoping it was sufficient for relatively Simple, Stupid enemies.

  Neither had much chance to dodge, one right in her face and the other still righting itself after spinning out. Now, both of them were knocked, their shrill screams of protest ringing through the jungle.

  Simple, Stupid for the win! Sort of.

  Turning her attention to Azure, she saw a feline with its jaws completely enclosing around her leg — fortunately, the body of Tanjhere had transformed into hard crystal and resisted damage. Meanwhile, Azure appeared to be trying to pry it off with an aural ‘hand’ wrapped entirely around the beast. This was to no avail, and she was barely keeping the talons from reaching her torso. They were locked in a fierce struggle.

  Sammy aimed for the beast’s dangling lower half and fired off another ‘slam’ spell. The hit took it full on and it was forcibly torn away, though its fangs cut a groove on the crystal of a leg with an audible grinding sound, as that grip attempted and failed to hold.

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  Tanjhere was jerked down a short distance, as she was pulled through the cloud of her own dislodged glittering dust before finally catching herself, still grimacing in pain. She also managed to pull a big vial free from some hidden space and toss it down at a branch near the feline.

  It burst into a greenish cloud that soon revealed a giant spider, which momentarily leapt onto the vulnerable beast and grappled it firmly. Any feline recovery or flight inhibited, they fell downward together out of sight.

  The other two winged beasts had recovered in the meantime and were coming for her again. Sammy had the initiative, though, so she could double cast once more. Instead of knocking, a thought came to her and she tried something else.

  First one and then the other feline hit an invisible wall blocking their advance. Soon thereafter, they bounced off of it again, and were pushing, clawing, and throwing themselves around — all to no gratification. An impermeable magical force had totally boxed them in. They began to scream their anger and frustration with their hideous, shrill cries.

  Wall of Force — a staple for a reason. This existence, Ralli herself, might’ve been who made it so. And — knock on wood — these beasts have no spellcaster to help them out of it.

  As she shared a relieved smile with Azure and was quite ready to celebrate, they both became aware of loud, distant snarls. One direction. Two. Three?

  “Shit,” Sammy muttered. “They’re attracted to the struggle. Tanjhere, have you ever heard the phrase ‘discretion is the better part of valor,’ by chance?”

  “Not exactly,” she replied, “but I get the picture. My own phrase is thus: let’s get the fuck out of here!”

  Leaving the kitties to their fate, they fled the scene. Sammy trusted Azure’s senses to determine the most likely route not toward approaching super tough World Class murder-cats.

  After finding a moment to heal up with spells, they opted to attempt stealth in their progression — while they had the chance. Instead of swinging along like they were apes who owned the place, Ralli cloaked them in invisibility and muted sounds outside of a small radius. Tanjhere applied an alchemical salve to them both that eliminated their scent entirely, to foil any tracking.

  It proved to be wise. Calls from the distance came from every direction, and they caught sight of dozens of winged cats scouring the landscape, scanning with their eyes, pausing to listen, and occasionally sniffing the air.

  Hunting. They are definitely trying to hunt us down like… dogs. Hundreds, maybe thousands of super unkillable flying murder-cats. Holy hell. I hate realms! I hate realms so fucking much!

  They tried to distance themselves as much as possible from the area they’d been, once more relying on the keen direction sense and counter-tracking of the much more wilderness-capable Azure. Despite the situation, Sammy could tell Azure was happy with the arrangement.

  She feels useful. No matter how much I tell her she is, she needs this sort of unequivocal, external proof to believe it. Mmn. We have to win this, now. I won’t allow her managing to be disappointed by all this and thinking her guidance went to waste or was useless.

  As they were making their way quietly over a long series of branches all twisted together, a feline suddenly landed right above them out of nowhere. They froze still and didn’t so much as breathe, though Azure’s hand found hers to squeeze. Holding hands and both looking up with wide eyes, they observed the furred monstrosity just above them, swinging its head around and sniffing suspiciously.

  Its face was turned toward them for a heart-stopping moment. But disturbingly human brown eyes swept right over their spot without seeing, and it turned away. They dared not sigh in relief, though.

  It turned entirely away, its tail lifting up to show its butthole.

  Psh! Just like a fucking cat, isn’t it?

  And then it sprayed.

  Sammy would’ve crushed Tanjhere’s hand if not for the crystalline hardness. As it was, it might’ve cracked, as Sammy tried not to scream from a massive spray of funk hitting her almost dead-on. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and a groan wanted to crawl out of her throat from the sheer disgust of feeling moist, hot stuff on her skin all over. She shook with the effort to contain herself.

  On the plus side, when she finally opened her burning eyes, the feline was already flying away, apparently quite satisfied with the area it was fleeing, having thoroughly ‘marked the territory.’ The smell remained overpoweringly terrible in the area. The ‘area’ that included Sammy.

  Me and these things are done. We’re done. I better not see a fucking winged cat ever again. We’re done!

  Azure — who thanks to the angle didn’t get even close to as badly sprayed — did an admirable job being sympathetic instead of amused, containing whatever humor she had to have lying within. That action doubled Sammy’s love meter for her because Sammy probably deserved some mockery after all her teasing.

  She’s a saintess. My girlfriend is a literal saintess.

  Once they moved out of the area, her saintess even had a potion she poured over Sammy that took the smell and the glistening wetness away. It was cold, oily, and not really pleasant at first, sort of like being doused with an alcohol/vegetable oil mixture. But when it quickly evaporated, all remnants of the scent evaporated with it.

  Afterward, Sammy took a deep, wonderful breath of fresh air. Then she took her saintess’s face in her hands and kissed her. “Thank you, Saintess Azure.”

  Azure smiled in pleasure. “Let’s not get carried away — I will never be a saint. But you’re welcome, Chestnut. You deserve it for managing to hold in that scream. You truly do. But… we should get going, hmm?”

  Ah, the dangers of an adventurer. You could get sprayed by wild beasts at any time. At least its sometimes not acid.

  Next Chapter...

  Another encounter ensues in this horrible place.

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