Boning the Dragon

With Kim, Kaen, and Aloy, 5 minutes earlier.

To say the bonecasting berserker was annoying would be an understatement in Kim’s eyes. She had internal armor that protected her from most physical attacks to an extent, inhumane stamina and a complete disregard of her own body which seemed to regenerate anyway.

She was clearly a **** to be reckoned with. But that didn’t mean that Kim and Kaen weren’t either. The berserking dragon-kin was equally as reckless in her approach, forcing the redhead on to the defensive, and every time Kaen left any kind of opening for the berserker to use, Kim or the girl John had called ‘Aloy’ swooped in and used that moment to get a strike in. The strikes were mostly ineffective so far, but Kim also hadn’t used her stronger attacks yet. She wanted to make sure to hit effectively with them.

While Kim was contemplating how to deal with her most effectively, the bone-berserker had enough of being pummeled apparently, as bone shields grew out of her arms in a matter of seconds, covering her forearms and narrowing at the top of her fist. The change happened while Kaen was in mid-strike, and the dragon girl had no possibility to dodge the sharp shield lodging itself into her stomach. The second shield smacked her in the face, throwing her off to the side in a dazed state while the berserker now went for Kim.

’I have to use them now!’

It was now or never…

The problem with Qi techniques was that, unlike the typical mage, a Qi user technically doesn’t have mana, instead they use part of their life **** and their energy and mold it into their attacks. That meant that while the results were powerful, they could also be deadly to themself or leave them **** to an attack from the enemy. Kim had always been reserved about using her Qi, more relying on her martial arts, but in cases like with this enemy, drastic measures were necessary, apparently.

Channeling her inner power into her hands, she clapped them together to create a shield of soft light, blocking the berserker mid-attack. The wall held solid for a while, only slightly bulging in at the point of the highest pressure.

It offered Kim enough time to prepare her actual attack.

While the redhead was struggling against the translucent shield, the martial artist channeled more Qi into her lungs and **** it out with a powerful breath. Out came a glowing blue inferno of fire, freely streaming through the shield and on to the enemy still pushing against it, setting her ablaze in the process.

While the fire obviously had its intended effect on the berserker rolling on the ground screaming, it also took a toll on Kim, who was breathing heavier than a moment before. She really hoped that it was worth it and that it would give them some time to recoordinate.

Running over to Kaen, she saw that the wound in her abdomen wasn’t serious and that it was already starting to close.

’Sometimes I envy her… But then again, there’s much not to envy… The rage, the loneliness...’

Kaen looked at her with pure rage, not directed at her, but she was clearly pissed off. “Did you get the bitch?”

Looking back at the enemy rolling on the ground, trying to put out the fire around her, Kim shook her head, “Only temporarily. I believe our best tactic at this point is to push her abilities to the limit and tire her out. John wants her alive; she seems to be under some kind of mind control.” This was the first time since Kaen had engaged the berserking nun that Kim was able to talk with her.

Slowly nodding, Kaen then pushed herself up from the rubble around her. “Okay, I can do that, I’ll keep her busy. Oh, and tell Master that I won’t be coming home tonight, I’ll spend my night somewhere else.”

Shaking her head, Kim already knew what she meant, “Does he know about your plan?”

“...No.” Looking away, Kaen had the decency to look embarrassed by the admittance.

“Sigh... Alright, I’ll tell Father… If he’s hurt, this will have consequences.”

Not dignifying that with a verbal response, only with a weird look, Kaen dodged at the last second as the redhead berserker was on them, trying to decapitate them with a crude bone sword. She had already regenerated the burnt skin, and interestingly enough also her long, red hair.

This regenerative ability was both marvelous and frightening...

Kim herself also dodged the attack at the last moment, letting the sword fly above her head. She took in the structure of the sword, noticing that it was a lot less ‘refined’ than the weapons that the berserker had been using before.

’A side effect of the regeneration? Is she getting tired?’

While the nun was preparing for another strike, an arrow hit her bone sword from behind her, taking a chunk out of the weapon.

’They are a lot more brittle now as well… I think we are getting her down… Hopefully John has some plan to subdue her?’

Speaking of John, they felt a heavy rumbling from somewhere in the monastery at that moment. Since the valkyrie was probably fighting her opponent in the sky, the only other possibility was that something had happened to John.

”John! Are you alright?”

It took a second, but he thankfully responded.

”Define ‘alright’... But yeah, I’m alive. We’ll join you in a minute or so to deal with the last enemy; Brun is also done with hers.” His thoughts were slightly slurred, as if under a lot of pain. What had happened at that explosion?

So aside from the berserker, all the enemies were taken care of, that was good. While Kim was communicating with John, Kaen had taken another stab in the arm, but in return she was now cooking off the face of the berserker trying to get her sword into the dragon again. Thankfully, Aloy was taking care of the sword by hitting it with more arrows, reducing its size quickly.

Trying to finish this off now, Kim summoned the spiked chains she had gotten from John and threw them around the nun’s feet, piercing the skin with the spikes.

Kaen kept the heat going for another 30 seconds or so until the movements of the former redhead started to seize.

’Oh no, did she kill her?’

Pulling Kaen off from their opponent, Kim saw that the enemy was still regenerating, but she seemed to be **** now. Aloy came running with a bundle of wires to tie up their opponent, which they did.

Taking a deep breath, the martial artist unsummoned her chains, slumping tiredly onto the ground. She had forgotten how taxing Qi techniques were… Maybe she had been relying on her physical abilities too much? Most problems she had to deal with were rather benign and didn’t warrant the usage of Qi.

However, something told her that being around John would likely see her being thrown into fights often enough to make the training useful.

’I’ll have to talk to Father about this... maybe John can help me as well?’

To be frank, she had grown quite fond of the Gamer in the little time they had spent together. He seemed reliable, honorable, serious when needed yet aloof when the situation was dire… Even his physical condition was improving day by day; she could see him grow into a powerful man more and more. The only thing she didn’t quite like was his weird charm that seemed to pull people towards him, especially females. Looking at the people that were involved in this operation tonight, everyone except John was female… that just didn’t seem right…

Speaking of the devil, John then came through the hole that Kaen had blasted in the beginning supported by the blonde Valkyrie. Kim and Brunhilde had seen each other once or twice out in some Barriers, but they had never really interacted with one another.

Before John could say anything, Kaen was jumping into his arms, throwing him to the ground as she smothered her face against his chest, mumbling something into his chest of which Kim could only understand, “... with you tonight?” to which John looked at Kim with an unsure look. She just nodded her head, secretly fantasizing what it would feel like to push her own face into his chest…

Oh well, thoughts for another day...

John’s POV

While being tightly hugged by an overpowered dragon didn’t sound that pleasant in theory, it was surprisingly comfy, like a weighted heater that was breathing.

The words she said were also quite… nice.

“Can I please spend the night with you tonight? I don’t want to wait until we have some kind of date…”

He certainly wouldn’t mind that, especially after the clusterfuck of a day that this was. He would surely have some things to do until he could properly… take care of her, but at least the possibility was open.

But would Kim be okay with that? Not only was she seemingly some kind of guardian for Kaen, she was also his newest bond and would probably want something as well judging by how she talked about the Bond… When he looked at her, she just nodded her head with a weird expression on her face… he would have to talk with her about it later, but at least he was on the safe side.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll need to set some things up, but I guess you can spend the night with me. Is that alright, Brun?”

Shrugging, Brun said, “If you want a dragon in your harem, I sure as Hel won’t stop you from it. And she’s super cute, I can totally see it. I doubt Astrid will make any fuss.”

Smiling softly, he brushed his hands over Kaen’s back, “Then it’s settled. I have to deal with some things first though, like the girl lying over there… By the way, where’s my card?”

Brun looked around the room sheepishly, “Well… it might still be open in the other Barrier… We might have been hurrying up so much that we could have forgotten to take that with us…”

This just spelt disaster…

“Could you open the door with your card? I want to leave this place as soon as possible and to keep that woman in the Nexus for now.”

The Valkyrie quickly nodded her head and pulled out her key card. Kim and Aloy were now joining the three of them, carrying the **** captive. “What’s the plan with her?” asked Kim.

“I’ll put her in a room inside my Kingdom, then I’ll try to fix whatever is wrong with her. I have a feeling that she won’t be cooperative though. Also, we still have to find what’s going on inside that other Barrier… I feel like there’s still something there that we haven’t seen. The basement was really weird...”

“Should we take care of that while you deal with her? I’m not sure when she’s coming back to consciousness though, so I can’t say if you need backup…” pondered the martial artist.

“I’ll stay with him!” quickly exclaimed Kaen.

“Of course you will…”

Brun had to stifle a laugh; she obviously was amused by the clinginess of the dragon.

Thinking about it for a second. John Observed the girl again.

Andrea McIntyre
Lv. 10 Holy Osteomancer
Relationship: 0
Threat Level: -
Ability Rating:
Physical: D
Mental: E
Offense: C
Defense: D
Utility: F

’Huh, now she’s a lot less dangerous, at least when she’s passed out...’

Finally getting up, John pried himself out of Kaen’s vice grip, trying to help the girls with carrying his new ‘captive’...

He would probably need to modify one of the rooms to function as a prison/holding cell, at least for now…

Interestingly enough, unlike his key card, which brought him into the downstairs basement room, Brun’s card opened up next to the staircase on the first floor. They stepped into the brightly lit mansion; both Kim and Kaen were looking around with big eyes, setting foot into the Nexus for the first time.

Seeing this, John quickly promised them, “Once we are done with the other Barrier and her, I’ll explain it to you.”

Behind them, Gary and Thorne ran into the door. John was seriously wondering where these two were hiding, but he was glad that they were okay.

Telling Brun to keep the door open, John moved towards the nearest unoccupied room and thought about editing the room. In a matter of seconds, the room was changed to his wishes, meaning that the big windows adorning one side of the room were now barred by big bars, melded into the rest of the frame around the window. The door to the room also changed: it was now a typical prison door with a viewing window and a chute to slide food and drinks through. Hopefully, he wouldn’t need this for long, but precautions were better.

Kim and Aloy brought the captive into the new room, leaving her in the middle of the cell before exiting again. Checking that she was still ****, John quickly tried to cast Neutralize on her to remove whatever effect was making her go berserk. And just to make sure that he would get the correct effect, he used a point of Edge while casting the skill.

Neutralize, Critical Success! Select Status to remove:
****
Regenerating
Curse of the Bone
Blessing of the Bone
Master’s Binding (Can not be neutralized by this skill.)
Berserker Madness
Nanites

Well, that was a big list of effects… Now John was actually kind of curious how many effects would appear if he used Neutralize on himself… But that’s a question for another time. Selecting the Berserker Madness status, John decided that for now he would keep her secured in here and see how she reacted once she was awake. He then fused the door with the frame around it, making sure she couldn’t escape, and turned around to the people around him.

“Okay, last thing on the list is checking out the basement of the other Barrier. Anything else?”

Kaen raised her hand, “What is this mansion? Where are we? Is it safe?”

This wasn’t actually the worst time to explain what the Nexus was. “I guess I can explain this right now. This is the Nexus, it’s a small Kingdom between other bigger Kingdoms. It’s basically my own pocket world that I can change however I want, given the ressources. There’s not much here yet, but I only had it for three days now, so I’ll throw a lot of work into this.”

Slowly nodding her head, Kim asked, “And how does one get access to this place? It seems very convenient..”

“Oh, you need one of the keycards to do that. Let’s set you up with some as well for now.”

A minute later, both Kaen and Kim also had keycards to the Nexus.

“Basically you only have to insert this keycard into some slit, and then the door opens so that you can enter.”

Brun interjected at that moment, “Oh and you better keep the door open, otherwise you’re trapped in there until someone gets you out.”

“...Is that what happened to you?”

Both Aloy and Brun nodded at that, “We thought that it would probably be better to close the door, otherwise who knows what could come from there… I guess we both forgot about that in our panic once you called us to you though…” said the redhead.

Shrugging, John looked towards the staircase leading to the basement, “I think that’s fine. It told me before that there were two life signals in the Barrier James made, and I’m going to assume that would be him and Andrea, so there shouldn’t be anything in there anyway. But I just want to make sure. Would everyone help me?”

Kim quickly answered, “Of course, it is why we met up in the first place, John.” Everyone was agreeing with that.

After taking one last look at the **** body of the captive, the group descended into the basement to go to the other Barrier.