A Grim Reminder - Part 3

"I'm serious, you guys. Everyone up," John instructed, voice becoming a little sterner with each repetition of the order.

"Aww, do you really have to go?" Aria whined, clutching onto his arm.

"Yeah, Papa, do you really have to go?!"

"You should stay here and take a nyap with us instead!"

"Coming back downstairs was a mistake. I see that now," John remarked dryly, giving Aria a glare of pure betrayal as she joined in with the kittens. He sighed as he tried to find the least-harmful way to extricate himself from the pile of bodies surrounding him. Harmful for him, more than anything, though he wasn't sure whether the Nekos or the dangerously clingy incubus were the bigger threat. Aria did have quite the set of claws on her, when she wanted to...

"Nyaa, leave Papa alone, or no playtime tomorrow!" Maera chided, adding a little hiss for emphasis.

"No way!" Magnus objected. "If we-"

Magnus' objection broke into a helpless, adorable mewl as Mithra forewent the arguments and simply walked up to grab him by the back of his neck. Magnus gave a quiet whimper and pouted, his body relaxing almost as if the strength and will to fight had been sapped right out of him. John winced every time he saw Mithra break out the kitten carry on what was otherwise a human being, but he couldn't deny the effectiveness, and none of them ever showed any signs of pain.

Mithra stopped shy of actually lifting the kittens up when she did it, but just taking a tight hold was more than enough to reduce Magnus' protests to a light mewl. His brothers and sisters followed Mithra out of the main area in short order, amused at their brother's humiliation, but also keenly aware of how quickly that same fate could befall them. Maera followed after the whole group, ensuring none of them got any wise ideas about sneaking back and being the only kitten left to steal their papa's attention.

"You know, I'm grateful, but I still don't understand why that doesn't work on you two in battle," John mused.

"Have to do it with love, not with hate!" Mithra called back at him without breaking her stride.

"That doesn't make any sense!" John rolled his eyes when he didn't get a response. He never did, but he appreciated the tactic all the same.

That only left one weight on his body—Aria, who was too busy giggling at the sight of the kittens being led away to get up herself. Or at least she was certainly pretending to be oblivious to being the final obstacle, but judging by the way her lips curled with concern, she was aware enough to notice the way John's hand slipped up her spine and perched perilously at the base of her own neck.

"Aria, should I carry you upstairs?" John offered threateningly, letting his fingers give the back of her neck just the barest of pinches.

"Ahhh, I don't suppose you mean, like, in bondage?" Aria asked, feigning a nervous chuckle that almost sounded believable. "'Cause, y'know. I'd be fine with that. Maybe just keep me tied up for a while, use me between training sessions...? I'm kinda into the free-use thing, y'know. And since I'm a demon, you don't even need to let me out for breaks often!"

John blinked for a moment, his own teasing forgotten in the face of blunt, honest lust. "Wow. I, uh... when you put it like that, I can't help but think that my younger self would be absolutely kicking my ass for not taking you up on one of your many generous offers by now."

"What about your current self?" Aria asked, the question accompanied by a deep trill filled with enough promises to flood John's mind with a needy haze.

"He needs to go train," John replied, barely managing to keep the **** in his voice suppressed. He playfully tightened his fingers on the nape of her neck, but she was already moving off his lap, showing a distaste for it that matched his own.

"You know, I can feel what makes you happy," Aria reminded him emphatically, making her best mean face at him. "And this doesn't make you happy!" She made a point of gripping the sides of her dress and pulling it taut around her frame, giving John a clear view of her figure as she walked away. Especially the way her perky ass bounced as she gave her hips a little more sway than usual.

"No, but that definitely does," John said, loudly enough for her to hear. She tried to tilt her head away from him until she reached the hall, but he caught a glimpse of the devilish little grin before she was hidden away.

"Father?"

"Right, sorry." John hurriedly crawled up from the couch, turning to face the others. Sophia arriving had been the catalyst to kick off the kittens' complaints in the first place, but he'd gotten sidetracked. Orria, Shishun, and Lerianna had all joined in the time that it took him to finally get firm with his demands of freedom. "You know, their refusal to leave wouldn't be quite so difficult to deal with if they weren't all so adorable."

"Fortunately, Maera and Mithra are around to deal with them this time," Orria said, stifling a giggle with one hand. "You might not be so lucky when it's time for them to join you."

"Well, hopefully they'll be asleep by then," John groaned. "Otherwise I might have to be a little more stern with my parenting."

"Worry about that later. Leave the babysitting to the big cats, we've got training to take care of," Lerianna demanded, jerking her thumb toward the door. "I've been full couch-potato all day until it was time to start warming up. Let's get going before I cool back off."

"I appreciate the eagerness. We'll probably be ending early tonight, though. Sorry, but we've been going a lot faster than I thought we would," John apologized as he started to move for the door. Lerianna let out a groan almost immediately.

"Isn't that a good thing? We're going to fight a war," Lerianna complained. "Why do we have to stop because we're ahead of schedule? There shouldn't even be a schedule."

"Yeah, well, tell that to my powers," John retorted, patting Lerianna on the shoulder as he walked past her, feeling the ripple of her impeccable physique as she made a gesture of pure exasperation. "I'm two levels away from the cap right now. Once I hit that, I'm going to be spending a few hours just grinding back up. It'll be too dangerous to do the high-level stuff, and we'll clear the mid-level stuff easily enough over the next few days anyway. If you want to train on your own for the rest of this stretch, you can, but like you just said, we're going into a war. I have to be as efficient as possible."

"Ah, whatever." Lerianna scoffed, and like that, she was mostly over it. John still found himself too curious to resist pressing her on the issue, though.

"Why have you been getting so excited for these lately, anyway?" John reached the door and slowed to hold it for the others, which also gave him the chance to meet Lerianna's crimson gaze as he spoke. "I mean, I'm all for the enthusiasm, but you seem to be getting really into these lately."

"Well, I, uh..." Lerianna blushed unexpectedly, and for a moment, she looked ready to ignore the question. "It's nice, you know? Being able to work out. I really got into bodybuilding after I started, even if it wasn't just for the sake of having this killer body, you know. And now I can actually enjoy it! Used to be that I had to push myself to the point of passing out, every single time. Now I can just get a good workout and let those endorphins really sink in!"

"Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it," John approved. He fell in beside her as the group headed for the training building, letting the other women take the lead. "Do you really consider fighting in dungeons a workout, though?"

"I told you I was technically in the military, didn't I?" Lingering embarrassment faded quickly in the face of Lerianna's renewed confidence. "My home never had a proper war going on while I was enlisted, but that doesn't mean I didn't take the training seriously. Or that I don't enjoy a good scrap."

"It didn't cause problems that your endorphins are so tied to your strength and combat abilities?"

"Nah. I mean, it did, but... not until later." Lerianna averted her eyes, the discomfort growing strong enough to wage war with her cockiness once more. "Fight-or-flight is one of the only natural ways our hormones take a backseat. If my species was still trying to get it on with an apex predator on the other side of the brush, we never would've lived long enough to develop sapience."

"So that's why you didn't go crazy when you kissed Moira during your-"

"S-shut up and forget about that!" Lerianna glared at him as they all filed into the training building together, forming a circle in the center of the large room. "You can't hold things I say when you're playing with my hair against me!"

"I don't remember agreeing to that rule."

"Keep holding stuff like that against me, and I'm gonna be holding the bottom of my foot against your face, you little shit!" Lerianna growled at John and huffed, ears twitching violently as she turned away. John's eyes swiveled up to the device around her ear, and when he confirmed its status, a weaselly smirk crossed his features. He hastily opened the Dungeon Barrier menu and plugged in all of the settings for their first run, then returned his attention to the well-toned bunny girl.

"Lerianna?" John leaned in as he spoke the name.

Lerianna turned with a fiery remark already prepared, but before it could touch her lips, John did. The gentle touch of Lerianna's soft lips against his own lingered as long as her shocked look did—then John pulled away hurriedly, before the threat of being kicked hard enough to launch back through the door could manifest.

"Just making sure that you're pumped up for this first dungeon," John teased as he leaned away. Lerianna sputtered like an engine in the cold, a redness rising in her face that had nothing to do with anger. Her suppressor was turned down so she could fight, just enough that her mind was stalling as it tried to decide whether her anger or lust was a more pressing issue to release.

And before she could choose ****, John pushed the button to initiate the dungeon, choosing **** for all of them.

"You know, it's my favorite, and I'm still getting tired of the color purple!" Lerianna complained. Her voice reverberated around the chamber in odd ways as she danced between targets, bouncing off the walls between blows to keep momentum and make herself less predictable.

Every third or fourth bounce, a blur of white would shoot back into the middle of the chamber, and one more of the indigo masses assembling themselves from the stones would dissipate, albeit usually temporarily. The creatures were resistant to physical damage, and this dungeon was nearly at the maximum level he could create; even with Lerianna's armor adding in Holy damage that bypassed the mitigation, these were not easy creatures to put down in a meaningful way.

"Look, I'm not the one who decided that 'default arcane energy' got the color. Blame Gaia, or whatever fantasy story gave her the idea!" John couldn't say the color wasn't starting to wear on him as well. Especially with how much of the color was coming from glimmering neon runes on the walls, lighting every dungeon they entered up like a bad rave.

"Just saying, we're supposed to be going to war against necromancers. Can't we go back to practicing against them?!" Lerianna gave a furious growl as her kick simultaneously tore one of the arcane shadows in half and shattered the stone floor underneath it.

Party Member: 778 DMG!

A huge crater severed most of the ritual circle the dark purple creature had formed from, stemming the tide from that corner of the room. Her kick was truly ferocious; John wished he'd been looking closely enough for his Observe to tell him what kind of damage she could have done if the creatures weren't so borderline intangible. Unfortunately, he was busy dodging a hail storm's worth of tiny arcane slivers spraying forth from the two nearest shadows as they tried to **** him into a corner.

"I never thought I'd miss those smelly fuckers, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna have purple burned into my retinas after this!"

"These give the best enchanting materials for this level, sorry." John gave a half-hearted shrug, though he was sure Lerianna wasn't even looking at him. "I don't know if that's actually any better for Aclysia to eat, but to be honest, I'm a little nervous about feeding her anything charged with a certain kind of energy. Especially necromantic energy! I'm still not sure how those will affect her once the system updates."

"Well then at least help me flip the fucking dimmer switch!" Lerianna shouted. "I can't keep-"

Lerianna's words were lost, first in the sound of energy thrumming in the air, then in a flash of light and a cry of agony. One of the luminescent purple beings had raised its hands, and from a growing orb between them, emitted a massive beam of raw energy. For all of Lerianna's speed, the creature's aim was impeccable—it burned a gaping hole through her midsection. Worse, as the beam of energy seemed to impart no **** on contact, Lerianna's own momentum carried her through the beam before it dissipated, widening the hole and incinerating a path out the side of her torso.

Party Member: -592 HP!
Party Member: -712 HP!
Party Member: Gained Bleeding Status x13!
Party Member: Gained Organ Failure Status x4!

For a moment, everything stood stock still. The beam's light faded as the attack did as well, but the searing white filling John's vision made it difficult to tell that anything had changed. Lerianna's health, already depleted from the slow build-up of wounds over the course of the last few dungeons, was hanging by a thread, and rapidly depleting. It was enough to last her a short while—but she was in no state to defend herself, and the same arcane shadow was already preparing another spell.

John's own heart echoed in his ears. He stopped moving, and didn't even feel the shards that tore his flesh as they impacted. The Shard thrummed in his chest, already activated to its full power, but seething with even greater rage in the moments before John's shock faded enough for him to feel it as his own. Lerianna impacted the wall she'd been headed towards with a sickening thump, then began to fall, screaming as she clutched at the place where her ribs and organs used to be.

Lerianna was nearly across the chamber from him, and falling too quickly to reach in time, even with all his points. Shishun was out of reach as well, busy holding her own against a cluster of the arcane shadows, and too low on mana to Lightning Jump over to Lerianna, or to John so that he could copy the ability. Moving on instinct, John steadied his feet and activated Wind Shear, fingers locking around the hilt of his blade just before a torrent of wind stronger than any hurricane erupted against his back.

-2,618 HP! [Recoil Damage]

"Faster. Faster!"

-187 HP!
-219 HP!
-126 HP!
-194 HP!

John ignored the shards that pierced him as he soared past the two shadows cornering him, paying no mind to his own depleting health. The world around him blurred as his enhanced senses struggled to keep up with his overclocked speed. The wind was at his back, forcing him onward faster than his legs were meant to carry him, each footfall against the stone only holding for an instant before his own speed tore any traction away from him. John’s reflexes had to be pushed to their absolute limits to weave his way between the shadows, not sure if their partially ethereal bodies would count as impacts, and not able to spare even an ounce of lost momentum.

The blade did glisten and glimmer as John moved, but the target was no foe. John's Fang of the New World embedded itself to the hilt in the wall directly in Lerianna's path. His speed was brought to a near-instant halt as his blade and legs worked to slow his landing, his bones cried out with agony... but, by some miracle, his body held. He stopped himself against the chamber's stone wall directly below Lerianna with no more **** than a toddler's stumble, knee barely grazing the wall as he extended his arms.

To his shock, Lerianna was actually trying to catch herself on the wall’s crevices. She flipped and fumbled, and John nearly had to dive to the side to intercept her, but when she noticed John waiting below, she stopped gripping at the stone wall and let herself tumble into his grasp.

The very second he felt Lerianna's weight settle into his arms, John was moving again, evading a sphere of mana that arrived just moments later. John went on the run as his Heal spell washed over Lerianna. He didn't have enough mana left to fully restore all that had been destroyed, but it was enough to keep her health steady while he retreated out of range of the anomalous creatures. He didn't stop until they were safely tucked away in the hall outside the room.

"Set me down, I'm fine," Lerianna growled, voice burbling as blood leaked from the side of her mouth.

"You're missing part of your torso, you are not fine!" John chided. He drew three potions from his inventory and uncorked the first in an instant, pressing it to Lerianna's lips. She didn't object, though she did make an unpleasant face as the bitter liquid poured down her throat. It took two potions before her health was restored, though part of her wound remained. Healing potions weren't quite as effective at regenerating major wounds, though they did seem to fix the worst of it. Going by her cleared status list, they at least stopped the worst of the bleeding, and repaired or replaced a few vital organs…

"Things are faster than I thought. Good aim, too," Lerianna admitted, settling herself back on the ground while John drank the third potion himself, restoring most of what he'd lost from the recoil.

"We should stop after this. We're getting careless. We need to-"

"We need to get back out there and do this right," Lerianna interjected, silencing John with a raised hand. "It's my own damn fault. I know how real things are getting, and I'm wasting time on complaining and going back and forth with you instead of focusing on the fight. I'm not used to feeling this amped up yet... I let the euphoria of it get to me. Didn't matter when things were a little weaker, but now it does. I got careless, I got punished, won't happen again."

"I don't want..." John silenced himself this time, eyes drifting to the health bars in his peripheral as the rest of their party fought on, taking wound after wound, yet fighting on all the same. Visions of Adantia's scar played in his mind, wonder and awe at how much of her own body she'd lost and still managed to not only fight on but escape, and heal herself when no one else was around to do so. "Fine. Let's go. Just be careful, alright?"

"Hell yeah. You know you can count on us. I'll keep a better handle on my energy. Oh, and... thanks for the help," Lerianna added, almost as an afterthought, already turned to sprint back down the hall. "You wanna help me out a little more?"

"Sure. How?"

The answer came by way of Lerianna pressing her body against his for a breath, one hand on his chin as their lips melded together, another on the suppressor latched to her ear, cranking it down until only one of the lights remained on. John could actually feel her lips and cheeks heating up as she did so, and when she pulled away, crimson hues danced beneath her caramel skin.

"Fuck yeah. Not gonna let them hit me again with this feeling pumping through me. No more distractions, no more chatting, and no more carelessness. I'm gonna fucking destroy those things!"

With that, Lerianna bounced out of sight, back around the corner and moving even faster than before her injury. John wasted no time in sprinting after her, heart pounding, anxious thoughts **** to the back of his mind.

"Not sure pumping herself up more was the best idea, if she's already having a hard time focusing..." John thought warily. "She’s kind of amazing, though. I get by on my Gamer’s Body ability fixing everything. I don’t even know if I’d be conscious if I was in that state, let alone still trying to move on my own. Everyone here is growing just as much as I am, and they’re all incredible in their own right. I’m lucky to have all of them at my side. Moira and Kim too, and all the others. We’re going into one hell of a war."