Chapter 32 A small friend

  After discussing our plan we moved to a butcher and bought a package of cheap raw meat. Trudging through the streets filled with mushy snow in the morning light we made our way to the Northern gate. After answering a few questions from the guards we were quickly let through. After an hour we made it to a nice part of the open road and placed our bait. Now we wait.

  After about half an hour we spot a snow leopard sniffing the air, heading to our bait. After a moment a few more follow the first, then a few more. After a full minute there were ten snow leopards sniffing the meat. I nod to Sarah and we hold our hands together preparing a chant to take a few down.

  “Find and seek, yearn and burn.

  Flame heed our call and scour our foes.

  FIRE PILLAR.”

  A large pillar of fire takes three of them down, quickly turning them to ash within seconds. The others immediately pop out from our cover as soon as our incantation ends. The snow leopards jumped in the air once the flame pillar bloomed into the sky. I could feel the fatigue of my mana being spent after the chant but I couldn't just sit around. After a moment of breathing hard I dive into the melee with my swords drawn, my tail ring deploying as I dashed forward. After barely dodging its mouth my blades sunk into its hide. The beast roared before I quickly dragged my swords down while still impaling it, making its entrails spill out. The moment mine fell Derek had one pounce on his back, taking a chunk out of its shoulders. He roared as he threw it into a nearby tree, stunning it for a moment as he too cast a spell.

  “ROCK.”

  A small boulder is pulled from the ground and launches at the leopard as it thunks against the tree,while stunned the boulder squishes it flat, taking the tree down with it. Jean was no slouch and had taken one down himself, neatly decapitating it a moment after I slew mine. The remaining two tried to flee only for Alice to slam one into the ground, a small leopard shaped crater in the ground forming around it before she pummeled it to death. The last one nearly made it to the treeline before a bolt of lighting stunned it.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The leopard snarls right before my blade goes right down its open mouth, with a small upward movement of my wrist it drops dead, its brain skewered. We wiped our blades off and healed Derek. While I wasn't the best at healing magic I could patch anyone up if Alice wasn't around. After healing Derek's shoulder, the flesh knitting itself together as we worked, I finally collapsed. I panted a bit as I leaned against the rock we had used to hide earlier. Well at least I didn't collapse before the fighting was done this time. Sarah sat nearby too, the dual cast spell had taken a lot out of us, we had just done an expert level spell, ‘flame pillar’ and considering we alone could only barely cast advanced spells it's no wonder we were both on the verge of losing consciousness.

  [You've won! Xp gained 4,000]

  [Basic dual cast has become dual cast!-increased ease and less fatigue when casting with another-”my love I'm afraid we need to go all out once more.”-???]

  The others worked to skin the few snow leopards that hadn't been turned into mush or ash. After a few minutes they threw the bodies together before using fire magic to burn the remains. There wasn't much to burn as they had gotten as much meat as Derek could carry, it was mostly bones and entrails that were left. After Alice said a quick prayer we got up from our rest and slowly walked around for a while as a group to find their den.

  After walking for about 40 minutes we found it. It was a fairly large cave with a single stalactite at the entrance. We walked in and found nothing of note besides a single set of human bones. I performed the rites as the others looked around to make sure none were hiding around. After a bit I saw Alice playing with a slime of all things. She rolled a small acorn towards it and the slime lightly tackled it, rolling it back.

  “Alice, why are you playing with a slime?”

  Alice kind of looks away for a moment, whistling the best she can, spoilers, she can't.

  “I've… always liked slimes? This one is just so sweet! He's not like the others, he's a good slime!”

  I sigh as she hands the dark blue slime a small piece of fruit. The slime engulfs the fruit and it slowly fizzles to nothing inside its gelatinous body.

  “Im gonna name him Reggie.”

  I quickly appraised the slime out of curiosity and sure enough it's now named that.

  “If you're gonna keep him at least keep him away from my tail, it's bad enough having Sarah drooling on my tail, I don't even want to imagine how bad it would be trying to get slime out of it.”

  Alice nods and extends a hand to the slime, it hops on and hops onto her shoulder. Reggie doesn't cause Alice any harm while it sits, her armor intact. We head back to the cave where the others are waiting for us and Alice quickly introduces our newest member. Jean pipes in the moment she's done talking.

  “At least we won't have to waste anything. I for one am glad we have a lil guy that can eat nearly anything.”

  We talk a bit as we walk back to Salin and reflect on our fight. Reggie occasionally leans towards whoever's speaking as if he can understand us.