Rebirth of the Nephilim

Chapter 693: The Storm’s Silver Lining

“I need to do this with you more often.”

Syd felt Bridget move against her side, bare arms and legs brushing against her as the orc shifted atop the layered blankets that cushioned their bodies from the hard floor of the airship deck. The early morning was still chilled from the cool winds that had brought so much rain the day before, but the sun had risen to skies unburdened by clouds and the golden rays felt good against bare skin. Idly, a part of Jadis wondered if maybe she should be wearing some kind of sunblock considering the paleness of her ivory skin, but since she hadn’t experienced any sunburns so far in her new life, she wasn’t even certain she could be sunburned. Such thoughts caused her mind to drift around Bridget’s green skin and whether her coloration offered any protection against UV rays. Ultimately, Jadis came to the same conclusion for the orc as she had for herself. Likely Bridget couldn’t be burned by the sun, though the reason wouldn’t be because of her skin.

“You should do this more often with me,” Bridget eventually said, her voice filled with the lethargy of one who had spent entirely too much energy recently and had not yet fully recovered. “It’s kind of embarrassing when I do this alone.”

“Yeah, but we both know what happens when I do join you most of the time,” Syd couldn’t hide the smirk in her tone.

“None of that right now,” the orc stated flatly. “I’ve already done my exhibition. And I don’t feel like putting on any more of a show than I already am for anyone buzzing around up here.”

“Oh, come on,” Syd cajoled playfully. “The only two people in the sky right now are Noct and Eutychia. You know Noct wouldn’t mind the show, and I bet Eutychia will overlook us performing some stress relief. She seems cool like that.”

“No.”

“Spoil sport.”

The teasing banter put a smile on Syd’s face, but as the two lapsed back into silence her mind eventually wandered to memories of the day before. Her mood threatened to sour; the frustration and pain of the ambush and battle in the rain was still palpable. However, Jadis did her best not to let her mind stray into dark places. As bad as the battle had been, the outcome could have been far worse. Revenge had been sweet, though fleeting, and there were certainly other positives to be thankful for.

The number of soldiers who had been caught in the collapse had eventually been tallied at somewhere around nine and a half thousand. The majority had survived, which was the good news, but many had received wounds. While the more basic injuries had been addressed by the overwhelming power of Eir and Jocelyn healing almost non-stop for most of the night, there were wounds that could not be fixed with blanket area spells. Counting both the semi-permanently wounded and the dead, the casualty total as of the last update Jadis had heard was a little under four thousand. Out of eighty thousand troops, which didn’t count the additional twenty thousand reinforcements that were on their way, that meant the ambush had a casualty rate somewhere around five percent.

Five percent. Not terrible when put into the perspective of how many Demons had died to cause that damage, but it wasn’t great considering the battle had been, realistically, nothing more than a skirmish. They hadn’t even reached Kastoria yet, where the main force of Demons and the greater part of the power resided. Losing five percent of their fighting soldiers before they were even halfway to the city was not ideal. Not terrible, Jadis reminded herself. Not an insurmountable, crippling loss. But not ideal.

There were happier things to think of, though. Levels had been gained among all those who had fought, both among the common rank and file as well as the elite. Many of the avatars and mercenaries had gained levels, which was something of a big deal, since many of them were past CLR sixty and had seen a significant slowdown in the progress they made towards new levels. The ambush had given them all enough of a boost that Jadis was pretty sure that almost everyone in the avatar camp had gained at least one level. That silver lining extended to Jadis and her lovers, as well.

Jadis herself had gone up two levels in her Mirror Knight class, going from forty-four to forty-six. The even number had given her two points to spend, naturally, which meant she had put those points into Eldritch so that she could continue to bolster both herself and her lovers’ stats. That increase had become mundane to Jadis, though, so her focus was on the new open skill slot she had to fill, and the two new skills made available to her.

Mirror Minification

Active Spell. Halve the physical size of a single living target. The weapons and equipment of the target will also decrease in size; however, any items that leave the target’s person will revert to their original size after three seconds. Potions and other similar items that are decreased in size by the spell will have no greater effect or distribution should they be used on an individual other than the spell’s target. The spell’s cost and duration are directly affected by the number of Mirrored Bodies you currently possess. Cost – 300 magic. Duration – 3 hours.

Fly-By-Knight

Passive Skill. Decrease the amount of weight your armor counts against your flight carrying capacity to 0.1 of its standard total weight. Further, any living passengers that weigh less than 300 pounds that you carry while flying will not count against your weight capacity at all, and will also have a lessened negative impact on your aerodynamics.

Jadis hadn’t picked a skill yet; she was waiting until they could all gather for their traditional sit-down. They hadn’t been able to yet, not with how chaotic everything had been. Many of her lovers were still sleeping off their exhaustion, even with Sleep of the D to help. But once they did all sit down and talk out their new levels and any new abilities, Jadis was all but certain that she would be choosing Mirror Minification as her newest spell.

It wasn’t as though she couldn’t see the utilitarian uses of Fly-By-Knight. If her armor wasn’t weighing her down, she could achieve even faster speeds, and maneuver better, and carry more weight when needed. Plus, she did have passengers riding on her for flights pretty regularly, so a skill that made transporting them easier would be convenient.

But there was just no way Jadis could turn down a skill that would let her shrink herself and others.

Gods, the crazy shit she could get up to, especially when combined with Mirror Magnification…

While Jadis distracted herself with silly fantasies of varying degrees of eroticism and perversion for a few minutes, she eventually moved her thoughts onto the one other person whose recent level increase she had concrete details on. Namely, the beautiful orc who was sunbathing next to her.

Bridget had gained level thirty-four in her primary class, which was the final hurdle she needed to cross to reach the exalted heights of CLR sixty, thus unlocking her tertiary class. The milestone had been achieved mid-battle, which wasn’t exactly the best time to make important, life-altering choices, but Bridget had decided waiting around to do a review of her options when a power boost could make the difference between life and death was an idiotic proposition. Jadis didn’t know the details on all three of the classes made available to her flail-wielding lover, but she did have the description of the one Bridget had chosen memorized.

Bonded Flamesoul Warrior.

You have forged a powerful bond, one that will either take you to exalted heights or to abyssal failure. Commit to the love and lust you feel and gain even greater power in reward. This class will enhance the fire that burns within your soul, turning you into an inferno to be feared on the field of battle.

Like all the other bonded class descriptions Jadis had read, Bonded Flamesoul Warrior’s overview was light on the details. The description focused on the “bonded” aspect more than the actual “flamesoul warrior” part, which was a little frustrating. Then again, when Jadis looked back on her own class descriptions, she couldn’t recall any of them being super helpful either. Either way, Bridget’s newest class had a simple name, almost unassuming in its lack of frills. It was that simplicity that led Jadis to believe that the class was far more powerful than it looked.

After all, Mirror Knight was pretty basic sounding too, wasn’t it?

Jadis had not been able to wait until a gathering of the whole group to find out more about Bridget’s keystone level one skill. She had literally turned into a living body of blue fire; how could Jadis put off finding out more until later? Once Jadis had been able to find a quiet moment, she had pulled Bridget aside and gotten the description of her new ability. Fortunately, it was every bit as cool as Jadis had hoped it would be.

Flamesoul Body

Active Skill. Your physical form is transformed into that of a living flame. While in this form, your Strength attribute is increased by 0.5 of your Arcane attribute. Your Flamesoul Body floats above the ground, though you are not capable of flight. If you fall from a great height, you will still impact the ground with force, but you will experience greater control over your fall than would be otherwise possible. Your Flamesoul form is immune to fire damage. While in this form, you are no longer able to regenerate magic and instead lose magic from your pool at a rate of 5 points per minute. Once you exhaust your magic pool, you will revert to your original form.

Aside from the fact that the skill let Bridget turn into fire which was making Jadis nerd out like a total dweeb, it gave the orc an utterly massive boost to her Strength stat while active. More than four hundred and fifty points, if Jadis was doing her math right, which meant Bridget was going to be able to hit her enemies like a fucking dump truck while her flame was on. Sure, it wasn’t an always active passive skill like Mirrored Body, but the cost to keep the form up wasn’t too bad, especially not considering Bridget’s increased magic pool and her Fuel for the Flame skill. Besides, Jadis was fairly sure Bridget wouldn’t want to be a living flame all the time. It would probably get in the way of certain pleasurable activities.

Then again, Jadis thought after a few moments, she didn’t really know how physical Bridget’s Flamesoul body was. She could wear armor and hold a weapon, couldn’t she? Did that mean she could be touched? Would touching Bridget while she was in her burning form feel different from sticking her finger into a fire? Just how hot was the Flamesoul body, exactly?

Jadis had promised herself that she would never get immolated again. She was done with being burned alive. If she was ever struck with another fire spell, it would be too soon.

And yet…

How did the old saying go?

“I really shouldn’t stick my penis in there. However…”

“What was that?”

“Nothing,” Jay shook her head as a grin spread across her face. “Just thinking about some interesting possibilities for the future.”

“Mmhmm,” Bridget hummed suspiciously. “And those possibilities involve your penis?”

“They often do.”

“What involves Jadis’ penis?”

The unexpected third voice added to their conversation caused both Jadis and Bridget to jump, though both were forced to stay in their supine positions as a slender body flopped across them both. Blinking her eyes open, Jay looked down to see a naked catgirl draped across her stomach and, with pale legs and flaming tail lying on top of Bridget.

“Ammy? When did you get up here? How did you get up here?” Jay asked, surprised at her lover’s appearance. So far as she was aware, she and Bridget were the only two aboard the anchored Leviathan.

“Noct told me you two were up here,” Ammy explained as she wiggled around on top of the two of them, making herself comfortable. “Sunbathing is a Lares prerogative, I’ll have you know. You can’t just fly off and do this without me. So, I asked Noct to give me a lift.”

“Well, I have to do this for an hour at least once every few days,” Bridget grumbled as she shifted Amarantha’s foot so that it wasn’t poking her breast. “Class requirement.”

“Oh, lucky,” Ammy chirped. “I wish I had an excuse like that.”

“Did Noct come up here, too?” Jay asked, lifting her head up enough to look around for the dark-haired woman.

“Mm, I asked her to join, but she said the sun wasn’t really her thing,” Ammy replied as a small purr started inside of her chest. “Kind of a night owl, that one. But if we’re talking about things that involve Jadis’ penis, I think you better think about involving Noct. I could smell the hormones rolling off her when she took me up here.”

“Well, we weren’t talking about my penis,” Jay rolled her eyes. “But thank you for the warning.”

There were a few seconds of peaceful silence where only the sound of the early morning wind reached Jay’s ears. Only a few.

“Can we talk about my penis? Because Aila was telling me about your whole Duality of Flesh ritual and—”

“Oh, my gods,” Bridget threw up her hands. “It’s like having a second, smaller Kerr.”

“Yeah, true,” Jay chuckled as she rolled over, forcing a squeak out of Ammy as she purposefully sandwiched the catgirl between herself and Bridget. “So why fight it?”

“…alright, maybe a little of that.”