The "Best" RPG Ever-12

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Zack woke up late the next morning, stood up and stretched, and then went and put his armor on. The others were still asleep; Mika had said she was going to go experiment with her fire powers in the training yard for a while, but apparently had come back after a bit. The wolf opened its eyes slightly when he got up, and then shut them again. Feeling hungry, he went downstairs to get breakfast, the wolf getting up and following him, before plopping down to go back to sleep the instant he sat down. Just as lazy as any real dog, he thought.

After a while the others came down. "Morning."

"Good morning~," said Mika, taking a seat next to him. "What are we gonna do today?"

"Well, I'm going to go buy some more sets of normal clothes. It's really getting annoying going around town in armor, especially this armor."

"What if you get attacked without your armor?" said Katherine, which Zack responded to by pointing vaguely at the wolf sleeping next to him. "Okay, fair enough, but you know buying a bunch of different clothes is just begging the universe to start tearing them up at every opportunity."

"No, it's what normal people do. It's not normal to go around wearing exactly the same thing all the time, unless you work in uniform."

"Are you saying I should get some new clothes, then?"

He shrugged. "You can if you want. I know I'd want to in your place, since there's definitely no reason you have to go around in a short skirt all the time."

"You don't think it looks good on me?"

Zack glared at her for a second or two. "It looks fine, but annoying to wear nonstop."

The catgirl gave a devious grin. "I dunno, I just thought out of all of us you'd be the last one to want to go clothes shopping, Zack."

He managed to somehow frown even harder. "There is nothing feminine about buying clothes. Especially if you have exactly one outfit to your name."

"I know, I'm just teasing you."

He gave that a large sigh. "Look, I'm through eating, and I'm going to go now. Do whatever you want for the next few hours. Maybe test out those rings we found if you wanna do something useful." The wolf, naturally, followed him out the door.

"Y'know you're poking a hornet's nest there, Kath," said the witch. "One of these days she's gonna bite your little head clean off~."

"But it's just so much fun. Besides, I can always tell when it's time to stop."

"A-aren't you being a little mean?" asked Nora.

"A little. But it's the friendly kind of meanness."
"That sounds like a, uh..a contradiction of terms."

"No no, it's perfectly normal. Only really good friends can throw verbal abuse back and forth nonstop."

"If you say so. But, um..I thought you just met two days ago?"
"I'm good at making friends," responded the catgirl.

"Soooo, what about it?" asked Mika after a bit.

"About what?"
"Are you gonna go look for some clothes?"

"Are you?"

"Mmmaaaybe..but I might not buy anything because I'm really picky. It has to have room for my wings, it has to keep up the whole witch look, and it has to be cute! You still didn't answer the question, though."

She shrugged. "I guess so. I am a little curious what some different outfits look and feel like with this body. And..hate to admit it, but Zack was right about this getup not being the most practical thing in the world. Do you want to look for some clothes, Nora?"

"Oh! Uh.." The elf hesitated a bit. "I-I guess I could, but uh, it almost feels pointless.."

"How so?"

"Well, I wish I could get something that hid a little more of my skin..b-but, anything that covered much more than what I've already got on would make it hard use my powers correctly. And, I don't know how to explain it, uh..even just having covers over me feels all wrong, like having a blurry filter over my eyes or something covering my ears."

"Well, that's fine, but it'd still be sensible to have a spare outfit or two, you know, in case what you're wearing gets damaged in a fight? I'm sure you don't wanna be left with even less."
Nora's face turned bright red. "O-oh, no. Definitely not."

---

"So, how long have we been walking now?"
The fox-girl looked up slightly. "Hmm...about an hour."

"And you're sure we've been going in the same direction."
"Yep, ever since leaving that weird castle place. Whoa, you hear that?"

"What?"

Rayna paused, her ears twitching a bit. "Sounds like..a wildcat roaring. Maybe someone shouting. I bet they need help."
"We shouldn't go looking for trouble."
"Well, I'm gonna go check it out anyway." She started running, and Lynn very quickly caught up.

"What are you doing?"
"I know a quest hook when I hear it. Besides, if there's people they can lead us to an actual town."
"This is such a bad idea."
"Bad idea, good idea. They're all the same until you try them out!"

"Said the guy who stuck his finger in a light socket."
"Whoa!" Rayna stopped short right the top of a hill; Lynn didn't, and went rolling down, recovering her feet only after reaching the bottom."

"You could have warned me, ya ditz!" yelled the archer.

"I didn't see it any sooner than you did!"

"Yeah, right! This--!"
"Excuse me!" said a male voice from behind Lynn. She turned around to see a man with wolf-like ears and a tail in some fairly torn-up leather armor, standing between three unusually large, spotted wildcats and an unconscious person in similar armor, holding a long spear out toward the cats. Two more of the same were lying unmoving on the ground nearby. "Little help please!"

"Right, that." Rayna quickly placed an illusion of herself holding a samurai sword right next to one of the cats while she dove down the hill to get in better range. The illusion swung the blade loudly and clumsily at the cat, which immediately got out of the way while its friend pounced at her..and straight through emtpy air, landing snout-first on the ground.

The third cat chose this moment to pounce at the man with the spear from the wrong angle. He batted it away with the side of the polearm and moved around to keep himself between it and the body behind him.

Lynn drew out an arrow and concentrated, causing it to start sparking while stringing it. Rayna got up, making another illusion of herself next to the cat that dodged the first one. The cat, now apparently suspicious after its partner's mishap, tried rearing up and taking a swipe with its claws. This of course hit empty air, but also gave Lynn a good target. The arrow sailed straight into the animal's underside and electrocuted it, stunning it.

The other cat recovered from hitting the ground, and turned, growling, toward Rayna. It charged, stopped, and swiped at her, hitting another illusion as she danced to the side. The fox-girl moved out of the way of another swipe while making three more of herself to keep it guessing. When it attacked one illusory Rayna and failed, she made herself invisible just long enough to move into its place.

Lynn shot a cold arrow at the cat the armored man was holding off; it ducked under it, making a small burst of snowflakes on the ground on its other side, and then hopped backwards away from his spear. She caught it in the side with a burning arrow, and then had to jump out of the way of the cat she had stunned earlier. "Ray!"

"On it!" Rayna kept an illusionary self between 'her' cat and the other one, made Lynn briefly invisible, and put a fake Lynn between the fake Rayna and that cat. It looked..off, with pointed ears, a small tail, and definitely too large of a chest, but it was enough to fool the animal. Both cats pounced, jumped straight into each other, and started clawing at each other before checking what exactly they were attacking. The fox-girl grinned wide, placing an illusion of herself, injured and lying on the ground, on top of each cat as they backed up and opened their eyes. So they pounced at each others' throats again.

"Come on. Come on." The cat with the burning arrow in its side growled at the man in armor. He nudged his weapon forward and then back again, and the animal moved with it. Then it was knocked over, on its side, by an arrow with what seemed to be a big rock for a head. "Good enough." He stepped forward and stabbed it, hard, and then stabbed it again, before turning toward the two remaning cats.

They were very angry, and running after Rayna. Of course that wasn't the real Rayna, who tapped Lynn's shoulder to clue her in to that. When the fake Rayna was far enough away, she turned around, allowing the cats to hit her and dispel the illusion while the real one briefly disappeared and another illusion appeared between the cats and Lynn, and started running toward the archer. One of the cats chased her, while the other started going around. An arrow hit the one chasing her straight between the eyes, and a couple of vines shot out from the head, wrapping themselves around its cheeks. That didn't actually do much, since the animal slumped over anyway.

The other cat jumped at Rayna, who very quickly ducked under the pounce, leaving an illusion standing up. Lynn quickly turned around and ran over next to the armored man's unconscious friend before drawing her bow back, aiming it to arc over his head. The man turned around briefly and nodded before getting his spear back up into position.

The last cat was in a rage, swiping at false Raynas every couple of seconds. She had to actually run and keep moving back and forth to keep out of its random swings, and when she finally got to the others she fell into a sitting position, panting more rapidly than she thought should be possible. The animal charged through her last illusion and straight into a rock arrow to its head, followed by a swift spear stab while it was stunned.

The man stuck his spear in the ground and physically relaxed. "Phhew..."
Lynn went over to Rayna, squatting slightly and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah, hh-hh-hh-hh-hh, I think, hh-hh-hh, I think I overdid it, but yeah."

The armored man, meanwhile, knelt next to the person he'd been protecting. "Oh, thank th'gods," he said after a bit, "she's just knocked out."
Lynn stood back up and went over to him. "What happened, anyway?"
"Well, ah. We were just doing our regular patrols, and those cats came at us outta nowhere. I don't think we'd have been able to report it if you hadn't showed up."

"Is it normal for a bunch of animals to attack you like that?"
"Well..you never know out on the frontier. Not usually in such big groups, though."

He stood up. "Guess I ougtha introduce myself. Hold on." He removed his helmet, which obscured his face, and immediately a bunch of black hair fell to a bit past his shoulders. His fur was the same pitch black as the hair, except inside of his ears, which was a dark gray; he had bright yellow eyes, and a small but well-built face. He was of a more slim, athletic build, but obviously strong enough. "Name's Rast. I work with the town guard." He offered a hand to shake, which Lynn did, but she had trouble talking for a second or two after getting a look at his face. Something made her feel a little excited, almost light-headed.
"How did you fit that in there?" Said Rayna, now recovered enough to turn toward him.

"Oh, um..it's a special enchantment, long story with the, ah--"
"Never mind," said the archer, having shaken off the momentary..whatever it was. "I'm Lynn and this is Rayna. You're from around here?"
"Sure! Well, about 's much as anyone's really 'from' the frontier."

"Well, we're not. I'm assuming you know how to get to town?"
"Of course! But I can't go back without my partner."

"Hm..neither of us is all that strong, but I think you and I'd be able to pull her a little while."

"Sure. Town's not all that far off."

Rast carefully picked up one of the armored woman's arms, and Lynn got the other. The armor made her heavier than expected, but she managed. Rayna slowly got up, then took a deep breath, and then the three of them started walking.

"Oh, ah. M'partner's name is Pirr. Hate that you have to meet 'er like this, though."

"That's okay. You're not too badly hurt, are you?"
"Nah. This armor's pretty good at takin' damage for a body. Captain's sure to throw a fit about it, though, least till she hears how many of those things we clobbered."

"Is he strict or something? Did you not follow some rule?" asked Rayna.

"Nah, she just don't like the cost of replacin' and repairin' equipment all the time. More of a, 'this state of things I don't like much', fit than much else. Nah, we all know better than to really mess up with her in charge."
"Do you respect her or fear her?"
"Ahh..that'll be both, miss Lynn. For sure. She could scare off an Archdemon by looking at 'em the wrong way. Comes off as gruff, but always fair, you know? And generous in a pinch, I hear, but, well, in a you-didn't-hear-that-from-me kinda way."

"You mean she doesn't like that to be known," said Rayna, "because she'd rather be seen as tough, so people will only come to her for help if they seriously need it."
He shrugged with his free shoulder. "Guess that's it. Uh, you wanna change sides Lynn?"

"Sure."