Aetuornos Beta 3a-3

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3a-3: Sciuridae Anthropophagus

Scylla got bored of walking-without-talking very quickly, and audibly set out to find another topic of conversation. "Let's see..oh! If you don't mind sharing...what's your line of work? I own a gym, Kite does uh, computer modding?"
"Magic computer modding," the fox-girl said.

"Right!"

"I'll go as far as to say I'm a professional musician," Hatchet said. "You might've guessed as much from our talk earlier—or at least that it's among my interests, anyway."

"Uh.." The bunny-girl fidgeted nervously for a moment. "Fra—um. I'm, actually still in college," she said, surprising herself slightly by automatically talking in her in-character manner at first. "Haven't really..figured out, what exactly I wanna do yet, either."

"Eh, you'll figure it out," Hatchet said. "That's what college is for, right?"
"I wouldn't know," Kite said. "I'm pretty much all self-taught. Started doin' my stuff as a hobby in high school, and figured: No use wastin' time, money and effort when I've already got a living lined up. That road ain't for everyone, though."

"Wait, how'd you get in the beta then?" Scylla asked. "I mean, not to brag, but the pod and stuff is kinda expensive, right?"

"I um.." Franka found herself tapping her index fingers together a couple of times, and quickly stopped, dropping her arms to the sides. "Guess you could say I'm from a, pretty rich family? Our parents adopt a kid every few years or so, and most of them end up wealthy, or famous, or both. I was super excited about this game when I first heard about it, and my big brother's a major investor in it, so I basically begged him to let me play. He eventually gave in, on a few conditions I'd, rather not mention right now..." One of which was having a female player character.

"Do you...feel a lot of pressure from your family to be successful?" Scylla asked, her tone a mixture of curiosity and faint concern.
"Mmh..it's not that they ever, talk or even act like they expect me to get an amazing career..but, seeing what my siblings have accomplished, it's hard not to feel...I dunno, inferior? Like I'm not contributing enough. If I don't at least do something. I mean, I can't help being kind-of-a spoiled rich kid sometimes, but I really don't like the idea of being a freeloader."

"I bet you'll figure somethin' out," Kite said. "If your family's that well off, you got plenty of time, so 's long as you keep lookin' and really want to, you'll find your niche. Worst case, they cut you off and you work 'cause you have to, right?"

"Um...I really hope it doesn't come to that." Not one of Frank's siblings had ever been 'cut off' before, but again—it seemed like all of them knew what they were doing by this point in their lives.

"Hey, back in character—look over there," Hatchet said, pointing. A bunch of sheepbits were scattering away from something on the other side of a nearby hill. "What d'you think spooked them?"

"I guess we better go find out!" Scylla drew her sword and took off running, leaving everyone else to try their best to keep up with her. She stopped at the top of the hill, pointing down it. "Look!" she said excitedly, but quietly.

Franka's 'ingame lore knowledge' had let her know that man-eating squirrels were pretty big—big enough, after all, to conceivably eat a person. But it was really something else to actually see a pair of them! Even at this distance, they seemed to tower over their surroundings, their gigantic bushy tails looking capable of squashing a person flat all on their own. Their mouths were lined with big, razor-sharp teeth, and their paws were large enough for each one to be currently physically holding a sheepbit up in the air, rotating, shaking, and examining the struggling creature like it was an acorn.

"You all ready to get 'em?!" Scylla asked. Everyone was still somewhat out of breath from chasing after the wolf-girl, Hatchet the least so and the bunny-girl the most.
"Hhf...h-hang on," Franka said, still bent over forward and trying desperately to catch her breath. "These monsters...ffh...work in packs, taking their prey back to their den. Sorta like the way normal squirrels hide nuts?" She finally managed to stand fully up again. "Following them would reveal where they're hiding. To make a new buddy, Franka needs the soul of their alpha, so knowing where it's hiding really would be best!"

"We could still kill these and track where they came from," Hatchet said, "but that sounds like more trouble than just following. Unless they notice us following and turn around to attack."
"If that happens, then we kill 'em," Kite suggested.

While they'd been discussing this, the two giant squirrels had been bashing the heads of their prey on the ground until they stopped moving. Now they picked the sheepbits up gently with their mouths, went on all fours, and began bounding away.

"Okay okay~! If we're gonna follow them, then we'd better start!" Scylla said, hurrying after them.
"Not too close, now!" Kite advised in a sort of loud whisper. She seemed to accept this advice enough to slow her pace a bit, so the others were able to mostly keep up with her without going into a full-on sprint.

The squirrels' path was fairly straightforward: They skirted around some woods, took a cut through a valley between some hills, and then scattered as they came upon what looked like the ruins of a fairly large fortress.

"Which one do we follow?" Scylla asked, darting her head back and forth to watch them as the rest of the party caught up to her again.

"I think this is the den, actually," Hatchet said, pointing as one of the squirrels made its way through an oversized doorway (missing its doors) near the front. The other one went up to the mostly-destroyed ruins of a side structure and straight into a big hole leading to what had once been its basement.

"Well then—which way in first?"

Kite said, "If I had to guess...that basement's prolly 'storage', and the main entrance goes to the 'den'. Maybe we can sneak in easier through storage if it's connected? Though, charging in the main way is an option for sure."

"There's no guarantee that basement is even connected to anywhere else if these big guys can just carry their prey around outside," Franka pointed out. "Franka thinks straight in is the better choice."

"Charging in it is~!" Scylla said, starting off in that direction herself.

"Just try to be a little cautious..it might be bad for us to get pinned between two groups of those things," Hatchet pointed out as everyone followed her.

There were no squirrels immediately inside the entrance, leaving the party to look around on what appeared to have once been a grand entrance hall, complete with a balcony at the top connected to the upper floor beyond—perhaps a place for the ruler to come out and be seen by the commoners going in and out. In its present state, the balcony was half-collapsed, its entire left side converted into a large pile of rubble all across the floor. There was practically nothing left as far as furniture or decoration went, and the once-tiled floor was heavily scratched, broken, cracked, and largely covered in debris with an extra topping of shed fur and dirt from the building's present occupants. The doorways from the balcony to beyond were only human-sized, but the three first-floor doorways—one left, one straight, one right—were either large enough for the man-eating squirrels originally, or had been "modified" by way of some additional destruction.

Scylla led the way through where it was clearest of debris, taking the group over toward the left wall and around toward the forward-center part of the room.

"Which way now? Which door?" the wolf-girl whispered, looking around as she went.

"Hmm...you'd think the leader would be in the throne room, and that should be straight ahead," Hatchet said at a similar volume.

"Who says squirrels'll think like people?" Kite said. "Just as likely it's living in the guardhouse or servant's quarters or whatever."

"Llllet's just go left, then," Franka suggested. "It's the closest entrance."

Scylla nodded, and continued toward that doorway. "Hey, you used the first person," she observed.
"Err. Franka, couldn't think of a way to say that that wasn't super awkward." the bunny-girl said with a small shrug.

"...Me either, actually."

They entered a hallway with several doors on either side, none of which would be large enough for the squirrels, and most of which had collapsed or just led to small rooms full of debris. One of them did lead to a room containing a large blue crystal, the game's equivalent to a 'save point', which everyone made a mental note of. At the end of the hallway, they came to another "expanded" entrance with a large room beyond it. Scylla signaled for quiet (not that anyone was being loud at this point) and crept a little closer, leaning in toward the door to look. There were two of the man-eating squirrels inside, neither of which looked particularly special. But there was also...

"Treasure!" she whispered after turning her head back. "And two baddies. Let's kill 'em and get it?"

After everyone shared a few contemplative glances, Franka said, "Yes, but—allow Franka to take advantage of the element of surprise, please?"
"Me too," the fox-girl chimed in. "Sounds like they're eating?" Everyone present having animal ears made it easy enough for them to hear the noise of sheepbit flesh being torn up and chewed.
"...Yep," the samurai reported, carefully drawing her sword. "What're you two gonna do, then?"

"Uh.."

Since Franka was hesitating to answer, Kite answered first, pulling out a charm from her inventory. "One-use explosive. Not big enough to kill, but maybe leave 'im stunned—has to be attached to the target."
"Ooh..! Target some of the roof instead?" Franka suggested, pointing diagonally forward-up, roughly toward the top of the room the squirrels were in.

"Rocks fall, every-squirrel dies," Hatchet chimed in, "hopefully."

"Yeah, but I ain't sure how I'd reach all the way up there."

"Kite doesn't have to," the bunny-girl said, holding out her 'little friend' and having it wave its left 'hand'.

The miko nodded, "Gotcha," and offered the charm over; the rabbit doll 'held' the charm in its hand. "I'mma charge it up now, hold it, lemme know when I oughta release."

"'Kay."

Franka's doll floated, under her power, through the door, then up to the ceiling over where the two squirrels were. They were too focused on their food to notice something so small floating around, and it had the glowing charm affixed to the ceiling in no time at all. Then Franka floated it over to a corner of the room, well clear of where all that stone would fall to. She nodded to Kite, who'd been holding her gohei up in front of her in both hands this whole time. The fox-girl shook the gohei just once, and an explosion sounded from above, followed by the sound of an entire upstairs room falling onto the pair of giant squirrels. They squeaked and chittered with distress, starting to push and throw the pile off of them in the process.

"Okay—now go in for the kill~!" Scylla proclaimed, running inside without a second thought.

"Wait a—ugh." Hatchet reached to hold her back but was too slow, so instead he just facepalmed and shook his head. Kite ran past him, quickly summoning a barrier in front of herself and the wolf-girl before they could get hit by a bunch of debris being thrown out off of the pile. Franka's doll quickly ran over to behind the two of them to stay safe too, and she herself went up as far as just inside the doorway to wait the barrage out.

"Uh, sorry—thanks Kite!"
"No prob'. Better you're closer to 'em once they're free, anyhow."

"It'd just be better if we'd planned to do this ahead of time," Hatchet said, coming up next to the other melee fighter now that there was a shield to protect him.

Nobody present had actually encountered an angry squirrel before (in the real world), so they didn't really know what to expect. Once the two monsters were free, both of them stood fully upright and loudly squeaked, swiping their forepaws around in the air threateningly. Kite dismissed the shield, and Scylla stepped forward. "What's the matter—you still hungry?" She unsheathed her weapon. "I've got something you can eat right here!" With those last two words, she leapt forward at the nearer of the two squirrels, slashing into its upper belly and kicking off of its underside to jump back and land on the floor before it could catch her in its paws. It pounced after the wolf-girl and landed hard on the floor, catching nothing and leaving its back wide open for her to land on top of, run up, and slash it a few times in the back of the throat.

Hatchet threw one of this eponymous weapons at the other squirrel to goad it his way, and made a lucky hit right in its left eye, sending the already-injured carnivorous rodent into a frenzy. It went on all fours and ran at him with distressing speed, only to bounce violently off of one of Kite's barriers, shattering it in the process. The axe was dislodged from its face and fell loudly to the ground, so he ran up and recovered it on his way to bury another one into the top of the stunned animal's head.

Once Scylla's opponent had landed face-first on the ground, the rabbit doll came up, hands fully converted into flame-wreathed knives, to chop up its face. It stood up and Scylla leapt back; it grabbed for the doll but Franka managed to quickly float it away, just out of reach. The squirrel tried three more times to catch the small target floating around in midair just in front of it, during which time the samurai wolf-girl sheathed her weapon and tensed up, readying a technique. Then she executed it, seemingly disappearing before reappearing an instant later on the opposite side of the beast with her sword most of the way in its sheath again. When she put it the rest of the way in with an audible clink, the attack took effect, making the monster "feel" some ten or twenty slashes all-at-once through its hind legs and lower body.

The wolf-man drew back when the squirrel started to stir, after making his second chop into its head and leaving the weapon behind. It stood up, loudly squeaking again and thrashing back and forth, and so succeeded in throwing the axe off its head and over toward a far wall. He gave it another one, which made a fairly shallow cut into its underside before glancing off, and it went to charge at him again. Kite was ready with a barrier, but the squirrel bounded right over it upon coming within pouncing range of the two of them, and she had to quickly place another one above them so they could dive away to either side and get out of the way of its slightly-delayed landing. Franka quickly sent her doll over to stick some knives in its face while it was still stunned, and—more importantly—to get its attention on her little buddy so her two party members would have time to recover their feet.

Scylla, meanwhile, was having basically no trouble with her opponent. After having its hind legs turned into mincemeat, it was trying scrabble around after her with its forepaws, squeaking and chittering furiously the whole time. She laughed and taunted it in her usual way, letting it get close before leaping over it and slashing through its back with her sword mid-leap. Between all the damage it had taken from the roof collapsing and what it was enduring now, that squirrel was not very long for the world.

The other one obliged Franka by trying to catch her doll as it flitted around in midair, giving Hatchet some time to recover his feet, draw two of his axes in his hands, and ready a technique of his own. He held his arms out in an X-shape in front of him, then jumped at the monster from the side, slashing hard with one axe, then the other, both strikes having enough force behind them to go all the way through the beast's flesh. He kicked his feet off of the monster's side (not quite as adroitly as Scylla's similar maneuver earlier) and landed rolling away, leaving behind two very deep cuts in its side. The squirrel shrieked and tried to jump after him, but got caught by another barrier, skidding down it (as this impact hadn't been enough to shatter it) and crumpling onto the floor briefly.

Franka's doll had traded knife-hands for having a small ball of fire floating over each hand now, and went to work tossing them a few feet over at the prone beast, which quickly succeeded in setting some of its fur on fire. It panicked, shrieking and flailed around wildly—no longer interested in prey or revenge, only in putting the fire out—so everyone just stood clear of it, Hatchet tossing it a few more axes for good measure. When it seemed to have just about gotten the fire put out, Scylla ran up from one side, leapt, and made a clean slash right across the front of the squirrel's throat, finishing it off. She landed, then its body landed loudly on the ground behind her. The other one had died from her assault just a few seconds earlier.

The samurai maintained a dignified stance with her sword out for a second or two, then gracefully sheathed it. Then she raised her hands in the air and celebrated: "WOOOOH~! That was awesome!"

"We didn't bury the treasure, did we?" Hatchet asked, looking around.

"No, it's over there," Franka said, pointing to a part of the room beyond the pile of collapsed upper floor. A few stray stones had been thrown in that general direction by the squirrels in their initial flailing, but a small pile of gold flanked by two treasure chests was all still quite intact.

"Loooot!" The wolf-girl dashed over in that direction immediately.
"Don't forget it might be trapped," Kite pointed out.
"I know, I know..."

"So: What have we learned?" Hatchet said, going around the room to retrieve his scattered weapons.

"These squirrels don't pay attention to much of anything when they're eating," Franka said.

"Rocks fall, monsters die! Or at least get easier to kill," Scylla added.

He nodded his agreement. "Most important, though: Fire status effect, super effective. It basically stopped attacking once its fur was on fire."

"Wouldn't you?" Franka said.
"Sure," Kite said. "So we oughta be ready to take advantage of that 'gainst the alpha, too."

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Another case of managing to write more of a story I haven't touched in a while.

...I feel like Dan Shive wouldn't approve of this episode.