A couple of days later.
"So you mean this is not what a normal or magical bomb is supossed to do?" Asked Xera as she pointed to the line of cremated goblins and half burned trees.
"I don't know, the leader and main researcher of that terrorist group could do some crazy shit, but all of it could be a combination of his magic, skills and bombs in any number of proporcions, and i'm talking about something from twenty or so years ago, so hell if i know if someone continued the research." Exclaimed Mara, the woman just as puzled about the rectangle of 'tame' fire her in law seemed to be able to produce.
They'd passed the advanced camp, the lake stop, the river, the crossroad with a great beast's territory, even passing the out of the way cave that Xera reconized as the place Aki had taken care of her, everything very streamlined and just as the human woman sent their way said. While all of those places were normally already safe for large groups, they had found virtualy no resistance in the way of monsters and beasts, reducing their travel time by a lot.
So much fire and death would have normally upset the spirits of the forests, but it was so contained and focussing on the goblins, a pest on everyone's book, that it was given a silent aproval.
*BBBRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOMMMM*
As a specially thunderous explosion rocked all the lizardman, who noticed that no, it really was them that were trembling, not the ground. Looking up, it was easy to notice that now the sky had two sources of light, the sun, and one very big fire not too far away. Considering the fact the canopy around was still very tall, one must understand that it was a great collum of fire, even if momentary.
Some half an hour of fast marching later.
"Aki! Why are you surrounded by naked children?" Asked his wife, the first to recompose herself enough for that.
"Look again dear, i'm healing dwarfs and gnomes. On more good news, it seems they had an iron mine, so i simply coated every living bunker and garrison in there with thermite. Took a while, but it was great. I also made sure to assasinate the goblin king while he tried to put down the fires." He grinned and took out an ugly gray head frozen in a look of uther wrath, which cause a lot of shock for all those present, mainly two diferent ones though.
Most lizard men present had awe and respect, the ugly thing had obviously been conected to a powerfull body, probably at the fifth rank, just like their chief and shaman. Xera didn't.
"This is a goblin king, the system said so when i appraised it, i got a level in nature's grace from killing it, why do you girls look like that?" Aki noticed that, imediatly looking at his wife and the other victims.
" 'The goblin king', is both a race title and a normal title. The one leading all these goblins is a troll shaman with little nubs in his head." His wife calmly said, imediatly taking the moral back to zero.
"Gods, it's rank six, isn't it? Actually, do any of you all know the girl who was given to a commander after he won a fight over her? She was ussed by the decapitated head i now have." Aki asked, turning around imediatly.
"Angela? She was in the pen for the least amount of time, the thing you killed didn't even let the human women get tested for the troll, i don't think she knew." Imediatly said a cat kin with red fur and chipped ears and tail.
"One less thing against her then."
"This troll probably isn't rank six yet." Said a smug granny. "It'd have full horns if so, and if it lost those, then it is weakened. That is the only reason i have not ran away with my tribe yet. Adventurers value their lives after all. Now, can you put out that fire? We can't just stay here like idiots after all." She pointed out.
*****
"Ok, this is it, you girls can change jobs first, take your time." Aki said, opening the slag covered entrance of the job changing room. The crystal in the center had a blue glow that seemed ethereal, but really, the sight of the liberated women was actually more soothing to him. He blamed his mother for that.
"Already thinking of getting another wife while i looked away?" Asked Xera.
"You caught me." He sheepshly smile, getting jabbed in the arm as they walked away.
"Jokes asside, are you sure you want me to brand you with a crest?" She had the same tone and face, but Aki could pick the way in which she hesitated at the end well enough.
"It's nothing to be afraid of. It will unlock some classes and skills even. Bessides, i wouldn't mind having a good owner, so you can have me as long as you treat me right." He shrugged, holding her hand as they walked the gray city in silence. The sun was about to fall, and neither of them doubted they'd need everything they had to survive even with all the 'explosives' Aki could put on the table. He'd use another ton of it if possible too, but he doubted it'd be as easy without the advantage of easy roofs for him to deposit the thing at, and whatever army was on their way thanks to his pyrotechnic show, was sure as hell more numerous than the goblins that had been here.
That was great for his XP bar, sure, but he could literraly see how his walls had already began to change qualitatively. His third one appeared when he exploded the goblin lake camp, he'd been about to level magician to 100, but then suddenly a notification popped up and said that the Xp needed for him to break through could only be obtained from rank 5 or above creatures.
Aki was powerfull, sure, but he had no actual chance against a normal rank 5 monsters, nevermind a king type. His natural solution was to assasinate it while there was a good distraction. It worked like a charm until his dagger broke inside the thing's neck when it clenched it's muscles, making him unable to cut deep enough. Aki had plenty of vitality and endurance for someone at C rank, but he was literraly backhanded into a wall with ease.
Seeing his broken state, the thing cursed him after taking out the blade in it's throat with it's nails, speaking in the common language of course, and promissed him a fate worse than death. With one of his arms sprouting a bone outside and the other firmly lodged into a stone wall of the king's house, Aki couldn't help but smile.
"You know nothing of true fear little one." *Snap* His bone was back in place, healing just like it's enemy's injured neck. "You know nothing of true pain." His voice reverberated at the end, the word making the goblin remenber all it's most griveous wounds as it had risen to power. "You are not even a worm" At the last word, Aki's mana pool emptied out, shattering the illusion, allowing the goblin to notice that it now spouted a completly destroyed eye, barely being able to comprehend that it's brain was being carved and that no, it had not been an illusion how terrifying his oponent had last looked like, his apparence exactly the same it had been in his mind.
Even just remenbering the thing's death moment sent a shiver down Aki's spine, loosing only in intensity of the coctail of emotions he so vividly experienced when he'd first laid with his wife. It scared him to no end, the level ten mental ressistance be danmed.
"I'll be sure to shower you in my loyalty dear, maybe that will even get me the skill at a starting level of Five!" He told his wife, smiling as he held her hands on the magical brand with it's tip on the forge's fire.
He'd panicked at the time, but the words were his, more complains than any kind of dominaring statement in his mind. The momentary fear in the goblin's eyes had been the only thing that allowed him inside it's mind, making it slow enough for him to use death magic to his remaining dagger to make the move most likely to kill the little shit.
It'd worked oh so well, he'd even devoured part of the thing's anima, allowing him to straighten up enough to get out of there while carrying the corpse. Savage grin splatered in his face.
"You've seen me without my shirt before, there's no need to be embarased." He smiled, completly confident as his wife's trembling hands put the glowing hexagon closer and closer to his shoulder blade. There was a moment of white, searing hot pain like'd he'd never feelt before, similar in level to his broken limbs, but on a diferent way, a diferent pain. Then came satisfaction and resignation. He didn't get ussed to the pain, he'd have to correct that someway, it's just that he felt the connection forming, binding him to her, and the feeling of sharing the weels felt good, like a weight he didn't know was there his whole life suddenly halved in weight and he was that much freer. He really didn't mind reliquinshing his complete freedoom for something like this. He had always too much of a coward anyway.
As the branding ended, the sound of metal hitting the ground, away from him, was heard. When Xera kneeled in front of him, her whole body quivered as she looked into his eyes. He just held a side of her face, lovingly staring at her confused amber orbs as he touched their foreheads together.
He'd noticed it as she grew outside her shell, but his Wife was actually a very greedy woman.
"I love you, and I promise to fuck your cute ass silly, but it's really hard to move my left side right now." He whispered, kissing the tip of her snout. "Didn't I just say that it hurts? What a perverted master." He massaged her neck as she pulled him into a tight hold despite his sweating body.
*****
[The unique skill 'Grotesque mind', is now Lv 1]
'There should have been another way.'
You just needed to be stronger.
'I didn't like doing this.'
You did, and so did he. He is your's now, more than ever.
"You shouldn't be doing it to others though, I'll shine less." He murmured.
'"Unacceptable."' Agreed the strange version of her own voice.
"Right? You're not allowed to get rid of me anymore, so it's your responsibility to love and cherish that which you obtained. If you can't keep what you have then what's the use of trying to get more?" His voice was filled with pride as he smiled a silly grin. A silly grin that belonged to her.
His words resonated with her very being, and Xera had no idea why this was turning her on so much, this should not have looked like a proof of love and commitment, but she was very close to not being able to hold it in anymore.
"Don't look at me like that silly, I'll feel bad I'm not healing faster."
"You should. You're not allowed to be hurt like this."
"Yes my love." He smiled, his body starting to rapidly heat up "I can't promise I won't be hurt though, you're going to have to take care of me. I'll even hurt myself if you don't love me enough you know?" His words were soft, but carried the weight of choice.
'NO! MINE!'
[The unique skill 'Grotesque mind', is now Lv 3]
"Then you will need to love me even more." She latched onto him with her arms and legs, he was just so...
"Haven't I promised that already? 'I will be the brightest star on your path, always standing by your side and showing you the ways you have forward when can't see them anymore.'" He finished by gently kissing her neck and shoulders as he started to take off her armor.