Alexis stood in the remains of their battle against the Minotaur zombie. Barely able to protect himself with the aid of Imra, now she wasn't able to be summoned for 24 hours. He honestly felt a little terrified of the following hours.
The wind blew against the former grassland turned wasteland. Alexis held the horn in his hand. The only choice was to summon his new monster. As he began the invocation, a circle of demonic runes surrounded him as the calm blue sky suddenly transformed into a raging storm filled with countless lightning bolts striking around the circle of runes.
"Come forth, thine servant. Your master calls for thy eternal devotion,"
Unlike when he summoned Imra, there was no black smoke. Instead, a grey mist started pouring into the horn in his hands. which caused it to eventually crumble, burrowing into his right palm, causing his blood to start flowing in a spiral upwards, forming a small tornado as lightning began to strike the runes.
"Seal thy contract with my blood." Forever sealing our fates together. "
Alexis closed his eyes, feeling his mana draining from his body at high speed. He could smell a relaxing earthy scent like the grass after being trimmed in the morning.
The large figure suddenly took his body into an exceptionally soft chest. His face was pressed between two mountains, his face trapped as two muscular arms wrapped around his back, tapping him gently, like a mother soothing her child.
"Oh, my dear Alexis, How I've waited for your call."
Standing over 230cm was a minotaur female, her lower feet replaced with hooves, her thighs and arms quite muscular. Unexpectedly, her face was graceful.
Her beautiful black hair covered her forehead and wrapped around her cheeks, revealing a woman's face who looked to be in her mid-twenties with a small mole beneath her deep red lips. Two large maroon eyes squinted towards Alexis in her arms, her tail swishing occasionally.
"Are you Salia Stonehorn?"
During his time playing the game and in his previous lives, Alexis was highly familiar with this character. Salia, one of his favourite characters, wanted to enjoy this moment of peace a little longer. His arms also hugged around her back, enjoying the slight scent of milk that came from her.
"Mmmm, It's me, Alexis. I'm surprised at how much you've changed. "
Her hand was still stroking his hair. This character was another tank type. However, unlike Imra, Salia was the central tanking unit within Clyde's party. With her strange mixture of oriental features and western-sized body, she had quite a niche audience. Alexis is one of them.
"Have I changed that much?" uncertain of the truth.
For a moment, he didn't want to think about what was to come, just resting his mind enveloped by her enormous breasts, feeling pampered by her stroking his head.
"Well, the old Alexis wouldn't spend several minutes enjoying my breasts, would he?
Salia pulled his face upwards, now facing her beautiful dark red eyes as she leant down, placing her forehead on his.
"I know you wish to indulge in this comfort, but you don't have the time to be fooling around here, right?"
Alexis really loved her straight-forward character. No matter how high her affection rating became in the game, she'd still never let you make stupid choices that would affect your own well-being. Finally recovering from his state of escapism he contacted Fran.
'Fran are you okay? How is the situation outside?'
'Ah, Alexis, everything has gone crazy, there are undead everywhere. I'm with Momo and Celia near the dungeon entrance. Thankfully we seemed to have missed the first wave, but our seniors think a second wave will impact!'
He listened to her situation and started putting together a plan. He wasn't sure if their path and the area's devastated worst would remain the same as his memory, but it was all he had to go on. He decided to meet up with the three girls as soon as possible.
'Fran, I need you to wait at the entrance. If you cannot see me within 15 minutes, I want you to head into the guild district and head to bunker 7. That bunker should be hit the least in the dungeon wave. However, don't let anyone else know that information! It's just for you.'
'Mmmmn, Okay, darling. I hope to see you soon! Be careful, I miss you'
_______________________
Alexis, having completed what he set out to do, now looked towards Salia. He needed to know her status within this world. This wasn't a game and he couldn't risk sending her into imminent peril due to a lack of information.
[Salia Stonehorn]
[Shield Maiden(Apprentice)]
[Level: 6]
[HP: 40/40]
[MP 9/9]
[Strength: 15]
[Agility: 3]
[Stamina: 12]
[Wisdom: 5]
[Intellect: 3]
[Master: Alexis Van Garland]
[Skills]
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[Shield Slam]
Level 1 Shield Maiden skill
3 meter range
1% of base mana
3 second cooldown
instant cast
Slams the target with a mana-infused shield strike, dealing 30 (200% Strength) physical damage to all targets in a cone before the target.
--
[Shield Wall]
Level 1 Shield Maiden skill
Melee range
1% of base mana
30 second cooldown
instant cast
Bolster the caster's shield with increased might, blocking 15 (100% Strength) bonus damage per hit for 12 seconds.
______________
"Thankfully it's still the same build type as before, otherwise I'd be worried about using you on the front lines!"
He briefly examined the new marking on his left hand, which was opposite Imra's and featured a fierce bull in the center. Alexis started walking towards the exit portal, knowing that this floor was clear; all he needed to do was prepare in case the next wave arrived just before or after he teleported out of the dungeon.
Salia followed him one step behind, like a good wife. She muttered to herself, "Alexis, you've truly changed." She took a deep breath before thinking to herself, "I didn't realise you're now interested in women." Her steps became lighter and more joyful after knowing that his changes were even more significant than she thought.
"It looks like I finally have a chance to keep our promise, right? "
_______________
Fran POV
_______________
Several of the older students were lying on the floor with gaping holes in their bodies as several undead were now feasting on their flesh. The small ferret girl was dragging her two friends, who had almost stopped functioning due to despair, towards the exit and following the orders of her beloved.
"CELIA! MOMO!"
"Now is not the time to mope. Come on! We need to get to bunker 7 and wait for Alexis to arrive, otherwise do you wish to die for nothing?"
"But Fran... The senoirs, they were standing with us and suddenly... Suddenly"
SLAP!
Fran slapped Momo's face, hoping desperately to awaken her as their field of view was filled with corpses and burning zombies. Thankfully, their senoirs cast a combined spell that destroyed most of the wave of one hundred zombies. Some stragglers still survived, and were now shambling towards the girls.
"I call upon my intense flames to burn my enemies! [Fire Ball]" Fran conjured her newest spell, able to now be cast in common tongue thanks to lessons from Alexis. Instant casting wasn't impossible in her future.
The huge ball of fire smashing into the shambling horrors, burning into ashes, which bought the girls a few more minutes.
"Wake up! Don't waste the opportunity our seniors gave us. Are you going to abandon your tribe that needs you to succeed, Momo?"
Momo's face changed with a grimace, but Fran's fierce attitude was successful in ending her dwelling on the deaths of unimportant people. She offered a light thank you and a prayer within her chest and began to walk beside Fran, heading towards bunker 7.
Celia, on the other hand, had tears pouring from her eyes. "How could the goddess allow such horrific actions to go unpunished?"
Both Momo and Fran frowned, neither of them believed in that bitch of a goddess who denounced anything that wasn't human. Instead of replying, they both just carried her over their heads, trying to rush to the bunker, seeing how the streets, which were bustling with people hours earlier, were now filled with burning corpses, and destruction.
The blacksmith was currently fighting off several low-level zombie wolves to protect his daughter. Momo let go of Celia and charged into the fray, slamming into the wolves with a spiralling slash, cutting their heads off cleanly as the exhausted blacksmith felt intense gratitude towards the three girls. He swore to repay their favour, seeing the girls' spear now slightly blunt, and threw her a Rank 2 steel spear, more than twice as strong as her previous one.
"Give them hell, girls! I will head to Bunker 5 where my wife is waiting. Good luck! Don't try too hard to be the heroines!"
Little did Momo and the other girls know, they'd just stolen Clyde's opportunity to attain his first black mythril weapon, which carried a playthrough to the mid game. Seeing the blacksmith and his small daughter seemed to light a fire in Celia. No longer mummbling about the goddess and thinking about what she can do to help others personally.
"Thank you, Fran, Momo."
"Without you, I may never have found the start of my own path."
The two gave Celia a quick hug; she was always far too kind for this world, even despite her own suffering, but they saw a slightly familiar glint in her eyes. Like when Alexis would fight monsters solo, it was fierce and a little demonic.
At first, it took the girls several hours to reach the bunker, saving several town people and fellow first-year students along the way. What they found strange was that barely anybody was heading towards the seventh bunker. At first, they thought this bunker had a large problem.
However, when they arrived, it was perfectly safe. There was no damage, no corpses, and best of all, there were no zombies. Both the two girls knew about Alexis and Frans ability to communicate, learning about it after the two walked in on the pair having sex in the shared bathrooms.
Inside the bunker, it was like a larger version of their personal rooms, with a double kitchen to cook for fellow refugees; several bedrooms with enough bunkbeds for more than 200 people; a massive supply room filled with various magical supplies; and a common room with several couches and large mana displays, which were currently showing the academy broadcast.
Both Momo and Celia were extremely grateful towards Alexis, wondering how to repay him as it was his idea for the trio to head towards this bunker, his foresight informing them of many situations, including the blacksmith earlier. Momo's first thoughts went in an adult direction. Celia, too, began to think in ways that were inappropriate for a maiden who worshiped Solana, a goddess who valued purity.
Fran looked at her two friends, who suddenly seemed to have turned into bitter rivals. Her following words caused the winged girl and the badger to blush deeply.
"I guess next time, all three of us will please him in that bathroom, huh?"
The status report displayed on the large display screen inside the common room stated the current casualty report was over 6,000 dead, 10,000 injured, and countless unaccounted for, which brought the girls back from their momentary respite as they slid down onto the sofa.