Cherreads

Chapter 543 - Slow March of Progress - Part 2

The Rangers are adapting well to the Earthling-inspired military training they're going through. We're even teaching them how to fight someone else with guns because we're going to be selling our rifles to the nobles soon, so we need to keep a clear military edge on them.

It's not like the elven hunter way was significantly different, to begin with, but there are a number of new behaviors that will clearly increase their chances of survival if they stick to it. With bows, you need to be closer to your target, who can see the projectiles coming (unless they use [Arrow of Annihilation], which is just a beam of light), so the target can possibly dodge it. With rifles, you're at the edge of normal sight or even further after we develop scopes, while you can be instantly lethal and the target will have a lot of trouble dodging bullets.

They need to have a clear understanding of the new dynamics of guns, and there's no better way to illustrate them than with a practical example.

--

Silent, low profile, and decisive movements. Our team versus team exercise is quite tense as neither side knows the exact position of the other, so they carefully move their men little by little, always seeking the safest paths that the scouts can take.

Looking at the girls' styles, Klein's reckless while Thea's too cautious, and they somewhat achieve a balance. The pair discusses a lot about how to proceed, but they don't commit any obvious mistakes. Their decision-making is a bit slow, though, so they risk losing advantageous positions, but at least Klein makes sure that they keep moving instead of being paralyzed by indecision.

We use Emergency Rings to communicate with the scouts when they're out there, so things are limited to a few simple messages like "return," "enemy spotted," and "attack", along with the possibility of using it for morse code due to the standard Ring having so few options. We might be able to make our own Comm Rings soon due to the increasing supply of gems entering the town, but right now we have to make do with what we have, and at least the two girls are quite adept at it.

The Lordsguard have their own officers responsible for micromanaging the soldiers, but there are times when a knight doesn't bring an officer along when they go on a mission, so, for the exercise, the knight girls have taken over for a more hands-on experience with what it takes to win a battle. The goal here is to search and destroy, but both tasks are extremely difficult when the enemy knows you're coming.

One of the girls' soldiers spots the enemy first, and they immediately give him permission to take the shot, then they adjust the search vector into a direction that's more likely to find the enemy base. The gun is completely silent, and the only sign that someone died is the shout of surprise as the soldier is hit by a fake bullet on the side of his helmet. This one is made to shatter on impact, but it still causes a bit of surprise as it has some weight.

And now the mood changes as the engagements finally begin.

The girls notice that one of their soldiers stops sending regular "pulses". This means that they've been shot, then another stops responding, and then they down a second enemy. It's like chess but fast and all pieces move at the same time. It honestly isn't a great situation as both sides start "losing" soldiers pretty quickly, but the tactics are still developing, and the point of the exercise is to win the battle, not the war.

The girls actually do admirably considering they're both so young, but their opponent is a Lordsguard officer, someone who has spent every day studying tactics ever since rifles have been introduced, so the tides quickly turn against their favor. They just can't keep up with the mind of someone who revels in war.

The fight doesn't look impressive, though. At least not compared to magical fights with formations, but it appeals to the tactical nerd in me. I can feel the tactical mindset, the determination, the lack of hesitation, the hard and heavy decisions, the growing uncertainty in the progress of this battle, the pain in the heart as they realize they're losing, and the newfound bravery in seeing this to the end.

"I'm going to enter the fight myself!" Thea suddenly shouts and grabs a rifle, surprising Alissa and me since she was the one being so careful before.

"Wait! The soldiers!" Klein exclaims and stops after taking a step forward, hesitating.

"I can fight!" the young girl bluntly replies. There's no time for a long-winded explanation of her intentions.

Klein looks back at the tactical map, then she turns to us, but we remain impassive. We're here to observe, and we'll show not a single shred of mercy. They're leading our soldiers, after all, and even if we love them both, they need to feel responsible for the deaths of our men.

She realizes she can't rely on us, so she looks away, her face tense as she tries to resolve herself, and her brave side takes over. "No! I'm calling everyone for a close formation!" she shouts fist clenched in determination.

Thea stops and glares back. She might have the actual skills to win against every soldier in our Lordsguard, but she's still just one person and a single bullet can take her out. Just one mistake and it's over.

"Fine," she easily accepts. Even while being bold, she's still careful.

The girls and the soldiers are all in a fellowship so they can sense each other's positions, and once Klein gives the remaining soldiers the sign to form up, they quickly regroup without even knowing where the girls are going. Now I have to use a Holly, my invisible, single-eyed, little bat-like spy monster to follow them.

They move quickly and decisively across an open area then crawl under the vines of a High Tree and come out on the other side. Thea stops them there because she spots a sentry halfway up another High Tree, but they don't want to take the shot.

She explains as quietly as she can how to move across the open by using a log of vines as cover. If they're spotted, it's over.

One by one, the pair and their five last soldiers go across the open area between the next High Tree, but as the last one crosses, the sentry moves, and all guns suddenly point in his direction. You could hear them all hold their breaths, but the sentry simply goes down the tree and retreats…

In a moment of pure clarity, Thea realizes what's going on. "They're hunkering; faster!" she whisper-shouts and rushes forward, caution to the wind.

Seeing the direction the sentry retreated, she actually has a good guess where the officer may be.

They cross the open of another High Tree while dashing, now making lots of noise, but also catching the enemy officer almost fully out of guard. Then everything happens in an instant.

Thea shoots the officer while Klein and her men fire at the enemy soldiers. Two of the girls' get hit instantly, so only four of the enemy's fall, then the rest return fire.

The pair manages to dodge the bullets but their soldiers aren't so fast and get eliminated, then the two dive backward while they fire, hitting their marks with impressive precision, but there are still four enemies left and maybe more still returning.

A soldier appears above them, in the High Tree, and takes aim.

"Above!" Klein shouts as she takes aim too. Now everyone is so desperate and full of adrenaline that no bullets hit anyone.

The girls are still retreating, but Thea glances to the side and sees more soldiers arrive on the other side of the High Tree. "Get to cover!" she attempts to warn her partner.

"Ah…" Klein moans as a bullet shatters after hitting her helmet. Now Thea is alone against eight soldiers.

In an instant, she becomes a small little snow fox, white and pure. In the next, she's behind cover, rifle aiming at the next soldier and pulling the trigger repeatedly, but her bullets eventually run out, and she has to take time to reload.

A soldier appears in her flank just as she racks the bolt and puts one in the chamber. Hyperaware, she instantly dives, dodging the bullet before it's even fired, and then she fires back, missing the first but hitting the second.

Then she receives a bullet in the back.

It makes me proud to see our soldiers internalize tactical training so quickly. Even in a moment of tension, they move decisively and quickly finish off the priority target. Thea's last stand was impressive, but even she has trouble standing against our elite. They've sworn to give their lives protecting us, after all, and I don't want them to just be meat shields.

Alissa sounds the whistle, telling everyone to gather up, then we wait just a couple of minutes as the soldiers are still high on adrenaline and jog towards us. Everyone's faces are grim, but they seem confused about the actual result of the battle since they were forced to remain on the floor once hit.

I give them all a classic Ryder™ reassuring smile, then I start my solemn speech, "In this exercise, I can't say there are 'winners' and 'losers,' only 'survivors'; this is how merciless the wars are going to become now that guns have been introduced… Yet, I'm still proud of every one of you, even those who 'died' early in the battle, you all fulfilled your duty with bravery."

The men start to remark out loud and talk among themselves, then one of the voices rises above all others, "It was impressive with how Dame Thea managed to take out Officer Caldero in a daring move."

"I should've left a bait in place the moment I realized their plan," the officer in question regretfully remarks.

"Indeed. She only knew you were an officer because you were at the table," Alissa points out, and the little snow fox starts to become scarlet.

But now comes the other hand. "She was very brave, indeed. However… she, her partner, and all her soldiers died in the process. It wasn't a worthy trade in the end," I solemnly deliver it, and the pride stops going over her head. "She wasn't wrong in her action as this battle had no broader war to give it context, but it's always something to remember. 'Live to fight another day,'" I end the exercise with a teaching from the God of War.

--

Okay, this was a fun distraction, so I resume flying on my own and hunting down a couple of straggler monsters that I find along the way. The area around the town is excessively clear of monsters, though, so all I get are some babies that don't even pose a challenge to me.

I decide to [Gate] back and get another [Gate] to a dungeon in the middle of our territory, but I don't go inside and just fly out, scaring the few adventurers nearby. I just want to fight some random things to test my flying skills. It's also a nice test of my scales because I need to keep practicing hardening them.

But not even this deep in the High Forest the monsters are much of a challenge to my big draconic form, so I search for Aberrants. Takes me a bit, but just by flying fast across the forest I attract a bunch of them, and then I'm hit by a splash of acid on my right wing that instantly spreads a cold sensation all over it.

I suddenly lose sensation on my wing, and I stare at it in confusion as I begin to spin and fall. The skin has become blackened, but the liquid doesn't seem to be able to affect my scales, the disgusting, cum-like black fluid merely sliding out as if the surface was hydrophobic.

Curious.

Still falling, so I quickly rip the wing off and use MP to make a new one, then I spread my wings and harden my limbs as I crash and slide against a mess of long and thin tree roots that cover the forest floor. I could use [Telekinesis] to stop myself from crashing but that's too much effort, so I just have the spell slow me down a bit because my draconic body can handle this much.

I fully come to a stop and immediately turn around. There are some goblins and orcs throwing crude javelins at me, but I ignore them as they can't even tickle me. My [Sense Presence] is quite low, but I had added points to the skill for safety, which means that I have within in my sights the precise monster guilty of damaging my wings. It's an Uspidor, a ball of flesh and tentacles with a mouth that spits acid, though this one spits something else.

So I immediately take off again directly towards the fiend. It notices my approach and hides within the crown of leaves, forcing me to reduce my size so that I can fly in between the branches. This also slows me down, giving the Aberrant enough of an advantage that he remains out of my sight as he continues to spit at me its offensive black cum.

But I have to admit, this is actually fun. I have found the perfect training grounds and partner for my flying skills. Weaving between the branches, dodging attacks, attempting to catch up to someone always out of reach, it's exactly what I needed.

I'm having fun.

"KIIIIIIIIIII!" it screeches in desperation, starting to tire of running away from this relentless enemy.

The monster is not having fun.

Oh, well.

Its movements dull, the cumshots become dribbles, and its speed drops, allowing me to finally catch up, so I grow in size and smack it toward the trunk of the High Tree. It makes a fleshy sound as it hits the bark, squirting a bit more black cum, and I realize that it's going to be messy to kill it, so I just transform back to humanoid and cut it in half with Patrono.

It's not worth wasting even a second mourning my flight training partner as there's a bunch of monsters rapidly approaching me, so I just turn around and throw Patrono then control it with [Telekinesis] as I cross my arms. It's time to do some cleaning up.

--

Today was quite a productive day. The highlight was clearly eating Teresina out, but I enjoyed a lot my little foray into the forest. Felt like a change of pace from banging my head against the wall with [Golemancy].

During bath time, I have Osaria and Poosh since they got a bit excited with my gilf-loving. White chocolate with dark chocolate, fluffiness and jiggliness wrapping around my thick Cock. I give them both a big facial before I fuck them good and fill up their wombs.

After I'm done, they cling to each other on the resting beds, smiling happily as they feel safe and comfortable with their future. Women in this world are quite worried about being abandoned when they reach old age, so I have to work harder to reassure them.

For dinner, we have chicken curry with rice again but with the flavor adjusted towards being sweeter and with milder heat. It's a hit with everyone but Roxanne, who prefers that her tongue be sexually abused.

Then we rest for the evening, but I notice Thea is in an odd mood. My little jade beauty seems pensive and distracted, staring at the night sky from our balcony, but I'm not sure I'm the best to get her to open up since she keeps her guard up against my intense, manly, draconic charms.

Well, while I'm an expert at opening legs, we need an expert at opening hearts, and we have the exact person we need.

"A chocolate?" Ciel whispers kindly as she offers a bowl full of tablets.

"Hm? Oh, okay…" Thea quietly hums back and takes one.

The angel takes a seat on the lounging chair beside the fox's, smiling adorably while I fill her head with images of fucking Thea just to tease the gay in her. Thea has all three of Ciel's weaknesses: fox, small, and young.

"You sound distracted. Thinking of something?" she continues like a professional even though she's getting horny for some tight little fox pussy.

"Well, yes, I'm always thinking," the smart-ass answers wryly.

So Ciel rolls her eyes and continues, "A chocolate coin for your thoughts?"

"What?" Thea hums with a blank stare.

She smiles wryly. "An Earthling saying I tried to adapt. I'm 'paying' you for your thoughts."

But this just confuses her further. "Hmm… why would you pay for it?" At least she's talking and engaging.

"Because I want to listen to them," Ciel cutely hums back.

And the little fox frowns. "Why? Is Wolf telling you to do this?"

"You're very suspicious of him," she replies with a chuckle.

"I-… I'm sorry…" Thea immediately apologizes with a blush.

Alright, it's time to be a bit gentler since she's still on guard. "Share your thoughts; you can question Wolfy later."

She looks away and frowns again, seemingly hesitant to share, but Ciel's relentless friendliness cracks her defenses. "I'm just thinking about the exercise today, the battle against Officer Caldero. I'm just feeling… sad, for some reason. Not really because we 'lost,' but… I don't know… I'm sad because the soldiers I was responsible for 'died.'"

Ciel has heard this a lot, so she knows how to handle it. "That's what happens in war. Even the most controlled battles against monsters can end in death."

And Thea grits her teeth in frustration. "I know, but… I can't stop this feeling."

So she reassures her with another angelic smile. "It'll pass. It's part of the ritual as you become a warrior and a leader."

Now the little fox deflates, her pointy ears going low. "I hate feeling like this…"

"That's a good thing."

"I don't want to feel this…"

But Ciel can't say anything to that, so she stays quiet for a while, and then Thea eventually turns to her.

"Aren't you going to comfort me?" she asks with a soft snort.

But that was a trap card. "On this matter, I can't until I know you better."

However it isn't enough to completely crack her defenses, so Thea looks away then lets out a light grumble. "I'm just tired… I think. I'll get over this."

"When you're ready to share, I'm always here to listen," our angel kindly states then walks away, leaving the frustrated little fox to her thoughts.

Ciel doesn't think that there's much else to say to such a young and stubborn girl. She needs some time with her thoughts and emotions, so the priestess will just wait and make her more comfortable while encouraging her to share. It isn't like she's the first closed-off girl we have around here.

And Lina pretends not to feel a chill that runs down her spine.

--

--

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