Chapter 160 – Reaching Out

“But elves are supposed to have bows and live in forests and stuff, not live in cities and use laser rifles.” -  Gaming enthusiast after learning about one of the elven worlds.

“Why did you insist on-“ Crack-crack-crack. “Insist on clearing this store?” Kurt asked, having to pause while shooting a scantily clad mannequin that lunged at him from a shelf of various, assorted nighties.

Val looked like she was about to answer until Kristi fired a burst into a mannequin that was only the lower half of a body wearing nearly see through panties. “Don’t question it and trust the process.” She said after the legs stopped twitching.

Bang. “Your process might need some explanation anyway.” Rindi said after shooting a torso only display that had wiggled toward her, walking on its hands. Because it was walking in such an odd way, it didn’t have any way to defend itself or even attack, yet it remained rather creepy as they silently charged.

They were finishing up the fifth store in the section of mall they had entered, splitting every other store with Jade. After the first two, things had started to get weird as the dummies on display changed.

The humanoid torsos remained humanoid but began changing to other types of displays that weren’t the full body. Some only had the body was present or, in the case of one display for hats, just the head. Every single one would animate and try to attack them in a straight charge when the lights came on, which made for some rather awkward fights. This fight was by far the most awkward, however, due to their new team member.

“Kurt, what is the purpose of this garment?” Rindi asked while holding up a string thong. One of the ones where it was only string and none of the other cloth triangles.

“Uhhhmmm.”

Val stepped in at that moment, not so much coming to the rescue as she was having fun. “That, dear Rindi, is a thong. An exotic undergarment for women who wish to entice men by being essentially naked while remaining ‘clothed’. What do you think, Kurt, are thongs hot?”

‘Uhhhmmmm.”

“Val, stop teasing.” Kristi called from the other aisle.

The warning caused Val to just smirk and roll her eyes before she wandered around the display to move deeper into the store. If Kurt was being honest, he didn’t see the appeal and found the ‘cheeky’ style of underwear that Val wore to be much more attractive.

“Do Earth women really put on undergarments strictly for the purpose of taking them off?” Rindi asked after dropping the thong to the ground. “That seems… wasteful?”

Kurt cleared his throat and gestured for them to keep walking while they talked. “Ahem, uh, yeah, it’s a thing. There is a whole industry around it and other things involving bedroom activities.”

Rindi followed after, stepping around the glowing puddle of blood leaking from the mannequin. She was always careful to not get any on her fur if she could help it. “Bedroom activities… Like sleeping? How do these lacy things help with sleeping? They seem to not be comfortable or warm. Wouldn’t people just sleep nude or in under clothes?”

“Umm, Val-no, Krisit! Want to take this one?” Kurt called out but Jade was the one to answer as she had been coming up behind him.

“Rindi, bedroom activities is a polite way of saying sex.” The saint answered.

The felitaur’s face contorted to one of confusion. “People only have sex in bedrooms? No, that’s not true, I have smelled it in the house in many rooms like the basement lounge, bath-“

“KRISTI!” Kurt yelled, interrupting. He was not keen to be having this conversation with what amounted to one of his employees.

The dragoness huffed and called back from where she was standing next to a giggling Val. “Rindi, I will explain later, just drop it for now.”

Rindi nodded sagely, like she was told enlightenment came to those who waited, and she was next in line. Kurt was just thankful for the assist and the diversion. “Need something, Jade?”

“No, sire, but I wanted to ask a question.” She stepped around a rack of silk bathrobes, reaching out to touch the fabric before the entire rack suddenly vanished into her storage ring. “Can we use our wolf forms? I think this is a great opportunity to train against weak opponents in confined spaces.”

“Sure. That’s fine with me.” Kurt didn’t have any issues as long as they kept up the pace and nobody died.

“Would-would you like to join us?” Jade asked, hesitating for a moment.

Kurt smirked. “Ha, maybe if we find a store with a lot of head room.” He pointed up to the ceiling which was suspiciously low for a department store.

Jade laughed and went back to her squad while Rindi looked to Val as she came over. “What does head room have to do with things?”

“Maybe you will find out.” Val said as she skipped off to the exit, leading the rest of them to take up overwatch. Rindi still looked confused but followed along regardless.

When they entered the hall, it was to see half a dozen werewolves standing around and scenting the air as their ears swiveled around. Naturally Jade was the tallest among them, being an alpha. Not a hint of their gear could be seen as the enchantments on their rings had stowed it all. As they got closer it was to hear a familiar popping and creaking noise.

Jade had shifted her features to allow her to speak, and the rest of her wolves all turned to look up to her. “My pack, we hunt. By his grace, in his sight, with his blood, we hunt.” Her voice was a little higher than Kurt’s, but it still held that howling undercurrent in certain words.

She made a gesture and pointed to the sixth store. Her pack all turned and bolted for the entrance, their long foot claws digging into the tiles. The sudden pressure caused several of the tiles to split and fracture under the motion, sending a few chips flying.

Like clockwork the lights clicked on as the wolves entered and the displays came to life. The mannequins all rushed the werewolves in a mindless and ill-advised fashion only to be met with tooth and claw.

Each of the wolves charged head long into the dummies, wrapping their arms around the featureless torsos and sinking fangs into their necks. Bright yellow blood sprayed from the bites and slashes, turning the entrance into the rave version of a charnel house. One of the overzealous ones, Connor, latched his muzzle around a torso display before performing a death shake and flinging splatters of glowing blood everywhere.

While her pack was their own form of destruction, Jade was on a separate mission. Kurt recognized some of his divine aura branching from her to each of the wolves, enveloping them in a haze of amber-gold and making them seemingly repel the monsters and blunt their attacks. All the while the alpha lashed out with clawed hands, sending waves of divine energy arcing out into the store. Everywhere the arcs hit the neon blood sprayed while the surroundings remained completely undisturbed, like the attacks only affected living things.

Seeing the carnage and the pack working together was starting to get to Kurt. He felt the urge to join in and take control of the hunt. He was just about to look for a distraction when he heard Rindi gasp, and he turned to her. She had shifted to her Valkyrie aligned form and her wings flared as her eyes traced an invisible path straight back to Kurt.

“Wh-what is…” She trailed off but leaned a little closer, looming over him in her much larger form. “Your souls are connected? No, just consciousnesses?” her hand traced the path of something only she could see.

Kurt frowned. He wasn’t sure what she meant by that but assumed it was an aspect of his divinity. “It’s part of who I am now, well, the real me not this version.” He waived his hand up and down himself.

Rindi was still giving him a strange look as her eyes flicker up and down him before returning to watch Jade. “But why? I thought you are a werewolf? Why is she so… large?”

“Oh, he is more than just a werewolf, even more than Jade and she’s an alpha.” Val butted in. “Show her.”

“Eh, maybe in a bit. Jade is finis-“ he was cut off by a loud crash from the depths of the store followed by a celebratory howl that made him want to join in. “Finishing up, it seems.” He got out once the commotion died down and the hunched forms of the werewolves began making their way forward.

Jade came over upon exiting the store and ‘knelt’ in front of him, sitting on her haunches. “This section is complete, sire.”

Kurt reached out and scratched at her ear on reflex. “Good jo…” he realized what he was doing only halfway through his sentence when she made a whining sound and pushed harder into his hand. He quickly removed it and placed the rouge appendage firmly in his pocket.

“Ahem, right. Let’s, ah, move on to the next area.” He stumbled his way through a redirection of all the attention that was suddenly on him. The girls looked amused, the wolves looked jealous, and Jade looked just a little too sad that the attention had stopped.

They picked up and began moving toward the corner of the main hall with Val and Kristi leading the way. Kurt was in the middle with Rindi, backed by the still shifted werewolves of Jade’s squad. He was just turning to check over his shoulder when he heard a familiar sound.

TACK-BZZZzzzz. “Oh Balls!” Val yelled shortly before she and Kristi opened fire.

Kurt turned back to see Rindi join them in an impromptu gun line and firing into a now illuminated section of the store. He hustled around them to look at where they were shooting only to see a mass of faceless, mutated mannequins.

This section had apparently been reserved for the humanoid body parts that had been haphazardly thrown together. No two of them hundreds of dummies were the same and each sported a seemingly random assortment of limbs, heads and torsos all fused together. Some even looked like they were in the process of cellular division given how they were only attached by a shared arm or leg.

“Jade, get you- Ah, shit!” he began to direct Jade and her team but was stopped short as all six of them suddenly bounded past the flank of the gunline and charged right into the swarm of monsters. “Fine, let’s goooOOOOOO.”

Kurt began to shift immediately, no longer able to hold back the urge and his words turned into the familiar deep howl as his throat elongated and his body swelled.

*****

Rindi brought the rifle to her shoulder and fired, not bothering to center the red dot on the monsters that made her never want to go clothes shopping again. She emptied the magazine before glancing down to Kristi who was pinning the trigger of her belt fed gun and sweeping a line of tracers across the mass of rift spawn.

She was partly glad that she had shifted to her larger form and partly regretted it. On the one hand, it was a lot easier to move the large rifle around and she had better line of sight, on the other hand, it didn’t quite feel as natural to her. It was better than her human shape but not quite right in the feet and legs.

Her momentary distraction was brought to a halt as she heard the clatter of paws on tile before all six werewolves rushed past her. She had heard Kurt talking to them but had lost track of what he was saying over the gunfire. Then his voice suddenly grew much louder before devolving into something completely unlike words.

“Fine, let’s gooOOOOoooo.” His voice twisted into something much more bestial before his mental voice swept into her mind like a lantern suddenly illuminating a dark room. “Cease fire. Cold weapons only.”

She got the feeling of something bearing down on her and stopped firing long enough to look up. Then she reflexively ducked as the biggest werewolf she had ever seen stepped over her crouching form and charged into the fray.

Broken bodies flew in every direction as the massive werewolf bowled into the masses. Clawed hands and snapping jaws flashed in every direction from Kurt, creating a near constant spray of the bright neon blood. On some unspoken command, the other werewolves formed around him and created a wedge that drove deeper into the mass of mannequins.

“Yeah, you get em, baby!” Val cheered and an illusion of a pennate flag with a stylized werewolf waved over her head. “Fuck em up!”

“Come on, to arms!” Kristi roared and summoned her knife before speaking the incantation to turn it into her poleaxe.

Val followed suit and was soon chasing after the dragoness with her partisan while Rindi stared in stunned disbelief. She wasn’t stunned by the actions of the werewolves or even of her teammates, she was instead dumbstruck at the… well she didn’t know what to call it.

Kurt’s massive form was overlaid by an amber-gold cloud of divine energy that surged and flowed around him and the other wolves like waves in a storm. Underlying that massive energy was his soul shape which flexed and churned nearly as much as his aura. It waivered from a werewolf that extended over his real body to that of a full wolf as he lunged to strike at enemies. The shadowy figure followed every strike but seemed to have a mind of its own that was bent to Kurt’s will.

Her idleness was cut short, however. Kurt’s head swung to point his long muzzle directly at her and Rindi felt her heart skip a beat. Her own soul suddenly clamored to join the fray. She desperately wanted to wade into the melee and join this apex hunter in battle. Her hand was suddenly heavy with the magical blade she had been given, and she didn’t even remember speaking the incantation to summon her sword.

Rindi was on her feet and walking before she knew what was happening, having to shake herself back into her right senses. She then realized the contradiction that she had not only seen but felt, hunters didn’t battle. They struck once at a target, never fully engaging and letting themselves over commit. Somehow Kurt and these werewolves were different. It was as if they had shifted their aspects to cover both hunting and warfare, blending the two into a perfect fusion.

Before she knew it, Rindi had joined Kristi and Val after shifting back to her quadrupedal form. She lashed out with her foot claws, kicking back a larger mannequin before bisecting it with her saber. She looked back to the center of the slaughter to see Kurt’s eyes locked on hers. He nodded once before returning to his own fights and she felt that same pulse within her soul, before her body was infused with a sudden warmth and power.

If this was fighting with Kurt, then perhaps she wouldn’t mind spending another ten years as his servant… maybe even longer.

*****

Kurt turned away from the girls. He had seen Rindi join the fight and knew she would be fine if she stuck with Kristi and Val. He then grabbed a still living dummy by the legs and used it as a club, battering its fellows before throwing it into the mass of enemies.

He flexed his intent and will, following the instinct his wolf was feeding him to push Jade and her pack out to establish a flank. The mental connection they shared wasn’t anything like giving explicit instructions, but they would feel what he wanted them to do.

After the battle line was established, Kurt took care of a few more of the mannequins, noting that they were seeming to get bigger and were being reinforced from around a blind corner. He then looked over to the girls to see how they were doing.

Val had taken to her partisan and had taken up the right flank of their skirmish line. Kristi was in the middle, her pole axe in hand and creating a killing field while the others covered her flanks. Rindi had her saber out and had reverted to her four-legged form that allowed her better mobility.

Kurt had been surprised that her switchblade had taken the form of a saber with a slightly curved, thick blade with an otherwise simple guard. The other shape she had summoned was not so much a pole arm as a lance or really long spear with a thick shaft. He hadn’t seen her use it yet as they hadn’t sparred, but she seemed happy with the result.

With the way she was dancing into and out of the melee with her sword, he figured she must have some experience but would have to ask later. His attention was suddenly returned to his fight by a sharp pain in his arm.

When Kurt looked down, it was to see one of the torso mannequins holding on and driving a knife hand into his biceps like a shiv. He shook the arm, flinging the creature to the hard ground where he stomped on it. The crunching and popping sensation were half satisfying and half disturbing to him and he once more lashed out with his claws to gut the first rank of monsters.

He then tried to do something that he had seen Jade do earlier in the rift. He focused on the next row of enemies that were now exposed but out of reach and once again swiped his hand through the air. He focused on the effect and tried to push mana into the motion, but nothing happened.

Growling, he tried again after clearing the space once more. This time he willed his mana into the motion and noticed his claws glow with a bright amber hue before, once again, nothing happened.

He made a yipping bark of irritation and snapped up a conjoined dummy in his jaws. He shook the creature before flinging it up into the air to land amongst the back line. The next time he pushed his mana into his hand, willing it into his claws and then pushed his desire to strike at the enemies out of his reach before swiping through the air again.

This time there was a series of four glowing lines that arced out into the mass of dummies, slicing though them easily before passing into the one behind them. The amber slashes extended for another ten yards, cutting mannequins down by the dozens before dissipating.

“Excellent manifestation, sire.” Jade called from where she was in the line. Her voice was back to is regular tone and Kurt noted she had shifted back to her human form and was wielding her strange staff. She leveled the staff at the bumbling mass of dummies and spoke a single word. “Retribution”

A flash of amber light was summoned to the tip of the staff where it froze for a moment, casting strange shadows from the incredibly bright light. The little marble of light then blinked out leaving them in darkness until a wave of energy surged out and swept away the masses of mannequins. Each of the creatures caught in the wave began to writhe as it dissolved into tiny motes that began drifting over to them.

Kurt noted that when the mores landed on him, all the little wounds he had accumulated either faded or vanished completely. He looked over the other wolves that were now unoccupied as their enemies had all been caught up in the wave. Those with small cuts or abrasions had them suddenly healed by the little lights.

“The hell was that?” Kristi asked as she swung around, suddenly without any targets.

“A vengeance spell that I can use when I have enough faith energy. It really works best at the end of a fight when we have taken many wounds that I can then turn upon the enemy.” Jade answered, tapping the butt of her staff on the tile floor.

“AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?” Val shrieked and pointed at a pile of mannequin parts that had risen up to reveal a ten-foot-tall monstrosity. Limbs, torsos and heads were all clumped together in ways that made no logical sense. It then turned to begin silently lumbering toward the group.

“Mine!” Rindi said and summoned her lance. She acted before anyone could even process she had said something.

Bloop-BANG. Rindi vanished from where she had been standing with a soft sound like a rock falling in a pond. An instant later, she reappeared with her lance buried a foot into the creature’s chest. There was a deafening bang, and she ran past the creature as its center of mass dissolved into a spray of parts and glowing blood.

Rindi had crossed the hundred yards of space in an instant to deliver a terrifying attack that ended the fight before it even began. She trotted a few more yards after delivering the blow, wheeling around and returning to them like some sort of feline cavalry.

She arrived, panting slightly as she returned the lance to its saber form. “That felt good. Been a while since I was able to use that ability.”

“What exactly was that ability?” Kurt asked after shifting back to his human form.

“Umm, a different sort of blink. Is that the term?”

Kurt nodded. “Yeah. Blink is like a short-range teleport.”

Rindi nodded. “Yes, it’s like that except I actually cross the intervening distance. It’s like a sort of alternate reality that I drop into. When I come out, I can retain all the momentum that I had while moving in that realm.”

That made a strange sort of sense to Kurt. If she retained all the momentum of a dead sprint over a hundred yards and put it all into the tip of her lance it would be a tremendous amount of energy.

“Well, let’s get the core and get the fuck out of here.” Kurt clapped a hand on the felitaur woman’s shoulder. “Good job today.”

Kurt missed the expression on her face at his praise, but Val and Kristi certainly didn’t. They shared a knowing look before following after the rest of the group to close out the rift.