Combat Healer Ch 05

Combat Healer Ch. 05

-- Monster Girl Harem.

Submitted: October 13, 2022 to Literotica (Copyright 2021 Kaizer Wolf)

Tags:

harem, male lead, LitRPG, monster girls, mystery, femdom, group sex, threesome, big tits, dark fantasy, nonhuman, oni, elf, minotaur, holstaur, cowgirl, magic

*****

This fantasy story is a '

LitRPG

' (also called GameLit), which is a genre that involves some stats, much like a videogame. The overall concept of stats is introduced right away, but you can certainly enjoy the story even if you're not overall familiar with the genre, simply because most of the focus is on the story itself.

Like all my stories, there will be lots of hot sex once the main characters have had time to develop their relationships.

Hope you enjoy.

*****

- CHAPTER 5: Date -

Many Months Ago

A young Oni woman, with rosy skin and white hair, was dressed in a black cloak as she stalked a dark alleyway in anticipation of confronting the man who had ruined her life. She didn't have her scythe on her, but she was armed with a knife, fully prepared to get her revenge if he didn't comply with her demands.

A few minutes later, and she saw a figure step out of a back doorway, beginning to head in her direction.

Without hesitation, she stepped out and lowered her hood.

"What the fuck did you do to me?" she snapped.

He scoffed at her, reaching for his belt, only to seem to realize he'd forgotten his weapon back inside.

"That's what you get for denying me," he sneered, stepping to the side slightly, as if anticipating an attack. "And, I should have you know, I've already reported to the guard that you might try to kill me. So unless you want to spend the rest of your life in prison, assuming they don't hang you, then I suggest you turn around and walk away."

Her rage boiled over. "Fucking bastard! Fix me!"

He laughed at that. "Poor thing. If only you'd just taken me up on my offer, then this wouldn't have happened. Too bad I don't give second chan-"

His voice cut off when she lunged forward and slammed her crimson fist into the middle of his face, cracking his nose in the process. The man dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, before whimpering as he tried to recover.

"Fucking bitch!" he yelled in anger, spitting blood. "I'll get you killed for this!"

"Fucking

fix me

! Before I kill

you

!"

"I can't fix you!" he snapped. "I'm not a fucking healer! I can't even use that spell again! I got it from an artifact, and it broke the moment I used it on you!"

The young woman stepped back in disbelief, feeling like she was going to faint.

Was she going to be cursed for the rest of her life? If he couldn't undo it, then who could? Maybe a healer like he suggested? But could a healer really help?

"That's bullshit," she whispered, all her volume gone.

He spat more blood on the ground. "Fucking bitch, is it really even that fucking bad?! Sure, I bet you're embarrassed as hell, but I'd still fuck-" His voice cut off when she pulled out her knife.

Her gold eyes were almost crazed. "Fix me, or else I'll cut off your..."

She looked up when she heard commotion in the distance, only for the man before her to cry out like a little bitch.

"Help! Help me! She's going to kill me!" he hollered, like the coward he was.

"Fucking

bastard

," she hissed, swinging her foot back and kicking him in the gut as hard as she could.

He immediately began coughing up blood this time, and she knew she'd gone too far. Because he was right. He held a lot of power in this city, and all he'd have to say was she attacked him, and it might all be over.

Which meant, it was time to leave.

She had to escape, before her actions caught up with her, and needed to seek out someone,

anyone

, who could fix what he'd done to her. Because it wasn't

just

embarrassing as hell. Even if men would still want to fuck her, it would destroy her, if people found out. The rumors alone would ruin her life.

Which meant she couldn't tell anyone.

Couldn't trust anyone.

But could a normal healer really help her?

* * *

Considering that I'd seen Jackel fight plenty of times in the year and a half that I'd known him, I was very familiar with his skillset, having seen him conjure his vibrant blue weapons out of thin air probably a thousand times. Of course, he used a real sword too, and would often use his

Essence Sword

spell in combination with an actual blade, but what was really impressive about an Essence Slayer was the fact that he didn't need a weapon to fight.

He could literally create his own with essence, fairly similar to the ethereal blade of Mel's scythe, being capable of controlling the energy enough to make it hold the form of a sword, dagger, spear, and even shield. However, the biggest difference was that his ethereal blades had a limit of what they could slice through on their own, one that was tied to Jackel's skill at forcing the essence to hold its form.

A limitation I doubted my new girlfriend's magical artifact had.

Still, for someone like Mel, who had never witnessed such a thing firsthand before, given that Essence Slayers were so rare, it was very impressive, and she was truly amazed.

An amazement that thankfully had nothing to do with his skill 'Lady's Man,' since it was obvious he was truly attempting to avoid ruining our date, taking his leave shortly after showing off his basic combat abilities.

----------------------------------------

Jackel Luzumin

----------------------------------------

ABILITIES

Skills:

Nocturnal Vision, Chronosense, Essence Extraction, Lady's Man, Persuasion, Leadership, Bartering, Stealth, Dual-Wielding Proficiency, Single-Handed Proficiency, Two-Handed Proficiency, Battering Ram, Cripple, Onslaught, Immortal Form

Spells:

Essence Sword, Essence Dagger, Essence Spear, Essence Shield, Immortal Form

----------------------------------------

The only thing Jackel didn't show Mel was his Immortal Form, since there wasn't much to actually see with that one. Sure, he glowed a little, but otherwise there wasn't much to show off if he wasn't going to use it.

But what was interesting about the Immortal Form, in general, was that it was considered both a Skill and a Spell. Usually skills, which could be passive qualities, or active abilities when they required Stamina,

didn't

require essence, and were often inherent traits that a person was either born with, or naturally developed as they advanced in their Class and Focus.

But that was exactly how I learned that Jackel had an Immortal Form.

Because it was already listed as a Skill, but it was not yet one of his usable Spells, being one of the only skills I'd ever seen that required both stamina

and

essence to use. Honestly, when he first successfully used his Immortal Form, even I was shocked to find it listed under his spells in addition to where I'd already seen it, though I realized it kind of made sense, in hindsight.

Once he left the training room, we took a moment to ourselves to talk about our next plans, since we had several options available to us. Of course, part of me wished we could take advantage of being alone again, but I knew I shouldn't push that too much since it was clear she had no intentions to 'get off' herself. Last thing I wanted was for her to feel used, and not in a good way.

Visiting the other guilds, most of which were on the eastern side of the city where we were, was still something that would be better to do in the afternoon, leaving us some time to possibly walk around the city a little and visit one of the markets.

Mel liked that idea, since this was her first time visiting the elven capital, but I realized I should probably make a pitstop first, since having a girlfriend kind of shifted my priorities for the near future.

I spoke up just as we began heading toward the metal door, sealing shut the otherwise completely open stone space, the sky bright blue above our heads. Mel was readjusting her black metal staff on her shoulder as she intertwined our fingers.

"I actually need to make a stop a little deeper in the city, so maybe we can head straight there, and then visit a market on the way back to stop at the other guilds."

"Sure," Mel agreed, stopping as I closed the metal door mostly shut behind us, leaving it cracked to signal to the next person that it was unoccupied. It was a little dark now, the light at the end of the hall being our guide as our eyes adjusted. "What do you need to do?" she added curiously.

"That book I was reading earlier," I replied as we walked through the stone hallway. "I'm actually borrowing it on loan, so I figured I'd go ahead and return it, since I'm probably not going to read anymore today or tomorrow."

"Oh, sure," Mel repeated, seeming content to just hold my hand.

As was I.

We stepped out into the sunlight, which was still fairly low in the sky, to find that quite a few more people had gathered in the distance for training, whether that be target practice or sparring. However, none of them paid us any mind, focused on their chosen task. It was of course a bit noisier now too, and not just because of the people on the guild grounds.

In the distance the city had become more boisterous, with the distance sound of talking, occasional yelling, metal banging, steeds neighing, and an overall general roar of noise.

I glanced up when a bird flew overhead a bit low, aiming for the small grove of trees on the guild grounds.

Despite being human, I'd never been to the capital of the Ryfle Kingdom, but from what I'd heard, they didn't really have any trees or other vegetation in the city itself. It was almost pure cut wood and stone, with no hint of the wilderness residing within its walls.

But the elves were different, and it was actually illegal to intentionally destroy one of the many trees scattered throughout the city. Not that I'd ever heard of anyone receiving any more than a hefty fine, but both the Oni and Minotaur respected that seemingly odd law.

Then again, unlike humans and elves, their people typically lived in smaller towns and villages, often in huts, similarly holding a high regard for nature. If anything, it was only humans who seemed to have no problem going without, with quite a few of their towns being wholly paved with rock and stone.

Unexpectedly, the same bird flew overhead again, except this time lower, chirping as it did so, prompting Mel to look up too, as we both stopped.

"Woah, did you see that?" she said in surprise. "I think that sparrow just tried to shit bomb you."

I frowned as I watched it fly back over to the patch of trees, agreeing that its behavior was odd, although being sure now that it was actually a

wren

, rather than a sparrow - both of which looked similar, with a wren almost always being brown with a white line above the eye.

Definitely odd, but not

abnormal

.

"Why don't we visit the grove?" I said carefully.

Mel looked at me in surprise. "Oh, umm, sure," she agreed, the two of us beginning to head in that direction, our fingers still intertwined.

Unsurprisingly, the wren didn't reappear.

However, once we began entering the trees, the other birds eerily silent, I heard another chirp deeper within.

Mel didn't notice. "Wow, this is kind of nice. These trees are really healthy."

I laughed at that. "Well, of course! The Guild Master is an elf, so no way would he let trees under his care be anything other than perfectly healthy. All the elves willingly help clear out the parasitic plants and trim down the unhealthy branches."

"Wow," she replied simply, sincerely impressed as we walked deeper.

Beginning to scan around now that we were almost to one of the stone walls, I heard another chirp toward our left, prompting me to gently lead Mel in that direction. However, she finally picked up that something was going on.

"Hey, are we going someplace in particular?" she wondered.

I simply shrugged.

"Seriously Allie, you're making me a little nervous."

I looked at her in surprise. "Nervous? Why?"

"I mean, I just met you. How do I know you don't have a group in here just waiting to jump me?"

I scoffed at that. "Seriously? If there's a group of thugs in here, I'll pull out my knife and fight to the death to defend you."

Her gold eyes widened at that. "You'd really defend me like that?"

"Why does that surprise you?"

"Because I just met you," she said seriously.

"Yeah, but you're my girlfriend," I countered. "And I think you're super-hot, and I want you to myself," I added.

She laughed at that. "Yeah, I guess I should have assumed that you'd be selfish with your women. What was I even thinking? You'd never lead me to a group of thugs. Not when you could just have me to yourself."

"Exactly," I agreed, knowing we had to be close.

The wren chirped again, more to my right this time.

Mel frowned when I began gently guiding her in that direction. "So then, what are we doing?" she asked seriously, knowing full well that it was like I had a destination.

That's when I saw it.

A large Manx cat was lying on its side, its dark gray fur covered in blood, its side rising and falling with shallow breaths.

"Oh shit," Mel exclaimed. "The poor thing."

I let go of her hand and slowly bent down, unexpectedly prompting the Manx to raise its head and hiss at me, baring its long white teeth.

"It's alright," I said gently, activating my

Greater Healing

spell prematurely...because the creature would sense the essence. And sure enough, it relaxed some, its head resting on the ground again, its breathing beginning to pick up even as I slowly rested my fingertips on its fur.

Mel sounded shocked. "You're healing it?" she said in disbelief.

"Yes," I whispered simply, knowing exactly why she was surprised.

Most healers didn't waste their precious essence on animals, unless they were being paid to do so, and I could certainly understand why. It was because most didn't have a really high Essence Regeneration Rate. But

what they didn't know

was that repeated essence

expenditure

would actually increase their rate. Of course, it was

an extremely slow

process, which was why most just thought it rose naturally as they grew stronger, but in reality using up one's essence quickly, over and over again, could dramatically increase the rate of regeneration.

It was a similar concept to how Stamina regeneration worked, although a lack of Essence expenditure wouldn't necessarily decrease the regeneration rate, unlike how it was with Stamina due to a lack of physical training.

And again, the primary reason why most didn't make the connection was simply because the process was just so slow in comparison to how quickly someone could improve their Stamina regeneration through physical exertion.

Honestly though, everything was slow with Essence, compared to Stamina.

A very high

Stamina Regeneration Rate

for an Oni, who excelled in both overall Endurance and Stamina, might be 3 stamina per 1 minute, or 1 stamina per 20 seconds.

Alternatively, a very high

Essence Regeneration Rate

might be 1 essence every 5 or 6 minutes, with my own Essence Regeneration Rate being a whopping 1 essence

every 3 minutes

, or roughly 20 essence per hour compared to a 'normal high' of 10 essence per hour.

But that was just a huge reason why the Fighter Class was so important to pretty much every team. And a huge reason why Oni, in particular, were prominent in the top teams. Of course, Spells were absolutely vital to the success of clearing out Dungeons...

But having a team of only Mages just wasn't feasible in most situations, since they could run out of steam too quickly, unless the enemy was impervious to normal physical attacks and required only magic attacks to defeat them.

Nevertheless, there definitely had been situations in the past when a team of Mages was required, but in the typical Dungeon encounter, the Fighter Class made up the core of any good team.

I knew all this, especially the stuff about Essence Regeneration Rates, because I'd been forced to use my healing over

and over

again when I was living in hell at the age of fifteen.

But that was why I continued to use my magic as much as possible, even on animals, despite the fact that my

Heal

and

Greater Healing

spells were maxed out at level 5 each.

The wren unexpectedly chirped again, right above our heads.

Mel looked up, her gold eyes wide. "Wait..." She paused when the Manx hissed at me again, abruptly leaping up and dashing away toward the stone wall. "Umm, Allie..." she tried again. "Did a bird just lead you to a wounded cat?"

I shrugged as I stood up, grabbing for her hand again. She accepted it, but when I started to walk, she didn't budge, being more than strong enough to hold me back.

"Seriously, Allie. Did a sparrow just lead you to a wounded Manx?"

I sighed. "Would you think I was crazy if I said yes? Although, it was actually a wren," I added lightheartedly.

Her gold eyes widened, finally beginning to walk with me. "Umm, well I guess I can't call you crazy, since I just saw it happen for myself. But why would that bird do such a thing? Doesn't it know that cat might just turn around and eat it?"

I shrugged again. "They probably made a deal."

Mel abruptly stopped in her tracks, tugging on me as she did so. "Are you being serious right now?"

I laughed at her reaction. "Mel, you're asking me a question that I have no way of answering. I can't speak to animals, and I have no idea why the bird did it. I just know it did. And I know things like that have happened before."

"Wow," she said simply, the two of us beginning to walk again.

She was silent then for a few minutes as we made our way through the trees, her brow furrowed like she was deep in thought, only for her to finally smile at me.

"You're pretty special, aren't you?" she commented.

I smirked at her. "In a good way?"

"Yeah, in a good way," she replied warmly. "Who knew my boyfriend was both badass and so amazing that animals sought him out for help."

"That might be a bit dramatic," I admitted. "I'm not sure that they seek me out. Just maybe help each other out if they notice someone is injured nearby."

"Have they ever led you to a person?" she wondered seriously.

I shrugged. "Technically yes, but that was a bit different."

"How so?" she wondered.

"Well, first of all, the person wasn't injured. And it was actually two people." I paused as I thought about how odd that meeting had been. "I'm sure you know about the Beast Master focus, right?"

"Yeah, of course I've heard of it. Never met anyone who had it, but I know it exists."

I nodded. "Well, the Elf Queen has a number of Beast Masters who work as her scouts. And in particular, there are a pair of sisters, Astaer and Celestine. They had a wild dog lead me out of the city to meet them."

Mel's expression turned flat. "Meet you? For what reason?"

I shrugged, recalling how sharply contrasted their piercing blue eyes were to their deeply tan skin and chestnut brown hair. Of course, they were both a little taller than me, but very thin and had a kind of wild aura about them. Which was almost enthralling.