Chapter 15:
Applications
It had been more than a week since Nameless’s confrontation with Escrya and winter was in full swing, though Garland wasn’t nearly as cold as Algrade.
Most of the area in the valley around the city had been cleared ages ago for farming, but there were a number of woods left standing, particularly around the academy.
With the training that they were doing on a near daily basis, Milly and Nina were spending a great deal of time together, much of it locked in faux combat. So at Volka and Ophelia’s insistence they took a break from their intense exercises to go for a walk through the trails snaking through the extensive academy grounds.
After all, it wouldn’t do for them to see each other as enemies all the time.
They couldn’t go too far, as Nameless held both of their heartstones, but it didn’t end up mattering as they didn’t get very far.
They had barely entered the snowy woods before the giant pulled up short on the trail and darted into the bushes, surprising the Minotaur.
“Hey babe, look what I found.”
When Nina came out she was gripping an incredibly fat grey rabbit, her hands under his forelegs while the terrified animal’s nose twitched frantically, its ears flat to its head and rolls of fat bunched around its neck from the way she was holding it.
It was as long as she was tall, its hind feet kicking reflexively whenever they felt the ground.
Her bond-sister let out an excited little moo at the sight and eagerly took it into her arms.
Nina smiled slightly at the predictable response.
“Cute right?”
“Yes! He’s so fluffy!” Milly gushed over the adorably fat animal, holding it close to her cheek.
“Cool.” The Gigas nodded; “I’m gunna kill it.”
“Wh-what?!” The cow pulled away, horrified at the giant’s matter of fact declaration.
“You heard me. I’m hungry and that little fatty looks delicious.”
“No!” She turned her body to pull the pudgy rabbit out of Nina’s reach.
“Yup.”
“NO!” The Minotaur snorted aggressively.
Nina tilted her head in speculation at Milly’s belligerent response, taking a moment to gauge the cow’s determination.
The anxious rabbit’s nose twitched frantically as he waited on the giant to seal his fate.
Then her look turned cunning.
“Alright fine. That little hunk of food is just as squishy as Master. So this’ll be good practice.”
She picked up her hammer and took a menacing step forwards.
Milly likewise took a step back.
“Nina! This isn’t funny!”
“Good, because I’m not joking. In a real fight losing has a cost, there are stakes. In this case, rabbit steaks.”
Her worry for the animal kept the gentle Minotaur from catching the horrible pun.
“Stop it!” She stomped one hoof in consternation.
Nina took another menacing step forwards.
“Make me. Keep me busy long enough and maybe I’ll forget about my lunch.”
The Gigas lunged and the Minotaur gave a panicked low before turning to run for it.
She didn’t get very far.
A chunk of a frozen log hit her between her shoulders and dropped her, knocking over a nearby rain collector when she fell.
The simple contraption’s seal broke and its half-frozen contents flooded the trail, turning the packed snow and dirt into slush and mud.
“The hell are you doing?! Never take your eyes off your opponent!” Nina chastised angrily; “That could just as easily have been my hammer!”
Milly had mostly landed on one arm, having tucked the terrified bunny under the other to protect it from her weight.
She scrambled back to her feet to face the hungry giant.
“I don’t want to do this!” The distressed Minotaur shouted with tears beginning to trail down her rounded face.
Nina was less than ten feet in front of her on the trail, her hammer held on her shoulder and another piece of deadfall in her other hand in case her unwilling student tried to run again.
“Give me my lunch then. Don’t worry, he’ll die quick. One twist and it’s over.”
“Y-you’re so cruel!” Milly’s tears were coming in earnest now at her bond-sister’s callous words.
The giant’s eyes narrowed to slits as she dropped the chunk of wood.
“Winning is cruel.”
Once again she lunged.
This time Milly rolled to one side, right through the slush left by the spilled rain collector.
As she did she scooped up a good handful of the muck and hid it behind the beleaguered bunny’s body.
She regained her feet just in time to meet Nina’s next attack.
This time she held her ground, waiting till the last second before jumping to one side and throwing the handful of mud and ice into the red girl’s face, causing the startled Gigas to stumble in surprise.
Seeing her opening, the Minotaur tossed the bunny into the bushes and darted forwards, falling to her knees and grabbing her opponent’s wrist with one hand while the other tried to break the giant’s grip on her hammer.
“Aaand you’re dead.” Nina said calmly.
Maintaining her composure despite her face being a mess of mucky slush, the Gigas had her opposite hand resting on Milly’s back as she spat out bits of frozen twigs and mud to one side.
“What? But I got your hammer!” Milly protested.
Nina pulled her weapon arm out of her bond-sister’s grip with ease, before setting the weapon down so she could wipe her face.
“No, you touched my hammer, meanwhile I touched your spine.” She patted her hand against the smooth skin of the cow’s back for emphasis; “How many times do I have to say it? You aren’t trying to win against me, though throwing shit in my face was a good try. Thank you for that by the way.”
Even with what Nina had just put her through, Milly couldn’t help but feel guilty.
“I’m sorr-”
“No you aren’t sorry.” Nina interrupted firmly; “You use whatever nasty business Kar and the others taught you to stay alive. Better to win dirty than lose clean.”
Some time ago Kar had defeated both Milly and Erica by throwing dirt in the Minotaur’s eyes, which was where she had gotten the idea.
They broke apart and Nina cleared her vision of the last of the mess with Milly’s polka-dot hanky.
“The Amazons did good with you babe, but you need to stifle that urge.”
“What urge?”
“The urge to come straight at me, to pounce at any opening. Normally it’s the right call, but not now.”
Without warning the Gigas lunged forwards again and swept the Minotaur’s legs out from under her with her hammer, causing the poor girl to splat into the same mess she had inflicted on Nina.
“And you’re dead again!” She pronounced as Milly groaned.
It took a lot to bruise a Minotaur, but Nina was a lot.
“What am I supposed to do then?” She panted from her place on the ground.
“The only thing you can do when facing an impossible opponent. Run, duck, dive, dodge, throw shit in my face. You do whatever it takes to survive just one more second, because every second you survive is a victory against someone like me. The more time I spend trying to kill you, the less time I have to kill someone else, and the more time help has to arrive. Now, where did my dinner hop off to?”
She looked around but the fat rabbit had long since escaped into the undergrowth beside the broad trail.
“Does that mean I won?”
Milly didn’t hide the smugness in her voice and Nina crossed her arms as her eyes narrowed.
“Volka’s making you cheeky.”
The Minotaur sat up, her big blue eyes finding Nina’s.
And very deliberately stuck her tongue out at her.
__________
Nameless had not seen Escrya since their falling out, and even though Volka assured him that she had smoothed things over between them he was still worried.
But the fact was: he had more pressing concerns.
Today they would be working with lost-tech for the first time, actual hands on experience rather than the scare-tactics of their first introduction to it, so Nameless and the rest of his fellow cadets were more than a little nervous as they lingered around the broad and well-worn work tables of the classroom.
As with many of their lessons, few monster girls were present, as most breeds either had an aversion to lost-tech or were simply incapable of seeing certain technologies as anything other than different forms of magic.
A muscular bald man with numerous scars over his frame stomped into the workshop, his very presence halting the various conversations.
That and the fact he was carrying a blaster.
“Sit down.” He barked with authority as he set the weapon down on the table at the front.
Quickly getting the impression he wasn’t one to ask twice, the class sat on their stools, four to a table.
“I’m Instructor Kavanaugh. Now, which one of you can tell me what this is?”
Unsurprisingly every hand in the room was in the air, including Nameless’s, but Baron Watts spoke without raising his.
“It’s a blaster, sir. Though it’s obviously been modified.”
A murmur of confusion went through the others as their raised hands faltered and lowered, clearly it wasn’t obvious to most of them.
“Nice catch.” The instructor nodded; “Normally you pull the trigger, one blast comes out. But this particular piece of death was tinkered with by someone with half a brain. The modification drastically increases the power draw from the cell, so it won’t last long, and the gun itself will be garbage once it’s through, but if I were so inclined I could hold the trigger down and draw a line across this room to slice every one of you in half in under five seconds.”
That drew a few gasps from his audience, though Baron just nodded knowingly.
“Okay bright boy, you recognized the modification. But can you disable it?”
This time Baron crossed his arms over his chest and didn’t say anything, but Ginger took a page out of his book and leapt to her feet.
“I can sir!”
Besides Baron the young redhead sitting at Nameless’s table was probably the smartest in the class.
Though something in the instructor’s demeanor as he lay the weapon down in front of her set Nameless’s teeth on edge, and as she reached for the weapon he too jumped up and grabbed her arm.
“Wait!”
“It’s alright Nameless! I have a degree from Algrade!” Impatiently she tried to tear her arm out of his but he simply gripped her tighter.
Kavanaugh smiled humorlessly as he took in the sight.
With an emphatic shake of his head, Nameless explained his reasoning.
“And what happens if you make a mistake?”
At first she rolled her eyes, but then she caught the look on their teacher’s face.
“This was a test...” She groaned.
“Yup.”
“And I failed?”
“Yup. But don’t feel bad, so did he.”
Nameless actually pointed one finger at his chest in confusion, causing the bald man to chuckle.
“Not you pipsqueak. Him.”
One finger was leveled at a suddenly annoyed looking Baron.
“How did I fail? I wasn’t the one stupid enough to try to meddle with a modified piece of lost-tech.”
The glare that Kavanaugh leveled at him would probably have melted paint if he’d been wearing any.
“No, you were just the one knuckleheaded enough to let one of your teammates try! If the little squirt hadn’t intervened she could very likely have just killed everyone in this room! You watch each other’s backs, or you aren’t Aegis. Is that clear?”
The proud young man could only nod his head, pink to the tips of his ears by the time the searing diatribe was over.
Once he was certain that his point had been made, the instructor turned to the rest of the class.
“I’m only going to say this once. No amount of intelligence and no amount of ego will stop a piece of lost technology from ending you. So forget about coming in first, or earning a gold star from me.” His gaze flicked to the wide-eyed Nameless and Ginger before he continued; “And unless you end up working with the ordinance disposal teams it isn’t your job to take this death-stick apart. It’s your job to make sure the one holding it doesn’t get a chance to use it.”
He gestured for the pair to take their seats before continuing his lecture.
“By the end of today you will all be able to identify this weapon, and its potential modifications, on sight, like bright boy did, so that if you’re ever faced with it in the field you won’t end up as a bloody puddle. Then afterwards we’re going to the range so I can show you just how dangerous it is, because every single one of you needs to be as afraid of it as the little twinky was.” He jutted his chin out at Nameless, who did his best not to squirm at the extra attention.
Since childhood he was used to being mocked for his stature, but never in the same breath as he was being praised.
At least, he thought he was being praised.
The class soon learned that instructor Kavanaugh wasn’t kidding about his lesson requirements. They were in the shop for over three hours, culminating in him dragging them all to the test-range and firing the weapon in front of them, just as he said he would.
The searing blast of red light was even more terrifying than he described, easily tearing through the simple wooden targets before the gun became too hot to hold and he dropped it into a barrel of ice rimmed water, steam erupting from it as the water hissed and spat against the heated metal.
He was wearing thick leather gloves so he wasn’t burned, but they all saw him casually shaking his hands from side to side in the cool air.
By the time he finally released them for the day they were all beat, mentally and emotionally, from the instructor’s grueling pace.
The sun was low in the sky as they trudged back to the dormitories, even the normally bubbly Ginger looked morose, Kavanaugh had barked at her so many times she was jumping at small noises by the end.
Nameless reached out with his mind to find that Milly and Nina had long since finished their walk and were going at it again in a nearby field.
They were no longer allowed to train indoors given Nina’s penchant for breaking things and threatening people.
He altered his course to meet up with them, but as he did a hand fell on his shoulder and turned him to face Baron’s frown.
“How did you know?”
“What?”
“How did you know it was a test? My parents are both with the Aegis and I didn’t know.”
It took the orphan a few seconds to catch up with Baron’s thinking.
“I didn’t. It never even occurred to me.”
Baron pursed his lips as he absorbed the words.
“Look, I need to go meet my bond-mates so...” Nameless said by way of farewell as he walked away.
But the taller man kept pace with him, apparently unsatisfied.
“Okay, you didn’t know it was a test, but you also didn’t know the gun was modified right?”
Nameless sighed as he realized he wasn’t getting away that easily.
“I just saw a friend in a potentially dangerous situation and acted, I’m sure you would have done the same.”
“Is that supposed to be funny?”
They entered the field and Nameless saw the pair dueling in the distance.
“No, man I’m way too tired for funny.”
Milly and Nina paused as they picked up on Nameless’s nearness, and his growing irritation.
“But it doesn’t make sense! Don’t think I haven’t looked into you! You were shit in school!” Baron insisted; “You had no way of knowing it was a test, and you didn’t know it was modified, so how could you know it was dangerous?”
Finally Nameless rounded on him.
“Were you listening to anything Kavanaugh said in the last three hours?” He demanded with incredulity; “Lost-tech is dangerous! Period! End of sentence!”
Baron paled as anger took hold, but when he spoke his voice was deadly calm.
“I have been preparing for this my whole life. I am well aware how dangerous lost-tech is. I don’t need another lecture.”
“Then I don’t know what you want from me!” Nameless shouted angrily.
Fortunately, a certain monster girl to whom anger was an old friend had made her way over to them by that point.
“Hey babe. Who’s the dipshit running his mouth? Need me to break him?”
Nameless smoothed out his uniform shirt as he regained his composure before turning to face them.
“This is Baron, one of the other cadets. We were just talking about class.”
“That’s not what it sounded like.” Milly observed while her eyes sized up the stranger from beneath the brim of her hat.
Like Nina, she had also felt her master’s ire.
Having quickly regained control of his own temper in the face of the two powerful monsters, Baron coldly thanked Nameless for his help and took his leave.
Nina’s narrowed eyes tracked him as he stalked away, while Nameless wrapped his arms around his loving Minotaur.
“Master, I’m all sweaty.” The cow protested with her arms out to the side, unwilling to reciprocate the embrace in her current state.
If anything he held her tighter.
“I like you all sweaty. In fact, I’m just going to go ahead and say we have the most fun together when you’re all sweaty.”
She lowed deep when both of his hands gripped her ass tight, her arms finally returning his hug.
“You two are just too cute.” Nina observed drily; “Let’s go back to our room and fuck.”
Nameless sighed into the warmth of Milly’s chest.
“I hate to say it babe, but I think I’m too tired tonight. This was probably the most stressful day I’ve had here.”
Abruptly he yelped as Nina’s squeezed his ass much harder than he had Milly’s.
“It’s cute that you think I was asking.”
__________
Less than a half hour later Milly had her shirt off while Ophelia was tending to the various bruises on her torso from her training sessions with their Gigas.
“Goodness, Milly! What happened here?” The Flutterby asked.
She was gingerly pressing a warm cloth to an especially large bruise between the cow’s shoulder blades.
Seeing an opportunity to get a bit of sympathy for the harsh training their bond-sister was subjecting her to, Milly adopted a distinct sulk.
“Nina threw a tree at me.”
“What?!” Nameless eyes boggled.
“When I wasn’t looking too!” She nodded emphatically.
Nina came into their room from the showers then and was met by a dark scowl from Erica.
She looked to the bruise and shrugged.
“She tried to run away, that was against the rules.”
The Katje stomped up to her, hands on her hips, and leaned down to bring her face close.
“Were you beating on my sister?” She demanded.
Nina rolled her eyes.
“We were training. Don’t be an ass.”
The Katje let out a low growl, rising in pitch as her eyes narrowed to slits.
“And don’t hiss at me or you can be part of the training.” Nina snapped.
“Stop it! Please!” Nameless finally said.
The irritable emotions in the room were wearing on him; he missed Volka’s calming aura and wondered where she was.
Feeling her master’s distress, Milly stood and placed herself between the two bickering girls.
“Nina, I’m sorry, I was just venting a bit. Thank you for training me. And Erica…” She turned to her expectant sister; “Nina’s right, don’t be an ass.”
Ophelia tittered into her hand while Nina raised an eyebrow at the gentle Minotaur’s foul language.
Erica sputtered in consternation.
“What?! But I was defending you!”
The cow-girl turned and pulled the struggling Katje into a hug against her naked chest.
“I know, but you don’t need to do that anymore, especially against Nina! I’m okay, I was just being-”
“Bitchy?” Nina offered and the Minotaur’s cheeks turned pink as Erica broke off their hug.
“S-sure, that.”
The Gigas turned away with a smug smile and began to undress, setting her hammer down as she did so.
Much to the surprise of the others, Milly capitalized on the opportunity while Nina was pulling her shirt over her head, tackling the Gigas to the floor of the closet and quickly pinned her arms behind her head.
“Milly!” Ophelia protested.
The Flutterby had to all but fly out of the way of the two girls colliding.
“And now you’re dead.” The Minotaur teased.
Nina sighed.
“What a triumph this must be for you.” She said drily.
Milly pouted at the non-response and didn’t let her go.
“Say it.”
The Gigas struggled, but the Minotaur had all of the leverage, and without her hammer the giant was well and truly trapped.
“Nope.” Nina said, stubborn to the last.
“Fine. Erica?”
The Katje was watching, equal parts amused and surprised at her bond-sister’s sudden aggression.
“Yeah lover?”
“Tickle her.”
Erica’s answering smile was predatory.
She stalked over to the pair, knelt beside Milly, and took the cow’s tail in hand.
“Gigas don’t tickle.” Nina said placidly.
Milly shifted to one side to give Erica access.
“We’ll see.” The two of them said at the same time.
Using the tassel on the end of Milly’s tail, Erica began to draw little patterns on Nina’s exposed tummy and sides.
At first it was just as Nina said: she didn’t even flinch, but the patient Katje kept at it, and soon Milly saw the giant’s eyes start to water.
“Erica, it’s working.”
“No it isn’t.” The tiny red prisoner spoke between gritted teeth.
Volka came in then, returning from an extended visit to the academy’s library.
“I missed something?” She asked with one delicately raised brow.
“Help us tickle!” Erica said.
Nina had begun to squirm under the relentless assault, panting slightly.
The angel chuckled, her eyes narrowing.
“I would, but you see, I don’t like unfair contests.”
With one swift move she had the ethereal feathers on either wing working on Erica and Milly simultaneously, the pair of them yowling and mooing as they lost the upper hand on Nina.
Very soon both Nameless and Ophelia joined in the fun and the whole occasion devolved into a massive tickle fight that quickly spilled onto the bed.
It was a good evening.
Once everyone’s various appetites were sated, Nameless found himself dozing on the bed with Nina and Ophelia, the other girls having ducked out to the showers to clean up after their shenanigans.
It had become something of a pattern for his bond-mates: though they all slept together at night, there would be times when one or two of them would have him all to themselves.
It wasn’t something Nameless had any real control over, and privately he almost suspected that the girls had worked out some kind of schedule.
Ophelia measured his expression while he pondered on it, half-asleep.
With a frown the Flutterby traced her finger over his face, considering the dark circles under his eyes.
“Dearheart, you’re not getting enough sleep again. Are you still thinking about that other cadet?” She asked with a frown.
In fact, Baron was the last thing he was thinking about at that moment, but he sighed heavily as her words brought the arrogant man back to the front of his mind.
“He might be kind of an ass, but he and Ginger are so much smarter than me it isn’t funny. Hell, almost everybody I’m in training with has had extra schooling! That guy Wes even used to be a lawkeeper in Greyhaven! Next to them, I’m nowhere near good enough. I feel like I need to work harder than any of them to make the cut.”
“Of course you do.” She rolled her eyes; “You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Try to take on everything, no matter the cost to you.”
He shifted in place uncomfortably, his head turning to face her.
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“No!”
The vehemence in her response made him flinch.
“No.” She repeated with less force; “It’s alright to be selfish, to let someone else take up the slack.”
Without him saying anything she could tell that he didn’t agree with her; she had bonded to him for a reason.
“Okay fine, don’t be selfish, but at least be realistic! You are one man, and you can’t be everywhere. And, and-” Her voice caught and sudden tears blurred her vision; “And we need you too.”
Before she finished he was pulling her close, her naked breasts pressing tight to his chest as her shoulders shook with silent sobs.
“Oh Ophie, my Ophie. I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
Surprised at the sudden display of stressful emotion from her, he tightened his arms around her and felt a gentle tickle as her wings fluttered against his forearms.
On the other side of him Nina sat up, her afterglow spoiled by her bond-sister’s tears.
“Course he’s not. No way could he outrun Erica or Volka, and when they catch him Milly will sit on him while I break his legs.”
The distraught Flutterby chuckled weakly into the nape of his neck, but as usual Nameless couldn’t tell if Nina was joking.
He tilted his head away from Ophelia and looked the naked Gigas up and down, taking in her tiny naked curves.
“You’re scaring me again, mountain girl.”
Her chin bobbed down in a quick nod.
“Good.”
After a short while Ophelia leaned partway out of his arms and pulled Nina into their embrace, the two girls lying on top of him together.
Not that he would ever complain about it.
The Flutterby didn’t say anything, just kissed the giant on the cheek repeatedly.
He half expected the taciturn girl to say something sarcastic or even biting, but instead she turned her lips into the kiss.
Once their mouths broke apart Nina gave the graceful monster girl an appraising look.
“You need to relax too babe.”
She very deliberately cupped Ophelia’s breast, kneading it firmly and causing her dark blue nipple to peak in her palm.
The pitch of the Flutterby’s breathing shifted, deepening with sudden arousal.
“Another round? You’re insatiable! What did you have in mind this time?” She murmured intimately at the continued attention the giant was paying to her breast.
“I dunno. My tongue, his dick? Both? Whatever gets you off.”
Ophelia’s breath tickled Nameless’s neck, her cheek still resting on his collar bone.
Without even needing to look at each other they spoke in unison.
“Both.”