Coye Vol 2 Ch. 16

The injured Owlbear’s mate was taller and bulkier, likely faster and stronger as well. To a lesser adventurer, this would’ve had an adverse effect on morale. Coye stared it down to prove that he wasn’t such an adventurer. He wasn’t afraid.

After studying it in detail, Coye noticed that its deadly beak was twice as long as its partner, signaling that this was the male. He remembered this little detail from the last time he hunted Owlbears, and Dorothy had given him a small lecture on what to expect.

Wanting to buy himself some time, Coye darted backward using Quick Step and quickly told Shayla his thoughts. “We’re going to focus on the new one because the first will fall over any minute now.”

“You sure? It’d be easy to take out the weaker one, though...”

“How would you feel if someone attacked me right in front of you?”

“That’s... d-don’t even joke about that! I’d fucking rip them apart, I’d-”

“Exactly.”

“Oh...” Shayla laughed, “Good point. Head’s up, it’s coming!”

Coye jumped out of the way and picked up right where he left off, avoiding the claw slash with finesse and swiping its left side with his sword on the way. As the feathers flew, his weaker opponent stumbled forward and tried to take a bite out of him.

Avoiding it took little effort, but it did disrupt his rhythm, and he had to back out to catch his bearings. By then, the second Owlbear was already coming at him again, and Coye had to tank it with his shield. It hurt like hell, but he kept himself from flying off this time by pouring energy into his guard and pushing forward into the attack.

The first Owlbear came in again while he was still deflecting, but Shayla made an unexpected decision to ease some of the pressure Coye was facing.

“You focus on the fresh one. I’m gonna wear this other jerk out!” She yelled, launching off of his pauldron and flying off. Sparks erupted from her body bigger than any of the distracting fireworks she’d created until now, catching the full attention of her intended target.

“Shayla?” Coye backstepped and performed a retreating slash across the Owlbear’s face, creating a noticeable chip in its elongated beak. “What’re you doing? You said you almost got eaten by an Owlbear before!”

“Yeah, but only because I was sleeping! Just watch me- a girl’s gotta be fast to survive on her own!” Proving that she wasn’t all talk, Shayla darted around the skies of the battlefield like a free-soaring bird.

Her speed and visual effects dazzled the Owlbear, compelling it to swipe at her and try to swallow her up in its beak, only for her to change direction seconds ahead of the curve.

If he wasn’t dealing with a hulking Owlbear of his own, Coye would’ve loved to watch her do her thing. Shayla made running for her life into a grand spectacle of beauty and fireworks, and it was hard to tear his eyes away from it.

“Alright, if you’re so sure you’re up to this, then keep it busy for me!” Coye accepted the situation, trusting Shayla’s judgment. Doubting her would only distract him from his own battle, and he had his hands full enough as things stood.

A few minutes of dodging and counterattacks later, and at long last, the first Owlbear began to spasm uncontrollably. Its nervous system was locking up, failing, and it collapsed without even a sound. Running around after Shayla and making lots of sudden movements only sped up its downfall.

“Aw, yeah! It’s down!”

“Nice! Get back over here!” Coye celebrated while parrying a sudden beak strike, then countering with a quick return slash that exacerbated the crack on the beast’s beak to the point where it broke off amid a pained screech.

Shayla went to rejoin her partner and flew in a straight line toward him, but the explosive burst of volume staggered her.

“Fuck, that’s loud!” She covered her pointy ears, blocking them off from the disorienting noise.

The second Owlbear was devastated, confused, and scared now that its pride and joy had been severed. In this fear, the beast turned around to face the weaker of its two threats, the zippy glowing thing that kept pestering its female. It raised its claw, building up power for an attack that would slam Shayla into the ground and squish her like a bug if it connected.

Coye wasn’t going to let that happen.

He powered up the strongest blunt attack he had, Shield Bash, and rocketed into the Owlbear’s exposed back once it faced away. Due to the beast’s sheer size, Coye didn’t push it far, but it did stumble forward enough to trip on its own, thus canceling the attack.

“Whew, thanks!” Shayla used this opening to cross the remaining distance and land safely on Coye’s pauldron, no worse for wear.

Coye had some things to say about how this could be avoided, and as he backstepped, he rambled off, “Next time we split up, use a more indirect flight pattern when you fly back to me. Avoid straight lines. Depending on the enemy, think about flying low where you won’t be seen.”

“...Got it,” Shayla nodded, eager to soak up any combat critique the boy was willing to give her.

The enemy recovered and scrambled to its feet. Anger flared from its ragged breath, its piercing eyes becoming bloodshot as it rushed back to Coye and performed a string of attacks that took all of his well-trained reflexes to dodge. At the end of this failed combo, Coye targeted the wound he’d inflicted on the Owlbear’s face and sent it reeling backward in pain.

“Nice one! This is getting really annoying, though... can’t you speed things up a little?”

“I could,” Coye nodded, then pirouetted to the side of the frenzied beast’s latest onslaught. He was confident in himself and no longer worried about expending stamina since most of the Nerverrine was used up on the first Owlbear. “Might do me some good to get more serious now that I’ve loosened up a bit...”

As Coye said those words, an aura permeated off of his body that set off the Owlbear’s fight or flight instincts. It was a feeling that the monster was all too familiar with, only it wasn’t used to being on the other side of it. A smarter monster would’ve cut its losses, abandoned its mate, and followed through with what its impulses screamed at it to do. Instead, the Owlbear howled back in fear and challenge, standing its ground.

“Let me try and give you a nice setup,” Shayla raised her hand and pointed it at the beast.

“Go for it,” Coye was sure he could finish this on his own, but he wanted to give Shayla a chance to show her stuff, too. The more you use your powers, the stronger you get, which he assumed was true for Fairies just as much as it was for his kind.

As she summoned her magical power from within, Shayla began to formulate a plan. There was a reason she hadn’t offered to do this earlier, and it had to do with the fact that they were fighting on a primarily empty plain with little in the environment she could use to her advantage.

Her magic came in three distinct flavors, barring little bells and whistles like her one-sided telepathy, slight healing, flight, and fireworks.

Shayla could alter the property of mundane objects and reconstruct them to a certain extent, she could cast minor jinxes that affected a target’s luck, and she could manipulate the elements of the environment around her to a small degree. None of these abilities had much use against a fast-moving target in an arena that had little in the way of obstacles.

Not unless Shayla used a significant chunk of her mana.

“Quick Step back as far as you can for me, baby,” she commanded, needing as much space as he could give before the Owlbear came charging in on them once again.

Coye did, eager to see what Shayla had in mind as her hand began to glow with a glittery rage.

Shayla couldn’t remember ever using so much of her mana before. Running out of juice in the middle of the Gnarled Woods was a guaranteed death sentence, so she’d always limited herself to little things here and there to assure her survival, along with a prank or two when she had a chance. Now was her time to shine, to find out what she could do if she put her mind to it.

Nothing happened when she unleashed her will upon the world with a snap of her finger. Only when the Owlbear rushed forward did her subtle maneuverings take shape. As it stomped toward the duo, it suddenly found no footing, the earth giving way to magical manipulation.

Cracks manifested beneath its weight, and the monster toppled over itself into a five-foot-deep pitfall of Shayla’s making. It flailed helplessly, its momentum hurting it on the way down as it landed with a crash.

“Woah...!” Coye’s eyes sparkled in appreciation of such an incredible display of magic. Sure, digging a five-foot hole wasn’t peak sorcery or anything, but he loved to see it nonetheless. Until now, nothing Shayla had done had even come close to this, and it changed the way he looked at his Pixie companion.

“Hell... yeah...!” Shayla huffed, her aching body already feeling the ramifications of using so much of her mana at once. “Now get in there and stab the ever-loving shit out of that thing!”

“You got it,” Coye closed the distance and brought down a powered-up slash on the Owlbear’s claw right as it tried to gain leverage to pull itself out of the hole. It screamed and tried again with its other paw, only for Coye to smack it down.

Coye loomed over the hole, continually attacking the beast every time it tried to escape like a vicious game of cat and mouse. None of his attacks could cause any lethal damage thanks to that damned hide of theirs, but the adventurer knew for sure that it was in excruciating pain as his sword bludgeoned it into paste. The shallow wounds he inflicted covered his tunic and trousers in blood, but even this wasn’t enough to get Coye to let up.

Whether it was this unending pain or the trace amount of Nerverrine still left on his sword, the second Owlbear eventually couldn’t manage the effort it took to continue struggling. It faded into the blackness of unconscious thought.

It took Coye a few seconds to register that the beast was out cold, his mind fogged over in the haze of battle. He stopped attacking and exhaled through his teeth. He stood triumphant after centering himself and wiping up his sweat with a handkerchief.

“Is it dead?” Shayla asked and then yawned, her body sprawling around the shape of his shoulder as she melted with exhaustion.

“Nope, gotta finish them off and collect the trophies.”

“Is it cool if I go chill for a few? Using so much mana was... whew...”

“Go for it,” Coye nodded, and Shayla flew over to the nearest hill to rest.

Looking down at his defeated foe still blacked out below, the adventurer channeled so much strength into his sword arm and the weapon itself that his aura rippled the air around it. Rather than wasting tons of energy caving in the monster’s skull with repeated Double Strikes, Coye opted to see if he could do it with a single use of Triple Strike.

Shayla had never seen so much physical power before. It was like the air ripped in half around Coye’s sword. One second it was raised over his head, and the next, it had crashed into the Owlbear with seemingly no in-between state.

The resulting sound was rife with violence, harsh, and loud, but Coye’s attack did the trick. It had split the hide and cracked open the skull. Blood and brain matter spilled out all over his sword, the smell of death now spreading along with the gentle breeze.

“Gods. Could you not come up with a nicer way to put it out of its misery, or what?” Shayla asked. “Not that I feel sorry for it or anything, but damn, that’s cold.”

“It’s the simplest way I could think of,” Coye said as his grip faltered for just a moment. His entire arm was shot, and even though he knew he’d be just fine, it felt like every bone was on the verge of snapping into pieces.

Rather than bugging Shayla for healing when her mana was so low, Coye dug out a red bottle from his pouch and swallowed a mouthful of the sweet liquid. He’d wanted to conserve what he had left, but the pain was intolerable. Warmth spread throughout him until it centered on his arm, relieving him with loving comfort.

“Yeesh, you ok?” Shayla hadn’t seen him break out a healing potion for anything before.

“Yeah, don’t worry. There’s no real damage from the recoil- just temporary muscle spasms and bone aches. It’ll only get easier to deal with as long as I keep on training... once I improve at Triple Strike, it won’t hurt as much, and then I’ll be able to use that much force in more of my attacks.”

“That sure sounds useful,” Shayla was impressed by what she saw today and imagining her boy growing even stronger in the future excited her.

“It will be. The only problem is that it takes me a while to really nail body-strengthening Arts like that, so I’ve been stuck at this level for a while now.”

“You don’t sound too bothered by that...”

“I’m not. Ever since I became an adventurer, I’ve grown stronger in a lot of different ways... experience counts for a lot, you know?”

“Hmm, I guess that makes sense...” Shayla nodded her head, thinking it would be nice to grow more powerful alongside him.

Coye stopped the conversation long enough for him to finish off the remaining Owlbear with another Triple Strike. It would take him some effort to harvest the kill trophies from each of them, so he opted to sit beside Shayla on the hill and catch his breath before doing so.

“I need a quick break,” he exhaled, gulping down another swallow of healing potion and then reclining his back.

Shayla used this opportunity to scoot closer and lay against Coye’s cheek. The two entered a period of silence as they enjoyed each other’s company while descending from the vigorous heights of battle.

It was calming here, out on the plains. The creep of the forest was far off in the distance, as was the perpetual melancholy of the town, and the sky was clear. If it weren’t for the thick odor of Owlbear blood getting in the way, things might have even felt romantic here.

Without turning to face him, Shayla asked, “So... how did I do?”

“You were really cool,” Coye responded so quickly that it made the Pixie blush.

“Damn right I was,” she laughed and tried to downplay her sudden surprise.

“I had no idea you could do anything that big with your magic,”

“Neither did I... I’ve never really used that much mana all in one go like that before.”

“Well, it was amazing. It, um, kind of makes me jealous if I’m being honest...”

“What? Why?” Shayla was curious but soon remembered what had happened earlier that day. “Oh, wait... that’s right, you said something to Byng about practicing magic earlier, didn’t you? I thought you were just covering your ass.”

“I was, but I really do wish I could learn magic. I’ve always been fascinated by it, and if I could, I would love to reclass into a Spellsword.”

“I’m still a little lost about what ‘classes’ even are, big guy. Help a girl out?”

“Oh, classes are just shorthand for people who fight in certain ways or have specific abilities. When you join the Association, you get assigned one or more classes based on what you can do, what kind of weapons you use, and so on. For example, I fight with swords and shields and don’t specialize in anything, so I’m just a ‘Fighter’.”

Although Shayla got the point from Coye’s brief summary, it still rubbed her the wrong way. She crossed her arms and declared, “You’re not just a fighter, y’know. You kicked ass out there.”

“Thanks,” Coye smiled to himself.

“Don’t sweat it...” Shayla sighed. She still had more questions about how classes worked, like what would happen if someone showed up and fought in a way the Association couldn’t so easily classify, but she focused on what was important. “So, Spellswords are exactly what they sound like, yeah? They’re swordsmen who also use magic?”

“Yup. I know it’s kind of silly, but I’ve always thought it would be cool if I could fight with a sword in one hand and have a free hand for magic...”

“Well, what’s the problem, then? You’re a half-elf, so magic should come easy to you.” Shayla commented without much thought, only to watch Coye’s mood worsen after stating her assumption. “Shit, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have just assumed like that, baby. I-”

“No, it’s ok... it’s not your fault. Why don’t we talk about magic later on tonight? I still gotta do the thing, so,” Coye frowned and pointed at the corpses of their fallen foes with his thumb.

“Yeah, go for it... sorry that I had to go and rain on your bloody Owlbear parade.”

Coye laughed, and its sound went a long way toward relieving Shayla’s tensions. “Don’t worry about it so much. I’m still in a good mood,” he assured her and then jumped to his feet.

Grabbing his sword, Coye walked over to the nearest Owlbear and began the arduous, time-consuming process of hacking off its left foot. He only used Double Strike once to make purchase through the hide, and it took him about five minutes to fully lop the damn thing off before it was on to the next one.

As he hacked away at his bloody prize, Coye mumbled to himself, “I bet Miss Whittle is gonna love these,”

“Knowing that weird bitch? Yeah, probably. But enough about her! Shouldn’t you think about how you’re going to win over Byng tomorrow?”

“Uh... I-I dunno. I’m still kind of feeling weird about that...” Coye stopped mid-swing, looking back to Shayla and frowning.

“In what way? Talk me through it, big guy.”

“Is this really a good time for relationship advice...?” He wondered, covered in blood and monster viscera as he was.

“Not like we got anything better to talk about.”

“Alright... It’s just that... I’ve been thinking a lot, and... um, is it normal for me if I like like more than one girl at a time...?”

“Uh,” Shayla was a little taken aback by the randomness of his sincere question and struggled to respond. “I could’ve sworn I heard somewhere that harems are normal for you humans. Is that wrong?”

“Well, yes and no... it’s really only the big and powerful noblemen and merchants who have lots of wives. You know, people who can afford it. Even then, I... I dunno. I just feel like everything is happening so fast. Until recently, I only ever thought about Miss Whittle, but then there were two girls I was interested in, and then three, and now you’re pushing me toward a fourth...” Coye rambled on, growing increasingly flustered the more he opened up about this stuff.

“Four?” Shayla added up the numbers in her head and didn’t follow. “There’s your boss, Suzette, Byng... who else am I missing? Are you suddenly into Tammy now, too, or are you including that Britni chick or whoever?”

“N-No,” Coye was embarrassed by her suggestion and amused at Shayla’s surprising denseness. “You’re forgetting to include yourself in that list, silly...”

“Oh,” Shayla froze and felt like an idiot, a very red-faced idiot. She looked at him, seeing his sword and tunic covered in the blood of monsters, yet although the sight was anything but romantic, it was comforting and even charming in its own right.

This stupid kid doesn’t even know how goofy he looks, standing over a dead Owlbear with a dopey grin on his face like it was the most natural thing in the world, Shayla thought to herself.

“W-Well, don’t worry about me. We’re above that kinda lovey-dovey crap- we’re partners. A two-in-one deal, you get me? You don’t need to factor me into your feelings since it’ll complicate things in that pretty little head of yours...” She sighed, then looked away from the boy to hide the rare display of her vulnerable side.

Coye grew more used to his companion’s peculiarities the more time he spent with her. Thus, he was able to pick up on the fact that Shayla was a little happy about what he said but that she wanted to act indifferent. He thought that was cute, and it only made him like Shayla more.

“Kay, I’ll do that, then...” he nodded his head, eager to drop it and give the Pixie the easy-out she wanted from this topic.

Grateful, Shayla moved on and started to think out loud. “Still, maybe I did kind of rush you toward Byng a little too fast... that’s one of the things about being a Pixie, you know? You don’t always think about shit- you get an idea, and you think it’ll be funny or brilliant, so you just do it. We’re impulsive little shits, and there’s not much to do about it... I know that sounds like an excuse, but-”

“It’s ok, Shayla,” Coye said, bringing down his sword and successfully severing the second Owlbear’s foot. “I-I’m not against having more than one... um... l-lover... I just think it’ll take some time to get used to... and I just worry, what if I can’t give everyone the attention they deserve? What if I can’t keep their interest or can’t make them happy? What if they get closer to me and find out that I don’t have much going for me besides, um, being r-really cute...?”

Shayla felt her heart sink, and she sat up to look at him. “Don’t say crap like that about yourself, you hear me? There’s no way that’ll happen.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because you’re the sweetest little thing in the whole damn realm, you adorable little brat...” Shayla shook her head and rolled her eyes, unable to believe he could think this about himself. “Any other guy in your position with looks like yours would be rushing around trying to collect women like those trading cards, and here you are sweating the details. That’s proof enough to me that you’re special, baby.”

“Special...?”

“Pure, even... except for when you get horny, but that’s neither here nor there,” Shayla waved the idea off with her hand, and Coye blushed. “Point is that instead of doubting yourself, you should just let things happen and enjoy yourself with whatever happens. You deserve this.”

“Well... ok, then. I’ll try not to think about it. I think you’re special, too, by the way.”

“I know, I know,” Shayla blushed and yawned, cutting him off before he could talk more about how he felt toward her. “Now finish up already, all this emotional bonding is making the Pixie side of me even more exhausted, and I wanna take a nice, long nap on the way home.”

“Alright, there’s just a few more things I have to do,” Coye nodded and smiled.

“Oh, one more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“If you really are cool with having lots of lovers, you should think about what I said the other day about moving out of the Guild and getting your own place. You aren’t gonna any chances to bring ladies back to your dorm room, you know.”

“A-Ah, alright... I’ll think about it...” Coye blushed and nodded his head. She had a point as usual, but he wasn’t about to get into it with Shayla over how much money up and buying a house would take, and he didn’t know the first thing about renting.

It gave him food for thought, though, which was all Shayla aimed for.

Right now, Coye had two things he wanted to spend money on. His new hobby and his eventual need for a home outside the Guild. Both of these required more funding, so once he was done packing away the proof of kill trophies, Coye got to work harvesting some more materials from the Owlbear corpses.

There was no way he’d be able to strip them of their hides, not without a better hunting knife than the one stashed in his boot, so he settled for filling up a small bag of feathers and harvesting three out of four Owlbear eyeballs. Unfortunately, one of them was unsalvageable due to how he killed it, but Coye was fine with that.

As for why he cut out the eyeballs, Coye wasn’t sure. He knew that alchemist types tended to buy junk like eyeballs, tongues, and organs from just about any monster, though, and that was enough for him. That being said, he took the tongues, too.

Before taking off, Coye tried harvesting some claws but found that they were tough and wouldn’t sever from the toes no matter what he tried. It was annoying, so he didn’t persist for very long. All this struggling made him remember a so-called must-have arcane tech gadget he saw in Miss Whittle’s catalog called a Monster Stripper- an all-in-one harvesting tool.

He wondered if Shayla would be mad if he ordered one and broke his promise to stop buying junk from Miss Whittle or if she’d allow it because it would help him make more money...

Coye was about to ask, but when he turned back to Shayla, he found she had started her nap earlier than anticipated and was now sunbathing in the land of her dreams. Seeing her like that made him smile, and he was altogether satisfied with how today’s adventure had gone.

There were low stakes, and neither of them was in actual danger at any point, but it helped him gain a better insight into Shayla’s powers and get a taste of how it would really feel to fight as a team with a Pixie by his side.

Scooping Shayl up as she continued to sleep and putting her under his hat, Coye began the short journey back into Cransmere with a grin on his face that was entirely out of place with the comical amount of blood and gore dripping off of his clothes.