ROUGH DRAFT Coye Vol 2 Ch 16

The second Owlbear was a good deal taller and bulkier than its mate. Faster, too. Coye suspected he’d been attacking the female until now, and now the male was pissed to see his lover in such pain. Dorothy once told him how to tell the genders of Owlbears apart, but he was too busy strategizing to recall.

Using a low-powered Quick Step to evade and separate himself from the foe, he told Shayla his thoughts. “The other one won’t be able to move any minute now. Let’s focus on the new one. If we kill its mate in front of it, that’ll only make it more aggressive.”

“Right, good idea.” Shayla nodded. She knew she’d be pissed if anyone harmed Coye, so it was easy to convince her.

Coye’s blood was pumping like crazy as he dodged the Owlbear at every turn. His counter-attacks were quick and methodical, in and out. The struggle now was multitasking and waiting for the paralysis to fully set in.

Until then, he had to keep his guard up and the limping monster got in a few blows that he deflected with his shield. Even with its power slowly draining, the force of its claws was so powerful that it stung Coye’s hand through his steel barricade.

The stronger bear thought to make use of this opening, but Shayla distracted it with a well-timed firework and Coye was able to back off with a retreating slash of his sword.

This slash seemed to do the trick, as the already stumbling Owlbear was at last rendered limp and useless. Its mate grew concerned and distracted, its anger increasing, but it knew its partner yet lived so it figured it still had a chance to come out on top of this.

In an unexpected move, it turned its attention toward Shayla. It must have figured that the little pest zipping around wasn’t just a bright firefly, but was the source of all the strange interferences that kept cropping up.

It swiped at the Pixie, who darted through the air out of the way. “Crap-!” She exclaimed, thinking she was safe.

Coye wasn’t going to let his partner get targeted, even if there was little chance she’d actually get hit on account of her size. He scowled, collected energy in his shield, and tackled it using Shield Bash while its back was turned.

The blunt force wasn’t strong enough to knock a monster so big and strong off its feet, but it succeeded in drawing the aggro away from Shayla. Roaring with rage, the Owlbear pivoted and hip-checked Coye with its broadside.

“This is getting annoying...!” Shayla gritted her teeth, catching her breath as she flew to Coye’s shoulder where she would be safe.

“Agreed,” He said, ducking a horizontal beak attack. “Maybe I should ramp things up a little...”

“Nah, let me handle this. I’ll use my magic to give you a big chance.”

“You can do that?”

“Probably?” She shrugged. They were fighting on a grassy plain surrounded by multiple hills, and her magic relied primarily on jinxing her targets, changing objects in minor ways, or manipulating the environment. There wasn’t much here to work with, save for one idea she had early on that she saved in case of emergency.

“Quick Step back a bit,” Shayla resolved herself to the oncoming stomach pain as she clutched his shoulder pauldron tight.

Coye followed the command and put distance between him and the remaining Owlbear while the Pixie prepared for a taxing use of her mana. When she snapped her fingers, the earth beneath the enemy shook as it charged forward.

Cracks began to form, and the beast sunk into a pitfall about five feet deep.

“Now get in there and stab the shit out of it!” Shayla demanded, instantly feeling the ramifications of using so much power at once. Her body ached, but this would get the job done, she hoped.

“Woah,” Coye remarked as he Quick Stepped back in. He always loved seeing magic, but until now Shayla hadn’t done anything especially impressive. This changed that, however, and he now knew she was capable of more than he though. It still fell into her environmental manipulation, but the scale was different and he loved to see it.

The Owlbear crashed violently into the dirt and the confusion it felt made climbing out a tricky affair. Coye stopped each attempt by slashing and stabbing at it, often resulting in the monster tossing its body around and loosening more of the earth around it, trapping itself further.

Like this, it was easy for Coye to attack it over and over until it fell to the paralytic oil even faster than its counterpart. It only took a few minutes of stabbing and slashing before it was rendered immobile.

Shayla opened her sleepy eyes and rubbed them. “Didja get it?”

Coye wiped some sweat off his brow, telling her, “Yeah. Just gotta finish them off now and collect the trophies.”

“Cool, I’m gonna lay down for a sec...” Shayla fluttered over to the nearest hill and watched as her partner performed Double Strike twice in a row on the Owlbear’s skull, caving it in yet wincing from the pain it brought him.

“Yeesh,” Shayla winced. “You ok?”

“Mostly...” He switched his sword over to his left hand and repeated the process on the original Owlbear. “Gotta use all of my strength to actually kill these things.”

Once they were both good and dead, Coye went and sat beside Shayla on the grassy hill, joining her in tiredness. “I need a quick break before I collect the trophies...”

He laid on his back and Shayla felt compelled to fly over to him and recline against his cheek. The two were quiet for a moment as they descended from the heights of battle

The plains northeast of Cransmere were typically calm and tranquil, much more so than anywhere close to the woods. Sure, the smell of Owlbear blood was in the air, but Coye had smelled worse. It wasn’t a bad place at all to take a quick load off.

Shayla “Soooo... how did I do?”

“You were so cool,” Coye said so quick that it surprised the Pixie, but left her pleased.

“Damn right I was,” she laughed.

“I always get real jealous whenever I see all the magic things you can do.”

“Really? Oh, that’s right... you said something to Byng about practicing magic, didn’t you? I thought you were just covering your ass.”

“Didn’t I tell you I wanted to reclass as a Spellsword?”

“Probably, but I don’t even get what the whole ‘class’ thing is about anyway.”

“Classes are just recognized styles of fighting, more or less. The Guild and other places use them as shorthand for someone’s talents. I fight with swords, use basic arts, so I’m just a generic ‘Fighter’.”

“And a Spellsword is a swordsman with magic?”

“Yeah,” Coye nodded, smiling to himself at the thought of ditching his shield and commanding magic with his opposite hand.

“So what’s the problem? You’re a half-elf, magic should come easy to you.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you.”

“Have you tried?”

“Yeah, lots. I’ll show you later.” Coye shrugged and Shayla picked up that this was souring his mood and magic was a touchy subject for him.

“Sounds good, sorry. I didn’t mean to rain on your bloody Owlbear parade.”

Coye laughed, relieving Shayla’s tensions. “You’re ok... I’m in a real good mood, don’t worry about me.”

He got up and did a few stretches, then grabbed his sword as he walked over to the original Owlbear and started the process of hacking its left foot off. It’d take him some time, but he wasn’t going to use any Arts to speed it up, or else he was worried he might hurt himself.

As he did, a stray thought came to mind and he imagined how Dorothy might react to his trophies. Then, he remembered his date with Byng and the conflicted feelings it brought him.

Shayla saw him pause and asked, “What’s up, still tired?”

Now was as good a time as any for a little relationship counseling, Coye thought. “Is it normal for me to like more than one girl at a time?” He asked casually.

“Uh,” Shayla was taken aback by the randomness of the inquiry. “I don’t really know what I’m talking about, but aren’t harems normal in your society?”

“Yeah,” he hacked at it again. “But everything happening is so much to take in. Until recently, I only liked one girl and then it was two, then three, and you’re already pushing me to four...”

Adding up the numbers in her head didn’t make sense. “Four? I know there’s your bitchy boss, Suzette, and Byng, but did I miss something? Uh... are you into Tammy, or what?”

“N-No,” Coye blushed and shook his head, then chuckled. “I’m talking about you, silly.”

“Oh,” Shayla felt like an idiot, a very red-faced idiot. She looked at her partner, his sword and tunic covered in the blood of Owlbears, and found the sight far from romantic but charming in its own right.

Stupid kid doesn’t even know how goofy he looks, standing over a dead monster with a dopey grin on his face.

Shayla sighed and looked away. “Well, don’t worry about me. We’re partners- a two-in-one deal so we’re above that kinda lovey-dovey crap. Just focus on Suzette and Byng for now, got it?”

“Kay,” he smiled and nodded his head, happy to have some direction.

“Still, maybe I did push you into more a little too fast...” she frowned at the thought that any of Coye’s inner turmoil was her fault. “I didn’t mean to. I just wanted to help.”

“It’s ok,” Coye brought down his sword one last time and severed the Owlbear’s foot. As he untied one of the bags on his belt to deposit it, he said, “I’m not against the idea of having more than one... um... l-lover, it’ll just take some getting used to...”

“You’re such a good kid,” Shayla shook her head in disbelief, rolling her eyes. “Any other guy in your position and they’d be rushing straight ahead trying to collect women like a pack of those cards of yours, and here you are sweating the details. Instead of doubting yourself, just let things happen and enjoy yourself. You deserve it.”

“I do?”

“Course you do, baby. Now get to work on that other foot so I can take a power nap.”

“Sure thing,” he nodded and gave the Pixie another innocent smile.

Shayla wasn’t used to using so much of her magic in a single day, and this battle took a lot out of Coye, too. As much as she wanted to keep on adventuring, it was the best decision to head back and prepare for Byng tomorrow.

When he was done, Coye also tried to strip the Owlbears of their pelts but found that doing it with his sword was awkward, and the hunting knife he kept in his boot wasn’t anywhere near sharp enough to cut through the beasts. Settling for the next best thing, Coye filled a small bag full of feathers which he intended to pawn off at the marketplace. It wouldn’t be much, but it’d be a nice little bonus on top of everything else.

Satisfied with their first real battle as a team, Shayla settled in under Coye’s hat to take a rest as he brought them back on the road heading into Cransmere.