His face breaking into a large grin, Alburet nodded. As they passed the desk Alburet reached out and swatted Karen’s ass hard. The sound of his hand striking the leather, along with Karen’s yelp, brought the mage to a stop and the receptionist spun around, her eyes wide and her cheeks red.
“Sorry, thought I saw a spider on her and tried to get it off,” Alburet said smoothly, “please, lead on.”
Karen looked back at Alburet with her eyes smoldering, but she wasn’t about to give away the game. As the mage started walking again Karen glanced back at the receptionist, winking and blowing her a kiss. Alburet heard a strangled splutter from the receptionist. As they continued Karen fell back to walk next to Alburet, whispering softly, “I’m so going to make you pay for that. You didn’t pull that spank at all. I wasn’t expecting it to be that intense.”
“I shall pay the fee and gladly,” Alburet said calmly as they approached the door to the portal room. “I can’t deny who I am, after all.”
“So you like it rough?”
“Your portal, step into the rune and it will take you to your destination.” The mage said as he opened the door, cutting off their conversation.
Alburet bowed, “Ladies first, in all things.” Karen’s lips were drawn thin, her eyes gleaming, but she held her tongue and only nodded before she stepped onto the rune. As she vanished Alburet turned to the mage, “I’m sorry for our behavior. Please extend my apology to the receptionist as well.” He handed over a gold before he, too, stepped onto the rune.
The Messenger
As soon as he could make out the ruined barroom he spotted Karen lounging against a wall. Nodding, he quickly buffed himself with Demon Skin, then summoned Tiny and Bob and triggered his Flame Weapon ability. “Okay, I'm good to go now.”
Pushing off the wall, Karen nodded, “Okay. Let me go scout real quick.” She stepped out the door into the sunset.
Karen was back a few minutes later, “The house you were attacked from the first time has a new set of goblins in it. Only two swords with one bowman this time.”
“Sounds good, let’s get this party started. We’ll give you two minutes to get set then we’ll go over and say hi to the neighbors.”
Karen stealthed and left the building after agreeing with the plan. Two minutes later Alburet buffed Tiny and they left the inn, heading for the building Karen had indicated. The fight was over quickly thanks to their experience dealing with the packs of goblins earlier. As the last of the goblins fell, the sun finally sank behind the horizon. It grew dark in minutes Alburet blinked, trying to get his eyes adjusted to the quickly diminishing light level.
“It gets really dark pretty fast, right?” Karen said from nearby, her form barely discernible.
“Hmm. Maybe we’re done for the night?” Alburet half asked.
A soft chuckle came from Karen, “Just wait for it.” A few seconds later the gold moon rose, bringing a soft golden light to the ruins. “There it is, Nightlight.”
“Don’t tell me the moon is actually called Nightlight,” Alburet said incredulously.
“It is, according to the books in game,” Karen said then waited, looking at the sky. “Besides, it does what the name says. Consider how dark it was a moment ago.”
“Okay, point. However they really could have done a better job of naming it.” He gazed at the golden moon, noting the craters that marked its surface.
“Oh, by the way,” Karen said softly from behind him, “vengeance is mine.” Her hand smacked into his ass hard, causing him to let out a small yelp and turn to face her.
Tiny roared and brought his axe up, turning to face Karen. Bob looked on, laughing but otherwise doing nothing. Alburet held up a hand, “Hold, Tiny! She was owed that one from when we were in the city, so stand down. She is not an enemy.”
“But she attacked you master!” Tiny bellowed, his eyes glowing in the dim light as his hand flexed on the axe haft.
“As he said, it was payback for the spanking he gave me earlier.”
“Fee paid, as agreed,” Alburet replied before turning to Bob. “That’s enough, Bob.”
“Fine,” Bob said, still chortling slightly.
Tiny lowered his axe, still visibly angry as he turned to Alburet. “We going to kill more?”
“As soon as Karen decides she’s ready,” Alburet said, looking around only to find Karen gone. He checked the map and saw her down the street entering a building. A moment later his message icon lit up telling him she was ready. “Seems she already found our next target. Let’s go.” He rebuffed Tiny as they set out for the next set of goblins.
The next four hours was a repeat of earlier in the day, with them moving from ruined house to ruined house killing all they found. Eventually Karen called it a day, “Okay, I think I’m done for now. We both leveled during this run, so that’s good enough for now. You need to be careful with that new spell, though. It hurts friendlies, excluding your minions who seem immune to it.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. And we never found the messenger, either,” Alburet said as he stepped to the doorway to loot the goblin there. He did so he noticed a lone goblin moving down the street towards them. Focusing on it, he checked the name and level of the goblin, Goblin Messenger level 15. “Psst, Karen. You might want to stealth.”
Karen faded from view and came over to look out the door. She whispered, clearly excited to see the goblin, “That’s the one we need.”
“Okay. Tiny will engage him, then we all pile in,” Alburet said softly, looking back at Tiny. “Let him get a touch closer first, Tiny.” He eased into the house and buffed Tiny again with Retribution, Haze and Vitality. “You’re good to go.”
Tiny nodded, waiting another few seconds before he went sprinting out of the house with a roar. The Goblin Messenger looked up to see Tiny barreling down on it barely in time to throw itself away from the attack. Alburet and Bob came out of the ruined house just as Tiny missed. Alburet went to close the distance as Bob began his barrage of Fire Blasts. The goblin came to its feet with twin short swords and a red glow surrounding it as it attacked Tiny.
Alburet got there a moment later, but held his attack as he waited for Tiny to gain more aggro. Tiny was being pressed pretty hard from the barrage of attacks the goblin was launching at him. Once its life dipped a bit more Karen appeared, her blades sinking into its back.
“It will try to run at a quarter life,” Karen said as she attacked again.
“Okay,” Alburet replied as he finally swung the maul, hitting the goblin in the side. As Karen had said, at 25% life the goblin turned to run only to find itself cut off, then cut down in short order. Alburet chuckled, “That’s a good way to end the night.”
Karen looted the goblin, holding up a scroll and a messenger bag. “These are the quest items. Are you going to be on tomorrow?”
“Yes,” Alburet said, wondering why he hadn’t gotten the quest as well.
“Okay. Meet at the Stormguard fort tomorrow, say about ten in the morning? I’ll start the quest line then. If anyone else you know is on then, invite them as well. The boss this thing spawns is level twenty, so we could use some more help.” Karen said as she put the scroll and bag into her pack.
Whistling softly, Alburet nodded, “That is going to be fun.”
“Not really, but the rewards are normally worth it. Thanks again for the fun day and night. I would see about doubling down on the fun, but I do need some sleep.” Karen stretched her body before coming over to stand a foot in front of Alburet looking up at him. “Maybe tomorrow after we kill the boss we can have some extra fun?”
“Sounds like a good time to me,” Alburet said with a chuckle, resisting the urge to pat her head.
“Good,” Karen leapt up, wrapping her legs around his waist and planting a deep kiss on him. After a minute she broke the kiss, her eyes smoldering, “Just a hint of things that might possibly come.” She vanished as she logged out.