Enlightenment Through BDSM

The walk back to the Guild wasn’t quite as eventful as the earlier parts of the day, but I was okay with that. I realized that it had basically just been one single day, twenty-four hours since I “died” that so many things had occurred. Even though she hadn’t had quite the experience in the same time period, I could tell Kalia felt similarly, and we mostly made the trip in silence. 

That silence ended once we actually got back though, entering into a hall that was far more full and boisterous than before. It was a veritable feast in size alone, and the variety of people made it feel like I was walking into a whole new world yet again. All the usual suspects I’d come to expect like Humans, Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, the rarer ones like Felyn and even a couple Lepyn like Edelin, and of course that huge guy with the angel wings, but also kinds of people I hadn’t seen at all until then, people way taller and more muscled than anyone, even the angel-man, people with other animal features like fox and even cow ears and tails, people with scales like a lizard instead of skin!

“What’s going on?” I asked out loud as we wandered in. “And are we gonna be able to find a table?”

“No idea,” Kalia said, glancing around. “It’s unusual to see any Guild this busy though.” 

I continued marveling at the sight as we made our way through the building, finally laying eyes on a giant chalk board above the food counter that read, “Special: Rabbit Stew! Sold Out!”

I was actually little upset at that, even though I’d already had stew for basically every bite of food so far and didn’t much like rabbit anyway. Everyone else sure seemed to be enjoying it, and I was part of the team that killed them, so I should get some, right? Not that I helped that much.

“Oy!,” I heard from behind us, turning around and seeing Dreck waving from a table over, with two seats open next to him besides, saved by the virtue of his axe laying across them. Kalia noticed too, and we made our way around the crowd to the open seating.

“Turns out the Guild knew a big party would be coming back in tonight, so they had a special order with the butcher for a ton of meat already and were trying to figure out how to fill it. Throwing the rabbit in on top was just enough to meet the quota,” Dreck said, chewing into what looked like a turkey leg in addition to a hefty, over half-empty bowl of stew. Both looked really, really good.

“Couldn’t do us a solid and save some stew,” Kalia said. I was pretty sure she was joking, mostly.

“Actually, as a matter of fact I did. The rabbit stew’s just the regular stew with rabbit added after, so I asked them to save a couple portions for you two.”

“Oh,” Kalia said, obviously a little taken aback. “Well, thanks, I guess. I’ll go grab out food, you go ahead and sit, Mai.”

“Me? Okay.” I did as I was asked, sitting in the middle of our three seats since it felt awkward to sit away from Dreck with no one else there.

“Figure things out,” Dreck said, dumping the remained of a huge mug of beer down his throat. “Oh, and mind pouring me some more? Don’t want my greasy fingers to get the pitcher dirty.”

“Oh, sure,” I said, grabbing the comically oversized container of beer and filling up his glass again. “And yeah, I think so. Still need to test it out.”

“That so,” he said, placing his turkey leg directly into his bowl of stew and patting his chest. “Let’s see how she works.”

“Uhm, I don’t think that’s the best idea. I don’t really know what’s going to happen if I do.”

“Come on!” Dreck continued, and for the first time I noticed he was slurring his words a bit. Sure, he was big, but he’d obviously drank a lot. “I can take it! I’m the best tank in this whole Guild, mark my words!” 

I mean, he was built like a tank, I thought. And I had barely done anything to those rabbits, so it couldn’t be too bad, right? “Okay,” I said, sliding back and measuring the distance between us. Edelin had said I should practice it before going back out to work, and Dreck had been a willing test subject even when sober, so it couldn’t be too bad, right? Just gotta make sure I don’t make another blast. 

I tried to remember everything, small point of contact, a straight line for the chi to follow, no barriers between us. The first two were easy, and while I wasn’t sure how armor or even regular clothes would affect the last one, Dreck was nearly topless anyway, so that was fine here too. Other than that, it was the same old Soul Strike, pulling on that force in my chest, stretching my arm out with it, lightly tapping Dreck’s sternum, and transferring the energy.

It wasn’t like any of the strikes I’d made before, not even the kick to the wolf. I could tell it was really different this time, more concentrated, more powerful, more deadly. For a moment I was legitimately scared I’d killed him, seeing his eyes glaze over and then close, but I knew at least that hadn’t happened when he shouted, “Fuck!” seemingly at the top of his lungs, slamming his fist onto the table and sending both stew and beer flying onto his arm and the table besides. “Watch it!” some human next to him said, but he didn’t continue his berating once he’d made eye contact with Dreck.

“Dreck, do not tell me you just had her do what I think you did,” Kalia said, returning with two empty mugs and two full bowls. 

“She’s gotta test it out sometime,” Dreck replied through gritted teeth before laughing heartily. “Sure was a shock though! Could be worse for sure, but for an unarmed attack that’s nuts! A ten-percenter at least.”

“Ten-percenter?” I asked.

“Ten percent of his HP, his total HP, which was already below forty percent! Jesus, she could’ve legit dropped you.”

“I’ve told you before my name isn’t Jesus!” Dreck said as he wiped up his arm and the table with a cloth hanging from his waist. “And she couldn’t never manage that. No cat’s taking me down without at least showing some claws.”

“Claws?” I looked down at my relatively human fingernails.

“Figure of speech,” Kalia said. Placing the stew and glasses down. I went ahead and filled up her and my glasses with beer. “Although I’ve heard some Felyn do actually have them.”

After that, Kalia and I focused on eating while Dreck focused on drinking. It was nice, reminded me of competitions where everyone was gathered in the cafeteria after winning a big event, even down to the gorging on food and booze when you didn’t have to worry about being super strict with your diet anymore. I hadn’t participated in the mission that apparently at least half of these people had been on, but helping take down the rabbits even if only minorly made me feel at least a little part of the celebration.

There was some awkwardness, of course. The mostly unaddressed fact that we weren’t really a party, punctuated by Kalia and Dreck making sure the pay split from the butcher and Guild both was split evenly. But it wasn’t all uncomfortable, a lot of joking and a little reminiscing between the two of them, Dreck asking continually hard to answer questions about a past life I never lived. It was still fun though, and I even enjoyed pouring drinks for the three of us as the middle seat of our group, even though I drank the least of us, less than Dreck by far.

“You know,” Dreck said as he took another swig, “I feel my HP regen is really good tonight.”

“Wait,” Kalia said, shaking her head. “Yeah, what the hell, you’re over sixty percent? And I’m full?”

“Must be the rabbit. They say large rodents’re good for vitality, you know. Oh, and by the way, I met a girl today. She was part of the big expedition, but she don’t got a party. Mousey little chick, but I reckon you’d get along.”

“What’s her Job?” Kalia asked, obviously interested. 

“Didn’t mention it, but she’s posted a looking for group message on the bulletin.” 

“We’ll have to check tomorrow morning,” Kalia said, finishing off her beer. “Should probably get to bed though. Mai especially’s had a long couple days.”

“No kidding,” I said. My eyelids were already starting to droop. It was the most I’d drank in a long, long time. 

“Alright then, see you two later.”

“Wait, I paid up our food and room earlier. I didn’t ask how much the drinks were,” Kalia said. “They’re on your tab.”

“Forget about it,” Dreck replied, waving her off. “You covered my drink more’n a couple times before, and never asked for anything back. Just call it even.”

Kalia gave the sheer amount of pitchers on the table a side glance, but eventually nodded. “I’m glad we could do this, one last time.”

“Aye, better leaving things this way.”

“Goodbye, I guess?” Kalia said as her and I got up.

Dreck sat there for a couple seconds before standing up again. “See ya around,” he said as he wrapped his arms around Kalia.

“See you around,” she replied, returning the hug. 

“And you too,” he added as he let her go and grabbed me, lifting me up into the air as I dangled my feet.”

“Hey! I’m not that short!”

“Short enough to mess with,” he said as he lowered me down. 

I did return the hug once my feet were back on the ground. It did make me a little sad, honestly. He hadn’t made the best first impression, but I really did like him. “See you later,” I said before letting go and watching him return to the table.

“Come on,” Kalia said, grabbing my hand and leading me off. “And I hope you’re not too tired. It’s our first night alone with a real bed, after all.”