Intimancer

“I have returned!”  She called out once she reached the door to their shared room.

“Welcome back!”  Rick called as he opened the door.  Even seeing the changes happen, Sade had to marvel at his transformation these past few weeks.  He was still skinny, but what little baby fat remained had been replaced by lean cords of muscle.  He now had more broad shoulders that gave his torso a pleasant upside down triangle shape.  Sade loved tracing the lines from his bare chest down to his burgeoning abdominals.  Even his voice had gained a slightly deeper timbre that tickled her ears every time he whispered sweet words of love to her.

“I missed you.”  Sade said softly as she wrapped her arms around his neck and brushed her lips against his.

“Oi! Time’s a waste’n!”

The two humans broke off their kiss as the surly elf stomped her way out of the bathroom.  Of the three, Tyr had changed the least, at least outwardly.  Sade had to put her foot down on the size of both her lovers' cocks, much to the larger women's casternation.  Sade even invested some energy to increase the depth of her vagina, but the average length of an elf was the most she could go at that moment in time.  That meant Rick shared his height with Sade and penis size with Tyr.

The problem was that the elf didn’t really have anything else she wanted to invest coital energy on, and Sade was seriously worried what would happen if the young elf had a massive pool of points and decided to spend it all at once, so she gently suggested to improve her womanly half along with the masculine.  Tyr reluctantly agreed.  Her hips, rear, and bust all had been enhanced to bring her proportions to an even greater hourglass shape.  She also poured some energy to grow half a head in height.  She now had to duck through most doors not specifically built for the larger races, something she took great joy in at first but quickly grew sick of after bumping her skull against a doorframe for the umpteenth time.

Tyr was probably the biggest proponent for natural strength training out of the three.  But even she wasn’t against augmenting intense workouts with some extra muscle mass.  While she didn’t get bulkier, her body grew more toned, her muscles more dense as they gained extra strength, further emphasizing the traits that made wood elves so terrifying.

“Let me change and I will meet with you both downstairs.”  Sade said as she made her way to the closet.

“Aw… I think your mage robes look amazing on you.”  Rick said with mock sadness.

“This is my school uniform.  Robes may be comfortable for everyday use, but no spellcaster in their right mind would wear such impractical clothing when dealing with a nest of monsters.  Plus if these get damaged, I would have nothing to wear to school.  These robes are expensive!”

Sade was more than surprised when the topic of armor came up during their first week and Rick actually thought mages wore robes in combat.  I truly wonder where he learned such a stupid notion.  She mused at the memory.

Not that she would have much choice in the matter.  After being a tad… overzealous with her modifications, finding a pair of pants that fit had been extremely difficult.  So much so that they had to dip into their dwindling funds to commission a pair from scratch as opposed to finding a tailor to modify something to fit better.

Sade wasted no time in putting on her clothes.  Her new pants, a linen shirt, leather vest, belt, gloves, boots, and some leather pads that covered her knees.  Rick was the one to suggest the knee pads.  His reasoning was that the group may need to crawl in some tight spaces and that walking on their knees would be all sorts of unpleasant.  He may have odd ideas about mages and armor, but he did know something about practical protection.  Just one more oddity to the man known as Rick.

Fully dressed, Sade grabbed a couple daggers and her mace to clip to her belt, grabbed her cloak, and rushed downstairs.

The other two were already waiting for her in their wagon.  Supplies for a week in the wilds were loaded in their packs along with some spare weapons and various tools they may need.  Tyr felt that they were going a bit overboard but still went along with Rick and Sade’s insistence on being as prepared as possible.  After having to scavenge and even rob the dead for supplies without a single article of clothing to their names, the two humans would rather deal with, as Rick’s father would say ‘Better to have it and not need it, as opposed to needing it and not having it’.

Sade had some theories on why Rick had issues with his father, but the man sure did try to cram as much wisdom in his son as humanly possible.  With more mixed results than either of them would have hoped for if Sade was being honest.  Seriously, who thinks of walking into danger in nothing but robes?

They left out the same gate that they originally came in.  Rather than heading east back to Valmik, the party took a more north-east route.  The rolling hills soon gave way to a deep valley littered with sparse tree cover that got thicker the deeper they descended.

Before they were swallowed up by the valley completely, they came upon a hunters outpost.  These waystations were scattered around in various wild places as safe havens for hunters to rest and recuperate while removing as many threats to the populace as possible.

One of the outpost attendants met with them and took their horse and cart.  Things would be too dangerous for the loyal animal from here on out.  They hoisted their packs and readied their weapons before turning to the deepening woods and setting forth.

The garrison had received reports from its various scouts in the area about a sudden surge of invasive plants.  While that itself was concerning, the local wildlife has also been disappearing in the affected areas.  These two phenomena combined had led the hunters to conclude there was more than likely a tree blight infestation.

This particular problem was when mana in the area somehow enters and mutates a local tree.  This turns the plant into a sort of monster that will seep its own twisted mana in the surrounding area in order to spread its affliction.  This causes a forest to start sprouting brambles and other weeds at an alarming rate.  If left unchecked those plants will become blightlings, a humanoid plant monster, and will start killing off all local wildlife while spreading the tree blight infection in an even wider area.

There were several reasons Sade and her companions were allowed to tackle this problem.  First, while the spread of the blight could be devastating if left unchecked, the rate of its spread was fairly slow, so it would become a major issue after several months to a year, rather than a few days.  In this particular case, the scouts spotted the infection fairly early in its cycle.

Second, while blightlings were certainly dangerous to wild animals, this danger didn’t quite translate to careful sentient creatures armed with weapons, knowledge, and magic on their side.  This made blight jobs a great opportunity for novice hunters.  Noobies could take their time, slowly clearing out any blightling’s they found, and if they got injured or ran out of supplies, the problem would not recover nearly as quickly as they could.

This did not mean the hunt wasn’t dangerous.  Like any job involving wild and unpredictable magic, complications could arise.  Ultimately, they had no real idea what to expect.  They were armed with as much knowledge on the situation that was available, but they wouldn't know what exactly they were going to encounter until they ran face first into it.

“I see the blighters up ahead.”

Tyr readied her bow, a massive thing that had a draw weight equal to Rick’s whole body, and stalked forward with incredible stealth.  Sade marveled at how such a massive woman could just move so smooth and silent.  Wood elves were absolutely terrifying in their chosen environment.  Rangers like Tyr were even more so.

Sade started to channel her mana in the pattern of a frost spell.  She looked to her side and saw Rick clench and unclench his left hand a couple times before holding his spear with both hands.  The motions told Sade that he had readied his modified claw variant.  He had since mastered the original spell that would have affected both hands, but even Tyr admitted that being able to hold onto a weapon while swiping at enemies with the off hand was more advantageous.

The spell Sade could cast on command was more for utility than direct damage.  She would shoot out a line of freezing mist that would slow or outright freeze their opponents in their tracks, giving her companions an easier time to smash the monsters to pieces.  Since they were in a forest that was thick with undergrowth the chances of hitting the others with an ice spike was more than what Sade was willing to risk.

With the ‘freezing mist’ spell, she could be a bit more liberal with her magic and the occasional friendly fire wouldn’t be nearly as devastating.  The blight was far more sensitive to cold than they were.  They found that little fact when doing research for the hunt and incorporated it into their tactics.

The party moved forward as silently as they could.  Tyr leading the way, Sade in the middle, and Rick bringing up the rear, his eyes constantly scanning the area behind them.  They passed the line of blighted growth.  From here on out, they should expect attacks from the blightling’s while they made their way to the center of the infestation.

They didn’t have to wait long.

Tyr slowed down and signaled the others to stop.  She drew back the arrow she had readied. The thing was massive, it looked more like a small spear with feathers on one end than whatever a human could use.  She held her bow fully drawn and waited, still as a statue.  Sade heard a faint rustling sound and peered around Tyr’s crouched form.

From a distance away she spotted a bush.  There wasn’t anything particularly special about said bush, except for the twisted branches that collected underneath it in the form of arms and legs.  That was certainly a Blightling, and if the creature had not been moving, Sade would have never picked it out from the dozens of similar bushes infesting the forest all around.

Tyr let out a slow breath and released her arrow.  The missile rocketed forward at incredible speed and hit the monster right in the middle of the thickest concentration of branches.  The arrow’s momentum continued onwards and dragged the thing along with it until it impacted against the tree behind it.

The blightling let out a shrill cry as fell limp from where it was impaled against the wooden pillar, dead.  The first kill of the hunt.  They crept forward to examine their prey.  Tyr yanked her miniature ballista bolt out of the tree with a fierce tug and let the corpse fall to the ground with a thud.

What Sade originally surmised to be merely a bush with limbs was proven to be mildly incorrect.  What they saw was a stick thin humanoid monster made out of twisting branches, small beady eyes stared lifelessly from a small ball of wood where a head would be.  Leafy branches poked out of any nook and cranny in between the various folds in the wood to give it that bush-like appearance.

“A twig variant.”  Rick said, identifying the subtype of blightling they were examining.

“Aye.  So far things are going ta plan.”  Tyr grunted.  Sade could only nod her agreement.  With any luck, there won’t be any nasty surprises waiting for them later on.  Rick seemed to palm his face at her statement and muttered something about ‘flags’ under his breath.

While they didn’t encounter anything unexpected outside of what they had information on, they were still given a surprise during the next encounter.  That surprise being more twig blights jumping on Rick after he walked a bit too close to where they were laying on the ground in wait.

While the two monsters caught him off guard, he swiftly stabbed one with his spear while it was still in the air then slashed at the other with his prepared spell.  Both monsters never made it to the ground alive.  His daily training with Tyr had most certainly paid off in that moment.

He turned to Sade and gave a goofy grin that made her heart flutter.  She was proud of him and how far he had come.  Before they could be reprimanded for getting distracted, he shook his head to focus and started scanning the environment once more.  Sade chided herself silently as well.  Now was not the time to flirt.

All three steeled themselves for a long hunt and continued to head deeper.