Amir

"Oh… Aisha… Haauuu… I guess it's really true what they say about fey…"

.

Celeste released her death grip on Aisha's head, relaxing her thighs and hands. Her spent body flopped onto the bed, sending reverberations through the mattress. She retracted her tongue back into her mouth, her throat sore from screaming.

.

Aisha released her hair from her half-ponytail, bunched up from the tight grip that Celeste's legs and fingers had on them minutes prior. She frowned. Doing the hairstyle actually took a lot of time… she kind of wished Celeste had a little more… restraint.

.

"Aisha… can you get me some water?" Celeste said hoarsely.

.

She complied, rolling her eyes a little bit. Celeste was an ok lay, but her laziness definitely… leaked into their bedtime activities. Aisha was okay with it though. She much preferred the cuddles, and the tender, lazy little strokes that Celeste gave her on her face and ears.

.

Aisha walked into Celeste's kitchen, her bare feet padding on the tiled floor. She shivered slightly at the feel of the air conditioning on her uncovered skin. She grabbed a glass from a cupboard and filled it in the sink, walking back to the bedroom where Celeste waited.

.

"Ah… thank you… Good girl. Come here…"

.

Aisha tilted the little glass to Celeste's lips, watching the liquid drain from the glass, and Celeste's pouty, full, lips. Celeste finished the water and held out her arms in front of her, smiling softly as Aisha climbed in, nuzzling her neck and mewling as Celeste stroked her ears.

.

"Where did you learn to… pleasure a woman like that?"

"I dunno. Just practice, I guess."

Celeste laughed, a lovely, clear, sound. "You must have a lot of practice to get that good!"

"Maybe."

"Maybe, huh. Maybe next time… we can use some toys." Celeste licked her lips.

"...Toys?"

.

Celeste giggled. "Look under the bed!"

.

Aisha got up from the bed and from Celeste's warm body to drag a large box out from under Celeste's bed. Lifting the lid, Aisha saw that it was filled to the brim with plastic baubles and beads… oh. Toys. She picked up a small ring, far too small to fit on a finger...

.

"I remember this…" She mused to herself.

"You've used one before?" Celeste smiled.

"They used them on the other women in the cages... Huh."

.

Celeste frowned. "What?"

"Hm?"

.

Celeste's eyes widened. She leaned over the bed, pulling Aisha up into her lap. She got a good look at the dimly glowing diamond on her neck. She pulled Aisha into a tight embrace, holding her tight.

.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know!"

"Sorry for... what?" Aisha asked, confused.

"I… forced myself onto you! I… enchanted you!" Celeste cried, horrified at her actions.

"...I… took your freedom!" She whispered.

.

Aisha sighed.

"Is this because... I was a slave? I don't really care about freedom or whatever."

"A-about being sold into slavery?? How could you not care about that?"

"Time spent in a cage, or on the streets wasn't all that much different."

"Oh… you poor girl... " Celeste whispered softly.

.

Celeste hugged Aisha tighter, cradling her in her arms and kissing her ears. Aisha found that she no longer found all the pity from the people around her annoying. She wondered why.

.

Aisha tangled her legs with Celeste's, hugging her plush body and closing her eyes. She wasn't sleepy, but cuddling with her felt so good…

.

She looked outside the window. It was still light out, and they could probably still take another contract.

.

"Hey." She nudged Celeste.

.

No response. Celeste's grip was slack, and her breathing was even. She was asleep.

.

Oh well. Aisha got an entire afternoon of cuddling, all to herself!

.

.

.

Vigil turned her head around, hearing the familiar noise of chairs being scooted hastily, and party requests being made. Celeste was back. And with her… was her little girl-toy.

.

The little fey was cute, sure, but something about the fey girl just felt… off. The way that she stared at people… analyzing, unfeeling. Like she wasn't… human. Vigil didn't trust her.

.

"Hey Vigil! Want to party up with me and Aisha?" Celeste called, from across the guild.

.

Dammit. Whatever. If Celeste trusted her, that was good enough. For now…

.

She still wished the girl would stop staring at her, though.

.

.

Aisha looked deep into the armored knight's brown eyes.

She kind of liked the woman. She didn't trust Aisha, but truth be told, Aisha would also not trust her if she was in the knight's position. She was logical. It seemed like a rare trait among the people she was forced to interact with.

There was another person she kind of liked, actually. Maybe she could…

.

"Uh… Hey! Hey!" Aisha bounced up and down, trying to get Celeste's attention.

.

Celeste smiled at her cute antics.

"Yes?"

"Can we… Do this one?" Aisha asked, holding up a contract in front of her.

.

Celeste looked at the contract. It was relatively new…

.

She frowned.

"A garuda contract?"

"Uhhh…." Aisha turned around the paper to look at it. "Yeah."

"Mmmmmmmmmmmm…" She mused, displeased.

"What's… wrong? Do you not like the contract?"

.

The knight cut in.

"She doesn't like any contracts where she has to walk." Vigil said.

"Hey! That's not true… I just… walking is difficult in heels." Celeste said sheepishly.

.

Her heart broke at the little disappointed expression that Aisha made, her ears flattening on her head.

.

"We can do it! Let's do it! I'll pull out… My old set of boots." Celeste said, hastily.

"I'm not sure if this one's good for us. I'm not really the best against flyers." Vigil mused. "And we only have three people."

"No, it's ok! Just protect us. Aisha can DPS."

.

Vigil raised her eyebrow.

"Really? With a crossbow? Is she good?" Vigil asked, skeptically.

"Um… yeah!"

"...Have you even seen her use it?"

"...No." Celeste said, weakly. "But I trust her!"

"I don't." Vigil muttered. "We should at least get someone else. Fei's not here right now. We should get another ranger."

.

"No…" Celeste started.

"The best ranger we can get is-"

"No…!"

"Amir."

"No!" Celeste yelled.

.

"What's wrong with Amir?" Aisha asked.

"I hate him! He's so… annoying! And he thinks he's so good! He asks for half of the split! I don't even ask for half!"

"Well, he's not entirely wrong. He's the best ranger in the guild. He does his job well." Vigil said frankly. "Although he is full of shit."

.

Celeste groaned, looking at Aisha, who just gave her a shrug. She slumped over, defeated.

.

"Fine…" She whined, petulantly. "But he's not getting half!"

.

Speaking of half… Aisha had a little bit of business to attend to. She left… um… (what was her name..?) the big boobed woman and the knight, to go find the ranger guy. She fished out a couple coins from her coin pouch and walked up to the front desk.

.

The guild clerk visibly stiffened when he saw Aisha. She put a few coins on the desk, but he pushed them away with both hands. Aisha looked at him quizzically.

.

"You're not taking it? Did you grow a conscience?" Aisha asked sarcastically.

"No. I mean um. I decided that taking money from a dog was… beneath me." The clerk said.

.

[Flashback]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fei and Kua walked up to the desk, leaving the contract on the front desk for processing. They were halfway turned around, when they were stopped by the clerk.

.

"Hey. Weren't you two… partied with more people?"

.

Fei turned around.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. Celeste and Aisha."

"Is Aisha the dog's name? She owes me half of her split."

.

Fei's expression darkened.

"Dog?"

"Yeah. Dog."

"...I don't like it when you disrespect my friends like that. Why does she owe you money?"

.

The clerk took a step back defensively.

"Hey. She made a deal with me."

"And what was that?"

"She gave me half of all her contract money, in exchange for… uh…" The clerk faltered.

"For what!?" Fei demanded.

"In exchange for me… activating her contracts."

"That's your job! You're stealing from her!" Fei yelled angrily.

"Bitch deserves it for being a dog." The clerk muttered.

.

Fei nudged Kua, who angrily grabbed the man by the lapels of his shirt. Some people in the guild turned around, but quickly lost interest. It wasn't really that uncommon of a sight.

.

"She's not giving you anything, and if we ever hear anything about you stealing money from her, I'll tell everyone here that you've been stealing from one of us." Fei threatened.

"These people won't come to the defense of a do- uff!"

"They'll definitely listen to Celeste." Kua growled.

"Ok! Ok! Fine!" The clerk relented.

.

Kua dropped the man on his ass, who cursed under his breath as the two girls left the guild hall.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[End of Flashback]

.

"I didn't think they would do that." Aisha muttered.

"Do what? I didn't tell you anything!"

"Yeah whatever. See you."

.

Aisha scooped up the gold coins on the table and left, off to go find Celeste and Vigil.

.

.

.

"Aisha… this is… Amir." Celeste said, stiffly.

"Pleasure to meet you." Amir said.

.

Aisha looked at the tanned man in front of her. At a first glance, he didn't really seem like the annoying type. He stared back at her, an intense look in his dark eyes. His eyes moved over to Aisha's crossbow.

.

"You shouldn't use a crossbow."

"I can't use magic."

"Oh."

.

Amir rubbed his chin, thinking for a bit and looking upwards.

"A crossbow is an excellent choice, then. I'm worried about how effective you'll be, though."

"Don't worry about it."

"Mmmm… I won't. I will carry you all. Just do your jobs properly and there should be no problem."

"Yeah, whatever." Celeste muttered. "Prick."

"You all go meet the client. I have to go prepare. You should all go prepare light armor, and anti-aero enchantments. Celeste… you should not be wearing heels in the desert. The little one… should get some light armor. Like mine."

.

Amir pointed to his breastplate.

"They sell dragonhide in the guild shop, if you can afford it. If you can't then I think our client sells some."

.

He set his sights on Vigil, still armored up in her incredibly heavy steel armor.

.

"I don't know why she's here. She's going to be useless. No range. Also, I don't know why you're wearing steel armor, it's not very good for fast or magic-using monsters. You should get mithril armor or something with defensive-"

"I get it!" Vigil snapped. "I'm not going to change my entire armor set for you!"

"You should. You're basically going in, asking to get killed. With your setup, you should be doing platinum kill contracts. Although-"

"My father gave this armor to me."

"...You don't have to actually wear it."

.

Vigil huffed and turned away. Celeste made a sour face. Amir sighed.

.

"I don't want to be stuck here doing gold contracts with you all either, but all the platinum adventurers are… not here anymore, because of the same problems."

"We're not doing a platinum contract!" Celeste retorted.

"Yeah, I know."

.

Aisha heard a twinge of disappointment in Amir's voice. Would he rather be on a platinum contract? Why didn't he just do one solo?

Aisha wanted to ask, but Amir had already turned away and left, leaving Celeste to huff and stamp her foot angrily.

.

"The nerve of that guy! Why doesn't he just find some other party?" Celeste whined.

.

(You're the ones who needed a ranger.) Aisha thought.

.

"He's probably in this party because of you." Vigil responded. "And probably, because we're one of the few parties that actually need a ranger."

"Damn flyers." Celeste sulked. "Aisha, why were you so eager to take this contract?"

.

Celeste's eyes widened, a thought creeping into her mind.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry!" Celeste cried. "Was it because you wanted to show us you could do it?"

"Er. No. I just know the client."

"Oh. Thank god. I'm so sorry… Um… You know the client? Didn't you just arrive here yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"Oh. Well I'm glad for you. I want to meet him."

"Er… you probably shouldn't keep your hopes up. Also, I need to stop somewhere first…"

.

.

.

Vigil led the girls around the city, winding through crowded streets and alleys. Aisha noted that as they got closer, there were less and less people, until eventually they reached a street where there were only a couple people out on the street.

.

"I don't know why you decided to listen to that ass."

.

Celeste frowned at the black cowl that adorned Aisha's head. It was drakehide, dyed black, at Aisha's request. Not only did it obscure her adorable ears and face, she had bought it directly because of Amir's advice.

.

"Well… He was right." Aisha said, sheepishly. "I didn't even know the guild shop here sold armor... I wish I had more coins so I could afford more than the hood."

"Mmmmmm..." Celeste mused unhappily. "At least keep it down."

.

Aisha complied, pulling down the hood, her ears flopping out for Celeste to run her hands through. Aisha noted that Celeste hadn't changed out of her heels, probably exclusively out of spite for Amir.

.

"HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAHA! SHOVE THAT INTO YOUR ASSHOLE!"

.

Celeste looked around, startled.

.

"Who was that?"

"Uh... "

.

Aisha decided to let Celeste figure it out for herself.

They turned the corner, to find a tall man cackling at another man next to him, holding his hands up and shielding himself from the copper coins that rained onto him, thrown by the fistful of the tall man.

.

"Hey, stop that!"

.

Vigil rushed to the stalls, gripping the tall man's arm and stopping him from throwing more coins.

.

"Huh? Oh. Who are you? Wait..."

.

Korian pointed at Aisha aggressively with his free hand.

"You! What are you doing here, dog!? There's no chance in hell you've gotten all sentimental on me!"

.

His eyes wandered over to Celeste.

"I see that you've… gotten your…

…

…

Thing… taken care of."

"It's good to see you too." Aisha said, smoothly.

.

Vigil released Korian's arm and retreated stiffly.

"This is our client?"

"Yeah." Aisha replied.

.

Vigil's eyes narrowed. He was… unpleasant, to say the least.

"Why were you throwing things at him?" She demanded.

"He bet me that I couldn't sell more than he could! I sure showed his ass! Yeah… Eat it!" He taunted.

The other man spoke up, indignantly. "You only sold a single item! And you told the customer that your mom was dying!"

.

Korian laughed.

"And look at that! Ten silvers for me, and nine silvers and eight copper coins for you!"

"You've already lost the margin between our sales by throwing those coins, moron!"

"Margins are temporary. Victory is forever!"

.

Korian grabbed another fistful of copper coins, but Vigil gave him a stern look, stopping him from throwing away any more money. Korian frowned and put the coins back into his pocket. He sighed, his fun over, and flopped down into a chair.

"So what are you guys doing here? Contract?"

"Yes. The garuda contract." Aisha said.

"Why'd you pick my contract?"

"Why pick any contract?"

"Ugh. You're so cryptic. I hate it. I hate you. You know the drill. Garudas are... thataway."

.

Korian pointed directly up, spinning in his chair.

.

"Your chair spins?" Celeste asked, surprised.

"Yeah! They call it… a swivel chair. I bought it from some inventor."

"It's not a… machina, is it?" Celeste said tentatively.

"Not really. Not yet!" He said, cheerfully.

"You sound like you want more machina in the world."

"Why not? Machina is great! You don't need your mana to use it!"

"Typical…" Celeste muttered.

"What? You've got something against people with less magical aptitude?"

.

Korian looked directly at Aisha as he spoke. Celeste hastily corrected herself.

.

"The use of machina is heresy. It's unnatural."

"Yeah, whatever. Go off on your adventure. I don't even know why they call you adventurers. They should call you contractors or som..."

.

Korian's voice faded out into the distance as the three girls left, leaving behind the obnoxious man. Aisha saw Celeste's sour expression and hugged her side, cuddling up to her and squishing her face against Celeste's cushy breast. Celeste looked down at the adorable girl at her side and her expression softened, cupping Aisha's cheek.

.

"Sorry, Aisha." She said softly. "I'm just-"

"Wait! Dog! Come here! I need to give you something!"

.

Celeste made a frustrated, angry sound in her throat, but she did not stop Aisha from turning back, running over quickly.

.

"What do you want?" Aisha asked.

"Not what I want. What YOU want. I'm giving you this."

.

Korian lifted a black, leather breastplate, with a green tint and long, flowing tags.

.

Aisha looked down at the chestpiece. It was what Korian had made with the were pelt.

"I don't want this."

"Yes you do. Don't sass me. You're taking it. It's your payment for the contract."

"I'm not letting you rip off the other-"

"Not the entire contract, man. Just your share. A third, right?"

"We have a fourth."

"...Alright. Fine. A fourth. 25%. Whatever!"

.

He thrust the breastplate to the front of the desk aggressively.

.

"You couldn't sell it, couldn't you." Aisha said, flatly. She stared at Korian with a bored expression.

"On the contrary! Everyone wanted it! But I'm such a nice guy that I'm going to give it to you."

"Instead of paying me."

"Instead of paying you."

.

Aisha looked down at the little breastplate. She could probably tell why nobody wanted to buy it from the shady, annoying guy, in his dingy little stall, far away from anything. But truth be told, it was probably worth a lot. It was crafted well, and the were leather clothing in the guild store was quite expensive.

.

"Alright, fine. I'll take it."

"I changed my mind."

"Shut up."

.

Aisha walked away, taking the breastplate from his table. She hopped over to Celeste and Vigil, and took off her coat, trying the black armor on.

.

"Ugh. You really bought that from him?" Celeste asked.

"He gave it to me."

"Really? Why?" Vigil asked, surprised.

"I dunno."

"He called you a dog!" Vigil said.

"Dog is just a name."

"But-" Celeste started.

"Words are just words. His actions tell me that he is a reasonable man."

"Reasonable!?" Celeste cried, indignantly. "He's a heretic! He uses machina!!"

"I don't think there's anything wrong with using machina."

.

Vigil spoke up.

"Aisha, we were all born with mana. By the grace of the gods. The machina that the engineers produce rip the mana from the earth, and around us. It's not natural. There is no telling if such a heretical act will be… punished"

"Hmph. Gods."

.

Vigil stared at the fey girl. She supposed that Aisha had no reason to believe in god. Not with her… condition. But father had always taught her that strength came from within…

.

"You don't believe in the gods, Aisha?" Celeste asked.

"No."

"Not even Serith? I thought she created the feywood?"

"Perhaps she existed, but I see no reason to believe in gods."

"Really? What about the gods at the churches?"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't know?" Celeste asked, surprised. "There are rituals for powerful holy mages to host gods! I've seen one myself!"

"How do you know that they are gods?"

"W-well…" Celeste paused.

"I guess I don't know. Just belief, I guess. But they're really powerful! They're on another plane of magical power."

"Maybe. I don't really care."

"We're here." Vigil interrupted.

.

Aisha saw the scenery in front of her shift from lush plains to vast desert in a second. She could see dunes for miles, broken only by the occasional wolf. She squinted, looking at a moving, colorful blob in the distance. Another adventuring party?

.

"You're finally here." Came a smooth voice from beside them.

.

Amir walked up to the party, dressed in full white drakehide, his tanned face obscured by a hood similar to Aisha's. He left his arms uncovered, his legs and chest covered with the material. On his back was a blue bow and a quiver full of arrows.

.

"...You're going to wear heels into the desert?"

"Yes." Celeste said, firmly defiant.

.

.

.

"Hey Vigil?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you carry me?"

"...Just take off the heels."

"Hey Aisha?"

.

Aisha rolled her eyes and swept the tall woman off her feet and into her arms. Moving was clunky, especially with her crossbow on her back, but Aisha handled the weight easily.

.

Celeste stuck her tongue out at Amir's dead expression, wrapping her arms around Aisha's neck and giving her a little kiss. Aisha turned her head, embarrassed, Celeste's mouth being diverted to her cheek.

.

"We're in attacking distance. Watch out. We should buff up." Amir said.

"Alright, alright." Celeste relented.

.

Celeste hopped out of Aisha's arms and onto the sand, instantly falling over face-first. She got up, grumbling, lifting her staff out of the sand.

"Float." She said, grumpily.

.

Aisha raised her eyebrows as she felt the ground underneath her move a bit. She looked down, to see that she was a good foot or so above the ground, her foot firm on some transparent surface. She tentatively took a step, realizing that the surface followed her, and changed height with the ground underneath her, but was somehow always flat.

.

"Shell!"

.

A green shell appeared around each member of the party, quickly fading away, but when Aisha reached forward, the air around her tinted green.

.

"Eagle Eye." Amir said.

.

A glyph appeared in front of Amir and Aisha, almost identical to Fei's spell, but Aisha noted that the effect was much stronger.

.

"Swiftness."

.

Aisha could probably guess what that one did.

.

Amir looked back at Vigil.

"Do you have anything?"

"No."

"Hm."

.

He turned back and started running towards the sky beast, his boots making a dull thudding noise on the magic float platform. Aisha followed, Celeste and Vigil behind them.

.

.

.

Now that they were closer, Aisha could get a better look at the garuda. It was a massive, flying beast, like if a snake had the wings and talons of a bird. It had a massive wingspan, kicking up the sand beneath it, and Aisha could see green energies wafting throughout the creature. It cast a large shadow underneath it, covering entire dunes with its body.

.

Aisha looked behind her, where Celeste and Vigil ran towards them, a blue trail following their bodies. Was that the swiftness spell?

Aisha waved her arm. It left a blue trail wherever she waved it. Cool.

.

"Vigil. Can you hit it with a combustion?" Amir asked.

"No. It's way too far up."

"Hmph. Did you bring a firebomb?"

"No."

"I thought so. I brought one."

"Then why even ask?"

"The tank's supposed to bring the firebomb."

"Supposed to?"

"If we were in a raid."

"It's not a raid. It's just one garuda. And raids are ruby level!"

.

Amir ignored the knight, taking out a brown little sphere from a pouch on his leg. Red lines covered the sphere like little cracks.

Amir threw the firebomb at the garuda, the little parcel sailing through the air, until it landed on the garuda in a massive explosion. The monster screeched in pain as fire began to spread from the point of impact, eventually covering its entire body.

.

"Fire at will! Aim for the wings!" Amir shouted over the screeches.

.

Aisha bent down and loaded her crossbow, watching Amir out the corner of her eye. He notched an arrow from his quiver into his bow, the entire arrow igniting into a brilliant blue beam of energy, which whistled as it flew like a bullet, punching clean through one of the garuda's burning wings.

.

Aisha aimed her crossbow and released as well, signified by a loud "CRACK," the bolt punching through the other wing. She noted that Amir had already fired another arrow.

.

The garuda fired a massive blast of green magic at the party, the size of an entire plaza square. Aisha looked at Celeste and Vigil. She was definitely not going to be able to dodge that, even with the swiftness enchantment.

.

"You're up, Vigil." Celeste said.

"Hmph."

.

Vigil drew her sword and pointed it forward, flames spewing out from the tip. The flames formed a wall in front of the party, the blast from the garuda dissipating against the shield. She put down her sword, and the wall dissipated, allowing Aisha and Amir to continue firing at the garuda.

.

Aisha loaded in another bolt and fired, but the garuda let out a high pitched screech, putting out the fire and knocking Aisha's bolt off course. She pulled her cowl over her head, the noise irritating her sensitive ears.

.

"Keep firing. It will eventually run out of mana. We need to make sure we… follow it!" Amir said.

.

The garuda screeched again, deflecting one of Amir's arrows, and flew off into the distance, seeing that its attack was ineffective. Amir gave chase, all the while firing more arrows into the monster's right wing. Aisha picked up her crossbow and followed, but she was unable to fire bolts while running.

.

.

.

"It's losing height! Get ready!" Amir shouted.

.

The garuda's wings, at that point, were pocketed with holes, unable to keep itself up. Aisha looked behind her, Celeste and Vigil panting behind her, tired from the running they had to do to keep the garuda in their sights. The monster screeched as it crashed into the sand.

.

"Get ready! It's your time to be useful, Vigil!" Amir shouted.

.

Vigil ripped off her helmet and threw it into the sand, revealing a panting, sweaty mess under the helmet.

.

"You know… *gasp* ... it's really hard to run in such heavy armor."

"Well, if there was any time that heavy armor would be useful, it's now! It's coming!"

.

The garuda screeched and began to charge at the party, using it's broken wings to paw through the sand at alarming speed.

.

Vigil drew her sword, this time ignited in a massive blaze of orange flames. She thrust it forward, and a spiral of flames shot towards the garuda, setting the beast aflame and pushing it back. It screeched in pain, as the magical fire spread through its body. She heard the sound of charging electricity to her left and looked to the left, where Celeste released a massive bolt of lightning at the creature, disappearing into the wall of fire.

.

Aisha swore as a green beam of mana shot through the wall of flames and hit her dead on the shoulder, the force sending her skidding into the sand. Her eyes widened. It hurt like hell, but the combination of Celeste's support magic and the new armor protected her from losing the arm.

.

"Aisha!" Celeste cried in horror. "Are you ok?"

.

Celeste ran over and smothered Aisha, roaming her hands around her body and trying to find the damaged area. She took off Aisha's breastplate and pressed her hands to her shoulder, where the skin was cut up badly and covered in magical burns.

.

"You should heal me later and focus on killing it!" Aisha said, wincing in pain.

"No! What? I'm not doing that!"

"The little one is right!" Amir yelled, shooting an arrow and dodging a wild swipe from the garuda. "She's not useful at thi-"

"You shut up!" Celeste snarled, startling Aisha.

.

Celeste finished healing Aisha and helped her up, giving her a little hug. Aisha dusted off her pants and picked up her crossbow, as Celeste quickly ran over to Vigil and Amir to continue supporting them.

.

Aisha loaded up a bolt, frowning at the scene in front of her. The monster moved fast, and it was difficult to line up a proper shot with all the moving. It didn't help that Vigil's magic obscured her vision, and Amir was constantly moving.

.

(Remember your training. Predict its movements! You can't be dead weight here! It's just a gold contract!)

.

Aisha took a deep breath and calmed down, sinking deeper into the sand. She lined up the stock of her crossbow with the monster's head.

.

Vigil slammed her body into the side of the garuda, hearing the beast scream in pain, as a crossbow bolt made its way into the monster's left eye.

.

"Good shot!" She yelled, over the sound of arrows, screams, and magic.

.

.

.

Celeste and Vigil collapsed backwards into the sand, exhausted.

.

"Celeste. Hahhh. I think I took a hit back there. Can you heal me?"

"Heal yourself."

Meters away, Aisha was climbing over the corpse of the garuda, making long cuts over the surface of the monster. Amir also made his way on top of the corpse, collecting his arrows.

.

"What was that thing you threw at the beginning of the fight?" Aisha asked.

.

Amir turned his head around, surprised. He had not heard the girl speak, until just now.

.

"It was a firebomb. It's a weapon made with the condensed essence of a fire elemental."

"Why start with the firebomb?"

"To disorient it. If we started shooting, it would have just ran away. The firebomb is painful, but magical fire doesn't eat flesh like a real fire."

"You've done this before." Aisha said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

"A lot of times, I'm guessing."

"Yes."

"You don't want to be here."

"Yes."

"Why are you here, then?"

.

Amir stopped collecting arrows.

.

"Because this is all I can do."

"Hm?"

"This is all I can do. I can't do platinum contracts. There's nobody willing to do them."

"Do them alone."

"I'm a ranger. Doing them alone isn't an option. Kill contracts are out of the option. And I don't have the skillset to do wyverns, or drakes, or whatever."

"Then switch classes. Or get better."

"It's not as simple as that, girl. You can't fight an opponent with more mana than you. Monsters not only get stronger, they get more intelligent as well.

.

I'm sure you've gotten this far with proper strategy, and planning. I know, because I've done the same. I don't have the mana for flashy spells. I use real arrows, because making them out of mana would run me out in a second.

.

Despite this, they call me the best ranger in the guild. It is because I have the best strategies. The best planning.

.

But what are you going to do, when the enemy is smarter than you, and stronger than you?

.

You bring numbers. It's how the army used to handle dragons, before the whole war broke out. You bring a tank, to protect you. A mage, for damage. And us? You bring rangers, because they don't have to focus on damage, or protection, in a battle. We're leaders. We have to use our mobility to scout areas, and use that information to organize the team.

.

But there is a catch. There is no team without a leader, but also no leader without a team. People are afraid. They're starting to realize that this isn't fun anymore. And so people are unwilling to risk their lives, doing platinum contracts. Why should they? There's no reward for being a sapphire adventurer! Just a meaningless title.

.

And so, here we are."

.

"Hmph."

.

Aisha went back to skinning the garuda, sliding her sword through the tough tendons and sinew. Amir's words had not changed her mind. Her goal was still to get to the top.

.

But in her mind, the beginnings of doubt began to seed themselves in her mind.