Summoned by Monster Girls

“So on your Sunday trip, you only got half what your Saturday trip produced, despite completing several tasks?” The question from Cerebaton was relatively innocuous, something that no one would have paid much attention to. The fact that he was swinging a wooden sword at my unprotected head was a greater demand for attention than the words being spoken, at least to me.

Thankfully, the wooden shield that I had in my left hand helped me deflect the blow to my head, but didn’t stop the light slap to my thigh that came right after. The stinging pain was enough to throw me off balance, but not enough to drop the shield, which gave another ‘thunk’ as it deflected the third strike. Cerebaton had agreed that having general knowledge of a shield would be good, but not something to heavily focus on since I’d be using my Shape-Shifting the most often in the future and it wouldn’t do to become reliant on the shield.

“My bet is that the System is rating it by difficulty. The flame serpents were clearly a more present threat, and thus you were more heavily rewarded.” Cariad was leaning against one of the posts on the edge of the gazebo, watching as her boss did his best to tag me somewhere tender with that wooden sword. Which he did a moment later when he caught my elbow in just the right spot to send tingles up and down the limb and I lost my grip on the sword, sending it clattering to the floor of the gazebo.

“Ow! Mother of…” I swore, shaking the limb to try and get feeling back in it. Cerebaton stepped back, giving me a chance to recover while he shouldered his sword.

“Likely yes. Or it is because the System knew exactly what it was rating for in the assignment of rewards. We are still learning new things about how it has decided to operate every year and we’ve been working with it for thousands of years.”

“Nonsense…” I panted. “You don’t look…a year over thirty…Cerebaton. Can’t have been…that long.”

The joke made both of the daemons pause before Cariad giggled. It was only when Cerebaton snickered as well that I knew my joke had gotten through.

“Not what I meant, but I think you knew that.” Cerebaton gave me a firm glare that would have been intimidating if it wasn’t for the smirk on his lips that appeared a moment later. “But my point still stands. Maybe try and have your contractors clearly state what you are being summoned for when you arrive, that way the System can hook on to it when it generates your reward criteria.”

“Here, Liam. You look thirsty.” Cariad was beside me before I’d even noticed her moving and already offering me the water bottle that I’d brought. Since I had a free hand from losing my sword, I accepted it and took a deep drink from the old Powerade bottle. “He isn’t pushing you too hard, is he? That last hit looked like it hurt.”

“No, I asked for this. A couple of bruises are a small price to pay and I know Cerebaton wouldn’t actually hurt me. He’s got enough skill that I’m confident that even without gear I’ll be fine.” I said after finishing my drink. Cariad accepted the bottle back with a small smile.

“You should be wearing protective gear when we spar in earnest. I’ll see about acquiring some for the future, but now it’s time to go back to the drills.” Cerebaton arrived beside us with my practice weapon in his hand. “We will be doing the one to six, two strikes. Follow the pattern.” He started while holding the practice sword out for me to take, but Cariad interrupted before I could grab it.

“Just don’t push yourself too hard, Liam. You work too hard training and you’ll burn out, then who will look after your contracted?” Cariad reminded me and I could only nod in agreement. “I’m just glad that Mr. Cerebaton isn’t pushing you too hard. He has something of a reputation of demanding a lot of his underlings.”

“Miss Davies, I have complete confidence that those under me can live up to my demands.” Cerebaton’s stern statement had the other daemon standing up straighter, sending her strawberry colored hair bouncing as it hung below her waist.

Cariad wasn’t disguised like her boss, instead standing there in her usual outfit of a white blouse and pencil skirt plus gloves and stockings. Her slate-blue skin meshing well with the professional outfit and accented by her strawberry colored hair.

“I know that, Mr. Cerebaton. But Liam is my client and I have to look out for his best interests in all things.” Cariad replied smartly, her tone polite but unyielding. Cerebaton nodded once before returning his attention back to me.

“Miss Davies is correct to be concerned about your endurance levels though. If you hadn’t explained the loss of your hair as the result of defending one of your companions, I’d be worried that your mental state was having issues.”

Sighing, I rubbed the itchy stubble that was showing my eyebrows growing back in. It wasn’t fast, but it was finally starting to happen at least.

“You and several folks at work thought the same thing. I had to sell them on the idea that it was an accident with a propane grill that singed most of it off and that I shaved the rest to let it grow naturally. My asshole of a boss won't stop taunting me about it all day today.” Which was true. Dutcher had continued to make snide comments every time he rolled past on his Segway about how I didn’t know which end of a propane grill was the hot one.

“Seriously? Was no one concerned that you were hurt?” The offended concern in Cariad’s voice on my behalf brought a smile back to my face.

“A few guys were. Most used it as an opportunity to tease me. What matters though is that they dismissed it and didn’t ask too many questions. The last thing I need is someone insisting on knowing exactly how it happened, or remembering I live in an apartment building that doesn’t allow folks to have propane grills.”

“A fair point. But something else you may not have considered?” Cerebaton butted in, tapping the top of my training shield with the sword he was holding out to me, which I accepted. I stepped to the center of the gazebo and took up my ready stance while Cariad retreated to her spot by the wall. It was dark enough that no one would notice her different skin tone up here, I was pretty sure of that. She’d also reassured me that she had her own ways of avoiding detection should a normal human wander by.

Cerebaton waited until I was in position before he continued to speak, working my way through two swing combos of the one to six drill again.

“You have the ability to modify your body, why not shape-shift the hair back into place?”

The question threw me immediately and I nearly fell over when the swing deflected oddly and threw me off balance.

“I can see the idea did not occur to you then.” Cerebaton’s voice was neutral, but I could see the smirk on his face. He had switched back to acting as my target dummy, blocking the incoming strikes in the pre-arranged pattern. “Recover and begin again.”

“I hadn’t thought about it, no.” I said carefully in between strikes while we worked back through the exercise once I’d reset my balance.

“Why not? Humans are just another type of animal after all. And body hair is relatively light-weight to experiment on.” Cerebaton asked, not showing any difficulty in having to block my swings. But that wasn’t the point, I wasn’t trying to power through them, just swing accurately for now. Building muscle memory was more important than hammering on him like I was beating on an anvil.

“I don’t know…” I said and let my body act on its own while I thought it over before voicing my thoughts. “I think…because of the fact that the power only mentions shifting and not adding to it.”

“Oh? Does it?” Cerebaton questioned with a carefully schooled expression, not giving anything away. Which made me think I’d missed something important, but I had to focus on the exercise first. I waited until I finished the cycle with two swings to the six position before stepping back and lowering my shield. I closed my eyes and delved into the System interface to review the power in question.

Shape-Shifting (Minor) - Allows the user to draft minor changes to the body based on animals he knows of. Changes such as: thickened skin and fur, advanced hearing, improved night sight, claws, or increased muscle mass. Cannot assume full animal form or even a half form yet. Unable to mix more than two animal’s features at a time. No more than a total of five pounds of additional mass may be added or removed.

Mastery - 873/1000

“Huh…” I muttered quietly before opening my eyes and banishing the information. I focused for a moment and tensed my forehead. The sensation of the shift was familiar now, the rippling of my skin as the crocodile hide that I used as armor shifted into place had gotten me used to it at this point. After the rippling sensation stopped, I reached up to brush my knuckles across my returned eyebrow while Cerebaton nodded.

“Care to fill me in on the revelation?” Cariad called from her spot out of sword reach.

“The ability actually states a maximum mass that can be added or removed. I’d forgotten about it entirely since I’d been focusing on using it to armor a limb up till now. I only focused on the limb itself, not the weight, though I had thought about it when I was coming up with the type of hide I could use. I guess I was fixated on the idea that I had to be shifting something that was actually there, and with no hair, there was nothing to shift.” I explained before focusing once more. A moment later I felt that same prickle and the hair was gone again.

“Why did you remove them?” Cerebaton asked as I squared up with him once more.

“Everyone at work already knows I burnt off my eyebrows. Showing up tomorrow with them grown back would only raise questions.” I started the same pattern once more, and the clack of wood on wood was the only sound for several minutes.

“Not doing it for work makes sense, but why not leave it for now?” Cerebaton asked after I’d gone through the drill again and was starting over from the top.

“Limitations. If I can only mix the traits of two animals on top of my own, why waste one of those two on something like hair? It’ll grow back. I’d rather leave the two open to have both the armored hide and claws in the case of an emergency, rather than something vanity oriented like my hair. That might change as the ability develops, but I’ll deal with that when I get there. I need to focus on boosting my mastery first.”

“It should be relatively easy at this level. Just continue to use it and try different features. Maybe include some from your contractors as well? Things about them that you are familiar with at this point?” Cerebaton suggested, looking thoughtful. “I worked on becoming familiar with the widest base of possible shifts when I was working on it. Maybe we should see about adding in the occasional shift while you are practicing. Hardening your skin on open areas that will receive blows and the like.”

“That would require a level of focus that I’m not sure I’m ready for yet.”

“You won’t know until you try. That’s what practice is for after all.” Cariad called from the sidelines. “I know I just said you shouldn’t push yourself too hard, but take a moment to think about the potential, Liam.”

I was about to reply when the edges of my vision flashed brightly and a message scrolled across my vision. Rather than the normal fluorescent purple, this one was a bright and glowing red.

Kassandra Silverscale has sent an urgent request for your presence regarding her physical protection.

Transit? View summoning?

“Shit, I have to go. Urgent summoning.” I said quickly and dropped the sword and shield. Cerebaton reacted immediately, catching them and nodding once.

“Go! Deal with the situation. We can finish this discussion another day.”

“Let me know if everything is okay!” Cariad called from the side but I was already mentally hammering that glowing Transit button as hard as I could. At the same time I was focusing on my hands, causing thick talons to sprout from my fingers while the world whirled away from me.