Welcome back to Becoming Monsters: In the Mirror! This is a work of noncanonical fanfiction to Ai Loves's Becoming Monsters series.
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Chapter 3: Making Strides
The pyre that was once a horrific demon was dying down. A person was left, in pain but not bearing any other obvious injuries. She was dressed in ragged scraps of what might once have been jeans and a tee shirt, they were barely providing decency now. There were sirens in the distance, the reinforcements that I might have needed. I made a decision then, one I didn't realize at the time would change the course of the rest of my life. "Lucy, listen close, because we have zero time. That woman has nothing, at all, and needs care. If anyone asks, she was here and all remains of the Monster evaporated or were vaporized by flame magic we both use. NOBODY needs to know that she is it, there were no other witnesses."
My wife knew me, and was nodding before I'd even finished talking. It was obvious she had been thinking the same thing. The mystery woman would not be served by the association. "Got it. Police are inbound, standard bounty-claim routine?"
I nodded right back. "Start collecting the gold and feathers. Those are ours regardless." As she did, the authorities began to approach, weapons drawn. They were told to expect a demon, and found two. Typical. I held up my Delver license and Firearm card as they approached, this not being my first rodeo. "Officers! There is a woman here who was injured in the attack and needs medical attention. I would also like to claim a bounty for a major surface incursion, in addition to medical care for injuries sustained protecting seven civilians." To their credit, I didn't have to catch any bullets. One gestured at the others to stand down, they had the decency to at least holster their weapons.
"Identity and proof?" The one stepped forward, a gruff man who looked like he was rejected from a casting call for background cop characters for looking too stereotypical. I saw an annotation on his badge, he was assigned OPP duties and could take the report.
"Jeremiah and Lucile Kithkin. The hospital curse annex can verify this, I just left it when I heard the screams. Love, can you bring the pictures over?" I will give my wife this. Her time at the college newspaper meant that when she was the one capturing images, they looked
good
. There was a full action shot of me breathing fire at the demon, another of a lightning net, a third of the burning corpse that didn't show the woman's form. Wait. Didn't she just tell me
not
to take pictures while the thing was still standing? I chose not to mention this. After all, the shots were needed, and I did look really good in them.
The officer's eyebrows raised. "Ain't seen one of those around here in three years."
"And we had at least two conscious, adult witnesses. Dungeon Vrocks are a serious problem and rated to Tier Three bounties. Minimum. I'd like to claim immediate public defense of children in addition."
We spend about thirty seconds tensely glaring at each other. I was aided by the fact that I was close to a foot taller than him. He relented. "Fine. I'll submit the reports for Tier Four as soon as we get statements. You Guilded?"
I could not quite keep the note of bitterness out of my voice. "Shield Against Shadows."
Another raised eyebrow. Dude must have practiced the look, given how much he was using it. "Really? Thought they dissolved. Did some good work topside, long time ago."
"Mostly. Long as I'm still alive, the guild stands."
He nodded. Paramedics were approaching, not used to jogging directly to the scene. Two were carrying a stretcher, I could almost feel them debate calling for two more when they saw that the woman they'd be loading up was over six feet of muscle. They got her onto it, though, thankfully having calmed down. Seemed lighter than her build would indicate. Possibly something to do with the bird-like heritage? No way to know for sure until I could talk to her. Still unconscious, though. Another paramedic gave me a once-over, deciding in the end that I was likely fine all things considered but should get a more thorough examination. My wife tried to wave another off, saying she had gotten there late, but he had to at least follow protocol in case of disease or curse.
I'm sure the fact that he'd be able to be that close to a Succubus had nothing to do with his decision. We could both directly sense his arousal no matter how well he hid it on the outside.
I decided to play nice with the paramedic and walk to the hospital for healing. After all, I wouldn't be paying for this one, and my insurance rates weren't about to change. Thirty minutes later, Lucy and I were on the bus home, leaning on each other. Just breathing. "Jay, why is it that dealing with the authorities after a fight is more stressful than actually risking your life against a monster?"
I thought about it for a bit. She had, as usual, read my mind. "Honestly? Probably because we are trying to not light officers on fire, and we have no guarantee they had the same goals. And the adrenaline crash. That's never going to make things easy." I didn't bother to mention the remaining bruises and lightning burns. Those would heal, and I was happy that I had been the one to take all of them instead of her. There was another
*PING*.
I had looked at my phone before realizing that this one had actually come from inside my head. "Looks like that scuffle was enough to put me to Level 8. Once we get home and let the Aspirin kick in, going to need to take care of that."
"Scuffle? Jeremiah, I watched you get blasted by a giant bolt of lightning, get knocked into a tree, and then put three rounds into what did it." She leaned in close to whisper into my ear. "That was
unbelievably hot
, love, and I got topped off this morning. We have all afternoon."
Oh, she knew what that voice did to me, especially in combination with her absolutely luscious breasts pressed into me and the fact that I was already turned on by her mere presence. The bus, in what should be classified as a hate crime, chose that exact moment to arrive at our stop. I had to rapidly rearrange how I was pointed inside my pants, or I would not likely have been able to walk easily. Concealing a full foot of boner was not going to be possible no matter what I did.
I managed to get off the bus and to the elevator in our apartment building without shoving my crotch in anyone's face. This would have been an accomplishment even without present circumstance, with it I was rather proud of myself. We made out like we were teenagers again on the elevator ride up, managed to stop when we heard the bell, got barely inside the door to our own apartment, then got handsy again.
You know, thinking about it, that really was a bit of a theme for us, huh?
This particular bit of horny only lasted a few moments, though. Lucy skipped off to our room to get our Status Binder. It was a thing that some military friends of mine had recommended to me, a sort of I Love Me book. A place to record everything we knew about our Race and Class, including research into future choices. Neither of us was exactly at the forefront of things, so in general we would be able to help each other do things like place attribute points and select from class feature choices given what everyone on the Internet and in scholarly articles were saying.
I sighed a bit, took my painkillers, sat down on our living room rocking chair, and got comfortable. I was still enormously hard but trying to focus. Decisions here would have permanent results, so I could not rush them. I pulled up my Status screen as my wife walked in, seeing one Attribute point available (CON, INT, or HLT) and a Class Feature. I conveyed the info to my wife, who checked the notes and found no shocks. "Given everything going on, I think I'm going to drop the point into Health. Two attacks in two days makes me think the pace could be picking back up."
Most of my vision was still blocked, but from the way her knees moved she nodded vigorously. "Alright. Go ahead and pull up the class features, according to our notes there are a dozen or so you could catch but only four that will pop up. Consensus is that harder ones to qualify for come up more often for those who do."
It was my turn to nod. Focusing on the alert, I pulled up the selection menu. Sure enough, four choices. "First up is called Full Reflect."
I heard Lucy flip a couple of pages. "Gives you another way to use Mirror Shield, focusing it on any one thing you can affect with it to bounce it back at the attacker instead of just mitigating it. Disables the Shield entirely for about five minutes after use, and you can't activate Acquisition on that instance of the ability or gain progress towards ability levels if it would have given it."
That sounded like it would not work out well long-term. Specifically, most enemies tended to be resistant to their own attacks. "Pass. Second is called Concubal Acquisition." There was a lot more page flipping this time.
"I don't see it in the notes."
"That's odd. I don't have a headache yet, see if we have anything on Accelerated Learning or Lancet?"
"Accelerated Learning gives you about a 5% boost in leveling speed for your abilities. Lancet removes Mirror Acquisition entirely and replaces it with an offensive spell that also pulls powers. Both are general skills."
"Accelerated Learning doesn't sound too fun, and Mirror Shield is dependent on Acquisition so I'm not sure I want to risk replacing it to see the interaction. Do a quick search for the one we didn't have notes on?"
"Already was. Full search only has one hit from a Status forum three years ago, a Succubus Mirror said she saw it pop up but didn't choose it since she had planned around Sapphire Radiance, which popped for her. Says she also had Cursebreaker. Feel like being a pioneer today, love?"
"Guess so. Concubal sounds like it comes from Concubus or Concubine, which could refer to our Race. If so, it might key off of Racial abilities, like the Aura or Hunger. Going to pick it, here goes nothing." I mentally selected it, and accepted all changes. The first thing I noticed was the tweak of Health, the pain from earlier fading a bit more..
The second, though, was a bit more dramatic. It started with another window popping up.
