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  Level 14

  Wil raised to 24

  Zelda winces from the stat induced headache. Never doing four Wil in one sitting again. She sighs as she looks at her wing. What once was an opposable thumb has begun to migrate to just being another digit of her hand...wing. The fingers are longer still, their webbing growing to the tips. Not enough to really spread out yet. Only a matter of time.

  She goes through her usual exercises. She looks at her front. She looks at her legs. Her stub of a tail. Her wings. Then she shifts her vision to behind her. Getting the whole picture. She still shudders but her stress level returns to her normal again. Pamulur still thinks it's too high. Then she zips. With her stat increased she can do it nine times before resting. If only the core would finish.

  Zelda wanders to the aft of the ship. She didn't bother with her mechanical arms. No one had left the ship for longer than an hour. Heading to the back she sees Dagnit stretch out on the sofa watching a vid on the wall.

  “Seems rather rude to watch something in the common room.” Zelda quipped as she found her stool.

  “My ship, my wall.” Dagnit said without turning her head from the screen.

  Zelda couldn't understand what was going on. Her ears translated it well enough but the blobs just had too strange of body language to understand. Dagnit was laughing at certain times though, specifically at moments of wild gestures.

  “What was that supposed to mean?”

  “I have no clue, it's just funny to watch them move.”

  Zelda scrunches her brow at the cat which goes unnoticed.

  “Still any idea on the attack?” Zelda asks.

  “Not yet, I got a trigger set up for when it's time to go, come watch.”

  Zelda shifts her stool but she is quickly snatched and pulled into a spooning position on the couch.

  “The hell are you doing Dagnit?” Zelda exclaims.

  “It's better to watch in a prone position. Let your predatory instincts settle on your prey.” She whispers.

  Zelda rolls her eyes and just lays there and watches.

  -----

  Oh my god, why is that stupid thing falling over while giving a soliloquy. She laughs with Dagnit. Suddenly the screen turns off and the ship begins to lift.

  “Aw.” Zelda murmurs.

  “Get your arms, pet. We be hunting a Dragon.” Dagnit coos.

  Zelda untangles herself from the couch and runs to the medbay. Her tail only touched the ground a few times. Frankie would yell at me if he saw. Pamulur is already there. A disc in hand.

  “Thank you.” Zelda murmurs.

  “Think nothing of it, let's get you ready.” She replied.

  -----

  The exo suit chaffed at Zelda. It was tight to her skin and scales. Built to maintain heat in a vacuum as well as supply necessary atmosphere conditions for the wearer. Feels like I am looking through a shear fabric. The suit covered her head while providing a microphone in her mouth. Bleh.

  “‘cing suits, sound off.” Dagnit says from her own suit.

  “Here.” Zelda huffs out.

  “Ready.” Frankie says from his mech. He had a suit on as well, in case of mech failure. The mech itself was a boxy squat thing. Locally purchased, they only had them in his size on the planet. It had treads that Zelda frowned at. Looks impractical for rough terrain. Two oversized swords in its hands and a chest spear. Zelda frown grows.

  “Stress levels are spiking in Smith.” Pamulur's voice sounds out in the suits.

  “What's wrong, pet. Nervous to be at the crux of your quest.” Dagnit purrs.

  “Hardly, just…this is supposed to be the future and all but we are using swords.” Zelda grouses.

  “Hmmm, the future?” Frankie asks.

  “She means technologically more advanced than her home planet.” Flocks's voice goes through their shared comms.

  “Right, and we moved past swords to guns and nukes.” Zelda points out.

  “Ah pet, delivering good damage is based on magic. Anything leaving your area of control is just…well mundane. Look at Frankie, he is inside a mech instead of remoting a drone because his area of control gives the mech the ability to cut through his opponent's area of control. When your bullets and planet cancer hit a high level hostile area of control, it is just going to slow down and fall apart.”

  Planet cancer? Is that what nuke translated to her or is she using a euphemism? The planet their target is on starts to grow from a dot to a pebble.

  “So how does magic work, I've seen fireballs and such.” Zelda asks.

  “Well you're just shooting out your area of control. Before you ask how you couldn't just do that with bullets, they do exist but why buy bullets when you can form shrapnel. This part here.” Dagnit points to the chest spear, “Can allow Frankie to channel his lightning. He is good for about one shot before he starts complaining.”

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  “I could do two but then the mech shuts down.” Frankie grouses.

  “Hence me saying you are good for one.” She hisses back.

  The planet looms larger.

  “So what were we waiting for?” Zelda asks.

  Dagnit punches some buttons on her status screen. A new screen pops up. It shows a ship slowly creeping towards the planet they just left.

  “Is that supposed to explain something?” Zelda prods the cat.

  “That is a scout ship for an invasion fleet.” Flocks says through the comms.

  How does he know what we are looking at? She was about to ask the question when more ships pop in next to the scout.

  “They ain't sparing any expense on wiping out the settlement. Someone got it hard for Red Deliverance.” Dagnit whistles.

  “What?” Zelda's previous question was forgotten.

  “Takes a large amount of space magic to move a ship without using a gate. They are using it to teleport a fleet on top of the planet.” Flocks chimes in.

  “Okay so why did we wait for the invasion?”

  “Two reasons. One Red Deliverance is going to be pissed we are poaching a Dragon they likely have their eyes on. And two, we now have an armada to distract momma dragon should she decide to make an appearance. Also invasion implies they aim to take the planet and not scour it.”

  The ship begins to make an approach to the surface. It's a grey rock in vacuum.

  “Air on everyone.” Dagnit punctuates that by tapping the panel on the exit hatch. This one was in the back of the ship. Figure she— “What now, Zelda?” She asks as the hatch starts to drop down.

  “Oh I thought you'd, like, slam your fist into it or something.” Zelda stammers out.

  The cat's ear shifts into an annoyed position, amazing the suit allows that, “What would that do and panels are expensive.”

  “Ah she's just a kid Dagnit, she wants excitement.” Frankie coos.

  “Well she got about a kilometer walk before that happens. Out you go.” Dagnit growls.

  Frankie is the first, he trundles out in his mech. It lands softly. Zelda follows. The planet pulls her down at a quarter of the gravity of our previous planet. Almost glad we got to walk a kilometer before engaging, got to get used to being all floaty. Zelda starts doing little hops to get used to it. Dagnit touches down shortly after and the ship begins to pull up.

  “Let's go…that way.” Dagnit points to a slight rise.

  Walking turns into a bit of a hassle for Zelda. Her locomotion was already awkward, it has only increased with the lesser gravity. She trundles along next to Frankie mech. She looks down and notices the tread was morphing to the terrain. Not exactly a tread then. It keeps as much of its ‘foot’ to the ground as possible. It is fairly large tread, is that all for stability. Her thought is interrupted when Dagnit jumps onto the side of the mech.

  “Let’s go, Frankie.” She shouts.

  The other two wince. Right in the ear.

  “Getting on?” Frankie asks Zelda.

  “Figure I adjust to the rock.” Zelda demures. He gives a grunt and trundles on.

  They continue their march to the rise. Upon cresting they see it's a caldera. The inside steeper then the outside. Dagnit's ship flies overhead as Frankie goes over the lip, not bothering to slow down. Zelda follows after. They spy the dragon. Laid on its sides, its wings flopped over. Emerald scales flow over its body. It was the size of a bus. The ground around it is covered in grass and flowers. The hell?

  “Ah look, it made a garden.” Frankie coos.

  “Wait for the interference before engaging.” Dagnit pings the group.

  The wait wasn't long, large javelins fell from the sky thrusting into the ground around the caldera rim. A moment later a magic bubble forms over the entire caldera. It does not go unnoticed. The dragon head raises on its long neck. It looks at the new sheen encasing its home and turns its head. Its eyes narrow as it spots the three intruders.

  “You're up, pet.”

  They fan out with Zelda charging directly forward. The dragon raises itself up. Getting onto its four legs. Totally unfair to have four limbs and wings. The dragon swivels to Frankie, judging it the greater threat. Shit. Zelda's vision shifts to behind her. Her exosuited body almost made her pause. Instead she zips herself to above the Dragon, plunging towards its head. She scrapes the beast's face forcing it to rear back. She zips just out of the creature's range. She has the Dragon's attention now. Vacuum zipping feels easier, less interference.

  “Ah, not the eyes, Zels.” Frankie bemoans.

  “Cut the chatter.” Dagnit hisses.

  Zelda is focused on the head. Ignoring all else. It's the longest part and the most likely to attack. The beast mouth is enough to snap her in two. It moves. Fast. She repositions herself to the side with a zip. The Dragon whips its neck even faster to her position. The shield is thrust towards the opening maw. It was a poor choice, the shield and arm behind it are taken when the maw snaps shut. Shit, glad it wasn't a real arm. The Dragon finds its meal unappetizing and begins to spit it out. Frankie crashes into its side. One sword thrusting into the abdomen. It scrapes off the scales. “If that don't work, how ‘bout this?” he growls. The second sword thrust upwards tearing at the wing.

  Deciding being terrestrial was working against it, the Dragon backs off and begins to flap its wings. There is no atmosphere to push off of and with a damaged wing it shouldn't be able to lift off. But it does. The wings are too small either way, system bullshit.

  “Flocks.” Dagnit growls.

  Flocks answers by slamming the ship's nose into the Dragon's back. The lights shimmer on the ship as the Dragon falls back to the ground.

  “Ain't got enough charge to do that again if you want to leave, Dags.” Flocks squawks out.

  Dagnit jumps onto the stunned creature and stabs down. She pierces the scales and wrenches a wound open. The Dragon shifts. It glares at the cat. Its vision is blocked by Zelda doing another strafing slash to its face. The opportunity is not missed and Dagnit retreats. The Dragon gives a silent scream then pivots its head towards Zelda. Nope. Green flames traverse the vacuum towards the spot she zipped out of. The Dragon turns its head and continues its assault. Zelda zips three more times.

  “Help.” She sputters, feeling the draw on her mana.

  The Dragon is interrupted by Frankie slamming the chest spear into the wound. He channels his magic and the lightning traverses the creature. It seizes and falls. Dagnit and Zelda rush forward. They begin hacking at the neck. Each strike the other follows until the creature head is severed.

  “We got contact, get what you can.” Grant voice chimes in.

  “Flocks bring the ship down here. We're taking it all.”

  “All? The mother is not going to stop pursuing you, Captain Dagnit.”

  “Ahh but you're there to distract for us, Grant.” The cat purrs.

  The ship comes down. Frankie's mech was already lifting the main body. The back hatch drops down like a draw bridge and he trundles up it with their prize. Zelda and Dagnit follow behind with the head. A horn in each of their hands. When they drop it in the hold Zelda turns to go back, seeing the ship lifting up.

  “My shield!”

  “Is a piece of shit, pet. We can get you a new one.”

  But… Zelda says nothing. Watching as the hatch closes.

  “Stop moping and start carving. We may still need to jettison the body.”

  Zelda uses her right mechanical arm to wield a small cutting saw. I want this damn thing’s heart. She starts carving into the chest as Dagnit fusses with the head. Pamulur has joined them and is working the claws.

  “Flocks start heading towards the fleet. Try to fly straight through their formation and then towards the gate.” The cat says as she pries an eye out.

  “Roger, Dags. Grant's ship just took a hull breach.” Flocks answers back.

  “Pamulur, go get ready to catch the money in Med Bay. I doubt he is going to be enthused that he just lost his ship.” Dagnit throws out more orders.

  The bunny runs back out. Only one claw was removed.

  Even as Zelda carves into the chest, it still moves. Slight twitches. She makes it through the scales and muscles finding the hard skeleton in the way. The saw sparks on the bone.

  “It ain't cutting.” She bellows.

  “Out of the way.” Frankie growls. The mech hand pushes her back and grasps the bone. There is a hydraulic squeal that sounds but the chest cavity parts. A beating heart is exposed. Mine. Zelda's mind stopped being rational, she zips to the open between the mech hands. Her exosuit was left behind. She buries her face into heart. Biting it. Tearing from it. Consuming it.

  “The hell…Dagnit she's…” Frankie exclaims.

  Dagnit looks up from her work. She punches something into her status screen. There is a pinch in Zelda's wing, she doesn't feel it.

  “We don't have time to pull her out. Hurry up with the rest of the harvest. Pet just shrugged off enough of a dose to take down something twice her size.” Dagnit goes back to work. The Dragon body has stopped moving. Zelda rears back screeching. She continues back into the heart.

  Gain 3012 Exp from party kill

  Dragon Blight cured

  Species has been updated