Steph won the first race of the group because Fen had forgotten to change into his true and faster form, which was his excuse at least, and Sophia and Aura had been disqualified for cheating because they had stopped time to get in front of the others. As a price, the male wolf promised to teach the dog-girl how to use his detection magic, but as there were no targets to train on, they decided to do it once they found something to detect.
“Happy now?” The four just arrived near a small forest when Sophia smiled at Fen.
“Not really, no.” He shook his head while looking back at her. The arrival at the forest was preceded by another race, and while Fen had beaten Steph this time as he changed to his bigger form before starting, Aura and Sophia still took the lead over him, with the blonde winning once more. Naturally, he wasn’t the happiest with his third place.
“I’m also not happy!” Steph didn’t like being in last, either.
“And what do you two want us to do about that?” Aura tilted her head while sounding rather smug. “I did not cheat this time, and while Sophia is a living cheat, she also didn’t do anything extra this time.”
“Hey!” The tiger didn’t like that. “True, though.”
"I just like to complain!" The dog-girl couldn't offer any solutions.
"Well, you are Sophia's sister, so that checks out." The female wolf wasn't surprised by that and turned to face Fen instead. "What's your excuse?"
“Shut up.”
“Not the best argumentation, but understandable.” Sophia let out a small chuckle. “Aura and I talked about the idea of not using magic to see which of us can run the fastest on pure strength alone. How about the two of us do that to give ourselves a handicap while you and Steph use everything at your disposal?”
“That wouldn’t even be a challenge anymore at that point.” The male wolf wasn’t convinced about that idea.
“You scared that we’d still beat you and you have no excuses left?” Sophia smirked at him while mockingly chuckling at the same time.
“You’re on!” He instantly took the bait.
“Heh.” The tiger tried her best to hide her massive smirk.
“Big fan of how you can egg him on~.”
“Happy to hear!” The blonde smiled at Aura.
“Enough of that, I want to learn detection magic already!” Steph clapped her hands to get Fen's attention. "There has to be something in that forest we can train on, right? Let me detect something!”
“Haa…" The male wolf let out a sigh before concentrating for a moment. “It seems like you’re in luck, there’s a perfect target not too far away from us.”
“Let’s go!”
“Okay, concentrate on the outer edge of the forest over there and tell me what you can feel.” Fen gestured to his right before looking at the dog-girl.
“Hmm.”
----------------
"By the way, have you really not come across a single one of those elder dragons like Kel during your stay on the demon continent?” While Steph was being taught how to use the detection magic, Sophia got together with Aura again. “From what I heard, there are supposed to be quite a few, right? You were actively hunting dragons, too, weren’t you?”
“Unless they’re significantly weaker and smaller than him, I have not.” She shook her head. “The dragons I fought on the continent came in all sorts of sizes, power, and flavors, but not a single one came even close to Kel.”
“I guess they’re a bit secretive, huh?” The blonde scratched her cheek. “I mean, Kel also was deep inside a lake in the middle of nowhere.”
“I’m not sure if you can call Kel secretive, though.” Aura paused for a second. “Eccentric might be a better description.”
“I hate that word.” She lightly shook her head.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“I wonder why.” The wolf let out a chuckle.
“Shush!” She glared at her. “It’s still odd, isn’t it? Like, the range of your detection magic is also huge. After all, you managed to find Fen and me when we were still over a hundred kilometers away back then. You and Fen also noticed Kel in the lake, so shouldn’t you have picked up a massive surge of power or two on the demon continent somewhere?”
“You have to remember that Fen and I only use the magic every now and then because detecting things costs a lot of authority. It would deplete our reserves way too fast, and our recovery isn't nearly quick enough to keep up with it. Not everyone is as blessed as you are.” Aura slowly shook her head while judgingly looking at the tiger.
“…” She had nothing to say in her defense.
“On top of that, the demon continent is huge, and I gained most of my detection range while looking for Fen because I was constantly using and improving it during that time to find him faster. During my time with the demons, it was no more than maybe 30 kilometers around me.”
“I see.” The blonde nodded a few times. “All that makes it a lot less likely to run into an elder dragon such as Kel, fair enough.”
“I hate myself for not having found a single one, though.” Aura hung her head. “Fighting with Kel is so much fun! He's absolutely savage, and that's just what you want in a good match!”
“Well, so are you, so I can see why you like him. Parts of the beach around his ocean turned to glass because you two have no concept of holding back!”
"Why do you think we're such good friends with you?" The wolf threw the inability to hold back right at her.
“But not when it comes to fighting!”
“Didn’t you completely decimate an army, one-tapped an elder dragon, and punch Canir into another dimension whenever you get the chance?” She stared right at her. “And that’s just a selection of examples.”
“Hah.” Sophia had no comeback for that, either.
“I’d love to have a fair fight one day with you, too.” There was a good amount of power in Aura’s voice. “Just you and without all the overseer trickery like stopping time or breaking the rules of magic that I can’t.”
“Technically, you can break the rules in my domain, because I have my own rules on magic that are way more lenient than Mira’s in this world.”
“Yeah, because fighting you in your domain would definitely even out the playing field between us.” The wolf rolled her eyes. “You can literally do anything in there!”
“Not wrong.” Sophia shrugged. “I’m not sure if I can turn off my extra features just like that, though.” She thought about it for a moment while tilting her head. “Sometimes, I stop time purely on instinct if something feels dangerous.”
“I’d argue that if I trigger your automated overseer defense mechanisms, I won.”
“That would put you on the same level as Maya’s parents when they ask me something complicated, or the spider that jump-scared me this morning."
“What’s wrong with you?” The wolf couldn’t believe that she’d stop time for such little inconveniences.
"A lot of things~.” She had to do it. “It might work if we were to do it in Mira’s domain instead. She mentioned that she’s affected by overseer magic in my domain. Like, when I stop time here, she won’t be frozen, but when I do it in my domain, time stops for her too, and vice versa. I assume that this means that she also can’t stop time on her own in my domain, meaning I probably can’t do it in her place, either.”
“Ohhh!” Aura liked the sound of that. “Please! Please let us have a match where you can’t use your biggest cheats! You’re probably still stronger, but I want to see if I can out-tactic you.”
“I’m not big on the whole tactic thing, so I have a feeling that it would be a yes.”
“Your absolute power still is higher than mine, though.” The wolf shook her head. “I think it would still be a challenge. Please!”
"I'll ask Mira if that's actually the case in her domain…" Sophia caved in.
“THANK YOU SO MUCH!” Aura got excited already.
“I’ll also have to ask her to add some precautions to her domain or watch us. I don’t want to risk triggering some other features that I have when I can’t stop time that could do more than hurt you.”
“You’re such a worrywart~.” She let out a small chuckle.
“I’m not apologizing about that.” The blonde just stared at her.
“And that’s what makes you cute~.”
“Haa…” Sophia only sighed in response. “Anyway, back to the elder dragons on the demon continent topic. Even if you haven’t met any, do you maybe remember any suspicious places that could match their home? I doubt they're all sleeping beauties like our Kel, and actually made something like their own dragon boss region?”
“Well, most of them would probably still live in relatively normal biomes, right? A jungle, desert, swamp, whatever. They might just be a little bigger.”
“I guess that’s fair enough.” The tiger sounded rather disappointed about that.
“Although, wait, there were two interesting areas that I didn't get to explore before leaving to find Fen.” Aura paused for a moment to remember. “One was a mountain range, but it actually was nothing but active volcanoes with the valleys around filled with nothing but lava. According to the demon queen, the concentration of fire dragons is especially high there, too. I wanted to head there after the invasion of the capital, but that's also when I remembered our favorite grumpy wolf, and I never got there."
“That sounds very promising!” Sophia happily clapped her hands. “What’s the other place?”
“I’m not so sure about that one.” She tilted her head. “I came across it when leaving the continent. It was a massive area covered in fog, going on for even longer than I could see with my eyes right next to the shore. There was absolutely zero visibility in there, too. No idea what was going on in there, because I was in a hurry, but even if it's not created by something powerful, it's still worth exploring, so we should definitely head over there."
“I like the sound of that!”
Once the two finished their conversation, the duo turned back to Fen and Steph again to see how it was going.
- Bryce Dodge -
yearly pledge on Patreon and financially supporting the story! Enjoy all the extra stuff!
Discord to get a detailed breakdown of everything you get in return. Like advanced chapters and various NSFW goodies like art, animations, and side-stories (unless when using Apple Payment, then no NSFW).
NSFW illustration of (Nude) Chloe x Steph sleeping together, as well as an uncensored illustration of Maya taking a shower in the Discord to get a taste of what to expect!
