Book 3: Chapter 41: Patch 7.0: Monster Showdown

The serpent drops Fenrir off on the beach near the others before collapsing.

Despite how confused Fenrir still is from getting carried over by her, and it looks like the others are all confused as well, he gets to the point and asks, “Can you heal her, Cass?”

“Sure,” Cassiel says, cautiously approaching the serpent. It’s the first time she’s ever been this close to a monster of this size that wasn’t wanting to kill her, and it’s the first time she’s ever tried healing a non-player in general whom isn't Rock.

The serpent moves when Cassiel stands next to her, looking at Cassiel with one of her eyes which is larger than Cassiel’s head.

Cassiel turns around and looks back at Fenrir.

“She’s safe,” Fenrir says.

“O-okay,” Cassiel says, taking a deep breath before raising her hands to the serpent to heal her.

Mystical, golden light flows from Cassiel’s hands into the serpent, and the serpent relaxes and closes her eyes upon feeling it.

“Hey there, princess,” a familiar voice says from behind Fenrir.

Fenrir turns around and sees the same odd man from before. Only, now he’s trying to flirt with Oleander.

The man hops off of his mount and kneels down in front of Oleander. “Would you like to fly with me? I could show you the world with my trusty steed,” the man proposes, taking Oleander’s hand into his own.

Fenrir can’t help but cringe at the sight, but when he looks at how Oleander is reacting, he sees the sadistic gears turning within Oleander’s head.

“You’re so sweet!” Oleander says, raising his hands over his heart as he speaks in an extra feminine tone. “And you’re such a cutie, too.”

While those two flirt, Fenrir sees something else happening to make this day even crazier than it already is.

Shogun and Rock are staring at each other.

They are not just staring at each other, but they look way too interested in one another. Rock’s tail is wagging and even Shogun’s feathery tail is wagging a bit.

“They grow up so fast, Onii-chan,” Saya says.

“I am not letting my dog hook up with some oversized fox,” Fenrir thinks back to her. “She’s like a daughter to me!”

“So, you’re telling me that you not only tongued your own dog, but you did that with your dog that you see as a daughter?”

“I’m going to uninstall you.”

“You’d have to uninstall your brain to do that, silly Onii-chan.”

Shogun walks up to Rock and then rolls over onto his back in front of her.

Rock closes the distance, sniffs him all over, and then licks his face.

“I’ve healed her as much as I can,” Cassiel says. “Who’s that guy talking to Olly? And why do you… look so sad?” she asks after seeing Fenrir’s face.

Fenrir raises a very sad finger to point at Rock and Shogun happily wrestling with each other. Despite Shogun being so much larger and more powerful looking, he lets Rock win all of their little fights and is always the first one to submit to her victory.

“That’s… really cute,” Cassiel says.

Fenrir grabs Cassiel’s shoulders and shakes her. “This is basically watching some random guy I don’t know coming up to my daughter and trying to seduce her! And it’s working! Rock is totally falling for him!” he explains.

“I’m tired. Stop shaking me,” Cassiel says, brushing his hands off of her shoulders. “Look, they’re happy, isn’t that all that matters? Don’t tell me you’re one of those guys who are overly protective of their kids and tries to stop them from dating. That’s what mine did and that just made me hook up with a bunch of douchebags instead of the respectable ones since they were the only ones that would date me behind my parents’ backs. Do you really want Rock to go off behind your back with animals you don’t know? At least that fox isn’t trying to get her high and trying to pimp her.”

“You… had a rough time dating before, didn’t you?” Fenrir asks after hearing her rant and seeing how upset she looks at recalling those memories.

“Our kids are allowed to date as soon as they’re old enough.”

“You’re already planning on us having kids?”

“Sh-shut up, bastard. Of course I am. Don’t point out the obvious.”

“Alright, alright. I promise I won’t be overly protective, but I’ll still want to meet all of their boyfriends and girlfriends. Hey, wait. I haven’t met your parents yet and have never even talked to them. Do they even know I exist?”

Cassiel looks away and tries to whistle but fails at it.

“Cass. Are you dating me behind your parents’ backs?” Fenrir asks again.

Her attempt at whistling speeds up and grows louder.

“You really suck at whistling.”

Cassiel turns her head around to face him once more, ready to shout at him, but gets a surprise kiss on her lips instead.

A surprised moan turns into an angry shout as soon as he pulls his lips away from her. “D-don’t surprise me like that, you perverted dog overprotective bastard!”

“Looks like you’ve got a trouble one there, bro!” the stranger shouts over from Oleander.

Cassiel glares at the strange man and draws her sword. “Who are you calling trouble, asshole?” she asks.

“Woah, you called somebody something other than 'bastard,'” Fenrir teases.

“Th-that’s because I don’t want to call him something I call you!”

“Ooh, she’s the hot and cold type of girl. Never been a big fan of those. Too much drama,” the other guy says, prompting Cassiel to point her sword at him.

“Who even are you?”

“I am this fair maiden’s knight! I shall be whomever she wants me to be, and I will sweep her off her feet and show her the world!” the man explains.

Cassiel looks at Oleander. Oleander looks like he’s trying his hardest to hold back his laughter while the man is turned away from him.

“You know Olly’s a guy, right?” Cassiel asks.

Oleander’s eyes go wide as he pouts, shaking his head at Cassiel and raising a finger in front of his lips. He then returns to looking normal when the stranger turns to face him again.

“Of – of course I’m not a guy! I’m – I’m a girl,” Oleander explains.

The stranger looks at Oleander’s crotch. Oleander is wearing a tunic that hangs down to his thighs, so he can’t tell if there’s a bulge or not.

That’s why the stranger then lowers his head to look up underneath Oleander’s tunic.

Bulge.

“D-dude, you can’t just randomly look up people’s clothes,” Fenrir tells the stranger. “I know it’s a game but…”

“Gross. Can I kill him?” Cassiel asks.

The man looks up at Oleander.

Oleander’s face is burning red from a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

An open hand comes smacking against the stranger’s face with enough force to almost knock him off balance! There is going to be a red handprint on his face for a long, long time.

“Geez! I like aggressive men but that’s just rude!” Oleander shouts. “I’m taken anyways. I just wanted to screw with you. But seriously, you can’t just go and do that. It makes you creepy and gross. Quit the nice guy talk, too. You just make everybody cringe. Don’t you have any idea how to talk to girls? Seriously, don’t be so gross and desperate or you’re going to be single forever.”

Every single word is like a blade piercing the man’s heart, causing him to slump over farther and farther until his face is almost in the sand.

Oleander keeps on going on, and on, and on.

“I’m – I’m actually starting to feel bad for that gross asshole,” Cassiel says.

“Between Rock and that dumb fox, and now this, I don’t think I can watch anymore. Cass, keep an eye on Rock to make sure that the fox doesn’t try anything. I’m going to go check on the serpent,” Fenrir says.

He looks at her and sees her glaring at him.

“Please keep an eye on Rock?” Fenrir asks.

“Fine,” Cassiel says. “You and that gross asshole both need to learn some manners.”

Fenrir looks her in the eyes and calls her “beautiful” with a straight face.

Cassiel’s face turns red and she turns away.

He wins.

“Feeling better?” Fenrir asks the serpent.

She looks at him and slowly blinks. Fenrir can’t really communicate with her, but he can sense her feelings and feels her gratitude. She seems more relaxed now as well, so she must be feeling at least a bit better.

“Thanks for saving us. Seriously, we’d probably all be dead if it wasn’t for you. That final attack you did was awesome, by the way. Anyways, you must have been close if you got over here that quickly. Were you following us or something?”

All he can sense from her is even more gratitude.

“I’ll take that as a yes. I guess you didn’t want to leave us after we helped each other in the tournament?”

An image flashes in his mind.

The image shows the serpent swimming away into the depths of the ocean, but then shows her returning and finding The Shoebill. Then, several more memories flash in his mind of her following The Shoebillat a distance ever since they’ve left Port Tugator. She has even scared off some other sea monsters that wished to attack The Shoebill!

“Wow, you’ve really been helping us. We might have sunk a while ago if you weren’t there for us. Also, showing me your memories is awesome. How come you never let us know you were there, though?”

The serpent lazily moves her neck and shakes her head.

He has a feeling that was the closest thing she could do to a shrug.

“Uh, Fen,” Cassiel says.

Fenrir turns around and looks over at Rock.

She’s humping Shogun’s leg while Shogun looks like he has no idea how to react to what’s happening to him, so he’s just lying there and letting it happen.

“Even my dog is a pervert,” Fenrir says with slumped shoulders and a disappointed sigh.

“What did you expect? You’re the one who raised her,” Cassiel calls him out.

Meanwhile, the stranger’s head is buried inside of the sand while Oleander continues berating him, now with one of his feet pushing down on the man’s back.