Chapter 274 – The preparations of Jane Hollmey

Rave did a backflip to gain distance from Nathalia. A big mistake, as John noted to himself. Being in the air against an opponent several times faster than oneself was just asking for trouble. Dodging was tough in such a match-up at the best of times.

Therefore, Nathalia slamming her leg into Rave’s side and catapulting her a few dozen metres away was pretty much expected. John sighed, he had grown worryingly apathetic to seeing his girlfriend getting beaten up. Then again, he knew that this was a safe environment, so that was just his Wisdom reassuring him that everything was fine.

He formed a sphere of healing slime above his Undine covered hand and threw it at Rave. The green ball glowed with vitality and was absorbed into Rave the moment it touched her. It wasn’t as effective as applying the slime directly to a wounded area, but it did the job.

Rave jumped straight back on her feet, which was remarkable in its own right. The regeneration may have been potent, but it didn’t ease the pain quite that fast, so her ability to just gloss over it was impressive. Not as impressive as John’s who, at this point, didn’t care about almost every injury. Considering surrounding factors, that accomplishment was dulled. He was gradually leaving the other humans in his harem behind power wise.

Rave was trying her best to keep up. It would be futile, he was a Latebloomer and she was not. She could be powerful in her own right though. “Why are you not training in your battle suit anyway?” John shouted at her as she threw herself at Nathalia. The dragoness was blocking every single attack with just one hand. Not because she was playing any games or anything but because Rave’s frontal assault didn’t require her to turn her body.

“’Cause I don’t need to!” Rave shouted back and then executed a sweeping low kick that aimed at Nathalia’s left leg, the side which had been under no threat for the past few seconds. Not a bad idea but ultimately fruitless, as the dragoness just raised her scaled foot to block the attack with her heel.

“You are executing attacks that rely on me being as weak as you are, little Hollmey,” Nathalia purred and then allowed Rave to take her distance again.

“Weren’t you the one who was always whining ‘I can’t wear that, I would need to get used to it’,” John asked.

 “A, I wasn’t whining, ya jerk,” Rave listed raising the index finger of her left hand, “Two,” she raised one finger on her other hand, “It doesn’t matter for the battlesuit, if it even exists, which it doesn’t, and…”

“But why wouldn’t it matter?” John interrupted her.

“’Cause I am your girlfriend and your girlfriend always knows best!” the techno-lover answered, nodding to herself, “Anyway, and drei,” she pointed at Nathalia with her little finger, “Nathy, don’t be so mean.”

“…What did you just call me?” Nathalia growled, the gaps between her scales suddenly lighting up as her inner fire started to swell.

“Nathy, I thought ya needed a nickname, y’all need nicknames,” Rave declared; “What, ya don’t like Nathy? How about Nat-Nat? Thalia?”

The dragoness jumped straight at Rave, who smirked and threw out a blast of bright light. It was just that: simple light, with no heat or magical properties attached. The flare succeeded in blinding even Nathalia, even if it was for just the shortest of moments.

Rave ducked away under the clearly telegraphed assault and successfully rammed her knee into the V shaped gap between Nathalia’s scales on her stomach. A hit it might have been, but far from doing any serious damage to the dragoness, whose eyes had now recovered.

While Rave was still busy smirking to herself, the leg that was currently connecting to Nathalia was now the target of a clawed grab. “Pestering little insect,” the dragoness hissed. “You should fly like the annoyance you are.”

“That doesn’t sound go-“ Rave managed to say before Nathalia spun around, to gain momentum, and then tossed her into the air.

“There she goes,” John marvelled, watching his girlfriend fly at least 50 metres upwards before gravity claimed her again. Before he could consult Sylph on the matter, Momo was already there and caught her.

“That was fun,” Rave cheered.

“It wasn’t meant to be,” Nathalia growled, as if that wasn’t clear enough.

“I know, but I don’t care,” the techno-lover tip-tapped her way towards John once Momo had put her back down. She pressed a big kiss on his lips and said, “Break time.”

“Okay, so my confusion of your battle suit aside,” John said, “how is your progress?”

Observe said it was quite good, but he wanted to hear what she had to say. Not only because he just liked the sound of her voice but also because her personal guess was important.

“Eh, same as last time ya asked me, I don’t know,” Rave shrugged.

“I cannot tell, she is as slow as before to me,” Nathalia commented as she stepped into John’s vicinity to wrap her arms around him and pull him into her large-breasted embrace.

“When will you finally ditch this menace and accept me as your one true love, John Newman?” she asked. The answer was an undecipherable muffle spoken into her breasts. “I cannot fathom why you settle for this wealthless, breastless, experienceless little thing.”

“’Cause he loves me more than he loves you, Nathy,” Rave giggled and kept the rest of her boyfriend in her embrace. “Also I got the nicer butt.”

Being squished between the older, taller dragoness with the big tits and the orange glowing hair and the younger, smaller techno-lover with the perfect butt and pink, curvy hair was giving John an understandable erection. The fact that Nathalia was radiating enough heat to eliminate the need for both him and Rave to wear jackets also wasn’t helping.

“As seemingly the only person here who has any idea ever,” Momo said from the sidelines. “I can report that Rave has gotten better, which is largely attributed to her getting used to the power boosts she has gotten until now.”

“Uhm, how does that make sense?” Rave wanted to know; “Why would I get stronger cause of past power boosts?”

“That is,” John answered after wiggling his face out of Nathalia breasts, “because of the immediate concerns coming from power boosts. Take Thana as the extreme case example: after she was actually in full control of her body, she needed several days to adjust to her new strength. As you have gotten several bursts of power thanks to my experience system, you have been getting stronger and stronger, but you haven’t really needed to apply that strength with finesse, as we only ever went to kill more stuff, which gave you more bursts of power.”

“Can ya give me the short version of that?” Rave asked.

“Sure: you are learning to use the power you have effectively,” John answered and nodded at Momo; “Thanks for having an actual eye on the progress.”

“It’s what I do,” Momo said and flew off with her e-reader in hand.

“Okay, so I am just expanding what I already do,” his girlfriend hummed. “Not sure that’ll be enough against mother.”

“You wanted that fight,” John reminded her.

“Yeah and I will do my best and I will punch her in her face,” Rave said. “Whatever happens.”

John loved that confidence of hers, even if it was sometimes misplaced. Having someone at his side who was always of the mind that things were possible, no matter how high the odds were stacked against them, was wonderful.

John kissed her on the forehead, “You will do your best, I am sure.”

“Not even a question,” Rave exclaimed. “I will kick mother’s ass, and then you will treat me like a princess, cause I deserve that.”

“You deserve that whenever you want,” he laughed.

“You are definitely right with that one,” Rave purred and finally stepped away from him. With overarching steps, she walked around him, tapping a beat against her own cheek with her index finger, “I am, after all, the cute girlfriend of some nerd who turned out to be super interesting.”

“You are so much more than just my girlfriend though,” John said.

“Y’are right again! I am awesome!” Rave said and twirled on the spot.

“And yet you will lose to your mother.”

Their attention shifted to the one speaking those words. Copernicus, sitting lazily on the ground, was licking his paw and then used it to clean his golden, copper-striped fur. “Whaderya being a buzzkill for,” Rave wanted to know and kneeled down to her cat, patting him on the head.

The suncat purred as she scratched him behind the ears, “You are using the wrong way of fighting for the tools you have.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Rave was obviously confused.

“Hmm, it means that you are fighting like your mother when you haven’t chosen the same path,” he kept the cryptic expressions going.

John knew when he was facing an elemental that was testing his summoner, having been through that experience three times himself. He refused to count the time Sylph ‘tested’ him. “Can ya just tell me what this is about?” Rave booped her summon’s nose.

“You will need to find the answer to this yourself, and you only will in defeat,” Copernicus said, his tail flopping over the floor.

“Lyly won’t like me losing, so can we skip that part and go back to where I become awesome?” Rave asked.

“I am not concerned with the abomination princess’ wish,” the suncat’s ears were suddenly pressed close. “The outcome of this tournament is unimportant to me, I only care about you, Lightbearer, to realize what path you tread on.”

With that Copernicus sprinted away to sleep somewhere unobserved. “Huh, so that just happened,” Rave wondered. “Any clue what he is talking about?”

“Yup,” John answered; “But I am not going to tell you because I don’t look forward to waking up to claw marks for the next few years.”

“Ya know, it could be important enough to change tomorrow’s outcome,” Rave poked at his stomach, “so ya better tell me.”

“Doubtful, you only have the rest of today to train,” John said and looked at the already dark sky. “And there isn’t that much more today.”

“Mhm… might as well call it a day then,” Rave said. “A good meal and a nice round of sleep are more important than one or two more hours of boxing with a dragon.”

“How about we add a good fucking to that list?” John suggested.

“I am all up for that,” Rave smirked.

“You are not going to leave me out of this,” Nathalia demanded. “I have been ‘fighting’ against this nuisance for too long. I demand a worldly offering befitting of my appetite.”

“So you want to do something kinky?” John crossed his arms and thought for a moment.

 “I guess you could say it like that,” the dragoness waved off. “Ya have anything in mind?” Rave asked.

“I do have these things I want to test…” John mumbled.