When the party reached the volcanic island, Carver did try and convince the Undine to join them as they traveled.
"The place is bound to be guarded by fire using monster girls," He said, "Having someone with us that controls water would be invaluable." he wasn't wrong, but none of them believed this was his true motive for asking her to come along.
The Undine smiled at him, "I'd follow if I could, but my power weakens the further from an actual water source I am. I'm afraid I'd dry up completely and be little more than dead weight by the time you reach the summit. Besides, without me the crew will have only themselves to guard the ship, and we saw how well that went last time."
The water elemental leaned in to kiss Carver once more before the party departed the ship, "Take care brave knight, and hopefully I'll see you on your next voyage." She said, Carver nodding confidently as he left the ship with the others.
"Are you gonna miss her big brother?" Alysha asked, upset that her brother was upset. Carver nodded with a sigh, "Yeah.." He saw her expression and held her close, "But having you with me makes it a little easier," He said, kissing her cheek and making her giggle.
Carver had to focus though, and the party looked over what they were dealing with. The beach in front of them was pitch black, as the sand was formed from grains of volcanic rock.
The source was obvious, the row of six or so volcanic mountains in the center of the island, which was barren from former eruptions wiping out any vegetation. The only plants were, ironically, probably growing in caves within the mountain itself, where the lava and fire wouldn't reach during an eruption.
As such, most of the mamono would probably be on the mountain itself rather than the area around this in mind, the party set off. Carver had to adjust his armor, unable to wear it all in a hot terrain.
He had to settle for just his shield, and even that would get more difficult to carry the longer they went, the more the heat of the mountain heated the metal.
He made a mental note to have the next enchantment on his armor be one of temperature control.
The party reached the base of the mountain in the center, Gabrielle sensing that the island's primary source of corruption was coming from its summit as opposed to any of the others, and started upwards.
The party had a false start when they found two mamono battling each other, one was a green scaled monster girl known as a Lizard Woman, the other a red scaled/skinned mamono known as a Salander, both armed with large blades.
The party thought at first that one or both of them had been corrupted and a fight had broke out, but swiftly learned that no such thing had occurred,. Both mamono were completely in their right mind, and were in fact a couple.
Just a very aggressive, rivalrous one. Oliver and Gabrielle seemed confused by this, but Cassandra and Ava assured them that it was not as bad nor as odd as it sounded, and they left the couple to their combat based flirting.
It wasn't until the end of their first day hiking up the hot mountain that they found an actual corrupted monster girl, made more unsettling by the face that she hadn't been corrupted when they found her.
She was a Hinezumi, a rodent like monster girl with deep red hair, a red outfit that Cassandra recognized as a slightly skimpier version of a martial artist's training clothes, and literal fire surrounding her ankles, wrists, and at the tip of her long mouse tail.
She appeared to be hard at work, training her body in some kind of martial art, skin glistening with sweat from the movement rather than the heat.
Cassandra stopped to admire her, always fond of the martial arts practicing mamono, but when their eyes met, she saw it.
Cassandra watched the corruption from the source at the top of the mountain infect the Hinezumi as they looked each other, saw the look of knowing respect between two martial artists become overtaken by feral lust and anger, watched her large rodent ears seem to wilt as the flames of her body grew in intensity. She let out a feral cry and rushed the party, now corrupted and on the hunt.
Cassandra, having been the only one to actually see what had happened, moved forward first, she struck the Hinezumi with a chi palm strike to knock her back to the cliff she'd jumped from, and handed her bo staff to Ava.
Cassandra felt a more personal need to handle this one herself, and jumped over onto the cliff with the fiery rodent girl, engaging her in hand to hand combat.
Cassandra didn't recognize the martial art the Hinezumi was using, but it was more aggressive than the one she practiced herself. The mamono enhanced her strikes with her fire, making Cassandra's dodging all the more necessary.
Gathering water chi was a non-option considering the heat and lack of time to focus, but she did magane to infuse her strikes with more than a little earth and wind chi to keep the Hinezumi from gaining any ground, then her body with fire chi to weaken the amount of damage the mamono's attacks could do to her.
She blocked and redirected attacks before finding and opening and driving her knuckles, earth and wind chi infused into the strike, into the side of the Hizumi's head, knocking her to the ground with a powerful crack.
Cassandra could have, perhaps should have, put the Hizumi out of her misery right then and there, a quick snap of the neck and the corrupted fire mamono could rest.
But she'd seen how quickly the change had taken her, seen that there was no way this particular monster girl was better off dead, and so instead picked her up bridal style and returned to her party, requesting that Gabrielle heal her and purge the corrupted magic from her.
Cassandra wouldn't allow a fellow martial artist to go down without a fight.
Fun fact: The Hinezumi is also where the Vesta from Pokegirls and Buko comes from.
