AN: Alternate title for this chapter being "Q. My best friend, your worst nightmare."
Volibear's battle sharpened had abandoned him. Or more specifically had decided to take a break from the alcohol in his system. If he was sober enough to properly evaluate the situation, he'd realize that commanding The Maid to carry him towards the source of the tremors and loud noises was not only suicidal, it might even have gotten the poor girl killed.
But never the less, the angel ran with the drunken cub in her arms. One to ensure their master's safety, and other to chew out whoever dared to interrupt the impromptu party taking place in the kitchens. As for which opinion belonged to The Maid and which to Volibear, that shall remain to be seen. Also irrelevant, but it was worth adding, since The Maid had every intention of taking Volibear back with her for a night of cuddles with the living pillow.
Oh spirits that's a big one... Volibear swallowed a lump in his throat as he caught sight of the cause of commotion. A giant golem made of dirt, taller than the towers of the academy itself. Could give Cho'gath a run for his money...
"Miss..." The bear spoke up with drunken slur. "I suggest you head bac- hic-.. I'll deal with this.." Volibear squirmed as he ignored the women's mute protests before he finally managed to shoo her away.
Hopefully the cubs are a safe distance away from this.. thing.. He thought as he ran as fast as his four buzzed paws could take him towards the over-sized mud doll.
Tabitha knew she wasn't like most girls. She preferred books and quiet contemplation, while others, particularly Kirche, enjoyed boys and never-ending gossip. She could go a day without saying one syllable with a poker faced that could bluff a king, while the rest of her classmates wore their heart on their sleeves, to be read and played with at another person's leisure.
And most glaringly, was the physical differences. The blue-haired mage knew she wasn't the tallest, or most well-endowed, but frankly she couldn't care less on most occasions. Tabitha just wrote it up as being a late bloomer, she'd catch up eventually, but for now everyone underestimated her because she looked like a twelve year old, instead of the triangle-class mage she was.
Though it was times like this that she cursed her petite status, her thoughts echo'd by a certain pink-haired tsundere. Not because she wanted to be a tall, dark, and mysterious beauty, but because having longer legs would have made dodging the giant Fist'O Earthen Doom less life threatening as she fired ice spell after ice spell at the ugly rock puppet.
Earthen Golem. Triangle Class Spell. Analysis. Annoying. Tabitha groaned to herself as it started to reform the arm Louise blew to pieces. Explosions.. glad to have as ally.
Personally, Tabitha hated the Earthen Golem spell. It was more a waste of time than an actual combat spell. It was too slow to be a threat to a competent mage that pays it the proper attention, and not sturdy enough to act as anything other than a time sink. The only upsides was that it would last as long as the caster had mana to regenerate, or until cancelled. A distraction.
And it was doing it's job perfectly. The hooded figure had gotten into the tower, with neither of the three mages or human familiar able to stop her because they were too busy pecking away at it's heels, with Louise's familiar, Need to remember name. Common courtesy and for future reference, doing some rather impressive stunt moves as he hacked away at the mobile lump of grass and rocks.
Frankly, they were getting nowhere. They were trying to destroy a mountain with a bunch of pickaxes, when what they needed was a spell to blow the whole thing up at once.
Sadly, Tabitha was too caught up in the process of thinking of how to beat the Golem, she forgot to pay it the proper attention. It's almost comical, how fast two tons of assorted dirt, pebbles, grass and pain can move if you're not actually looking at it.
Idiot. Was the last thought in her mind before a blot of brown and a streak of white took over the entirety of her vision. The last word out of her mouth was far less proper, and most assuredly not to be used in polite conversation before she got slammed into. Given the circumstances, even if anyone could hear her, they wouldn't blame the use of the word. Even if they blushed at the thought of it coming out Tabitha, of all people.
Tabitha let out a small groan of pain. In Volibear's experience, that was a good sign. If you felt well enough to complain, you were going to make it.
"Good boy." The small mage pet her familiar's tiny head, for such a small thing he hit like a carriage and Tabitha had every intentions of going to the infirmary once this was over to ensure she hadn't broken any ribs.
Volibear just let out a small snort at being compared to a dog. Both of them ignoring Kirche screaming various profanities and death threats at the Golem to grab it's attention as she rained hellfire upon the shitty excuse for contemporary art that nearly killed her best friend.
No fury like a women scorned my ass... The Ursine thought as he assisted Tabitha to her feet, keeping an eye on the loud red-head who was single-highhandedly tearing the Golem a new one with a barrage of fireballs, flaming whips and smoldering hot pillars.
Since Volibear preferred his fur a creamy white, instead of charcoal black, he made a note that pissing the busty women was an excersise in stupity, while actually enraging her was an equivalent to suicide.
"Fine. Go help." Tabitha encouraged, finally getting her balance back after the painful rescue. With her familiar now here, she had a lot more to think about, particularly, how to take this thing down once and for all.
The bear cub nodded as he charged off to the side, the adrenaline in his system temporary overriding the headache. Which is just going to make tomorrow morning all the peachier..
Tabitha watched as her familiar circled around the Golem, Kirche's enraged assault combined with Louise's explosions more than enough to draw the constructs attention.
Of course it also produced an exceptional amount of dust and smoke that a certain thief used to slip away unnoticed but we'll come back to that later.
Volibear chose his positioning carefully as all four legs pumped under him to get to his target destination. He was never the best with geometry or spacial awareness at times, and right now he needed to know what he was about to do wouldn't result in him accidentally destroy half the school. Only one way to find out.
"Hey! Cub!" Saito glanced towards the source of the noise, barely audible over the firestorm going on ten meters away from him. To his surprise he saw Tabitha's familiar. He'd heard the story of how the little thing helped him out, even if he didn't believe it and if it wasn't so much of a bad time, rampaging elementals and him hanging for dear life onto a talking sword that was imbedded into said monster's arm, he'd have thanked the talking fuzzball.
Possibly even ask him for some fighting tips. Especially if his life was now filled with fighting strange and far larger creatures.
"What?!" Saito yelled back with more than a hint of panic, and quite a few splashes of terror. It had seemed so easy at the start, his body just took over but as the fight went on he came back to his own mind and started to realize that he was running along the body of a giant as he slashed away at it.
Unknown magical rune powers or not, he was still just a teenage boy who'd just gotten his powers. So while the mind was willing, the body was unable.
"Jump!"
He did not just say that!
"I'm not jumping!" Saito didn't even want to thing about how high he was. The fact Delflinger casually pointed out that at his current height he'd only get a half dozen broken bones did little to convince him it was a good idea.
"Tabitha will catch you!" Probably. Volibear added the last part in his mind. All he knew for certain was if the kid dropped, he'd probably live. Hurt like hell, but live. If he held on.. well.. things could get a lot more painful. Either way he'd be getting reaquinted with the ground. On who's terms was entirely up to him.
"Not a chance!" He wasn't being difficult, Saito just seemed to have more value for his life than his master, her classmates or his fellow familiar.
"Now is not the time for arguing! Just let go! We'll get the sword back later!"
"I don't care about the sword!" Saito yelled back, as he started to sweat in fear. He was going to die in a strange world, talking to a bear as a magical sword chastised him for being rude. Never in his life had Saito even contemplated doing drugs. He was raised in a good home, with a healthy respect for right and wrong, with two parents that loved him. But there was never a time in his life that he wished that his current situation was anything more than a bad trip, since that would make a lot more sense than inter-dimensional travel.
"Cub! Just let go! You'll be fine!" Volibear was getting anxious with the three teenage mages starting to run out of steam. It wasn't effecting their casting yet, but he'd been fighting long enough to notice, even at a distance and nearly drunk out of his mind, the telltale sighs of exhaustion as they beat back the ever regenerating Golem.
Thankfully the Golem made the choice for the poor boy as it brought it's arm back to ready another punch with enough force to dislodge Deflinger, sending the boy into a loud, screaming free-fall.
With his last inhibition out of the way, Volibear got back onto all four and charged forward, not paying attention to Saito as he fell.
Tabitha caught the falling familiar and gently floated him to a safe place to the side as she turned her attention back to the fight. Specifically her familiar. She'd seen what he could do to bronze statues his size, but this was a much bigger opponent. Tricks? Unknown abilities?
She got her answer in a pull in her chest, similar to the fight against Guiche she felt a small amount of mana getting pulled out and her familiar change forms in a brief flash of light.
"SNIVELING CUBS!"
Tabitha's jaw dropped as Volibear dug his paws into Golem, and in one swift, easy motion threw the entire creature over his shoulders.
"Sweet founder..." The cloaked thief muttered in awe as they watched their Golem shatter into a couple hundred pieces against the court ground. She'd seen more than enough and had no intentions of taking on a familiar that could toss around their Golem like a sack of potatoes, especially with their mana reserves dangerously low if they needed to make a quick getaway.
Tabitha watched for a moment as the construct tried to regenerate before the spell was cancelled. Familiar?
That was the overhanging question, in the kicked up dust she'd lost track of her familiar's white fur. Until a large, familiar shadow stepped appeared in the floating debre.
Volibear shook his head slightly, the alcohol and adrenaline rushing to his head as the four teens gawked at his form. He'd somehow summoned his police uniform. Perfect.
Three mages and one familiar watched in stunned fascination as Volibear took his custom made shades out of his breast pocket, flicking them open with practiced ease.
"It was a nice fight but there was no reason for him to..." Volibear put on the shades with a dramatic turn of the head. "Flip out."
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah!
Saito's only reaction was to face-palm at the shouting bear before he finally passed out from lack of oxygen, leaving the girl's rather confused, and a certain blue-haired mage concerned she broke her familiar.
AN: Yo. So. Captain Volibear. I couldn't resist. I'm sorry. It's cheesy as hell and I love it. Just that mustache and the cap... man. That was a fun update. A couple more chapters of actual plot, then we'll get back to the fluff~ As for those of you wondering bout the damage mechanics. I'll be following the mechanics rather than the flat stat lines, so while he can basically flip anything so long as it counts as an enemy mob, he can't destroy an entire mountain with a frenzy. But that's stuff I'll work into the story.
Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you for the next one~ Comments, concerns and such are all welcome~