Chapter 37: Chapter 37

Clare rode across the plain toward the city, with the other magical girls on their horses behind her. In the weeks since the women had resumed their adventuring activities, they had gained enough XP from hunter attacks and dungeons to finally be able to ride. The tank had to admit that the experience was exhilarating. Horses in the game were controlled mentally. They had ridiculous stamina, and one could ride at a gallop for hours. Admittedly, it helped that the party members weighed much less than armored men.

Riders emerged from the woods nearby. One was an ice tribe player. “Incoming from the northeast!” Sara shouted. “Dismount!”

The group came to a halt and dismounted. The four hunters closed fast.

“Ranged,” Sara ordered. They each materialized their bows and took aim. Clare’s was a crossbow—she had liked the look of it. Her HUD informed her that Sara had initiated combat with the interlopers. “Fire!”

Each of the women shot an arrow. Sara, who had by far the most experience with ranged attacks, was the only one who found her mark. The lead rider’s horse took the arrow to the head and collapsed—only players were immune to ranged crits. The other three hunters dismounted and dematerialized their horses to avoid a similar experience. They awkwardly helped their leader to his feet and then gave a war cry. They then charged with weapons raised in the air.

“Melee.” After Sara said this, the women all disappeared their bows and summoned their standard armaments.

“These idiots are wasting their stamina running at us,” May muttered.

“Probably more scrubs,” Sara admitted. “But be careful anyway.”

During the charge one man completely froze mid-stride. He tumbled to a halt like a statue. It took Clare a moment to realize what had happened. “He’s lagging?” she asked incredulously.

Outnumbered before the battle was even joined, the hunters lasted all of ten seconds before the magical girls defeated them. Sara then walked up to the remaining player and stabbed him through the heart with her spear—lagging hunters could still be killed. That rule was in place to stop them from disconnecting to avoid a loss.

Everyone’s XP rose to twenty-six percent. “That was just sad,” May said, shaking her head.

“Definitely,” Sara agreed. “But let’s not get overconfident. There are some hunters with no lives who train nearly as hard as we do. And Lissa is still out there looking for a rematch—we’re lucky she hasn’t found us yet. ”

The party disappeared their weapons and walked back to their horses. “Buttercup didn’t get spooked by the fighting at all,” Pari said, patting her horse on the head. “You’re so brave!” she cooed.

“...Are you going General Martinez on us?” Clare teased.

“Hey, if I want to pretend this horse is real, that’s my business,” Pari joked in return. “I always wanted one.”

“Oh God, she’s become a horse girl,” May said. “Now we have to buy her a riding crop and stupid pants.”

The party climbed atop their mounts once more. “You will all be allowed to attend my dressage exhibitions,” Pari announced with an affected tone of aristocracy.

“...I don’t even know what that is,” May admitted. Clare was glad to see May and Pari so comfortable with each other again. Though she did not think that May was truly over Pari yet.

A strangled cry drew everyone’s attention. The lagged hunter had reconnected...and then immediately had his character killed by the wound to his heart. He fell still once more. May chuckled slightly.

Sara addressed the group. “Everyone stay alert. Let’s ride for home!”

As was their usual practice, Clare took the lead once more. She glanced briefly back at Sara as she rode. In the last three weeks, the feeling that her relationship with the healer could not possibly be real had passed. As amazing as it was to have a girlfriend she loved so deeply, she was frequently apprehensive as well. What if she said something stupid to offend Sara? What if the healer got tired of going without sex? Was Clare supposed to do something for their one month anniversary? Was that even a thing Sara would care about?

Clare pushed all these thoughts out of her mind. She had to stay focused—they would not be secure from threats until they crossed the border into the safe zone.

When the party finally crossed that line on their map, Clare breathed a sigh of relief. The group slowed their pace somewhat as they passed the western visitor’s center. They finally came to trot as they continued beyond the cemetery to the narrow gate in the city wall. They passed through it single file on the right, in case any traffic came through the other way.

Some distance beyond the gate and not far from the cathedral, they came to a halt. Sara turned to the rest of the group. “We had some good dungeon runs today, and picked up some easy XP. Is everyone okay with a few hours practice?”

Before she could answer, Clare’s quest button began flashing on her HUD. She quickly pressed it.

“It’s finally happened,” May said. “Our second special quest... We’re getting a goblin television!”

“Nice. ...Does everyone have a quest named ‘To Kill a Life Dragon?’” Sara asked. Everyone else nodded. “At least we’re not going to be split up again.”

“But there could easily be another trick from the company,” Clare said bitterly. Though it had been her choice to attack Sara, that might not have happened without the company providing a sealed room for them to fight in.

Sara maneuvered her horse next to Clare’s so that she could take the tank’s hand comfortingly. “Whatever happens, at least we’ll face it together.” She gave a reassuring smile.

Clare nodded. She had been blushing less lately, but she did not manage to avoid it this time.

“You two are crazy cute sometimes,” May said approvingly. Clare had to admit that she would have felt jealous in May’s shoes. But if the demon player was bothered at all, she showed no sign of it.

“We’re very photogenic for death row inmates,” Sara joked. “Anyway, it looks like we have to visit the Queen again. They’re only giving us an hour to get there.”

“What if that director tries to hurt you again?” Clare asked, suddenly worried.

“There’s nothing for it,” Sara said regretfully.

“That isn’t acceptable,” Clare insisted. “We’ll tell them we’re not filming anything until he promises not do anything else like that. ...I suppose there’s no way to force him to keep his word, but it’s better than nothing.”

“That’s a good idea. Thank you.” Sara gave Clare’s hand a squeeze.

The Magical Girls rode on to the city center. They dismounted at Queen’s Square, which was too densely packed with pedestrians to ride through. Not that there was any danger of running someone down—separation fields applied to mounts as well.

The rest of the journey to the throne room was basically identical to their first visit. But when they arrived before the Goblin Queen, they did not step off the elevator. Clare spoke over the NPC introducing them. “We’re not shooting any promos unless we have some assurance that Sara isn’t going to be hurt again.” Huntington looked to the women in annoyance.

“Damn it!” the director cried. It was the same voice as before. “You inmates aren’t in any position to make demands.”

“If you do anything perverse, we’ll stop leaving the city entirely,” Clare said in a suddenly improvised bluff. “Do you want to tell your boss that you pointlessly ruined a profitable show for the sake of your fetish?”

“Someone’s got herself a pair of balls,” the actress noted sourly.

“...Fine, you win,” the disembodied voice said angrily. “When the elevator arrives again, do the intro right!”

The elevator went down several meters, then came back up. The introduction happened as before, but with a different speech from the Queen. This one contained no useful information that Clare could identify. At the end of the speech, all four women shouted simultaneously. “Aye, Ma’am!”

“Got it,” the director said.

“Can we skip the fucking promos today?” Huntington asked. “We’re already running late, and my wife’s going to be a total cunt about it.”

“Sure we can skip them...if you don’t want to get paid.”

The actress made a sound of incoherent rage. “Fine, we’ll shoot the outro next,” the director said. “Then you can go as soon as I get one promo from you.”

The faux queen calmed herself slightly at the news. After the outro was done, the actress walked over toward the waiting adventurers. “So, you girls have been busy the last couple months.”

Sara nodded. “Ms. Huntington, did you know what the company had planned for me and Clare?”

“No. Of course, I wouldn’t have told you even if I did. You inmates aren’t worth the shit I’d get into.”

“I wish I could say I was surprised,” May muttered.

Huntington materialized a cigarette and took a drag off it. “Anyway, congrats on how entertaining the show’s been lately. Getting in some lethal PvP has turned you into the top non-raiding program. And the official forum is hilarious to read—all the Clara shippers are over the moon, but the Mara and Pabel people are bitching non-stop.”

“Pabel shippers can suck my goddamn tail,” May said angrily. Apparently, Clare had been right that May was still hurting.

Huntington laughed. “I guess someone has to, now that Sara can’t anymore.” The healer blushed at this. A new worry occurred to Clare—if she ever was ready to have sex, would her inexperience be a turn off?

“Alright, the instance is ready,” the director said. Everyone was then teleported.

They reappeared in Queen’s Square by the fountain, but the entire plaza was now completely empty. The party was standing in a replica of their entire city, Clare realized. But it was not populated.

“This is creepy,” May admitted. “Like the quiet in a movie before a zombie attack.” Clare agreed. To see the square devoid of anyone else during the day was strange. Of course, neither this version of the place nor the usual one was a physical location. It was amazing how often the tank forgot that—and after only three months on the inside.

The Magical Girls and Huntington shot a promo in front of the fountain. The actress disappeared immediately afterward. Similar promos to all the previous ones followed. Everything was routine until Sara spoke up near the end. “Listen, I actually had an idea to improve the Japanese-language ad if you’re interested?”

“Sure, let’s see it,” the director said.

“I hope this goes better than the last one,” May muttered.

“It almost certainly won’t,” Sara said quietly, embarrassed. She then raised her voice to address the director once more. “Basically, a staple of the magical girl genre is the transformation sequence. I was playing around with the inventory controls, and—well, I’ll just show you. But I need music first.”

Sara switched to her casual clothes. She then walked a short distance from the fountain and materialized one of the party’s goblin radios. It was a large, boxy device that looked like it had come out of the early nineteen hundreds. She fiddled with it briefly. “Clare, can you press ‘play’ when we start?”

The tank nodded and stood beside the device, while Sara moved in front of the floating camera. “Action!” the director called out.

Clare hit play, and radio emitted inspiring orchestral music. Sara started dancing around gracefully. Her whole body save her head and neck began glowing with the wind-like materialization animation. Instead of her adventuring outfit appearing all at once, it manifested piece by piece in time with the music and her gestures.

Finally, her spear appeared. What followed was identical to the original magical girl promo. Sara even shouted the same Japanese sentence at the end.

“I love it!” the director proclaimed.

Despite this praise, Sara looked self-conscious as she turned to see the reaction of the rest of the party. The radio disappeared into her inventory.“It was silly, wasn’t it?”

Clare wanted to be supportive, but she also did not want to lie. “You were very proficient. ...It was a little odd though.”

“It must have been really complicated to plan that routine and program the inventory controls,” Pari offered. She sounded equally desperate to think of something nice to say.

“You should submit that as evidence you’re innocent—no one would ever believe a hardened killer could be so girly,” May said mischievously.

Sara briefly crossed her arms. “If it gets us more gold from our show, it’s worth the embarrassment.”

“Come on, I was just teasing,” May told her playfully.

“You’re done,” the director told the group. “I’ll see you next time if you don’t get yourselves killed.”

The Magical Girls teleported again, and found themselves in the game world once more. They were standing on the drawbridge before the main gate of Castle Malice. Sunset was approaching.

“Do you think he meant anything specific by that?” Pari asked in concern.

“I hope not,” Sara replied. “...The quest description is updated.”

Clare was surprised when she saw the map. “The entrance is almost half-way to hunter territory. We’ve never been out that far.”

“Riding in the dark would be too dangerous,” Sara said to the group. “We should go first thing tomorrow. Let’s meet at dawn at the cathedral.”

Everyone else nodded. “Do you still want to get some practice in?” Clare asked.

“No... If that director was implying something especially dangerous is waiting for us, that’s a good reason to enjoy ourselves tonight.”

Clare was tempted to suggest that they refuse the quest, but she knew the others would never agree to such a thing. She would just have to do all she could to keep her friends alive.