WhimsicalLantern

  Over the next few days, the trio battled their way north through the Wind River Range, summiting the peaks and continuing to fight a range of monsters. Earth elementals were by far their most common foe, but not the only. They ran across a few packs of wolves that mostly avoided them after the first fight, as well as a mutated grizzly bear that almost knocked Bridgette off a cliff side before she grabbed a fist-full of fur and punched her way through its side, ripping its heart out to stop it. They took their time, conserving resources and ensuring they were smart about the battles they got in, always leaving themselves a way out. Throughout the whole time, they saw no evidence of any other adventurers in the area, which was both exciting and a little disheartening.

  "We can't be the only strong people around," Alice said, restarting a common discussion. "I know, I know, we're awesome, we're blessed by the gods, etc., but it doesn't make sense. There have to be other groups of adventurers like us who are out there exploring."

  "I don't disagree," Colin said, "But we've seen no evidence of them. And with how tough this pce is? Imagine if you were a newbie without a css, or a level one? You'd get murdered six ways from Sunday by the monsters before you could ever make it to the ft nds."

  "Meh," Bridgette shrugged. "Either they exist or they don't. They're not here, so it doesn't really matter."

  "As always, B coming in with the deep thoughts," Colin joked. Bridgette slugged him pyfully on the arm, then stopped, gncing up.

  "Huh, that's a big bird," she said. She raised a hand, pointing as what appeared to be a bird was rapidly dropping toward them in a stoop, picking up speed to a terrifying rate as it grew much rger in their vision.

  "That's not a bird," Colin yelled, scrambling backward and looking for cover. "That's a wyvern! Look out!"

  Colin and Alice dove for cover, scrambling under a nearby rock overhang, while Bridgette pulled her axe and faced the oncoming threat. The wyvern screaming a challenge, continuing its dive, plummeting like a rock toward the girl, its talons extended with cws spread. Alice gulped at the sight of the predator.

  In a fsh of action, the wyvern and Bridgette cshed, steel sparking against the beast, blood flying in all directions, and then the wyvern was gone, back in the air and beating its wings to gain altitude. Bridgette gasped in pain, blood dripping from cw wounds on her shoulder as she looked down and realized she'd been hit by the wyvern.

  Colin poked his head out from under the overhang, gncing up at the sky, then pointed a finger going "Bzzt" as a lightning bolt ripped from his hand and chased after the wyvern. Alice covered her ears, cringing, as the bst echoed loudly. As she rexed and gnced around, she saw Bridgette getting ready for another pass with the wyvern, so she quickly cast a healing spell toward her lover. Bridgette briefly moaning in pleasure as the healing effects started to stitch her wounds back together.

  The wyvern fshed past again, steel and cws and stingers cshing in a burst of violence. More blood flew, both wyvern and human, as the two combatants separated again.

  "Fuck that stinger hurts," Bridgette compined, wiping a gob of poison from her abdomen where yet another puncture wound was oozing and sizzling. One cw had sshed perilously toward her shoulder, ripping her bikini top to shreds, so she stood topless, covered in her own blood and the wyvern's, wounds dripping to the rocky mountainside, and readied herself for another attack. "Another heal would be nice, if you please, A."

  Alice and Colin carefully poked their heads back out, ensuring the wyvern wasn't close enough to attack. Alice cast yet more healing spells on Bridgette, bringing her health back toward full as the topless barbarian's nipples jutted to attention and her skin flushed once more.

  Colin cast another lightning bolt at the wyvern, which was hovering about sixty feet in the air, preparing for another dive. "Bzzt," cried the elf, and another crackling bolt fshed into the sky, intercepting the creature. As the bolt fshed through it, the wyvern's skeleton was briefly visible, and then it suddenly went limp, wings folding and head slumping as it plummeted toward the ground.

  Bridgette dove out of the way as the corpse hit where she had been standing, the wyvern impacting with a sickening thud and gore spshing across the ground and coating Bridgette. She stood, gncing down at herself. A few scratches and punctures, healing thanks to Alice. Tits bare to the world, check. Wyvern blood and guts painting her skin? Check. The very image of a modern warrior woman. Bridgette smiled, her expression tottering between battle lust and carnal lust.

  Alice stepped out from the rock overhang, picking Bridgette's shredded bikini top from the ground and handing it to Colin. "Mind fixing this for her? It'll take a while before she notices, but I'd appreciate it."

  Colin chuckled, shaking his head. By this point, he was used to Bridgette's casual nudity around combat. He still averted his eyes, as she was his friend and very much taken, but he'd seen her nude, gang-banged by tentacles, and dripping with cum in the st year so many times that there was a lot less urgency in his movements than there might have been before the apocalypse at the sight of a nude cssmate. He grabbed the bikini and cast his Mending cantrip, piecing the armor back together before handing it to Bridgette, who gnced at it.

  "Oh, hey, thanks Colin. I forgot all about my top in the excitement."

  "We know," Alice said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "You always forget about your clothes once you get into combat."

  Bridgette ughed, pulling the top on. "Hey, what can I say? Fi gave me slutty armor and I enjoy it, so much so that when it sometimes comes apart, I forget to put it back together. I still don't understand how these tiny triangles of leather actually help protect me, but somehow they do."

  "Magic," Colin said with a shrug. "I gave up on trying to find a logical expnation for boob armor a long time ago."

  "Hey guys, look over this way, I think I see something odd." Bridgette pointed nearby, at a rock overhang about fifty yards further up the slope from where they had been fighting.

  The trio carefully scrambled their way up the mountainside, drawing closer to where the odd lump y. Tucked into the crevice, covered from aerial observation, was a grizzly bear corpse. However, it looked like the bear had been professionally field dressed, with the offal piled to one side and most of the usable meat taken, along with most of the skin. Only small bits remained, but it was still obvious what had happened. Someone had been here, killed the bear, stashed and dressed the body, and taken the useful portions for themselves.

  "Huh," Bridgette mused. "No monster did that. That's intentional hunting. That implies people, or at least a person."

  "I wonder if they're still around? That would be great to meet more people," Alice said, excitedly. "I hope they're friendly!"

  Colin stared at the remains, thinking aloud. "I hope they don't mind we're here, too."