Chapter 3:
“I can’t believe we have so much trouble catching a single Magicunt.” Mélinoë, formerly Séverine grumbled as she watched Audren trying to bait the elusive Water type pokégirl out of her pond with a magical light show. It had already worked twice, as it appeared that the feral pokégirl didn’t have a very good memory. But although they’d managed to lure the pokégirl on land twice, she’d always managed to run back to her pond before they could capture her.
“I prefer the term Magikoi. Magicunt sounds vulgar.” Audren answered, as he evoked a glowing globe of light over the surface of the pond, moving it right and left, and slowly making it move closer to the edge of the pond.
The both of them were hiding behind some of the big trees that surrounded the pond. Mélinoë was actually using the spirit of a Grandelf to enhance her abilities, which gave her long pointy ears, and made her stand a foot taller than usual, which she thought was awesome. Like Audren, she wore a black T-shirt, army woodland camouflage pants and hiking boots.
It had been a week since Audren had received Mélinoë. He’d explained to his pokégirl that he wanted to find something special, a name no other girl was likely to have, but still meaningful and beautiful. She seemed content enough to wait for him to find what he was searching, and with their daily training, the hunt for ferals to capture, and the lengthy tamings Audren was so fond of, she hadn’t had much time to think about it. They had already captured and sold eleven ferals, mostly Hamtits and Titmice, with the occasional Cunta-ratcha.
Audren shuddered thinking about those. They caught two of them who had been attracted to their camp during their third night in the forest, and had attempted to steal their food. Audren and Mélinoë had surprised the ferals with a couple of fireballs in the back, although when the one Aubren had attacked had tried to counter-attack instead of losing counsciousness like the one attacked by Mélinoë, he’d panicked, and the next fireball almost caused a blaze. In the end, it was Mélinoë who defeated the feral with a last fireball.
They’d found the pond soon after, with the Magikoi sunbathing at the edge of the water. Unfortunately, the feral never gave them a chance to capture her as she dived for the depths of her pond as soon as she heard them approach. Audren decided that she was an especially pretty specimen, and that the unusual mastery of magic attacks the pokégirl had demonstrated during their precedent attempts at capturing her, as well as the nearby remains of several other pokégirls showed that particular Magikoi was dangerous, and more unusually, strongly predatory, which made it their job to capture or kill her.
The fact that she was the only pokégirl living in that pond was a testimony to the danger and the challenge she presented. She could even teleport! She’d probably belonged to a mage or travelled with a potent Magic type before going feral, Audren had deduced. So this time, he’d cast a spell to prevent teleportation. Mélinoë was more agile than the feral on land, so she’d probably go for the water if she wanted to flee. If she did, Audren would have a surprise for her. He’d spent all night preparing a spell for just this eventuality.
A sudden noise brought Audren’s mind to the task at hand. Once again, the Magikoi had surfaced to see the strange glowing things above her pond. She jumped out of the water with surprising grace. Her hand passed through the globe, but it didn’t discourage her. She continued following it out of the water, laughing gleefully all the way.
This time I’ll get her, thought Audren as Mélinoë used a quick Sleep attack on the Water type pokégirl. He’d quickly learned that his offensive magic was only superficially effective against this pokégirl, but Mélinoë’s attacks worked just fine. The Magikoi staggered and sat down abruptly, before curling up in a ball, and closing her eyes.
‘Mélinoë!’ he sent telepathically, ‘be ready to hit her with everything you have when I give you the signal. We don’t want her evolving into a Gynadose before we capture her, so we have to knock her out the first time, or give up.’
‘She seems pretty out to me right now’ Mélinoë sent back.
‘She’s barely asleep. It didn’t take more than a loud noise to wake her up the last time, so I’d suggest you to hit hard, fast and silently. No more of this screaming the names of your attacks non-sense you’ve been doing’
‘I’ve already said I was sorry about that, Audren. It just felt natural. Okay, here I go!’
Mélinoë stepped from behind her tree, and pointed the winged end of her baton toward the sleeping pokégirl. Half a dozen bamboo shoots appeared out of thin air and shot toward the sleeping girl. Before the shoots could strike however, she opened her eyes, her gaze fixed on Mélinoë.
‘Merde! She’s awake!’ Audren exclaimed in his pokégirl’s mind. ‘Prepare to duck whatever she’ll throw at you!’
The Magikoi tried to teleport to avoid the projectiles, Audren could feel his spell straining under her effort. But the spell held and the teleportation aborted, allowing some of the bamboo shoots to strike home, piercing the Magikoi’s left arm, left thigh, and left side just above the hip.
The feral screamed in pain but instead of fleeing, she threw a Power Bolt at Mélinoë which barely dodged it. The magical bolt hit a tree instead, sending splinters of woods flying in all directions. She then tore the bamboo shoots from her flesh and growled at them, showing
Zut, zut, zut, we’re going to die if this continue. Even if she doesn’t evolve, Mélinoë can’t take this kind of attacks! Audren thought.
‘Mélinoë get back beyond the tree line, her ranged attacks won’t be too efficient with all the trees, and you’re much more agile than she is so she shouldn’t manage to engage you in hand to hand. You’ll use Command Plant and Sleep to hinder her. Don’t attack her until you’ve got some cover, we don’t want to push her to her limits.’
‘Uderstood.’ Mélinoë sent back.
Slowly, she began to back away, dodging the Power Bolts the Magikoi kept throwing at her as she followed the retreating Tarot.
Audren began to incant a Lightning Bolt spell, his gaze fixed on the battle. He’d never realized just how gracious Mélinoë was. Her moves as she dodged and jumped looked like a weird dance, he could almost count the steps…
‘Mélinoë it’s a trap! She’s luring you into a pattern! Dodge left instead of right this time!’ he thought at his pokégirl. He stopped the evocation of his Lightning Bolt, and cast a Hast spell on Mélinoë as fast as he could instead.
The Cardcaptor hesitated, and looked in his direction before following his instructions. That was all it took. The Magikoi followed her gaze, and she noticed the tamer casting his spell. She growled at him, and instead of throwing her next Power Bolt at Mélinoë, she threw it at him, just as he finished his spell.
Mélinoë suddenly accelerated, and rushed the Water type, punching her in the throat before she could even react.
The Magikoi doubled over, only to be sent flying back by a knee to the face, then sent colliding with the ground by a furious elbow strike. As she lay gasping, Mélinoë pointed her baton on her chest.
“Lance.” The Tarot said, and this time all the bamboo shoots hit at point blank range. The Magikoi stopped moving, barely breathing, her chest a bloody mess. When she was sure her opponent was unconscious, Mélinoë turned her attention to her tamer. She’d seen the Power Bolt flying toward him but she didn’t know if it had hit him. The tree he’d been hiding behind had fallen, perhaps crushing him. The whole area now looked like a war zone, with splintered trees littering the ground.
Please, let him be alright, she thought as she ran toward his hiding place.
She found him lying on his back and trying to keep the fallen trunk of the tree he’d been hiding behind from crushing him.
She used her Command Plant attack to have the roots of the broken tree acting as tentacles that could move the trunk off him.
Once he wasn’t in danger of being crushed anymore, he lay there panting and bruised, holding his side with a pained expression.
“Is she still alive?” he asked Mélinoë as she kneeled near him, returning to her normal appearance as she ended the effect of her card and the Grandelf spirit left her.
“You should worry about yourself, You don’t look too good. Give me a second, I have a Nursejoy card.”
Audren smiled at her as she drew a card and hit it with her wing tipped baton, transforming into a smaller version of a Nursejoy.
She lay her hands on him, and a bright pink glow surrounded them as a flow of healing energy soothed his pain and mended his damaged body.
In less than two minutes, all traces of his misadventures had disappeared, however Mélinoë looked positively exhausted.
“Thank you Mélinoë, I feel much better now. Let’s go see in what state our target is. When we’re done we totally should go back to town for an ice cream or two.”
“Is this your way to apologize for putting the both of us in unnecessary danger?” Mélinoë asked with a weak smile.
“Pretty much, yes. Plus, after a week in the woods, with only two quick teleports in town to sell our captures, I crave some ice cream.”
“I wonder what is up with this Magikoi? She’s way too powerful. If you hadn’t used that Haste spell on me, I would have been in trouble.”
“What annoys me is that she was able to use a complex strategy like luring you into repeating a pattern with your dodges. Ferals Magikoi don’t do that anymore than they throw Power Bolts. I don’t like the idea of being outsmarted by a Feral that doesn’t even have enhanced intelligence or a light feral state. “
“Who knows if she doesn’t? She has Teleport, so why not an enhanced intelligence?”
“I don’t know, I don’t think it was exactly that. It looked like she was doing it out of habit.”
“What makes you say that?”
“If she had been that smart, she would have nailed you when you looked at me, but instead she forgot about you and focused on the new target, namely me.”
Mélinoë’s gaze dropped.
“I’m sorry. I was a bit confused at what you were saying at the time.”
“It’s okay, we won, and we’re not injured, so everything is fine. Just remember to follow my directions without hesitation next time.”
“I will.” She answered with determination in her voice.
“Good. Now let’s see where did you leave the Magikoi?”
“She should be just over here. Well there she is, and still breathing. She’s one tough bitch.” Mélinoë indicated.
They walked up to the still uncounscious Water type, warily, in case she regained counsciousness.
“Oh my gods! Did you have to hurt her this bad? It’s a miracle she’s still alive!” Audren said after a quick examination of the Magikoi. Four bamboo shoots were sticking out of her chest, blood was bubbling out of her mouth with each breath.
“Hey, she had just tried to kill you! I was pretty mad at her, you know?” the Cardcaptor defended herself.
“Aw, I didn’t know you cared this much!” Audren said with a grin.
“If you continue to make fun of me, that may change!” Mélinoë huffed.
“Okay, let’s capture this baby before she dies on us.” The young man took a pokeball from one of his pocket and threw it at the passed out pokégirl, who was sucked in by a bright red light. The pokéball rolled and ticked three times before settling down.
“You know, I didn’t notice earlier, but there is something weird with that girls’ vibrations.” Audren said as he picked up the pokeball.
“How so?” asked Mélinoë curiously.
“Well, they were off, somehow. I have some experience with people from other dimensions, and she felt a bit like this.”
“You think she is an off-worlder?”
“Maybe. I’ll have to make sure. But now let’s go back to our camp. We’ve stayed in one place way too long and I suspect that now that our little terror isn’t here to scare the other pokégirls away, it’s only a matter of time before ferals begin to swarm the area.
“You’ll make sure? Meaning, we’re keeping her?”
“Off course! You’ve seen how strong she is. When she evolves, she’ll be amazing. We can’t throw this kind of fire power away, and besides, she’s really pretty, don’t you think?”
Mélinoë grumbled something that Audren was pretty glad he didn’t understand.
“Oh come on, don’t be jealous. You’re my starter and you know I like you. That’s not going to change. Besides you knew I was going to keep some of the girls we capture. You can’t protect me all by yourself for much longer.
“Yeah, but she tried to kill you.” Mélinoë protested softly.
Audren realized it had shaken her rather badly. He took her in his arms and lifting her from the ground he gave her a passionate kiss. Mélinoë wrapped her legs around his waist, and her arms around his neck, kissing him back, and pressing herself against him almost desperately. They stayed like this until they were out of breath.
Even after the kiss ended, Audren didn’t release his pokégirl from his embrace.
“Thank you for being so concerned for me. But we can’t exclude all the ferals who try to hurt us, otherwise this harem is not going to grow. You know this.” He said softly, kissing the space between her neck and her shoulder to punctuate each word.
“I know. I just… You are my tamer, you are mine, and I hate the thought of seeing you hurt. I hate the thought of losing you… It makes me want to scream.” Mélinoë breathed, eyes half closed as she savored the sensations his soft, light kisses gave her.
Audren kissed her again, full on the lips, as passionately as before.
“You are really, really too adorable.” He said, his voice husky.
Mélinoë noticed that they were back at the camp. Audren had teleported them as they were kissing.
Regretfully, he let his pokégirl down, after a last lingering kiss that made Mélinoë’s toes curl in her shoes.
“We have to dismount camp and teleport back to Elven. I’d rather resume where I’m sure we won’t be bothered by a feral seeking food or company.” Audren said.
His arms were still wrapped around Mélinoë however, stroking and massaging her back and shoulders.
“You’ll have to let me go to do this, pretty boy.” The Cardcaptor answered with a seductive smile.
Audren took a deep breath and stepped back, releasing Mélinoë from his embrace.
“I’m not going to get us hurt or killed because I couldn’t keep my hands of my pokégirl, as beautiful as she may be.” He proclaimed, as if trying to convince himself.
Mélinoë giggled.
“Stop that. I’m not jealous anymore now, mister obvious. Let’s dismount the tent and gather our stuff. You owe me a taming and the sooner we’re done here, the sooner I’ll get it.”
“Best idea I’ve heard all day.” Audren agreed as he went to work.