After her short break, It was back to the wyvern peaks. Hikari stood atop a tall stone formation.
She cranked a lever, raising a platform carrying ballista bolts and a package of dried rations from the bottom.
From her vantage point, she could see the miners below. They placed breaching charges on large stone blockages in the road. After the blast broke it up, they would remove the remaining rubble with the shovels and pickaxes, carting them off and dumping them by the entrance to the ravine.
Not far from the entrance, an encampment built into the side of the mountain which is fairly impervious to wyvern fire. Its perimeter is surrounded by a stone wall which keeps the sandworms out.
Along the road, steam engines travelled back and forth, ferrying supplies which were unloaded in the forward camp warehouse.
Occasionally, a sandworm would pop out and get itself stuck onto the plating of the steel tank. A rifleman would pop out of the hatch and blast it at point blank. The engineers would chisel the teeth out once it parks at the camp.
Hikari spotted a flock of wyverns approaching the ravine.
Ding! Ding! Ding! She ran the bell
The miners rushed into the shelters. Soldiers scramble to push the ballistas out.
Hikari began firing her bow.
As many shots as she could manage with minimal efforts to aim a weapon that is not expected to hit a flying wyvern at distance.
A lucky hit, one wyvern was shot out of formation. It stabilized its altitude but turned around due to its injury. The rest of the arrows missed, including the volley of ballista shots, doing little more than forcing the wyverns to fly in a zig zag pattern.
The wyverns reached the miners, scoping up the ones that could not make it into a mine shaft in time. They were immediately chomped to pieces between the wyvern's jaws as the wyvern pulled back up into the sky, other wyverns catching their dismembered body parts as they fell.
Some wyverns went for the balistas, flying and diving behind them, avoiding the front metal shield and setting the wooden frame alight.
Hikari drew her handcannon, fired at one wyvern as it pulled up from strafing the ballistas, flying too close to Hikari's position for its own good.
The wyvern was sent tumbling. Before it could stabilize, Hikari fired arrow after arrow at it until it landed on the ground motionless. The other wyverns around shrieked at the death of their kin. They turned their attention to Hikari, blasting her with wyvern fire.
With a nudge of her boot, Hikari closed the lid on the steel crate of ballista bolts and her rations.
Her look out post was soon strafed repeatedly by wyverns. She kept them at distance with the threat of her hand cannon. Her wyvern skin armour and the steel crates were quite impervious to the fire, eventually forcing the wyverns to break off their raid.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! The foreman rang the bell as the sun set. The miners scurried back to the forward camp before the darkness and what lurks within gets them.
Hikari stretched her legs and yawned. She hoisted her bow and jumped off.
She returned to her tent in the forward post. Grumbling quietly to herself as she stared down her cauldron. It was a third smaller than the one she had back at the RazenHeir estate.
There's a chewy version of grain in her cauldron which Ria told her is 'giant' fodder along with a bunch of ivory berries.
Hikari's stomach churned at the sight. Nevertheless, she poked her ladle into the pot, heated it and mixed.
"At least Ria's mana form doesn't cost much mana."
After a quick heating, she dug into her digger.
As she ate, she heard a squeaky voice call out to her.
"Hello there! Good work today, Hikari!"
She turned her gaze towards him.
"Who are you?"
"Rey hearthstone. I'm in charge around here."
Hikari turned her gaze back and stuffed another ladleful into her month and quickly swallowed after a few chews.
Rey took a chocolate bar out of his pocket and unwrapped it. He held the chocolate bar up with both hands.
"I brought a gift for you."
Hikari turned her head.
The air around Rey turned, he was briefly sucked upwards before dropping back down onto the ground. The tiny chocolate bar disappeared into Hikari's mouth.
"Herdial chocolate. The cacao farm from which it is made is blessed with the spring water of the goddess of water Herda herself.
Hikari closed her eyes. Her mouth moved as her tongue played with the chocolate bar, savouring its taste.
"I'm glad you liked it. A word in private."
Hikari's gaze turned back to him.
She pinched the back of his uniform with her fingers and lifted him into her tent, dropping him on the ground sheet.
"Wait- stop-" before Rey could react, he was smothered under Hikari's moons. The stench of her cotton shirt unchanged for several days in a row filled his lungs.
"Thanks for the chocolate"
Hikari lifted herself off of him.
Rey lay flat on the ground, staring into Hikari's moons hovering over him.
"Oh?"
Hikari presses her finger onto Rey's crotch.
"Stop it! Please." Rey squirmed, unable to escape the weight of Hikari's finger.
Hikari lifts her finger.
"Interesting. You have good self control."
Rey catches his breath before replying.
"Hortifern potion. Suppresses one's sexual desires. Common defense against sexual manipulation. Not that I doubt your intentions. It just allows us to hold a meaningful conversation."
Hikari gave a bemused smile.
"So! Down to business then. We have almost cleared the way to the mine entrance. Next, we'll be fighting through the underground caverns to the queen wyvern's lair."
Hikari furrows her brow.
"Underground?"
"Yes I know it might not be your thing. But I could really use a giant tanker down there in the caverns. I have arranged for my sister to teach you how to break stone. When you go back to base, she will seek you out. It should be easy for you two to find each other. Mmmmffff….! "
Rey was smothered in darkness again.
"Another gift?"
Rey took a deep breath as he was released. His face was becoming red.
"Stop- mmmmfff!"
He was smothered again.
"Shhh… just enjoy it."
Release. Rey's face was getting redder.
"See, you like it."
Rey tried to catch his breath.
"Ahh… Ahh… huff* huff*"
He started making unintelligible noises.
"Hortifern potion. Not that potent, is it?"
"Please stop… huff* huff*"
Hikari paused, giving him time to rest.
"Ok… Ok… huff* huff* Before I forget. There's an important secret I want to share with you. "
"Oh?"
With a tap of her finger, she raised a sound barrier.
"Speak"
Rey turned his head left and right, visibly impressed.
"The mana veins. Places in the wyvern peaks where the vast mana reserves beneath the mountains are exposed. Many go there on pilgrimages to meditate in the mana veins and boost their power. "
"Interesting. Is it the blossoms?"
"Huff* Huff* It's about the queen wyvern. There is no guarantee the slayers would win. I want you to absorb its mana to equip you better to deal with any eventualities."
"The queen wyvern?"
"Possible. You're quite fire proofed. If you can just hold its attention and wear it down, you can cover our retreat."
"The catch?"
"Its not actually legal. Herdial was always insistent on its sovereign claims over the wyvern peaks. The legal way would require your lady Ria to travel to capital Kalaria, sign a boat load of documents, pay a heft sum which I think the RazenHeir does not have and will not pay as nobody acknowledges Herdial's claims on a land that belongs to the wyverns."
Hikari raises her eyebrow.
"It's quite inaccessible. Deep in the mountains with no roads nor tunnels leading to it. Not for you that is, you have all the privacy there. Just make sure to eat or burn anything you find there before the inspectors show up."
Hikari paused.
Rey was frozen in place, sweating as Hikari's gaze pierced into his eyes.
The moons enveloped him again. Leaving just enough space for him to breathe. Rey squirmed as the stench of HIkari's sweat filled his lungs again.
"Shh… you brought me so much stuff in one night. Hortifern potion is it. Let's see if it beats my blossoms."
Hikari started bouncing her moons gently on Rey's tiny body, squeezing the air out of his lungs when they landed.
His face was starting to feel slimy from being coated in Hikari's sweat.
"S-, S-" Rey tried to scream, but was stopped every time the moons bounced against his chest again.
His pants start to bulge.
"Oho. I can actually overcome this Hortifern potion. Looks like ur defenseless now.
Rey could do little more than squirm. But it only makes Hikari and himself more excited
"Ooh, yes. Squirm for me. More. You're a big strong man aren't you. Strong enough to please these girls aren't you. Squirm harder. Your thing agrees. Squirm hard. Push harder. Don't worry. My sound barrier is pretty solid. No one will hear you here. You made me so happy today. Don't think you're getting out of here without wetting yourself."
Rey blacked out as he was clapped against Hikari's blossoms.
He can to and smelled Hikari's sweat.
He was clapped again.
His boner got harder.
He was clapped again. Again.
And again.
He wet himself.
The next two days passed uneventfully with Hikari staring blankly into the horizon atop her sentry post. The miners gradually cleared out the rubble. The steam tanks rolled along the path, the geomancers followed, hardening the ground behind.
It was past her breakfast. Hikari's stomach rumbled.
As the last miners entered their shelter or inside a steam tank. The foreman signals to her.
She hoisted her bow. And loaded the crates into the platform. and hopped off.
"Breakfast?" She approached the foreman.
"Back at the train station." The rugged man without his front teeth told her.
Hikari shrugged and jumped off in the direction of Thaffae.
On the way, she noticed an infantry formation huddled together with their shields up. A sandworm appeared making an arc large enough for a steam tank to pass through, grabbed a man, lifting him off the ground. The blasts of muskets could not stop break through the carapace.
Hikari dove past, slicing the sandworm in half. The man was hurled into the air in a high arc. Hikari caught him with one arm.
Dead. His skull was already crushed by the teeth of the sandworm. Hikari walked back to the infantry formation and gently lowered the man into the middle of the formation.
She turned around.
Then she drew her sword. She sensed something massive approaching.
Soon, a raging sandstorm barreled towards her. It was not a sandworm as it did not tunnel beneath the ground.
As it neared them, it unleashed an explosive force kicked up a massive sand storm.
A woman emerged from the sandstorm. She had an incredible physique, towering over the infantry men. Short hair, tanned skin. She was wearing little more than a few almond colored silky wraps to cover her modesty.
She dragged a dead sandworm in her left hand as she approached Hikari. Standing before her, her head reaching just below her breasts.
"Oh? So you are that wyvern slayer my cute little brother told me about."
She was scanning Hikari up and down with excitement, so much so that it made Hikari uncomfortable.
"Hikari of RazenHeir"
"Sheela hearthstone. Hey! Enough chatter, Come to the arena. now. We have plenty of work to do."
"Breakfast"
"Huh!? Oh right. I forgot too. Ok! Let's go! Now! Hurry!"
Sheela turned around and blasted off. Hikari blocked the wall of sand she kicked up with her telekinetic barrier.