My Brother Is The Hero Of Earth

Gustavo could antic.i.p.ate the moves of the golem, as he used the same techniques, the problem he was having was with Terri and her shameless attacks. Although Gustavo carried a large tower shield like it was the weight of a small buckler, the shield was only five foot, so hiding his six foot three body behind it wasn"t always easy. Terri would target his toes and calves any time his raised his shield, but it was the shots at his face that made him jump.

Katye, Yue, and I walk into the training yard and made our way over them. They stopped sparring by the time we reached the area with Gustavo sending the golem tumbling out of the ring. I could only sigh internally as I rolled my eyes at my brother"s attempt at showing off.

"Don"t you have already enough women?" I mentally scolded. "The woman with the bow is Terri and the fool with the sword and shield is my brother, Gustavo," I said aloud.

"It"s nice to properly meet you, I"m Katye," Katye said with a small wave.

"Likewise... How ya holding up?" Terri asked.

"It"s a bit of a roller coster, but I"ll manage," she answered.

"It"s crazy, at first... well, it still is crazy, but we can make it work. Once you really see everything we can do, and what you can do, you will see it is possible," Terri encouraged.

Katye smiled gently and nodded while Yue changed the subject, asking, "Gustavo, do you want to play a true game of Riktony against Becca?"

"I"m always up for a game," he chuckled.

"Ooo! I"ll replace a golem," Terri offered excitedly.

"Terri..." I complained.

"What? It"s so hard for me to get real target practice and you barely feel the arrows."

"With you joining, I will have to use my first form. I don"t mind letting Gustavo win, but I"m not taking your arrows without my scales," I said, sticking my tongue out at her.

Before she could respond, Gustavo quickly jumped into the conversation as he demanded, "What do you mean "let Gustavo win"? Are you saying I can"t beat you in your dragonized form?"

"Pretty much," I said with a chuckle. "But, I also would rather not show off that side of me on Katye"s first day," I added.

"I"ve already grown wings, I can handle your transformation," Katye said with a smile.

Gustavo laughed and said, "No excuse when I beat you now."

I gave a sigh knowing I had goaded my brother this and now I just lost my excuse. Since no one would want to watch the actual procress of me transform, I made a habit of using a weak sandstorm spell to hide everything. I took a few steps away from the other then spun around quickly, dragging my foot through the dirt while silently chanting. I was covered in a barrier of fine sand and dirt that blocked my view of the group as well as their view of my body. I released the hold on my bloodline and, no matter how hard I tried to resist it, a inhuman, guttral roar escaped my lips. My body creaked as my bones harden and my horns and talon grew. Black scales sprouted all over my body, first from where my horns and talons grew then spread out, completely covering me. Although I couldn"t see it, my hair was now crimson and my eyes had taken on their dragon form. The transfomation only lasted a moment, so as my roar died away, I released the spell and let the dirt settle.

I couldn"t help, but look at Katye for a reaction and, while there was shock, I didn"t see any trace of disgust. I never blamed anyone who thought I looked like a monster... h.e.l.l, I thought I did too, I had met plenty that couldn"t stand the sight of me. Alice tried to explain before that I also gave off an oppress aura when I was like this, but even in my "human" form, the few people I dealt with, outside of the house, still looked at me with those judging eyes.

"Does that mean I can shoot?" Terri said, fiddling with her bow.

I chuckled, "In the game, yes, not now."

"Then come on, or you"re a chicken," Gustavo laughed as he ran over to the field.

"Forgive, Gustavo, he gets a bit over zealous about training and competeing," Yue said, shaking her head.

"It"s fine."

"Let"s get over to the field before he starts pacing around. We will be in your care, Yue," I said as I also walked towards the field while stretching my arms.

Yue and Katye walked towards a small stone platform while Terri jogged over to me. "So, how is it looking with the new girl?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Well, she is doing better than you when you first joined," I teased.

"Becca..." she complained.

"Relax, Terri, she isn"t going to be a problem for you and the girls for awhile. Until she can learn to control her power, she can"t touch anyone, but me."

"What? Why?"

"Alice said she has an excess of mana due to her bloodline, so when she tries to touch anyone, she releases a bit of her mana and only I can handled it because I have a Chaos corrputed bloodline as well. I guess it makes since that Alice put her under my care to start with," I answered.

""Under your care", huh? And just what care are you giving her?" Terri teased.

"I"ve got enough going on that I don"t need to go chasing after another girl that is bound to fall for my brother."

"You could do us a favor and take her for yourself, ya know," she laughed.

I laughed and refused to respond. Before I was swept up into this mess, I was never good at approaching girls despite being a lesbian for years. If it wasn"t for this craziness, I would be back at my non-existant s.e.x life and only seeing the light of the day in my commute to and from work, lost to a world of video games.

Terri parted ways, replacing the golem, when we reached the edge of the ring. I continued on and met Gustavo in the center of field. He had removed the padded gear and was in a "Pierce the Vale" tshirt and a pair of loose black shorts. His ma.s.sive shield was still strapped to his arm, but he had replaced the training sword with a silver one. It was an exact physical copy of his main sword, but it lacked all of the abilities. After destroying three of his old swords due to my superheated talons, Lesedi forged him a set of basic swords so that we would stop destroying her works of art.

"Ready to lose?" Gustavo asked with a smile.

"Ha! You are going to have to really work hard if you want to show off for the new girl, after all, I"m not a golem," I replied.

"This is a real game, so ground rules don"t apply. I"ll show you which one of us is stronger!"

I laughed and smiled, "Bring it, "little" brother!"

"Ready?" Yue"s voiced echoed in both of our ears.

"Yeah," we said in unison.

Suddenly, the surroundings began to change as Gustavo and I found ourselves in a giant jungle. Yue activated the special illusion formation built into the field that turned it into what we called the Emboscada Jungle, which was the Amazon Jungle in the "Rift". Yue would be controlling three of the golems to attack, replicating the Darter Vines that shot neddles covered in a paralyzing toxin, and Terri would be shooting out her own arrows to further complicate things.

I looked around as I took in the beauty of the jungle. Everything was in vibrant shades of green or in deep, earthy browns. Moss clung to all of the trees and rocks and the ground was covered in a thick bed of fallen leaves. You could even hear the occa.s.sional cry of some creature in the distance and feel the gentle breeze that russled the leaves in the tree above. Gustavo and I shared one last smile as we both jumped away from each the moment we heard the rain start. There was a creak of thunder and a bolt of lightning struck the tree which had been between us. A small, yellow-furred creature now sat in the tree and stared at us with it large yellow eyes. It was a Strom Squirrel, incredibly fast, nimible creatures that always came out during a thunderstorm when in the jungle. We were all frozen, waiting for someone to move.

The squirrel was the first to move as it darted away from both of us, gliding through the air and we both took off after it. Gustavo sent out a slash of his sword that sent a band of energy hurtling at me, but skidded around it and let it destroy a poison dart that was heading for me. He laughed as he got ahead, but I simply launched myself into the air by kicking off the ground and grabbed a branch then started swinging through the air.

Although I did have a set of wings and a long tail in my second form, it was dangerous for me to use for something like training, but I could still pull a little of that power into my first form. My wings would give me full control of the air around me and create powerful currents that would boost my speed greatly while in the air. While restricted to my first form and support from my mana, I could reduce my wind resistance to almost nothing and push off with an extra boost.

While I was up in the treetops, I no longer had to worry about the Darter Vines unlike Gustavo who would have to block the neddles. As I closed the distance, a silver spear appeared in my hand and I filled with lightning mana before throwing it a few feet in front of my brother which caused it explode in an electric blast of light. The moment I did though, a blue, energy-filled arrow came flying at my face which I blocked with a forearm, but it completely stalled me in the air and I began to fall. This wasn"t the first time she had done this to me, so I calmly summoned a hoverboard I had comissioned from Sophia. It couldn"t fly very fast, but I had learned to use it as a platform in midair since I could easily store in within my spatial ring.

I jumped off the board and it vanished just as my feet left. Another blue arrow came sailing for my face, but I chopped it apart with my talons that casted off yellow sparks. I summoned another silver spear as I landed on a thicker branch in order to deal with the volley of arrow now heading for me.

"Come on, Terri, you are focusing on me now," I complained as I danced around, avoiding or diverting the arrows that rained down on me for a few seconds.

"Gustavo got hit with a few darts when you blinded him and looks more pathedic than you," echoed in my ear.

I laughed and peeked behind me to find Gustavo dragging his left foot slightly. I ducked below another arrow aimed at my head then took off after the squirrel. Thankfully, its fur gave off a natural glow, so it was easy to spot in trees. I kept jumping from tree to tree while swiping aside the random arrows that neared. I got close and threw my spear at the squirrel, but a sword came wizzing through the air, knocking my spear off course. There was another crack of thunder and the squirrel shot thrity feet away.

"I had it!" I complained.

"Not quite," Gustavo laughed as he dodged more neddles.

I launched myself back into the air and chased after the squirrel once again. Now, with my back to Terri, I could ignore her attacks until she repositioned. Gustavo was running along the ground, not too far ahead, with his shield now slung across his back and two swords in his hands. With only a single spear left, I didn"t want to waste it on Gustavo so I just pushed more mana into my spells. Every now and then, I felt an arrow crash into my back, but my scales blocked both the physical arrow and the energy she wrapped around them. The squirrel stopped low in the tree and I threw out my spear as Gustavo threw out hit sword in a desperate attempt to hit it as well.

I could only sigh as I watched sword hit my spear, moving it to the side slightly, while his continued on smashed into the critter. This wasn"t the first time Gustavo had pulled off some incredibly lucky move and I could only curse his hero status once again. I had complained once to Alice and she told me that he was favored by "fate", so things like that just happened around him.

The surrounds returned to normal as Gustavo laughed loudly and put away his shield into his storage ring. I was leaning against one of the pillars, up on one of the higher beams, with my arms crossed. I hopped down as Gustavo walked over and patted me on the shoulder.

"There is always next time," he laughed.

"Yeah, yeah," I sighed.

Gustavo and I walked out of the field while the Yue and Katye joined Terri on the edge. Katye looked very excited as she chatted with the other girls. I stopped just outside the group and kicked up another sphere of sand while I shifted back to my "human" form then joined them.

"Wow, you both were impressive!" Katye said.

"Thanks," Gustavo laughed with his trademarked smile.

"Yeah, thanks," I said with less enthusiem.

"Don"t take it so hard, Becca," Gustavo said.

"I"m fine. Why don"t we go see about dinner? It should be about that time," I said, trying to change the subject.

"Knowing Alice and Melissa, I wouldn"t be surprised if they were going to throw you a small welcome party tonight," Yue added. "Let"s go!"

The group agreed and we all made our way back to the manor, leaving the golems to retrieve all of our scattered weapons. As she had guessed, there was a small party with a welcome banner in the main room. There was a spread of burgers, beer, and stonger alcohols on a large table that had been brought out for the occa.s.sion with chairs placed all around. The other girls in the house had already gathered with Lesedi, Sophia, and Ella already drinking.

The night was filled with laughs as everyone told funny stories of life in the manor to make Katye feel more at home. She ended up being the first one to retire for the night, but everyone understood the day she was had, so no one blamed her. Everyone else kept drinking for another hour or so before people started leaving. Gustavo ended up leaving with Lesedi and Sophia which left the other girls alone for the night. The other girls left one by one until I found myself alone with Terri, who was nursing a jack and c.o.ke.