Chương 24: Limitless Path Chapter Twenty-Four

Ding, ding. Ding, ding. Beth's alarm woke them the next morning, Blood sitting up with a massive yawn displaying her rows of glimmering fangs while Beth fumbled with her phone for a moment. Once she had turned off her phone alarm, she rolled out of bed before taking a moment to thoroughly scratch Blood. Finally, being satisfied the wolf was satisfied, she gave herself a bit of a scratch as she walked to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

After completing her morning ablutions and getting dressed, Beth headed down to the kitchen, Blood tagging along behind. She started breakfast prep before getting a message, moving over to the front door to let Sabs in. After greeting her with a quick hug, Beth led the way back to the kitchen where they continued a quick breakfast prep. Kim was the next one downstairs, showing up to help with the last bit of breakfast prep.

The three of them had finished piling the island with food and sat down when the next member of the group joined, Soph slouching into the kitchen somewhat tiredly. Her higher Endurance had her getting up more in line with the other girls but seemed to have done little to take the irritable edge off. They were joined by the Bell parents as they were starting to eat, filling all six chairs around the island.

"More fighting today, is it?" Rachel asked with an arched eyebrow as they were finishing the meal.

"I don't know what the rest of the team are up to; that's up to Kim. Blood and I are taking a little trip," Beth replied.

"Oh, what kind of trip is this and why weren't we informed?" her mother asked, the second eyebrow joining the first.

"We're heading down to the local CRA office. With Blood's speed it shouldn't take too long to get there, but I might be there all day, or more. I don't really know."

"Where is this and what is this?" her father interjected, joining the conversation as he finished his food, the other girls already moving into cleanup mode.

"Check this out," Beth responded, materializing her emblem and tossing it to him. He looked it over before handing it to Rachel, who also inspected it intently before handing it back to Beth.

"The nearest location is like six miles away from here. Blood has a skill that makes her run crazy fast that she can use for a long time without tiring. I can ride her now, so we're going to head down there to try to get some information and maybe new gear."

"Wouldn't it be easier if we drove there?" asked her father curiously.

"Maybe, maybe not. Blood and I can move almost as fast as a car now, and we can do it over rough terrain. We can also easily fight even strong beasts, and it would be easier to engage without being in a car and having to jump out and protect it," Beth continued, laying out the logic of her arguments.

"Well, I don't know that we can stop you, not when you can carry around five hundred pounds like it's a spare rag. Just be careful, particularly since cell service is becoming patchy. Experts are saying we'll have to adapt all our technology to keep working as more magic shows up, but they think it will be possible to preserve cellular phones and such. If you can't call us, come back by the late afternoon," her mother said to her, the last part in a no-nonsense tone.

"Right, right. I've got it covered," Beth responded. She moved into the mudroom, followed by both Blood and Sabs. After she threw on her gloves and boots, Sabs grabbed her in a in a hug, wrapping her arms around Beth's neck and burying her face into her shoulder. Beth returned the hug with a squeeze that made Sabs let out a cute squeak before letting her go.

"Stay safe out there," Sabs said with a blush before darting in again and pecking Beth on the cheek. Beth swiped at her but wasn't quite fast enough to grab her before she disappeared back into the house.

"Brat," Beth muttered, stepping outside with Blood.

"You ready?" she asked her companion. Blood responded with an affirmative bark and Beth hopped up, tightening her legs and digging her hands into Blood's mane. The two of them took off, Blood leaping from the center of the backyard to across the trench in a single movement before flitting through the woods like a crimson ghost. It took them barely moments to circle the neighborhood and arrive at the highway.

"Let's head left and go for about five or so minutes. I think the road curves back north, so we'll have to get another road or something. I'll check the badge again and see where we are," Beth said. Blood barked and leapt to the far side of the road, starting to run along the embankment and not on the road itself. They sped along for a little less than five minutes, blurring past fields and a few houses and businesses along the road.

They passed two cars heading the other way, the occupants of both vehicles having shocked expressions, seeing a girl riding a wolf along the road. When they reached the curve where the road swept northward, they stopped, Beth pulling out the emblem and focusing on it. Nearest CRA Hall 2. 2 miles south by southeast.

"Alright, looks like we have to go almost directly south," Beth said, patting Blood's neck. There had been surprisingly few beasts along the way, a single large deer with impressive antlers being the only notable creature. Beth guessed the beasts either didn't like the minimal traffic that was using it or just didn't like the road overall for some reason. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The two turned southward, heading through an empty lot between a large warehouse and some kind of heavy equipment rental place. Both were closed, with the gates in the fences closed and locked, while there were no cars present in their parking areas. It looked like anything not directly related to food production and distribution wasn't really operating still. Blood plunged ahead through a patch of woods, moving at an impressive speed, the terrain offering her little hindrance.

They darted by a small group of seemingly normal deer, startled into panicked flight by the girls' passage. Blood dashed through a clearing a moment later, the two girls turning their heads in passing to stare right at a massive bear, sitting on its haunches while devouring what appeared to be a whole farm's worth of berries. The bear just grunted as they passed, not concerned with two little creatures that weren't after its food.

They continued, moving out of the woods and into a section of farmed land, passing through a large area that had been used for simple hay, only a few of the bales remaining. There weren't any ants in this farmer's field, though Beth did see what looked like a giant praying mantis far off to their east. Fucking creepy, she thought, seeing the insect slide its scythe-like arms together while tilting its head toward them, somehow detecting their passage even at this distance.

The two were soon skirting the edge of a nearby town, the unimpressively named Middleton. They were likely getting close, running just past the borders of a few back yards before Beth asked Blood to halt for a moment.

"Let's check," she said, pulling out the emblem and focusing to bring up the locator functions. Nearest CRA Hall. 7 miles south. Beth looked up, the sun to her left and forward, making sure she was facing as close to south as she could estimate without using a compass. There were a few more houses to the side and a large old building in front of them with a big patch of trees behind it.

Looking over the tops of the trees Beth thought she could see the top of what might be a dome of some white material, but she wasn't entirely sure.

"Through the woods ahead, baby girl," Beth said to Blood, ruffling her fur. The two moved forward again, going around the old storage building and into the wooded area. It wasn't a very large area of trees, just a couple hundred feet in total, and they traversed it in no time at all. They emerged into an open area on the other side to see the CRA Hall before them. The building was four stories tall, made of some kind of shining white marble that contained veins of gold and ochre within.

The front part of the building was to their right, with intricate carvings on the edges of the roof, the front corners, and around the windows, which were a deep blue tint and evenly spaced across the face of the structure. Further to their left the building expanded out wider, while the roof was a huge oval dome. It reminded Beth of the big sports arenas that could seat a hundred thousand people, only even bigger and made entirely of the glimmering marble.

"Well. Damn," Beth breathed, the sheer footprint of the building combined with the beauty of the building materials and carving presenting an incredibly impressive sight.

"Let's go around front, girl," she continued, scratching Blood between the ears. Blood barked in response and moved around the building, revealing even more of the impressive grounds. The front entrance was huge, the doors standing two stories tall and currently swung outward at more than ninety degrees so their inner sides were visible. They were covered with much more intricate carvings, seemingly telling some kind of story while also conveying some kind of mystical knowledge.

Beth's eyes started to water after half a minute and she had to look away, only then noticing the statues. There were fourteen of them, lined up along a white and black marble path leading from what looked, funnily enough, like a parking lot up to the front doors. Each statue stood on a plinth, complex carvings adorning the bases in strange whorls and loops, while the rest was a large, solid block of the white marble. The fourteen statues varied greatly, being of several different races and genders.

There was an impossibly beautiful elven-looking woman with long, tapered ears that had a truly massive greatsword held in both hands, embedded into the plinth in front of her. Her hair was carved in such detail that it seemed to wave in the light autumn breeze, her eyes gazing down at the walkway imperiously. There was a man that looked like he had some type of reptilian heritage, some scales carved into his statue around his wrists, neck, and temples.

He held a massive book open in his right hand while his left held a scale, an air about the statue as if it weighed the whole world in judgement and found all wanting. There were more statues, but Beth shook her head, hopping down from Blood at the entryway into the building, walking inside to see a huge room that was clearly a reception area of some kind. The whole area was made of white marble, with silver-chased mounts made of a black steel attached to the walls which held warmly glowing orbs.

There were four large light fixtures hanging from the ceiling spread equally into four sections of the room, and much carving across the rest of the ceiling. The floors were marble, but there were several huge, thick black rugs with gold embroidery spread out to cover most of that marble. In several areas stood chairs of a dark wood with small tables beside them, a place for people to sit and rest while they waited.

As to what they were waiting for; the room had three long counters on the three walls that didn't house the main doors. There were doors on either side of the counter that stretched along the back wall leading further into the building, but it looked like this lobby was where many would conduct their business with the Association. Only the rear counter had anyone behind it, and Beth belatedly noted the two individuals as she finished gawping at the impressive entryway.

On the side to Beth's right behind the counter was a tall man, muscular, but in a trim, athletic way. He had to be close to seven feet tall, and as Beth observed this, she noted his long ears sticking out of his shoulder length black hair. His face was very well defined, with a firm jaw, long and well-proportioned nose, and large eyes set the perfect distance apart. His lips were full and even, and one of his two smooth, glossy eyebrows was arched as he looked back at her.

She approached the counter, noticing not just his bronze-colored irises, but the fact that it looked like they contained some kind of green sigils etched into the entire ring of the iris. As she got closer to the counter the woman who had been to his right stood up. She was also rather tall, at least by Earth standards, being about a head shorter than the man, which still put her over six feet.

She had an incredibly beautiful face with full, red lips, a perfectly shaped, slightly long nose, large and expressive eyes, nicely curved jawline, and high cheekbones. Her hair was a dark red, deeper in color than Blood's fur, like the deep heart of a smoldering fire. As the woman walked over to lean on the counter next to the man, Beth noticed her eyes, which she had thought orange at first, contained fiery red cracks across the iris, looking like a blazing sun was ringing each of her pupils.

As the woman leaned forward against the counter, exposing even more of her impressive cleavage, Beth noted what they were both wearing. The man (elf?) was wearing a set of dark pants that looked like they had some kind of thin armor plating. He had what looked like a long-sleeved shirt on of a dark blue, but Beth that also had thin armor plates stitched into all parts as well.

The provocative woman was wearing something that resembled a cheongsam, though the cut across the bodice and shoulders was somewhat different.

"I am Tazeen M'Tun, welcome to the Combat Ranking Association White Hall. How may I help you?" the man, or possibly elf, spoke in a deep, mellifluous voice.

"Yes, um, I was wondering what exactly having one of these, uh, means?" Beth stammered, nervous under the two imposing figures' stares, though she silently thought her accelerated heart rate had more to do with the woman. She withdrew her Copper Emblem from her stat page and showed it to the two of them.

"Oh, a Copper Emblem already. Aren't you a pretty little go-getter," the woman spoke up in a husky contra-alto, giving Beth a wide grin.

"Behave," the man said calmly to the woman, who immediately started pouting.

"That is a Copper Emblem. The basic privileges given to you are the ability to requisition training at a reasonable price, the ability to participate in a limited number of the sanctioned Combat Ladders, the ability to purchase items from our commissar, though not at any discount, and finally, the ability to stay within one of our halls for a minimal daily fee."

"Okay, uh, cool. Um, how can I understand you, are you speaking English?" she asked, still flustered by their gazes and the woman's returning grin.

"Lyrissa and I both act as Enforcers for the Association. As such, we are required to possess a language assessment and understanding skill. We can learn any common language at a reasonable level in a matter of a few minutes," he explained, gesturing to himself as well as to the woman, who smiled a dazzling smile showing large, straight, perfectly white teeth. Teeth, Beth noted, that included canines of rather exceptional length and sharpness.

"Lyrissa Fera. A pleasure to meet you, my dear," the woman added, still beaming at Beth. Beth might have thought the smiling a little creepy except for the genuine warmth the woman seemed to exude.