Dark Empathy by Archibald Bradford (inspiring books for teens TXT) 📕

Minotaur’s cheek and leaning in close and bringing her red eyes inches from Milly’s blues.

“Because if you had held out for twenty more seconds, than Volka and I would have been on her, and we would have killed her. Instead, you tried to take her head on and we had to save you.”

Milly was stricken by the hurtful words, but Nina was quick to continue.

“It’s not your fault! Like I said babe, this is all shit I should have taught you ages ago.”

They stayed on the earthen floor for a few more seconds, just long enough for Milly to wipe at her nose and give a big sniff.

Once she was back on her feet again, Nina stepped to the wall to fetch a towel, but she paused with a frown as she considered the Minotaur’s spear leaning against one of the weapon racks.

Curiosity piqued, she picked it up and gripped it in two hands, flexing her arms slightly as she did.

“Nina?” Milly called.

The Gigas flexed harder, her eyes widening by the second as she exerted more and more of her considerable strength.

The spear remained unbent.

Finally she relented, afraid to cross a catastrophic threshold with the unique weapon.

“That thing is unnatural.” She muttered as she set it down.

Turning away from the wall she reached up to hand Milly a towel, indicating her chest with a nod.

“The walk back to the dormitory is gunna suck if you don’t dry those puppies off.” She frowned before Milly could respond though; “Did our weakling milk you yet today? These seem... extra large.”

Milly was still a little distracted by Nina’s attention on Kar’s spear, but at the question she pressed the cloth to her sodden shirt and shrugged uncomfortably.

“He was busy talking with Ophelia and everyone was in such a rush, so...”

“Oh you dumbass!”

“Hey!”

“Well you are! You need to speak up about that shit!”

“I-I didn’t want to be a burden, everyone is so busy.”

Nina shook her head helplessly as she fetched the empty pail.

“You’re only a burden when you don’t speak up. Now take off your shirt, we can at least fill this up. When we get back you are going to demand that the others take care of the rest.”

Just as Milly was taking off her shirt however, a group of cheerful monster girls came in to use the training facility.

“Hey.” Nina snapped at them; “We’re in the middle of something. Fuck off.”

“What? We reserved this hall!” A young Wolfen protested as her eyes darted to the blushing Milly holding her shirt closed.

“Then stay, but if any of you sees my bond-sister’s tits I’m taking your eyes!” Nina roared back, shaking the walls.

It wasn’t the first time something like this had happened: she had a reputation around the academy.

“You’re such a bully!” A brave Harpy with flaming red hair said with one wing outstretched accusingly.

Nina rolled her eyes and scoffed at the monster’s words.

“No I’m not. I’m just bigger than you.”

Behind her Milly had buttoned her shirt back up.

“Come on Nina, they reserved the hall after us, it’s only fair. I can wait until we get back to our room.”

She and the other girls had long since accepted that it was up to them to spare the population of the academy, and the world at large, from Nina’s blunt personality.

The Harpy shot the Minotaur a grateful look as she walked past, the Gigas grudgingly following, muttering all the while.

“What the hell does ‘fair’ mean?”

Chapter 9: Anxious Deliberation

While humans were required to participate in every facet of Aegis training it was widely understood that the unique abilities of monster girls, combined with their general aversion to lost-tech, excused them from a great deal of it.

This meant that while Nameless was in classes with the other cadets his girls were largely left to their own devices, though the Aegis offered numerous training outlets to allow them to improve themselves however they saw fit.

Nina was using the free time to train Milly, while Volka spent a great deal of her days in the library, updating her knowledge of history and geography.

When not practicing with the Amazons or the Valkyrie, Erica took a lot of naps.

Meanwhile, Ophelia was in a mostly empty classroom working with a stocky woman to fill a critical niche within their budding Aegis team.

“Good, then you apply pressure above the injury.”

“Alright.” The Flutterby said, her face screwed up in concentration; “Now what?”

Brooke Merlot, the senior medic training her, shrugged.

“Now nothing. You’ve stopped the bleeding, so wait for someone who can take care of the rest.”

“A Dryad?”

The instructor let out a sharp laugh and shook her head of straw coloured hair.

“Dryad’s aren’t so common we can rely on them one hundred percent of the time. But in any case you wait on someone who can stitch up the injury, or sure, someone who can close it with nature magic.”

Ophelia felt a little tinge of apprehension before asking the obvious question.

“What if there isn’t anyone?”

This earned her a level look, Brooke’s humour forgotten.

“This is Advanced First-aid, not Advanced Triage. I have you for a few weeks so there is only so much I can teach you. If someone is hurt bad enough and no one comes to relieve you, it’s because you are way out in the sticks somewhere, and are therefore fucked, or there are too many other injured to take care of, in which case everybody is fucked.”

“That isn’t very comforting.”

“I just tell it like it is.”

Their training finished, Ophelia’s instructor took up the mannequin they had been practicing on and stored it in a long cupboard against the wall.

She turned back to her protégé, her lips pursed and her brow slightly furrowed.

“I have to ask,