Mary struck with her whip at Zombie's neck, but her attack was easily blocked by the blue boy's right hand, stitched to the rest of the arm with the red strings.
"..."
Without wasting groans on her, Zombie simply pulled on the whip.
Instead of trying to match his strength, Mary used it and launched at him aiming her knee at his face.
*crunch*
"Aa...! Argh...!"
Zombie didn't even dodge, he simply let Mary break her knee on his face and crash on the ground behind him.
"...I feel like I should have informed you that my Zombie's highest stat is his physical defense."
Cranberry called from her spot with an indifferent voice.
"...Screw you...!"
Mary spat the curse while holding on to her mangled leg with one hand and clawing at the ground with the other.
"Mend...! ARGH!"
She shouted and screamed in pain as soon as the light covered her leg and forcibly put it together.
"Graough. (You're not used to this weapon.)"
Zombie raised his right hand that still had the purple whip wrapped around it.
"Graough. (It still looks brand new.) Graough...? (Did you found a better one or...?)"
"Shut up!"
Mary shouted, interrupting Zombie's growls and attacked him unarmed.
Her body started glowing and...
She bit him.
As far as Zombie could tell, her jaws had roughly the same strength as Arion's.
"Graough? (So you can use the skills of your tamed monster?) Graough. (Funny, it's exactly opposite to us.)"
He laughed thinking about how Cranberry could share her skills with him.
"Hahk ohh...!"
Mary still biting into his shoulder cursed him and started kicking and scratching at him with her glowing fingernails.
"Graough... (This is beyond pathetic...)"
"Arf...!"
"Ugh!"
Zombie sighed and hit Mary with her wolf monster, sending them both flying.
The next thing they knew, Zombie was already above them, ready to stomp them down.
They've rolled in two opposite directions, barely dodging in time.
Without saying a word or even looking at each other, Mary and Arion's bodies started shining and they jumped at the blue boy at the same time!
...and they were stopped in mid-air.
"Eh?!"
"Arf?!"
Mary and Arion yelped in shock when Zombie spun around and then threw them both high in the air.
"Zombie, enough. Catch them."
Suddenly Cranberry waved her hand to get Zombie's attention.
"Graough. (Okay.)"
Zombie nodded and simply extended his hands.
He caught the wolf monster with his left hand, but when he tried to do the same thing with Mary using his right hand, the stitches keeping it together loosened and the girl ended up hitting the ground without losing any speed.
"Ughah...!"
She gasped
"Graough... (I-I swear it wasn't on purpose...)"
Wide-eyed Zombie was staring at his right arm, hanging loosely from his elbow still connected only by a piece of red string.
"..."
Cranberry looked down and started massaging her forehead.
"I...! I'm not done yet...! Mend...! ARGH!"
Mary, crawling on the ground, gasped and screamed in pain when her spell forcibly mended all her injuries which seemed even more painful than the injuries themselves.
"I can still fight...! I'm not giving up on that little gri...!"
"It's enough already."
Mary was about to start a heroic monologue but she was interrupted by Cranberry.
"Say, do you think this girl is stupid...?"
The red-haired girl asked while massaging the griffin's neck which made the baby monster raise her head and close her eyes from pleasure.
"E-eh...? N-no, of course not, griffins are known to be incredibly smar..."
"Yeah, they are."
Once again Cranberry interrupted Mary.
"Do you think that she would stay so calm around me if I really intended to kill her? She's quite apt at reading the emotions too, you know?"
As if to illustrate, Cranberry hugged and cuddled the baby griffin and the baby griffin nuzzled back against her.
"Ah...!"
Mary gasped and finally dropped her guard.
When the tension left her body she slumped on the ground and hid her face behind her arms.
"You're such a meanie, lady Cranberry."
She sighed in a shaky voice, as if she was holding back tears of relief.
"Hey, you come to my house and bring a girl that insulted me before together with you."
Cranberry stood up and walking towards the brown-haired girl.
"You have an aura of someone who never actually fought and your whip looks brand new, and you brag about your level. You even imitate the manner of speech that girl is using too."
"Skwee...?"
Cranberry continued the explanation and the baby griffin started following her curiously.
"Wait! S-so the threats of killing the baby griffin weren't real but what you said about my senior...?!"
Mary jerked her head up, staring at Cranberry in shock.
"Yes, well, this and that are completely separate matters after all. I will kill that senior of yours if she'll take a single step inside my home."
Cranberry nodded.
She glanced towards the mansion, then at the unconscious wolf monster that Zombie carefully placed on his lap and was gently patting with his left hand.
"And the most annoying thing of all..."
Cranberry arrived at Mary's side and was looking at her from above.
"Why are you calling me lady Cranberry when I clearly told you to just use my name without any honorifics, Mary?"
She asked in an annoyed voice and offered her hand to Mary.
"...?! Th-that's what was bugging you the most?! But then, you're completely different than...! Ah!"
Mary gasped but quickly blocked her own mouth as if she said too much.
"Well, I really hate people who don't listen, you know?"
Cranberry's face darkened from a grim smile that she made.
"Anyway. Get up. Blueberry won't agree to be tamed if you're like that."
Cranberry laughed and her smile brightened while Mary grabbed her hand and stood up.
"Skwee?!"
"Graough?! (Huh?!)"
Zombie and baby griffin exclaimed loudly and started staring at Cranberry.
"...!"
And it looked like it was the red-haired girl's turn to cover her own mouth as if she said too much.
"Oh! So that's your name then? Hello, Blueberry, nice to meet you."
Mary smiled friendly and bowed towards the baby griffin.
"Skwee? Skwee?!"
Meanwhile, the baby griffin herself was hoofing with her front legs and screeched confused, and raised her head staring at Cranberry.
The red-haired girl was looking away, refusing to confront the baby griffin.
"No. This girl doesn't have a name. We didn't name her because we caught her only to give her to you."
Cranberry said calmly but absolutely refused to make an eye-contact with anyone else present, even her own servant.
"But... Cranberry, you just referred to her as Blueberry, didn't you?"
Mary tilted her head and asked.
"No, I didn't."
Cranberry shook her head but it was clear that her face turned pink from embarrassment.
"Graough! (Ahaha! Master! You're so cute!) Graough! (Even after all that you've said, you ended up thinking up a name for her!) Graough! (That's adorable!)"
Zombie started growling happily.
"Sh-shut up...! Your groans sound like you're making fun of me!"
Cranberry frowned and tried to glare coldly at her servant, but her blushing face and a slightly higher than usual voice completely ruined the intended result.
"Don't worry, he wasn't mocking you, he just said that he loves you."
Mary explained casually.
"Skwee?!"
The most shocked person there turned out to be the baby griffin.
"N-no he didn't! Shut up!"
Cranberry became red as a tomato and she took a step back.
"Graough! (I do, I do! Master is the best!)"
Zombie groaned joyfully following up.
"Sh-shut up!"
Cranberry looked away embarrassed out of her mind.
"Blueberry is a really pretty name. You like it, right, Blueberry?"
"Skwee!"
Mary asked the baby griffin and she jumped up and danced at her hind legs.
"See? She loves it!"
"Whatever, I don't care."
Cranberry was really trying her best to not look happy at the sight of the overjoyed baby griffin, but she couldn't stop herself from glancing at her again and again.
"Wow... you really are different than in the game..."
Mary muttered under her breath and smiled gently.
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