Aquatic Nightmare

The scientist who made me was a fool, why was he so intent on preserving the original? If he just accepted that the ultimate species can only exist with a different mindset, he could have realized he succeeded long ago. No matter, I will finish what the fool started, and carve my own nation out of the arrogant solar alliance!
-The First lord of Mazurio

"Get him Urist! Fucking end him!" Urist goes for his knees, but is blocked by a swift kick from his opposition.

"A'm tryin ya overgrown fish! The manling isn't lettin me get close!" The son of count Lifstein goes for another kick. Instead of hitting Urist, his leg gets punched by the dwarf. The noble backs off in pain. Before he can recover, Urist uppercuts him in the nuts, ending the fight.

"Nevah insult my designs again!" Urist spits a bloodied tooth on the floor.

"Which design was he even talking about?" The dwarf has made too many to count at this point.

"Dunno." Urist is apparently as clueless as to what was actually insulted as me. Instead of trying to remember, he simply climbs on my shoulders again.

"Well whatever, I got some more designs from the royal library to discuss." I slap down a few blueprints on the table, the lackeys of the Lifstein boy pull him away while sending me a glare, but they are too scared to do anything more.

I lay the blueprint on the table, from what I can tell it's some sort of zone device. The dwarf takes a look as well.

"Fancy thing, lots of rare materials, and mainly made from dragon bits. Its purpose seems to be disrupting magic within an area, using the dragon bits as catalyst. Too bulky to use in combat except for ambushes, the design is... three hundred years old, and commissioned by a paranoid emperor at the time who believed the demon lord would come to the capital." For all of Urist's crude language, he really knows his stuff.

"Esstrey are you unraveling imperial secrets with Urist again? You know, one of these days, you are gonna stumble on something the Emperor won't like you looking at." Alicia approached quietly at some point, and as is standard, gets jealous she wasn't included.

"Relax Alicia, if big E was so worried about what I was doing, he would send those cloaked people to stop me. I am not unreasonable... for a price." I'm not gonna just drop things without getting some money out of it.

"What did you even do with the bow you got from winning fourth place?" The rest of the tournament was a lot less exciting, right up until I faced Eden near the end. That blast of light is both painful, and disorienting as all hell. That little hammer of his also packs one hell of a punch. Of course, Kyla did end up winning the tournament with rather ease, because when she faced Cathy she just dropped her in an up-sized version of the crevice she used in the first round, and when she faced Eden she overwhelmed the arena with dark magic. That effectively put an end to any magic Eden would be able to deploy.

"We scrapped that elven hunk of junk, and repurposed is together with Kyla into something more fit for a friend of the dwarves!" Urist unlatches the now arbalest from my back, It's still a compound crossbow, but with the strength of the world I don't think knowledge of a compound crossbow is something worth killing a craftsman over.

"You butchered it! It was said that this bow was gifted by a high elf of the eternal forest to imperial forces so they could destroy the undead! You turned it into monstrous siege equipment!" Alicia looks in horror, as the once golden bow is now a black crossbow, it has also become much too big to be used by anyone not longer than four meter.

"Why would I need a weapon good at destroying undead? I have met two undead, and one undead sympathizer so far, and they don't seem too bad to me. If anything it was a happy little accident when the materials turned black when Kyla transmitted the enchantments over." Alicia pouts, no doubt still angry that Kyla won the tournament.

Cathy chooses that moment to enter, if my experience is correct Nylchai and Kyla shouldn't be too far off.

"Lady Esstrey, I have discovered a book in the [library/knowledge repository/book storage] that speaks of our kind. Could I trouble you for some time to read me a [bedtime story/pre-sleep speech/Q̸͎̋͛'̵̲̜̳̬̍͛w̸͇̬̥̖͘i̸̛͓͘̕ǹ̵̲̝̺̉̃̇k̴̛͙͕͌̈̚͜ả̴͍͍̱̈̽͠r̸̯̳̖̎̄͑ả̷̡͙̚n hug]?" Cathy has also gotten a little more clingy lately, I don't mind as she is apparently an expert on dimensional travel. Sadly, not enough to get me back home.

"Sure, Cathy, let me just see what you have here." She hands me the books with only a mild amount of reverence, as if the book could disappear any moment. 'Creatures of the beyond and you, by Manius Civillis'. The first mad emperor wrote a book? If it's a book on what is usually done by the northern tribes, it isn't that surprising that it ended up hidden away.

Suddenly I hear shuffling, and a lot of people suddenly leave the cafeteria in a hurry. The reason for which is clear as Kyla enters, scaring off everyone.

"Why is everyone so afraid of me now? You two are sitting right there!" Kyla points at Cathy and me as she enters.

"Because there have been rumors that you used the favor of the Emperor to be allowed to transmogrify imperial nobles." Alicia sips her drink as she says it. At least someone here is up-to-date on the latest gossip.

"What!? Who would start such rumors? Nobles are terrible for transmogrifying! You need someone physically strong to be a good transmogrification target, just look at the thin arms of those nobles!" She points at a group of students who hadn't gotten the hint of leaving yet. They overhear what Kyla says, and quickly pack up to leave.

"I started those rumors of course, my association with you is raising eyebrows, but by portraying you as the plotting demon lord you are, I can use my relation to you as a weapon. Thanks for being such a lovely deniable asset." Kyla's face turns as red in anger, and she begins to gather mana in her hands.

"YOU WHAT?! HOW DARE YOU DISG-" But her rampage is instantly stopped by a dark elf slapping the back of her head.

"Behave Kyla! Do not prove her right by acting like this. You wanted to get better at politics, right?" Kyla begins forcing herself to calm down. She actually gets pretty far until Alicia opens her mouth again.

"Don't get cocky just because you won a dinky little tournament, you are still as mortal as the rest of us." Alicia proclaims it arrogantly... to the demon queen. I try to think of a way to stop her, but before I can think of something, Cathy taps me on the side.

"Try [pulling/pinching/stretching] her ear." Yeah, that should work.

I pull the ear of the rambling princess, the moment I do Kyla goes from hidden fury to instant entertainment.

"You ain't immortal either, so quit trying to start a pissing contest with the demon queen. Take it from me, you won't win." And just before Kyla gets too happy with the result of all this, I send a glare her way. She knows what she did.

"I am getting my guns next week, and I will not have some petulant country leaders ruining the reunion with my precious ballistics!"