Harem Regressor: I'll Save Them This Time-Chapter 30: Ch : Two Champions.

"Can... Can I not?" Fei asked, eyes wide as she looked up at him.

Beside them, Vera remained silent but looked between the pair with a questioning gaze.

August took a deep breath. "You can.

You’re supposed to try out different enhancements to see which works best. But you’ve only fought one actual battle with your speed enhancement, so maybe you should try it out for longer."

"No, I know that something else could be better," Fei protested. "Like when my sword got stuck in that demon and I couldn’t get it out.

I don’t want to rely on the enhancement’s protection. I want to be stronger. Physically stronger. What use is being able to slash somebody nine times at once if all my attacks bounce off?"

She had a point. But that was why Fei had supplemented her speed with strength-enhancing gems in his timeline.

"You’ll get gem enhancements to help round you out later," August said. "Speed from your enhancement, the ability to punch through armor from your first gem. Something like that."

"But we’re going into battle now, right?" Fei bit her lip and looked down. Her ears flattened against her head and her tail beat against the ground.

Vera spoke up, "I’m far from an expert on Bastions and Champions, but I thought you could change the original enhancement? Maybe we could stop by the keep? Make some additional preparations before gallivanting off?"

Now it was two on one? August frowned. Was he on the wrong end of this?

He blinked. Of course he was. What reason did he have to refuse Fei’s request to change her enhancement? She didn’t have a gem yet.

Until she did, August could change her enhancement at will. She should try out different enhancements until she found the one that suited her best.

Somehow, August still felt off. Fei should have a speed enhancement.

"No, it’s fine," he forced himself to say. "Did you want a strength enhancement? Or something between both, Fei?"

"The second one," Fei said. She brightened up, her tail beating up a storm behind her. "So we’re going back to the keep?"

Shaking his head, August reached out for the mental tether he had with Fei. "No need. Changing an enhancement is child’s play.

I can’t do it mid-battle, but we don’t need to use the binding stone once you’ve become a Champion. So, talk me through what you want."

Several minutes passed as Fei rambled about upper and lower body strength and how she wanted to be fast but strong.

As was typical for more detailed enhancements, she didn’t know what she wanted, but knew how she wanted it to feel.

Vera rubbed the bridge of her nose as she listened, appearing to grow more frustrated with each passing minute.

"So you want to run fast and be able to dodge swiftly, but be able to hit hard and cut through armor and demons easily," August summarized.

"Um, more than that—" Fei tried to correct.

"Some of what you said isn’t possible with an enhancement," he said, stopping her. "But I can let you keep your speed, increased reaction time, and leg strength, while increasing your ability to land heavy blows."

Fei paused. Then she nodded slowly.

Having gotten her agreement, August slipped into her mind using the tether. She didn’t even attempt to resist him. If anything, she welcomed him and he heard her sigh in pleasure beside him.

After a few minutes, he had made the adjustments to the enhancement and returned to reality.

Fei twitched in front of him, drool falling from the corner of her mouth.

She moaned, her eyes curved in pleasure. That same sweet scent from when he first enhanced her wafted through August’s nostrils. Vera held a hand over her face.

"Maybe do that in private next time?" Vera suggested.

After Fei cleaned herself up, the trio rode through the pass.

Droplets fell toward the far side of the pass, and a light shower fell as they reached the checkpoint.

August pulled his horse to a halt in front of the guards and clerks, who sheltered within the guard posts.

A guard wandered out, saw who it was, and waved them through after saluting.

As planned, they didn’t stop at the keep now that it was raining. The storm deepened as they galloped north along the road.

Their horses kicked up mud and splashed water everywhere as they rode, but their magical nature allowed them to keep going without regard for the slickness of the road.

As the rain fell harder and denser, the forest became hazy and vision dropped.

Eventually, the road fell away, and the horses had to slow to a trot. Magic guided the horses to their destination, which was good as August had no damn clue where they were.

He could find his way back to the fortress using the leylines, but getting to the cairn relied entirely on the original orders he gave to the horses.

Trees fell nearby, brought down by the winds. A crack of lightning in the distance started a fire that the rain soon doused.

The good news was that Sen wouldn’t be using fire magic.

The bad news was that this was not good weather to fight in.

He’d underestimated how bad the storm would get. At the same time, he didn’t want to retreat. If he could capture Sen, then he could recruit another Champion.

More than that, he would have one of his old lovers and friends back. August wanted that more than anything.

Shouts drifted across the storm. August felt the thrum of magic, deep within the soil.

"They’re nearby," he called out to the horse next to him.

Vera nodded beneath the hood of her cloak. He couldn’t see her face. Fei burrowed against his chest and pulled his cloak farther around herself.

After what felt like a century lost in the storm, they spotted the bandit camp in a small valley.

Huts built from logs, and tents reinforced with stones and tree trunks. Some of the tents had collapsed.

A tree had been uprooted in the storm and taken part of the embankment with it, pouring rocks and soil into a section of the camp.

Dozens of filthy men and women were out in the rain, pulling belongings from ruined huts and tents.

In the center of the camp was a huge pile of stones stacked five or six meters high. It glowed in the storm. Countless lines of red light snaked all the way to the apex of the cairn and met at a single point.

Two women stood in front of the cairn, shielded in a weatherproof bubble.

August recognized both of them.

One was Sen, bundled up in her cloak but with her hood off. Her short brown hair was a dead giveaway.

The other wore the uniform of a Champion of the Amica Federation.

She had short, spiky black hair, and angular facial features completely unlike almost anybody from the Empire or most nations on Doumahr. A pair of curved short swords hung from her hips.

Most importantly, a single onyx glimmered on her collarbone.

She was Sunstorm. A monogem Champion who had fought for August and become close to him in the last couple of years of his timeline.

Now he had two former Champions to capture in this bandit camp.