War God for Hire- Mercenary: A Reincarnation, Cultivation, Litrpg Adventure

by David Burke

  She started to respond, but suddenly a great wave of water surged up the beach. It was far beyond anything natural. He had become accustomed to the natural beating of the tide against the shore. It was relaxing.

  This, though, was like a tsunami had appeared in an instant. The water surged forward, putting out his fire and pushing Nyda away from him. It struck with incredible force, but Kyle was strong and sufficiently rooted in his earth essence that he was only knocked back a step. When he started to move towards Nyda, though, a second wave struck and formed as a dome over top him. The water became opaque, and he was unable to see through it.

  Kyle’s soul bound weapon appeared in his hands in the last form it had taken, that of a short lance. A quick thrust at the water failed to penetrate it. The dome was harder than steel, and Kyle felt the weapon’s vibrations ringing up his arms. He shifted the weapon into a war hammer pick combo when a voice behind him said, “Don’t bother, brother. You will need more than physical force to break through this dome.”

  He turned and saw a woman who was half water, half woman, but not in a mermaid sense. Her body seemed to be in a constant state of fluctuation as she moved about. She was still strikingly beautiful, but there was no doubt she was not mortal. Kyle recognized her from Krig’s memories, but that wouldn’t have been necessary. Her identity was obvious.

  “Hav,” he greeted her with a slight nod of his head.

  “At least you have more manners than your predecessor.”

  “My experience with Krig was fairly limited and I’m pretty sure he thought he’d be able to use me to dodge the wrath of the rest of you, all while storing up essence to make his return. It doesn’t appear to have worked out like that, so you are likely stuck with me,” Kyle said.

  “That is the thing about the sea. It never stays still. It is restless. But one thing it never is… is stuck. Not that I am complaining. I think I shall like having a more manageable war god to deal with. I’ve ignored the others for far too long. It is time that I asserted myself again,” Hav said.

  “You may not find me to be very malleable,” Kyle replied.

  “That would be too bad. If you can’t flex, then you will break when presented with a superior force.”

  “I don’t recognize you as a superior force,” Kyle said through gritted teeth. He had already shifted into a combat stance and was gathering essence around himself at a furious pace. The problem, he soon realized, was that the dome gave Hav control over the majority of ambient essence in the area. That left him with only his reserves, and until he could fully access his mantle, there was no chance that he had more essence than she did.

  “Fine, if it must be like this…” Hav’s form suddenly changed. She became part shark and part squid—a true Lovecraftian horror. Her form crossed the distance between them in a blink.

  Kyle was only barely able to block a tentacle as it lashed out at his face. He fell back onto instinctive reaction and was soon being driven all around the dome. Hav’s power was so much greater than his that it was all he could do to defend against her attacks.

  Kyle called upon more and more of the stores of his raw essence, converting it to War Essence at a furious pace. He couldn’t possibly hope to block the six tentacles that kept flashing out at him with more than just physical force. This battle, as had been the first one he’d fought with Barak, was waged on more than one level at a time.

  That had been child’s play, compared to this, though.

  Kyle was pushing himself to his limits, to his very breaking point, and at best he was only just managing to keep up. Another thought crossed a portion of his mind, the tiny sliver of it that wasn’t focused solely on staying alive. He dodged tentacle slaps that would crush stone or twist metal, but then realized that he had more than War Essence to draw on.

  He split two smaller streams off of the raw essence that he was cultivating from his reserves to power his combat. For just a second, it caused his War Essence to waiver, and he felt several of his ribs break as a tentacle slipped through his defenses. He would just have to fight through the pain.

  He pulled off yet another tiny tendril to summon up Earth Essence. The durability of the world filled him and he pumped up the physical strength of his construct. It passed beyond his previous peaks and rocketed him to near the cap of the Demi Tier, even if only temporarily.

  He began to work with the other two strands of essence. He sent them flowing through the two divine splinters he had taken for his own. Just as he used the lesser amount of Earth Essence to enhance his strength, so he used Justice Essence filtered through Lige’s splinter to accelerate his reaction time and give himself a bit of an edge.

  Now that he possessed the demi’s divine splinter, he understood how such a bulky creature as Barak had been able to stay one step ahead of him. It wasn’t that the demi-god had been faster, it was that judgment gave him a bit of insight into the actions of his opponent. It wasn’t true precognition or anything, but it worked well enough. Soon, he was not just keeping up with Hav’s attacks, but was actually anticipating them.

  Yet, as soon as he adapted, Hav started to move even faster. The six tentacles coming off of her torso doubled in number. Kyle dodged as quickly as he could. He shifted his weapon into its naginata form and managed to slice one of the tentacles in half. Still, each near miss sent him reeling. The power she was throwing at him was more than he could handle. The ground exploded around him and soon, even dodging as he was, he found himself backed up against the dome.

  That was when he played his second trick. He had been channeling power into Dod’s divine splinter within him. An aura of death surrounded him and he found a new aspect which should work for him. As a demi-god of death, he understood it better than he ever had before.

  Death was not the end; it was simply another state of being. It was as different from the void as life itself. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t use aspects of decay against Hav’s dome. He might not have the raw power needed to fight her blow for blow or even to smash his way out of the dome, but he could weaken it. While his death essence started to break down her barrier, Kyle shocked Hav by launching himself straight at her.

  A full power Rage Burst was barely enough to push Hav’s eleven remaining tentacles back to keep them from slicing him open. Each missed by just a hair’s breadth, but it was enough for him to drive his naginata into Hav’s gut. Kyle knew it wasn’t her gut because she was just a construct. It was really his soul fighting against her soul, but even a god could be damaged by overwhelming force.

  Hav screeched as her body liquified around his weapon and then shifted. He felt her sea essence spray at him in a fine mist. Every drop ripped into his form. The worst of it was the bits that got in his nose or mouth. It was only essence, one that he could even use, but that didn’t stop it from ripping him apart from inside, breaking his insides down like an acid.

  If something didn’t change, and quickly, he was done for. Kyle pushed with the sea essence that her pendant had granted him, but it was like trying to grab a mountain and move it with his hands. Not even the smallest bit of sea essence would go against her wishes. She was bound to it—it simply was her.

  The old lesson filled his mind. This was what it had meant to be a champion. You became bonded with your aspect of essence and controlled it so completely that none could defy you with it. Even the gods thought only of themselves as ascended champions.

  But Kyle was more than that. By now, his Death Essence had decayed and weakened the dome in the one small spot he had sent it against. Kyle threw his thrashing body against that spot and the dome shattered.

  He found himself on the beach and immediately began drawing in all the essence he could. It hit him like a storm, whirling about him as his will forced it to serve him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nyda fighting with Froggy. She wasn’t much of a warrior but was fierce when it came to trying to defend him. Unfortunately, she was about to get her skewered by Froggy’
s harpoon.

  It took only a second for Kyle to flex his will and send a wave of war essence filled with cutting intent at Froggy. She was sliced from one end to the other like the frogs in his freshman biology class had been. But Kyle paid dearly for that second of lost focus. While he had drawn in millions of raw essence, he hadn’t yet formed it into anything.

  Hav had reacted faster. Once her dome was broken, she pulled it all back into herself. Her form swelled, and she now stood fifty feet tall. Her shout of anger at him shook Kyle, and he felt the rage of a god directed at him with deadly intent. First one tentacle lashed out, then another, and another. He blocked five in a row but the sixth tentacles, as wide as his body nicked him, severing his left arm.

  Chapter 18 - Negotiations

  Blood oozed from the open wound in his shoulder, except it wasn’t blood. It was just the breaking down of the essence that his construct was made of.

  "Bow!" Hav snarled at him. "We can still be partners, but make no mistake, I am the senior partner here and you will show proper respect."

  Kyle shuddered as reality caught up to him.

  “If you are polite, you can be my apprentice.” A sneer curled her lips. “Krig may have once been among the strongest of us, but you are not Krig.”

  Kyle felt pain throbbing down his side from the cut that had removed his arm. Actually, it was more accurate to say that his arm had simply been sheared off. It was a rather jagged wound.

  The thought occurred to him it wasn’t necessary for him to feel this pain, but he wasn’t ready to let go of it. The pain defined this moment. More than that, it made him feel alive, so he grit his teeth and concentrated.

  “You have made no offer, just demands.”

  “That is the way of the world. Whatever place you came from must be bizarre indeed, if the strong do not force their will upon the weak,” Hav replied.

  “I am not weak and I will not be dealt with as such,” he ground out.

  “Power is relative.” The sea goddess snorted. “You should have learned that by now. You defeated Barak with ease when he was your equal mere weeks ago. Before that, he would have crushed you with ease. Perhaps in time, you will grow to be my equal, but only if you agree to work with me.” She glared down at him. “If not, I will end you right here and right now.”

  Kyle’s mind raced. His indomitable will would not allow him to give in to her, but perhaps he could take a lesson from her. Sometimes it took more strength to bend and flex than to stand rigid. But he needed time and, more than that, he needed information. She seemed to hold all the cards, though, and he didn’t much care for that.

  “How do you know about my fight with Barak?” Kyle asked.

  Hav’s temper seemed to ease a bit then.

  “You really are a child, aren’t you. I suppose it is the place of an elder sister to educate a younger sibling. But you will find that I am a harsh instructor.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “If you would have an answer, then you must think about it. It will come to you in time, I’m sure.”

  Then, with no warning, one of her tentacles blasted forward and smacked him across the chest. His body flew through the air like a bullet. He flew along and felt pulses of essence accelerating his path through the air. It wasn’t sky essence that pushed him along, but the sea air was so full of water and equally, it was filled with sea essence. It was another lesson.

  It was a hard lesson. Hav had just demonstrated that she could control things in ways he might not have expected. What lesson did she expect him to learn from this? Was it that she could perceive things anywhere there was sea essence?

  Kyle calmed his racing heart as he flew through the sky. He had already traveled miles across the sea, headed towards the open horizon. If she had wanted to kill him, this display of power made clear, she could easily have done so already.

  No, he was supposed to take something else away from this lesson. It came to him then, as he realized that what she had showed him was that everything had more than one purpose. She had given him a pendant, and it had been a boon and a needed aid to him, but also a tool for her.

  Like the fish too eager to eat the worm, he had been blind to the hook.

  Worse, even knowing the hook was there now, he wasn’t sure he would have turned it down. Her pendant had provided him cover. It had allowed him to use his power to grow. She had pushed him, and it had not been without benefits, but she clearly wanted something more from him.

  Again, it was a reminder that he had to look at things from different angles.

  He pulled upon his Sky Essence and lessened the push against him. His Sky Essence answered him. Before, he had used it to accelerate his movement. Now he used it to cushion against the force of Sea Essence pressing against him. The air surrounding him became denser, and he soon came to a stop in midair.

  Then, it was a simple matter to push himself back to the shore. It was exhilarating to fly. But he did more this time. He pushed not only with Sky Essence, but also bounced himself along with Sea Essence. He tugged himself toward the shore with Earth Essence and cut the air in front of him with a blade of War Essence to break the wind resistance. He envied the ease with which Gilthan could fly, but he accomplished the same thing by using multiple types of essence in conjunction.

  The result was that he was back to the shore in less than a minute. When he landed, Hav stared at him for a moment before saying, “That didn’t take you as long as I thought it would, and I have to say I’m impressed with this thing you do with multiple essences.”

  “I understand your pendant allows you to see what I’m doing or have some sphere of influence around me. If I’m right, it is powered by the raw essence that I am cultivating—it is rather brilliant, actually,” Kyle admitted.

  “Yes, it is more than just an enhanced cultivation aid. I was surprised when you took it. Then again, it served a purpose in finding out just how complete your memories are, as well. Krig would have recognized it for what it was immediately,” Hav said.

  “Very well, since I clearly don’t know everything that Krig knew, can you explain how it works?” Kyle asked.

  Hav grinned. “Well, we can trade an answer for an answer, or I can just keep batting you around, every time that you ask me something stupid.”

  “I suppose it is only fair that we trade answers.” Kyle could still feel his construct trying to repair the damage she had inflicted on it up to this point. A part of him said he should be able to speed up this process, but until he figured out how to do so, it might be best not to get treated like a slow change up that floated across the center of the plate.

  Hav’s mercurial nature was on full display as her lower half dissolved into a puddle and then formed into a seat for Kyle, bringing him eye to eye with her form. “The pendant is rather simple. Long ago, we learned that not everyone had the inherent power to cultivate essence. Some talismans can be used to store essence. Those are what the mortals call enchantments.”

  “Ah, like the axe that I made for Skrug,” Kyle mused.

  If Hav was annoyed at being cut off, she didn’t give any indication of it. “Yes, that was rather brilliantly done. I couldn’t see everything you were doing, but you have some way of weaving multiple essence types together. That hasn’t been done since we first learned how to separate the types. But to finish answering your question, some enchantments can be single use, while others can be set up to draw upon ambient essence—although those are much harder to create.”

  “The most common type of cultivation stone, though, was the type we made for those with a small amount of ability but no hope of breaking through to the next tier. Such devices could be used to amplify the owner’s power in a variety of ways.”

  Her grin turned predatory. “Now, it’s my turn to ask a question. There are times that you are looking at raw essence. I can see you sifting it as though dividing it into various threads, but I don’t understand what the purpose is. Explain to me what it is you are doin
g.”

  “That isn’t really a question, but I will do my best. It is simple, really. What I first thought of as raw essence is composed of a wide assortment of different types. So far, I have been able to identify within it Rom’s, Nade’s, and Brann’s essence types or what I am calling Space, Mercy, and Fire Essences.”

  “Those essences died when they fell,” Hav scoffed. “Raw essence is just the base form that we cultivated before we began to recognize the different aspects of essence. It has no type in and of itself, and we can only bind ourselves to one aspect. You must be mistaken,” Hav insisted.

  “I suppose that is possible. Then again, maybe this is all just a very vivid dream and I will wake up from it someday. Or… maybe I am looking at an age-old problem with fresh eyes and seeing it in a way that you can’t—or maybe won’t—because of ingrained habits,” Kyle replied.

  Hav was silent for a while as she considered his point. Kyle checked on Nyda and was surprised to see that she was healing Froggy. It was in her nature and, if anything, only made him care for her more.