by David Burke
“Remember, you are unique in all the history of Verden. There has never been a reincarnation of a god—” Hilde said.
Kyle began to interrupt her, “I’m still my—”
But Hilde was able to speak faster than him and counter-interrupted him, “Even if you don’t like the idea. I think the best course for now is to just go with it. As far as I can tell, you haven’t drawn the attention of any of your siblings, or even the demis.”
“Okay, so what about my Divine Abilities? I was able to use Rage Burst in the quarry. That sure seemed useful. I’ve been a bit afraid to try to do it again in close quarters, but it would be nice to have as an option in the arena,” Kyle said.
“That might be dangerous to use in the arena. I expect that Kierra and certainly Skrug would survive it. Maybe even Gilthan, but normal humans will either be killed or gravely injured by it, especially at close quarters.”
“Okay, I can see that, but I don’t even know what the designations on it mean,” Kyle said as he pulled up that limited portion of his character sheet.
Rage Burst, 1 - 4 War
“That, at least, I can help you with,” Hilde said. “First, it shows the name of the ability, which usually gives some idea about how it functions. The fact that it is a Divine Ability rather than a normal Skill means that only tier five can use the ability. Well, that and likely tier four and maybe even tier three with divine slivers.
“The one means that the ability is at the initial level. From what I learned with Krig, there are up to five levels to these types of abilities, the same as there are with skills. Each tier of the ability is probably dramatically more powerful than the one before it.
“As for the second number, that is an approximation of how much essence is, along with the type, required to activate the skill. And before you ask, it is only an approximation. I have already told you that character sheets are only a guide meant to simplify things, but not capable of explaining all the minutia.”
Kyle sighed. “I can accept that. Thanks for the explanation. So that means that I could currently use the skill three times in a row before I had to wait to recharge.”
“Only if you used them in very rapid succession. Remember with your ridiculously fast conversion rate, you can turn raw essence into War Essence at a rate of one per second.”
“Is that really fast?”
“Yes. My conversion rate for Air Essence is one per fifteen seconds, while my rate for Lust Essence is one per ten minutes. The rest of my aptitudes range between that, with most all of them being under one minute,” Hilde replied. Then she asked, “Which brings up another question. I wonder what your conversion rate is for Earth Essence.”
Kyle looked at his sheet once again to see the Earth Essence Rate.
Earth: 10/25 – Conversion rate: 1/15 seconds
That matched much better with what Hilde was explaining. A part of Kyle told him that in the middle of a battle, fifteen seconds could feel like an eternity. “Is there anything I can do with that Earth Essence?”
“Not until you learn a Skill or Divine Ability to use it with. Keep in mind that spells are what the mortals call Skills. I have no aptitude for Earth Essence, so I can’t exactly teach you that. We will have to wait to see what happens over the next few days to see where you end up after this.”
“Agreed. If we were staying here with Saber in charge of training, I expect that he would be willing to find ways for me to learn how to control essence. We will just have to see what happens.
“Although that brings up the last issue. I need to learn how to break these manacles, just in case the new situation turns out badly. If possible, I would prefer to stay this course and learn by fighting in the arena. One thing I have always practiced is getting everything I could out of whatever training I was doing before moving onto something new. Some people are always rushing onto the next best thing, but I’d prefer to maximize what we have now,” Kyle said.
“That should be very simple. They are magical items so much more durable than plain metal, but if there is one thing that Krig always excelled at, it was breaking things. War Essence is perfectly suited to breaking them. You just have to learn how to focus it onto the manacles. Although, I will also add that there might be some value in you learning how to resist them.”
“Hmm, maybe you are right. I will think about that some more. I figure we have at least three days before things come to a head. We won’t know who is going to buy me until after the exhibition matches.”
“As you wish. Now, though, even that body needs some sleep. So, unless you have changed your mind about summoning me, you should probably sleep,” Hilde said. The tease in her voice was all too evident.
Try as he might, Kyle couldn’t help but rise to the bait. “I think you should at least tell me a little bit about how to summon you. It would be a useful skill to have. But if I was to summon you now, with no enemies around, wouldn’t that be a waste of your time?”
“Oh, I’m confident that you could make it anything but a waste of my time,” Hilde said. Kyle could almost see the smile upon her face.
After that, with Hilde’s help, Kyle spent an hour trying to master the connection to her necessary to pull her forth from the void. The idea of how she was inside his mantle was still very vague to him. As he understood it, his mantle was the divine part of him that made him different. It was also the part of him that he couldn’t freely access. It was what connected him to and made him the embodiment of the metaphysical concept of war or conflict.
Hilde used a great number of words to describe it, and he tried to be a good student even if it made falling asleep much easier. In the end, he had two takeaways from it. First, it would require a few thousand points of raw essence to create a stable enough portal for her to step out of the void safely. Second, the best way for him to do such a thing was based on need.
When his mastery was greater it wouldn’t be necessary, but for now he needed to only summon her when was in great need. That last point led to some more teasing, but Kyle gave as good as he got.
If he had learned anything in dealing with groupies, it was that women enjoyed the chase just as much as men did. It was like a long-distance relationship, and he was having a great deal of fun with their banter. If Hilde wanted to tease him, he would play the same game back with her. The result was that he fell asleep half satisfied with the game, half frustrated that he hadn’t taken her up on her offer, and entirely smitten with Hilde.
Chapter 17- Can’t Wait
The next morning, Kyle woke up with a new spring in his step. He was excited for the first matches which would occur tonight. Equally, he had to admit that pleasant dreams which seemed to alternate between a fiery angel and a magenta-haired elf were valid reasons to be in a good mood.
He climbed up the ladder when it was put down. Then strode with a purpose in his step. The guards ended up following him and having to increase their pace to keep up with him.
When he stepped onto the sand of the arena, it was with an awareness that in something like twelve hours he would be fighting on this very ground. It was different from baseball. Sure, there was always minimal chance of injury in baseball, but that wasn’t about life and death. Injury there was about a loss of earning potential.
They had explained that the matches wouldn’t be to the death, but Kyle wasn’t so sure. It might not kill him but getting electrocuted by Gilthan, sat on by Skrug, or clawed by Kierra didn’t sound fun. The playful part of his mind thought that having Kierra’s nails running down his back might not be an entirely bad thing, but he quickly dismissed that image. He was already juggling his desires for Hilde and Nyda.
Saber saw him and said, “Wipe that silly grin off your face. You look like such a noob. Excited for your first fight, I see.”
Before Kyle could respond, the armorers came over and started fitting his helm. It was what he would have called a Greek helmet from the movies, with the pieces that ran down t
he side and covered his face mostly in conjunction with the nose guard. Then on the top there was the fin which looked to have a fairly sharp edge worked into it. He wasn’t sure what the purpose of it was, but figured it looked bad ass.
The head instructor continued, “The trainers tell me that you mastered control almost right away. I have to admit that you were the one I was most worried about. Even Skrug doesn’t hit as hard as you do, and if you accidentally killed someone here, it might not go over very well.”
“So we were told. Now though, I just wanna know more about the rules and what to expect,” Kyle said.
Saber chuckled. “Like I said, someone is excited here. You’ve got the fire in your belly, don’t you? We are gonna make a real gladiator out of you, I think.”
Then the smaller man got serious for a moment. “Just remember one thing. When you win, the feeling is yours, but you are still someone’s property. Don’t forget to look out for yourself, as your owners will never do more for you than for their prize horse.”
The moment was gone just as fast as it had appeared, and Kyle didn’t even get to respond before Saber said, “Now the trainers are gonna work with you on how to handle it if an enemy gets inside that long reach of yours.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a loud bell started to go off. It was coming from the city, which had to be a mile from the coliseum, but it was still ear-piercingly loud. Instantly, all the trainers started to run for the tunnels that were set into the sides of the arena.
Kyle looked up because the sky suddenly got dark. He wasn’t sure what to do. It wasn’t an eclipse as he had first guessed, but instead an ugly tear appeared in the sky as though it was a painted landscape and someone had taken a blade to the canvas, cutting a jagged line across the sky.
The other fighters were picking up their gear and also running for the tunnels now. The only people left out in the arena were some of the slaves who had been carrying supplies for the craftsmen, as well as jugs of water and food that the fighters would eat between training exercises. They all looked up at the sky, and he once again followed their eyes.
Dark black clouds billowed out of the tear in the sky. They were almost so dark that they appeared to be more like smoke than clouds. Speckled against the clouds were even darker spots that moved in a swirling pattern. Some started to break off towards the city, others for the quarry, and another stream of the black shapes headed towards the coliseum.
Now the other slaves began screaming in terror. Some tripped over each other or the supplies they had been carrying in their rush to run for the tunnels. Others were trying to gather up as much as they could carry before running.
Kyle kept his eyes on the sky mostly and saw that the shapes were giant birds. Hilde said, “They are feral birds, driven mad by the damage to Himmel, or even undead birds animated by the break in Dod’s power.”
He screamed for the slaves to run. He had seen a movie about this, and certainly didn’t want anyone getting pecked to death by birds; and these weren’t your run of the mill ravens. They were monstrous, many of them more like the size of a midsized dog than a bird, and with white bony protrusions sticking out.
The first of the flock was already dive bombing the slaves who had lingered, whether out of fear or duty. Kyle already had learned by seeing a servant girl beaten mercilessly for breaking some plates that Soren and his type valued the goods carried by the slaves at least as much or more than their lives. It was no wonder that some of them panicked, trying to salvage as much as they could before running for their lives.
Kyle prepared to run. He couldn’t save those who weren’t willing to run, and he didn’t know what to do against hundreds of monstrous birds. But then everything changed. He saw a particular petite figure amidst the slaves trying to get the remainder of the goods. Nyda was there, and he could no more abandon her than he could have cut off his own hand.
He didn’t know why exactly. It wasn’t like she had given him any sign that she was interested. It was just something in him. He liked her and he wasn’t going to let anything harm her while he had breath. Hilde was strangely quiet. He half-expected her to be yelling at him and calling him a fool for not fleeing.
Kyle rushed forward and began swinging his maul overhead. The massive hammer knocked multiple birds out of the sky with each swing. Still, it wasn’t going to be enough. “Run, Nyda. I will hold them off.”
He couldn’t take his eyes off of the sky for fear of more birds getting past his whirling maul, but he heard her say, “They will kill me if I don’t get all of these welcome gifts for tonight’s guests.”
From the sound of her voice, she must have been down on the ground trying to pick up whatever was so valuable that it was worth more than her life.
Kyle felt the anger grow within him. He wasn’t here to free all the slaves or right all the wrongs of Verden, at least not right now. No, he just wanted to survive. He wanted to keep the people that mattered to him safe. Right now, that list was damn short. Nyda and Hilde pretty much made up the entirety of it, and Hilde was safely hidden away within his head.
The birds kept diving at him. Even though the ground was littered with the corpses of their fallen brethren, they had no fear. Kyle stepped forward so that he was practically standing over Nyda. He swung as fast as he could, but they kept coming from every direction. He missed more complete armor. At least his arms and legs were partially protected, but even they were vulnerable in the back. The only thing properly covered was his head.
As it was, he was getting clawed and pecked by any bird that made it past his maul. The talons tore into his exposed chest, and while he was shocked by how little they hurt, he could still feel the trails of blood running down his skin. Then he heard Nyda cry out in pain. One of the birds had landed on her back as she was on all fours picking small shiny objects up off the ground.
Kyle reached out with the reflexes that had enabled him to snag many a line drive and crushed the bird’s skull in his hand while still swinging the maul one-handed. A lifetime of swinging at speeding balls combined with the recent training had his accuracy at an all-time high. He was so focused that the blood and brain matter in his left hand didn’t even bother him.
He was so locked in that even with the awkward length of the maul’s handle, he was still weaving a net of steel around them. It felt so natural and the rush he felt as he fought was intoxicating. Intermixed with that was the desire to protect Nyda. He didn’t fancy himself as the overly protective type, but he would go to the ends of the world for a teammate and that had been transposed onto the elven slave, only magnified by an innate need to defend a potential mate. It was a primal thing in him which was every bit as powerful as the influence of the war god’s mantle.
Still, the blood on her dress told him that his defense wasn’t perfect. The birds began to act more strategically as a larger one appeared. This one had silver feathers peppered into its jet-black plumage, and crimson red eyes which spoke of a feral intelligence. The birds didn’t act any more afraid of him than before, but now they were swirling around him and building up the force necessary to overwhelm him.
He might still be able to fight his way through hundreds of needle-like beaks and matching talons, but Nyda would be shredded beyond the ability of even the flesh mages here. If all the feathered monsters came at him at one time, it would be the end. So, he flung the goo from his hand and scooped the petite elf up in his arm. She could get the rest of whatever she was trying to collect later. Now he needed to get them to safety.
Kyle pressed her soft form against his chest. The warmth of her body seeped into him in a way that the numerous wounds from these avian fiends never had. He was acutely aware of her. The scent of her hair, the softness of her body, and the warmth of her skin. He cried out a battle cry of rage and started rushing for the nearest tunnel, while keeping Nyda pressed tight against him.
He swung the maul like a scythe trying to harvest a crop of foes before
him, but they simply scattered and reformed. Every time Kyle spun to deal with the ones attacking his back, they simply flew out of range. Sure, each time he killed a couple dozen, but it was never enough to thin out the cloud of squawking death.
Numerous new wounds kept appearing on him as he used his body to shield Nyda, but try as he might, he wasn’t moving fast enough. The tunnel was still fifty feet away and the swarm was only growing larger by the second. They weren’t going to make it.
Unless he changed the narrative. Kyle looked down at Nyda held firmly by his arm. Her eyes were scrunched shut and she held onto him just as tightly as she could. Her fate was riding on this, but he had an idea. He felt the potential swell within him. Kyle almost asked her if she trusted him, but then realized that was wasted breath. It didn’t matter if she did or not, this was his only idea and it all rested on him.
Kyle reached inside him to that spot that he identified as being Krig. He felt the perfection that was War Essence swirling around. It felt so pure and natural. It was competition refined. The only true test of life. So different from the way that Earth Essence had felt.
Then he gathered that energy and pushed it out in a surge. His anger at the attack, desire to protect Nyda, and a surprising degree of anger that these little feathered pests would dare to attack him all exploded out of him. It might not have been completely conscious effort, but his mind at least directed the instincts within him as he activated his Divine Ability.
The power surged with intent. It struck with a deadly purpose meant to shred every foe. In an instant, the air rippled and pure killing force ripped through each bird within fifty feet of him. Explosions of feathers and blood filled the air, but Kyle didn’t hesitate to watch his handiwork.
As the consummate warrior caught up in the moment, he acted decisively and burst forward faster than he had ever moved. He cleared the fifty feet in four strides and was then inside the tunnel. But he didn’t stop there. He streaked through the hallways and made it to the infirmary.
