by David Burke
Suddenly partial understanding dawned on Kyle. “You mean she carried one of his divine slivers,” he said.
“Precisely. She was a talented warrior and swore marriage vows to Krig. She and all the other weapon maidens swore those vows and each received a divine sliver from Krig and became one of his chosen,” Hilde said.
Kyle’s thoughts were racing as he asked Hilde, “So uh… me and her… we uh… you know…”
Hilde laughed. “As I told you before, it wasn’t like that. Krig didn’t do that with any other being; goddess, celestial, human, or elf. He just wasn’t interested, but that didn’t mean that the weapon maidens didn’t take their vows seriously. They were a bit of a cult, in my opinion.”
“Whew… I sorta had bad luck with the last woman I slept with who looked at me with as much anger as Marie had. Krig still must have been daft. I mean, she was smoking hot. No hotter than you, but you’ve definitely got some competition now. But that begs the question, why is she mad at me?”
“I can’t say for sure. Remember that after Krig passed the mantle on to you, I became trapped in it, and until you reformed here a few weeks ago, I had no idea what was going on in Verden. She undoubtedly sensed that you are Krig, well partially so. Just like I could sense that there is still a remnant of divine power in her. She doesn’t possess a full sliver, but she will still be far stronger than a normal mortal woman.”
“Okay, so we need to avoid her. I don’t need another scorned woman in my life,” Kyle said.
“Maybe. On the other hand, if you could win her as an ally, she might be quite useful. Again, there was a reason that Krig had mortal servants,” Hilde replied.
“I need to think about this. And I need to clean up, maybe get some sleep.”
“Not so fast, Kyle. We still need to talk about what you just did with Nyda. I am assuming you don’t know what you did, but you apparently weren’t listening when I told you that words have meaning here on Verden.”
“Oh, you mean my promise to protect her. Yeah, that was sorta wild. I felt caught up in it and as soon as I made the promise, it was like there was some type of connection between us, almost like the air was electrified between us. In a way, it was like what happened with Marie earlier. Then it was like energy came out of my very center and went into her. Do you think she felt that? Is that why she ran away?”
“She would have had to have been dead not to feel it. You made an oath and sealed it with your divine essence. Remember that it’s a unique resource that even for gods is limited. Your very life force now will serve to protect her, and the most logical way for you to do that was to empower her. So, you just offered her a sliver of your divine power.”
“I what?”
“You heard me. You just shoved a sliver of your divine power into her. But she still has to accept it. If she does, though, then she will be bonded to you as one of your chosen and will be empowered. Remember, you can only have seven chosen at a time, so you can’t go around doing that for every pretty girl that you feel protective of.”
Kyle thought about it for a moment. “You know what, I don’t regret it. I like Nyda. She is brave. She showed that today when she was trying to finish her task, even though she knew she was risking her life. And you said that she has a power hidden within her. It might be kind of cool to have my own elven sorceress.”
“So, our war god goes from celibate to hound.”
“I can only be who I am,” Kyle replied.
They talked for a bit longer but, in the end, Kyle refused to feel bad about it. He definitely knew that juggling feelings for Hilde and Nyda, along with the new interest in Marie and even Meeka, would be complicated, but he had decided to pursue a different path. He was going to be the best, but he was going to do it with people he cared about.
It didn’t hurt that they were all smoking hot.
Chapter 22 - Training for the Lash
It took Kyle a while to fall asleep that night. Balancing the feelings of the women around him with his focus on winning. Normally he would have gone over what he knew about an opposing pitcher and team before the next game. The problem here was that he had very little knowledge about Marie or Lash. He started trying to mentally call her Lash, because calling her by a name that he only knew because of reincarnated knowledge was only likely to cause problems.
Fortunately, Hilde knew some things about Lash, even if she was acting strange. Twice during the conversation, the celestial asked if they had to keep talking about that mortal. At first, Kyle chalked it up to the celestial’s general dislike of the mortal races, but this seemed more personal. Ultimately, he decided that he needed to play this carefully.
What he did learn was interesting, though. When Hilde had known the weapon maiden, she favored using a whip. She was an agility-based fighter but made heavy use of both War and Deceit Essence. The former to make her strikes more powerful, and the latter to inflict debuffs.
Apparently of the seven weapon maidens, she was one of two more dedicated to stealth type attacks and was often used by Krig as an envoy for that reason. He had trusted her to infiltrate various strongholds and she had been instrumental in starting more than one conflict.
One of the oddities that hit his mind was the realization that even though she looked like she was in her late twenties, Lash was more than a hundred years old. Hilde was even older. Despite his aversion to cougars, two out of the three women he was becoming tangled up with were markedly older than he was. When he commented about that fact to Hilde, she had only laughed at him and pointed out that Nyda was likely older than the Kyle part of him, as a thirty-year-old elf was still just a child.
Eventually he managed to fall asleep. But his dreams were filled with vivid images of the women he had met lately. Even Meeka made an appearance. Yet each of them ended up angry with him for something that he never quite managed to figure out.
He was filled with nervous energy and after washing his face, he thought about just leaping up and ripping the bars out of the stone so that he could leave his cell. He was antsy to be out in the arena training. Speed was going to be essential if he got assigned to fight either Lash or Kierra today. If it was Gilthan, he didn’t think he would be able to move faster than lightning attacks, so it was likely to come down more to resisting them.
Fortunately, he didn’t have long to wait and soon the guards lowered the ladder down to him. A few minutes later, he was in the arena waiting for one of the trainers to arrive. Only the lycan and elvish fighter were there with him. The losers apparently didn’t have to train today—or get to, depending on perspective.
Saber appeared before the delay got awkward. “Well, greetings to those of you who won the first round. Now, we need to talk about tonight’s matches. Obviously, two of you will be fighting one another, but one unlucky soul is gonna have to face off against Lash.”
Kierra made a low growling sound. “What can you tell us about her? I don’t even know what she looks like.”
“She was the woman with the veil standing next to Lady Meeka. I assume that they inspected you after you won your fight,” Gilthan said.
“Good job figuring that out,” Saber said, praising the elf. “What led you to that conclusion?”
“It was the way she moved. There was an air of danger around her,” the sorcerer said. “Oh, and I could detect a staggering amount of essence in her. She didn’t even attempt to hide it, which makes me believe that she wanted me to know.”
“An ability to detect essence is useful. Anyone can learn it, but it is much more difficult for those who don’t actively use essence,” Saber said.
Something about that statement piqued Kyle’s interest. “What do you mean actively use essence?”
“Good question. If I had more time to train you, we could practice this, but you need to understand that anyone who is going to excel as a gladiator has abilities enhanced by essence. Burke and the other humans never really had much of a chance against the three
of you,” Saber replied.
Kyle said, “I thought that it wasn’t possible to infuse essence into normal actions unless you had a skill.”
“While that is true, it is also true that your bodies are innately enhanced by your essence. This is the way that a rare few humans or elves are able to push past ten for a stat. Gilthan and Kierra’s bloodlines are examples of that. Yes, Gilthan can use essence directly as a sorcerer, but it also makes his body stronger than it would have been otherwise. With Kierra, it powers her body, and for some lycans makes a transformation possible,” Saber answered.
“What about him, then?” Kierra asked.
As was typical, she said very little but got right to the heart of the matter. Saber just shrugged and said, “No one really knows with regard to war elementals. Now onto what you are here for. I don’t get to control which of you fights Lash, so I want to prepare all of you for that. She is exceedingly fast and her whip gives her good range.
“Even though it isn’t a heavy weapon, don’t underestimate it. She can make a wallop with it. Burke was out before he knew what hit him. From what I saw, she can make it move in unnatural ways too, so don’t expect that you will know exactly what it is gonna do.”
“Is that because she was a herald of the war god?” Kierra asked.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t mention that, or Krig at all, around her. The rumors are that yes, she was some type of special envoy for him, but that she isn’t anymore. The reasons for that, though, no one knows. Everyone I spoke to about her seems to think that she works for Begaer, goddess of lust, now,” Saber replied.
“Krig is dead. There is no other explanation. His servants were then claimed by the other gods,” Gilthan said.
Kyle just stood silently, listening. Learning what other people thought was fascinating to him, but the real reason for his quiet was the anger that surged through him at Gilthan’s words. He didn’t care what they thought about Krig, but something about the idea that Marie was working for Begaer incensed that part deep within him.
“Maybe, maybe not. But either way, we aren’t here to talk theology. Lash is not a goddess, so she should be beatable. We just need to discuss a few elements such as range and speed,” Saber said.
“It is simple for me. I need to stay out of the range of her whip, and then take her down with lightning attacks,” Gilthan said.
“In principle, I agree, but if you think she won’t have scouted you and your abilities, then she wasn’t much of a disciple of the war god. You should assume that she either has longer ranger attacks than you are expecting, or has ways to negate your attacks,” Saber retorted.
“What then? We can’t prepare for what we don’t know about.” Gilthan sounded angry as he spoke.
“You wait for your pitch. Stay loose and try to observe as much as possible. Then strike when the moment is right. If you tense up too much, then you won’t be able to react as quickly, but if you just go out there expecting a fastball and she throws you a curve, your timing will be all off,” Kyle said. He spoke in the terms that made sense to him but the strange looks he got back told him that his choice of words was not followed very well here.
“You truly are strange,” Kierra said.
“No, I think I get what he means, and he is right, as is Gilthan. You can’t prepare for what you don’t know about, so you need to play to your strengths while staying flexible enough to react accordingly. For Gilthan, that is going to mean keeping his distance, but rather than jumping to an attack right away, try to take her measure.
“For Kierra, it is going to mean getting in close. I watched her fight; she is faster than you but, from what I saw, not by a huge margin. So, you’ll need to negate the range of her whip and get in close enough to use your claws. The fight with Burke was unfortunately too short for me to get a good idea of her abilities.
“The harder one to plan for is Kyle. You aren’t fast enough in close, and don’t have any good, ranged options unless you can more narrowly focus that thing you did to the birds.” Saber’s voice rose at the end indicating that he was asking for a response.
“No, that is more an all or nothing skill.” Kyle opted not to offer any more explanation than that.
“Well then, for now, Gilthan, I want you to work on maintaining your distance and defending. No direct counter attacks at this point. If you do counterattack, you can only do so against the weapons of the trainers that you are working with. That will enable you to practice both your accuracy and timing. I will have three trainers fighting you, two with whips and one with a bow,” Saber said and then signaled and a group of trainers took the elf away to train on the far end of the arena floor.
“Now, for you two, I have two stages of training in mind. First part, I want you to practice together. Kierra is the closest to moving like Lash does here, including all the trainers. So that will help Kyle to learn what to expect,” Saber as he looked at the two of them appraisingly.
“How does that help my training?” Kierra asked. Kyle understood her question but didn’t really like the way she made it sound like training with him would be a waste of her time.
“None of the trainers will be able to give you an experience of pushing you to react faster in close quarters, not like Lash will. We simply don’t have that as an option. During your second phase, I and another of the trainers will duel you two on one and that will be the best that we can do to push you in close quarters fighting.
“For now, fighting with our elemental here will give you two benefits. He is quite deadly with that maul of his and, despite the size of it, has displayed an ability to move it with a precision that is honestly a bit shocking. Especially considering he only just learned how to do it. The way he moves is the closest I have seen to the unnatural way that Lash moved her whip. And just as importantly, Lash is likely far more durable than she looks. So, it will be good for you to practice with someone who won’t fall over just ‘cause you land a couple blows,” Saber replied.
The trainer’s answer made Kyle feel better, but he still couldn’t help himself as he felt the snark rise within him. “I’ll try not to hinder your training too much.”
The lycan girl only stared at him and said, “See that you don’t.”
Saber then stepped away and, before he knew it, Kyle was being set upon by a whirlwind of claws and fangs. He wondered that she didn’t use a weapon to increase her range but figured that she was just practicing to enhance her speed.
Saber yelled out, “Go all out, just don’t kill each other.”
If Kyle had any doubts about how seriously Kierra was gonna take the training, that was removed when her claws slashed into his left thigh above the armor, cutting deep furrows. He immediately felt the impact as his muscles were ripped into, and the leg became less stable. For all that, though, he could feel his body already healing and it didn’t cause him to do more than stagger, catch himself, and take a more guarded approach.
He swung his maul and then as she began to effortlessly slide around it, he did that thing where he was able to instinctively reverse the momentum and sent it right back at her head. For a second, he worried that he was going too hard as the maul looked like it was going to crush her head. To Kierra’s credit, even though the reversal obviously shocked her, she still managed to duck at just the last instant.
From there, a dance back and forth began. Kyle could only dodge less than half of her blows and rarely was able to move the maul into place as a defensive measure. He found the best defense was a good offense. The faster and more furious his attacks came, the better he was able to keep her off balance.
Still, she was fast. He found himself admiring the way that she moved, and honestly not just as a fighter. The fur that covered her arms, legs, and back still threw him off, but she was all woman. A monster could never look like this while moving gracefully, at least not to Kyle. At one point, she slid in and sank her claws into his arm which was partially protected by armor, then spun h
er body so that she rolled across his back only to end up on the other side where she dug into the other arm.
Kyle was pretty sure that he wasn’t a masochist, but the pain simply wasn’t bothering him as much as he would have expected. In contrast, the feel of her warm, barely clothed body rolling across his back made him lose focus for just a second. It had definitely been too long, and shockingly the fur was nowhere near as off putting as he had expected.
She seemed to notice his reaction, because when she spoke next it was more purr than lycan bark. “I can smell your desire on you.”
She stepped back, well, really more like she pranced back, shimmied her hips, and made the bikini top of her armored costume giggle. Kyle shook his head to keep his focus but she went on. “Too bad you aren’t lycan. You don’t fight half badly. But a human could never tame one of the wolfborn.”
Then just as his mind started to imagine trying to tame her, she rushed forward, cutting low before spinning to plant both her feet into his gut. The distraction made his reactions too slow, and he felt the full thud of her strength land into the dual kick. Fortunately for him, she had once again underestimated his ability. He might not have her tremendous agility but as he was knocked to his back, he instinctively tucked and went with it in a roll only to come up a few feet away from her.
“You will have to do better than that,” he snapped back, trying to regain an equal footing in the fight. As he well knew, emotions could control performance and he couldn’t afford to feel off kilter. He needed to be at his peak. Some might have expected him to beat himself up for his loss of focus, but that was for lesser men. Kyle would replay the fight in his head later to learn from it, but self-recriminations didn’t benefit anyone but his opponent.
He quickly learned that short steps and shorter swings of the hammer were more desirable. One strategy that caught her off guard was when he shifted to using the hammer as a pool cue. It lacked the deadly tip of a spear and wasn’t balanced for such a maneuver at all, but an abundance of strength made what would have otherwise been an awkward motion into a shocking attack.
