The Godking's Legacy

by Virlyce

“Before we start. Can we—”

  “Establish your motivational goals?” Durandal smiled. “Yes. Yes we can, Lucia.”

  Wow. How did he know what I was going to say? Maybe he really is a mind reader…

  “I don’t read minds, Lucia. Anyways, if you manage to memorize 20 steps perfectly by the end of today, I’ll tell you a bedtime story.”

  “I’ll do it!”

  Snow and Bouncykins had faces that said, “You’re being bribed too easily, Lucia,” but what do they know? No one’s ever read me a bedtime story before. I definitely didn’t have to cry myself to sleep while other people had stories told to them and lullabies sang to them. Nope. This is simply for the first-time experience.

  ***

  Lucia is extremely motivated nowadays. Ever since I figured out what drove her to do things, getting her to train was no longer like pulling teeth, but she does complain a lot. Her goals seem to be similar to Roland’s. Roland wanted to be the strongest in the world for the sake of Cottontail. He wanted to spoil her by being able to do whatever he wanted without being impeded. Lucia wants to grow strong … for me. Or my praise, at least.

  “I memorized them all!” Lucia bounced to my side and stared up at me with big, round eyes. Her ears and tail twitched as she pursed her lips.

  “Good job, Lucia.” It really was. It only took her a week to memorize the thousands of movements between the 81 positions of the Steady Mountain Footwork. “I’m proud of you.”

  Lucia closed her eyes and smiled as I ran my fingers through her hair. It was nice that she was such a simple person who could be persuaded by praise. Some people moved only for glory or wealth.

  “Perverts,” Bouncykins said from the side. He’s just jealous Snow’s tail isn’t as fluffy or soft as Lucia’s.

  “Hey, Lucia, Durandal, what are your future plans?” Snow asked. He was sitting by the campfire near the field of wooden spears, grilling a chunk of flesh. A large pile of bones lay by his side—Lucia’s previous snacks and motivation.

  “Become a legend!” Lucia nodded and tackled me, clinging to my torso. She peered up at me with a twitching tail. “Right?”

  “Right.” Though I already was a legend. “And the most important thing to becoming a legend is?”

  “Good looks!” Lucia nodded.

  “No. It’s your foundation. Now, you’ll have to circulate your qi during those movements. And the difficultly will be stepped up.” I glanced at Snow while Lucia hung her head. “Did you make it?”

  “The bow? Yeah.” Snow patted the long-ranged weapon by his side. “Is this for Lucia?”

  You could say that. I picked up the bow and retrieved the blunt arrows lying next to it.

  Lucia’s eye twitched. “Uh, Durandal?” She took a step back and raised her arms in front of her chest. “Are you … going to shoot those at me?”

  What. It’s not fun if she figures it out before I start. I mean, it’s a good thing Lucia’s intuition is developing. I’m not doing this for enjoyment or anything. Only a sick person would derive pleasure from someone else’s pain. “It’s training.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Snow said and turned his head away. Lucia was staring at him as if she wanted to cry. “Bouncyki—I mean, Lucifer! Lucifer did a lot worse to me while I was learning my Wind Shadow movements.”

  “Did you just forget my name?” Bouncykins asked, glaring at Snow, who was beneath his feet. “The Mighty—”

  “Yeah, yeah, we get it,” Lucia said, cutting Bouncykins off. I’m a bit proud of her for that. “The more important issue is Durandal’s trying to shoot me with arrows! This is abuse!”

  “You said you wanted to grow stronger and you’d stop complaining.”

  “How long are you going to hold that over my head!?” Lucia took another step backwards.

  “Until it stops working.”

  “Then…”

  “I’ll give you a massage tonight.”

  “I’ll do it! Shoot as many as you’d like!” Lucia scrambled up the wooden spears and hopped to the centermost one. “What exactly am I doing?”

  “Smash apart the arrows and try not to get hit. The only movements your feet are allowed to take are those of the Steady Mountain’s.” It sounds simple, but I didn’t tell her I was going to imbue the arrows with her qi. “Ready?”

  “Yes!” Lucia brandished my weapon body and exhaled while narrowing her eyes. Oh? It’s been a while since I’ve seen her serious face. Maybe a massage was too grand of a reward to bring out just yet? I nocked an arrow and let it fly, letting Lucia adjust to the speed of the projectile. She twisted her lower body and stepped on a nearby spear while swinging my weapon body. How do the spears not sink into the ground despite my weapon body weighing over two tons? …Don’t worry about it.

  “Good.” I fired 81 arrows, guiding Lucia’s body through the foundational footsteps of the Steady Mountain Footwork.

  “Why couldn’t you have been this nice when you were teaching me?” Snow asked the rabbit sitting on top of his head.

  Bouncykins shrugged. “I’m not familiar with footwork. I’m a hare, remember? Why would I need humanoid movements?”

  “I guess that’s fair,” Snow said and crinkled his forehead.

  I ignored the chatter and focused on guiding Lucia with the arrows. There was one time when she slipped and nearly pierced herself on a spear, but she managed to catch herself with her tail. I didn’t realize it was that flexible or strong. It was a shame there weren’t any fighting techniques tailored for beastkin in Roland’s library. A few of his weapon and armor spirits were beastkin, but none of them were squirrels. “How are you holding up, Lucia?” I’ve been expending her qi constantly, and she should be struggling right about now.

  “I, I can keep going,” Lucia said and swallowed the phlegm built up in her throat. “For the reward!” Her eyes gleamed, and I thought I felt her qi reserves replenishing. I should’ve saved this reward for something more difficult. I didn’t think a massage was that valuable.

  Well, it was time to pick up the pace. I fired arrow after arrow, aiming for the flaws exposed when Lucia took steps. The easiest way to teach her where her flaws were was to hit them repeatedly until she instinctively guarded against them. Despite the qi-reinforced arrows striking her body, she didn’t cry out as she struggled to stay on the spears.

  Only after 500 arrows were fired did she finally fall off. By that point, the spears were slick with her sweat and the moon shone overhead. Snow was panting for breath too. He hadn’t made 500 arrows; instead, he had to retrieve the ones I fired and return them to me. It’s good that he’s an obedient lackey, but I’m not quite sure what he wants. He’s decided to follow us, but even if he left, I’d have no intentions of killing him. With Bouncykins at Snow’s side, the secret of my retrieval wouldn’t spread.

  “How, how did I do?” Lucia asked. Her arms and legs were splayed as she stared up at the sky.

  “You were amazing.” She really was. I kneaded her muscles, causing her to groan and relax. When I was done with the massage, she stared at me with a strange expression, her face bright red.

  “There’s no happy ending?”

  …Is that what she was after this whole time? “No…”

  “What!? Then what did I work so hard for!?”

  “To become a legend.” Despite the lack of sun in the sky, my body was unusually warm. “Don’t forget your goals.”

  Lucia grumbled as she sat up. “I feel cheated.”

  ***

  I think … I’ve gotten a bit too freakishly strong.

  “Lucia?” Snow stared at the broken bowl by my feet. “Is there something wrong?”

  I can’t control my strength! I grabbed the bowl and it shattered. My poor stew, stolen by the ground. “Can we buy sturdier bowls?” Ever since completing the Steady Mountain Footwork’s qi circulation method and reaching a level that even Durandal found satisfactory, my strength’s been out of control. I could wield mini-DalDal earlier even if it weighed ove
r two tons before without breaking anything, but now, everything’s so fragile.

  Bouncykins tilted his head. “Can you be more gentle?” If I could, I wouldn’t have asked for sturdier bowls! Stupid hare. “Do something about your new master, Durandal.”

  Durandal’s gaze traversed my body. “She does seem to be a bit stronger. Her qi is overflowing. Why is this?” He frowned and rubbed his beardless chin. “Perhaps it’s a side effect of being a beastkin.”

  “I don’t care why it happened! Just fix it.” My food’s on the floor, and it breaks to pieces when I try to pick it up. Do you know how frustrating it is to have food in front of you that you can’t eat? And the ground cracks when I walk! How ridiculous is this? If I knew this would happen, then I wouldn’t have trained so hard. I never even got my happy ending.

  “Your body needs an adjustment period.” Durandal nodded. “Your strength’s grown too fast for your mind to follow. You’re still acting like you’re the same weak person you were when I first met you.”

  You could’ve just said same person. There was no need to emphasize weak. “So if I leave the problem alone, it’ll go away by itself?” Will I starve to death before that happens? “How long will that take?”

  “How long did it take you to get used to your previous body?” Durandal had a strange expression on his face. I feel like this is a trap…

  Ah! “Didn’t I tell you not to ask for a woman’s age!?” He was trying to trick me. Why did he even want to know? I don’t have many secrets, so let me have this one, alright? “But seriously. How long will it take?”

  “Maybe a week to a few months or years.”

  “A week!?” I’ll definitely starve to death! “Wait. Years?”

  “Don’t panic, Lucia. There’s a simple way to solve all of this.” Durandal had his perverted smile on his face, the one that said, “I’m going to hurt you under the guise of teaching you for your own good.”

  “I think I’ll wait a year.” Yup. Waiting’s fine too. If anything, I can make Snow feed me. Or I can even have Durandal feed me. Wouldn’t that be heaven? Yeah, this is definitely the way to go.

  “Pick up your sword, Lucia.”

  Please, no. “D-do I have to?”

  “It’s for your own good.”

  I knew you were going to say that! “Is this going to be painful?”

  “Would I ever hurt you, Lucia?”

  Yes! You definitely would, you sadistic spirit. “Was that a rhetorical question? Because I really don’t want to answer it.”

  Durandal’s eyes narrowed. Thankfully, he didn’t unleash the aura that threatened my bladder. “Just pick up your sword.”

  “What am I doing?” I picked up mini-DalDal and sighed. The ground looked so broken because I stepped on it. Does this qualify as me being fat? The earth shatters when I walk upon it.

  “You’re going to spar with me.” Durandal picked up his spear and pointed it at me.

  “Uh. Can you repeat that?” Maybe I heard him incorrectly. The fire’s really loud and a fierce breeze is blowing. The insects are awfully loud too.

  “You didn’t hear wrong the first time, Lucia. Prepare yourself.” Durandal lunged at me, thrusting his spear towards my face.

  I’m not ready for this! “Breaking Blade!” Somehow, I managed to save myself by knocking away his strike. How can he resist my sword? Don’t tell me he’s stronger than me even though he’s just a spirit…

  “I’m using your qi. Don’t be too surprised.” Durandal readjusted his stance and tightened his grip on his spear. It flew forward like lightning, and I barely managed to deflect it again. And again. And again.

  “This is cheating!”

  “You never know when an enemy will sap your qi to fight against you.” Durandal’s blows came faster and faster despite his speech. “There’s at least thirteen branches of martial arts that will do this. It’s better for you to become accustomed to the feeling now instead of during a real fight.”

  I’ll die before I manage to meet any of them at this rate! Durandal’s seriously trying to stab me!

  “Hey, Durandal. Those schools that practiced those kinds of arts were destroyed a few decades ago.” Bouncykins munched on a biscuit while sitting up on Snow’s head. Don’t look so relaxed when I’m dying! And stop eating my biscuits, please.

  “That’s irrelevant,” Durandal said, continuing to steal my qi. “What if a weapon spirit lived on and passes the techniques down to someone who finds them?”

  “Only a freak like you would be able to survive that long without an owner.”

  You’re also a freak for lasting so long, you damned hare! Don’t poke at Durandal’s soft spots! He’ll become more aggressive towards the person he’s fighting—me. “T-time out.”

  “No timeouts.”

  “Please?”

  “No.” Durandal punctuated his word with a spear thrust that caused the wind to swirl and roar. I raised mini-DalDal to block it, and I was sent flying away from the force. Just how strong is Durandal to blow away a two-ton sword? Don’t tell me he reduces the weight whenever he strikes me because that really would be cheating. “Take a five minute break. We’ll spar until it’s time for dinner.”

  “But it’s breakfast time! I still haven’t eaten anything.”

  Durandal sighed and walked over to Snow. He snatched a biscuit out of Bouncykins’ stash and sat next to me. “Here. I’ll feed you.”

  …I always thought life was bleak. But now I realize, it’s good. It’s really, really good. Even better than this biscuit.

  ***

  As long as Lucia continues to perform the Steady Mountain Footwork during our duels, the corresponding movements of her blade will become the Steady Mountain Swordsmanship. Over the course of thirty duels, she’s become accustomed to the most comfortable positions for herself to defend and attack from; although she is still vulnerable before my blade. I’ve dueled Roland a few times in the past, and his skills were on par with mine. I guess that made sense since we grew up and trained alongside each other. But I do think I’m stronger than Roland during his prime, at least for swordsmanship, because I had over a millennia to learn thousands of new techniques.

  “Breaking Blade!”

  I took a step back and avoided Lucia’s strike before blocking the destructive shockwave that followed with a Breaking Blade of my own. Maybe it would’ve been more appropriate to call it a Breaking Spear. Regardless, Lucia’s gotten to the point where it wouldn’t be advantageous for me to block her strikes head-on. When we first started, there were dozens of flaws in her footwork, posture, and technique that allowed me to disperse the force with a direct collision, but repeated strikes to her vulnerabilities have taught her well. Pain is the best teacher after all. Followed by head pats.

  “Not bad, Lucia.” Her hair was damp with sweat and clinging to her face and neck. Even her ears were a bit droopy. With that last attack, she had finally exhausted herself. “Do you know what you did wrong this time?”

  “Have less stamina than you?” She looked a bit bitter. If she could steal my vitality instead of the other way around, I imagine I’d have a similar expression on my face.

  “Other than that?”

  “Have less skill than you?”

  “…You’re focusing too much on the spearhead instead of following the movements of my body. The body doesn’t lie, but the trajectory of a weapon can always change or disappear. It’s why you’re reacting too slowly in some situations.”

  Lucia sighed and stared at the floor. She grabbed the hand I moved away and placed it back on her head. I amused her whims as we continued to travel south, following after Snow, who had started walking when our spar ended. How long would it be until—?

  “H-help!”

  Snow stopped walking as Lucia raised her head and stared towards the direction the shout came from. Now that I think about it, it’s been a while since we’ve seen any other people. “Should we help?” I’ll let Lucia decide on how to proceed.

&nb
sp; But before Lucia could even react, Snow cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted, “Do you have any money?”

  A bloodcurdling scream resounded through the forest before someone shouted, “Y-yes!” It was a different voice this time.

  Snow glanced at Lucia. “I guess we can wait until they’re dead to loot their corpses.” He nodded and sat down on a nearby boulder, propping his chin up with his hands as he hunched forward.

  “W-wait.” Lucia stuck her hand out. “Really?”

  Snow nodded. “We’re on the border of the southern pass. Ferocious beasts live beyond this point. Anyone inside should already know the danger they’re getting into.” Snow picked his ear with his pinky. “It could even be a spirit beast pretending to be a human. There’s some who trap prey that way.”

  “M-mommy! Daddy!” Screams that sounded like they came from a little girl rang throughout the forest. Lucia stiffened as she drew my weapon body.

  “I knew you were a gang leader, but I didn’t think you’d be so heartless, Snow!” Lucia pointed her sword at the rabbitkin before dashing towards the shouts. Snow shook his head and sighed. He glanced at me and raised an eyebrow.

  “I’m going to follow her.” Even if I didn’t want to, I’d be automatically pulled into my weapon body if she went too far. From up ahead, I could hear Lucia trampling through the forest. It seemed like she lost control of her body since she left behind massive craters and fallen trees in her wake.

  “I’ll save you!” Her voice wasn’t too far ahead. “Wait right there!”

  “H-hurry. Please!”

  There was a massive crash up ahead, and the sounds of fighting rang out. Lucia had engaged with the enemy. “Die, you stupid fat cat! Breaking Blade!”

  A roar echoed through the forest. I made it to a small clearing filled with uprooted trees and broken trunks. A ferocious beast was lying on its side and scrambling back onto its feet as a sword-wielding squirrelkin girl chased after it with a vicious expression on her face. The beast was a large panther with fur as dark as the night. There was no sign of any humans around.