by E C Chii
Wolf raised his hand delaying her departure, “How about this Sugar Tits. The money you owe is paid in full pending you kill as many Imperial Slavers you find while you are on your quest for vengeance? Would that be acceptable?”
Helyne’s eyes lit up and a wicked smile crossed her face, “Consider the contract accepted”. She abruptly rose from the chair and left for the exit.
The group watched her leave either powerless to stop her or simply didn’t care. Wolf was of the latter, since he didn’t really like how she was. As she was leaving he shouted teasingly, “Good luck, Aryia. Make sure you tell them that we remember.” Looking over to the remaining women, and shrugging after she left the tavern.
Sienna picked up her mug of ale taking a long draw, “From your story it sounds like you have seen much combat. Mind showing me later?”
Siris chimed in as well, “I would be interested in learning some of these martial arts myself. I think it would be good to regain some past skills.”
“I don’t see a problem with that. What do you plan on doing Dobby?” Wolf asked Ezie
Ezie stammered, “I don’t know yet. Would you be willing to spar with me Sir Charle?”
“I am interested in finding out how a Warden fights.”
“I’m not a Warden, I never finished my training.” She replied.
“That my dear is largely irrelevant. You are the closest thing to a Warden as I have ever met. Let us see if Antoanio can manage some training gear for us to spar with.”
Wolf also stood, “I like you’re thinking, all of my skills are still in the beginner stages, I need to practice as this body is not used to the techniques and such.”
The five agreed and headed to the blacksmith.
Chapter 18 – Ring of Pain
The blacksmith did not have training armor or weapons, so they ventured to the town hall to see the Captain of the Militia. After a brief conversation, they were lead to the back of the building to the training field. Ezie picked out a set of heavy padded armor and helmet with small round shield and heavy looking round tipped sword. Charle didn’t laugh or mock her seemingly odd choice of weapon, even blunted it looked like it could cause a great deal of harm. They both moved into the ring before they saluted each other to begin, Charle raised his longsword preparing to meet her. While Wolf was busy searching for an appropriate weapon he picked up a well-worn gambeson coat and trousers. He managed to find several decent knives and a small hand axe that would suit his needs. Turning back, he was watching both Ezie and Charle begin their dangerous dance of death.
After donning his padded armor, he walked up next to Sienna who was wearing an odd set of cloth armor reinforced with bone. At first glance, it appeared to be crude and poorly made, but the more he looked at it the more he realized that it sacrificed protection for mobility. She stood leaning onto the wooden fence with a spear that had a bone leaf head.
His attention returning to the arena he noticed several openly bleeding wounds on Ezie, “Are those blades sharpened? Isn’t there a risk of killing one another or something?”
Sienna giggled, “No, they are in a dueling pit. This is the only place where one does not need to worry about death in. Týr wouldn’t let those who call out to him in battle going ill prepared or to the slaughter needlessly. He draws power from those who go into battle as prepared as they can. That is why when a dueling arena is made he blesses the land to prevent permanent death. Though the cost of it is you cannot gain in skills and pain is amplified, to teach those who fight that they are not all powerful.”
“Týr? Who is that?”
Sienna eyed him suspiciously, “You really don’t know who that is?”
“I wouldn’t ask if I knew.”
Sighing she responded, “Týr is a god of war. He oversees law and heroic glory in battle. That’s why he looks out for those wishing to train in the arenas.”
“Ah, that makes sense. You can go all out but would be unable to improve your skills tangibly. We had something like this, but it didn’t work the body quite like that.”
“Well it may not be useful as actual skill progression, but it does allow you to adjust to new skills and test theories.”
The fight between Ezie and Charle was concluding with Charle being the clear victor, since Ezie was unconscious on the ground. Wolf narrowed his eyes, “What would stop someone from binding someone into the arena to be repeatedly hurt?”
Sienna scowled, “No, Týr would be greatly offended by such a thing and bring down swift vengeance on those who would. Such a thing is something Mesperyian would favor and very few people seek out her blessings or attention willingly.”
“Right, god of war and heroic glory, but also an enforcer of law. At least he isn’t one of those ridiculous evil gods of evilness.”
Ezie having passed out from both pain and exhaustion was gently carried out by Charle. Once they had cleared out of the arena Wolf and Sienna entered. Wolf did some preliminary stretching before he laid the three knives and hand axe on the ground and sat in the seiza position.
“Please give me a moment to center myself.” Wolf said while he closed his eyes.
Sienna eyed him cautiously, but let him do so. After a few minutes of silence, a notification window interrupted Wolf’s meditation.
You have received the ‘Focused’ buff, all attack and movement speed has been increased by 10% until end of combat or 30 minutes.
Wolf smiled as he opened his eyes and proceeded to examine each of the weapons that lay before him.
Name: Steel Hand-Axe
Quality: Average
Creator: Antoanio Missagi
Durability: 9/25
Bonuses: None
Critical Hit Rate: 1%
Damage: 4-7
Rarity: Common
Weight: 1.5 kg
Name: Steel Dirk
Quality: Below Average
Creator: Antoanio Missagi
Durability: 3/5
Bonuses: None
Critical Hit Rate: 1%
Damage: 3-4
Rarity: Common
Weight: .2 kg
Name: Steel Dagger
Quality: Average
Creator: Antoanio Missagi
Durability: 12/15
Bonuses: None
Critical Hit Rate: 1%
Damage: 4-5
Rarity: Common
Weight: .2 kg
Name: Steel Bowie
Quality: Below Average
Creator: Antoanio Missagi
Durability: 10/12
Bonuses: None
Critical Hit Rate: 1%
Damage: 5-6
Rarity: Common
Weight: .5 kg
The balance on the knives were not perfect but would suffice for the fight. Once he was happy, he sheathed the dirk and Bowie but kept the dagger in a reverse grip in his left with the hand-axe in the right. He stood from his seated position and gave Sienna a formal bow before he took his stance. Knowing that if he had any chance to win he would need to get inside the spear’s range, something she was sure to try and prevent. When he analyzed her, it showed that she was level five, but instincts told him not to underestimate her.
“You are a strange one” Sienna said as she leveled the spear at him and started to a circle him in like the predator she was. “I have seen those who whip themselves up into a frenzy before going into a fight, those who pray to their gods, and even one who brought themselves to near-death to get an edge. I have yet to see any that do everything they can to calm themselves. After I get through beating you, please tell me what that is all about.”
Wolf nodded keeping his focus on her shoulders as she continued circling sending several exploratory thrusts. Wolf managed to either deflect or dodge each of these attacks but felt sluggish and slow throughout the whole ordeal. She managed to land a light thrust puncturing through his gambeson, only the very tip of the spear managed to get through, but it felt like he had just been shot. Clenching his teeth in a hiss he
jumped back. Sienna seeing the opening, lunged forward for a stronger thrust meant to run him through. Using the hand-axe he swept the spear to his right and stepped in.
The spearhead’s blade sliced through the armor but did not cut him. As she jerked it back its razor-sharp edge cut another ineffectual slash in the armor. Wolf tossed the dagger in the air trying to switch its grip but missed the timing causing it to go tumbling to the ground. Wolf cursed as he tried to recover by grabbing the spear shaft again missing his timing grasping spearhead cutting deeply into his hand. Pain struck through his arm like lightning causing him to wince. Seeing another opening, Sienna brought the butt of the spear around sweeping his legs.
Wolf landed hard on his back, knocking the wind out of him, instinctually he rolled to the left narrowly dodging the spear thrust that would have pierces through his chest. Continuing his roll, he managed to get to his feet as she brought the spear around.
“You really are not very good at this are you?” Sienna asked mockingly.
“I can’t seem to move like I want.” Wolf said through his teeth from pain and frustration.
Sienna’s eyebrow quirked, “What do you mean? How can you not move in the way you want?”
Despite the questions she continued to stab and thrust continuously making him duck and dodge.
“When I came here I was required to create this body. All the martial arts I was trained in and skills I knew were refined there and in that body.”
“I see…Does that mean you will need to take time to re-learn everything?” she asked as she thrust her spear through his foot.
Wolf screamed as the spear lanced through slicing bone and muscle with ease alike. A familiar anger welled in his chest as his sight tinged red. The pain he was feeling started to dull with a thought he willed his strength and speed to increase.
You have received an Unknown buff, STR, DEX, AGI, and speed are increased by 15%
He was already down to just under half health and had yet to even hit her. A small part of his pride shouted in indignation. The darker red his vision the larger his smile and less pain he felt, when he looked at Sienna he saw a grim frown with a hint of fear in her eyes. Like smelling blood in the water, he saw her hesitance, grasping the handle of the Bowie in his left hand he took a wider stance than normal. Stoking the flames of anger, he felt more pain leave him furthering his ominous smile and renewing his strength.
Staring into her eyes, several long moments passed as neither moved. A trickle of blood flowed down the blade of the Bowie, as it welled at the tip. A slight breeze passed through shaking it lose. The moment it left the blade Wolf reversed the grip of the hand-axe as he underhand threw it at her and ran as best he could toward her. Switching his Bowie to his right hand and pulling the dirk from its home on his hip. She batted away the axe out of the air but missed him as he slid under her counter thrust. He managed to get close enough to stab the dirk through her thigh lodging it into her hip.
With the blade stuck he could somewhat control her movement so long as he kept ahold of the dirk. This however was much easier thought than done since the hand which held the dirk was the one that was sliced up. While he still held onto the dirk the Bowie was brought up through her arms becoming entangled with hers. Anger gave way to rage, conscious control of his actions became much harder as he struggled to free his knife. Sienna did something he would have never thought of; she bit him.
Her fangs pierced through his right arm causing his grip to falter on the Bowie. She pushed him back with all her strength ripping free the dirk while it remained in his grip. This time she didn’t miss him when her counter thrust landed deep in Wolf’s gut, only this time he didn’t back away. He pushed forward allowing the spear to go completely through him thus trapping it within himself. Waves of pain washed through him with his right hand grabbing hers trapping her in a brutal tug of war. Slashing the dirk up and down her arm severing tendons and muscles leaving it limp and useless.
Wolf’s anger and rage began to fade along with his consciousness, he could vaguely recall his continuation of him stabbing her while she punched, kicked, bit, and stabbed him back. At some point, he lost the dirk and was only left with punching, while she kept stabbing him. Toward the end of his willpower he conjured up all the lightning he could infusing his fist and driving it straight into the humanoid muzzle of Sienna. On contact, the MP he pushed into his hand fizzled and backlashed up his arm. His head felt like it was connecting two high voltage power lines. Eventually all strength left his body leaving him paralyzed and unable to do anything except suffer in pain.
Wolf’s world was nothing but pain but still mildly conscious of his location and the steady relief that came with out of combat regeneration. Still feeling the sawdust ground of the arena before he felt a pair of strong metal encased hands lift him up and carry him out of the arena. As his body was carried out of the arena he felt many of the debilitating wounds and broken bones instantly mend only leaving the lacerations and bruises to heal under his own power.
He lay there for several minutes focusing on letting himself heal, the muffled voices he heard around himself were largely ignored as he focused on the pain willing it to heal faster. Ignoring everything around him he solely focused on it until everything went silent.
When he felt well enough to rise he got up to see several others surrounding both him and Sienna. Sienna was whole and well but had the obvious look of having been roughed up quite badly. Charle picked him up and clapped him on the back telling him it was a good fight, while laughingly telling him he got his ass handed to him.
Wolf limped over to where Sienna was sitting on the bench nursing what looked like a broken jaw.
“Good fight, I wouldn’t mind doing that again in a little bit. If you are down of course.”
“You really have no idea how much I would love to do that again. What type of fighting style was that?” She asked sarcastically.
“Well I just took the fight like I would any life or death battle. Try to kill the opponent as quickly and brutally as possible before I’m killed.” Wolf answered nonchalantly
“I’m sure.” She replied doubtfully.
“Let’s rest up and switch opponents when Ezie wakes up, I would like to go a few rounds with the soulless ginger.”
“The soulless ginger? Who is that?” She questioned
“Charlie the soulless. You know, because he is a ginger.”
“Why would being a ginger mean he is soulless?” She asked
Sighing, Wolf just said, “Never mind, and don’t worry about it.” Hanging his head dejectedly at the failed humor he walked toward Charle to see if he was up to spar.
When he and Charle fought, it was like a master toying with a student. Wolf’s timing, speed, and reactions were all too slow. His mind worked faster than his body would react. When the sun was starting to set, he could start getting a handle this new body’s timing and speed. Charle offered his hand to him, as he lay on his back staring at the darkening sky.
“You are quite relentless. Your style is very unorthodox, your movements are sluggish, and timing is off but efficient. It shows that you have seen quite a bit of battle in your life. Though you do leave many openings that a good fighter could exploit. It’s like you are expecting your blades to cleave through me regardless of any armor. What type of weapons did you use?” Charle commended
“Thanks, it burns a bit that I need to start back from the basics due to this being an unconditioned body. But I think it will be good for me in the long run as I didn’t need to worry about certain armor and such before. As for our weapons, we used blades and axes so sharp that they could part anything on a molecular level.”
“Molecular?”
“Ah, think of molecules as stones in a wall that make up everything in the world. The blade is sharp enough to cut between the stone without catching cleanly cutting through anything in its path. The cuts are on such a small level that it is indistinguishable after being cut.” Confusion and do
ubt crossed their faces. Wolf saw it and simply let it pass, though the look of excitement on Ezie’s face was a little unsettling.
They made their way to the militia’s armory to return the practice equipment. Heading to the Tavern to grab a pair of fresh clothes so they could wash up prior to their evening meal. His first experience in the communal bath was rather, comical at first when he had entered. This time was different since he knew what he was doing now. His initial bashfulness made him a sight to be seen when the elderly ladies fussed over his hair and how he didn’t take care of it. He didn’t know that his hair was part Smoky Amethyst and needed something a bit different than provided soap. One of the things that Wolf needed to get used to was being exposed to others, being bashful or embarrassed in the military and subsequently warzones is not only ridiculous but also dangerous.