Chapter 12
There was only one place in the town to get all geared up for an epic battle, and when I got to Jax’s forge, he didn’t seem surprised that I had showed up. The burly man already had the hearth roaring, and from the smell of hot metal, he was elbow deep in smithing some new weapons or armor.
“Do you have some time to spare for your favorite god?” I asked as I made a new save point and entered the sweltering heat of the forge.
Jax pulled the red hot sword from the hearth and placed it on the anvil as he eyed me. “Seein’ as you’re the one who’s gonna be doin’ all the fightin’, I think I’d be an idiot not to.”
“Was Mahini here?” I asked as I walked up to the anvil.
“Ya just missed ‘er,” he chuckled. “Said she was going to ‘survey defenses.’”
“She’s always working,” I snickered.
“Aren’t we all?” he laughed. “Let me finish this up, and then I’ll help ya.”
The pounding of the hammer on the hot metal filled the forge with ringing and sparks, and it was a few minutes before the blacksmith put the weapon aside and gave me all of his attention.
I drew my feather sword and held it out for Jax. His eyes flashed with interest as he took it, and he went about doing his normal checks for how awesome the sword was.
“This thing has magic,” he stated. “It should weigh at least twice what it does.”
“Yeah, it has something called feathering,” I replied.
“Whaddya mean?” Jax asked as he narrowed his eyes at me. “How d’ya know something like that?”
“I can see its stats,” I said simply and touched the blade to demonstrate the ability. “Durability is at fifty-eight-percent, and it has the magical aspect of feathing.”
From the bewildered look the blacksmith was giving me, I might as well have started speaking in the goblin tongue, which meant that the stats I was seeing was another part of my god abilities, and I probably should keep it to myself.
Chime.
“This thing has magic,” Jax stated again. “It should weigh at least twice what it does.”
“I’ve been calling it my feather sword,” I said with a smile. “And I was hoping that I could sharpen it up a bit.”
The blacksmith ran his thumb along the blade with a hum. “It could definitely use a little attention.”
Jax made his way over to the grinding stone and grabbed a bucket that was sitting on the floor. After he filled it with some water from one of the barrels in the corner, he sat on the stool in front of the grinding wheel and started pumping the little pedal on the floor. I watched closely as he gently placed the blade against the stone with the sharp edge facing away from him.
“We didn’t cover sharpening when I made my own sword, but wouldn’t it be faster if the sharp edge was facing toward you?” I asked. “Having it facing away seems like it’s going against the grain or something.”
“Sure, if I want to stab myself in the gut,” Jax barked in laughter. “The wheel comes at ya, so the blade better be away.”
I wasn’t about to argue with the master, so I just continued watching as he carefully drew the sword side to side as the wheel spun. He kept the blade at an angle to the stone, and every now and then he would lift the sword up to inspect the edge he was making.
“Pour some more water over the stone, would ya Great One?” Jax asked as he inspected the edge.
He never stopped pumping the pedal, and after I trickled water over the stone as he had done before, he gave me a nod. He then flipped the blade around and started sharpening the other side. He paused several times to inspect this edge or ask me to pour some more water on the stone, and after about ten minutes, the blade’s edge looked as good as new.
“How’s that?” Jax asked as he handed the sword back to me.
I stepped back and gave it a few test swings before I touched the blade.
Durability - 80%
Weight - 0.2lbs
Quality - High
Magical Aspect - Feathering
Magical Ability - None
“Is this as sharp as it gets?” I asked when I saw the eighty-percent durability. I already knew he thought I was crazy for being able to see the stats, but I wondered if the blade couldn’t ever get a high durability because it was so light.
“I could shave with that edge, Great One,” Jax retorted.
If the edge was as sharp as the blacksmith could get it, then why was it only at eighty-percent durability? The sword Jax had given me for the mine expedition had been full durability, so I knew that the maximum durability was one-hundred-percent. So why was mine capped at eighty?
I spotted a sword leaning against the table of tools and thought it might have been the one Jax gave me for the mine expedition. I crossed the forge, picked it up, and quickly checked its stats. The durability had gone down during my use, so it was now at seventy-eight-percent.
“Let me try sharpening this one,” I said as I returned to Jax.
The burly man rose from the grinding wheel and gestured for me to take the seat. He walked me through getting the wheel going, and it took me a few minutes to get a rhythm down that was smooth and didn’t come to a jarring halt. My right ankle was already aching before I even put the blade against the stone.
“You’ll want to keep the angle low,” Jax growled over my shoulder, “and keep the pressure firm and consistent.”
I had always thought that sharpening a blade was as easy as getting a whetstone and just giving a few long strokes, but the reality was about as difficult as forging a sword in the first place. My first attempt gave me a wavy edge on the side of the sword, and I could tell Jax was barely containing his laughter.
Chime.
The second and third attempts were not much better, but by the fourth I could tell that the wavy line was getting a little less dramatic. At the eighth attempt the wave was almost nonexistent, and by the tenth Jax told me it “wasn’t bad”. I wanted perfection, so I gave it another ten tries, and then I got an admiring whistle from the blacksmith.
“Is there anything you can’t do?” he asked me as he ran his thumb along the blade.
I kept my mouth shut and just gave him a smile.
When I had sharpened both edges of the sword, I checked its stats again. The durability was back up to one hundred, so I guessed that durability was the same as sharpness when it came to a sword.
I made a new save point.
“Hey Jax,” I began as I looked down at the newly-sharpened sword. “Can I borrow an armor stand and some different kinds of armor?”
“What would you need all that for?” he asked with a puzzled look on his face.
“Just trust me,” I assured him. “I need to test out a theory of mine.”
I couldn’t remember how many dirty goblins I had killed with this sword, but its durability had gone down by twenty-two-percent before I switched to the feather sword. That meant there was some kind of ratio between the number of uses and the durability.
And I was going to find out what those numbers were.
I helped Jax set up three of the armor stands, each with a different chestplate on it. The one on the left wore a heavily stained cloth shirt that Jax didn’t mind getting shredded by the sword, the middle one wore a thick leather tunic, and the stand on the right had the chestplate I used in the mine.
“What are you playin’ at, Great One?” Jax asked once they were all set up.
“I’m gonna start banging on the armor to see how the durability works,” I answered.
I ignored the blacksmith’s bewildered look and swung my blade at the flimsy shirt. The material split easily beneath the sword’s peak sharpness, but when I checked the durability, it was still at one-hundred-percent. Even after a dozen slices, the durability didn’t change.
“Okaaaaay,” I said as I shifted to the leather armor.
The results were the same for both the leather and the plate armor. No matter how many times I bashed the sword against the armor stand, the durability didn’t change.
“What the hell?” I shouted.
I swung the sword against a large rock a few times to get out some of the frustration. On a whim, I checked the durability.
“Oh, shit, that worked?” I questioned as I noted the drastic change.
The rock had eaten a good chunk of durability from the sword with only a few swings. Already the blade was down thirty-six-percent. I swung it against the rock one more time and found that it lost another nine-percent.
“What’re you doin’?” Jax asked in a tone of utter disbelief.
I ignored him and swung the sword again. It dropped another eight with a second swing, and then another nine with a third swing. After several more swings, I learned that the sword would lose anywhere from five to ten-percent durability.
“You chewed it all up, Great One!” Jax roared as he snatched the damaged blade away from me. The edge was all ragged from use, and the durability was in the single digits.
While the blacksmith grumbled and returned to the grinding stone, I drew my feather sword and gave it a swing. It lost ten-percent right away, and another ten after a second swing. Each swing ate up ten-percent of its durability, and since I was going to restart anyway, I let the durability reach zero.
The blade snapped from the hilt, and I knew there was no repairing it.
“Five to ten-percent on a rock with a normal sword, and ten-percent with my feather sword,” I mused.
It was a pity the armor idea hadn’t worked, but I now knew the ratio against a rock and at least that was a step in the right direction.
Chime.
Jax’s sword was as good as new, and the armor stands were gone from the small clearing behind the forge. I had to assume the durability factor played a part against actual enemies rather than a dummy dressed up in armor, so I made a mental note to test it out again when I battled Lucian and his men.
For now, I had other things to learn from the blacksmith.
“So now that I know how to forge and sharpen a sword, how about you show me the steps in between?” I asked.
“I shoulda known you’d be wantin’ the next round,” Jax laughed. “Ya won’t be usin’ the sword during the battle, though. Still won’t be ready.”
“This baby will work just fine, I think,” I said as I patted the feather sword at my side. “But I’d still like to know the process, if you don’t mind.”
“Well, come on over, and let’s get this started,” Jax said as he gestured for me to follow him.
I created a new save point, and then I asked the burly man something that had been nagging me since the day we met.
“Hey, Jax, how did someone with your skills end up in a small village like this?” I asked. “I could see you working for a king or something.”
“You’d think,” the blacksmith let out a barking sort of laugh. “I used to work at the duke’s palace before I met Elrin. The duke liked my work well enough, but he didn’t care for my attitude.”
“But you’re such a ray of sunshine!” I laughed as the burly man gave me a companionable punch on the arm.
“Yeah, sunshine in the desert, maybe!” he growled back. “He had me train my replacement and then cast me aside. I already knew Elrin was lookin’ to build his own place, so I hopped at the chance to go with him when he asked.” The blacksmith shrugged. “Been here ever since.”
There was a brief silence, and I could only imagine Jax was transported back into his memories.
“We’re here to make swords, not gossip like old ladies,” Jax growled after a minute or so. “Let’s get to it, already.”
The blacksmith already had several weapons in various stages of completion, and he was able to walk me through each step of the process with a visual representation. He started with my dull-looking sword and started talking about the different cross-sections of a blade which could be seen when looking down the sword from its tip. Only my enemies would see it, but Jax said it was an important step in the process.
“Most common is known as the fuller,” Jax explained as he held up the sword I had sharpened. “See the groove down the middle? It’s good for catching blood when you stab a guy.”
We both laughed, and he brought over a strange loop tool. It had a long strip of metal in a U-shape with a pair of two short metal rods melded perpendicular at each end. It kind of looked like the profile of a crocodile if a crocodile only had front teeth that were dull instead of pointy.
“This is called a fullering tool,” Jax said with a grin. “Can ya guess why it’s called that?”
I just laughed since I knew the question was rhetorical. The blacksmith heated my dull sword in the hearth and placed the fullering tool on the anvil. He secured it with an antique-looking clamp, and when the sword was glowing orange, he brought it over and stuck it underneath the two metal rods so that they lined up in the center of the blade. Then he grabbed one of the smaller hammers and started pounding on the end of the fullering tool so that the two rods smashed together against the blade.
After a long round of pounding, he held up the blade for me to inspect. A faint groove had already formed, but even my inexperienced eye could tell that it wasn’t even close to done.
I tossed the sword back into the hearth, and this time I took the hammer to the fullering tool. I followed Jax’s guideline as best I could , but the groove wobbled along the center of the blade like a drunk trying to pass a sobriety test on the side of the road.
Chime.
Like when I was first learning how to use the forge, it took me several dozen attempts before I was able to smash out a perfectly straight line down the middle of the blade. By this point, Jax was no longer surprised by how quickly I picked up these skills, and he moved right along to the next step.
“This part’s easy,” Jax said as he tossed my blade back into the flames of the heart. “We’ll need the brine to quench the metal and keep it from being brittle and shattering.”
The blacksmith dragged the barrel of brine over to the hearth, and when the entire sword was bright orange, he snatched it up with a pair of tongs and dunked the whole thing into the barrel. Thick steam and hissing filled the forge as Jax lifted and dunked the sword several times into the brine. He repeated the process several times before removing the sword and laying it on the table near the anvil.
“It’s gotta dry,” Jax said when he caught me staring. “And then you’ll have to grind it down until it gets its shine.”
For this step, he grabbed one of the daggers that were supposed to be a gift to Lucian. Half of it was already ground to a shine, and the process seemed similar to sharpening the blade, but when I got a change to try it, I had Jax barking into my ear about too much pressure.
Chime.
It only took a few attempts to get the finishing process mastered, and then Jax walked me through making a pommel and guard. Both were similar to forging and finishing a sword except with much smaller parts involved and far less heating and reheating. The blacksmith completed the second dagger as he showed me the process before handing both finished blades to me.
“These were meant for Elissa’s husband, and that’s you, not that whiny lord outside our walls,” Jax growled.
I grinned, took one of the blades, and quickly checked its stats.
Durability – 100%
Weight – 1lb
Quality – Excellent
Magical Aspect – Made with Love: Extra Durability
Magical Ability – None
It was the first time I had seen excellent quality, but it was the extra durability aspect that really attracted my attention. I grabbed the other dagger and found its stats were identical except that it didn’t have the extra durability aspect to it.
“So the aspects are random,” I muttered to myself. Jax gave me a confused look, but I ignored it. “These are great, Jax, thanks. I can tell you made this with love.”
“Nawwwww,” the burly man said in an even gruffer tone than usual, and then he cleared his throat and looked down to his anvil. “You know… You’ve just helped our little settlement out a bunch. We all appreciate it. Business is gonna pick up now that the mine is working. People will be able to feed their families. Figured you could use a good short blade or two. That’s all.”
“Well, I appreciate it,” I said as I gave the burly smith a smile.
“I bet you’ll be wantin’ to learn more about your armor, too, then?” he chuckled.
“You read my mind,” I laughed as I put the daggers on the table for the time being.
I made a new save point and got to learning about the finishing touches for armor. The whole process was very similar to getting a sword looking its best except that there were more parts to quench and temper and polish. There was also the tedious process of attaching all of the different straps and hinges that kept the armor from falling off when it was put on.
Since the armor that I had been working on didn’t have all of the different pieces and was still in need of a long polishing process, I helped Jax put together the armor I would be wearing in the battle to come. It was much thicker and a little heavier than the armor I had worn in the mine, but that meant it would serve me better against the well-trained soldiers waiting to run me through with their swords.
Most of the hard work was already done, so there was no need for me to Chime because I didn’t fail at the task. The whole thing still took us most of the afternoon to complete, and when we were finished, Jax helped me put the ensemble on to make sure it fit me okay.
I had just put the helmet over my head when someone cleared their throat behind me. I spun around to see Mahini standing in the doorway with an indulgent sort of smile on her face. She was wearing the same outfit from the first time we had met up at the forge with the metal corset and the tight leather pants that hugged her every curve.
“I missed you,” I said. “Did you already get your gear? Jax said you went to look over the defenses?”
“I did,” she said with a nod. “I don’t wear as much as you, so I thought I would watch the army for a while and report back.”
“And?” I urged.
“I’ve learned so little,” she said with a shake of her head. “The men are all very skilled, and I know there are fifty-four of them, not including the duke’s son.”
Holy shit. That was more than twice the number of the kobold horde.
I would have to come up with some kind of plan, but for now, I wanted to focus on something a little more in the moment. I shook my head and wiggled my hips a little as I grinned at Mahini.
“What do you think?” I asked her as the armor clinked with my movements.
“I thought you were supposed to be my dress up doll?” she shot back with a melodic laugh as she entered the shop. She circled me and occasionally adjusted part of the armor. “It is finely made, and it should protect you from the worst of the soldiers’ attacks.”
“That’s what armor does best,” I joked.
“Do you have a shield?” she asked as she looked around the forge.
“Yeah, right here,” I said as I picked up the kite shield.
The one I was working on wouldn’t be ready for another day or so of working on it, so Jax loaned me one of his. I tapped the shield to bring up the stats again, even though the warrior woman couldn’t see the floating text box. It was still so strange that I could interact with the world in ways nobody else could.
Durability – 100%
Weight – 9lbs
Quality – High
Magical Aspect – None
Magical Ability – None
“Elissa asked me to fetch you for supper,” the desert goddess said as she helped Jax start removing the armor.
“Oh, wow, I didn’t realize it was so late already,” I remarked as I ducked to peek outside. The sky was already a splash of pinkish red and orange. “Feels like forever ago that I told Lucian where he could shove it…”
Neither Jax nor Mahini responded, and after a few minutes of their administrations, I was unencumbered by the armor.
“I’ll hang onto it here until the battle,” Jax said as Mahini and I headed for the doorway of the forge. “I wanna make some minor adjustments, but it’ll be ready for ya when the time comes.”
“Thanks again, Jax,” I said, and then I waved as Mahini and I left the blacksmith’s shop.
A silence hung over the desert goddess and me as we walked down the quiet streets. I could see where the people had been busy at work getting the town ready to withstand a potential siege. Even if they had the utmost confidence in my abilities, it was nice to see that they were at least taking the threat seriously. I couldn’t fail, of course, but I didn’t want the people around me to grow complacent and just rely on me to always come out on top.
That was just poor planning.
A group of men and women were practicing archery in the town center, and I paused to watch them loose a few arrows.
“Were you training them, Mahini?” I asked the beautiful warrior woman.
“I was studying the army all day.” She shook her head, and since her hair was loose today, her dark locks swished back and forth with the movement.
“Tell me about it,” I said.
She quickly gave me the details on what to expect. Fifty-five men including Lucian, thirteen of which were crossbowmen, twenty-three were swordsmen, and the last eighteen were spearmen. They all had fine-looking armor, and after watching them practice, Mahini was certain that their skill was far beyond anything the men in town were capable of.
“You and I will have no problem taking them on one on one, but I fear that they may overcome us in the end,” she concluded with a worried look.
“I could challenge him to a duel,” I suggested. “Single combat, him versus me, to the death. If I win, his army leaves, and if he wins, I’ll be dead.”
“Don’t speak like that!” Mahini snapped at me, and her blue eyes burned with the cold fire I found super sexy. “You vowed yourself to me forever, and you would break that vow so soon?”
“Woah, hey, easy!” I put my hands on the desert warrior’s shoulders and smiled at her. “I was just keeping it simple. You know I’m not going to lose.”
Her eyes searched mine for something, but I couldn’t tell if she found what she was looking for or not because she broke the contact with a deep sigh.
When she turned and started to walk away from me, I spotted the bow on her back.
“Hey, Mahini?” I called, and she turned her head back. “Could you teach me how to make and use a bow?”
She looked surprised by my request and looked up at the sky. “It is late, so perhaps tomorrow, Great One.”
“Sweet,” I muttered to myself. “Hot date tomorrow with the sexiest warrior I’ve ever met.”
“You… always say the strangest things, Great One,” she whispered. “It’s so bold. As if you don’t care what anyone thinks about you.”
“I really only care what you and Elissa think about me,” I chuckled. “You are my women. No one else’s opinions matter to me.”
“That seems wise,” she chuckled. “Women have a way of making sure they are the only thing that matters to a man. You have initiative over our wiles.”
“Why, Mahini,” I gasped as I put my hand to my chest. “Did you just make a joke?”
“Perhaps,” she said as a slight smile broke out across her full lips.
The night seemed to pass slowly as the anticipation of learning archery hung over me. The only time I stopped thinking about it was when Elissa dragged me to the bedroom for another long round of love-making. It was easy to get lost in the floral scent of her tanned skin, and every sound she made as I lavished her with attention was more intoxicating than the last.
But not even the allure of Elissa’s naked body could have kept me in bed when dawn finally broke. The crossbows had saved me a great deal in the fight with the kobolds, and although most of these soldiers were heavily armored, I could probably shoot them in the eye if I got as deadly accurate as my mentor was.
“Good morning, Great One,” Mahini greeted me in the kitchen with a bow.
“I have prepared you breakfast, and then we will train.” The blue-eyed warrior had made a simple meal of lightly toasted bread and a few fried eggs with some fresh berries on the side.
“Thanks, Mahini.” I ate as quickly as I could and washed it all down with a few gulps of water. “Are you going to share the bed with Elissa and I tonight? I don’t want to pressure you, since I know you asked for some time, but there is plenty of room for you, and I desire to make love to you.”
“I am unsure, Great One,” she whispered as she bowed her head to me, “But I am grateful for your patience with me.”
“All good,” I said as I chewed. I grinned at my warrior woman. “Take your time, but right now, I’m really eager to learn from you. Let’s get some bow-shooting done.”
“Then let us begin.” The dark-haired beauty led the way out of the house, and I followed behind and greeted the townspeople we passed now and again. We didn’t stop until we reached the woods at the eastern side of town, a few hundred yards from the town.
I made a new save point so that I could try this as many times as I needed to.
“I would like to teach you how to make a proper bow, but we will save that for a time when we are not in danger,” Mahini said. “For now, you will use my bow. This is ironwood, and it is a very hard wood native to the Kotar desert.”
The wood had a distinct orange tint to it, and it shone with a glossy finish. The string was not attached to the ends, but when I handed the bow back, Mahini quickly remedied that. She tested the draw of the bow a few times before she handed it back.
“This is suited to my preferences,” she stated. “Tell me if it is too much or too little for you.”
I wasn’t quite sure what she meant, so I just pulled back on the string. It wasn’t very yielding, and I could feel the power as I put a little more weight into the draw.
“Holy shit, Mahini,” I breathed. “This is tough. You are super strong.”
“I have been training since I was a child. I would not expect you to be accustomed to it quite yet.” Her blue eyes sparkled with the veiled compliment.
She came up behind me, and when her body pressed against mine I took a sharp breath. She was wearing her metal corset as she had the day before, but since it was shaped to her perfect body, and I knew that the cold mounds pressing into my back were actually her breasts. Her palm was leathery as she gripped my wrist, and when she spoke, I felt a sense of pity that she wasn’t tall enough to breathe into my ear.
“Hold the bow out straight in front of you, like this,” she murmured as she lifted the hand holding the bow up. “Bend the arm very slightly at the elbow while keeping it perpendicular to your body.”
Her nearness was making my male brain spiral into all kinds of dirty fantasizes, and it took every ounce of my willpower not to throw down the bow and just pounce on her. I knew that I had begun breaking down her walls, but forcing her before she was ready was not the way I wanted to take our relationship to the next level.
No matter what the tent in my pants was saying otherwise.
“Next, you draw the string back until you are touching the corner of your mouth,” she instructed, and I swear her voice took on a sultry tone. “You want your elbow to bend upward more than outward.”
The desert goddess slipped from behind me and stood at my side to look at my stance. She touched my bent right arm and sent an electric current down to my fingers. The bowstring vibrated violently as I let go of it by accident.
“Are you okay, Great One?” she asked in an innocent tone.
There was no way this woman didn’t know what she was doing to me.
“Yep, totally fine,” I replied, and I was pleased when my voice didn’t crack like a pubescent boy. “Just lost my grip.”
She got me back into my position, and when she was satisfied, Mahini handed me an arrow.
“Nock the end of the arrow onto the string,” she instructed, and she pointed at the little groove in the butt of the arrow. “These have been carved to rest perfectly in the string, and they shouldn’t fall out when you draw it back unless you’re doing something wrong.”
The warrior woman stepped back while I fitted the arrow to the string. She gave me a nod so I pulled back and just let the thing loose. The arrow shot a little to the left, but at least it went forward.
“Okay, let’s go over what you did wrong,” she said as she came forward.
Mahini was a strict but patient instructor. Each time I drew the string back my arrow went a little bit further than the time before, and it only took about fifteen minutes for me to get the stance correct every time thereafter.
“I’m going to set up a target for you,” she said as she ducked into the woods for something.
Mahini returned after a few minutes carrying a log on one shoulder and a branch in the other hand. She ignored the puzzled look I gave her and made her way to a large boulder sitting a few yards away. She put the log down so that the inner rings were facing me, and she used the branch to keep the log from rolling off of the boulder. Then she trotted back to my side and gestured at the target.
My first attempt was terrible. I may have gotten the form down pat, and I was able to get the arrow to fly sort of straight, but it was clear that my aim was in need of some serious work. My beautiful teacher even burst out laughing when my first arrow slid across the ground several feet short of the target.
Chime.
“This is suited to my preferences,” Mahini said as she handed me her bow again. “Tell me if it is too much or too little for you.”
I had drawn the bow enough by that point that I was no longer surprised by the weight behind it.
“You’re pretty strong to be able to pull this,” I complimented the warrior woman.
Mahini smiled at me, and her cheeks darkened as she checked my stance. She had no complaints and disappeared to recreate the target.
I could have easily spent the entire day on that one attempt and eventually hit the target, but I wanted to impress Mahini with my skills on the first go around. I enjoyed hearing her laugh, but my cheeks still burned whenever it rang out beside me as my arrows fell short of the target. She would never openly mock me for my attempts, but I felt like such a child as I tried to hit the target and failed miserably.
Chime.
I had already lost count of how many attempts I made before I finally hit the damn target. It wasn’t a solid hit, and it didn’t even sink into the wood, but the hollow sound told me I was getting closer to the mark. Another dozen attempts after that, and I managed to get the arrow stuck for the first time.
Chime.
Chime.
Chime.
The bell rang in my head as I tried over and over. I got a bit better each time, and Mahini moved the target after I hit the target ten times in a row. I probably should have made a new save point, but I wanted to really surprise her with how awesome I was. Each new attempt I had to encourage her to move it, and she always gave me a skeptical look that vanished when I hit my target.
By the time the log was sitting fifty yards away, I probably had at least two hundred attempts under my belt, but when my arrow sunk on the first try, Mahini’s awed face was enough to make the effort worth it.
“I thought you had never fired a bow before, Great One?” she inquired with a dazed look in her eyes.
“First time, really,” I said, and then I winked at her. “Must be because I have an amazing instructor.”
Before she could come up with any kind of response, someone started shouting from the plains behind us. I instantly nocked another arrow and spun around. The kid coming toward us let out a strangled cry as I whirled on him, and he fell to the ground as he tried to come to a graceful stop.
“Oh, geez, sorry, Dalwin.” I handed the bow to Mahini and rushed toward the boy to help him to his feet. “I thought you might have been one of Lucian’s men.”
“N-No, sir!” the boy said in a squeaky voice. I really must have scared the crap out of him. “E-Elrin would like to speak with you. Both of you.”
I turned to Mahini, and she gave me a nod as she put the nocked arrow back into her quiver. I then grinned at Dalwin. “Lead on, kid.”
Elrin was waiting for us at the eastern gate with a group of fifteen men all armed with swords and shields. The town leader held his hands out at the collection and grinned at me.
“These men have volunteered to fight at your side tomorrow, Sebastian,” he announced.
The men definitely looked like they had fire in their eyes, but only three or four of them looked like they knew which end of the sword to shove into the other guy.
I shared a look with Mahini and could tell she was thinking exactly what I was.
I made a new save point, approached the men, and drew my sword. “I want each of you to come at me like I am an enemy soldier. I promise not to hurt you. I just want to test your skills.”
A murmur spread among the men, and it was a long moment before one of the younger men stepped forward and swung his blade at me.
I still wouldn’t call myself a master, but by now, I had been in enough battles that I knew what I was doing, so I easily disarmed the young man with a flick of my wrist.
“Next!” I called.
Nearly all of the men dropped their weapons within the first few heartbeats of their attack with only four of them managing a decent parry and counterattack.
Yeah. This wasn’t going to work, but I wanted to get a second opinion.
“Mahini, will you test them?” I asked my desert goddess.
She stepped forward with a nod and at first, it seemed like the men were too afraid of hurting her to really put any effort into their attacks. Once they saw how good she actually was, they actually tried to take her on. The results were the same in the end, and I would have taken only the four who had any skill.
“Men, I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can risk putting you into the field,” I said to them after Mahini had beaten them all. “Every single one of those warriors is on our level, and I would be sending you to get slaughtered if I let you fight at my side.”
The men started to voice their disagreement, and I knew I had said the wrong thing.
Chime.
I defeated the men once more, and while I set Mahini on them, I thought about how best to turn them down. It was true that they would be slaughtered if I sent them out against the army, but the truth had damaged their pride. I needed to say something that bolstered their confidence rather than tore it down.
“Men, I would like to have each and every one of you fighting at my side tomorrow, but I cannot,” I said as I shook my head. “I will be going to face the army on my own, but I have a suspicion that Lucien will try to abduct my wife while I battle with his men. Can I count on you all to protect not just my wife, but the town?”
There was a loud agreement to that question. Much better.
“What do you mean you will fight alone?” Mahini’s sharp voice interjected. “I thought we were going out there together?”
“Come on.” I let out a deep sigh and grabbed her elbow. “I need to talk to both you and Elissa about this.”
She looked like she was about to protest, but she didn’t pull away from my touch, and she let me take her all the way back to the house. Her blue eyes pierced me like one of her arrows, and I knew that I had only stopped her anger for a temporary moment.
“Sebastian and Mahini, welcome home!” Elissa laughed as I opened the front door, and then she threw her arms around my neck and pressed a long kiss to my lips. “I’ll have lunch ready in a few minutes.”
“That’s great, Elissa,” I said with a smile. “We can talk while we eat.”
“Talk?” the redhead asked. “What about?”
“Sebastian is going to fight on his own tomorrow,” Mahini growled as she put her hands on her hips.
I was too stunned by the fact that it was the first time she had called me by name to respond.
“Isn’t that for the best?” Elissa questioned as she tilted her head. “He is the God of Time, after all. He can destroy that army in ten seconds flat.”
“I do not care how quickly he can destroy this army!” Mahini let out a growl of frustration and threw her hands into the air. “He belongs to more than just himself now, if you recall.”
Elissa shrugged. “I guess, but I know he’ll beat Lucian and his army. He defeated the kobolds and the goblins in the mine. Sebastian can do anything he wants to.”
Her green eyes shone with all of her love for me, but I could see the wavering emotion hiding there as well. She had a lot of confidence that I would come back in one piece, but there was still a sliver of doubt that I would be killed and she would have to marry Lucian in the end.
“I will win, Elissa.” I smiled and took her hand. “You won’t have to marry that son of a bitch.”
“I know… You… You are so good to me…” The young woman let out a muffled cry and threw herself at me once more. She buried her head into the crook of my shoulder, and her shoulders shook with faint sobs.
“As for you,” I said as I turned to Mahini, “I know that you want to fight by my side, but I can’t risk your life. I love you too much.”
“It is mine to risk,” she growled. “And I made a vow to be with you forever. The phoenixes were stronger when they fought together, so don’t leave me behind!”
I placed a soft kiss to Elissa’s flaming hair and gently pulled away from her. She wiped her wet eyes while I made my way to stand in front of the strong desert warrior. Her blue eyes were filled with pain and anger, and something else that I didn’t want to label in case I was wrong.
“Mahini, you know that I’m stronger than the phoenixes from the legend,” I said as I brushed her cheek with the back of my hand. “This isn’t a decision I am making lightly. I can only be in one place at one time, and if any of the men manage to sneak past me into the town, I need to know that everyone will be safe.”
My dark-haired goddess leaned into my touch with a quivering sigh, and she closed her eyes. “I understand, and I will do as you ask. But you must promise me one thing, Sebastian.”
“Anything besides you coming with me,” I whispered.
Her eyes flashed open and pierced right through me. “You must give it everything you’ve got, and you must return to us.”
“Of course,” I murmured just before I pressed my lips to hers.
I spent the rest of the day with my two ladies, and we talked about anything and everything under the sun. Despite coming from very different backgrounds, Mahini and Elissa got along very well. When the redhead brought up some facts about the world she had read in a book, the desert warrior quickly added on with her own world knowledge from traveling with the Golden Swords. The two of them were able to paint a decent picture of the world that we all now lived in, and I vowed that I would take them to see it all someday.
Elissa was ready to drag me by the ears to the bedroom when the darkness crept into the town, but I joined Mahini on the porch to look up at the stars for a while.
I had never seen so much of outer space in such a raw setting. There were always too many lights burning in the city where I lived on Earth, and I rarely got to spend time in the country where the sky was just open like this.
“I wish I knew the constellations,” I murmured.
“I bet Elissa knows them all,” Mahini joked as she rested her head on my shoulder. “She knows so many things for someone who has never traveled.”
“You know many things, too, Mahini,” I praised as I laid my head on hers. “More than I do, that’s for sure.”
“You know so many things that nobody else could ever possibly know. About me, about the Golden Swords… You… You always surprise me, Great One.”
The warrior woman was quiet for so long that I wondered if she had fallen asleep. When I lifted my head to glance down at her, I found her staring right back at me.
“You will win, won’t you?” she asked in a whisper.
She knew as well as I did that these men were unlike anything I had encountered so far in this world. Any normal man would be shredded the moment he stepped onto the field.
Good thing I wasn’t “normal” anymore.
“Of course, I will, Mahini,” I said. “I promised that I would return to you and Elissa.”
A single tear slid down her cheek. “I couldn’t bear it if I lost you, too, Sebastian. You… You mean everything to me. I never thought I would feel this way about anyone. Especially after… they died.”
Her vulnerability left her wide open, and if I dared to press her, I probably could have gotten her to take me to her bed, but I didn’t want to take advantage of her like that.
Instead, I pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “You won’t lose me. Not to some idiot like Lucian. I always win. Hell, I might as well be God of Winning instead of God of Time.”
The laugh she gave me was enough to fill me with all the courage I would need for the battle to come.
When dawn finally arrived, the whole town was awake and lined up in the streets to cheer me on and wish me luck. They had no doubts that I would destroy the army outside their town and protect them once more. I was the God of Time, after all, so how could I fail?
I tried not to think of myself as a cow going off to slaughter, but after seeing the army that was waiting for me, that was exactly how I felt. There was no way I was going to make it out of the first round of fighting with my life. It would take me a hundred attempts just to figure out how to kill the first six guys, and there were well over fifty.
This was the burden of my powers. I knew that I would fail a thousand times over and that death was imminent, but all that mattered was the final attempt, the one where I danced through the army like it was just the rehearsal for an epic dance, and I annihilated them all with ease. That was the part the town would see, the part that they were all so confident I would reach on my very first try because I was so awesome.
Knowing that made walking toward a thousand deaths a little easier.
I passed Mahini and Elissa last, and both women gave me radiant smiles that could have fooled anyone. Only the wavering in their eyes told me what they really felt, and I gave each of them a quick kiss.
“I’ll be back soon,” I said to Elissa as I squeezed her hand, and then I turned to Mahini. “Get that gate closed as soon as I’m clear. Don’t let a single one of these fuckers in.”
The desert goddess nodded and squeezed my armored bicep. I closed my eyes and could almost imagine the warmth of her hand on my skin. It wasn’t as good as reality, but it was enough to get my feet moving again.
I made a new save point as I walked alone to face the army.
The field of tents was gone from the plains, replaced with an organized platoon of soldiers. Each man was armed to the teeth, and it wouldn’t be long before the sun glinted off the metal and created a new obstacle for me to overcome. Only the spearmen at the wings of the army had their weapons at the ready, but I knew it wouldn’t take more than a glance from their lord for the rest of the men to draw their swords. I couldn’t see any archers in the front line and could only assume they were standing at the back stringing their bows and testing the draw.
“Well, this is gonna be fun,” I muttered as Lucian came trotting into view.
Or rather, his horse did. The Loser Lord was sitting on top of one of the largest horses I had ever seen. It was a reddish color, but most of its body was hidden beneath plated armor that left only the legs and tail fully exposed. It was built like a living tank with feet that were probably bigger than my head, and the creature probably weighed over a ton. If that horse was going to be part of the battle, I really was screwed.
The man himself was decked out in really fancy armor that gleamed in the growing sunlight. The breastplate had a blue and gold shield with griffins on either side of it. I assumed that was the Bullard family crest. The shoulder plates were flared out at the tips and looked sharp enough to pierce leather, and the fingers of his metal gloves looked like they had little thorns on them. Only his leg armor seemed to lack any flair, but even the metal shoes came to a point at the end that could probably cut exposed skin. His helmet rested in his lap where I couldn’t see it.
“I do not see the Lady Elissa with you,” Lucian observed as his horse brought him closer to me. “Does she want me to fetch her with Cotinus?”
“Wait a sec.” I put my hands out in front of me and couldn’t keep myself from laughing. “Your horse’s name is Cotinus? What kind of stupid name is that?”
The brown-haired man-child got all red in the face. It must have been his favorite color. “And what would you have named such a regal beast?”
“I don’t know, maybe something epic like Warmonger?” I offered. “I’ve got a few more if that one doesn’t do it for you. Tank of Destruction, Bloodstain, Tiny--”
“Tiny?” he mocked. “Cotinus is one of the largest horses in my father’s cavalry, and you would name him Tiny?”
“It’s a joke, you fucking idiot,” I scoffed. “Where I’m from, it’s kind of a thing to call big people Tiny. I have no idea why, but they do.”
“That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” Lucian said as he shook his head.
“Look, we’re not here to make fun of your poor horse, we’re here to talk about my terms,” I said.
“Your terms?” His gray eyes narrowed as if he knew what I was going to say next.
“Yeah, you and your boys here may as well just go home. You’re not getting Elissa, and this town is protected by me. If you leave now, I won’t kill you.”
The townspeople erupted into loud cheers from behind me, and I couldn’t keep the grin off my face.
“Then you and your town have chosen death,” Lucian growled.
“Hang on a second!” I called as he turned his horse to run away. “I agree that it has to come down to a fight, but this is between you and me, Lucian, not your men.”
His eyes narrowed. “What are you suggesting, then?”
“You and me,” I said as I threw my arms out. “Right here, right now. One on one battle, to the death. Unless you don’t think you can take me on.”