“Ah! Sorry about that! I had to feign an attack to anger your boss. You know I wouldn't hit you right? Gahahaha!”
“Y-yea dad, I know how you act. You always want to know everything about everything. War hasn't changed you in the slightest.”
“Ah! You on the other hand… What happened to the weak piss ant son of mine!?”
“What kind of question is that? I'm still the same person.”
“Ah! No you are not… I barely recognized you. You just look… Better than you were before.”
“Yea don't take my feelings into account dad!”
“Ah! I'm not trying to be rude, you have just gotten so much stronger than you were it is as if you are a different person. Like if I put the old you and the new you side by side I would say they were 2 different people.”
We all somehow ended up soaking in the hot springs as some of the generals are keeping a close eye on the Wayne. Gobber sort of keeps his head mostly under the water and only sometimes pops out to catch his breath. Bubbles come out in front of him as he is staring intently at Wayne. Green has also decided to join in the men's side of the hot springs as she is also keeping a close eye on him as well. He continues to soak for a few minutes until Zergnar comes rushing into the hot springs and yells out.
“Someone said there was a strong person here!”
He scans the hot springs and stops on Green for a moment. Looking over her naked body for longer than he would any other general. Then finally continues to Wayne. Finally jumping into the water still almost fully clothed… All I can think of is how stinky his leather equipment is going to get and that I will have to polish his metal to prevent rust from forming. He takes a straight path to Wayne now, standing in front of him as Wayne doesn't even move. His arms rest on the outside of the hot springs and most of his chest is out of the water. Zergnar only smiles and says.
“I would like to fight you before you leave.”
This must have spurred everyone else as they all start speaking up. Gobber yells next.
“I would also li-.”
Green cuts him off now.
“I get first dibs on fighting him!”
Now I even hear Nami yell over the wall while Fast who had made no motion that he wanted to also issues a challenge. Even his own son wants to fight him to show how much stronger he's gotten since they've last met. Wayne only laughs and says.
“Ah! Let me finish soaking before we start to fight. You lot can figure out who I am fighting first.”
Even I start to get excited. This man has been on the front lines of war. Just by watching him fight, I could learn some new type of skill or class or something. I need to check him with my dosing sword to make sure he doesn't have anything I could possibly use. Everyone gets out and they're about to fight him naked before I urge them to put cloths on. It's like fighting is the only thing that matters to them.
Wayne now stands inside the arena waiting for his first opponent. It is Zergnar, he was the first to ask so it was only fair that he was the first to go… He steps into the sand pit and starts taking off his wet leather armor. He leaves only his pants on as he sits down and removes shoes. Standing up I can see some sand is now sticking to his ass. They both raise their hands up and the fight is about to start.
Their stances are very similar. Both have hands up in front of their face. Hands balled up into fists, slightly loose so they can uncurl them if they need to block attacks. They really have a similar fighting style… Except Wayne is favoring his left leg… Perhaps his right leg was injured to the point that it has weakened his stance. Wayne moves forwards, step by step, Zergnar moves to match him. They are withing 3 steps of each other… In an explosion of force, both of them move to attack… It's over in an instant.
WHAT WAS THAT!? Zergnar's attack was parried and instantly countered. Zergnar was so overwhelmingly defeated it couldn't even be considered a match. How!? Even I could barely understand what had happened. In a single motion Wayne turned Zergnar's momentum against him by having him run into his fist. Zergnar assisted in knocking himself out… It was as if Wayne had predicted Zergnar's movements. If I had thought this would deter my other generals… I would have been wrong.
It seems they determined an order they are going to fight him in. Wayne's son is next and he is swiftly defeated without any restraint. The old man seemed to not care for his son's safety at all with how swiftly and brutally he dispatched him. Fast is up next. His fight ended in a similar way. Quick jabs were thrown by Fast and blocked by Wayne. The second Fast went in for a stronger attack Wayne countered it and used his own attack against him. How!? I still don't understand. Fast knew he was beaten and gave up after the first counter...
I've had practice with fighting before but how is he so good at countering? Green is up next. After blocking a few attacks, it seems that Wayne reluctantly knocked her down a few times. The fight is only concluded once he knocks her unconscious as she refuses to give up. Nami fights next with a similar result. She knew she was bested and gave the match to Wayne however. I still don't understand what is happening. We're all trained in fighting but keep getting completely defeated without a single 1 of us landing a single hit in.
Gobber is up next. I quietly cheer for him as he is the last chance that 1 of us will manage to land a few good hits without being completely embarrassed. The tension is far greater than any of the other fights. It is like everyone who had been defeated so far has just been a warmup for the real fight. Gobber starts in his own stance. One hand raised in front of himself while the other stays behind his back to help stabilize his lunging attacks. He only takes this stance when it is against an extremely strong opponent.
Wayne makes a comment that I couldn't hear since I was further away. I think he might have said it low enough that only Gobber could hear him… The fight begins in the same way the others had. Both slowly moving into each others range. With each step getting closer I can feel the tension continue to rise. Almost to the point where I didn't want to breath. I didn't want to blink and miss anything. In a split second in time the fight was concluded… I didn't even see what had happened… Only that Gobber was defeated. Gobber had moved so fast that his appearance had started to blur but it still wasn't enough… Wayne goes to step out of the arena but stops for a second. Wiping something off his face and looking at his hand before bursting in a belly laugh.
“GAHAHAHA! The bastard actually got me!”
He didn't have to explain further for me to know what happened. Gobber actually managed to land a strike against him. It was so fast that even he didn't notice it until after the fight had concluded… His body must have subconsciously dodged Gobber's attack. A fist strike against him ruptured his skin and actually cut his face. Gobber becomes more and more terrifying with every passing day. His strength already rivals that of a seasoned war veteran. Before Wayne manages to step out of the arena… I speak up.
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“How were you able to counter attack so perfectly?”
“Ah! I've spent my whole career focusing 1 aspect of fighting. That is waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I've made myself an expert on counter attacking and while I am still a skilled fighter. It is by far the biggest part of my fighting style. I can tell just how strong your generals are but... Unless they start working towards a single direction for fighting, they will not be able to defeat a master like myself.”
“I would also like to-.”
“No… We don't want anything more coming of this. You need to let that anger out before I can fight you fairly. If you go dark like you did before, I don't know weather or not I could stop you by myself… At least without killing you that is.”
He said the last part with a matter of fact attitude. I don't believe for a second that I could actually beat him in a fight… At least as I am right now. My body has been beaten down from the war against the pirates. I have lost most of the usefulness of my arm as well as Aegis, he helped me more than I even realized. I think every single major battle was won because of his help. The more I think about it… The more I want to cut my arm off and have it slowly repair itself… I can't, if I do that I lose the ability to go lich form. I need lich form right now… I hate that fact but I do… I absolutely need it.
Before I even realized it, Wayne has run off and jumped the barrier keeping the hidden project protected from unwanted gazes. WHAT!? I hear the yells from some concerned kobolds and gnoll engineers who are guarding it then the screams of a few of the woodworkers constructing it again. Finally I hear the confused yell from Wayne.
“Ah! What the fuck is this thing!?”
I jump over the wall after him and almost land on a guard. With my weight… It would have most likely killed him. I see him pull the giant cloth back down as he peaked underneath. I start explaining.
“That is an invention I've been working on for the war… Most of my own men haven't even seen it yet… I wanted to complete it before I had shown them all so can you please keep it a secret?”
“Ah, I guess but… I need to know for sure… If you can create these… What is stopping you from making dozens to fight the north?”
“The real reason I am creating this isn't to kill anyone. It is to crush the will to fight in the enemy. No one wants to die… I want this automaton to be so terrifying it will end the war.”
“Ah! Well I think you've done it. The sheer size of this thing is incredible! How can an army fight against something like this?”
“There would be ways, I wouldn't make something that I couldn't control myself. We'll just have to see how this plays out… It might not be finished before this war starts… I should really be pushing its completion instead of focusing on other tasks… This conversation has given me renewed resolve on what I need to do before this war kicks off.”
Wayne leaves shortly after finding the secret project I'm working on… With him leaving, I have a renewed feeling of what I need to accomplish. I need to complete this. I also have some new objectives. I need to find masters to teach me now. I'm becoming skilled in everything but without good teacher it could be many years before I start becoming a threat to master fighters. I need to continue to find those as skilled as Wayne at counter attacking in other aspects… Even masters in certain jobs or classes could help me learn new things about classes or jobs I've never thought of. Just watching Wayne fight has given me a few more idea's on winning fights. I think I'll have to practice a new counter attack I was inspired to create by him.
Before all that, I need to address the biggest problem first.
“Wrath, we're going to go have a long talk somewhere away from everyone else.”
Wayne's point of view
I leave and give them my farewell before heading back to Shienta. The false smile I have been showing them starts to fade back into my normal frown. What an ordeal that was! It was like crossing into enemy lines and dealing with a king. I brush the sweat off my brow and realize that the wound the goblin gave me has reopened. To be able to land a strike against me… What an overwhelming power to have at such a young age.
I get back to my room at the inn. The girl I was sent here with has been waiting patiently for me to return. She immediately stands up and asks.
“So!?”
“It's worse than we expected. We have to ride to the capital and tell the king we wont be able to force control over those troops… Worse yet, the commander is able to improve any person he comes into contact with and that isn't even the worst news… The commander is capable of making… Dangerous things… Things we wouldn't be able to handle if we became enemies with them. We have to warn the king before he attempts anything stupid.”
“What do you mean? We can't just go back empty handed. The king will have our heads!”
The girl assassin slams her foot down trying to get her point across. All I can think of is how shoddy this inn is, a hard strike like that might bring the whole second floor crashing down. I sit down on my bed as I continue to speak.
“From what I understand, they are preparing for war already. It seems like even if we don't force them into it they will still participate. We can tell the king that at the very least.”
She looks at me puzzled now. I think even though I'm trying to hide how shaken I am she can still read through me.
“What exactly happened? You've seen the deaths of countless men but you seem almost shaken to your core for some reason.”
“It's just… Their leader, I felt something truly evil inside of him… I saw my son and even though I haven't seen him in years. He just… Seems like a different person. Like he was artificially improved somehow. While I am proud of him… More proud than I have ever been for him… That quick growth doesn't come for free. Nothing does… I'm just hoping the cost isn't something that is more expensive than he can handle…”