Chapter 59
Ryker
As soon as the muscles in Tetra's body tightened before her advance, several things happened all at once. Time slowed, and red outlines appeared, drawing my attention to Tetra's body language indicating she was readying an attack. As she launched off her back foot towards me, she spun her staff above her head and sent its length screaming towards my head. My overlay stepped to the right, and my suit began urging me in that direction. I was slow to react, and my perception was forced to speed up even more to compensate for my slow reaction speed. I finally caught back up with my copy, and my surroundings began to speed up again; then the headache behind my right eye started to throb. As I successfully dodged her opening attack, she followed through and used the momentum to force the head of her staff into the ground and her body into the air. A split second later, the staff was sent jabbing out from her mid-air, and my copy dodged. Unfortunately, no amount of perception increase could help me avoid the attack. Just before the blow made contact, I felt the entire front side of my suit begin to send feedback into me. I felt the urge to withdraw from it, and in doing so, I was able to inadvertently deflect some of the blow.
Shaking my head, my healing was able to reset the broken jaw quickly, and I decided to go on the offensive. To my surprise, Ruby must have interpreted my intent from my surface thoughts and sent my copy charging forward. This time I was ready, and time barely slowed for me as I matched the copy’s movements to the best of my ability. As I made my approach, I tried to open up all my senses in preparation for Ruby’s instructions. She had me drawing back my club and rotating my hips first, then my shoulder. By the time I brought my arms around the club was screaming through the air towards my foe. Tetra expertly read the attack and swept it over her head with ease. My copy released the club with its right arm and used the momentum of the club to fully bring its right leg across. I struggled to match the movements, but with a liberal use of perception overdrive, Ruby was able to get me there. My leg followed through, and I braced for the blow to connect with the side of her head, but was surprised to find myself instead being pulled off my feet by the other end of her staff.
Landing hard on the ground, Tetra showed no mercy. She quickly capitalized on her advantage by abandoning her weapon and mounted my chest. From this position, my overlay rapidly told me to attempt to pull her in close, but Tetra was prepared. The second I reached out to grab her, she had me wrapped in an armbar. The sound of my arm snapping at the elbow was sickening. I writhed in pain on the ground as my opponent effortlessly rolled to her feet and waited.
Gritting my teeth, I gave Ruby the mental nod, and she reset the broken arm. Expecting the agony, I was able to keep most of the whining to a minimum. I stood back to my feet and watched angrily as Tetra patiently waited. After confirming the arm had completely healed, I retrieved my club and reached out to the energy. Once I had a firm hold on my cycling, I began to pull it towards me and charged back into battle.
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I was able to endure one more hour of the abuse before my body decided it had had enough. Tetra had taken me apart one piece at a time and stoically waited for me to recover before she did it again. Slowly I was starting to show signs of improvement, but even with Ruby’s help, I was a far cry from what Tetra could manage.
Propped up against the nearest wall, I continued to cultivate the energy, carefully cycling my breaths. Tetra returned from an adjacent room, holding two large cups. She sat next to me and placed one in my non-injured hand and gestured for me to drink. I eyed the contents skeptically, then raised the glass to my lips. The flavor was exotic, but I found no fault in the concoction and found that I loved it. It tasted like I was drinking a big juicy steak with a milkshake aftertaste. Odd but satisfying. I quickly polished off the contents and asked if I could have seconds. Tetra smiled warmly, then passed me her cup. I tried to protest, but she wouldn't hear it. I made quick work of her portion as well and felt like a new man.
With my stomach full and my body on the mend, I stiffly turned towards my companion and said, “Tetra, I gotta say, you are one hell of a combative. Where did you learn to fight like that?”
Tetra flinched at hearing my question, and after seeing my earnest expression, relaxed, then said, “To answer that, you need to understand that the Denary have always been a society obsessed with perfecting the art of war. Every pillar of our community revolves around our fighting prowess. Our religion, politics, even our mating rituals are based on fighting. I spent all of my formative years drenched in the blood of those placed before me. Eventually, I rose to a high enough position in my village that I could make choices for myself. From then on, I spent all my days roaming the wilds hunting and killing anything that could pose a threat to my people.”
Trying to imagine the beautiful woman before me in that light was hard to do, regardless of how fierce a warrior she is. Lost in my musings, Tetra caught me staring, and her reaction was wholly unexpected. Instead of the bold fiery response that I was expecting from her, she instead broke eye contact immediately. Her skin tone darkened by a couple of shades, and her body language suggested that she was feeling… I dunno…Shy? I must have been reading too much into it and decided to change the subject. I tore my eyes off her then said, “Tetra, thank you for sharing that with me. Everything has been happening so fast; I feel like we haven't had any time to get to know one another. Is there anything about me you would like to know?”
Tetra reached up with one hand and tapped at her lips, then snapped her fingers and said, “Yes, I was wondering how old you are?”
I gave her a coy smile and answered, “I am about your age. I will be 22 in a few months.”
Tetra's eyes bulged, and she covered her mouth in a vain attempt to hold back her laughter; then she said, “Ha! I can barely even remember what it was like to be 21.”
I gave Tetra a close once-over and couldn't find any signs of old age, shrugged, then said, “Well, if it isn't considered rude. Do you mind telling me how old you are?”
Tetra gave me a mischievous smile, then pushed herself to her feet and said, “It's fine, I just turned 2156 last month. I'm going to go get some more food. Do you need another?”
I sat there speechless, dumbly staring at the woman that I had accidentally claimed to be my wife. The realization that she was more than a hundred times my age was hard to wrap my head around, so I silently nodded my head and watched the ancient yet perfectly formed demoness saunter off.