“Unstable,” I said, whipping my wooden sparring sword against the thigh of the freed slave. When I'd returned from the Duke's estate earlier the same morning, I had announced an invitation for martial training to all the freed slaves now living in the makeshift tent city outside the ruined colosseum. The talented would be recruited and the untalented would be... well, I settled on considering it one of my rare charitable acts. At least until I found a use for them. The young man collapsed, his body folding in toward his now bruised muscles.
“Get up. Your weakness led to your enslavement. Purge that weakness from you here. Now. This is your chance to start working up into your strength.”
The man grimaced, twisting his expression of pain into one of determination as he struggled to regain his posture.
“I told you that was unstable,” I growled, angling to hit him again, but he fixed his posture quickly, lifting the ball of his forward foot as he threw a jab. I nodded when his knee turned with the momentum, allowing his hips to rotate as well. “Better.”
Of the hundred or so that remained in my retinue, nearly three-quarters of them were lined up in rows of ten following my martial instruction. It hadn’t taken much to convince them after returning from the Duke’s mansion earlier. After seeing what I was able to do against the High Pandorian a few nights ago, it didn’t take much to persuade them.
Even the remaining Paragons had joined the martial training. I was surprised that among them, not a single one chose to sit out. Ethan stood at the forefront, his massive form leading those behind him through the initial series of combat stances I’d just demonstrated. Most of them, including the Paragons, had never received any type of combat instruction. Their sole knowledge came from gladiator blood fights and whatever experience was earned there. That mainly translated to wild swings, closing eyes before impact, and a general brawl style.
Brawling had its place, but it didn’t belong under my wings. No, they would learn the martial combat of Aedronir that I and my ancestors had painstakingly refined over centuries. Once their bodies were sturdy enough, I could begin showing them how to construct a Core. For the moment, however, I would simply focus on teaching them martial combat and how to create heart rings.
I stood before Ethan, my face stoic as I examined him the same way I would the weakest and most inexperienced of my growing militia. There were no favorites here. They would either do it right, or I would make them do it right.
“Stance three,” I commanded and watched the rows of civilians shift from a forward stance with hands drawn before them to a backward stance with the majority of their weight loaded onto their back leg and hands opened to expose palms. Ethan grunted and I slammed my training sword into his rear leg. “More weight. It’s supposed to feel unbalanced at first. If you can’t pick up your front leg without reshifting your weight from this position, you’re doing it wrong.” I looked over at Nida, who performed the stances perfectly, and then at Nasq, who had clearly never been shown anything close to proper martial arts. I strode over to him and whacked him over the side of his head. He winced but stood firm, though he teetered a little. “Don’t sway when you’re hit. If you sway, you need to bend your knees more. Get lower.”
Although I’d spent many hours perfecting the Aedronir martial combat, it had been mainly theoretical with my Knights acting out as I wished. I had not mastered close combat energy enough to perform some of the maneuvers I’d come up with. Perhaps, if I trained harder and included more close combat, I’d be able to thrive with my own theories.
When they’d gone through the first ten stances of the Aedronir royal arts for another hour or so, I allowed them a few moments for water and rest.
Well, most of them.
I called over the strongest of my Paragons, minus Nasq, who seemed to be nearing his deathbed. “Ethan, Nida, Jasper, and Demetrius. Step forth.” I tossed the wooden sword away from me onto the yellow burnt patches of grass and stretched. “It’s time for you to experience some additional lessons.”
One of them groaned, but Ethan’s eyes lit up with a jovial glee I wasn’t sure I liked when it was directed toward the possibility of defeating me. Each of the four took a place around me so I was surrounded, their heavy steps kicking up dust and dirt from the treaded grounds. I could imagine the once lush area with green grass and trees, though now it was nothing but a barren wasteland. Nothing in our vicinity was alive, other than us, of course. No grass, no trees, no bushes, no animals.
Other than us, the raggedly torn tents made mostly of rags and old clothing found in the deserted areas of the city, and the towering colosseum adjacent to the tent city, there was nothing. The closest structure for miles was the burned and destroyed banquet.
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I was just about to ignite my Core when a wave of… almost familiar power pulsed nearby. I cocked my head to the side and glanced in the direction of the banquet hall as the small pulse continued to beat ever louder. Closer.
The Paragons tossed looks at each other for a split moment before one by one they also sensed the incoming pressure. Ethan looked toward me for orders.
I only offered him a shrug. The power was relatively strong, but nothing I was particularly worried about. If anything, it would make good practice for the Paragons.
When it eventually came into view, all I could see was a blur of red and blue fire erupting from an unseen figure within. The being tore through a row of tents to the cries of my men before rounding to head toward me. Ethan took a protective step toward me, echoed by the sound of growling from Nida. I held a hand up, not sensing any malice from them.
Whatever it was didn’t slow down even as it approached me, almost like it planned to simply bulldoze through my defenses. I frowned. There wasn’t any rage or malice radiating from the figure, but that was seemingly belied by their actions.
Still, the familiar energy surging from them caused me to hesitate. Why was it so familiar?
Instead of following my instincts and cutting it down from a distance, I turned nonchalantly toward my militia and Paragons. “I am going to demonstrate a technique from my home city referred to as blink. You see, by mastering control over your heart energy, you can choose where to direct the circulating power. And, if I choose to do so, I can overload the energy in my legs, increasing my movement to a speed faster than what can be captured by mortal eyes.”
At my words, raw heart energy surged down into my lower appendages and, to the eyes of my Paragons and growing army, I would appear to disappear.
Then, a split second later, I would reappear directly in front of the fast-moving figure. In reality, I had not disappeared; I had simply moved too fast to follow, as I had warned them. Within that same second, I balled a fist and smashed it into the face of the racer, who had no opportunity to slow or change course.
To not kill them, I softened the hit, but the sheer force of their momentum colliding with my immovable fist caused enough damage to knock them out. The red and blue fire disappeared with a whimper of pain, and the thin figure was flung back from me to tumble in the worn dirt and dead patches of grass that surrounded us.
I semi-cautiously strode up to the unconscious figure and scowled in no small amount of surprise, nearly balking at the sight. It should have been impossible. She was dead. I had killed her. Resurrection was an impossible magic... but was it? After all, couldn't I resurrect others?
“Fuuuuck,” hissed Nida from behind, still loping toward us. “Didn’t you kill her?”
“Who is she?” Ethan growled as he squatted next to the half-naked woman covered in charred rags of clothing that hung on her body in loose, immodest strands.
“It’s the Red Cardinal,” I said, curiosity greatly piqued. How had she lived through my punishment? I remember very clearly shattering her skull with enough force to puncture her brain into death.
I noticed Marisar had poked his head out of his tent, fortunately having avoided the Cardinal’s path of destruction. “Marisar,” I called out, waving him toward us. As far as I could tell, he was still the most knowledgeable among those I’d freed even now that our group had expanded. The information stored in the pacifist Selenian’s brain seemed as endless as it was varied. It took him a minute or so to reach us, given his thin frame and lack of muscles. When he finally made it close enough to see the Cardinal’s limp body, I asked, “Do you recognize this person?”
He squinted at the Cardinal and bent a knee next to Ethan to take a better look, but eventually shook his head. “I do not, Lady Lilliana. However, the symbol on her, uh, dress, here,” he pointed a large blue finger at the symbol of a cross wreathed in golden flowers stamped to what I thought might have once been a red lapel. “That’s the symbol of the Church of Light. And golden birds in the background there,” he again gestured with a wiggle of his finger to right above the cross and flower. It was a bit harder to tell since most of that section was gone, but I could see a few gold birds like he’d mentioned. “I…I’m not incredibly sure, but I believe that indicates she’s part of the Holy Empire.”
“The Holy Empire?” I asked, having not heard of it before. Marisar nodded. “Is that part of the Church of Light?”
The Selenian shook his head. “There’s a bit of an overlap, but the Church of Light is more a religious organization than a nation. The Holy Empire is the second-largest nation next to Pandoria. It is considered the holy ground for all religions in Graedon.”
“Is it possible this is the Red Cardinal of the Church of Light?”
He gazed at her again and put his hands on either side of her head and over her ears, shutting his eyes as he did so. His eyes furrowed deeply before they shot open and he shook his head again. “I... I don’t believe so. I cannot sense if she has any divinity in her. I know that a Cardinal of any religion should have some amount of holy energy making up her heart rings, but I am a magic healer, not an energy user. It is difficult for me to be sure.”
I grunted. “Ethan, pick her up. Marisar, help Ethan put her in the gold chains we took from the dungeons for now.” When the large berserker and the Selenian had lumbered away back toward my tent near the center of our makeshift tent city, I turned back to the resting militia and Paragons. I’d deal with the Red Cardinal later. My militia was a priority. “I think you have all done a good amount of physical training for the morning. Everyone take a seat in your lines. I’m going to explain how to form heart rings now. Pay attention.”