Malam closed her eyes as she stood in the glow of the magma trails dwarves used to light their forts underneath Arda’s surface. An odd report had come to the desks, one that required a Divine to investigate since Dwarves were incapable of magic, Irinika was too busy on the front, and the others weren’t too apt with the skill.

She looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath, vivid hair, whiter than snow, cascaded down her back like the purest avalanche. The gates here were locked off, the madness roots lay further in those tunnels. Those were to be avoid. She wrote off the simplest solution that would have satisfied everything: some weapons test happening on the surface. This wasn’t that.

She opened her mouth, rocky air tasting of minerals settled on her tongue. The usual flavours were here, dirt, sedimentary rocks, irons, coals, lots of golds and gems too. But there was a taste of something she had not seen in a thousand years. Longer than that in fact. It came harshly at first, magic. Overpowering magic, sweet and lovely, as if she was breathing in liquid ambrosia. But then the aftertaste hit and she her throat made a gasp. She knew it would come back eventually. No matter what everyone else said, she simply had been sure it would be back. Humanity could never contain itself.

The delicious flavours of Worldbreaking.

Kavaa smirked to Iliyal as the Goddesses were picking themselves up off the ground again. Third time today, this should be the last. Iliyal, in his dark uniform, cape on his back, pistol and sword on the hip, did the unthinkable. He smirked back to her. “Right ladies. Are we done?” He said from the other side.

Once again, Olonia got off her knees. Her armour had been damaged this time. Kavaa always considered herself calm and under control, she had never been one to needlessly hurt people… but she wasn’t soft. Sometimes an amputation needed to happen. Sometimes, someone needed to be put into their place. She had led the Clerics onto Olympiada after all. It was one thing to dislike violence, it was another entirely to cower from it. A set of scales fell off from Olonia’s armour.

Once again, Saksma was back on her feet. Once again, Paida and Agrita and Aliana stood up. Once again they, their eyes shot daggers of pure rage at Kavaa. The Goddess of Health smiled back at them. “We are not done!” Olonia shouted.

“You have not gotten a single stroke on her.” Iliyal said, arms behind his back.

“I scraped her with my arrows.” Aliana replied and Iliyal sighed. Green eyes met Kavaa’s grey and she got the message. He wanted some assistance.

“I could have dodged it if I wanted to.” Kavaa replied coldly. There we go, she had never been fond of that pretentious Allian accent. Aliana only made a tsk sound with response as she inspected her quiver. Kavaa could not wait for her to run out already. She had assumed these were magical weapons at first, like Kassandora’s Joyeuse, but no. They were merely what the Goddesses had trained in.

“This is the last time then.” Iliyal said. “If you cannot stop Kavaa this time. Then you will admit you will never defeat her at the pace you’re going now.”

“We’re getting better.” Saksma replied. Iliyal once again gave Kavaa a flat look, she merely shrugged back. Bullying mortals wasn’t fun because mortals could not fight back. But Divines? National Divines at that? There really was some satisfaction in that. The same as when she found someone complaining of a minor illness and made a disgusting medicine so her time would stop being wasted.

“You’re not.” Iliyal replied. “Kavaa is a Great War veteran, you’ve not even broken a sweat on her yet.” Kavaa smiled as Iliyal continued. “She has purposefully not made a scratch on you yet. You are children who’ve learned how to walk and now think you can run a marathon.”

“Marathons take determination and endurance.” Olonia shouted as Iliyal walked past them and settled back next to Kavaa.

“You’re talking about a gentle hike through the hills. Show me a child who can cross twenty six miles in four hours.”

“Most people take eight to finish one.” Aliana said again. Kavaa took a deep breath. That accent really did grate on her ears.

“And you’re Divines, you should be able to do one in an hour.” Iliyal replied. “I can handle students who do poorly, students who don’t want to learn are not worth my time.” He took a deep breath. “We have come here because you asked to be trained, if you were simply wanting competition, we would have sent Anassa to end this farce with a finger snap.” He took a step back, as he always did when they were about to start. “This is the last time. If you do not accept that you are lacking in knowledge after this, then we will go our separate ways.”

Olonia blinked in surprise. Her smile dropped. Saksma’s did too. Aliana only readied an arrow. She was the only one who Kavaa had noticed an improvement in, she was shooting rarer now, looking for attacks of opportunity rather than simply trying to overwhelm with fire. It could be that, or it could be that her quiver only had a few arrows left and she didn’t want to waste them anymore. Olonia stuttered out some words. “Excuse me?” She asked.

“We will leave Olonia.” Iliyal said. “We will very simply leave. There is nothing you can do about it. You have simply grated my patience down to the point there is nothing left. The first fight was enough for me to see what you were doing wrong.”

Olonia went red and blushed. Saksma managed to bark something out. “We…” She stopped. “We apologize but this really is how we…”

“How you what Saksma?” Iliyal barked back. “How you what? You are playfighting. This is not a game, I am here to train you for warfare. Do you even know what warfare is?” He continued on, his face not changing, but it was obvious he was angry. Kavaa blinked upon the realisation and turned at the elf. Wait. Iliyal was displaying an emotion? “Oh you’ve read great tales upon the war we’ve fought in. You’ve seen the films and documentaries. You’ve pretended to be gallant knights who save the day! Wonderful! Beautiful! The two people standing here, who have so graciously come to assist you, were those knights, and there was nothing gallant about us Saksma.” He took another step back. “You want warfare? You want to see what’s it like?”

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And he turned to Kavaa. “Show them.” Kavaa drew her sword as Iliyal kept barking. “You have ten seconds to organize some defence among yourselves, I don’t care what or how. Kavaa has just ambushed you in Erdely regions. She’s out to kill you.” And he turned to Kavaa. “This healing won’t be needless.”

“It won’t.” Kavaa replied. She knew exactly what Iliyal was doing. Maisara used the same method on her Paladins. He was even giving the game away, did they not notice his boot steadily?

“Ten seconds have just passed, you’ve been ambushed.” Iliyal said flatly. And Kavaa raced forwards, her sword whistled as it slid out of sheath.

“WAIT!” Paida shouted. She shakily put up her defence as Kavaa stepped towards, her foot twisted, she turned immediately, and she saw Saksma, still lifting that tremendous greatsword. Why the did woman even use it if she didn’t have the strength to? What was the point of a weapon like that? It was just a club at this point.

“The whole point of an ambush is that you don’t wait.” Iliyal shouted from behind Kavaa as he started circling them. Kavaa’s eyes met Saksma’s, she saw those blue sapphires light up with shock at Kavaa’s speed. She saw the sword twist, she heard the sliding of plate as Paida came in from behind. This is why Divines needed suits crafted by artisans and not amateurs.

Kavaa grabbed Saksma’s arm at the elbow. She pulled the Goddess forwards, she stepped to the slide as Paida’s blade came down. And she saw Paida slice into Saksma. The Goddess of Doschia screamed as Paida dropped her blade in shock.

But Kavaa only kept close to Saksma, stepping around her, plate armour sliding against that cuirass that had been dented from the three previous beatings. This was no beating now. Kavaa turned, her sword point stabbed in Saksma’s thigh, she turned the stab into a slicing blow, the sword leaving Saksma’s leg and slamming into Paida’s leg.

Kavaa twisted her hand, the blade twisted with her, she slid it up. The edge found the opening, between the leg armour and the chest plate. It slide into cloth, and into flesh. Paida’s scream echoed among the trees as Saksma hit the ground. And Kavaa did not slow down a breath. She let go of her weapon. Aliana was aiming at her, her eyes in shock and fury at what just had happened to her friends.

Kavaa grabbed Paida before she managed to fall and swung the Goddess between herself and the archer. And Aliana, her eyes smouldering like a volcano, turned the bow. Not at herself, at Iliyal. She released the arrow. For a moment, she thought of having to explain to Kassandora what happened. Endless images flashed before her eyes. How could she return if the elf died here? What would Fer say? Helenna? Iniri? Arascus? How could she-

Iliyal saw the movement before the arrow was even flying. She was obviously going to shoot him. One hand grabbed his pistol, he took a step down and swerved his body. Aliana was a good shot frankly, there was little to complain about her in that regard. But good marksman were a dime a dozen. She wavered for a moment before letting the arrow fly. That was more than enough time to see it would fly past his shoulder.

And then those images were wiped away by the lightning crack of a gunshot. Another one. A third. A fourth. Aliana blinked as she grabbed her chest. Another gunshot made a hole in her shoulder. In her leg. In her knee. And the Goddess dropped, not even screaming, simply moaning in pain, blood leaking from small holes.

And Iliyal’s shout came through. “That was good Aliana! That was truly good!” He said. “And it perfectly demonstrates why you must be aware at all times. A single instant is enough to end your life.” Kavaa spun and turned to face the elf. He didn’t even a scratch on him. He…

Kavaa had to shut her jaw after it dropped. He had honestly dodged it. Was the man ever not on guard? He put his pistol back into his holster and nodded to his side. Kavaa turned, grabbed Olonia’s wrist as it was coming down on her. Still slow, faster than before, but there was still that moment of reservation in the Goddess, as if she didn’t actually intend on hurting Kavaa.

Unfortunately though, Kavaa didn’t have the same hesitation. Olonia had stepped forwards to slice, Kavaa pulled her further. The moment made Olonia lose her footing, she fell down, her wrist still held by Kavaa. The Goddesses body twisted one way, the arm in the other as Kavaa turned her arm. Pop. The shoulder dislocated. Olonia still managed to keep her grip on the sabre.

Kavaa threw her arm down, brought her knee up. The dislocation of the shoulder was swiftly followed by the cracking of bone. The sabre dropped, it never hit the ground. Kavaa grabbed the blade, threw it back up, caught the hilt, and turned to face Agrita.

The Goddess of Rilia was stood there, spear quivering as her entire body shook, knuckles white around it, the tip darted left and right as if trying to find courage in the air itself. She made an attempt at a stab. As had been done before, so was done now. Kavaa effortlessly stepped to the side, caught the spear, pulled it forwards. And then she slammed Olonia’s sabre into Agrita’s side. The Goddess dropped in a scream.

Iliyal wasted no time, he stepped forwards in between the Goddesses. Kavaa watched their bodies, the wounds were slowly closing. That was common in National Divines like them, slower than Fer’s almost instant regeneration, much slower than her healing, but they’d be standing in some thirty minutes. Maybe not Paida and Saksma. Bone took a long time too actually. Well, Aliana would be standing at least. That’s if she knew how to push out foreign objects out of her body with just regeneration. Kavaa’s eyes turned to the woman who had been shot.

Actually, none of them would be standing if left alone. Iliyal clicked his boots together, and launched into his lesson. “That’s what warfare is. That’s what I’m here to teach you.” Iliyal said sternly. “Now do you see how tremendous the marathon is? Or are we still going to ignore the fact we’ve been having a gentle walk this entire time?”

Aliana lay motionless as she hugged her bow. She didn’t even have the decency to look at them, only staring up at the sky. Saksma breathed heavily, Paida had landed on her and they both let out harsh gasps. Agrita had curled up into a ball. They would be crying once the adrenaline wore off, Kavaa had seen it before. “I…” Olonia rolled over, clutching at the wound in her chest. “I see.”

And when Kavaa saw the smile upon Iliyal, it was as if she was looking at Kassandora in full force. Those burning eyes and that devouring smile, as if he was watching a city burn before him. “Good.” He said. “First lesson is the most important. This is what happens every day on the battlefield. You will feel this every single time, because this is what everyone in that Great War you all pretend to be in felt every damn day. It builds discipline, it builds camaraderie and it builds battle paranoia. This is not a skill you can survive without.” He crossed his arms. “Have we worked it out yet?”

“What?” Paida croaked as she clutched the broken hand on the ground.

“Pain tolerance training.” And the elf turned to Kavaa. “Heal them.”