Book 1: Chapter 17 - The Ogre [Part 2]

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Splintered and a broken mess, the training weapon was utterly useless now. Feigning a bored yawn, Seraphina tossed it aside and picked up a random wooden sword from the rack, rolling it across her wrist. She had only the most basic skills in its use, but she was fairly certain it would work well enough as a bludgeon.

"It seems that the Lady Seraphina has inherited the Troll's Strength," observed Armsmaster Kellan, his expression smooth, his gaze steady.

"Kellan, you do know he most certainly does not like to be called that," the young noblewoman corrected, a hint of admonishment in her tone. "He can be a bit testy." A small note of joy flickered within her as she noticed Kellan did not correct her omission of his title. Victory, however small, was still sweet.

"Now then. Shall we begin? Come along now, Eloise," Seraphina said, stepping into the fighting square of bare, packed earth. With a small skip in her step, Eloise followed her. "Well? What are you waiting for?" she taunted, a superior smile playing on her lips as she gazed at the big men waiting at its edges like wary animals at a new watering hole.

They looked at each other, very unsure, for the girl was succeeding in eroding their resolve. No debt would surely be worth this humiliation. But a hard stare from Kellan almost physically forced them to descend into the pit.

Stabbing the wooden sword down into the earth of the floor, it looked as if she was claiming this area for herself. A part of her flinched, knowing that if it were a real sword, Kellan would have chastised her for such disrespect. But those were the old Seraphina's memories, not hers. Out with the old, in with the new. What did she care about the opinions of an old man?

She gazed upon them even as Eloise hopped next to her, the dark-haired girl oozing fresh confidence.

"Shall we begin then?" Seraphina challenged testily to the two men. Beside her, practice spear in hand, her lady-in-waiting smiled impudently.

Hesitantly, the two men raised their weapons and approached, their eyes filled with reluctant determination.

Seraphina looked at her pointedly. "Well, what are you waiting for, Eloise?"

"What do you mean, Sera... Lady Seraphina?" she asked, surprised.

Seraphina forced an almost pained smile upon her face. The girl had almost lapsed back into her old habit under pressure. A relapse she would have to fix later.

"Why, as my lady-in-waiting, it is your duty to defend me. So defend me!" the blonde girl commanded sternly, gripping the handle of her sword. Armsmaster Kellan held his head in his hands, absolutely flabbergasted.

"Eeeep!" was all the de Laney girl could utter before one of the brothers closed in on them, swinging his wooden sword.

Luckily, the girl ducked, dodging out of the way. The other brother, the brown-haired one, fixed his gaze on her, but a glare from Seraphina made him think better of it, and he instead decided to go after Eloise.

"Lady Seraphina..." called out the doll-like girl. "Perhaps a little help!?" she shrieked, evading the two men.

Unfortunately for the poor girl, the two brothers had corralled her into a corner. Eloise was clutching her practice spear to her chest, her form quite frankly terrible in her panic.

Seraphina sighed to herself. It seemed that even here, she had to do everything herself.

"Eloise, darling, a wooden stick isn't the only thing you know how to use... Use your brain and other talents!" hinted Seraphina. Giving out the full answers, after all, hindered more than it helped.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The dark-haired girl let out an unladylike shriek as a wooden blade smacked against her rump almost playfully. This should have intimidated the girl, but if anything it seemed to stir something else. Eloise's dark eyes narrowed into obsidian slits as outrage overrode her earlier fear.

The small girl lashed out with her stick with surprising speed, but Giles blocked it with consummate ease, the smirk returning to his eyes now that he knew he did not have to face Seraphina—at least not yet. He moved to deliver a counterstroke with his brother, the pair of them delivering two attacks from different directions. And that should have spelled the end for Eloise, but under her Lady's instruction, the little girl had come up with a plan.

The ground, the earthen floor of the Haql Tajriba, simply moved. It was not a great shift, just the smallest of movements directed by the will of the black-haired girl at the feet of the two brothers mid-stride. It was enough to unbalance the pair of them, who both fell to the floor as they swung their weapons. The small girl, knowing an opening when she saw one, viciously and quickly rapped them across their skulls almost petulantly before dancing away to join her Lady.

There was a crazed smile on de Laney girl's face, the smile of one who has met a crazy, unfair situation, and against all the odds, overcome it.

Like Kellan, Seraphina decided to dollop out some praise. "Well done, Eloise. I always knew you could do it!" If she did say so herself, she really could bring out the best in people.

"Yes!" she half-shrieked in accomplished joy. The girl seemed to lap it up like a thirsty dog after a long run.

"However, I do not think you have quite finished the job," observed Seraphina, pointing with an imperious chin at the two brothers rubbing their heads as they got up.

Dismayed, Eloise took a step behind the Lady Seraphina. The girl's courage was at its limit, the blonde judged. Oh well, it was time to take matters into her own hands.

"Alright then, you two... I will give you a moment to recover, and then we will start in earnest," stated the blonde girl, resting her wooden practice sword on her shoulder and tapping her foot.

The two men shot each other a look and cast their training weapons to the ground.

"We yield, Lady Seraphina..." they said in complete unison.

The young woman looked at them regally. "No, you do not. It is time you learned the cost of picking the wrong side and ignoring my clemency. It is time for me to be teaching the lessons now," she stated primly.

She gave them a moment to let the words settle. As soon as they accepted their fate and started reaching for the weapons on the ground, Seraphina sprinted towards them, throwing her wooden sword. The practice weapon turned over in the air, narrowly missing Crayton's skull and embedding itself in the earth next to him.

It would have been foolish to throw away her only weapon, but compared to her Sword skill, Seraphina's Unarmed skill—a legacy from the self-defense classes of her old world—was much higher. Her high Strength meant an increased speed. It took everything the girl had to soften a blow to Giles's stomach, more due to the spite in her heart for him and his brother than any real desire to physically restrain herself. Softened as it was, the blow doubled him over with a solid whack, leaving him a spluttering wreck on the floor.

As for Crayton, he raised his hands in surrender. He did not quite understand it, but a part of him fell in love at that moment with the golden ogre before him. When he was small, his mother told him tales of creatures like her, and now, if only for a brief moment, he felt like the foolish hero from those very stories.

Seraphina made to punch him—a blow that would have knocked his head clean off his shoulders. Instead, she settled for a mild slap that knocked the big man out cold.

The girl closed her eyes, taking a moment to find her center.

"Is that to your satisfaction, Armsmaster Kellan? Have I cleared whatever condition my mother has set for us?" she said, her voice dripping with acid. The old man could only nod in response.

"Eloise, help these boys, please, if you would," Seraphina commanded in a tone that brooked no argument. "I might have broken something in them. Use the healing potions if you must" she added, theatrically dusting off her hands.

The girl rushed to do Seraphina's bidding, seeing to the two brothers.

The heir to the Sarien Duchy turned to the Sarien's Armsmaster. "I am assuming you trust these men, Kellan. They belong to me now. You will assign them, along with Frest, to be my personal guard if you are so worried about my person. Is that clear?"

"Yes, milady Seraphina," he said in a clipped, professional tone. Underneath it were signs that the old man had been thoroughly shocked and cowed. "I see that this was for the best."

Seraphina stepped closer to the old warrior. "The future is not just something that you see. It is something that you make," she whispered before stepping back.

"Now then, if you have nothing else to trouble me with, I will be having words with my mother."