239. BLOOD BOND: WIREMU

In the culture where I grew up, every challenge needed a reply. I had my own cultural war dances to intimidate the enemy, but I am the only one here from my culture. Funnily enough, the wolfkin challenge showed me that their culture was closer to my home culture than any of the others I had encountered. I made a mental note to share cultural experiences with Rodion after this. We might have a lot more in common than we realised.

I grabbed my spear and pushed out past the line of soldiers to stand clear of the group and face Olga. I jammed my spear into the ground. I wasn’t planning to use it. The spear was only there as a prop.

“I have heard your challenge. I am here to reply. You can have her head,” I indicated to Tabitha, “if you can keep yours.”

“Ooh, the little human thinks he can challenge me?” Olga said condescendingly. That got a few chuckles. “Very well, little man, I will have both your heads.”

Olga drew her sword as I unbuckled my leather armour, took it off, and hung it on the end of the spear.

“What the fuck, little man? Most people keep their armour on to fight me.”

“Well, I just cleaned it, and it is hard to get the blood out of all the joints.” I turned to face her bare-chested.

“That bare chest is enough to frighten anyone,” she said, although her eyes narrowed in contrast to her banter. She wasn’t dumb. She knew there had to be a trick. She approached slowly as I pulled a stone knife out of its sheath and then stepped toward her. A knife against a sword is a bad match. I would have been better with the spear as she had claws in her off-hand. She knew I had left the spear deliberately. She became even more wary and started to circle.

I triggered Snakeskin, and I was covered in scales. There is no point in bleeding when you don’t have to. It might also make her think my bond is the trick. With her blood bond, she will shake off any poison easily, but I Imbued the knife anyway.

“Ooh, the little human has a bond. Where is it human? I don’t see it. Maybe you had a bond, and somebody stepped on your little friend, and they died?”

Halfway through the last word, she made her move. She was fast. Faster than I thought she would be. Faster than me. It was some sort of speed skill. Fortunately, she made the move I expected, going for a quick decapitation by slicing for the neck.

I ducked under the swing, losing some scales to her sword, simultaneously slicing her arm with my knife using my own Quick Strike. She was an old hand in fighting, and her knee came up and crashed me back as my offhand threw a dart that lodged in the gap between her armoured vest and her leather collar.

She didn’t follow up. She was testing as I was.

“Poison, ah?” She lifted her bleeding arm and slowly licked the wound clean. It was a show for her people as well as for me. “You will have to do better than that, little man.” She plucked the stone dart out.

I ignored her as she wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. She had a leather vest as armour, but her arms were only fur-covered. My cut and dart pierced through her Tough Hide, and I could tell she was surprised. Her response was fast, vicious, and unrelenting.

She thrust with her sword, and her claws swiped at me when I moved aside. I blocked with my off arm, thrusting my knife at her eyes. She ducked, kicking me in the stomach, using her claws on her feet to draw blood. I was thrust back, but she kept coming, her sword slicing down, which I parried with my knife, punching her arm with a Power Strike. I heard bones break. She thrust her sword again, and as I moved my body sideways to avoid it, she turned it into a cut strong enough to go through my Snakeskin, making a long cut on my chest. I responded with a kick to her knee, which only put her balance off a bit, and she brought the sword back, making me back off. I am sure the bones were already mended. To slow her down, I will have to do more than just crack them.

She didn’t let me back off coming at me with her speed Skill. She struck with her sword, but the real danger was in her kick which I only had time to take on my thigh. I lost more scales and blood to those claws. I got an elbow strike to her ribs, causing her breath to explode. She brought her sword around to give her some space, but I moved on to the offensive, throwing a dart at her face. I used my Novice Sprint to close the distance and stab my knife into her guts with a Power Strike. She elbowed me in the head and brought her sword around before I could grab her, and I backed off.

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“The little man is good,” she said as she touched the stab wound in her stomach. It was already closing. “It is not going to be enough.”

I was well aware of that. The claw marks she had left me had mostly stopped bleeding, and I concentrated my Regeneration on the sword cut. I was limiting myself by not using any Granite or Lava Skills, but I needed to take her by surprise so she couldn’t call for aid. I had no doubt she would if she thought she would not win.

I also needed to shock them enough that they would back off rather than fight. That was the hard part, and the likely response would be to attack rather than back off. I had to try, but I had to get my hands on Olga before I could do that.

That sword is a problem. She came at me with a number of pure sword-fighting moves, and I danced and parried and tried to get momentum back with the darts. I have practised with sword fighters like Najprej and Drugič of the Canine Queens. Runa fights with a sword, but she is not a specialist, so I haven’t practised against a sword specialist for a long time. I was getting cut and couldn’t close. She basically ignored my darts unless they went for her face. I don’t know whether she was keeping count of the darts, but I had run out of the premade ones and was making them on the fly. Darts weren’t doing it, and I had to close with her.

I took a stab to the shoulder as I missed a parry. She grinned; she was bleeding me, and she knew it. The next dart I threw was not a dart but a full throwing knife, and it was embedded in her leg.

“Shit,” She said in surprise.

Her pause meant I was suddenly pushing her and moving close. She tried to make some space, but a knife in the leg was not a small thing. I kept her moving so she didn’t have a chance to remove it or to consider where it came from.

Her distraction meant the sword went slightly wider than usual, and I moved decisively inside its arc and grabbed the arm holding it. Her knee came at me to drive me back, but it was the leg with the knife, and my other hand drove down on the knife and shoved the leg back. She obviously had a high pain resistance, but spikes of pain like that still get through. I know from experience. I twisted the knife before I brought the hand back up.

I twisted her arm away from me. She might be slightly faster than me, but I think I am slightly stronger. Her offhand swiped at my face, and her claws drew blood, but I grabbed her face and filled her lungs with Venom Vapour. Now I had her sword arm in my hand, her lower jaw in my other hand, and her lungs full of Vapour. I triggered the lava. Lava flowed out of my skin, building in layers to form my Granite Armour. Olga’s leather and fur started to burn and catch fire. She coughed a scream, but I wasn’t nearly done yet.

Her free hand clawed at me but couldn’t penetrate the armour. I saw some movement in the periphery of my vision as others moved to help. They were stopped by a row of Earthen Spikes. Olga was pulling hard on the bond for healing, and it was almost a form of torture, pain and continuous healing. But I wasn’t done yet.

I used my Bond Care Skill to reach out to the bond and squeeze it to restrict the flow. When I initially used this Skill on Otto and the Griffon, that was an unhealthy bond. There was nothing unhealthy about this bond. It functioned how it was intended and how everybody wanted it to. The Skill worked regardless.

I squeezed, and I put Granite into the squeeze. I vaguely recall a knife bouncing off my helmet, but I was focused on the bond. I discovered a healthy bond was much harder to affect than an unhealthy one. The healing slowed, and then I twisted, and the bond snapped. Krov’ would have felt it the most, but everybody connected to the bond felt it and looked in shock. Olga went limp in my arms, and I let her fall. I raised my foot and stomped her head, making it very obvious she was now dead.

I looked around. We were in a semicircle of Earthen Spikes. Modrica and Težka were just walking up behind me. Now, to keep them off balance. I took a slow step to the left, and Puia formed a replica of my armour where I had stood as if I had stepped out of the armour but still wore it. There now appeared to be two of us. Then, to my surprise, another two copies appeared, stepping out of both my and Puia’s armour. Tabitha and Nyx were mimicking us, and now we were four.

Tabitha’s voice came from behind me. I could tell from Thermal Sensing she was still riding Dusk and was coming up beside Modrica and Težka. Her voice was amplified with Intimidating Aura.

“Yes, we broke her pack bond. Yes, we will do the same to you. You leave now and tell Krov’ if any of his pack sets foot in Kingdom territory again, we will come for him.”

The shock of the bond breaking. The shock of thinking you will survive almost anything to knowing that you are vulnerable. The shock of your commander having her brains splattered on the ground and Tabitha’s Intimidating Aura was too much. The weaker ones started backing into the bush, and there was no one to rally them because I had taken out the commander.

Three of the ones that were with Olga were standing just outside the ring of spikes. One of them looked like he was about to call the others to battle. In the time it would take for me to break his bond, the other two could do me some serious harm. Fortunately, I was not alone. Now, I had to stop them from realising that they still massively outnumbered us, and I couldn’t do it to all of them. He was close enough that I could reach out with my Skill and stab at his bond. It wasn’t enough to break it, but it rattled him, so I also did it to the other two standing there. They looked at me with wide eyes. One of them was actually looking at me the others were looking at one of the other me’s. They all joined the move back into the bush, and my Hearing Aid heard them start to run. I am sure Liten will keep track of them.

Once I was sure they were gone, I looked at Tabitha, and her two images stepped back into Puia and me, and then I stepped into Puia, and there was only one. We don’t want to reveal all our secrets, even to the army. Besides, if the army thinks there could be four of me, they might not try to bully us so much. Tabitha certainly wants to keep the knowledge of her images to a minimum.

I let the Granite Armour go, and Tabitha tossed me some pants. I turned to the rest of the group, and the soldiers were just staring at me. Kelda rushed forward, grabbed my jacket, and helped me into it, breaking the silence. Astrid’s Revitalising Aura soothed me.

Tabitha spoke, “Captain, we need to get moving. We also need some recovery time.” I am sure Tabitha said that to keep people away from me. The fight was strenuous, and I had some wounds, but creating Granite Armour for five minutes was not draining. Cutting the bond took effort.

That got the army moving anyway. Ruku came up, “That was close,” he said.

I nodded, “It could have gone either way.”