The sword cuts the wind. The blade bites deep into the caveman's skull and gets lodged. The body threatens to fall and unbalance the soldier, but Marcus raises his leg and kicks to dislodge the edge, just in time to deflect the spiked club of a second enemy and slit his throat with the weapon's tip.
He retracted the longsword again and positioned it near his face, blocking a third club that bursts into splinters upon impact with the steel, forcing him to close one eye. The clash shudders through Marcus, numbs his arms, and bends his knees, but he does not yield.
-Skill: Max Power.
Requirement: None.
Cost: 20 Ki.
Description: Doubles the user's physical strength for 60 seconds.
Marcus's muscles swell with power.
He pushes his body forward. The three remaining cavemen become dark blurs before his eyes, hazy figures towards which he swings his sword, once, and again. The silhouettes are split in half from the mid-torso. During the second slash, sweat and momentum cause the hilt to slip from his hands.
Jimbo sees the spinning sword coming and moves to the right to dodge it, even though it wasn't a real danger to his ethereal presence. Upon looking back, he sees Marcus caving in the last enemy's face with a punch.
The defeated summons turn to dust. And although Jimbo knows the soldier cannot hear him, he applauds Marcus's performance anyway.
---Jimbo the Dungeon Core LV 3
-Ether: 285/300
The life energies consumed during the battle slightly filled Jimbo's Ether bar.
Amidst pants, Marcus hunches over and plants his hands on his knees; the sweat his tunic cannot absorb splashes on the ground. As soon as he catches his breath, he straightens up and starts looking for his sword. He finds it among the stone bleachers, and returns to the arena to press the stone monolith. Five pushes, five cavemen appear with brutish, dazed faces.
(Reduction) -Ether: 265/300
«Wait a minute... I'm running a deficit!»
On another occasion he would seek to kick Marcus out, but the boy's foolishness intrigues him.
«Why is he pushing himself so hard?»
Jimbo takes the reins of the cavemen.
Marcus raises an eyebrow when those brutish men, who until then attacked without thinking, begin to strafe, split up, and try to surround him. His instinct reacts before his reasoning; he dashes towards the caveman in front of him, blocks a club strike, blocks another, attacks the feet, and cuts near the ankle.
The primitive man grunts in pain and ends up on his knees, but Marcus does not finish him off. He bypasses him and plants his back against the arena wall, keeping his rear safe from surprise attacks. But now he has four uninjured enemies in front of him and one limping.
The wounded one lunges with his guard completely open. Marcus tries to dispatch him quickly with a slash; the sword descends toward the head, but the caveman leans at the last moment and the blade enters the muscular shoulder, only for knotty hands to grip the steel and jam the weapon.
The soldier tries to free the weapon by severing the fingers with a flick of his wrist, but the grip is too firm. In a panic, he sees the remaining cavemen rapidly approaching.
"[Double Sacred Slash]!" Marcus exclaims.
-Skill: Double Sacred Slash.
Requirement: Level 15.
Cost: 35 Ki.
Description: Imbues a slashing weapon with life energy to increase damage and perform a double attack.
Marcus's sword lights up. The caveman's fingers fall off as if made of butter, and at the exact moment the clubs crash down upon the soldier, a curtain of wind, light, and sand rises.
Jimbo squints, barely able to see anything until the sand settles, and Marcus lands on his knee with his sword arm extended. The cavemen, frozen behind the soldier's back, soon collapse and turn to dust.
Jimbo applauds again, but his mood dampens upon seeing Marcus's face shadowed by frustration.
"It's still not enough, I need to be stronger, much stronger" murmurs the youth. He straightens up and, with a trembling hand, sheathes the sword before retreating.
Jimbo would have liked to know what was going on with the boy, but his duties in the dungeon are a much higher priority. However, that doesn't stop Marcus from returning for the next two days, training alone, and pushing himself harder than any other soldier.
---Jimbo the Dungeon Core LV 4
-Ether: 52/400
Marcus bounces down the bleachers, this after being cornered by a pair of particularly fierce cavemen. His bracers and kneepads screech as they strike the stone, and clink when he falls the two and a half meters from the stands to the arena. Gritting his teeth, he opens his eyes and sees a growing shadow. He rolls twice on the ground, evading the 90 kilos of muscle crashing down upon him.
The soldier gets up, plowing the sand with his sword. His body throbs from the dozens of blows received, and blood trickles down his forehead from a superficial cut, but that doesn't stop him.
The second remaining caveman lands next to the first.
Marcus's sword ignites...
And with a white flash, the combat concludes.
The young man walks back toward the monolith, but ten paces from reaching it, he collapses from exhaustion. He rolls onto his back, spits out the sand he swallowed, and faces the underground ceiling. He reaches out a hand, yearning for a power he does not possess.
"If I am defeated in the jousts at the hands of that vile adventurer, I will lose my sister, I will lose my father's armor, and I will lose my honor" Marcus says. He closes his eyes and his fist, striking his side. "By the gods, the only reason they won't take my mount is because I lack one. If only I were stronger... Everything would be different!"
Jimbo listens to the complaints in silence. He doesn't need to hear much to guess the story. The soldier got into trouble with some guy, maybe the sister's boyfriend, the typical drama.
«I know you can't hear me, but I'd like to help you out, buddy.»
During the training, Jimbo tried to heal Marcus in secret as an experiment, using Heal Minion and Heal Minion 2, just like he did with little Dowmy. But since Marcus has no link to the dungeon, the spell didn't trigger.
Despite the limitation and his reluctance to spend Ether on apparent nonsense, Jimbo kept pitying Marcus.
«Back in the orphanage, I used to get into fights way out of my league too, and I never won a single one.»
It was only when he discovered the world of video games that he started to acquire a taste for getting drunk on the flavor of victory.
«Maybe I can help you out with a more indirect approach...»
Marcus feels a heavy, hot breath clashing against his face.
He opens his eyes, and finds an immense beak mere inches away. The soldier gasps, rolls to get away, and scrambles to his feet, gripping the longsword's hilt with both hands.
For a minute, Marcus maintains his distance from the mysterious beast. The creature is much wider and taller than him, with small, bright eyes dark as pitch, plumage forming a black hump, and a scarlet chest and belly that looks like a trail of blood—the same scarlet that masks its eyes and highlights the white of the feathers on its chin and jaw. The most terrifying features were its legs and beak: the former supported by powerful thighs, and the latter resembling the pincer of a colossal crab.
Marcus doesn't know whether to attack or flee; he is frozen in the face of the unknown. The Genyornis newtoni also seems undecided, leaning over and tilting its head as if analyzing the soldier. The staring contest drags on.
Jimbo, seeing that he's not making any progress, goes to fetch Dowmy.
The little demoness emerges gliding from the tunnel, spins over the arena with her arms and legs bent, until she lands taking quick steps and shaking her limbs, making the ribbons of her pink dress flutter.
"I'm here!" she announces, and her eyes widen and light up upon seeing the dinosaur. She points at it with her hand and looks up at Jimbo, visible to her since she is part of the dungeon. "Giant chicken! Food for me?"
Jimbo groans seeing Dowmy drool, and quickly brings the little demoness up to speed on what he wants. Dowmy's disappointment passes quickly, and she steps up to the soldier to obey Jimbo's command.
"His name is thunderbird, and he's a gift from the master"
"What...?"
Marcus is left speechless.
...
Baldo and Pit take a seat on one of the benches bordering the training courtyard adjacent to the castle. The barracks are quiet, and it's been a while since anyone dusted off the pells. With the special training sessions in the dungeon, and the romances in the citadel, the place has been used more for casual chats than for practicing discipline.
The soldiers unpack their coin pouches, stacking the silver and copper circles.
"For my part, I have two silvers and ten coppers," says Baldo.
"Five silvers, forty coppers," says Pit.
Baldo snorts.
"The perks of coming from an influential clan. Why did you never agree to lend me money?"
"You always forget to pay me back," says Pit with the most neutral expression in the world.
"I'm handsome and a great warrior; clearly, the gods had to grant me some flaw to balance the scales"
Both gather the coins into a third pouch.
"I hope with this Marcus and his sister can start a new life somewhere far away from here," says Baldo. "May he lay down the sword and become something that attracts less pain, like a baker, or a fisherman. Did you know that as a kid I wanted to dedicate myself to fishing?"
"No"
"A quiet lake, a rod in hand, that was my ideal. But life led me to fish for a spear"
"We are made for what we are made for. No one escapes their destiny"
A series of high-pitched, feminine shrieks alerts them and makes them stand up. They search with their gaze for the direction of the commotion. It comes from the castle, where screams of a person repeatedly begging for forgiveness can also be heard.
From a high, glassless window that illuminates the interior of the ground floor, a feathered behemoth leaps out with its long legs extending forward. It lands, making the earth tremble, and a slighter figure bounces on its back, barely managing to stay on top.
Baldo and Pit grab their spear and mace respectively. The beast approaches, swaying its body in a way that would seem comical if it weren't accompanied by so much power and speed. Just when it seems the bird will run the pair over, the rider hugs the bird's neck and pulls back with all his might.
The Genyornis sinks its claws into the dirt, kicking up a drizzle of dust over Pit and Baldo, who cover their faces with their arms. When the dust cloud settles, the soldiers look at the rider and their jaws drop.
Marcus gives them a nervous smile, and announces that he got a new mount.