Ben greeted Marcy as she arrived. He was armed as usual with his shimmering estoc, a whip at his side, and a sleek, miniature crossbow on his arm. She was wearing plate armor, carrying a thick shield, with a mace, sword, and two daggers in sheaths on her belt. Ben noticed three more daggers strapped to a forearm, and a pair slid into her boots. He approved. In his swashbuckling days, he'd packed twice as many. A pirate couldn't have too many knives.
"I am ready for my fencing lesson. I believe you said tonight we were concentrating on how to take down someone in heavy armor?"
"Right. That sword of yours was designed to take out knights in a melee. But stabbing someone in a weak spot during the chaos of a battle is a lot easier than getting a skilled opponent to give you that opportunity, especially when I have a shield. You're going to have to work for your opportunities tonight, and when I can, I'll slap you with the side of my blade. It's not a fair fight."
"I'm willing to take my lumps if it means gaining a better understanding of how to fight. Ready when you are."
For the next four hours, Ben dodged, tumbled, ran in circles, leaped over Marcy's head, tripped her with his whip, and did anything else he could to put her off balance and give him an opening. He got whacked in the head a lot when that didn't work. This was a tough encounter for him. There wasn't the chaos of a ship's deck, and he didn't have allies to distract her or take her blows. The shield made a huge difference, protecting many of the weak points where he'd like to put his sword. But as time went on, he started to find his rhythm. Three times he thrust into her knee from the side, getting a lovely scream out of her. Knees have a great number of nerves in them. Twice, he sent her sprawling with his whip and exploited an opening.
One thing became apparent, though: When she took an injury that debilitated her in any way, her only course was a healing potion. Ben could cast Triage every time he was hit, keeping him in a fight. He started using that to his advantage, taking a wound if it allowed him a chance to exploit an opening. He weapons didn't give small cuts or slices; it was designed to penetrate armor and go deep. Following that up with electrical and fire damage added to the effect of the wound, and the pain. Ben was learning, and learning faster as the night wore on. The fog that the system put on his fighting skills was lifting, at least for this weapon, and his higher DEX and AGI were coming into play more and more. As 5 am rolled around, he called a halt to their sparring.
Marcy was panting hard. Chasing Ben around was like trying to catch a jackrabbit on a triple espresso. "You need a break?"
He shook his head, "Not at all, mademoiselle. I'm fresh and ready to continue. But as we are nearing dawn, I thought we could go all out, as you like to do."
She shrugged, "Sure, but like I said, this isn't a fair fight, and I'll be using more combat skills and striking to kill."
Ben gave her a half-bow. He didn't consider it a fair fight, either, but his logic was different from hers. "True, but I also have healing spells and will be using them, while you rely on your shrinking potion supply. How are those tasting, btw."
"Like horse piss, and it's getting hard to choke them down. They do less, are harder to drink, and taste worse the more you have in a day. Almost like the system wants to limit you."
Ben grinned widely, "So, it's not so one-sided after all. I don't have to drink horse piss in the middle of a fight. Ready when you are."
Marcy walked to her corner, "I'm warning you, I'm charging you on three."
"I'll try to provide a proper target."
True to her word, Marcy counted to three and charged quickly, leading with her shield. Ben charged as well, but threw himself into a diving roll, coming up to spear her in the back, but she'd anticipated that and was already turning, cutting horizontally with her blade. With no time to move, Ben blocked with his forearm, grimacing as her blade cut through the thick layer and past the metal that lay beneath the surface. He was taking a chance that she couldn't take off his arm with a partial blow, and it had paid off. Triage would heal the wound, and he had a surprise for Marcy.
Rolly and Suzette watched as Ben blocked, and Marcy lit up like a Christmas tree, her armor glowing and throwing off sparks. Ben made a getaway, healing himself as he ran. Marcy watched a quarter of her health burn away in an instant. She touched a live electrical wire on a dare once, and this felt similar.
"What the hell was that?"
"Oh, just a small charge of Storm-enhanced mana I had lying around in a battery. I tinker a bit now and then, and wondered about the effect on someone holding a metal sword."
"Relying on your opponent to slash you just right seems risky."
"I'm thinking you're correct, but it's always fun to try something..." He quit talking as she charged again, his whip flipped forward, touched her shield, and again she lit up and glowed.
"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, it's fun to try something new. The electrified whip is made out of a special leather I've been working with. It carries the charge of a full mana battery and instantly sends that into an opponent's metal armor. I hope you appreciate the work I've gone through to give you a good fight."
Marcy recovered from the stun of the attack and noted Ben hadn't tried to kill her when he had the chance. "Must be expensive. How many charged batteries do you have in your pockets?"
Ben's shoulders slumped. "Sadly, just two. I'll have to kill you the old-fashioned way, but win or lose, I've done important sciencing tonight."
For the next five minutes, the two fought hard, giving each other small wounds. Marcy bled and forced down a healing potion. Ben used Triage to heal most of the damage, the efficient spell barely touching his mana pool. But all good things come to an end, and the Courier missed that Marcy's thrust with her sword was a feint to set up her Shield Bash ability. The shield slammed into Ben, stunning him, and she ran him through with her sword, the blade going entirely through his abdomen. Stepping back, she let him collapse on the ground.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
"See you at sunrise."
He grinned through bloody lips, "I'll be fine, just need a bigger heal." Phoenix Fire cascaded down on the two of them, enhanced by the power of Ra, lighting up the area with an early dawn. Marcy burned, Ben healed, and then it happened again as he double cast the spell, burning through his mana, giving her no time to recover. Marcy saw her health plummet by over four thousand points in an instant. Ben, on the other hand, was unhurt, with his injuries healed.
She staggered to her feet, dropping her shield and holding her sword in both hands, with only two hundred health remaining. "That hurt. And my Fire Resistance barely worked.
Ben walked back and forth, not giving her a static target, "Godfire does that. This variety is heavy on the God part. I save it for the toughest bosses, and you fill that role today. Before she could charge, he snapped his fingers. "See you in an hour, we'll have breakfast and talk."
She heard the rush of flames cascading down and didn't have time for a reply. Rolly and Suzette clapped loudly. "Well done."
Ben doffed his hat. "Thank you. I learned quite a lot fighting her tonight. Things are starting to click together. One of those things is my outdated concept of honor. I decided that not unleashing my best spell would be doing her a disservice."
Rolly pointed to his ruined armor. "Was getting stabbed in the gut part of the plan?"
"Um, no, I was trying to stab her, but things didn't go the way I planned, so I fell back on my tried and true tactics of burning things. The outcome speaks for itself. But, my dear Roland, I think it's your turn to take her out to play. Have you put thought into your own tactics?"
"Sure have. I don't have fancy spells like you do, so I'm going to exploit her weakness."
Now Ben was curious, "And what's that? Did I miss something?"
Rolly grinned, "She wants to get better. I know how to use that against her."
Rolly and Ben were sitting at a table outside the tavern, enjoying breakfast, when Marcy resurrected an hour later. She saw them, sat down, and started filling her plate. Ben asked innocently, "Did you have a nice nap?"
"No. I beat the crap out of my workout bag for an hour, got an energy bar, and climbed back in my pod. I'm pissed off."
"Why?"
"I underestimated you. Your skills involve a little healing, riding around on a fancy pony, and trying desperately to fence with that oversized sparkly sword. Or so I thought."
Rolly spoke around a mouthful of pancakes. "Hey, you're only sixteen, you have decades ahead of you to make mistakes. Bribe me with pie and I can tell you Ben's top 10 blunders."
"Rolly..."
"You're right, pie deserves at least your top twenty, and I'll throw in that cruise ship fiasco you tried to run."
"I'll buy you three pies if you don't tell her about that."
"Make it five, that's a great story."
"Four, and I'm prepared to cave and go higher."
"Four it is, I hate to see a grown pirate beg. But that does illustrate my point to little Marcy here. We all make mistakes. And some cost you pie for the rest of your life."
She glared at Rolly, "It's not that easy. I have to keep up this damned invincible status as Marceline Mancour, head of the Mercenaries Guild. I need to get better and stay ahead of people. You have a guaranteed income, I have to make a lot of payments to keep my life together, and a lot of people are counting on me in the real world. I hate slipping up. I should have followed up that thrust with two more blows and not given you a chance. I won't next time." She looked at Rolly, "What ubertastic magic are you hiding, Mr. Shepherd?"
Rolly refilled his plate. "Me? We've already fought some. You know how much armor I can put on and my fighting style. Constricted to that little pen, you've got the advantage. I'm used to the wide open spaces and dark forests. More fun to fight in those, more dangerous. And Squirmie and I loved doing all the quests at the Hunter's Shrine hidden away in the woods. The Huntsman of Artemis has some neat stuff to teach."
Her head snapped up. "What hunting shrine? I found one in Mugvale's beginner zone, but it only taught me to find mushrooms in the forest and hunt wombats."
"Oh, your shrine didn't have nifty weapons like harpoons and woomeras? What about skills for hunting boars and sharks?"
Ben added, "I like the one that lets you enhance a sense. Having Ears like a Fox has let me dodge arrows that I heard coming at me. Not always, but nice when it happens."
Marcy looked from one man to the other. "Show me. I need every place to train that I can get, and every advantage I can earn."
Rolly looked apprehensive, "Well, maybe. We were supposed to spar tonight. If you don't mind getting in a few rounds in the deeper part of the Beast Woods, we can hunt some chimera or a small boss and introduce you to the hunter. But none of this heavy metal armor. If I take you hunting, you need to be sneaky. I put Squirmie through hell when I was blundering around. She gets so embarrassed when that happens. Can't put her through that again."
"I can be sneaky. I've done some hunting and have Basic Stealth."
"Well, I guess we can give it a shot. I've got to go check on the goats over at Bob's place today, but I can meet you at the gates of Gadobhra at full dark."
Rolly grabbed the last stack of pancakes and walked off, chewing them.
Marcy grabbed the rest and started stuffing her face. "You people are so weird. Just when I think I have you figured out, you pop up with some new secret."
Ben leaned back in his chair. "Oh, you have no idea how deep things go."
Marcy considered that statement, "Deep? Like 'Turtles all the way Down' deep?"
Ben nodded, "Now you're catching on."