NOVEL FROG Chapter 17: No mercy
All quiet on the western front.
-Report from general Maltza
The training yard was a large open area with some mages around testing spells. Our class made its way over to one of the more open area's only to encounter a large burly man with more armor than common sense. The man was overly jovial and quick to hug, but Kyla tazing him with lightning saved me from any attempts made by the man. He set everyone to spar with each other, but I had other plans and instead started sharing ideas with Urist.
"So, yer tellin me, that yer old lady just had one of these things lying around?" Urist was fascinated by the machine I described.
"I'm pretty sure it was my grandma that had one, that or my grandpa, but that's less likely. You have to know, these things were more ancient than my gran' herself at this point. Called it a spinning jenny from far out west." Urist is almost looking insulted at this point.
"Eight coils is ancient? I think I understand why ye don't want to share things ya wouldn't call ancient." Glad to see he understands.
"What the hell are you two eggheads doing? This isn't engineering school! Get fighting!" The teacher butts in, sounding very excited.
"We are mentally sparring, it seems I'm currently winning." Besides, from what I'm seeing from the other mermaid who is currently sparring the cow lady, things can get pretty dicey. Sharks are often seen as dangerous, but cows kill a LOT more people than sharks do, for many reasons.
"She ain't just winnin', I'm getting me ass kicked here teach'. Say Esstrey do you think ye can give me a rough drawing how a spinnin jenny looks like?" I give a nod to Urist who is clearly enjoying the show as much as the information. The teacher tries to berate us, but is interrupted by one of the human students.
"You dare disrespect imperial education? We are gracious enough to educate you fools on the proper way to use power, even if you are historical enemies. Yet you sit there, squandering it! What place did you crawl from for respect of education to be this bad?" Judging from his stance, he's most likely some high ranking noble's brat. I can't exactly say I'm from a country where we shot his kind, so I improvise.
"I'm from Quintillius." The overgrown brat starts sputtering angrily, and instantly takes off his glove, which he throws in my face. I don't bother to dodge, as im left wondering why he threw his glove in my face.
"You dare! I should have known someone as uncouth as you would be a pirate! I challenge you to a duel, scum! Face me and defend your honor!" More eyes start turning our way at his loud proclamation. Did I do something to offend him? Well, this might be a great time to test some stuff.
"Depends on the rules but sure." I see no reason not to accept this. Might be able to blow off some steam.
"Of course a criminal like you wouldn't know the rules. We will use sparring rules, dull weapons and first one down loses." One of the students excitedly comes over with two dull swords. I give my shovel to Urist so he has something to inspect, and throw my crossbow to Cathy.
The teacher is still looking baffled, but me taking his lesson seriously has him stuck on non-intervention for now. At this point, everyone stopped sparring to either do something else or look. I notice a few human students snickering as if something is funny.
"I am Marcellus of house Northspire." He bows slightly while looking at me with disdain.
"I am Esstrey... the mad Queen of Quintillius." I think I have been called that in every official situation back in Quintillius.
We take positions across from each other, and one of his lackeys starts counting us down. Once we are started off, I dart forward to the surprise of Marcellus. He manages to deflect my early dash, and strikes back with his blade. He recovers quickly thanks to the fact he has legs, and I don't. I quickly back off afterward as to not get caught off guard.
"I should have known you wo-" I dash forward again while he's distracted attempting to monologue. This time however, he dashes back faster, and starts hitting back. I back off under his assault. He pursues, and forces us into a fencing battle. It quickly becomes clear he is the better fencer, as I'm pushed further and further. Right until he goes for a strike on my sword, and manages to disarm me. The sword falls to the ground, too far for recovery. The snickering of his lackeys turns to giggling, some of the other students have decided to join in on the snickering as well. Marcellus himself takes the time to look triumphant as he points the dull blade at my face.
"Well, this was nice and all, but you really should pay more attention to the lessons of your betters. You will never raise yourself to become better if you associate with criminals." He starts talking again, I decide it's time. Enough skill rating. Time for the durability test.
I dash towards his sword smiling, he is surprised by the dash again, but knows it will enough to instinctively thrust his sword toward my face. I respond by biting the sword to pieces. Spitting out some of the iron pieces I move closer, and claw him across his left shoulder. He screams in pain and panic as he tries to throw a punch with his right arm. I intercept his arm with my left hand, using my right hand to break his arm. The screaming escalates, and he tries to fall over backward, but I intercept his attempt at surrender by stabbing him in the abdomen with my right hand, doubling him over. I pull out my clawed hand, and lift him higher from the ground. The teacher is moving to intervene.
"Cathy." I utter a single word, and the teacher drops to the floor as tentacles trip him up.
"I understand wanting to protect your [students/proteges/disciples], but this is a duel. The [rules/parameters/laws] of the duel state this is between the two of them, and the fight ends when one falls to the floor." At this point the life has quickly drained from most student, even some nearby practicing mages tried to intervene until Cathy moved. To add insult to injury, the foreign students are now snickering at the sight of an arrogant imperial noble getting his shit kicked in. I simply continue with my experiment, and start pummeling the face of Marcellus until it's unrecognizable. After I'm satisfied, I drop him to the ground, and call for a life mage.
The moment he hits the ground, a woman in white robes rushes over to Marcellus, and gives me a mean glare. She tries to pick Marcellus up, no doubt to bring him to a better place to heal, but he groans in pain in response. She gives me another glare.
"Don't mind me, I am simply here to observe your work. I recommend doing it quickly, as I punctured his liver." The nurse briefly panics, and quickly starts healing him up. I watch closely, as I see the shoulder recover fastest. Followed by the liver wound, pulverized face and broken arm respectively. I waddle over to my wheelchair, and Urist seems to be done inspecting the shovel.
"That is some nice work." I don't know if Urist refers to me dismantling the noble or the shovel itself, so I simply nod. Cathy joins us, and gives me a small bow.
"Thanks Cathy, I owe you one" The teacher would have ruined my experiment. Kyla also rushes over, but she seems rather angry.
"What was that?! Do you have any idea what you just did?" Other than terrifying most students here enough to stay out of my affairs? Of course I do.
"I wanted to see how effective healing magic is, and what is effective to counter that. Broken bones are clearly the hardest to fix, followed by organ damage."