"Cooped up in your little precious cage, you had no ambition or interest to get out and gain some real combat experience. You only fought among yourselves, ingraining the bad habits I prepared for you into every drill and exercise you came up with.
"Whenever one of your so-called warriors left the Fringe to train, they would kill weaker enemies but get killed by skilled ones, ensuring that no one would realize my deception.
"As I said, you Rezars are conceited idiots who are happy to feed off the very hand you bleed." Dawn smirked from start to finish.
"Good gods!" Friya hadn’t planned to cut in, but she couldn’t stop herself. "Lith’s rule number three, never mess up with the person who prepares your meals."
"That’s a smart rule." Dawn nodded. "Long story short, heat rays are for close-quarter combat only. Unless you’re fighting a bunch of morons or targeting a building, off course.
"Constructs have to be used as long-distance weapons and shaped in a way you can use them like an extension of your being." A wave of her hand conjured golden stakes identical in shape and size to Nalrond’s.
Yet they moved like a swarm, coordinating their position and covering their flanks. When the Agni formed a hard-light barrier to protect himself just like Dawn had done a few minutes ago, the result was completely different.
Multiple stakes merged into one, focusing their power in precise spots of the barrier and compromising its structural integrity. As the cracks spread throughout the barrier, the remaining constructs pierced it with ease and nailed Nalrond to the floor.
Two stakes stopped millimeters away from his eyes, two more right beside his earholes, three near his mouth, and more than any man would have liked floated in front of his crotch.
"Like this." Dawn snapped her fingers, and the hard-light stakes disappeared.
"This..." The Agni stuttered his every word. "This means I have to forget everything and now learn how to fight from scratch!"
"And I’m the best teacher you could ask for." The Horseman nodded. "Don’t you feel lucky, little Rezar?"
Countless barbed remarks came to Nalrond’s mind, but he kept them all to himself.
"I hate you." He just said.
"The feeling is mutual." Dawn said with a disgusted grimace. "Are you going to learn, or do you want me to keep cleaning the floor with your body?"
"Teach me, please." The Agni sighed.
"That’s the attitude." She nodded. "Come at me. I’ll beat those bad habits out of your system."
"Wow. Your wife is a huge jerk, but she’s right." Friya said to Acala. "I can’t believe the Rezars never learned anything on their own in centuries. Dawn served them bullshit for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they eat it up."
"She’s not a jerk." The traitorous Ranger replied. "I am. And she has a name, just like your friend, Solus."
"Fine." Friya clicked her tongue. "Dawn is right. Happy now?"
"No, and I’m sorry for giving you attitude." Acala raised his hands in apology. "I’m just Lith’s guest, whereas you are his friend. I should be more polite with you."
"Apologies accepted." She replied, having a hard time picturing Zepho Acala like the monster Nalrond described.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Supreme Magus