Chapter 146: Book 3 Chapter 16: Struggle of identity

Aerien’s POV

Of course, Sagel had no plans on making some little test of Rolwen and Levin’s abilities too easy on me. Standing in front of me were the three boys, all appearing to be around 5 years old, and matching me rather closely in height. All three had their wooden swords drawn. Me though, I was completely unarmed.

Levin and Rolwen were two of the boys of course, but the third, the transformed Sagel, was going to be the biggest headache of the three. Two on one unarmed Vs. Levin and Rolwen, that was certainly something I could handle. Sagel though… there was very little doubt in my mind that man was, in fact, far superior to me in terms of martial skill. He DID have millennia and countless human lifespans and experiences to learn all there is to know about human combat methods after all, he quite likely surpassed even the grand master from Earth. The few wins I’ve managed to pull against him have all been due to the sneaky tactics of my own style, but he’s long since figured out my tricks and closed all his gaps. There is simply no way I’m going to defeat him without a weapon.

Well then, this means I’m going to have to do my best to use Rolwen and Levin as obstacles, keep them between myself and him, and at some point I will need to steal a weapon from one of them.

I tuned out the giggles and noises of awe and excitement from the sidelines. We had our own little clearing for these training exercises, but of course it always attracted a crowd of gawkers, especially among the children from the camp who had grown quite attached to the two boys.

Levin and Rolwen began circling, winging themselves away from Sagel and giving him a clear line to me as they attempted to box me in. Like I was going to let that happen. I also began walking off to my left, toward where Rolwen was. He was the more difficult to deal with of the two boys. He definitely had some high level martial experience of his own from back on Earth. He was clearly unfamiliar with the sword, but his footwork was on point. His most comparable skills to this world were in unarmed combat and he also seemed to know his way around a knife. I had a sneaking suspicion he might also know how to use a gun rather well. His style seemed to be a very striking-heavy variation on Judo. I’m quite familiar with an entire family of styles with similar features, and most of them are taught in police or military special forces training, but the police version definitely does not train in knife fighting and heavily emphasis the striking portion.

This placed Rolwen as the second biggest threat of the trio, meaning I wanted to keep my eyes on him. He’d adapted to my methods quite well given his assumed background, so I did not want to leave him free to pull some kind of sneaky tactic while I was engaged with Levin.

Sagel had already motioned to Levin to close quicker, and was crossing over behind Rolwen. This placed the weakest member of the trio the furthest from Sagel, it was all too obviously a weak formation. That means they’re either up to something, or they just aren’t taking this seriously. I wasn’t about to bet on the latter.

Levin wound up being the trigger to start as he broke into a full run, and then Sagel and Rolwen who were each more used to coordinating with others started as well, timing their pace so they would all reach me at around the same time. Of course, I would be at a disadvantage if I let them approach me on their own terms. So, I did exactly the thing they would be least likely to expect from me. I ran straight toward Sagel.

The changeling was clearly not surprised by this in the least, and already had his sword in a thrusting position, and was opening himself to move quickly in Rolwen’s direction in case I changed targets at the last minute. A thrust during a charge is the easiest thing to correct to intercept a last-minute dodge, and it would also do the least to get in Rolwen’s way as he tried to pinch me in. There’s only one way to deal with a thrust, and that’s to move at the absolute last possible second when they can’t easily correct. The only thing this really bought me was distance from Levin so I wasn’t dealing with 3 people at the same time.

Sagel’s posture shifted again to cover the outside. Of course, his earlier posture was just a feint. He wanted to force me to dodge right into where Rolwen could intercept me. He thrust toward my left shoulder, forcing me to avoid to the right with zero space to avoid Rolwen’s approaching swing. I avoided Sagel’s attack by millimeters, and immediately grabbed both his arms and walked around him as though we were dancing, leading his sword straight in Rolwen’s general direction.

This is where Rolwen showed his stripes though. He avoided that flailing un-aimed strike far more easily than I had avoided Sagel’s original strike, and with a similar minimal movement as though he just slightly changed the direction he was running so his path would no longer intersect with the strike. His attack was still coming at me, and I had no direction to go now except straight through the child-size changeling.

I ducked under his sword arm, but he leaned his body weight in to intercept me. There was zero chance of me getting out of this without loosing my footing, so I just accepted that and allowed myself to fall straight down over Sagel’s outstretched leg, directing a wild kick in Rolwen’s general direction. One foot nearly missed his face, the other successfully caught Rolwen’s sword arm and pushed it right up into Sagel’s left armpit.

I felt the changeling collapse his own footing in order to avoid the strike, landing his body directly on top of mine. A mere second later, I had a sword pointed directly at my neck with Levin standing proudly over us.

“Alright, that’s a win for you guys.” I said as Sagel lifted himself up off of me.

“Ahh… good coordination you two.” Sagel praised them. “Your highness, excellent tenacity, managing to maim the strike leader’s arm before you went down, even managing to get the strike to go somewhere that would be uncovered with leather or resin armor.”

“Yes, three on one is still a nearly impossible prospect.” I said. “Especially unarmed Vs. Armed. I’m honestly surprised I even managed that.” I accepted Sagel’s offered hand as he helped me up. “Also, I somewhat doubt such a strike would have been able to penetrate an under-layer of even some un-enchanted textile armor.”

“It would if the weapon was enchanted.” Sagel said with a smirk. “To be perfectly honest though, you ought to have been able to last at least a little longer. Maybe even pull off a win. You are still thinking in terms of your old human body. Your current body has a lot more physical strength. If you had thrown me into Levin before I’d fully reached the ground, it would have taken the two of us out of the battle for a moment and allowed you to face down against Rolwen. My weight should not have been enough to hold you back.”

I sighed. “You’re right, I’m getting very little opportunity to push my skills forward with all of this diplomatic stuff. I am in desperate need of some time for some proper training with you guys. I get the feeling Levin and Rolwen may be able to beat me solo not very long from now at the rate things are progressing.”

“What!? No way!” Levin denies my claim. “You always just toss me away and take my sword when I try to close on you.”

“That’s because you always swing in from too close.” Rolwen chastises him. “You gotta strike so only the very tip of your sword lands, otherwise she’s gonna close on you before the strike can land and then she’ll have your hands.”

“Well, she can also close on you if your strike is too shallow.” Sagel cautions. “It’s actually her preferred tactic to avoid a strike and then close after you’ve missed. I’ve noticed she actually tends to be slightly panicked when Levin closes in closer than he should. Another valid tactic would be for him to feint and then pull his strike so his sword is between himself and her again, it would be an excellent opportunity to gain ground with a thrust that forces her to retreat out completely.”

“Great, strategy briefings from the guy who’s read through all my tricks. This proves even more why I gotta go pick up some new ones.” I huffed as I dusted myself off.

“For now, you are a very worthy opponent for them your highness. In human kingdoms, it would not be uncommon for your knights to be stronger and act as your protectors.” Sagel said.

“But not fey kingdoms.” I stated flatly. “And we are not in a human kingdom, are we?”

“Your appointment into royalty was most unusual.” Sagel said. “Normally, you would be far more accomplished and powerful before ever being considered for a noble position. However, you were selected for your growth potential and already existing interpersonal and diplomatic skills. Combat power is something you can work on. Your body is only four years old, and your mind is only approaching seventy. For an elf, you would not even have reached adulthood if we add up both of your lives’ experiences. Frankly, it is a testament that her majesty made the correct choice that you are managing this difficult transition for our people as well as you are, and it is completely understandable that your combat abilities are lagging behind. You will have your time to improve. And besides, if you were using your elemental magic, not a single one of us would have stood a chance. You ought to be able to defend yourself quite effectively if you keep the enemy at a distance and toss off a good spell.”

Well, yeah. There certainly was that. It’s still a little humiliating that all the combat skills I learned back on Earth, the ones I’d actually taken real pride in, are the ones that are repeatedly getting completely outclassed. The areas where I’m superior all have to do with the things that are different in this world from Earth.

“So,” Rolwen cut in before that could go anywhere else. “You said before that you wanted to talk to Sagel about something, is it anything we can be involved in?”

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I let out a long sigh. “Of course, in fact it might very well be a good idea for you to tag along. Bring your wind-steel swords along. I’ll tell you about it once we are away from the camp.” I said, casting a meaningful glance around at the small group of kids and slightly larger group of adults.

[Levin won!] An older boy said with an amused grin.

[What do you think they’re talking about?] A much younger boy said.

[That’s nothing you need to concern yourself over.] A man nearby said. [If they wanted us to know, they would be talking in Elven. You shouldn’t pry into her highness’ concerns.]

“You know? You could probably just tell us right here and nobody would know anyway.” Levin commented.

“No, her highness is right.” Sagel said. “Anyone could have learned just enough of your language by now to catch onto something they shouldn’t. Even if they haven’t, the mere fact that the possibility exists means you should never assume otherwise. The mere fact she’s telling us to bring your wind-steel swords ought to be enough to tell you it’s fairly serious.”

“Still can’t just call her Aerien, huh?” Rolwen teased, to which Sagel fixed him with a stony dead-eye stare before wordlessly taking his adult changeling form again.

“Go prepare your gear.” Sagel ordered and then walked off.

-

Sarafon carried the four of us over to where a far smaller dragon was circling the area, keeping a respectful distance from a specific spot on the distant ground he was intently staring at, the reason for which would be quite clear to anyone who’d been even close to the area anytime in the past hour or so. In the next moment, a geyser of water erupted straight into the air from the location the dragon was staring. Fire joined the erupting water a moment later. The water doused the fire, and a large cloud of steam filled the air.

‘Well, you’d better announce us so she knows that she should stop for our approach.’ Sagel commented. On his words, I drifted myself out ahead of Sarafon, stopping a short distance in front of the tip of his nose. I lifted a hand to my head, let out a breath and began to focus my intent. Elemental magic had been something I'd taken to quite alarmingly well by comparison to that domain magic stuff. It was rumored to respond to destructive intent, but I had discovered it is just strong intent in general that controls elemental magic. Manipulating my own intent just so happened to be a strong suit of my training.

In response to my intent, fire and air elements gently fused together, causing pure oxygen to ignite in a flame that was such a pale blue that it was invisible to the eye against the backdrop of the sky. Aside from the occasional orange when some speck of dust drifted into the flames, a phenomenon that vanished in a mere tenth of a second, the heat from the flame was the only evidence it was even there at all.

‘An invisible flame.’ Sarafon said, ‘Honestly, every time I see it I have a hard time believing this is elemental magic. With that kind of control, I would swear it was bloodline sorcery, but I have never heard of anyone but deep ruby and bronze metal dragons having a bloodline for fire.’

It is something of a struggle to keep my focus with such comments, but I school my mind to endure it. I allow a brief image of an aurora of orange flames to pass through my mind, and then strike through the pure oxygen fueled fire, causing the invisible flames to retreat away in a fan-shape. As it passes through the air, every impurity it comes into contact with burns in orange fire. The leading edge is, of course, the brightest with an orange color that is almost as intense as a normal wood flame. Meanwhile, the bits of impurities in the air that rushes in to fill the created void leave trails of whispy orange trailing behind that leading edge for something very much like the dance of lights in the aurora-borealis. The only exception, of course, being that it's pure orange instead of all manner of fascinating colors.

‘Well, she knows we’re here now.’ Levin comments in an almost boastful and proud tone. ‘Aerien’s the only person who can do this with fire.’

A short time later, a much smaller blast of fire, only around the size of the ignition stream for a hot-air balloon, rose up from the spot on the ground. This blast was followed by another one, and then a third all in quick succession.

‘That’s her acknowledgement.’ Sagel commented as I was landing again on top of Sarafon’s forehead. The moment my feet made contact with his scales, he started descending toward that spot on the ground.

‘Couldn’t we just call down to her with spirit speech?’ Rolwen asked.

“It’s like a game between us.” I said. “More importantly though, it allows me to practice using the natural energies instead of what I’ve summoned on my own, and consumes a lot of arcane energy as a result. You’d be surprised at how inefficient these showy displays actually are. Well, unless the goal actually IS to consume as much arcane energy as possible while doing minimal damage. I suppose that from this perspective it is incredibly efficient. Anyway, I'm going to go ahead.”

I nodded, and then simply kicked off the side of Sarafon's head and dropped from the sky before Sagel had time to raise an objection. I re-activated my cloak as I neared the ground and sped over toward Gaerien’s location. She was already waiting for me, standing tall and proud in her matte-black combat uniform, a crimson leather vest with protruding shoulders and gold trim came mid-way down her chest, and she wore arm-warmers that had red semi-transparent fabric trailing from them in the form of extra-wide sleeves, the material was interwoven with a fine gold-thread design depicting what looked like small fairies.

Honestly, the entire thing looked more regal than my own wind-walker robe. Or rather, I’m told that’s only the reaction from the human perspective, which I seem to still be somewhat stuck in. While it’s true my own robe was somewhat of a rushed job and was implanted with a simple design and simple enchantment, they are also both highly effective for their job, and the jade-green color is something only nobility directly connected to the queen’s faction is allowed to wear, meaning my heavier looking and less heavily decorated robe is considered to be the far more regal outfit, and the dragons embroidered on the frock only adds to it.

She had grown to stand almost exactly as tall as me in these mere 3 years. She was growing at a truly astounding rate for an elf. But, there was a reason for that. She’d revealed the true nature of her divinity to me a while ago, shortly before she was deciding the black and blood-red theme on the clothing she was wearing now. She was a leech who, through the divine power of the goddess of healing, had taken on a human form. It seems, since the day we were born she had been feeding off my bottomless well of power, so it only stood to reason she would quickly grow to my own apparent age. It just took a little longer with her than it had with me.

Gaerien smiled at me as I landed a short distance in front of her. “You know…” She said with a teasing smile. “It is really not appropriate for a princess to ditch her guards and run ahead like that.”

“Well, I was approaching my knight, was I not?” I countered before giving her a gentle hug. “Besides, I felt it would be better to let you recharge a little before they landed.” Gaerien inhaled deeply, and I felt her body begin to relax a little. Since she ate in the elven manner now rather than the way she had with her old body, our mere physical proximity was plenty for her to feed off my energy directly.

“Hmm… that is enough.” She said, and then gently removed my arm from her shoulder. “That Sarafon is not exactly a part of our circle, and that dragon who brought me who barely even qualifies as a true dragon at all is not even associated with us. We do not want to overstep what could be dismissed as an expression of unsevered bonds among blood family in front of these eyes.”

I sighed and lightly skipped back away from her. “All these stuffy rules of appearance.” I complained. “I get it, but it is bothersome. I was a professional in the medical field in my previous life, that required decorum, but it’s absolutely nothing in comparison to what’s required of a politician.”

“Try being a goddess.” Gaerien commented with a serious but slightly smug smile. Seriously, that face is more regal than my own as well, putting credence to her claim that the rules for deities are as rigid or more than those for royalty. Ever since she stopped needing my hands for support in walking, she has been clearly showing the fact that she is millennia older than me in almost every one of her subtle mannerisms.

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