A/n here's your first ruff for the weekend

Howling Thunder Ch26: Bi-Polar...get it? Polar! ice...ok i’ll shut up.

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Immediately I fog shift back several paces, a bone chilling cold seems to creep into every muscle of my body. Looks like I’m going to have to play fair this time… well, at least a little.

Mora cracks a fanged grin once more, “Lord Nox, I’ll advise you not to underestimate me, unlike the other girls here I’ve always focused on the spear.”

I puff out a cloud of cold air from my lungs, “Sorry, I was distracted by your lovely legs. Now, show me what you’ve got!”

She frowns and runs forward, her icy spear strikes a flurry of thrusts, each one threatening to carve at my face.

Spinning my trident I parry away the spear repeatedly. The thrusts stop suddenly as a wide swing arcs toward me like a whip, flakes of snow trailing like the scythe of a reaper.

Ducking low, I roll into the strike, swinging my trident around me to hit away the spear. At the moment of contact her ice shatters, shards fly forward stinging my skin as suddenly I see her boned spear tip arcing up from below instead.

I plant down my trident to pin her spear to the ground. It’s too easy as she seems to spike it down herself.

Barely righting myself in time, I see her vault forward, her leg wraps the spear shaft to swing the other out at me. The boot itself now enchanted with glass like talons. I narrowly dodge left only to feel a sharp cut against my back, a biting cold makes it even worse.

Turning around, she is still wrapped around the haft, smiling wide as she licks a bit of blood from her whip of a tail. Even that seems to have a thin layer of ice making what looks like a bladed edge.

Mora spins her spear back into a stance, “Apologies my lord, I thought you’d like a closer look at my legs. I’m afraid my tail was a bonus.”

My own tail showers the ground in red sparks, I can feel the vein on my head pulsing.

Ulfa calls over, “If you want any chance of winning, disarm her.”

The dragon girl laughs at the idea, “Good luck with that!”

Her wings spread as she actually jumps of the ground, gliding low before folding in her wings to make an aerial, spinning attack.

I jump over her, swiping down and firing an arc of red energy. Her wings fan up, this time they have the coating of ice as she spins in place, dispersing my sparks as if they were merely rain from the sky.

The left wing withdraws to reveal a spear lunging towards me in the air. I catch the spine like tip with the prongs of my trident, holding myself balanced up in the air for a breath before rolling down along their side. I use the momentum of the fall, my fist shifting into a claw covered in hardened fur.

My strike lands solidly against her ice coated wing, her feet slide against the ground as if she was on top of a frozen pond. She stops and shakes shattered ice from her wings.

I catch my falling weapon, now I notice the layer of frost covering the ground. Oddly I don’t feel any difficulty fighting on it.

Now isn’t the time to bother with thinking however, I charge forth before taking my own slide and into a spin, sparks dancing from my trident.

Those blue eyes flicker with surprise before her wings flap, just once is enough to launch her into a front flip to strike down against my head.

Risking everything, I fog shift for barely an instant, immediately reforming to the side in time to grab the shaft of her spear and slam it as hard as possible into the ground while my right, clawed fist hooks up directly into her abdomen with a spray of red sparks.

Mora releases her spear as she’s sent up into the air. Her wings flap to let her slowly descend.

She clutches her midsection and breathes heavily, she seems almost dazed.

Her voice shows her confusion, “Miss Ulfa, what happened?”

The worgess giggles, “Exactly what Mistress Freki predicted. The spear crafted from the bones of your father excited the dragon blood in your veins causing a slight frenzy. It also adapted quite well to the abilities from your mother’s race, as if it was an extension of your own body.”

Ulfa turns to me, “This little lady is the spawn of a rather nasty white dragon and an ice nymph. She’s a bit on the timid side we observed, so Mistress thought this spear would liven things up a bit!”

Mora bows, still holding her stomach, “I,..I’m terribly sorry Lord Nox, um, Miss Ulfa, I’m sure I would be quite more composed with my spear without the need to rile me up.”

With a chuckle Mora waves her hand dismissively, “Yes dear I’ve seen, your duels are often completely defensive and stretch on until your opponent tires and gives up, very boring. Not to mention how difficult it even is to get someone to duel with you. A taste of recklessness shall do you good, work on finding a balance.”

“Yes Miss Ulfa,” She bows again before glancing at the crowd and looks to Eir for help.

The elder sighs, “Honestly Moranna, I agree with her. Hiding in the library whenever you can is not the way of a valkyrie...go fetch your things and say your goodbyes. It seems the final stage of your training will be very entertaining, make sure to write dear.”

There's a motherly look in her eyes as she speaks, Mora does seem to be above the average age here. No doubt the girls who come here when they’re still pups need quite a lot of care to recover from the loss of their parents.

As Mora quickly walks away with her head low to hide her face I whisper to Ulfa, “I doubt so many are chosen by gods, where are the older girls?”

Ulfa smiles, “They usually stay here till reaching adulthood by the beastmen standards, have their own naming ceremony of sorts, and then go out to challenge themselves. Some join the army, others the guilds, the point is to prove themselves worthy to be chosen.”

Eir adds on, “We only provide a safe place for them to grow up and learn to defend themselves. Some however, like Moranna, come from lineages that are frowned upon in society. You must know that the children of dragons are usually held in the same regards as their parent, something evil to be feared. Such girls stay within these walls, eventually becoming elders or slipping away in the night to spend their lives wandering the wilds.”

Sounds familiar... the pain in my back flares as the frost melts into the cut.

The elder notices and snaps her fingers at a few girls, “Properly clean the young alpha’s wound, I won’t hear that our lessons on treating injuries fell on deaf ears. You two over there, do something about all this water.”

She looks back to us, “It shouldn’t be too long, I’ll have her luggage brought to your carriage at the front gate.”

As Madam Eir walks away I catch the mumbles of one of the younger girls now holding a bucket, “That damn book wyrm could have done something about the ice before she scurried off.”

Really I try quite hard not to laugh...I’m totally using ‘book wyrm’ sometime.

A couple hours slip by, the sun is sitting just above the city walls.

I must say that having a couple, pretty girls only slightly younger than me fuss over my cut was both charming and painful. You’d think it would be something creepy old men would salivate over but after the tenth time they accidently stuck the needle deep in the cut I’d had enough.

Ulfa wasn’t very gentle but she finished without incident. I’ll visit Mother tomorrow morning to use her fancy fire magic on it.

Eventually Mora walks up leading a couple younger girls with her luggage. She’s wearing a simple blue silk wrap, much like Patra normally does. The cloth hangs from her neck, crosses her chest and wraps around her back into a long skirt that goes past her knees. Simple yet elegant. It complements her ash colored skin.

Her wings rest off her shoulders like a cloak...a scaly cloak. She doesn’t bother hiding the horns or tail, plenty of residents have those here. The spear is tightly wrapped in blue cloth at her back. I guess she won’t hold it openly unless she has too.

She only bows nervously before stumbling her way into the carriage and hiding her face behind a book.

The ride back to the castle is rather lazy, occasionally I’ll ask ulfa about something I see.

Mora arranges her own room in my tower while I’m at dinner, thankfully with much less groveling nobles tonight. I do notice a rather unpleasant look from Lupa’s father, General Ivan.

Finally after a rather long day, I can relax in my bed and peacefully fall asleep to the gentle crackling sounds of the fireplace.

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A/n: Not sure how I feel about how this one flows, but staring at it for more hours won't solve anything. Let me know how ya like the fight. If ya get a good visual for it, if you think it could be longer ( it is supposed to be a short duel) I dunno, see ya in the comments, I'll work another chapter of this tonight along with the side story. also, its really fun to see where in the world people who visit the site are from. hopefully this wednesday i can work on adding a final edited, condensed chapter to it.

kudos to anyone who figures out the meaning of mora's name