The sword fell to the ground with a thud, tipping over to lie on the flat of the blade, heavy enough to sink into the turned mud of the clearing.

Dem was stunned. His mind suddenly filled with on a single resounding question. He started to call out to her, his question bursting forth, “Wersa! Wh-”.

As the words formed, Wersa took a step backwards with her left leg, leaving her right where it was, and presenting a side-profile towards Graf. The boar beastman was already moving in for another attempt at grappling the Warrior woman, as Wersa weight settled on her back leg. Dem’s question was cut short when he realized Graf hadn’t even had the time to register the fact that Wersa no longer held a weapon, Graf’s face was study in singular concentration. As Graf moved in, it looked to Dem like the beastman would succeed in his aims, as this time Graf managed to get much closer to Wersa than he had previously, his arms opening wide to prevent Wersa from escaping him. Dem’s breath caught in his throat at the sight of Graf’s quilled arms closing around Wersa. Wersa’s large form was nearly blocked from Dem’s sight as the larger form of Graf seemed to engulf her. Just as he was about lose all sight of her, Wersa’s form blurred, taking a step forward, pushing into the boar beastman, and dealing a massive blow with both her fists, one striking the beastman in the head while the other struck him in the gut. The simultaneous punches smashed into Graf, lifting him off his feet and sending him backward far enough he hit the trunk of a large tree. Dem’s eyes followed Graf’s slumping form as it slide down the tree and laid still. Dem’s eyes darted back to Wersa who stood for a moment, frozen, in a strange stance. Dem could only imagine she had used some sort of powerful technique. He hadn’t sensed any sort spell from her, nor would she have had the time to cast anything. What had happened? He had seen everything but understood little.

The fight was over just like that. The boar beastman was beyond yielding now, though not dead thankfully. Dem noted Graf was only unconscious, his chest still rose and fell. The dust had started to settle now. The clearing was finally still. Wersa’s spells had mostly worn off now, leaving her heavy breathing as the only sound echoing from the clearing.

He spoke then, to Wersa, to satisfy his curiosity, “Wersa, why drop your sword?”

She spoke, between large gasps of air, “Warriors should use.. swords, but.. Karmis, had me train without weapons.. she said it be better, given our work.. that I shouldn’t be reliant on having a weapon.. There is no room.. for swinging a sword.. in a tavern or an alley.”

“So you’re more proficient with unarmed combat?”

“Yes, Lord.”

He sighed, unarmed combat in the Wilds was a disadvantage, but then so was swinging a big sword. Wersa’s explanation reminded him of Karmis’ anger at Wersa’s use of the sword on the rubber rhino. It was truly a huge blade, thicker than his forearm, and longer than he was tall. In the Wilds, there was only really room for her to wield it in a clearing like this one. Even Graf’s axe was shorter in overall length, with a sharpened tip on top for easy stabbing. Graf clearly used the axe, not in broad chopping sweeps, but to block weapons and hook or stab his opponents. There was simply too many trees to catch a sweeping blade in the Wilds.

Dem strode over to the beastman, to begin his spell work. He could apply some more healing spells and start the bonding process. Wersa joined him, to stare down at her defeat opponent. It wasn’t possible to complete a bond spell with a completely unconscious beast, that would be too easy, but it was possible to begin to lay the groundwork. The bond spell he would apply would be a much quicker and dirtier one than what he used with Ina. It would be mostly one-sided, with him having more overall control. The control came at the cost of less communication over the bond. His benefits, the strength he could borrow from the beastman, would be less too. Deeper bonds were better, but they took more time and more trust. Dem’s coordination with the beastman would be less than than with Ina, but the bond would still improve his passive Tamer spells. Where bonding Ina had made him stronger, more swift, more agile, and improved his stamina, bonding the boar beastman would likely improve his strength, toughness, and stamina in differing amounts. He could only guess what improvements he would receive based on what his old, long since sold, Tamer grimoire had said about the benefits of bonds. One could make an educated guess based on the beast in question, but it was not an exact science. The effects of borrowing strength through both casted and passive spells had diminishing returns with more bonds, depending on the talent of the Tamer, but with only two bonds he would receive the full benefit of both bonds. The Tamer grimoire said it was always better to bond better quality beasts, than it was to bond a large quantity of beasts. He didn’t know what his limit would be with bonded beasts, but most real Tamers had at least a few beasts. He wasn’t really a Tamer any more, he had to remind himself, before he got too lost in his memories of the Tamer grimoire.

Refocusing his thoughts, adding another member to his little party would be helpful. Ina and Wersa could concentrate on offense while the boar beastman defended. There would be some negotiation with Graf, as technically the beastman could try to challenge the bond, though it would cost Graf immense pain and suffering. It was possible for a bonded beast to attack its Tamer, though to do so was practically suicide for the beast. Dem would have to figure out how to keep the beastman at least a little happy. With most beasts it was usually as simple as providing spells, battles, and food, but with beastfolk? He didn’t really know what they would want. Bonding a beastman was much too close to slavery for Dem’s taste, but it would have been a waste to let the beastman die, or to heal him, only to have him return to the Clan to die taking more clan betrayers with him. If the bond later chafed at Dem’s conscience, someday in the future he could release the beastman and bond a different stronger beast. Already Dem had banished the idea of selling the beastman, Graf would be too useful based on what Dem had seen during the earlier fight.

It had never really occurred to Dem to bond more beasts beyond Ina. She was only a lesser beast a few rotations ago, and he had only been a true Classed Tamer for a little longer than that. He hadn’t gotten the chance to try to Tame anything else. Previously, it would have taken lots of work to bond anything in a mutualistic way that followed his Path. He would have had to find a beast and then befriend it, without being able to communicate with it, to bond it in a way that was helpful to his previous Path.

Now, with the change to his Path, there was little point in trying to bond another beast in the way he had bonded Ina. He could still draw from his previous Path, but it would not improve as it had before, unless he found a way to reject his new Class and Path. He was stuck. His Class would override everything else he might try, and it would only truly be fueled by the power of his new Path. If he stopped progressing on the Path of Domination, he would eventually be unable to cast his Dominator spells and would, later on, have trouble casting any spells unless he re-embraced his previous teamwork-oriented Path totally and gave up on his new Class. Even then, would his current Path let him change? Changing one’s Path, especially going backward, was painful usually and required a lot of mental work, in conjunction with changing one’s behavior. It was generally easier to follow related, dual Paths, than it was to try to take up a previous Path. Most combat Classes focused on specific Paths to maximize their personal power and spell casting, but Classes oriented towards production and service, often would follow a number of related Paths to maximize their personal efficiency at various tasks. Production and service Classes didn’t need the powerful spell casting abilities of combat Classes, and so it didn’t matter much if their multiple Paths were weaker overall. His Path was truly singular and monstrous. Everything he knew of Paths and every feeling he had about his Path, told him so. The grimoire had changed him fundamentally, he didn’t think it would be so easy to change back.

***

When Graf had woke, his black, beady eyes were glued to Wersa, who stood looming over his slumped form. Graf had been dizzy initially, and been more than happy to lay still as Dem explained what was required for the bond to work and its restrictions. The beastman had agreed readily to Dem’s requests. The fight had been knocked right out of the hulking figure, his face a mask of defeat. It took nearly a whole half cycle to get the bond spell up and functioning, but when it finally operating Dem felt a big a change.

Dem could feel his strength soar as the bond took hold. He would need to eat well over the course of the next few cycles to fill out his new, more dense, muscles. He had originally thought the bonus to his passive spells would be small, but it actually had been fairly large. At best he could speculate. Perhaps he hadn’t factored in that Graf was a beastman, not merely a beast. Beastfolk were far stronger than they would otherwise be as mere beasts, even if they were at the same level of ascension. A greater beast would be weaker than a greater beastman. Graf was clearly a greater beastman, and maybe even at the strength of a elder greater beastman. Either way, Dem felt great. He jump further and lift more now. Ina had even said she felt a bit stronger, suggesting that was there was some bleed over across the bonds. This was something he would have to research.

As they prepared to leave the clearing, Dem watched as Graf had spent a moment looking at his broken axe, before grabbing a leftover spear from one of dead beastman. Graf used the spear to pry the head of of the axe off the remnants of its haft and then tied the axe head to his waist. When they got back to the settlement they could get a new haft fitted for it, Dem thought. This could be a good way to get the beastman to be more comfortable in their bond, but what else would the beastman want? Would Ina want something as well? Dem smiled at the thought of giving Ina a few more gifts. His relationship with Ina, if he could call it that, had been pretty basic. Was there more they could have between them? He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts of Ina. Dem would have to deal with Greer next.