Chapter 11

She checked different tunnels for hours until she finally found a couple lux like creatures. They fell quickly under her attacks, one of them nearly managing to get a bite in. She killed three of them moved them back to her newfound training room.

The girl with green shining eyes was circling the cautious knight as they exchanged blow after blow. An overhead swing by the knight was easily dodged by the girl. The knight crouched under her halberd and punched in her direction. She caught his fist in her left hand and kicked his leg, getting him off balance. She didn’t use that chance to get a hit in and moved back again. The fight continued for over an hour, the untiring knight trying his best to best his foe. Eleonora stopped with a huge grin on her face. It’s been two more weeks and she had improved considerably. She nearly destroyed the knight when she had gotten the first opening. Its defenses apparently much worse than its ability to attack.

She could keep up her power without any pain for half an hour longer now and it was much stronger. Her unpowered body got much stronger too and she set her goal to be able to fight the knight without any magic before she would destroy it. Few would enjoy this kind of training and she stopped counting the times she nearly died after ten. Another ability she discovered was the powerful self-healing that occurred whenever her ability was active. It improved the more she got hurt and had to heal herself. She got hurt a lot and could now even see the difference when her power wasn’t activated. She might have even gotten hit on purpose a couple times but the knight hit hard, even though her toughness increased as much as her speed and strength.

“Alright Tommy, another round?” she asked, as she jumped into the ring again. Their dance continued and was only interrupted by sleep, hunting or eating. She trained for a whole month like this before she could fight Tommy, the name given to him by his foe, toe to toe without using her magic. Another week and she would dominate. Her days could be considered boring and there certainly wasn’t much variety. She continued for various reasons though. For one she loved fighting, as much as she loved sleeping, eating and reading. So she could do three of those things, although the food was pretty bad too because she ran out of spices and herbs after three weeks. The most important reason though was that she knew how hard it was to find an equal sparring partner, one that would fight to the death but would stop if a certain condition was met.

She had basically found another Jonathan in this cave but she wasn’t sure right now who would win if they fought again for real. The way she remembered he wouldn’t stand a chance against her current self but as soon as he’d get out of the city and started to hunt and kill for real she wasn’t sure anymore. She grinned at the prospect of fighting him again, him not having to hold back at all…and maybe him being the one who bled for once.

After all this time though she was sure that the knight couldn’t offer her anything anymore except perhaps endurance training, but that she could do on her own anyway. She was ready to move on. “Well Tommy…I guess this duel ends now….I deeply thank you for your guidance.” She bowed ceremoniously to the knight who remained in his stoic stance. “As always, my unshakable rock…” she jumped into the circle and blocked Tommy’s attack. After dodging two more her halberd smashed through his head. Its body continued moving though, and only after removing both legs and arms did the statue collapse. She won without using her active magic. Eleonora started feeling a faint magic power around her even when she didn’t actively use it a couple weeks ago already, this meant that both her normal form would be stronger but also easier to detect.

She would have to find a way to disguise her power, both when active and inactive. Lest a being notices her that is much more powerful than her. “How long has it been….” She said as the symbols on the door receded too and it seemed to be openable now. Elly had lost her track of time without sunlight and her constant fighting.

She felt that whatever she’d find in the next room there was no danger. Elly grabbed her pack, that had gotten a lot lighter over the past weeks, and walked up to the door. She looked back towards the crumbled statue that had become somewhat of a partner and nodded her thanks again. Her emotional moment was broken when she couldn’t open the door. The rock was likely stuck after hundreds of years of no use. So she hacked into it with her halberd.

After long pounding noises light broke into the room as the tip of a blade cracked through the stone door. A girl soon followed as she looked into the pitch-black room. It was suddenly filled with red light as her power flared up, the air crackled with energy. She found a torch on one of the walls and lit it with her flint and halberd. She stood inside an empty corridor leading to another door of stone. Again she smashed through and found a dimly lit room on the other end. Not really a room, more a hall. ‘What is this?’ she thought as she walked further into it, extinguishing the torch as it was no longer necessary.

There was a table with plates on it. ‘Old...’ she touched one of the plates and lifted it. Dust fell out of the metal plate. Eleonora continued through the room and found it rather similar to something you would find in a home in Dunewatch. There were some things she thought strange and she couldn’t read any of the language but otherwise it was obviously just a house...a big and nice one but that’s what it was. She found the front door of the house after investigating it. There was sadly nothing of interest to her. When she opened the door she found herself on a street.

‘Marble, everything is marble...’ she could see a way that lead upwards and followed it. After getting to the highest point she found herself on an observing platform. ‘….’ Eleonora was at a loss of words as she stared at the city before her. Kilometers of perfect white marble spread before her until her eyes couldn’t reach any further. A faint blueish light came from what she assumed the ceiling of the cave two thousand meters above her. ‘Ain’t that a find...’ she thought. The city was bigger than Dunewatch she was sure of it.

She stood there mesmerized by the sight for a couple minutes before she could think clearly again. ‘It’s quiet...’ she noted. She couldn’t see any movement and couldn’t hear any noise coming from anywhere. Nothing at all. ‘They left?’ she didn’t yet move. Her sense of adventure suppressed by the eerie silence and atmosphere. ‘This is too big for me alone...’ she nearly went back and wanted to get Dunewatch involved before she remembered that she was sort of wanted. ‘I guess I have no choice but to find out what this place is...’ she concluded and then jumped down onto the roof of a nearby building. After activating her magic she felt a strong energy coming from the presumed center of the city. A huge pyramid like building stood there, as big as the whole noble circle in Dunewatch.

‘I don’t like this...’ goosebumps covered her body as she sensed the energy. ‘What incredible power.’ she moved again, jumping from building to building. After half an hour of traveling like this she could see the pyramid a little better. The buildings around it were higher than where she stood and generally more impressive ‘City center probably, government and higher ups.’ she concluded and moved on. When she was barely a couple kilometers away she heard a sound behind her.

Eleonora’s power activated as she barely evaded a massive two meter claw that cut deep into the marble where she just stood. She would have screamed at the sight but the adrenaline and her experience prevented it. She ran away from the creature, back to where she’d come from. She had never ran as fast as she did right then before she had to evade another massive claw. The monster wouldn’t ceases its attack and it was faster than her. Not by much but she wouldn’t escape.

Eleonora jumped onto the roof of one of the bigger buildings and steeled herself as she turned around. Before her landed an abomination. Four arms that morphed into claws at the end. A horribly disfigured head and torso with bones sticking out here and there. It looked worse than the shifter in its real form. Skin hung loosely from the beast before her as it quietly charged at her. The smell was probably the worst thing about it. ‘Nothing should be able to smell like that...’ she thought as she avoided one claw and blocked the other with her halberd. She stood her ground but the beast was relentless. It tirelessly hacked into her without giving her the chance to attack even once. She could only partially parry one of the claws and was flung away.

Eleonora landed with grace and moved to the side. She had to think of a strategy. Standing there, her breathing calm and controlled she watched as the beast rushed her previous location and hacked into the stone there. It looked around, seemingly trying to sense her. ‘It can’t sense my magic...no eyes then?’ she didn’t let the opportunity go as she swung her halberd into the monster’s side cutting deep. It didn’t seem to care as it focused on her again and commenced the attack. “Motherfucker” Elly said as she got into a defensive stance. The beast’s attacks were powerful and fast but she quickly noted that they were less controlled and flawless as Tommy’s had been. As her flight went on it got more and more easy for her to parry or evade its attacks. Her endurance allowed her to fight for hours before tiring so she had some time.

She led the abomination away from the pyramid and realized that the further away the slower the beast got. Not by much, it was still as fast as her but not faster. After one parry her blade sliced through one of the beast’s arms, completely removing it. She stayed focused and managed to remove the other front arm after a series of attacks. It didn’t stop and simply turned around using the other side to attack. Without the speed and control of four legs it was only a matter of time though before none would remain.

Eleonora stood before the still living but utterly silent torso of the nightmare she’d fought for over an hour. ‘Disgusting….’ she didn’t dare make a sound as more might show themselves. The thing lay before her, its last arm next to it. She turned it around with her halberd and looked at it. ‘Looks like a person...disfigured.’ she thought about it for some time, standing above the abomination in silence. ‘Could be some kind of demon spawn, I read that some had a resemblance to humans...but then I wouldn’t be alive right now.’ she lifted her halberd ‘I don’t want to think about it right now.’ then swung downwards. The beast died.

‘I need sleep….and a distraction.’ Elly ran back to where she entered the city, out into the cave system. After searching for an hour she found what she was looking for. Some wolves made their home inside the cave, they hunted small critters that lived in there with them to survive. “I wanted to do this for a while...but now I REALLY need it.” She said as she approached the three wolves before her. They looked at her in fear feeling her power. When she actually activated it they whimpered and tried to clumsily get away. She approached them slowly and then touched one of them on its head, then rubbed it.

After twenty minutes of careful conditioning she was cuddling with three still slightly terrified wolves and caressed their fur. “You guys know I only let you live because you’re warm?” she asked and the only response was more whimpering. She fed them some of the meat she had left from a previous hunting trip, not wolf meat obviously. They lay there for hours, the wolves getting more and more comfortable around her. She long since didn’t use her power in its activated form anymore. She soon fell asleep in a ball of three wolves, each nearly as big as her.