***Tirnanog, Mount Aerie***

***Magnus***

“You can test their mettle any way you want, Linda,” Teresa answered the diminutive seeker. “Just be aware that we regard Astra and Magnus as juggernauts. It won’t do to send just any unpaired warrior against them.”

“Hooh?” Linda looked first judgmentally at Astra, then at me, before her eyes returned to Teresa with barely withheld schadenfreude. “I can see you had your inheritor take a different path than yourself.”

“Naturally.” Teresa crossed her arms in defiance. The seeker’s question seemed innocent enough, but due to Teresa’s inability to have children of her blood, Linda’s comment was like twisting the knife inside the wound.

Nonetheless, Teresa didn’t give in to the provocation. “My mutations ended in a dead end. Astra’s did not.”

“This is the first time I heard of it!” Holly spread her arms with a big smile on her face. The movement accidentally hit Linda right in the face and shoved the other seeker out of the way.

It was undignified, but Holly didn’t pay her apparent social blunder the least bit of attention. “Why haven’t we heard of the good news?”

Meanwhile, Linda rubbed at her face but didn’t have the balls to call out her chieftain.

I took a step away when the titanic woman entered Teresa’s personal space and gave the elder a hearty hug. The reaction was overblown, but it made some sense when I saw it as forcefully stopping the conversation from going down a detrimental path.

Holly's shutting down the other seeker was intentional. It seemed like there was more to the huge chieftain than mere size.

“It’s fine, Holly.” Teresa patted Holly awkwardly on the back.

“And it isn’t confirmed yet,” Astra admitted. “But if everything goes right, I will be able to call myself a mother of three soon enough.”

“Then let’s pray to Gaia for good health and not mention failure,” the caravaner’s chieftain touched her forehead and left the matter at that.

I had seen the gesture performed multiple times by priests of Gaia and their worshippers, so I didn’t question it. People’s tendency to hope for the best in a world with low fertility had occurred to me as odd some time ago, but the predominant religion apparently encouraged it.

On second thought, it made sense. Encouraging people to at least try to have children surely increased the population more than a pessimistic mindset.

“There is no doubt in your honesty, but at least one of you will have to prove their ability in the ring,” the male seeker inserted himself into the conversation. “It is our way.”

Holly turned to the watching crowd. “Who is willing to test their strength?”

A man, almost equal to Holly in size stepped forward and bowed to the chieftain with a grin. He looked impressive. Like Hercules on steroids. If muscles would be the human ideal, this guy would be a pin-up model.

“I would like to offer myself, mother. I’ve heard a lot from you about Aerie’s hunters and their weaving techniques with armour to apply power. The stories had me question their validity. To think a few strings would be a match for raw strength is preposterous.”

The man’s eyes were mainly focused on Holly, but I also noticed the approval-seeking looks he threw at Linda.

My eyes wandered between the huge man and the chieftain. There was no question he had addressed the chieftain as his mother, but he sought Linda’s approval. Was there some kind of power struggle going on in this idyllic family of noble tribesmen?

“Good! We can do it right here.” Linda gestured for the crowd to disperse. “The space is big enough.”

I felt a hand at my back and turned to Ethan.

My father-in-law leaned in closer and whispered. “I don’t know what’s going on, but it seems like Holly doesn’t have quite as tight a leash on her family as I remember. Sadly, we have to react to an insult, even if it was veiled. Don’t hold back. Hurt the boy, but do not kill him. He will be an experienced fighter, but his experience should be limited mostly to monsters, not people. He is too young to have fought in the war.”

I nodded and stepped in front of Astra. “I will fight.”

Astra touched my arm. “I can take him too.”

I laughed and decided to throw the ball right back into the Caravaners’ field. “Let me fight him. He questioned our power, but we don’t have to go as far as to have a woman half his size humiliate him in a contest of martial arts.”

Astra spluttered, but Teresa stopped her daughter from making a scene by placing a hand on her shoulder. A moment later, it seemed like Astra realized what I was trying to do.

The brute on the other hand didn’t seem to get it. “Are you saying I would be no match for your partner?”

“You aren’t a match for either of us,” I replied with played confidence and engaged my armour’s strider mode to get to eye-level with him. “How do you want to do this? I have no time to waste. My name is Magnus, by the way.”

“Hah!” The man looked again at Linda, but it seemed like he had lost some of his confidence. A smidgen of doubt had wormed its way into his mind. “I am Elijah. I won’t hold back, but this is just a test of power, not of volition. We will use our bare fists and abilities. You can keep that armour of yours if you want. It will only slow you down.”

“If you think so. It could be argued that the armour is a part of my ability now.” I detached the halberd from my back and the short sword from my belt. Then I threw both weapons towards Astra who caught them with ease before I took the helmet from its belt attachment and put it on. “Anyway. I am not one to throw away an advantage when it is offered to me.”

The Caravaners and my family retreated to the hall’s walls while I waited in a relaxed stance for my opponent to make the first move.

Usually, it would be the height of folly to allow someone the first blow. Especially when I wasn’t certain of his abilities.

Etan had warned me excessively during our training to always be the one to strike first and with finality in a real-world situation. I hadn’t seen a fraction of the truly dangerous abilities out there, and the most dangerous ones were not the well-known mutations, but rare ones which took you by surprise.

But this duel was held to prove our prowess. And Etan would have warned me if he hadn’t been confident in my ability to do this.

My father-in-law’s assumption about Elijah’s experiences seemed a least partly correct when my opponent roared and drummed his chest like an overgrown ape while he postured for his people.

Some even gave him encouraging cries.

I regretted my choice immediately when Elijah’s muscles hulked out, beefing him up even more.

Then he charged me... Actually charged me like some bull!

My sub-identities took over, which still felt strange, but the assassination attempt had taught me to trust more in this fantastic ability. My problem was the ‘giving up control’ part. Though the sub-identities were me, so I wasn’t actually giving up control. Which still didn’t help my perception of it.

The tension in my filaments released and the armour’s leg extensions catapulted me towards the ceiling while I struck at my opponent’s grasping hands.

There was no doubt in my mind that the man’s oversized muscles gave him exactly what one would assume. My first lesson in this world had been one of strength versus strength.

I thought fondly of Gurney’s hand crushing mine with the power of a vice while all my muscles couldn’t stand up to him. Meanwhile, my fist impacted my opponent’s pinky, followed by a quite painful sounding ‘snap’.

Under normal circumstances, something like this would have been called an unfortunate accident, because no human practitioner of hand-to-hand combat could have pulled off such a move intentionally.

A pained pitch was added to Elijah’s aggressive roar while my feet touched the ceiling.

For a moment, it looked like I was squatting on the hall’s ceiling, five meters above my opponent.

This time, my whole body tensed to accelerate my inevitable descent.

Somehow, my opponent sensed the danger and dodged right when my feet lost contact with the ceiling, leaving me no possibility to correct my trajectory.

Instead of his spine, my knuckles pulverized the polished stone on the ground, leaving a fist-sized indentation.

While I spun in an attempt to right myself, he moved in to grab one of my feet in a move which reminded me uncannily of elder Gilbert’s ability to counteract my speed with his mastery over precognition.

But unlike Gilbert, my opponent didn’t succeed fully. His fingers caught on, but lightning discharging into my opponent’s body caused the digits to twitch and slip off.

I rolled off while he stomped at me – missing only barely.

Then I was flash-stepping around him, hitting unprotected areas while he swung at me.

Kidneys, popliteal fossa, armpit, ankles, solar plexus, I slowly worked in a circle around him, hitting everything I knew to be vulnerable on a baseline human.

He successfully managed to protect his head area and I wasn’t quite ready to low-shot him in the groin. Not yet at least.

But on my second round, I had a go at his tailbone, which was when things got a little dicey.

Elijah slowly got used to my teleport-like flashes of speed, while I was unable to truly hurt him. Hitting weak spots on his body was hurtful judging by the expression on his face, but it didn’t take him down.

And he hadn’t opened his gigantic fists again to grab me after realizing I wasn’t so easy to catch and be forced into a grappling match – a fight he would win without question.

Nor had Elijah given me any openings for his head.

I was forced back when he began to swing his mighty arms wildly in a seemingly irregular pattern. Annoyingly enough, the crazy dance he performed always had one arm swinging right where I intended to go next. And he had his eyes closed.

When I flash-stepped backwards to create some distance, Elijah stopped with a grin on his face.

“No longer so confident, eh?” he proclaimed, still relying on his precognition.

“Yeah, it’s sad,” I mused. “I thought I could have a real brawl with you, but you are just too tough… and a little bit too slow.”

“It doesn’t matter how fast you are when the prey has to come to you,” Elijah replied while he leisurely began walking in my direction. “Though, I admit you know at least how to punch. Haven’t felt someone hitting me for quite some time. Alas, this is as far as you go, so let’s end this fight.”

“Yeah, no.” I raised a hand and pointed at him. “I am sorry, but this is no longer a fight. More like rock-paper-scissors.”

“What-”

He didn’t get any farther, because I zapped him with a lightning bolt.

I didn’t hold back. He had shown some resistance to electricity when I hit him earlier. Each of my strikes had been accompanied by the equivalent of a taser discharge and it just made him twitch.

But I also didn’t want to kill him accidentally, so I didn’t give him the full 'God of Thunder' treatment.

When Elijah’s body seized up, it was my time to move. I flash-stepped to the side and forward to get into position. Two of my filaments snaked into my ear canals for protection, and then I spread my arms and brought them together in a supercharged clap.

Just a foot away from Elijah’s ear. It was as close as I dared to approach without risking him catching me.

It was the first time the titan actually flinched away from me.

He tried to get back into the flow of his dance, but with a burst eardrum his balance was shot, allowing me to land kicks which had been previously impossible.

When he finally stumbled and went to his knees, I managed to get my knee up to his head and smack him right in the base of the jaw.

This still wasn’t enough to knock him out, because he kept writhing and fumbling around on the floor, but it was clear who the winner was. Elijah was down on the ground and not getting up, while I was still standing.

I took off my helmet and looked at the group of seekers and my parents-in-law.

Linda winced when Elijah didn’t get up to fight me, while Holly wore the expression of a mother watching her son getting beaten up.

“Do I have to continue?” I asked, then turned to watch Elijah. I didn’t want to be the dude who proclaimed victory just to be hit in the back by a supposedly defeated foe.

Just to be sure, I took a step away from him. He was still trying to get up but stumbled like a drunk each time he tried. His left ear was bleeding a small river of blood, while the jaw on his right was trying to grow a second head.

“Definitely a cracked jawbone,” I mused, complimenting my work.

Back on Earth, before I had stopped training and developed a small lifebelt, I had been a devout follower of the organisation’s martial arts training regiment for field agents. It was before I had to acknowledge that reaching any hint of professionalism in the art required too much of my time.

I had also realized that in a world with supersoldiers, standing my ground would never turn out in my favour. But I could rely on my new body. The time I had spent studying the body’s weak points and various moves to exploit these weaknesses wasn’t totally lost.

“I think this demonstration is more than sufficient.” Holly looked towards the other seekers and was answered with approval.

Honest ones by the male and female seekers who hadn’t been introduced and a grudging one by Linda.

“Good!” Holly gestured for her clansmen to get going. “Then what are you waiting for!? The saherna won’t awaken themselves from their sleep!”

The caravaners got going like a stirred-up anthill. They didn’t quite run, but the majority power-walked out the door while two stayed behind to look after the moaning Elijah and get him some direly needed medical treatment.

“Saherna?” I questioned, recognizing the originator for one of my mutations but having never seen the actual creature. So far, I had only traded for saherna meat at the Old Camp or gotten it free of charge from my new family.

Holly grinned. “Do you want to see? It’s always a sight when they wake up.”

“Yes, we do!” Astra rejoined my side and linked arms with me.

‘I could have taken him. You were the worse match-up for his abilities,’ her electric communication tingled across my skin. ‘I thought it was over when he almost got a hold of your ankle.’

I sighed and rolled my eyes. ‘I freely admit, you are right. In hindsight. You could have just wrapped him up in your filaments and called it a day, though it would have annoyed me to see you play bondage with another man.’

‘What is bondage?’

Her reply surprised me, and yet it shouldn’t have. ‘Bondage is…’

I stopped myself just in time. Or rather, one of my sub-identities did. ‘You know what, that is a topic for another day! Now I want to see these saherna!’

While we followed the seekers up a tunnel system I steadfastly refused to answer any of Astra’s questions about bondage. Revealing the secrets of this art to my partner had a shiver going down my spine.

“What are the saherna being used for?” I questioned Holly to avoid Astra’s enquiries.

“We are riding them!” the chieftain answered proudly. “We live on and with the saherna. They are what allows us to travel the land without having to fear every little monster crossing our path!”

We emerged from the side of a cliff which gave a good view of a small mountain valley with a lake. Winter wasn’t completely over yet and the chill wind howling along the mountain forced me to put my helmet back on. Around me, my parents-in-law and Astra mirrored me with their helmets. The seekers had woollen shawls and furry hoods to protect them.

Down in the valley, what must have been most of the caravaner’s population spilled from a hangar-like opening in the mountain.

People with oversized drums were already causing a racket on a small lake covered with ice. Meanwhile, the rest began unloading cargo from large sledges – mainly construction wood.

“Those remind me strongly of prefabricated construction,” I commented upon seeing what looked like walkways with handrails and walls.

“Just wait,” the male seeker commented, right as something beneath the nearby lake’s ice moved.

The drummers retreated just as the hoof-shaped monster surfaced, breaking through the ice like an icebreaker on steroids!

I had to revise my judgement about the creature when it was followed by a serpent-like neck. What I had seen at first was just the head! Soon, half a football field of ice was heaved upwards and then slid off the saherna’s back.

More of the creatures emerged, answering the caravaner’s drums with thumping noises of their own.

A saherna was a mixture between a brachiosaurus and a turtle with eight sturdy legs. The hoof-shaped head was covered with its own shell and ended in scythe-like blades. The back shell was mostly circular with a slight elongation along the creature’s length.

The tail was over a hundred metres long and covered in sinew, while several long tentacles emerged from the creature’s neck, presumably to feed it with plants from the ground.

It was only when the herd of saherna stopped tamely in front of the caravaners and people began to climb the legs that I understood what I was seeing.

“You are shitting me! You can build a wooden fortress on the backs of those things without them killing you?” I spluttered. No wonder the caravaners had the world’s trade business covered.

“Normally, the saherna are covered with blood-drinking parasites from head to toe,” Holly explained proudly. “This herd recognizes that we are much better lodgers since we keep the parasites off them while not drinking any blood. All they have to do to keep us around is run in the direction we tell them to.”

The chieftain belly laughed while her people began the process of erecting semi-permanent wooden fortresses on the saherna’s backs.