Day three of hell-training.

I'm losing it…

Let's be clear. The girl's hot; she started removing her clothes while we did our training. It's a little bit enticing to see her naked while she hits me with the spear… yet I think she does it to keep me absorbed in training…or maybe out of sympathy too, since my clothes have started furiously degrading after sessions on sessions of hours under salty waters and impacts of metal, so I decided to simply remove them, at least I might have some semblance of clothes once we leave this place.

So we're both naked now, and my other little lizard is all shriveled up, but it's not the cold this time. It's the torture…

Anyway, last time Resilience training took almost 6 hours to bear results...

Oh, I'm at 5 of the 8 points of Resilience, which I can naturally increase. The Page has started showing the amount remaining when I asked it too.

I'm almost done with Recovery, but Resilience… it's a bitch, a real bitch… it's taking longer and longer… probably because… well, probably because it has increased making me tougher… sigh, I just want to cry at this point. And I've still got three more sessions of torture to power-through…

Oh, about Power. In the end, we've found another of those metal laces. Olive couldn't identify the metal, I wouldn't have the faintest idea, but it's helping. The new kata uses my legs too. She called them the Flowing Disciplines of Water. It's really starting to grow on me.

I need to be honest. I started enjoying it. Maybe it's the repetition; it's like a mantra, it calms my mind, and though Power has stopped going up with yesterday's training, Alacrity and Stamina have both increased by two points each, so practically they got up one point both yesterday and today. So I'm naturally capped out at Alacrity, and man… it feels unreal.

I run like Usain! And the way in which my body moves now... it's like my synapses are twice as fast, or something of the likes, my reaction time, too, has increased; I feel like I could catch her spear swings if I wanted to.

However, since I'm bound by the metal laces, I can't actually prove my theory.

Oh, right! She had to start binding me this morning. As it seems, the increased Resilience and Recovery make both the poison she uses to immobilize me less effective and durable; she says she doesn't use a more potent dose of it in fear of killing me, but my ego has taken to like the idea that she is actually fond of me, and gets excited of the idea of binding me up... I mean, she does get half-naked when she does it.

And that temperature raising thing? It's just bullshit, I say.

Affinity! How could I forget? Affinity has raised by 3 points. I think it's Liz just taking pity on me cause it always seems to rise after I get beaten to almost death, so that might come into play. Anyway… she has grown to one-foot-three, which is amazing, considering that she was 3 inches or less than ten days ago.

But what really is feeling differently is our Bond. I've started to feel some of what she feels. It comes at me in waves at times, like when she is- ouch- really worried about me, pretty much like now. Yes! Exactly like now. Maybe it's her way of telling me to wake up and don't follow the white light from above… However, I've started to get an inkling of her feelings even when I sleep. It's… pleasaaaaaa- ouch!

I'm being tortured right now, so you might feel some disturbances, oh imaginary diary, but that is life after all… a long series of pains in the ass, with fleeting moments of bliss!

***

"I yieeeeld!" Shouted Gabriel.

“This- is- not- a- battle! You- cannot- yield." Answered Olive, droplets of sweat fleeing left and right as she danced around in her peculiar martial art.

"You can't use the Stance of the Reef! It's cheating. It hurts like a bitch! Bitch!" He kept shouting, thrashing over the ground.

"That's the only- way- in which- to best hurt- you!" She said amid strikes.

Gabriel's gaze landed on Liz, which even though still worried about him, was finally playing with a less fleeting Brill; even though the salamander had the habit of becoming invisible when they least expected it, it had started opening up to Liz, letting her play with him every once in a while.

"You- have- become- much- sturdier- than before! So- I need- to hit- harder! Or- you won't- ever-" Olive stopped at that. Slapping her forehead.

"Of course! Why didn't I think of it before! I need to start cutting you instead of bruising you!"

What?

"What!?" Asked a concerned Gabriel raising his neck up. "Don't you dare start to cut me, woman! That's going too far! Way too far!"

"But that's the only way!" She retorted, exasperated. Her drenched hair sloshing on her face as she put emphasis on her words. "Do you think this is easy for me? I, too, have a limit! I've been hitting you and healing you up for what… seven hours now?"

"Then let it be. It means that it won't raise any higher!" He shouted.

"No! It doesn't work like that! Now trust me!" She said, taking hold of his ankle and dragging him into the water.

"No! Wait! Crazy bitch! Wait! Liz! Please save me, Liz! Liz?" But Liz shook her head.

"If you're thinking that this is for my own good, Imma kill you! You get it, you useless Lizard! I'll kill you!"

"Oh, shut up!" Oli said, launching him in the water. "Now listen here; I won't be cutting you up with the lance, I'd really kill you, I'll do it with water magic. It'll be little cuts, continuous and effective while I keep speeding your Recovery rate, okay? Okay!"

"It's not okay!" He answered, but she was already starting.

"I think I'll crank up poison a notch, so at least you'll be shutting up for a while…"

Foam started bubbling up around where his form stood, in the still shallow water, then as dizziness overcame him, the first cuts started opening upon his skin. One after the other, quickly and surely.

The spectacle of bisecting skin and the reflexes emerging on the water, which only for an instant became shiny, as the edge of a knife, only to return normal the following second, was a spectacle of itself.

Then when his naked body became an ungodly mess of bloody cuts, the healing started, bringing it back to perfection in minutes.

Gabriel couldn't help but scream inside his mind since his voice did not manage to leave his paralyzed throat. Then out of the blue, he felt it, opening his eyes wide. He knew Resilience had ticked up. At the same moment, probably judging his reaction, Olive stopped. She plopped on the water, drained.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

Your natural Resilience has increased by 1 through training.

You can still naturally increase your Resilience freely by 2.

Gabriel Walker

Race

Human

Level

4 (40.6%)

Class

Striker

Class Level

4 (3%)

Spirit

Spirit of The Lizard

Spirit Level

4 (0.1%)

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

Spirit

0/10

0/10

5/5

10/10

Attributes

Body

Spirit

Final

Affinity

9

0

9

Alacrity

7

2

9

Power

6

2

8

Recovery

6.5 (5)

2

8.5

Resilience

7

2

9

Stamina

8

1

9

God… I'm spent.

Gabriel let the slow sloshing of water wash over him as he relaxed and felt his conscience slip slowly away from him.

Weird… I'm getting drowsy… must be the pent up stress finally releasing, he thought, before a spike of terror reached him, it came from Liz.

He hunched his still decently paralyzed head forward, the venom having lessened since it had not been reapplied, to take a look at what was happening.

Olive was smiling, like him, letting herself rest on the water, everything seemed fine, but Liz was running at her, terrified. Then she bit her.

"Ouchy! Lizzy! Why did you bite me?" She asked, confused but not enraged.

The lizard jumped back and forth, signaling her to look forward, to look at her Bond human.

Olive's eyes shot open.

"Gabriel! Oh my, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She screamed.

Gabriel, the poor soul, was bleeding out in the lake's water; the girl had forgotten to heal him.

"Fuck! Fuck! I'm almost all out of Mana! I can't directly heal you!" She said.

The first thing she did was remove his bindings. She unfastened the two metal laces, throwing them on the rocky shores of the cave. Then she proceeded to massage his body, increasing his Recovery speed more instead of healing him up directly.

He could not know what kind of Skill she was using, but it was pleasant. He let himself relax in her gentle caresses until, after a few minutes, he opened his eyes back to an embarrassed Olivia.

She forced herself to look up.

Gabriel had no idea why.

Maybe it's my body? I mean, it got drastically more lean and muscly with the training, almost in a miraculous way I'd say, but she has never acted up before; why would now-

Then he understood the reason. The smaller of his two lizards had shot up; it was on the hunt and ready to strike.

"I'm sorry, Olive, this… this is not intentional… I-" he said, sitting up and taking hold of her arms.

"I know. I mean it's fine, it's not… it's not… a problem…" she answered back, planting her sea-green eyes into his deep brown.

Weren't her eyes brown? He asked himself, a thought which disappeared right away.

The next second they were kissing, before Gabriel pulled out for a second, "No strings attached, right?"

She smiled at him, "No strings attached."

Then the heat of the cave swallowed them up.

***

"What a disaster…" said the Elf, his silver and brown tunic glittered with the brazier's light, and so did his silver, gelled hair.

The Elf walked among the building's rubbles. A huge amount of objects littered the ground around what was supposedly an inn.

The voice of an angry dwarf shouting at workers how to do their job came from the entirely exploded entrance of what had been, and hopefully still was, the best inn in the Cradle.

"That must have been one eventful night…" he said to himself, arching his brow to the interior of the inn as he looked over the gash in the wall.

"You bet." Said an Orc passing by. He was bringing a huge tube on his shoulders.

"Might I ask you something, sir?" The Elf asked him.

"Ask away," the Orc answered, placing the tube down with a bang and wiping his forehead.

"Thank you, you see, I live out of the city, on the fringes of the Expanse, and I was actually looking for a young man. He said he lodged here," said Varcivald, raising his tunic to climb over some broken piece of a beautifully carved fence.

"I doubt you'll find him here. Most of the guests have been relocated to the Waterfront's lodgings. They offered us their help until we fix this mess," the Orc said when from the working site came a loud…

"Ha!"

It was the same voice directing the workers. Sarcasm clear in its voice.

"Well, it is what it is. You might find him there if you ask for his name," continued the Orc.

"Thank you very much, well then, I bid you a peaceful… continuation. I'm sure the Waterfront shall sustain you in your times of need."

"Ha!" Came the same sarcastic expression from the voice.

Varcivald sighed, knowing already where that was going.

"Alright then, I offer you my regards, and thanks for your kind response. Even in your times of need, you have offered another traveler your most sincere help; If there is something I can do for you, just ask," continued the Elf.

"You are exaggerating now, sir elf, mine was but a bare answer; it was one of our guests we are talking about after all," said the Orc, finally turning to face him after planting the tube in the depression in the ground, maybe something that had to do with the drainage.

Now that he could take a better look at him, the Orc was not only a regular green Orc, for he was Velik Orc. His, even if dimmed, violet skin, was proof of that.

Velik Orcs had been on the verge of extinction before the end of the 'Hundred Years War.'

Among the Glade inhabitants, they had been the only ones betraying the coalition to join the Core's alliance.

"Nonsense, my Orc friend, my name is Varcivald, and these days, people as benevolent as you are becoming a rarity! Now, if there's anything that I can do to help, just say so. I've got ties with most of the higher families dwelling in the Veins, for you see, I'm a teacher. I've even built a relationship of trust with the Waterfront themselves. I bet if they were reminded of their duties over their citizens in need, especially after such an affront, they might offer even more help than-"

"Ha!" came the voice again.

"Alright, show yourself! You monster devoid of dignity! Why do you offend the Waterfront so!?" Said Varcivald, ferocious.

"Why? Why ye ask!" A sturdy-looking and stockier than most dwarves came toward him, pepper in his steps.

"Why I can't tell! I've sworn an oath! But I can tell ye this... Waterfront, Reevers the’re all spit-firing, mountain-gobbling, treasure-churning fiery mongrels! And if ye don't stop reveling in their name, I'll throw ye out of me establishment! Was I clear!?"

"I can't believe the amount of putrid filth coming out of your mouth, dwarf… you dare to disparage the noble name of our defenders! Must I remind you that Clairin Waterfront has given her life in the protection of Yggdrasil? I don't know about you, but I was here when she died for us! For us all! Not only for the rich families, as some like to say when they degrade her in the night. Oh! Because they always do so in the dark, hidden away in their dark abodes, far from the ears of the ones who are worthy enough to speak of her name with the respect she deserves! And you! You dare to do so in plain light!?" Varcivald was livid.

"Listen here, ye brat-"

"Ha!" This time was for the Elf to laugh. "I'm older than a century, you lice-haired fool!"

"Mighty foundations… someone stop me before I strangle this elf!" Said Commodo. Garena appeared at that moment.

"Com. It's enough. Focus on fixing the damage. The sooner you fix the hearth, the better it will be for us all."

It took just a few words from Garena to defuse the build-up of masculinity among the two.

Commodo turned around, leaving the Elf standing there like a freshly harvested radish.

The workers that had taken that chance to rest got back into work. Then taking it up a notch when Commodo shouted," Well! What did ye stop for? D'ye want your pay halved? Cause I' mma do just that if ye don't get back inte work righ' naw!"

"Faster!" He added, for emphasis.

"Milady," said the Elf, with a little bow," I'm deeply sorry to have made you uncomfortable. I will leave this establishment right now; it seems my opinion is not well accepted around here."

"Mr. Varcivald, it is just a misunderstanding; we do not have it against the Waterfronts, if not against those who stole their name. Anyway, forgive my husband. It was his establishment that suffered in the head-bashing of a few nights ago." Interjected, Garena, the beautiful if mature She-orc, head bandages covering the left side of her face.

Looking at her with an eye which hid pity and maybe a little bit of jealousy toward the dwarf's haul, let the argument go. He instead offered his help." Milady, your name. It is not proper for me to have my name known but have no knowledge of yours."

"My name is Garena, and you are verily a gentle-elf, Mr. Varcivald. Tell me what can we do for you-"

"Master!" A high-pitched voice and another still high-pitched but on its way to show a lower tone, called in a chore.

Two brats came running at the Elf.

"Didn't I say you had to wait for me?"

"But, master, you were taking too long!" Said the child, an already broad-backed boy." His sister punched him in the side; he had stepped out of line.

"Well, you are right, Bartholomew. I took my time because our friend is not in this establishment anymore. It seems he was transferred elsewhere," he paused," we might have to move the outgo to a later date."

"Did Gabriel lie? He wasn't staying here, after all, he looked too poo- Woah! What happened here?" Asked the little archer girl as she walked toward him and came into view of the rubble.

"No, Veronica, he didn't. It's just that-" Varcivald paused. A tension spike and a strong killing intent came from behind him.

As he turned around, hand ready to grip his mage staff, he could feel the gaze of the couple focusing on them.

Their eyes emanated animosity quite clearly.

Some of the workers stopped too; others got up or came out of the burrows in the ground, yet each of them turned toward the Elf.

"Alright…" the Elf said, slowly turning, "I think we can still keep this civil. What did we say that got you mad at us? Maybe we can rephrase."

"Tell me, elf, what is it that you want with Gabriel Walker?" Varcivald couldn't help but notice the significant change in the attitude of the ravaging she-orc.

"I guess the' gentle-elf' has been flung out the window…" he said to her.

"Careful, sir-elf, 'cause that is me wife ye're talking to. And I'm not in any good mood righ' naw. So be a good fella' and answer the question."

"Children, go back home; lessons are finished for today," he said, placing his already luminous staff in front of him. A clearly magically enhanced shot-gun had appeared in the dwarf's hands. Varcivald was sure that it was not there the moment before.

"Master… What is going on?" Veronica said as Bart raised his shield.

Garena gave a look at the children and after that at his husband and then at the Elf.

The message was clear, and they all lowered their weapons. Garena was wearing retractable clawed gloves.

"What has really happened here?" The Elf asked." Gabriel is one of my students; where is he now?"

"That is something everybody would like to know," said the dwarf. "And as I said to the Waterfronts and the Reevers already, even if I knew, I wouldn't tell 'em for all the gems in The Core."

"See?" Said Bartholomew with a smile," I knew he was the Herald after all. "He shouted for everyone to hear, including the nearby shops and passer biers.

Consequently, sending everybody with their asses metaphorically to the ground.