A month ended quickly. The Swift Retribution gunned down military structures from orbit. The planet did not have any surface to space weapons and were sitting ducks. What the battleship couldn’t hit, Sor Al could. John accompanied her as she blew military bases to smithereens, armies to ashes, gun enclosures and batteries to rubble. The banshee warcraft made quick work of the planet’s air force and reduced their navy to scrap. The soldiers on the ground continued their relentless assault, freedmen venting their long suppressed rage. The territory of half the planet was conquered before a truce was established. It was a short and bloody war.

“It is time to go,” the leader said to Sor Al.

“We have not done enough,” objected Sor Al. “Some of their nobles have not given up.”

“Let the Free Army take care of it. We have done all we can. My troops are weary of fighting a war that means nothing to them.” The elves did not seem weary to John. They were full of enthusiasm, but he couldn’t argue with the leader.

“Has the navigator determined our coordinates?”

“Yes, we are in the Outer Reaches.” A look of joy could not be suppressed from the leader’s usually serene face. “We shall be home soon. It will only take a few more years to reach Eral. Do you still want to go home, realm mistress? If not I can leave you on this planet where you can make war to your heart’s content.” Did she think Sor Al was a war monger? John knew he had to defend his teacher but he didn’t know what to say.

“Of course I want to go home,” Sor Al said. “Wars do not content my heart, star dancer, but they are sometimes necessary. You know that better than I.”

“What would I know? I fight wars. I do not make them,” the leader laughed harshly. “Let us return to my ship.”

Aboard the Swift Retribution once again, John received a message from Karamen and made his way to the arbiter’s training hall. It felt like coming home, he thought, as he walked the brightly lit white corridors of the ship. No! Earth was his home. How could he ever forget that. He felt a pang of homesickness as he thought of his life on Earth. He had to get back, no matter what.

“You came quickly,” Karamen grinned as soon as he saw John.

“What’s this about?”

Karamen clasped his arm around John’s shoulders and pulled him into an antechamber. He pointed at a table. A suit of red armor was placed on the table. A blaster and a glaive were placed next to it.

“This is yours, Wild Child. Henceforth, you shall be an honorary Arbiter of the Balance.”

John stroked the armor, feeling its sleek exterior. He initiated a telepathic link with the power armor. The suit rose in the air, each piece floating into place. There was the sound of clicks as different pieces interlocked. It fitted him perfectly. He placed the gun in his holster and took a few experimental swings with his glaive. It whizzed through the air.

“This is so cool,” John said excitedly.

“Cool indeed. Cold to the touch but deadly hot to its foes.”

“That isn’t what I meant,” John shook his head. “Now that I’m an arbiter will you teach me how to phase.” He’d been yearning for this since the day he met Karamen. Back then, phasing had only been a trick he wanted to learn. Now, that he had seen it in battle, he knew how useful it could be.

“I will. If you are capable of phasing in and out of the deep aether you will become the perfect assassin. Your stealth circuit is one of a kind. I followed your circuit diagrams but failed miserably. Blood dripped from his nose as the brave Karamen experimented with death.”

“Let’s spar in the ring.”

“Your wish is my command, but only for today.”

“What’s so special about today?” asked John.

“It is your birthday. One year since you’ve been on this ship.”

John had forgotten. Time did not hold much meaning after he’d reincarnated. He just wished he’d grow taller sooner.

This suit of armor was much more advanced than the training armor he’d worn earlier. When the visor was down a heads up display appeared. One diagram showed the integrity of different parts of the suit, another small screen on the upper left showed his surroundings like a minimap, with marks of red, blue and orange. Various numbers and letters appeared when he concentrated on each of the marks. He’d have to learn what it meant later. The armor scanned the surroundings using a wide range of wavelengths of light, sound and other factors like aura density. It also displayed a graph containing his vital statistics. It could pump oxygen and other chemicals directly into his blood stream if he so wished. Most soldiers however, did not use the visor’s display, and only occasionally used the stimulants. They preferred to turn it off. Their own senses were far more keen than the armor’s electronics and they were satisfied with their body’s natural state.

Karamen and John walked into the ring, the other arbiters cheering them on. There were a lot more friendly faces than before. The elves had been more welcoming after John had killed the God King. Though Sor Al and the leader had done most of the work it had still been John who gave the finishing blow.

John and Karamen clashed a few times, their glaives raising sparks as they hit one another. Karamen was taking it easy. John would soon make him take things more seriously, he thought with determination. He activated his stealth, speed and strength circuits. He’d taken to calling it the triple S circuit. It sounded more mysterious. He moved so quickly that he left afterimages in his wake. BANG! John’s glaive hit Karamen’s breast plate leaving a long cut. The cut was already mending on its own. Aura acted on the self repairing metal and the armor was soon as good as new.

“Again,” said Karamen, gesturing him forward with his finger. Karamen was still not taking this seriously.

“It’s my first time with a glaive,” John said ruefully, staring at the curved edge of the blade. He wasn’t familiar with the reach and weight of the weapon.

“The best way to learn is to spar. Heed my attack,” Karamen ran forward his glaive swinging wildly in the air. John could discern no pattern to it. He got hit on the legs and fell down to the ground. Karamen helped him up. “Pay more attention to my small movements. You will be able to predict my attacks then,” Karamen said.

“I know.” He had fought thousands of duels with the holocube’s projections. Dueling with real people was very different. John had forgotten all the lessons he had learned. With fresh resolve John stood across from Karamen and swung his glaive in the air a few times, “I’m ready.”

“Excellent.”

John activated his aura circuits once more. As he parried Karamen blow after blow his state of mind slowly changed until he drifted into one of hyper awareness. He had felt this way once before, when he had fought with Edrach during the Supremacy of the Ways. John countered every single attack Karamen made, his glaive whistling through the air as it marked Karamen’s armor. Just as he was about to give a heavy blow to Karamen’s helm, Karamen phased. John’s glaive met nothing but air.

“That’s cheating,” John shouted out loud. Karamen could not hear him. He was still moving in the deep aether. John activated his perceiver circuit and could see a little wisp of light darting from one corner of the ring to another. It then circled around John. John frantically began swinging his glaive, his hyper awareness state long gone. How could you hit a little wisp of light that was moving faster than he could see?

BAM! BAM! BAM! John was hit on his legs, torso and helm almost simultaneously. Karamen twirled around from behind him as John sank to the ground, his vision blacking out.

“Up, up Wild Child. Do not let this bout bring you down.” Karamen supported John and they exited the ring. “You did well. Spectacularly in fact. It’s not easy to think of you as a child. Sometimes I mistake you for a beardless dwarf. Your attainments seem to come from decades of mastery, both in combat as well as in the weaving of elements.”

“Are dwarfs very common? How many worlds do they have?” asked John.

“They possessed eight star systems in our galaxy before we departed. Their short statures do not hinder them from further exploration and terraformation. The forge world of Andanar is famous across our galaxy for its metal working. Their combat armor is top notch and their war machines are terrifying. They are not very good warriors though. Let us depart. It is time I report to the Bay.”