Chapter 15: From Shadows (2)
I could feel my breath starting to itch within my lungs as I tried to keep up with the surreal pace I was being put through.
To be fair, I should've expected for someone as stern-sounding like Scathach to be a strict teacher with those that managed to get hold of her attention.
The beautiful woman was deadly just as I had expected, but it wasn't her that I was having issues with.
While my first visit to the Land of Shadows had been pretty much peaceful and successful, the same wasn't for those that followed.
Not that I risked any of the good rep I got from the first encounter with the violet-haired woman, but I was now seeing why Cu Chulainn was one of those 'lucky guys' that ended up living through the hellish training of hers.
These lands weren't as abandoned as I had initially thought. The monstrous shriek of the Demonic Boar was deafened by the battle roars of three more.
Three weeks had flew away after the first visit, and I was starting to understand many things about my new 'teacher'. As respectful and polite she might sound early on, she wasn't exactly the one that entered the fray if her apprentices were getting owned by some 'low grade monsters'.
The first week was just plain humiliation. With the fact I was forced to retreat more than once out of fear of getting cornered by the numerous populations of abnormally big boars that festered the forest, I was also being 'entertained' by the dry comments delivered by the ever-so irritating teacher of mine.
The idea of just retrieving the swords' pieces, closing the gate once I was safely back home, and try elsewhere was one that tempted me more than once.
The deterrent from giving up? I knew that there was no other option to follow after this one.
Scathach was pretty much the only individual I could 'easily' access to and request for her to accomplish such a complex task.
And as much as I was hating this place, I ended up noticing that I was indeed improving the more time I spent fighting endless rounds of monsters.
This was proven when Marcus deemed it amusing to test my fighting capacity after training for a couple of days and… he was stomped when I managed to push him around without much of an issue.
The pace was slow but steady, and the difficulty of each day seemed to follow this very pattern too.
I struggled at first, but then I started to see the light through this dark tunnel.
My bloody sword took one last swing at the final creature in front of me, bisecting it vertically and killing it instantly.
No squeal of pain, nor any dying shriek. The resulting silence was something of a blessing as I took a moment to scan around for any sneaky assault. The boars were big fans of rushing from behind their enemies while those were distracted, so I quickly looked around for any of that.
A sigh left my lips as soon as I concluded that I had indeed cleared the area.
"It will suffice for now," Scathach commented from one of the trees' branches she had been standing by. "I guess your determination isn't flaunted wrongly by your fierce spiels."
"If I want to accomplish something, then I will," I remarked giddily, then pausing for a moment to see her clean her lips with a handkerchief and I was reminded of something I did earlier this morning. "I hope the cake was good."
The woman nodded, sporting a happier look for a brief moment. "You should send my good praise to the one behind such a delicious desert. Truly a masterful work."
It was kind of amusing how I was receiving less compliments over my current achievements in monster-slaying compared to Mya's own endeavor by the kitchen.
To be fair, I was partly to 'blame' over the fact I had shown her how to do a simple apple cake through the use of precise magecraft and ingredient using.
Unsurprisingly enough, the first efforts to get a proper cake out ended up in minor failures for the two of us. The issue was that fire runes weren't easy to regulate even if wind and water ones were employed as well.
Still, despite the first setbacks, progress at the kitchen was smooth and quick as I was quickly overshadowed by Mya's unexpectedly amazing talent as a chef.
Even the servants that were assigned to the area were impressed with the delicious treats prepared by the white-haired girl. Sure, I was the one that offered her the recipes with some variations of the ingredients to fit with the current situation, but she seemed to take cooking like a fish in water.
This development ended up sparking in me a degree of interest in trying to mollify Scathach's strictness of a little bit.
The baked goods that were employed as bribes resulted in sound successes in keeping the woman from chiding too harshly during my training sessions.
Who would've thought that the tough lady had a prominent sweet tooth?
But while this did well for me in soothing the sternness of the former Queen, I was also reminded more than once that this wasn't true training each time I left to return back to the castle.
Scathach did recognize me as her student, but differently from previous cases, I wasn't exactly legitimized by a great feat.
When the Land of Shadows was still connected to the real world and was bordered by Dun Scaith, the fortress could only be accessed through a thin tightrope that spanned over a gorge filled with malicious ghosts and boiling water. Many died in the Land of Shadows, while the rest failed to get through this final but difficult obstacle.
Only a couple managed to do the miraculous deed and ended up becoming true apprentices to Scathach.
I had expected for this to never actually happen to me since Dun Scaith was no longer under the woman's possession and the Land of Shadows didn't have any place that could be used to replicate such a complicated task.
Which is why I was expecting for something equally difficult and deadly to replace this very challenge.
Three weeks went by without a single hint was given about what she was planning to do to replace the known task, and I was kind of expecting this to never come considering how restrained she was with her conversations.
Then, as I managed to finally to clear out the large group of boars, I was finally taken for a 'special lesson' that was meant to cement my worth as her disciple.
At first I was surprised, but I quickly accepted the growing eagerness to replace my shock into something a little more positive.
It was only as she led me to a large clearing away from any of the monsters that lingered within the forest and then stopped in front of me to drew her lance that I knew that something was very, very wrong.
"Many of my students died because of arrogance. They believed that nothing could stop them, that the battlefield could never see them losing," Scathach said with an ominous tone. "Which is why I think it's only fitting that I train my students to become less accepting of a glorious and shining victory, and more into the possibility of finding peace within the battle itself. To not allow the lust for fighting to dominate their minds and souls."
I was tempted to point out that she was the one that scolded me for being quick to back away from deadly confrontations. But then again, I wasn't planning to get killed because I couldn't keep my mouth shut in front of someone that could easily erase my existence.
"For this occasion, I will tell you just this once that I will not be your teacher," She stated coldly. "I shall be your enemy. Your truest nightmare embodied in the form of a single tangible opponent that doesn't care about rules and restrictions."
Tensing up at this proclamation, I couldn't help but unsheathe my sword once more. She sounded so serious and… so threatening.
A smile adorned her exposed face as she regarded my reaction with a degree of interest.
"I'm glad to see that you recognize the truth," The woman commended. "But now I will come at you as if you're my greatest enemy."
I took my usual stance, expecting her to be somewhat restrained with her approach.
Well, I soon discovered that she wasn't lying over the fact she wanted to attack me as vehemently as possible.
A blur, I saw a sharp red object approaching and I moved to block it-
Pain erupted as Gae Bolg stabbed my shoulder, pushing beyond the flesh and through me.
My eyes widened at the sudden sensation, but my mind didn't get too distracted with the suddenness of her brutality.
I tilted my sword, swinging to the side and expecting her to either dodge or move away and allowing me to move out and limit her fighting prowess by leaving the weapon stuck on me.
So I was quite horrified when my attack successfully separated her arm off her body.
The limb limped down as Scathach backed away to recover from the sudden strike, a mirthful look plastered on her face despite the damage I inflicted to her.
Many would've found that injury enough to surrender, and yet she was shrugging it off as if it was nothing to worry about.
I was genuinely shocked when she merely shrugged.
"What's with the confused look, disciple of mine? Didn't I tell you that I can't die?"
Frowning at that, I glanced once more at the arm still attached to the spear… still stuck inside my shoulder.
"Teach, I'm not going to lie. But that doesn't seem much of a 'flesh wound' to me-ahhhhhhhhh!"
I almost tripped backward when I saw her blur again, successfully taking hold of her spear and pulling upward… until a good part of my shoulder was forcefully removed from my arm.
I shrieked for some time, my wide eyes regarding the extensive damage in a mix of panic and fright.
Scathach merely chuckled as she calmly fixed her arm through her runes.
"Are you… afraid?"
The slow query was returned with a snarl from me as I tried and failed to stand up after that pain-induced fall. The excruciating and searing sensation disabling my left size kept me from properly move away from danger and my hold over my simple sword was already wobbly because of the horrible escalation I was being subjected to.
"You should just surrender, and allow the pain to lull you out of this misery."
AS IF!
I frantically stood up, a bloody grin shot at my enemy with the most prideful of display.
"T-Tis but a s-scratch!"
She blinked. "Truly?"
This time I managed to move just in time to dodge another attack from her weapon, almost tripping again in the process but managing to keep myself up and focused on my current problem.
I don't know what she was planning to do by maiming me this maliciously, but I was really regretting having not brought my rifle with me for this occasion.
"Your footwork is steady despite the damage I've given you. If I was still your teacher, you would receive a big praise out of me."
I chucked. "And yet you turned into a bitch and made my life quite complicated."
"Flattery will take you nowhere."
And thus I found myself barraged by a senseless amount of attacks. Gashes and wounds opened all over my arms and legs. Some of the new injuries reached my exposed half-shoulder, sending extreme chills of pain across my entire body and making my stance falter more than once.
I was coughing blood like a damn fountain, but I kept on defending myself the best I could, leaving her no mean to end me at once.
It was an unfair situation that saw me shoved left and right without any mercy or hesitation. Heck, she was smiling through the entire carnage.
My stubbornness kept me from collapsing under the hits of fatigue, pain, and fear.
Everything was hitting me all at once, and nothing under my current arsenal was enough to satisfy the unfair amount of damage I was sustaining.
And if until now my luck had been bad, things got worse when one of Scathach's strikes finally broke the piece of iron I brought with me. My sword wasn't anything special and thus it broke under the duress exerted by the ferocious warrior-witch.
I fell on my butt, failing to get up and resume the fight as she slammed her knee on my chin. I fell on my back and stared up as she pressed her reinforced shoe onto my chest, causing me to groan.
"Did you already lose? Is that who my apprentice is? A coward?"
"You know, you really need to get your shit straight. Do I need to surrender or… or-!"
My throat tightened as I felt blood cascade over me. I blinked in shock as I tried to connect the sudden splash of red to the origin of the liquid and I felt my heart and mind freezing at the same time before the most chilling of sight.
It was a head. It was a familiar head.
You were so busy trying to get your own belongings restored that you didn't consider that I could've easily vaulted over the gate, killed all those you cared about, and set fire to your little kingdom," Scathach pointed out eagerly, her stare turning at the white-haired head in her hold. "This one… she was quite silly. She thought you were going to rescue her. She called your name even thought I stabbed her numerous time. She was so loud that I had to put an end to the shrill song and… you know."
M-Mya?
Her grin was feral, but it didn't matter to me as I felt extreme anger take over my entire self. Gone was the pain, gone was the fire.
In its stead, I was incensed to a degree I never felt before.
Pissed? Yes. Furious? A few times.
But outright murderous? This was a novelty, but a legitimate one as I pushed myself off the ground and reached for the woman.
The former queen kept on smiling as she speared her weapon through my damaged shoulder, expecting me to falter at the renewed damage-
Yet she gasped as I stabbed the broken blade up to her chin. Blood erupted from the injury, and she gasped for air that wasn't going to arrive to her as my hands were onto her neck.
I started to choke her, my mind conquered by the primal need to see her die by asphyxiation.
Silence ruled this cruel scenery, and my eyes refused to leave the infuriating grin on her face.
But the more I waited for this to come to an end… the more I realized that something was wrong with everything around me.
Blinking, I realized that Mya's decapitated head was no longer around. My shoulder… it didn't feel in pain, nor it was sporting the same injury as before.
My anger left me slowly, and with its retreat came a grand sense of drain and tiredness.
My sword was now intact, the entire place looked more like a normal forest than the one within the Land of Shadows and…
An unscathed Scathach sighed calmly despite the unpleasant chokehold I still had her into.
"It would seem I was right," She muttered quietly. "You truly mean everything you say, you naive fool."
My lips parted to try and formulate a question, but I couldn't help but feel breathless at the shocking reversal.
My brain was burning, hurting from the absurd developments I was being subjected to and while I wanted to really inquire about what was happening, the answer came in the form of a bright light exploding from Scathach herself.
W-What is going-
I woke up with a panicked gasp, my chest hurting and my heart drumming painfully as I tried to stand up from my resting place… only for a pair of hands to press me back on the surprisingly comfy pillow my head had been left into.
"You're finally awake."
My wide eyes turned to the origin of the unpleasantly familiar voice. Scathach was staring from above and… she was rather close.
Blinking, I realized that my head was currently settled on her lap and that she looked particularly calm about the current disposition.
Then I started to grasp more at our surroundings and I realized that there were numerous runic barriers erected around the perimeter of the hill we were staying atop.
"You… what did you do to me?"
My throat felt tight, painfully so. I almost reached to massage my neck, but I refused to be at ease around her.
She gave me a long look, perhaps surprised by my raspy and still furious tone.
"Do you remember the two healing potions I gave you?" The woman asked calmly, almost ignorant of what had just happened to me.
But still, I could remember the circumstances quite perfectly.
It all happened earlier this morning, when I first started to attack the boars in what then turned into an extermination campaign to eradicate a large group of those.
One of those had managed to sneak behind and leave a noticeable gash on my thigh. Scathach then deemed it right to give me something to soothe the pain and aid the healing of the injury.
I didn't pay much attention to it as I just drank the potions, and I was quite sure that those were actually working since my injury was quickly healed once I had digested both.
I blinked again, this time connecting dots over this reminder and what had just happened.
The potions were at fault, but… why?
"You… you tricked me."
"I did," The woman responded easily, sounding incredibly unfazed by my furious stare.
…
"You look angry. And I can tell your anger is directed at me," Scathach pointed out. "As if I've done something unforgivable and beyond this silly trickery. As if I've done you the greatest of slights."
I looked away.
"You did."
This time it was her turn to blink. "Is that so?"
…
"Yes," I answered fiercely.
"And I suppose you're angry because you dreamed of me tearing apart everything you care and love for," The former queen guessed calmly, and I found my irritation flaring over the confusing situation I was in.
"What was the true purpose of the potions?" I demanded, knowing that I was entitled to that answer.
"The first one was to put you in a deep sleep. It was created with the feature of triggering when a specific ingredient was brought close to you," She explained calmly, huffing at my scowl. "The second was to bring out the worst nightmare you could ever be forced to live through. By bringing you in that state of fright and failure, I wanted to bring out your true emotions and confirm that you're as genuine as you sounded when you first came in this realm."
Groaning, I finally looked back at her, yet she looked surprised when it was a glare to greet her curious red orbs.
"Well, it bloody worked," I rebuked sternly. "But now I've to ask, was that the task to cement my position as your disciple?"
"Yes-"
"I'm half tempted to outright refuse right now."
…
Scathach looked perplexed at my response, almost intrigued by what could've driven me to become this ferocious and unwilling to spare many words to her.
I was surprised myself that she could fail to see the uneasiness and the distress I had to go through. I wasn't expecting to be coddled under her care, but I didn't want to be tortured like that just for her to confirm how truthful I was about it all.
"On which basis?" She unconsciously dared, and I really wanted to really grin madly at that ignorant query.
"On the basis that I can't trust you," I stated, pushing myself off from her lap to sit at her level. Her stare followed, but she tensed up a little bit at my staunch glaring. "This task, which you've created quite recently, was far worse than the one you had your former students train for. Do you want to know why?"
"..."
She remained quiet, maybe not expecting this little rant from me.
"The challenge of reaching your castle was known to anyone seeking you. The Land of Shadows was known to be infested with monsters and those that died there were those that stupidly felt entitled to some higher power," I explained in the simplest of tones. "There wasn't the trick you employed against me. There was no mean to bring distrust to anyone trying to get that blasted position confirmed. It was all on them if they failed your task."
…
"You didn't grant me this minor mercy. The only thing you gave me now is a reason to distrust you because I will never know if I will one day die of something sudden and unexpected since you deemed it right to 'test' me and tell me nothing about it," I remarked with an angry voice. "Do you think I should genuinely accept such an unfair exchange out of the fact that I was facing something I wasn't prepared about, something that was surely meant to result in my mind collapsing if I failed?!"
…
"No," The woman admitted. "I suppose I could've been… mindful of the fact you seem to have a surprisingly strong connection to those you care about. I thought you were just over-zealous about your attachment to your kingdom, but this… this is more than that. You were whispering a name while you were unconscious. I think it was My-"
"Stop," I interjected. "Don't… say it. Don't say her name now. I don't want to hear you say it."
The vivid nightmare was still leaving a bitter taste on my tongue despite it being fake. It was… fake.
It wasn't real, I refuse to ever consider it the truth.
Instead of staying quiet as I expected her to be, Scathach took my serious voice as a reason to barrage me with inquiries.
"Can at least you tell me why you care so much about them?" She pressed on, regardless of the fact I was glaring daggers at her now. "What drives you to put your entire self on the line?"
"I think you know the truth. I told you already, so I don't see why I should-"
"Why do you feel so happy and unhappy at the same time?"
…
"What?"
"As much as you try to hide this from me, it's easy to see that your expressions alternate between truthful and faux," The warrior-witch pointed out. "You find happiness, but at the same time you feel sad in those moments of success you achieve during your rule. So why? Why do you fake this?"
My scowl shattered at that final query, and I couldn't help but shake my head at that unwanted question.
It was hitting too deep, too strongly. I wanted to flinch, to look away at the truthful assessment of what had of my life in the last month.
I was tired of dealing with everything, but my tiredness wasn't one behind my current life.
I was tired because I was constantly missing what I can no longer reach out for. My family, my home, my friends…
It was all gone because of an unexpected take of events that saw me here to tackle the worst period of British history.
The glory was nice, so was the praise and the warmth of those people I was slowly getting to know as my new family here. But I still couldn't hold myself from missing who I had been forced to leave behind.
"I don't know."
My response was met with a frown from Scathach, but I really didn't give much of a dime as I turned around and started to walk away from the woman.
I took a moment to see around and recognize where I was at the moment so I could start tracing my steps back to the gate to the castle.
Musing over the chances of finding more monsters along the way, I failed to notice that my left leg was stiff and I tripped down to the ground. I snorted at the dusty ground, ignoring the little pain caused by my fall.
"You shouldn't leave now."
"I will come picking the swords tomorrow morning," I muttered calmly as I slowly stood up. "I'm sorry for disturbing your wait. I will no longer bother your lonely stay in this desolate land."
…
"The swords will be repaired-"
"The request is rescinded," I replied sternly.
"Then I shall not allow you out of my domain."
I paused at that rebuttal, my entire body tensing up at that.
"What?"
"You're in no conditions to leave the Land of Shadows," Scathach pointed out. "If you walk back to the gate, you will only find a hungry beast that will make easy prey out of you."
I snorted. "I will take the risk."
I took just another step, and soon I felt her hands grasping at my shoulders from behind.
I was expecting for her to just stop me from walking away. It was a stupid clash of two different degrees of stubborn souls that was never going to see a clear victor.
Or so I thought before she slowly lifted my right arm and put it around her shoulders.
"I shall personally escort you back to your castle," She proclaimed sternly and with a hint of… defeat? "It would be wrong of me to let my student be devoured by a stray monster because he is too stubborn to accept help."
"I told you that-"
"I heard you. I just decided to ignore the foolish display of idiocy you just committed to," The woman rebuked sassily. "And I will personally make sure you're left under proper medical care before returning back in my domain."
She was planning to leave the Land of Shadows even for just a couple of seconds? Could she actually do this?
I didn't have any proof that she was bound to this place, but I thought that it was the case since she preferred to live there instead of the proper world.
We started to make the path through the forest, and I easily spotted several creatures shying away from approaching us.
They knew that they couldn't exactly challenge Scathach even in that degree of unfairness directed at her. The woman might be cruel, but she was tough enough to deserve that much fear from the inhabitants of those lands.
"I shall start teaching you about the art of war. You clearly need more strategy when fighting, and your footwork can use some improvement," The former queen started to explain without hesitation. "Runes are a must. You need to know how to create barriers and healing stones."
I ignored what she was saying. At this point, I knew my input didn't matter to her line of thoughts. She looked so focused on just doing what she wanted to do with me than actually pause for a moment and ask if I was fine with it.
And I really didn't have the means to rebuke this kind of disrespectful approach at the matter.
Seriously, why the hell was she demanding this commitment? What was I missing about this big topic that would just make things understandable for me.
"And finally, I shall make sure that you're capable of being a man," She muttered with a nod. "I call it… 'Friendship of the Thighs'. But first it's best for you to learn how to employ the Isaz Rune."
I blinked, feeling like this very notion was familiar but also not. Why was it named like that to begin with?!
"The what now? And why that rune?"
The woman didn't reply to any of those, but her ominous smile caused me to shiver unconsciously as I knew that something sinister was hiding behind her happy-looking expression.
But seriously, what was she planning to do with me?!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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