War God for Hire- Gladiator David Burke (bookreader TXT) 📖

winners will get extra rewards. If you lose, you won’t get to eat again until all the matches are over. If you win, you will get food, drink, and your choice of the pleasure slaves.”

The thought made Kyle’s head spin. That sounded like prostitution, but if the woman was a slave, it was more akin to rape. He made no bones about liking the ladies, but he was equally proud that he had never paid for sex, and he sure as hell had never forced himself on a woman.

Another thought made him go cold. He wondered if Nyda was one of the pleasure slaves. The thought of her being taken and forced by another of the guys made him sick to his stomach. Skrug or Gilthan, it didn’t matter. None of them were worthy of her. If winning, simply for winning’s sake, wasn’t important before, he now had another reason to win. He wasn’t about to let her get used like that by any of the others.

“Now you will be working with the armorers and weaponsmiths to make sure that your gear is finalized. Don’t worry, Lord Soren already commissioned gear for each of you, based upon my specifications. All that needs to happen today is final adjustments. Then, your trainers will take you through some light exercise both today and tomorrow morning so that you can get accustomed to the new gear. You will be able to rest each afternoon,” Saber said.

As soon as the head trainer walked out, a group of various craftsmen came strolling into the room. Kyle soon found himself fitted with an odd combination of armor. They gave him pauldrons crafted from plates of metal over a leather fitting. These were secured to the two broad straps of thick leather that crisscrossed his chest that were, in turn, connected to a metal ring over his sternum.

The manacles on his wrists were flattened by one of the mages into six-inch segmented plates that were then hidden underneath thicker metal bracers that were jointed and connected into metal-plated gloves that covered his hands and would serve to protect his fingers as well. The same was done to the manacles on his ankles, which were then covered by heavy greaves that protected him up to his knees. They provided him new boots, and a metal plate that connected to the greaves to protect the top of the foot.

All the metal pieces were worked with heavy engravings and patterns designed with runes and designs in honor of the war god. The armorer told him that since he was a war elemental, it seemed appropriate. The irony wasn’t lost on Kyle.

As part of the process, he lost his pants and was given shorts that were tighter than he would have liked. At least they provided him with something akin to a leather jockstrap to wear under the shorts. It didn’t do anything to make him look smaller up front and he almost laughed.

The armor seemed non-sensical to Kyle. It provided some protection but left his groin more vulnerable than he liked, and it provided no extra protection for his head or chest.

When he complained about that fact, the head armorer responded, “We were told that your chest would be a big draw for the ladies, but that your face wasn’t too pretty to cover. We are still finishing your helmet with the measurements that I took earlier. It will be done by this evening.”

After that, the weaponsmith presented him with a heavy maul type war hammer. It had a metal shaft rather than the normal wooden one. Because of his strength, the weight wasn’t an issue. The head of the hammer was also broader and heavier than he would have preferred, but it wasn’t any problem for him to swing it. The butt of the shaft was formed into a spike and, once again, there were runes worked into the head while two-foot-long leather straps wrapped the shaft, secured tightly to prevent him from losing his grip on the hammer.

Once he was equipped with everything other than his helmet, two of the trainers took him upstairs and had him spend some time getting used to this specific hammer. He had used maul type weapons before and he imagined in a fight that the reach would be an excellent tool. With his already long arms and tremendous strength, the maul would serve as a lever to create tremendous amounts of force.

His biggest concern was what to do against an opponent who got inside the reach of the weapon. Once the trainers seemed satisfied that he had adjusted to the weight of the maul and could demonstrate both broad, sweeping strikes meant to crush through any defense and also shorter swings that didn’t overcommit him to a given motion, they had him start practicing something different.

Now they wanted him to swing full power, full speed attacks with the maul, and then find a way to stop them mid-swing. It was harder than it looked, but at least he had some experience with it. This was essentially a check swing that they were asking from him. Kyle had always had a good eye for the incoming pitches, but even he needed to pull a swing up short once and a while if he got tricked by the movement of the ball.

The trainers both nodded at one another as if content he had gotten the basic gist of it down. They then brought out wooden dummies carved in the shape of human fighters and wearing old pieces of armor. The dummies were complete with arms, legs, and weapons in hand. Each had a portion of wood coming out of their back that connected them with a two-foot diameter base. That connection and their feet formed a tripod against the base to keep them stable.

Six of the dummies were set up and the trainer who specialized in mauls and polearms gave Kyle some instruction. The man’s name was Simon, and Kyle had always noticed how