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

But either way, we aren’t here to talk theology. Lash is not a goddess, so she should be beatable. We just need to discuss a few elements such as range and speed,” Saber said.

“It is simple for me. I need to stay out of the range of her whip, and then take her down with lightning attacks,” Gilthan said.

“In principle, I agree, but if you think she won’t have scouted you and your abilities, then she wasn’t much of a disciple of the war god. You should assume that she either has longer ranger attacks than you are expecting, or has ways to negate your attacks,” Saber retorted.

“What then? We can’t prepare for what we don’t know about.” Gilthan sounded angry as he spoke.

“You wait for your pitch. Stay loose and try to observe as much as possible. Then strike when the moment is right. If you tense up too much, then you won’t be able to react as quickly, but if you just go out there expecting a fastball and she throws you a curve, your timing will be all off,” Kyle said. He spoke in the terms that made sense to him but the strange looks he got back told him that his choice of words was not followed very well here.

“You truly are strange,” Kierra said.

“No, I think I get what he means, and he is right, as is Gilthan. You can’t prepare for what you don’t know about, so you need to play to your strengths while staying flexible enough to react accordingly. For Gilthan, that is going to mean keeping his distance, but rather than jumping to an attack right away, try to take her measure.

“For Kierra, it is going to mean getting in close. I watched her fight; she is faster than you but, from what I saw, not by a huge margin. So, you’ll need to negate the range of her whip and get in close enough to use your claws. The fight with Burke was unfortunately too short for me to get a good idea of her abilities.

“The harder one to plan for is Kyle. You aren’t fast enough in close, and don’t have any good, ranged options unless you can more narrowly focus that thing you did to the birds.” Saber’s voice rose at the end indicating that he was asking for a response.

“No, that is more an all or nothing skill.” Kyle opted not to offer any more explanation than that.

“Well then, for now, Gilthan, I want you to work on maintaining your distance and defending. No direct counter attacks at this point. If you do counterattack, you can only do so against the weapons of the trainers that you are working with. That will enable you to practice both your accuracy and timing. I will have three trainers fighting you, two with whips and one with a bow,” Saber said and then signaled and a group of trainers took the elf away to train on the far end of the arena floor.

“Now, for you two, I have two stages of training in mind. First part, I want you to practice together. Kierra is the closest to moving like Lash does here, including all the trainers. So that will help Kyle to learn what to expect,” Saber as he looked at the two of them appraisingly.

“How does that help my training?” Kierra asked. Kyle understood her question but didn’t really like the way she made it sound like training with him would be a waste of her time.

“None of the trainers will be able to give you an experience of pushing you to react faster in close quarters, not like Lash will. We simply don’t have that as an option. During your second phase, I and another of the trainers will duel you two on one and that will be the best that we can do to push you in close quarters fighting.

“For now, fighting with our elemental here will give you two benefits. He is quite deadly with that maul of his and, despite the size of it, has displayed an ability to move it with a precision that is honestly a bit shocking. Especially considering he only just learned how to do it. The way he moves is the closest I have seen to the unnatural way that Lash moved her whip. And just as importantly, Lash is likely far more durable than she looks. So, it will be good for you to practice with someone who won’t fall over just ‘cause you land a couple blows,” Saber replied.

The trainer’s answer made Kyle feel better, but he still couldn’t help himself as he felt the snark rise within him. “I’ll try not to hinder your training too much.”

The lycan girl only stared at him and said, “See that you don’t.”

Saber then stepped away and, before he knew it, Kyle was being set upon by a whirlwind of claws and fangs. He wondered that she didn’t use a weapon to increase her range but figured that she was just practicing to enhance her speed.

Saber yelled out, “Go all out, just don’t kill each other.”

If Kyle had any doubts about how seriously Kierra was gonna take the training, that was removed when her claws slashed into his left thigh above the armor, cutting deep furrows. He immediately felt the impact as his muscles were ripped into, and the leg became less stable. For all that, though, he could feel his body already healing and it didn’t cause him to do more than stagger, catch himself, and take a more guarded approach.

He swung his maul and then as she began to effortlessly slide around it, he did that thing where he was able to instinctively reverse the momentum and sent it right back at her head. For a second, he worried that he was going too hard as the maul looked like it was going to crush her head. To Kierra’s credit, even though the reversal obviously shocked her, she still