My Servant System

Sparks rained down on my face and singed my skin, but even as they showered us in light and heat I kept my eyes open, staring straight into Lady Kio's eyes as we traded blows once more, going for a more direct and 'traditional' spar that was meant for learning.

In reality, it was not as nice as that sounded, since Lady Kio was intentionally lowering her speed so that she could further draw these spars out, allowing her to land more hits and vent her frustrations all the more, but...

Well, since she wasn't moving as fast as she was in the first fight, I was able to keep up and work out a way to attack her in a consistent manner that allowed me to land all sorts of hits on her as well, which only seemed to increase her frustrations since it showed that I was, in fact, competent enough to battle her on an even playing field.

Even though she had lowered her use of those mana bursts somewhat to hasten her attacks, I decided that the best thing for me at this point was to leave a Water Cloak active to passively regenerate any damage done to me whilst also activating the tattoo on my upper left arm, the pain nullifying enchantment coming in handy yet again as I was able to ignore the pains entirely from the cuts and occasional stab wound that were inflicted onto me.

I still 'felt' them, each of the wounds that she inflicted onto me, but I didn't feel the pain; it was odd, since I could feel my skin being puncture, my flesh being sliced apart, I could feel the cold metal followed by the warmth of the blood, but there was no burst of hot pains whenever she cut me, only the sensation of those things happening.

It was surreal, and I knew that as soon as this tattoo was deactivated, I was going to suffer from a wave of repressed agony that would suck all the vitality from my body, leaving me as a husk for a few minutes as my mind worked through the sudden influx of pain that I had felt.

The pros and cons of being able to entirely ignore pain itself momentarily, but those pros and those cons were evenly balanced, even if they didn't really feel like that once this tattoo was sapped of mana.

Pushing her blade to the side, I switched my blade around and used the inner crescent to keep it in an odd spot, the hooked tip catching her scimitar and locking it in place for just a moment to allow me to throw a swift hook towards her jaw, though I belatedly realized we had the exact same idea...

Which ended with her grunting as my fist slammed into her jaw, the Dogkin's head snapping to the side as my knuckles connected with her head, while I narrowed my eyes as I felt her fist slam into the bottom of my chin, forcing my head upwards.

I could feel some of my teeth cracking from the force, and blood began to fill my mouth as one of my teeth sliced my cheek open from the inside, but like before I simply ignored the sensation and threw a second punch, hitting the same spot and staggering the Dogkin momentarily.

Yanking my blade free, I moved into my swing and tried to catch her off guard, only for her blade to crash into mine as she made use of her mana once more, redirecting my blade and momentum at the same time, which allowed her to then make use of another burst to bring her scimitar straight to my throat.

"Fucking... enough already!"

Her growl of annoyance as we paused where we were made me raise a brow, and as I felt her scimitar kiss my neck, I slowly turned myself to the side and spat out the gobbet of blood that had gathered in my mouth, the Water Cloak healing the wound and allowing me to speak without needing to worry about choking on my own blood.

"Why? I can still go on."

Lady Kio lowered her scimitar and glowered at me, her ears twitching in irritation as she growled "That's the problem! You fight through injury like a crazy bitch! If I try to end the spar like we did the first time, you'll get yourself fucking killed! What the hell is your issue?! Do you have brain damage?!"

Her voice was slightly shrill, and I had to tilt my head at her as I looked down into her eyes, wondering what brought this on before realizing instantly that behind that irritation and anger, Lady Kio was genuinely concerned for my well being, and that she was worried that if we kept going, I might get seriously injured.

"No, no I don't. If you must know..."

Stabbing the Khopesh into the tile, I rolled up my sleeve and showed her the glimmering white tattoo, the tribalistic lines almost matching my complexion in this lighting, but as she leaned closer and inspected my arm, the Dogkin clicked her tongue and said "You're crazy."

"I would beg to differ. Besides, I got this under the premise that it would be a pain... diminisher, I suppose. It was supposed to lower the pain I felt and allow me to push myself forwards just a bit harder than my brain would reasonably allow, and yet... it seems that the enchantment took to me quite well and turned into a pain nullifier. Which..."

Could I turn it into a pain amplifier?

I stared closely at the lines for a few moments, trying to understand how this variation of magic worked and if I could determine a way to change it to do the opposite of what it does now, but after a few brief seconds Lady Kio grabbed my attention again.

"So you are crazy. You willingly use something like this in spars?!"

She grabbed my arm and shook me slightly, bringing a small smile to my lips as I nodded, eliciting another click of her tongue as she shook her head.

"Crazy... Absolutely crazy..!"

Letting me go, Lady Kio turned and tossed her scimitar towards the Death Jackal she had borrowed it from, who just stared at the damaged blade for a few moments before sheathing it without a single word.

Approaching Anput - who was in the midst of her rest after doing some workouts with Jahi - Lady Kio jabbed her thumb back towards me and said "You picked a crazy bitch to make your mate.", which only made Anput blink a few times as she stared at her Mother, clearly confused.

"Not only is she crazy, but she's Julie's brat too! Argh! I want to strangle you so damn bad!"

Glaring at her daughter, Lady Kio muttered a few curses to herself as she looked between Anput and I, only relaxing slightly when the Sultana approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder, grounding the Dogkin somewhat.

"On the other hand, I would argue that this is a rather incredible union, one worth celebrating. Is it not? From all I can remember, you always described Julie as a rather impressive woman who was smart, strong, witty, mature, kind and beautiful, and that seems to have transferred into her daughter in more than a few ways. Albeit unique ways..."

I smiled at the Sultana as I lowered myself to the ground beside Anput, only to groan as I deactivated the tattoo and endured the waves of dull agony that washed over me now that my body's pain receptors were functioning again.

"I never said ANY of those things! She was a conniving, arrogant, mask wearing prick who only ever got on my nerves!"

Stamping her foot, Lady Kio glowered at her wife this time, before letting out a growl when the Sultana said "Must you act like this? We both know it to be a farce...", which made her reply "It is NOT a farce!"

"No? I seem to recall you being rather worried the entire time between her arrival here and the news of her finding shelter with the Asmodia's. You used to pace every night and even had some of the Death Jackals head out to trail after her."

That brought me out of my agonized stupor, and I looked up at the woman in surprise, my eyes meeting hers for a single moment; it was only a moment, but in that moment, I felt like I got to see the real emotions she held within her heart, and that... shocked me.

Pride, joy, concern and more lingered within her eyes, but she swiftly spun around and stalked away, her fur bristling as she cut her way directly across the plaza, her anger rolling off of her in almost palpable waves that forced all of the sparring warriors to hastily retreat from her path.

As she stormed back into the palace, the Sultana watched her walk before looking down at Anput and I, her head tilting to the side as she asked "Did I speak wrongly?", which made me roll my eyes before I grabbed my head as that single action made the agony rather insufferable for a moment.