War God for Hire- Gladiator by David Burke (books under 200 pages .TXT) 📕

speed. Kyle had seen some guys who weren’t the strongest or fastest, heck even some with a bit of a gut, who still made it to the bigs. They all had one thing in common. They were just damn good at baseball.

Well, Saber was the same, but with fighting or at least dueling.

He would move in under a wild swing from the angry troll that could take the head off a man’s body and slide in to swing a blunt version of his namesake weapon against the inside of a leg or back of a knee. He didn’t bother moving on to new tactics because the troll kept falling for the same ones.

The instructor even managed to hook the back of the giant’s ankle and take his feet out from underneath him just by timing it with the shifting of the man’s own bodyweight. It was a pro-level move that reacted to and took advantage of any opening given to him. There was no way that Saber could have lifted up the one-ton mountain of muscle, but Skrug just kept giving him openings.

By the end of the training demonstration, Kyle was beginning to suspect Saber was the kind of coach who took pleasure in the suffering of his team. The kind who thought he wasn’t doing his job if they weren’t complaining about the workload.

Kyle was ready for that, though.

He figured this guy would have him up there next. Well, he had been taking mental notes already. If anything, it was a pleasant surprise how the more he relaxed, the more naturally all of this seemed to come to him.

One by one, he took the trainees to different parts of the arena and set them up with trainers. While the others waited, they were led through a series of calisthenics. That much was child’s play though, for even with this massive body, Kyle had never felt so strong or flexible in his entire life.

Kierra was sent to one end of the arena and, from the glimpses that Kyle caught, it appeared that she was being tasked with trying to catch arrows out of the air. Made sense in a way. Her agility was superhuman, so they were probably testing the limits of it.

Skrug, on the other hand, was set to lifting heavy rocks, dragging heavier rocks, and sometimes being crushed by heavy rocks that they rolled onto his feet. It was bizarre training, but maybe meant to increase his body’s regenerative powers. They were already nothing short of miraculous. The brute barely had a bruise on his greenish skin left, despite two hours of dreadful beatings.

The strangest one of them all was Gilthan, who was placed in a circle of six trainers with tower shields. At least it seemed odd until Kyle witnessed the man create a spinning, bladed disc out of thin air. It crackled with lightning and spun around as though driven by its own tornado. The elven warrior or, perhaps more accurately, sorcerer sent the disc careening from one shield to the next.

Kyle would have liked to watch more of the display, but he soon found himself face to face with Saber. None of the other trainers were even close, and they had most of the middle of the arena to themselves. Inside the coliseum was as big as any professional football field. There were seats all around with obvious boxes that were likely reserved for nobility or other leaders—he guessed senators and such.

“So, they tell me that you don’t speak very well, or even understand that much. Well, what I want to know, is why? Is it because you can’t, just not smart enough like Skrug over there?” Saber asked.

Kyle shook his head no as soon as Hilde interpreted the question for him.

“A bit slow on the uptake there, but maybe that is just because you don’t speak the language. Is that it?” the instructor asked.

This time Kyle nodded in the affirmative and Saber smiled. “That’s good. It’s hard to fix stupid, but just about anything else I can work with. Now though, I need to know just what I’m working with. We had one elemental here, three years ago. She was half elf, half sky elemental. She was so damn fast, it was almost hard to follow her movements. She might have won it all if it weren’t for the fact that she had a glass jaw.

Well, if you are truly a war elemental, then I’m gonna expect better from you. After all, this is sorta what you exist for, if I understand elementals properly. So, this is what we’re gonna do. You can pick up any of those training weapons that the instructors left there, and you and I are gonna have a little duel. Nothing lethal, just a test to see what kinda skills you have. Nod your head if you understand,” Saber instructed.

Kyle had known that this moment was coming at some point. Truthfully, he was no warrior, but if that‘s what he had to become to excel here, then so be it. He nodded and then started looking around at the weapons. His pickaxe was powerful and felt as natural in his hands as a bat. He hoped that other weapons would pick up that same, familiar feel, too.

For now, he wanted to stick with something similar, so he picked a warhammer up off the ground. He remembered the trainers demonstrating how this weapon could be used to crush bones, but also that they said its primary purpose was for use against armor. He looked at Saber. The man was only wearing light, leather armor, not even a breastplate.

This might not be the right weapon for fighting him, but it felt comfortable to Kyle. It also had the advantage that it was small in his hand and could be whipped around easily. Not one to second guess, he decided to stick with it.

“Interesting choice,” Saber said. “Now, to be clear, if by some chance you hurt me, that is on me