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

excitement, though. This was living, showing just how good he was to everyone around him. He could feel the essence within himself stirring again. It was so rare, he hadn’t been able to capture this feeling except at the quarry and then again when he had ripped a hole through the veil to see Hilde.

With all this excitement and essence surging through him, there was no way he could humbly walk over to the dummy. Instead, he rushed across the intervening space in just three long steps. He channeled his momentum into the attack and swung the maul head forward so fast that it blurred and still he clamped down on his strength. The essence within him brought the swing to an end just as it hit the outside of the helm.

The force transferred was still great enough that it rocked the dummy and knocked it over. The side of the helmet was crushed and imprinted from the head of the maul. Because the head was a little wider than a maul for a lesser man, the force was diffused more widely.

Had it been a living man, his bell definitely would have been rung. Concussion, lost teeth, and maybe a fractured skull would have resulted, but that wasn’t outside the rules. If Kyle understood correctly, that could all be healed. What it wasn’t was a fatal blow, or at least not an instantly fatal blow.

Kyle roared out, “Arrhh rah!”

He spun, shifting his momentum, and swung the maul around in a sweeping motion that upended the next dummy in the half circle. His blow crushed the armor on its left thigh and likely would have snapped the femur in two, but it didn’t take the leg off. The upward force caused the dummy to fly up and land on its head.

Kyle didn’t stop there though. He instinctively took in the knowledge that he had finished another foe and felt more powerful. It was like one of those video games where he was building more power with each hit to form a long combo attack.

In his hands, the heavy maul lashed out at the third remaining dummy. Instead of striking the body, he targeted the sword in its hands. The blade went flying from the wooden hand but not before the sheer force of his blow put a permanent crook into the steel. Even as the head of his maul was already moving for the shield of the next dummy, Kyle’s foot thrust out in a front kick. It caught the breastplate of the now-disarmed dummy and caved in the armor.

His mind registered that as broken ribs and deflated lungs. At that same moment, his maul struck the next dummy’s shield. He turned it concave from the force of his blow which undoubtedly would have broken the arm of any man holding it. Then moved forward to smash the face of that fifth dummy with the shaft of his hammer. The metal bent the nose guard of the helm away hopelessly and smashed the head hard enough to leave an imprint in the wood. The dummy toppled over backward in a flip so forceful that it spun completely to land on its face.

Pivoting to face the final dummy, Kyle flung the maul forward sideways so powerfully that the sword it was holding was ripped from its grasp and the wooden shield was cracked. The sheer amount of force involved toppled the last dummy over onto its back and Kyle was immediately upon it.

He felt no hesitation, only the thrill of battle. He might be demonstrating techniques against wooden dummies, but he would display excellence either way. As he leapt forward, he landed on the prone dummy. His legs crushed its legs, and his fist driven forward into the head of this wooden foe only stopped barely short of shattering it into so many splinters.

Kyle stood up and raised his hands to the heavens. His head tilted back and he roared in exultation. For the first time, he truly felt like the war god. He knew he had a long way to go still. Maybe more than a mortal could imagine but still he could barely stand still with the way his blood was rushing.

Chapter 15 - More Lessons

Later that evening, Kyle found himself sitting in the infirmary after getting a once over. The table he had been asked to lay on was hard stone. While he had learned that they did a great deal to make sure that the fighters stayed healthy, including reasonably good food, sleep, and having healers available, it was also clear that their owners cared nothing for the comfort of their slaves.

Once the exam was over, he sat up and saw Selma sitting in the corner reading a book. She must have been supervising the assistant who had given him his once over. He smiled at her and asked, “Interesting book?”

She appeared flustered for a moment before answering, “You have no idea. It was written by a flesh mage who spent a short time here before being sent out with the army. He claimed to have been from another world, and based upon his ways of thinking and the odd symbols that he scribed onto the front of the book, I am inclined to believe his tale.

“Either way, he was very knowledgeable about the body and this treatise has helped enhance not only my understanding of how to use essence for healing, but also of how to use many more mundane processes to aid our work.”

Medical knowledge was one of those things that Kyle cared about, in that it helped him perform better, but not because he genuinely was curious. Still, he had learned early on that it never hurt to get on the good side of the doctors. So he asked, “Oh, could I look at it?”

Selma hesitated as she looked at his massive hands and then at her book. But finally asked, “You can read?”

Knowing that Hilde could translate for him, he said, “I’m