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

after the attacks on the dummies earlier, now it was even greater and was more than six thousand all in.

When he told Hilde, she practically squealed. “That will be more than enough essence for you to safely manifest me for an hour.”

“Only an hour?” Kyle asked. “What happens to you after the hour?”

Her voice trembled a bit as she said, “Why, I have to return to your mantle in the void, silly boy.”

“That is awful. What will it take for you to be free of that place? I can tell that you hate it there. You try to hide it from me, but it was pretty obvious when I caught a glimpse of you that you were miserable. More than that, since you swore your oath to me, I can sense your emotions more strongly.

“You are excited for me to be able to summon you from the void. But it isn’t just because you want to serve. You don’t have to lie about it. I know that you are frantic to get a break from the void.”

“You are gonna make my head swell. Krig never thought this highly of me, or any of his servants. It is almost like you genuinely care what happens to me,” Hilde said. The last statement she drew out slowly as though unsure she should speak the words.

“Not almost. I do care what happens to you. Remember, you are my teammate. I will do whatever it takes to get you out of there. I don’t ever give up on a teammate. I may not have ever been in the military back home, but they had an expression. No man left behind. Well, my personal expression from now on is going to be no smoking hot celestial left behind,” Kyle replied.

He could almost hear the quivering in her lip as she spoke back to him, “I don’t know what to say. I will strive to excel beyond my oath. You haven’t achieved it yet, but there is something about you which causes me to believe that you will achieve it.”

Then she paused for a moment before adding, “Do you really think I’m hot? Like… not just cause I’m fiery, but because you find me attractive?”

“Of course, any man would have to be blind not to think that. But I didn’t mean to offend you. Not sure if there are particular rules for celestials, I was just speaking my mind. With me, what you see is what you get,” Kyle replied.

“Oh, I’m used to having caught the eye of other celestials, many mortals, a few monsters, and even some fiends over the years. But you are hardly just some mortal. Just in what you did, you shattered all of my expectations and proved once again how unique you are. You don’t have to humor me about my silly little infatuation.”

“Humor you? Ha. I thought you were humoring me,” Kyle said. He so badly wanted to ask more about what she meant when she’d said infatuation, but he needed to play it cool.

“But to be serious, summoning me for an hour would be a great accomplishment. When I was not bound to Krig, a circle of mortal wizards summoned me into the field of a great battle. Their combined power was only enough to summon and control me for ten minutes. It was more than enough time for me to destroy hundreds of the enemy. Were it not for wizards on the other side, I could have slain them all to the last man, prior to my time expiring. So, don’t worry, I can accomplish most any task you set for me within an hour,” Hilde said.

“Again, it wasn’t that I didn’t think an hour would be long enough for you to serve, it was more that I was worried about you. I thought the goal of mastering this power was to free you from where you are bound. Maybe I didn’t understand, but I assumed that you wanted to be physical all the time and living with me.”

“You are just too sweet. Big, strong, and muscular. Bold and you know what you want and will fight for it. And on top of that, you actually care. Once again you show yourself to be a treasure amongst men. Even more so, if you are compared to the other gods. Know that I won’t hold it against you, if your attitude towards lesser beings changes after you fully regain your divinity,” Hilde said softly.

“Don’t think like that. I don’t know what any of this means yet. What I do know is that doing the same thing and expecting different results is doomed to failure. Before, I ignored every meaningful relationship I could have had. Not anymore. I am going to value the people around me,” Kyle replied.

“Well, lesser beings like myself may not be anything to you but servants, once you are divine. It isn’t really becoming for a god to sully himself with those meant to sate his needs,” Hilde said.

“Tell you what, when we get there, we can cross that bridge. But if I am really going to be the war god, then you are just gonna have to trust my judgment about what I want. Fair enough?”

“Yes, m’lord. Forgive my presumption,” Hilde said.

Kyle laughed. “I thought we already agreed you would call me Kyle. Consider it an order, if you need it to be. Oh, and if there is going to be any sating of needs; it will be a two-way street, if you know what I mean. I’ve always taken great pride in that, even if I wasn’t very good at the relationship follow-up.”

Excitement crept into her voice. “Well, we still have the rest of the night. You could keep working on gathering essence. Or… well, you could summon me now. I bet I could teach you how. I’m feeling exceptionally motivated right now. I’m sure I could make it worth your time.”

Kyle groaned out loud at that. Just the glimpse he had gotten of