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

“Yes. My conversion rate for Air Essence is one per fifteen seconds, while my rate for Lust Essence is one per ten minutes. The rest of my aptitudes range between that, with most all of them being under one minute,” Hilde replied. Then she asked, “Which brings up another question. I wonder what your conversion rate is for Earth Essence.”

Kyle looked at his sheet once again to see the Earth Essence Rate.

Earth: 10/25 – Conversion rate: 1/15 seconds

That matched much better with what Hilde was explaining. A part of Kyle told him that in the middle of a battle, fifteen seconds could feel like an eternity. “Is there anything I can do with that Earth Essence?”

“Not until you learn a Skill or Divine Ability to use it with. Keep in mind that spells are what the mortals call Skills. I have no aptitude for Earth Essence, so I can’t exactly teach you that. We will have to wait to see what happens over the next few days to see where you end up after this.”

“Agreed. If we were staying here with Saber in charge of training, I expect that he would be willing to find ways for me to learn how to control essence. We will just have to see what happens. 

“Although that brings up the last issue. I need to learn how to break these manacles, just in case the new situation turns out badly. If possible, I would prefer to stay this course and learn by fighting in the arena. One thing I have always practiced is getting everything I could out of whatever training I was doing before moving onto something new. Some people are always rushing onto the next best thing, but I’d prefer to maximize what we have now,” Kyle said.

“That should be very simple. They are magical items so much more durable than plain metal, but if there is one thing that Krig always excelled at, it was breaking things. War Essence is perfectly suited to breaking them. You just have to learn how to focus it onto the manacles. Although, I will also add that there might be some value in you learning how to resist them.”

“Hmm, maybe you are right. I will think about that some more. I figure we have at least three days before things come to a head. We won’t know who is going to buy me until after the exhibition matches.”

“As you wish. Now, though, even that body needs some sleep. So, unless you have changed your mind about summoning me, you should probably sleep,” Hilde said. The tease in her voice was all too evident.

Try as he might, Kyle couldn’t help but rise to the bait. “I think you should at least tell me a little bit about how to summon you. It would be a useful skill to have. But if I was to summon you now, with no enemies around, wouldn’t that be a waste of your time?”

“Oh, I’m confident that you could make it anything but a waste of my time,” Hilde said. Kyle could almost see the smile upon her face.

After that, with Hilde’s help, Kyle spent an hour trying to master the connection to her necessary to pull her forth from the void. The idea of how she was inside his mantle was still very vague to him. As he understood it, his mantle was the divine part of him that made him different. It was also the part of him that he couldn’t freely access. It was what connected him to and made him the embodiment of the metaphysical concept of war or conflict.

Hilde used a great number of words to describe it, and he tried to be a good student even if it made falling asleep much easier. In the end, he had two takeaways from it. First, it would require a few thousand points of raw essence to create a stable enough portal for her to step out of the void safely. Second, the best way for him to do such a thing was based on need.

When his mastery was greater it wouldn’t be necessary, but for now he needed to only summon her when was in great need. That last point led to some more teasing, but Kyle gave as good as he got.

If he had learned anything in dealing with groupies, it was that women enjoyed the chase just as much as men did. It was like a long-distance relationship, and he was having a great deal of fun with their banter. If Hilde wanted to tease him, he would play the same game back with her. The result was that he fell asleep half satisfied with the game, half frustrated that he hadn’t taken her up on her offer, and entirely smitten with Hilde.

Chapter 17- Can’t Wait

The next morning, Kyle woke up with a new spring in his step. He was excited for the first matches which would occur tonight. Equally, he had to admit that pleasant dreams which seemed to alternate between a fiery angel and a magenta-haired elf were valid reasons to be in a good mood.

He climbed up the ladder when it was put down. Then strode with a purpose in his step. The guards ended up following him and having to increase their pace to keep up with him.

When he stepped onto the sand of the arena, it was with an awareness that in something like twelve hours he would be fighting on this very ground. It was different from baseball. Sure, there was always minimal chance of injury in baseball, but that wasn’t about life and death. Injury there was about a loss of earning potential.

They had explained that the matches wouldn’t be to the death, but Kyle wasn’t so sure. It might not kill him but getting electrocuted by Gilthan, sat on by Skrug, or clawed by Kierra didn’t sound fun. The playful part of his mind thought that having Kierra’s nails running down his