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

Kyle took his time walking out to the center of the arena. It wasn’t only to give the audience more time to cheer for him, but also because he had a sudden thought about how he might counteract Gilthan’s lightning. It was too fast to dodge. Dexterity saving throws aside, you simply couldn’t dodge something that traveled at the speed of light.

Beyond the pure speed of the attack, the range was its greatest power. Kyle didn’t have any way to attack from more than about fifty feet out, and that was only with his Divine Ability. Not to mention that such an attack would likely turn Gilthan into a fine mist. He still didn’t possess the level of control necessary. He needed a way to minimize the impact of the electricity. But he did have an idea now.

The thing was that it would require him to be able to access the essence he held, which was something he had not been able to do with any degree of reliability. So he thought that through as he walked forward slowly. Kyle had been thinking of the times that he accessed his essence as an instinctive process, but that wasn’t really helpful. He needed to figure out how to break it down.

At first, he thought that it had come down to him forming an intent. But that was too cerebral, and he needed something more primal. It was based on his need. Or at least that was what he was guessing. He had needed to escape. He had needed to protect Nyda. Those were the times that he had been able to utilize essence. Even the swing that brought down the wall was a need to vent frustration.

It could have been seen in other ways, of course, and he realized that feeling that rightness from the original swing might also be a key. But he thought he was onto something with the need issue. It was raw and unrefined. It didn’t use spells like the flesh mages, or even skills like Gilthan. It was just a raw expression of power.

That matched with Hilde’s concept that the gods were just some larger, stronger type of elemental, a raw expression of the metaphysical aspect they represented. Maybe part of why he was having trouble tapping into these powers was because he was thinking of God or gods from a modern Western perspective, as though they were these higher, more intellectual beings.

Maybe they were just big collections of power centered around simple, core principles.

If that was the case, then he needed to dumb down his approach. He needed to think more of the aspect that he needed and try to utilize it like that. At least that was what he hoped would work. Either way, time was up.

Saber positioned them thirty feet away from each other. Kyle realized that the distance favored Gilthan, but there wasn’t anything to do about it. He went through all of Saber’s lessons about closing the distance and how to weave so as to avoid projectiles. He didn’t think that would work against a lightning bolt, though.

A moment of panic threatened to set in as Kyle realized he wasn’t sure he could call upon the essence, but then the competitor in him won out. He wouldn’t be afraid of any enemy. This was just another victory for him to claim.

As he heard the command to begin, Kyle shot forward. He crossed the thirty feet in two steps and was moving like a freight train at the elf who calmly stood there. His maul was swinging through its arc, intending to end this fight in an instant when Gilthan did something he had never shown in training.

The wind swirled around his feet and he leapt into the air just before the maul passed the space where he had been. Within two seconds, he was fifty feet in the air. He extended a hand and suddenly Kyle found his body spasming under the power of an electric bolt.

Kyle screamed out through clenched teeth. He had been expecting lightning bolts, but he didn’t know how to respond to it when Gilthan was attacking from the air. The bolt ended and Kyle rolled up off the ground. At least there appeared to be limits to how long the elf could sustain an attack.

Sadly, that limit seemed to have a short cool down because Kyle hadn’t even made it two steps before he was hit by another bolt. This was powerful enough to not only shock him into a spasming mess, but to also scorch a hole into his shoulder. The only good news was that a wound that would have kept him out for the rest of the season back home would be healed up within minutes here.

There was nothing fun about being stuck on the ground while the sorcerer blasted him at his leisure, so Kyle determined to take matters into his own hands. He still had his idea about how to use the essence, but it was hard to think straight while he was trying not to bite off his tongue.

So once again, a more direct approach was called for. Kyle crouched down and felt the need to leap high. He called upon his muscles and then leapt up like a rocket. His body propelled not only by the powerful muscles but by his instinctive summoning of War Essence. A lesson flowed through his mind; always be where the enemy least expects you.

He knew it was Krig’s teaching about the importance of mobility and surprise, but he’d be damned if it didn’t sound like one of those fortune cookie Sun Tzu quotes that his old coach used to spout. The source mattered little, for in his need and acting without thought, Kyle had once again applied War Essence to a simple act. This time a leap.

Gilthan’s saucer shaped eyes showed that he hadn’t been expecting this. They all knew that Kyle could leap over thirty feet,