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

Sitting next to Lady Meeka was the only unfazed face he saw. Marie was staring back at him. Her gaze seemed to pierce into him.

Well, all he could think was let her bring it. He would be ready. He was the damn war god and no one could stand against him.

Other faces caught his attention. Nyda was standing in one of the tunnel entrances with some towels draped across her arms. She stared at him with a strange look of pride on her face. Beside her, still supported by one of Selma’s aids, was Kierra. She was staring just as intently at him with a faint smile on her face. Her tail was wagging, and her eyes flashed with passion until she saw him looking back at her. Then she averted her eyes as if ashamed of what she had been thinking.

All in all, it was good to be the victor. This was a feeling that both Kyle and Krig could agree on and in that moment, he found an increased level of unity within himself. He was anxious for the chance to speak to Hilde about it. He wanted to study and replay the fight to learn what he could do better and to figure out how to repeat the things he had done right.

For now, though, it was enough to bask in the cheering of the crowd.

 

Chapter 25 - Learning Himself

After being inspected like a side of beef, propositioned, and haggled over by the nobles, Kyle was sent back to his cell. No sooner had he reached the bottom of the ladder than the voice of an overly excited Hilde burst into his head.

“You did it. I didn’t think it was possible, but you used Earth Essence. It shouldn’t be possible. But you did it. Then again, nothing about this is normal. Heck, you even learned a Skill on your own.”

“A Skill?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah, remember that little blue flash in the corner of your eye when you were fighting? I did my best to minimize it as a distraction, but that was your character sheet being updated to show you had gained a new Skill,” Hilde answered.

He didn’t even say anything but instead focused on his sheet.

Name: Krig (Kyle Hudson/Warborn)

Race: Demi-god (War God/human)

Stats: (Current/Max)

Strength: 16/42

Agility: 6/42

Constitution: 15/45

Will: 11/45

Mind: 7/39

Charisma: 5/29

Essence: (Current/Max)

Air: 0/12

Death: 0/25

Sea: 0/12

Deceit: 0/13

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

War: 12/50 – Conversion rate: 1/second

Raw Essence: 11,345

Skills:

Flowing Earth Armor, 1 - 2 Earth

Divine Ability:

Rage Burst, 1 - 4 War

The changes to his character sheet were interesting, even more so because Kyle realized he was an idiot for not keeping up to speed on what changes were happening. It was just an alien thought process to try to measure results from a sheet that popped up in his head. He just had to equate it to tracking his batting average.

It was fascinating that instead of all eight types of essence, it now showed the six that were represented on his wheel. The new data also showed him which spokes were the bigger spokes. War obviously was the largest, but earth and death were the next largest, with deceit, sea, and air being the smaller spokes. That, of course, meant that the mortal part of him had no aptitude for lust or judgment essence.

Stat wise, he had gained a single point in each of his physical stats.

Hilde said, “You need to remember that, for you, those stat gains represent your body becoming better acquainted with how this construct works, as well as implementing essence into it better.”

“You have called this body a construct before. What do you mean by that?” Kyle asked.

“Simply that a god can create a body anytime. The destruction of your body is not permanent, or even that serious of a setback. Your mantle is a spiritual and elemental container for your soul and essence. As long as you have your mantle, then you can always make a new body.”

“But my mantle is stuck in the void, I thought.”

Hilde hummed for a second before saying, “Quite right, and the view outside is dismal. Seriously, though, I have been operating on the assumption that it would just migrate to you once you gained enough control of it. You are still connected to your mantle, but I don’t know more than that.”

“Yeah, yeah. First time and no one knows. Is my soul even in my body, or is it in the mantle with you?”

“Hmm… That is an interesting question. If your soul was here, then you might be able to manifest here. Ooh… we could have some fun then. And I’m not just saying that because I’m bored silly. As far as no one knowing, well maybe one of your siblings would know, but asking them would be a straight up death sentence, so I don’t recommend it.”

“If I get the chance, don’t think I won’t take you up on it. I’m not so much of a gentleman to tell a wise and worldly woman like yourself no. But what about those stat increases?” Kyle asked. The grin on his face carried through in his tone.

“Promises, promises. If you deliver on that, you will be way ahead of your old self in my book. Stats, though. I don’t have much else to do but pay attention to your growth here, so I can tell you what is triggering those changes. Your strength went up after the match with Skrug, which sorta makes sense. Agility was after sparring with Kierra, and constitution after your match with Gilthan. Apparently, getting repeatedly electrocuted is good for building your body’s durability, at least if you survive it.

“But don’t get too caught up in those. I would say that your mental stat increases are at least if not far more important than your physical ones. Your Charisma jumped up by three whole points, which is likely a representation of how well you are doing teasing all the women around you. I swear that even old Selma would jump your bones if