Chapitre 142: Chapter 140
I had thought ever since my evolution that while I had struggled against Wisterl before, I would now be able to dominate her were we to spar once again. In the past days, I had come to learn that I was completely mistaken when thinking that.
It was obvious that I was bigger and stronger than Wisterl, and there was a good chance that I was faster than her too. Even so, without relying on my magic, I still was wholly unable to defeat her. The few sparring matches that we had had ended with me fuming and leaving after having been unable to truly close in on her and making any true progress towards beating her. In retrospect, after each of these fights, I could see the wisdom in Wisterl's actions. She knew that I was bigger and stronger than her, and so instead kept her distance, occasionally darting in to get a quick bite on me, or a slap of her tail against the outside of my knee.
All her little strikes alone didn't mean much, but throughout each fight, her consistent strikes on me and intolerable patience wore me down until I grew too angry and left. I knew that I could use my magic in any number of ways and probably gain enough of an advantage against her to gain victory, but it felt like having to resort to my magic to attain victory over a mere keelish was dishonorable. Instead, I would learn her every step and make her submit.
That sentiment was all well and good, but it meant nothing to me as I watched a flashing red spot on Wisterl's shoulder disappear as I lunged forward with my left arm. My strike whiffed through the air, and before I could pull my arm back, Wisterl turned and, with the full force of her entire body, smashed her tail into my exposed ribs. I tried to move with the blow, but even so, I felt the air gasp from my lungs with the solid hit.
Unbidden and without thinking, a snarl bubbled from my lips before I began to more aggressively press the attack. I'd begun to understand her patterns, and I could guess how she'd dodge each strike, but even with my knowledge and the prompts from [Combatant's Bloodlust], I couldn't see how to capitalize on what I knew she was about to do. Finally, though, I forced Wisterl to continue retreating from my flurry of attacks, and she found herself mostly cornered by the edge of the space where we had been fighting.
My blood continued to thunder in my ears and Wisterl cocked her head and smiled in her asinine way. I couldn't hold myself back any longer and I lunged forward. Wisterl seemed surprised at my outburst, given my usual attempts at being level headed in our spars, and I saw several large red spots flare into life as she adjusted herself to receive my charge. With a twist of her hips, my opponent prepared herself and then dropped to a low crouch so as to be something I would stumble over with my superior height. I couldn't stop my own grin as she did so, and lowered her face right into the path of my right knee.
There was a crunch of bone and teeth that rang out in the den as Wisterl was flung back by the full force of my body's weight behind my knee. With a groan of pain, she slammed against the wall, and with all my weight in a sprint, I couldn't stop myself. To Wisterl's credit, though, even though she was obviously hurting and stunned by my attack, she gathered herself, and dropped low enough to escape being crushed by me as I crashed into the wall. Before I had any other conscious thought, I reached down to grab Wisterl by the throat. My left hand shot towards her, and just before I could fully grab her, she dodged to the side, rolled on the ground with surprising alacrity, and regained her feet.
Looking at Wisterl's face, I finally stopped pressing the attack. I had definitely broken her jaw, and at least five of her fangs had been shattered and laid somewhere on the floor. From both her nose and mouth flowed steady streams of blood, and they mixed with saliva and snot that continued dripping freely from her face. Her breathing came raggedly, and I worried I'd broken something in her throat or windpipe. I wanted to win, not to kill her. After all, I knew that she would follow me pretty easily, given what she wanted from an Alpha.
As I slowed myself and began to ask Wisterl to accompany me towards Vefir, she regained a grin. The smile on her face grew ever wider, until the rictus decorating her face could only in the strictest of terms still be called a smile.
"Goo' hi' there, Ashlani. I've never fough' someone who use' their knee like tha'. You'll never ge' me again with i'." Her voice was nearly impossible to understand through her broken jaw and, now that I saw it, her shredded tongue. Were she a human, she wouldn't have been able to say a word, but since our language used more squeaks and squeals than others, I could begin to understand the gibberish she was saying. Even with the absolutely devastated state of her face, without speaking further, Wisterl began to close back in on me, eager to continue the fight.
"No, Wisterl. We're done. I'll have Vefir heal you, and then we can meet up another time." As I began to walk away from her, I finally felt the consequence of smashing my knee that hard into something as sharp as a keelish's face. Of course, I was much better off than Wisterl, but I had sustained some very real damage as her fangs had shredded many of the scales that covered my knee. Underneath that, I had only sustained some bruising and very minor cuts that would soon heal, but the bruise had me covering a limp for now.
As Wisterl began to try to protest, I raised a hand. "If you must, consider it my loss, and the price of my loss is healing the injuries you sustained in teaching me a lesson. Either way, we're done."
I thought that the fiery-tempered female would argue or fight me on my declaration, but she simply cocked her head to the side and regarded me. Then, with deliberate and unaffected respect, she bowed to me. I could feel that before now, she had considered me a good, but younger sparring partner, but now… she saw me as an equal and potential leader. Without another word, she followed me out of the sparring area and towards where we could find Vefir.
His magical ministrations quickly reformed Wisterl's face, and though she obviously couldn't work her jaw without considerable discomfort, Wisterl didn't complain when Vefir was unable to heal her face entirely. In fact, her response had been, "Well, it's the price you pay for learning. We all suffer that pain sometimes." As she said the second part, she looked over at me, and then Foire. Then, without another word or acknowledgement, Wisterl turned, walked from the den, and was gone.
For my part, I retired to my personal quarters, a new, larger version of them found near the hatchlings' den. There, I slowly eased into the sands of my bath and groaned. These sands had been changed somewhat, Ytte had done something to make the loose, bathing sand much deeper, so I could submerge most of myself within the bath. There, with my magic, I could set the entire bath to vibrating, and the scrubbing mixed with a nearly weightless sensation were amazing.
Though my eyes were closed, fully indulging in the bath, I could hear steps approaching. Just a single pair of feet, so it would be Sybil. I didn't open my eyes as I addressed her, "Would you like to join me, Sybil?" She had done so several times since this new, deep bath was created, and that was how we'd learned that another in the bath could feel the scrubbing of the sands from my [Skill]-less usage of my sonic magic. Strangely, Sybil didn't answer me as her steps finally stopped just behind me, and I began to doubt my surety that it was, in fact, Sybil behind me. In the same moment that that thought occurred to me, a strangely alluring smell washed over me.
I opened my eyes just in time to see Sybil lean down and gently nibble at my throat before rubbing her cheek against mine.
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