u/Sufficient-Shirt-270

“What are your orders, my general?”

Sasha’s mouth was dry as she looked at the five she was supposed to fight. She didn’t think she could even annoy the biggest one, he was more than twice her height for fucks sake!

“You five will be testing the young mistress. She is apparently reading to go on a journey, and her majesty has asked us to test her.”

The naga nods at that, drawing two daggers that looked more like teeth to Sasha, and coiling its tail around itself. And she can’t help but be surprised when it speaks. Though in hindsight, her chest was more prominent than she’d expect on a snake.

“And what are our hindrances for this test? You would have had us attack the moment we were in range if there were none.”

“Ah yes, my apologies Rhen. I should have begun with that, this will most likely be more of a game on your part, but it will still test the young mistress. If any of you hit her three times, she loses, if she hits one of you three times, that one is out. No lethal blows. I believe that should be adequate, yes?”

Sasha looked up at the Goddess on her throne, with hope in her eyes. Only for it to be snuffed out when she nodded. The girl slumped, wanting to fall back to the hard coins, and bury herself in them. Ah but they could definitely dig…

15 blows, it shouldn’t be that hard for her to do that, right? She pulled herself up into her guard stance, or as close as she could get to it, bruised as she already was…

“On three then. One… two…”

That was fast. Too fast, She wasn’t ready. Why wasn’t he waiting for her to get ready?!?

“Three”

Six beings, forged in the fires of war older than her own world, all moved at once. Invictal, the bastard, shot a grappling hook from some place on his back, and pulled himself up to the rotating platform she’d started the night on, so he could watch from a distance.

The naga dove into the gold like it was water, an obvious ambush tactics specialist. The elf bolted for one of the dunes, pulling something off her back that sprung into something like a bow.

The human pulled out a short sword, and a disk of light ignited on its other arm. It hung back, circling, and the one that looked like Sasha’s other form, took off into the air, circling aswell.

And the big one? It rushed her of course… she was frozen with indecision with everything happening, long enough that the big one was closing in on her, when she finally dropped out of her guard stance, and rolled.

She felt the wind from the things swing pass her by as she did, almost pissing herself. And the damn thing laughed! It laughed at her!

Metal met metal as she burst up from the roll, putting all of her weight into the swing at the back of the giant’s leg.

CLANG

And juddered off, the strike somehow reverberating back into her, and not doing anything to the huge figure.

“You are quick little one, but you must learn to see when your opponent is using that against you.”

A fist larger than her torso, sent her flying over the golden dunes. She couldn’t think for the first few seconds, her mind left somewhere back where she’d been punched from.

But she regained herself, right as she made the first bounce. It was a lot like skipping rocks in a stream. Except the steam was a literal ocean of gold coins, and she was the rock.

She wanted to scream as what felt like half of the skin of her back war torn off on the first skip. And luckily there was only one other bounce, before she plowed into one of the dunes, landing on her left arm awkwardly, snapping the bone, and having to bite her tongue to keep from screaming.

Please, please, let that have counted as her loss. Please? She had to keep moving either way. The bruises from the training sessions with the Goddess were never there when she woke in her true body, so it was probably the same for her other injuries, right?

“One down, why don’t we make it two?”

The naga coiled around her… and right as she was about to reach the edge of the hole her impact had made in the dunes aswell…

“Aaaaahhhh”

She was squeezing her broken arm right against her side. What could she do but scream? Sasha realized she’d gotten clinical as the pain got worse, but that didn’t mean the pain itself would go away. It just meant she could think while she was in pain.

It also meant she twist the axe that she’d managed to hold onto in her other hand, and rake it across the naga woman’s side. Again, it didn’t do anything to her, but she noticed, and squeezed harder.

“Aaaaaaaa!!!”

She could feeling the broken bones in her arm fracturing further under the pressure. And it was painful enough to make even her clinical mind brought on by adrenaline, to blank out it pain.

The woman said something else aswell, but she couldn’t hear it through the sudden ringing. Couldn’t think with the pressure still around her. Then, even though the pain, she felt the gentlest of pricks on her cheek, and the scent of her own hot iron that followed.

“Ahh, slightly disappointing that she only scored two hits before she was taken down. But I think your soldiers will be seeing more work Invictal.”

“Of course my lady, you need only ask.”

Warm lips against her forehead, then blackness.

“You’ll get another shot tomorrow young one. But for the moment, you did well.”

————-

“Congratulations: you have reached level 4 in your DRAGONBORN PRIESTESS class”

“Congratulations: you have been awarded the skills MINOR HEAL WOUND and HAMMER BLOW”

Sasha curled up into her blankets on the couch of Ms. Rithic’s shop even more than she already was, and truly slept. After all, tomorrow she needed to get up early enough to catch the caravan.

The core of a forged pulsed in a bag if had been put in. It had almost gained enough mana to fully reawaken its consciousness. Soon it could begin.

A kobold scurried around a forest, catching insects and small rodents, while avoiding the larger creatures. It looked up as it heard hoof beasts, it… vaguely remembers that sound… but the meaning is lost, beyond the fact that you shouldn’t worry much.

A second kobold had appeared this night, if on the other side of the world. It did much the same things as the other, surviving, for an idea had been given to both, and they only knew they need wait

———

Like last week, longer Tuesday chapter, shorter Friday. I’m trying to work on a backlog, but…