Asher's Futa Chronicles

Asher's sword skill is tested and ends up drawing quite an audience, which Remmi naturally takes advantage of. Old friends are reunited as we end the flashbacks.

Next week's chapter (Chapter 17) will bring us back to the present, picking up just after the events of Chapter 2.

Enjoy!

***

Chapter 16

ASHER

"Yeah! Just like that," Remmi called out to me. "Keep coming!"

I reversed my blade and brought it in from below.

Remmi parried with one blade and span into my reach, her other blade racing towards my face.

I leaned into her strike, her knife sliding off my helmet as I disengaged and returned to guard.

We'd been trading blows for a good hour now. We'd already finished our normal training routine and were now freestyling.

Sweat was stinging my eyes, but I couldn't get to it because of the damned helmet. The same helmet that had saved both my ears and one of my eyes already today. The protection was a fair trade-off, just annoying! I wish they'd included a sweatband or something in this bucket.

"No, don't pause," Remmi snapped and came at me again. The woman was relentless. Of course, she was just spinning a pair of knives while I was slinging that heavy bastard of a sword.

A slow clapping brought both of us up short.

We had staked out a small section of the training room, well away from the others. The room wasn't too busy, at least it hadn't been when we'd started. Now, though, people were filling it up.

Remmi and I both held a hand up to signal a break.

I pulled off my helm and wiped my eyes with a cloth I kept tucked into my sleeve. Had we been alone, I would have summoned a fresh towel. But we'd decided not to show that little ability off while others were around.

Dan and the two men who clung to his coattails were standing outside our practice area. Dan was the one clapping.

I couldn't read the expression on his face, but whatever it was wasn't good.

"Help you?" Remmi asked.

"That's how a Guardian fights?" Dan asked me, ignoring Remmi.

I had no idea how long they'd been watching us. From their neat appearance, they either hadn't been working out or were just play-fighting.

"We fight how we need to fight," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"I don't recognize the style," Dan said, a bit of actual curiosity finally touching his voice instead of pure disdain. He was reputed to be an advanced swordsman who'd studied at multiple expensive schools to get where he was today.

"You wouldn't," Remmi popped off.

In the two weeks since we'd returned from the temple, we'd caught Dan and his cronies watching us practice on multiple occasions. This was the first time he'd actually spoken to us, instead of just giving us the stink eye.

We still hadn't figured out why Dan had so much hostility towards us as Guardians. Nobody we talked to knew why, just that he did.

Dan glanced at Remmi and then returned to me.

"How about it?" Dan asked me.

I glanced at Remmi.

"Did I miss part of the conversation?" I asked and turned back to him. "How about what?"

"A bit of sparring," Dan said. "I've been told you're not bad with a blade. From what I've seen, your style's unorthodox and chaotic."

"So?" I replied. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"That's what I want to find out," Dan said, a smile touching his lips.

I'd seen him fight once or twice. He was as good as his reputation said. He'd been fighting for years, and it showed. I probably couldn't beat him, but crossing swords with someone other than Remmi would be good practice.

"Sure," I said with a shrug. "I'm always up for something new."

Remmi came up to me.

"You're wiped out, and he's fresh as a daisy," Remmi cautioned. "This isn't exactly going to be a fair fight."

"She does have a point," Dan said, surprising me.

I didn't know much about him aside from the few times I'd seen him in passing, plus his reputation. I figured he'd planned on taking advantage of the situation.

"How about I fight off-handed?" Dan offered, much to the amusement of his companions.

"Knock that shit off," I said, rolling my eyes. "Besides, from what I hear, you're ambidextrous." I turned to Remmi. "What's Rhi said about fair fights?"

"If you're in a fair fight, you've already lost," we said in unison.

"OK," Remmi said as she flashed me a grin. She patted me on the shoulder before stepping out of the immediate area.

"Preferred rules?" Dan asked as he took up a position across from me and drew his sword.

"Really?" I tisked and rolled my shoulders as I squared off with him.

He was wearing a heavier set of plate-style armor and wielding a longsword. It allowed some mobility while providing decent protection. But it was still clunky compared to our Guardian gear.

"Fine by me," he said as he gave his sword a few practice swings before sliding into a guarded stance, waiting for me.

I rolled my neck and checked our surroundings before slowly raising my guard.

"Ready?" Dan asked calmly, then his face suddenly screwed up, "Wait!"

As I watched, he sheathed his sword and began messing with his wrist. A moment later, he pulled off what looked like a wristwatch and handed it to one of his companions.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Oh, it's a clockwork timepiece. I just got that one and didn't want to scratch it up," Dan said. "These new ones are ridiculously expensive."

"Is it any better than a cheaper one?" I asked. "I mean, they all do the same thing, right?"

Dan shook his head and drew his sword.

"Have Guardians not heard of style?" He asked and moved into a guard stance, waiting for me.

I kept myself from frowning at the pompous ass.

"Whenever you're ready, Daniel," I said. But my use of his supposedly hated full name had no effect.

"Begin," he said with a calm voice.

"Boo!" I yelled and feinted at him, trying to provoke a flinch or something.

He didn't move.

"Worth a shot," I said with a shrug. Then I took a step forward, my foot catching my helmet. It was still lying on the ground, and in one quick motion, I launched it at him as I charged.

Dan seemed surprised, but brought his sword up with plenty of time to block my flying helmet. But in doing so, he created an opening for me to exploit.

I was on him, coming low and from the side, taking advantage of him being out of position from blocking my helmet.

But Dan was quick and opened the distance, giving him time to evade my sword and bring his in for a quick slash.

I let the armor eat the strike and brought the pommel of my sword into his neck. Normally, you'd go for a high head hit with this maneuver. But Dan was a tall guy. His neck was all I could reach from this position.

Dan wasn't expecting me to absorb his strike and had to move to avoid my pummel.

Even so, I was in close enough to graze his flesh. It wasn't really a hit, more of a touch. It was meant to annoy rather than be combat effective.

We stepped apart and regained our guards before coming at one another again.

I quickly realized this man had real talent. He was cool and calm, his strikes fluid. All the off-the-wall attempts to faze him weren't working. But he still wasn't as good as Rhi.

His style was almost like fencing back in my Bio Hab. He was used to taking turns attacking and defending. It was confusing. He was supposed to be this high-end fighter, but here he was giving me opportunity after opportunity to attack.

Granted, I was doing the same, mirroring his style to feel him out. If I wanted to get serious, I wouldn't stop attacking until he was on the ground.

We traded ineffective blows as a crowd began to gather around us. I could hear them, but couldn't see them. If I took my eyes off this man, he'd have me.

Remmi and I spent more time in the training room than anyone else I'd seen. We'd have multi-hour sessions, sometimes two or three times a day. We pushed each other every time, not taking it easy or just "going through the motions." As a result, we'd built our stamina up pretty high.

But we'd already been in here for two hours before Dan showed up. Now, the little bit of bravado energy I'd started the fight off with was nearly gone. If I didn't do something soon, I'd lose to sheer exhaustion.

"Is that all you have?" Dan asked after we'd been going for a bit. So far, everything he'd thrown had been clean and controlled strikes--textbook type shit. Plus, Dan hadn't broken a sweat.

So, of course, my brain decided to dream up an insane Hail Mary plan. I couldn't help it; I started chuckling at my own absurdity.

That act, my clown grin, finally seemed to unnerve Dan.

"What?" he asked, doubling down his guard stance.

"I know something you don't know," I said in a bad Spanish accent as my grin widened. I could practically hear Remmi's eyes rolling.

"What's that?" Dan asked, his eyes narrowing as they darted to my tell points.

"I am not left-handed," I said.

This statement rewarded me with Dan's hesitation. It was more than that. He froze and cocked his head at me with a confused look on his face.

"So? You're fighting with your right hand," Dan said in confusion.

I used his hesitation to move to position one.

Remmi saw it and sucked in a breath.

Dan's confusion grew as I moved slowly into position two. Position two wasn't an attack, but a changing of sword guard, transitioning from low to high.

*Slow is smooth, smooth is fast,* I thought as I slid forward, my sword moving in a slow arc to the third position of my blade kata. The same damned kata I'd done a hundred times every day for the last year and a half. One of Rhi's damned katas.

Dan finally unfroze, but my slow attack seemed to throw off his rhythm. He brought his sword forward to parry, but he did it quickly, as he always did. As a result, my sword didn't end up where he was expecting it to be, and boy, did that fuck with him.

Dan moved to a counter strike, and my sword slid to fifth position, blocking with ease. He started speeding up, trying to outmaneuver me, but I just kept the weird stutter cadence.

Each strike he threw, I countered in one form or fashion.

Dan seemed to relax the more times I countered, getting a feel for what I was doing. But then I began to speed up, almost returning to a normal speed.

Most fights, and fighters for that matter, have a rhythm to them. Some are faster than others, and the fast ones tend to win. The problem is, everyone is trying to be the quickest. No one practices slow work.

But Rhi does. So, we do too.

I continued through the kata, reaching its end a few moves later, then starting again.

"Wha--?" Dan was having a hard time adapting to my style. I continued to adjust my speed, slowing down rather than speeding up. Every time he tried to take advantage of what he thought I was about to do, I'd be there to block him.

I wasn't making a lot of attacks, and Dan's inability to land a blow was starting to chip away at his calm.

Meanwhile, Remmi was having to cover her mouth to hide her chuckling.

She told me later that the rest of the crowd couldn't figure out how I was blocking so slowly.

I continued the kata, switching to the second kata when I found him anticipating the next position from the first. That, in itself, was impressive. He'd practically memorized a kata I'd only done once in front of him.

When he growled in frustration, I figured I had him. But I kept on guard. He could have been faking me out like I was him right now. I had to finish the kata.

I so wanted to push my blade on the final strike. I wanted to make it flashy and quick, something that would wow the audience. You know, a spin or a flip or something. But I could feel the flat of Rhi's blade on my backside for even thinking it.

Instead, I finished it.

It was a simple maneuver, that's why it worked. No one fought like this; it was insane. But so was Rhi.

Dan froze when he felt the tip of my long knife in his armpit. The sleek metal had slid through the soft leather padding of the joint and probably drawn blood, but I couldn't see it. All I could see were the spots in my eyes as exhaustion made my vision flicker.

While my off hand held my knife in the killing stroke, my strong arm was tying up both his arms and sword in the most uncomfortable position I knew.

But it worked.

"Hmph," Dan said as we stepped apart slowly. "You had some interesting moves in there...quite..."

"Unorthodox?" I offered, trying to catch my breath.

"I was going to say dirty," Dan said, sheathing his sword with a slight flourish.

"No such thing," I countered. "A fight is a fight."

"And we do what we must to survive," Dan said quietly. "I'll remember that for next time."

Then Dan did the damnedest thing; he bowed!

"Until again, I thank you," Dan said before turning and leaving the training room, his toadies in tow.

It wasn't until then that I heard all the people around us murmuring. Glancing around, people were breaking off in clumps and comparing notes about the fight.

"Well," Remmi said as she offered me a towel, she'd secretly summoned. "That was..."

"Something?" I said, sheathing my weapons with trembling arms before wiping my drenched face with the towel.

"I was going to say profitable," Remmi said.

I paused and looked up at her.

"What?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing," Remmi said as she picked up my helmet and handed it to me.

"People were betting on us?" I asked. Thinking about it now, it seemed perfectly normal. I just hadn't had anyone put money on me before.

"Gambling is a horrible and nasty disease," Remmi said as she retrieved her own gear. "Unless you win."

I almost didn't hear the last part of her sentence over the chattering of the crowd.

"Come on," I said, groaning as I straightened up. Every part of my body was sore and already screaming at me. "I need a bath and a rub."

"I bet you do," Remmi grinned as we headed towards the door.

As we passed others, I noticed they were imitating some of the moves from the fight. They were trying to figure out how I did the final blow.

"You've gotten fast, Ash," Remmi said, nodding her head at me.

"Huh?" I asked. "I was going slow."

"It might have seemed that way to you," Remmi started. "But from an outsider's perspective, you were flying a mile a minute by the end of it. And your killing stroke, I didn't even see it. I don't think anybody did."

"I'm just glad he didn't see it," I said, stretching my shoulder from where I'd taken a few glancing blows.

"You've never been that fast with me," Remmi said.

The weird tone in her voice made me look at her. The pervy comment I was going to make died in my throat when I saw her face.

"What?" I asked.

"I dunno," Remmi said, shaking her head a moment later. "Don't mind me, I'm just worrying too much."

I wrapped my arm around her waist.

"I like it when you worry about me," I teased and grinned when she smiled.

"What am I going to do with you?" Remmi asked as we reached the doors.

"I have a few suggestions..."

***Ω***

ASHER

"OW! Not so fucking hard! What's wrong with you?"

"When did you become such a baby, Asher?" Sinjin said, focusing on a knot in my shoulder.

After our shower, Remmi had gone and found Sinjin to rub my back. She'd taken one look at me and the state I was in and "noped" right out of there, which was a good thing. In the state I was in, I'd probably hurt her.

Luckily, Sinjin was free and had been slowly killing me for the last twenty minutes.

"You know, I should create a massage chair," Sinjin said as he continued rubbing me. "I bet I could figure out how to make one."

"Just don't set it this high or you'll end up killing someone!" I complained.

"Ash," Sinjin explained. "You're back is just as ripped as your front. Getting these steel python muscles of yours to relax is testing even my strength."

"I was wondering what was poking me in the butt," I teased.

"You're hopeless," Sinjin sighed.

"How goes the daddy business?" I asked.

"About the same," Sinjin said. "We still haven't figured out anything about Patty. And it seems the little bit of fairy blood in Angela is also a complication."

"How so?" I asked.

"Fairies don't reproduce sexually," he said.

"They don't?" I asked. "That's disappointing. No wonder Tink's so pissy, OW!" I yelped as he swatted me. "Quit teasing," I whined.

"Your libido's gonna get you in trouble one of these days," Sinjin said.

I bit my lip to keep from commenting on that one. My level of hornyness seemed to be something everyone was worried about nowadays. Maybe there was something to their concerns?

"So, how do they do it?" I asked, returning to the conversation at hand.

"Faries? They use magic, don't ask." Sinjin said.

"Does that mean Angela might end up with a Cabbage Patch Kid?" I asked and was rewarded with a chuckle from Sinjin. "Hey, Sinjin?" I said, changing the subject.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Have you noticed anything...unusual about me...lately?" I asked.

"Unusual? You?" Sinjin asked. "Last I looked, your picture was in the dictionary next to the word."

"I mean it," I said.

Sinjin sobered.

"No, Ash, not that I've noticed," Sinjin said. "But I haven't been around you a whole lot lately. Kinda got my hands full, you know?"

"Spoken like a true baby daddy," I said and received tickle torture in response.

"STOP IT!" I cried out between bouts of giggles and trying to wrestle my way out from beneath his tickling fingers. When he finally stopped, I was in a pretty compromising position and thought I was about to get lucky.

Instead, Sinjin leaned down and kissed the tip of my nose.

"Gotta run, kiddo. Busy, busy," Sinjin said as he climbed off me and out of my bed.

"Seriously?" I asked, looking at him with genuine shock. "You're just gonna work me up like that and cut out on me?"

"Gotta get back to work," Sinjin said. "Raincheck?"

I just stared at him as he backed out the door and left me alone. I looked down at my naked body.

"What am I, chopped liver?" I sighed and sprawled on the bed. For a minute, I seriously considered going out and finding someone to play with. But the more I thought about it, the less the idea appealed.

"Guardian," Miranda's voice came to me just before she appeared in front of me. She wore one of her traditional tight dresses, practically falling out of it. Today's color was green.

*Hmmm,* my perverted mind started to wonder what all Miranda might be capable of doing. But before I could get very far, she interrupted my train of thought by continuing.

"Your presence is requested at the guild desk," Miranda said. "You have a dispatch."

"A dispatch?" I asked, "What's that?"

"It means there's a job that's come up that only a Guardian can handle," Miranda said.

"Has there been a breakout from the temple?" I asked and hastily started pulling on my clothes.

"Not that I'm aware of," Miranda said in the same cheery voice she always had.

I was pulling on my boots when something occurred to me.

"Miranda?" I asked.

"Yes, Guardian?"

"I thought you didn't come into our wing unless we asked for you," I said as I stood up.

"Normally, yes, that is correct," Miranda said. "But a Guardian dispatch takes priority over courtesy," Miranda apologized.

"I guess that makes sense," I said as I reached the door.

"Guardian?" Miranda asked as I had my hand on the door. "Just to answer your earlier question, I'm capable of just about anything." With that little bombshell and a mischievous grin, Miranda disappeared.

I stood there, my hand on the doorknob, as my dirty little mind began running through a plethora of scenarios. I let myself enjoy it for a moment before shaking my head and heading downstairs.

I was still lost in my own private porn fantasies when a voice called out.

"Guardian!"

Looking up, Mabel was waving at me from the guild desk.