Valkyrie Black

Chapter 23: Morgessa's Darker Trainings

Val saw a hulk of a man bound and gagged on the ground, Morgessa’s familiar features standing over him. The lady was a beast in her own right. She towered over the other women in the fortress. Her brown hair was hidden in the dark of this room, but Val imagined it was likely braided back in its customary tight weaves down her back.

“Hurry up you two. The soon-to-be dead don’t have all day. Now, as we have been practicing, your goal is no blood. In some missions, blood is good, in others you need to get out unscathed and unseen. That is best if you are not covered in blood.”

“Will he be bound?” Alexa asked hesitantly, eyeing the large man.

Morgessa’s teeth shone as she smiled, “Now why would I give you such an easy mission? You have both passed basic competencies. I am sure if you found a bound and gagged man you would have no issue. No, this one is special.”

Val frowned before asking the obvious question, “His crimes?”

Morgessa’s face soured, “This trash is convicted by the 9 courts for no less than twenty-seven rapes,  five confirmed murders and six more suspected.” Without wasting any more time Mistress Morgessa tossed a small dagger at the man. “Get up. I know you have been listening. I am sure the drugs have worn off.”

There was a grunt, and the man easily snapped the cords that had bound his hands behind his back. He quickly threw off the blindfold and pulled the gag out of his mouth.

“After that little speech about my deeds I am surprised you would lock me in a room with two young girls. I have to wonder what they did to incite your ire woman. Though I prefer a bit more light when I make my women beg, I suppose my hands will find out what they have to offer easily enough.”

The hulk of a man stood and Val gulped. This beast had to be nearly seven feet tall! She knew that she and Alexa could likely kill the beast, but with him no longer bound, doing so without blood would be a challenge indeed. Not to mention he had a blade of his own.

Val looked at Alexa, and saw her features contort with rage. This was one of those brutes Alexa would gladly kill, and never think twice about ending his existence. A dark reaper in her own right, Val felt Alexa’s desire for this kill.

“Little bird, screaming eagle?” Val asked. She only needed a small nod from Alexa before she darted off to the side on silent feet. Alexa was not blessed to be joined with a spark, at least not yet, but after years of training with the Order and nearly five years working side by side with Val, she had gained her own sense of fighting in the dark, and could use it to her advantage.

Right now, she was bait. Split the attention of this brute and let him focus on her, the bird with the broken wing. In the meantime, Val would circle him and try to launch her left onto his shoulders. From there his vulnerable spots could be exposed.

“Time begins now,” Morgessa called.

SHIT! That crocheted bat was keeping track of how long it takes us. Val knew she would hold it over them if they spend too long engaging him.

“City guards are on their next patrol in five minutes.”

Great. An additional challenge.

Val tapped a new tattoo on her arm. The rune blade her mother had left her materialized in her hand. This was one of the skills Morgessa had taught her. An advanced skill for Spark blessed was the ability to store a rune blade as energy. The tattoo was not needed per se, it merely represented an inventory. Desmond had been impressed last time he had seen her.

She felt a sense of pride with herself untill he displayed his own arm, and she realized he had collected and integrated MANY runed weapons.

“Come out, come out, little girlies. I want to feel that nice flesh of yours in my hands. I promise, you might actually enjoy this before the end. I am sure all the girls were screaming out in pleasure. I guess I was just a bit too much man for them,” He chuckled at his own words before swiping a large paw of a hand at Alexa.

“You will have to be faster than that,” Alexa cooed, scampering to the wall where she knew there would be weapons. To her horror, there were none. All of the racks were empty.

“Improvise if you didn’t bring equipment.” Called Morgessa.

Val watched the scene from the edge, crouched low so her silhouette would not show against the blue vein in the wall. The hulk started a lumbering charge at Alexa. Val grinned when she saw Alexa reach behind her and whip out an extendable baton.

Good girl, Val thought.

Morgessa’s admonishment would have set the brute on the advance and not alerted him to the actual weapons Alexa always had on her. a baton would be a good one to try to disable him with. As she watched, Alexa dove low in a roll, smashing the baton against the brute’s kneecaps. What she didn’t expect was the cry of pain from Alexa as the baton rebounded hard, twisting out of her grip. Alexa quickly disengaged and backed away, clutching her wrist.

“Val, he has some sort of metal armor on.”

Valkyrie looked again at the figured and realized what she thought had been leather clothes blocking his heat was actually metal deflecting her vision. SHIT.

“Disarm, then disable.”

“Easy to say, Val, but …” the worry in her voice scared Val more than anything. This was a practical practice. Their master was here. And yet, it looked like Morgessa was willing to push them beyond their limits to see what they were capable of. Unless… was the brute onto something? Had they incited Morgessa’s ire enough for her to subject them to more than their own match?

“There is only what a person CAN do, and what they cannot do. All else is someone else’s set of rules,” Morgessa called. It was an old refrain. Don’t get stuck in thinking the limitations others set are the only answers. There are always other methods.

Val tapped Alexa on the arm and then used her palm to sign a few signals to her. She could see Alexa’s grin as she nodded. She withdrew a small shatter vile from a pocket. These were not cheap, but they were not hard to come by at the weapons master’s store. Val circled back around and was in the giant’s blind spot when she shut her eyes tight, she kicked the wall behind her, setting off a small sound to alert Alexa.

Alexa ran toward the brute, letting out a loud bellow as she charged him. Before he could sweep her into a bear hug, she hurtled the shatter vile into his face. The resulting explosion was as if a small sun had appeared in the dark room. EVERYTHING flashed for a second, fully illuminated.

As soon as the flash subsided, Val opened her eyes again and ran at the man, leaping on his back as he flailed holding his eyes where hot powder undoubtedly still burned.

Val slapped his ears hard with her palms as Alexa rammed both fists up into the giant’s balls. The man’s eyes crossed as he held himself for a moment.

Val contemplated killing him then and there with her blade but hesitated, wanting to complete the challenge. Her hesitation cost Alexa as he recovered enough to grab Alexa and sling her across the room where she smashed into the wall.

Val used the pommel of her blade and slammed it hard into the man’s temple. He grunted, falling to one knee. Val called to Alexa, “You good?”

“No, but let's finish.”

Val stayed atop the man’s back as Alexa pushed herself back to her feet and started dragging an empty weapons rack over to the man. Just as he was trying to push back to his feet and reach for Val, who was perched on his back, Val slammed the pummel into his left temple this time.

 “Perhaps you have a soft spot over - HERE.”

The man collapsed, his head smashing Alexa on the shoulder, dropping her to the ground. “Hells fire, Val! That hurt! I think he broke my freakin’ collarbone.”

“Sorry,” Val said sympathetically. She would never intentionally hurt Alexa and it pained her now to realize she had miss judged this situation so badly. The man lay at their feet unconscious.

Val lifted his head while Alexa used her good arm to drag the rack under his head. Val rested his head so it was a good foot off the ground, with the rack creating a nice space to the flood.

She grimaced as she held the top brace of the rack for balance and slammed her foot down on his neck. Nothing happened.

“Shit, this is one tough dude.” She then stood on his neck, holding the top of the rack for support and jumped. This time the neck cracked and the body lay against the base of the rack at an odd angle.

“Unorthodox, but effective,” came Morgessa’s booming voice. It rang off the walls in the quiet stone room. “Though, next time you might try to not injure your partner. Can you heal her, or do you need to take her to see the menders?”

Val considered Alexa. Most did not know of or understand the healing power of Sparks, and even those who did know of them rarely understood their limitations.

“May I?” Val asked.

Alexa nodded her assent and Val reached out to touch the girl’s collarbone.

“Snapped for sure.” Val extended one of her tiny runed throwing knives and cut a small line across Alexa’s collar bone. Alexa hissed in pain, but did her best to hold still as Val worked.

Valkyrie then cut her own palm and set it over the cut on Alexa’s bone. Tiny metallic tendrils shot out of the cut on Val’s palm and began mending the broken bone as if it was her own. The process took several minutes.

As Val understood it, her spark had permeated her body by this point in her life. There were tendrils in every major part of her that could act in a second to mend her own body. However, to heal another, there had to be a direct connection and the tendril had to extend to a new area that it had never been before.

Being that Val and Alexa were similar in height and build, and both human with similar body makeup, the Spark could repair Alexa almost as if her body was an extension of Val’s.

However, Val had learned last time that the power drain to do so was immense. It often took twice as much Scath plasma to heal another than to heal herself. She guessed this had to do with the fact the spark knew her body well and was always in the process of healing something.

Alexa squirmed under Val’s grip but finally, the tendrils retreated, leaving nothing but pink new skin. Val looked into her friend’s sea-blue eyes, “Sorry about that.”

“Let’s just try to make sure it’s not a regular occurrence.”

Mistress Morgessa tsked from the side, “It best not be a regular occurrence. Valkyrie is unlikely to have Scath plasma to spare all the time and one of these days you will hurt Alexa beyond what you can repair."

"It's one thing when we have the blessing of Desmond and a few of the other hunters returning with regular shipments of their bounty, but when you have to get it yourself, it will be far more precious. As it stands, I believe Val already owes the quartermaster no less than ten units of Scath plasma. On our next hunting trip, you will have your work cut out for you.

Val bowed respectfully to Mistress Morgessa. “I will be sure to repay that debt as soon as I can.”

Morgessa waved her hand dismissively, “Dismissed. I will call when I have more training for you.”

Val and Alexa made their way back through the secret entrance when Alexa said, “I thought you had plenty of dret. Are the scorpions not producing?”

“I can only get to them during the summer. I have the drets, but Lorenzo wants me to replace every Plasma I take with two. He doesn’t mind selling to me, but says I use more than the whole fortress combined. He has quotas for other buyers from Suria to meet.”

“I see. We will find Cade and go hunting soon. I promise we can work together to get you caught back up. Besides we always find more when we work as a team,” Alexa offered.