Chapter 171 (1/2)

Helen stood over the small stream, looking at her body’s reflection in the clear water. Always, her mother had pushed her into taking care of herself, encouraging her to exercise in order to sculpt herself in certain ways, push her chest up, her hips out. Use oils and stretches to make her skin soft, her body supple.

There were certain tangible benefits to her spear usage due to her mother’s influence, specifically her 3 movements that someone who hadn’t take such care of their body couldn’t hope to mirror. But as Helen slowly realized what was happening that she was fattening like a pig in the more feminine areas, she grew to resent her life, her mother, and what she saw as the path her family wanted for her. Still, she couldn’t work up the nerve to directly contradict them, so she slowly subverted their efforts.

She would not be a plump wife that was kept at home.

So she had gone above and beyond her mother’s training regimen, until her body was almost impossibly elastic and strong. Helen never had the pure strength to rival some of the other spear users, especially those from the family she served, but there was a grace and control that she had over her body that allowed her to hold her own. She even attracted the attention of a traveling Adept, who gave her some pointers on the training movements she used. From that, she was able to create an Uncommon Rarity Skillset that was all her own.

Helen wasn’t sure whether the interest was actually due to her skill with a spear or the lewd way that old man had watched her practice, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. In this case, the skill set was worth some of the shit she had to sift through to get there.

Although it annoyed her parents, her success was such that she would not be just the wife of a leatherworker. But then her mother had begun to set her sights higher. On the family of spear users that they served. There were even several lesser disciples that had been interested. To buy herself time, Helen had asked for the chance to enter the local qualifier, to test her skill. Her parents had assented, reluctantly, worried but tempted by the possibilities for marriage that a high finish would bring their family.

So Helen had traveled to Qtal, quite far from her home, and the rest, was history.

Now she stood there, looking at her reflection in the water, her hands tracing the faint bruises on her shoulders and hips from the Ghousthound last night. The fucking fool didn’t know his own strength. But she had invested enough in Endurance that it hadn’t actually hurt, really. It was cute, in a way, how wild he had been. How out of control and vicious.

Her reflection had a smile on its face. She didn’t hate that about him.

“Why do you smile, desert flower?”

Helen cleanly turned around, punched Teliph in the gut, watched as his expression twisted into shock and he doubled over, and then sauntered away.

****

Randidly found Shal sitting around a small fire, meditating. His master did not look up when he arrived, so Randidly sat down and began to meditate as well. Ever since he woke up, he felt wonderfully refreshed, and he wanted to hold onto this feeling for a while. So he didn’t supplement the meditation with Root Control, but just sat there, allowing the energy within him to slowly gather. At the same time as he meditated, Randidly revelled in the warm energies flowing up into him from the ground beneath him. In that moment, he truly felt in tune with the natural world.

The silence between them lasted a while, until Shal slowly opened his eyes. “You… have overcome your fear? No… at the very least turned to face it. Heh. You are a much quicker learner than I was.”

Almost sighing, Randidly nodded. It would be hard for him to come to terms with the killing. But it was both something that was sometimes necessary, and something that he would prefer not to do, especially if it was just for power. Even though without that power, he and the people he cared about might also die. But the logic could not find an answer. There wasn’t an answer. He would need to face every situation as they came, and find his answer.

And of that, Randidly was not a afraid.

“But, before you fight with the name of the Spear Phantom Style… you must answer. What is the value of a life?” Shal’s tone remained low and harsh, and his eyes seemed to bore into Randidly.

Randidly took a breath, and then thought for several seconds about it. Then he said, “A life… is worthy of respect. My own life is invaluable to me, as every life is to the person it belongs to. To take it away… is a grave disservice, and a heavy burden, and-”

“Haha! Enough.” Shal said, shaking his head. “You are foolish, but at least you understand it is much more than you can handle to bear the weight of another’s life. No need to bore me to sleep with platitudes. We leave in an hour. Prepare.”

And just like that, it was over, with Shal turning away and going to speak with the woman Artisan who came out of the prison and Marco. After some discussion, it seemed the woman was ready to go her own way, and bowed to both Shal and Randidly before leaving.