trans_9 | In Which Zetta Trains an Apprentice [[Closed]]

"Training, levelling, and the right weapon! Because you've already got the attitude!"

Zetta grinned quite broadly and sincerely. Despite all sanity and better judgment in the world, he liked this girl.

One of the minions stepped forward, offering up a pair of fingerless black-leather gloves with a metal ring around the wrists. "See what you think," the book said.

Ruffnut took them silently setting her spear and shield down and tugging the gloves on gripping a few times. They felt good, fit like they had been made just for her, or maybe that was her imagination.

Imagining her brother in front of her for a minute she took a few experimental swings. "Not bad." She remarked trying to contain her excitement. One on one training wasn't something they did back home. You either learned from your parents or you didn't learn at all till you were old enough to go into dragon training.

Zetta had spent a reasonable amount of effort grinding up those gloves. Nothing super, mind, but for starting equipment they had pretty darn good attack and hit stats. And he's quite pleased she likes them.

"All right... let's see if you've got the feel for them."

One of the random minions abruptly scooped up a large brick from the ground and pitched it into what really amounted to a void behind the stone platform they stood on. A connected area about the same size appeared literally out of nowhere -- lush green hills that might have been almost tranquil, if not for the two four-foot-tall patchwork penguins with tiny bat wings and double peg-legs that stood in it, bouncing merrily to pass the time.

"Prinnies are pretty lightweight opponents," Zetta said from his higher platform. "I wouldn't recommend throwing 'em, though. Just punch the crap out of 'em and we'll take it from there."

"The heck?" Was Ruffnut's only response as she gave the monsters a sideways glance. Even her giant chicken construct was scarier then these things.

Well no sense in letting good punching bags go to waste, "I don't make a habit of beating up weaklings." She added before throwing the first punch.

Sure she used to pick on hiccup, but teasing and taunting and mocking and beating up were two completely different things in her mind.

The results were quite gratifying: the punched Prinny let out a feeble "Dood!" and vanished.

But to be fair, it wasn't THAT weak of an opponent. Weaker than the chicken, perhaps, but Ruffnut had actually hit this one.

However, the second Prinny charged with a war cry of, "Prinny, dood!", two knives yanked out of its belt pouch. Ruffnut was only human, so Zetta had imagined these guys up with reasonably blunt weapons, but even a pair of dull-edged knives could hurt in a flurry. The safety was off, after all. Light combat this might be -- but it was real. How else could she gain strength and mana power?

Ruffnut was startled by the sudden action by her second opponent and dodged out of the way of his knives. "Give me that!" She demanded and slapped one of the knives out of his erm...hand?

Either way she seized the blunt blade and tossed it aside slapping him hard across the beak as if coming at her was an insult before following through with an uppercut.

The Prinny had only a moment to yell, "Ow, dood!" as it flew backwards before it vanished. A new platform of land erupted out of the ether. This one had corn men armed with ominous looking swords. Yes, really.

Zetta, carried by his minion to not far behind her, let out a low whistle. "Nice. These corn people are tougher, by the way. If you get hurt, pull back and the healer'll fix you up. Otherwise: trial by fire. You keep cutting through 'em, they'll keep coming! We'll see what some Zetta-training does for you! Hyaaa ha ha ha ha!"

Ruffnut cocked an eyebrow in disbelief. Cornmen? Really? And she thought the penguin pirate stitch doll things were weird. But it seemed this was going to be par for the coarse so she might as well get used to it.

She scooped up the knife she'd discarded earlier and flung it at the cornmen to distract them while she rushed in screaming like the viking she wanted to be. They easily dispatched the blunt knife in time to meet her head on.

Yeah, demon opponents could be weeeird.

The lefthand one shot forward in a line, sword slashing in a move that could cut down two or three men if they were foolish enough to stand in a row (and the sword were of somewhat higher quality. The righthand one moved forward more cautiously for a simple slash.

From behind, Zetta watched with interest -- but no real doubt as to the outcome. Even in a short time of knowing her, he'd lay money on Ruff fighting to their destruction, or her own. What she would do if she were injured, or defeated, though... that, he wondered about.

He'd find out soon. While Ruffnut was quick enough to dodge on the left the right one's blade slid through her light armor and left a deep cut in her side making her scream out in pain. Her eyes blazed and she whirled on the right hand man swinging for the fences converting her pain into anger.

These corn were built for offense, not defense. The struck one went down, disappearing just as the Prinnies had, though the remaining one took another swipe.

Zetta kept watching, creeping closer in the hands of his minion, the other loyal mook close at hand.

The second slash found it's mark cutting along Ruffnut's back. This slice was thankfully not as deep and not close enough to her spine to do more then cause her some serious pain.

But as demonstrated before Ruffnut thrived on the pain and swung around fists machine gunning into her next opponent in a blur.

Two opponents down! The next chunk of terrain appeared in a burst of sound, three opponents manning it. These looked human -- one a burly man, one a begowned girl holding a bow, and a third -- farther back -- a miniskirted girl that appeared obsessed with the color red.

An observant Viking might notice they looked almost identical to some of Zetta's minions.

The Overlord tensed in preparation -- the sensorium was still under his control, after all, and if Ruffnut continued on in the throes of berserk rage he'd seal off boundaries until she could get healing.

But he wanted to see what she would do.

She didn't even stop to think about who she was up against. Observant wasn't usually a word one would associate with her.

She went for the burly man first rushing in low as drops of her blood left a trail on the ground. Thankfully she at least had enough state of mind to keep an eye on his hands so she could dodge when and if he tried to stop her from reaching his head.

That's when mesh netting popped up between Ruffnut and the new opponents, separating the two platforms, old and new.

"Whoa, whoa! Easy there, soldier!" Zetta chuckled as the minions brought him forward. "You get killed and you're no good to anyone. You're not part of my Netherworld, so I can't protect you or revive you."

He'd expected just this, so he wasn't disappointed. He was pretty pleased, all things considered. "Still, you seem to be getting along with those gloves pretty well. That was brutal."

Ruffnut clawed at the mesh for a moment as her mind registered what had happened. The fight was over. It took another minute for her brain to catch up to the rest of her and she slumped to the floor wincing, "Ow." Was all she could respond with as she peered at her wounds curiously. They would make fine scars...assuming they didn't bleed out and kill her.

Speaking of which she was getting a little dizzy. She smiled and looked at the gloves, "I like em!" She added.

"Yeah, I got that impression," Zetta said.

Next to him, the minion not carrying the book raised a staff to the sky with a cry. Healing magic poured out around the Viking girl, to knit wounds and restore strength. Zetta watched the process and the status screens.

"Now, how do you feel?"

Ruffnut gave a shiver as the healing magic did it's work and looked in awe as her wounds healed almost instantly. They even left the cool scars!!!

"That. Is. AWESOME!" She cheered and sprang to her feet again, "I feel great!" She added and threw a few more clumsy punches.

"Hyaaa ha ha ha ha! Never say the Overlord doesn't do well by his minions!"

With a moment's mental exertion, Zetta dropped the barrier between the pair of them and the new opponents dropped once again, leaving her path clear.

"I can make them as long as you can fight them," Zetta said with a dark, feral grin. "And yeah. That's a challenge. Can't stand these damn sensoriums most of the time... but for this? They're pretty badass."

He kind of pitied her brother, when they met up again.

Ruffnut didn't even hesitate she let our an equally feral roar and lunged back into the fray. She was starting to enjoy this level grinding business.

Zetta hadn't lied. In his millennia of experience he'd come across countless creatures, weird or usual. In fact, he rather quite enjoyed the challenge, like a sadistic dungeon master perpetually pitting a lone PC against odds that were almost-but-not-quite too much for her. Over time, his skill in judging this increased -- he erred on the side of caution as he spawned creatures, rather than risk his apprentice. But even as the odds became more even, so too her strength must increase as well...

Out of respect, he didn't pit her against dragons.

And don't think those encounters were nothing but mindless fight-fests! (Uh, even though they might seem that way to her...) Countless centuries of battle had taught Zetta a thing or two about tactics, and now he layered these fights to pass that learning on. Things like, "punch the mage first, they hit hard but are weak!" and so forth.

Zetta had named her an apprentice. He hadn't done that lightly, and it wasn't an empty title. He'd see to it that she learned.

Ruffnut was absorbing his advice somehow through the red mist haze of battle. It was far too easy (And fun) to cut loose, throw caution to the winds and never hold back on her hits.

By the time she finally collapsed her seemingly boundless energy spent she had earned herself some new scars along with a few levels in hand to hand combat experience that she otherwise never would have picked up just brawling with her brother. Despite the healings everything ached and throbbed. She wasn't even sure she could unclench her fist at the moment her knuckles felt swollen and bruised.

"Just...need a...minute." She panted sweating on the ground her hair fanned out behind her. Somewhere along the way her braid had come undone. She looked like a wild beast more then a viking girl.

Zetta looked down on the girl from his vantage point in his minion's hand, a confident smile of pure pleasure on the book.

"That's enough for today. I push you any harder and you're gonna end up in Medbay for punch-exhaustion. You need food and rest."

The book made a convulsive movement that nearly pitched it out of his minion's grip. A look of shock quickly turned to grumpy indignation as he pretended very hard that nothing had happened. He'd forgotten he didn't have a hand to help her to her feet with.

Ruffnut didn't notice in fact she was content to lay there breathing deep and heavy as she caught her breath. Everything ached but that was the sign of a good workout.

"Hiccup and Astrid are gonna be so impressed! That'll teach them to leave me behind next time they go on a cool mission and nearly die."

"Stick to the 'nearly' dying," Zetta returned. "An apprentice of mine is not allowed to disgrace me by dying! Here or anywhere! Anyway, catch your breath. Then, if you have any questions..."

Zetta's minion took a step back to give her some space to breath, and eventually stand. After a moment, Zetta added, quite sincerely, "You did good."

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Had ONE other person at my office done some work, this woulda been up two hours ago

Curse them! Curse them all!

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We can stop here or cut ahead to when she's exhausted, up to you~

Cutting ahead! These two are too fun to stop so soon. :D

BWahaha...too bad I have to nap soon. But I'll tag when I can

I wait with bated breath!

Like a bolt from the blue...

...It's time for the Reaper Review!