Slave Girl 2: Chapter 84 (Patreon)

Completely taken aback by the offer, her face showing suspicion as if this might be some sort of joke being played on her, Cassie steps back.  Turning to Rosa they come together and begin to whisper.  Rosa strokes Cassie’s arm in that gentle and supportive way she had, a way I knew oh so well, as they speak.

“Back at it!”  Toke turns back to us.  “Pick up the speed.  Double up the strikes.  Left then right.  Left then right.  Attack, attack, defend, defend.  Back and forth.  Stay on your guard.  Don’t slow down.”  All of us distracted, Lucas most of all, we nonetheless return to trading punches.  I jab forward with my left which Quique ducks under then follow it up with a stiff right which is similarly avoided.  As I go back into my beginning pose Toke is suddenly alongside us.  “Stop.”  He looks at me with a hard scowl.  “You wouldn’t have hit even if he hadn’t have moved.”

“Oh.  Well, I didn’t want to actually hit him.”

“Didn’t want to…?”  Toke sighs and shakes his head.  Patting Quique’s shoulder he gets him to stand to the side then steps in to take his place.  “If you train bad technique you’ll perform bad technique when it matters.”  He pats his chest.  “Quin.  Strike.”  I step in with another left jab to have him stand there and take it.  At the very last second I pull back my power so as not to send him on his ass.  The strike thuds into his chest forcing a backward step.  I do not follow it up with a right.  He shakes his head in disapproval.  “Weak.  Slow.  Where was the second strike?”

“You didn’t move!”

“That’s my problem, not yours.  When you strike you strike to hit.  You strike to finish.  Quique knows the attack is coming and where it is coming from.  A luxury you will not get out there.  If he is hit it is his own fault.”  He looks around at the others, Cassie included.  “Ultimately each person is responsible for their own defense.  Do not count on your partner’s mercy.”  He squares up to me and I raise my hands.  “I will strike left then right.”  He says then does just that, lashing out with a left jab with a straight right following soon behind it.  The hard jab I smack to the side but the right comes in so fast I am only JUST able to duck it before it goes whistling past.  That punch would have taken my head off!  There are some oooh’s among the others from the near miss.  Toke gives me an approving nod.  “Now you.”

“Right.”  I take a breath and focus on my opponent.  Standing the way he showed us, feet where they were supposed to be for power and balance, I snap out my jab then drop my shoulder and lean into a hard right.

Knowing they were coming Toke ducks and parries then slaps my shoulder.  “Better!”  He looks around.  “Like that.”  The other pairs start back into their back and forth attack-defense with much more verve than before.  Toke looks to me and points to the edge of the square.  “Practice on your own.”  He then turns back to Quique.  “You are all wrong.  You are left handed, aren’t you?”  As our trainer starts all over from the beginning with Quique, showing him everything the same but with the opposite stance, I fade off to practice my punching and defending against an imaginary opponent.

Cassie and Rosa come to stand near.  “That sounds so intense!”  Rosa says.

“Er…yeah.  Fff!  Fff!”  I throw my two punch combo.

“I think I’m going to join.  Tomorrow.”  Cassie whispers.  “Rosa says she knows some Amazon wrappings to, erm, support things.  What do you think Quin?”

“I think Lucas will be furious.  Fff!  Fff!”

“That’s half the reason I want to do it!”

I grin as I bob around imaginary incoming attacks.  “You’re gonna take some lumps.  Fff!  Fff!”

“I can see that.  I’m not afraid of a busted lip.”

“I’m serious.  Toke won’t go easy on you.  Fff!  Fff!”

“I don’t want him to go easy on me.”  She says.  “I don’t want special treatment.  I can’t believe he even offered.”

“Yeah, he’s full of surprises.  Fff!  Fff!”  I glance their way.  “That thing you suggested Rosa.  Fff!  Fff!  He’s interested.  He’s VERY interested.  Fff!  Fff!”

Rosa smiles.  “A heart still beats inside of him.”

“Quin!”  Toke calls.

“Gotta go.”  I say.

“Go get’im Master!”  There are a few chuckles at Rosa’s chipper cheer which I just smile at, proud as a man could be to have such a woman cheering him on.

“Hey Lucas!”  Cassie calls.  When her brother turns his head to look he takes another crack to the side of his head from Gyasi.  As he rubs his sore skull his sister sticks out her tongue and says.  “Nothin.”

“You…grrrm!  Get outta here woman!”

“Okayyy.  See you tomorrow, brother.”

“Yeah.  Wait.  What do you mean?  You better not actually be thinking about…!”

“Lucas!”  Toke barks.  “We aren’t stopping.”

“But…GRR!”  Lucas shoots both Toke and his sister a dirty look and returns to his training.

With that Cassie and Rosa return to the villa as we carry on training.  In his corrected stance I find Quique to be a much trickier partner, forcing me to raise my standard so as not to be struck.  Every so often partners are switched and a new layer added to the foundation of what we already knew.  We only get one real break in the middle, where we are grateful for the refreshment the girls had brought, then afterward we switch from strikes to the basics of grappling.

We soon discover that the physical demands of grappling had made the earlier striking seem like a light warm up by comparison.  With wrestling we could go all out, at full power, all the time.  It was EXHAUSTING!  My natural advantages give me no extra respite as Toke balances those by making it so that I never just wrestled one man to a pin but always three in a row.  The moment I would pin or toss an opponent Toke would send the next in to carry on the battle without even a second for me to catch a breath.  As the gloom of late evening was setting in I still had not been defeated by anybody but Toke but by the gods every fiber and sinew in my body had been wrung dry of strength and vitality.

When Toke calls for an end all of us are spent, our battered flesh steaming with sweat in the cool evening air.  Gyasi and Julian lay on the platform staring up at the dancing nymphs high above as they tried to muster the strength to get to their feet.  Oeneus and Quique stand side by side, hands on knees and gulping for air.  And Lucas knelt  in the center with his eyes closed whispering a prayer to Mars.  As for myself I stand with my hands on my hips taking long, deep breaths.  It was only sheer dumb pride that kept me on my feet.

“That was excellent.  Excellent!”  Toke says.  “Today I saw not Romans or Hispanians or Africans, but warriors.  Brothers in sweat and pain.  Be proud!”

“Proud…yeah…whooooo!”  Julian holds up a thumbs up.  His arm then flops back down to his side.  “Gods have mercy.”

I take up my clothes and the water jug, my only thought on getting home and into bed.  “I’ll see you all in the morning.”  I say with a wave.  “When we’ll start this all over again.”

A chorus of suffering groans rise from the men.  Toke begins helping them to their feet one by one.  “Fear not Master Quintus.  We’ll be ready for the fields at first light.”

I sigh.  He’d been calling me Quin all through night but I had just stepped off the platform and back into the real world of masters and slaves.  I was far too tired to make an issue of it now, not that it would have done any good if I wasn’t.  I say good night, point my nose for home, and haul my weary carcass home.

Chapter 85