[TWS] Chapter 311 – Every Blade Requires Sharpening (Patreon)

“Haaaaaaap!”

The noise of metal clashing against metal echoed through the air as Miria’s combined blades scraped against the flat surface of Ast’s greatsword. With a quick, graceful spin, she broke the connection linking the pommels together and slashed at her beloved master with a rain of fierce strikes in quick succession. They were all properly blocked, pinging off his own weapon, and she jumped back, starting to run in circles around him.

“Against agile opponents, you need to keep being constantly on the move, Master,” the panthergirl advised him. “That way, you can not only retain them in front of you but also limit their chances of taking you by surprise from an awkward angle.”

Asterios followed her guidance and broke into a run too, chasing after his feline mate. They ran in circles, keeping an eye on each other. Just as she’d said, the ways they could engage each other became quite limited and most attempts would be plain obvious to the opponent. Thanks to his improved physique, he had no real trouble matching Miria’s pace without growing tired.

Finally, she halted her sprint, rushed in the opposite direction, and then charged straight at him right after he matched the first movement. The sudden feint was quick, but Asterios blocked the sly attack just in time, taking Miria’s thrust onto the length of his blade. As she flew past him with the force of her jab, he wasted no time in counterattacking and dashed after her, swinging his own weapon in a wide, horizontal cut.

Miria’s ears twitched and she skilfully somersaulted above the blade, propelling herself even higher by stepping on its surface, which altered its trajectory just enough to force Ast’s greatsword into the sandy ground. She aimed an upside-down spinning attack at his neck while his posture was broken, but Asterios went along with the little kick she’d given his sword and was already using that force to launch it into a diagonal upwards cut, twisting his body and arms accordingly.

A pained yelp escaped Miria’s lips as his much heavier blade met her lighter shortswords and sent her hurtling back through the air. After a few flips to regain balance and her bearings, she landed back on the ground with a short skid backward. But, before she could get on the move once more, Ast’s greatsword was already coming for her from above.

She rolled to the side, then hopped over the horizontal follow-up attack, again kicking it into the ground. Landing right on top of the sizable blade, she pushed herself forward with a growl, running up the metal slope like a raised board. Unfortunately, Asterios predicted that and switched its angle, causing her to slip and barely avoid cutting herself over the sharp edge.

But, before he could swing the flat side to clobber her, his senses tingled dangerously and he tilted his head to the side, pulling the hilt closer to his neck instead. Something grazed his cheek, leaving a shallow, stinging line in it, and pinged off the edge of the pommel, revealing itself as a long, slightly curved blade. A soft chuckle tickled his ear as he jumped away to put some distance between himself and his sneaky attacker, finding Selene standing next to the rising Miria. It looked like the fox lady was finally going to join the fight.

His two mates shared a nod and bolted in opposite directions. Miria completed her bloodline transformation in a flash while Selene brought out all ten of her cloudy tails. He followed their lead and covered a decent chunk of his skin with tough crimson scales, materializing his horns and tail too. Asterios did his best to forgo the wings. They would only give the girls more opportunities to strike him and he wouldn’t always be able to rely on them anyway.

It was a tough battle in his mind as the urge to let them out continuously itched somewhere in the back of his head, but this was also meant to be part of the training. The girls had stressed that he should spend some more time learning how to use his new blade and weapons of similar size in general. Now that he’d gained both impressive toughness and the ability to regenerate even major wounds, he could more comfortably join the front lines without fully shifting into his True Dragon form.

While Asterios had some guidance and practice with swords in the past, they all knew—including him—that it was only enough to go by in a dangerous situation that could surprise him during the use of his Summoner techniques. But, he no longer was as weak and inefficient in direct confrontations, so it would be best to extend his practice into something more. While he had strength and instincts, the finesse and technique were still lacking.

And that was how the two most proficient blade users amongst his mates had decided to teach him more. Through live practice, of course. Miria wasn’t great at explaining the things she’d learned from her brethren over the span of her not-that-long life, but she could easily display it and spot the important points in the heat of the moment. Selene was a bit better with her words, but the fox lady believed more in self-discovery with just a hint of guidance like most of her people did.

Until they found him an actual master of the blade, that kind of mentoring would have to do. Not to mention that he was soon going to gain another mentor, whose efforts would be focused on his more spiritual and draconic capabilities.

If everything would go the way they were expecting it to go, of course. Nothing was yet set in stone.

It was about five days since Althea, their emerald Lesser Dragon friend, had risen from her bed after receiving help from Bryn and Selene. She’d still been utterly drained so they rescheduled their discussion regarding that topic for a bit later, when she would fully recover. No one had any issues with that as there had been and still was a lot to do around the entire operation of eliminating the evil poison cult and its aftermath.

So, Asterios and his small family had some spare time on their hands to entertain themselves whenever they weren’t actively helping Queen Civienne and their other friends deal with everything on the elves’ end.

As Miria and Selene began circling him while sprinting in opposite directions, Asterios didn’t have that many options to keep them both in his sight, so he opted to follow the same strategy his feline mate had pointed out a moment earlier. He chose her as his main target and rushed at the panthergirl, trying to break their formation a little bit.

With Asterios now coming after her, Miria couldn’t simply continue to run around and her movements became much more erratic as she parried his powerful strikes on the move. The blows kept arriving from angles that forced her to evade in Selene’s direction, putting her between him and the fox lady, effectively lining them up in front of his eyes. She smiled at her master and his unspoken challenge, enjoying their little spar greatly.

They danced through the spacious arena while slashing at each other, Asterios continuing his pursuit of the agile panthergirl while her vulpine partner chased right after them, looking for a decent opportunity to strike. Just for this fight, they didn’t communicate mentally, but they also didn’t exactly need it to cooperate rather well. There were signs and hints their beastfolk bodies could give to each other that served a similar purpose.

And with just a few of those, Selene knew exactly what Miria intended, stepping closer to the dueling pair. Just as the panthergirl visibly struggled to avoid Ast’s mighty thrust, barely blocking it with both of her shortswords, the fox lady positioned herself right behind her. When Miria revealed that it was all an act and twirled to the side, Asterios had only a fraction of a second to react to the incoming tip of Selene’s great katana, heading right for his heart.

Watching the cunning smirk on her beautiful lips, he managed to twist his body before he got skewered. The sharp edge of her blade still sliced through his attire and tore through the surface of his scales, clearly enhanced with spiritual energy. Swinging his greatsword to deter his assailant, Asterios stepped back and readjusted his stance, facing off both of the ladies.

“It’s always so incredible just to look at,” Miria commented, matching him with her own pose.

“I barely slashed you and all the evidence is almost fully gone already,” Selene agreed with an amused smile. “This is some serious self-regeneration power.”

“Yeah.” He nodded, taking a peek at the cut in his spiritual attire, allowing it to restore only now that they had all witnessed the speed of his healing, courtesy of their newest friend, Tia. “And it barely consumes any energy. At least wounds of this level.”

~I assure you that it gets much more taxing with more serious organs than just some flesh and skin.~ The Dryad giggled in their minds. ~And unpleasant. Have you ever had your own heart regenerate itself on you? Not that I had since my physical manifestation lacks such elements, but I heard it’s unbelievably unsettling.~

“Master can now survive without a heart?” Miria gasped in pleasant shock.

~Well, that depends on how fast he receives help, but yes, that would be possible,~ Tia replied with a thoughtful tone. ~His body is still new to my healing abilities so he would have to focus his everything on channeling that regenerative power into this single task immediately. But, he would be able to hold on long enough for your winged sister-mate to aid him.~

“And what about the future? After my Lord gets some experience with it?” Selene pondered out loud.

~I can’t be too sure. He seems to know a good deal about his humanoid anatomy so that’s a plus. He could possibly be able to reform his heart on his own within an hour or so. Definitely would last a while for help to arrive, though. The lack of blood or bleeding to death wouldn’t be that much of a problem. Especially with his draconic physique,~ the Dryad answered.

“Still, that’s quite amazing,” Asterios added. “How can I get more proficient with this?”

Another, slightly more mischievous giggle tickled their minds, perhaps even tinged with a hint of mirth. ~By experiencing more wounds and injuries, of course.~

Miria and Selene grinned at him and a faint shiver ran down Ast’s spine. Without a single word of warning, his two beloved mates launched themselves at him like a pair of sadistic predators at some poor prey waiting to be mauled and toyed with.

What followed next was pure carnage.

For about fifteen minutes, they tested the limits of Ast’s regeneration, dancing around their master in perfect sync and peppering him with an endless flow of blows. Naturally, he did his best to block, parry, evade, and even counter many of them, using it as great training for difficult situations, but the state of his aura-made clothing only deteriorated due to plenty of his subconscious focus being redirected into healing.

Miria and Selene admired the quick work of Tia’s powers as no matter how much they wounded Asterios, no trace of his injuries was left on his scales or exposed skin moments after their blades lost contact with their surface. They managed to score a few deeper cuts and punctures, which recovered in a matter of seconds. It wasn’t like they avoided inflicting more serious injuries on him and it was mostly thanks to Ast’s own efforts at fighting back that repelled a good amount of their attempts.

Perhaps it would have been different if he was allowed to use more than just his own swordsmanship skills and enhanced draconic physique and senses, but that wasn’t the point of their entertaining sparring session.

“Alright. I think this is enough.” Asterios waved his hand at them, taking a step back.

Miria halted her upcoming attack and skittered to a stop right next to him with a cute pout. “But we were having so much fun, Master.”

He chuckled while shaking his head. “A few minutes longer and I would be more undressed than dressed.”

The panthergirl giggled with a delicate blush adorning her soft cheeks, taking in the state of his attire. Or the lack of it in many areas.

“Oftentimes, we have no choice but to continue fighting no matter the circumstances,” Selene commented with a teasing smirk. “A warrior’s mind needs to be able to remain calm and focused at all times.”

“You two just wanted to strip Ast naked with your blades. Don’t think we haven’t noticed.” Another voice joined them and they turned their heads to see Tina coming closer with some refreshments, followed shortly by Silvia. “Seriously. I thought it was supposed to be easier on you after finding a mate, wasn’t it?”

Miria’s blush deepened as she glanced away from them while Selene’s grin turned much more impish.

The red-haired princess placed a hand on her noble friend’s shoulder. “Can you really blame them for wanting to appreciate the fine look of the mate they had found?”

Tina’s gaze caught a few peeks of Ast’s well-toned stomach and chest before the gaps mended themselves and she let out a delicate sigh.

“Maybe you are right.” She looked up at him with a tiny smile. “Some water?”

Rather than the offered glass, Asterios picked up the entire jug from the wooden tray and downed its cold contents in one go, returning it to his Summoner girlfriend with a loving peck on the cheek.

“Thanks. Appreciate it.” He smiled back at her.

She rolled her eyes at him but the little grin didn’t leave her lips as she refilled the transparent container with her magic. Miria immediately copied him and emptied the jug in a similar fashion, finishing with a quick peck on Tina’s other cheek while giggling to herself happily. Thankfully, Selene spared the blue-haired girl from another repeat and gracefully sipped on the chilled water from one of the three glasses.

“You have quite impeccable timing.” Silvia broke the slightly awkward silence that filled the air. “Umbra was just letting us know that Althea would like to meet.”

“Really?” Miria perked up at that.

~Indeed,~ the shadow in question joined in. ~Your draconic friend asked me to let you know that you may visit her in her lair whenever you find some spare time in your current schedule. She’s currently present at her little cottage.~

“Well, I don’t think we have anything else to do at this very moment so we may as well go right now,” Asterios said as he dismissed his weapon. “Are the others busy?”

“They will join us after we arrive down there,” Silvia replied. “We are all ready.”

“Great. I think we’ll grab a quick bath before that, though.” Asterios shared a glance with Miria and Selene. “We’ve broken quite the sweat during this exercise. Not to mention blood. A more or less tolerable consequence of high-speed regeneration.”

“Just a few more cuts and you could pass off as Grea underneath all those clothes.” Selene chuckled daintily.

“I think my body lacks a few important assets for that to be possible.” He smirked at her.

~I could always lend you some of mine!~ Grea’s lively comment reached their minds, making it clear that the demon woman was listening in on them.

They all laughed together and began moving out of the enclosed arena provided to them by the queen. It was a quite spacious, round hall carved in the earth below the main city, which gave them enough privacy to freely train and practice all of their techniques. They could fairly quickly reach Imadil’s smithy through the interconnected tunnels, which they often had done to ask more about their new weapons.

Returning to the high-class suite Civienne had insisted they take after the battle with the Matriarch and the snake, Asterios quickly jumped into their big personal bath with Miria and Selene. It didn’t surprise the trio that Grea soon inserted herself into the equation even though she had no need for the brief refreshment.

They shared a pleasant but also quite playful moment in the warm water as the crimson-skinned lady attempted to share her charms with Asterios by rubbing them into his chest. Inevitably, she failed to achieve the desired result and his own chest remained as flat as it had always been. The only thing the playful woman managed to succeed at was making herself unnecessarily horny, which Asterios and the other girls pointedly ignored as a consequence of her own actions.

Finishing their business, they left their whining companion behind and went to dress up. Grea cursed at them and swore Asterios was going to regret it when she would finally cash in her promised very unique moment. Surprisingly, she’d been holding onto it for a special occasion—as she’d called it—rather than jumping on him right away as everyone had expected her to moments after the fight.

With everyone ready, Asterios transported himself to Althea’s lair through the shadows, appearing close to the small cottage. A few crimson gates rose from the grass next to him a few seconds later and his six mates stepped out of them. Miria, Selene, Tina, Grea, Silvia, and Bryn all gathered up and he led them forward.

After a gentle knock, the door opened, and the emerald-haired Dragon lady welcomed them with a delicate smile. “Come right in. I’ve been waiting.”

They followed Althea into the guest room and settled down around a table. There was one more chair than necessary so they assumed the queen would be joining them at some point. After setting down a bunch of traditional elven snacks in front of them, which revolved a lot around various fruits considered to grow in the wilds, Althea took her place too.

“So… Did you finally make your decision?” Miria was the first one to ask with a somewhat uncertain tone.

“My mind has been made since quite a while ago.” Althea chuckled elegantly while glancing warmly at the panthergirl. “My duty is to protect Tia, even if both her Tree and the safety its seal was giving me are now gone. My place is next to her, even though I’m sure she would gladly say that our mutual promise doesn’t need to concern me any longer thanks to the new protection she’s found. Partially due to my influence.”

The Dragon lady moved her bright green eyes to Asterios and nodded at him lightly, receiving the same in response. Althea then moved her gaze past them and showed a soft, somewhat amused smile.

“It’s never been me who you need to convince to your cause,” she added as Civienne stepped into the room.

★━━━━━━━━━━━━Author's Notes━━━━━━━━━━━━★

And so Volume 9 begins. Another chappy drops soon. Then, quite a few of them in the upcoming week. Here we go.