Selling Swords by Reishuseyu (Patreon)

I've run into Arkant a few times before. Even crossed swords with him on occasion. The first time, I was young and green. I was working security for some noble mage that'd gone rogue. He was doing weird experiments on the corpses of dead dragonborn, trying to find the secret of dragon fire or some shit. I don't know and I don't care. I wasn't paid to think about that shit. I was paid to defend the mad bastard and I did so to the best of my abilities.

Since I was always a pretty big deal back in home, I wasn't too worried about the job. I'm one of the finest Rune Blades ever to come out of Atrieno's Librarium. It was certainly a stick in their ass to see a palawa like me excel. Heh, a 'damn dirty outlander' showing them up! It almost made all the shit I took studying there worth it. Almost.

So you can imagine that I wasn't about to stick around at the Olcadan after my time was up and those snobs certainly didn't want me there. Sure, I could have caught on with another campus, dealt with the College of Mages directly, but fuck that. I didn't want to be a pawn of the Librarium any longer than I had to... so, yeah; ended up with jobs guarding stupid fucks playing with forbidden magic. Hey, pays the bills.

So when old Arkant came a calling, I wasn't too worried. I drew my sword and stared him down. He didn't say one word to me. He just drew and attacked. A good five strokes in I knew he was a better swordsman than me. About ten in I realized he had endurance and strength on me too. I tried to compensate with superior agility and relied heavily on my rune stones to augment my abilities, but I didn't make it to fifteen. He split my rune blade in two, broke past my magic barrier and that was it. I woke up two days later in an Abbey being healed by Clerics of the Faith.

Next time we met, I was doing some legit work for the local clergy; trying to take a few pyre flies live. Since pyre flies like to be around the corpses of creatures with deep spirit wells, it's not a job for the faint of heart. Something had to kill those things y'know. I was actually pretty upset he didn't recognize me at first. I was even more upset that he'd been paid to find pyre flies himself. I figured since he had more than I did, I could mend my wounded pride and end the job by defeating him. That didn't work out too well.

Yeah, I'd trained and studied like I never had before since my last defeat. Got me a new Runed Blade  too, called it 'Dragons Bane' and learned a few new spells. Didn't matter, sure I got up there in my strokes til I stopped counting, but it was all for naught. When things got hairy, thought I had him with a wind spell, but he simply opened his mouth and spewed dragon fire at me. My barrier took the brunt of it, but I still went flying. I woke up a bit charred and waterlogged in the rivers of the nearby swamp. Little critters crawling on me, checking if I was still alive. I was of course, more furious than hurt.

After that, I started to run into him every now and then. The mercenary world is rather small when you start getting into folks with dangerous arcane experience. The last time we met, I kind just flat out told the guy; 'You're a prick, but I think you'er kind of hot!' I meant it too, wasn't a pun about his dragon breath. To my surprise, he thought I was cute too.

Don't know too many of those reptites that'd cross the boundary with us furkin. Most are up on their high chair thinking maybe they're better than we are. Like me, Arkant didn't really care about all that. I found him attractive, he found me attractive. So after a beer and bit of bragging I was  up in his Inn room sucking on his dick.

Was a good night for me, he was long and talented. He definitely had me in endurance and strength; picked me clean up the wall and put that cock of his right up inside me. I'd say I lost that duel as I had the previous ones. Sure I had agility and flexibility on the guy, but in the end, he overwhelmed me and I again passed out. Much happier that time than before. Even had the decency to let me sleep the night and wasn't ashamed to walk downstairs, letting the other guys on the job know what we were about. 

We ended up doing it a few more times before the job was done. It's busy work chasing down thieves hopped up on ghane berries. Took us a whole week. When it was over, we parted ways with a handshake and I promised that next time we crossed swords he'd better watch his ass. He slapped me on mine and told me he'd keep that in mind. We shook hands and parted ways. Next time we meet, I wonder which swords we'll be clashing. Either way, I'm excited to continue this little rivalry.