Chapter 73 Rarer Still

  Lenna and Aodhan met in the middle and both launched into a flurry of attacks, parries, and counters as if they hadn’t just gone for a full round already. Lenna deflected Aodhan’s right cross and slammed her fist into Aodhan’s left forearm again. Aodhan tried to grab her with his bear paws for hands but Lenna shin kicked him right on the inside of his right knee and it instantly gave out under the impact. He toppled but managed to grab her shirt by her shoulder with his left hand as he went down. Lenna was yanked off of her feet but managed to get her knee into position fast enough to drop her full weight on his nose. The hit to Aodhan’s nose made his grip slacken for just barely long enough for Lenna to roll off of him and finish her somersault on the arena’s sand. Lenna was back on her feet before Aodhan even had a chance to get his feet back under him. Even so, she gave him the professional courtesy of at least letting him get back to his feet before they continued.

  “That kick was good.” Aodhan complimented her.

  “The grab caught me by surprise.” Lenna returned a compliment of her own.

  “Not a fan of grappling?” Aodhan questioned her.

  “No.” She confessed. “I like feeling my knuckles make contact.”

  Aodhan laughed and raised his hands for the next exchange. “I like you.”

  “Then let me show you something as I channel my inner Isaac.” She replied and shifted her weight and stance to be a bit lighter on her feet. She closed her fists into the same middle knuckle protruding way that both Isaac and Walter did when they really wanted to cause damage to soft targets.

  Aodhan looked content to stay in place and let her make the first move, especially now that she had just shifted fighting styles. Lenna charged at him like she was going to try and punch through his block but switched her legs at the last moment and kicked him in the knee. His leg instantly straightened and he was thrown off balance but was otherwise fine. He threw a downwards cross toward her as his shoulders were now even higher compared to her than they were before. Lenna slipped under it and hit his side with three quick jabs before she weaved out of the way of his returning arm. She weaved around his left uppercut and then gave him a good kidney shot for his efforts. He stepped back and swung to get distance but she just leaned back and front kicked his arm as it passed by. The impact to the underside of his arm looked painful as he visibly winced and his arm bent awkwardly. Nothing was broken but it definitely would have a bone bruise at the very least, probably a sprain too.

  Aodhan tried to grab her leg with his other hand before she could pull it back but stopped and retreated as he realized that she wasn’t even trying to pull it out of the way in time. Lenna slowly pulled her leg back and entered her borrowed fighting stance once more. “Good catch.” She complimented him. “Most would’ve gone for that.”

  “I don’t know why, but I felt like I would die if I grabbed your leg.” Aodhan replied.

  Lenna just smirked and walked towards him with her arms down. Aodhan’s hair visibly stood on end as the air of the fight changed. Lenna was no longer another proud fighter trading even blows with the mighty Setanta, now she was a predator ready to dine. When she was well within his reach and had just entered her own, Lenna launched into action. Three jabs to his forearms as she slipped and weaved out of the way of each counter attack, then she managed to land a solid cross into his ribs that was solid enough the large man staggered back from a fractured rib. Lenna’s hands ached from the strange fist structure and from hitting only semi-soft targets and not fully soft ones.

  Aodhan knew that they were about the same speed, and Lenna’s punches had lost most of their impact, but he still couldn’t land another solid hit as things were. She had changed from a mountain to a river that cut mountains down the middle. She avoided every head to head contest of strength and punished him just for extending one of his limbs. As he fought her, Aodhan realized that Lenna wasn’t blinking, at all. She was using the gentle but passive healing of her aura and blessing to keep her eyes fully functional as she fought. That meant that her eyes had to be in pain but he was physically incapable of making a move that she wouldn’t see coming.

  Lenna punished two more of Aodhan’s attempts at hitting her before he launched himself at her without any warning. He threw his arms wide and caught her in the chest with his left shoulder as she tried to dodge right. Lenna’s feet were taken off of the ground and both of them were momentarily airborne before Aodhan slammed them both back down into the arena sand. Lenna had managed to grab onto his wrist with both hands before impact but her head still swam for a moment after its solid impact with the ground. Aodhan tried to get on top of her but Lenna rolled herself around his arm and locked him in a face down armbar. He hadn’t even seen it coming, one moment he was trying to get on top of her and the next her boot was jabbed between his neck and right shoulder and his left shoulder felt like it was about to dislocate.

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  Aodhan tried to force himself into a standing position so he could use the ground as an anvil in an attempt to get her to break her hold but Lenna just flexed with everything she had. A sickening pop sloshed through the nearly silent arena and Aodhan slumped onto the ground. His hand clapped the ground a few times before Lenna could let go of his arm.

  Lenna extricated herself from their mortal pretzel and Aodhan just laid there for a moment before he managed to get himself up with just one working arm. Once he managed to get back on his knees. He just sat there panting. “Ow.” He said dryly. “You broke it. It’s not dislocated, something broke.”

  “I figured when you didn’t get up right away.” Lenna commented. “Healer!”

  Aodhan chuckled. “I would not survive a fight against you without my Ancestor.” He conceded. “You are very strong, Matriarch.”

  Lenna nodded. “I fought you, in the beginning, how I prefer to fight. It is not often that I come across someone of equal strength and speed. I very much enjoyed our warm up.” Aodhan gave a nod of agreement but Lenna kept going: “I had thought that I had to fight how Isaac would have in order to beat you, but in the end, it was a grapple that decided the match.”

  “If it hadn’t,” Aodhan began as a healer arrived and started seeing to his shoulder. “I would have run out of stamina before you. Your hits to my muscles were making sure of that.”

  Lenna nodded in agreement. “Even so, it would have gone on for at least another two minutes.” She told him. “Isaac’s fighting style lacks power in anything that is not a kick. It works for him as he generally lacks physical might, but for me it was strange to not have proper grounding. Regardless, softening you up seemed like it was the best option.”

  “It was.” Aodhan confirmed his own weakness. “I had too much trouble catching you, and even when I did, you nearly broke my nose for the trouble. Still, how is your core so strong? You shouldn’t have had enough strength to break my shoulder.”

  “I meditate with my abs tensed, walk around in full gear all day, and my hamstrings did most of the work.” She explained.

  “You meditate with your abs tensed?” Aodhan questioned her with a flat look. The look on such a massive man was comical to say the least.

  “Yes.” Lenna replied. “We were all taught to do that as young V’Novas. Whatever muscles we had trouble working out were the ones that we would have to tense while meditating.”

  Aodhan shook his head in resignation. “Well, Lady V’Nova, if you or your mate ever require my assistance, I will answer your call.” He told the first woman to have ever gone head to head with him in a game of strength.

  “I will keep that in mind, Aodhan Setanta. And you may call me Lenna, we are peers at double platinum and you have one level on me.” She said and offered him a respectful bow.

  Aodhan returned it. “It is my honor.” Aodhan replied. “Now, raise your fist in victory, they are waiting.”

  Lenna almost asked who but then she looked around the stands and saw dozens of adventurers doing just that. Lenna chuckled and raised her fist to the air. A near deafening cheer exploded out from them as if they had all been bottling it up until the time when they could finally unleash it towards the heavens. It was a wordless cheer but those were always the best kind. Those cheers were not dependent on languages but were a primal part of every mortal that every other mortal would understand.

  Isaac appeared in the arena next to Lenna. “Give them a yell.” He told her with a smirk.

  Lenna chuckled and shook her head at her husband. “They wouldn’t even be able to hear me.” She shot him down.

  “Then channel your inner Gilgamesh next.” He prodded her.

  “You really want this, don’t you?” Lenna said to her husband flatly.

  Aodhan took that moment to chime in: “So do they.” He told her. “You are the first non-monk to have beaten me.”

  Lenna took a deep breath. “YAAAAAAAH!” She shouted towards the heavens and the return yells from the stands nearly made her head spin just from the volume in the enclosed stone covered space.

  “Why does monk matter?” Isaac asked Aodhan after the cheers had died back down.

  “Monks’ classes are bullshit.” He replied. “A Conservation Monk came through here a few months ago and beat me up with myself for half an hour. Before that, a Solitaire Monk came through and I broke my fist on his face. There was a Golden Ratio Monk a few months before that who sent me for a spin but it was clear that he wasn’t used to fighting men and I knocked him out with one punch right afterwards.”

  “They really do run on their own sets of rules, don’t they?” Isaac wondered.

  “For sure.” Aodhan replied. “As the loser, I owe you two a drink. Come drink with me.”

  Isaac shared a look with Lenna. “Can we get an I-owe-you?” Isaac wondered. “I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but Lenna was in the middle of a dress fitting before we came here.”

  Aodhan was silent for a moment before he broke out in a belly laugh that was so loud Isaac thought the stones would crack. It took him a long moment to control himself before he wiped away a tear from having laughed so hard. “You found yourself the perfect bride, my friend. Rare is the woman who can kick your ass, rare is the woman who can charm anyone with just a look, rarer still is the one who can do both.”

  Isaac laughed. “She can certainly do both, and I agree.” Isaac and patted Aodhan on his good shoulder. “We’ll see you around, yeah?”

  “Yes!” Aodhan agreed. “Don’t wait too long!”