金瓶梅第2部

Tycondrius chuckled, listening to Lone's and Pale's conversation.

It was likely that the Tyrion wine made him more agreeable.

He was glad for their company... and for their loyalty. They brought with them the spirit of Sol Invictus in friendly banter and camaraderie. Even Sasha seemed to be enjoying herself, as she was smiling more than she ever had in the past.

"Lady and gentlemen," Tycon called the table to silence, "Tomorrow, we shall train again... and we'll continue to do so until we hear word from either Sorina or House Vanzano."

"We're not leaving immediately, Boss?" Lone asked.

"Master has to stay..." Sasha pouted.

Pale tilted his head up, his gaze far away, "I... was sorta hoping we could get away from Troia. The sooner, the better."

"Cersei's Rest has excellent training facilities... and even a few Gold-Ranks we might borrow, to test your mettle," Tycon explained. "And you, Pale, can still very well benefit from training in Sasha's Reality Marble."

Pale's eyes lit up, "Y-you mean I get another chance?!"

"Well, yes," Tycon furrowed his brows. "Did you think the comprehensive spell formation we crafted was single-use?"

"Pale is stupid," Sasha added with a mischievous smirk.

"Keep your spirits high," Tycon raised his winecup for a toast, "for during training, Sol Invictus, and even beyond... I need you to be immortal."

"To Invictus!" Pale grinned.

"Death to our enemies!" Lone cheered.

"Yiss," Sasha quietly raised her small cup.

"Gararrrrr!" Tres Leches whined, carrying his water bowl in his mouth.

...

With Sasha's safety and wellbeing in mind, Tycon only allowed her to activate her Reality Marble once per sun.

The ritual took place each morning, and created an interpretation of the Caeruleum coliseum, on that one particular sun, many years prior.

Tycon was the ritual's main focus. His System, with its ability to flawlessly access his memories, ensured the Reality Marble's accurate detail.

Usually Pale would fight against Maximus... and afterward, they would hijack other gladiators' matches.

They'd sometimes fight dozens of gladiators at a time. At other times, they'd battle to subdue starved wild beasts-- or to murder their captors, depending on their whims. They even dabbled in recreated military engagements for a change of pace, exposing Pale and Lone to Tyrion shield walls, mock naval battles, even a bit of mounted combat.

Lone was especially skilled at defeating shield-bearers. He used a combination of his Dark-Iron wolfhammer while coordinating with his summoned companion, Tres Leches.

Pale was surprisingly poor at mounted combat. It wasn't quite a weakness, though. He performed just as well fighting side-by-side with whatever horse or quadruped he befriended.

The Gold-Rank weapon spirit, Garock, was a welcome boon. If Pale and Lone went off on their own, Tycon could spar with the orc fairly evenly. Sometimes the Orcish Samurai would lead some or all of them into gladiatorial combat. It allowed Tycon to act as support as he preferred, rather than focus on holding the front line.

Both Pale and Lone were instructed on fighting larger and stronger humanoids, with the orc as a very effective opponent. With so much muscle mass and weight,  Garock's natural ability to bully, shove, and push made dealing with him a troublesome challenge. The two young men grew far more versed in ground-fighting, as well as armed and empty-handed grappling.

Eventually, Pale defeated Maximus on his own... with no small help from techniques he'd practiced while sparring with Garock. In less than a week after that, the boy proved able to win against the dovahkiin consistently.

As an unfortunate discovery, the other members of Sol Invictus were not present in the Reality Marble. Tycon hypothesized that the Reality Marble could not support so many Gold-Ranks present, at once.

When the ritual was crafted, it was designed as a training environment to combat Maximus of Ezyria. As Sasha was only Bronze-Rank, Tycon urged Pale to be thankful that a single Gold-Rank could be emulated, at all.

While Pale's greatest recent training achievement was besting Maximus, Lone achieved measured success-- but in a surprising category.

When Tycon imparted the basics of the Elven Blade Dance... it was the Ranger, not Pale, who took to the movements naturally. Of course, the boy, being his father's son, spent no small amount of effort in challenging Lone. They both grew exponentially faster from blade-sparring combined with Tycon's instruction than without guidance. .

To Garock's dismay, neither of the whelps wished to learn his curved blade techniques-- neither were they suited for it. On the suns he was free, he and Shadow left the coliseum and visited Caeruleum's public houses.

Over time, Tycon found he could no longer best Pale in martial combat without the use of Skills. He could fight him to a draw, utilizing Garock's unique blade techniques... but that fleeting advantage would surely wane over the next few moons.

A substantial amount of Pale's and Lone's motivation came from trying to defeat stronger opponents, himself in particular. With the speed of their development, they would surpass him... and Pale sooner than the other one.

When that happened... he'd need to motivate them some other way.

Concerning that...Tycon had no idea where to start. He decided to ignore it and worry about it at a later date.

Besides the two whelps, Sasha had improved her abilities as an Oracle. With her daily ritual casting, her mana reserves had grown substantially, and she was nearing ever closer to a breakthrough to Iron-Rank. Her physical abilities had improved, as well-- easily able to best Sorina Capulet in both strength and endurance.

Tycon deemed her archery combat-ready. She had grown accustomed to a new longbow with a draw weight of 100-ponze. She did have to use a small amount of mana to operate it, but the shot's speed and lethality were easily worth the trade-off. She was accurate and precise at 200 yalms, even under pressure... but she still had issues with shooting several arrows in succession.

Most importantly, she did very well in her classes, finishing the school year at third in her year. This was in addition to her two-a-sun training sessions with her guild.

Interestingly, Sasha became a bit more outspoken. At times, she was somewhat possessive of his attention.

Ultimately, that was more than acceptable.

Children were allowed to be a little selfish.

Tycon was proud of all of them for meeting and exceeding his expectations.