Tristan headed to the field and his steps were lighter, his breath came easier, and he could feel the raw power tensing in his veins as his muscles pushed against his skin, forcing it taught. Just to test, he tried pinching his forearm and could barely grip any skin. This is insane, he thought. I need to try out my strength before I spar with The Matriarch. He reached the field and glanced back at Felicity, who had shifted to her Elfanoid form and was walking just a step behind him. "Mind getting my gear together?"
She nodded, shifted to her fairy dragon form, and zipped off to the Queen's Wood.
The Matriarch glanced to her side, looking to some fairy dragons lounging on a branch and idly chatting. "Children, mind getting me some Adamant Wood equipment?"
"You got it!"
"Sure!"
"Hammer? Sword?"
The Matriarch smiled, "A variety, please."
The fairy dragons flew off, and Tristan headed over to the wooden weights. He went to the middle of the row, and lifted. To his immense surprise and satisfaction, he was able to lift the object without issue. This one is a hundred pounds…with a single arm? He moved up the wooden weights, until he finally found one that caused him to struggle. Two-hundred pounds. He grinned and chuckled, looking over to the bench with a series of bars and weights on it. I need to know my full limits.
The next ten minutes were filled with tests of his might. He was able to lift all of the weights at their heaviest type in each lift – and still felt he could do more.
The Matriarch commented, "You are stronger than Zeltana, despite Winterbloom women tending to being stronger than men."
"Must be the dragonslayer bloodline," Tristan replied as he smiled. "I wonder what the heaviest object I could lift is." He gestured to one of the weights, "I was able to get that up, and that's like a full cart of trade goods."
Felicity had already arrived with his gear and was back in her Elfanoid form, setting the gear out on a bench. "I would bet you could lift up a small boat!"
Tristan walked over and gave her a light squeeze around the shoulder. But even that light squeeze elicited a small "eep" and recoil from her. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I need to figure out the right amount to use with you."
She smiled softly, "Well, you can test out later." She patted the armor, "Come on, get your gear on."
She helped Tristan into the new equipment and after he was fully armored up he moved around vigorously, and the armor felt far lighter and less imposing than before. Lifting the maul only took a single hand, and his sword felt light as a feather. "We'll do mauls first," he said to The Matriarch, a short distance away.
She snapped her fingers, and one of her fairy dragon children flew over with a training dummy before planting it in the ground. "Let me see what a strike from you does to this."
Tristan walked over with the maul, gripped it in two hands, and swung a full-powered swing. With a mighty crash, the metal maul slammed into the dummy, shattering it to thousands of pieces as the remnants were sent flying to the side. His eyes went wide as he stared after the shards. "I…umm…wow."
The Matriarch sighed, "Until you can rein in your newfound strength, Lord Tristan, sparring would be quite hazardous."
Tristan looked over to the fairy dragons lounging on the branches nearby, "Bring over more training dummies." A few flew off and returned a minute later with another four training dummies, and planted them in the ground before retreating to the boughs again.
The Matriarch walked to the first training target in the line. "Okay, try swinging with, say, ten percent of your maximum effort."
Tristan nodded and brought the maul back before lazily swinging it forward, barely putting any muscle into the strike. The maul made a loud thwack noise that slightly nudged the dummy out of position, causing it to sag back. "Okay, how was that?"
The Matriarch inspected the wood where the strike impacted, "That would dent most armor and crush what was underneath." She gestured to the next dummy, "A bit harder. Maybe half of what you think you can do."
Tristan walked over to the next dummy, reeled back, and swung with more force trying to find a good middle point between the last strike and his maximum-force swing. The dummy cracked and splintered in two as some of the wood shards were flung off. "
"Next one, go at full force again," she instructed.
Tristan nodded and pulled back once more, and swung with all the force he could muster. Once more, the dummy completely smashed to smithereens, the wooden shards exploding out over the field.
The Matriarch nodded, "If you can keep yourself to half of your strength, then we can spar." She went over to the weapon rack and pulled out a large, two-handed maul. "Shall we?"
Tristan took up a ready stance and nodded. She moved, and to his perception it was like she was moving in slow motion. He moved the haft of his maul into the path of her swing, deflecting the strike down and to his left. She followed up with a haft-strike using the momentum, and he simply side-stepped the hit before shoving her backward. Despite her larger height and size, he felt like he had just shoved a child back.
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The Matriarch's composure broke, and she smiled with genuine joy on her face. "No more holding back from me, then." She burst forth, swinging with a wide, looping strike. Tristan ducked the blow, but she spun with the miss and brought the weapon around again.
Tristan spun his essence crucible and pushed the fuel for magic into his armor. He twisted and brought his maul up to intercept The Matriarch's weapon, and thanks to his spin as he caught the weapon on his, he was able to block it while reducing the overall impact. He felt the firm strike and his arms reverberated from the jolt.
The Matriarch then brought the shaft of her weapon up and into Tristan's mid-section. Or she attempted to. He saw what was happening and responded with lightning-fast reflexes as he shoved his forearm into the way of the blow, pushing down and repelling the strike. He bull-rushed her, shoving her back and then stopping to get some distance as he swung a counter strike.
She got the shaft of her hammer into the path of the blow, blocking the horizontal strike – but Tristan intentionally hit with even less force than he could muster. Which caused her to over-commit to the block, as she had expected far more force. It gave him the opportunity to bring the haft up and hit her in the stomach, causing her to double in pain.
Dropping the maul, he tackled her to the ground and wrapped an arm around her neck, pinning her legs with his. She struggled and tried to move, but he kept her pinned with ease. "I win," he stated. "And, I think I'm a bit past you now."
She frowned and vanished from under him. A small rat scurried to his left, and then re-shifted to The Matriarch in her full size, holding the maul. "You are cocky, Lord Tristan. That will get you killed out there." She backed away and gestured to one of her fairy dragons, "Bring me dual swords."
Tristan tossed his maul aside and waved one of the fairy dragons over, "Bring me one. As close as you can to mine." The fairy dragons flitted away and returned with the new weapons.
The Matriarch smiled as she flourished both blades, "My preference. You have only trained against me with maul and blade. I have been trying to stay on your level. Now…I think you can take me at my full prowess." Her smile vanished as she advanced, bringing her blades down from both directions in vertical chops with a slight angle down toward his shoulders.
Tristan got his weapon up for a horizontal block, catching both weapons while only needing to use a single hand on the hilt. He pushed The Matriarch back, and she quickly whipped her weapons in from both sides. He used his sword against one and his bracer against the other; the wood on wood and wood on metal making clack and clang noises respectively. Shoving the blade he had caught on his forearm away, he brought his sword inside her guard and forced her to back away.
The Matriarch paced around him slowly, like a predator observing their prey for weakness. Tristan bladed his stance and kept his sword pointed at her with a full arm extension, presenting the smallest target possible. "Is that all?" Tristan asked tauntingly.
She scowled and rushed forward, unleashing a flurry of strikes from all different angles. Left, right, top, bottom, thrust, slash, cut – a dizzying combination of blows that would have cut down Tristan in the past and heavily bruised him.
But the trial of the sap had made him more than just a Winterbloom at the peak of their physique and capabilities in combat. The dragonslayer bloodline seemed to bring him to another level entirely, and he was able to keep up with her dizzying combination of strikes with his blade alone. Granted, he had to remain fully on the defensive, but each strike she unleashed he parried. They were locked in a stalemate of defense and offense, neither gaining an inch.
It became a battle of endurance, and Tristan barely broke a sweat. His now-improved form was able to keep up with ease, and their sparring went on for minutes. Back and forth, defense against offense.
And after five minutes of sustained combat, an eternity in a melee fight, The Matriarch showed signs of slowing. Her breath came slightly more ragged, and she made a slip; she overextended her reach. It gave Tristan a chance to step into her guard and thrust with his training blade, pushing her back several feet from the force of the thrust.
She backed off and dropped the weapons, doubling over and putting her hands on her knees. "You…you've…improved…"
Tristan smiled and dropped the training sword. "How do I compare to other famous Elves?"
The Matriarch let out a barking laugh, "You're stronger and more physically capable than Zeltana. Her prowess was greater, though – she could disarm me using just the maul against my two blades." She stood up and waved over some fairy dragons, "Pick up the gear."
Tristan headed over to Felicity, who had been sitting on the bench in her Elfanoid form. "How'd I do?" he asked as he let his essence crucible stop spinning as his armor returned to normal.
"Pretty good," she said with a smile. "I want to see if that same stamina carries over to…other activities." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Tristan smiled and gestured to the Queen's Wood, feeling full of energy and wanting to indulge her curiosity. He scooped her up off her feet and took her over to the Queen's Wood. Down to his chambers and gently set her down once the door was shut. "Mind helping me get out of this armor?" he asked with a sly grin.
"Happy to help," she said as her body shifted slightly to her preferred, more Elf and less fairy dragon form – but the small horns on her head were still present. She began helping him out of the armor, making sure to trace her hands along his muscles. Her touch sent tingles across Tristan's body, and the second he was out of his armor he embraced her.
"Ouch!" she yelped out.
Immediately, Tristan pulled away feeling embarrassed and ashamed, "Sorry," he whispered. "I…I guess I really have to hold back."
Felicity took in a deep breath and nodded, "It's okay. We're both learning." She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the bed, gently pushing him down. "Maybe let me start out taking the lead?" she suggested in an "asking for approval" way.
Tristan nodded and let her take control, trying to forget about his accidental slight harming of her. He felt her moving down his body, and he just focused on the physical sensations, letting her comforting embrace and erotic ministrations soothe away any sense other than bliss. And he felt a hunger, a greed rise up in him. A longing want. Sitting up, he – gently – grabbed her and pulled her up next to him, shifting positions and taking control.
It was a gradual process, getting used to his new strength and ensuring that he wasn't hurting her. But if the sounds Felicity was making were anything to go by, he knew he was dialing in the correct amount of force to use with every movement.
It was a bliss-filled several hours of indulging in one another, and by the time he was actually exhausted, laying back on the bed and softly scratching Felicity's back, he was confident he had figured out exactly how much strength he could use.
"That," she said in between huffing breaths, "Was fantastic."
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