Myth Protector 2 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

What made training as a Tempest hard, they explained to me, was that there simply weren’t many of us around. Only a Protector could choose a class, while most Myths and Legends were born into theirs. The exceptions were those who took over as former Myths or Legends, such as Riak with Morgana. In theory, that could lead to a class change, but this was rare. 

And from all of that, Tempests weren’t easily found. Overseas there were more, Mowgli explained, such as in China and Japan. There was the little mermaid, but she had sworn off fighting years ago and, while technically on our side, wouldn’t be any help here. 

They got me in the penthouse, a suite that was cleared out for this specific purpose, and Pucky had Excalibur waiting for me. 

“We’re going to train with real blades?” I asked. 

Red stood with Elisa on the opposite side of the room, drawing her own sword—much thinner and shorter, but still very much a sword. “Would you jump into the ocean only having tried swimming without water?”

Red held a sword at the ready, and I glanced at Elisa nervously. 

“We’ve enchanted the room to ensure that there will be no death or maiming,” Elisa assured me. “Cuts though… we’ll see.”

“We’ll see?” I questioned, not liking the sound of that. 

Not that it mattered, though, because Red was already darting toward me, red cloak billowing out behind her so that it was like a tidal wave of blood sweeping in. I took a step back and held up my sword, not sure how I was supposed to be doing anything different here than a warrior would do. When she struck, I parried, but she was too fast, coming back around to slap me in the ass with the flat of her blade before dancing off to prepare for another strike. 

Damn, that stung. 

“Hmm,” Elisa said, shaking her head. “I was hoping that it was going to come naturally.”

“What was?” I asked. 

“The tempest powers. Maybe…” She held a hand up to Red. “You’re too much in your head. Get out of there, focus here.” She touched her stomach, her sexy, revealed abs. Yeah, I could focus there no problem. Her finger turned back to me. “Not mine, yours.” 

“Sure, focus on my abs.” I nodded, knowing that wasn’t what she meant but unable to grasp what she was going for. 

Somehow my new powers were supposed to take over, but only if I let them. Problem was, I had no idea what that meant in a practical sense. When Elisa lowered her hand and Red came at me again, I felt like an idiot swinging my sword without any magic or energy flowing from my stomach. Red’s strike nearly hit me but I stepped back defensively and my shield—a level two warrior upgrade—burst into effect, deflecting her strike. What a relief to know it still worked, even though I’d switched away from being a warrior. 

Another strike and somehow she was behind me, this time giving me a swift kick in the ass. 

“Going to have to do better than that,” Red said, pulling back and out of the way of my strike. Seeing that I’d overextended myself, she came back in and hit me with her shoulder against my ribcage, knocking me off balance—and she’d gotten her foot behind mine, so that I tripped and dropped my sword. 

A flash of magic hit me and I rolled sideways, narrowly avoiding falling onto my blade. Damn, that was close. 

“See, the protection charm works,” Elisa said, looking relieved. I laughed, nervously, and pushed myself up to fight some more. 

“I just don’t get it,” I admitted.

“Imagine you’re one with the universe, one with more than nature, but the elements. The air you breathe, the water in your body, and more. Embrace it.” 

My frown made it clear what I thought of this, but I tried again… and got my butt kicked again. None of this was coming as easily as I wanted it to. Being a warrior made sense to me, but being one with the water, flowing and attacking like a wave? Fuck all that. Every time I’d played games like Final Fantasy I’d gone warrior. I knew how to hack and slash, what it meant to charge in with a roar and slice cut my enemies in two. 

Another attack came and I did my best to focus on the flow, to feel it and move as they’d told me, but in the end I reverted to my instincts, slamming Red’s sword aside and making a strike that she parried and darted away from. 

“You’re still not focused,” Elisa said. 

She was right. My mind was on the fact that I wasn’t seeing my family, and everything that had happened since I’d become a Protector. I’d fucking killed my childhood hero—Peter Pan! That shit wasn’t right. 

To make it all worse, it was confusing. I was a Protector, in training to learn how to help protect the Myths from my own government. Essentially, they’d stabbed me with some magic blade that made it official, and now I was more on their side than humanity’s. What did that make me? Some sort of enemy of the people, and yet… how often had a large group or government persecuted others who didn’t deserve it? They didn’t understand these Myths, not like I did. 

Except I really barely knew them at all. Hence the confusion. 

“Let’s give Sharon a turn,” Elisa said, motioning Red out of there. “Let him get more experience against a Legend.”

“Ex Legend,” Sharon growled, approaching me with claws at the ready. Why was it that the moment I saw her hands, I imagined myself back on that stairwell, her hand on my cock? I gulped, trying to focus, trying to clear my mind, and then she came at me. 

For at least a split second, I felt that connection to something bigger than myself. It was almost like before with going into the Fae world and the sensation I’d felt when taking Excalibur to be mine, and I moved with grace and precision. Only, it faltered and I stumbled, the blade hitting magic as it nearly sliced at Sharon’s neck. 

She pulled back from that, eyes narrowed with anger, and slashed at my back, tearing my clothes. 

“Fuck,” I said, recovering to try again. 

“You trying to kill me?” she asked. 

“All I’m trying to do is learn,” I insisted. 

She nodded, took a deep breath, and repositioned herself for an attack. 

“You got this!” Pucky called out from the doorway to the balcony, where I only now realized she’d stepped out for a bit. That sounded like a great plan at the moment. Clearing my head with some fresh air, not putting up with this futile endeavor. 

But Sharon was prowling, preparing to strike, and I had no choice but to keep training, keep trying. I wasn’t about to look like a quitter in front of my team. My sword thrust out at Sharon’s side and she pulled back, and without warning Red came in again, slashing for my arms with her sword. 

The magic hit and we were both sent stumbling back. When my head cleared, I came to the realization that we weren’t approaching this correctly. 

“How am I going to stand a chance against Arthur and Morgana?” I asked, lowering my sword and turning on Elisa. “This is ridiculous.”

“The how is easy—though the fight won’t be. You have us.” She gestured for Sharon to attack, but I didn’t raise my sword. 

Not that Sharon cared, apparently. She moved toward me, transforming as she did. No longer was she a petite, crazy looking lady. Instead, a werewolf stared back at me with glowing red eyes, claws at the ready, and teeth gnashing. 

Her advance didn’t catch me off guard, but I was thrown by the way seeing her took me back to the convention center, to Chris. My best friend… and he’d betrayed me. I slashed out, catching her along the arm and drawing blood, and she growled, knocking me back. 

“I’m sor…” I started to apologize, but she plowed into me again, the cut already starting to heal. Badass. 

Again I swung, this time wanting to test her. I was careful not to go for any lethal strikes, but part of the reason they’d put me up against her was that she could handle it. And, apparently, heal. 

Sharon wasn’t the same Big Bad Wolf as the original, but I started wondering if there could be any truth to cutting open the wolf’s stomach like in the fairy tale, and it living—seeing as in wolf form Sharon could heal herself. Trying to figure out what was real from those stories and what wasn’t was a mind fuck in itself, but I was starting to see the hints of what made sense. 

She snarled and again I was reminded of Chris’s betrayal, and cursed as I swung my sword, trying to pull on the spirit of water, the flow of the power in this sword, but instead Sharon slammed the blade out of the way, claws going for my throat, and she had me. 

I tried rolling with it, but she controlled herself, glow fading from her eyes as she flipped me over and let me fall, my sword clattering away. 

Pinning me there like that, she leaned in close and said, “We’ve been here before, no?” 

The image of her on the stairwell at the Con flashed into my mind, the memory of her grabbing my dick, and I felt a nudge of blood flow down below. She winked, but I flipped her off of me and recovered before Mr. Boner came out to play. 

“Won’t happen again,” I said, charging her for a takedown. 

She easily spun with it, slamming me to the ground. I groaned, got up, and went at it again. Slam. My breath left my lungs and I lay there gasping. 

After the third time she knocked me on my ass, I stood and kicked Excalibur’s handle, cursing. But it wasn’t the fight or losing that bothered me, and she could tell. Transforming back to normal, she followed me out of the training room and to the walkway nearby that looked out over what appeared to be an old manufacturing room, with various machine parts and conveyer belts. 

“You’re not doing so bad in there,” she said, standing next to me. I couldn’t help but notice that her fingers were bleeding at the nails, where her claws had grown from, but were quickly healing. 

“I don’t… I mean, at least you all are here with me, but…”

“This is about your friend?” When I nodded, she continued. “It wasn’t his fault. They had his family. And besides, he only gave you up to me, and I like to think maybe he saw something in me that made doing so less of an issue. Maybe he saw that I didn’t really want to hurt you.”

My gut said to trust her, the side of me that had dealt with the shadows after her bite. Part of me felt a connection, though maybe it was a dark connection related to that bite—I couldn’t be sure. Was I supposed to embrace this kinship, or blame her for nearly turning me into a creature of the night? I had no idea, but knew there was way too much going on in my head to decide right now. 

For one, I couldn’t forget the way she’d been on the stairwell that first night we’d met, when she’d tackled me and managed to fight the darkness when grabbing my cock. A weird way to fight evil, considering all the church’s views on such matters, but I’d since mentioned it to Elisa, who assured me it had to do with intimacy and a human connection. When Sharon could make that bond, she could fight the evil influence of the Fae world. 

A glance over at Sharon showed she might’ve been remembering that same moment, because her hand was gripping the cylindrical railing, finger moving along it, as her eyes moved along my crotch. 

I cleared my throat and she blinked, saw that I’d caught her, and then turned away—but not before I saw the rosy blush spreading across her face. 

“I’m trying to understand,” I said in an attempt to bring the topic back to Chris and his betrayal. “But… Oh, shit.”

“What?” she asked.

“His family, are they…?” 

She faced me, embarrassment turning to worry. “You can’t go after them. Not when we’re here setting this trap for Arthur and Morgana. Not when they’ve done so much for you.”

“You don’t think they’d let me go?”

“They’d be stupid to!”

I processed that, feeling my chest start to heave and my fingers growing twitchy. “And Chris?” She looked away, even started to turn, but my hand shot out and grabbed her by the wrist. “Sharon… tell me what you know.”

“All I know is how the Legends are,” she muttered, eyes on my hand touching her, an instant calm seeming to take over. For a moment, she hesitated, then put her free hand on top of mine and stared intently into my eyes. “In my mind he was free to go, but I arranged all that… when they find out they can leverage him, which they likely already have, they’ll go after him. Kill him to teach you a lesson? Maybe. Hold him to lure you into doing something stupid? More likely.”

“Then you’re getting me out of here, and showing me where he is.”

“Don’t let them bait you.”

“If his life might be on the line?” I stood tall, determined. “I have no choice.”