A New Star Chapter 86 (Patreon)

I was going to make this quick, or that was the idea, as I had other things I wanted to do, and sooner rather than later. I moved out to a clear area behind the command tent, waiting for the Count to join me before watching as the others arranged themselves. This would be a fast demonstration and then we would be out of here, but for a greater impact, it might be better if we started with an example of the absolute level of difference. I had no problem making use of the Count for any of this and if he was unhappy about it, he could say something, but he was going along to see what happened.

“Gorge,” I said, gesturing with a finger. The boy was prompt in hurrying over to me, another of the reason I picked him; he had proven himself as a no-nonsense kind of person in the dungeon.

“Count, a demonstration to start, if you would. Some light sword work,” I said, patting Gorge on the shoulder. “Do put your all into it. It won’t be useful if you don’t really try.”

After saying so, I drifted back, easily able to skim over the ground, but even that cause some mutterings and noise in the group watching. The idea was for the Count to give the boy a little workout, a little training, and show just how easily he defeated him with nothing but skill. I know the demonstration wouldn’t be perfect by any means, but if I then stepped in for a little demonstration against the Count and we put on a bit of a show, it would drive the point home. Considering Gorge was the one that had been asking the questions most firmly about my claims in clearing the dungeon, I figured having him be the…example, for lack of a better term, would be just right.

“We’ll start off easy, young man. Show me your shield work,” the Count declared, his cane planted in front of him with both his hands set atop it.

“I’m ready,” Gorge said, assuming a combat stance and preparing to move forward.

“Then begin,” the Count said, picking his cane up with a flourish as he strode forward.

For anyone not possessing years of experience and understanding, it might look like a kindly grandpa with a bit of pep stepping out for an afternoon stroll, but even the Count’s flourish was done with a great degree of skill. Nor did he approach slowly, despite walking, arriving before young Gorge in an instant, something that clearly surprised the lad, given how he was slightly hasty in planting himself and receiving the Count’s first strike. Emmanuel didn’t overwhelm the poor boy, but as he liked to tout in his endless introduction, he had trained emperors and master swordsmen for generations, and he knew exactly how to push someone. I had spent time training people as well, one of the reasons I could recognize his skill at it, but the Count had clearly dedicated much more time to the endeavor than I had, one of the reasons I had set up the demonstration this way.

Gorge did solidly, blocking strikes and putting in a few returning slashes where he was able, but it was very clear he was still rather green, and the Count was very experienced. Emmanuel let him get a good sweat going for a few minutes before slipping past Gorge’s guard and tripping him with a clever trick, placing his cane at the boy’s throat. There was some light applause, and the two reset, ready to go a second time, but using their affinities this time. Well, Gorge would use his affinities and the Count would still give him a proper schooling with nothing but his cane, but there were few there who knew what was about to happen.

I can’t say that Gorge did any better the second round, but the Count was taking time to teach, pointing out holes in the boy’s guard and correcting his movements with his shield as they attacked. Given his knowledge and skill, it wasn’t any wonder the Count was able to offer advice on Gorge’s affinities as he tried to incorporate them more wholly into his fighting style, following a bit of the advice I had already given him. The Count let him work on it for a few minutes before again soundly defeating him, also without doing him any injuries, though a Y-ranker soundly trouncing an eighteen-year-old wasn’t particularly impressive, even if one didn’t really know what all the nuances were. That was all going to change in a minute, but we had Gorge talk to the others for a minute, giving him some time to settle and also to reinforce what had just happened.

It was my turn after that, and Emmanuel and I needed no fancy speech or instructions. I took a place across from him and we nodded to each other once; that was all that was needed to signal the start. We closed with each other in a blink, the old man knowing enough at this point not to hold back. He had tried that shit a few years ago, still not quite understanding who, or what, he was up against, and Jeanne still brought up the hen’s egg I’d left on the side of his head for his trouble, a knot of bruising she had only healed after making sure to give the old boy a good ribbing. There would be none of that today, either knots on the head or ribbing, at least not from anybody in that crowd.

The two of us held nothing back, or very little; I was simply not strong enough to fight Emmanuel on equal footing. Despite his age and experience, however, I was older, and far more experienced, even if my current level of power couldn’t quite match up, as some of the Count’s bruises from early on in out training could attest to. Darkness swirled around us and I attacked from odd angles, sometimes only moving my blades through space to attack, sometimes moving the sword entirely while using an arm to punch or grapple, sometimes unleashing blasts of ice or fire at moments timed to set the Count off balance and create a new opening. Our weapons were little more than blurs, likely beyond the capacity of the children to even track properly, and we used all of our affinities at every opportunity, the Count even calling on his little illusionary tricks to try to add to the fight.

I had never been deceived by even far greater falsehoods, and strode through them or cut them apart with fire and lightning with barely a thought. We danced across the open ground at the back of the camp, blades meeting and parting, steel and wind swirling in a deadly maelstrom that I avoided with the aid of The Dark before ditching my weapons entirely, to startled gasps from the audience, of course. I had done it rather strategically, as swords were my secondary pursuit in these days, the spear Gungnir appearing in my hands with a mighty roar as I thrust forward. The Count had to work to keep me at bay; centuries of experience, a godly relic, and powers rivaling a small nation didn’t make it easy to escape my assault. Gungnir had the wonderful ability to channel and amplify lightning from my already extremely powerful affinity, an ability I made use of liberally, and one the spear reveled in, letting out roars and thunderous proclamations as the ground was torn and the sky caught fire.

We danced across the scorched ground and through the air for another five minutes before ceasing our battle with a mutual nod, settling to rest in our exact original positions at almost the same moment. I knew we had pushed just a bit, but the looks of shock, awe, and even horror on all the watching faces told me the point had been driven home quite well. Gorge had sparred with the Count, Emmanuel clearly holding back tremendously and still giving the lad a schooling, literally and figuratively, while also putting on a demonstration for the observers. In contrast, there was none of that in our bout, and the Count had clearly been putting in quite a lot of effort, though anybody that understood the levels of power affinities rose to would know that that was not at all everything a Y-ranker could bring to bear. We weren’t trying to wipe out the surrounding county, however, so the level of output the Count displayed was more than fine.

“Well, Gorge?” I said in a questioning tone as I strode over to the group, Gungnir across my shoulders, the spear still radiating enough power that the kids instinctively shuffled back a bit before catching themselves.

“What?” was all he managed, looking at me with both evident confusion but also quite a bit of shock.

“You were rather confident in my overconfidence,” I said calmly. “I want your assessment. What did you think of the Count and I out there on the field? After having viewed that, are you still of the opinion that this dungeon would prove a challenge for me?”

“I have no idea what to say,” was all he managed, shaking his head.

“There’s wisdom in that,” the Count said, having followed me over after smoothing out the ground and repairing any larger bits of damage we’d done. “Knowing when you don’t know, and when it’s time to do some thinking, and to learn a little, is important. Thinking you know everything is how you wind up in a situation like this, keep that in mind.”

“Yes, right,” Gorge said, still a little shell-shocked, as were the others.

“Well, good. That’s my part done. Are we all set?” I asked, turning to the Count.

“Are you so eager to be rid of my dashing and charming wit?” the Count asked a bit plaintively, though I know the old bugger was just messing with me.

Instead of responding, as he clearly didn’t need me for anything, I fell back into The Dark, hearing the exclamations; yet more the kids needed to learn. They had seen me use the affinity, seen me teleport with it; my ability to enter the other space and move through it should not have been a shock. Well, maybe I was being a bit harsh, as they just didn’t have the experience to know all the details, but if they had a little seasoning, they would understand the intricacies of even unfamiliar affinities much better. The Dark also wasn’t so rare that there were no records of it or nobody that understood it; being so shocked by it, I would argue, would point to another weak point in their education.

I left the Count and the Silver Lady behind; if they needed me, they knew where I would eventually be, and they likely had all kinds of words of wisdom to impart to the group. One thing both good and bad about Emmanuel, the man did love to teach, and to lecture, and to expound on a topic at length. Brevity and the man had never met, and if they had, brevity had done him some great disservice in the past that he was still affronted by. It was often a hassle to deal with him, at least for me, but when there were young, pliable minds that looked like they could use a few life lessons nearby, he really did enter into his element. I left him, and the poor kids, to it as I made my way north. I had several things to attend to, including rejecting a bunch of offers that were right now pouring in for my attendance at various academies and collegiums, and then I had things I needed to take care of in the Wilds, and I needed to push my alchemy. I was mostly satisfied with my affinity progress, for now, and I was making steady progress with my weapons, but I felt I needed to step up my game, as it were, with my crafting.

I made my way back to the estate, already at the point where I could move far faster than a locomotive and for longer, especially given the exceptional properties of The Dark, and returning from our outing took hours instead of a day. I found the place much as we had left it, with the same interactions that were usually happening livening up the place, though it was time for shifting the guards. As my family in this life was responsible for a large portion of our northern border, a border that was pushing into the Wilds, we had a large armed force that guarded that nebulous line. Troops had to be rotated around, including having time back at the estate for both relaxation and training. It also let everyone, from the other captains to the lord commander to the family, get an eye on the men and women and assess their health and readiness. It was a job that my middle brothers were mainly involved in, as the oldest was still trying to be some kind of capital dandy, and several of the others were occupied with their own business. Tiffany had a hand in a bit of everything, the oldest sister having replaced Thomas as my father’s right-hand after the eldest of the siblings had decided the capital had more opportunities.

I was going to have Lester and his little squad keep an eye on Thomas as well. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Thomas, but I didn’t trust Thomas, and being the eldest son, he had a lot of power, even with my parents still retaining full control of the family affairs. Whether it was getting involved in harebrained schemes that ran up debts, or making promises the family couldn’t keep, or offering to trade with people we shouldn’t, there were myriad ways he could get in trouble. The biggest was, however, that while he was now engaged, he was not yet married, and that all was a mess waiting to explode. I was going to mostly keep my nose out of that, but Thomas having wandering eyes, and wandering hands, would only be tolerated to a point. Nobles got away with a lot, and keeping a mistress or other such conduct was still common in high society, but our family was supposed to uphold a higher standard. I was mainly worried because it could turn into a Thing, and I did not need some kind of Thing making the household into a war zone while I had other projects going on.

Thomas was not, however, my responsibility, and thank the heavens for that. Just having some idea what he was doing would be enough, and I promptly set him out of my mind as I checked back in with my parents, eager to let them know that everything was fine so I could go about my own business. It seemed that would have to wait, though not too long, as I had a few offers I needed to clear up, though at least one of those would involve an in-person meeting. Fortunately for my time and sanity, we were powerful and influential enough that people came to us to meet, not the other way around, so I would not have to make yet another trip to the capital right away.

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