Making an example

"Were here for th-" My introduction to the Inn keeper was interrupted by naise coming from the door to the great room.

["And you lot wouldnt know a fair deal if it was given to you by your betters! "

"Betters?!"]

"Never mind I can see we are in the right place, thank you, and here, because I know the officials setting these up never tip well and these clowns aren't likely to."

I left the clearly beligered Inn keeper in my wake with a decent tip.

I walked into the great room reserved for this meeting.

The yelling stopped, but their drivel did not.

"Ah the official is here, maybe we could get Somewhere now. "

" Unlikly, we've been getting tired of being run roughshod by these supposed unbiased mediators, to make sure we don't get intimidated into a bad deal, we hired a warrior of Athena, one that qualifies for high tier, cost a significant offering but it was worth it to keep you and these upstarts from forcing us into a bad deal. "

" you mean a fair de-"

" OK, I've had enough, both of you shut up, now. Here are the rules, I will be as nice as you let me be and as much of a problem as you make me be. Roxy, Kay, pass out the pastries and drinks we brought." Roxy as usual found less of a problem with this order, but Kay obeyed nonetheless.

"Didn't you hear me you upjumped harlot! We won't be pushed around-" my sword, at his neck, shut him up, and had his guard reach for his own.

"You will be civil, if I have to make an example, I will"

I withdrew my sword.

His guard still stepped closer, pulling his charge behind him.

"You take too many Liberties, I see your day at our temple wasn't an aberration. Stay your hand or I will stay it for you."

"Oh someone is upset, were you there that day or just hear about it?"

"I was there and I saw, you had no business walking away from our temple without reprisal."

"Your goddess believes otherwise, this mark was her punishment, a responsibility placed, and my hope."

"Regardless you will stay your hand or I will take my revenge for the shame you drug through our temple."

"Shame you didn't lift a finger to stop, but if you are so determined to have it out, by all means, even if just so I can keep this meeting on track. Lead me somewhere I can kick your ass, I've still got some frustration to work out."

"Unrepentant as expected, fine, I will lead you to a field we can fight in, you should bring along your healer, you'll need it.

"Nah, Roxy, Kay hold down the fort, I'll take Rook with me, our cute little mascot will love this."

----

The field was just that, barren and freshly reclaimed from the fog.

"Last chance to back out and let us all be civil."

"I could say the same to you." this prick.

He would be stronger than me, likely faster too, but the blessings beyond that? I would have to find out the hard way.

Blood red sword in hand, I waited for the first move, I was about to see how far I've come, this bastard was the same rank the Marshall had, only this was 1v1 and this idiot was likely in his prime.

His first move was to run his hand along his blade, igniting his broad sword.

I did the same, just without the hand movement.

I was still limited to the one shield, sword, and crossbow, unless I wanted someone that hated me to have evidence of my lies.

I would not find victory in anything but deviousness.

Our first exchange left me with a burn mark and none on him, I healed everything that wasn't visible surface damage, this battle Armour was resilient but it couldn't block everything, it was surviving but smaller burns and bruises were forming when it couldn't handle the damage.

The next exchange, he tried to capitalize on the wound, but found no weakness, I was able to get him slightly of balance, switch to the crossbow, fire, and have the shield up in time to block his next hit.

As I expected, unlike the retired warrior, he was stronger than me and faster, but not by as much as I'd feared.

The fight went on like that, me leveraging all the versatility my own limitations allowed me, and healing any damage below my clothes and skin.

"Really showing your goddess what you're made of, I thought you'd have smacked me down by now, guess it's true what they say about men like you..."

Him fighting angrier and and angrier, as I taunted and showed no signs of slowing down from the wounds he could see forming.

I would keep him on his toes with my swapping and keep him angry enough to not learn enough to make a major break through of my guard.

I would use the strategy I used against Kay until I trained the rage brain out of her, and the strategy I still used again Roxy.

I would wear him down.

It was over an hour of straight fighting that I started to see real cracks form.

"Do you not even feel my strikes you witch, I should have crippled you by now!"

With my healing I felt fresh if mentally taxed.

He didn't have that luxury.

I was able to hook his foot on one of the exchanges, taking a serious hit for my trouble, healed as I crashed down on him, shield slamming his head into the dirt.

Where I slammed the shield over and over as I straddled him, locking his fatigued arms in place.

"Oh I feel It, but none of it matters, battle fortitude mother fucker, even if I bleed out after this, I'll still have enough to finish you, do you yeild?"

The entire time I didn't stop slamming into his face, doing some damage, but less than I would have liked for how close our strength was.

I was actually getting to my limit, out of godly essence and most of the way through my own.

Idlely I noted that the lie I yelled into his face would only hold up so long as I made sure Kay was seen healing me when we got back.

If this asshole would just yeild, but he kept trying to buck me off.

Time to make a real example of him then.

I used everything I'd learned from being the smallest in my family, every fight my only chance was technique and leverage.

That mixed with my blessing of warriors experience, let me keep him in place until he finally lost consciousness.

Face bloody but my powers showed nothing permanent was wrong.

"Come here rook, can you carry this guy for me."

---

We made it back to the meeting, two hours after we left, I could hear the argument still raging on.

Kay was in the middle of it now, as I walked by the nervous and stunned owner on the way to the great room.

I placed more coin on the counter in front of her, "Can you send some food to the room, I famished and I'm sure the others are too."

Slamming the door open with my foot was another thing I picked up from Kay.

The stunned looks were exactly what I wanted to see, I grabbed the idiot from rook and tossed him to his employer.

"Now that inconvenience is delt with, anyone have any objections to us doing this the nice way?"

Head nods and fear, good.

"Mir?" Of course Roxy was worried, she could see how empty I was.

Kay just had the biggest shit eating grin I'd ever seen on her face.

"I'm fine Rox, Kay can you fix me up; so I can drop the battle fortitude?"

They knew better than to question that, used to playing along with my lies.

"Sure thing boss."

While she ran her soothing hands over me and fixed what little I hadn't, I gave a look to both sides, "So who wants to explain the issue with the deal, one approved by the officials in charge of this area?"

Things went alot smoother than that.

The food delivered by the inn keeper was quite good, for being this far out into the frontier.

---