“Monica hunt Rick. Knights protect Rick.”

Rick’s words had been simple enough, pulling up a chair and placing it at the center of the training grounds. Deneva stood next to her Lord, holding the umbrella and keeping a keen eye out for potential dangers.

“No.” Monica proclaimed, looking at Rick and then the six knights standing between her and him.

Each knight wore their full combat regalia, their visored helmets obscuring their faces. The murisium metal had been intricately carved with protective enchantments that would make even a Dragoness unable to bring them down in a single blow.

“Monica protect Rick.” The feline’s aura covered the entire field like an angry blanket, smoldering in annoyance and irritation.

“This is a game, Monica.” He replied, tone calm. “Monica hunt Rick.”

Deneva felt her hackles rise. Negotiating with one’s own maiden was a severe sign of weakness. One could never trust such a human would be able to accomplish a mission, much less survive without dragging someone else with them.

“Monica win? Prize?”

The feline was looking at the knights, all of them were captains of their own squadrons. Deneva knew none would individually be able to provide the kind of power that could outmatch White Claw on their own other than herself, but as a team? There was little doubt they would succeed. Even with the absurdly powerful aura that would have made recruits falter, there was little doubt on how things would end once they started.

“Yes, prize.” Rick calmly leaned into the chair, directing his words to the knights.

“Sex prize?”

Rick’s face turned several shades of red and then pale. None of the knights dared laugh, but the amusement passed over the auras of everyone gathered like a wave.

“Oh my.” The Earl chuckled, covering his mouth curtly.

“Monica, not now. Talk later, game now.”

“No sex, no hunt.”

“Come on…” Rick quickly looked around, and the knights avoided meeting his gaze out of respect. With slumped shoulders, the man rubbed at his temples. “Yes sex.”

“Orgy?”

“If you lose, I’m giving orgy to Dia.”

This time it was the Rapha’s turn to go from brilliant red to pale. The poor maiden would have likely shrunk herself to nothing if she had the ability to do so. As it stood, she locked her gaze to the ground and tried to blend with the surroundings.

“Monica win.” The feline proclaimed.

“You should prepare yourselves.” Rick’s voice carried softly, grasping at the chair he was sitting on firmly.

“Don’t worry, sir, we know what we’re doing.”

The feline took a step forward. “Monica hunt.”

Raising her hands high into the air, she slammed them down against the ground with concussive force. Instantly, a cloud of dust rose into the air all around her. Rubble and sand scattered in every direction. Deneva snorted, crossing her arms.

“What are your thoughts?” Her Lord spoke softly.

“A fruitless attempt. Even if they cannot see her, it is still very easy to detect-.”

Deneva froze.

The aura was gone. The absence of the overbearing presence almost deafening to her senses.

A hard thumping sound followed, and Deneva stepped to place herself between her Lord and the potential threat, the pommel of her blade in hand. The royal knight captain’s hackles rose as she sharpened herself. If this was some ruse to attack the Earl, then…

“From above.”

It came as a surprise that Rick had been the one to shout the warning.

As one, the six knights leaned to look in the pointed direction. White Claw had emerged right at the peak of the dust plume, the angle clearly intended to land squarely where Rick sat.

As one, they shouted. “Shields!”

Their coordination was impeccable. The six surrounded Rick, raising their shield arms and forming an impenetrable barrier. White Claw landed on it with a solid thud, though rather than move or roll off, she merely stood on top of the shields, tapping against them with her claw in apparent annoyance and contemplation.

“Heave!”

The knights thrust the shields upwards, sending the feline off. Though it did little, the feline landed with ease. Under normal circumstances, the knights would have moved to a battle formation and engaged White Claw, but without being able to use their weapons or elemental abilities, it would be a more reliable approach to prioritize becoming an impenetrable wall.

Deneva kept her nod of approval from showing. Someone might pick up on it and start thinking they could slack during training.

“She thinks the left flank is weaker.”

Rick’s voice carried over softly, breaking the silence. Deneva could see why the feralborn might think this way. The shortest knight in the group was on the left side after all. But only a fool would think this to be a sign of weakness.

“I see.” The Lord leaned forward in his seat, stroking his chin in contemplation.

“My Lord?”

“Just observe for now, Deneva. These are idle musings of mine.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

She turned her full focus to the knights and the maiden. It was clear the Earl had seen something she had not. Her eyes narrowed in close contemplation. White Claw was slowly circling the six knights currently surrounding Rick. The knights kept a formation that kept at least three shields aimed at the feralborn maiden at all times, the other three ready to supplement the defenses wherever needed.

They were gauging each other.

“She’s focusing on your shields. Probably wants to rip them off.”

True to his word, White Claw lunged straight at the group, her claws fanning out and ringing loudly against the tower shields. To a normal bystander, it might have looked as if the attack had been ineffective, but to an expert eye it was clear the attack hadn’t been intended to push through the shields. The claws found the edge of one of the shields, and White Claw yanked viciously, a move that would have normally been able to pull the maiden out of formation. But not against trained knights, the rest of the team had been quick to overlap the edges of their shields with that of their companion and, together, overcame White Claw’s strength.

She didn’t give up, however, switching targets to another. The knights weren’t as fast, but they had years of coordination. They needed to move far less to cover for the companion that was being focused on. The clash of claw against steel was beginning to ring louder, White Claw’s aura broke out of its confines and began to hammer down on the knights. The timing was impeccable, White Claw changed the timing of her attacks with her aura. Sometimes the aura would impact moments before her claws, and other times she would delay it.

“What are your thoughts on how she fights?”

“She’s not used to dragging things out.” Deneva declared. “She is trying to trick her opponents into opening a gap to quickly end it.”

“Do you think she’ll manage?”

“No, her only choice is to chip away at their defense.”

“And Rick?”

Deneva shifted her focus to the human. He was still on the chair, his aura all but invisible to her senses under the assault that was breaking out around him. The man was staring intently in the direction of White Claw, however, as if he could see through the knights that were standing in the way. It wasn’t until she focused on his face that Deneva noticed something was off. His brow was drenched in sweat, furrowed deeply, and his lips were moving. Whatever he was saying, it was impossible to make out with the ringing of the shields.

“He is talking.”

“He is telling the knights where Monica intends to attack.”

Deneva looked at the Earl in surprise. “You can hear him, my Lord?”

“It’s only a guess.” The man spoke, smiling in amusement. “Think of this fight politically, Deneva.”

“Politics is not an aspect I would dare presume myself able to understand, my Lord.”

“I am well aware, but try anyway. Who is fighting who?”

She turned back to the unfolding battle. White Claw had not relented, only grown faster. Her aura moved like a whip, growing more and more precise with her increasing speed. She would attack with it certain knights while her claws aimed for another. Deneva could only frown at the tactic, even she would have had a hard time against it. Yet the knights had yet to reveal a single opening.

Deneva would have answered the Earl’s question with the fight being between White Claw and the knights, but it felt too obvious. Her Lord would not have made the question were it as simple as that. So she focused further.

Her knights were moving flawlessly, they reacted to White Claw’s attacks without hesitation. Feints were ignored, empty attacks blocked with minimal expenditure. The movements were fluid, responsive, White Claw and their shields danced at an unheard tune. As if the knights knew exactly how and where the attacks would come from. A degree of performance she would’ve praised them for, even by her own standards.

And then she looked at Rick as the man’s gaze met White Claw’s determined glare with one of his own.

“No.”

“Yes.” The Earl nodded with an amused chuckle. “It appears he had another lesson he wished to teach.”

Deneva looked on as the battle continued, and frowned.