CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-NINE

Love and Training, Part 1

Not wanting to lose the feeling of being in the zone that he’d just reached, Sam was insistent that he continue training even as Thunder tried to goad him into taking a break.

“You’re no fun,” she sighed teasingly.

“I’m sorry,” Sam said. “I just feel like I’m about to reach enlightenment… I need to keep going.”

Sam gazed at her with such earnestness that Thunder’s teasing expression morphed into something else, a face that was suddenly filled with determination. As if Sam’s desire to grow stronger had also lit a fire inside of her.

“Okay, we’ll keep training then,” she agreed.

Even with Marcus Flint standing close by, Thunder’s face drew closer to Sam so that she could kiss him. And, even embarrassed, Sam kissed her back.

“Your loss,” she whispered.

Then she turned around and walked back to her side of the training area while asking Marcus Flint to give her a whole group of opponents to fight.

“Any group in particular?” he asked.

“Do you have any horrors in your database?”

“Only the ones Crow-Man have encountered.”

“So, a lot, then?”

Marcus Flint smiled. “Horrors of desire, fear, envy, hunger, slaughter, regret, apathy, wrath, and ambition. Take your pick.”

“Dealer’s choice,” Thunder offered. Then she frowned. “Anything but wrath… I’ve met enough hounds to last me a lifetime.”

Marcus Flint’s brows furrowed while he thought about it. Then, with inspiration lighting up his face, he instructed Minerva to rebuild the hard light barrier that cut the workshop in half. Afterward, he spoke one word, “Gorgons.”

Three balls of light appeared to surround Thunder. These three balls emitted such awful screeches that Sam felt a chill rise up his spine. That same chill spread throughout Sam’s body as he witnessed the three horrors appearing in place of the light.

“Holy Zeus,” he whispered.

Sam had once seen a gorgon’s head in an old nineties Herald clipping of his father lifting it over a cheering crowd, with a headline that read; THE PRIDE OF NEW YORK, PEACEMAKER DEFEATS LEGENDARY GORGON!

However, this monstrous visage of a gorgon’s head in that black and white photograph paled in comparison to the three horrors now circling his girlfriend.

The old legends claimed that Medusa, the first woman to become a gorgon, was so beautiful that she’d captivated Poseidon’s heart with a single glimpse of her fair face. Sam could see that beauty still apparent in the faces of these three horrors, although it was beauty marred by the touch of great envy; serpent scales and fangs and hundreds of living venomous snakes wriggling atop their heads like unkempt hair.

Their upper bodies still retained their voluptuous human forms; heavy breasts and tiny waists with green scales and sickly veins marring portions of their naked flesh. Coiled underneath their torsos were serpent bodies that were as thick as tree trunks and covered in shiny green scales.

“One of Crow-Man’s first battles was with the Gorgon of Manhattan,” Marcus Flint explained. “I think that’s where he and your father first teamed up too.”

Sam was aware that Crow-Man was an old ally of his parents. It was one of the reasons he looked up to the veteran hero who was now his ally too.

“These aren’t copies of the three gorgons of legend, right?” Sam asked.

“Crow-Man and your dad led the fight against Stheno, Medusa’s younger sister, but that legendary horror was an alpha-level threat. These gorgons are just your run-of-the-mill copies of beta horrors Crow-Man fought much later in his career,” Marcus Flint assured Sam.

“Three betas… Thunder can take them,” Sam said confidently—and she would prove him right yet again.

Making use of what she’d learned earlier, Thunder speeded away from the range of venomous bites and claws that tried to attack her. Then, with hands raised high, she began to summon lightning bolts one after another, and fling them at the gorgons in rapid succession so that none of the three horrors could close the distance between them and her.

“I should add more horrors to make it a more even fight,” Marcus Flint chuckled.

“Yeah, you should,” Sam agreed.

They watched Thunder pepper the three gorgons in gale-force winds and lightning bolts for a while longer before Marcus Flint switched his focus to helping Sam’s training continue.

“Want some coffee first?” he asked.

Sam declined the offer as he was pretty worked up already from watching Thunder.

“All right… so what do you need?”

“Actually,” Sam began.

At his request, Marcus Flint altered Sam’s side of the training area with a new virtual environment. So, while Thunder’s training area retained the martial arts courtyard they’d both shared previously, Sam’s side of the workshop now contained a dense forest with autumn leaves floating down to carpet the ground.

Hey, I know this place, Chiron guffawed. Do you seriously want to train here?

I liked your cabin in the woods, Sam replied in his mind. It had that cool training montage vibe to it.

I’m flattered and all, kid, but didn’t I tell you that I relocated to Malibu? Chiron reminded Sam. There are a lot more palm trees and sunshine over here.

Palm trees and sunshine aren’t going to put me back into the zone.

Kid, being in the zone isn’t something you can just walk back into any time you want to…

Yeah, well, watch me.

It took Sam less than four hours this time to finish his new training menu.

CONGRATULATIONS! Your Dexterity, Willpower, Constitution, and Strength have all increased [+3]

At the end of five thousand sword thrusts, Sam’s blade blew a large round hole into the line of three trailer-sized hard light blocks Marcus Flint had constructed for this particular training.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have acquired an advanced combat skill [Sword Aura: Thorn (β)].

“Styx…” Despite being breathless from pushing himself beyond his limits, Sam couldn’t help but feel in awe at the destructive power of his new sword aura.

His feelings were shared by Marcus Flint’s exclamation from the intercom. “By the All-Father… that was one Hel of a thrust, Herc.”

Flint’s choice of religious cursing caught Sam’s attention, forcing his eyebrow to rise while he glanced at his new benefactor.

“You worship the Norse pantheon?” Sam asked.

There was a momentary pause before Marcus Flint’s replied. “Yes… I do. Does that bother you?”

“No, of course not,” Sam said quickly. “I was just surprised that you and Crow-Man have a lot more in common than what I’ve read in the hero forums… Do you guys go to the same stave church or something?”

“I don’t go to church much,” Marcus Flint admitted after another short pause. “But yes, you could say we pray to the same gods from time to time.”

In his mind, Sam could hear Chiron sighing heavily. And here I thought your Wisdom score had increased somewhat.

What does that mean?

“Nothing… get back to training already, lame-brain.

There was a notification from Triple-A that Sam hadn’t read yet. He was reading it now though, and his jaw had dropped slightly after he was done.

Your next skill [Sword Aura: Demise (β)] is now available for you to learn. This will require you to use both [Sword Aura: Ripple (β)] and [Sword Aura: Thorn(β)] in combination five thousand times.

“Are you teaching me a combo move?” he asked excitedly.

Demise isn’t as simple as that, kid… Well, you’ll see soon enough.

Sam wasn’t the only one to begin a new training regimen either. After showing those three gorgons who was the boss, Chiron gave Thunder a new training regimen via a text which he also explained to Sam required her to learn weather manipulation on a scale similar to Weather Witch.

“Can she”—Sam swung his sword down with incredible force—“even do something”—without missing a step, he transitioned from a downward swing into a forward thrust that pounded the air in front of him—“like that?”

Superion may be the Lord of the Sky, but Thunder’s potential reaches up to the very heavens, Chiron said proudly.

Wow… Sam repeated his last two moves, with sweat dripping down the tip of his nose. I didn’t know you played favorites with former apprentices.

I ain’t playing favorites, lame-brain. I’m just telling it like it is. You’ll see.

Thunder completed the first stage of her task faster than Sam finished firing Ripple and then Thorn in quick succession two thousand times.

From the corner of his blurring vision—because at this point, Sam had been training for more than twenty-four hours with only a short rest between training regimens—he watched Thunder floating in the air, and that made him pause his movement, forcing Sam to stumble suddenly as fatigue had finally surged into him.

You’re not supposed to stop in the middle, kid, Chiron sighed. Can’t blame you though. Told you she was something else.

That’s an understatement… Sam’s jaw had dropped slightly. She’s so awesome…

Yep, Thunder had learned to levitate by using her gift to alter the electromagnetic field around herself, and that was just the first step of her new skills training. She was already working on step two.

You didn’t think you were the only one to learn techniques today, did you?

Storm clouds were appearing above her, bringing both gale-force winds and streaks of lightning along with it. Soon enough, a thunderstorm was raging on Thunder’s side of the training area, and it was so strong that the hard light projections were beginning to shatter around her so that the virtual courtyard was starting to look like it was experiencing a computer glitch.

Now that’s what a true genius looks like, Chiron chuckled. Can’t believe she mastered a powerful area-of-effect technique in just a few hours while you’re still struggling.

“Don’t compare… me to her.” Sam wiped the sweat from his eyes and then pulled himself off the ground with shaky legs. With sheer willpower, he managed to reform his stance with Gram raised high. “Thunder’s the coolest there is.”

An inspired Sam resumed his training, while Chiron reminded him not to forget his steps. Because that’s what this new training boiled down to. After each downward swing of his sword aura, Sam’s lead foot would slide forward, and using that momentum, the blade that was faced downward would suddenly spring forward and fire off a thrust filled with Sam’s life force. This one-two combination might not have had the same area-of-effect damage that Thunder’s Thunderstorm had, but the damage to the hard light blocks Marcus Flint set for Sam’s training was quite devastating as well.

CONGRATULATIONS! Your Dexterity has increased [+2].

Incidentally, Sam’s Strength, Willpower, and Constitution also increased by [+2] when he’d hit the one thousand, two thousand, and three thousand marks respectively.

As he passed that four thousandth swing mark, Sam instinctively added a third movement to his one-two combo. This third attack followed through on Thorn’s straight thrust, switching into a sideward swing that carried with it both Ripple’s cutting strength and Thorn’s explosive force in its one-hundred-eighty-degree execution.

Sam realized this would form the foundation of his new sword aura. Assuming he had enough grit to keep going that is.

You’re stumbling, kid, Chiron noted. Wanna take a break?

Sam didn’t even have the energy to shake his head, but he didn’t want to forget this new movement. Keep going.

Styx, you’re giving me goosebumps here, Chiron sounded extra proud of Sam’s newfound resilience. Go for it, kid. Triple-A and I will make sure you don’t die from the attempt.

CONGRATULATIONS! Your Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Willpower have all increased by [+1].

By the fifth thousandth mark, Sam’s one-two-three combo had become so seamless that it evolved into a single wide swing of his sword that sent ripples of sword aura from out of Gram’s sharp edge to penetrate a targeted hard light block with a myriad of aura blades that danced in the air. By the time the attack was done, the dozens of deep cuts his sword had made in the block were enough to shatter it into hundreds of tiny pieces.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have acquired an advanced combat skill [Sword Aura: Demise (β)]. Your next skill [Sword Aura: Peak (β)] will become available after [Herculean (Γ)] achieves a new evolution.

Holy freaking Zeus, kid, you just passed this round of training with flying colors! Chiron said excitedly. Swordswoman wouldn’t be embarrassed for giving you Gram now—lol—and… kid? Are you still breathing?

Sam was swaying in place, with his eyelid closing over his near-lifeless eyes. Remarkably, he’d become unconscious while standing, and he didn’t fall afterward.