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Iyelped and teleported a good ten feet away from Noctus, who looked unimpressed as Charon strode into the arena in a grand entrance.
“At least it’s not a ridiculousclockthis time,” Noctus grumbled. “Charon, what are you doing?”
“Your Majesty, I would have thought it was obvious, I’m here to train Chloe,” Charon said. “It’s been months since she’s had a session, she needs a refresher. Also, I wish to see what she learned from the materials you sent her.”
“And you couldn’t wait a few minutes more?” Noctus asked.
“I gave you twenty minutes, Your Majesty,” Charon said. “Given that you spent half of the night pondering what you’d say to her, I assumed that would be plenty of time.”
“You failed to add in extra minutes for all the things I want to communicate that don’t involve speaking,” Noctus said.
“Do that on your own time, Your Majesty,” Charon said. “Chloe, defend yourself!”
I turned into a cat and ran, my tail aloft and my fur puffed up.
Charon unsheathed a sword, until Noctus stepped in front of him.
“I’ll fight her—you observe,teacher, so you can tell her what needs work,” Noctus said.
Charon tilted his head. “That’s not as much fun.”
“Yeah, well you ruined all of the fun I had planned, so it’s a fair turn.” Noctus shoved his hand into the small, glowing portal that appeared in front of him.
He pulled out a sword—its blade was made of glass while its hilt appeared to be made from a single, shining gemstone.
Ooh, I recognize that one.
It was the first heirloom weapon I’d ever seen him use.
As it had the first time, a curl of smoke formed around the sword, and then engulfed Noctus, hardening into armor: a helm that covered his skull and eyes and cut off at the bridge of his nose, a chestplate, chainmail, boots and gauntlets, all dark and all ornamented with a feather-like design.
The armor was stunningly beautiful and deadly, and with his eyes hidden, Noctus’s smile seemed almost feral.
“Here, kitty, kitty,” he said.
I was so outraged by this turn of events that I switched to my human shape so I could shout—from the relative safety of one of the rock formations placed strategically throughout the arena. “He’s fighting with a royal weapon? That’s not even giving me a sporting chance!”
“It will be a valuable experience for you,” Charon said. “So you can see an heirloom in action, and know how to fight on the chance that one responds to you after you renew the bond.”
I shuffled around to the opposite end of my pile of boulders. “We already renewed the bond—and I’ve tried pulling royal weapons in the past without luck!”
“Well, then, this will encourage you to try harder the next time you attempt it,” Charon said.
I would have yelled some more, but Noctus had found me, so I turned back into a cat and ran around the rocks. Once out of sight I turned into a human and jumped, scrambling on top of the lowest boulder in the formation, before turning into a cat and climbing higher.
Tucked deep into a crevasse, I waited until Noctus passed below me before turning human and springing on him from above.
I was trying to land on his head, but Noctus heard me and pivoted, angling his body so I landed on his shoulder.
He was able to roll with my momentum—a move that would have flung me off. Except I turned into a cat and dug my claws into his chainmail, so I flopped, but stayed in place.
When he moved to slam his back into the rock formation, I released my claws and changed into a human, dropping behind him, then changed back into a cat to run between his legs, before changing to a human again so I rammed into him with the unforgiving force of my magic.
This proved to be a slight miscalculation—I hit my head on his armored thigh in the process and barely managed to unsheathe my sword—so I turned back into a cat and staggered away as Noctus backed off, trying to put space between us and regain his sense of balance.
Changing back and forth so quickly was a testament to the growing hardiness of my stomach—I’d been working on the rapid switches for weeks, and the hardest part about it was the frantic changes that came with my viewpoint from shooting up and down instantaneously.
“You’ve improved your abilities,” Noctus said.
