Chapter 254 - The Woman Who Walked Without a Sword ( Part 4 )

The staircase went down into darkness.

Jennie went carefully, leaning left hand against the cold stone wall to keep her balance. Each step was echoing loudly in the narrow corridor, surrounded by shadows pressing upon her from everywhere. The air was becoming cold with every meter traveled, filled with smells of old iron and dust, the smell of the lost battlefields.

Right hand was hanging unused by her side.

She has stopped trying to use it.

In the bottom of the staircase, the corridor opened into the giant hall. Ceiling disappeared into the darkness above, while walls spread away so widely that Jennie could barely see their other side. Ancient pillars were rising from the floor like the ribs of some colossus, with carved scenes of battles that broke civilizations.

At the middle of the hall was a giant.

It wasn’t a colossal warrior, the guardian of the last trial.

It was something else.

It was smaller – although still tall enough to tower over any human. It was made from the dark stone with veins of gold. It wore armor, old and battered, full of scars of countless wars. The helmet was covering its face, while in the right hand was a sword.

The sword was enormous – easily as big as the whole man with the sharp blade shining with a faint gold light. It wasn’t a Divine Sword. It was something older – a weapon created in the time of the first wars when gods and people were bleeding on the battlefields which no longer existed.

The giant didn’t move.

Jennie approached cautiously, her boots were echoing in the great hall. Ten meters away, she stopped.

The giant’s helmet turned towards her.

Voices sounded from under it – deep and loud, carrying the weight of years.

"You human..."

Jennie’s face tightened.

"Why are you here..?"

"The Lost soul that recarninated by the goddess..."

The giant lifted its sword.

"That doesn’t remember the heart of warrior..."

The first strike was completely unexpected.

The giant moved much faster than it should move according to its mass. Sword swung in a wide arc through the air, cutting a shining line in the darkness.

Jennie’s body responded before her mind could think about it. Her left foot was stepping back, torso twisting while her left hand was rising to parry the strike...

She had no sword.

The realization was coming a heartbeat later.

Giant’s sword was passing through the place where her sword was supposed to be, missing her by inches. Wind from the strike knocked her off balance and she stumbled backwards, almost falling down.

The giant didn’t chase her.

It just put the sword down and waited.

"Again."

Jennie gritted her teeth.

"Again?"

"You have instincts and movements of a warrior without a heart."

The giant raised its sword again.

"Again."

The second strike was a stab.

Jennie dodged sideways, her body moving with the grace she hasn’t felt in weeks. Left hand was reaching for a weapon which didn’t exist. Right hand was trying to lift, but it remained hanging useless at her side.

The sword was passing beside her shoulder.

Jennie was turning away, but the follow-up strike hit her in the chest. The flat side of the blade threw her back and she fell down, landing heavily on the floor of the hall.

Pain exploded throughout her body.

She was rolling to a stop and lying there, gasping from breath.

The giant was watching her.

"You know the technique. Your mind recognizes the form. But your body can’t execute it."

Jennie pushed herself on her elbow.

"Then stop using his techniques!"

"I am not techniques and fight."

The giant was approaching, filling up the little light of the hall with its great shape.

The third strike came from above.

Sword was falling like a falling mountain and Jennie jumped aside. Stone was shattering where she was standing and the pieces were falling down. She was running away from the collapsing fragments of the floor.

Fourth strike was coming immediately after that. Giant wasn’t giving her time to recover. Sword was swinging under her feet and Jennie was jumping to avoid it, but her legs were weak and her right side was screaming in pain from this awkward movement.

Fifth strike hit her shoulder.

Sixth strike was almost ending the fight.

Each strike was using the technique which she knew well. Stab which she used against Draven. Cutting strike she performed in the Seraiya palace yard. Countermove she learned from the swordmaster hundreds of years ago.

But her body couldn’t repeat them.

Left arm wasn’t strong enough to parry. Right hand was useless. And the magic which could compensate her weakness was forbidden in this realm – because of the First Law. Every spell she would use would only add to her weight.

She was fighting against her own past.

Over and over again.

Jennie was falling down against the pillar, blood dripping from the cut on her forehead. Her left arm was trembling, shoulder was screaming in pain.

The giant was approaching slowly.

"You cannot continue."

"I can."

Jennie was pulling herself up.

"I said I can."

The giant stopped.

"Why?"

Jennie was wiping blood from her face.

"Because I have to."

"That isn’t an answer."

"It’s the only one I have."

The giant was studying her for a long time.

"You are trying to fight like a failed knight."

Jennie froze.

"You are trying to move, but you can’t. You are trying to wield a sword that no longer exists."

The giant lowered its sword.

"This trial is not about whether you can fight."

Jennie was looking at it.

"Then what is it about?"

"It is about whether you can become something other than what you were."

Silence was thick in the room.

Jennie looked down at her left hand. At her useless, broken right hand that dangled uselessly at her side.

She had spent her entire life, all her past existences, fighting. From the very moment she had picked up a sword, combat had defined her. She had triumphed with her strength and her skills and her confidence that her swordsmanship could solve anything.

Until she faced this giant.

It was using her swordsmanship against her. It was forcing her to accept that she couldn’t fight the way she had always fought before.

If she fought this creature as she used to fight with Leonis’s swordsmanship, she would lose.

Not later.

Not after some epic struggle.

She would lose now.

Jennie closed her eyes.

"Okay."

Opening them again, she said:

"Well, then I’ll stop fighting like that."

The giant inclined its head.

"And how are you going to fight now?"

Jennie smiled. It wasn’t a pretty smile.

"Like a real king, maybe."

And then it charged.

Jennie didn’t parry. She didn’t block. She didn’t even reach for the sword techniques her body forgot.

Instead, she simply ducked. She used an awkward movement that made her body twist, using her left shoulder to absorb the part of the blow, rolling aside.

Her actions weren’t elegant at all, were improvised and ugly.

They still worked.

She dodged the next blow by diving between its legs, kicking up dust in her boots while sliding to the other side. When she was behind the giant, she picked up a handful of stone from the rubble and threw it at its visor.

It hit it and just bounced off, but gave her a second.

A second which she needed to put more space between them.

The giant hesitated.

"This is not a technique."

"No."

Jennie picked up another stone.

"It’s a distraction."

Throwing the stone, she moved to the side and started running to one of the big pillars of the hall.

Jumping up, she started climbing the pillar with her left hand and her feet, struggling and making graceless movements while doing it. She reached the top of the pillar and found herself standing on a ledge, a few meters above the ground.

The giant looked up.

"You are running."

"I am repositioning."

She grabbed a part of the pillar’s edge and threw the rock to the giant.

It dodged, but she was already moving, leaping from the pillar to the nearest arch, stumbling and nearly falling when she landed there.

The giant was following her.

But not with its earlier speed.

It was watching her in a different way now.

The battle changed.

Jennie stopped using any attempt to fight the giant directly. She stopped using her attempts to match its strength and replicate her swordsmanship. She started using the surroundings, her size, and her unpredictability instead.

She hid behind pillars and threw stones, climbed the walls and dropped chunks of them on its head, ran whenever needed and hit it whenever she found an opportunity – with wild and untamed blows that lacked precision, but forced it to defend.

It wasn’t graceful.

It wasn’t dignified.

It was survival.

And gradually, the pattern of attacks started to change.

They got slower. More careful. As if it wasn’t trying to defeat her anymore and was trying something else instead.

Learning.

It was learning something every time Jennie improvised something and used the surroundings to fight.

Jennie noticed it.

"You are learning me."

The giant didn’t deny it.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because this is your trial."

Lowering its sword, the giant said.

"Not if you can wield a sword. Not if you can repeat the techniques."

Tilting its helmet a little bit, it added.

"If you can become something new."

Jennie stood in the other end of the hall, breathing heavily. Her body was covered with bruises and cuts. Blood dripped from her forehead, her lip, her shoulder.

But she was still standing.

The giant approached.

This time, it didn’t raise its sword.

"You have learned."

"I have survived."

"That is not the same thing."

Jennie laughed bitterly.

"It is close enough."

The giant stopped a few meters from her.

"You still carry guts."

"I know."

"You still carry courage."

"I know."

The helmet tilted slightly.

"But you don’t carry his sword anymore."

Jennie hesitated.

Then the giant raised its sword one last time.

"Now. Show me what you became."

The last attack happened with the same speed and power as the first one.

Jennie didn’t try to dodge it this time.

She didn’t run or hide.

She stood there.

And waited for the blow.

The giant’s sword came down.

And Jennie moved.

Not like Leonis KingHeart. Not like the sword king who had defeated armies and challenged gods with sword in his hand.

No, she moved like a woman who had lost everything and decided that she wouldn’t lose it.

Ducking under the blow, she used her left hand to grab its wrist and climb on its arm, using it as a ladder. She climbed it, ignoring the pain in her shoulder and the exhaustion burning through her muscles.

The giant tried to shake her off.

She held on.

When she reached its shoulder, she punched it into its helmet with her left fist.

It wasn’t any move. It wasn’t an advanced attack.

It was only a punch.

The giant stumbled backward.

Jennie jumped off of its shoulders and landed on the ground.

The giant turned to face Jennie.

In silence, it stood there for several seconds.

And then it lowered its sword.

"The strength of the warrior has been broken,"

The visor began to come apart.

Gleaming gold light flooded out of it.

"But the heart remains strong."

The helmet opened.

Inside was a burning star, not a face nor a being.

It was light.

And beautiful.

The giant dropped to its knee.

"You are the true king."

Jennie looked up at the giant.

Its voice was quieter now.

"You are one that can be chosen by God of War."

Jennie remained silent.

The light inside the helmet burned brighter.

The giant put down its sword.

"The test is now completed."

The room transformed.

The walls crumbled.

The pillars became golden light.

The ground shifted under Jennie’s feet and opened to reveal a staircase leading deeper into the darkness.

But as she turned to leave, she looked at the giant again.

"And now what?"

The star inside the helmet burned brighter.

"You go."

Jennie nodded slowly.

She started to walk towards the stairs.

Behind her, the giant spoke.

"Jennie Queens."

Jennie stopped.

The star inside the helmet was dying.

"You are the start of something new."