Chapter 232: Vesper [Bonus - ]
Silas sat on the cold floor of the Foundry with her single right hand reaching up to massage the back of her neck where the heavy impact against the wooden roof beams still throbbed.
Even with the dull headache settling behind her eyes, she couldn’t help but let out a short self-deprecating laugh.
The difference between his original male body and this female vessel was staggering.
He was used to wielding hundreds of pounds of solid muscle and heavy steel armor, anchoring herself to the earth like a boulder.
In this form, she felt light... almost weightless in fact.
It was a strange and completely alien sensation, but if she was being completely honest with herself, she actually enjoyed the fluid effortless agility that came with it.
Tasmin walked over, her dark eyes scanning his altered physical structure as she crossed her arms over her chest armor.
"Do you have a name for this body, My Lord?" Tasmin asked calmly. "If you are going to be making public appearances in front of people, you can’t exactly go around introducing yourself as Silas Graves."
Silas paused, sitting cross-legged on the floorboards as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully with his single hand.
"I haven’t really thought that far ahead," Silas admitted, her smooth and slightly raspy female voice echoing softly through the heat of the room. "I was just focused on finding something that could hide my presence from their magical wards."
Thora hopped down from the anvil, wiping soot off her nose with the back of her forearm as a wide grin spread across her face.
"How about Vesper?" Thora suggested eagerly, her eyes sparkling. "It sounds sleek, mysterious, and sharp! Like a shadow cutting through the night!"
Tasmin hummed softly, nodding her head in slow deliberate agreement.
"Vesper... I actually like that name, My Lord. It suits the single-armed, black-haired look you have right now."
Silas tested the name on her tongue, nodding slowly. "Vesper... Yeah, I like it too. Let’s go with that."
From that moment on, both women naturally began addressing her as Vesper whenever she was wrapped in the magical disguise.
Vesper pushed herself off the floor with her right hand, dusting off her fitted black trousers as she turned her head toward the dwarf forge-mistress.
"Thora, do I really need to get used to this exact body?" Vesper asked, raising her empty left sleeve and letting it roll loosely in the warm draft of the forge fires. "Can’t you tweak the ring’s internal conduits or something to fix it? Having only one arm makes handling heavy weapons almost impossible."
Thora scratched her messy braided hair, letting out a heavy sigh that blew a stray puff of smoke into the air.
"I can try to fiddle with the rune circuits, My Lord... or Vesper," Thora replied, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. "But like I said, my dad lost the original scroll years ago, and I’m basically working backward from raw mana flow. If I try to forcibly alter the structure right now, I might end up breaking the disguise ring completely. Just in case I can’t fix it, you might have to master fighting with this body yourself."
Vesper sighed, looking down at her lone right hand and flexing her slender fingers.
"Alright then," Vesper grumbled softly. "Do you have a one-handed sword around here right now? I need something to practice with."
Thora immediately perked up, jumping in place like an excited puppy.
"Do I?!" Thora shouted proudly, beating her chest. "I’m the Master Blacksmith of the Sovereign Realm! Of course I do!"
She turned and sprinted toward a heavy wooden rack near the back wall, rummaging through a bundle of newly forged, high-tier blades.
She picked out a sleek, beautifully balanced longsword with a silver crossguard and a dark leather grip, running back over and presenting the Tier 2 weapon with both hands.
"Here you go!" Thora beamed. "Forged it fresh yesterday! Lightweight, perfectly balanced, and sharp enough to slice cleanly through iron plate!"
Vesper reached out, wrapping her right fingers around the leather grip.
She lifted the blade, performing a series of fast experimental slashes through the air.
SWISH!
SWISH!
The blade moved effortlessly, cutting through the warm air with a crisp whistling sound.
Yet, despite the smoothness of the steel, Vesper’s internal muscle memory kept fighting her.
Every time she executed a slash, her left shoulder twitched instinctively, reaching out to grip a non-existent pommel to stabilize the blow.
’I’m definitely going to need to find a dedicated one-handed sword art... or ask Morwenna to teach me her single-blade fencing techniques tomorrow.’ Vesper thought, eyeing the sharp tip of the blade.
Tasmin stepped forward, interrupting her thoughts as her chained weapons clinked against her waist.
"Since you want to get used to the disguise, My Lord," Tasmin proposed, a sharp eager glint shining in her dark eyes, "why don’t we have a practice spar right now? I just evolved into an S-Rank Shadow Commander, thanks to you, and I need to get used to my own new powers as well."
Vesper looked at the slender woman with a confident smile spreading across her face.
She reached out with her right hand, gently patting Tasmin’s head.
It felt slightly awkward and strange, considering that in her shorter female body, Tasmin was actually a few inches taller than her right now.
"Alright then," Vesper agreed smoothly. "Let’s have a little spar outside my place."
A short while later, Vesper, Tasmin, and Thora were standing in the snowy, wide-open training grounds located right beside the Keep.
The winter storm had slowed to a gentle steady snowfall, casting a soft white blanket over the cobblestones and dirt tracks.
A few of the territory’s Shieldmaidens and girls who were currently running late-night perimeter patrols had stopped nearby, leaning against the wooden fences to watch curiously.
Muffled whispers instantly broke out among the patrolling guards, their eyes wide as they stared at the scene.
"Hey... who is that woman standing with Commander Tasmin?"
"Wait, is that... is that Lord Silas?!"
"Why is our Lord in the body of a beautiful one-armed woman?!"
"I don’t know, but she looks incredibly sharp..."
Thora sat atop a wooden barrel near the edge of the snowy ring, swinging her boots back and forth as she raised her fists into the air, cheering loudly at the top of her lungs.
"GO GET ’EM, VESPER! SHOW HER WHO’S BOSS!"
In the center of the snowy field, Tasmin stood in a relaxed combat stance with her hands resting lightly on the pommels of her twin daggers.
The black-and-silver strands of her hair fluttered in the cold wind.
’I’ll use the daggers since I don’t want to go all out....’
"Are you prepared, My Lord?" Tasmin asked and Vesper lifted the one-handed steel sword, holding the blade vertically before her eyes in a classic duelist stance.
"I’m as prepared as I’ll ever be..." Vesper replied, her purple eyes glowing softly in the dim moonlight.
Tasmin let out a soft chuckle, her daggers sliding out from their sheaths with a sharp metallic ring.
"Remember, it’s just a practice spar," Tasmin reminded her with a playful smirk. "You don’t have to try and kill me, My Lord."
Vesper laughed warmly with her boots shifting in the snow. "Kill you? What for? Don’t hold back on me, Tasmin!"
The second the words left her mouth—
ZIP!
Tasmin vanished from sight!
With her newly evolved S-Rank physical stats and her refined neural pathways, her movement speed was insanity.
She completely blitzed across the fifteen-meter gap like a dark lightning bolt with her boots leaving trailing tracks in the snow before her body even appeared to move.
Inside her mind, Tasmin’s heart pounded with overwhelming fierce devotion as her eyes locked onto Vesper’s form.
’All of this strength... all of this power... it’s all because of my Lord! He saved me, he gave me purpose, and he elevated my potential past its limits! I want to get even stronger so I can protect him forever!’
WHOOSH!
Tasmin materialized right in Vesper’s blind spot with her right dagger sweeping forward in a horizontal arc aimed straight at Vesper’s ribs.
Vesper’s perception picked up the movement instantly.
Her mind registered the incoming attack, and she reflexively reached down with her left hand to draw a secondary parrying blade to lock the strike—
Only to grasp complete, empty air!
"Fuck!" Vesper blurted out, her brain suddenly remembering that she didn’t have a second hand.
CLANG!
At the last second, Vesper forcibly twisted her torso, snapping her single right arm across her body to block the blow with her one-handed longsword!
Sparks exploded into the freezing air as Tasmin’s shortsword collided against the flat of Vesper’s blade.
The force drove Vesper’s boots an inch deep into the snow with the shockwave blasting fresh powder away in a neat circle.
Tasmin’s eyes sparkled with playful excitement. "Get ready, My Lord!"
SWOOSH!
Tasmin violently yanked her left arm back, her Eclipse-Thread chains rattling loudly.
Pitch-black writhing shadow energy suddenly coiled around her left fist like a living serpent and without a single moment of hesitation, she thrust her shadow-infused palm forward at terrifying speed...
Vesper’s purple eyes widened as the dark strike surged toward her chest!
CLACK!
Vesper executed a clumsy hasty backstep, tilting her blade at an awkward angle to parry the thrust.
The first block was uncoordinated with the steel sliding roughly against the dark energy and almost slipping from her single hand.
CLANG!
Tasmin followed up instantly with a vicious, spinning left-hook slash.
Vesper pivoted on her left heel, bringing her sword around in a second, much smoother defensive arc.
The second block was significantly better with the steel ringing out clearly as she absorbed the impact.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
The sounds of clashing steel echoed loudly across the quiet snow-covered training grounds!
Tasmin unleashed a relentless, storm-like flurry of dagger strikes and shadow thrusts with her blades turning into continuous blurs of motion.
But with every passing second, Vesper’s battle-hardened adaptation was taking full effect.
Her body began naturally adjusting to the lighter center of gravity with her single right arm moving with increasing fluidity and precision.
CLANG!
Tasmin executed a fierce downward chop aimed directly at Vesper’s head but Vesper’s purple eyes flashed with brilliant golden-purple light.
THWACK!
Instead of simply blocking, Vesper angled her longsword perfectly, executing a high-tier parry that directed the force of Tasmin’s dagger upward into the open air.
"Oh?!" Tasmin gasped out in genuine surprise as her guard was violently broken open.
Before Tasmin could recover her balance, Vesper drove her boot straight forward, delivering a hard, clean kick right into Tasmin’s stomach.
BANG!
The strike connected solidly and Tasmin let out a soft gasp of air as she skidded backward across the frozen dirt with her boots carving two deep grooves in the snow for ten full meters before she snapped her body upright, drawing her secondary dagger with a grin.
However, before Tasmin could even set her stance—
WHOOSH!
Vesper had already moved.
’Fucking hell... not again...’
She had originally planned to execute a straightforward lightning-fast blitz directly into Tasmin’s front guard.
But once again, her new female vessel was far too light, and her Gold Core mana output was far too high.
Instead of stopping in front of her, Vesper completely overshot the trajectory with her body hurtling through the air in a blur and landing right behind Tasmin’s back!
’Let’s capitalize on this mistake!’ Vesper thought instantly, twisting her hips on the snow.
SWOOSH!
Vesper whipped her longsword forward in a wide vicious horizontal slash aimed straight at Tasmin’s waist.
CLANG!
Tasmin didn’t even turn around.
Exercising her S-Rank reflexes, she crossed her twin daggers behind her back, catching Vesper’s heavy steel blade cleanly between her crossed irons.
"Not so fast, My Lord!" Tasmin laughed with her body spinning on a dime.
SWOOSH!
Tasmin executed a blinding high-spinning reverse kick aimed straight at Vesper’s head.
Vesper ducked low to the snow, avoiding the spinning heel by millimeters, and thrust her face forward to deliver a counter-strike...
THWIP!
Suddenly, a thick writhing tendril of pure shadow materialized directly out of the ground.
The dark shadow cable wrapped tightly around the mid-blade of Vesper’s longsword, forcibly yanking the steel back and locking her single arm in place.
"What—?!" Vesper blurted out.
Before Vesper could pull her weapon free, Tasmin brought her boot straight up, landing a clean solid kick right against Vesper’s face.
BANG!
The kick connected flush against her cheek and the physical force sent Vesper tumbling backward across the training grounds with her body rolling three times through the deep snow before she slammed her right boot into the frozen dirt to halt her momentum!
"Cough! Cough!" Vesper coughed, wiping a line of dirt and snow from her lip as she pushed herself up with her single hand. "The hell... that was slick!"