Chapter 23: Watch Your Back And Keep Training
Sam hopped out of the ring and was bombarded by the girls, both showering him with kisses.
"You did great!" Lazula said happily.
"We’re so proud of you!" Calista added.
Koga grinned at him. "Good job, kid!"
Marmalade walked up and gave him another fist bump. "You sure showed that asshole!"
"Haha, yeah!" Sam replied cheerfully.
"You mother fucker!" came an angry voice from behind them. They turned to see Ladarsa stomping towards them.
"Hey! Welcome back to the waking world!" Marmalade said in a taunting voice.
Ladarsa ignored the cat and went right to Sam. He lifted up a fist, and Sam felt the familiar crushing feeling on his heart.
"The only reason you won is because we couldn’t go all out!" the elf screamed. "I demand a rematch! Right fucking now! No rules!"
"You’re just a whiney, sore loser, dude..." Sam choked out as he held a hand over his chest. He then called upon his power once more, his green aura bursting to life. He kicked Ladarsa in the chest, sending him flying across the Arena.
"I’ll kill you!" the elf screeched in a rage as he jumped to his feet, charging back towards Sam. "I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!"
"Ladarsa!" Lucifer bellowed out, his voice deep and authoritative. His son immediately slid to a stop, then just stood there with his fists balled, glaring towards Sam.
"He must pay! He humiliated me!" the elf teen insisted.
"You are humiliating yourself!" Lucifer said harshly. "No son of mine is going to get away with acting as you have acted! Go home! NOW!"
Ladarsa continued to stare at Sam for a long moment, then turned around and stomped out of the Arena as instructed. Then his father turned to look at Sam and the others.
"I won’t be able to contain him for long," Lucifer warned. "I had hoped he was in better control of his rage, but you seem to have really riled him up. It will only be a matter of time until he tries to fight you again. Watch your back and keep training."
"I will. Thank you," Sam said with a nod.
"Your son’s a real asshole," added Marmalade. "You saw what he did to Mallowa, right?"
"That was different," Lucifer insisted. "I raised him to do whatever it takes to win in a battle, so long as he follows the rules laid out by the organizers of the battle. What he just did now was against the rules, but what he did in the ring was not."
"Geez, you’re an asshole too, then," Marmalade said angrily as he crossed his arms.
Lucifer did not respond, but just stared at the cat for a long moment, and then simply turned around and left without another word.
Marmalade then turned and looked at Sam. "Maybe a bunch of us should train together. If we’re spending time as a group, maybe Ladarsa will be less likely to attack right away."
"I second that," added a fully healed Mallowa, who had overheard what they said. "Let’s train as a group."
"I like that idea," agreed Lazula.
"And I can heal everyone after training sessions to build up my skills too!" Calista offered.
"I’ll tag along as well," said Deanna as she came up and placed a hand on Mallowa’s shoulder.
"Can I join too?" asked Konnis as he came up behind them. "I lost my temper during our match, Sam, and for that, I apologize. I think training as a group could help me learn to control my anger better."
"Sure!" Sam said with a smile, fist-bumping the hobgoblin.
"What about me?" asked Mephista. "I got nothing better to do."
Everyone laughed. Then Sam nodded. "That’s fine with me. What do you say, Koga? Are you okay having us all train together at your place?"
Koga just shrugged. "Fine by me, but we’ll need more space. Fortunately, I have a wardrobe similar to the one they used for the dungeon, so we can set up a pocket dimension for training."
"Oh, cool!" Sam replied.
"And since we don’t know how soon Ladarsa may become a problem, I think we should probably speed it along," Koga added. "I have a friend who’s an arcane scientist, and he should be able to turn the pocket dimension into a Time Chamber."
"Oh! I’ve heard of those!" Marmalade said excitedly. "Time will move faster in the Chamber, so we can get more training done in a shorter amount of time!"
Koga nodded. "That’s right. My friend can design it so that one hour out here is one day inside. So we can load up supplies, head into the Time Chamber for one week of training, and then only seven hours will have passed outside."
"Why only a week?" asked Deanna.
"Because if we stay inside any longer, we’ll get Time Sickness and start experiencing lapses in memory and cognitive functions," Koga revealed. "Nasty stuff. We have to break it up into smaller spurts. So each morning, we’ll meet at my place, go inside the Chamber for seven hours here and seven days there, and then exit the Chamber and rest for the remainder of the day. Then we rinse and repeat the following morning, so on and so forth, for as long as we need to."
"Well, at least until Breeding Week a month from now," Sam added with a chuckle. "Assuming Ladarsa doesn’t attack before then."
"What about Breeding Week?" Mallowa inquired. Sam explained everything to the group about Queen Maeve and how she wanted him to get a Druid pregnant. Mallowa shook her head. "Damn, that’s crazy."
"So maybe this training will serve more than one purpose," Deanna suggested. "You know, if things come to blow with this Maeve or whatever."
"That’s a good point," Sam concurred. "Okay, so we break for the day, and then meet at Koga’s place tomorrow morning? Koga, how soon can your friend have the Time Chamber up and running?"
"Probably later today," Koga replied. "He should be able to do it pretty quickly. So when you come tomorrow, bring enough supplies to camp out for a week inside the pocket dimension."
Everyone nodded.
"Alright, see you all in the morning," Sam said, then smiled. "And thanks for being here, all of you."
After everyone went their separate ways, Sam, Calista, and Lazula headed back to the Honeydew Inn.
"If we’re gonna be without privacy for a week, we better get some good fucking out of our system tonight!" Lazula declared. The three of them just started laughing.