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When she’d taken a moment to collect herself, Olympia was led back to her training grounds. She was barely a fighter; she’d trained with various weapons and was learning to pull on her stamina and go beyond her physical limits, but that was expected of her anyway. She was going to learn more, of course, so training was necessary.
Catalina wanted her to be able to fight quicker than a barbarian normally could, so training her as a fighter was the natural progression of such a desire. She would be a champion, both literally and as her subclass, but it wasn’t going to be necessary to find the greatest champion in Spyre if she was going to be more barbarian than fighter.
So, they brought in Adakai Terrus. It was rumored that he was the champion of Woundwish, a plane of unfettered violence; he glowed and emitted a gentle stream of glittering smoke, said to come from a blessing which made him impervious to fire. He was a force of nature, in more ways than one, and he loved it.
When Olympia stepped back onto the training grounds, she was immediately greeted by an earth genasi, smile shining through the usual gloom that oversaw this place. He was a little bit taller than Catalina; his skin was marbled like tiger’s eye, his nose, ears, and eyebrows adorned with piercings and gold jewelry; he had long, thick locs tied up to keep out of his face. He was unassuming, until you noticed the gentle vapour emanating from him; the gentle glittering of his skin, like diamond dust pressed into him; the way his hands felt like rocks against Olympia’s own.
“Olympia, right? I’m Adakai, I’ll be your fighter trainer,” Adakai said excitedly. He shook her hand as though she was the celebrity and he was the fan.
“Yeah, uh—” Olympia started.
Adakai dropped her hand and continued talking. “They gave me a basic rundown of what you can do. I’m not a champion—not as my focus, at least—” he winked, “but I’m just about the best fighter they were able to find. Now, I also know you’re mostly barbarian, so you won’t see me very often, but I promise it’ll be fun when we do get to train,” he beamed.
Olympia was more than a little uncomfortable with this man’s excitement, but she did think he’d at least try to make training fun—although training and fun didn’t belong in the same sentence, to her mind. She nodded up at him; his smile did not waver.
“Are you ready to get some fighting under your belt?” Adakai asked. There was a buzzing energy about him.
“I…I think so?” Olympia said. She’d processed a lot of information in not a lot of time, so she was struggling to keep up.
“Then let’s do it!” Adakai said, waving Olympia along as he strode closer to the center of the arena.
[When Adakai was in a room, it became an arena. He could tap his foot to the rhythm of his heartbeat and bop his head along to the song it sung. The fighting was a reason for him to get up in the morning—no, it was a reason for there to be a day at all. He loved it, and he loved the chance to train this future gladiator himself and impress his own skills upon her.]
Adakai watched as Olympia found her stance, then gently shook his head. “Nope, I’d kill you in an instant,” he tutted.
“What?” Olympia puzzled.
“Your feet are all wrong. You’ve gotta be grounded,” he laughed at his own pun, “watch me.” Adakai planted his feet in the ground and almost locked them in place. “Try that,” he said.
Olympia furrowed her brow and planted her feet in the most stable position she could muster. “Like that?” she asked.
“Sorta,” Adakai said. “I guess it might be harder for you, you’re not an earth genasi. Regardless, I’ll want you to practice your stances until you feel like the ground it just an extension of your feet. You have to be connected to the ground, feel where it’s taking you, you know?”
Olympia did not know, but nodded anyway. “I guess so,” she said.
“Good! Now, what say we have a little fight?” Adakai proposed. That buzz was still in his voice; this was the part he was really looking forward to.
Olympia nodded again, trying to feel the ground beneath her feet, through her shoes. She took a deep breath, determined not to let Adakai thrash her so soundly as Ekish had, and unsheathed her sword. It still had a stripe of Ekish’s blood on it.
Adakai’s eyes widened, though not in fear or hesitation. He smiled wide and took off toward Olympia, no weapon to be seen.
[Adakai was advised against this approach, and had to fight pretty hard to be able to do it, but he didn’t want to hurt this girl. They offered him blunted weapons if he was that insistent on taking it easy on her, but Adakai proposed this: isn’t it much more humiliating for her to be beaten with bare hands? Olympia had already found the answer in her meeting with Ekish, and it was a resounding yes. Brandi was not pleased, but Adakai had promised that they would use real weapons going forward, as Olympia wasn’t a monk.]
Olympia quickly discovered that Adakai wasn’t just a slasher, he could pack one hell of a punch. He threw a solid blow into her stomach and was gone before she could cry out.
Olympia could tell that nothing was broken, but dear sweet gods it doesn’t feel good to be punched in the gut. She far preferred the familiarity of cuts and slashes to this. Once she’d regained her footing, she whirled around to find that Adakai was gone, then felt another punch, this time to her back. She fell to the floor, barely catching herself and narrowly avoiding breaking her nose. She rolled over and wiped blood from a cut on her chin. Adakai stood over her, pointing his arm down at her as though he were holding a sword.
“Not so fast,” Olympia whispered to herself. She pulled from that well of stamina, giving herself a second wind and jumped up and back onto her feet. Adakai attempted another swing, but Olympia ducked it and curved to the side, lashing out and landing a solid slash to Adakai’s side. He scrunched up his nose slightly, but he did not waver. He pushed a hand out and shoved Olympia by the shoulder—the last reachable part of her that hadn’t disappeared yet—and she stumbled. Adakai was breathing heavily, but steadily; he was having the time of his life.
He yelled for one of the attendees to throw him a blunted sword. They obliged, and Adakai looked perfectly in his element with the weight of it in his hand. Olympia did not show her trepidation, instead planting her feet firmly into the ground and crying out as she hurtled toward Adakai once again.
Adakai blocked the majority of her attacks, and even landed several of his own. He slashed at Olympia and connected, hitting her ribs and bruising a couple of them. He was still bleeding from his side, but he didn’t pay it any mind.
“You’re pretty good at this, you sure you’re a barbarian?” Adakai asked. “I’m sure my buddy Ekish took care of you quicker than this!”
“You actually want to fight me,” Olympia called back.
“That’s Ekish for you; big ol’ softie, he is,” Adakai laughed. He lunged at Olympia and hit her arm.
Olympia blocked Adakai from hitting her head, almost surely breaking something in her arm. Luckily, the rage pumping through her meant that she could hardly feel it.
Adakai seemed almost manic now. He was so fast and he could hit so hard that Olympia knew she’d been down and out sooner rather than later, but she didn’t care. She could feel that mania too; the excitement, the pure spirit of fighting that had overtaken the room.
Brandi, overseeing the match, smiled to herself. This was exactly what she wanted, in a way. She wanted Olympia to love the fight, even if she didn’t love her circumstances. Truly, this was why they chose Adakai. He was the only person they met with that had that look in their eyes that said they fought because they needed to, not because they were just a martial member of an adventuring party. The cleric on standby seemed mildly horrified at the way those two were fighting, at the way Brandi was letting them do so.
When all was said and done, it was Adakai who came out on top, but Olympia smiled. Her defeat was not in vain, she thought.
Brandi did not let Adakai stay to chat, she sent him on his way and spoke to Olympia herself.
“Tell me why you lost,” Brandi said.
“Because he’s stronger than me,” Olympia said plainly.
“No. Tell me why you lost,” Brandi coaxed.
Olympia frowned. “I lost because I haven’t trained hard enough. I lost to Ekish because I left my back open and because I was too eager. He told me so,” she said. "Adakai beat me because I underestimated him, I didn't understand why he didn't have a weapon, and I wasn't really prepared to fight him."
"Then why did you draw your sword?" Brandi pushed. She stared up at Olympia, but her presence made Olympia feel so small.
"I wanted him to think I was," Olympia admitted. "I just wanted to get right into it and fight."
"Ekish warned you about that just today." Brandi crossed her arms.
"He did..." Olympia trailed off.
“And?” Brandi said.
“And I’m sorry. I’ll do better tomorrow, I promise,” Olympia said.
“Good. Yes, you will do better tomorrow. Go on and get healed, then come back here and we’ll work on your grip and stances,” Brandi said, waving a hand over to the cleric on duty.
“Yes ma’am,” Olympia said. She walked over to the cleric, a smiling young woman called Aoife.
Aoife went to work immediately, placing a hand on Olympia’s arm. They weren’t supposed to talk to each other very much, so Olympia kept her mouth shut and ruminated on why she’d lost both of her bouts. She wasn’t supposed to lose, wasn’t supposed to go down. She had to be better, and tomorrow she’d have to give Ekish much more of a fight.
She’d train until she broke if it meant she got to win.