Chapter 15: Training (3)

"Hey, this is a little out of left field...but you four wouldn't happen to have a problem with me, would you?"

False smiles of reassurance basically said 'yes, fuck you and the gay horse you rode in on'.

"Oh it's nothing personal, not with you specifically. It's just that, you know?"

Adimus popped some kind of glazed nut into his mouth, chewing it with obnoxious relish before continuing with, "You're a human and it's a fact that humans are weaker than almost every supernatural in existence."

The other three did a good job of keeping their glee off their faces...but not a perfect job, Lance fighting hard not to openly scowl.

"And then you gotta consider that you're super far behind in all of the knowledge and stuff that's pretty much cradle lessons for all of us, making it seem like you don't actually know shit. It raises the question if it wouldn't have been better for a supernatural - like one of us, for example - to have been picked instead."

"Oh for christ's sake are they jealous? Feel free to deal with the shit I've been saddled with, asshats. See how well you like it."

Keeping that response clear of both his mouth and expression Lance instead gave Senia and Shir'Atath sidelong glances, both females smirking at his current roundabout roasting as they were clearly telling him that he was going to have to solve this on his own as well.

"Thanks, you two. Nice to know you're definitely the parents that tie their kid up in a sack before tossing them in the lake while calling it swimming lessons."

Kicking that annoying thought to the side he instead focused on how to go about things, grudgingly admitting to himself that the duo had every right to stay out of it.

If he couldn't shut down a couple of grumpy and envious people his own age how the fuck was he ever going to deal with the ones several centuries - if not millennia - older and wiser?

Offering up a clueless and perfectly content smile Lance replied, "Well as previously mentioned I have some of the best tutors Limbo can offer as well as newly acquired perfect memory. I'll be learning at a pace most others could never manage. I mean, Heshal has been giving me all sorts of interesting tips and tricks on how to fight."

The teen allowed a smirk to appear on his lips.

"Actually, now that you mention it...how come I haven't seen you at any of those sessions? He's your dad, shouldn't you be learning right alongside me?"

The few brief glances from his friends and mildly stiffened postures warmed Lance's heart, knowing that he'd found a veritable gold mine of potential word shivs.

"I've been busy with my other subjects, unfortunately."

"Hmm. If you say so. But don't worry about me not being all that great, in no time at all I'll be leagues above everybody here. I mean, isn't that what a leader is supposed to be?"

He raised a hand as if to condescendingly offer up a brilliant conclusion.

"Far better than his subordinates, which will be all of you."

Cue slipping expressions and open sneers of contempt.

Adimus slowly removed his arm from the Nymph's shoulders, clasping his hands as he narrowed his eyes in Lance's direction.

"Better, huh? Well, how about proving it?"

"And here we go…"

"What's there to prove? Or are you saying there'll be some kind of big, impressive reward for you if you beat me in whatever challenge we decide on?"

Lance let his teeth show.

"Which would be funny as fuck. Weren't you just trash talking humans a little bit ago? What's the matter? Can't feel confident in your dick size unless you get to pick on a tiny, insignificant human?"

The Fallen got right in his face, breath smelling of booze and black licorice as he growled, "You sure talk big for a supposed 'insignificant human'."

"Oh give me a fucking break, you think I'm retarded? I know you four just brought me over for a friendly little roasting session, pissy that your little altar boy has teeth?"

Lance let his snarl turn to a sadistic one, taking special relish in his next choice of words.

"Oh I know what this is about! Angry that daddy dearest kicked his little shitstain of a kid off to the side in favor of a real man? Boy, must suck to be you...not only did my human dad love me but even the supernatural ones do."

Sound seemed to come from a distance place, muted and distorted as both youths met each other's gazes, neither so much as blinking as the promise of repressed fury and violence mounted...and Adimus stalked away without a word, grabbing a metal chair from a nearby table-

-and in a raw display of strength ripped a pair of its legs off, teeth grit in unbridled fury as he strode with purpose back towards the waiting teen.

Out of the corner of his eye Lance glanced towards the three still seated supernatural groupies...and legitimately felt a little uncomfortable at their expressions of unmitigated hatred.

Not the hatred of a gang or fake groupies, jumping up and down and talking mad shit because ain't nobody gonna mess with us...no, it was the anger of friends who just saw a good buddy get shit on by someone and were quietly plotting how best to make the perpetrator's life hell.

"Ah shit...now I feel kinda bad, if the guy can get friends like that."

He instinctively grabbed the solid metal length as it was tossed his way, Adimus coldly saying, "Follow me. Let's see just how good our self-proclaimed leader really is."

Lance did as suggested, fairly sure the Fallen Angel would try to beat him to death regardless if he turned tail and ran.

"Fight on the dance floor~! Taking any and all bets, FIGHT ON THE DANCE FLOOR!"

Feeling very real horror grip his soul as Shir'Atath began looping high overhead and cluing everyone in to what was about to go down Lance tried to keep his knees from shaking, trying not to let the sudden shift in circumstances throw him off his game...instead he turned to the openly smirking Senia who was walking right alongside him, the succubus amusedly stating, "You're going to get your ass beat, you know that, right?"

"I fucking knew I shouldn't have gone to this goddamn party. This is somehow your fault and that's the story I'm sticking with."

Maliciously chuckling to herself the woman idly commented, "Think of it as a chance to keep proving yourself to Limbo. Beat the son of the foremost combat instructor and your stock will rise."

"You're just saying that because you don't want me looking bad making you look bad as well, right?"

"Naturally."

Huffing out a breath of annoyance the teen grumbled, "This is going to suck."

"Oh of that I have no doubt. But just as a little bit of extra incentive…"

The princess sensually whispered, "Suitably impress me and I will happily allow you to do all sorts of things to my ass, bar none~."

Lance just rolled his eyes, retorting, "Yeah, sorry, I'm not exactly feeling all fired up here. Try again."

A warm chuckle left the woman as they approached the coldly waiting Adimus, a crowd already forming thanks to Shir'Atath's hard work.

"Well in that case I'll simply wish you good luck, Lance. Don't make too big of an ass of yourself."

And with that she placed a quick kiss on his cheek, the youth perking up slightly before she slipped away...and he promptly scowled to himself.

"The promise of anal doesn't get me going but a kiss on the cheek does?"

Shaking off that irritating thought he instead squared himself away as best he could before walking into the center of the impromptu ring, monsters of all shapes and levels of attractiveness sealing the exits as Adimus coldly glared at him, metal leg impatiently tapping the ground with an ominous ringing.

"What's your bet, the human Shir'Atath picked or Heshal's kid?"

"Adimus, hands down. You've seen the other guy, he barely even knows how to move right."

"It's just gonna be a question how many times the other kid dies before calling it quits."

Feeling his face sour at the complete and utter lack of faith in his abilities - that was probably justified, but never mind that - Lance locked eyes with Adimus, the Fallen Angel only breaking the staredown long enough to nod to a distant DJ, the former human resisting the urge to sigh as he saw Shir'Atath whisper to aforementioned DJ...and at the track that began to play.

(Blade Club Music)

"Thanks, Shir. I'm gonna need all of the Wesley Snipes energy I can get."

Voice as dry as a desert during drought season he turned to Adimus, trying to let the pulsing music get his dick up before asking, "So what's the rules?"

"One of us is knocked out or gives up. Anything goes."

Lance nodded-

-and promptly yelped as the fallen rushed him with a beat of his wings and push of his legs, improvised weapon actually whistling as it tore for his head.

Perfectly remembered lessons from Heshal were hastily implemented as he allowed himself to parry the strike to the side, ignoring the dull shock of the colliding metal as he brought the bar around for a strike at his opponent's throat-

-and cursed as Adimus easily leaned backwards, ducking beneath the strike while a return blow of his own caught Lance right on the elbow, snapping the limb like a wet twig as the spiky-haired teen leapt backwards, the crowd whooping as the first strike was made.

"OW. Fucking OW. Great, this sucks."

Thankfully his natural regeneration kicked in and within two seconds the arm rewound itself to a pristine state, only phantom pain remaining as Adimus neutrally stared at the fixed appendage.

"Interesting. Faster regen than even the Phenex, hmm? Well, that just means I get to beat the shit out you all I want, huh?"

The hungry look sent his way caused Lance's asshole to pucker slightly.

"I think I'll try that on your head next."

"Joke's on you, I'm freakin' immortal and it doesn't matter how many times you-"

Another whistle of fast approaching metal and while Lance did his best to parry a quick twist of the fallen's wrist almost wrenched his weapon free from his grasp, a blindingly fast reverse stroke causing hardened steel to strike him directly on the temple-

-and it was with a jerk of his body and racing of his heart that the former human came to, a few whoops and cheers from the crowd reaching his ears as the teen gritted his teeth.

"Fucking great. I'm outclassed by the guy as well as what feels like most of the supernatural. Am I having fun yet?"

Rising to his feet and ignoring the wet stickiness coating one side of his body that was almost certainly blood and bile he faced down Adimus with a glare, the fallen offering him a bloodthirsty smirk before stating, "So I guess I just have to keep killing you until you give up...maybe make it hurt a little bit along the way."

Offering up a smile he was not feeling in the slightest Lance glibly shot back, "Give it your best shot, I barely even felt that one. No wonder daddy dearest left you with a pussy arm like that."

"GLADLY!"

With a feral roar the enraged fallen charged in, slapdash weapons clashing once again.

The next few minutes...were honestly something of a slaughter, Lance 'dying' over and over as the crowd got steadily drunker and more amused at the show, jeers, advice and heckles almost causing the teen to lose his cool at the absolutely humiliating display.

…

That was part of the plan, though. Inbetween his perfect memory and slow acclimation to the sensation of 'dying' thanks to Shir'Atath's homicidal lessons he was able to keep his composure, watch and learn his opponent's preferred method of kicking his ass and hatch a counter that would actually work...because like hell he was going to beat him in a conventional fight. The other kid was lightning in a fucking bottle that his dumbass had wandered right into.

"This is getting boring. And after a certain point I don't particularly feel like kicking a blood pinata, there's more of your fluids on the outside of your body than there is inside."

Spitting out a wad of congealed red Lance merely offered a shaky grin, quipping, "What, getting tired? Guess you're not all that much after all."

"...To hell with this, let's hear you scream, fucker."

Sucking in a shaky breath the spiky-haired teen decided it was now or never to enact his little scheme, raising his battered and dented chair leg in a horizontal overhand guard as Adimus came at him with a looping overhead slash...and twisted his wrist with blinding speed to slip around the block like he had every time previously, Lance grinning in triumph.

"Gotcha."

There was a wet crunch as his arm and even ribs cracked like soggy glass under the brutal strike, his body jostling due to the transferred force-

-and none of that mattered, the former human having taken a step forward with leg shooting upward so that his kneecap caught the fallen square in the testicles with a muffled THUMP.

Lance took an inordinate amount of pleasure in the way his opponent's eyes flew wide, body locking in instinctive agony as the metal chair leg slipped from nerveless fingers.

"Huh. Can't believe that worked."

Working off of pure adrenaline Lance sidearmed his own stick in a brutally efficient swing that caught the other youth clean on the side of the head, Adimus landing heavily on the ground with a meaty thud and spastic twitching, eyes unfocused and mouth gaping.

…

The crowd was dead silent, Lance leaning heavily on his now bent chair leg while shooting a glare at his foe's friends, now standing gormlessly at their fallen pal.

"Yeah...guess who won?"

Another few seconds of tender silence, even the music seeming muted...and a few of the crowd began cheering, applauding or getting back to the party with grins on their faces, the little debacle having run its course.

He made a special note to remember the faces of those that hadn't seemed particularly pleased with the outcome, marking them as potential enemies or detractors to his future leadership. Or just psychopaths that liked seeing him get beaten bloody. There wasn't any real uniformity or common theme to the disappointed crowd so who was he to judge?

A few healers were already seeing to the dazed fallen - no doubt on standby just in case the party got out of hand - while his friends gathered close, Lance heaving out a sigh before sniffing himself with an expression of disgust.

"Man, this party was a total bloodbath and waste of time. And that first bit is literal."

Turning on his heel he strode away without a backwards glance, wincing at the crusty and damp texture of his party clothes.

"I knew this shit was a bad idea."

"Hey, little human! You look like you could use a drink, eh?! Especially after that beating, huh?"

As if merely to confirm that thought a strong, metallic arm dragged Lance into a circle of oni, ogres and werewolves, all of them staring at him with broad grins and displayed teeth. What did surprise him was the sight of Shir'Atath affectionately hanging off of the neck of the one that had dragged him into the little circle, the grimoire beaming at him as she said, "Nice job with the fight, Lance! Ugly as hell, but you still won! Also say hi to Cardenas, he's an old friend!"

The teen blinked stupidly, the group of feral-looking people all smirking at his silence before he calmly asked, "Shir? Unless my perfect memory fails me Cardenas is the cook guy of Limbo, right?"

"Yup, that's right~!"

"...Why is the head cook of Limbo a giant fuck-off skeleton with a sombrero?"

Even that somewhat colorful description was lacking, Cardenas standing as tall as two full grown men stacked atop of each other, humanoid skeleton completely lacking any flesh or organs and colored an ebon black as glowing points of blue flame danced in the vacant eye sockets.

And he would be remiss not to mention the absolutely fantastic hat perched atop the smooth cranium, the thing wide enough to double as a small tent.

"Got a problem with me being a giant fuck-off skeleton with a sombrero, esé?"

The disembodied voice carried a strong accent to it, the head tilting with a metallic crack and Lance made the smart choice.

"Nope. Matter of fact it's really fucking awesome and totally not the complete opposite of everything I expected previously. Como tu sombrero."

Like hell he was going to go picking a fight with that, Shir doing the smirking for the expressionless titan.

"Good reply, Lance. He can make the best damn food around and that means if you upset him he can make the worst damn food."

"Noted. And not to sound like a wimp or anything but can I go home now? Kinda covered in viscera up the ass and would like a shower."

If anything Cardenas' grip became tighter, the voice an amused rumble as it said, "Just as the party is getting started? No chance, friendo."

One of the werewolves grinned.

"Besides, we like our meat rare."

A round of guffaws reached the teen's ears and he really hoped they were just joking with him.

"How about a little reward for the future leader of Limbo's first victory over a naysayer, eh? Molten Malt, on me!"

A burst of blue flame emanated from the skeleton's free hand, manifesting into a bottle of booze liberally decorated with warning symbols and disclaimers, the rest of the group roaring in approval as Lance blankly stared at the jug.

"Is that going to get me wasted or get me dead?"

"You can't die, remember, esé?"

Shir hopped down next to him and gleefully shouted, "Bottoms up, boys! I've been asleep for decades and it's high time I get back to partying!"

Another roar of approval from the group he'd been strongarmed into joining, a shot glass of some kind of literally flaming hot booze pressed into his hand, a chorus of 'CHUG, CHUG, CHUG' sounding out and Lance couldn't help but feel like this was ultimately all Senia's fault. Somehow.

The drink tasted a bit like hellfire and ghost peppers marinated in Satan's own asshole.

"Well that was certainly an unexpected showing, little boy."

"Can't help but notice you ditched the second I finished making a bloody mess of myself. Thanks for nothing, damn you."

To Lance's immense delight the colossal bathing pool in his penthouse had a small section where he could lay on his back without worry of water getting into his ears but still be warmed within its embrace...a handy feature, considering the fact that despite his inhuman constitution the teen felt like he'd just suffered an ass kicking of colossal magnitude. And he wasn't referring to the actual ass kicking but the booze one afterwards.

"Christ, how did I even make it up here in the first place? I think Cardenas carried me?"

The skeleton had proven to be quite the amicable personality, friendly and open...and apparently even perfect memory couldn't pierce the haze of what felt like two-hundred proof shots because fuck if he could remember what actually went down after those first few glasses.

Bare feet lightly impacted tile floor as the sight of a nude and highly amused Senia filled his vision, Lance trying in vain to focus his eyes so that he was only staring at one of the succubus rather than three of them. One was already enough of a pain in the ass.

"You look tired."

"I'm no stranger to parties but jesus do you supernatural know how to keep it going."

"Best get used to it, you're one of us now."

Sitting next to him the princess began to lightly splash water across her lithe and perfect form in a display that, if he didn't feel like he was one wrong move away from puking up jet fuel, would have been exciting as she cleaned herself.

"So about that butt stuff."

Chuckling to herself Senia responded, "You certainly put on a good show and made my decision to bet on you seem like quite the savvy move...but ending the fight half-drunk and covered in your own blood and bile was slightly less than impressive. Definitely not enough for me to let you stick your dick in my rear."

"Hmm. If I wasn't so nauseous right now I think I might actually be a little upset at that. Actually, on the topic of feeling like I'm going to vom what was that bit about bile being on me?"

Gently cleaning her tail the succubus idly responded, "A few of the hits to your head didn't immediately splatter your brains, a few of them just left you seizing and puking everywhere."

Lance just sighed, grumbling, "Yeah, I probably wouldn't want anyone like that near nature's pocket either."

A few seconds of amicable enough silence passed as the steam of the bath and his fuzzy senses brought the teen near the vestiges of something approaching sleep-

-and he felt himself carefully flipped onto his stomach, Senia straddling his back as he became distinctly aware of the sensation of warm and sinfully soft thighs hugging his flanks, as well as a far more rounded piece of anatomy cupping the base of his spine.

"This better not be more bulshit that leaves me half dead, woman."

"Relax, I'm still in no condition to go absorbing any kind of power from anyone. This is something my mother taught to me, it should make you feel better."

And with that she began to slowly run her delicate and flawless fingers up and down his back, occasionally kneading his muscles or bone as a surprisingly relaxing sense of warmth began to do away with a bit of his daze, no erections involved.

"That...actually feels really good. What the hell is that, I'm honestly shocked there's no fucking involved."

"Not all of my people's arts involve the bedroom, just most of them. This is a fairly delicate brand of massage that directly stimulates another's magic using your own, a bit of a tricky process because like any foreign pathogen an individual tends to resist outside power interacting with it. But it's your lucky day, I'm quite accomplished at the art."

Lance only managed to grunt, a brief poke at his neck making him feel like humanoid jello.

"Forget the sex, do this for me more often and I'll be a good little simp."

Senia offered a chuckle that sounded surprisingly genuine before musing, "I figured it would be this effective. Since your physical body is more of a placeholder than it is any actually tangible container for your magic any art that directly influences the latter power would be quite intense. You're welcome, little boy."

Deciding to let her mostly well-deserved snark go he instead continued to melt into her ministrations, mumbling, "So how'd the backroom politics go? I assume that's what you did while I was downing glasses full of molten tequila."

"And you would be right. It went well, considering a fair number of Limbo's denizens were surprised at your win over Heshal's son. Apparently he's quite the prodigy."

"Sure fucking felt like it. Asshole was a freaking speed demon compared to me."

Humming in idle agreement the succubus nonetheless continued with, "You should be satisfied, though. From what I gathered much of Limbo has been cautiously withholding any real manner of opinion over you until they saw tonight's feat. Not exactly impressive but not bad either, considering you were a little unknown that came from a less than established background."

"Yay for the dark horse. Actually, I wanted to-"

"Aww, you two are bonding so nicely now!"

Yelping in shock as Shir'Atath somehow burst from beneath the pool's surface Lance leapt to his feet before slipping on the slick tiles, Senia unleashing a grunt as in a tangle of limbs she ended up beneath the young man, his emerald eyes blinking before suddenly saying, "Hey, my nausea is gone. Thanks. Now since I'm here how do you feel about the butt play?"

"You have five seconds to get off of me."

Shrugging to himself Lance turned to the wildly grinning Shir'Atath, asking, "Where the hell have you been this whole time? You fucked off like three minutes after Cardenas tried to kill me with kindness."

"Collecting your winnings, of course!"

Manifesting a significant stack of bills with a light pop the host couldn't help but blink, asking, "My winnings? Huh?"

"The bets, remember? You won and hoo boy did you make bank on overturning expectations~! Eight grand right here and in my hand."

Lance's eyes went wide, tone stammering as he sputtered out, "W-what the fuck?! Eight thousand?! Hell yeah I'll take that!"

Greedily taking the money from the avatar Senia arched an eyebrow, tucking her legs beneath her while asking, "Aren't you the leader of Limbo? Shouldn't you be one of the richest individuals in reality right now?"

Shir pouted, grumbling, "Yeah, but if you want to use Limbo's money you have to fill out all these receipts and forms otherwise the accountants get all mad and yell at you. For a long time. And they're not afraid of anything either so it's not like you can just threaten to eat their souls or something like that. Private money like this you can use however you want."

"Hmm...well in that case I know just how to use this little chunk of change~!"

Turning to Senia and smirking at the succubus he said, "I'm going to use this to buy back Em's goodwill, since she's my favorite girl."

The spastic twitching from the princess's eye made the teen's entire day of trial and tribulation worth it.

A bit of an odd story to bring all into the christmas holiday...but here we are, lol. Enjoy. Bets on whether 2021 kicks off with the COVID vaccine accidentally being infected with the T-Virus?