Chapter Sixteen - Part One: What Anger Does

"Again!" Allister boomed.

Gone was the jovial giant that called her lass was gone, only to be replaced by a red haired tyrant.

Leta would have cried if she wasn't positive he would have forced her to run another ten laps around the gym.

That was how he had started her 'review' off, telling her to run around the room until she spots started to swim in her vision.

He'd then dropped her in front of the bench and gradually increased the weight at the bar and only stopped when she had compromised a rib, which had been confirmed by one of Koa's odd talents.

She had been thrown against a wall, dunked in an ice bath and told to hold her breath underwater, and had her hair singed by a fireball launched at her face.

Leta moaned in pain, rolling from her back onto her knees and slowly getting to her feet. They had been in the middle of hand to hand defense, which was progressing to be the fastest demonstration she'd had to endure so far. It included her getting tossed around the padded fencing mat like a rag doll by Koa.

Taking a deep breath, she raised her fists in a fighting stance, fully prepared to see a view of the ceiling. It came quickly as Koa's arm lashed forward like a striking cobra.

She ducked down and evaded the fist flying over her head, but didn't see the leg that connected on her right side with her already bruised rib.

She felt something immediately crack as a searing, burning pain raced up and down her side.

[HOST HAS RECEIVED CRITICAL BLUDGEONING DAMAGE FROM PHYSICAL STRIKE.]

Leta screamed in pain as she fell in a puddle to the ground, head hitting the mat hard. Tears blurred her vision as she gasped in agony, then screamed as a stabbing pain like a dagger impaling her lung tore through her.

She tried taking quick, shallow breaths to escape the torment, but it only succeeded in making her light headed and dizzy.

"Get up, Leta." Allister bemoaned.

"Her bruised rib has cracked." Koa noted almost mechanically. He'd explained at the beginning of all this that one of the Talents of a Warrior was to spot weakness, which meant he could intuitively know what damage his advisory had taken.

Right now though, Leta was cursing them both out in her brain.

[THE WORLD FOR A CHILD BORN TO PARENTS THAT ARE NOT MARRIED TO EACH OTHER THAT YOU ARE USING TRANSLATES INTO 'ZAE SHABARRAH' IN ATLANTIAN.]

'Super.' Leta moaned into her brain, too wrapped in her pain to think straight. 'Gada, are there any nanites available to heal my rib?'

[HOST HAS 5,470 UNUSED NANITES AT THIS TIME. 3,000 NANITES CAN BE UTILIZED THROUGH INTERNAL CHARACTERISTIC RECONSTRUCTION TO MEND BREAK IN RIB, LEAVING WOUND AS A FRACTURE.]

'Do it!'

[INTERNAL CHARACTERISTIC RECONSTRUCTION CONFIRMED.]

Leta immediately felt the burning pain in her side ease enough that it didn't feel like she'd been impaled on a spike. She took a deep breath, sobbing at the throbbing pain but relieved that her injury wasn't as serious as it was a moment ago.

[INTERNAL CHARACTERISTIC RECONSTRUCTION CONFIRMED. HOST HAS EXPERIENCED TEMPERING. PHYSICAL AND INTERNAL DAMAGE THAT IS HEALED USING NANITE INTERVENTION WILL BE SLIGHTLY STRONGER THAN BEFORE RECONSTRUCTION.]

Leta felt a hand pulling at her arm and glanced up to see the wavering image of Afra through her tears.

"On your feet, L. Don't let him win." Afra encouraged softly, helping Leta get her feet underneath her.

"Ya may think this is hard, but you're getting a moment to get up. The next Loupagru ya come across won' be so accomodatin'. Gods forbid ya come face ta face with a Wrath or a Gholl." Allister called, grumbling the last bit. "We need ta know what ya can taken. Say you an' Koa are strollin' along and ya get jumped by a horde, what'll ya do? Can we count on ya ta hold the line? Or will you crack and crumble like dried leaves in a field?"

Leta breathed in steadily through her nose then out through her mouth, doing what she could to ignore the pain and focus.

It happened.

It hurt.

Tears were great to help her regulate her pain, but it wasn't going to make this stop.

"Ad astra per aspira." Leta exhaled, steeling herself.

Koa's head tilted in curiosity at her words, his handsome face pinched slightly has the wheels in his brain tried to piece together what she'd said.

"To the stars through adversity." Allister translated, the rough tone he'd been using this entire time softening slightly.

Leta nodded. "My dad says it all the time when me or my parents were doing something hard that was important."

A ghost of an approving smile pushed Allister's mustache up.

"Good man, yer da." He nodded before clapping once, the thunderous slap ringing around the gym despite the noise canceling foam. "Now, are ya dead?"

Leta winced in irritation. He'd started this little manta off the first time she'd been thrown against a wall.

"No."

"Are ya bleedin'?"

"Internally? Maybe."

"Can ya see two Koas?"

"No."

"Then yer fine. Let's keep goin."

"I just broke a rib. Can we please take a moment for me to get looked at by an actual medical professional and not Koa's spooky talent?" She barked irritably.

"Arisen could lose a limb, get it sewed back on, and be good as new in no time. You'll be right as rain in no time. Now, square up again."

Leta growled as she pulled her hand from nursing her fractured rib and put them back up in a fighting stance. She'd been annoyed and angry since the start of all of this, but now a red pulsating emotion zipped through her. She could feel her breath getting hot, her teeth baring like an animal as her fingers opened and closed reflexively.

She was about to go ballistic.

Squinting a glare at Koa, she bit out, "If you so much as kick me again on the broken rib, I will straight up murder you in your sleep. I don't care how many times it takes to keep you down forever, I'll find out the answer."

One side of Koa's lips twitched in an amused half smirk that set her off.

He came in this time with a kick aimed at the side of her head that she blocked, using his momentum to push the limb up and over her head. She pushed the attack away with as much force as she could muster.

The flying foot came back down on the mat to balance Koa for another kick that was set to connect with her uninjured side.

Oh… she was pissed.

Filled with rage, Leta caught the kick with one hand. Her other hand balled into a fist with snaps of lightning cracking over her knuckles as the smell of ozone permeated the room and set everyone's hair on edge.