Chapter 586: Bonded
The days of the week passed by quickly after that. Laz practiced more of his self taught combat style, trying his best to get around the problem with his back with varying success.
Laz also spoke more with the Epic Kat suit, finding out some key pieces of information. One thing he learned was that he was technically way to weak to actually use the suit, since it was designed for a mid level god. When asked what that entailed, Epic Kat didn’t answer but said it was way out of his reach for now. Another thing Laz learned was that suits like the armor weren’t rare in for the Asura. There were much stronger suits along with weaker ones, although most Asura didn’t use them unless they didn’t have a choice, mostly relying on the strength of their bodies to get the job done. Still, the communication function made it a necessity for each of them to have one as they allowed a much longer range to communicate as opposed to just using their spiritual sense.
A final thing Laz learned was that the suit was in bad shape, being that it had been sitting for so long, unused, most of what it could do was locked and Laz had neither the realm nor resources to fix it. So while it would be a help to him, it wasn’t going to be anything mind blowing.
"It’s not going to matter if I can’t take you with me anyway," Laz said as he cleaned himself off after the day of hard training, enjoying the feeling of the hot water down him body.
"There is a solution for that. Luckily, a few of my non-combat functions are still usable. As such, I’ve obtained some materials from this store house that I can use to construct a dummy armor. As long as someone doesn’t wear it and try to bring it into battle, it won’t be any different from my main body."
"I’m not sure how that helps to me keeping you though?" Laz asked.
"After the fight, I’ll swap with the dummy armor and keep attached to you via a crest storage."
"Alright. Since I don’t understand what that means, we will go with that. While your stuck in there, maybe you can look for some of my things. There should be a storage bag that belongs to me somewhere, possibly in there. I can describe..."
"Not needed kiddo. Since I already have your aura inside of me, it’s simple enough to search for other things that match with it. I’ll see what I can find," Epic Kat promised before shutting down the link for the night. This was the last free moment Laz had and he didn’t want people to think he was talking to himself in the shared room.
When it was finally time for the days events to begin, Laz had nothing to do for quite a while as his was suppose to be the key match of the day. Instead, he was left alone as everyone else was taken off one by one to do whatever they were going to be doing while Laz sat alone, his mind just going blank for a while.
At least, until a voice cut in.
"They are moving me now. Guessing they are getting ready for the fight? Ready to crawl up inside me again lover boy?"
Laz opened his eyes as the sounds of laughter echoed in his ear. He wasn’t use to hearing Kat’s voice as it had been several years now... but somehow the way it spoke was so similar to how Kat used to speak that it was like talking to her again. While nice, it was also very painful at times.
The special guard arrived to bring Laz to the room they set aside for him to get ready. The guard captain look slightly hesitant as the other guards quickly stripped Laz and put the armor pieces on him. It took a while since the clasps were not something they had ever seen before, but they ended up going on by themselves after a while, as if by magic.
No one mentioned it though.
"Feels weird to have other men handle my body while you’re inside of me baby..."
"Oh for the love of..."
"The rest of you leave," the captain finally ordered as everyone else shuffled out, leaving them alone together.
"Look here slave. This isn’t exactly part of my job, but I’ll be blunt with you. There is something wrong with that creature you’re fighting. It’s... off... somehow. And it’s dark, like staring into a black pit during a dark night. What’s even worse is that when you’re looking at it, it’s looking back at you, like it knows what’s going on, like it’s aware. And I’m not talking about just being a smart beast. I’ve seen those. No... This thing feels as smart or maybe even smarter than us. Now look. I’m only telling you this to warn you. I pray to the emperor that you can kill this thing cause I feel like if it’s allowed to survive, even for just a few weeks or months more, this thing will be a disaster for the empire. And I told them that, after seeing it. But for them... it’s all about the games. So what I’m saying boy is good luck. The thing is like those horned bears you fought before, but twisted beyond recognition. And I’m told it breathes fire... so... be prepared..." The guard captain said before stepping out and leaving the room .
"A bear that breathes fire huh? That sounds like fun," Kat said, laughing a bit.
"I guess he wanted me prepared since I didn’t bring a shield last time and this time there won’t be weapons I can use just laying around," Laz pondered as he looked at the assorted weapons laying before him.
"Well... once you activate the armor, there are a few weapons you can use within the storage space."
"And how am I suppose to explain that?"
"Not my problem buddy. Now prepare yourself. You have about twenty minutes since the last group just went out not to long ago and we will need it for the activation time," Epic Kat said as the sounds of Laz’s heart beat suddenly echoed in his ears, causing his body to almost fall to the ground.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" Laz shouted, but got no response.
As his blood flowed freely, the pain in his back suddenly flared to life, feeding on the energy to grow.
"Heh... I don’t think so..."
Laz could barely make out Kat’s voice as it felt like his body was being ripped apart while his blood was starting to drain out of him.
A guard had come in to find Laz had passed out on the floor. Kicking him a few times, Laz started to rouse from his pain induced black-out.
"Slave. Your turn is next. Wait until they introduce you," the guard said, walking away once he saw Laz was back on his feet.
"What happened?" Laz asked, feeling like his entire body was on fire.
"I’m yours now baby. Honestly, I wasn’t sure that was going to work considering how weak you are, since bonding with this level of armor should only be possible for a mid level god, but here we are. Fortunately, you had a bit of extra energy in you that helped to speed up the process, but taking that energy proved to be... painful..." Kat’s voice said in his ear with a bit of remorse, feeling bad about what had happened.
It knew that Laz could die from this, but it had still gone ahead with it anyway as it needed it just as much as he did. And while it knew there was a risk to Laz’s life, there was also more of a risk to Laz’s life not to do it. It had understood many things by reading Laz’s memories when it did the initial boot up and the biggest problem was Laz was currently crippled and in a situation where there were several beings much stronger than him in a place he was currently locked in.
"So now what? Things don’t feel different," Laz said, looking at the armor on his body while moving around.
"Try standing upright?" Kat suggested, to which Laz did so.
"SON OF A BITCH!" Laz screamed in pain, but still managed to straighten himself up.
"That....?"
"The extra energy I used for the activation was the shadow flame remnants in your body. They are gone so now your body can heal, but it will still be a road to recovery, one that I could help you with, but I don’t believe that being back to full health after just a few hours would be a good sign to those watching you. So while the flames are gone, the healing will be up to you.," Kat said with encouragement.
"Whatever you did was better than what I could have done. Even if I’m still injured, at least I can work with this."
"And as for why the armor didn’t change, well... we don’t want to broadcast it’s connection to you right away, do we?"
"Ha. Yes. You’re right."
"You should get used to saying that darling, it will be something coming out of your mouth a lot," said the Kat voice with a laugh.
’Fuck... It’s almost like she is the one talking to me...’ Laz couldn’t help but think.
As the name, "THE DEMON" was called, the doors to his room were opened and Laz was about to strap a sword to his waist when the armor interjected.
"Just set it right where you want to use it," Kat said.
Laz did as asked and the sword was suddenly attached to his armor, at least the sheath was. Laz repeated the process with several daggers before picking up a shield and spear and walking into the bright sun of the day.
