The Witcher: Aethan of Cidaris

Chapter 11: King vs King

(Hagge, Mouth of the Pontar Valley, Pontar Valley, Kingdom of Aedirn, Witcher-Verse)

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(King Aethan I Jaenerys of Cidaris POV)

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Aethan and Henselt had agreed to face each other until one of them drew First Blood. Aethan - unlike Henselt - wore light armor - specifically Cat School Gear. Witcher Gear was naturally resistant to damage on a far greater level than your standard run-of-the-mill gear. As he'd been trained by a Witcher from the School of the Cat, His fighting Style naturally relied upon speed, agility, adaptability, and versatility. The School of the Cat gear represented that because he'd gotten his Runewright to inscribe the runes that kept his armor strong and hid blades sharp into his blade.

The inscription was the final thing he needed to keep an edge against a more experienced opponent, amongst the lessons his teacher taught him, was that when faced with a more experienced opponent, victory was typically next to impossible. You could have superior equipment or you could be more skilled, but that counted for little against a more experienced opponent. What did count, was being able to maintain old advantages and seize new ones when the old ones were advantages no more. His gear helped him in that regard. The Cat School Gear was - at least up until a point - resistant to slashing and piercing damage and covered his arms so, Henselt could only draw first blood via his face, just like he could because of Henselt's heavy plate armor.

But wearing the Cat School gear also naturally suited his fighting style, Henselt would have to be forced to expend more energy than Aethan if Aethan had any chance at victory. The Cat School Gear gave him greater movement and allowed him to use less stamina than Henselt. This means he'd have to fully utilize his fighting style against Henselt. The fact that his precious lionors a'baeth was designed in a style similar to the swords of Elves meant he was able to perfectly adapt his style of fighting against King Henselt, as the fat rapist would soon learn.

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(POV Shift: Eskel)

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The diagrams were the easy part.

Fighting the Miasmal was not much harder.

The hard part was putting his brother Wolf to his final rest.

Reinald was a hell of a Witcher being able to keep that demon at bay for so long. It wasn't easy getting him to let go of his rage, even in death a Witcher's mutations still held strong, his rage at being treated as he had by the whoresons who hired him was difficult to dispel, but Vesemir had done it. And the fight against the Miasmal hadn't cost them anyone. They'd taken injuries sure, but thanks to having brewed extra potions of Swallow and White Raffard's decoction, they were able to beat the demon.

Now it was just a question of whether they actually took up King Aethan's offer. Vesemir was concerned that they'd be giving up their neutrality, but that Griffin Witcher Keldar had argued that their purpose had always been to protect the world from monsters, the only difference was that King Aethan was hiring them to protect the people and Eskel found he could agree that it was a good counter-argument to Vesemir's point.

Still, there was the argument that King Aethan had employed some of their group for a number of tasks prior to putting forth this great idea of his. So if they did take his deal, some rules would need to be put in place. It wasn't just the question of whether the boy King would never break those rules, it was whether those who followed him would.

They needed to weigh that in with everything else.

''So about the King, what exactly do we know about him?'' The Viper from Gulet asked.