Chapter 38: Chapter 38 - A Test Of Strength

Silence fell over the area where we had just negotiated the employment of the deserters.

Julia was already standing in the middle of the group, clearly fully serious about her suggestion of testing their strength.

"Are you serious about this?" I asked, even though I knew that she was.

"If you want me to train your mercenary group, then I need to know that the people you intend to hire have the capabilities to be trained." She answered.

And honestly, I couldn’t argue with that logic.

I was going to have her train them after all, she was already training me, so we might as well add a couple of people more to our already existing regimen.

"Fine, I guess you can have your way with them for a bit. How do you want to do this, one at a time, or all at once?" I asked her.

Obviously I had no doubt that she could kick all of their asses, whether they came one at a time or all at once, it wouldn’t make a difference.

"The sun is setting pretty rapidly, we should probably hurry it along, so all at once would be fine." She answered, she removed her sword and sheath from her waist, and set them against a tree.

"Are you guys serious?" The deserter leader asked, he and all of his men were looking between the two of us like we were completely insane. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

I could only smile at the clear disbelief they showed.

They thought that a mere girl would never be able to take on one of them, let alone all six of them.

And honestly if I hadn’t had my ass kicked by Julia all around our training ground for weeks, I might have thought so too.

"She’s completely serious." I answered.

"And I suggest you guys take her very seriously."

For some reason though, it seemed that those words of mine had absolutely no effect on them.

They still just looked at me with disbelief painted all over their features.

So I decided that they would simply have to feel the pain of their ignorance if they decided to not take Julia seriously.

"I’m ready whenever you are." Julia said, standing before them all again, arrogantly beckoning them over with a hand.

I never believed people actually did that.

You know the entire eighties karate movie one handed beckon.

Okay maybe some of you won’t know what I’m talking about, but you probably have some idea, right?

Anyway, for a few moments no one moved, until suddenly one of the followers made his move.

"You shouldn’t be so arrogant!" He yelled as he moved.

I immediately decided that one of the things we would have to work on were their war cries, and the skill of intimidation with words.

The first follower lasted only a few seconds.

Every blow that landed made me flinch on his behalf.

"Try not to seriously injure them, my love." I called out.

The first swing of a fist that came toward Julia met nothing but air.

She had only moved her head a few inches to the side, dodging with the least amount of movement.

As the fist passed her she released a barrage of short arm jabs into the man’s ribs.

Before he could even respond to her first move, she swept a leg, landing him on his back, and ending the fight with a final fist to the jaw.

Hitting what I had dubbed the ’trip switch’, and switching off his lights.

All of the other deserters could only stare at the scene before them with open mouths.

The only thought that had floated around in my mind at that time had been, ’That’s my girl’.

What man wouldn’t be proud if he had just witnessed his wife pummel the living hell out of a man twice her size.

"Maybe we should work together." One of the other men suggested after seeing how she had just defeated one of their comrades in moments.

"No! I will not gang up on anyone." their leader said.

I had to give it to the man, his code of honor really impressed me.

And even if Julia wouldn’t admit it, I could see in her eyes that his personality had impressed her too.

Now he just had to impress her with his strength, and he would be golden.

And he tried valiantly to achieve that.

He approached her cautiously, not attacking recklessly.

I had to admit that after my weeks of pain and suffering, I noticed that this was the only way that I could actually last a bit longer against her.

Finally after circling her a few times he made his move.

His attacks were controlled, and well timed.

Even though he couldn’t land a single hit, he also didn’t give Julia an easy opportunity to counter attack.

She was completely focused on evading his attacks.

She was dancing around and through his attacks with the elegance of a ballerina.

Every few evasions she would work in a quick counter jab.

Most of which were body hits.

Each of them made the bearded man grunt with pain.

And yet he didn’t back down for even a second.

It seemed to me that he was actually adapting to her fighting style as they battled.

His moves became even better timed, his punches and kicks flowed into each other to form a perfect sequence.

He had actually started to give Julia a slight run for her money.

That was until I noticed the sly smile starting to form on her lips.

It was at that moment that I knew the poor man was doomed.

The moment I noticed that smile, Julia made her move.

Instead of evading his blows like she always did, she stepped into one.

She blocked a right hook with her arms as she stepped into his body, a look of surprise flashed through the man’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced with agony.

The moment she was in reach her knee flashed up, making solid contact with the man’s stomach.

I could see the moment he was winded, I could almost feel the air leaving my own lungs.

As the man stumbled backwards slightly hunched over in pain, she moved into him again.

An uppercut made contact with his jaw, straightening him up from his previously bent over position again.

The moment he straightened up, a left right combo was waiting for him.

Right to the jaw.

Left to the jaw.

Palm to the throat.

I almost choked on his behalf the moment that last hit made contact.

And finally the battle was ended with what could only be described as a superman... or in this case I guess it should be a superwoman punch.

With that, another trip switch was flipped.

"Who’s next?" Julia asked as she turned to look at the four remaining men.

I could practically feel the fear emanating from them at that moment.