After days of sparring, Magnus was regretting finding out why Is?lde was in his village...he was not sure if he wanted to be the 'balance' in the world, the good to balance the bad, it seemed like a pretty important responsibility, but here he was – it was his calling, and he knew it. The early morning training was not anything new, nor was sparring for hours on end. What was different – getting his butt handed to him, repeatedly, by what appeared to be a beautiful woman - this he was not used to. Granted, she was a minion of heaven with eons of experience...but looks, looks were clearly deceiving.

  "Come on Magnus, get back in the ring – I know you have more in you." Magnus was sprawled out, face down and Is?lde was a couple yards away, bouncing in her stance swinging her tonfa fighting sticks in a flurry...grinning at her student, again. It was nearing lunch; the pair had been at this since daybreak, "Ya know," Magnus grunted from the ground, his face still in the dirt, "you have an advantage – you are immortal, you hardly tire, and you've been doing this centuries, or eons...anyway, a long time." Magnus rolled to his butt side down and sat up with his feet spread out in front of him, taking in some of the lovely mountain air. "So, what is the point of these weird sticks we have? I would prefer to go back to my bo staff, please."

  "The point is there, sir brute..." sounding just like Aunt Hilde, "I am attempting to teach you that there is much more to fighting than you know. You are good, I really don't like to spar with the staff either, you need to get more proficient with closer quarters fighting. This, the tonfa, are excellent for being small spaces or in underground caves, like when you need to exterminate trolls or goblins. You can outfit them with iron or silver spikes, and since they can run down your arm, they are excellent for protection."

  Magnus picked himself up off the ground and began to spin his weapons in the same manner as Is?lde, mimicking her, trying to pick up some technique. She slowed down her movements just a bit so he could see them better – then, just a bit slower, and started to pause in between movements. That was really all it took...she actually had not shown Magnus any type of form before they started, she just wanted to see how he would do with a new untested weapon, how he would adapt to the situation. "There you go, see how each movement flows into the next...it is really just like your staff, or any other weapon. The conservation of movement," Is?lde began to pick up speed as Magnus became more proficient with each movement, "there are not so many movements to do, they are the same over and over, you just need to put them in the correct sequence when fighting."

  Is?lde moved in front of Magnus, she could mirror the movements so he could see better what he was doing, "Now you are getting it, let's add strikes," She began her movements again, and added 'punching' in between movements, "see how with the conservation of movement here, when you strike here," she struck the air, "the energy saved is now transferred to the tonfa." The pair continued past lunch, spinning, punching, swinging. Gunther, in the meantime had brought the pair some food and left them to their 'leisure'. "Okay, Magnus, one more round now that you have some practice, then we eat."

  "Okay" he replied, feeling much better about himself.

  The duo paired up, both swinging their weapons through the practiced motions, Is?lde struck first, swinging her right tonfa at the face. Magnus blocked it easily; he could tell she was testing him. Magnus countered with a left swing up to her chin, she had to bob back to avoid getting hit. He started a little bob and weave thing, keeping his movements tight, swing out randomly trying to get Is?lde off balance, but she was having none of that, she swatted all his attempts away – the last one, popped his tonfa wide and she rapped him in the forehead, making his eyes water.

  Magnus bobbed back, looking for room but she chased him. She began the same tactic as him, but she was faster, and Magnus could not keep up. He gained just a little bit of ground and let her come in, she came in high with a swing from his right, Magnus rolled with spinning out of the way but continued spinning as he dropped into a leg sweep that caught Is?lde off guard, completely up ending her, literally landing ass over tea kettle, her battle skirt flopped up showing off her battle undies.

  Magnus jumped up in the air – "WHOOP" he shouted, celebrating a victory, finally! He was laughing so hard now, seeing the immortal angel untangle herself from her clothing and weapons, he knew exactly how she felt. "Uhh, okay there tiny lady," he gave her a single mocking clap, "I'll meet ya' over by the food, you just let me know if you need any help there, okay." Magnus made his way to the lunch, checking over his shoulder just to make sure she did not throw anything at his back, sat down, and waited patiently.

  Is?lde eyed Magnus, he was sitting down eating hard cheese and bread, as she dusted herself off and straightened her attire. On her way to join him, she first shook her head with a slight scowl, then nodded her head to him, acknowledging his win.

  "Okay, that was very good. I did not expect that, at all – clearly. Good job on adapting. We do need to work on your speed, though. I know I will always be faster than you, but you can be faster, we will have to figure that out. Anyway, next on the agenda – do you remember the monster weaknesses?"

  "Ughh...yes I do, Is?lde – do we have to do this again?"

  "Yes, of course – we'll do this until we get to go out and put your skills to the test. Nothing is a better test than actually doing what you've been practicing, so let me hear it...oh, yeah, at some point this afternoon, too we need to discuss your payment to me for the training", she smiled big, "you probably thought I forgot, didn't you? You owe me a boat mister."

  And that about cinched up the rest of Magnus' day – Monster talk and a boat, and no, he had not forgotten about the boat.

  The pair finished lunch, finished the monster quizzing, and headed back to the village. The aroma of food was carried on the light breeze from the village – it was nearly dinner time; it had been that long the pair had been working on Magnus' skills. He was now guiding her to the shipyard, he wanted to see if she was really up for a boat.

  "Is?lde, my angelic dealer of doom, here are our boats." Magnus put on his best used wagon salesman persona and proceeded to walk her through the shipyard to look at the many boats that were currently being built, "We have small boats, or 'canoes'; medium boats, or 'boats'; and large boats, 'ships'. Then of course, we have in between each of those, because we build what the buyer wants – so, what is it that you want?"

  Like everything else in the village, the activity was a wonder of precision and efficiency. "Well, I like the big one with two sails...I think it fits my personality – it looks dangerous, with all the shields and murder holes build into the sides." She appeared to be pondering, her right hand across her midriff, holding her left elbow, left hand rubbing her chin, seemingly deep in thought – a smirk and a twinkle of mischief in her eye, though, she had to keep Magnus from catching that.

  "Uhh, I've heard of the host of heaven, angels and stuff, but you would surely need the host to man this ship Is?lde, can you do that?" Magnus was really not sure what she would do with the big ship, how she would pilot it.

  "Well sir, I am not human, we know that...and yes I do know some angels that would love to work this beautiful piece of craftsmanship – but did I mention I am an angel, I am pretty sure I could handle the whole thing." She was still rubbing her chin, "Yeah, I have some skills you haven't seen yet. It would be unfair if I broke those out on you...so yeah, I pick this one."

  Magnus was stunned now – so not only did she want the big ship...he was going to have to cover the cost. He could not fathom this at the moment, maybe he could put it off for a bit and convince the counsel to help with the price...Magnus' wheels were turning, the look on his face priceless as Is?lde began to giggle...and then she began to laugh – Magnus knew he had just been played.

  "You are quite a bit of devil, for an angel" he smirked.

  "See, I knew I'd get you back the same way you got me...some way you would not expect. So, I definitely do not want one of those big boats...but how about something sleek and fast?"

  Magnus showed Is?lde his favorite boat for speed, it was a medium length hull, deeper than a canoe for stability, but longer, for speed. One large sail, and only six oars, but could be manned by two. He explained how the hull worked to keep it stable for traveling perpendicular to the waves, and the length also helped with getting out of the break water faster and more safely. It was perfect for an angel who did not need a crew, since she had some hidden powers or some such thing, as yet to be explained.

  Two weeks later with the boat build moving forward and Magnus's training was also in full swing, Magnus was improving daily, weapons and skills with his body and mind. Monster training which included world history, chemistry, biology, and psychology. Is?lde taught him everything he would need to know to get inside of his opponent's heads. Magnus immersed himself in the training, as he knew he must learn all of these skills to defeat his opponents – and to stay alive. The information that Is?lde imparted to him, besides being informational...was also scary – he was learning the nuances of the creatures that went bump in the night, how to protect himself as well as dispatch them. The boat was secondary...Magnus could build one of these models in his sleep, but his best crew was on it with minimal oversight from the boss. There were some minor changes he put into the build, slight touches to make the boat uniquely Is?lde's.

  At the end of September, Magnus could take Is?lde one out of five rounds, depending on the weapon – except for the bo staff, Is?lde had to resort to cheating when they fought with the staff – Magnus was proud of himself for that. The duo had also gone on several of monster hunts by now, there were some vampyr and goblins up north that were causing panic – they were dispatched, but that is a story for another time. The goblins though, like to hoard treasure – Magnus was able to monetarily help out the village that had been traumatized by said goblins, while being able to pay for Is?lde's boat plus some for his village. The real reason for the monster hunt though, they were looking for the giant white bear. Stories were coming down from the north of the carnage left from mauled animals and even one village that moved out of their ancestral lands because they were afraid of what might happen to them. They were farmers, not warriors.

  By the first of October, Is?lde had had enough of the giant white bear. Overnight, some news had come to the village, news of another warrior that had fallen victim to the bear...she was done. This morning, when the pair met, she laid it out for Magnus', "I won't stand by any longer Magnus, I must go look for the bear. I know your guys have been out looking, but how could they possibly miss it, that is just weird. Not to mention, all of the carcasses are spoiled and even the carrion eaters don't clean up the mess...I don't even think I saw flies on the last one we found, it's too much to think this creature is normal – I must find it and kill it." Is?lde was pacing in the hut, and mildly ranting, she was clearly upset at what was going on, and she was 100% correct, this beast was not normal.

  Magnus pleaded with her, "Please be reasonable my friend, we can't go off half drawn, we need to assemble a war party, get the right gear, and plan this out. We will go, I promise, but please wait for us."

  "Magnus, you know when I cheat to beat you, when we spar with the staff?" she asked, questioning him with her eyes as well, Magnus nodded in agreement. "Well, that is only me cheating a tiny bit, I have capabilities far beyond what you've have seen. I have the skills and abilities to take on multiple full demons and win...repeatedly. So, no offense, you can get your war party together with your gear and things, but I am going to go now, I don't think this can wait any longer...I have a bad feeling, like this is the calm before the storm, I'm sorry but I must go." And just like that, Is?lde was out the door. Magnus stepped out to watch her go, he could see her full armor set manifest as her wings appeared, and she flew up into the sky, headed north presumably toward the training grounds.

  Magnus turned back to his hut to prepare for battle. He had a plain helmet, a cuirass of scales, like a dragon, very expensive but it did not limit his mobility like a solid piece. There were also his scale gauntlets and solid thigh guards...and that was it, he believed his mobility to be his biggest asset. Along with the armor he grabbed is two handed axe to strap to his back, and his new battle staff that he could wield like the devil himself...maybe arch angel is better, anyway...he checked for anything else he thought he may need and headed out the door, but paused just for a moment to triple check, he did not want to go into battle missing something critical. He turned to check once more, behind the door, he noticed a large Roman style spear – something he was sure he had not seen before, but something that felt familiar to him, like he should know what it is. He grabbed the spear, all seven feet of it, and set his staff in its place. The spear gave off a warmth, like kind words said by your father or grandfather, it gave him a feeling of encouragement and certainty – this was a unique weapon to say the least.

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  As Magnus closed the door to his hut, Gunther was coming up the path, Magnus waited for him to get close enough to talk. "Gunther, I need you to go back to the village and get the top twenty of our warriors and all the archers, tell them to prepare for the most epic battle of their lives – we are going to war with the giant white bear."

  Gunther was sharp, he knew from looking at Magnus, what was going on. He was already prepped to deliver the news, but he did have to ask, "Magnus, where is Is?lde?" Magnus noted the slight bit of fear his friend had for his mentor, "she is already on her way Gunther, you get the men and follow me up to the training grounds, I'm pretty sure that is where we need to start looking." The two turned apart and started jogging their own direction.

  Is?lde made the training grounds in five minutes, she expected Magnus in the next fifteen or twenty, he could move fast for a big man, but not nearly as fast as her. Something in her gut made her want to start here. It was a larger circular area, sixty yards across, one way in – one way out – it sat in a bowl with nearly shear walls except where the narrow road cut a path. Not really any other way out except to fly. She took in the area, some tables, chairs, and benches lined around the perimeter. Several empty racks for holding all of the various weapons that would be used here. On the west side, away from the entry, stood a dozen archery targets. Nothing out of the ordinary. She sauntered over to the archery targets to browse for a moment before she took off...that is when she felt it.

  A greasy malevolence like she had never felt before. It was almost physically tangible, she could literally feel it moving across her body and getting stronger, slowly but surely. Whatever this was, in all of her battles for heaven, she had never felt anything like it. Her stomach turned, she was feeling sad...and afraid...and scared all at the same time – this was probably not a good thing. Is?lde turned to face the entry and conjured her shield and sword, preparing for the fight of her life, but it is hard when your insides seem like they are trying to get on the outside.

  Is?lde could see the head of a giant white bear appear, as it sauntered slowly into the training area, followed by its gigantic white body. She knew a polar bear when she saw one, but this one was larger by half than anything she has ever seen or heard of. It was also not white per se...it was a dirty and bloody mess. The beast's once stark white coat was now coated in filth and gore, it did not look right. It was as though malevolence had destroyed the physical vessel, and whatever demon that now possessed the poor animal, was showing through. The evil pulsing off of this beast had her trembling – she did not know what to do, she had never had to fight something like this before, all she could do was stare.

  The monster stopped and stared at her, forty yards off, and she could see solid black of its eyes absorbing light like black holes, not letting anything escape the evil gaze. "Hello granddaughter of the almighty", the voice was in her head – nothing audible. "Yes, you will hear me. This form is not meant for speech...it's not like I need it anyway." The voice in her head sounded... "normal" not smooth like a regular demon, and not grumbly like a lesser demon.

  "What do you want here, you can't be here..." she shouted, attempting to sound unafraid. "I will stop you; I've killed hundreds of your ilk"

  Amazingly, the bear smirked "You have not killed any of 'my' kind girl. I was an arch angel at one time – it was Michael himself that had to strike me from heaven, none of you second-class angels could handle it. So, what do you think you're going to do now?"

  Is?lde's mind was spinning, she thought to herself 'if I can just keep him monologuing, may I can come up with something before Magnus gets here', she asked, "why are you here? If you are soo powerful, why are you wasting your time in this backwoods hill country, aren't there some giant cities like Rome or someplace in old Sumeria you would want to be?"

  "Someone killed one of my minions. As I reached out to feel what was going on, I felt you, and I can feel something else, another presence – something...good" he spat out the last word like it was dirty. "I know better than to think the Almighty isn't up to something when there is an angel, and whatever that other power source is...so when I lost a demon, I figured I'd better come myself and see what is going on. Once I am done with you, I will just keep killing humans until that power goes away; that's what I am doing. Since we are playing question and answer -what is it that you are doing here?"

  "Same as you, looking for that power – there is some kind of monster around here, I'm just looking for it..." as she was talking, she was slowly raising her wings, preparing to launch – strait at the greater demon. She snapped her wings down and kicked off the ground, shooting faster than an arrow straight at the bear – and subsequently go her ass swatted out of the air like she was no more than a sparrow.

  Is?lde flew like a line drive off to the demon's left smashing through a table and into the wall of the natural bowl. She pulled herself out of a heap and noticed right away her shield had torn...like it was paper. Her shield was covered in Enochian runes and blessed...and it had been torn. "Hmm..." she thought, "that's not good either."

  She dispelled her shield and shook off the blow. Her mind began to cycle through her 'dance' book, she needed another tactic for this enemy. Number one though, do NOT take a direct hit from it. This will have to be death from a thousand cuts. She decides she can dart in under wing power, stay wide and just keep cutting the monster with her sword until it finally bleeds out.

  The monster is moving in on her slowly, locked in like a bear on a seal. Is?lde likewise, begins to stalk. Completely unforeseen, the bear launches itself at her faster than physics would actually allow – but apparently demon power does not care about that. She barely rolls to her right and launches away with a powerful sweep of her wings...one more thing to keep an eye on.

  The pair keep slowly stalking, slowly moving forward – Is?lde launches straight at the greater demon, and as it pulls back its right paw for the swat, she swings wide and around the strike and stabs the bear in the back leg – and barely makes a mark – "Oh shit" is the only thing she can think to say. She pivots to face it but sweeps her wings back to pull her away from it, so she has time to think. The demon spins quickly and shows off that weird bear smirk – this is not good.

  She begins to stalk, but circling to her left now, trying to keep the bear out further and gain more momentum for her attack. She begins to flex her wings, attempting to throw off the demon's attention. She bolts in again, but this time the bear does not raise a paw to defend, so she veers off to her right in an attempt to run her sword down one whole side of the demon – who apparently will have none of that – he reaches out and grabs the sword before it lands...and shatters it in his paw. He spins holding on the broken blade, and Is?lde is still hanging on to the hilt, proceeds to throw her into the wall – again. The wall is much closer this time and with no loss of momentum, it really hurts – a lot. The demon bear is close, he grabs her by the wings and tosses her up in the air like a tennis ball; she is dazed and does not have the frame of mind to fly away, and the demon bear swats her again to the far side of the training grounds, like a fifty yard field goal attempt, she arcs up and drops back down on to the ground and tumbles into the wall...once more.

  Is?lde is stunned, tired, confused, and...scared – she cannot think of a time in her life when she was scared. Not just afraid, some fear is good...but she is scared now, hyperventilating type of scared. She can only think of one thing to do now, fly away. She pulls herself off of the ground and furls out her wings to launch into the sky, but something happens, something else she has never experienced, her wings go away but she is not the one who dispelled them. She looks at the greater demon now, with even greater fear gnawing away at her spirit.

  "You didn't know we could do that did you?" It was a rhetorical question, but he did pause for effect. "Ya' know – I think I heard about you...I still have some sources in the high kingdom, but anyway, I think I heard about some run of the mill angel that lost a bet to Michael over a fight...that must have been comical. You must be some kind of arrogant angel to think you could even touch an arch angel, let alone Michael. I will give him credit, he knocked me out of the high kingdom and look at what I am doing to you. You may have some fights under your armor, but you are not arch angel material...no regular angels are." The giant beast, still moving toward her, slowly and methodically. "Well, I'm done here, it's time for you to die."

  The demon bear picked up its pace, stalks closer and closer...Is?lde gathered herself, she was a trained warrior. She gathered the fear and dismissed her circumstances, she decided to kill this bastard regardless of what it thinks. As the bear gets closer, she does the opposite of what it thinks she will do, she begins to run toward it – unarmed and no wings – at the last moment, she jukes right and dives at the monstrosity, going into a summersault underneath is chest, and diving one more time out between its back legs – oh blessed Savior, thank God that worked. As she clears the bear, she sprints toward the exit of the grounds.

  The bear spins, he is as confused as the angel, but he launches himself again. Even though Is?lde has gained t thirty yards on the bear, it covers the ground against all physical odds and catches her foot in his massive mouth puncturing armor, skin, and muscle like it is cold porridge. The demon beast stands on its back legs to its full height, tilts his head down and jerks it up, tossing Is?lde again, up into the air. As she falls toward earth, the demon pulls an arm back and hits the angel into the far wall of the training area like a discarded doll from an angry child.

  The warrior angel is nearly unconscious. She tries to stand but falls as her mangled leg touches the ground. Between the pain and beating she has become incoherent; she can only lie there and wait for what is to come. The greater demon is slow to move toward her, savoring the fear and pain pouring off the angel. The monster is reveling in its victory, it does not want the elation to end...but, alas it knows it must. Slowly, ever so slowly Is?lde is now contemplating her end. She will not die still, she fights through the pain and rolls herself up and into a sitting position, watching the bear approach, still planning and scheming something she can pull off to kill this seething evil.

  Ten yards, seven, five...two – and the demon stops. It cocks it head as if it is listening for something and slowly begins to turn around. Sixty-five yards away, entering the clearing of the training grounds, Magnus spies a giant, dirty white bear, facing his friend – who appears to be a beaten mess – Magnus spins the Roman spear that is in his hand, otherwise known as a javelin, cocks back and releases the spear just before the bear fully turns around.

  As the bear finishes his turn, it stands to its full height – it can feel the power of that bull of a man, staring at him, empty handed with a giant axe strapped to his back. The power is strong, pulsing away from him...as the bear is examining this new enemy, it catches a glint of something immediately followed by an explosion of pain from its chest. It looks down to see the three remaining feet, of the seven feet, of steel and wood protruding from his chest. The power emanating from the spear is actually what the demon sensed...Magnus is a force of good, but he is not the same force as the Roman spear that had pierced the side of the Christ during the crucifixion - the Spear of Destiny.

  Magnus unsheathes his massive axe and sprints toward the falling bear. The bear falls forward pushing the spear through its chest and out the back. Magnus closes in, mumbling a prayer under his breath, and leaps to cover the last ten feet, sinking his axe through the spinal cord and neck of the greater demon, nearly taking the head in one blow. The body is so massive, regretfully Magnus must finish the job with two more standing blows. As the head leaves the body, nasty greasy smoke begins to seep out of the carcass and pool up next to the body. The smoke tries to take shape, stretching up attempting to form...form something. Magus watches the foggy mess, seeing it try to form, he calls out to the Allfather, "By the power of the one God, I banish you to the pits of Hel – be gone demon!" The Allfather gladly answers the call and banishes the greater demon to where it belongs.

  Magnus immediately turns and runs to his friend, "Is?lde, oh God in heaven, what can I do for you?" He gently begins to grab her hand and look over her wounds, heart broke at what he sees. "I'll be okay, you slow ass brute...what took you so long – and where did you get that spear, even I thought that was a myth." She sighed and relaxed against the wall that had become so familiar to her, letting the coolness of the stone seep into her, soothing her soreness if just a little bit. "Don't worry about me, now the demon is dead I'll start to heal. That monster could do something to keep me from touching heaven or something. He even made my wings disappear; I can feel my connection again – I will be okay." Is?lde was gathering her faculties again, "Seriously, where did you get Christ's spear, Magnus?"

  He brushed some of her golden locks lout of her face, "I don't know. When I was leaving my house, I just wanted to check one more time to make sure I didn't forget something, I found it behind the door. I could feel it, it just felt right, so I grabbed it. You're telling me that is the spear the Roman legionnaire stabbed Jesus with, that Spear of Destiny?"

  "Yep...I can feel it" she breathed out as a sigh, her recuperation beginning. "You probably don't want to let that out of your sight. I gotta feeling like I know who put it in your house...he can be sneaky when he wants to."

  Magnus slowly tucked himself in beside Is?lde, letting her rest on his powerful form...armor and all. They sat in silence as time slowly ticked by, she was healing – the bleeding on her leg had stopped and it did not look crushed any longer – and the village warriors with Gunther finally arrived.

  The clansmen and women were stunned – none of them had seen any beast this size before, some of them had travelled to the northern sea where they are recognized. Gunther trotted past the bear to talk with Magnus and the angel, "Holy Father in heaven Magnus, how did a bear hurt Is?lde?"

  "That my dear man, was not just a bear but a greater demon – a fallen arch angel, that is what happened to Is?lde." Gunther was genuinely speechless. "Gunther, have the team gather as much wood as they can... I cast the demon out, but I think we need to burn this carcass up to be rid of it. Definitely no way we want to harvest anything, and I am sure no forest beasts will eat it...so let's burn it. I feel bad for the beast, it must have been something to behold at one time, but it is spoiled by the demon stench." Gunther agreed and the team set a funeral pyre.