Words of Hathor filled my mind as I woke up and ate the meal prepared for me. After Melokuhle’s heartfelt confession to me I put Bongani aside to wait for the scraps us women would leave behind for him. He looked satisfied as he eyed me. There was a sparkle of appreciation and worship in those eyes.

  I gazed at him with that fluttering feeling in my chest. Even though I healed him I could see bruising around his throat from where I choked him as well as a slight redness to his ass from the spanking he so desperately desired st night. There was no interest in the food I was eating in his eyes, only a desire to serve me. As I took my st bite I motioned for him to crawl to me.

  Bongani kept on his hands and knees, his eyes downcast once Melokuhle and Aphiwe looked at him as well. He prostrated himself before me, his head to the ground. Melokuhle looked at her food and then me. I could see that glimmer of disgust she held for the male.

  “Melokuhle, have you finished your food?” I locked eyes with her, giving her the chance to speak.

  She instead took a bite stripping the st bit of flesh off the bone before handing it to me. “He can have the marrow.” Melokuhle picked up Aphiwe and walked away leaving me with our male. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at me. “Please remember,” Turning she walked away with our charge.

  I looked down my nose at my male. With a twist of my arms I snapped the offered bone open. “Look at me,” I demanded.

  Bongani raised his eyes to my chest but did not dare stare into my face. I lifted half the broken bone to his lips and teased his nose with the smell of the waiting marrow. I could see his tongue drag along his lips as he waited for my command.

  “Suck the marrow,” I whispered. Bongani opened his mouth leaning forward and taking the shattered bone in his mouth with reverence and sucked at the delicious center. His eyes fluttered closed as he coated his tongue with the leftovers. Just as he pulled away I csped his mouth with my hand and pulled him into a kiss tasting the blood in his mouth as our gifted tongues explored one another.

  Forcing his head back I could feel him reflexively swallow with my lips sealed over his. I could feel his aching desire through his twitches and whimpers. Pulling back I left him with his eyes closed and his body tense and waiting for whatever else I desired from him. Instead I stood and tossed the food where I was sitting.

  “Eat up, then clean up the hut like a good male.” I ran my hand between his ears and grabbed his hair gently. “If you’re lucky I’ll use you ter.”

  Bongani let out a whimper as I let him go and walked away. I could hear the crunch of bone and sucking of marrow as I stepped out of the hut. I felt my stomach and could feel the slightest bit of fat across my muscur physique. I’d been eating too well and not training enough. Though the constant leveling up and the change made to my body by the gods seemed to cause my need for food to be so much more. A lifetime of watching Ade eat her weight in food and staying in perfect shape flitted through my mind.

  All my life I had been told the difference between the ascended and those beneath them. Though the warriors, hunters, and breeders could level up with their experience they gained so little in comparison to those that pleased the gods and became more. I headed towards the training grounds to practice. Thoughts of Bongani being the only male I had ever heard of ascending filled my mind. In time he would be much more powerful than Melokuhle ever could be.

  My mind drifted as I walked and I hadn’t taken the time to notice when I was subtly surrounded. Senses became flooded with growls that snapped my attention away from my thoughts. Ears flicking I looked around at the five hunters that had chosen to surround me. Some of which had been caught up in the orgy I inspired a few nights ago but none of them seemed too in the mood to allow themselves to be goaded into such things.

  Several staves were casually being held as their chorus of growls kept my attention on edge. I crossed my arms as I looked ahead of myself at who I assumed was their leader. With a growl that shook my voice with a menace, “What do you all want?”

  “You’ve crawled into several people’s huts and are taking their mates behind their backs. Such things should be punished.” The circle around me grew tighter. One of them spit at my feet as I stood my ground towering over all of them.

  “What of it? I’m ascended, only Ade can tell me what I should do.” I let my arms drop as I prepared for violence with the ratcheting tension in all of us.

  “You’re a breeder!” Cried one of them behind me. “You are below us!” The whistling of a staff headed for the back of my knee. Instead of dodging it I hardened the muscles of my leg being like an iron wall as the wood crashed against my skin leaving a stinging behind. “We will beat you to your knees!”

  I turned slowly looking at the hunter that had struck me and narrowed my eyes, “I’ll warn you once. Strike me again and your nose will be shattered. I’ll scar your face so badly no mate will y with you willingly.”

  The huntress growled, rearing back to strike me again with an overhead blow. In the moment she opened her stomach up with rearing back I unched myself forward and pnted my fist deep into her gut causing an explosion of air bursting from her lungs. In an instant the rest of the hunters descended upon me with their staves. I ignored the blows as I grabbed the one I warned by the back of the head and wrenched her face up enough to line up for the strike of my elbow crushing her nose against her face with a spout of blood.

  The raining blows on my shoulders and back of my head left me roaring in pain as I twisted out of the circle holding one of their own before me as a body shield. Several of them halted as I took the staff from the limp hands of my defeated opponent.

  I dropped the woman and held the staff before me like a spear. A lifetime of training kicked in as I squared off against the hunters. I lunged with a thrust towards my first opponent. It was lightning fast as I smmed my spear home into her diaphragm forcing an explosion of air from her lungs. I had left myself open for another clobbering blow to my shoulder causing the muscle to go numb.

  I twirled, deflecting a second strike and shing out with a crushing sweep to the side of the head of another. Again though I left myself open for attack. I had to rely on my superior physique and strength to carry me through this before I had them thinned out enough that I could over power each one. My numb shoulder robbed a second thrust of some of its strength letting it be just slow enough to be parried. I carried through and rammed myself into the woman sending her sprawling onto her back.

  I pushed myself out of the circle with a terrible stomp to the groin on the downed woman causing her to buck in pain from the crushing blow. Spinning I brought the staff up to full height and aimed to end the woman with a power strike to her temple but I was intercepted by a spear thrust through my arms aiming at my head. I ducked aside having to uncsp my arms to free myself of the tangling blow.

  The attacks were coming so I went to leap back only for my leg to get grabbed by my downed opponent. Stopping for just that moment led to a powerful strike to my temple sending me sprawling to the ground in a burst of stars and dizziness. The staff cttered from my suddenly limp hand as the hunters descended towards me.

  I flooded my body with my own healing magic. I couldn’t do this all on my own with just the strength of my arms. The dizziness faded, the numbness disappeared. With a sp to the ground dozens of vines exploded from the ground wrapping around all the hunters around me. I snapped to my feet. I let out a few explosive blows to surprised heads knocking a few of them silly as I rushed past them all.

  The woman I had hit with a thrust had recovered enough to see me coming right as I was on top of her. I trapped an arm in my own flexing my powerful muscles to put her arm to the limit. The knowledge of hand to hand combat filled my arms as I rained blows upon the open side of her head with three blows that knocked her senseless. Her body sagged into unconsciousness in the third strike. I let her drop and turned to the others who had freed themselves from the vines.

  I kicked the dropped staff to my hands and prepared myself for the st three I had to face. My chest heaved with battle lust as adrenaline sang through my veins. With a wicked grin I descended upon the three with a fury that only an ascended could have. I traded thrusts with one woman, a gncing blow to my temple in exchange for a crippling blow to the liver.

  I turned a second blow aside with a sweep and put all my might into a headbutt. I could feel my forehead split open from the impact but my opponent fared much worse. Her eyes were cross and she swayed on her feet. A quick thrust of the butt of my staff sent her sprawling to the ground. A descending bone cracked against my hand and I could feel the bones in it crack but not break from the power of the strike.

  My hand went limp from the heavy pain that fred through my injured fingers. I spun to face the attacker and was met with a half dozen fshing thrusts of the weapon aiming from all my most vital areas. I back stepped, staying just out of range. I didn’t have any more magic to fall back on and heal my wounds. With a sudden lunge to the side I trapped my opponent's spear into the crook of my armpit, pinning it with all my considerable strength. I could feel the wood creak in its strain.

  I struck out with a one handed thrust trying to dislodge my attacker from her weapon. The power I had though was cking as I fought. Changing tactics I dropped my spear and grabbed hers putting force into snapping it and giving me a single handed length of wood. It was not a weapon I practiced with but I knew they didn’t either. Inexpertly I hammered down into the woman’s shoulders and head with bone breaking force. The stick shattered into splinters on the fourth blow sending my st attacker to her stomach.

  All five of the women y around me groaning in pain. In that st csh they had nded more blows against me. My forehead was bleeding and an eye swelled shut. My ribs stabbed with every deep breath from some blow I hadn’t realized I had taken. I relished in the pain of battle. I could sy them, I thought. However I dismissed it. If the cn needed defenders while others were at war it would be foolish to rob the cn of a good spear hand or five.

  Blood flowed down my face freely and I licked at it when it caressed my lips. The tang of copper and metal invigorated me as my nipples hardened and my cock grew stiff. Battle lust flowed through my veins. I needed a woman. None of these ones deserved my attention so I strode from them seeking anyone willing to take a hard fucking.