The Unyielding Stag (Game of Thrones AU/Invincible)
Chapter 17: Five-on-One

A/N: Axel in the yard getting sweaty with some other men :V

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"Come on then. All five of you now! All at once!"

Clad in armor and holding his blunted training sword with one hand, Axel beckons to the five men in front of him with the other. The five knights, all dressed in their own armor and wielding their own blunt swords, share a look before lunging forward to strike at him from all different angles in a mildly impressive display of coordination and effort.

As Axel dodges, ducks, and weaves while blocking and deflecting at the same time, he finds his mind wandering even as not a single one of the five knights manages to land a single blow on him.

The worst part is the waiting, Axel has decided. He's King of the Seven Kingdoms and yet all he can do is fucking wait. It's been some time since Renly Baratheon all but declared war with that damn letter. Time spent waiting for letters to travel back and forth across Westeros by raven. All to find out where everyone stands with one another, and more importantly where everyone stood with him specifically.

Axel has done his best to keep busy, of course. He's continued to spar with anyone willing to cross blades with him and in doing so he's gathered a fine selection of passable knights who might one day become members of his Kingsguard. He hones them each and every day, pushing them to their limits and then a little bit further with every bout, just as he is right now.

Going on the offensive for just a moment, Axel moves into one of his opponent's swings and grabs his sword arm by the wrist before solidly thumping his chestplate with his sword. The man goes down on his back and doesn't get up, all of them knowing that such a blow would have been fatal if Axel weren't holding back and had live steel in his hands.

Everyone tenses up, even as Axel's mind wanders once more. There's also the Great Sept, which Axel has made a point to visit on the daily, speaking with the High Septon or one of his subordinates whenever possible. He's was always a faithful devotee to the Seven Who Are One back in the Vale of course, but never as much as he's become now.

But then to be fair, Axel isn't just doing it to keep up appearances. He himself wants to believe that the Seven have blessed him. The alternative is that he's some sort of monster or demon, an inhuman thing wearing the skin of a man.

Eventually, he might not be able to hide his true nature anymore, especially if it really does come to war with Renly. Axel isn't sure he can hold back just to hide his true nature while thousands of men die for him. When that time came, Axel wanted to be on the Faith's good side, no matter what.

The remaining four knights pull back for a moment and regroup. Axel lets them do so with an approving nod, even as some squires scurry onto the training field from the side and help the defeated knight get out of the way. Pretending not to listen in as the four plan out a joint attack in whispered voices from a dozen paces away, Axel prepares himself for their charge.

Of course, if everyone were to find out about Axel's other… activities, then his rapidly developing reputation as a pious and vigilant King would probably be put to the test. After all, even if there was no relation between him and Cersei Lannister, it still probably wasn't a very good look for the new King to be fucking the Queen Dowager on the regular.

… Axel couldn't seem to help himself though. It wasn't really a matter of self control, but more that Cersei had proven to be far too seductive by half. She was a very beautiful woman despite her age, and Axel had found himself drawn into her games before he could really stop and think.

It wasn't like he was a virgin or anything like that. No, there had been plenty of women back in the Eyrie who Axel had taken to bed. Not to mention the women among the mountain clans who had proven fierce and all the more enjoyable for it.

Cersei though… Cersei was a cut above the rest. She knew it too, and the cunning woman wielded her beauty like a fine scalpel. Jon had warned Axel about her more than once at this point, but Axel found himself going back for more time and time again all the same.

And when he didn't go to Cersei, she tended to come to him, showing up in his chambers and in his bed more times than he could count at this point. He was always careful not to cum inside of course, and she wholeheartedly agreed that such a thing was in neither of their best interests. Even still, she'd become something of a presence in his day to day life.

Finally, the four knights break apart and begin moving in. Perhaps they think that his patience has limits. Perhaps they really are just done planning. Either way… it doesn't really matter. They come at him and while Axel is careful not to show his true strength or speed, he also isn't about to let any man knock him on his ass. He just doesn't have it in him.

Ducking under a swing from one knight, blocking the blow from another, Axel again picks his target from the four. He meets the man's eyes and sees the moment that the knight recognizes himself as Axel's prey, his pupils dilating and his entire body freezing up.

… Not exactly Kingsguard material, but Axel can't exactly blame the man for recognizing when he's outmatched. Still, another clang sounds out as Axel strikes him in what would have been a mortal fashion and he's subsequently taken out of the fight.

At least the news from the rest of the Seven Kingdoms has been good… mostly. Almost all of the Lords of the Realm outside of the Stormlands and the Reach have now sworn loyalty to Axel by way of raven. Meanwhile, the Lords of the Crownlands have all managed to make the trip to King's Landing at this point and sworn their loyalty in person.

Even Axel's other uncle, Lord Stannis Baratheon, sent a letter announcing his imminent arrival in the city by boat, as well as swearing loyalty and decrying Renly's words as nothing more than power hungry lies. Despite Cersei claiming that Stannis was almost certainly going to betray Axel eventually, Jon had advised him that Stannis was trustworthy to a fault. The man didn't have a capacity for subterfuge.

Of course, Cersei just said that was what Stannis wanted everyone to think, but Axel was getting better at… reading between the lines with her. She was a very opinionated woman, but that did not mean her opinions were always correct.

Straightening up, Axel looks to the three remaining knights and smiles.

"This is where I would normally advise you to surrender. But it's not much of a spar if we don't fight until the last, no? Come on. Remember, this isn't about comparing yourself to me. This is about comparing yourselves to the you of yesterday."

That was the philosophy he had been trying to instill into his sparring partners here in the Red Keep. It wasn't about beating him. It was about beating your past self. Continue improving, continue growing stronger, and there was nothing anyone with brains could say about you or your skill.

Axel can see a sense of resigned determination and grim resolve wash over the three remaining knights in front of him. They all know how this ends. But sometimes it's about the journey, rather than the destination. With a series of shouts and battle cries, they throw themselves at him from three different directions.

Smiling, Axel meets their charge, staying on the defensive for a moment to allow them to practice their technique against a far superior opponent.

Meanwhile, he finds himself thinking about the Reach and the Stormlands. Just as he'd been advised would happen, the Reach had not only failed to swear loyalty by raven, but they'd also gone and sworn for Renly instead. Lord Mace Tyrell had penned his own set of letters signaling that he believed Renly's claims and naming Renly as the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Never mind that Stannis still lived… it didn't seem like that mattered too much to Mace, because apparently his daughter Margaery was to marry Axel's traitorous Uncle and he himself was to be Renly's Hand.

Even though Renly held neither the Iron Throne nor King's Landing, he seemed intent on making an ass of himself anyways. They said he wore a crown upon his head with stag antlers, and that he styled himself as a King with Margaery Tyrell as his Queen.

Frowning at the thought, Axel sweeps the legs out from one of the three remaining knights, sending him to the ground. Unlike the first two however, he doesn't deliver a killing blow. Instead, he holds himself back and to their credit, the other two knights who are still standing immediately leap to their comrade's defense, blocking him off and pushing him back. He lets them do so, of course, even as the one on the ground begins to struggle back to his feet.

It was all just a little bit infuriating for Axel. Here he was with all of this power and all of this strength and all he could do was wait. The temptation to just… go and nip the problem in the bud with his own two hands grew stronger every day, but Jon cautioned patience and Axel knew he was better off listening to the older man.

If he wasn't careful, he could easily be exposed as an inhuman monster in the eyes of the people. And then his only choices would be to rule as a tyrant and rely on fear to keep everyone in check… or abdicate altogether. And Axel didn't want to rule by fear if he didn't have to, so for the time being, he would continue to lean on Jon. There was a reason that Robert had made Jon his Hand and kept him in that position for more than twenty years after all.

Although… that was another thing that Axel had been learning a lot about since becoming King. His predecessor. Robert Baratheon was his father after all, even if he'd never gotten to meet the man. He was also King of the Seven Kingdoms for more than twenty years, a feat that Axel felt had to be acknowledged, right?

Only, from everything Axel had learned, the successes of Robert Baratheon as King of Westeros could be far more easily laid at the feet of Jon Arryn instead. If it wasn't for Jon's stewardship as Robert's hand, Axel isn't really sure that the Realm would have survived his father's leadership.

Whoremongering. Excessive Drinking. Excessive Eating. Robert Baratheon might not have been as bad as the Mad King, but that wasn't to say he was very good either. Axel could read between the lines quite easily. Robert… was a failure as a king.

Soon, its three on one again. Axel doesn't push, allowing his remaining opponents to make the big moves instead. They're trying their best of course, but Axel is like a wall before them. And… they're all getting tired. That's the thing about fighting against him. Even when he's sandbagging, even when he's holding himself back as much as possible… he never slows down. He never gets exhausted.

Frankly, Axel can't remember the last time he's been tired. And it certainly won't be today as he blocks a shaky sword with his own and sends the man who swung it stumbling backwards. They're all doing everything to try and take him down. They're pulling out all the stops. But none of them are anywhere near his level, even when he's holding back.

… Needless to say, Axel didn't intend to follow in his father's footsteps. He was already trying to do everything in his power to be different from Robert. He took daily lessons with Jon Arryn, and while he knew he was leaning on the aging Hand as much as Robert did, at least Axel had a good excuse in that he'd been nothing more than a bastard just a short time ago. More than that… he fully believed he had an awareness that he feels like his father lacked.

Jon wasn't getting any younger and stewarding Robert's Kingship had already taken some of the best decades of the Lord of the Vale's life. Axel wanted to learn to be the best King that he could be as fast as possible so that eventually, Jon could retire to the Vale and live out the rest of his years presiding over his own lands, as any noble lord should be able to do.

With a grunt, Axel finally starts moving towards ending the spar. And once he decides that sort of thing… well, the spar ends. He sweeps the same man's legs out from under him and this time the knight doesn't get up. He slams an armored fist into the chest of another man and he goes down as well. And finally, his sword smacks into the helm of the third just hard enough to send him stumbling backwards to land right on his ass.

In barely a handful of seconds, he ends the spar, standing there breathing evenly as he looks down at the five men he's just fought singlehandedly.

"You all did well. You should be proud of your progress, each and every one of you."

Since he's the King, they all find the strength to mutter some form of polite thanks to him before he turns and leaves the training field behind.

Of course, before Axel could learn everything Jon had to teach him and then let the older man retire to the Eyrie… they had to deal with Axel's treacherous uncle and the Reach. Which brought him right back to his previous thought about the worst part about being King so far. Waiting.

The Lords of the Crownlands were gathering their levies of course, but it was a paltry sum compared to the rest of Westeros. The Vale, the Riverlands, and the North were also calling up their levies, but they would probably be too late to matter given the rate at which the Stormlands and the Reach were said to be moving.

Unless, of course, the Westerlands arrived in time. Lord Lannister had sworn loyalty and even said he would start gathering his forces, but he had been rather vague on when his armies would reach King's Landing, making no promises and offering no guarantees.

If Renly and Lord Tyrell made it to King's Landing before anyone else could, they wouldn't simply win out of hand… but it also wouldn't be good for Axel's side either. They would lay siege to the city and begin starving King's Landing. And given the city had a population that still seemed unbelievable to Axel, people would suffer greatly from such tactics.

He hated that he wasn't able to just go out and handle it himself like he had back in the Vale with the Mountain Clans… but for now at least, he needed to keep his true capabilities under wraps. It was one thing to be able to best five men by himself in the training yard… it was another entirely if he went and fought an entire army.

Did he think he could win if he tried such a thing? Maybe… and part of Axel ached to find out. But even if he did win, everyone would know at that point. They would know what Axel was truly capable of, and they might not believe him to be blessed by the Seven at that point.

If the people of Westeros decried him as demon, it wouldn't matter how strong he was. He would be shunned, disavowed, and hunted. Axel didn't fear the steel of a thousand men, truth be told. But Jon had been teaching him the strength of mere words and what they could potentially do.

… Fuck it, he was going to go visit Cersei again. He needed to take his mind off all the waiting… and if nothing else, the Queen Dowager was very useful for that.

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A/N: I definitely tried to do things a little bit differently with this chapter. Not sure I quite succeeded, but ah well, here we are all the same lol.

(The base price of my Patreon also increases from $3 to $5 at the end of July but if you get in now you keep the $3 price as long as you want, so now is a great time to sign up!)