“He’s a right bundle of surprises, ain’t he, our sergeant?” A gruff feminine voice called out from the opposite side of the garden where a stone pathway lay between.
She seemed to be sunbathing, her golden skin touched by the sun a little too often, in a cropped top that rustled as she moved. It was white against her skin, her perfect smile flashing as she pushed her long blonde hair behind a pointed ear. She wore a pair of trousers in a shade of olive, and lifted her bare feet into the air, launching herself into a crouch like a warrior from my dad’s kung fu movie collection.
“You know better than to call me such when we aren’t on duty.” Gage growled affectionately. “Kyvir, this is Thea Oberon, a corporal in my command who has mastered the axe, sword, bo staff and has a good idea of some other weapons, too. The others over there talking to each other, are brothers. Ünbin, Cälaos, come over and meet my friend.”
The men looked like boys to me, late teens at the oldest. Lithe bodied, dark-skinned Kin with horns that raised out of the sides of their heads like a ram’s. Their hair was green, and their eyes had different shades. Ünbin had red eyes, while his brother Cälaos sported silver eyes.
“Ünbin don’t like to talk much,” Cälaos advised. “But he’s a master of the bow, sling, and atlatl. Me? I prefer the blades. Daggers, rapier, short and long sword, and been dabbling with the spear of late, too. Master of the four others, though.”
“How in the world can you be masters of that many weapons when you are not even adults?” I cried, wondering if the weapon system was broken in this game or not.
The boys chuckled to themselves, then Thea spoke, “You might be outwardly Kin, but you know little of your ilk. These boys are, what was it again, two or three hundred years old?”
Ünbin raised his pinky, ring, and middle fingers as he masked his laughing mouth from me.
“Kin age and physically mature real slow, and become adults around our twentieth year alive,” Cälaos explained kindly. “I shouldn’t have expected a wanderer to know, but then again, we hadn’t been expecting another one. What’s the meaning of this, Gage?”
The Minotaur raised his head as he spoke, “This one and three others have done us a great service by killing a Hell Cat and saving miners in the West Mine after a demon left the mine. They escorted them back to us and warned us. That’s where the other squads are right now.”
“At level five?” Ünbin surprised us by asking.
A heavy hand fell onto my shoulder and glanced up to see Gage grinning, “Level four.”
Their eyes widened, and Thea whistled low before nodding. “Mighty deed, that. So, you brought us here to try and teach him something of the weapons?”
Gage nodded, and I stepped forward. “If you’ll be so kind? I’ve been told by master armorer Filk that I would do well with the sword, spear, axe, shield and possibly even the glaive.”
“Glaive?” Thea snorted. “That twirly thing? Well, no one here can use it, but I can get you close with the bow staff. Won’t count toward mastery of the weapon, but it’ll give you basic knowledge. Maybe help a bit if you aren’t too daft.”
“I’d be happy to teach you something myself.” Gage smacked my shoulder and sent me stumbling to the right, but Ünbin steadied me.
“How long can it take?” I asked, worried about time.
“To master?” Cälaos raised his eyebrows at the question. “Months, years, decades—it’ll depend on you. How much you put into it. How you use the training. If you use it at all.”
“So, you’re all masters because you train hard and use those weapons in battle?” I asked uncertainly, but they nodded, and I smiled. It was time to learn something new.
“Well, then bo staff and maybe the sword?” I smiled at my two potential masters. “I think I’ll give these a shot so that I can protect my friends a little better.”
Ünbin seemed disappointed, his face falling as he plodded back to the side of the fence, but I made a placating gesture with my hands. “My friends will likely want to learn something from you if you’ll be patient with them.”
He nodded and waved his brother to the side of the training area we entered. I felt a crack against my back and stumbled.
4 dmg taken.
You have entered into a training circle. All damage quartered while training. All weapon and martial combat experience doubled.
This experience will not count toward personal levels.
I blinked and dismissed the notification, turning to find Thea standing with a bo staff in each hand and a grin on her face.
“What do you know of fighting with a weapon like this?” She tossed me the seven-foot-long wooden pole in her left hand.
“Nothing,” I answered, honestly.
“Good.” Gage grunted as he pulled a sturdily built stool over to sit on. “She won’t have any bad habits to break.”
“I’ll give you a couple of moments to grow accustomed to the weight and feel of it in your hands,” Thea cocked her hip out and leaned against her own staff as she waited patiently for me to do as she had said.
I lifted the thick wooden staff, roughly one and a half inches thick, round, and a little more than seven feet long meant it had a decent weight to it. The wood had some give, supple but hard. As I moved it through the air, it would bow and snap back. Bend and crack at the air.
“Why doesn’t it have any stats, is it below common quality?” I asked Thea from where I moved the staff about to get a feel for it.
“It’s a training weapon,” She explained as she took up her own weapon. “In the training circle, weapons take on a training status. Their use is the same, but durability isn’t drained, and they can only be broken from improper use. Helps us maintain training for longer periods.”
I nodded; it did seem straightforward. Suddenly a whooshing sound and pain in my leg and hip brought me from my thoughts with a hiss. It smarted.
4 dmg taken.
“May want to disable the damage notifications for this.” Gage chuckled. “They can be distracting, and she won’t kill you.”
“Damage notifications, off.” I barked while attempting to dodge the next blow, hoping that would work.
Damage notifications have been switched to off. To turn them back on—
I blinked the notification away as I flipped heels over head from a leg sweep by the laughing, vicious corporal.
I landed in a winded heap on the ground, moving my own weapon up just in time to catch hers.
“Finally!” She brayed with laughter, and the others clapped.
I mounted a miserable defense after that, managing to stand and block one of four strikes here and there. The important thing was that I was actually learning from this.
I could tell by her swings and jabs that this weapon wasn’t meant to be as flashy as the old films and TV shows had made it out to be, twirling and spinning about in a windmill. It was painful and precise.
The whole body moved with this weapon, the arms guiding while the placement of the feet lent balance, and the hips gave the swings power.
After ten minutes of her beating me senseless, she stopped and barked, “Rest!”
I collapsed immediately onto the ground, panting and began to wonder why I didn’t have any water with me.
“Here.” Gage grunted, and something soft, but heavy slapped against my arm. “Drink that.”
I wheezed my gratitude to him and lifted the leather bladder to my lips. Cool water cleansed me of my aches, a little of it going a long way. I stoppered it and stood, taking it back to him. “Thank you. I need to get one of those.”
“Good idea.” Gage smiled as he set it by his feet.
“Next, I will teach you basic forms and motions for the bo staff.” She set hers down and motioned for me to take a stance with it out before my chest.
“No, like this.” She took my dominant right hand and tapped it, making me put it beneath the staff, and my left hand on top. “Stabilizes it for you and makes it easier to move about.”
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For the next hour, she slowly taught me to move my body with the weapon as an extension of each other. Movement, placement, and proper body mechanics made each motion flow to the next she would show me.
After the fourth or so movement, she stepped back and began to bark orders at me. We went from one motion to the next as fluidly as I could manage, which wasn’t that fluid at all, and she would bark corrections.
After my third time through, she grabbed her own staff and used it to correct my form. Violently.
She rapped my knuckles, my knees, my shins, and I even took a whack to my backside when she thought it would surprise me. I was bruised, beaten, and finally, sick of it.
“If I beat you anymore, you’re likely to be as dark as the twins, aye?” Thea joked, seeing some kind of flaw in my form and swung her staff like a bat at my knee.
I growled and snapped my bo staff down before hers in a horizontal block that forced hers down, a modified use of the first motion that she had taught me. Not bending too far with my back and overextending.
Her weapon whipped around her hand and came down in an over-head chop that I sidestepped and shoved away with the tip of my weapon, parrying, and coming around for my own attack. The second and third motions.
She corrected and pulled back, leaping back two feet, and struck like her staff was a spear aimed straight at my core. I tried to correct as she drove the weapon through, it hit my staff, my left hand a little further up than my right.
Her momentum carried what would have been a severely painful strike to my stomach, just below my armpit and behind.
I was about to try and attack her when she was suddenly there, back pressed against the front of me with her face next to my own.
“You’ve got fire,” she said, then grunted, and her butt pressed into my hip as my feet left the ground and swung over my head.
I landed in a pile on my shoulders and back, the wind knocked from my body as she stared down at me with a knowing grin on her face. “I like it when they’ve got fire.”
I blushed and groaned as my breath finally returned. My head throbbed angrily, and I just laid there.
Weapon Mastery: Bo Staff
Level: 1 (Initiate)
“Got to initiate,” I grumbled.
“Not the slowest I’ve ever beaten a weapon into.” Thea’s grin stayed plastered on her face. “But not the fastest, either. Good.”
She set her weapon down and offered me a hand. She’d just stomped me in the worst way possible, and I was shaken to my core after having been so thoroughly beaten.
But to be completely forthright? It had been so much fun.
I reached out and grasped her hand, let her help me to stand on my feet. She was a lot closer to me than before, and she whispered, “Prettiest one I’ve given my attention to in a long time. I look forward to seeing how deep that fire burns.”
She tapped my shoulder, and a chill ran down my spine as her own home came to my map.
“If you ever feel like sparring one on one, I have a training circle in my own yard as well.” She winked a deep-blue eye at me, and I blushed furiously back at her. That only seemed to encourage her.
What is it with older women and being so straightforward? I harrumphed.
“She’s being serious, Kyvir,” I heard Ünbin speaking from my left where he stood watching me blush. “She has one. I’d suggest going for the help.”
My cheeks burned even more fiercely as I shook my head and muttered, “I thought you didn’t like talking?”
“He doesn’t.” Cälaos seemed curious too. Ünbin just shrugged and stepped to his brother’s side. “What’s got into you?”
Ünbin just shrugged once more as I limped out of the circle, hissing at the pain in all of my joints.
“You look thoroughly whooped,” Mona’s voice drifted toward me, and I looked over to see her following Gage into the back yard.
“I missed him getting thrashed again?” The Minotaur raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “Blast.”
“I thought we were friends!” I mocked a tone of betrayal at both of them.
Gage held his hand to his chest. “I am glad you think of yourself as such, Kyvir. I would like for all of my friends to be prepared for combat, and if bruises and wounded pride are all you suffer, then I would see them supplied most thoroughly.”
Monami snorted and patted his elbow. “I like you more and more, big guy.”
Gage introduced all of the others, and Mona decided that she liked the idea of learning daggers but said she had plans for another set of weapons she could possibly use.
“What’s that?” Thea asked with a note of heavy curiosity in her tone.
“I was thinking of using metal rings called chakrams,” she replied. I had to admit, I hadn’t thought of that. Sure, some of the characters in older fighting games used them, but how? I wasn’t sure. But she seemed to have a plan.
“Metal rings?” Cälaos walked over and asked excitedly. “Are they bladed?”
“Mhm, they sure are. I’m not sure if I want to have them mostly bladed, or if I want them fully bladed with a handle in the center to hold them.” Mona seemed to puzzle over it for a minute before shrugging. “I’ll have to do more research, then see if I can master it on my own unless you know anyone who uses weapons like it?”
“I know no one like that.” He looked to Thea who shook her head.
“Minh Lei.” Ünbin grunted, forcing his brother to look back at him. He held his hands out like he was holding some kind of fan and fluttered his hands and eyes together while swaying.
“The soldier who uses fans to fight?” Gage frowned. “I could call upon her, but she may not teach you.”
“If you could do that, I would truly appreciate your time and hers.” Mona bowed her head.
“I will do this thing then.” Gage left us and turned back toward his home, but I heard footsteps from the other side of me.
Cälaos has rushed over to pull Monami into the circle, excitedly. “We can start while the sergeant goes to summon her!”
He pulled out a belt with a set of daggers in it at the hips and affixed it about his waist. He opened his inventory again and pulled another matching belt from it, and tossed it onto the ground before Monami.
“Put that on and limber up!” The Kin man began to bounce on the balls of his feet restlessly as she moved.
“Don’t worry, to keep things fair, he’ll actually show you how to hold your weapons and a few things before beating on you the way I did Kyvir.” Thea winked at Mona, both of them sharing a laugh at my expense, and I just rolled my eyes.
It took her a moment or so, but he was able to help her get things situated on her body. The hilts of the daggers dug into her hips at first, making movement odd with them sheathed. Cälaos popped over to her side and helped her adjust the straps so that they faced pommel and hilt first at an angle for her to draw easily and be able to move with.
“Thank you.” She smiled at him, and he grinned back. “I think I’m ready.”
“Great!” He clapped his hands happily. “And, draw!”
Mona flinched, and her hands flitted to the opposite sides of her body, trying to pull the blades crossbody.
Cälaos stepped forward and thumped both her hands with a knuckle and tutted at her. “No. The other way, blades back and out. Right hand, right blade, left to left. At ease.”
She looked confused, but Thea helped by explaining, “Stand like you would normally.”
Mona did as she was told, letting her hands rest naturally by her sides.
“Draw!” Cälaos barked, and Mona’s hands sped into motion, grasping at the hilts of her daggers, and pulling them free. “Excellent! Now, for your stance.”
They spent a few minutes going over how she should stand, her knees bent with her dominant leg back and fists forward and slightly bent like a boxer.
“Knife fighting is not only about stabbing and slashing, Monami, it is an art form.” He pulled his own blades and set
tled into a stance that mirrored hers but seemed much more comfortable. As if he could live the rest of his days in that stance and never grow tired.
“Knife fighting is an art form, a dance of bladed death, constant motion defined by defense, parrying, attacking and setting up your next strike,” he began to move, flowing from one motion to another, using his fists, knees, and legs to strike as much as he did with his weapons.
“So, the body is as much a part of the dance as the weapon is?” Mona asked, obvious fascination on her face as she watched the man moving.
“Yes.” He stopped suddenly and faced her. “And you will learn this.”
“I think I’m ready.” She had a look of determination as she fell into her newfound stance and glared at her trainer.
“I like you, you cut to the chase.” Cälaos grinned, sharp teeth flashing at her as he moved forward in his own stance.
An arrow whizzed between them, all eyes falling on Ünbin who had another one ready to fly as his brother shouted, “What the blazes?!”
Thea cleared her throat. “You forgot to teach her the basics, the stance is important, but you need to teach her about slicing and dicing before you get into the simulated combat.”
Ünbin nodded once and let the drawn weapon slowly come to a ready position with the string released, but the arrow still ready.
“Well, thank you for the reminder.” Cälaos harrumphed and began to slowly go through several cutting motions with his own weapons that he coached Monami through genially.
He was patient, but working with both hands on a weapon was odd for her, so he had her sheath one dagger, and they went about learning the absolute basics. It was interesting to see, and I felt like I was learning as well.
They switched hands and did the same as they had with her dominant hand. It was slower going with much more to correct form-wise, but Mona was working hard and asking questions so that she could understand better.
Eventually, I decided to try and see what I could make with my ice magic. Were there defined spells? Or was it only by imagination?
I took a deep breath and thought of another simplistic spell. Holding the image in my mind, I pulled from my Aether pool and cast the spell.
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