by Seth Ring
“This, this is a weapon, kid. A weapon for strong men! None of that sissy cutting or slashing, good old-fashioned force. The enemy has a blade? Great. Crush them. The enemy has a shield? Even better. Crush them. Is the enemy playing with arrows? Awesome, knock them out of the air and then crush them. Need to move an object or negotiate a tense situation?”
“Crush it?” Thorn guessed, as Master Sun took a deep breath.
“Exactly! Crush it.” Master Sun beamed. “No matter the problem, brute force is the solution.”
Stepping back, Master Sun flipped the club up, and, with a twist of his wrist, he sent it humming through the air. Faster and faster he swung it around him, the weight of the club increasing its speed with every rotation. Within a minute, the club was moving so fast that Thorn could not even see it.
He could, however, hear it. The swinging club let out a thunderous drone as it smashed its way through the air. As the drone seemed to reach a crescendo, Master Sun stepped forward and flicked his arm toward a tree, which exploded in a shower of splinters. The club had swung over in a dark blur, too fast for Thorn to catch, obliterating the trunk. Grinning, Master Sun lifted his club up and brushed off a few splinters still sticking to it.
“This, young man, is a tetsubo! A real man’s weapon!”
Impressed, Thorn examined the tetsubo. He could see how it would be an effective weapon. Constructed of metal, swinging it would generate a tremendous force without the danger of breaking that a sword would face. The metal studs took the damage one step further, adding a ripping effect to the blow. Seeing how interested Thorn was, Master Sun’s grin grew bigger.
“How about it? Fancy learning how to use a real weapon?”
“I’d love to!” responded Thorn. He had used staves before, but this was a whole different sort of thing. A staff, in order to be the proper size, had to be massive, which made it prohibitive to use in most spaces. The tetsubo, on the other hand, was the same size as a large sword but wielded much like a staff.
“In that case, let’s begin. Have you ever done any martial arts training?” Seeing Thorn’s nod, Master Sun continued. “Excellent, then you should know what a horse stance looks like. Let's start there.”
Much like Thorn’s Taijiquan instructor, Master Sun first had Thorn drop into and hold a horse stance. Once Thorn was in the proper position, he rested his tetsubo across Thorn’s knees, telling him that if it fell off, the amount of time he had to stay in the horse stance would increase. Thorn, unable to feel the weight of the heavy weapon because of the mechanics of Nova Terra, stayed in his seated position.
Master Sun walked to the side and waited for Thorn to show the slightest sign that he was tired. And waited. And waited. After close to forty minutes, Master Sun finally got fed up with waiting and grabbed his tetsubo off of Thorn’s legs.
“Alright, stand up.” Staring at Thorn, who was not fatigued in the slightest, Master Sun narrowed his eyes. “I’m guessing it would do neither of us any good if I were to make you run for a while. Anyway, the long and short of it is that the key to using a tetsubo is your lower body. Much like a staff, the tetsubo requires a strong base from which to control the force of the weapon.
“Unlike bladed weapons, the tetsubo only has a single attacking function. Crushing. It can be used to block, as well, but at the end of the day, that is much less efficient than smashing someone. The key, of course, is being able to hit them. We achieve that through making use of the constant motion of the weapon to turn offense into defense.
“In short, if there is no time for your opponent to attack, there is no need for defense. And if you do need it, you should be able to divert the attack through a direct strike. You need to remember one thing. Push forward. Always push forward. The power of the tetsubo is in its constant, aggressive, dominating nature. No matter the obstacle, the tetsubo’s solution is to crush it under overwhelming force. Now, let me show you the basic moves that you will practice.”
Lending Thorn a tetsubo that he pulled out of his inventory, Master Sun began to show him how to spin the weapon using a combination of specialized grips and the ring on the back end of the handle. Each hand position maximized the weapon’s ability to rotate while gaining momentum. Due to his previous practice with a staff, Thorn picked it up rather quickly and, within a day, was able to keep the weapon moving well.
After a day of practice, Master Sun nodded in appreciation and took Thorn with him to get some practical experience. After walking for about two hours, they arrived at a rocky gorge in the mountains, near the kobold valley. Master Sun stopped at the edge of the gorge and pointed at the other end.
“Alright, kid, your task is pretty simple. Get to the other end of the gorge.”
“You mean all I have to do is walk through it?”
“Haha, yeah. All you have to do is walk through it.” Nodding, Master Sun chuckled to himself as he started to walk off. “I’ll wait for you at the other side.”
“O... okay.” Unsure about what was so difficult about walking through an empty gorge, Thorn scratched his head. Even after spending ten minutes staring at the large rocks in the gorge, Thorn could not see anything out of the ordinary, so, with a shrug, he started forward.
[crunch]
After getting almost one hundred feet into the gorge, Thorn paused. The sound had been slight, but Thorn had heard gravel crunching. Paused mid-stride, Thorn listened. After a few moments of complete silence, he could only shrug and continue on.
[Crunch]
There it was again. It was like the sound of two pieces of stone grinding against each other. Still unable to spot where the sound was coming from, Thorn tightened his grip on his weapon and began to move forward. He had not taken more than three steps when the sound returned with a vengeance.
[CRUNCH]
[CRUNCH]
[CRUNCH]
Rising all around him, Thorn saw large stone monsters pushing themselves to their feet. Immense boulders that had previously stood inert began to stretch and unfold as they became stone giants. Around seven feet tall at the shortest, these large stone humanoids were huge amalgamations of stone held together with eldritch force. As the first elemental finished forming, it turned its burning eyes on Thorn.
‘Earth elementals!’ thought Thorn in shock. Elementals were a rare race in Nova Terra, in part because of how strong they were. A single elemental was often more than the match of a normal party, due to their overwhelming strength and natural immunities. It would be rare to even find a single elemental, so seeing dozens beginning to stand up left Thorn flabbergasted.
‘How on earth does Master Sun expect me to cross a gorge like this!?’ Thorn shouted in his mind. Earth elementals were ranked as some of the most dangerous enemies to face, boasting a combination of complete immunity to bladed weapons and most magic, as well as uncanny strength.
The first elemental, fully formed now, stepped forward and threw a ponderous fist at Thorn, smashing him back! Thorn, stunned at the strength that the elemental displayed, was shaken. For the second time since he had begun to play Nova Terra, he was forced back!
Shaken by the blow that had sent him stumbling back, Thorn completely forgot to block the next strike, which caught him in the chest! Staggering backward, Thorn almost fell over. Putting down a hand to stabilize himself, he looked at the stone elemental that had punched him in amazement. Pleased by its success, the elemental was roaring in satisfaction, secure in its instinctive knowledge that it had crushed the puny invader.
After it finished announcing its victory to the sky, the elemental looked around, only to freeze. That large creature was still there? The elemental peered closer. Sure enough, Thorn was still standing there, rubbing his chest where the elemental’s massive fist had smashed into him.
‘That is going to bruise for sure,’ thought Thorn.
“Alright, big guy let's try this again,” Thorn spat at the elemental, his eyes narrowing. Fixing his grip on the borrowed tetsubo, Thorn dashed forward, smash
ing toward the confused elemental with an overhead blow.
The elemental, unable to process how the creature had lived through its punch, saw Thorn rushing forward and roared in fury. Drawing back its ponderous fists, it struck out with full force, intent on fixing whatever mistake it had made previously. With a furious clash, the tetsubo fell onto the elemental’s shoulder before the elemental’s fists reached Thorn’s body.
Feeling the rebounding shock flowing through the tetsubo’s handle, Thorn nearly lost his grip on it. The force of the blow sent the elemental tumbling to the ground. However, Thorn had yet to recover from the counter-force of the attack when the elemental started to get back to its feet!
‘This isn’t good.’ Thorn paled, feeling as much shock as the elemental had. This was the first time that a full force blow had failed him since he started Nova Terra! Despite being knocked off of its feet, the elemental was not showing any sort of damage. And to top it off, the second and third elemental were already stomping their way over, more rising up behind them.
“How am I supposed to get through this gorge?” Thorn complained in his heart. Countless calculations and ideas flashed before him. Could he dodge his way through? Unlikely, since the elementals were strong enough to knock him back. What if he blocked as many of the blows as possible and pushed past the elementals? That would not work, either. There were too many of them. Was this an impossible task, then?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“No, there has to be a way to do this,” thought Thorn. Master Sun would not have assigned it if there was no way to complete it. Running through all of the instruction that Master Sun had given him as he backed up, Thorn’s eyes brightened. “That's it!”
What was a tetsubo for? Attacking! Offense as defense! After all, in his exchange now, he had been able to prevent the elemental from hitting him by striking first! He needed to use speed and force to create a perfect defense by crushing any attack before it arrived!
Emboldened, Thorn looked at the two charging elementals. Trying to remember the way Master Sun had begun his spinning pattern, Thorn did not wait for the elementals to attack, but swung out at the larger of the two with a full force sweep, like he was trying for a home run.
The tetsubo impacted the larger elemental’s side, causing it to stagger sideways, into the smaller elemental, with a loud crunch. Despite buying himself a couple seconds, Thorn frowned. Neither of his strikes had been enough to hurt the elementals, which highlighted a major problem. Every second he spent here, more and more earth elementals were waking up and rushing toward him. Soon they would overwhelm him with sheer numbers.
The world slowed to a crawl, as his brain began to work furiously. His goal was to cross the gorge without dying. But his normal approach had no way of working because his strikes were not powerful enough to kill the creatures attacking him. If he couldn’t remove the elementals from the equation, their attacks would compound until he could not block them.
“Wait. Why am I trying to block them? What was it that Master Sun said? Attacking is a more effective block.” Awareness dawning, Thorn finally understood why Master Sun would have thrown him into this hopeless situation. If his goal was only to cross the gorge, there was no reason that he had to kill the elementals.
The forms that Master Sun had demonstrated immediately sprang to mind, and his hands began to turn, the tetsubo gaining momentum as it spun around him. Driving forward again, Thorn intercepted the first elemental with a slashing strike, causing it to stumble. Stepping past, Thorn used the counter-force to send a whirling strike at the legs of another earth elemental stepping forward, sweeping it off its feet.
Step by step, blow by twirling blow, Thorn carved his way forward. However, he was able to achieve only a few steps at a time before a furious blow sent him reeling back. Scrambling to regain his balance, he pushed forward with a wild strike, trying to gain some space. Warding off another punch with a deflection, he started his tetsubo spinning again, using it to throw the incoming attacks to the side.
This time, he managed four steps before being beaten back. Again, he struggled to regain his stance, pushing forward with all the force he could muster. Time after time, he smashed his way through the roaring elementals, only to be pushed back every few steps. Yet, each time he was forced back, he forged ahead again, his weapon flashing, beating back the surging elementals.
As the seconds ticked by, Thorn found himself falling into a strange sort of frenetic rhythm, each of his attacks with his tetsubo becoming smoother and faster. A whirling strike to one side began to flow into a whirling strike to the other side. Blocks began to flow into attacks and attacks into warding strikes. Where he was getting pushed back before, Thorn was soon able to hold his ground.
This increased mastery came at a cost, as blow after a massive blow slammed into his body. Groaning in pain after each strike, Thorn felt his bruised body shaking with the strain of pushing through the flurry of stone fists flying at him. Little by little, bit by bit, his arms began to lose strength, as bruises piled up on his shoulders and chest.
Gritting his teeth, Thorn knew that he was not going to make it through at this rate. With a roar of unwillingness, he turned and ran, outpacing the ponderous earth elementals. Simple creatures, the earth elementals lost interest in Thorn as soon as he escaped, out of sight. After wandering around in the gorge for a few moments, the earth elementals began to revert to their stone forms, and soon the gorge was silent again.
Panting, Thorn could only throw himself down on the ground, groaning in pain. His arms and chest were bruised, and even his head was starting to swell from where a flying fist had clipped him. Yet, even as he lay there beaten, his spirit started to grow. He had learned some very difficult lessons in his first encounter with the earth elementals, and he was confident that his next encounter would be different.
“Well, that was pathetic,” a voice said. Thorn didn’t even need to open his eyes to know that Master Sun was standing over him.
“Seriously, what were you doing flailing about like that? Didn’t I teach you the forms? How come I didn’t see any of them while you were fighting there?”
“Sorry, Master Sun.” Not bothering to argue, Thorn instinctively replied as he would have to his own sifu, Ms. Chen. He had learned long ago that the sharp criticism was part of what came with having a martial arts teacher.
“You shouldn’t be apologizing to me. You should be apologizing to those poor earth elementals, whose time you wasted.” Master Sun worked hard to keep the shock out of his voice, covering up his lack of confidence with scathing words.
Thorn was not the first person he had sent into the elemental-filled gorge, but none of the others had made it past the initial elemental the first time they went in. In fact, most had been sent right out of the gorge with that earth elemental’s first strike. Master Sun had been dumbfounded when, after taking the strike, Thorn had continued on like nothing happened and pushed almost into the center of the gorge!
Master Sun scratched his balding head in puzzlement. He had matched blows with the elementals countless times before, but this was the first time he had ever encountered someone who could shrug off their blows like they were nothing. Shaking his head, he thought to himself, ‘What a freak.’
“Alright, kid, there will be other chances to try again. Let's go back and eat. I’m hungry.”
Dragging his protesting body up, Thorn followed after Master Sun, limping back to the camp. Bruises had begun to appear on his hips and sides, making walking difficult. Master Sun didn’t move too fast, and Thorn was able to follow him back to the camp. The shack seemed to have restored itself, at some point, and was standing, as tenuous as ever.
After resting for a night, Nova Terra’s mechanics kicked in, and Thorn woke up feeling much better. Getting up, he ran through his morning exercise again before he began to practice the hand positions that Master Sun had taught him the day before. He thought over his experience fighting against the mass of earth elementa
ls. Breaking down each of the moments that he remembered, he tried to determine what the best strike would have been in that situation.
As he became more and more familiar with the different hand positions, the general flow of his tetsubo’s swings got smoother and smoother. But there was a real problem that Thorn had no way of solving, so he waited for Master Sun to get up, continuing to practice. After a couple more hours, Master Sun walked out of his shed, bleary-eyed.
“Good morning, Master Sun,” Thorn greeted, ever polite.
“Hm,” grunted Master Sun with a yawn.
Waiting until Master Sun was sitting in his normal spot by the fire pit, Thorn bowed to the middle-aged man.
“Thank you very much for your instruction yesterday, master. Would you be able to help me clear up an issue I have been wondering about?”
“Hey, kid, it is way too early in the morning to be doing the whole ‘master and apprentice’ thing, so cool it. It’s like what, seven?”