The morning came, and a light shone through gaps in their curtains. Adil and Swift put on their clothes and headed out to meet Seras, she was waiting in the dining hall already eating breakfast.

Seras was already eating, obedient well-dressed staff waiting for attention around her as she ate. The staff got chicken and bacon for Swift whilst Adil awkwardly ate bread and a few pieces of melon. A customer seemed to pass by the doorway being dragged by a woman in lingerie, *I guess the brothel still ran in the morning* Adil thought. The jarring difference between them and the workers made eating the food feel surreal and unnatural.

Seras looked towards Swift and inspected his ragged burnt out clothes.

“How have those clothes stayed together?” She asked. Swift gave a shrug.

“I try my hardest,” he replied. Seras grimaced and threw him some coins in a small pouch.

“Get something, I’d give you one of my spare armour sets, but I doubt it would fit you.”

“Whilst that’s happening. Adil. Want to train with the guards?”

“If it would please you, sirrr...”

With a smirk, she threw an apple towards Adil’s head, which he caught and started eating.

“Good,” Seras replied.

"You said the wolve's were infected. What infection, were they just sick?"

"They had a black ooze coming out of them, it was like it was alive like the infection had taken over their brain. They had white eys and acted in a manic sort of rabid way," Swift replied still happily eating his eggs.

"Weird. Do you know what it could have been?"

"I have some grass with the same stuff on," Swift replied. He pulled looked into his satchel. The berries looked to have also now been coated in the stuff, infact everything now was, the berries and wolves fangs were infected, but not the bag itself, the mouldy black tar on the inside appeared to be growing and trying to reach out.

"Ehhh," Swift said.

"yeah, I have the stuff here," he threw the bag to Seras which she caught in her hand just before the saw contents inside.

"Jesus!" She exclaimed throwing the bag on the floor.

"We need something better to hold that shit." 

A servant of the brothel went and got a chest, they put the bag inside but it was too late. The seeping ooze had come out of the side and splatted on the floor. Swift taking action startled the servants by brandishing some fire as he went to the remnants of black slime. He shot a small flame of fire into the gunk immediately igniting it, everyone silent as the goo wretched before burning out. The servants whispered amongst themselves as they took great care of the case. The phrase 'a mage' was heard by Adil. It seemed that magic might not be that common here.

"Take it to the carts and tell them to send it to headquarters," Seras commanded the servants. The servant hurried off with their new parcel to deliver.

"That looked nasty," Seras stated before getting up from her chair, screetching the wood across the floor.

"Are we ready then?" She asked.

They put on their armour, clothes, adorned their weapons then gathered outside. Seras was wearing a bright steel set of heavy armour decorated with red fabric covering any gaps and a kite shield decorated with a lion sigil positioned on her back over two double-sided axes.

They arrived at the guard post, a construct of wood stuck together with bits of scaffolding. The post was held against the wall and lead up to a group of guards looking out into the distance. The wall stood 30-foot-tall, a gay stone, well put together, and as Adil, Seras and Swift walked to the top, they could see the light illuminate the stone wall as the sun rose.

The guards were called to attention, a few of them clad in armour like Seras, some in what appeared to be of a lower-tier and others bore a different leather setup still trimmed in red. They all took a knee at the address of their captain.

“These sorry excuses for humans are my own personal recruits. I want you to treat them like the shits they are until they show a monochrome of promise.”

“Any report Sargent?”

A man spoke up from the crowd, he didn’t look as battle ready as the rest of them, but a cut over his chin and a large enough stature made it appears he had seen his fair share of combat.

“Well, the scouts have found less goblin and non-goblin threats. But, the goblins appear to be more organized.”

“Could they be planning something?” Adil asked.

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The sergeant looked at him with a bit of a puzzled expression.

“They are goblins boy, they don’t plan.”

Seras looked at Adil and back to the sergeant slightly annoyed. “If they are more organized we need to be more vigilant, we can’t take any chances. Ill leave tonight and scout the maze.”

The area seemed more silent, it didn’t appear like anyone had anything left to say.

“Dismissed” Seras announced leading everyone to go back to what they were doing, a few walking off whilst others took post.

Seras called out to a lone straggler.

“Horatio.”

The guardsman was called to attention.

“Teach this shit-waggon how to use a bow and sword”. She said pointing a thumb to Adil.

“Yes captain,” the man said saluting her before coming over. He was one of those wearing leather armour but had one arm plated with metal over the forearm.

Horatio went to pick up a bow resting on the side of the wall. “Let's go,” he said.

Adil followed him down a set of stairs from the guard post, towards what seemed to be a training area, people sparing with wooden swords and firing arrows at targets.

Horatio picked up a wooden training sword, throwing another to Adil. He took a low fighting stance holding out his plated arm and sword respectively like sword and shield. Adil more of a fencer style, he put his sword forward and his left hand back.

Adil felt knowledge from his past, the image of fencing as a boy passed through his mind. He knew that defending then attacking was faster than attacking then attacking. That he should not play passive or aggressive but think about his actions as he fought. He felt ready.

“Show me what you’ve got.” the man commanded.

Adil taking the challenge put up a stance as he had as a child, getting an inquisitive look in return. He went in first, as Horatio went to defend, instead of letting his stick be backed out the way Adil had avoided Horatio's stick and looped his stick around it finishing with his pointing towards Horatio's face.

Taken back Horatio shouted. “Hit me.” Then backed away for the start of the new round.

Adil did the same again and Horatio similarly went to block but moving his stick to where his opponents were no longer Adil managed to get his stick pointing at Horacio’s face.

“Hit me, or are you trying to insult me?” Horatio said this time.

“Ok man, but you asked for it,” Adil said

Horatio went back to a fighting position, leading Adil to do the same. Horatio let him carry out the same manoeuvre but when Adil went to jab into his face Horatio had moved forward and to the side letting it brush past his head and over his shoulder. Horatio grabbed the outstretched weapon pulling him forward and proceded to knee Adil in the chest.

Horatio stood over Adil as Adil got up from the ground.

“You fight like your playing for first blood. A Goblin won’t stop its momentum just because you poked it.”

wheezing Adil said in a shallow voice "Fair point." 

Adil and Horatio kept fighting for a while longer, blocks, feints painful hits and the occasional dodge. Adil was slowly gaining and soon they were on equal ground. Then after taking another hit around the back of his head, he lost technique and dove in. Horatio stepped forward past Adil’s guard with his heel facing away.

Then he spun on the heel with incredible speed elbowing Adil in the chest, again winding him. Getting the lower centre of gravity he then grabbed Adil’s extended arm and threw him over his shoulder to the ground. Winded and on the floor, Adil was wheezing to catch his breath.

Staring at Adil on the floor Horatio held out his hand and said “I hit you because I respect you” Then pulled him up.

“Yeah, I feel all this respect... it’s great,” Adil replied still catching his breath and then got back into fighting position.

The fighting carried on a while longer, back and forth they attacked each other, countering moves and learning new techniques. Experimenting with different angles putting in all their effort and working off a mean sweat.

“So, having Seras captain, that must be a bit rough right?” Adil asked. Ray winced a bit at the question but still smiled in reply.

“Two weeks ago, I was a prisoner of some raiders, they knocked me out and dragged me to a camp. When I was held there, I saw my brother killed. The captain was the one that saved me, she risked her life...

One of my greatest memories is the sight of her making the bandit fucker choke on its own blood. We are not just guards here, we are family.”

Adil rubbed the side of his head feeling he had misspoken. They moved onto archery shortly after, this time it was more about posture, technique and focus.

As Adil lined up his shot he focused on posture and aligning the shot, firing one after another with long breaks in between. Ray had him work on speed, trying to shoot multiple shots as fast as possible. He showed Adil it was faster to hold the arrows in his hand than take them from the quiver for every shot.

Ray showed him how to focus a single shot, that he should hold your breath, without having empty or full lungs, just in the breath he was breathing. He was good at hitting the target with enough time, able to see the exact distance to and time for the arrow to reach the target, numerically in his vision. He was just taking too much time and needed to do it instinctually.

But taking the bow off Adil Horatio showed how outclassed Adil was, quickly firing three shots before the first one even landed, and all into the centre of the target.

“Well, that’s bullshit” Adil exclaimed.

“You learn fast” Ray exclaimed. “I’m sure you could do that if you put in the effort,”

By the time he finished he noticed the notifications that had built up:

Calibrations complete:

Congratulations you have learnt the skill snipe shot.

Congratulations you have learnt the skill multi-shot.

Congratulations you have learnt the medium blade technique feint. Advanced starter technique starts this skill at rank adept.

Congratulations you have learnt the technique dodge.

Adil felt as though the muscle memory of what he had learned was developed as if he had practised for months. He knew how to dodge by falling with gravity and lowering his body to avoid an attack, how to block out everything from his mind and focus his shots on a single target. The exact place to put an arrow into his bow or the intricacies of combat where he knew if a feint would or would not work, carried out in the slightest of motions a heightened special focus on the opponent’s weapon.

Further inspection showed that he had even advanced his feint skill to adept, all of his others were only classed as "learnt skill," When he pictured the motion it seemed more specific and fluid in his mind.