“H-huh? Ah, yes, I am!” The marked girl nodded as she got her bearings in order, getting herself to her feet. She then hesitated, before trying to figure out what to say. “Ah, um, I’m sorry I was never able to thank you earlier for helping me out. That, well that…”
“It’s fine.” The Wushi waved off the girl’s worries, smiling at the girl’s weird antics in her attempts to explain her situation, “You were in dire straits. You had to deal with a giant horde of monsters and you were constantly facing death at every corner. There’s no reason to be sorry about your state of affairs, especially when you were facing such a thing.”
“But even then! I should have been able to do something!” The young girl exclaimed, swiping her right arm across, “I was gifted magical abilities by a sorcerer up above a magical tower! I–I’m the daughter of one of the great clans of Éireann, I’m more than capable of holding my own! I–”
“Haven’t seen anything like those horrors before.”
The girl flinched at those words, before slinking away in shame.
“I… Even then, I shouldn’t have run away. As one of the heirs, I should not have panicked like that.”
“If I may be so bold to ask, how many battles have you participated in personally?”
“Eh?” The young girl froze, before she seemed to think long and hard on that. “Well, that. I mean, I have planned to go into battle, but I never got the chance to do so. I–”
“Again, you shouldn’t need to make excuses.” The Wushi said as she put a hand on the young girl’s curly red head. The child flinched at the gesture, before going silent as the older woman simply ruffled her hair. “You’re young and inexperienced. You haven’t had to deal with the horrors of battle and the awful things that come with taking someone’s life. Something as horrendous as these demons that roam around these lands are something far too much for someone like you.”
“But, even then…” The young girl grimaced at those words as she tried to come up with something to defend her position. However, she could not come up with anything at all, only being able to look away with a look of shame on her face.
To that, the Wushi couldn’t help but laugh inwardly. She did not do so as a way to look down on the child, but simply because it felt familiar and almost nostalgic to see such a reaction.
Ah. That’s right. This girl reminded her of herself in a way, when she was much younger and wasn’t aware of how the world worked. When she was still naive and innocent, unaware of all the horrendous horrors that the world kept hidden in the dark. The days before she had made her first kill, the days when she thought all could be settled with fists and words.
Sometimes, some people didn’t deserve to continue to live.
“Relax. I didn’t mean to insult you in any way.” She smiled as she proceeded to ruffle the young girl’s hair, causing her to squeal in shock and shake. “It’s to be expected with your state of being. You are young and still inexperienced with the way the world works. That’s not a bad thing in itself, by the way. It simply means you have much to learn and many things to train before you are capable of standing on your own two feet.”
“Hey, I’m not a kid, okay?” The girl grumbled and pouted as she turned away, “I told you I’m the daughter of one of the great clans. That means by default, I am an adult.”
“Not in my eyes, you aren’t.” She groaned at the Wushi’s words, though she didn’t do anything to refute those claims. “Though, I will admit, you clearly have trained and tried to improve your body. You have quite the good foundation, with your muscles and meridians all in balance.”
“I don’t know what any of that means, but I’m going to guess that’s all a good thing.”
“It is!” The Wushi smiled at that, “It means that you have a good base to keep improving upon. Granted, you are a far cry from having the body of a seasoned warrior, but you have the basics down. This means that with enough training and practice, you can easily build up to have the power and agility necessary to take down any of these monsters with ease.”
“R-really?”
“Yes!” She smiled and flexed her bicep, showing off all the muscle that she had grown over her years of training. The young girl stared in shock, before looking back at the Wushi in shock.
“How? That’s the same as my mom–no, I think you might be even stronger than my mom! Tell me, how did you get this powerful? No, more than that, do you even use any weapons besides your hands and feet? I didn’t even see you use anything to kill those monsters either, so are you telling me you’ve been able to fight and kill people without a single knife or spear?”
“You don’t need any of those to kill people.” The Wushi smiled. “After all, man were born without those weapons. We were born without rocks, spears, swords, and so on. And yet, we were able to find ways to kill one another with our bare hands. The fact that we rely on such weapons shows how far we have fallen in our training.”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Wait, then does that mean you can’t use any weapons?”
“No, I’m trained in a multitude of arts as per my school.” She closed her eyes and sat down on the bed next to the young girl. “You see, my master has always stated that while our body must be a weapon, it shouldn’t be our only way to defend against threats. He always believed that we should be more than capable of using any and all objects near us to fight against any villains, whether that be a sword, a spear, or even a rock.”
The young girl kept staring at the Wushi, unable to comprehend exactly what she had just heard. No, she seemed like her entire world had just been destroyed in a matter of seconds, as she seemed to be mystified by the idea of being so skilled at so many different arts.
“Then… What about bows and arrows? Can you use those?”
“Well, I’m not exactly the best with those.” The Wushi admitted as she scratched her head sheepishly, “I have been trained to subvert and counter such weapons, but not how to use them.”
“That doesn’t sound right.”
“Well, to be fair, it’s less that my master failed to teach such techniques and more so my personal failings.” She looked down. Some shame leaked into her being as she recalled how much of a brat she was when it came to working with such weapons. “Truth be told, bows and arrows are my crutch. No matter how many times I trained or how long I kept at it, I never seemed to grasp the concept of using such a weapon. It felt anathema to my whole being, that using the bow to defeat my enemies from afar felt almost… insulting.”
“Insulting?”
“The fact that I would pick them off from the shadows without giving them the fair chance to defend themself feels wrong.” The Wushi had to raise her hands at the young girl’s skeptical look. “I know, I know. Such a thought can be similar to that of outright foolishness, but perhaps it is simply because I am more accustomed to fighting in close combat than with ranged.”
“Well, then I have an idea!” The young girl perked up at that, her eyes lighting up with energy as she jumped in place. “Why don’t I train you to learn how to use the bow and arrow? I’m quite good at it, better than almost everyone in my clan!”
She blinked at the offer. Of all the things she had expected, that wasn’t one of the things she had expected to hear from the child in front of her. Though perhaps this was this girl’s means to show thanks for saving her in that awful situation. However, she never intended to receive a reward for doing something a decent person should have done, so she was about to reject the offer when she realized something.
This could be a way for her to train the young girl to become a capable warrior. After all, her foundation was more than enough to become more powerful. She had all the basics down and from her own word, she was trained by her clan to become a warrior in the future. She mentioned how she was quite good at the bow and arrow, which meant that she could be quite agile and dexterous.
All of which could be used to create a worthy companion, one that could cover for her issues. After all, the Wushi had to admit that her weakness with ranged combat would definitely be a detriment to the journey. While yes, she was capable of covering this issue with her divine powers and forming the earth to create projectiles itself, she would like to use those abilities when it was absolutely necessary.
There was no reason to wear one out so quickly in an attempt to speed through things. No, as her master had taught her, patience was a virtue necessary to continue onwards into the martial path. Being willing to wait for good things to happen and taking one's time to analyze and adapt was a necessity to ensure survival in this wild world, one that she had to use constantly in this underworld.
She looked the young girl up and down once more. She had mentioned that she was gifted powers by a sorcerer. That meant that she could possibly have the same capabilities as the Wushi, meaning she should have the same goal as her.
“I know this is out of nowhere, but do you remember what the sorcerer told you?”
“Heh?” The young girl jolted at that, not expecting such a question from the Wushi. She seemed pensive as she started to rack her head, tiling back and forth, before opening her eyes and nodding.
“Yeah! I remember! He told me that I needed to climb the white tower and kill the slayer that has thrown this world into ruin. Something about saving this world along the way?”
Then that fit the old man she had talked to. That meant this young girl must have a divine ability as well, one that could only prove to be a massive boon to defeating that tyrant once and for all.
“Say, have you been trained to fight hand to hand?”
“Um, not really?” The young girl scratched the back of her head and seemed to think on that, “I was more or less trained to fight with a dagger, but that was more so something meant for being cornered. Most of my clan archers trained to dart in and out of the lands to strike with our weapons, using the shadows as cover to unleash fear and despair into our enemies.”
Cowardly. That was all the Wushi could say at that. However, she didn’t voice her concerns and simply smiled.
“Then I suppose that means you need to be trained more to deal with hand to hand. After all, most of the enemies here focus on trying to get up close and personal. Not only that, but you won’t have a constant supply of arrows, meaning it would be a good idea to learn how to fight.”
“I… guess so.” The young girl didn’t seem all too happy at the thought. She seemed almost nervous at that, at least until the Wushi put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a comforting smile.
“Don’t worry. I can promise you right here and now that my training will not be as harsh as you expect.”
“R-really?” The young girl looked hopeful at that.
“Of course.” The Wushi chuckled. “What kind of monster do you take me for?”
The girl seemed gleeful at that, almost excited to join in and get better at fighting.
That changed the instant the training began.