Sakka neatly sidestepped and stabbed down, spearing Elrik in the thigh.

Ow

“Come on! Up!”

But Elrik was staying down. Staring at nothing.

No, not nothing. Rather, he was staring at the little piece of writing that seemed to have appeared at the corner of his vision

[Acquiring Skill: Spearsmanship 32%]

...

Sakka felt bad. He’d been training the boy for weeks now.

He was starting to feel a little like a bully.

Elrik groaned from where he lay.

Sakka waited patiently for Elrik to stand. Then he threw two jabs in quick succession. Surprisingly Elrik weaved his body in time, avoiding the thrust. Sakka frowned, still not pleased.

Instead of drawing back the staff after the jab, he sliced, grazing Elrik’s side.

“Don’t just weave - anticipate the follow-up - either step back or step into an attack.

Elrik nodded, still panting.

[Acquiring Skill: Spearsmanship 71%]

Sakka suddenly stepped low and into Elrik’s reach, his staff held in both hands. Before Elrik could follow his movements, the middle of the staff came up and into his chin, in a short sharp strike, knocking him back.

Ow. That hurt.

[Acquiring Skill: Spearsmanship 76%]

Sakka easily knocked aside a jab from Elrik, and kicked him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him

Sweet christ that hurt.

[Acquiring Skill: Spearsmanship 82%]

Sakka moved his feet in a quick movement and sharply rapped Elrik on the knuckles, making him drop his staff.

Ow. Ow. Ow.

[Acquiring Skill: Spearsmanship 87%]

Sakka feinted, the weaving tip of his staff almost hypnotic, while Elrik dodged strikes that didn’t come. Then suddenly, without a pause Sakka shot forward releasing the full length of his staff so that it caught Elrik right in his solar plexus.

Elrik sat on the ground, wheezing, his breath all but gone from him.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

[Acquiring Skill: Spearsmanship 92%]

[Acquiring Skill: Spearsmanship 97%]

Sakka watched Elrik, some pity in his eyes now. He’d offered to help him after the ambush at Elk’s cross. He’d saved Sakka’s life, however incompetently. Training had been rough though. The boy seemed to have less training than anyone wandering the badlands had any right to. It was as if he’d spent his whole life reading manuscripts in a room like a monk. Sakka was starting to suspect that was his secret, that the poor boy was a runaway from a monastery.

Training him in the spear would just be frustrating, if it wasn’t for the appetite for punishment he seemed to have.

Every day, the poor kassi seemed to keep coming back for more punishment, as if he could speed through years of training by just getting beat to within an inch of his life. Watching him now, crawling and wheezing, it was just pitiful.

“Enough for today kassi”, he leaned forward and patted Elrik on the shoulder.

[Acquiring Skill: Spearsmanship 100%]

[Acquired Skill: Spearsmanship]

“No”, Elrik panted, still winded, but getting up, “One more try. Please”

Sakka sighed, “You’re coming along kassi. You don’t need to push yourself”

“Please”, Elrik’s face was determined.

Sakka closed his eyes and nodded. Sometimes you needed to learn the hard way - why pushing yourself to the limit wasn’t always a good thing.

Sakka stepped forward, his training staff ready.

Suddenly he felt a difference. Something was off.

…

Elrik had very little to go on. All he knew was that every time Sakka moved differently, attacked in a new way, caused him some new kind of pain - the little numbers at the corners of his vision seemed to go up.

So.. for weeks now, under the pretext of training, he was getting the tar beaten out of him.

He wasn’t usually a glutton for punishment. He’d never been a fitness masochist, and he didn’t really enjoy pushing his body to the limit.

Honestly - he was just burning curious. He wanted, badly, to find out what happened when the little number reached a hundred percent - badly enough that getting smacked in the face seemed worth it.

Now it had

...

[Acquired Skill: Spearsmanship]

[Updating spinal reflexware]

Elrik felt a change come over him.

When he stood up, he felt a chill, like an icy liquid in his brain. It started at the nape of his neck and traced its way down his spine. As it traveled down his hands and feet and down to tips of his fingers and toes, his body shifted.

His hands changed their grip on the staff, holding it just a little more delicately. His feet shifted, until he felt his weight settle better. He felt.. ready.

He saw the attack a mile away.

An entire half a second before Sakka jabbed - Elrik saw the jab coming - in the shift of Sakka’s weight - in the movement of his shoulders. Elrik’s body was responding to it before he even fully realized it, shifting weight and leaning to a side.

Elrik’s staff came up easily, anticipating Sakka’s jab. A quick sharp rap sharply knocked it to the side. It all seemed so glaringly obvious.

Then without a thought he leaned forward into the opening and pushed Sakka back with his staff, gently.

For a full second, teacher and student stared at Elrik’s staff, in equal disbelief.

When he came again, Sakka moved with purpose.

He danced around Elrik in a dazzling display of footwork, his staff-tip weaving like a mad bee. Then he stepped in low and fast, the tip of his stave jabbing in two hard sharp feints before committing to a third long thrust into his side.

To Elrik it felt like Sakka’s every move was telegraphed as loud as it could be. It felt somehow so crystal clear - in every movement of Sakka’s shoulders or the way his weight shifted at his hips - what he was going to do next, he might as well shout it out loud.

[Footwork - stepping right]

[Footwork - circling right]

[Jab - throat - feint]

[Jab - left shoulder - feint]

[Thrust - right side - committed. Dodge. Now.]

Elrik didn’t even need to dodge. He simply watched the feints come and go, like he was watching a show. When Sakka’s true thrust came for his right side - it felt it had been announced well in advance - to give him an eternity to respond. Elrik neatly twisted as the thrust came, catching the staff behind the tip with his hand. He turned on his heel - pushing the staff on its straight path.

Sakka was pulled in now - by his spear - right into butt of Elrik’s staff - that caught Sakka low and hard in his midriff.

Now Elrik stood there, while Sakka sat wheezing on the ground.

“Again”, croaked Sakka now, his eyes blazing