Chapter ten: Doom in the Library

    An axe flew bye as John sidestepped. John had been sparring with Henry for about twenty minutes, and had a thorough understanding of his skills. The instructor had to shake his head as he watched the battle unfolding. He couldn’t help but wonder how two children could be so different.

John kept his breathing steady, dodging within an inch of each strike. Henry was going all out swinging his dual axes with every ounce of strength he could muster. To the untrained eye it would look like Henry help the advantage as John rarely ever attacked, but the truth was far different. In just twenty minutes Henry had burned through most of his stamina, and still had not landed a single hit. Although John had only attacked a few times, It was always a decisive and direct hit. The difference in skill was too big. Henry had always prided himself in his battle technique, and was smart enough to realize that he was outmatched. But he couldn’t lose here, his pride as a noble wouldn’t allow that.

Henry suddenly stopped moving, taking a deep breath before he slowly started to move both axes. John instantly recognized the glow on the axes as a  martial art. This surprised John since it was very unusual for a young person to use a martial art in battle. Martial arts were actually very similar to magic spells. For a spell, magic had to be formed into specific symbols, and then directed by the will of the caster. A martial art also formed magic into symbols, but it did so in the body. The biggest challenge came with the fact that the body was moving. Because the martial art was created to be used with specific movements, if an individual did not follow the movements perfectly then the connections between the symbols would not be right. Best case scenario is that the martial art ends up being very weak; worst case the spell might backfire. Not only were most martial arts too complex for an inexperienced fighter, but they were also far too draining. The amount of mana needed caused most skilled combats to keep these techniques as a final trump card. Only when one needed to preserve their life, or the situation happened to be perfect, would a warrior pull out his martial art.

Henry started to move his axes faster and faster as he neared John. John backed up as he analyzed the martial art. By what he could tell this was a type of charge technique. Speeding up the movement of the blades as the combatant moved forward. More than likely it also sharpened the edge of the blades, making this martial art more like a moving meat grinder. As Henry’s speed started to increase John dove to the side, intending to throw off Henry’s martial art with a switch in direction. Surprisingly Henry was able to adjust, but it obviously had taken him quite a bit of effort. Although John’s initial plan had failed he didn’t stop moving. Within his left hand was a small stone he had picked up when he was getting up from his dive. Henry’s martial art slowed for an instant as he adjusted his direction. That small rock flew directly at Henry’s nose, releasing a bright light, just as he was focusing on his movements.

A moment’s distraction was all it took. Henry’s face contorted in pain as the flash entered his eyes, and the rock hit him in the nose. The magic symbols he had been forming throughout his body, failed to properly connect. Henry collapsed as the magic in his body ran rampant. His legs felt cold while his arms felt like they were on fire, and the ringing in his head filled his entire consciousness. He struggled to pull himself up, but before he could get his feet underneath him the feeling of a cold sword pressed against his throat.

“HENRY! What have I told you about using martial arts! You can barely perform them, let alone use them in battle! Head to the infirmary, by the looks of you it’ll be a week in bed! Enjoy it while you can, when you get back I’m gonna beat the stupid out of you!” The Instructor had a fire in his eyes as he looked down at Henry. John was surprised at the speed with which the instructor had moved. John could still follow the movements of this instructor, but he was definitely faster than that dark elf.

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As Henry struggled to stand his pain filled faced became a shade paler, hearing of his own impending doom. He gritted his teeth as he responded to his instructor’s command. “Yes Sir.” John felt a bit of sympathy as he watched his former opponent limp off. He had faced the same situation under his uncle’s training before.

“As for you, don’t get full of yourself! You have some ability I’ll admit, but Henry is just a kid.” John really wanted to retort with the fact that he was also a kid, but thought that might cause him to join Henry in his impending doom. “Although you’ve received some training you still have a long ways to go. You obviously don’t need the beginners course, so once you’ve gone over the battle strategies and protocol I’ll assign you to a unit to do the rest of your’ training. If you head over that way you’ll find the barracks for this lot. You should be able to find the books, so go study them. I’ll be by tonight to see how you’ve progressed. Now get moving!”

“Yes Sir.” John immediately started running with a smile on his face. Books! John was so excited. He didn’t think he would get the chance to read once he joined the army. After a minute of running he found a fairly large building shaped like a (U). This building was nicknamed the noble’s suite by the normal soldiers. It was It was divided into three parts. The left side was for the boys, the right side was for the girls, and the middle was the common area. peasant girl’s were not allowed in the army, but noble girl’s were required to spend at least two years in service. Noble women were all taught magic to a certain extent, and at least half of the militaries mages were noble women. The other half were commoner men from the city’s academy.

When John entered the main hall he could hear the voice of a female instructor off towards the right. Since he didn’t know exactly where to go John decided to ask for directions. John followed the voice to a small room with just under thirty girls, listening intently to an instructor. As John came into the room he immediately garnered the attention of the instructor. “I’m sorry, are you lost?” The instructor was a woman in her prime. Her skin was slightly tan, and flawless. Her brown hair was just a bit curvy, and went down to her waist. She wore a long, fiery red robe, that allowed one to notice the curve of her body. Her green eyes seemed to pierce right through him as he began to stammer.

“Yyes, I-I’m looking for some books.” This instructor wasn’t as pretty as the women from his dream, but the second most beautiful women you’ve ever seen is still a sight to behold. As John’s face was turning red he noticed the almost thirty pairs of eyes that turned to look at him. John couldn’t look a single one of them in the eye, everyone of them seemed gorgeous. Was every girl in the city this beautiful? John was beginning to realize what his uncle had meant just a few days before. He truly had no standard to compare beautiful women to.

The instructor glanced at a student towards the back. “Martha, If you would please.”

“Yes Ma’am.” Martha quickly got up and walked past John. “Please follow me.” Martha looked to be about the same age as John. With brown eyes that matched her hair. Her robe was similar to the instructors, but more of a crimson red. John quietly followed her down the hallway. After a short distance Martha stopped in front of a door. “This is the library. All the books should be in here.”

    “Okay, thank you.” John had just gotten his voice under control when Martha got up close to him. She was just a couple inches away, staring into his eyes. John felt his face light on fire once more. Martha started to giggle as she walked off. “A nice change of pace from those big headed lady killers.”

    John tried to forget about the smell that lingered around his nose as he entered the library. Lucky his love of books was there to distract him. He almost started to drool as he looked around the room. John had never seen more than a handful of books at a time, and this room had two floors of them. He completely forgot about his original purpose as he grabbed the first book he saw.

The sun had just started to set as the instructor came into the library. “So have you finished reading over the protocols yet?” John was sitting at a table with almost a dozen books in front of him. The instructor saw books ranging from magic theory to geography, but none on the strategies and protocol of the military. John looked up with a confused look on his face. The instructor stared down hard until the flash of understanding passed across John’s face.

“Oops?” That night John had to face his own impending doom.