Not everybody experiences a story in the same way. Both the eyes and ears, the knowledge and experience, the background and origin. All of these factors can contribute to the way that somebody experiences a story.

Today’s narrator is going to be a simple bystander and at the same time a main character:

Kasim Rojora(Note:Ro like Rolling, jo like jolly, ra like raft), son of Kasanova Rojora and offspring of a subsidiary family of the Rojorama noble family. His father is the head of the Kasanova sword-style and a highly esteemed figure in the high society.

‘Do not show Weakness! Showing Weakness is a Weakness itself!’

This is the father’s family motto, with which he has raised his 9-year old son Kasim to become his successor.

Relative to his standing, Kasim is a simple child. He typically likes to wear a combat-oriented military gown in the colors of red(secondary) and brown(primary) with a black-toned pair of leather pants. His shoes are made with a material called ‘friccicos’(note: fric like Frisbee cicos like Mexico-s) the bonding pomada. This specific gel is heated and afterwards carefully applied onto the leather shoe. The finished product then needs to dry up in the air to gain stability and resistance against water.

Kasim’s footwear is covered in three layers of friccicos, each layer separately applied, while the soles of his boots are covered in seven layers. In exchange for needing to reapply the layering of the bottom part of the shoe, these type of boots provide excellent footing and exceptional mobility in combat. The boots are also made slightly heavier due to the special coating allowing for the wielder of a sword to more easily shift their center of gravity to the ground, which can create powerful blows using the entire body’s muscle-power.

His entire outfit is made with combat mobility first and appearance second, so is his father’s.

The young boy with hair in the color of tree-bark and eyes like hazels has a disciplined aura surrounding him as he walks behind his father and treats along the road that has been given to him.

Accompanying him is the only person not directly intertwined in this web of ethical heritage that he has been born into.

Kassandra Klefaria(Kle-fa-ri-a), daughter of a low-class noble family, is a young noblewoman, who has been a close friend of Kasim since the two of them were young children.

Kassandra is rather tall for being around the same age as Kasim(Kasim was born in August, while she was born in May of the same year).

The young girl prefers wearing dresses with an emphasis on the colors light-blue, green and yellow with clovers as her favorite embroidery-pattern. Her green eyes and brown-red hair contrast with her beige skin color and put a stronger focus on her rounded, black, snout-like nose. The outer side of her forearms is covered with a light line of fur, which is surprising considering her position within Estica. The young woman has exceptionally well-trained leg-musculature showing from beneath an extra pair of leather pants she is wearing underneath her dress.

Since the two of them could think, she had been Kasim’s emotional crutch, listening to his worries, his burdens and his sorrows. It is not an exaggeration to say that Kasim would not have made it this far had it not been for her.

The two families consider each other as allies ever since their surfacing in the 8-year Ayrilian War due to military merits.

Since the Rojora descend from the high-nobility while the Klefaria-family has no such backing in their records, the Rojora technically have the upper-hand in their relationship but due to historic reasons they treat each other as political allies on equal terms.

(Note: Klefaria is the family-name of her father, who was born a commoner. The name is related to the terms of Headache or a pain to deal with or unwanted depending on interpretation)

The group consisting of the two children, Kasim’s father and a consort of five guards and assistants has set up camp in Umbruerta, a small village, that is about a week’s worth of distance away from Medalia, when walking the distance by foot.

Considering the existence of a cart with three horses pulling at the front, the actual time it would take might be a day or two with sufficient breaks inbetween.

It is currently December 20th 330RPT as Kasim is being prepared for his upcoming participation in the rookie tournament.

*Klang* *Slide* *Whirl* *Swish*

Kasanova is attacking Kasim with a list of predetermined movement patterns for Kasim to respond to.

___

Attacker:

Downwards-facing slash in a diagonal line from right to left

Defender:

Parry from the ground by rotating your sword to create a cross with the attacking sword. If the attacking strike is judged to be too strong either use an additional hand to support the sword at its blade’s center or deflect the sword to the ground by rotating the hand holding the sword’s handle clockwise

Defender:

Steady the already raised arm holding the sword to launch a counterattack. Either do a diagonal downward-facing slash from right to left or bring the sword down to pierce with a single-step lunge in the direction of the attacker’s right shoulder(from the defender’s perspective)

Attacker and Defender switch positions.

___

During the early afternoon, Kasim is practicing strategic training like this one to gain the experience to handle all kinds of situations in a fitting manner.

After a strictly scheduled break the group then begins their free-fighting exercises, where the two duelists can fight under tournament regulations without a predetermined form to go by.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

This allows Kasim to use the knowledge he absorbed in the last exercise in actual combat.

After the practice is over, the young boy does some moderately taxing stretching exercises to keep his muscles flexible and tender and to minimize the risk of cramps and muscle sprains.

Then a period follows, in which Kasim is practicing meditation and the so called art of transcendence, which most swordsmen need to dedicate themselves to to harness a power, that rivals the use of spirits and such. The reason as to why is not explained to the young boy, so he sometimes likes to slack off when doing this particular exercise when he feels unwatched.

Kasim Rojora is always disciplined to handle his days as efficiently as possible but the last few weeks leading up to the tournament have been the most taxing ones in his short but impactful life, both mentally and physically.

His father, Kasanova Rojora, has decided to make the boy attend to this year’s competition, which he had been prohibited from visiting until told otherwise.

This is a test for the boy to proof his qualities as heir to the Rojora-family. Thoughts about failing to meet up his father’s expectations have been clouding the prepubescent boy’s mind for a long time now and these thought are reaching a new peak as he counts the days until the tournament may finally start.

<>

At the end of each of these days, Kasim murmurs said words over and over again like a prayer before eventually falling asleep. Whom is he praying to? He prays for his family to give him the strength to stand tall without showing any weakness of crumbling.

Like a stone statue…

He is praying to the symbol of the Rojora-family, the red stone statue, which his father has had tailor-made for his growing son.

Every time he prays to the statue, Kasim can feel his will and resolve strengthening and his weaknesses and insecurities being covered up underneath a layer of red clay-armor blanketing his mind into a warm sleep.

Fast forwarding a bit, it is now late evening on December 22nd and the group has rented themselves a place within a (from his perspective) slightly run-down inn inside of Medalia, eagerly awaiting the upcoming day.

Once again, Kasim is sitting on top of his provisional bed, both legs crossed and hands clasped together in an inverted V-sign, both thumbs leaned against the sides of his sharp, beak-like nose.

Today however, Kasim’s mental state simply cannot be amended by just sitting in front of a statue and thinking away every and all worries as if they didn’t exist.

In order to get his head out of the gutter, he meets up with Kassandra, who is sleeping in the room next to his, and the two of them decide to go out and to explore the city of Medalia and its intricacies by themselves.

Medalia city is a small city nestled on top of a rock-formation. The ground has been polished to faintly sparkle in a shimmering silver color. The houses are few, their exterior made out of sturdy wooden planks and sealed up with a mixture of mud and clay. A smell of nature wafts around within this small village. The one side of Medalia presents a downwards-sloped traveling path for the people to enter and exit the village.

Its entry is limited through a 2.5-meter-high pile-wall made out of cobblestone. Each stone is reinforced from the inside using runes with solidifying and strengthening effects while the outside is draped with a flammable liquid, which extends in a half-circle around the entire village perimeter to keep intruders from entering.

Why is the wall in the form of a half-circle?

That is the case, because the other half of Medalia is surrounded by a deep cliff. The cliff is about 20 meters deep and reaches into a never-ending dense forest, in which there are many predators, most of which nobody reasonably could plan an ambush through their territory.

In other words: The natural cliff leading into a dense and dangerous forest serves as a natural protective system against potential outside invaders.

Kasim and Kassandra have sneaked out of the city and are walking through the dark and foggy night, Kassandra is holding a torch filled with a long lasting combustible while Kasim is keeping a close distance to her and the light.

Kasim Rojora, 9 years old, is terrified of the dark. Obviously Kassandra knows this, so she constantly tries to engage in a conversation with the boy to keep him from focusing too much on the surroundings. The plan seems to be working but the two of them eventually come to a stop.

*SHAKE* *SHAKE*

A blatantly noisy shaking-sound is being produced by none other than Kasim himself, as his knees and teeth start to shake and clatter profusely. His normally tanned complexion now seems as pale as paper. Without noticing he holds tightly onto Kassandra’s left shoulder when he sees this:

In front of the two children, there is a being draped in a venomously green outfit and arms as thin as bread-sticks walking in a hunched position. The being’s left leg is being dragged behind and the two children can hear moans of exhaustion escaping from its mouth.

Kasim Rojora, 9 years old, is terrified of the Undead(trauma due to scary bedtime-stories).

The couple’s reactions could not have been more different to each other.

While Kasim is shaking like a leave inside a torrent of winds and holding tightly onto his best friend’s side, Kassandra immediately jumps to action. But in a way, that shocks the completely frightened boy, she frees herself from his clutches, places the torch in his hands and rushes over to the being inside the fog.

Kasim tries to stop her but is incapable of doing so, as she has always been more physically gifted than himself.

He shouts and cries out her name, warning her, that it is too dangerous to get close to this being but the boy might as well be talking to a brick-wall and he would get more of a response than in this situation.

Why would she do something so irresponsibly dangerous instead of running back behind the village’s defense perimeters and reporting the sighting of an Undead?

He could not understand her.

Nevertheless, Kasim decides to, against his better judgment and instincts, run up behind her and brandishes his sword into a stance ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

The distance between Kassandra and the beastly being is about three steps worth while the distance between Kassandra and himself is an additional two steps worth of distance. Once he gets half a step closer to her, Kasim decides to preemptively assume an attacking motion.

He quickly focuses his weight on his right leading foot while also contracting all the muscles in his rear-leg in order to immediately relax them and to gain explosive forward-momentum.

At the same time, Kasim brandishes the sword, which he regularly keeps at his left waist, and initiates a powerful piercing lunge.

He could just barely hear Kassandra scream from next to him

<>

He doesn’t know why she would shout at him to stop but the motion has already been set into motion and reinforced with transcended physicality. There is no way to just stop it from his side.

*SWISH*

The high-precision, high-impact technique barely misses the being’s neck and only ends up hitting empty air. Kasim instinctively steps back to prepare for a counter-attack while the beast changes its posture into a 4-legged lunging posture. At this point in time, Kasim gets a subtle hint that he should dodge whatever is coming his way next. He prepares to position himself between Kassandra and the beast and realigns his footsteps to match the desired trajectory and location but ends up being stopped dead in his tracks.

He stumbles over a slight elevation within the ground and loses his footing and composure for a split second. That instance is enough of an opening for the beast to take advantage of. It sprints head-first into the chest-area of the wide-open Kasim and for the next part, the poor kid does not even know what exactly has happened in the following exchange:

As soon as the beast’s hair makes contact with Kasim’s chest-piece, it raises its left rear-leg in a flash and initiates a roll in the middle of its stride. The roll is fully executed as soon as Kasim fully feels the beast’s head make contact with his chest.

The roll is then transitioned into a split with the left leg sweeping away Kasim’s footing and the beast’s left arm rotates clockwise in opposition to its lower body in order to go with the momentum of the lunge and to sweep the boy off his feet. There are five sharp claw marks indented into the chest-piece of Kasim’s armor, as he is being thrown onto the ground.

Then he freezes up as he stares into a red abyss darker and more bloodthirsty than anything he has ever seen. This is the last thing he sees, before Kasim faints, leaving behind a dazzled Kassandra and a limping Imogyeran to watch over him.