The sound of wood clattering against wood filled a small circular area near the gate where the watchmen trained. Erin observed two of them circling one another, clashing shield against shield as they struggled to jab around them with mock spears. The combat seemed awkward and brutal, with none of the graceful exchanging of blows that movies had promised.

  “It seems so messy,” Erin said quietly to Sigrid, who had followed her when she had run down the guards, and asked to observe them training.

  “That’s how you know it’s real.” Sigrid answered, “You’ve killed enough to know by now. Would you call it clean?” She had nightmares about the monsters she had slain some nights. Their screams of pain as their flesh burned and melted.

  “No, I wouldn’t.” She agreed, still watching the guards shove back and forth against one another. Curiously, it was the shorter, skinnier man who was scoring hits as he narrowly avoided taking blows in return. The longer she watched, the more she was forced to admit how fighting like this required skill, even if there were no flashy displays. The narrow margins for error probably meant it was more skillful, and much more efficient for killing. Not as fun to watch, but that wasn’t the point of fighting.

  “That’s enough. Kiran won.” called the commander, who had been standing to the side, watching the fight and counting hits. They both let their shields fall, stripping them off and laying them aside as they pulled off their helmets to reveal sweaty faces.

  “That was excellent, you’re really improved.” said the smaller man, Kiran. The larger man grinned wide and clapped Kiran on the shoulder.

  “You’re a slippery one. Every time I thought I was going to get a hit, you wiggled out of it.”

  “I don’t wiggle,” Kiran joked back. “That ain’t no dignified way for a man to move.”

  “What’s more dignified than winning a fight?” The larger man asked.

  “Doing it without wiggling.”

  “Come on, ain’t nothing wrong with a bit of a wiggle. I’m sure that tavern girl appreciates the way you-”

  “That’s enough, lads, we have company,” both of the watchmen turned, confused expressions turning to surprise as they noticed Erin and Sigrid watching their exchange.

  “Begging your pardon, ladies,” Kiran said, tipping his head forward.

  “I’d like to give it a shot,” Erin replied, sending a wave of confused and disbelieving expressions across the faces of the guards who’d assembled for the bout.

  “Ma'am, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why not?”

  “It would reflect badly on Dangole if- if a Mage got hurt while staying here.” Erin and Sigrid exchanged a look before Erin replied.

  “I’ve been through worse than what I just witnessed.”

  “The Academy looks poorly on First Tiers who attempt to harm their Citizens.”

  “Well, I’m not a citizen of Academy City, at least not yet, and I wasn’t planning to tell them about it, anyway.”

  “I’ll fight her Commander,” Kiran said. “You’ll need a helmet,” he added as he slipped his back on.

  “Oh, I-” Erin looked around.

  [Your hat should serve.]

  My what?

  [Bronze quality All-Purpose Hat: This hat changes to suit the wearer's needs.]

  Oh right.

  Erin reached into her inventory and extracted the hat, which seemed to pop into existence in her hand. It had the form of a leather cap, trimmed with fur, meant to keep her head and ears warm, but as she slipped it onto her head the soft material hardened and expanded to enclose her face, a nose guard even sliding down to bisect her vision.

  “Well, ain’t that handy,” Kiran said with a laugh, but many of the others looked uncomfortable and Erin wondered if perhaps she should have put on a normal helmet. She stepped forward and took a shield that was held out to her, slipping it onto her arm. She tested the weight and found it lighter than she’d expected. Then came the training spear. She gave a few experimental jabs and then faced Kiran.

  “How do you want to do this, ma’am?” He asked.

  “Treat me like a recruit.” She could see his teeth show as he grinned big at her.

  “Of course.”

  “Kiran,” the commander said, a warning in his tone.

  “Relax Commander, as the lady said. She’s been through worse.”

  Erin ignored the back and forth as she pulled the shield up in front of her body and set her shoulder. She was taller than Kiran and had greater reach, but so had the last guy he’d fought. She’d need to-

  “Begin” The commander called out, and Kiran rushed her before she could form a strategy, or even make a rush of her own. On reflex, she stepped forward and planted her foot, bracing the shield.

  Kiran's shield checked hers with a surprising amount of force, and several things happened rapidly. She’d held the shield just below eye level and close to her body so she could control it, but the upper lip of the shield snapped back into her face with the impact. Despite that, and the force of the blow. She only slid back in the mud, her strength more than enough to absorb the charge. Her nose stinging, she was at least glad she’d stayed on her feet. The thought had only crossed her mind when she felt his foot strike her heel as he gave another push. She stumbled back and fell onto her butt. The spear she’d held in her right hand was dropped as she reflexively tried to catch herself. A booted foot collided with her still upraised shield and she tumbled back the rest of the way. When she looked up, she found Kiran looming over her, the training spear aimed at her throat.

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  "Kiran wins,” the commander said, and the young man smiled, tossing his spear to one of his fellows standing nearby and offering Erin a hand.

  “Damn, but you’re sturdy.” He said with a laugh as she took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. “What did your momma feed you? Bricks and mortar, because I’ve met stone buildings that went down easier than that.”

  “Do you do that with all recruits, then?” She asked, as she set her shield down and brushed herself off, grimacing at the multitude of bruises she could feel blossoming.

  “New fellas rarely require that much effort to knockdown, but that is essentially it, yeah. Everyone holds the shield wrong to start, and a good whack on the nose helps them learn the lesson.”

  “Yeah well, lesson learned,” Erin said as she pushed her helmet up and gingerly felt around her nose. It hurt, but it wasn’t broken.

  This is a good hat.

  “So, are you ready for round two?” Kiran asked as Erin pulled the helmet back into place and grabbed her spear from where she’d dropped it.

  “Yeah, just tell me what I should do with my shield first.”

  Several more bouts followed, with Erin finding herself outmaneuvered in each one. Kiran was the smallest of the Town Watch and it was obvious he’d refined his skill in fighting stronger opponents, and Erin was that. In their second clash, she’d slammed her shield into his as he approached, and the force of it had staggered him briefly, and she found she could overpower him if they were a shield to shield for at least a few seconds.

  The problem was that Kiran was slippery and quick. When she felt like she was getting momentum behind a push, he’d step away and send her off balance, quickly jabbing her exposed side and leg, one time even knocking her down with a heavy shove. She could tell she was improving, and in the last session, she even scored a couple of hits before Kiran got under her guard and scored several killing blows. The young man flopped to the ground, set aside his shield, and panted.

  “By the eight, but damn, you’re strong.” He complained as he pulled off his helmet, sweat sticking his dark hair to his forehead.

  “Didn’t help me much.” Erin set her shield aside and held the short spear experimentally in both hands. Despite the morning's exertions, she was only a little fatigued.

  “A bit of training up will see to that. You’re going to be a terror on the field one day.”'

  Erin pulled off her helm and slipped it back into her inventory, causing it to vanish from her hand.

  “I’m not certain of the benefit of training with a shield,” Sigrid said from the sidelines. The first time she’d spoken since Erin had started sparring.

  “Why not?”

  “You can’t cast like that. Not without relinquishing your weapon. The shield complicates things.”

  “So, what do you suggest?”

  “We can show you how to poke two-handed with a spear, and more than a few here are handy with a quarterstaff,” Kiran interjected before pushing himself back to his feet. Sigrid nodded, along with Kiran’s words.

  “You’ll have to get a new staff since you dropped your old one.”

  “How’d you manage that?” Kiran asked.

  “Qek hit me real hard.” Her hand went to rest on her stomach, where the claws had slashed into her. Sigrid had made her drink the vial of healing potion after she passed out, and her body healed quickly anyway, so she’d awoke with only a bit of stiffness.

  “Must’ve been some qek,” Kiran said with a raised eyebrow, coming to stand next to her. Erin and Sigrid exchanged a look.

  “There’s a larger type, white all over with blue eyes. As tall as I am. They’re leading the smaller ones. They can keep them from killing each other, more or less.” The young man looked at Erin as she spoke, his expression turning darker with every word.

  “Those little beasts have always been kind of a menace, but they’re not the scariest monsters in these woods by any stretch.”

  Sigrid stood with her arms folded, looking towards the gate, her expression thoughtful.

  “Do they ever attack villages?”

  “Qek?” Kiran scoffed, resting his hands on his hips as he shook his head. “No, never. They’re primitive and all that, but not stupid enough to try something like that. They don’t have the numbers.”

  “Well, they do now,” Erin said. “There were dozens of them that attacked the village we were in. Them and the big pale ones.”

  “Those folks you rescued said as much, but everyone says it can’t be true. Had to be a Slausqa or they let trees grow too close to the wall and Iron Spiders got in.” A few of the other watchmen nodded in agreement with this as Kiran spoke, and Erin shook her head.

  “No, it was the qek. We followed them to that village in the first place, trying to figure out where they were going and we killed some of them when they attacked, but…” Erin trailed off, and the big man that Kiran had been sparring with originally spoke up, his voice unusually high and soft for a man his size.

  “Qek? You expect us to believe those little-”

  “Cheddar,” Kiran said sharply, and the big man cut off.

  “Cheddar?” Erin asked, drawn out of her recollections.

  “Yeah, Cheddar here got caught steeling a whole wheel of cheese when he was a boy and now he’s Cheddar.”

  “Small towns have excellent memories.” the big man said with a grin. “Apologies for my tone, ma’am. I wasn’t meaning to call you a liar. It’s just hard to believe.”

  “The pale ones are new then,” Sigrid said, more to herself than anyone in particular, but Kiran answered anyway.

  “To my knowledge. I’ve never seen anything like that nor heard tell of it.”

  “You’ve fought qek?” Erin asked, and the surrounding men laughed.

  “Of course we have. It’s what we do out here.”

  “What do you mean?” Erin asked.

  “We hunt monsters,” Kiran said with a grin.