— Aster —

We sat half-awake in front of two large mannequins, a large pad, and an easel. With Jane being just a bit too cheery today. “Now it is time for your combat training.” Jane pulled the male dummy forward which was anatomically correct. “First lesson anatomy! Today will consist of three things Anatomy, defense, and offense.” Jane placed a series of weapons on the table. There were all kinds of knives, swords, slings, bows, guns, and some things I’ve never seen before. “You will also figure out which weapons you are proficient with.”

“What's with the anatomy lesson?” the girl asked. This caught my attention as I was currently focusing on the table of weapons. I was excited to finally use a weapon.

“You need to learn where certain arteries and muscles are to effectively fight.” Jane pointed towards the weapons “Notice that the largest weapon here is the short sword.”

We reexamined the weapons. There was a series of different weapons, daggers, bows, guns, throwing knives, and something circular. But nothing longer than a short sword. Even the box seemed small, just large enough to carry on your back.

“What are those?” the girl pointed to the circular Rings like items that seemed out of place with the straight weapons.

“Those are chakrams. They are throwing weapons but can be used as defensive weapons. Not many people can use them.” She held up the sharp ring and threw it at one of the straw dummies across the room. Leaving a deep gash in the would-be shoulder area of the dummy. “They're quite strong but tend to be one shot.” Gesturing to the chakram in the shoulder “Supposedly masters can make them bounce back but I think that’s a myth or just magic.”

The chakrams seemed like interesting weapons. Odd and unexpected...I think I like them.

Jane pulled over the other dummy with the chakram embedded in it. “Now I'll explain the rest of the weapons later and why we use small weapons during combat. Okay now, are you two ready?

In unison, we replied ““Yes.”

“Alright then let's begin.”

New Pathway found...

Program Compatible with pathways…

Permission….Granted.

Installing Rogue type Pathway Program “Combat 1 - Anatomy”…

The haze overcame over us seeing images of muscle tissue, veins sizes, and where they lead. Where the veins of the body are, the obvious ones in the neck, the less obvious ones in the armpit and inner thighs. We learned about all manner of things about the human body in the Dream Haze. I now knew the inner workings of the human body more than I ever wanted to.

Installing Rogue type Pathway Program “Combat 1 - Anatomy”.......Completed

The haze ended and the headaches began “I think I just learned what the healers learned.” I commented

“Pretty much.” Jane confirmed

“Really?” It had just been an offhand comment but for it to be confirmed.

“Well yes.” Jane continued “healers need to know at least this basic knowledge. As for us, we usually deal with quick strikes, ambushes, and traps. We need to know how to deal the most damage as fast as possible.”

“Does everybody learn it?” the girl asked

She thought for a moment “From what I understand most classes learn it, but it's more basic and tailored to the other classes. But I do know healers learn everything. So to answer your question, yes but different.”

That…actually made sense.

Jane picked up a dagger off the table “Now I know you both have had basic combat training at your Academy, but this is the advanced stuff. Now, what weapons do you prefer to use?” If you could call that weapon training. I was only shown how to hold a weapon and swing it so that I don’t hurt anyone. It was the equivalent of properly learning to swing an ax to chop wood. I think the rest might have gotten more training, than me.

We both took a moment to think back on what we used. The girl answered first. “Dagger and bow.”

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“Sword and Dagger.” I barely knew either but I liked the combination of the 2.

Jane smiled “Both of you chose dagger; classic Rogues, aren't you?” Looking towards me “Do you like sword and dagger separate or at the same time?”

No idea but answered with the biggest grin. “Yes!”

“That explains nothing but it doesn't matter. You will both learn all of these weapons and a few others.” Jane leaned in conspiratorial “Most people have never tried most of the weapons here. So you may find a new favorite.”

She set the dagger down on the table. “Are you ready?” Without realizing the headache had faded. We nodded confirming this. “Are you ready!?” She said this time with emphasis.

Taken aback we answered “Yes!”

“Then let us begin.” The Dream Haze began.

New Pathway found...

Program Compatible with pathways…

Permission….Granted.

Installing Rogue type Pathway Program “Combat 2 - Weapons”…

Jane picked up each weapon demonstrating basic techniques with each one. Most of them were simple thrusts, slashes, and throws but every time a slash, throw, stabbed, shot, or even a bash with the end of the weapon a thousand images passed through my mind. Flashing with a thousand different strategies, styles and ways to use the weapon. Each style was extremely focused on going for critical areas on the body. Seeming to focus on causing as much damage as possible. They also seem to focus more on surprise attacks, ambushes and the most deadly of techniques, the backstab. This attack was much more intricate than I had even realized. For it to be the most effective I needed to be able to strike the spine and slip the blade in between the vertebrae. This looked extremely hard since one must predict the movement of the target or else the weapon may slide to the side or worse be stuck in the bone. There was also the effect of backstab aiming for the kidneys or other major internal organs but these tactics would only allow for retaliation before their death or scream. There were many other tactics to kill quickly and silent shown. All complicated but simple at the same time. Some tactics were extremely overt and flashy but this was the most minority in the tactics I saw. The haze ended as drums beat my brain.

Installing Rogue type Pathway Program “Combat 2 - Weapons”.....Complete

“Any questions?” Jane said smiling at us.

The only question that I could find through the beat of the drums were. “How often does severing the spine with a backstab actually work?”

“Some can actually do it every time, but the actual chance of it happening is about five percent until you have complete control. Even then it's about twenty-five percent to forty percent at most. So it’s not used very often.” Jane explained “You know most people ask about guns why no one seems to use them.”

I took the bait. “Okay tell us why do so few people use guns.”

Jane smiled, “Finally my favorite question.” she picked up the gun on the table shooting me in the chest.

“!?!”I was shot. First there was nothing then there was an intense burning sensation in my chest for less than a second there was nothing just a hole in my shirt. What kind of mad house is this? I glared at Jane “Keepers Blight?! You shot me!”

“As you can see you are fine and only felt an intense burn for about a second.” she smiled and shot the girl.

The girl looked shocked and grabbed her chest. Glaring at Jane “Bitch!”

“Now. Now. No need for such language.” Jane wagged her finger. “As you can see you heal too fast. A gun's bullet is small and passes through you so fast the body heals naturally as though it doesn’t even think it was hurt. This is why swords, knives, and Bows are used. They cause more trauma to the body making it harder to heal.” She pointedly added. “This does not mean you can't use a gun. They can be useful for a shot or 2, as they can sometimes stun a person. A headshot will knock someone out if the bullet doesn't make it through the skull otherwise their whole body will be stunned. And if you use enough bullets it will still kill someone. It just takes a while. But that really depends on their class and level.”

The girls still seemed unsatisfied when she asked. “Then you shot us to show us why we don't use guns?”

“Yep, it's always fun to see the look on people's faces. Oh and they're very loud.” Jane seems to have a little sadistic personality. I don’t think I noticed this before.

Dreading the answer I asked. “So what's the next defense?”

“It's more like running away or counter-attacking than defense but they call it the defense.” Jane stumbled over her own words.

“?” Now what? This won’t do well for us.

“I guess the only way to understand is to just show you. Are you ready?”

““Yes.””

“Then let us begin.” the haze took over.

New Pathway found...

Program Compatible with pathways…

Permission….Granted.

Installing Rogue type Pathway Program “Combat 3 - Defense”...

Like she said it wasn't really defense so much as running away. There were some basic things she showed us as to how to parry with each weapon. The interesting stuff was the seemingly improvised stuff. One of the tactics was pulling out a trap and throwing it at the target to run, or simple things are thrown to trip up the opponents or to lure them into traps as you run. Since we focus on speed rather than strength. This was probably the best tactic used to defend. Images of excellent dodges also flash by realizing that my biggest defense was ‘Don't get hit.’ I thought this was funny. Time was up and the haze faded. Wow, we really do use underhanded tactics. I did not realize this or by how much.

Installing Rogue type Pathway Program “Combat 3 - Defense”.......Complete

The pain was blinding this time. Everything went white I couldn’t even see straight. I think I felt something wet drip from my ears. I touched it and found a few drops of blood. Jane tossed our towels to clean off the blood. Once we were clean “Any questions?”

“What was the thrown… trap?” I was also curious about what that was.

Jane pulled out a sphere and pushed the button at the top. Throwing it at the dummy the ball seemed to explode and a large knife flew out sticking into the dummy. “We call them capsules. I'm not sure how they work but they shrink items down to fit into them. They're very handy for carrying things around. Of course, there is a size limit for the capsule, and the bigger the capsule the more expensive it is. They’re also single-use. Be careful tinkering with them, sometimes they will explode when tampered with.”

Interrupting my train of thought Jane continued “Now grab a weapon and get ready to practice.”