As important as it was to improve his skills and all-around outdoorsmanship, Nick put just as much effort into bolstering his martial prowess.
When his daily skills training was complete, he would emerge onto the island’s southwestern shore, then head over to the obelisk to track his growth and check the time. The last sunny stretch of sand on the island was Nick’s preferred spot for weapon training, as it was a perfect place to fall on his ass without bruising his tailbone. And while teaching himself the basics of weapon handling without the assistance of any System-granted skills, he tended to fall with an embarrassing regularity. At least he managed not to impale himself in the process.
Although Nick did run into an occasional komo or swordclaw, this spot was one of the safest places on the island. The sandbar connecting obelisk to isle was too wide for the thing in the sea to approach, and none of the beasts in the woods were laired nearby.
Better still, he had yet to discover any signs that the sandbar was part of the lurk’s hunting grounds. He would have moved out here at the beginning of the tutorial’s second phase if he had been able to build a shelter sufficient to protect him from the searstorms, and it wasn’t so far away from everything else on the island.
Enjoying the soothing roar of the surf and the beauty of the open ocean, he would begin by selecting a weapon and then transition between a series of basic stances. His goal was to be able to strike along each of the eight basic angles as well as thrust without having to think about what he was doing, to the point where each motion became an instinctive reflex.
Nick would practice his strikes until his arms were throbbing to strengthen the specific muscles used in each attack. Once he was warmed up, he moved on to his favorite part of his regimen, shadow boxing. Leaping and dodging across the white sand, he relived old fights and invented new scenarios, facing down imagined enemies in real time, visualizing each in as much detail as he could.
This part of his routine could only be done on the sandbar or in front of his cave. Shadow boxing required all of Nick’s concentration, and he needed to do it somewhere where he was safe from ambush. Fortunately, that wasn’t a problem with the obelisk. No matter how distracted he was, there was no way that he would miss a predator walking along the empty stretch of sand leading to his position.
If he spotted anything emerging from the trees, he would step behind the obsidian pillar to obscure his profile. He had even found another submerged sandbar that he could follow back to the island if the main path was blocked. It was unstable and sketchy as all hell, but on a planet filled with ravenous, highly intelligent beasts, an emergency exit was always welcome.
Early on, Nick’s shadowboxing was a crude tool at best. Although he could clearly imagine his opponents in his mind’s eye, he had a tough time overlaying his mental images on top of the physical world. Even when he managed to do it, they were only shadowy outlines that didn’t move like live opponents.
But as the days passed, Nick started to get the hang of it. He had learned to repeat a mantra as he concentrated, helping him to recreate not only the appearance and movements of his enemies but their presence as well. Then he moved on to visualizing the beasts and the tactics they had taught him.
Remember what they looked like, Nick, then go beyond. To how it felt to face them head-on. Imagine the beast closing in, muscles poised to strike and filled with killing intent. Remember how they moved; how they reacted to each choice you made. Now, go beyond the memory. Your enemy is here, standing in front of you. Make the fight real. Anticipate and neutralize. Dodge and strike. Push past merely reacting and take control of the momentum of the fight. Disrupt their tactics, then counter and land a finishing blow.
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Nick trained as diligently as he could, but there were hard limits to how long he could drill each day. He couldn’t afford to completely exhaust or injure himself, or he would leave himself vulnerable for the rest of the afternoon. He wished that he had some formal training in his weapons of choice, or better yet, a relevant skill, but he did the best he could without them.
Even working under these constraints, he made noticeable progress every day. By the end of the week, his sword felt more at home resting between his hands, and he was confident that he would be able to respond to a wide variety of attacks and ambushes without losing his head.
After training with his sword, dagger, or wand, occasionally mixing it up by adding in a bit of spear work or rock chucking, Nick would eat a late lunch and head back into the forest, stopping by the spring to top off his canteen and wash the grime from his body. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to make the spear a permanent part of his arsenal. The crude wooden weapons had poor penetration compared to his metal blades, although the length offered him a key advantage when fighting against animals.
He decided to keep at it for now. He wanted to be comfortable enough with the spear to fend off beasts from behind the barricade guarding his shelter, since the komos’ night invasion was still fresh in his mind.
Whenever he was walking, he drilled himself into reaching back over his shoulder. Sticking his hand into his open pack, then withdrawing the sword in a single motion. Nick had decided to use the pack as an impromptu sheath, since carrying the sword in front of him as he hiked was both awkward and dangerous. The motion was still a bit clumsy, but his draw was growing smoother with practice. He was gradually getting used to performing the maneuver whenever he sensed danger nearby.
He was ambushed twice by komos, and Nick could tell that the beasts were growing stronger over time. But he was able to bring his sword to bear, create an opening, and escape without taking any serious wounds. He had even managed to kill the second one with a lucky strike. He kept an eye out for the lurk, but while Nick had seen its tracks in the region, he hadn’t had another encounter with the deadly beast just yet, much to his relief.
Before returning to his cave for the evening, he would try to find a swordclaw to fence with. Their bladed claws were the closest that he could get to sparring with actual weapons. The swordclaws were excellent partners. The armored beasts were happy to accept a draw and slow enough to escape from when he was finished.
Although he would fight to kill if he were defending himself or hunting for dinner, Nick was glad that he didn’t need to slaughter the crabs in order to train. The giant crustaceans were dangerous beasts but had never gone out of their way to threaten him, as they didn’t seem to categorize him as a predator or prey. His sword didn’t do much damage to the chitin of their claws unless he hit them with a fully powered chop, so he wasn’t causing the bulky crustaceans to suffer unduly either.
In addition to practicing parrying and blocking with his sword, Nick used these man-versus-crab sparring sessions to develop his combat mindset. Maintaining awareness of his environment and his opponent amidst the rush of combat. Learning how to keep a cool head in the heat of battle. To act rather than react. Not to become lost in the rush of adrenaline or freeze due to the desire to avoid taking a hit.
He felt no such compunction against harming the komos that crossed his path, as the carnivorous lizards were insanely aggressive and would hunt him for days once they caught wind of his presence. He would stop to kill any solitary lizards that were lurking near his shelter, although he tended to avoid the others he encountered.
When he was finished for the day, Nick would stop to say hello to the tribe and then head back to his shelter to make dinner and engage in a second round of Strength training. As the light began to fade, he would scout the perimeter of the clearing, examine his alarm traps and barricade, then review tactics and his goals for the next day before falling asleep.
While it was still stressful, lonely, and dangerous, this week was relatively relaxing compared to the rest of the tutorial. He didn’t let the break lull him into a false sense of security. Nick was certain that whatever was coming would be worse than anything he had experienced so far.