“Elizabeth! You here!?” As soon as we got to the Union I headed over to the counter where we talk to Elizabeth yesterday. “Come on Elizabeth! I can hear you rummaging around back there.”
And a moment later she came out of the back, once again in her large man form. “Oh, you two are here! That’s wonderful timing. Your mentor arrived just a minute ago. She’s over by the bar. Bella! Get over here! Your apprentices have arrived!”
Looking over at the bar, it was hard to spot who exactly we were looking for. But soon enough I saw a woman rise up from the bar. And man, she was beautiful. Perhaps the most gorgeous woman I’d seen since arriving here. Tall with wavy blonde hair. Piercing eyes and a gorgeous body. She was dressed up a little more nicely than Alicia had been, wearing a cute dress. It must be made from special materials as well. And she had a short sword at her waist, not too dissimilar to the ones we had.
She walked over and looked at us with apathy. “So three months with these guys huh? You two ready for it?”
“”Yes!”” A sly grin crossed her face. “Good. Let’s get right to it then. Meet me outside the west gate. You have 10 minutes to get there.” And she took off in a dash. It looks like training truly does start now. I looked back at Elizabeth for confirmation. “Better get running!” Words of encouragement, though they don’t seem very encouraging.
Me and Javi take off and immediately I notice how much easier it seems to run than I thought it would. I’m still not used to the increase in abilities from getting the Adventurer class. We dash through the city, and even though we don’t know the way that well we manage to get out the gate within 15 minutes. It left us thoroughly out of breath even despite our new stats.
“Very good! Every adventurer needs to know how to run! It’s what guarantees your life! From now on you’ll meet me here every morning! You are not to take a step into the Union building without my permission! We will commence training from here. Starting tomorrow is when we will begin your real training. For today, I need to assess your current abilities. Tall one. You first.”
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Great. Of course she singled me out first. I didn’t have any combat experience. All I could do was grab my sword and hold it up to show my determination.
She watched my stance for a moment before walking right up to me. An instance later I was on the ground and she had taken my sword. “Wrong. All wrong. You have no sense of balance, your grip is awful, you don’t know where to look, and your back isn’t even straight. It’s admirable that you want to hold your sword forward but you’re more likely to stab yourself than your enemy like that. Next.”
She cast her gaze over to Javi. I watched as he dropped into a much more natural stance than mine. She once again walked up to him. I could watch as she moved to sweep his leg and take the sword, but he didn’t fall and he kept his grip. Of course she then put a little more effort into it. She kicked out his back leg and twisted his arm around behind him. He quickly gave up control of his sword as she forced him down.
“Better, you know how to balance your weight and your grip is solid. However, you can’t let an enemy invade your space like that, they can disrupt your stance and do much worse to you than what I did. Once again, you don’t know where to look.” She looked back and forth between the two of us. “Alright, up. Let’s review. First of all, it’s clear neither of you have much, if any, combat experience. Your bodies are in a decent shape as is required but you need some definite work. We shall spend the first month drilling the basics into you and whipping you into proper fighting shape. Today I will teach you the most important lesson of all that you will need to practice as much as possible.”
We watched her with rapt attention. She had wasted no time in our instruction and kept it as straightforward as possible. “The most important thing to know is to always Analyze. Always. It doesn’t matter what situation you are in or who you are facing. You need to know exactly what you are facing and what is around you. That is what will give you the leg up to gain an advantage when it is least expected.” I remembered Alicia saying something similar. I guess Analyze really is important. This instruction was going to be very helpful.