Chapter 7: Art of War (III)

Magnus taught Tobias how to fight with a spear. But he didn’t teach him how to fight against a spear, using a spear, claiming that the chances of him doing so would be nigh impossible, unless he went off to become an actual Soldier. And Tobias vigorously denied that prospect.

Absolutely no way for him to agree to that. Last time he tried, he almost died.

Instead, Tobias was facing against Magnus who used a seven-foot wooden stick, with nothing but a wooden longsword in hand.

To put it into an analogy, Tobias would say that fighting a spear-user with a sword is like fighting against another person in hand-to-hand combat, except that their arms could extend to twice its length, and return back to normal length in a matter of moments.

To put it simply... it was hell.

For whatever reason, Magnus’ footwork with a spear is exceptional. Even with only a single functioning leg. It should be noted at this point that the old man’s wooden leg only replaces his lower calves and shins. So that apparently means he can still bend his knees to some degree, and while he couldn’t stand on his wooden leg for long periods of time, it still meant he could walk somewhat normally.

It made sense, did it not?

Of course it did. Absolutely. Definitely. It made the most perfect sense, ever.

“Again!” Tobias called out, as he stood to his feet after his legs got swept by the spear handle, knocking his balance off.

In response, Magnus only took up his stance, holding his spear by the middle with his right hand forwards, and the rear of the spear with his left hand backwards, pointed towards Tobias’ head.

Absolutely...

Tobias raised his sword in front of him, and took a deep breath. When he exhaled, he stepped forwards. The spear was pointing threateningly to his face, so he batted it away with a sword swing.

Wood tapped against wood, before the spear was retracted. And in that same breath, the spear was jabbed forwards, and Tobias took a step back to prevent his forehead from getting hit. Again.

Cancerous.

With a long exhale reminiscent of a sigh, he dashed forwards. Once again, he swung his sword to bat away the spear’s head, and tried to slip in while both weapons were off course.

Tobias managed to slip in, but his weapon wasn’t in any condition to swing within the moment. He needed a moment to get his sword in a position to attack, and another moment to launch the attack.

And of course, Magnus just raised his spear, flipped it in mid air so the spear point was behind him, and hit Tobias’ head with the butt of the spear in that moment. Then he flipped his spear again, and bonked Tobias on the head with a stern tap.

“...” Tobias said nothing, and only continued to glare at the spear which rested on his head, and to the old man who bore a somewhat amused expression.

“You would have died twenty times by now if this spear had a metal blade.” Magnus informed, and then withdrew his spear, and stuck it into the ground next to him. The wooden handle dug through snow with a satisfying crunch. “You wish to keep going?”

“Maybe next time...” Tobias sighed, then let his sword drop to the snow-covered ground with a minor thud. He touched his forehead, and found that it ached slightly.

He tapped his forearms, and found that they also ached. His legs definitely ached – that handle sweep really knocked him off his feet, and would leave bruises. His chest also had a few aching spots, and he only hoped they would go away quickly.

His assessment of himself finished, he looked at Magnus with narrowed eyes. “Do you... even know how to hold back?”

“I should ask the same question to you.” Magnus retorted back, and Tobias tilted his head in confusion. “Do you even know how to give up?”

Tobias raised his finger and opened his mouth to speak, before he paused. Then his opened mouth closed to form a frown, and his finger lowered itself.

Now that he worded it like that... He wasn’t wrong.

“I think persistence is one admirable trait.” Magnus began. “We would not be here if you were not persistent, correct? But at the same time, I have seen persistent men fail when they could have simply took a step back, think to themselves, and see the bigger picture.”

“I see.” He nodded, finding the spoken words of wisdom most definitely applicable at some point in his life. But more importantly... “You still haven’t answered my question, though.”

“Ah.” He hummed, then assumed a thinking pose. “The question about me holding back?” He asked, and Tobias nodded. Then he hummed to himself, and gave the rare, yet wry grin. “Definitely not.”

Tobias’ back slumped, and he let out a heavy sigh. Sounds about right, as his numerous, soon-to-be-bruises sore spots told him.

“Why are you shaking?” His mentor asked, taking him away from being too engrossed within his thoughts. The words he said only made Tobias look at him with some measure of apprehension, before he did realize that his body was shaking.

“Oh. It’s nothing.” He replied, waving his hand as a casual dismissal of the train of thought. On second thought, the reason why he shivered was because his new-found bruises reminded his body of pain conditioning. He let out another shiver at the thought.

“Is that so?” Magnus commented. Then he turned around, and faced the forest of frosted pine trees. “I have to admit. I did not expect you to learn this quickly.”

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“I think anyone would learn quickly when they train before the sun rises, and stop when the moon is almost as its peak.” Tobias let out a small chuckle. “You overestimate me, Magnus. Anyways, why bring it up?”

The old man let out small hum, audible only because of the silence. “At this rate, you will surpass me, sooner or later.”

Tobias scoffed, and shrugged. “Impossible. I wasn’t even able to beat you earlier.”

“Not impossible. I did tell you I never held back, right?”

Tobias blinked, then his eyes slowly widened from realization. “Then those times...”

“You came close to winning multiple times.” Magnus turned back to face his student, with the most serious expression he had even seen. Tobias gulped. “And that was me not holding back anything. Imagine what you could do in another month, maybe another week even.”

“Why... why are you telling me this? Didn’t you stress enough how important being humble was?” And yet, his mentor is stroking his ego, even if in a very roundabout way. It didn’t make sense to him.

“You are approaching the end of your tutelage under me. And after that happens, we will talk about where you will go from there on.” Magnus lowered his stance, and pulled up the spear he planted from the ground. He held it with both hands, and pointed the end towards his student. “Raise your weapon, Tobias.”

Tobias knelt down, and picked up the wooden sword which laid in the snow for far too long. The handle was chilly, almost-biting against his palm, yet he ignored it. It was nothing. And taking up a stance of his own, he only gave a wry smirk. “Let’s go.”

And with those words said, mentor and student faced off in another duel in a series of swift footwork and even swifter strikes.

***

“Big brother Toby!” A certain younger sibling tackled him – from the front, miraculously – and wrapped him in a warm hug. Winter had hellishly cold nights, after all. He carefully removed her arms from his waist, and removed his snow-melted, wet coat, before pulling her in for an awkward hug.

“Hey there, you’re still awake?” He asked, and gave a pat to her head. “You know staying up isn’t good for you.”

“I overslept earlier, don’t worry about it.” Erise said, and looked up with sparkling eyes. “I can’t believe I managed to catch you coming home, though!”

“Yeah. How long did you wait for me, even?” She already let go of him, so he bent down and untied the strings which secured his winter boots in place. As usual, they used to be covered with snow, before melting, turning the strings wet.

“The whole day.” He stared at her with a complicated expression. She noticed his distress, and waved her hands about, trying to placate him. “Oh, oh but don’t worry, I played the day away with my friends! We made snowballs and threw them against each other and we made snowmans!”

“It’s snowmen.” Tobias idly corrected her, and she gave a pout in return. He idly remembered the days of his childhood, and remembered that yes, making and throwing snowballs were about as fun as someone would expect. “Sounds like you had lots of fun.”

“Yep! We did!” Tobias sat himself in front of the still-lit fireplace, although the only occupants in the main room was the both of them.

“Anyways, why’d you wait for me? You wanted to talk about something?”

“Mhm.” She nodded. And just like that, the festive air turned into something a bit more serious. “I, uhm, wanted to ask you how you’re doing.”

Tobias blinked. “How I’m doing?”

“Is it a weird question?” She asked, and he shook his head. “If you say it’s not, then you should answer it.”

“My apologies.” Oh. That was too formal. Maybe Magnus’ speech was rubbing off on him, even if very slightly. “I mean, to be honest, I didn’t expect you of all people to ask me how I was doing. I kinda expected you to ask what I was doing.”

“You say too much words that don’t make sense. I’m just asking how you were.” She said, then she gave him a soft smile, with amiable eyes.

That expression... She knew something about it, didn’t she? But did it really matter? Why was he exactly questioning the motives of his younger sister? So with a sigh, he cleared those thoughts away from his mind.

How was he doing?

That was a question that he never expected in a long while, and he wanted to give an honest answer, even if only to repay the fact that his sister waited for him for the entire day. So he paused, took a step back, and tried to recall how he was feeling.

A sense of... achievement? A tiny sense of annoyance there. A sense of... satisfaction.

So in short...

“I’m doing good.” He finally said, and gave a small nod. That was the perfect summary of how he felt about himself; good.

“Really? I’m happy, then.” Erise said, and gave a relieved sigh.

“Hm.” Tobias hummed, then idly looked at his hands, finding his palms roughened and callused. And he idly groped his arms, and found that tightly-compressed, yet lean muscles covered them. His personal marks; his proof of learning through the trials of the art of war, if nothing else.

And he glanced back to his younger sister, who watched him with a hesitant, yet interested expression. “You know something about what’s going on, don’t you?”

“Well, mhm.” She gave a slow, cautious nod. Then she took a deep breath. “You’ve changed since the old man picked up your body from the forest.”

“You make it sound like I died.” He joked, but she only stayed silent. That joke didn’t fly over her head, so why was she silent? ... Wait...

“You... uhm, it looked like you were.” Oh. “You turned really pale and you looked like weren’t breathing anymore.”

Was it really that bad? He only remembers losing his consciousness back then. Was the mind truly over the body, after all? Did his Abyss-like unconsciousness somehow affect his body?

No, it was more sensible to pin the blame on Death. Whatever they did, they made him look deathly, at the very least. But then again, he was still alive...

“And a few days after that, you kept disappearing during the day. I asked mama and papa about it, but all they told us was that you were working in the forests.”

He idly gave a hum. So that was the story that his parents came up with. It wasn’t quite correct, yet at the same time, it wasn’t wrong either. A half truth, veiled in vagueness. It had ‘Pierre’ written all over it, and he gave a wry grin.

“So then. What’s the entire point of this conversation?”

Truth to be told, a large reason why he was listening to her ramble on was because she stayed up this late just to talk to him. Another smaller reason was because she was his younger sister, but that was entirely besides the point.

“Uhm... so I wanted to ask... what are you really doing?”

And there it was. Her true intentions. Children really were curious, weren’t they? He gave a small sigh, before leaning back to lie down on the floor. He placed his arms underneath his head, and took in the sight of the dark ceiling.

He begun to think what would happen if he told her. She wasn’t quite a tattletale as far as he remembered, but at the same time, Andre could probably bully her when he realizes that she knows something about him.

Tobias idly turned his head to look at Erise. She noticed him, and gave him a slight head tilt of confusion. But more importantly, he could see that her eyes were beginning to droop. Hm.

“Alright. I’ll trust you with this information.” He said, shrugging. He was tired of thinking – no, scratch that. He was just tired right now. “But under one condition. You will not tell anyone about this, alright?” He raised his finger and waved it, to serve as a warning gesture.

“I will.” She nodded seriously, bearing the most focused expression he had ever seen on her. He nodded.

So he gave her a summarized, incredibly abridged version of what happened thus far. Except instead of saying that Marcus died, he simply opted to tell her that he disappeared (because he really did not want to talk about the headache inducing entity that was known as Death) and now, he was getting stronger so he could leave the village and try to find him.

“You’re gonna leave?”

“That’s just what I said.” Erise bore a saddened expression at his words. “Don’t worry about me. I did run away from home a few months ago, remember?”

“Mmm...!” She let out a noise which sounded somewhere between grumbling, and growling.

“Are you annoyed?” Tobias asked, and she gave a small nod, but didn’t say anything. Was it the guessing game again? “Is it because I’m going to leave?” She nodded. “Why are you annoyed about that?”

“Sounds unfair. You get to leave whenever you want, while I’m stuck in this village.” She replied, pouting.

For a split second, he almost assumed that she was upset because she wanted him to stay. Same old, same old Erise. He gave her a head pat, as he smiled at her antics.

“Don’t worry about it. When you’re older, I’m sure they’ll let you go to different places as well.” He assured her, and she only gave a small frown. But she didn’t quite push his hand away. “Anyways, I’m pretty sure you should sleep now.”

“Mhm.” She nodded, and then stood up from the floor she sat on. “Good night, big brother Toby.” She gave a wave, yawning as she did.

“Good night, Erise.” He idly waved, and she turned to leave. Her footsteps softly creaked against the wooden stairs, and she soon disappeared from view.

When she finally disappeared from sight, he let his gaze fix itself on the burning fire place. The flames which seemed contented to just flicker and dance about seemed almost relaxing to watch. And he thought that it was wonderful to have a home to return to.