I tried to keep their warning in mind, and spent the rest of the afternoon getting more and more frustrated with my lack of progress. I tried everything I could think of, no matter how absurd. Right hand, left hand, feet, balanced on my forearm, touch it with my tongue (that last one was rather gross). When that didn’t work, I tried different visualizations. Holes in my fingers that allowed the mana to move through them. Imagining the mana as a drill moving through me. A gas that simply needed to move through my fingers. Every time it failed. There were a few occasions where the mana started to overcharge, but I caught it every time and managed to discharge things.
“Hey, Brandon, you really should eat something for lunch. Otherwise you won’t have strength to train when we stop for the night.” Katy said around midday.
“I am eating.” I nodded, holding up my waterbag. “Though I guarantee you wouldn’t enjoy my diet.”
“Oh? A challenge? What is it, some type of special vegetable blend?” Katy pressed.
“Cow blood.” I shrugged, chuckling when they both recoiled. “I should have mentioned, I can only drink things that are at least half blood.” They didn’t ask any questions after that, though I could tell they had some. Eventually I said, “Think on it for the afternoon. I’ll answer what I can when we stop for the night, deal?”
After that, things dropped into a routine. We were moving at a fairly steady pace, just faster than what I would consider a comfortable jog. Every so often a patrol would head out and back, checking both sides. While we were still somewhat close to town, we were in the remote mountains and those tended to breed bandits. By the time we stopped for the night, I was beyond frustrated and was looking forward to smashing something with a sword.
Our campsite was one that had been used before, as it had a wonderfully clear area. There were several areas cleared for latrines, and a marker indicating which had been used last. The teamsters broke camp easily, while the guards split up. Some went to gather enough wood for the night, while the rest headed toward the latrines.
“Hey, Brandon!” One called, motioning me to come over, “Come on. Time to earn your spot. Hear you are thinking of joining the army, right?”
“It’s a possibility.” I nodded.
“Good. Then you won’t mind helping dig the latrines. Gotta go at least a few feet deep, but we don’t need it too wide as we are just staying for the night. One thing you will learn fast, is that the army loves digging.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” Someone else chuckled. “Dig the latrines at each stop, dig out a fresh palisade. Clear out a bit for the camp road. That dirt pile looked at a higher up wrong, grab yer shovels boys!” We all got a good chuckle at that, and buckled down to get working. I watched, and as soon as one guy made the hole a foot deeper they would switch out. I ended up being fourth in line, and might have dug a little more than I originally planned, but that was fine.
After everything was set up, I chugged down a bit of blood for dinner, and got my training scutum and gladius. I got in close, and practiced my linework. Midline, high and low, I was practicing trying to hit the same point every time. That was part one of the training, and the second part would be even harder. Hitting it with my eyes closed.
“Ugh, boooooring!” Catherine called out as she walked over with Katy.
Katy chuckled, “While all that discipline will do you well as a soldier, you signed up to get the hunter experience kiddo. So put that stuff down, and watch us work. We’ll get you going in a minute.”
I nodded, and set down my equipment by the tree. The ladies hadn’t changed, except to switch a small bit of their gear. They had two-foot diameter bucklers in their left hands, and a gladius in their right. What followed was simply elegance. They danced back and forth, testing each other’s defense with their gladii. Both sword and shield were used to parry and guard, but their attacks were different than the traditional stabs that made up the majority of soldier work. Our scutum was designed to stop a blow in its tracks. Their bucklers were used to redirect attacks. On the rare occasion they did use it to directly stop an attack, it was more to disrupt the rhythm of their opponent.
The longer they fought, the more I saw patterns in their attacks. They would attack towards the limbs first, looking for crippling blows. Anytime there was a chance for their own arm to be slashed, they would extend the buckler as well, providing cover for their attacks. With no clear winner, they broke off.
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Katy asked between pants, “Well. Kid. What did. You pick up?”
I thought for a second, then answered, “Soldiers form a wall for the enemy to break upon. Hunters that work alone can’t do this, so your fighting style involves disabling your opponent while providing as small a window for retaliation as possible. What happens, though, if your opponent is more than willing to take on the damage from one of your extended blows?”
“Good question. If that happens, we usually pull the blow. Our other option is to try our best to deflect the incoming counter. Even if a blade gets past our buckler, if we strike the arm with the buckler we can still knock the blade off course. Now, up you go. For our first bout, we are going to practice shieldwork. You will be on defense, and your objective is to deflect my blows. Deflect, not block, understand?”
“Yes ma’am!” I saluted,
And thus began my beating. Katy was fast, and her sword seemed to bend around my shield at times. Her feints were amazing, and I had no idea that a person could change directions that fast. Of course, her taunting wasn’t helping things out.
“It’s a buckler, it weighs a quarter of your scutum! How can it be so slow?”
“Move your feet! You aren’t a tree!”
“Dance! If you stay still you die!”
Of course, on the last one my feet tried moving one way, my body the other, and Katy’s blade slammed into my stomach sending me in a third direction. I ended up on my ass. “Ow.” I groaned, slowly rolling back to my feet.
“Well, what do you think Catherine?” Katy asked.
“Brandon, first I need to warn you. This is going to be brutal, and it is something that all hunters go through. We can’t pull any punches, because doing so will hinder your training and get you killed. We do this because we care, not because we want to be mean, ok?”
“It’s fine.” I said, fully expecting to be ripped apart. “That showing was rather pathetic.”
“Not pathetic, but not quite average either.” Catherine said. She continued in a gentler voice, “Your tracking of movements is perfect. Your reaction times are terrible. You can’t recognize the feints, and so you always fall for them. Your instinct is to take the hit on the center of the shield, where your grip is strongest. That’s not what you need to do, as you are taking on unnecessary force. You want to redirect the blow with as little energy on your part as possible. Your footwork is atrocious, and I’m surprised it took you that long to fall. Instead of crossing feet, you need to be able to slide back and forth. You already have the soldier’s tendency to square up to an opponent, and again that is against what we need as a hunter. You need to be able to move any direction at all, and turning your body so that you are bladed towards the opponent gives you the most return for minimal movement. You are timid as well. Just because you have no weapon doesn’t mean you can’t go on the offensive. Get inside her guard and grapple, it makes her sword awkward to use. It will disrupt her flow, which will give you more openings to work with. Don’t forget that your shield can also be a weapon. Even wooden shields often have iron or steel edges. Imagine getting punched in the face with the rim of one.”
Katy gave her a second, then clarified, “All done? Great. Now, what we can do is help out with footwork.” With that, Katy used the tip of her sword to mark a simple square pattern in the dirt. “This is the absolute basics we have. Move slowly between the steps, slowly speeding up until you can do them without looking. We will stop you after an hour so that you can still get a bit of rest before your guard duty.”
It seemed so simple. Move between four positions. I even watched several times as both ladies demonstrated the moves to me. But for some reason, my body just wouldn’t obey! I would over step here, under step there. One foot would somehow get into a position where it was trying to move through the other ankle, and I would fall on my ass. The more worked up I got, the more my senses started going haywire and providing yet another distraction. I could hear the other guards placing small bets on how long until I messed up, or the myriad of insects calling out in the night. Not to mention all the bright, shiny blood flowing through all their veins. Thankfully Katy called a rest before I started moving in sync with their heartbeats, though it was a close thing.
“Hey, Katy, do you have a minute?” I asked timidly.
“Hmm?” She asked in return, turning toward me.
“Look, this training. It is rather frustrating. And I’m finding that when I get frustrated, I’m starting to feel more vampiric urges.”
“Vampiric? Why?” She asked, concerned.
“I’m sure you were going to ask about it, and to be honest I forgot about your question list in all our work, but I’ll give you the full story tomorrow. You’ll need to know if you are going to be training me. But the short story is that I was turned into a vampire, and gave myself to the sun before I could kill anyone. Next thing I know, I’m what the church calls a sanguimancer and headed for the capital for training.”
“That’s, wow. That’s some heavy stuff.” She said, putting an arm around my shoulders. She took a few seconds, then said, “Thanks for telling me. I’ll talk it over with Catherine, and we can work on your control as well. That will probably have to take priority over some of the hunter training, but you will always be welcome to watch our training. Maybe we can even teach you to shoot a bow.”
“Thanks.” I nodded, glad I had confided in her. If all the hunters were like these two, I could be very happy joining them. It would almost be like joining a new family.
“Anyway, go get a bit of rest. I’ll tell Carl where your bedroll is so that he can get you up for second watch. Between frustrating training and a terrible sleep schedule, you might find this being one of the worst trips in your life.”