Gahl awoke without being called the next day. In his tiredness and his fear, the evening had been a haze, so he wasn’t completely sure where he was. When his vision began to clear it soon became more apparent to him.
He laid in a rather uncomfortable bed, the bottom bunk of three, and shared his bunk bed with Yl and Ana. He got up, surprised to see Yl’s bed empty. He could not see the sky from where he stood, but he decided he may as well dress and prepare for the day ahead of him.
He caught a glimpse of the pink sky overhead as he first walked up onto the deck.
A pink sky in Autumn just away from Tordana? It must be really early in the morning.
The deck seemed vacant to Gahl, besides the cartographer at the bow guiding the sails with her staff. The winds she sent were minor, ruffling the sails to align with the other ships in the fleet. Gahl took in a deep breath, but was quickly interrupted by a rummaging further down the deck.
A figure popped out from behind crates containing armour, wearing the prizes of their search.
‘Good monring, Gahl,’ Yl said, walking towards him.
‘Hello.’
‘Are you also up early to train?’
‘No, not really,’ Gahl replied.
‘Do you want to train with me? I found some good training swords in these crates. We can’t hurt each other with them because they don’t have a spike to pierce with.’
Well, not really, but I suppose some extra training wouldn’t hurt too bad. Make it harder for the enemies to slaughter me. A little bit of pettiness is always a bonus in war.
‘Sure.’
‘Great! How much experience do you have with a sword?’
‘None,’ Gahl admitted.
I had a lot of experience with the art of spell craft. I knew exactly what staff to pick depending on what you wanted to do. I was very prepared to fight as a wizard, even if I never planned to.
You never planned to be a fighter either.
‘I guess that means I have to teach you, then.’ Yl chuckled, but Gahl did not join his laughter.
How can you be so merry in certain death? What ancient knowledge has given you this security. Can you teach me?
‘So,’ said Gahl, ‘how do you sword fight?’
‘Well, of course there are various different ways depending on if you’re trying to hurt, kill or incapacitate, and what your strikestone is, but I assume for this army training we will be fighting to kill’ - good first assumption - ‘and your strikestone is also piercing, so I suppose I will just teach you the basic way to fight with a sword.’
‘Is there a certain way I’m meant to hold the sword?’ Gahl asked as Yl handed him the blunted weapon.
‘Yes, but it’s kind of hard for me to explain now that I have a low knowledge and charisma. If you just look here…’ Yl held up his spear with proper form, and Gahl did his best to copy it.
Damned lack of dexterity. Let’s hope this levels up soon. Otherwise I am very, very dead.
‘So, you’re doing it alright - this will come to you with practice, at least it did for me.’
‘Okay.’ Gahl’s hands had already began to ache, but he kept on going.
‘So, firstly, you’re going to want to learn the most important skill in sword fighting - how to hit people and how not to get hit by people.’
That does seem like a good place to start.
‘Now, thankfully, these tend to interlock in areas, they often play into one another with fluid fighters. So, hold out your sword like this.’ Yl pointed his sword forward, and Gahl copied to the best of his ability.
This sword is quite heavy when its away from the body.
‘Now, you are a piercing strikestone, so you have to learn how to thrust. Place your two feet like so, then when you want to thrust step forward and thrust like so.’ Yl stepped forward, pushing his sword into the air. Gahl was slower to copy, but he eventually did replicate the action.
If something stabbed with that speed, even I would live.
‘Now, after you thrust, when you want to avoid the enemy, take a step back like so.’ Yl took a careful but swift step back, his sword rushing up to another position.
‘Is the position of your sword of any importance?’ asked Gahl.
May as well act like a fool, I don’t think there’s an easy way to phrase it without being overly aggressive.
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‘Oh, yes, sorry. I should probably teach you about sword positions as well. This one is the guard position, it’s what you do whenever you are fighting and you do not know what is to come of your opponents attacks.’ Gahl copied the position.
‘From this position, both parries and thrusts are very easy to perform. Like this.’ Yl stepped forward, and initiated a spar with the air. His sword zipped around, blocking swords from all directions, with each block accompanied by a thrust soon after.
This is who I am going to be up against, Gahl thought, watching Yl. And he hasn’t even done any training yet.
‘Is this actually going to be applicable?’ asked Gahl. ‘With all of the mages and spells flying over the place, is this more sword on sword duelling style going to work?’
‘I hadn’t actually thought about that,’ admitted Yl. ‘Though, the general and our trainers will tell us how best to attack the enemy wizards. They’re not going to just let us die.’
Of course they’re not…
‘Anyways, these swordsmanship techniques will work well as a foundation, even if they aren’t actually going to be used in battle. That’s what my father said anyways. I’m sorry, I’m really bad at teaching. Perhaps if we started having spars now I could show you where I forgot to teach you.’
That seems like a pretty bad idea considering right now I only know how to hit things in one way, but I guess the only way you learn is through failure. Embarrassing, painful failure.
‘Sure.’
Why am I sounding so happy-go-lucky all of a sudden?
‘That’s great! Let me set up.’
Perhaps it’s him. Perhaps his stupid optimism is contagious.
Yl moved some small boxes to make a ring, and beckoned Gahl over.
‘You should take one of these.’ He tossed a shield, which Gahl barely managed to catch. ‘I haven’t taught you how to use one of these, but hopefully I’ll be able to give you a few pointers as we spar.’
Great.
Gahl took his shield, and barely managed to figure out how to put it on him before Yl approached. Gahl readied his sword in the guard position. He lasted a whole five seconds.
Who knew that when people thrusted at you, you kind of had to block that or kind of run away in a way in which you didn’t get hit by the blade. I never realised it, but I guess that’s the whole point of swordsmaship.
These thoughts filled his head quite rapidly as he sped towards the deck, landing with a thud. The strike did not hurt, Yl could not hurt him without a weapon capable of piercing, but the forceful nature of the thrust combined with the additional force of falling onto his back jostled Gahl.
In a real battle, you’d be dead right now. Very dead. Very, very dead.
Gahl attempted to get up, stiff from the pain, the early morning and the low dexterity stat, when he saw Yl’s hand shoot to him.
’Need a hand?’
I don’t need a hand.
Gahl struggled to get up by himself, groaning with the pain, before finally resigning to taking Yl’s hand. Yl tugged, and within the moment Gahl was on his feet once more.
‘Thank you,’ Gahl murmured.
‘No problem. Now, where you went wrong there is that you weren’t expecting me to make the first move. I probably should have been clear about this. Unless you are in a duel with someone where you are made to take turns, anyone can hit whenever they want.’
Am I seriously being lectured to say that you are not meant to wait for your turn in fighting. I suppose I did bring it upon myself, almost like my death when I decided I was too good to choose luck - my jokes are so original.
‘Thank you. I will be sure to look out for that next time.’
‘You don’t need to thank me, I should really be saying sorry for not teaching you that. Anyways, do you want to try again?’
And so they tried again, Gahl this time waiting for Yl to make a move. Yl was stationary for a while, just out of range of a good thrust. Gahl stepped forward, and was immediately sent to the ground.
‘Whenever you’re thrusting,’ Yl said as he pulled Gahl up once more, ‘remember that the opponent can still hit you - in fact, will be waiting to hit you - while you are moving or while you are focused on offence.’
’Thank you.’
A bit frustrating, but I can get over it.
They formed their duelling circle once more, and Gahl this time tried much more to be careful.
If I can just bait him into striking, I can hit him. After I hit him, I win.
And so Gahl waited, preparing for Yl to strike. Yl stepped forward, and Gahl tried to thrust at him, but was struck in the process.
***
They continued sparring for a while longer, each time Yl giving another snippet of advice.
Couldn’t he just have told me this, instead of waiting for me to crash down every single damned time.
Despite the amount of times Gahl had been knocked over, no progress seemed to have taken place in Gahl’s efforts to knock Yl over.
A complete beginner fighting his teacher is not fair in the slightest. I guess this is just the way, you will soon be fighting a lot more skilled fighters than Yl. Some will even have spells, and you will most likely have no real way to counter them.
Yl pulled Gahl up again for the time Gahl did not know the number of. Gahl was sore from all of the falling, and felt about as weak as he ever was, much more so with the hunger that now filled his body.
‘Are we going to be able to eat soon?’ Gahl asked.
‘I don’t know, depends on when everyone else is awake.’
‘That’s a good point.’
Why did I think he would know. I mean, he talks with Sarembai a lot, but enough to know the meal schedule? Honestly, it kind of sounds like Yl.
‘Hopefully it’s soon.’
‘Why so? I’m having a lot of fun.’
You’re not falling on the floor every two minutes.
‘I’m just hungry.’
‘Yeah, I can get that sometimes.’
Sometimes?
’Anyways, let’s continue on.’
Hyuna, if Ana knew how much this is getting on my nerves. Maybe she’d understand. I’ve been knocked down over and over again, and every single time am just meant to pick myself up and go again? Can’t we just stop, before this wears on my nerves until I am ground into dust?
Yl offered him a hand every time he fell, despite its frequency probably serving as an arm workout in and of itself.
Is that just your way of trying to seem kind? You knock me to the ground over and over again, and then you smile about it? You lend me a hand, as if you weren’t the one to force me to need a hand.
Gahl fell to the floor again - a misplaced guard capitalised by Yl to force him to the ground - and he snapped.
‘Why do we have to keep on doing this? What sick joy are you getting of this? Do you just enjoy watching me fall over and over again. Does this boost your ego? Does this make you feel better than me? It’s quite sad you need to compare yourself to the strengthless fighter. Was everyone else too hard?’
Yl stared at Gahl blankly. Words seemed to form on his lips, but they were not said. Instead they stared at each other for a long moment.
His expression almost seems… apologetic. As if he of all people would apologise to me.
‘I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do to make you forgive me?’
What?
‘I just thought you were enjoying this, sorry again.’ Yl set down his blade and shield, and walked away.
No more words were spoken, though Gahl caught him turn around, as if he was going to say something. He quickly turned back, and they did not talk, or even look at each other again, until the sun rose, and so did the roars of Sarembai.
‘DAY ONE IS ALWAYS THE HARDEST DAY FOR A SOLDIER - UNTIL DAY TWO! GET OUT OF BED NOW, AND LET US START YOUR TRAINING PROPERLY!’