“Grab your weapons and stand in line!” The instructor yelled from the front of the group. The man wore a full suit of shiny metal armor, contrasting the mediocre leather and hide that every trainee present wore.

Sol went to one of the many crates around the training area and dug through it until he found two wooden daggers at the bottom, clearly having not been picked as a weapon for quite a long time. He picked them up and sheathed both through straps on his hide pants.

After getting in line, the instructor began pairing everybody up. It was obvious he was doing it based on how well he assumed they would perform, as the strongest looking people were paired together and the weaker people paired together. The only pair that looked significantly different were that of Sol and his partner; a young woman with a spear strapped to her back. The instructor clearly didn't think highly of Sol given his small and not well filled out frame.

“This is now your training partner!” The instructor yelled. “You will be training with them for the rest of your time in this outpost. Better hope you like each other, or dislike each other enough to not mind intense sparring.”

“Nice to meet you.” The young woman whispered to Sol in a cheery voice. “I’m Mina, nice to meet you.”

Before Sol could respond, the apparently sharp of hearing instructor yelled in the direction of the two of them. “There will be no conversation while instruction is being given! Run a lap, both of you!”

Sol didn't argue, instead turning and beginning a jog around the field. The woman followed him with a sheepish look on her face. She gave him a sympathetic look that said ‘sorry’ as she passed him. He wasn't very fast, and it took him a good bit longer to finish the lap than the woman. By the time he finished, he was breathing hard and was sweating.

“Took you long enough.” The instructor said as he turned back to the group. “Now that everyone has decided to join us, we can begin our first sparring session.”

Every pair was directed to their own spot in the field, where they were then told that they would be sparring with their partner until the next exercise began. When the instructor seemed to be done, his partner spoke.

“Sorry about that earlier.” She said, looking at Sol apologetically. “I didn't mean for that to happen, I just got a little excited.”

“It’s fine.” He responded, pulling out his two wooden daggers and holding them up, getting into a ready fighting stance. At least, he hoped he was. Truth be told, he didn't know very much about fighting or techniques. But hey, that was why he was joining the training exercises for the Rim guard, to get better at fighting and maybe one day help fight against raiders like everyone else here. “So, do we just fight now?” He asked, not really knowing where to start.

“I assume so.” She said, pulling her spear from her back and pointing it towards Sol. Unlike his weapons, hers had a metal head at the end of the shaft. It was a blunt sphere that was barely wider than the spear shaft. It wouldn’t skewer him, but It probably still wouldn’t feel good to get hit by. After a few moments of silence, she raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to attack?” She asked.

He blinked at her. “Am I supposed to attack first?”

“Well, duh. The spear is a defensive weapon, and daggers are an offensive weapon. It only makes sense for you to go first.”

“If you say so.” Sol said, taking a few cautious steps forward. He tried stepping a few times to the side to look for an opening, but the spear head remained constantly pointed at him, waiting for a chance to jab into his stomach.

After a bit of contemplation, he took several quick steps forward and to the side, hoping to get closer while evading the spear. If he could just get close to her, she wouldn’t be able to hit him with the spear, thus leaving her wide open. Frustratingly, when he tried to do this, she just backed up with a few back steps that were quicker than he could step forward. She stopped her retreat for a moment to lean forward and jam the spear into his stomach.

Pain filled his torso as the spear made contact. He backed up for a moment to assess her for openings again.

‘She is holding it quite low.’ He thought. ‘All I need to do is keep my daggers relatively low and it should be easy to block.’

With that thought in mind, he kicked off the ground, holding his daggers between him and the spear at stomach level, hoping to block any attack aimed at his stomach. Just as he got close enough, Mina suddenly crouched down and thrust the spear forward. From her lower position, she was able to put proper force into an upward strike, slamming the spear hard into his shoulder.

Pins and needles shot up his arm as he stumbled back. Mina seized this opportunity and spun, slamming the side of the spear into his knee in a sweeping arc. His leg gave out from under him and he hit the ground. She then ran over as Sol picked himself up off the ground.

“Oh my gods, are you okay? Was I too intense?” She asked as she helped him to his feet.

Sol looked up at her as he got up, a faint smile on his lips. “I am fine, and no you were not too rough.” He grinned as he raised his daggers again. “Don’t go any easier this time, I have a few more things I would like to try.”

The rest of the sparring session went about as one would have expected. Sol got his ass handed to him for the whole hour that they spent sparring. Bruises littered his body, while he had yet to land a hit on Madi. He had gotten close several times though, and each time he felt a hint of excitement to see that he was making progress.

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“Where did you learn to wield a spear like that?” He asked during the brief break they were given before the next part of their training.

“My father has been teaching me ever since I could hold one.” She said. “I never really had a talent or passion for it, but during a decade and a half of practice, you get pretty good”

“A decade and a half…” Sol muttered, half to himself. “And I got unlucky enough to get paired with you. Or maybe it was lucky, that is still up for debate.”

“Oh I can assure you, it was definitely bad luck.” Mina said through a laugh. “I would likely have already been at a semi high position in the rim guard if this training program was not mandatory. Even my father couldn't convince the kingdom to look past that.”

“Who is your father? Somebody important I presume.”

“Something like that.” She said, shrugging the question off. “I’d rather not talk about that right now.”

He wanted to follow that up, but the instructor shouted to the group that it was time to move onto the next exercise, laps around the outpost. Sol frowned slightly, remembering how he had stupidly done laps of the perimeter while he was first recovering. He knew now that that had not been the best idea.

The group needed to do ten laps, and it wasn't long before they split into different groups of varying speed. You of course had the fast groups that were practically sprinting around the outpost. These people mostly consisted of the strongest looking people in the training group.

Then you had the fast but not sprinting people. Mina fell into that group, being quite agile herself. The slower groups made up most of the class. Behind even them, you had Sol.

Not once during his entire ten laps did he stop running, but his pace was so slow that he finished long after everybody else did. His resolve was the only thing keeping his cramping muscles from stopping him. The instructor had gotten so sick of it that he had the rest of the group doing push ups by the time Sol finished.

When he rejoined the group, they all began strength training. Sol really couldn’t move a lot of weight, and even body weight exercises were a struggle. By the time their two hours of exercise was over, every muscle in his body was just about ready to give out. That made him quite enthusiastic when the instructor announced that they would be ending the training session with another round of sparring.

Once more, bruises and marks were left across his body in the wake of Minas spear. She had asked several times if he wanted her to go easier, but every time he declined the offer.

“If you go easy on me, it will only hurt my learning in the long run.” He explained as he stood up for the dozenth time.

“I don’t know man, you are looking pretty hurt in the short term already.” Mani said as she twirled her spear, waiting for Sol to recover.

“It’s just a few bruises. The day I land a hit on you is the day that this will all have been worth it.”

“Whatever you say.” She responded, thrusting her spear as he stepped in to strike.

_____

Days passed one after another as Sol trained alongside the Rim guard recruits. Each session followed the same pattern. Warmup sparring session, endurance training, strength training, and another sparring session to end it. The difference in his strength from one day to the next was barely noticeable, but it was growing slowly and steadily. Overall, his biggest improvement by far had been his technique with his daggers.

Even after an entire month of training, Sol still had yet to land a single hit on Mani during their many sparring sessions. He tried countless tactics and approaches, with some working unexpectedly well and others failing horribly. He was beginning to learn how to rely on his dexterity more than his strength, as it had been made pretty clear that between the two of them, Mani was the stronger one. This resulted in him learning to parry with his daggers.

It was difficult and tedious at best, but he was getting more and more consistent with it. He felt that if he was just a bit faster, he could close the distance and land a kick, a punch, anything to show how much progress he was making.

A month and a half after the training had begun, Sol reached what he saw as a major milestone in his health. He had finished second to last during the laps around the outpost. The instructor made the last place finisher run an extra lap, earning a grumble and some more effort the next day from that poor individual.

Two months after his training had begun, Sol was ahead of nearly half of the group during their endurance training. His body was finally starting to see some muscle, and his frame was slowly getting more filled out. The constant strength training had been enough for him to set aside the wooden training daggers, instead opting for their heavy yet more effective big brother, the short sword.

His attacks were slightly slower with the two short swords, but parrying became easier and he could now reach farther with his attacks. Still, he could not land a single hit on Mina with his weapons. The others had begun taking notice of his improving skill and others offered to spar with him outside of training from time to time.

There wasn't a single time he refused one of these requests. He found himself quite evenly matched with many, and he had even managed to win nearly half of his mock fights. It only made him realize more that Mina truly stood near the top of the recruits.

Three months into his training, Sol finally felt like it was the day. Today was the day that he would land a hit on his sparring partner, and the day he would prove to himself he was physically ready enough to tackle cultivation. He’d made the promise to himself not long ago, and it was one he intended to keep. If he didn't land a hit, he would wait to cultivate until he could. If he landed the hit, then he was ready and capable for it.

After having made his proclamation to Mina that today was the day, he got into a ready stance to fight. His legs were slightly bent, one sword was held in front of him ready to block while the other was held low and across him, ready to swing upwards and deflect the spear if necessary.

He had made this claim several times by now, but something in his eyes must have given away his increased conviction, as Mina took on a similar look in her own.

“You sure you don’t want me to go easy on you?” She asked with a smirk.

“I’d be offended if you did.” He responded.

The air between them seemed to grow cold as he took a step towards her, ready to make the first move. The other matches seemed to have paused for a moment as a dozen eyes turned their way to watch this bout.

“Then you better be ready.” Mina responded as she thrust her spear forward, straight for Sol’s head.