Hallvar spent most of the early morning reading, having gotten almost too much sleep overnight.
The books Stella brought were fascinating. Sure, Hallvar had to put them on a book stand and use a metal…. bookmark thingy to turn the pages so they didn’t accidentally damage the paper, but it worked out.
One was a series of maps: the topology of Amnasín, locations of [ territories ], geography, political designations of dukes or lords or whoever governed the land under the Queen.
It helped fill out the system map immensely. A key popped up with the ability to filter displayed information, which Hallvar appreciated.
The other books focused on beastmasters.
The first seemed to be an animal husbandry guide, or maybe the history of it. Beast husbandry, to be correct. It was interesting, but it wasn’t Hallvar’s first choice between the two remaining books.
The second was a theory book on the development of beastmaster subclasses and skills, categorizing hundreds of individuals and their abilities into decipherable datasets. Hallvar was engrossed in that one, as it presented the classes like animals within their ecological niche.
A beastmaster as a being that filled a required niche for the system ecology was absolutely intriguing.
They ate the provided breakfast with Pipkin trying to swipe food, content only when Hallvar put a slice of dried apple on the windowsill for her. She spent the night sleeping in a nook on the bookshelf, Stella making a bed for her while her actual beastmaster was passed out cold.
Stella was on her way out to the library once more when she paused outside of the doorway. Hallvar could hear her one-sided chat from their seat; she was holding the door open as she spoke.
“Oh, no, they’re still inside. We had breakfast. …good luck with that.”
The door was passed off to a physician? And then—Oh, great. Kiran.
“No,” Hallvar said without listening to her.
“Yes,” Kiran answered. “Ze will verify that you’re as whole and hale as possible, then we’re going to the sparring yard.”
The physician moved closer to the seated hero, bowing as ze approached. “It’s the Queen’s request that you are checked daily until you choose to leave.”
Hallvar nodded to the physician in understanding, but they still glared at Kiran by the door.
“My strength and agility haven’t changed since you last saw me! I went from your cabin to the dungeon, basically!”
“Then it’s good you’re getting more practice, because you need it!”
They argued more while the physician did hir duty, uninterested in whatever spat this was between the hero and the former first knight. Hallvar was declared fit, though they were advised to avoid stressing their neck for the next months.
Hallvar was not permitted to win this debate, as they quickly learned, so with an aggravated sigh they threw on some of the provided clothing that didn’t look too fancy. They could read and relax later, as Kiran said, and going through bodily pain required exercise afterwards.
She didn’t care that it was light exercise that was recommended, not full-on sparring.
Pipkin was happy to be moving around with Hallvar, though she needed to be given instruction multiple times that the sparring was a game not an actual attack. She eventually flitted off to the gardens to hunt insects and mice, unable to keep her little claws out of combat.
Kiran, as per usual, kicked Hallvar’s ass. She had a strength of “twenty-something” which only irritated the hero more than her actual number would have. Couldn’t she bother giving the details?
Even with [ skill: bull rush ], Hallvar stood no match. They were adjusting to the feeling of having talons and how it affected their grip, which was deemed a stupid excuse by Kiran.
She did find it interesting that Hallvar switched to an axe and dagger rather than sticking to a shield. Kiran made the hero switch back and forth between dagger and shield in their off-hand, determining that yes, Hallvar actually did do better with a dagger than the shield.
They explained something about it blocking their sight and not being sure if they could manage a shield with talons, but Kiran waved them off. She didn’t care; she used a polearm with no ability to hold a shield, it wasn’t like she could criticize.
After another round, Hallvar laid on the ground and sulked. The combat was fine – helpful even, as it seemed the hero was due another point in strength, ticking them up to 12 – but being watched was uncomfortable.
Hallvar was simply an introvert, they understood that. It didn’t make the feeling of being watched better. They preferred sparring at the cabin, where only the wildlife could judge.
Here? Soldiers and any bored stranger passing by stopped to watch Kiran the Unyielding dominate Hallvar the Hero.
They supposed it would be strange-er for the beastmaster hero without a combat beast companion to win against someone with a title of Unyielding, right?
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Up,” Kiran ordered.
Hallvar tempted fate. “What if I say no? What are you going to do, stab me?”
They yelped as the practice polearm came down uncomfortably close to their face, slamming against the gravel. Scrambling to their feet, they wasted no time insulting the woman.
“You old bat, are you kidding me?”
“No!” Kiran answered in her ornery tone, ready for another round. “That was my point.”
Hallvar parried a thrust from the dull practice point at the end of the polearm, using their axe to leverage the weapon away.
“Hag!” They yelled, trying to distract her even if it came at the cost of more aggression. “Bint! Cunt!”
“Cunt?” Kiran snorted after she outwitted the hero, stabbing him easily in the ribs. That one would bruise. “You sound Valien.”
Hallvar was grasping their ribcage, out of insults. “Valien?”
“From Brigavalé. Up north.”
“They swear a lot up there?”
“It’s freezing cold and has some of the worst beasts in Aestrux. Of course, they swear.”
“You did tell me my name sounded Northern.”
After another few rounds, Hallvar noticed Commander Rask waiting on the sidelines with his arms crossed. The hero noticed this from a prone position yet again, but hey, being beaten during training was fine! At least it wasn’t torture!
They gestured at the Commander as they stood, Kiran approaching to greet the authority figure.
“Rask, how are you?”
“I received a frantic alert that the hero was “spouting abuse” at the former First Knight. It paired well with the concerned report that Ser Kiran was beating a hero to death.”
“Oh, did you?” Kiran swirled her polearm so she could lay it over her shoulders, holding it casually like a stick to carry water buckets or something mundane.
It was Hallvar’s awareness, not agility, that saved them from being struck; the blunt end of the polearm whiffed through their hair as they ducked.
They were tired of this shit, but they knew better than to attack or insult the old knight in front of the Commander. They stared into the far distance, their expression unable to hide their sassy discontent.
Rask eyed the hero, looking at their lack of armor and choice of weapons. A bold set of decisions for a sparring field, though Kiran probably didn’t offer any practice armor to the Endurance Hero.
“Burke, Leitner, Cuvier!”
The three soldiers snapped to attention, watching from the sidelines while snacking between tasks or heading to a different form of training.
“Sparring weapons but no armor. Leitner first.”
Hallvar understood what was happening but their mind had to process the actions for a minute before it caught on. Oh. They were going to spar with soldiers?
Two of the three looked young, maybe late teens and twenties, respectively. The youngest stepped up first, Leitner. She held a sword and shield in her hand and was already in a stance with her shield held high.
Well, shit.
Hallvar rolled their neck out of anxiety rather than discomfort. They weren’t expecting to fight anyone other than Kiran. Were there proper rules to these matches? Kiran’s had some rules – you stayed in the boundaries, the match didn’t end until she said so, and no offensive magic like fire because they couldn’t be protected against.
But, other than those vague concepts, she was a wildcard. She would – and had – kick Hallvar while they were down.
Fuck it, if the 5th hero had to be a spectacle anyways, might as well go down swinging.
They took initiative, and—
It was kind of easy? Leitner was led into a thrust, parried by Hallvar’s dagger, and then the soldier’s legs were open to hit with her circular shield only covering her torso.
Rask made them continue for multiple rounds.
They ended roughly the same.
Hallvar used the beard of the axe to hook her shield and pull her off balance, her sword in a terrible position to attack or defend as the hero’s dagger found its mark.
Okay, this was weird. Was… was Hallvar good at fighting? No. That was just one person, one soldier-in-training, clearly.
Burke was next, according to Rask. He used a longsword, two-handed.
Hallvar wasn’t certain about how to attack against those but they knew how to defend. Kiran made sure they knew how to defend against everything before leaving her cottage.
Burke was a more difficult opponent. He was more measured and patient, waiting for Hallvar to engage instead of pushing forward.
The first two matches were Burke’s, as the hero adjusted to fighting that weapon. They put up a good fight, even if Kiran was burning holes in the back of their head for their mistakes.
The next three rounds went to Hallvar. The longsword was… a really short polearm with a blade along the full edge instead of at the end. If they treated it like such, then it was just fighting Kiran but worse. A slow, sick Kiran.
Fuck, Hallvar hoped telepathy didn’t exist here.
They remembered a sage piece of advice from Kiran – “flip your dagger, idiot!” – and that helped immensely. Holding the dagger down like a staff instead of up like a flag allowed them to use the dagger’s edge as a thin shield.
They could block the longsword with their axe and then use their dagger to push the sword away, freeing up the axe for neck chopping.
Cuvier ended things, literally and metaphorically. He used an axe and shield, and he was much better at it than Hallvar. The hero took one of the five matches, and that hit barely landed, wouldn’t have crippled Cuvier in actual combat.
This was enlightening, really. Hallvar wasn’t as terrible at fighting as they thought; their sole opponent thus far had been Kiran, who was an outlier and should not be counted.
They chatted with the soldiers in good sportsmanship while the old knight and the commander had a secret discussion on the side.
Soon enough, Rask gave some orders to the soldiers – a bit of extra time off before evening duties.
He faced the hero, who was being chewed out by Kiran for their longsword mistakes. It was remarkable how intensely critical Ser Kiran was being to someone who spent a week under severe duress only to beat a sixth rank, match a fourth, and gain a hit on a third while exhausted from fighting a first rank for hours on end.
High endurance was a remarkable attribute to have.
“Have you learned about the day of rest?” the Commander asked Hallvar, ignoring the bickering between them and the old knight.
“I think so?” It seemed a bit random to bring up, but…
“It occurs every two weeks, where most laborers have the day off in the Capital. The two days before it, Saltkrow holds structured sparring for all ranks. You should attend.”
Hallvar nodded, unsure if they could, actually say no. But they would try to make it.
Rask eyed Kiran and continued. “It will be different than what you are used to, I imagine, but that will be helpful for your education.”
The Commander nodded at Kiran in acknowledgement before leaving; Hallvar looked at her in confusion.
She translated readily. “First knights are the best in the kingdom. First knight is a rank, but there is only one The First Knight.”
“Court Mage versus court mage, I get it.”
“Yes, however, the First Knight is not always…” She sighed. “Champions, ranked soldiers have to work together as a group, to follow a specific social structure and behavior set that they train into the recruits from day one. The First Knight doesn’t always work well with others, but they’re the best in combat.”
Hrm. Hallvar had to think for a while, still tired from the sparring and ready for a bath and a nap. “He’s saying you’re training me to work independently, not as a team, and that will be jarring in those practices.”
“Yes.”
Why would Hallvar need to work as a unit? A team, maybe. They were thinking of asking Grim or one of the others to point them to a party to travel with. But a unit? Working together?
Wait.
“Where’s Pipkin?”
They were a beastmaster. Working as a team was in their class description.
Whoops.