As was a general rule among the three, Zech limited the amount of swordsman’s aura around his blade and also dulled its edges, assuring that the tip was blunted. The technique that he was about to use was called the singular lunge, which was quite difficult to use in an actual fight as it involved very subtle rotations of the shoulders and hips, with careful weight redistribution at the feet while focusing all of one’s strength on a single point in order to maximize the damage output.
While Jaden had yet to master the technique that he was now faced with, he had watched his friends use it many times and had received several in-depth explanations on its use from Alistar. Knowing this, he adopted the same defensive stance that Zech had used moments before and attempted to swat the tip of the oncoming sword aside while sidestepping the length of the blade and dashing in for a ruthless strike. Only, Zech’s move had been a feint to draw the other boy in, at which point he locked their swords together and then kicked Jaden in the stomach with all his might.
Jaden slid several paces backwards across the ice, throwing up an immediate defence that repelled Zech’s follow-up strikes, at which point Zech put some distance between the two of them and shifted his sword from one hand to the other while shaking the apparent numbness from his forearm.
“What do they feed you at the orphanage?” Wincing, he shifted his weight onto the leg that hadn’t been used for the previous kick.
“Living with Woods? Hardly anything.”
“Then how are you so soli—”
Having recovered from the previous attack, Jaden seized the moment of his friend’s weakness to dash forward and lash out with all of his strength. Zech caught this vertical cleave with the face of his weapon, buckling to his knees as his eyes widened in understanding. A moment later, he tilted his horizontal blade downwards ever so slightly to redirect Jaden’s weapon to the frozen ground at his side, but was forced to dive out of the way after his sword was cut in half.
“What the hell, Jaden? You could have killed me!”
“I stopped using swordsman’s aura as soon as I broke your sword.”
Retrieving the severed end of his precious blade, Zech hopped up onto his good foot and hurled it at Jaden, who swatted it out of the way only to find that the end of his own weapon had been splintered and subsequently ruined.
“How’s that? Not so fun when it’s you, is it?” Head tilting as if at the presence of a sudden sound, he turned around and donned a flat expression as he spotted Lily, Rosa and Violet approaching from the fields that lay between Mayhaven and the Greyline. Looking at Jaden with exasperation, he clicked his tongue and hopped over to Alistar on his good foot. “Hey, Alistar, can you take care of this for me?”
Nodding, Alistar knelt down and touched his hand to Zech’s ankle, healing the sprain with a slight effort. All the while, Zech glared at the triumphant Jaden, who shouldered his broken sword and puffed out his chest as he glanced at the oncoming girls.
“I swear, sometimes I think he’d throw me in a fire just to have some time alone with Lily.”
“They’ve already spent time alone.” Corrie appeared at their side, though he didn’t so much as glance at them as he strolled over to the ice that Alistar had created and began inspecting it with shrewd black eyes.
Hearing their friend’s nonchalant words, Alistar and Zech exchanged looks of surprise while Jaden suddenly blushed and hurled his weapon at Corrie, who avoided it without looking back. Curiously, he was holding a little mirror in his right hand, one that had evidently allowed him to see the bigger boy’s reaction.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Alistar. I thought in order to freeze water, you need to match your inner energies with those within a typical piece of ice and then draw all of the energy toward the centre of whatever amount of water you’re trying to freeze.”
He shook his head, though before he could explain the importance of the amount of water one wanted to freeze and how different amounts could be frozen in various ways, Jaden began chasing after the quiet-footed Corrie only to eat a face full of snow when he tripped over a well-placed stretch of ice no longer than the average man’s foot. This only angered him further, but his target wasn’t one that he could outwit so he was forced to stop when Corrie retreated behind the girls.
“Why are you always bullying everyone?” said Violet, fingering her short, straight hair as she looked at Jaden in disapproval. “Why Lily likes you, I’ll never know.”
Her older sister sent her a silencing look, though the words had already been said.
“Violet…” Rosa seemed uncertain, though she kept quiet as if too nervous to interject. Her shoulder-length hair was pulled back by a pink headband, her ears as red as her fuzzy winter coat.
“What? I can’t remember a day that he didn’t attack someone.”
“In his defence, it’s usually Woods.” Putting an arm around Jaden as if forgetting their previous altercation, Zech put on a sly smile and poked at the bigger boy’s stomach. “What’s this I’m hearing about you and Lily spending time together?”
“That’s…” Face reddening further, Jaden’s glare returned as he looked at Corrie and snapped out in anger. “You better not have seen anything, Corrie!”
Hearing this, Lily also began to blush, this time looking over her shoulder at the smaller boy with a frown that spoke of disapproval and subtle mortification.
“Please don’t spy on us anymore. We’re your friends. You…you shouldn’t do that.”
“Jaden talks in his sleep. Even if I didn’t see you necking, I’d still know it happened.”
Woods showed up on unsteady feet, panting as his eyes scanned the group to get an idea of what was happening. A moment later, he hurried over to the sack of food that Alistar had brought along and happily helped himself to its contents.
“Are you guys talking about them necking? Honestly, I wish you two would stop. I’m getting tired of waking up to Jaden’s girly little whispers at night. ‘Lily…Lily…one more…please, Lily…’”
Unfortunately for Woods, he wasn’t as fast on his feet as Corrie and so suffered the full force of Jaden’s anger. Within moments, the portly boy was clutching at his gut and vomiting in the snow due to the punch that had just sent him to the ground.
“Stop fighting,” sniffled Rosa, whose eyes had watered up after seeing her friends hurting one another. “It’s always fighting with you boys.”
“See?” muttered Violet, who crossed her heavy brown sleeves and rolled her eyes in Lily’s direction. “Not two minutes since we’ve told him off, and he’s already half-killed Woods.”
Pretending to ignore this, Lily walked over to Jaden and whispered something in his ear.
“I don’t know what I do while I’m sleeping.” Not meeting her eyes, the oldest boy in the group scratched at his cheek and mumbled, “I guess I do.”
Now that so many of his friends had gathered, Alistar suppressed a sigh as he glanced down at his wooden sword. With the arrival of the others along with the fact that Zech and Jaden’s swords were now broken, it seemed like he would have to practice on his own once he returned home.
A short while later, after everyone had relocated to The Spot a short ways upriver, Alistar sat around a large bonfire with his friends, Emely and Helen having showed up by chance after shopping for sweets at the marketplace. Interestingly enough, Emely had created a little coat for Ms. Parsnip, a patchwork of rucksack that she had scrounged up from around the orphanage. All of the girls were over the moon at the sight, each taking turns to hold the little rabbit and petting her with loving hands. As always, Ms. Parsnip didn’t show the slightest desire to run away, always trying to scramble her way back to Emely whenever she was passed along to the next person.
“I still don’t understand why she never tries to escape,” muttered Woods, who was rustling through the empty sack that Alistar had brought in the hopes of finding a wayward crumb. “Every time I try to catch a rabbit, they’re gone within seconds.”
“One look at your stomach and any rabbit with any sense will know it’s time to run.”
“Bugger off, Jaden. Or do you want me to say some more of the stuff you mumble in your sleep?”
Helen and Emely both covered their mouths, suppressing the same brand of blushing grin.
“Do I really talk in my sleep?”
“Since you were little,” said Helen, brown eyes glinting with gossip. “But don’t worry, we won’t say anything. We’re family, after all.”
“Tell that to Woods.”