Walking into the arena, Aeron was confronted by the sight of Draco in full battle armor.

“Hey,” Draco called to him, jogging over, “Are you prepared to start training?”

“Yeah, where do I start?” Aeron asked.

“First of all, what weapon are you using?” Draco asked.

Drawing the strange blade from its scabbard, he handed it to Draco.

“This is a rather nice khopesh,” he said, taking a few practice swings. “Well balanced, too.”

Draco gave him the sword back.

“Ok, the first thing for you to learn about this weapon is how to attack,” Draco said, leading him over to a straw training dummy.

“Ok, I want you to take a swing at this dummy. I’ll judge your knowledge of sword fighting off of this.” Draco told him.

“Ok.”

He took a clumsy swing at the dummy, unsurprised when he barely had any effect.

Looking at Draco, his only response was a gesture that clearly meant ‘Carry on’.

Considering how his swing had gone, this time he opted to try for a thrust. The resulting strike was so clumsy, even he had to admit that he was dreadful at swordplay.

“No, No, No!” Draco said, hurrying over to a weapons rack beside the wall.

Returning with a steel khopesh, Draco began demonstrating each position.

Starting with the hand that held the khopesh at his side, Draco started calling out each basic move as he demonstrated it.

“Thrust,” he said, keeping the sharp edge of the blade pointed down the entire time, and hitting the dummy dead center.

“Chop,” this consisted of a hit between the neck and the right shoulder, using the curved edge of the blade similar to how you would use a battle-ax.

“Pommel-Strike,” Draco stepped in really close and hit the area where the dummy’s head would be with the pommel of the sword.

“Club,” For this one, Draco hit the dummy using the unsharpened section between the tip and the barb.

“Slap” he called out, hitting the dummy with the flat of the blade.

“Slice,” for this one, Draco took a step back, and cut across the dummy from right hip to left shoulder, never using more than the tip of the blade.

“Hook,” in this attack, Draco swung the back of the curve of the blade at the dummy, and used the barb near the tip of the blade to hook behind the dummy’s left shoulder and pulled it towards himself before headbutting the dummy, “You can use this for all sorts of things, like disarming an enemy, grappling with them, getting rid of any advantage they have because of a larger weapon, etc. The possibilities are endless!” Draco told him.

“And, finally, last certainly not least, the Dagger Stab,” for this maneuver, he didn’t release the dummy from when he demonstrated the hook method, but, instead of headbutting it, he used a nine-inch long dagger that he had produced seemingly from nowhere, and used it to stab the dummy right in the center of the chest. As soon as the dummy was released, it completely fell apart.

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“Ok, first of all, am I going to need to get a dagger for this?” Aeron asked.

“Yes, there should be one that matches the khopesh somewhere around where it was hanging on the wall in the armory,” Draco responded.

He went into the armory and headed over to where he had found the khopesh. On the ground nearby, there were actually several daggers. Sorting through them, he found two of different sizes that matched the khopesh. Attaching them both to his belt, he re-entered the arena.

“Ok, which one do you want me to use?” Aeron asked Draco, who was dragging a new dummy into the arena.

“The sparring knife.”

“And which one is that?”

“The longer one!” Draco replied as he finished moving the dummy.

“What’s the other one for?” Aeron asked.

“Throwing, we can practice that another time,” Draco told him.

Going up to the dummy, he started attacking it, trying to emulate Draco’s movements.

As he attacked, Draco gave him a constant, running commentary on what to do differently. “Stab it, a poke won’t do.”

“That’s a dagger, not a butter knife.”

“You’re supposed to lop it’s head off, not give it a haircut.”

“A hook behind the hip won’t work with a real opponent.”

“It can’t even defend itself, why is it not yet in pieces?” Draco asked, dragging up another dummy.

At this, Aeron paused, ”You want it in pieces?”

“Yeah, there’s no point in practicing with little cuts when they won’t kill monsters. We might as well go all out on them.”

Aeron returned his attention to the dummy, deciding that if he was told to go all out, then he would go all out. Getting out Skótos, he transformed it into a sword, putting the other one away. As soon as the sword was out, he felt a surge of disgust for the world, and a strong urge to kill someone. Struggling to gain control of himself, he dropped the sword.

As soon as the sword left his hand, he was back in control of himself and jumped away. Looking around, Aeron saw that Draco had left the arena.

Crouching down, he touched the sword and felt nothing from it. Picking it up, it seemed that the emotions had ceased. Well, that was strange.

Trying to calm himself, he took a step back and considered his attack. He decided on a simple, quick chop at the shoulder. Taking a deep breath, he ran at the dummy, swinging with all his strength. The dummy was torn apart by the force of the blow, and Aeron stumbled forward, expecting more resistance.

“Whoa, Aeron, what did you do to that dummy?” Draco asked as he dragged up a third dummy.

“I just focused and hit it as hard as I could.”

“Can you try to do that again?” Draco asked, “I want to see what you did.”

Going to a position in front of the next dummy, he tried to emulate what he had done to the other dummy. He focused on it and swung as hard as he could. Once again, he tore straight through the dummy.

“Interesting…” Draco said, “How do you move that fast?” he inquired.

“I wasn’t moving that fast, you know. I was just running at it and swinging.”

“Yes, you were moving that fast. I was watching the entire time. One second, you were standing still, five feet away from the dummy, and the next, you were finishing your swing!” Draco exclaimed.

“What are you talking about? I didn’t move that quickly.”

“I can’t move that quickly or hit hard enough that I tear through it in one blow,” Draco said.

“Well, I don’t know how I do it.” Aeron protested.

“When did you switch swords?” Draco asked suddenly.

“When you told me to go all out. This is the sword that I woke up with.”

“Woke up?” Draco queried.

“Two days ago, I woke up in a small alley nearby with no memory. The sword was one of the few things that I had on me.” Aeron explained.

“Man, that’s tough. Where are you living?”

“The Villa Romana apartment complex.”

Draco whistled, “Ok, I take it back. That’s not so tough. I would happily have my memory wiped if I could live there.”

“Do you want to go see it after school? I might be—” He was interrupted in the middle of saying that he was the owner by a horn blowing.

“That’s the lunch horn,” Draco said. “And, yes I want to come to see it after school.”