Tyler was looking down at his party members, a blank look on his face lost in his thoughts of fear of losing his employees because of his actions. He was quickly falling into despair, his thoughts locked on the warning screen from their encounter with VI, and how there would be no support if there was any lasting damage. He lifted his head, and took in his surroundings and could even understand how he got into his current situation. The sounds of battle, screaming and yelling, explosions were ripping the area around him apart, and the groans of the wounded kept growing and growing. Tyler knew he was out of his depth, he had no business in being the middle of a battle, he didn't deserve to have JarsForJars and TitanicVoice answering to him, and he wasn't the person that should be dealing with the Prime Council.

"Now then lad, you have a cloud over you, and before we know it, my soldiers will find themselves under the same cloud." It was Sarge, and while he wasn't looking at Tyler, his gaze constantly shifting around the circle of combat around them, but Tyler knew it was directed at him. "Battle is a funny thing sometimes, there are times that the weakest person on the field can be the one to determine the outcome."

"I don't even know that I can live up to being weak in this mess. I can't even swing a sword, I don't even have my racial trade skill unlocked now, I shouldn't be here." He pointed at JarsForJars and TitanicVoice on the ground. "I think these two deserve to be here, they can fight, they can heal, they can be of use in a fight. I lead them here, and they tried to protect me, and now they are out of the fight, and missing out on parts of this adventure."

Sarge smiled at Tyler, then looked above Tylers head then shouted "Switch!" Immediately the shield wall moved into action, the second line reached forward, and pulled the one in front of them back with their free hand, and their shield arm rotated around, making it so the shield wall didn't open for an opportunity to crumble. As the second line stepped forward, a collective "HA!" was let out, and a shockwave expanded outwards from the circle, pushing the swarming Newts backwards, allowing the new shield wall to plant their shield into the ground and solidifying the shield wall.

Sarge frowned as he looked down at Tyler. "Well now, do you think being able to swing a sword or throw a fireball will really change anything in this situation?" He said, motioning with both hands the battle that surrounded them.

Tyler looked at the battle around him, and took in everything he saw, heard and smelled. The smell of battle was vile, every breath Tyler took gave him the desire to dry heave on the spot. The sound was relentless, the calls of special abilities, the screeching of the Dragon Newts, the thudding of flesh against the steel wall, it forced Tyler to constantly change his focus all around him. As he looked at different spots in the shield wall, he could see the intensity plasters all over every face, regardless if it was a member enforcing the shield wall, or if it was a pole user reaching through the shield wall aiming for weak points on their enemy. He looked to where the wounded were gathered, and everybody was already recovering from potions or healing spells. He knew he couldn't make a difference, every member of the guard were high level veterans, given the highest quality of gear from their kingdom. "Maybe not, but at least I might be doing something other than sitting here waiting to be saved."

"Sometimes, waiting to be saved is the best thing you can do." Sarge turned his head to look over his shoulder. "Let one through, pin it down and make sure it can't cast any magic!" He called over his shoulder.

Almost immediately, a small movement came from the line behind Sarge. Two members of the sheild wall slammed their foot down, once again pushing out a shockwave infront of them. Instead of switching positions with the guard behind them, they angled their shield, creating a small bulge in the line, and a gap the size of a shield opened between them. As soon as it opened, a shield shot forward from behind the line, catching a Dragon Newt in the face, and it fell to the ground stunned. A pair of hands reached forward, grabbed the newt and pulled it inside the wall, and the two leading shields closed the gap and secured the shield wall.

The Newt was still on the ground stunned, when spells came raining down causing a myriad of debuffs and movement restricting statuses. Once the spells finished, a hand came down on top of the Newts head, holding it's mouth shut. Sarge walked over, pulling out his one handed sword on his waist, as he approached, more guards jumped on the Newt, pinning it to the ground. It broke free of it's stun, but thanks to all the spells and physical restraints, the only thing it could do was hiss and blow smoke out of the side of its mouth.

"So you want to do something, I mean, I can't really blame you I guess." He turned his sword, holding the hilt towards Tyler with a sideways smirk on his face. "OK, then do something."

Tyler stepped forward hesitantly, knowing that this was likely going to end with him being laughed at. At the same fact, he didn't want to insult the leader of the group who was effectively keeping his group from going for a walk. He reached out and put his left hand around the hilt, and gently pulling the sword away from Sarge. He held the sword with all his strength, the sword felt heavy to him, and when he held out the sword to inspect it, he could his arm begin to shake. Stepping up to the Newt, he pulled the sword behind him, and swung down towards the Newt with a huge arc going over top of his head with as much speed as he could muster. The sword hit the Newt on the back of its neck, and immediately the sword bounced off the scales of the beast, and pain shot up his arm, causing the sword to fall out of his hand.

Laughter erupted all around him, anybody not facing outward to defend against the swarm were watching, and seeing someone fail so badly at swinging a sword managed to turn up the emotions in the group.

Tyler gripped his wrist with his right hand, gently trying to massage away the pain from the failed sword strike. "Are you happy now?" He looked up to Sarge, expecting the same smirk on his face, but Tyler was surprised seeing a frown on the man's face.

"Pick up that sword again, this time, don't just grip the hilt. Instead, focus your grip on your thumb, index and middle finger, and use the rest of your fingers gently." Sarge watched Tyler pick up the sword. "Now, let's teach you a swing with only the sword, put your left foot forward, this will force you to have your sword in front of you for incoming attacks, keep your feet shoulder width apart." Tyler took the stance, and he was surprised with how right the stance felt, and was impressed with the fact that he could still hold the sword in his hand with such a loose feeling grip. "Good, now swing."

Tyler brought his sword up into the air, and brought it down on the Newt again with a quick swing. Once again, the sword bounced off the Newt, but he didn't feel as much pain in his hand, and he felt a bit of happiness when he saw the sword still in his hand.

"Do you think you are some sort of Berzerker or something?" Sarge tilted his head left to right a few times, looking like he was trying to stretch out a kink. "You clearly don't have the strength to cleave this beast in half, so why are you even trying? No, the sword is used for far more than just chopping things in half."

Tyler took a deep breath in through his nose, then exhaled from his mouth, a trick he picked up while studying haggling to calm his emotions. What he was being taught didn't make sense to him, he needed less grip in his hand, and he didn't need to swing with full effort. As far as he was concerned, you used a sword by chopping and swinging, but what was becoming clear to him, there was a lot more finesse in swinging a sword than he originally thought. Tyler took the stance he was just taught, gripped the sword lightly, and brought the sword up, then guided the sword on its path down towards the pinned Newt. When the sword came into contact with the Newt, Tyler didn't feel any pain in his arm from the contact, but when he looked at the Newt, the sword was just sitting on top of the leathery scales with no signs of damage. From behind, Tyler could hear someone chuckling, most likely at his expense.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"You know what HunterBob? Why don't you go pick up and axe and take a swing with it, let me know how that goes for you." Sarge turned back to Tyler, "what class did you say you were again?"

"Uh I didn't, I'm a shop keeper." Tyler began to reply.

"Oh come on Sarge, you know I can use an axe as a Scout." The chuckling voice replied. Hearing the reply, Tyler swallowed, realizing that he exposed that he wasn't just a shop keeper. Hoping to hide it, he looked back down at the sword in his hand.

"Give me a second kid." Sarge whirled around, straightening his back and set his jaw. "Have you forgotten what is going on right now HunterBob? We are under attack from unknown monsters, likely related to the Dragon that flew over head earlier." Sarge pointed outside the shield wall to the Newts jumping at the circle from random angles. Every so often one would try to jump over the wall, but multiple halberds would strike it back down outside the circle. "Am I understanding that you have the time to look inwards?"

"No Sir, I was just observ….."

"I don't care what you think you were doing, you should be watching outwards, and making sure no new threats approach us. When this is over, I'm going to need you to dig me some holes, and then when you are done digging holes, you are going to fill those holes back up. Now turn back around, and do your job." Sarge turned on his heel, and marched back to Tyler, exuding an air of confidence and composure.

"Maybe this isn't the best time to be showing me how to use a sword?" Tyler nervously said to the returning soldier.

"Maybe you should turn back to your target dummy, and not worry about how I'm doing my job." Sarge replied to Tyler with the same rigid voice he just dressed down the Ranger with. "You aren't supposed to be able to even hold that sword, but the fact that you can but you didn't inherit the basics of sword play upon your class selection, this is something that I should worry about son."

Without a word, Tyler turned back to the Newt, and focused on the spot where his sword came down. There wasn't even a scratch on the Newt, and Tyler thought he wasn't making progress, at least with his full swing, if he didn't cut his target, he probably would have gotten a bit of blunt damage in. With his easy swing, he may as well have patted the thing on its head and whispered sweet nothings to it.

"Like I said, you aren't looking to hack away at your target right now." Sarge was back to his previous attitude, sounding more like a teacher and less of a soldier. "When you swing as hard as you can with no training in a sword, you won't have any accuracy, so when your sword hits, you are likely to connect with its armor, rather than its weak points."

Tyler looked at the sword in his hand again, then repeated his last, easy sword swing, and it landed at the same spot his previous swing. It ended with the same results, but the fact that the sword landed where Tyler wanted it, he began to feel progress.

"Sure, you can do a bit of damage by bringing your sword down on your enemy, but the real damage happens after you have landed." Sarge picked up a stick off of the ground, completely ignoring the carnage of combat around him. The leader made it clear that he had full confidence in his soldiers by engaging in sword training while surrounded by enemies. "When you bring your sword down," Sarge made a swing with the stick, and when it landed, he continued. "But when the sword is there, you always have to remember, this is a cutting weapon." It looked like Sarge pulled the sword to him, dragging the stick along the body of the newt.

Tyler understood, so he presented himself in front of the Newt, placed his feet and took a breath. His arm was starting to burn, the weight of the sword quickly sapped his strength, but he refused to give up. Both him and Sarge understood that he needed to finish this lesson, otherwise who knew if they would have time any time soon to finish this lesson. Tyler brought the sword down, and as the sword got closer to the Newt, he began to twist his shoulders to bring the sword towards him to cut into the Newt. Almost as soon as the sword made contact, Sarge reached out and pushed Tyler, causing Tyler to stumble and fall to a knee. Before Tyler realized what was happening, there was a stick at his neck, and Sarge was smiling down at him.

"What did I teach your first?"

"Have my feet shoulder width apart." Tyler didn't delay his answer. "But what does my feet have to do with you pushing me to the ground."

"Balance, it's all about balance. Your feet isn't just to help you with swinging your sword, it's also so you can be ready for an attack. If you have a sword in your hand, it's very rare that the person in front of you is going to just let you attack them while doing nothing." Sarge pulled the stick away from Tyler, tapped it on his shoulder once, then quickly smacked Tyler's elbow. "No, you have an elbow that will naturally cause the sword to slice in your swing when use it properly. Now, try swinging the sword again, but do smaller swings, and try bending your elbow during your swing. Your tip of your sword should point upwards, but only on an angle, and if it's pointing straight upwards, you probably bent your elbow too much. At the end of your swing, I want you to squeeze your hand, then remember the feeling afterwards. Then again, who knows if what I'm saying is right or not, I didn't have to learn the sword, I just knew because of my class."

Just as Tyler move to take another swing of the sword, Sarge stepped forward and put his on on Tyler's shoulder. "Sorry lad, lesson's over, situation has change." Tyler looked up and saw Sarge looking past the shield line, and followed his gaze. At first, all he saw was a tree line, but after a few moments, a figure came into sight.

"What's all this then? I was told I could find a Wagon that had something to do with the Dragons here." Tyler could recognize the voice immediately, a Berzerker that had an issue with his existence. "Is the City guard trying to step on the feet of the Tippin' Top Hats when they don't even have a city to call home right now?"

Just when JackAttack finished his sentence, figures started emerging from the trees. If Tyler were to look at the city guard, he would see an organized unit that relied on one another. When Tyler looked at the emerging figures, he saw the complete opposite with random people sitting on tree branches, others crouching down, and each individual had a unique outfit shouting their independence to anybody who looked in their direction.

"Let's see how tough these little lizards are Jack." A short Goblin stepped forward, her twin daggers dripping with a deep red enchantment in her hands. Just as she took another step, shadows began to gather at her feet. "I'll just step over there an…. wwaaaaaHHHHHH!!" Screeching then quickly cutting off, a Red Newt fell from above landing on the Goblin, letting out a fire breath that engulfed her head, sending the Goblin for a walk.

As the Goblin was being incinerated, Sarge walked in the direction that JackAttacked appeared from. "We have no interest in your guild, or whatever Adventure you are on right now. We are on our own Escort mission, and Newt or Adventurer makes now difference if you try to block out path!"

Instead of responding with words, JackAttack took in a deep breath, paused for a moment, then bellowed out. If one looked closely, they would see his guildmembers skin turn red, as they gained Call of the Berzerker, boosting all of their combat statistics. Seconds later, buffs and debuffs began to fly everywhere, but before either group could take a step, the Newts were happy to show how they didn't care about anything going on and began to attack both sides.

Tyler watched on unblinking, he watched a battlefield grow and swirl, not comprehending the actions in the chaos. He could help the small voice in the back of his head, a gleeful cheer, believing that what was happening was because of him. Looking down at his wrist, he saw a notification waiting for him.

** Congratulations! You have learned about Swords, with your current understanding of swords, you cannot increase the selling price of swords. Learn more to increase your profit margin.

Current level: 1 (Aware) **

Tyler's thoughts began to surge, thinking of what was written in the notification, but his studying of being a shop keeper, it was more important to figure out what wasn't written. If he could sell any weapon, and for some reason he was able to increase his profit margins when he learned about the weapons, did that mean he could learn to use any weapon? Maybe the madness that surrounded him right now had gotten to him, maybe all the stress he had been through so shortly after digitizing is what set him off, but he had wild thoughts of a crossbow in one hand, a war hammer in the other, singing a song of destruction as he stepped down on anybody who tried to shut down his shop.