“What?!” said Isabelle as Oglo pointed his sword at her. “What do you mean, you’re going to try to kill me? I thought this was practice?”
“It is practice,” said Oglo. “Everyone you fight in the Citadel is going to be trying to kill you. What kind of a trainer would I be if I did any different?”
[Combat mode activated]
Before Isabelle could think, Oglo was lunging at her. She raised her shield, blocking his attack.
[Attack blocked]
[Stamina 98%]
While Oglo was temporarily pushed back, Isabelle readied her own sword and slashed at him.
[0 damage]
[Stamina 90%]
Great. He’d blocked her too. And before Isabelle could do anything else, Oglo kicked her in the gut.
[-5 hp]
And then, he rasied his sword and slashed down her shoulder.
[-8 hp]
Oglo was already preparing another attack. Isabelle rammed her shield against his kneecaps and staggered to her feet.
[8 damage dealt]
[Stamina 85%]
“Not bad,” said Oglo. He jumped forward and brought the hilt of his sword down on Isabelle’s head.
[-10 hp]
Isabelle suddenly felt horrendous. Her vision was tunneling. She couldn’t have much hp left. She had to do something. Isabelle raised her shield just in time to block Oglo’s next attack, which went straight for her head.
[Attack blocked]
[Stamina 83%]
Isabelle noticed that Oglo was slowed down a little whenever she blocked him. This time, she decided to wait until he attacked. Soon enough, he lunged, pointing his sword at her chest.
[Attack blocked]
[Stamina 81%]
Now was the time to act. Isabelle raised her own sword and brought it down over Oglo’s shoulder and to his chest.
[25 damage dealt]
[Stamina 74%]
Okay, now she had to back up and away from him. Oglo prepared for another strike. Isabelle reading her shield. He charged, sword out. Isabelle braced herself. Then, at the last moment, Oglo pushed his shield forward and rammed it into Isabelle’s face.
[-5 hp]
[You are going to faint]
[You’ve fainted]
[Combat mode deactivated]
[Achievement Unlocked: Faint during a fight]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[You have been revived]
[You will awaken soon]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[…]
[You will now awaken]
[Achievement Unlocked: Get revived]
Isabelle’s eyes opened. She was lying in a cot. Her head felt horrible.
“Not too shabby,” said Oglo. “But you’ll probably need another one of these.”
Oglo handed Isabelle a glass bottle of green liquid.
[Greater Health Potion equipped]
Isabelle drank the potion.
[hp restored to 100%]
She immediately felt better.
“So, what just happened?” asked Isabelle. “I thought I was dead!”
“You almost were,” said Oglo. “And, what’s more, if it was an actual fight at the Citadel, you surely would’ve been. Luckily enough for you, I’m a professional, and I was expecting to have to revive you. You only have sixty seconds to revive someone who loses all their health, you know.”
Isabelle said she hadn’t known that, but now she did.
“Anyways, I think you’ve actually got a better shot at this than anybody expected. Now, I can’t necessarily offer you as much money as we usually offer to prisoners that take this route, but I can say that if you make it through our next tournament, you’ll be happily released from your prison sentence.”
Quest: Citadel Practice Round
Description: You’ve been accepted for a practice session with Oglo at the Cloud Reach Citadel. Use this opportunity to get used to the fighting tools and prove your mettle.
Reward: Ability to continue on the ‘Citadel Fighter’ questing path
Completed
After that quest dialog closed, another one popped up.
Quest: Train For First Citadel Battle
Description: You’ve been accepted into Cloud Reach’s Citadel to shortened prison sentence program at a discounted pay rate. Train with Oglo to better prepare yourself for your first battle.
Reward: Ability to continue on the ‘Citadel Fighter’ questing path
Activate? Y/N
Isabelle thought yes.
[Quest ‘Train For First Citadel Battle’ activated]
[Loading quest]
[…]
[…]
[Quest prepared]
[Listen to Oglo]
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“Thanks for accepting my request. I’ll admit, I was a little worried I’d scared you off. I’ll let you get some more rest if you’d like before we do any more training,” said Oglo.
“After that potion, I think I’m feeling up to it,” said Isabelle. “Just don’t drain all my hp again, if you don’t mind.”
“No promises,” said Oglo with a laugh. “And alright, we can get started now. Just get on out of the cot and equip the sword and shield I gave you earlier.”
[Citadel Training Sword equipped]
[+2 damage]
[+2 stm]
[Citadel Training Shield equipped]
[+3 str]
[+3 const]
“Great,” said Oglo. “Now, this time, I’m going to have you fight some training dummies. It’ll be good for improving your form and technique so that your fighting is a little more entertaining for spectators to watch.”
Isabelle found that whole statement troubling and irritating, but she held her tongue.
Oglo lead Isabelle to another room with a row of armored training dummies. Oglo stood by one.
“You take this dummy next to me,” Oglo said to Isabelle. “And then do your best to copy my movements.
“Okay,” said Isabelle. She stood in front of the dummy next to Oglo.
“Now, when you’re using a sword and a shield like this, you always want to have the shield protecting your vulnerable areas, namely your torso and groin.”
Isabelle didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure exactly why Oglo felt the need to tell her something so obvious.
“As you also noticed in our fight together, you can use the shield as an offensive weapon as well as a defensive tool. However, let’s focus now on its defensive aspects. One of the great things about using a sword with a shield is that a shield can cover the large amounts of vulnerable spots you open up in your form when you prepare to strike with a sword. For example, watch me raise my sword over my head,” Oglo raised his sword over his head. “Now I want you to point with your sword on your dummy any spots that look open on my body right now.”
Isabelle looked at Oglo, then she looked at her dummy. She raised her sword and tapped the dummy’s left shoulder, the dummy’s neck, and the dummy’s chest.
“Great, Isabelle. Really good job. Now look at this,” Oglo raised his shield to cover all of those areas. “It may seem obvious, but keeping things like this in mind can keep you from taking too much damage early on in a fight.”
Isabelle couldn’t help but feel irriated and patronized. Was this entire training session going to be Oglo showing her how to use a shield?
“Alright, Isabelle, I want you to practice five shield charges at your attack dummy. Try to think of the shield as a wide, blunt blade instead of as just a shield. Doing this might seem silly now, but not only will it help you surprise your attackers, it will actually help you realize how important it is to protect yourself in a fight. First, I’ll go,” Oglo raised his own shield and used it to uppercut his dummy’s chin. Then, he reeled the shield back and slammed it into his dummy’s legs. Then, he slashed at the dummy’s chest with his shield three times. “Alright, Isabelle. Try something like that.”
Isabelle took a deep breath. It was time to get out some frustration. She readied her shield.
[Combat mode activated]
Isabelle pushed her shield at her dummy, ramming its chest.
[8 damage dealt]
[Stamina 94%]
Isabelle raised her shield and brought it down on the dummy’s head.
[11 damage dealt]
[Stamina 86%]
Isabelle hit the side of the dummy’s stomach with her shield twice.
[12 damage dealt]
[Stamina 74%]
Isabelle then backed up and charged forward, pushing her shield against her dummy’s chest.
[3 damage dealt]
[Stamina 68%]
“Great job, Isabelle,” said Oglo.
[Combat mode deactivated]
“I will say that some of those attacks were more effective than others, as I’m sure you noticed,” said Oglo. “If you can manage to bash someone’s head with a shield in a fight, you can really mess them up. But chest shots with shields should really be avoided unless it’s your only option. They generally just waste your stamina in a situtation where a sword would be more effective. Just something to keep in mind.”
“Thanks, Oglo,” said Isabelle. She wasn’t necessarily enjoying training with Oglo. He made her feel micromanaged.
“Glad to help, Isabelle. Now, let’s focus a little bit on using your sword as opposed to your shield. The obvious thing to keep in mind with a sword is that it’s a lot lighter than your shield, but it’s also much longer. This means that, depending on how you use a sword, it can use a lot less or a lot more of your stamina. Of course, that also kind of depends on whether you successfully land an attack, but for now let’s just focus on your sword technique.”
Did Oglo think Isabelle was an idiot or something? He just kept going on about all these things that weren’t necessarily important. Of course a sword was longer than a shield. And of course it was lighter! All she had to do to know that was pick them both up!
“I’m going to show you some different sword techniques I like to use while fighting,” said Oglo. “First, there is the forward stab.”
Oslo raised his sword to chest height and stabbed into his attack dummy’s chest.
“If you can manage to connect one of those, you can often do a lot of damage. Go ahead, Isabelle, give the forward stab a try!” Oglo smiled.
Isabelle raised her sword to about chest level
[Combat mode activated]
She swung her sword towards her dummy’s chest.
[7 damage dealt]
[Stamina 95%]
“Wait a second, wait a second, Isabelle, wait a second,” said Oglo with a sigh. “That wasn’t exactly what I wanted you to do.”
[Combat mode deactivated]
Isabelle tried not to swear under her breath as she lowered her sword and looked to Oglo.
“See, Isabelle, you swung your sword towards the chest, which can be very useful, but the specific move I’m trying to show you is the forward stab, more of a stabbing than a swinging motion. It can do a lot more damage forward stabbing an attacker’s chest than it can swinging a sword at an attacker’s chest because you’re not dividing your strength between swinging the weapon and connecting with the enemy. Swinging motions are better for when you’re having difficulty reaching any enemy’s weak points. If you time it right, a correctly performed forward stab can give you the upper hand. Go ahead, Isabelle, give it another try!” said Oglo.
Isabelle took a deep breath.
[Combat mode activated]
She raised her sword to her chest. She pictured that the attack dummy was Oglo, and that helped a lot. Then, she gave it her best forward stab to the chest.
[20 damage dealt]
[Stamina 95%]
“Wow! That was great, Isabelle!” said Oglo.
[Combat mode deactivated]
“You did way better than I expected,” said Oglo. “It was like you suddenly unleashed a lot of anger it that stabbing motion. Not sure what that was about, but either way, I’m so glad you were able to perform a well done forward stab. As you probably noticed, forward stabs also use less stamina than swinging your sword, even if they do more damage!”
Yes, Isabelle had already noticed that, but of course it was no use telling Oglo that he was being redundant.
“Now that you’ve figured out a forward stab, let’s practice one more swordfighting technique. I like to call this one an upward slash. Now, watch me,” said Oglo. He readied his sword by pointing it towards the ground. Then, looking at his attack dummy, he lunged forward and pulled the sword up through the dummy and up past the top of its head. “As you could see, while the entire move consisted of me placing my sword, lunging forward, and then slashing up, I kept my actual attack with the sword to one fluid movement. You should always strive to do that, as it uses less stamina, it uses less time, and it makes your attacks more powerful. Now, go ahead, Isabelle, give an upward slash a try.”
Isabelle gripped her sword and looked at her dummy.
[Combat mode activated]
Isabelle pointed her sword at the ground. Then, she lunged forward and slashed up.
[17 damage dealt]
[Stamina 91%]
“Pretty good job, Isabelle,” said Oglo. “Why don’t you give it another try?”
Isabelle wanted to give it another try, except on Oglo himself, but she didn’t. She just pretended her attack dummy was Oglo again while performing the upward slash.
[25 damage dealt]
[Stamina 85%]
“Now we’re talking!” said Oslo with a smile. “Whatever it is that keeps that fighting fire burning in you, keep it up when you battle your opponent. I have a feeling it’ll be a big help.”
[Combat mode deactivated]
“Okay, Oglo,” said Isabelle. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks.”
“Glad I could help. Do you feel like you have a good handle on attacking with your sword and shield?”
“Yes, Oglo,” said Isabelle, forcing herself not to roll her eyes.
“Great! I’m glad for the opportunity to train you. As you can tell, I love teaching people about fighting, so if you ever want to learn some more pointers, feel free to come to me.”
Quest: Train For First Citadel Battle
Description: You’ve been accepted into Cloud Reach’s Citadel to shortened prison sentence program at a discounted pay rate. Train with Oglo to better prepare yourself for your first battle.
Reward: Ability to continue on the ‘Citadel Fighter’ questing path
Completed
Thank god that was over. Isabelle had a feeling she would not be coming back to Oglo for more training advice.
[Armed combat increased to level 4]
[Achievement Unlocked: Level up your armed combat with a training session]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Shit. She’d leveled up already? And her arm combat had increased? Isabelle almost felt bad for hating training with Oglo so much. She’d even been partially thinking about sneaking around his back and attempting to one hit kill him and escape as a fugitive. But that just felt like a petty move now.
Another quest popped up.
Quest: Fight Your First Citadel Battle
Description: You’ve completed your preliminary training and are prepared to fight your first battle at the Citadel.
Reward: 50 gold, ability to continue on the ‘Citadel Fighter’ questing path
Activate? Y/N
Isabelle thought yes.
[Quest ‘Fight Your First Citadel Battle’ activated]
[Loading quest]
[…]
[…]
[Quest prepared]
[Talk to Oglo about scheduling to prepare for battle]
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Isabelle needed to go talk to Oglo, but she also wasn’t sure she’d have an opportunity to level up if she continued on the quest path and prepared to go fight. Then again, if Isabelle waited to level up, she could probably do it during the fight for an extra hp boost.
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
Isabelle had to be kidding herself. There was no way she could wait to level up with that notice glaring her in the face. Plus, if she added her points correctly it’d probably greatly improve her chances of succeeding, and who knew if she’d have the chance to think about that if she was fighting.
[Notice: You’re ready to level up]
[Clarification: You cannot level up while in combat mode. To exit combat mode mid-battle, you must be more than fifty feet away from any would-be attackers. You cannot exit combat mode while fighting at the Citadel.]
Well, that solved that issue. It was time for Isabelle to level up.