Chapter 19 - Learn the real

“What?”

“Please teach us to fight.” Crisnée repeated her request to Nicklass, who still did not understand what she wanted.

It was the morning of the night the trio had talked about their perspective of training.

Dad had been reluctant to let us go, worried about our security in front of what the city’s state was but, seeing the determination in her children’s eyes, Mom had convinced Dad to let us go.

I don’t know if seeing everyone with their weapons worried or reassured our parents. Maybe a bit of both.

Everyone hugged Mom and Dad before going, even Crisnée, who seemed to find in my parents the warmth her dad was lacking.

And so our tiny group set out in the city in a quest to find Nicklass and forcefully convince him to teach them more of Shi than simple exercises useless in battle.

We first went to the barrack, their resolve wavering a bit in front of its doors. You could see in their eyes that they were remembering what happened two days ago, but they quickly snapped out of it and, hands white of gripping their weapons, they entered.

Of course, we were nearly instantly stopped by a guard who asked what our business was (in a very polite and soft fashion, since we were kids, but it boiled down to that).

When Noa, the spokesperson of our group, answered we were searching for Nicklass, the guard quickly said that he was not here, but on the rampart, and she gave us some instruction to reach the place where he was.

Noa bowed and thanked her. The group exited the barrack with a small sigh of relief and quickly followed the guard’s instruction, reaching one of the fortified post protecting a set of stairs to climb the wall.

I am not sure why they let us pass. I mean, this was technically a military building, and one under-staffed and that had just been attacked to boot.

Was it because of the determination in the eyes of those kids? Or because of how they looked, with their casual clothes and their weapons ready to be used?

Or maybe because all the guards knew by now that this group of children got trapped in the barrack and fought their way out?

Whatever the reason, we got on the ramparts after the long climb and finally found Nicklass, who was on guard duty here in spite of the bandages wrapping his forehead. And he wasn’t alone.

Ophelia was here too, and with her the lady with the wings of white Shi.

“Well hello you four, how did you get here?”

“We asked the guards after you and they let us pass.” A simple answer from Noa, yet truthful.

Ophelia and her colleague were watching us with curiosity.

“Okay, and why were you searching for me?”

“We want you to teach us to fight.” Answered Crisnée in her usual direct style.

“What?”

“Please teach us to fight.”

He looked at her and the two other kids and frowned.

“Isn’t Sir Gregory teaching you to fight?”

“Only like a normal person.”

Feeling that Crisnée’s explanation wasn’t enough, Noa took the lead.

“We want you to teach us to fight with our weapons and our Shi at the same time, so we can protect ourselves.”

“And kill things.” Added Vivianne with a dark face.

Nicklass’ eyebrows shot toward the sky and his eyes opened wide in surprise.

“...No, you’re too young.” He finally answered after gathering his wits.

The trio frowned at the same time, something sparkling deep in their eyes. Determination.

Crisnée tried to talk again but, just before she did, Ophelia put her hand on Nicklass’ shoulder and took him gently out of the way, then put a knee on the ground to have her eyes at the same height as the trio’s.

“Is it because of what happened in the barrack?” She asked Crisnée softly and, through her, the two others too.

“Yes.” Crisnée was looking deep in Ophelia’s eyes, as were Noa and Vivianne.

“Because you fought, or because… of the food storage?”

“Both.” Noa took a step forward as he answered. “Please, let us train to use our Shi to fight.” He added.

Ophelia looked behind her at the other woman, all the while Nicklass was biting his lips.

The woman with white hair looked at us for some time, for what purpose, I don’t know, and she finally nodded. “Why not. If you want.”

Ophelia nodded back in gratitude and looked back at us, rising back on her feet.

“Okay, I’ll teach you. But I warn you, it won’t be easy. No more casual exercise, if I am to train you to fight, I’ll do it properly. If you’re not okay with that, you can still step back, okay? It’s not a training meant for children.”

Crisnée, Noa and Vivianne looked at each other and turned their gaze back at Ophelia.

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“Surviving is hard.” Answered Crisnée, the two others noddings at her.

“Killing is hard.” Added Vivianne, their hand tightening around their weapons.

“Saving people too.” That was Noa, and you could see their eyes wavering a bit, remembering the young woman’s corpse.

“””Please teach us.””” They said together, even bowing a bit.

Nicklass was clearly not okay with what was happening, but it seemed that, being the weakest of the three, he hadn’t a right to intervene.

“Yes.” Ophelia looked once more at the white-haired woman, who nodded again.

“Then come with me, let’s start as soon as we can.”

The three of them followed her as she started moving toward the stairs.

***

“This isn’t child play anymore. You’re going to learn how to fight, how to survive and how to kill.”

We were now in the training room of the barrack, our outside clothes stored in one of the lockers.

The three children were sitting cross-legged on the ground, in front of Ophelia. I was between Noa’s legs for now, closely listening to what Ophelia was saying.

“First of all, you will promise that you will never, and when I say never, I mean NEVER, use your Shi against a civilian. Am I clear!”

“”“Yes!”””

“Good. I want you to remember this promise, it’s very important, understood?”

They all nodded together, their eyes still filled with the same unhealthy determination.

“Perfect. Then let’s start with a basic course. Show me what you can do with your Shi.”

This was quickly settled, as the children had only learned to cover a weapon with Shi and to create and separate basic form of Shi in their palm. Vivianne, as always, failed to maintain a sphere dissociated from her, but her mastery of form creation was better than the two other.

Inversely, Noa was pretty good at projection, and Crisnée at sheeting her weapon with Shi.

“Thanks. Since your training is at that point, I know with what I need to start. What you showed me contained three distinct branches of Shi manipulation.”

She rose and walked toward a weapon rack, where she picked a dagger before coming back and sitting once more in front of us.

“Sheeting…” She said as she was covering the dagger with her yellow Shi. “...Is something under Extension. You project your Shi outside of your body and, from your skin, you cover something else that is in direct contact with you. This can be done with weapons, armours, and everything else. I once saw one of the great masters of the Nadragor family cover a whole building like that, protecting it. The advantages of Extension lie in its efficiency and its ease of use. Covering something isn’t too tiring and can still pack a punch or protect to great extends. However, it is inflexible, as you need to follow the shape of an external object. That’s when the next technique comes into play.” She put the dagger on the ground, letting go of Shi and, with her other hand, created a replica of the dagger with pure Shi.

“That is called Shaping. You give your Shi a shape based on your will and imagination. This is more difficult and exhausting to do than Extension, but Shaping is way more flexible. Do you remember the white-haired woman with which I was, on the wall?”

““Yes.”” Answered Noa and Vivianne, Crisnée nodding along.

“She is a master of Shaping. She uses her Shi to create wings and fly in the sky. It’s quite impressive.

“F-fly?” Exclaimed Crisnée, the concept of flying exciting to her.

“Yes, fly. After Shaping, we have Projection.” She started to make her Shi dagger float out of her hand, moving it freely around her before grasping it and absorbing the Shi back.

“Projection is even more difficult than Shaping, but the freedom it gives you is baffling. Sacha, another of our fighters, is specialised in projection. She creates steps and use them to walk through the sky, and use masses of Shi to crush her opponents.”

So the fully armoured warrior was Sacha… Interesting.

“And you, what is your specialisation?” Asked Vivianne curiously.

“Me? It’s something other than the three first techniques.” She took the steel dagger back and, one hand on the pommel and another on the blade, she started bending it until it snapped in two, all under the amazed gazes of the kids (and mine, I must admit.)

“I am specialised in Internal and External Infusion. Internal Infusion is the concept of filling parts of your body with Shi to reinforce them, making them stronger, faster and more resilient than normal. Mind you, every Shi wielder is naturally faster, stronger and more resilient than normal humans, based on the power of their Shi, but Internal Infusion takes that one step further. External Infusion, on the other hand, is the act to inject your Shi into external objects, following the same rules as the three techniques before. Extension is often used more than External Infusion, as you need to master Internal Infusion before using the External one, but it’s way more powerful if you want to use external objects like weapons and the all. That’s why my armour often doesn’t break down during fights where others do, because I inject it with my Shi. Good so far?”

Collective nod of the head.

“...Okay.” She was a bit sceptic but went on anyway.

“Normally, you should train all four techniques a bit, until starting a more advanced training, but this is the more advanced training, so what we will do is find what you’re good at, and train that a lot. It’s way more efficient to do that this way if what you have in mind is fighting for your survival. On your feet, brats, and follow my lead.”

She started a series of exercises where the children needed to follow what she was doing with her Shi.

At some point during the training, a man entered the room and sat down on a bench, his back resting against the wall. Ophelia took a glance at him but said nothing, and kept going with her assessment.

Results? More or less what you could expect.

Noa seemed average in both Extension and Shaping, but his Projection ability was better than average. How much? Honestly, Ophelia didn’t tell, so I don’t know.

He wasn’t able to do Internal Infusion, so we couldn’t be sure if he was good at it or not.

Crisnée was really good at Extension, and somewhat better than average in shaping, but her Projection wasn’t really that good, and just like Noa, she couldn’t perform Internal Infusion.

Vivianne… Well, she was really bad at Projection, but we already knew that. Her extension was average, but her Shaping was exceptional, and she was able to follow Ophelia very far in this part of the test, up to controlling five tiny thread of Shi and use them quite proficiently.

“Good way to go, Vivianne, it seems that you’re a natural Shaper.” Ophelia was smiling a little.

And for Internal Infusion?

“Teacher?” Vivianne was looking at Ophelia with question marks in her eyes.

“Ah, sorry, it has been a long time since I saw someone able to naturally Infuse themselves. That’s good, that’s really good!” She was more than smiling. Maybe she was happy to find someone that was specialised like her?

“Good, now that we know what you’re natural with, we’ll be able to start training in earnest.” She turned her head toward the man sitting. “Marc, want to help a bit instead of peeping at us like the lazy ass you are?”

“Why not?” His voice was very deep, which was a surprise since he wasn’t that big or anything.

He stood and walked toward us.

“Hello everyone. My name is Marc, and I am number five of the Shi fighters that protect this city. I heard that something interesting was happening, so here am I. I am specialised in Shaping and Projection, so if you need to ask something, I am your man.” He presented himself very politely, his deep, peaceful voice somewhat reassuring. He gave the impression of a man who lived slowly, but not in a bad way, as if he took the time to appreciate what was around him, to look at things people wouldn’t even bother with normally. Like a… a rock? A slow, large boulder going where he wants as he looks at the scenery.

“Delighted to meet you. I am Crisnée Valince, and I will be in your care.” It was at times like that that Crisnée’s training took the lead over her natural self, making her act all polished and well-behaved. It was funny to see the contrast, to be honest.

“Hi! I am Noa, nice to meet you!”

“Hello. I am Vivianne. Please teach us well.” And the twins gave their typical introduction, Noa all smiles and Vivianne eager to learn.