Chương 18: Chapter 17 - Training

Kiara's hands were completely healed 5 days later, which was a good enough test result for her. She assumed that the Healing stat was a linear improvement, similar to the other ones that she had increased. During that time, she avoided sparring to let her hands heal, but she worked through her footwork and transitions. Her sore muscles didn't stay sore for as long, and her cuts and bruises healed faster than she was used to. Once her hands were better, she started sparring with Hank and Jeff again.

The first time sparring again, she realized just how much her other increased stats were helping her. Her speed had almost doubled from her Strength stat, and instead of Hank and Jeff slowing down for her, she now had to slow down to not outpace them. This actually benefitted her quite a bit, since now the pace didn't seem quite as breakneck as it had before. She was able to focus more on her form and technique, without worrying as much about trying to keep up.

On the other hand, Hank and Jeff were thrown a little off their game, now that they were the ones trying to keep pace. Her increased Durability was a game changer for their training sessions. When Hank and Jeff landed hits that had previously caused her considerable pain, they now just felt like little love taps. She was able to continue sparring with them for longer without feeling completely trashed from the training session.

The combined increases in her Strength and Endurance stats helped her to spar for longer without getting tired. She doubled her training time with them each night, and began improving even faster than before. They were still much better than her at a technical level, but she was closing the gap at an incredible rate.

Things that she had learned previously sank in to become second nature, and the things she was learning from them now felt like they fit naturally into place in her ever expanding framework of swordfighting knowledge. She felt like if she didn't hold back on her speed advantage, she could overcome the technique gap and beat either of them in a spar. When she mentioned this to them, they both shared a sly look, then readily agreed to try it out.

"What do you reckon, Jeff? Should we see if she's up to it?"

"Yeah Hank, I think there's a good learning experience for us all here."

"Then it's settled! Shian, which of us would you like to spar with first?" Kiara shrugged.

"How about you, Hank?" Hank settled into his basic defense stance, and Kiara followed suit. They started off slow, like normal, feeling each other out. The speed quickly increased to where Hank was going full tilt. She was only slightly faster and stronger than he was, but she pushed that advantage as much as she could. What looked like a perfect parry from Hank would turn into a glimmer of a weakness as she struck him harder than normal, or reset faster than he was used to for her next attack.

He was on the backfoot for a minute or two, but eventually her breakneck pace started to catch up to her. She realized that Hank had better endurance than her, and his better technique was more energy efficient as well. She wasn't the only one feeling the fatigue though, and she started to notice gaps in Hank's defense. Not feints either, actual gaps where he couldn't quite recover in time, or didn't flow through his sword forms quite right, due to his flagging endurance.

Her muscles were burning, but her mind worked fast enough to figure out a plan. She transitioned to a new sword form, forcing him to respond by transitioning as well. As he did so, she transitioned again. It wasn't pretty, and if he wasn't so fatigued, he would have been able to punish her for her mistakes, but as it was, he was too tired to properly capitalize on her poor transitions. She caught him off guard as a result, and went in for the kill strike.

Just as she was about to land it, Jeff jumped in and parried her blow, allowing Hank a clean kill shot on the side of her neck.

"Ow!" She collapsed to the ground.

"Hey, that's cheating." Jeff laughed, while Hank nodded, out of breath.

"Indeed it was!" Jeff said with a chuckle. He offered a hand to help her up. She took his hand begrudgingly, then tried to pull him down to the ground. As strong as she was, he was full of energy, and she was not. He slipped his hand out of hers before she could pull him down, and continued to laugh.

"Oh ho! She's feeling feisty, Hank." Shian just glared at them both. Having caught his breath a bit, Hank smiled.

"You did well, Shian. That was a good attack at the end there. It was a bit sloppy, but once your opponent is tired like that, sloppy can sometimes get the job done."

"Yeah, but you cheated," she pouted. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Hank just nodded.

"Sparring and tournament rounds are refereed, and usually fair. But if you ever get into a real scrap, I want you to remember this lesson. Real fights aren't fair. With how much sparring we've been doing, I'd hate for you to be caught off guard in a real fight. It's better to learn the lesson now, from us, rather than out in the wild when your life is on the line." Jeff chimed in, "Another lesson here is that numbers win battles. Well…

mage tiers win battles, but even tier gaps can be overcome with a large enough number advantage." Kiara relaxed, and tried to soak in the lesson. She'd lost because they cheated, but that was exactly their point. Life wasn't always fair, and in a life and death situation, it would rarely be. She had tried to push her speed advantage, and they had pushed their number advantage in response. It was a good lesson. Over the next few days, Kiara's form continued improving.

Now that she could train for longer without getting as worn down, she was learning more each day. It was clear that she would continue to improve even more with practice, but even without her speed and durability advantages, she eventually won her first spar against Jeff. He won the next few spars, but she knew she was close to matching him in talent. Hank was the better swordsman between the two, and she still hadn't beat him without pressing her speed advantage, but she knew it was only a matter of time.

A week before they reached Portish, they stopped at another large city, and spent the night. Quite a few of their travel companions disembarked the caravan here, while a few others joined up. Having new people in the wagon felt strange, and the games of Royal Bluff fizzled out while everyone got used to each other's company. Two nights after leaving the city, bandits attacked the caravan. It was mid-day, and the wagons were moving on the road.

It started with shouting, and Kiara poked her head out the back of the wagon to get a better view of the commotion. She saw Captain Forlick to the west of the caravan, running north towards the front. She was shouting orders down the line, and the other guards were echoing her orders. Before Kiara could get a good look at what was happening, a commotion inside the wagon drew her attention back inside. Two of the new travellers that had been sharing the wagon had stood up and drawn large knives.

One of them was a large man with a bald head, a close cropped beard, and what would have been a rather handsome face, if not for the ugly scar that stretched from his eyebrow to his chin. The other one was a slender woman dressed head to toe in black, who moved with a cat-like grace. Her knife was long and curved, with a wicked looking serrated edge. Kiara wondered how much she had paid for it.

At first, she thought they were preparing to defend themselves from whatever the commotion was outside, but was quickly cured of that opinion when one of them spoke up.

"This is a bandit attack, and we're with the bandits! Give us all of your valuables, and no one gets hurt." The woman bandit then licked the flat edge of her knife. Not a pretend lick either, for dramatic effect, but like some full tongue on metal action. Kiara shuddered in disgust. She was certain that wasn't very sanitary, but she wasn't one to judge. Ok, maybe she judged her a little bit. * Lenni had a fairly troubled youth.

Her parents were wealthy when she was younger, and she had grown up spoiled, used to getting her way. Her father had a gambling addiction, and their family fortune slowly dwindled as the years went on. She was too young to understand it at first, but when they moved to a slummier neighborhood and sold most of their belongings, she realized that life was changing. Her parents both took to alcohol to cope with the changes in their social standing, and Lenni had started spending time with a rougher crowd.

Her magical talents had peaked early on, she had never been able to advance past tier 1. Her mother was a tier 1 mage as well, and her father was only tier 2, so it hadn't come as too much of a surprise. With limited magical talent, Lenni had limited opportunities for making money. Having grown up around more wealth, she was used to a certain standard of living, and her parents' inability to provide had forced Lenni to find ways to make more money.

Her first time working with a bandit crew had shown her how easy it was to take money and jewelry from those weaker than she was. Most common folk would do anything to avoid a fight and risk injury, so the bandit attacks always went the same way. They would join up with a caravan in a large city, then a few days later the larger group of bandits would stage an attack at the front of the caravan, where the passengers travelled.

By the time the caravan guards rallied for a response, the bandits inside the passenger wagons had usually already cleared out everyone's valuables, and the entire bandit troop would disappear into the wilderness without so much as a scratch. The merchants' goods in the non-passenger wagons were undoubtedly more valuable, but that would require winning a prolonged fight with the caravan mercenary guards, which wasn't a sure bet.

Even if they won that kind of a fight, it wasn't worth the injury and death that would come from an engagement like that. It was better to just rob the gentle folk up front, then disappear. Today, Lenni was partnered up with Von, whose large figure usually elicited a mix of fear and awe in the passengers. As Von announced that this was a bandit attack, Lenni licked the flat edge of her knife for good measure, just to show everyone that they meant business.

She was sure it was intimidating, based on the looks of the passengers' faces, and mentally applauded herself for a job well done. That Shian girl had even shuddered in fear. The next part was unexpected though, and honestly a little bit confusing. The man nearest to them – what was his name? Victor? He wasn't paying them any attention at all. It wasn't like he was lost in thought or anything, either. As soon as Von spoke up, Victor became very interested, just… interested in the wrong thing.

Instead of looking at Von and Lenni with fear or trepidation, he was intently watching Shian. Her friend's name was easy to remember, due to his good looks and natural charm: Dustin. Surprisingly, after a short glance at Von, Dustin's lips turned up in a half smile and he also turned to look at Shian. Why? What was so special about this woman that they would only look to her for a reaction?

As Lenni studied her, Shian first looked surprised at Von's declaration, but the surprise slowly morphed into excitement, and a big smile came over her face. A small trickle of fear went down Lenni's spine. Why was no one afraid? This wasn't how this was supposed to go.