Chương 53: [A Flat Palm and a Straight Back]

The training ground filled with noise before anyone had given an order. Wood knocked against wood as practice weapons were handed out, shields dropped into waiting hands, spear hafts thumped against the dirt. The groups formed round their trainers without being told, taking the weight of whatever was handed to them and working out what to do with it. The corrections started almost immediately. And then, almost as quickly, stopped.

Aldric nudged a lead foot into place and found the next person in line had already adjusted their own. Bram raised a shield arm on one man and turned to find the rest of his group had followed without being told. Rika walked her line checking draw hands and bow angles and stopped twice. The trainers kept working. Their eyes said more than they did. Nessa handed Sam a pair of daggers, points real, edges dull.

"Get into a stance," she said.

"Whatever feels natural. Show me your dominant hand." Sam took them, settled his weight, and showed her. She looked at him for a moment, then started talking him through it without moving to correct his grip. Kai didn't reach for a practice weapon. He handed Leo the real thing. A training Sarren rested at his feet, untouched. Leo took it with both hands and felt the weight settle immediately. He'd held Phil's Anduril replica enough times to think he had some idea of what a sword felt like. He didn't.

That had been a display piece, balanced for looking good on a wall. This was built for use and the difference was obvious from the first second. Heavier than he expected, the weight distributed differently, the curve of the blade pulling his hands into a position his body didn't quite know yet. He adjusted his grip. Then adjusted it again. Kai watched him. Said nothing. Leo settled his feet, brought the blade up, found something that felt like it might be a stance. It didn't feel wrong exactly, just unfamiliar.

Kai stepped forward. A flat palm on Leo's upper back, steady pressure until he straightened. Leo hadn't noticed the arch until it was gone. Then both hands on Leo's forearms, pushing them down slightly until the blade dropped into mid guard, the tip level and controlled. He stepped back.

"Drop it and find it again," he said. Leo dropped the stance and reset. Better. Not perfect, but better. Kai moved his back once more, a fraction of what it had been the first time.

"Again." Third time the back held itself. Kai left it alone. The blade was still sitting slightly high but Leo was finding it faster now, the body starting to understand what it was being asked to do. Fourth time Kai said nothing and didn't move. Fifth time Leo dropped into it and held it. Back straight, arms at the right height, blade level in mid guard. Kai looked at the grip, the stance, the line of the blade. He said nothing for a moment. Then he stepped back further than he had before.

"High guard." He demonstrated, his own hands coming up, the invisible blade angled, then looked at Leo. Leo found it on the second attempt. Low guard came next, blade angled down, weight shifted slightly forward. Leo found it on the first attempt. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Kai watched him move between the three. Mid to high, high to low, low back to mid.

Slower than it would eventually need to be but the positions were right, found without correction now, the body starting to hold the memory of where it needed to be. Kai glanced across the training ground. The other groups were still working through the same corrections he'd finished twenty minutes ago. He looked back at Leo.

"Again," he said.

"Faster." Shai had three people in her group who kept dropping their lead shoulder. She'd corrected it twice on the same person and was watching to see if it held when she glanced across the training ground. Phil was the only one working with two blades. The others had taken single swords, longer, better suited to people finding their feet. The corrections on that side were stacking up. She'd expected to see Leo still being moved into position.

Kai was standing back, arms folded, watching Leo cycle through the three guards. Mid to high, high to low, low back to mid. Not fast or clean, but further along than she'd expected. She looked at the groups around him. Aldric was still working through basic spear grip. Torren had Luka in a stance but was still adjusting his feet. Kai hadn't moved. The shoulder was dropping again behind her. She turned back and tapped it into place without comment. It wasn't just Leo.

Phil had the weight distribution of someone who'd been doing this for weeks, not twenty minutes. She'd adjusted his lead foot once and hadn't needed to go back. Parmo was standing easy under Rika's watch, bow held correctly, waiting. Sam was moving through something at Nessa's instruction, weight low, daggers held close. Nessa was watching with her arms folded. For Nessa that was the same as a compliment. Shai looked back at her own group and found Phil watching her.

"Are we doing well?" he said.

"Better than you should be," she said, and moved to the next person. Kai uncrossed his arms. He stepped back from Leo, putting more distance between them, then pointed at the ground in front of him.

"Advance. High guard. Don't let the blade move until your feet are set." Leo stepped forward. The blade came up into high guard a half second before his feet finished moving. Kai looked at his feet. Said nothing. Pointed back to where Leo had started. Leo retreated, found mid guard, waited.

"Again." The blade came up at the same time as the step this time. Still not right but closer. Kai pointed him back. Third attempt the feet set first, blade coming up into position a beat after. Kai watched the tip through the transition. It had wandered, not much, but enough. He didn't send him back. He crossed to Leo and crouched slightly, looking at his feet. Then he stood, took a position beside him and advanced slowly, exaggerating the movement.

Weight through the back foot first, front foot placed, then the guard changing. He did it twice without speaking, then stepped back. Leo did it again. The tip held. Kai had him retreat next. Mid guard, step back, blade staying level through the movement. Then the combination, advance into high, retreat to mid, advance again. Leo worked through it in silence, Kai watching from a few feet away, arms loose at his sides now rather than folded. He still hadn't smiled. But he'd stopped correcting.

He hadn't realised it, but his mask of indifference had slipped into something more curious. Shai called it from the centre of the ground.

"Bring them in." The trainers stepped back from their groups and the sessions wound down, people lowering weapons, shaking out arms they hadn't known were tired until the movement stopped. A few of the townspeople looked surprised at how much time had passed. Most of them had the look of people who'd expected to hate this and hadn't. Shai waited until the ground had quieted.

"Your trainers will speak to you individually about what to expect going forward. Each of you will have a regime to follow between sessions." She looked across the assembled group.

"What I've seen today is more than I expected from a first session. That's not a small thing. If this continues we'll make warriors of you, people who can stand guard over your friends and families. Don't let that go to your heads, keep at it, the real work starts next session." She left it there. People started moving, some back toward the barricade, others stopping to speak with their trainers.

Kai said something to Leo too quiet to carry, then turned and walked toward the treeline guards without waiting for a response. The five lads drifted together naturally and crossed to where Shai, Rika and Torren were standing.

"Well?" Parmo said.

"You five were right, back at the football ground," Shai said.

"You mean about the UI? How it changed us more than we realised?" She looked at him for a moment.

"Exactly. The speed your people picked this up is amazing. I don't want you to think you're going to have an easy time though. This just means training is going to be harder, we know your bodies can handle it." Parmo gulped. Rika's wings gave a quick flutter. Torren watched the group with a slow nod.

"So, what's next?" asked Sam.

"Next we're going to meet one of the guards we brought along, he should be at the southern plains area. He's human and has a bit of knowledge on how their magic works. Well more than the rest of us." said Shai.

"His brother received combat magic at his age ceremony, he was taught in one of the academies about how it all worked. He passes some of that onto his brother in messages. I'll let him explain the rest," They fell in together and headed back toward the barricade, the training ground emptying behind them.