Chương 9: Last Minute Training

"They're pretty cheap as far as weapons go, take a look." [Skirmisher Crossbow] Lightweight crossbow with quick reload speed and quick shots. Fails at a long distance. ~10-15 second reload. | 50 Credits [Longshot Crossbow] Heavy crossbow built for distance and power, takes longer to reload. Bolts pierce armor. ~30-45 second reload | 60 Credits Evel studied them closely. He wasn't interested in the long-shot crossbow. He lacked the specific aiming skills required to make use of it properly.

Yet even the skirmisher was too expensive. 50 credits for the bow, five for the cheapest wire, around 20 for the food, and even more if he used the pods. That left him with at most 25 for the rest pods and other items he wanted to purchase.

"So what do you think? They come with the quiver, bolts, a sling, and the case! Crossbows can be quite difficult to load, but if you get strong enough to load it, it'll produce better results than a regular bow!" The shopkeeper looked at Evel keenly.

"Too expensive," Evel replied bluntly, analyzing the crossbow in front of him with great curiosity. He wasn't trying to negotiate; he didn't have much experience in that, but simply speaking his mind. I mean, if I didn't use the rest pods frequently, then I could easily afford it, but I need the extra time and food.

"I could maybe throw in the wire as well." The shopkeeper offered.

"This crystal coil?"

"What, of course not! Those alone cost 25 credits, let's be realistic here."

"I don't know…"

"It's the best price you'll get."

"30?" Evel gave the shopkeeper a toothy grin. He had never really learned how to properly bargain. The shopkeeper looked back as if he'd asked for his organs, "Again, let's try to be realistic."

"It's not your stuff anyway, and I doubt the military would notice."

"I gotta make money to get paid," he shrugged.

"How about this: 50 credits but the ferrum coil for free on the side, as well as another small item worth less than 5 credits." Evel considered this for a while. Doing this would already save him 10 credits. It was a pretty good deal. He decided to push it a bit further, just in case, regardless.

"Throw in those caltrops worth six credits, and also the bell from the door." The shopkeeper paused.

"The bell?"

"It can get loud, right?" Silence. They stared at each other for a while.

"Yeah sure… but you want to buy the bell?"

"Could I?"

"I mean, sure, I… guess." He walked over to the door, grabbed one of the bells, and stuffed it with some cloth in order to silence it. Then he returned and handed the four items to Evel: The Skirmishers' crossbow, along with a sling, and a quiver containing 15 reusable bolts The Ferrum Coil, which came with cutters. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Caltrops. A bell wrapped in cloth. This had cost him 50 credits, and he had already spent 3 on food.

47 credits left. I have at least five more days, so that will cost me 15 credits of food, and if I want to use the rest pod once a day, I'll need 25 credits, which leaves me with seven credits… No… I'd have to eat more as well if I used the pods, so at most I could use them four times, leaving me with one credit to spare. Evel did some more calculations in his mind. If I use it three times, then I'll have 9 credits left… Do I need to buy anything else? Evel walked out of the shop with a comprehensive plan in mind.

He had to eat. He had to strengthen his body. He had to train with the crossbow. He had to train with his ability and the wire. He had to find other strong allies or further befriend his current ones. That's how the remaining five days would be spent. And like that, time rapidly flew by. A few days later… Brenton charged forward, buckler on his left hand, and a wooden stick in his right.

SWOOSH He swung hard, but it hit nothing as Elena gracefully ducked under the stick and swooped her feet to kick Brenton's ankles. Remaining firm, he brought the sword above him to perform an overhead swing. Elena, after failing to topple over Brenton, was in an awkward position, so she brought her dual wooden daggers for a block. The sword crashed down hard on her, but instead of taking the force head-on, she angled herself and carried the momentum to jump back. Then, she took two quick steps even further back.

"RAHHHHH!" From her right, Leo charged with his wooden shortsword. Brenton, after reeling and recovering his footing, also charged forward. Elena took a few steps further back. Then, she pivoted hard right. Leo continued charging, but Brenton was in an awkward position, being directly behind Leo. He awkwardly halted, just avoiding crashing into the tunnel-visioned Leo. Pouncing on the opportunity she created, Elena dashed in. A big swing came diagonally down from Leo, but the strike carried no threat. CLACK!

Elena parried his attempt with one of her wooden daggers, then took a hard swing at Leo's stomach with her other. The wood crashed into his gut, sending him reeling back.

"ARHHGG!" He screamed as his body slammed into the rough dirt over a meter away.

"You'll be fine!" Elena waved his pain off and turned to Brenton with a smirk. Without giving him a chance to process anything, she launched a dagger directly at him. He managed to deflect it, as a small smile crept up on his face. The poor fool must have thought she'd be useless with just one dagger. The smile transformed into a grin, and he refocused on where Elena used to be. Where she should have been. Unfortunately, it was too late; she was already within striking distance.

Getting low, she struck with her full power. SMACK!

"FFFUCK!" Brenton soared through the air in the same direction as Leo. Smug, Elena looked at the two on the floor, grasping at their stomachs.

"Suffering builds character!" She walked to the side to drink some water from her flask, allowing the two of them to bask in the shame of defeat. She didn't care about treating them well. After all, everything she did was to improve their odds of survival. They slowly got up and walked over to Elena, before taking a seat through pained groans.

"Leo! Stop yelling when you charge at someone, you're giving yourself away." Leo nodded guiltily, one hand still clenching his stomach.

"Brenton! Why are your swings so wide? We've gone over this, you're full of openings! Don't ever let someone with daggers get so close to you; keep them in the golden zone where they can't hit you, but you can hit them. Use thrusts if you have to! Also, is your buckler for show?" Brenton nodded, "You didn't have to hit us so hard, we had already lost…" Elena shook her head at the dumb comment. Unlike her, they hadn't gotten proper training from a young age, so they didn't realize the importance of pain.

"If I were using my daggers, both of you would be dead. Do you want me to train you guys so you don't fear strikes?"

"Why are we even training so hard? We're gonna be soldiers in a week, regardless!" Elena scoffed and threw the flask at Brenton,"Do you not see how hard Evel is training? Do you want us to be left behind? Yesterday I saw him and Fern sparring, and earlier today he was sparring with the creepy guy from the restaurant! Hell no, we're not gonna fall behind."

"There's something we haven't been told," Leo groaned, still in pain and clutching his stomach.

"A lot of the people who seem smart have been training non-stop." Elena nodded.

"Our induction probably won't go as smoothly as we hope. We can only prepare the best we can." Brenton knew she was right, but still found it difficult to accept everything. He simply nodded his head and waited for the pain to subdue a little. They rested for 10 more minutes, as Elena went into more depth on specific theories of combat. It had been a while since she had gotten real practice, so this also helped her return to form.

"This time, use your powers too, Leo." Elena got up and walked away. Figuring she had made enough distance, she turned around, but Leo and Brenton were already charging at her. I hurt their egos, huh? A big grin appeared on Elena's face as she charged back. She didn't know for sure if something bad was going to happen, but with the intensity she'd seen others training, she couldn't allow Brenton to fall behind. No matter what. Thankfully, they'd already improved a lot in such a short time.

After all, tomorrow would mark a full week since their arrival at the camp.