Chương 33: Chapter 32 - First Steps

For the second time that morning, Ren stepped out of the Bumbling Magician, only this time, Alice walked along beside him. He left without asking Mr. Jester the questions weighing on his mind, the ones about the nature of the Aether and how that connect to him as an Aethersoul, or his theory on Soul Trials, for fear of the brightly dressed man finally making good on his threats about being interrupted.

On his way out, the tavernkeeper had asked just what he'd been in such a desperate hurry for earlier, to which Ren had simply said out that he'd been in dire need of a bathroom. The sun had fully risen over the horizon by now, and The Crossroads had returned to its usual general bustle, everyone seemingly having forgotten all about the chase that had happened less than an hour ago.' Is something like that a common occurrence in South-East Quarter?' Ren wondered. Beside him.

Alice moved lightly, almost skipping as she matched his pace, her hands clasped behind her back. This sudden change in demeanour still made Ren feel a little unsettled.' She was prepared to kill Mr. Jester just to capture me not fifteen minutes ago,'he thought, glancing sideways at her,' and now her mood has changed so much…'

"Say, Alice…" he started cautiously.

"Hmm?"

"You've worked with some of the targets, right? Esteban and Lady Darla, namely. So how dangerous are they exactly?" Ren continued. Alice tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"Alice doesn't know much about Lady Darla," she admitted.

"But since she is a Firekeeper, Alice doesn't reckon she is much of a fighter."' That's something good, at least.'

"Esteban, however," the doll-like girl continued, "is very strong and loves to fight." Ren frowned.

"Could you beat him though?"

"Esteban is close to Exalted rank in terms of his Soul Saturation Level," Alice explained, shaking her head.

"So it would be very hard, but Alice will do it if Ren tells her to!"

"No, no. I'm not going to send you off to your death. I'll figure something out..." Ren said with a sigh.' Mr. Jester… how did you expect me to do this alone?!' His breath pooled out before him in the cold winter air as he rubbed his hands together, trying to hold on to whatever warmth he could. Now that the sun had fully risen, Ren could make out dark rain clouds gathering in the distance.

"Do you know what his Soul Power is at least?" he asked, turning to look at Alice again. Alice nodded proudly.

"Yep! Alice knows that! Esteban can exponentially increase his overall strength and dexterity based on the amount of his essence he consumes."

"Alice has never seen his Ascended Aspect, though…"

"Ugh..." Ren couldn't help but groan. He had no idea what an Ascended Aspect even was, but an experienced mercenary who loved to fight, and one who could boost his own combat abilities at will no less, sounded like far more of a challenge to deal with than he'd initially thought. Not to mention he'd already seen both him and Alice before.' I... we're in for a rough time,' he thought grimly, going to rest a hand on the hilt of his cleaver, only to feel nothing there at all.

"Huh?" Ren glanced down to find his belt completely empty, and a brief wave of confusion washed over him before he realised what had happened. The damn thing must've fallen out when he'd fallen off the rooftop and crashed straight into that cabbage merchant's stall.

As luck would have it, he and Alice happened to be walking past that very same side road at that exact moment, and Ren spotted the cabbage merchant deep in conversation with a pair of Flameguard, frantically gesturing down at the crushed cabbages littering the ground as he talked wildly, no doubt recounting the whole ordeal. Deciding it was probably best not to wander over to find his lost cleaver, seeing as he had no way of paying for the damage anyway, Ren instead chose to cut his losses with a scowl.'

How unlucky can I be?' he thought. If only Varrin were here, then maybe the silver-haired boy could have taught him how to use a sword properly, just like he'd promised. Not that a few pointers would have done much to stop him dropping his weapon, but the odds were simply stacked against him...' Wait a minute...'

"Hey," he said slowly, looking at Alice, "are you able to make more than one of those shadow sword things?"

"Yes," she replied with a nod.

"Alice can do that."' This is my chance!' Ren's eyes lit up.

"Then do you think you could teach me how to use a sword?" Alice's expression shifted rapidly from shock, then quickly into happiness, then slowly into confusion.

"Does Ren not know how to use a sword?"

"Of course I don't," Ren responded flatly.

"I would've thought that much was obvious when you fought me."

"Well…" she straightened proudly.

"In that case, Alice can try and teach Ren. When does he want to start?"

"Right away," Ren answered without hesitation. The sooner he got stronger, the sooner he could finish Mr. Jester's tasks. And the sooner he could find a way back to Xantris. As Alice led Ren through The Crossroads to reach her 'secret training spot', he became much more familiar with the city as a whole. Like Lorelle had mentioned a while back, The Crossroads was a major trading city, one divided loosely into four quadrants, each aptly named after its respective position.

Four gates stood at each of the cardinal directions, dividing the quarters from one another and feeding the steady flow of people in and out. The two of them passed through the North-East Quarter, which turned out to be the complete opposite of the South-East Quarter. The buildings here were all considerably nicer than the ones found back where they'd come from, the streets themselves were wider and cleaner too.

And Ren noticed that, more often than not, the stores he and Alice passed were labelled as emporiums and boutiques, words that he'd never so much as heard before in his life. But judging by the lavish decorations and the items displayed in the windows, Ren could tell that anything sold here would fall well outside his particular price range of zero coin. North-West Quarter, on the other hand, was different from any of the other Quarters Ren had seen. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere.

Support the author by seeking out the original. The North-West Quarter held warehouses that stored all manner of goods, from imports, to exports, or simple local storage, it had everything. It was also home to the docks that connected The Crossroads to a river.

This wasn't the same river that ran alongside the Great Forest, however, but another entirely, one that apparently wound all the way from a town near Pyreridge Bastion out to the West Wildes Sea, allowing ships to carry supplies and goods to nearly all parts of Pyreridge Valley. Eventually, Alice led Ren to a secluded area behind an abandoned warehouse, right next to the city wall.

"This is your secret training spot?" he asked as they arrived. Looking around, the 'training spot' turned out to be little more than a secluded patch of dirt, protected by the decrepit warehouse's wall on one side and The Crossroads' massive outer wall on the other, leaving it permanently shrouded in shadow.

"Yep!" the doll-like girl declared with a proud nod.

"Alice comes here whenever Master Ohba isn't telling her to do something!"' That name again...' Ren thought.

"Will your master come looking for you? To give you a new mission or something?" Alice put a finger on her lip.

"Hmm, maybe. Alice doesn't know when he'll come find her. He just appears with that creepy mask on and tells Alice to do stuff. But since Alice only just did something for him, he might not show up again for, like, a week? Alice doesn't really know, though."

"... Alright then," Ren said grimly. He would just have to finish the menial tasks before this Master Ohba showed up, because a week certainly wasn't enough time for Elowen, Varrin, and Lorelle to even reach Solaris, let alone convince Lady Dawn to help.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"But right now, we're going to learn swordsmanship. Where do we start?" Shadows condensed around Alice's hands, pulled up from the floor to coalesce into a two longswords before she held one out to Ren. He took it carefully, surprised by just how real the weapon felt in his grip, from the solid weight of it right down to the cool, smooth texture of the hilt against his palm.

"Does Ren know anything about swordsmanship?" she asked. He nodded, trying to spin the blade in his hand like he'd seen Varrin do.

"I know that to win a fight, you just need to succeed in the goal you had before you started the fight." Alice gave him a strange look.

"If the goal Ren had before starting the fight killing your opponent, then yep! Ren would be right!"

"No," Ren said, shaking his head, "I mean if your goal was to get stronger in a fight, you would win if you achieved that. You don't have to necessarily kill to win."

"Pfft," the doll-like girl scoffed.

"If Ren doesn't kill his opponent, then they'll kill him instead, and Alice won't allow that to happen. So get rid of that way of thinking and listen to Alice."

"Oh, o-ok then," Ren replied, a little taken aback by the sternness in her voice.

"Very good!" Alice said, nodding in approval. She then moved to stand in front of Ren and brandished her shadow sword.

"So, Alice will teach Ren some Weapon Forms now. They're what people who want to learn a weapon get trained in, so they can properly master using it. There are loads and loads of different Forms out there, all sorted loosely into different styles, but that part isn't very important right now." She gave the sword a couple experimental swings.

"The important thing is that Forms aren't always meant to be used exactly how they're choreographed in the middle of a real fight. Instead, each one is supposed to teach you a concept, or a tactic, that you can actually use." she paused, then added a touch sheepishly, "Or, um, that's what Alice's papa always told her, anyway. Alice has never actually taught anyone before, so she might not be very good at it... but Alice will try her best for Ren!"' Weapon Forms? Sword styles?

'Ren thought, unable to help the excitement bubbling up within him.' That sounds amazing!' She stepped back, planted her feet firmly and raised her sword above her head with both hands.

"Alice will now teach you the basics of the sword style she uses." Ren watched intently as the dark blade above her head was brought down in a clean and powerful arc.

"Repeat this motion," she said cheerfully.

"One thousand times!" He stared at her.

"…A thousand?" Alice nodded enthusiastically. When the doll-like girl didn't say anything else, Ren exhaled slowly, raised his own sword, and tried his best to mimic the strike. The movement felt awkward and heavy, and his shoulders protested almost immediately.

"Uhh, no," Alice said with a frown as she circled him, "that's wrong. Maybe Ren should try loosening his arms? Or maybe his back? It needs to be like a woosh motion!"

"What does that even mean?" Ren asked, only for her to shrug. Regardless, he raised the sword above his head again, shifting his stance a little before brining the blade down once again.

"That was better, Alice thinks... maybe... Did it go woosh?"

"I don't think so," Ren replied, raising the blade once more, this time moving his arms to better copy what Alice had done before striking another time. Sweat formed on his brow long before he reached even a hundred repetitions. His arms burned, his grip ached, and his breathing grew heavier as they continued, but Alice never stopped trying her best to correct him.

"Maybe lower your stance?"

"Here, when Alice does it she goes like, woosh then swish!"

"Alice thinks that looked much better than the one before!" Over and over. To the point where Ren began to think it might be more beneficial for him to just try and copy her on his own as even Yumè could give better pointers!' And where are the Weapon Forms?!' By the time Ren finally completed all one thousand strikes, his entire body was screaming in protest as he lay sprawled out on the ground, staring up at the now clouded sky above the wall while his breath came in ragged, heaving pulls.

Alice loomed over him, hands on her hips.

"Ren will need to temper his body if he wants to learn Alice's sword style," she said seriously.

"He is way too stiff." He groaned. After spending most of his life working on a farm, his body wasn't weak by any means, and his stamina ran well above average for someone his age, yet the sheer amount of flexibility and control this kind of training demanded of him was nothing short of insane.

"Should we stop for the day?" Alice asked, tilting her head.

"No way," Ren said, pushing himself back to his feet.

"I can keep going."

' I need to keep going.'

"Then Alice will show Ren some Weapon Forms he can watch to become inspired," she declared.

"That's what Alice's papa always did for her!"' Finally!' Ren thought, focusing fully as she stepped back and shifted into another stance, holding her shadow blade in front of her face.

"Watch closely!" His tired eyes slowly widened as he did just that, watching the doll-like girl move, thrusting her blade forward in a quick stab before she began to dance around. Yeah, dance was the best way to put it. Where Varrin's swordsmanship had been powerful and destructive, every strike meant to land quick and heavy, and where Elowen moved like a flowing river, precise and elegant, each motion controlled and refined, what Alice was doing now was something else entirely.

Her entire body was incorporated into every motion, her hips turned with each step and her shoulders rotated seamlessly and gracefully, her wrists guided the shadow blade as if it were weightless. Ren hadn't fully registered it when she attacked him before, but now that he was watching her properly... It was nothing short of beautiful. The fabric of Marionette's Attire flowed around her as she moved through seemingly impossible angles, swirling and spinning in one continuous, fluid sequence.

Each strike curved seamlessly into the next, every step placed with perfect precision. At one point Ren watched her suddenly break that flowing rhythm entirely, lunging forward in a sharp, explosive attack before melting straight back into a series of swelling movements that grew faster and faster still. Then, Alice came to a stop and drew her blade far back behind her, winding up for one final, powerful thrust that she drove forward with everything she had.

Ren watched the whole thing unfold in absolute awe, his heart hammering away in his chest, just as it had when he'd watched Elowen and Varrin fight. Alice straightened up and let out a long breath, carefully bringing her breathing back under control before glancing over at him.

"Did Ren manage to catch all of that?" she asked, a little sheepishly.

"Alice might have gotten a teensy bit carried away..."

"Yes of course!" he responded quickly.

"How many Weapon Forms was that? Or was it just one? What tactics or concepts was it supposed to teach?" Ren couldn't help the flurry of questions that came tumbling out of his mouth, and Alice smiled in response.

"Alice just did all five of the Weapon Forms she knows. If Ren's so eager, then he can give the first one a go himself! It's used to start all of the other Forms."

"Which one was that exactly?" he asked, already itching to give it a try.

"This one," Alice said, settling her feet into position and holding her blade up before her face. After a brief pause, she struck out quickly with it.

"It's called Night's Opening Bar. An opening strike used to set the tempo of the fight, so it can be slow, or it can be quick like Alice did it."' Night's Opening Bar...' Ren excitedly attempted to copy the stance and held his own shadow sword up. He hesitated a moment, replaying what the doll-like girl just did in his head before attempting to copy it. Even before Alice said anything, he knew it was bad by the way the sword wobbled when he extended it.

"Too slow!" she said.

"It's supposed to be more like a quick swish, but it can be slow. Not Ren's slow though. Go back to the thousand strikes!"' This is going to take a while,' Ren sighed, his heart still racing away in his chest, still thumping with the same excitement that gripped him while watching Alice perform her Weapon Forms.