Chapter 4 Part 4 of 4 (Patreon)

“I was running tests.”

“Been seven days you’ve been running tests on them two lads, you keep them in here any longer and they’ll turn into battle idiots like you,” she grumbled. “What you two staring at, never seen a gnome before?”

“You’re really a gnome?” Erik asked.

“Do you often see diminutive sized people with pointed ears outside, and don’t say I’m some Elven dwarf, its offensive to me and to Elves.”

“Uhh…” Erik looked at Rugrat who just shrugged.

She snorted out smoke, a grin around her pipe.

“Odd duo you are. You might be right, Xun Liang, they could be good. Now tell them why you’ve been stuffing them into the training rooms time and time again before sending them to their classes. It’s been a week already!”

She turned and left a trail of smoke behind.

Xun Liang cleared his throat, drawing their attention. “So, first I wanted to see how you fight, that was revealing, then I needed to see how stubborn you were, and if you were teachable, and well, at the end, I wanted to see how adaptable you were when you were actually listening. First, whoever taught you to use your elements and mana did a good job. Whoever taught you to fight...” Xun Liang widened his eyes and shook his head.

“That hurt to see. That rifle you were using Rugrat, I’m guessing it’s the type of weapon you’re both familiar with. Erik has transitioned away from it more than you have, using his fists and his body to fight, kind of. You both need to learn what to do when you’re in a close confrontation with an enemy and then at distance, since you have those weapons. I trust you are good at distance so we will work on close range situations first. You’re both as stubborn as hell, and while there are things you think you know, you are willing to learn.” His hand stopped Erik. “I know there are undoubtedly things that you do know, but it is my job as your trainer to teach you the things you don’t know. You’ve both started to listen to what I’m saying, probably because it was the only thing that wouldn’t hurt as much. The most interesting aspect about you special cookies, you’re determined bastards.”

Xun Lian grinned. “You took wounds, but you were moving your bodies to take wounds that wouldn’t impair your movements or stop you committing to a dodge if you weren’t attacked and you’re as heartless to yourselves in training as you are to whoever you’re fighting. You push yourself to do whatever you want to learn one hundred percent, force yourself to learn as you go along. Means that to start it is hard as hell, but then you learn faster.”

Xun Liang stood and stretched. “All right, I’ll be your combat trainer.”

“Why would we go with you?” Rugrat asked.

“You don’t want all of that to be for nothing do you?” Xun Liang draping an arm over Rugrat’s shoulders. “And I think I can teach you a thing or two.” He patted Rugrat with a grin and stepped away, looking at them both, standing next to the door out of the formation filled corridor.

“Erik West and Jimmy Rodriguez; you two are rather interesting, I looked into your background. Alchemy, smithing, healing, Earth tactics with firearms. While it has allowed you to scrape by in the different realms. In the Seventh Realm you needed to be careful as there are many that can overpower you in technique. You’ve been learning from Lee Perrin. I would guess on the manipulation of elements, a fine teacher by accounts, but like you he looks at the elements as an external tool. Let me ask you, when you’re using your cauldron or your hammer, do you think of them as tools or do you use them as extensions with only random conscious thought. Can you anticipate what happens as you work with them?”

He looked at them both.

“I didn’t really think about it, but I control the flames,” Erik said.

“Yes, you control it, but are you focusing on controlling the flames or is it just happening because you have become so used to the process?”

He smiled and looked at Rugrat.

“What are you getting at?”

“I want to teach you how to fight the Ten Realms way, not the Earther way. To use your domain like an extra sense, to fuse mana and elements into everything that you do to the point it is a muscle you don’t notice you’re using it when you breathe. Now you’re thinking about your breathing and taking conscious control. You breathe when you’re fighting, don’t you? Lots going on there. What if you were to use your mana and element domains? Now, take two days, go do your classes, see what the academy has to offer, go and test out what you have learned so far. If you want to learn more then come back in two days. If you’re not interested, don’t come back.”

He tossed Erik a map.

“What’s this?”

“Academy map.”

“Will the training...?”

“Hurt like this? Yes, but the more you bleed here, the longer you’ll survive out there.” Xun Liang’s smile faded. “Aren’t you already getting used to taking wounds now that would have been life threatening before your tempering? Since you started your assessment, do you think that you could take more wounds than before and keep going?”

Erik opened his mouth and closed it.

“Pain lets us know that we are alive, but you can get used to it, build up a tolerance and understanding over time.”

“So our training is going to suck.”

“Yes, but then it is easier to get rid of those bad habits and give you new ones.”

He turned and left the room.

Erik and Rugrat looked at one another.

“I guess we should go see our accommodations now,” Rugrat said.

“Yeah, I need a proper shower and some real sleep.” Erik took out his map, pressing the map to his as he stepped off the formation. He passing the map to Rugrat for him to do the same.

They walked out into the reception. The gnomish lady was knitting with iron threads while rocking in a reception chair.

“He might be a tough trainer, but you won’t find another one better than him in the Ninth,” She pursed her lips. “Well maybe not one so determined. Won’t be easy now. Best to think carefully, you can’t quit halfway.”

“Thank you?” Erik asked.

“Weebla. Name’s Weebla. Now take care you two and make sure that you take time to learn more than just how to fight.”

Erik and Rugrat bowed their heads and went to the elevator. The gates opened, revealing a gap between the elevator and the top of the gate.

“Does that look like a...footprint?” Rugrat looked up. Erik looked with him, seeing light from above.

“That looked like a hole in… you don’t think that he just jumps on top of the elevator and flies out the top of the shaft?”

“It looks human sized.”

“He strikes me like the kind of person that would do such a thing.”

They got onto the elevator and Erik pressed the button.

They leaned against the walls of the elevator as it groaned upwards.

“You know, he might be insane,” Rugrat started.

“But you can’t deny that we started to learn by the end of it,” Erik said.

“If he can teach us to fight?”

“He was leaking even less mana and elements than Lee, his control must be on another level and then him appearing beside you, he’s got some skills,” Erik rubbed his face.

Rugrat groaned, hitting his head against the side of the elevator lightly.

“Why do we always find the weirdos.” Erik agreed.

***

Storbon was about ready to march on the Avegaaren administration buildings when his sound transmission crackled to life. “They’ve been spotted heading this way.”

He checked the ping on the map and ran out of the courtyard, through the outer buildings, the stables, and to the outer wall that was equal parts decoration and defense.

Special team members spotted the duo and moved around them, with looks of concern. Erik and Rugrat’s carriers were torn and frayed, the plates pitted and scarred while their clothes were dulled from cleaning spells, their shirts and pants had turned into t-shirts and shorts.

“Storbon, whatever it is, can it wait until I take a bath and get some sleep?” Erik asked.

Storbon seemed to hold his breath, looking them over and nodded. “It can wait.”

“Good, now, you know where the hell our accommodations are?”

“Uhh, this is it.” He indicated to the compound behind him.

“Which room?”

“Umm, all of it. This is your residence. Rugrat’s is about a kilometer away and is similar in style.”

“All right, well I’m going to take a shower, only danger there is that I’ll fall asleep standing up.”

“I think I’ll crash.”

“Sure, dunno if I have a couch for you somewhere,” Erik muttered, the two sounding almost drunk from their fatigue as they wandered in.

“Fancier than some of the hotels I’ve stayed in.”

“Dude, it’s fancier than any hotel we’ve been in, remember our hoochie hotel in Panama?”

“Ah, that was a beaut, had a pool too.”

“Yeah, only cause Simmons hooch was busted.”

They wandered into the accommodations as Storbon’s team sealed the gates and he radioed Yang Zan and his team watching Rugrat’s residence.

“We’ve got them here, they’re going to crash, look like they got mauled by bears.”

“Maybe they found the bar around here?”

“You know we’re in a school?”

“You know that there are old fogies like five hundred years old wandering around here as students, right?”

“Trying to find your long lost great-great-grandfather?”

“Hell, no, but wouldn’t mind meeting a perfectly normal twenty-year-old lady interested in rugged men that smell like gunpowder and dust.”

Storbon snorted and rolled his eyes. “Don’t think that would be any normal lady and I doubt that anyone that young is gonna make it into the Academy.”

“Hey, a man can have dreams!”