WW Chapter 58: Initial Adept Training (Patreon)

“Get up,” Chloe said, and Ezra woke, bolting into an upright sitting position.

Looking around himself, he could see maybe the faintest tint of pink through the window, though most of the light in the room came from a candle that Chloe was holding. She already wore all of her armor, and once she saw his eyes, she leaned back and put the candle down on the bedside table.

“Get your armor on and come outside,” Chloe commanded, and then she walked out the door.

Ezra blinked several times, trying to clear the sleep from his eyes, before he threw the covers off and rolled out of bed. He popped both ankles and elbows before equipping himself as best as he could.

I’ve taught you how to use aura in general terms, Jormun began to speak as he prepared himself. We have both seen that I’ve made a mistake in not training you more specifically, and honestly, I should’ve done better at training you with weapons as well. As she trains you today, I’m going to give you examples and instructions that will help you. Whenever you have these trainings, I will continue to do so.

“Finally,” Ezra grunted, buttoning his coat across his chest. Even though Ezra had sniped at the old ghost, Jormun didn’t say anything in response. With no further conversation to be had, Ezra finished getting dressed in silence.

With his shield on his left arm and his spear in his right hand, he walked carefully through the inn until he found his way to the door. Going off of a couple grumbled complaints from doors he walked past, he wasn’t as quiet as he wanted to be. Even so, there wasn’t anything he could do but quietly mumble an apology and get out.

As he walked into the fresh air, Ezra saw his breath barely misting in front of his face. It was a brisk morning, even as spring began in truth. He could see slightly more than the night before, even though the sun’s first light hadn’t quite peeked over the horizon. Just as when they came in the night before, there was precious little light around the inn, but the crescent moon, which had only been beginning to rise when they arrived the night before, still had a few more hours in the sky.

As such, he could see that there was a small clearing nearby, maybe thirty paces long and half as wide. There, Chloe was warming up, jogging lightly in large circles while twisting her upper body.

“Get warm, and then we’ll find out what works best for you,” she said, barely glancing at him.

Ezra didn’t argue with her, starting walking to get the blood flowing as he asked her, “What do you mean, ‘works best for me’?”

“What fighting style and training you learn best from,” she immediately answered. “Since you are training, ideally, to become a Knight, you’ll have plenty of time to try out different weapons once we actually get to Brayton. Before that, you need to know how two people fight against each other, when it’s just them two. Maybe you end up using any number of different weapons instead of a spear, but this is what you’ve got right now, so this is what you’re going to train with.”

Ezra nodded at that information, considering they had already basically had the conversation the night before. After a few minutes of the two getting their blood pumping, the idyllic beginning was quickly brought to an end by Chloe stepping forward into the middle of the little clearing and gesturing for him to come closer.

“Before I start drilling you, I want you to remember that this is the largest difference between fighting as a soldier on a shield wall and fighting as an individual: a soldier on the wall needs to consider the person beside them, a Knight does not. As such, you’ll probably end up discarding that shield when we’re practicing with the spear.”

“Why wouldn’t I want to be able to protect myself?” Ezra asked, squinting at her. “That’s the point of having a shield, isn’t it?”

“I’m sure you can remember how awkward it was to start using the spear and the shield at the same time, right?” Chloe replied with another question, without directly answering his own query.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “It feels like the shield gets in the way of being able to use the spear.”

“But soldiers use the shield anyways because they don’t need to have super flexible attacks,” Chloe explained further. “They depend on each other to keep the entire line of soldiers safe. The more soldiers you’ve got, the easier it is to make sure that whatever you’re fighting gets stabbed by something, so the spear and shield combo works. They do the same thing with shields and swords, though using a sword is a lot more complicated than using a spear, in terms of teaching people, so they don’t teach newbies how to use swords. Anyways, if you’re dueling and you’re using a spear, a shield, at least one that’s as big as the one that you’ve got now, is as much of a hindrance as it is a help.”

Ezra nodded slowly, beginning to understand what she was getting at. “And in a duel,” he said, looking at her for verification, “it’s just as important to be flexible and quick. After all, I won’t have anybody else protecting me if I’m fighting somebody one on one.”

“Exactly,” she answered. “So I’ll train you with the shield and without it, and I have a sneaking suspicion that, before long, you’ll favor one over the other. Probably without the shield. Even so, I’ll ask that you continue to bring the shield with us, as, when we begin training with the sword, you’ll want the shield as well. Training with something you’re familiar with is always better than with something entirely new. Now, do you have any other questions before we begin?”

“I don’t think so,” Ezra shook his head.

“Great.”

That was the last conversation that the two shared for another hour. Instead, the only words that Chloe gave were commands, reprimands, and the occasional confirmation that what he had done was good.

The first twenty minutes were spent with Chloe training him extensively on how best to use a spear when only wielding the single weapon. He’d spent a long time traveling with it in hand, both marching in practice and in reality, and not having the shield weighing him down was a novel experience. Fortunately, he had gloves that, while well worn, were made of good leather. That combined with a well-polished haft of the spear allowed him to relatively painlessly practice and repeat and repeat again the thrust with the spear.

Instead of simply jabbing forward with his right arm, now he held the butt of the spear in one hand and loosely guided its path with the other. With the loose grip of his opposite hand, the spear jabbed forward and had additional support for whenever it struck something.

“You can’t expect to always have your dominant hand providing the power to the strike,” Chloe said as she forced Ezra to shift his grip to the opposite side. “Even if it will always be more comfortable on your dominant hand, make sure that both sides can be effective.”

Before long, the initial practice was over, and the two people engaged in the next part of the training. Sparring matches that could only barely be called sparring instead of bullying. As soon as they began, Jormun would bark minute adjustments to make to his form. His toe was too turned out here. His elbow was too square there. His grip on the spear too high or too low.

All while Jormun snapped this correction and that adjustment, Ezra tried his best, and he could never land a hit. Instead, whenever he overextended himself or presented too large of an opening, Chloe would step into it, hit him in such a way to cause a sharp stab of pain, and step back. Then, after a curt explanation of how he failed, they would repeat.

And repeat.

And repeat.

Ezra hardly noticed as the sun rose and he could see clearly, instead entirely focused on the fight that he kept losing. Fortunately, what had initially been two attacks on his part that were then cut off with a painful strike to his ribs, knee, or ankle, he could now make five or six before Chloe saw an error so egregious that it required her attention.

“We’re done,” Chloe said, stepping back after correcting his footwork. “Get a quick bath, then we’ll eat, and we will be on our way.”

Ezra, his lungs burning and sweat dripping down his face, nodded once and stood up. His legs were shaking, and he had to swallow several times, but he made sure that he got Chloe’s attention before she retreated.

“Thank you.”

She smiled, meeting his eyes and bowing her head.

“You’re welcome. And thank you for being humble. It can be pretty fucking annoying to have somebody pounding it into your head that they’re better than you.”

“I was a soldier for only a couple months and never trained in fighting before that,” Ezra shrugged. “Of course I don’t know much.”

Chloe’s eyebrows climbed up to hide behind her bangs before she sighed. “I forget. I know you’re talented, and you’re picking up my instructions pretty quickly. Even so, you’re doing a lot better than I would expect from somebody in your position. Now, get clean, get fed, and we’ll start training with aura.”

Ezra did as his commanding officer said, stripping off his clothes and gratefully dousing himself in the nearly glacial water that was provided to him. Despite noticing how cold the morning was when he came out, an hour of hard, effectively uninterrupted exercise had gotten him to the point of overheating.

With the further fortification of aura to warm up his extremities, Ezra kept from shivering too much. Then, water still dripping from his wavy hair, he pulled on a loose shirt to go into the dining hall of the inn, where he saw something that made him not even try to stifle a groan.

Chloe sat at a table, the silverware already set for another training in etiquette.

“Do not groan,” she said, no mirth in her tone, even as her eyes seemed to laugh at him. “You could be brought to a dinner where you’re served raw, rotten potatoes and sitting between your worst enemies, and you will remain polite.”

Ezra deliberately squared his shoulders and walked as carefully as he could manage towards the table.

“This morning we will pretend that this is a relatively informal dinner with a descendant of the Duke in attendance, but under the jurisdiction of a Marquis.”

Slowly, as he settled into the chair, Chloe began explaining which fork to use when, and what the minute differences were with regards to addressing different individuals due to who was in charge of what, and what the varying levels of formality were.

***

“All right, you’re ready to get moving?“ Chloe asked as she led Ezra out of the inn. The sun was only a finger’s width above the horizon, and they were both packed up.

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered. 

“Great. Then it’s time to start working on more creative uses of aura.”