In the Pit, nearly a hundred people sparred. Limbs and sweat flew around within the confines of each circle on the floor. If one were to wade through this ss, a path might open through the bodies and close with two people grappling against each other. While violent, it was a controlled chaos. Sparring had minimal casualties with the exception of an accidental break every week or so. The average outco of a sparring match was a small scratch and a bruise.
Doevm held his chest, coughing. He fell to a knee then got back up. "Hold back a little, will you?" he pleaded with his sparring partner.
"I thought I did," Frey shrugged. "Even the weakest person in the guard, well second weakest now, can take that punch. Any slower and the captain yells at . Is there sothing wrong with your blocking?"
"Don't know," Doevm coughed a few more tis. "I feel out of breath from a punch, and I haven't even exercised. Try again." He jabbed, and Frey countered with a light punch to the chest as per the drill. Doevm blocked with his arms, but they didn't help much. He fell to the ground and had another coughing fit.
"Frey." Jason yelled over the chaotic ss of people sparring. "Hold back."
"I am," Frey mumbled and helped Doevm to his feet. "Let's let soone who's lighter try for once. I want to know if it's or you that's the problem." Frey reached into the crowd of wrestling bodies and pulled soone a lot shorter out. "Can you do a favor and counter Doevm lightly?" The man nodded and got into a stance. Fist were thrown, Doevm blocked, and ended falling to the ground coughing. "Thank you, I'll take it from here." Frey shooed the man away and helped Doevm to his feet. "I know the problem, you're breathing wrong."
"How is it possible to breath wrong?" Doevm shot back. "I'm pretty sure if I was breathing wrong, I would be dead by now."
Frey laughed, "No, in combat you need to breath differently. You're breathing like you're scared I'm going to hit you."
He got closer and Doevm flinched: "But you are going to hit ."
"Just shut up and let talk, will you? Breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. When you are about to hit soone or get hit, you breath out. When you transition between hit or getting hit, you breath in. If you breath in when getting hit, you end up like that. Just try it." Doevm sighed and got into a stance. He jabbed, Frey countered, he blocked while exhaling through the mouth, and stayed standing.
"It works, this is aweso. Hit again." Doevm got ready and they went through another set of the drill. He stayed standing again. "How does breathing help?"
"Well you see," Frey held up a know it all grin. "I have no idea. I just spar. How have you not learned this yet? Have you never sparred before?"
"No," Doevm was pretty sure he was beaten nearly to death several tis by Arthur. "I've sparred a lot before; it's just been a while."
Frey scoffed: "Well the only way that's possible is if you didn't have lungs and sparred, so I think you just never got hit before."
'Oh, I've never had lungs before. Just like with muscle fatigue, I keep getting problems I never experienced before.'
"Yeah, that's it, I've never gotten hit before," Doevm lied. "I just watched you guys training and never really noticed the breathing part since I was too far away."
"Sure," Frey kept pressing, "But how did you learn how to fight with your hands? We didn't practice that out in the open."
'He's asking too many questions. I don't know him, but I'm sure these aren't his own.' Doevm looked over to Jason, who was pretending not to look. 'I had ti to think of this, but I'm not good at deception like humans. I had never needed to lie as a Lich, or if I did, no one questioned . While this is, to be honest, completely terrible, it's the best I can think of. I'll need to practice deception in the future.'
"At night a year or two ago, I saw soone training. I followed them a couple of tis and watched. I never got to see their face, but I rember their moves. It was like they were fighting an invisible opponent. He vanished after a couple of weeks and I never saw him again. I practiced their moves and sparred with an imaginary opponent."
"So you haven't sparred with anyone?" All Frey was missing was a sign that read: Investigating.
"Not really. Let's keep training." Doevm learned everything about the guards' routine in the next couple hours. They started the morning with a run and stretching, then moved onto spear training for a couple hours in front of the mansion. After, they moved inside the guards' barracks, called "The Pit" for short. Inside they started with counters and offense and moved onto defensive moves. The front of the room had the newer guards, who practiced the beginner moves. The further to the back was the more advanced moves with older guards. They got to practice with different weapons and train their bodies more.
The guards were separated into ten different squads of ten n each not counting Doevm and Jason. Frey belonged to squad three, which Doevm would be assigned to. Inside the Pit, people split off onto pairs. Now that there was an odd amount of people, Frey's partner was put in a pair of three that alternated fighting and Doevm was Frey's new partner. The only way to move back was to advance as a pair and kick another pair out further back.
Jason usually taught the back of the room but monitored them today. The usual monitor was Jason's second in command, Scruff. He was an old man, but the training was down to his bones. His face was always hairy, but a beard never ford, leaving him with just scruff and hence the na. He looked frail but could beat everyone in the front of the room and most people in the back. He was patient and had served the previous head of the Virility family. After finishing the drilling, the guards' routine was finished, they marched towards the river that ran through Petal town (away from the houses) and washed off.
Doevm stuck close to Frey the entire ti, hoping he could learn as much as he could. He noticed sothing. "Frey, why are we so far away from everyone?" Doevm asked as he took off his clothes.
"I get embarrassed." Frey took off his clothes to reveal a god damn tree trunk poking out of his front. Doevm stared at it, then his own. Average looked small. "Sorry, they ntion it every ti and I just want to bath in peace. Can you go sowhere else?" Doevm nodded, still looking at the miracle of nature, and backed away. He walked towards the mass of guards, but didn't join in. They all talked in whispers and gave him strange looks.
'Humans are so complicated,' Doevm thought and looked at everyone's parts and his own. 'And I think I'm starting to understand why. Even sothing like a body part can make soone an outsider because of jealousy.' New people aren't t with the acceptance Doevm showed towards Undead he t. Newcors to humans were strange and sothing to stay away from.
'But I need their help,' Doevm thought. 'I need to be human and make relationships. I can fight in a war, but I need people to cover my back. Even as a Lich, I needed backup. The hero needed friends. I can assu Frey is one, but I need more. I have two years left until the year-long war. I can take my ti and get people to warm up to .'
...
"Anything?" Jason whispered in the dark room.
"He said he trained by watching soone outside the mansion," Frey responded. "That was one or two years ago, but he managed to mimic his movents. He wasn't used to sparring. I had to tell him how to breath, but when it ca to the moves, he could fight like soone in the back. I got pushed back with each move. I think he even had to hold back for ."
"That's enough, you can go. The lord and I will interview him from here." Jason handed Frey a bottle with green liquid.
"This feels a little wrong," Frey said. "Did Doevm do anything bad? He seems like a nice enough person."
"He didn't do anything wrong, go get so sleep," Jason waved him off. When Frey left, he frowned. 'I thought Rena might have taught you to read, but then who taught you how to fight? Don't think that I believe your story for a second. Sothing's wrong here and I'm going to find out what.' He pulled out a sheet of paper and wrote sothing down on it:
Doevm is now twelve years old. His parents are known to be Rena and Hank. Hank disappeared and the search is inconclusive. The mother passed away. Skills: hand-to-hand combat, spears, reading, acting, maturity, and vocabulary. He has talked to the war monk Ashtehar and has shown no capability with magic, yet he goes out every night. Most suspicious is that the reported lights that warned of the hero happened the sa day he was born, but Ashtehar said he was not the hero. Could the war monk be lying and teaching him in secret? I paired Frey with him since they are near the sa age, but he's too soft-hearted to do this kind of thing. As for how much of this I will report to Reginald, would he even believe ?
The newest line he put down was, "Should I tell Doevm about Rena?" He sighed, folded the note up, and looked at the sky. "I'm sorry, I should have been there and taken you both away. I won't leave anyone again, not while I have my spear and my position as captain."
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