Finish Basic Training
“This time” ends up taking a few more tries that you’d like to admit, but finally you’re able to land a solid series of strikes on the dummy without getting hit or knocked down yourself. Your trainer tosses you a towel after you sheathe your sword, and you begin to clean off all the mud and dirt your armor has collected.
“Not exactly the best start, Knight, but you seem to have gotten over your initial combat jitters.” You nod in agreement, trying to restore a bit of your armor’s original shine as your trainer speaks. “Still, I’d recommend you come back here every once in a while to get some more practice in.”
Once you’ve gotten yourself a bit cleaner, the wolfess motions for you to follow her. There are several other people practicing in these training grounds besides yourself, some of them are working on dummies like the one you were combatting. Though your performance with the dummy may not have been anything to write home about, you seem to have fared better than at least a few others; one cat man catches your attention. At least, you THINK it’s a cat man; the mud covers him so much it’s hard to tell whether he’s a humanoid or earth elemental. A heavy sigh escapes the trainer as the two of you watch him hit the dirt again a moment later as he fails to block a slow strike from his dummy. At least he seems determined as he picks himself up again for another go.
Elsewhere you see other knights engaged in a joust. Using staves with large pads on either end, two un-armored combatants save for helmets clash with one another in an intense duel. It’s unclear at first what constitutes victory in this exercise as each fighter gets some good hits on the other, though the nearby referee doesn’t make any sort of signal even as the two land blow after blow on each other. Until the squirrel girl catches a blow upside her head from her tiger opponent, that is; a whistle is blown after that and the tiger is declared the victor.
“Interested in trying your hand against your fellow recruits?” The trainer notices your attention at the jousting competition. “If not, we can get you set up with your first assignment.”
Jousting or going right to work? There’s also that other knight who’s still fighting a losing battle against his dummy; maybe you could offer him some advice after your own struggles?
Written by LunaMoonstone on 02 October 2017