Chapter 13: Chapter 11: Beginning of November

November has come, and with it, the air grew a bit chillier. 

“Alright class, now that we’ve covered some basic defence techniques, we’re finally going to start to practise fighting one on one.”

The swordsmanship teacher announced.

A few of the students who have been waiting for this lifted their heads in anticipation. 

“Of course, with that comes a new test at the end of November, so be ready.”

Immediately the previously bright and happy students lowered their heads.

“Are tests really that big a deal?”

“I mean, you studied a ton for the last one.”

“Yeah, but I should probably have been training every day regardless.”

“That’s just you being hard on yourself.”

“I can’t really afford to fail. Financially speaking.”

“Well yes, then why aren’t you the most stressed out of all of them?”

“I’ve got a pretty good partner to help me out with that.”

“Oh please, all I did was get the ball rolling.”

“Thanks for that.”

“Yeah yeah, you're welcome.”

I have to wonder though, would I have been just fine without him? 

Well, not like thinking about that would help with anything.

“Still, I guess I had it easier, given how they never really did any tests back when I was here.”

“They didn’t?”

“Nope, they reeeeeally needed more people in the army.”

“They had to have trained you enough to fight though. I doubt they just let you join the military if you’re completely incompetent.”

“I suppose so.”

The teacher continued.

“For safety, you’ll each need to find a blade that’s more dull. Follow me.”

We followed him into an equipment shack on the side with swords that haven’t been sharpened yet. While none of them were rusty, most of them looked out of shape in a dull sort of way, a crooked sword on this side, one with a few dents over there, etc. 

“Try to find one that has around the same size and weight as your own swords. Once your done, come back to the fields.”

They were mostly arranged from biggest to smallest so it wasn’t hard to find where I should be looking.

“Ah, maybe mine’s still here!”

“?”

“They made us use these back in my day too, I made sure to mark mine with an A.”

“It’s been over a decade, it’s probably thrown out by now.”

I thought back to the sword covered in worms.

“Oh… yeah.”

After some comparison, I found one that’s basically the same size as Al, with a few dents in the blade. It was somewhat heavier than Al, but it works.

I took it and met back up with everyone else out in the fields.

“Wouldn’t wooden swords be safer?”

“Metal ones are cheaper.”

“What do you mean?”

“They buy these for pennies from blacksmiths training their apprentices. Those brats make a looooot of mistakes. Or maybe being a blacksmith is just really hard. Either way, it's either turned into scrap metal or bought by this place.”

“Wow.” 

Everybody else had come back and we were each paired with someone around the same size.

I was to be paired with a boy just a bit shorter than me with short black hair and small eyes. 

We put our swords over at the benches and began practice.

 

Al’s POV:

Well, that was that. Abigail left me on a bench and went off to train.

Really wish someone else had a talking sword that I can talk to, but I guess I can’t be that lucky. 

I’ll just hope Abigail can provide me with a show. From the looks of it, the boy’s got her beat in strength.

At the very least, it won’t turn out like how it did for me but hey, that’s a story for another time.

Oh look, they’re setting up the grids for the ring.

It’s not exactly a set up, more like the instructor just grabbed a stick and drew a few lines, but it’s enough. They probably don’t want the kids bumping into each other.

Jeez there’s so much emphasis on safety now. Assigning pairs, staff supervision, grids for personal space. Makes me jealous, actually.

“Alright, one of you pick to be partner A and the other B. A will go on the offensive while B defends. And we’ll switch between the two roles every five minutes.”

Ah, so it wasn’t just going to be a straightforward one on one. 

Kinda boring but I guess it’s better for practice. 

Look’s like Abigail’s going to be partner B. We haven’t really trained defense that much though. Who was going to use attacks for us to defend? Just hope she can keep up, I guess.

"Let's begin!"

And off they go, not much to commentate here given how it’s pretty self explanatory. The guy throws a few swings and Abigail blocks all of them. Though I can see her struggling to keep up. 

She’s using too much energy to block, so much that she’s pushing him back. Judging from how much stamina she usually has, she should be fine for the day, but it’s certainly making her slower to respond.

The boy was doing a good job capitalizing on this too, striking her with quick and light swings at all angles, left, right, left, above, right…

Ah- she slipped up and took a blow to the shoulder, causing her to flinch a bit but not fall. 

The boy stopped swinging to check on her as she rubbed her shoulder. Judging by their gestures, I’m guessing she just said “I’m fine” and they kept going, with the boy slowing down for her. 

Can’t say it wasn’t inevitable, given how she was struggling. Now that the kid’s slowed down, she should be fine. 

“Alright, switch!”

Brooks yelled. 

Well, now it’s Abigail’s turn. I don’t think I’ve really taught her much when it comes to strategies, though. All we’ve been doing is training her stamina for her to last longer. 

She stepped forward for her attacks, which honestly weren’t too different from her opponent’s. Like him, she’s also baiting him to block one way and attacking the other. 

You know, they don’t have to hit their opponent, it's just practice. They should just see this as another normal class.

Then again, I guess it does challenge them more if they’re actually trying to hurt each other, so it’s fine. 

I’ll just leave them as is and check out everyone else. 

Looks like the battle between the bigger brutes is more of a contest of strength, each side trying to overpower the other.

There are some doing what Abigail and that other boy was doing, while there are others who are not as much of a tryhard.

Well, I gotta say, times really have changed. 

The young ones really are quite lucky these days.

 

About forty minutes later, The teacher called for a break. 

I looked over to see how Abigail was doing to find her almost completely deflated. 

She stopped next to the bench and took a massive gulp of water before lying down, breathing heavily. 

“You good?”

“No…”

“You didn’t have to try to match him in speed, you know. Just fight at your own pace.”

“Yeah… I….. hah…. got caught up…. Hah…. in the moment…”

Understandable.

“Well, rest up. He’ll be calling you back in ten minutes.”

“Yeah…” 

We laid there, waiting.

“So how was your first time fighting a classmate?”

“It… wasn’t really a fight… just felt like practice.”

“You certainly didn’t treat it as such.”

She sighed.

“Fair enough.... yeah, it was kind of fun.”

“Just wait until it’s fighting for real, not so fun after that.”

“As in when I start working for the military or just when we start doing it here?”

“For me, both. For you, probably when you get to the army.”

“It was that bad?”

“We got to pick our own partners back then, so everyone would pick a partner that isn’t me and fill me in with the biggest guy in class. You can picture the rest.”

It was straight up David versus Goliath, just like in the stories, if Goliath won. 

“Wow….”

“Just consider yourself lucky. Anyways, Brook’s gonna be calling soon.”

“Sure…”

Soon enough, Brooks called again and it was back to class with her. 

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And it was back to learning for them.

At times like these, I just look up at the distant sky and think. Maybe I should try to practice moving? Nah, I don’t think Abigail wants to hear a man grunting as she was focusing. 

I may have a heart made of metal but I still have feelings.

Oh god that was such a bad joke.

Maybe that’s why I never had friends.

 

Back to Abigail’s POV: 

I walked into the cafeteria with Heather. Magic class went by as usual, kind of fun but difficult. 

It was pork stew on the menu today, so that’s new, I guess. Though I can only see this ending badly. Whatever the case, we took our servings and sat down.

“Weren’t your other friends calling for you earlier?”

“They were?”

“Yup.” 

“Then I’ll pretend to have not noticed.”

“Not very nice but why?”

I tilted my head. 

“Just wanted to spend more time with you.”

“Sure.”

I sat there staring at the stew.

“Not going to take a bite?”

Heather asked.

“I mean no offense to the chef when I say this, but that looks like something that’s supposed to come out of you.”

“I’m sure it’s fiiiine.”

She took a bite before wincing in disgust.

“Oh god that’s gross.”

“Called it.”

I took a bite as well.

Let alone the lack of flavour, the meat is as dry and hard as ever. The vegetables were either overcooked or undercooked. I’m not much of a chef but I don’t think carrot’s supposed to be that rubbery. 

I tapped Al, hoping for a lifeline. 

“Yes?” 

I traced the letters pork stew on my leg. 

“Hey hey, slow down. I’m not that good at reading!”

I was about to just whisper it before realizing Heather was with me. Instead I just traced it slower, hoping no one would notice.

“Ah that. I just starved.”

Huh? 

“Didn’t like carrots, or many veggies in general. I remember taking one bite of that and decided it was either starve or eat the bread. So I chose starve.” 

Looks like he's not going to be much help.

Well, here goes nothing. 

I took some salt and pepper and shook them a few times into the bowl before mixing and taking a bite. 

Yeah, that made it taste better. Not great though, but I guess it’s either this or starve.

“Ummmm you’re still gonna eat that?”

“It’s either this or starve. The salt and pepper helps a bit.”

“Really?” 

“Wanna try?”

I lifted the spoon to her. 

She stared at it, almost as if it was poison. Can’t be surprised given how it doesn’t look very appealing.

She hesitated a bit before taking a bite and grimaced. 

“It certainly tasted better, I can tell you that.”

She grabbed some salt and emptied at least a quater of it into hers.

“Uh… I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

She stirred and took a bite.

“That's better!”

“That’s…. a lot of salt.”

“Really?”

“Yes but… whatever.”

Not like it's my business to judge.

And with that, we finished our bowls. I just hope my belly wasn’t too unhappy with that.

We stared forward, waiting for the bell to ring, with nothing much to talk about.

Heather began making a vortex in her cup, probably out of boredom. 

I guess it's better than doing nothing, so I followed her lead.

We just learned how to manipulate water so I wanted to give it a shot.

I tried to make a vortex in my cup as well but... yeah, I'm not good enough for that yet. 

So I just opted to making some light waves in the water. Cause a few ripples here or there. Not much else I could do.

Heather noticed and floated the water out of both our cups, forming it into a ball. She then shaped the ball into a bear and had it crawl before her.

“Show off.”

I teased. 

She smiled.

“That’s not showing off, this is.”

She added some water of her own to the bear, turning it into a dragon that grew to a meter long and half a meter tall before doing a somersault in the air and landing in front of me. 

“Damn that’s nice.”

I’ll have to agree with him there. 

By now the students around me had also noticed and were gazing in awe at the creature before me.

Let alone the control it takes to move every individual limb of this at once, for it to be detailed down to the scales was just amazing.

She was about to flaunt her talent when the bell rang, causing everyone to look away and start putting away their dishes.

“So…. how are we going to get rid of this?”

If I remember correctly, one of the key things the instructor taught us was that you can't "undo" magic. Water created does disappear overtime, but that takes a day or so.

“Easy.” 

She furrowed her brows a bit as the dragon started to evaporate and grow smaller before disappearing. 

I clapped, to which she did a light bow in response. 

“Now let’s head to class!”

She told me.

“Sure.” 

So this is what practice can lead to. 

“So why can’t you do that?”

“Do I have to state the obvious?”

“No, not really.”

He laughed. 

“How long till you can make that?”

“Hmm... five years, maybe?”

That’s about how long Heather trained for, I think. 

“Think we’ll stick together for that long?”

“Hopefully not.”

“Meanie.”

“It’s just a joke.”

“Get a better sense of humor then.”

“Nah.”

“Very mean.”

“Anyways, about your question, maybe. Who knows.”

“Well I for one, certainly hope so.”

“Yes yes, of course you do.”

 

Author’s note: so um… I know I’m like super late, and that’s cause the day after I wrote that extra, I got covid, and that took me out of condition for a week. Mix that in with a bunch of procrastination and homework and that’s why this is super late. Sorry! Will try to get back on schedule, but after last week, no promises. You never know what life can hit you with. Whatever the case, thank you very much for reading.

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