4 A Reliable sword

Vance stood in front of a trough of water, Leon had found one at the farm that Vance could comfortably fit inside, probably used for washing animals or something. He borrowed it without too much fuss.

Standing was particularly difficult for Vance at the moment, because he couldn't feel his legs, nor his anything for that matter.

"Are you sure about this?" Leon asked from the side, having procured a stool from somewhere, he was sitting "patiently" with his back leant against the house.

"No, but it's the best Idea I've got at the moment."

"So, I'll give you 45 seconds. If you don't give me a signal of some kind, then I'll pull you out, Right?"

"Yep."

Vance climbed up and lowered himself into the water. It was a new kind of terrifying when he not only couldn't see the water, but couldn't feel it.

He plugged his nose and ears with what amounted to mashed up lotus leaves, which apparently were waterproof - he was about to find out for sure either way.

He leant backwards into the water and floated, then allowed himself to go a little ways under the water.

The only thing he wore was a light shirt and very, very thin trousers. It didn't much matter, he couldn't feel them anyway, so he figured they wouldn't interfere.

He successfully deprived himself of all of his senses. His taste buds were numb from chewing the plants, which soon spread to his whole body. He couldn't see anyway, so that one was off the list. His nose and ears were plugged and he left the ground, floating in the water.

Total, absolute isolation.

It took somewhere between 5 seconds and an eternity for his brother to pull him out the first time, he'd forgotten to give a signal and he couldn't really tell how much time was passing, it was a strange sensation.

Leon pulled one of the mashed up earbuds out of his ear to tell him he was above water and remind him to breath, which he did promptly.

"Anything? and hey, remember the damn signal!"

"Still adjusting, sorry. Let's go again."

The two of them repeated the process for hours.

Vance plunged himself into the water once again, he'd asked Leon to give him a little longer this time, he thought he could last just over a minute.

He clutched the coin in his hands, he couldn't feel that it was there but he knew he was holding it when he entered.

He was fairly certain that he brought the coin up to his chest, but he couldn't quite tell. He did this each time and focused on searching through the absolute lack of sensation for anything, for the last few dozen attempts he'd found nothing at all, this time didn't seem much different.

He searched and searched, he was fairly certain that his lungs were starting to complain, but Leon was outside, it was fine. He continued to look inward, trying to find something listening, waiting to be given something to react to.

This time, he found it.

There was something, it felt heavy. It reminded him of the coin and it felt like a muscle might after you wake up from a nights sleep, like it needed to be stretched out. He fumbled for a moment, before he found out exactly how to stretch it. It wasn't a motion, nor a particular clench of some part of the body to force an internal reaction, it was more like struggling to recall a memory from a long time ago.

He didn't know it at the time, but he stretched his very will, it was slow going, he had to urge it onwards, like it was reluctant to listen to him but the further and harder he pushed the more responsive it became until, with a snap, he was suddenly very glad he lacked his other senses.

It wasn't sight, hearing or smell, nor taste nor touch but something entirely different. He couldn't quite put a label on it yet, but he could certainly feel it. It was a feeling like what he'd been told staring into the sun was like, like smelling salts or the roar of a bear an inch from your ear, overwhelming. For just a moment, it made him feel nauseous.

He felt like something was pressing down on his shoulders, but he couldn't actually feel them at the moment, courtesy of the whatever plant. He could swear that for just an instant he could taste iron in his mouth, like he'd bitten his tongue, but his tongue was numb.

In the next instant, he felt his earbuds pulled out and Leon was talking to him.

"Alright, I gave you longer this time, I think we should sto-"

"It worked!" Vance exclaimed and threw his arms over his brothers shoulders, drenching him. At least, he thought he did, hell of a drug, this plant. To Vance's glee, he could still feel that sensation of pressure on his shoulders.

He'd finally made a start, a real one.

It was at this precise moment, when Vance was at his most elated that things went horribly wrong.

Vance knew the time of day instantly by the reactions of the critters to the south, it seems that the deer or whatever it was had come back.

A harsh clanking sound rang through the air as the jaws of the beartrap that Leon had set clamped shut.

"Aaah! Son of a bitch! My leg!" A mans voice rang out, screaming in pain.

"What the-" Leon turned to look in that direction, something...no, a person had been caught in the trap, not some forest creature. The man wore leathers on his torso but no protection on his legs. Leon's expression changed when he noticed the man was armed, he had a crossbow latched onto his back and a sword on his hip, no, wait that's the sheath. The sword was in his hand, but it now lay on the ground not far from the trap, he'd dropped it when his leg was trapped.

That leg was crippled, the man wouldn't be getting out of the trap, nor would that leg likely ever heal properly, poor guy.

Vance was paying close attention now, he had to momentarily forget about his situation as he listened, but he heard a troubling sound, a distinct click, one he was not familiar with. He didn't think, but he pushed Leon on instinct as hard as he could, the force sending both of them back from each other, Leon didn't expect it and scrambled backwards while Vance found himself in the water again.

He pulled himself out purely via muscle memory just in time to hear a crossbow bolt slam into the house. Leon grabbed him an instant later and he hauled Vance into the house.

"There's more than one." Vance said out loud. His voice sounded funny now that he paid attention to it, turns out with a numb mouth, talking properly is very difficult.

"Yeah, my guess is outlaws. Dad! Outlaws!"

Leon had to give Vance a running commentary, he dragged him inside and up the stairs, where his father was waiting having already drawn his weapon.

Vance was still locked in a world of his own, he could hear now which was nice, but that was about all. Leon told him that he'd successfully gotten to his feet, so that was good.

The three of them travelled into a room on the top floor, their was a window in this room that was already open and Vance could faintly hear sounds from other areas of the village, he was sure he heard a scream.

"I don't think it's just us." He said, repeating the phrase a few times to get the sound right so the others could understand him.

"Then it's a larger scale attack, hasn't been one like this in two decades." Adrian said. "They're probably just out for loot, but if one of them is hurt you'd better believe his friends are pissed. Leon, draw your weapon, this'll get nasty."

"Thanks by the way Vance. One of those bolts out there was headed for my chest." Leon added, he sounded remarkably casual as Vance could hear his sword leaving it's sheath.

"Sure, no problem." Vance tried to match his brother, but the voice crack half way through betrayed him.

The sounds of people breaking into their house below was obvious to them all. They'd broken the back door and were currently trashing the living room. Vance was fairly certain they'd just smashed one of the windows, that seemed unnecessary.

His attention was drawn back inwards for a moment, he needed to check if he could still access that strange sense. He concentrated for a moment.

He could. It wouldn't do him much good now, but he wanted to know if his work had paid off, and there wasn't much else he could do at the moment.

The door to the room burst inwards, Leon had been holding it, but the man on the other side pushed his way through very quickly, practically running.

Adrian didn't hesitate, he ran the man through the moment he got past his son. There was no fancy duel or clash of blades, he stabbed the man through the chest with such force that Vance heard several distinct "Pops" as the sword travelled through him, followed by the sound of wood cracking.

Adrian had pinned the man to the wall with his blade and he didn't spare him a second glance, he pulled the weapon free and went to close the door.

Click.

"Agh!" Adrian exclaimed, reeling backwards. Leon pushed him out of the way and charged out of the door at the man who had just loosed a crossbow bolt.

Vance made his way towards the sound of his fathers exclamation. He heard a sword clattering to the ground, which helped him figure out where he was going. He could hear the sounds of Leon shouting and fighting in the hallway.

He reached where his father had fallen and stretched out his hands. He wasn't sure if it was a blessing or a curse but the feeling in his upper body was just starting to return to him a little, just in time for him to begin to take in the state of his father.

It took him a moment of feeling around to find out what had happened, but he soon discovered the shaft of the bolt that was lodged in his fathers chest, he missed it the first few times because barely any of the bolt was exposed. His chest wasn't moving.

Vance felt his heart sink through the floor. He could tell right away that his father was gone.

To his own surprise, his first thought after that was not on grief, but instead something that scared him much more deeply.

That meant Leon was fighting alone and he didn't know how many he was up against. Nor was he aware of exactly how good of a fighter Leon was, he was big, but could he fight well? What if one of them shoots him like they shot his father? Could he help? What if-

Vance slapped himself in the face, staggering his own chain of thought. He realised he was going to start to spiral and was not acting, this was not the time for inaction. Huh, it seems that all of that introspection was useful for something.

His hands weren't shaking when he reached out, feeling for his fathers sword.

Leon had burst his way into the hallway, fuelled by some odd mix of fear and fury. He was fairly certain he knew what happened to his father but Vance was still in there, he had no time to think about it now, time to put his physical gifts to work.

The man who had loosed the crossbow bolt didn't last more than a few seconds, Leon overpowered the man and with absolutely no grace whatsoever, pushed the edge of his blade about half way through the mans throat, when he hit bone he decided that was enough and moved on down the hallway.

Leon had never considered himself a killer, nor had he ever done so before. There was something about how easy it was for him that he didn't like. He'd think on that later.

He reached the top of the staircase and quickly moved backwards, slamming his back against the wall around a corner, avoiding a crossbow bolt aimed for him.

He didn't want to allow the man time to reload, so he just threw himself over the balcony next to the stairs, landing straight on top of the reloading crossbowman.

It wasn't a graceful landing, his sword wasn't where he wanted it, somehow it'd ended up on the ground next to them - must've dropped it.

He picked it up the wrong way, reverse grip. He didn't know how to fight like that, so he just slammed the pommel into the side of his enemies head, who was limply trying to push Leon off at the time.

The man lost all of his strength and went still. He was either dead or out cold, Leon didn't have time to check or care.

He pulled himself up off the ground just as another man in the living room fired another crossbow at him. A moment ago, his head had been in it's path, fortunately for him - only his leg was there now he'd stood up.

He stifled a yell, that seriously hurt. He didn't bother checking exactly where the bolt had struck him, that was another problem to add to the list for later. He faintly noticed that list was getting quite long.

He stalked towards the man in the living room.

Vance found that more and more feeling was coming back to him. Good, he needed it. He made his way outside, tripping briefly over the corpse of the man Leon had just killed in the hallway moments before. He crawled his way to the top of the stairs and stood up by the balcony.

He heard the combat below and Leon's stifled yell, he knew he was hurt but pain meant he was alive. His hands were covered it blood, it made holding his fathers sword properly a little more difficult. The sword was heavy by his own standards, he father was considerably larger than him.

He listened carefully, trying to ascertain what was going on. His brother was fighting in the living room, it sounded like this guy was putting up more of a fight, but Leon clearly had the upper hand.

"Get the fuck out of my house!" He heard Leon exclaim before something in the room cracked, probably the table.

Vance heard another set of footsteps, coming from the rear of the house. They were quiet, somebody was trying to sneak in. In a few moments, he'd be passing by underneath Vance, probably to reinforce his ally in the living room. At first it was difficult to be sure if it was one of the outlaws, but he heard the distinct sounds of a crossbow bolt being slowly loaded.

He only had a moment to think, and was struggling to figure out how to go about getting down there to fight the man, could he even fight? He'd never done so before.

No, he needed a plan, something he could do from here, maybe...

Something his father said to him just the other day came to mind.

"A Heavy sword is a sword you can rely on."

At this distance of only a few feet, he didn't think he could drop the sword on the intruder with any chance of doing any real damage. Maybe he could throw it, but he didn't know how to make sure the point would hit his target, he certainly couldn't aim properly, the sword might spin.

Unless...

Vance fumbled around for his coin, which was metal and much heavier than it should be. He remembered that years ago, Elijah had told him that unless he could see mana, he wouldn't be able to shape it, but he'd suggested that if he could feel it, then he could learn magic. If so, then he must be able to shape mana now that he could feel it, of course, he didn't know how - but he had no time to think.

He reached out to that indistinct muscle that he'd only just become aware of. He focused on that cold, metallic feeling and the taste of iron in his mouth. He still wasn't sure he was detecting specifically the coin, but it's all he had.

He concentrated on the tip of the blade, and performed the closest approximation of "Flexing" the muscle that he could muster, like he was trying to move an arm he didn't have around his body.

He felt the change, the coin in his hand became lighter and the sword became much heavier. The blade that he held in one hand suddenly swung downwards, he no longer had the leverage in his wrist to keep it upright, with all of the newly added weight at the swords tip.

At that moment, he heard footsteps below him, he pushed the sword downwards as hard as he could, hoping his senses were accurate.

He heard a dull impact, the staggering of feet and something between a cough and a scream from directly below him, then he heard metal clanging against wood a few seconds later.

Vance didn't hear any other movement in the house, just the ongoing fight in the living room. He stumbled down the stairs, he didn't bother to collect his fathers blade.

He was just turning the corner into the room when something heavy collided with him, Leon and the man he was fighting spilled into the hallway, pushing Vance aside. He fell over, and crashed without grace into the floor, one of his hands landed in a fresh pool of blood.

Leon saw Vance, his eyes went wide for a moment. With renewed Vigour, he went low and charged at his opponent, lifting him off of the ground and slamming his back into the doorframe, which cracked a little under the impact. Leon proceeded to beat the man senseless over the next 30 seconds or so, only once he was reasonably certain the man wouldn't be coming after him again did he stop.

He was breathing heavily, but when he turned around and saw Vance awkwardly trying to pull the blade out of the body of the man lying in the hallway, he felt a strange mixture of sorrow and pride.

"Let me get that, get back upstairs, there might be more. You did great, buddy." Leon forced a smile onto his face as if Vance could tell, he put one hand on his shoulder and the other on the blade, he pulled the blade and realised why Vance was struggling, it was sunk about an inch into the floorboards.

He wrenched it free and noted that his fathers sword was horrendously unbalanced, fighting with this thing would've been awful, had he never noticed?

The two holed up in their home until the village watch arrived later that day, just as bloody and battered as Leon was. The outlaws had been repelled, their house was safe, but the day had extracted it's price in blood. Leon was glad to see that the bolt that stuck out of his leg was below the knee, he didn't think it'd hit anything major by some stroke of luck, and decided to leave it lodged in there for now until he could get to a doctor, though his did wrap the area tightly, it was a tight wound, but it was still bleeding a little.

The two brothers collected up their father and brought him with them into the village center, where the dead and wounded had been gathered.

For once, Leon was glad that his little brother couldn't see, the sight of the town centre wasn't something he wished for him to ever have to witness.

"How many?" Vance asked.

"Too many." Leon conceded.

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