Training & Weapons

This training regime soon became routine, but it still did not deter Cliff from heading into the forest to hunt. He headed deeper into the forest but nowhere as deep as he had gone in on that day. His prey were now stronger than his usual prey but so was he. He was faster and stronger and a bit better than he was 2 months ago. The same went for Cassy. She too improved at a good pace.

It was only about midway 3rd month of training did their 'sparring' sessions start. At first, they didn't know how to go about it, and it was a big dilemma. Just try to hit the other one or that they had to do something else that they didn't know?

It was only when out of frustration for failing at this for atleast a month that Cliff just gave up and yelled, "I'd rather just fight than pretend that I'm fighting!" he was surprised to see Cassy freeze mid movement with wide eyes.

"Fight… not pretend… not pretend but fight…", she mumbled.

Not being able to make sense of what she was saying Cliff just looked at her dumbfounded at why she was repeating his words. Just as he was about to ask, she looked at him with awe and said, "Cliff, you're a genius."

"Okay, what?"

"That's what we're doing wrong! We're pretending and not fighting!"

"What?" Cliff said utterly dumbfounded.

"Don't you see? That's what we're doing wrong. We're only pretending to fight. We can't pretend to fight if we have to get better at fighting. We'll only get better at fighting by fighting each other for real. No holding back!"

"So let me get this straight. You want me to fight you without holding back."

"Yes Cliff. That is exactly what I want."

"Like fight for real?"

"Why do you keep asking that? Yes!"

"Okay that's all I needed!" by the time his sentence was complete, his fist was halfway to her jaw. Getting hit and being thrown back, she stood back up and pounced on him. Thus started their sparring session (or as I like to call it 'The Incredibly Violent Mate Courting' (because that's how they started to fight, really unrefined and just like you would expect an animal aggressively courting a female who's playing hard to-get by fighting him)).

Their little fight only stopped when they both dropped mid punch absolutely exhausted, drenched in sweat and blood. Both fell asleep as soon as they fell.

The next morning, they woke up very relaxed having enjoyed one of the best sleeps ever. This slowly became a new routine. Their training routine started increasing as it became easier to complete previous routines. Their sparring sessions increased in intensity, quality and quantity. They went from once in 2 weeks to everyday. After training themselves to the ground and a good hunt, they begin fighting and not stop until they fell. Their hunting prey became stronger as they ventured deeper into the forest and it began giving them really good fights. This really helped them accumulate experience in fighting beings other than each other. Though some days none of this was followed and they just sat around eating last night leftovers and laughing with each other.

Though this was not all they did during this time. They started selling all the animal hide they had from their hunts to make some money. They made a killing just before winter season started when the village seamstress would always pay good money for it. They (read Cliff) somehow made-up with Sara, from then on she helped them in training some forms of attacks. She would usually show them an attack form and leave them to it. These attacks were mostly how to punch or kick correctly. She also made them practice these on trees before they start bashing each other with it.

Around 3 months after his 14th birthday his grandfather returned abruptly looking proud of himself. He proudly announced his promotion to Vice-Admiral and was posted in Marineford. What he didn't proclaim so proudly and only told his grandson and Sara separately was he would not be able to return even twice a year like before and would probably only have one vacation a year.

3 days of party and booze later, the village was back to normal as the newly promoted Vice-Admiral left.

The 2 returned to their established routine of training, hunting/fighting the prey, fighting each other, or wasting their day away.

Nearing their 15th birthday, they decided to incorporate weapons in their training starting with a sword. The weapon shop in their village only had cutlasses. Now they didn't really know how to use a sword at all. Up until now, neither of them had ever held a sword much less use one.

This is where Sara came in. Cassy had dragged her to their clearing to get her to teach them knowing she used a sword.

When they got there, Sara burst out laughing seeing Cliff hold the cutlass not by the handle but rather by the guard that would cover the holders' hands.

Hearing her laugh made him embarrassed as his face heated up quickly becoming a deep red.

"Don't laugh at me! I just don't know how to hold this!" he yelled.

Hearing his shout made Sara roll on the ground laughing louder. "15 years old and can't figure out how to hold a sword correctly?" That made him redden up even more and one could perceive steam was erupting from his ears.

When she calmed down she started to get them to first correctly hold a sword and not accidently stab themselves. Over a period of 4 months, she taught them to correctly wear their swords when sheathed on their hips. She taught them to correctly draw their blades without stabbing themselves and others they didn't want to hurt. She taught them to stab and thrust with the blade. She taught them to wield the swords with certain vertical and horizontal slices that she made them practice on trees or rocks. Once they could correctly use that blade to fight some animals, only then did she let them use that sword in '1 on 1' spars with her. She would correct their form and slowly increase their fighting speed. Slowly these spars became full-on fights with them fighting with their blades, or without them or in a combination of sword and hand-to-hand combat. She always kept her speed and power just above theirs to encourage them to grow as she fought them.

These fights was where they grew the most, with her correcting them they learnt a ton more than they would have on their own. Just this alone increased their combat experience by a lot. Only after teaching them this much, did she really let them spar with each other. Up until now their spars were either a 1v1 against her or the 2 of them against her alone.

This period of 4 months was fraught with embarrassing moments for both Cliff and Cassy that Sara would laugh herself to death at. At the start, they really couldn't draw the sword correctly often losing their grip halfway and letting it fall either back in or onto the ground. Then once they finally corrected that, they came to learning basic forms to actually wield it. Cliff really sucked at swinging it in the start and it was only in combat did his ability improve. It improved because when it came to parrying and blocking attacks messing up meant being hit and a hit, no matter how small, when it comes from enraged animals charging at you with all they have really hurts. Guess that proves, pain is the best teacher in the world. Cassy was more comfortable in using it and her skill only grew the more she trained. Before improving his strikes, Cliff would often lose grip of his sword mid-swing and either miss his target by a large margin or lose his blade letting it fly away. That took some time to correct as it turns out his grip was very loose and he really had to grip tighter to avoid such mistakes. At least they could clean the blade without hurting themselves from the start.

In their 1v1's Cliff and Cassy improved like mad cause Sara didn't hold her strikes back. Sure, she lowered her speed and power to just above their own but she was still infinitely better than them in terms of skill. She knew how to make attacks hurt and she used it to make sure they learnt what to do when fighting her.

Thus, their spars became deadly and their training routine more intense. They worked themselves raw and didn't stop until they fell down exhausted at the end of the day.

But no matter how much he improved, in pure swordsmanship he was outclassed by Cassy. She improved atleast a dozen times faster than him. Which is why he was okay with her taking extra lessons on swordplay from Sara while he went back to other forms of training.

A month before Cliff's 16th birthday, Sara had pretty confidently stated, "Cliff you'll never be a swordsman. While it may be that your talent lies in another weapon, a sword ain't it. Now Cassy here she's destined to be swordswoman. Reckon she'll be a scary good one at that. Now excuse me, I ain't teaching ya shit no more."

'And, she's gone.' Thought both her students.